jeromep

17 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

What a superb weather.

I'd say most of the Pacific Northwest has had a great day today.  It is the warmest day we have had all spring.  Full sun and 80 degrees east of the Cascades.  The coast appears similar, although cooler.

18 hours ago, nhraformula00 said:

Are the beds comfortable. Hope they are not hard.

Beds and food are always highly subjective.  However, the "Princess Luxury Bed" is very good.  The linens are excellent and we feel the mattresses are about the best we've experienced in any lodging situation.  I like a firm bed, not rock hard, and these are quite a bit softer than I'd choose for my everyday usage, but I always woke up easily and had no feeling of being worn out or any pressure or pain points that I couldn't explain.  However, hotel beds wear out and get used by all types and sizes of bodies, and wear out pretty quickly.  You'll read reports here of beds that are made up to be the "Luxury Bed" but the mattress is well past its prime.  That is the gamble you take in any hotel situation.

Just to add and stay on subject, I've never had a bad meal on Princess.

23 hours ago, tjcletzgo said:

How hard is it to get dinner reservations when on the ship? We’re getting the Plus package and have a bunch of OBC and want to use it for specialty dining.

It depends on the sailing.  On our last cruise it was kind of difficult.  We had Premier and two comped specialty dinners and one embarkation night dinner as a suite perk.  Embarkation night dinner was the easiest one to book.  The remaining two were more difficult.  We used the Concierge to book those next two dinners.  I don't know if they pulled strings or we were fortunate, but it was nice asking them to do it and them getting back to us with what was available.  We ate at Sabatini's three times on that cruise.  Ironically, we were never able to get a decent dining time at Crown Grill, so never ate there.  Crown Grill on that sailing was very popular and full every night.  Bistro Sur la Mer was still the seafood concept for specialty dining on that cruise (Discovery Princess, July 2023), and was nearly empty every night.  We thought the menu looked ok, but it never struck our fancy.  It would have been an easy walk up and dine situation, too.  Looking forward to trying Catch on our next cruise.  Not long now, not long.

I look forward to your insights on the "repositioning cruise" that is ahead of you.  I can only imagine a future where I'll have 30+ days to take a long cruise.  But things can change.  I also never expected that I'd ever sail on Majestic.  We have an Alaska cruise scheduled on Majestic  for later on this summer.  I have followed some of the lore around the Majestic since she was commissioned and honestly thought her whole life would be spent in Asia and Oceania, never to serve on the west coast, and my chances of trying her out were pretty slim.  Well, that also changed.

1 minute ago, memoak said:

When was the last time you saw a lido deck grill scraped down while cooking beef, chicken and I guess now plant based “meat”.  They cook all day of that same surface nothing comes out very hot and for someone who hasn’t eaten chicken in years my hamburger did not even taste like beef

My most recent cruise was on Discovery and yes, they were handling the griddle as I would expect.  They were doing periodic scrape downs and periodic water sprays (which immediately creates steam) and scrapes.  I had many a burger from the grill on Lido and felt that the food prep area was being handled as well or better than any local burger joint.  Not only that the food was prepared in front of me and was plenty hot.  I have no problem agreeing to disagree, especially since food is so subjective.

On one of my late night walks I happened to notice that when the grill was closed they had a dust cover over the griddle surface.  That was also rather impressive considering that I'm not aware of any restaurant that puts a dust cover over their griddle when they are closed.  This makes sense considering that the grill on Lido is basically open to the elements, but it also shows conscious attention to detail.

Much smaller ship, and older than Discovery.  Island is a Panamax ship, so it is narrower than your typical modern cruise ship, built specifically to fit through the old locks at the Panama Canal.  It is missing some of the things most Princess cruisers really crave, like a full International Cafe.  Since your trip is very port intensive, I don't think you'll be too displeased with the smaller ship since it is basically a place you have breakfast and dinner each day and a place you sleep.  You'll have most of the same Princess style entertainment and shows in the evening.  And since it is a smaller ship, fewer passengers, which also means fewer crowds.

I was on Discovery last year, and while it is a beautiful ship, you can really tell the difference in the number of passengers on board compared to sailings I've done on smaller Grand class ships.

