jeromep

No you are not. Mobile device browsers are not fully featured and frankly super flaky. I prefer to be on the web on a computer over my iPad or iPhone. The iPad is for reading email, through an app, and everything else I do in quantity on the iPad or iPhone is done through an app. I just don't like the web browser experience on mobile.

@zackarykeef Lots of different opinions here, many negative to the Royal class ships that sail Alaska. I suppose the question is, are you headed to Alaska for the port experiences, or are you headed to Alaska to vacation on a ship? Maybe a little bit of both? I noticed that you mentioned MSC Yacht Club and wanting to sail on larger, newer ships. So let's start with the larger and newer. None of the older Grand class ships are spring chickens, and none of them are large by the current standards of ships being put to sea in the last 5 to 10 years. The youngest of the Grands is the Ruby and she went to sea in 2008. Princess maintains their vessels, regardless of age, to a very high standard, so, even if the ship is older the ship you sail on should be in excellent condition. But the older a ship gets the harder it is to keep all the little spots of surface rust at bay, and not every surface or wall on board is going to be totally perfect. It's been said that all ships start to decay the day they hit the water, especially salt water, and cruise ships are equally subject to that adage. The Ruby is a beautiful ship, but not large like you are experiencing with the newer ships at MSC or NCL. If you are looking for a larger ship experience, you'll need to seek out Royal class ships. Discovery is the newest and last of the Royals, and because of their size there are some modifications to the course they use to traverse up to Alaska, but I don't consider that a deal killer in terms of their utility as Alaska cruising vessels. If I recall correctly, MSC Yacht Club is the "ship in a ship" concept. Also, if memory serves, Yacht Club includes butler service, and Princess does not offer butlers at any service level. Princess really doesn't have anything equivalent. If you are looking for built in perks and benefits, the only way to get that is to book a full suite. Then you get a whole bunch of extra perks, like MDR room service, priority tender embarkation, Reserve Dining (formerly Club Class), and a bunch more stuff. I'm going to give you a link to read as you will get more out of what Princess provides than me trying to write it all down for you. https://www.princess.com/learn/ships/staterooms/suites/ and https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships/PrincessSuite_eFlyer.pdf Suite passengers have access to the Concierge Lounge, a separate lounge in the hotel area of the ship, but that is only on Royal class ships, the Grand class ships have no such facility. You'll find snacks and food all day, along with self service beverages of all types, and a concierge that is dedicated to booking specialty dining, shore excursions, and other on board services. It is a nice touch. Just so you have a proper perspective here, these are all Grand class ships. The Majestic is a Royal class ship, and the only Royal class ship to have an indoor pool, a plus for Alaska. The Sapphire and Grand both have an indoor pool. Crown and Sapphire both have Skywalkers, which is the observation deck/night club. That is probably your best nearly 360 viewing platform. It sits up at the aft of the stack, so views aren't entirely 360, but it is a great viewing platform. I've spent a number of sea days up at Skywalkers just watching things go by or observing activity in the shipping lanes. The Grand used to have its own version of Skywalkers, it was like a shopping cart handle on the back of the ship. It was a structural issue so back in 2011 during a dry dock they lopped it off and gave the Grand probably 20 more years of life in the fleet. It's sisters, Golden, Star and Caribbean all also have the shopping cart handle Skywalkers, which did give you a full 360 view. Golden and Star are now in the service of P&O Australia and the Caribbean remains with Princess. Buffets on the Grand class ships are comparatively small and might feel cramped compared to Princess' newer Royal class ships. The buffets are much larger and roomer on ships like the Majestic and there is quite a bit more room to get around. I hope some of this helps.

I believe that this is the roll call for your cruise. All the folks in that thread should be sailing with you. A good place to meet people that will be on board.

So, Princess' documented dress code is a bit more formal than what has been posted, but all of us here are having to reconcile the fact that what princess has written down doesn't completely match what we have experienced. Formal nights are not black time... anymore. You'll be in good standing with a shirt and tie and slacks. A jacket would be nice, but you can live without it easily. I think women have it easier on formal night because almost anything goes, pantsuit, casual dress. I'm convinced that shorts are a no go, and possibly ripped jeans, but if you are clean and presentable you'll be seated on formal night. Resort casual is harder to define. So the non-formal nights are resort casual. I guess for guys polos and chinos are right in line. I've gone to many a casual night dinner in the MDR with nice blue jeans and a polo. My wife would also do jeans and some kind of flowy top. I don't do shorts in the MDR for dinner, but the dress code doesn't seem to apply for breakfast and lunch, so shorts it is. One hard line is no swimwear.

