cruisequeen4ever

1) I feel so bad for the affected pax of the first 2 sailings. 2) I am horrified at the lack of empathy and care shown in the announcements Princess has made. I think back to the Diamond Princess; Jan showed compassion and kindness. This lacks the human connection. It’s way too matter of fact. 3) Princess needs to make an announcement addressing people’s concerns about future sailings. They’re losing the trust of pax.

I’ve never experienced them in May, June, or July on Alaska cruises. Now on the cruisetour side, there could be mosquitoes any of the summer months. We have quite an abundance of them here, unfortunately.

I’m shocked Princess dared to serve that; it seriously does look like cat food!

Most of the time, it’s wonderfully helpful and convenient. Sometimes it fails when it can’t detect your accurate location or when it cancels after a while.

I’m so excited about the new bags as I have always loved the Princess bags. They should give them out, since competing lines of similar quality haven’t discontinued them. As someone else mentioned, Celebrity even gives a nice cloth bag.

It seems to depend on whether yours are being shipped from the U.S. or Asia. Last summer, ours were shipped from Asia, and we got them the day before flying to our cruise, which means we received them 5 days before the cruise. I started a thread then that was similar to yours because I was getting anxious. Those who had theirs coming from the US were the ones who were receiving them about 10 days befofe their cruise. I hope our next one arrives in plenty of time, and I hope yours comes in plenty of time!

Don’t worry; you can not disembark until the morning. They just dock after midnight and start transferring luggage throughout the night. It’s fun to watch the ship sail into port that night. Disembarkation begins at about 7 AM.

Thank you everyone. I was thinking that it’d be best to head straight there when we get off the ship.

Do tour groups get to skip the line to do the toboggan ride in Funchal? If not part of a tour group, is there a way to skip the line?

I enjoyed reading about your experiences on both cruise lines.

I think the necklace is beautiful for times like formal night, but it is not practical. We use the sport vans, and they work really well. When you ding on and off the ship, you have to physically touch or get super close to at least the machine to receive the signal from your medallion, which would be mighty difficult with an atlas. if you were going to get the necklace, I recommend also getting a practical accessory for regular regular times.

Both people in a cabin have to get the package, so even if it wasn’t fiscally advantageous for the one who doesn’t drink to get it, she’d still have to. She can get loads of fun non-alcoholic drinks…bottled water, soda, fresh juice, mocktails, lattes, frappes, espresso, mochas, and specialty teas. No, they don’t have Boba; not sure if that is what you mean by bubble tea?

The Hilton Molino Stucky in Venezia is my favorite hotel in the world! It’s so beautiful and had an amazing breakfast. Book early as it sells out fast.

I agree that it’s detecting the card, but no, it’s now showing it as an option for me to select for shipboard spending. It only shows it as an option for shoreside. I can’t be green lane without putting in a different cc.

I can’t get the credit card I’ve always used for Princess to work in the new app for the form of payment. I keep getting the following error message. Does anyone know how to fix this?

I had not heard of anyone getting a counter offer before; that’s great! Hope you get it!

Definitely either the Coral or Sapphire. Both have indoor pools. The Caribbean was an absurd choice of ship for them to put in Alaska, for the name and because it was built for warm weather cruises. It was one thing having a Royal class ship here because those are at least new with all the bells and whistles, but the Caribbean is just old and not well suited for Alaska.

So glad you’re back up and running! That whole region is not one to get adrift in!

I always say EZ-Air is convenient and often saves money…unless there’s a problem. Then it adds an extra degree of stress, since airlines generally won’t speak to the passenger, only Princess, since they booked it.

I don’t understand why this happens when these schedules are planned like 2 years in advance!