5 hours ago, memoak said:

Eating in port is a great chance to try different cuisines as well as avoid the buffet where we observe people not washing and pickup food with their hands or the grill where everything is cooked on one flattop which is rarely cleaned. We have actually gotten sick there

I agree that eating in port is a great way to find and try different cuisines, but depending on the port, I'm going to be very guarded about where I dine.  There are some disgusting commercial kitchens out there, and the cleanliness of the kitchen and the staff running it are going to be directly related to a combination of factors, including how much the kitchen is regulated, how well managed it is, and the cultural and societal cleanliness standards the staff have regarding food preparation.

As for flat tops, I regularly cook on a Blackstone.  They are carbon steel and are supposed to be seasoned and retain a patina in order to be non-stick.  While a good seasoning routing is best, in general, the more you use them, the better their nonstick qualities become.  Throughout the summer when cooking on it, you bring it up to high temp, then back it down, do your cooking, remove the food, then bring it up to high temp again, and you scrape the surface while spraying it down with water, pushing excess oil and debris to the catch bin.  Then you add a light coat of oil to the whole surface, let it smoke, wipe it down again and turn off.  Generally speaking a flat top in a restaurant should not ever be "stainless steel" clean in appearance.  And considering that at max temp you can get the surface of a flat top up to somewhere between 800 and 1000 degrees, no bacteria or virus can survive on that surface for any length of time.  A griddle is inherently sanitary when it is cooking because it is very hot.

4 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

If I’m in an interesting port that I’m enjoying walking around, why would I feel the need to run back to the ship to eat an average, at best, meal in the buffet or grill, when I can enjoy the local cuisine at a lovely restaurant with great food and wine?  Just because I feel the need to eat the free stuff onboard?  That would be a hard “No”!

I don't disagree with the sentiment.  I can't say I've ever run back to the ship for lunch and then run out again... well, actually there was that one time in Juneau many years ago..., but that was about being practical.  Choose a line to stand in at an eatery in the port area for an undetermined amount of time or a quick walk back to the ship, then through a very quiet security line to get food that we are generally certain is properly prepared.

3 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

This was going to be my comment.  Makes no sense to think that tourist restaurants are any more sanitary than those on the ship.

Agreed!  That is exactly where I'm coming from.  I grew up with this little chestnut in my brain, good old advice from mom, "want to know the condition of the kitchen, visit the restroom."

3 hours ago, memoak said:

Restaurants on land don’t let customers put their hands on all the food. On ships buffets we have watch people use their hands to go through cold cuts, cheeses etc. 

Well, every buffet that I've frequented in my area is this and more.  Most of the buffets where I live are all "Chinese" and I've seen more buffet faux pas occur on land than on board ships.  Children running wild around warming tables.  People thoughtlessly taking dirty plates back to get more, dropping serving utensils on the floor, sometimes just putting them back, sometimes having the sense to not do that, but then stand there with the spoon or tongs in hand held to the sky like some kind of awkward statue of buffet liberty or a student trying to hail their teacher.  And let's not forget the lack of buffet table maintenance, nobody wiping down countertop surfaces or cleaning up little messes.  Sure, I'm not a fan of self-serve buffets on ships, but the same behavior that we've all witnessed on board is often times worse on land.

3 hours ago, 555 said:

On the ship you can run across it on occasion but we always eat early at the buffet when the food is first presented and not picked over.

On land you can only hope they conform to some health standards, which I seriously doubt especially in the Caribbean.

I'll take my chance with ship food any day. 

I was going to say something similar, that is almost exactly how I feel.

7 hours ago, memoak said:

The only lunch available on port days on ship are the buffet and burger/pizza slices on deck. I don’t consider those as perfectly good food. 

7 hours ago, 555 said:

For my wife & I, it's perfectly fine food.

We aren't fussy eaters. 

Same here.  On a port day, I'm more than happy to eat on board and have Lido deck pizza, or a decent burger.  I may consider the buffet, but Lido deck food is just fine.

I'm generally back on ship on a port day because I'm either done with the port, in between excursions, or find the ship less crowded than the port (a welcome change).

On 5/4/2024 at 12:55 PM, jbinbi said:

They learned that the same kitchen produces all the food.

I went round and round to figure out how to tackle this statement.

First, there are many galleys on board.  If you take a good look at your deck plan you'll notice that on most shops there is a void on deck 5 and 6 adjacent to the dining rooms at those locations (also I'm referencing the general deck design for Grand and Royal class ships).  This would be the location of two large galleys, one on deck 5 and another on deck 6, serving the immediately adjacent dining rooms.  There is a void area near Sabatini's and Crown Grill, and other casual dining locations.  Same goes for Worldfresh Marketplace.  This is all kitchen and crew spaces.