Excellent suggestion. @CTGirl74 if you are booking Club Class or the new name, Reserve Collection mini-suites then the 3 balcony cabin suggestion by @travelin.sisters might not be so applicable, however, booking 3 balcony cabins will give you more space, better sleeping conditions, possibly more balcony room, and that extra bathroom. Getting cabins with a connecting door would be ideal, also. This is where a good travel agent might be able to help you out. They can do the footwork to find the connecting cabins and get them booked for you.

I work in financial services. Personal checks are good for 6 months from the date written on the check. However you can mark a check with a more restrictive date if you so choose. A competent teller will not accept a check that is older than 6 months, if it has no restrictive date mark; or older than void-by mark on the check. It is likely that the check is no good. Most businesses have automated systems which will automatically void out checks which have not been cashed by their void-by date. On the date in which the check was void, Princess' automated accounting system would have voided the check, and moved the funds from the bank clearing account to whatever holding account they use. If your bank actually accepts the check, it is likely that it will be returned by the paying bank as stale dated and your bank will take back the funds, and probably charge a fee. Princess should have record of the funds not being cashed and should be able to reissue. I presume that the check was mailed from a CCL or Princess operations center in the U.S. to Canada. This would be regular first class mail, so in the U.S. a service commitment time of 5 business days, coast to coast. When U.S. first class mail goes international then the delivery commitment time becomes something of a huge unknown. Your situation demonstrates this well. Why Canada Post sat on this, I don't have a clue. I wouldn't email anyone at Princess. I'd get on the phone with them and talk to a human. You will likely have to be transferred around to find the right group that can see the voided item and take appropriate action to reissue. You should ask if they have other channels in which they can issue you a refund, PayPal, Venmo, Square Cash, Transferwise, but I doubt they have them. Do you work with a travel agent. If so, I'd address this issue to them. TAs often have better luck getting things done with cruise lines than us mere mortals.