OP, though I am Elite with Princess, and it is my favorite brand, we have noticed a decline onboard. I still adore Princess, but I do recognize some of what you shared. Many years ago, crew were not allowed to speak anything other than English in front of guests. They had a much stronger command of the English language back then. Now, I hear them talking amongst themselves in their own language in front of guests. I agree that training is not as effective as it should be these days. We have witnessed that numerous times the past 5 or so years. Trick for the eggs…get them cooked to order. They don’t have to be in omelette form to be cooked to order. I have had an auto door close on me 3 times the past 2 cruises as well as witnessed others having them close on them; it’s inexcusable as these can be reprogrammed to stay open longer. As for Celebrity, we had our worst culinary experience at sea aboard the Constellation…pink burgers, flavorless cakes, and generally mediocre food. I did notice that Celebrity’s crew was better trained and more consistent, though, on my most recent Celebrity cruise. The food was better on the Solstice but still a whole step below Princess, based on my experiences. Yes, Princess and Celebrity are put on par with one another, and many sail both. We all get to choose our niche line, and it sounds like you have 2 you like. Happy cruising, and thank you for sharing your experience!

You will definitely be provided assistance to get you through the check-in terminal and onto the ship. You just have to ask for it when you arrive. Sometimes there can be a wait for a wheelchair, but then the process is smooth.

If you are mobility challenged, I would d not do Goldstar and would advise that you book directly with Princess for the whole cruise tour. Goldstar requires climbing up narrow steps to get to the seats and down to get to the bathrooms and dining. If you have limited mobility, that would not be fun to do, especially while the train is moving. Also, the Goldstar seats are basically standard airplane or bus seats, whereas the seats in Adventure class (if you book directly with the Alaska Railroad) are wider and have much more legroom as long as you request car E or F. The seats on the Princess train are all pretty much the same as each other, depending on whether you are on a train that has the dome cars where you sit on the second floor in regular style seats like Goldstar or if you are on a train that has booths facing one another with a table inbetween on the first floor. The reason I recommend going through Princess for the whole thing is because they have the whole process down to a science and do it really well. They own their own hotels here, so the product is generally consistent. You can advise them of your limited mobility, so that they can ease your way through the cruise tour. Upon check-in, you can advise your guide that you are mobility, challenged and request that they get you rooms close to everything at each stop. Princesses is used to helping people with limited mobility and has excellent customer service, so I’m sure they would be able to assist you.

My response is based on living in Alaska and doing many north and southbound Alaska cruises. Whittier is a very tiny town, and you can see the 26 Glaciers boat as you drive up to the cruise terminal. On one of our cruises, we arrived very early for check-in and sat in the cruise terminal waiting. We saw the people disembarking who were back-to-back cruisers doing the 26 Glaciers cruise. The company came and gathered them in the cruise terminal to leave. Check-in for the cruise opens at 12:15 when the train arrives. There is a very long line immediately unless you are one of the first people off the train because the train holds hundreds of people, and they are all going to check in for the cruise, minus a few people who rode the train to do something else in Whittier. I agree with the person who recommended you check in for the cruise first and then go on the excursion (if you choose to do the excursion). As you said, though, there really wouldn’t be time for you to do so before the tour would leave. I definitely would not risk checking in after the excursion arrives back into Whittier as , someone else noted that check-in had ceased at that time, and I would agree that it probably would be done at that time. The last batch of passengers are those on the train that comes from Denali, and those passengers check in for the cruise while on the train. That means no one else is checking in when they arrive at the terminal. They just go straight through security and onto the ship. As great as the 26 Glaciers cruise is, I think it would be too risky for you to do as an embarking passenger. Now, if you really wanna do that excursion, you could take the train to Whittier the day before the cruise, do the 26th Glaciers cruise, and spend the night at the inn in Whittier.

On all of ours, they’ve had the classic musical entertainment (string quartet, party band, soloist, production shows) and a few more regional offerings sprinkled in, like an Irish band or singer, Irish instrument lessons, etc. There are movies shown, game shows, bingo, Deal or No Deal, competitions, and yes, you will have comedians. 😀