cr8tiv1

I was just thinking if they were old enough to drink?

It is. possible to board separately. Just make sure each of you have a designated boarding time on your Medallion app (although it may not be needed if boarding late). I have never rushed to the sanctuary, but my understanding is that each person needs to make their own reservation (you can not make it for an absentee person). Please check and double check what time is final boarding.

My experiences at the suite breakfast have always been the same. There is a coffee person behind the counter and he starts making my coffee when I walk past him. These "guys" are the best of the best. I am sorry that your suite experience (overall) was less than stellar. My regular cabin mate feels the same way. She doesn't care to do the suite breakfast and instead goes to the MDR.

I googled and couldn't find the answer. Why did Brett leave the show? I did watch this whole episode. Wow...the numbers to the questions were really high. Is that the "new" generation?

I wish you could give her back. She has the best Piazza layout of all the Grand ships. There is so much open space on the Fiesta Deck with the Crown Grill, Excursion Desk, and room to sit while waiting for the Captain Circle/Future Cruise persons. And the Casino is on Deck 7.

Day 2: Pre-Arrival to Astoria (noon to 9 PM/all aboard at 8:30) Sis got up on her own and decided she wanted to do Tai Chi in the Vista Lounge. She had my blessings. I gave her verbal directions: up one flight of marble stairs, turn right/make a U turn, and walk away from the Customer Service Desk. There is only one Piazza flight of stairs between decks. There are carpeted steps near the elevator banks and the infamous stairs to nowhere on deck 7. I told her I would meet her at 8:45 near the bar (Crooner’s). Over breakfast, she shared her morning exercise. It is a recorded video without any cruise staff to monitor. On following sea days, it would be the same video. She remarked that it included stretching and breathing exercises, but that a progressive “class” might be difficult for new attendees. Suite breakfast at the Crown Grill is probably my most favorite perk. I am a breakfast person who loves to wake up, dawdle, then eat a hearty breakfast. On a 7 day cruise, there are only 5 days to get in everything I love. George (Georg’ie) was very personable but did explain that he could only accommodate changes with what was on board. For instance, crab would be canned, no thank you. Avocado and salsa is always available. He frequented the table often. Yasa and Wayan were our servers. By the second day, 2 lattes, no foam, one decaf would arrive shortly after we sat down. We did not order mimosas. That is way too early in the day to start filling my body with calories when there is so much more to look forward to. I ordered watermelon slices with blueberries and she requested the melon plate. Strangely, the melons were not cut properly any of the days. The rind was cut too closely and there was that middle hard core on every slice that you had to carve off. I had the poached eggs with roasted potatoes and crisp bacon. Sis had lox and bagels. The pastry tray was brought over. Sis enjoyed sampling different items every day but her favorite was the chocolate crescent. Princess does a really good job on their poached eggs. Whites are cooked and yolk is soft, not runny. All of their meats were spot on in the Crown Grill and MDR. I like to eat my chops, prime rib, and steaks medium to medium rare. I did not have any issues with gristle or untrimmed fat. On tap for today was the Shore Excursion Presentation in the Princess Theater. This was nothing but a reading/slide show of tours you could take at each port. I was really disappointed that with 3.5 sea days, there was not a single enrichment lecture. Princess missed the boat on this one. I purposely did not plan any excursions at any of the ports. While my sister attended the “Acupuncture - A Life Changing Introduction” at the Wheelhouse Bar, I snuck away to see what the Cruise Direct Staff “Arts and Crafts of the day" was at Sabatini’s. It would be repeated in the afternoon. Today: Adult Coloring. On another day it was Origami. And the third one was making snowflakes. Pretty lame to me. We attended the snowflake one, but left about half way through for some other event. There were two demonstrators. Obviously this must have been their first time paired. The “assistant” was going from table to table telling us the wrong instructions as the lead demonstrated what we should be doing. My snowflake is still folded and will probably remain unfinished. Moved right along next door to the Explorer’s Lounge to sample the “Enrichment Seminar - Get Smart about Art”. So we “registered” just in time to pick up our free gift of the day. On following days, it was much more difficult since registration was just before lunch with the auction around 1:00. We would register, pick up our bidding paddle, and go to lunch. Gee: Activity or Lunch? We were given the same paddle number each day. There was a little bit of art history. A little bit about becoming an art collector. A little bit about types of canvases. And a lot of Peter Max stuff (not my favorite). We did visit the art gallery on Plaza Deck (5) a few times while dropping in at the International Cafe. My sister’s son has his degree in the fine arts but became a flight attendant to support his craft. That turned into a full time career. He has taken her all over the world to see art in real time. You guessed it, the “free” print/lithograph guaranteed to draw her back again and again and again. Sis attended the last Auction while I started packing on our last sea day. She did not think of bringing back the fourth gift for me. While we were out of the room in the morning, room service delivered my 2 modified mini-bars: one for being in a suite and the other for being elite. In addition, we were given two bottles of water every morning. Our ice bucket was filled and left in the refrigerator during the evening’s turn down service. Didn’t understand why not in the morning. Maybe because Eric has much more to do. More information: Window Suite stewards are also assigned a second deck of rooms. Sometimes it is other suites. Other times it has been on Plaza Deck. It all depends how full the ship is. Regarding San Pellegrino: Room Service called to let me know they could not fill all of my San Pellegrino order and would have to add some Perrier instead. I told them that would be fine. It was very interesting to find out later that not all venues had San Pellegrino. My jr. waiter ended up going to Good Spirits to get us some. I told him that it really wasn’t necessary and the any sparkling water would be fine for lunch and/or dinner. This information is for new cruisers. I upgraded to a Princess Plus Beverage Package when it was at $40. The difference in price was worth the convenience of not having to worry about stopping by the bar or ordering a beverage while dining. I am not so sure I would do it at $50 a day on a port intensive cruise. One mini-bar in a regular cabin should be sufficient. Crunching the numbers for an Ocean View cabin: Crew Appreciation/$14.50 plus Wifi/$5 = $19.50 leaving me $30.50 per day for drinks I would not use. I will have enough On Board Credit (obc) for the occasional glass of wine I would have with dinner. Today’s introduction tour was the International Cafe for my Peanut Butter cookies. Mila was there to offer her assistance. She went in the back to retrieve the tasty delights and placed them in a new portable oven on the counter to warm them up/make them crispier (it replaced the Panini Grill). She was given my business a few more times during the cruise. On a different night run to pick up chamomile tea, I ran across Karan. We chatted and he asked me if I needed Peanut Butter cookies. We became very good friends on my last cruise. Unfortunately, I did not see him earlier because he was assigned the night shift now that the IC was open 24/7. He told me that he had to bake some cookies and to return in 30 minutes. I guess they don’t have them ready to go all the time. That was news to me as I watched him place a few cookie disks in the huge oven. Friday would be his last night. He was going home from San Diego. Of course, I had to pay him a final visit and wish him a safe journey home. But he was not there at 9 PM. His friend said he was having his hair cut but to return a little later. I brought him a small token of my gratitude: a ziplock bag of travel treats for the long plane ride home and some cash. My apologies if I sometimes combine bits of and pieces, here and there. Can you see why it was so difficult for me to be a math teacher? I had to force myself to be very linear when focusing on my lessons. It was a perspective that actually helped in my teaching style. I can so easily be distracted. I marvel at those posters who can do a live thread. This is my first post cruise review. I didn’t realize I had so much to share. I am having the time of my life reliving this cruise. I "may" not have as much to write about once we get the preliminaries out of the way.. Thank you to everyone who is following and contributing to this thread. A special shout out to my friends who have been so supportive.