Oh, don't forget to look up your cruise in the Roll Calls area of Cruise Critic. That is where you will meet others on your cruise and you might be able to get ideas or plan activities with others.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. I hope you have a great cruise. The Ruby is a nice ship. My wife and I were on it many years ago for a spectacular Caribbean cruise. At the time the Ruby was the newest ship in the fleet, not so much anymore, but still a beautiful ship. I really like the Grand Class ships, I think you'll have a great time. I highly recommend this YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@CruiseTipsTV It is a really nice family and their video content about cruising is great. They also have some refreshed videos about packing for Alaska. You have a lot of sea days ahead of you. But July is full on summer and if you are lucky the weather on the west coast especially while at sea will be pleasant. That far north, basically starting at the bay area and going up past Oregon and Washington, well, the Pacific isn't exactly warm, but you should be able to use the pools. Unfortunately, the Ruby doesn't have any indoor pools, so if the day is cool, you'll find the pools lightly used, but the hot tubs will probably be pretty full. Plenty of pools and hot tubs on board and most folks spread out quite a bit, so you should be able to find a place to relax easily. The aft balconies on the Grand Class ships are the best. I don't like the aft balconies on the newer Royal class ships because they are not well covered by the deck above you. You'll have overhang from the deck above you, so your balcony will be fully covered all of the time. Aside from any cold, you'll be very well protected from rain, and likely from wind. We had a Caribe suite balcony on a cruise a few years ago and thought it was great. There was a large structural member that took up some of the balcony, but we were still fully covered and protected from most weather. I'm not sure I can give you anything else that is specific for your cruise, and the video covers packing for Alaska very well.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. I'm happy that you are on the Ruby for your first cruise. My wife and I were on the Ruby many years ago for a Caribbean cruise. We loved the ship. She was a lot newer then, but I'm sure she will be in great condition for your cruise. Cabin stewards are very perceptive. We generally see ours multiple times a day and if we need something we just ask when we see them. You can dial them from the cabin phone, too. Others have suggested the crew chat function through the Medallion app, and that works, too. But we like to talk with the steward and if we need anything we'll bring it up while chatting. As for being perceptive, we typically have free laundry benefit and we'll put up a bag of clothes to go out to the laundry and the steward picks it up without even asking. We just pack it up, fill out the form, and leave it on the bed and it is gone when we get back to the room. Entertainment is the whole purpose of the cruise. There will be at least two showings of "song and dance" numbers or full on production shows in the Princess Theater every evening. That is located up in the bow of the ship. You'll also have music or a smaller show in the Vista Lounge, all the way aft, and probably going on at the same time. There will be some sort of entertainment in the Explorers Lounge also. Live music is going on in the Piazza periodically through the day. And then there is Crooners, which is a piano lounge with a piano singer. Skywalkers, way up high on the stack, is the best place during the day to get a view of the sea around you. It is also generally quite during the day. You will probably transit from port to port in the normal shipping lanes. You might get lucky and see other cruise ships and freighters plying the waters. Bring your binoculars. At night Skywalkers turns into a night club with a DJ. And there is always some form of entertainment up on the Lido at the pools. Either a live band with "party" music, or they are playing something on the big screen that is used for Movies Under the Stars. And I almost forgot, at night... Movies Under the Stars, also known as MUTS. Request the paper version of the daily newsletter, the Princess Patter. It is a lot easier to navigate than the app and makes for a nice souvinour. It will detail everything going on all day on the ship, the shows that are being offered at night, what is playing on MUTS during the day and at night when they cover the loungers in cushions that have pillows and hand out popcorn and blankets for movie watching. I have a numerous 3-ring binders that contain the Patters from previous cruises. I generally get a few copies of the Patter from a cruise, and then 3-hole punch them and put them in the binder when I get home. Do enough cruises and you realize how similar the on-board activities are from cruise to cruise, but also how some things change, too. Yes, generally one on every hotel deck. The deck plan on the Princess site will show you their locations. It costs money. You charge the washer/dryer usage to your onboard account. I believe you use the medallion to get tokens that operate the washers. I also believe they have vending machines for detergent and other laundry supplies. I'd honestly just bring a small Ziplock container with a number of detergent pods with me to lessen the cost and use what I already do at home. But for a rather short 5 day cruise I'd actually just pack at least that many days of clothes, and not waste my valuable time on vacation doing laundry. Most years we take a week to 10 day RV trip someplace and we pack enough underwear and socks that we have something clean for all the days we are on the road and some extra just in case, and then mix and match and do a bit of hang up and reuse another day with our regular clothing. You are only going to be at sea for 5 days, so I'd do similar rather than do laundry. We really liked the location of Sabatini's on the Ruby. It is up high and looked out over the aft terrace and a fountain that was up on the aft terrace. Then it was changed to Share, which was a concept that I don't think lasted long, but did require a dry dock to swap out the Sabatini's appearance for the starker look of Share. I think it is back to being Sabatini's again, which certainly required a dry dock to accomplish. If you like Italian food, it is worth the cover charge to dine there.

