mariakitty

I'm the Ultimate Mom, making sure everyone is happy. That fits!

There isn't beer tasting, unfortunately, but Princess now serves their own Seawitch craft beer. There is an IPA, a blonde ale and a red ale. My husband was quite pleased with them, as they are far better than the usual Bud and Heineken offerings. But what we discovered last week on the Ruby was Newcastle Brown Ale on draught at one of the pool bars. We talked to the bartender about it and it was a big seller. My husband noticed that each time he ordered it, the person ahead of him was getting it as well.

There was a vodka tasting on our cruise, and we hear the Hawaii cruises have rum tastings.

Well this is interesting. I just checked again and she still says docked at Victoria and it is 6:15am Pacific. Hope everything is ok, as we are singing our way to board her as we speak!

Great to hear you enjoyed your cruise! We board the Ruby on Sunday and I cannot wait. I've heard so many good things about the ship, the food, etc. we will look for Katarina in the dining room!

You should be quite comfortable with the four of you in a mini suite. In fact Sunday we board the Ruby with our two boys (10 and 12) in a mini. One boy will have the sofa, which makes into a bed and the other will use the bunk bed that pulls down from the ceiling. Since your children are young I'm sure they would be comfortable together on the sofa bed. We like he mini because the kids have their own TV and there is a kids channel that plays cartoons and movies all day.

Our boys reLly enjoyed the kids club last year, even though there weren't many kids on that cruise. In fact most were younger. They are many activities and you can drop the kids in and out for most of the day. They will play games, watch movies, do arts and crafts, etc. my kids loved it and cannot wait to be back this weekend. :-). We had a good experience with the staff and they seemed attentive with all of the children. I haven't been on Disney so I cannot provide a comparison, but I would assume the Dis year kids program is probably a bit more exciting than Princess, but I wouldn't let this deter you.

Have a great cruise!

We just received an email last week that Cinderella (the new theatrical version) and Avengers 2 will be playing next week. I would love to hear a more extensive list though :-)

We love Dolphin balconies! So much so that we have one booked for our cruise next week. Yes someone could look down onto your balcony, but it is rare that we even see people outside so it has never been an issue. We had a covered balcony once and didn't like it. We prefer the sunshine and open air feeling of the dolphin balconies. Enjoy!

Thanks for the info M4dc0w. we want to enjoy the balcony in the evenings with our kids in the cabin watching movies, so this is helpful. I wish others weren't so judgmental about how people spend their time on a cruise. I even like to check my email!

We will be using a shuttle from SeaTac to Pier 91 in August. As a party of 5 so far I have found Express Shuttle to be the cheapest but I'm still looking. I'm not going to pay $24 each way for a Princess transfer.

I would be fine with adding a separate Elite only lounge, but don't take away my Platinum perks now that we just earned them! 😀

 

Edit: How much consideration should I ask for?

I wouldn't accept anything less than a free cruise. And I want free excursions for the inconvenience of receiving two emails instead of one. It clogged my inbox! :-))

My apologies for posting the cruise passengers were from South Carolina. I got this from a news article that has since been removed. Obviously that newspaper was also misinformed.

Sadly two of the victims were from Medford, OR which is very close to where I live.

I haven't been on this deck on the Grand, but congrats on booking your cruise! I would mention to watch pricing and if at all possible get a balcony. Alaska is the one itinerary that a balcony is most enjoyable. :)

Princess is updating their site and it has caused some problems with bookings. Wednesday we decided an email from Princess about pre paid beverage packages that had the wrong booking number. This was soon followed up by another copy of the email with the correct booking number and an "oops" message. These things happen during maintainance and upgrades of computer systems, so nothing to worry about. :)

Apparently the cruise passengers were from two families traveling together from South Carolina. I cannot imagine the sadness and heartache their families are going through, especially the bodies couldn't be immediately recovered. I can only hope they found joy on their cruise prior to this tragedy. I am so sad for them.

We have booked a helicopter tour in Juneau for August and both DH and I are seriously reconsidering. I'm not usually an alarmist but this really brought home what can happen on some of these excursions. let's all go hug a loved one.