Princess uses a lot of raw ingredients, very few prepared items.  All bread and pastries are baked from scratch. Beef comes in as cryovac sections in boxes (similar to a grocery store or local butcher).  There is a significant amount of prep work that occurs below decks.  Prepped, raw, foods, meat, vegitables, etc., then make their way up to kitchens near dining or serving areas for final preparation.

The foods that supply the specialty restaurants are mostly different than those that supply the MDR, unless we are talking about flour, sugar, spices, and other commodities; and final preparation of foods for specialty restaurants are done in the kitchen that serves that location.

The ships are large enough that if all food came out of one central galley and was transported to the various dining areas, most of the food would arrive cold and it would take an army of staff just to schlep prepared dishes around the ship.  So, whomever you spoke to that heard that food came from one central kitchen from was mistaken.

Is the cover charge for specialty dining worth it?  I used to unequivocally say yes.  These days I'm more guarded.  Sabatini's is generally excellent and highly consistent.  That is going to be your best bet.  The reports of the food quality, quantity and presentation coming out of the The Catch are also excellent.  Crown Grill (and Sterling's for that matter) are up and down.  I've always had mixed feelings about Alfredo's/Gigi's.  It is basically good pizza, but sometimes they are chintzy on the toppings, and sometimes it is perfect.  I was fine with dining there when it was included, but now that "casual dining" is cover charge without a package, I advise that you look and see what is coming out of the pizza ovens before I'd commit to dining there, at least not without it being part of a package.

I noticed your comment about the Piazza on the Caribbean Princess.  Everything is relative, I guess.  Compared to the Royal class ships, the Piazza on the Grand class ships is quite small.  On the other hand, I still remember my first cruise on a Grand class ship and the Piazza seemed so large.  It helped that there were like 1000 fewer passengers on board.

All cabins have fridges.  They are not stocked unless you are in a full suite (not mini-suite) or are Elite in the Captain's Circle.  There are some bottled/canned beverage packages you can purchase which would stock the fridge for you.  I've never had to ask a cabin steward to keep ice in my fridge, but mine always have.  If your cabin steward isn't refreshing your ice, you can ask them to and they will keep you stocked.

On 4/30/2024 at 8:30 PM, love2shop2 said:

We are not used to using Uber/Lyft but thinking it should not be a problem using them to go from SNA to Port of LA sometime between 10 and 1:00 pm. Would we avoid heavy traffic by then?

I can't speak about hotels the area, but I've done Uber/Lyft in many different cities and have found that, especially in urban areas, specific destinations, like ports and airports, have a great deal of coordination and instruction built into the app for the driver to know exactly where to go if you pick the correct destination  Some destinations will ask you to specify even further once you select the destination as to what part of that location you are going to, if that is applicable.  The rideshare driver will be able to find you because you will upload your photo to the app, plus you will find the rideshare driver because the app will display the color, make, and model of the vehicle they are driving along with the license plate number.  The Uber app even has a "beacon" mode that will turn your screen on your phone a particular color and some line of identifying text which the driver can look for.  You just turn on the beacon mode and hold up your phone and that could help the driver find you in a crowded place.  Really, the rideshare services have thought of everything and have an excellent product.

On 4/28/2024 at 1:42 PM, Steelers36 said:

We cannot expect a Princess rep to provide any other answer other than what is published in their FAQs.  I do not fault the rep at all in this situation.

I agree.  I work for an organization that is standing up a small call center as we speak and knowledge base software is essential.  And yes, we will fill the knowledge base with our straight forward policies and rules.  There is no doubt in my mind that the rep the OP talked to read the exact same text that is on the web site, and on all the printed material you are going to encounter that talks about formal night.  In fact, I'm a little surprised that that one member of the community hasn't come on the thread with a copy and paste of the web link to the formal night "rules" that is published on the Princess web site.  They usually come by and post that whenever there is a discussion about dress code or formal nights.

In practice formal night is a lot like boarding group times (which I think have gone away, not sure).  It is a suggestion that is clothed to look like a rule, but since nobody enforces it, it is barely a suggestion.  Have a great cruise.

This is the current thread from the Majestic that is doing the 33 day transit from Australia to the Pacific coast.

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

BTW my unofficial guess as to the cause of your issue is that your booking has a different Captains Club number than the Princess Personalizer account you’re logging into. This happened to my son a few years back when he had accidentally created a second account, thus generating a second Captains Club number. Princess had to merge the two accounts into one and use the CC number that was assigned to the booking. But that’s just a guess.