Hello fellow Washingtonian. Welcome to Cruise Critic. My post that was a few above yours on page 2 gave a synopsis of my most recent passport renewal experience. Not exactly stellar, but not a disaster, either. Did you apply at a Post Office or with a county clerk? To be honest, my experience with getting passports through county clerks is more positive than with the post office. I've applied for passports from both organizations and much prefer county clerks. The Kittitas County clerk indicated that they packaged up all the passport applications they take in a day and send it out Priority Mail, which is also traceable, each night when the business day is over with. They also indicated that they send the passport applications to a processing center in TX. The last time I got my passport renewed I did it with a different county clerk and they sent the applications to the passport center in Seattle, and the turnaround was like 2-4 weeks. That has been a number of years ago. From the time we visited the county clerk until the online system at the State Department indicated the passport application was in process was 8 days. That makes sense considering priority mail, about 3 days to TX and then internal mail handling. But for a whole month to pass with the application in limbo calls into question the promptness of the office you visited in getting applications out the door or the capabilities of the processing center in handling their mail and getting applications into the system. I don't know about HAL's online systems for collecting your identification document information, however Princess will offer government issued ID and birth certificate as an option when filling out their passenger information if the itinerary supports that kind of documentation. If the itinerary doesn't support that kind of documentation it will not be offered and their systems are specifically looking for passport information. If their web site doesn't ask for this information pre-cruise, you will have to consult with HAL, or your travel agent. The Washington State EDL has been around for a long time, and I'm pretty sure it was around before the Federal Real ID law. It is my understanding that the purpose of the EDL was so that Washingtonians could pass through land border checkpoints between the U.S. and Canada (and I'm pretty sure Mexico), without having a passport or passport card. I believe that still is the case. As for your birth certificates, check with your county health department. They can provide a certified birth certificate for a fee in a matter of a few days, maybe even a few hours. Any state issued, certified, birth certificate is an original and you can have as many in your possession as you want so long as you are willing to pay for them. If you were born out of state you'll have to check with that state, but the same basically applies. My wife was born on the east coast and she has two original birth certificates from that state. One she ordered when she moved to the area because she needed it for something, and a few years later her parents sent her a box of personal documents and a similar, but much older version of the same certificate was in those documents. Both are originals from the state. Both valid for ID purposes. Happy cruising.

@BBurnsG550 I don't intend on flaming you, but the expiration date of the goodwill credit was clearly indicated in my Captain's Circle account, and was indicated there right from the beginning. I also lost my goodwill credit due to the same expiration dates. I did consult with my CVP about seeking an extension. I did this back in October, and I'm convinced they did go back to their management and see if they could get it extended, especially considering that I had a booked cruise in place for 2023 last fall, but the answer was a firm no. No extensions to the goodwill credits. Why am I not upset about it? Because it wasn't my money to begin with. What really annoyed me was that Princess didn't follow my instructions with regard to refund options on booked cruises that they canceled due to the disease that shall not be mentioned. I opted to get my funds back. I filled out the web form like they asked, selected option 2. I even have a copy of their emailed confirmation to me of my selection of the refund of my funds and reduced goodwill credit. Instead they gave me option 1, kept my funds and gave me the higher goodwill credit. That was annoying to me. When I finally figured out what had occurred I got ahold of Princess and provided them my documentation and their only answer was, you'll get your funds back at the end of 2022 in the form of a check. That sure looked like the case as my funds were also in my Circle account indicating that they would be returned after 12/31/22. But come September of this year the "expiration" date of my funds had mysteriously changed to 12/31/24, a whole two more years that they were going to keep my funds. Now that was unannounced an felt very sketchy. Once Princess announced that there would be no more testing or any of the "disease that shall not be mentioned" garbage, I decided that it was time to use that trapped money and booked a cruise. At this point I didn't care about the goodwill credit. Neither my wife or I had enough vacation time left in our employment anniversary years to take a cruise before the end of December to use the goodwill credit and none of the cruises that might have worked with our remaining vacation time worked with my daughter's school schedule. So our only option was to book for 2023 so that we could get something out our money that was trapped with Princess. Consider that I could have my money in my pocket earning 4% someplace, or it could sit with Princess and continue to loose value for 2 years. I'd rather get it used up and have a good time. Am I annoyed at Princess for these unannounced and undocumented changes, and frankly the initial flub with the cruise refund offering? Sure. Am I going to be angry about it, stomp around, try to convince others to be angry with me. No. It isn't good for anyone's mental health, and it sure isn't good for your body or heart health. Ok, maybe I will flame you a little. Hmm. I received many emails from Princess as they were restarting things, and at least a couple of them mentioned using the credits in my Circle account. I would get a screen shot and post what I got, however my gmail is configured to delete my trash on a rolling 30 day basis, and those promotional emails are long gone. I'm not smart, and I'm not as sharp as I used to be, but I do recall those emails. As for listening to the government about the "disease that shall not be mentioned", hahahaha 😂. I suspect that the only answer you would have accepted was that you would receive your goodwill credit along with a blubbering mea culpa from whomever was on the other end of the phone. You would have been lucky to have gotten a couple hundred dollars of OBC. Apparently that didn't occur, either. I work in a highly contractual and policy driven industry and manage people that provide customer support. We live and die by dates, policies, and contract terms. Lots and lots of customer requests effectively break their contractual obligations to the company or make it impossible for the company to fulfill ours, so the only answer is "no". We encounter on a daily basis customers who's standard of satisfaction is getting their way and only their way; and that just isn't realistic. If what a customer wants is not in violation of policy or contract we will move mountains to get it done, but if it violates policy or contract, it is a non-starter. Princess decided that they would not honor the goodwill credit past 12/31/22. I get it, they created a policy, they need to get revenue going in a positive direction, they have to stop the expense hemorrhaging, they couldn't keep giving away cabins for nothing, so they needed to have a drop dead date on those goodwill funds. One more thing. While Cruise Critic is generally a nice place to post and converse, it helps if you've been here a while, asked some questions, posted a bit, shared a bit, maybe built up a bit of cred. Showing up, complaining, and then leaving doesn't give you a lot of credibility. Not a lot of minds are going to be changed by your posting. In fact, some of us have experienced nearly what you have and came away with different take-aways and a different acceptance of certain realities. If you wanted to ask us how those of us approached this issue, or what we tried to do to retain the goodwill credit, I'm sure that responses here would have been more moderate. Sure, we all like to sit in our bubble and find reassurance of our firmly held beliefs, but sometimes that isn't going to happen. I have no problem with anyone sitting in the bubble of their own reality, but remember, it is your bubble, not the real world. Nobody owes you agreement or acceptance. I do wish you happy sailing, wherever you land. I hope you have positive experiences in all of your travels. Time heals all wounds and I suspect you'll return, someday.

