roadster08

Better attention to detail....

On Princess there are a lot of average dishes with fine dining names.

And I thought I was the only one who preferred a china cup. On my recent cruise I asked for a cappuccino in a real cup. Boy did I get a dirty look. When my order was ready. The server made a point to say "Your cappuccino sir, in a REAL cup."

Honestly, lower your expectations or risk major disappointment. Cruises are like sunsets. You can experience many in a lifetime but only a few will be perfect. Think along the lines of If I make it to X I will try to do Y. That way, every successful day will be special.

I refuse to play 6/5 blackjack. On my June Alaskan cruise the casino was almost always dead/empty and I felt no motivation to give it a shot. A few hard core slots players were working the machines and looked like they were enjoying their time, but I did not see many who appeared to be casual players. Tables seemed like more dealers than players.

I suspect the cheeses vary based on the cruise. On my Alaskan cruise the cheese options were basic. Might get more helpful comments if you mention which cruise you are going on.

McKinley Lodge is in the state park and there are rangers on site in the main lodge. They do talks and hikes throughout the day. And we found them interesting. We only got partial views of Denali during our two-day McKinley Lodge stay and never got a call so I don't think the mountain was visible 100% while we were there. We did, however, get some good views of Denali on the tundra Wilderness tour that we took while at the Denali. Princess.

Don't be concerned. You are more likely to go into diabetic shock from all the sugar in the drinks then from the miniscule amount of alcohol they put in them. At home I can feel one standard old fashioned that I make myself with only 2 oz of bourbon in it. On my cruise I could have 6 mixed drinks and not feel a thing.

Our European cousins do like to dress up more for formal nights and in Europe you should expect to see some put on a real show. As long as you and those with you make the effort to dress up more than you would on non formal nights, you will not offend anyone. You don't have to overdo it if that makes you uncomfortable, just take it up a notch for formal nights on European cruises.

Another factor to be considered in this decision is what if things go wrong? Unexpected delays can occur at every transfer point. If you do it on your own, you have to figure it out yourself. If you do it with princess, they will ensure you get to where you need to go one way or another and that you're cruise will not be interrupted. So, some of the cost you can consider to be like trip insurance.

After my Alaskan cruisetour last month, transfers were included from the hotel to the airport. I was on the conneiseur tour which included many extra perks so not sure if we would have gotten it had we just stayed in a princess hotel. For embarkation, there was a transfer included from the airport to the ship, but we came in the day before and stayed in a non-princess hotel. We could have used the free transfer if we had gone back to the airport instead of going directly to the ship, but it was just more convenient to take a cab to the port for boarding.

It may be an honest mistake. On my cruise I was frequently asked what my cabin number was when making purchases on board. Sometimes I had to repeat it because the staff did not quite get the cabin number right the first time. I thought the medallion was supposed to eliminate these types of misunderstandings, but apparently there is still an occasional opportunity for them to happen.

I went on a princess cruise earlier this month and nobody made me feel like they were expecting an extra tip. Everyone was doing their best to make sure I was having a good cruise. In fact, on the rare occasion when things were not going well, staff seemed particularly stressed that I might report the incident in a way that would give them a bad rating. I've received service elsewhere where I did feel pressure to tip extra, but that was not my experience on princess.

We just did an Alaskan cruise earlier this month and were pleasantly surprised at how relaxed and uncrowded the public space is were on the sapphire. Princess. The medallion system worked well for us in keeping the charges accurate on our bill. In addition to the medallion, the servers generally checked verbally. What are cabin number was as a double check. I think part of the reason why this ship seemed so uncrowded was because there are numerous public spaces, not just one big open area for each venue. For example, there were five main dining rooms on the ship, not just one or two. There were also multiple pool areas, and one was covered which was fortunate because it was a little cold to go in the hot tubs outside for me in the Alaska area, although there were some brave souls in the outdoor hot tubs. I found the cruisers on princess to be very relaxed and friendly. Agree with you completely that an overcrowded ship does make people more aggressive and less considerate.

Yes, thanks. Only 2 without the fee if consumed in non public area, but additional bottles within reasonable limits are allowed but have a mandatory 20 dollar corkage fee. That's also in the passage contract I saw online. It did not mention a restriction on where those additional bottles can be consumed and since it is called a corkage fee you would think it could be consumed anywhere. Seems like a reasonable option for those who drink wine only. Although I wonder if its enforced consistently across all Princess ships.

No wine package and the selections on the premiere are pretty good, but if you go down to the plus package you'll be drinking a lot of frat house wine. A better option is you can bring two bottles of wine per person on board. However, there will be a corkage fee if you drink them in the dining room. In addition, for a fee you can bring on additional bottles of wine with the same corkage fees. My wife drinks only one wine so we bought a couple of bottles at a liquor store near the port and brought them on board.

Similar issue and response effectively ..

Best chance for seeing coastal bears is when salmon are running. That's more a late June through July event. We saw a few bears on the land portion of our trip in mid June. This grizzly on the Denali Tundra Wilderness Tour.

On the Sapphire earlier this month in Alaska they also had 3 Belgian ales on the menu in Crooners -- a tripel, quadruple and Chimay Red. I don't recall them being mentioned anywhere else on the ship.

True that menus are the same but different decor. One advantage I see for changing dining rooms is that I could wear mostly same clothes to dinner multiple nights without feeling judged. Different table neighbors each night 🙂 Cuts down on packing.

Just did boarding this month. We had first group boarding and arrived about an hour early. The car line entering the arrival area was the slowest part. Once dropped off, the boarding process proceeded fairly quickly in assembly line fashion. Multiple checkpoints. Not that bad.

Check out the thread on 10% off using AARP gift cards.

The Sapphire is an older ship and all outlets do not have equal amounts of power they can deliver. A standard blow dryer needs an extremely high wattage, and usually even higher wattage just to start up. Although it takes considerably longer, it is best to make due with the one provided on the ship.