Oh geez I just noticed you are from Australia! LOL

My kiwi husband would say skip Australia altogether and go to New Zealand. :)

As an American I would say definitely have a pavlova on your trip if you can. I have yet to have one here at home that is anything close to one in NZ (I'm sure this applies to Australia).

Have a great cruise! Wish I was going too - and the Diamond is my favorite ship.

I feel truly sick about this. Those poor people. :(

Actually my friends tried to get the same table at the same time and wasn't able to do so. This was their first-ever cruise so they didn't think to talk to the maitre d about it. Apparently he wasn't a friendly sort anyway! And to be clear I am referring to traditional dining with open seating, not anytime dining.

My suggestion was to discuss this on their comment cards and the post-cruise survey if they get one. they still had a great cruise, but with dining being such an important aspect of cruising it was a bit of a let down. And they didn't seem to think this was communicated well through patters or what not. I think some communication the night before would have helped tremendously.

We are going on the Ruby in August so now I know when to plan specialty dining. :). Thanks to everyone for the discussion!

My family is part of this target market that CCL is seeking: 30-40 something's with kids who like to travel. But increasing prices and decreasing capacity is not going to get me on the ship; it has already had the affect of seeking non-cruise vacations more than we used to. CCL is walking a fine line here and Princess in particular needs to step up their game with better itineraries during the school holiday times if they want to keep our business. When we can take a family of four to Europe for less money than a cruise, something is wrong. We aren't at this point yet, but is getting very close.

Oh the joys of capitalism.

I'm sure the late departures from ports were the reason, but from a passenger standpoint I would still want my reserved table with my waiters regardless. If the itinerary has that many late port departures then the dining schedule should be adjusted accordingly. Just my two cents. :-)

A friend of mine just returned from her Alaska -Glacier Bay cruise on the Crown. She loved the cruise but said the one disappointment was that traditional dining for at least three nights was open seating. Apparently this started after the first formal night and was without warning or explanation.

Is this typical? On all my Princess cruises this has happened maybe one night in total, and certainly not three nights in a row on the same cruise. I feel like traditional dining is slowly being dismantled and I don't like it! If I wanted open seating I would use anytime dining, which I do NOT. :-(

As one who prefers sea days to port days, here is a list of what I enjoy. Keep in mind there are constant activities put on throughout the ship as stated in the patters so I'm sure you won't get bored. :-)

Swimming

Reading/walking on the promenade deck

Naturalist lectures

Bingo

Movies

Taking pictures/video

Afternoon tea

Cocktail hour before dinner

People watching

Shopping

Salon/spa treatments

Casino

Nightclubs

But there is so much more to do which will vary by ship. We cruise for relaxation so we tend to stay away from the pool activities unless our children are with us. I love nothing better than to sit on a lounger on the premonade with a coffe from the IC watching the world go by. There is also ship tours, shopping talks, martini demos, princess pop idol, dancing in the clubs, princess theatre shows and probably more than I can think of.

Have a great cruise! Can't wait to do a Hawaiian itinerary some day. :)

I love MUTS but also need daily quiet time which I have never failed to find on a Princess cruise. We sit on our balcony, read a book on the promenade, visit the adult pool, lounge on the sun deck, etc. I don't see the problem here.

Oh and we are taking our kids to Alaska in August and having done this cruise before we expect plenty of kids. In fact I think it's a fantastic itinerary for children. The idea that Princess Alaska cruises are just for older folks is simply a myth. In fact if you look at the latest marketing materials you may notice lots of pictures of families. :-)

In Juneau you can get a taxi to Alaska Brewery, and have free beer samples (also their root beer). The small tour is free, but the brewmasters are very knowledgable and love to talk!

Also in Juneau you can take the tram, which is really cheap if you buy the tickets directly rather than from the ship. You can buy the tickets when you are ready to go and the bird sanctuary at e top is quite interesting.

In Ketchikan there are museums and art shops that are an easy walk in town. Go to the salmon shops for plenty of smoked salmon samples.

On our last alaska cruise we didn't do any ship excursions and we had a great time. Part of this was due to having done a lot of excursions on our previous Alaska cruise. And of course you can always enjoy the ship while in port.