I requested my shareholder OBC last week and it was credited to me overnight. I was impressed.

I'm glad to hear that all the effort HAL is putting in to marketing and ship design is changing their demographic.

Value is a very gray area. If you and I are presented a similar product, I may find great value in it and you may find no value in it. This is not an exact science for any business, it is more of an art form... providing value, that is. Is value dollars and cents? To some people, maybe. Is it a vacation where you can walk up to a bar or coffee counter, ask for something and not be charged for it? Maybe. Is there value in a vacation which has already been paid for months in advance and you don't have little charges here and there while you are vacationing? For some yes. The furniture store example is an interesting metaphor. Furniture stores seem to come and go. One of them in my area is always having a going out of business sale only for that same brand to pop up again, sometimes in the same location with the same name and same staff, only a couple weeks after they supposedly closed, or maybe they never really closed at all, it was just a ruse. Furniture is also fairly high margin with limited resale value. People always complain about new cars loosing a huge amount of their value as soon as they drive off the lot. Well, vehicles have nothing on bedroom sets. They go from thousands of dollars to a few hundred immediately. On a percentage basis furniture looses resale value much faster than vehicles. Lowering prices to create purchase volume may work to resolve a revenue issue for some organizations, but that is a mighty huge gamble. It is usually easier to do internal cost control to deal with revenue issues with a greater certainty of what will occur to the bottom line. The same goes for "package sales" which standardize costs to customers for a variable consumption product. The thing about Plus and Premier is that Princess is gambling with each package. They are gambling that you won't consume enough of the variable priced items for it to impact their profit margins, and you are gambling that you will consume enough of the variable priced items that you come out ahead. Or maybe you aren't gambling at all, maybe just knowing that you can have beverages and deserts without additional charges is enough to make it valuable. Again, we are all operating in the gray area on this topic. I don't watch a lot of TV anymore. In my area I'm seeing quite a few ads for American Cruise Lines river cruises. I've not seen anything for a major cruise line in a long time, but I'm not a good test case for media consumption or ad awareness. That is more than fair. You have done your calculus and it doesn't pencil out for you. I never liked the coffee card. It felt so mickey mouse. While it was a good value, I think the last time I calculated the per cup price, if you used all the punches on the card it was like $2.35 or $2.95 per coffee drink/tea/hot chocolate. But was 15 punches enough for a cruise? Was it 15 punches? Would you end up needing to buy another card. Would you use up that card before the end of the cruise or have to carry it over? Would it carry over? All reasonable questions. All part of the uncertainty about the coffee card that I never liked. Not liking it doesn't mean I wanted it to go away, but it sure seems like that ship has sailed.

