Vexorg

For anyone sailing on the January 25th Royal Princess Mexican Riviera cruise, I just got notified of an itinerary change to swap the PV and Cabo port calls:

On the day this cruise was scheduled to be in PV there were going to be four ships in port with only three berths, meaning one ship was going to have to tender and things were likely to be rather crowded.  With the time changes there may be impacts to shore excursions, but we'll see what happens.

My parents decided to stick with Princess mostly because their ships had freshwater pools when most cruise ships had salt water in theirs (not sure if that's still the case though.)  The self service laundry is also nice, and probably the biggest thing we missed the one time we cruised on RCCL (that's not a deal breaker though, and I'd also like to try an Oasis or Quantum class ship some day.) 

Best one I've seen was on one of those notorious one-day Vancouver to Seattle repos that some of the lines sailing out of Seattle have to do for PVSA reasons.  Canada Place being in its usual state of chaos on a four-ship day, the ship left two hours later than scheduled because there were still over 400 passengers in the security line at the scheduled departure time (we got there relatively early and it took us "only" two hours, but I heard it took some passengers as much as four hours in line to actually board the ship.)  So between the delays and the "party cruise" tendencies of one-day cruises, by the time the Muster drill happened there were a fair number of passengers taking advantage of the bar facilities.  At our muster station in the theater, three guys showed up to the drill wearing the Princess bathrobes and slippers, towels on their heads, Mardi Gras beads and each carrying a martini in their hand, and each presumably at least three sheets to the wind if not more.

I've also been on a repositioning cruise that left the day after one of those Seattle to Vancouver one-day cruises.  The Cruise Director was in attendance at the CC get-together, where he told us that they definitely have some stories to tell after those one-day cruises.  One example he cited from the previous cruise was passengers found still asleep in their staterooms after what was supposed to be the final embarkation time..

For my wife and I our biggest expense on cruises is usually shore excursions, either booked through the line or otherwise.  Aside from that, on most cruises our biggest expenses tend to be gratuities and whatever non-alcoholic beverage package is offered since we don't drink alcohol.  On a couple of occasions I've actually purchased art on the ship, but that tends to be rare.

I don't remember exactly where the thread is now, but I once saw a story someone posted here where the watch officer on the bridge called an assessment party to some location on the ship, which was followed by a black card passenger at the purser's desk demanding to know why she hadn't been invited.

While doing some research on our upcoming MR cruise, I see that our day in Puerto Vallarta (January 29th) will have four ships in port (Royal Princess, Emerald Princess, Norwegian Joy and Carnival Panorama). Should I expect that there might be issues getting around that day?  I would assume that some ship is going to have to use tenders (probably Emerald since they aren't there regularly) since there are only places for three ships to dock.  Our current plans would have us going down to Mismaloya (which would hopefully cut back on the crowds) but it sounds like traffic could also be an issue getting there and back.  Should I plan on extra time to get around?

10 hours ago, Hlitner said:

 

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9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

As to the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao), those ports are more distant then the other ports used on Caribbean cruises.  Often called a "Southern Caribbean" itinerary those cruises are often 10+ days to allow for the extra sea days.  As another poster said, Princess actually does do some fascinating itineraries in other parts of the world.  Consider next October's 56 day Regal Princess cruise from Southampton to Sydney which goes through the Suez Canal and stops at ports such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, etc.  That particular cruise can be booked in shorter segments.   There are also some interesting trans pacific repositioning cruises.

Princess used to offer a 7 night Southern Caribbean itinerary, but it only had 2 stops (Curacao and Aruba) and 4 sea days.  When we did it in 2017 they had changed it to 8 nights with a third stop in Bonaire.  I do still see one of these on the schedule (December 28th 2020 on the Sky Princess) but it doesn't seem to be a common occurrence anymore, probably because 8 night cruises make a mess of the schedule.  

We spent the day at Mr. Sancho's the last time we were in Cozumel.  It's rather touristy (which is par for the course there) but probably the best option we've found for a beach day on that itinerary.  I'd probably do it again if we went back.  

Part of the fun at Cozumel is watching people stagger back to the ship late after having just a bit (or a lot) too much to drink in town...

