jeromep

24 minutes ago, charliedalrymple said:

 

Count me in as well!  Crooners has always been my favourite spot on Princess ships, and it was the one downside of our recent cruise on Majestic.

As we will be on the Majestic later on this summer for an Alaska cruise, I was thinking the same.  We were on Discovery and really liked Take 5, but the Double Down isn't really like Take 5.  Plus Discovery also has a Crooners.

Does the Crown Grill Bar, since it has a piano, act like Crooners, with a piano singer in the evening?

21 hours ago, thanosmano said:

Hi Suzy, thank you for sharing your family's experience! I'm researching for my nephew who will be sailing with us next year in March (he will be 3.5 then). I have been running all kinds of keywords and I just came seem to find concrete answers to these basic questions about Camp Discovery (specifically Tree House).

1) In order to use the facilities and participate in the activities (supervised by parents or not) you have to sign up right? Is there a capacity cut-off is that why?

2) Are parents allowed to accompany their 3+ toddlers the entire time? I know the fine print says parents must accompany children 2 and under but unsure of what happens if you want to hang out with your 3+ year old.

3) I see a fee schedule for how much it costs by the hour, is this the same as dropping your child off at Camp Discovery or is it a whole separate babysitting service that runs alongside it?

Let me know, thank you!
 

1.  You do have to sign up.  I've done so through their web site for all my cruises with children.  Once we get on board we visit the kids club with our daughter.  There is some obligatory checking of boxes and ensuring that our chosen check in/out choices are correct and we are on our way.  The kids club puts a numbered sticker on the bottom of your child's medallion.  This is their number that links to the records in the kids club.  At our daughter's age, our policy is that she can check her self into the kids club, but we have to check her out.  The idea is that if she gets lost or looses track of us on board, she can go to the kids club, check in, be someplace safe, ask the staff to try to contact us or locate us.  When she is older we might allow both check in and out privileges, but not yet.  I'm not aware of any limits.  Princess knows how many children are on board.  They seem to be able to staff accordingly.  In fact they know the age and sex of everyone that is on the manifest that boards the ship.  I'm not aware of their child to adult ratio, but from what I could tell they have plenty of staff to handle however many children are on board.

2.  I'm not aware of anything preventing you from being with your child during club open hours.  When our daughter was super young, we cruised with her when she was 22 months and at that time the cut off for children that young was 3 years and toilet trained, and anything younger than that they did not have any drop off services for those ages.  So, we never used the kids club.  The next cruise with our daughter, she was 8 and the kids club was drop off for her.  We'd drop her off, and she would have fun and then we'd pick her up after dinner or otherwise.

3.  The fee schedule is for after hours group babysitting, not for the kids club.  The kids club is included in your cruise fare.  The after hours babysitting is from 10pm to 1am and the kids clubs are closed at that time, but the fee based group babysitting occurs in the kids clubs.  It is the same staff that offers the babysitting that runs the kids clubs.

We rode the light rail from the King Street Station area back to SeaTac when we were in Seattle for our cruise last July.  Public transit isn't quick.

The back story is that we were staying at a SeaTac area hotel.  We got tickets for a Mariner's game, so we took an Uber from the hotel to the stadium.  That was like $50 including tip, and it was surge pricing.  After the game we walked to 13 Coins for dinner.  The whole stadium area of SODO and the edge of Pioneer Square were full of people on account of the Mariner's game getting out and a Sounders Game going on at the same time.  After dinner we debated about how to get back to the hotel.  More Uber surge pricing, it was like $65 to get back to the hotel.  However the light rail station was near the restaurant and it was like $6/person for a ticket.  So we opted for the light rail and then a short walk from the SeaTac station to the hotel.

Well, we encountered the requisite homeless or possibly just addicted persons near the light rail station.  Got our tickets at the kiosk, in which the general area of the upper level had a strong smell of urine.  We then went downstairs to the southbound platform.  There were a few "curious" people on the platform, but more of us were normal passengers or commuters so it wasn't too uncomfortable.  The train finally arrived and we did "eenie meenie miney mo" to pick a train car to be on.  Well, the particular train car we gambled on seemed dirtier than usual, and on top of that for about half our ride there was some dude bopping around and talking to himself, but he got off a few stops before SeaTac and we all breathed a sigh of relief.  At the SeaTac station you had a mix of air travelers coming and going and some more seriously odd folks hanging about.  It is a long way down to street level from the SeaTac station, so we took the elevator.  Again, another place with a funky smell that shouldn't smell that way, and we were dumped out near a couple of International Blvd. hotels.  Then the walk home.