Actually you are a lot closer to determining if it is a good value than a lot of the other analysis here. If your plan is to consume exactly what you listed, then it doesn't pencil. Are you so disciplined that you know that mix of beverages and services is exactly what you will buy on a daily basis? And no, I'm not saying this in jest, I've known some very disciplined people, creatures of habit. This could be very realistic for you, and for anyone else. For me, I'm an all day coffee drinker. I probably have 4-5 cups of Keurig at the office, and then one or two at home in the evening. I'm such a coffee drinker that when we are out camping I always have a pot of coffee going in the motor home and I even purchased a Coleman drip coffee maker that is propane powered for when we are dry camping and I don't want to run the generator. With as many "fee" based beverages as I typically consume on a cruise, which is lots of coffee, a pop, a beer or two, and maybe a mixed drink, Plus does pencil out. But your approach is a very good way to evaluate the packages. Take the fixed costs that the package covers, so the book cost of standard gratuities, book cost of the internet package, and then figure in your estimates of the variable costs, so beverages, premium deserts. I don't begrudge Princess for going down this path. Anything you can do as a business to get a handle on your income and have it be predictable leads to better overall decision making and operations. I shouldn't have to say this, but every successful business is out there to make a profit, and businesses that don't make a profit don't stay operating very long. I'm sure that we can all think of a business or provider that impress us every time we visit them. There is a particularly good steak house in town, someplace that is a bit too expensive to frequent on a monthly basis, but not so expensive that you only go there on anniversaries. They have been open now for probably 10 years. They have survived the 5 year mark which is usually the "break even" point that indicates if a restaurant is going to survive or not. I've never had a bad meal there, they have all been excellent. That said, I know they are making a profit. I know I'm paying more for the food and service than they are paying for all their inputs. The overall value of what I get is sufficient that I don't worry about their profit or feel insulted that they are making a profit. A lot of the talk on the boards bemoaning the changes at Princess are related to the above comments. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I can't begrudge Princess for trying to make a profit, especially right now as the entire industry is trying to recover. Overall CCL is not making a profit yet. They have tremendous overhead and debt expenses that are eating up any potential for profits. The change we are seeing at Princess, and it is occurring at the other CCL brands, in some manner, are all a move to try to recover profitability, and possibly more importantly, to stabilize and make predictable, revenue.

@KittyCruiser I have direct experience with this issue and multi-generational and multi-family cruises. We had Club Class dining a few cruises back and were sailing with our in-laws. We had a suite and they had a nearby balcony cabin. They were not on the list for CC dining and they would not seat them. The couple of nights we all dined together we just did MDR and one night we did specialty dining. Lucky for us my in-laws were not attached to our hips through the cruise and they preferred to have dinner much earlier than my wife and I; especially on port days, they were quite tired when we all got back to the ship. So they had an early bird dinner in the buffet on some nights and we then used our CC dining benefit. They had already settled in for the night by the time we were headed to dinner. This is one of those topics that I warn people about when I have their ear. If you are planning a family cruise and there will be multiple cabins, and say you book Club Class or Reserve Collection and others in your travel party have regular cabins, you'll find that you don't dine CC much if you all want to have dinner together at night, or you will have to go dine CC on your own and let everyone else fend for themselves.

I commented in this thread a number of weeks back and I think it is relevant to you. It is also a great thread to read.

Did the Ultimate Ship Tour many years ago and ended up in an hours long conversation with one of the other guests on the tour. Talked about many things, including cruising. He had cruised most of the lines including HAL. He didn't have any lines he would not cruise, but had preferred ones. Princess was one of them. We talked about HAL. While he liked the line, he always felt a bit out of place because each of the HAL cruises he had been on felt like, "God's waiting room." He also quipped that at night the elevator lobbies all felt like the sales showroom of The Scooter Store (anyone remember their ads on late night television? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scooter_Store), with all the mobility scooters plugged into outlets and power strips along the walls. He was a cool dude. Only Texan I ever met with a British accent. Oh, and he also mentioned that after 8pm, the ship is dead. I would still sail with HAL, but you have to set your expectations accordingly. I may post my own thoughts in a separate entry.