For me, I followed the Grand since post pandemic. I have had 5 voyages on her since October. I prefer the Grand Class ships over the Royal Class. They are too big. They can't do smaller ports. It seems to be a hurry up and wait mentality (tendering/MDR/Princess Theater, and the list goes on. Yes, I do remember the bucket brigade on the Grand Princess. But I will take that over the newer ships any day. Have another two cruises booked on the Caribbean Princess next year. Waiting to see what ships Princess ports in San Pedro (LA). It would help if you narrowed your inquiry to port/destination/Grand or or Grand with one extra deck.

Thank the medallion. At least there is some good.

Perrier is 330 mL San Pellegrino is 250 mL (8.45 fl oz)

She has never been home ported on the West Coast. It would really be nice if Princess would keep one "smaller" ship at San Pedro. I don't want to be overrun with Royal Class ships as my only choice. FLL can have the new Sun Princess.

Quick and easy: Go to browser bar and type in login.com or logout.com. Worked like a charm each time.

JP must have a very thick skin. Outside of Princess, I don't think many really care for what he is doing for her passengers. My wish: Jan Swartz stayed and Holland was assigned to JP. Imagine what he could have done for THAT brand.

Am lowering my standards for Japan then back to my Window Suites. (Sarcasm @ Sheldon). Sure wish there were more Grand/Golden/Caribbean on my side of the world. The only "real" difference is Club Class dining, same day laundry, and breakfast.

I can't remember the last time I used the laundry room, but that seems a little unfair. Especially if you have detergent allergies or other issues. If you think of it as Princess trying to make it more convenient for folks (by including the detergent), I guess it's fair game.

The Coral has many "secret" viewing areas both bow and aft on several decks. I can't recall which, but the locations are not well marked.

I pushed and pushed to reach Elite just for the free laundry. Most expensive price ever to wash underwear.

Love beets, especially with orange slices. I will gladly eat your share of beets but won't share my Caesar salad sans kale.