I'm not convinced I'd do the light rail again.  I think I'll stick with Uber/Lyft.

On 4/18/2024 at 3:50 PM, lovecruzin said:

Thank you. If I recall Uber has a separate pick up area at Pier 91. Do you know if that applies to Uber Black as well?

All Uber/Lyft pick up in an area a rather short distance from the load/load turnaround, that is directly in front of the terminal.  If you are hailing Uber/Lyft, you go to the rideshare sign in the normal load/unload area, and a shuttle van will take you and your luggage for about a 2 minute ride down to the Uber/Lyft area.  It is also walkable to get to the rideshare pickup area.  You are not a second class citizen if you are getting to and from the port by rideshare.

We did black SUV from our hotel in the SeaTac area to pier 91 for a cruise last July.  The front desk at the Ceaderbrook Lodge arranged it for us.  Normally I would have gone with UberXL.  It was $100 including tip and the driver wanted to be paid in cash, so I was grateful to have my cruise wad with me.  On the trip back to Ceaderbrook to get our car I chose UberXL, and had an equally good large SUV pick us up, and the total cost including tip was $75.  My experience on a number of trips using both Uber and Lyft has always been excellent and competitively priced, along with not having to whip out cash.  I'll stick with those services.  There is no reason for me to book black car the old fashioned way.

7 minutes ago, Lucky TGO said:

What I like the most about the international café was it doesn’t close down and it’s open all night. I am a night person as you can. See by most of my post come at two 3 o’clock in the morning. I always like being there to have a quiet cup of coffee, sometimes one or two people will be there at 2 a.m. 

The Captain of The Rowboat,

Tony

I kind of like visiting the IC late at night.  The ship is so quiet and the service there is so quick.

6 minutes ago, hpeabody said:

Island did away with La Patisserie some time ago.  In it's place is Good Spirits Bar that is where you can get your specialty coffees and teas.  They supposedly they put a tray of pastries out from time to time.  I was on her for the 2023 World Cruise and never saw that at the times I went for coffee in the morning.  I truely missed the IC.

Hmm, still listed on the web site, as of today.  Ok, well I stand corrected.  Princess needs to do some web site maintenance.

Island Princess has La Patisserie, basically a tiny version of International Cafe.  It's better than nothing.

A full entertainment schedule is only fully available when on board.  Music and entertainment is everywhere throughout the day.  Music and activities in the Piazza most of the day and into the evening.  You'll have music in Take 5 in the evening.  Also piano singer in Crooners.  There will be at least a couple of shows each evening in the Vista Lounge, along with a couple of production shows or larger band and singer acts in the theater, also every evening.  Game shows and television productions will be done in Princes Live a number of times each day.  Up on Lido at the central pool you have both live band entertainment along with music videos and Moves Under The Stars in the evening.  I'm sure I missed something.  There is activity going on all the time on board.  You will not be without entertainment options.

34 minutes ago, mikjr said:

Traditional dining offering an early and a late seating every evening 

I stated this in another thread; what is old is new again.  This isn't all that different from the old differentiation between Anytime Dining and Traditional Dining.  I don't think it was more than 5 years ago that they transitioned away from the two dining systems to Dine Your Way.

Be prepared for the return of folks bemoaning not being able to get a Traditional Dining time slot when they try to reserve a seating and how they can finagle getting one when they get on board.  So many of those threads are in the archives, just go look for them, they are there.  I'm just guessing, but the difference is now that your Trad Dining time isn't set when you book, but when you go on the app and try to book one after you have booked the cruise.  This will be something that bothers the anti-app cruisers, for sure.

43 minutes ago, mikjr said:

• Reservable dining times 
• Open seating to support walk-ins anytime

So, basically Anytime Dining, like it used to be, but with separate dining rooms focusing on first come seating or reservations.  I think this should be an improvement on the Anytime side.

I'm just not sure I see the big deal here.  I suspect my misguided viewpoint will be dealt with swiftly.

What's old is new again.  That is all.

4 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

This morning, while at breakfast at the Harmony Restaurant on Deck 5, the waves were smashing above the windows!  The staff were joking that the windows were in need of a good washing! 🤣  🌊🌊🌊

That has to be a wild ride, right now.

41 minutes ago, Cuppcake40 said:

I have rented a vehicle when we are in port and was going to explore on our own. Any specific advice? We have never been to the area but I had a list similar to the one above. Our ship gets into port around 9am and we pick the vehicle up immediately. How long should I allow to get to St Therese's and back. Google Maps is sometimes way off in estimates. Thanks.