I'll tell a bit of a story here. We had to renew our daughter's passport. When we had time over Christmas break my wife and I and our daughter drove to the county clerk's office in another county to apply for her passport. Our local county decided to stop offering passport services through their clerks office and only neighboring counties still offered the service on reasonably convenient hours. I bring up convenient hours because the local P.O. requires you to get an appointment online through the USPS web site and they never have any availability. So we did business with the county clerk on 12/28/22. According to the State Department web site they received the passport application package on 1/5/23. So a little over a week later. When State gets the passport application is when the clock starts. At the time State acknowledged that they received the application package they were still quoting 6-8 weeks. So I waited and checked the status online about once a week. No change. Then about the 5th week I noticed when doing my weekly check that the delivery time had changed to 8-11 weeks. We received the Priority Mail envelope with the new passport in the 8th week. Your experience may vary. The State Department site for checking the status of your passport application is here. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/status.html Princess knows the rules. If they say you can make the transit with a certified government issued birth certificate and state issued photo ID, then you will be fine. I would not personally visit another country with only a birth certificate and photo ID, and you certainly have make a good faith attempt to get proper documentation in a timely manner. The birth certificate and photo ID should only be considered your backup. Everyone in my family has both a passport and a passport card. We mostly use the passport cards for ID when flying domestically, especially since Washington State has this stupid two tiered drivers license system. I don't like how the state is run and I'm not going to mess around with an enhanced DL when a passport card lasts longer than our state IDs and I don't trust what the state is going to do next. The passport card is also handy when driving up to Canada and back, which we do every now and then. When coming back into the U.S. they have readers in the vehicle lanes that read the RFID information in the card and I think it streamlines the process of getting back into the country. The passport cards are only good for land crossings and sea entries, so perfectly acceptable for cruises and crossing to Canada or Mexico.

That is a great video. But I'll tell you, this video convinces me that I would not be trying to lowball my ground transport costs to get to the port. It really properly illustrates how difficult using public transit and walking will be to get to the port.

The thing about accounting and finance is that anyone can take the numbers and bend them any way they want to make something look good or bad. I say this because, depending on what you value and how you do your own calculus, Princess Plus looks to be a very good deal for most cruisers. Even if you do not drink alcoholic beverages, the included gratuities, Internet and beverage package will cover everything non-alcoholic, and if you drink enough coffee, or juices, the package still pencils out for most folks. The beverage packages just don't pencil out for me any more compared to what you can get with Plus.

To be honest, visiting Seattle in any form is expensive. You have to take into account your "living conditions" pre and post cruise and what it is that you value. Are you only interested in getting sleep and some food and the focus is just getting to the ship, or do you want to get a taste of Seattle before the cruise and maybe have more food options. The airport hotels that surround SeaTac are going to cost less than the Seattle proper hotels. Consider that Seatac is a sold 30 minute drive, when the traffic is cooperating, from SeaTac to downtown Seattle. Add a few more minutes to get to Pier 91, which is all the way up on the north side of Elliot Bay and in a very industrial area. Uber or Lyft will run you about $45-65 to go from the airport or from an airport hotel to the port. That is a ballpark cost. An airport hotel might be $75 less expensive per night than a hotel in the city. So if you stay at an airport hotel, you'll have about $20 in rideshare cost from the airport to a nearby hotel. The next morning you'll have $45-65 from the hotel to the port and a 30-60 minute drive. 60 minutes would be very bad traffic and a rideshare driver that isn't choosing less traveled alternative routes, you don't have to go on I-5 to get everyplace, plenty of state highways that are parallel to the Interstate. An airport hotel will run you $150-175 a night. Any cost lower than that and you are in a very low budget property in which the clientele is probably not business and leisure travelers. A couple of properties near the airport where you can't go wrong, the Ceaderbrook Lodge, and the Doubletree that is right across the road from the airport. If you are arriving a bit late in the day and just want to get some rest, then an airport hotel is probably the best bet. Hail an Uber or Lyft as soon as you get your luggage off the carousel and go to the rideshare pickup area in the parking garage. A few minutes later you'll be at your hotel and probably checked-in in under 30 minutes. Food selections in the airport area are limited to hotel restaurants and chains. Very few local places. There is one called 13 Coins which is on the bottom level of an office building, also across from the airport. I highly recommend it. They used to be 24 hours, but are no longer, they are open very late. Nothing is walking distance in the area of the airport. On the other hand, if you want more food selections and have some time, either when you arrive in Seattle or the next morning before your cruise, then you should book a Seattle hotel room, probably near something touristy, like the Seattle Center/Space Needle. You'll pay more for the room, but there are more food options within walking distance of most of the downtown hotels, and you'll get a better sense of what Seattle is like as a tourist. You'll still need an Uber or Lyft from your Seattle city hotel to the port, however the cost is reversed. You'll spend that $45-65 from the airport to your Seattle hotel, but only about $20 to get from the hotel to the port. Plus as a metro there are always local and local-ish places in downtown in the morning to get brunch or breakfast. Seattle's brunch scene isn't as good as Portland's, but you can find good, local, coffee and pastries in almost any non-Starbucks coffee shop, and hotel concierges are always happy to tell you what is nearby that is worth the walk. A hotel in the city will run you +$200/night, but you'll have more food options, more ability for a quick bite of tourism, and you are much, much closer to the port. Google maps is your friend. I strongly recommend looking at touristy places you are interested in seeing, even if on the fly, and then mapping out lodging and food options near that point of interest and seeing what is available.