My first Caribbean cruise on Princess was a 7 night Eastern Caribbean itinerary which had Princess Cays, San Juan (short evening stop), St. Thomas, Tortola and Grand Turk.  I don't think I've seen Tortola on a Princess itinerary since then (I do think I've seen shore excursions from St. Thomas that go there though)  and San Juan seems to be much less common now than it used to be.  

That said, if you're looking for some different ports I'd recommend trying out one of the 10 night cruises, since those go to a number of ports you don't see on the 7 night itineraries.

1 hour ago, Earthworm Jim said:

Not relevant to Port Everglades, but for general knowledge I do recall reading that in Vancouver, while it's technically allowed to get back off the ship after your initial boarding, you probably don't want to do it. The reason being that you apparently pass through customs, as if you were leaving Canada and entering the U.S., when you board the ship there so you don't need to go through customs at whatever your first Alaska port is.

 

So if you leave again you have to go through customs to enter Canada again. Which my first thought was, would they even be set up to do that? But thousands of guests just got off the ship and had to enter Canada, so I guess so and there presumably would be no line.

 

But the potential problem arises when you have to reboard and have to wait in the same line as all the people checking in to go through customs again. I wonder if even that would be a problem if you were returning to the ship late in the boarding process? There might not be many late arrivals boarding at that time. But the discussion I read seemed to think it might be so I don't dare risk it on my upcoming Alaska cruise.

 

That's a shame though, because many cruisers probably haven't seen Vancouver yet.

I've actually disembarked and gotten back on the ship in Vancouver before, although that was on a sailing with a late (Midnight) departure.  If I recall correctly, passengers who disembark and return could use the in transit line, which bypasses most of the checks, and this particular sailing didn't have CBP (this was done on board the ship in San Francisco.)  Canada Place also has NEXUS lines, which would be much faster if you have one of those.

It looks like those tracks are no longer in use (there's a "tracks out of service" sign on a road crossing a couple of blocks from the hotel) so unless you're Wile E. Coyote there's probably little risk in crossing them.  That said, you're not going to be near a lot of transit options there, so you'll probably need to take a taxi or Uber to the pier.

Southcenter Mall (the largest in the Seattle area) is about a half mile walk away, so if you can do that you'll have plenty of options.  

It's doable, but depending on how you plan to get to the port it would likely be easier to go drop off your luggage, go out and meet your friends, and then come back and check in later.  Keep in mind that you need to be checked in 90 minutes before the ship departs (which would be 2:30 for a 4:00 departure.)

Nice writeup.  I've been on nearly this same itinerary back in 2013 (ours was on Emerald Princess and went to Aruba instead of Curacao) and quite enjoyed it.  I'd say that the ABC Islands are probably my favorite Caribbean destination (I come from Dutch roots so I enjoy the Dutch islands), but one of my favorite cruise souvenirs was a really nice handmade mahogany box I bought from a crafter in the straw market on Dominica with some really elaborate scroll saw work on the lid.  In the three cruises I've taken that went to the ABC Islands I also remember the return trip back up to Fort Lauderdalewas generally on the bumpy side, at least until you get further north.

Would it be possible to get better pictures of the smaller ICs?  Haven't been able to find much on those based on what I can see, although it looks like there's a clock crystal (presumably to provide timing to the 52832)  and most likely some sort of amplifier.  I'm guessing some of the EEs hanging around here can probably do a better job of figuring that out than I can.

In bulk quantities I'm guessing the 52832 chips probably cost around $2 each,  and there's probably another $1-2 worth of other components there and the shells can be made for pennies, so the cost to Princess for one of these is probably around $4-5.  Expensive compared to cruise cards, but probably worth the benefits they get from them.  

I've sailed in guarantee rooms a number of times, and there doesn't seem to be any good ways to predict where you'll end up or when you'll actually receive a cabin assignment.  I've been on ones where I had an assigned cabin three days after booking 6+ months from sailing, and I've heard of people getting their cabin assignment at the check-in desk, and when I've sailed in guarantee cabins I find it can be anywhere in between.  