This exact thing happened to my wife, she had independently created a login to Princess many years ago.  Their system assigns a captain's circle number when you register on their web site.  To be honest, this isn't the best way to onboard new cruisers and provision them to your loyalty program.  I agree, the OPs, problem is likely that they have two CC numbers, the one they actually are cruising with, and the one that is linked to their login.

The only solution is to do some research first, find your two CC numbers, the one that is linked to your login and the one that is linked to your cruise.  The one linked to the login should be visible to you after you have logged into Princess' web site and visited the Captain's Circle pages and the CC number linked to your upcoming cruise should be on your booking documentation.

After you have found both numbers you have to call Princess and get them to merge the two together.  After that is done, your login to Princess.com should take you directly to your bookings.

Dolphin and Baja decks seem to have the most coverage.  They aren't fully covered, but I'd find it good enough.  I'd love to try out one of those corner suites on a Royal class ship sometime, but now knowing which decks are more covered than others really kept me from jumping on that.

The US dollar is worth about 1.33 Canadian dollars, so they immediately get a 30% increase in value when they go to exchange it.  Since the U.S. and Canada are close, both physically and in terms of trade, Canadian banks maintain U.S. funds accounts for Canadians and are adept at dealing with and making U.S. to Canadian exchange super easy.  These are checking accounts which hold funds in U.S. dollars and allow the user to have checks that clear in the U.S. just like a check drawn on a U.S. bank clears and there is no exchange rate to deal with when trading or doing business with Americans.  I think the accounts have even evolved to have debit cards.  I've never known a Canadian to turn down U.S. dollars.  And since their banking system is aligned in such a way to make handling U.S. dollars easy, any cash they accept in tips or possibly for purchases, will just be taken to their bank, and likely deposited into a U.S. funds account at face value.  If they need to exchange to Canadian, that would be done electronically as a transfer from a U.S. funds account to a Canadian funds account in the same bank with the value of the exchange occurring during that transfer.

I would gladly take the train to a cruise port over flying any day.  We've looked at some cruises departing out of LA and thought about taking the train down there before the cruise, and maybe after, but it would make for a very long vacation.

The Empire Builder is one of the most scenic routes in the U.S.  I wouldn't hesitate to take it, but ensure that your arrival day is at least a day before your cruise.  Things happen on the route of the Empire Builder and delays are common.  I would also strongly recommend booking a sleeper.  When you book sleeper service on long distance trains all your meals are included.  Last time I checked I think the Empire builder from Chicago to Seattle was listed as 44 hours; in reality it is usually 48-52 hours when there are no extraordinary circumstances on the route.  Most of the delay is attributed to freight trains on the route.

In the U.S., passenger service on shared track is supposed to give passenger trains priority over freight.  But that goes out the window when most of the freight consists are longer than the sidings that were built to give freight trains a place to pull off to allow the passenger trains through.  The irony is that the sidings are more than long enough for the typical passenger consist.  So, that means that the shorter train gets to pull off and wait, and that happens quite a bit.

Getting from King Street Station to anyplace in Seattle is as easy as taking an Uber or Lift.  I wouldn't consider trying to use Seattle public transit as a tourist.  Pier 66 is located near some downtown hotels.  The Edgewater is next door and they will walk over to the Pier with you and your luggage.  The Edgewater has rooms with excellent views of the bay and is at least a 4 star property.  There is also the Seattle Waterfront Marriott, which you can lug your luggage down to the Pier with not too much difficulty.  These are about the only two locations where you could limit your use of rideshare to just getting from King Street to your pre-cruise hotel.

Otherwise you'll need to consider a rideshare from King Street to your hotel, and then another from the hotel to the pier.

I don't think getting around Seattle is your biggest issue.  I think you'll need to ensure that you have a pre-cruise overnight to accommodate for any delays on Amtrak, which means starting your journey out west a day earlier and some additional lodging and ground transportation expenses.

I agree with @Ferry_Watcher on all points.

If you feel a shuttle service will work better for your group, the service in Seattle is called Seattle Express.

https://seattleexpress.com/

I'd recommend calling them and having a chat to determine how they will handle your special needs.  With 7 people, and one with limited mobility, I would expect that you'd want to schedule a private transfer and not share with others.  It will also make your trip to and from the hotel and the port more organized and more timely.