@Bav do consider getting at least Princess Plus if you are looking into drinks packages. @wowzz is totally right, the only reason you'd be better off with a drink package over Plus or Premier is if you are sailing with another person that is totally against or gets no utility from Plus or Premier. Remember, that Plus and Premier cover your standard daily gratuity, so those packages, especially Plus, often does pencil out as being equal money or a good deal when you consider the number of beverages it opens up to you where you aren't nickled and dimed for every beverage that you get.

I purchased a Citizen Blue Angels Navihawk watch on a cruise a long time ago. Great watch. I'd had a previous version of that watch and loved it, too. Both still work, but the one I purchase on the cruise has Citizen's solar charging system, so it has never stopped running. Just keep it in the light and it goes and goes, and it sets its own time from the radio broadcast atomic clock. Anyway, I've never liked the Effy jewelry, or rather my wife never has, too gaudy, not a good value, really. It is better than costume but not as good as the product I can purchase at one of my small town local jewelers. As for the watch, at the time I knew my watch prices, and that Citizen was about $200 less expensive than at my local jeweler and I didn't have to pay sales tax, so I jumped on it. Biggest recommendation I have for buying anything on board, know your prices, especially for standardized stuff like watches (which can be purchased at any dealer of that brand), alcohol, cosmetics, clothing. If the price doesn't feel right, pass and buy from somebody local when you get home. Even in past "better" years, I've never really been impressed with onboard shopping. And I do recall there being "yard sales" and clearance tables put out about midway through the cruise on nearly all of my past cruises. Nothing really struck my eye. We were cruising with my in-laws a few years ago and the yard sale tables went up and my father-in-law ended up buying a number of trinkets. I think he purchased 8 souvenir mugs and gave them to my wife and I, my parents, my brother-in-law, and kept a couple for himself. The mugs were all ship related, Star Princess. I'm actually very glad he got those for us considering that it was a great cruise and the Star is no longer in the fleet. It is a happy memory in the morning when I'm getting my coffee.

I agree with everything @VibeGuy says. I'm not really a local, live on the east side of the Cascades but we frequent Seattle a few times a year. I have to reiterate, avoid shuttles. Lyft or Uber are your best bets, especially for your group the XL option or the black car/suv option. Super easy to get, and hailing them on the app, you can see where they are, what kind of vehicle they are driving, who is driving you, so it is easy to make connections with them and get out of the port area quickly once they arrive. I pretty much only use Uber or Lyft for ground transport when I'm traveling for business. I'd lean toward doing a luggage-in-hand walk off rather than putting your luggage out to be taken off the ship. Most of your time off ship and in port will be locating your luggage in a sea of suitcases, like VibeGuy says, customs will not be significant due to the closed loop nature of the cruise. If you can take your own luggage off ship with you and go direct to customs, you'll be out of the port super early with time to spare. I also agree with the Homewood Suites option for lodging for all the same reasons. You'll pay more for being in Seattle proper, however the convenience may be worth it. Ceaderbrook Lodge is very nice however, much nicer than any "near airport" property I've stayed at anyplace else.