That said, what typically happens if they have more passenger bookings than available cabins in a category is that they will first start by making upsell offers to try to get passengers to upgrade to categories with more availability.  At times there may be more than one of these, with progressively lower prices.  If the ship is overbooked close to sailing (if everything is sold out on a particular cruise this could be a possibility) they may have to start making move over offers to get people to move to other sailings.  Since this can greatly disrupt travel plans (especially if it happens on short notice), these offers can be quite lucrative for the passengers who have the flexibility to take them (typically this involves refundable OBC for all of the original cruise fare minus taxes and fees, a longer cruise offered in place of the original one, category upgrades and reimbursement for airline/hotel change fees.)  These are fairly rare, but do happen if a sailing gets overbooked.  Typically there will be cancellations for various reasons along the way, which will free up rooms and allow Princess to allocate them to passengers in guarantees.  Ultimately, the cruise line's goal is to do whatever is needed to make sure the ship sails full, since empty cabins don't generate revenue.

For the recent Royal Princess sailing I ended up taking a move over offer from, we ordered medallions roughly 3 weeks before the sailing date, and had them in hand within about a week.  Oddly enough, ours seem to have been delivered from Singapore...

Another thing to consider:  In my experience renting from the Downtown Seattle location (At least for Alamo)  can be cheaper than renting from the airport because you don't have to pay some of the airport surcharges.  Of course there is the issue of actually getting there, but the Alamo/National location in Downtown is about two blocks from the Westlake light rail station.  Not sure if you'd want to do it with a lot of luggage though.

You might be able to connect through Denver on Frontier, but it looks like the easiest route would be to connect through Chicago or MSP (Delta for MSP, American or United for Chicago.)  Another option would be Toronto to Vancouver and take a rental car to Seattle, but I'm guessing that would be more expensive.

JetBlue connecting through Los Angeles might be an option too.

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On 11/25/2019 at 7:16 PM, Aquahound said:

I think it's possible Carnival could have something similar.  They could go to Half Moon Cay, Princess Cays, Grand Turk and Amber Cove.  It would be about as close to an all private island cruise as one could get.  

Geographically, Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay are only a few miles away from each other.  In theory you could just anchor the ship somewhere between the two and just run tenders to both.  In practice they're probably similar enough to each other that there wouldn't be much point.

My parents booked a cabin on our Royal Princess cruise in January (not sure exactly what they booked, but I'm assuming a balcony) and shortly after booking got upgraded to a premium aft balcony cabin.

My wife and I tend to prefer the MDR for most meals when we cruise.  Especially on sea days we're typically not in a hurry to do anything or get anywhere, and it's nice to slow down a bit and do some nice sit-down meals.  We do also go to the buffet, but that's more for snacking than full-fledged meals, and most of the time we prefer breakfast in the MDR because the buffet gets really crowded.  All those big fancy meals do wear on you a bit after a while though, and after we get off the ship on disembarkation day I have a tendency to go find the least fancy thing I can come up with (which usually means Taco Bell) and have that for my first meal off the ship.

On our last cruise there was one sea day where my wife and I were just lounging around on the pool deck doing nothing in particular and she made a random offhand comment: "You wanna' go to the buffet and get some carbs?"  Since then, that's turned into one of our running inside jokes.

Generally the main factors that influence cabin selection for us are location and price.  There are some parts of the ship that can  be noisy or have a lot of movement in rough seas (I'm not in a hurry to book a Plaza deck OV on a Princess ship again, for example.  Lots of noise from waves crashing outside.)  That said, most of the time when my wife and I travel she wants the cheapest cabin she can get, which most of the time means we end up in interiors.  I'm used to these so it's not a big deal, but it would be nice to have some natural light in the cabin sometimes.  

4 hours ago, USCcruisecrazy said:

Can anyone tell me if any of the Bars have televisions, like to show sporting events?  I realize they have big games on MUTS and we can get TV channels in the Cabins, but would like to sit in a pub area and have a few drinks while watching the game.

 

Thanks in advance!

Not sure about the newer ships, but I know on the older ships there's typically TVs at the bar in the Vista Lounge/Club Fusion.