Still Day 1…almost over. My two older sisters were supposed to join me for my March/April Sea of Cortez voyage. After final payment, the other sister had a family health event. Both sisters cancelled and I continued solo (thank you AON/Princess). When I approached this sister with the chance to cruise again, she agreed, as long as I took care of everything. She is 10 years older than I am, but in much better physical condition. I make up with being an experienced cruiser, more organized, and tech savvy. Now that we are on the ship, I can finally relax. The Medallion is doing its thing (positive). The App is behaving very well. Internet is sufficient for our needs. I downloaded Ocean Concierge on all of our hand held devices. It is a much better portal to view the Patter events. I taught her how to login.com and logout.com to easily switch devices. I am enjoying her first impressions. She has a refreshing new perspective that we sometimes take for granted. I purposely choose a 6:20 time for the Crown Grill. We had enough time to catch our breath and change gears. The joys of being on the Fiesta Deck is that everything we need is either one deck up or down. I pointed out that she will always be able to view the Customer Service Deck from anywhere in the Piazza. Then all she had to do was to look for our hallway to the right (starboard) of it. We were greeted by George the Head Waiter and taken to a table rather than a booth, since we missed the first seating. She was looking forward to the Chilean Sea Bass. I just love their lamb chops. Service was impeccable and the dishes perfecto. I wanted her to savor the joys of being on a cruise ship so our dinner was at a very leisurely pace. Neither of us particularly like comedians so opted to skip Phil Tag (7:30 and 9:30). This bread is new to the Crown Grill. Hot, crusty, and the center was filled with mozzarella cheese. What’s not to like! This was meant to introduce her to cruising in hopes that she might want to do more cruises with me. My other sister is a lost cause. Her loyalty is with Holland America. I know, it isn’t fair to drop her into a suite and then scale down to a Plaza Ocean View for our next cruise to Japan (port intensive). I love my Window Suites but don’t care for the location of full suites (and/or the cost). I showed her how to read the Patter and I would do almost anything she wanted to experience. So instead of the Princess Theater we tracked down Fortuna Luck for our free Bingo Card. EFFY drew her in with a free raffle and charm. We ended up attending 5 sessions (counted the charms) and received the bracelet without going to the shopping show. I even won one of the raffles. Who needs ANOTHER blue sapphire pendant? That was enough excitement for one day. I didn’t request turn down service but Eric prepared our room with fresh towels, turned on the lights, and fluffed our pillows. I could see that a chocolate or two went missing from the plate every day. We retired to the room and watched the Grand traverse the San Juan islands on my Marine Traffic App. One of her best friends from home lives on Pendar Island for part of the year. She arrived into YVR the day before we embarked. They “waved” at each other as we passed by. Too bad darkness shadowed the views. I was amazed how narrow the channels were and how many islands there really were. I love Princess beds, pillows, and comforters. I learned that twin beds have the fluffy comforters while the queen bed has a thinner blanket. My sister remarked that the bed was difficult to get into because it was so soft. By the next night, she had to tear apart her bed (untuck everything) to make it more cozy for her. I like to sleep like a mummy. More trivia. Suite sheets are changed everyday (i normally amend that) while other cabins are every 3 -4 days. Lights Out….Good Night.

But Kale? Why would they even have Kale on the ship? I do not recall many dishes that used Kale. You guessed it, I am not a fan of Kale. I did manage to get one Caesar salad that was "properly" prepared. How I miss tableside preparations of of Caesar salads.

The one time I needed ice in the afternoon, all that was left were a few pieces of ice floating in cold water. I am guessing the ice bucket is refreshed during turn down service and left in the "cold box". Plastic ice bucket?

This is my OCD moment. I stood over the bridge and took videos and multiple shots with my phone (or was it a point and shoot digital camera?). When I had the time, I searched and edited until I finally got one (1) shot that was keepable.

Princess does not have a laundry package. Each item has a cost. There is a price for regular and a price for Presto (in by 9 out by evening). It is not inexpensive. Princess does have laundry rooms on most decks for a fee.

Last week on the Grand, I exchanged everything out with Room Service. I know they are swamped so always let them know that I don't need the items on embarkation day. Perrier is the small bottles. San Pellegrino is even smaller. I could not get all San Pellegrino so they mixed my replacement with both. In the MDR with a beverage package, I did get the larger bottle of Perrier.

Add me to the list of "I love the Coral". I do not care for the larger Royal Class ships. Yes, it is odd that the IC is next to the smaller casino. I usually do not sit and eat there. She has new Ocean View rooms next to the casino. She has a walk around Promenade (very important). She has "On the Bayou" (best production show in the fleet). She has few passengers and more public spaces. Some of her bump out balconies are larger. Since they sold the Golden, the Coral and the. Grand are the only ships left that I really enjoy.

It was the Majestic Princess on her way to Australia. https://bsetours.com/forced-to-pass-the-tests-on-board-the-passengers-of-the-majestic-princess-almost-missed-their-excursions/