54 minutes ago, memoak said:

I fail to see what any of this post has to do with an 18 year old. I do believe the can go to all the lounges for music and hang out with other young people. There are always some people in her age range 

Funny, I recall my mom telling me that if I had nothing nice to say I shouldn't say anything at all.  I suspect you didn't get such advice.  I recommend that you think before you post something rude and mean.

On 4/22/2024 at 9:16 AM, coscab said:

On cruisedeckplans it shows something that looks like a swinging door outside  B535, cant figure out what that is, any idea

Not only is that a fire door, but you are the last cabin in the section.  Note that your next door neighbor is B601?  The new number sequence indicates a new bulkhead section.  There are fire isolation doors between every section on every deck of the ship.

Also, I've never seen a roll away bed in a cabin.  The occupancy number of a cabin indicates all the bed spaces that are already in a cabin.  Notably, a cabin that can sleep 4 will have some combination of a convertible bed (it converts from king to twin) and some combination of bed that is made out of a couch, basically a hide-a-bed, or bed(s) that fold down from the walls or come down out of the ceiling.

For Inside/outside cabins that sleep 4, I've seen the room configured with the king bed split into two and the upper berths either are attached to the wall and fold down or come down out of the ceiling and have ladders to access them.  The reason they have to split the double bed is because there has to be access to the upper berth, which is right above the regular bed.

Mini suites and full suites usually sleep 4, but there is a bit more space and the configuration is such that the double bed doesn't have to be split because the 3rd and 4th berth are the couch and a ceiling drop down bed above the couch.

I don't claim that this encompasses all 3rd and 4th berth situations, but it covers most.

2 hours ago, reedprincess said:

Yes, there's a paper daily event listing aka Patter, in your cabin every night for the next day.

You can see loads of sample ones online..

The Patter isn't what it used to be.  In years past the daily Princess Patter was a tabloid cut, double sided and folded document, printed fresh each afternoon, and distributed by the cabin stewards to every cabin, which had a little daily blurb from a deck officer or the cruise director, usually a weather report for the next port day, a spotlight section that featured one of the notable staff members on board, and a detailed daily schedule along with little box "ads" for different venues and services on board highlighting the spa, or a particular show or singer.  If it was a port day there would be a tabloid cut double sided print and folded Port Guide inserted in the Patter, which had local port information, port agent information, some curisory information about the port and the overall location, and a lot of shilling for Effy Jewlers on shore, and maybe Diamonds International.  Because we all know that when people cruise, the second thing on their mind is buying jewelry.  Not!  Anyway the Patter would also be filled with little half sheets and quarter sheets of freshly printed ads and promotions for on-board shops and for the spa.

Currently the Patter is nothing more than a daily schedule.  It is now a letter sized, double sided, printout that is just a day's schedule along with a listing of venue, and restaurant hours, and the office hours for places like the Future Cruise Desk or when the Internet Cafe is staffed.

Much of the old Patter has made its way onto the Princess app, so you end up relying on the app for the day's activities and schedule.  I miss the Patters because they were a nice keepsake from a cruise.  Now, all I end up bringing home is the daily schedules which is not nearly as interesting to look through as the old Patters.

Movies Under the Stars in Alaska is almost always a bit chilly.  At the main pool they will take the loungers and cover them with padded covers that have little pillows on them.  They will also hand out blankets or have them available at the towel desk during the movie.  They also serve popcorn and warm cookies and milk.  The bar at the pool will also be open and the grill and pizza stand will usually be open during the first hour or so of the film.  We've done MUTS in Alaska at least twice, and it can be a chilly and windy experience.  Some folks are smart and hang out in a hot tub to watch the movie, but it is a great experience and the movies are usually either topical to the cruise, or fairly recent run.  On our last Alaska cruise we watched "Independence Day" on Independence Day.

I'm seeing some abbreviated but good advice here, and some very poor advice here.

So, when on a coastal cruise the ship will go offshore into international waters.  You are a long way from the coastline.  They do this so they have no issues with serving alcohol untaxed, and not having to deal with individual state liquor laws and taxes, so they can open the duty free shops, and so they can open the casino (again, because being in U.S. territorial waters subjects the ship to U.S. and state law).

Cell tower signal propagation is very short.  Not much more than a mile or two.  If you are in a moving vehicle making a call you will pass through numerous cell sites as you drive, with your call being handed off from site to site as you move.  And while there are cellular towers along most populated areas on the coast, and along coastal highways, they do not propagate that far out into the ocean.  There is a bit of an advantage in terms of getting cell service while off the coast because once on the ocean there is nothing in the way of obstructions to block a line of site radio path, but distance from the cell tower is still a factor.