I'm glad you asked this question.  I am no expert.  Last year in Juneau we booked a Jeep through Princess.  We literally walked off the dock to the booth they were at, handed them our excursion pass, and were handed a Jeep, its key, and a booster seat for my daughter and we were off.  Their iPad with their custom routing and audio program was mounted to the dash and tethered to the audio system and we followed that all the way out to Eagle Beach, as our first stop.  I think it was about a 45 minute drive out to Eagle Beach, about 20 minutes from Eagle Beach back to St. Therese, another 30 minutes from St. Therese to Mendenhall.  Of course, you get out and spend time at these locations.  Travel times to places around Juneau aren't excessive and Google maps is going to give you pretty good time in transit estimates since traffic doesn't seem to be a big deal.

I hope somebody else will answer your question, too.  I'd add to your questions, this year I'd like to just rent a car and navigate around on my own.  Where can I rent a car that is within a short walking distance from the dock (that Majestic Princess will likely be at)?

On 4/11/2024 at 4:18 AM, LACruiser88 said:

Ron Goodman was the Cruise Director on one of the cruises we took about 12 years ago.  We liked him.  I shouldn't say this... he's aged.  Well, so have I.

We also have travel clothing which needs to be cleaned when we arrive on board.  We usually fill a laundry bag on embarkation day and provide it to our steward, sometimes before the ship has even left port.  We tend to get this laundry bag ready to go while we are unpacking.

There is no limit to the amount of clothing you can have laundered, and their dry cleaning services are very good, too.  If you have both regular cleaning and dry cleaning, you'll want to fill out two slips for two separate laundry bags.

If you are in a suite, don't accumulate your laundry.  Send out a bag every morning so that you always have clean clothing coming back, clothing in your closet, and some clothing that is out being cleaned.

17 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

Some other things we enjoy in Juneau:

 

Eagle Beach

Shrine of St. Therese

Treadwell Mine Trail

Fishing salmon at Macauley Fish Hatchery dock

Hiking trails at top of Mount Robert’s Tramway

Salmon Bake - touristy but fun and tasty!

I'm not an Alaska expert, but this is about the best list of things in Juneau to do which are not related to Mendenhall.

We got a self-guided Jeep rental excursion that went out to Eagle Beach, but we knew the Shrine of St. Therese from a previous visit to Juneau and wanted to return.  The road to Eagle Beach goes right by the Shrine, so it was easy to spend some time there.  Plus we used our own GPS to meander around Juneau and explore a bit.

On our next visit we'll probably just rent a car for the day and explore on our own.

As for the current condition of Mendenhall, I still like going out there to visit.  The visitors center is pretty typical NPS, it does its job.  I've never been overwhelmed with NPS visitors centers, and I've been to quite a few.  They are utilitarian and provide basic interpretation for the NPS site, they aren't meant to outshine the natural environment they are set up to serve.  I'm not sure on our next cruise if we will go out there, but we'll keep our minds open to it.

I think the strongest and most well rounded of the cruise lines in terms of their overall Alaska offering are Princess and Holland America.  Both have permits to access Glacier Bay.  Both have good on board entertainment and production shows.  Between the two, I think that Princess has the edge in terms of production show quality and complexity.

On Princess they do two shows per evening in the theater.  They interleave different shows through the cruise.  So, if you want to eat early and see the late show, you have the opportunity to see all that is offered on board... and vice versa.  The theater schedule toward the beginning of a cruise leans toward the production musicals and toward the end of the cruise is a mix of production shows and comedians, vocalists and musical groups.  I don't have an old Patter in front of me to reference, but that is how I recall it working out.

And the above isn't a 100% or totally accurate representation of how they schedule shows, but a pretty good representation.  Shows sometimes get canceled or changed depending on cast availability, availability of other entertainers, etc.

Additional shows will be put on in different lounges.  Most Princess ships have an aft show lounge, the Vista Lounge.  A much smaller space than the theater, but everything is loud enough, and there is a bar in the lounge.  Some princess ships have a midships show lounge, Explorer's Lounge, with similar capabilities as the Vista Lounge.  These spaces usually host bands and vocalists, and during the day game shows and presentations.  Some ships have the Princess Live space, which effectively replaced the Explorer's Lounge, different concept, think TV studio with live audience.  Most of the "game shows" are held in Princess Live or Explorer's Lounge.  Game show style of entertainment is a rather small part of what is on board.  Most ships have a Crooner's Lounge, which is a piano bar and is very popular with Princess cruisers.  They dispensed with it on some ships, like the Majestic Princess, which is sad, but other lounges and bars have filled the gap.