1. Contact your service provider and determine if WiFi Calling is part of your cellular plan.  If not, find out what plans have it and consider upgrading.  WiFi Calling is a no additional charge feature of most cellular plans, mostly because when your phone is connected to WiFi, the calls route over the Internet instead of to cell towers, which preserves bandwidth for other cellular customers.  It is in the cellular provider's best interest to offload as much traffic as they can to terrestrial and wired connections, like high-speed cable, fiber, and DSL, whenever possible.  When I'm at home my phone defaults to WiFi calling when the device is connected to my home network.  It is turned on and just occurs in the background.

1a.  Generally speaking, WiFi calling is an option on your phone's settings.  If you see it and can turn it on, it is included in your calling plan.  Again, check with your provider, but in my experience, if WiFi Calling is not part of your plan it will not be visible in your phone's settings.

1b.  On iPhone go to the Settings app, choose Cellular, on my phone there is a section for AT&T services, in that section is a line labeled, Wi-Fi Calling.  It will show if the feature is on or off.  Tap on that line and then use the toggles on the subsequent screen to turn on Wi-Fi calling.  One option is Wi-Fi Calling on This iPhone, make the switch green.  Below that is Add Wi-Fi Calling for Other Devices.  I choose to turn this on because it allows me to make and take calls on my iMac, iPad, even my non cellular Apple Watch.

2.  When you are on board the ship, the first thing you do with your cell phone is to turn it to airplane mode.  Airplane mode turns off all the wireless transceivers on your phone, this includes the cellular transceiver and the WiFi transceiver.  Generally Bluetooth is not impacted.  You then need to turn on WiFi manually.  This will allow you to join the onboard WiFi provided by Princess, but your cellular transceiver remains off.  Your cellular transceiver needs to be off when on board because there is cellular at sea, but it is really expensive and charges start accruing to your cellular bill almost immediately upon any data being carried on that system.

3.  Do you have Plus or Premier.  If so you have Internet access included, so use freely.  If not, you'll need to purchase a plan when on board.  From a value perspective, the Internet access that comes with Plus helps to justify the cost, in my eyes, so do consider an on board package.

4.  Assuming that you have a package or have purchased Internet service from Princess.  When you phone is connected to the WiFi and you are further connected to the Internet, WiFi calling will give you a seamless calling and SMS texting experience.  I've made numerous calls with WiFi calling from the ship, received numerous calls, and sent conventional text messages (those of us in Apple land know them as "green" messages).  When connected to the onboard Internet, "blue" messages sent with iMessage operate totally normally, with or without WiFi calling, since native iMessage messages are carried on the Internet not over cellular or WiFi calling.  There is no need for any additional apps or services if you have WiFi calling turned on, and have an Internet package with Princess.

On 4/23/2024 at 9:52 AM, skiladyldp said:

How can I find out what nights those are because we may want to go to a Specialty restaurant instead?

Unless there are outstanding circumstances, formal nights, such as they are or are not, are always on sea days.  Check your itinerary, if it is a sea day, it is likely a formal night.  We have an Alaska cruise scheduled this year and on our itinerary there are 2 sea days, typical for cruises that are RT Seattle, so those likely the two formal nights.  Formal nights are not scheduled on port days mostly because, if the spirit of the formal night were as it was 10+ years ago, some folks would need some time during the day to get their hair done and face all fancied up in anticipation of the evenings frivolities.  A port day would definitely hamper that.  Additionally, we have some port days with dinner time and late evening departures, so a formal night might cut short a port day for some folks.

Either way, lots of other people are going to lean toward specialty restaurants on formal nights, so either book early or remain flexible.  But as others have shared, formal night might be documented a particular way on the Princess web site, but in practice, what happens in the dining room on formal nights is not that much different from any other day.

3 hours ago, jerick said:

Can a ride share drop you off at the terminal, or do you have to walk 1/4 mile to the terminal?

As @Glaciers stated, you will be dropped off in front of the departures entrance, ideally at your airline's check in location, on the departures level.  But for reference, if you are arriving in Seattle and picking up a rideshare, you have to go to level 3 of the parking garage, and ride share pickup is there.

https://www.portseattle.org/sea-tac/ground-transportation/app-based-rideshare