I hope you enjoy Alaska.  It is a great place to visit.

14 hours ago, julia said:

FYI:  This ship (Bliss) called on Juneau today, opening an even longer Alaskan cruise season. Not everyone is happy about this in Alaska, with many residents in the major port towns forming groups to curb the cruising industry. Google it. I'm actually a proponent... especially with the mega ships now in these small ports, and 10k-15k passengers on any given day. It's pretty crazy.

The piece from Alaska Public Media was more positive.  They interviewed a couple of passengers and some of the local vendors and didn't get much in terms of negative feedback about the season starting this early.

https://alaskapublic.org/2024/04/10/cruise-ship-season-begins-in-juneau/

https://alaskapublic.org/2024/04/08/juneau-had-a-record-breaking-cruise-season-last-year-this-year-should-be-about-the-same/

But apparently there are forces that want to flatten or reduce the number of passengers that get off ships on any given day.

https://www.juneauempire.com/news/first-cruise-ship-of-the-season-arrives-to-welcomes-planned-protest/

And be sure to use the SEA Spot Saver to book a time through security.

https://www.portseattle.org/SEAspotsaver

2 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

some of us do not have that luxury.

1 hour ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

we have a school aged kid who doesn't get PTO or vacation days from school... It's bad enough that we pull him out of school the day before the cruise...

 

And for the upcoming cruise, we have a choice of a 10 am return flight or 7 pm return flight. Ugh. 7 pm wouldn't be so bad if Spirit didn't insist on letting us drop luggage off no earlier than 4 hours before the flight.

I have an 8 y.o.  So I do understand the difficulty you are facing.  The choices we have made are that we cruise less and we only vacation when she is out of school.  If a cruise, trip across the U.S. to see the other side of the family in Georgia or another vacation option doesn't line up, well, we don't do it.  We either find something else to do, or we don't do anything.  Such is the cost of having school aged children.

Seeing family is difficult because we loose a whole day to air travel, even when we can get direct flights from SEA to ATL, we have one commuter flight from home to SEA, a layover there of at least 1.5 hours, but sometimes as long as 3, then 5+ hours in the air from SEA to ATL, along with the time it takes to retrieve luggage, get the rental car, and then drive north to where the in-laws are.  And we loose a whole day coming home with flights and layovers that are similar.

I don't consider visiting family much of a vacation.  They aren't as curious or historically excited as I am.  When we visit Atlanta and Georgia I want to visit historical landmarks, Civil War sites and such.  I still haven't gotten to the MLK Jr. Memorial, and it is near the MARTA line to Buckhead (right?).  They just aren't into that.  We end up visiting a lot of malls and chain restaurants.  I can do that at home.

I am glad that you are not willing to pull your kids out of school to vacation.  My mom taught 3rd grade for many years in a low performing and low income school district, and the kids that need to be in school the most were the most likely to be pulled out of school for a week or more just to visit family.  The kids that wouldn't be impacted by being out of school for a couple of days were always in school.  The irony of it all.

We all make our own decisions and have our own tolerances for "risk" when traveling.

1 hour ago, Luckybee said:

I booked through the casino department as I was given a cruise certificate for a free suite from my local casino so I dont have the options that many have suggested. 

When I did my original booking a couple of months ago I didnt have any issues with the rep I dealt with. When I call now on the "already booked" line this seems to be where the problems arise.

I have travelled extensively but not with Princess. I think what surprised me the most is that I have dealt with companies all over the world for bookings since I always book without an agent and I have never seen the language issue this bad even when Im dealing with a hotel in Timbuktoo where one might expect a language problem

I have not dealt with a casino booking, so any advice I gave about transferring to a TA may not be accurate.

Do you wish to share with the group what issues you are trying to resolve?  We may have some insight.

Things have changed quite a bit since the Royal class ships came on the scene.  When Princess's fleet was mostly Grand class ships cabins were almost always ready when you boarded, assuming that you liked to board early.  So, 11am, noon, cabins were ready to go and fire doors were not closed and nothing but the occasional service cart "blocked" the passageways.  There are so many more passengers on the Royals, and I think the cabin stewards are spread a bit thinner, that they are still working if you happen to board around 11am.  It is a toss up if you can drop your carry-ons at your cabin or not.  We have been fortunate in that our cabin has been done and we could drop off our carry-ons, but we would just drop and go to the MDR for lunch and come back around 1 when everything had calmed down in the hallways.

13 minutes ago, sadiwest said:

One question....the drink package that is "soda"....are those cans or do they have the machines (like Freestyle) where they have non carbonated options?

Pop can be had fountain or can.  More often than not if you don't have a beverage plan or Plus/Premier, pop will be from the gun behind the bar, served in a tall red cup with ice.  If you don't have a plan you'll probably get a can.  I think the can price is $2.50.  If you are on a beverage plan you can request a can instead of fountain.  Princess does not have any self-serve machines, everything comes through a restaurant or bar, so no non-carbonated, syrup based, beverage options, like a Freestyle machine can do.

There is a juice bar on board.  I don't recall the prices, thanks to having Plus or Premier on my last cruise, but juice, smoothies, and mocktails can add up if you consume a number of them for the cash price.  And remember, cash price will also incur an 18% bar gratuity for each beverage in addition to the list price.

Oh, and if she is ordering room service from the TV in the cabin, be sure that she is logged onto the TV with one of your profiles, not hers.  Your Plus includes room service, but her profile will not.  If she orders under her profile it will ding the onboard account $14.99 once to cover room service and OceanNow delivery for the entire voyage.  Just some food for thought.

Did you book the cruise directly with Princess or did you use a travel agent?  Sounds like you booked through Princess, so you are dealing with their call center.  If I'm wrong I'm sorry.  However, if you booked through a travel agent, you should direct your queries through them, no matter how large or small.

Have you made final payment?  When did you book the cruise?

If you have not made final payment and you booked the cruise less than 90 days ago, you should be able to transfer the cruise to a travel agent.

Mentioning travel agents by name in the forums is terra non grata, so I can't provide you any specific guidance or a recommendation.  But generically, I can tell you that you can transfer your booking to a travel agent if the cruise is not fully paid for and you booked it less than 90 days ago.  Once you have found a travel agent you like, they have forms they can use to request the booking transfer to them, and once Princess transfers the booking to the agent, from there your customer service needs pre-cruise, along with any remaining payments, will go through the travel agent.

I hope this helps a bit.  But I don't disagree, Princess' reliance on offshore call centers has done terrible damage to their brand, and has reconstituted some travel agent's client lists.  The Princess product is excellent, and their web site is excellent, booking a cruise through their web site is super easy, but the call center support is generally terrible.  By investing in a really great web site, they are able to get bookings at their normal rates and are able to keep the commission they would normally pass back to travel agents for the booking.

If you do look for a travel agent and transfer your booking, then the travel agent will get the commission for your cruise, and you'll get better service from somebody that you can build a relationship with.

2 minutes ago, mtnesterz said:

You mentioned elsewhere she is 15

I didn't realize that your third berth was likely your daughter.  That said, there are other packages that would work better for a teen.  There are a number of non alcoholic beverage packages you'll want to look at.  If she is a pop drinker, you may want to consider one of those.  If she likes coffee beverages, same thing, look for the NA beverage package that covers that.  Just like Plus and Premier, they are selling beverage packages on board on embarkation day, so you can decide when you are on board to purchase one for her, or do so ahead of time.  Aside from Plus and Premier covering gratuities, gratuities for her will just have to be something you know you are going to pay for at the end of the cruise.

If your third person were interested in a Plus or Premier package, they can purchase on board, and they will have their own benefits and included gratuity.

1 hour ago, sadiwest said:

At the end of the cruise will just one person's gratuities etc be billed?

Yes.

1 hour ago, sadiwest said:

If we dont choose to add her (sometimes she'd rather eat at the buffet than dine with us) is that doable or will we be required to add her?

You are not required to add third or fourth berths to the Plus or Premier package, but they also don't get any of the benefits.  There is no additional charge for MDR food (unless noted on the menu) or dining at the buffet, so no cost issues there that would be handled by a package.  Without a package they would have to pay for specialty dining and for the "casual" dining venues, even if your meal were comped by your package.

1 hour ago, sadiwest said:

If we have to add her can we just not do it in advance?

She can be added in advance, but you have to contact your travel agent or Princess to do so.  You can purchase a package for her on embarkation day, there will be plenty of opportunities to do so.

You don't state the age of the person that is the third berth in your cabin.  Are they an adult, child?  Depending on age and their independence from you, and their personal desires, that will be a factor in determining if a package is a good value for them or not.