jeromep

More of a treat for my wife and I than a thrill. I have a regular massage therapist at home who's prices are easily 1/3 what you pay on board, so yes, you really do overpay for spa services on board. However, the prices aren't too out of line compared to what you might pay at a Las Vegas resort spa or a big brand day spa and the style of service is more in line with Vegas resorts or destination day spas. My home town medical massage practitioner has a small studio room in an office space dedicated to massage and esthetics practitioners. It's comfortable, but not particularly spa like. She rents her room much like a hair stylist rents a chair in a salon, and shares a common space, waiting room with the others that are renting space there. Anyway, the spa experience is more involved on board, just like a destination spa or a resort spa. You'll book your treatments with the front desk. No need to book ahead of time on the web site or through the Princess app. Just call them from your cabin, or visit the spa front desk and they will get you scheduled. If you visit the front desk when they aren't particularly busy they will gladly give you a tour of the spa facility, show you treatment rooms, tell you what kinds of treatments they do in each type of room, make recommendations, etc. The spa manager has financial targets they need to meet, just like any business. This has quite a bit to do with the fact that the Lotus Spa is not run by Princess but is run by Steiner International (or Steiner Leisure, they may have gone through a minor name change). They operate the spas on most cruise lines out there. Canyon Ranch, the fancy destination spa in Arizona, has a division that operates on cruise ships, but they only serve a cruise brand or two and only on the lux lines. All that said, the spa manager has sales targets they need to meet to pay the practitioners, cover the overhead of being on the ship, (staff, staff living expenses, materials, etc.), so if the spa isn't getting the quantity of business they need you'll see ads and specials in the Princess Patter. Most of the spa services I've purchased over the years have always been on special. The service charge is basically an enforced tip. You'll see this practice at most destination day spas and resort spas. In the destination and resort spa world that service charge, whatever it is, goes to the practitioner or into the tip pool that is split amongst the spa staff. It depends on how they handle tips and who that spa considers tip eligible. In some spas only practitioners get tips, in others the locker room and sauna attendants participate in the pool. Either way, that is up to the business and their business model. If you get a massage or scrub or something on board and you feel it was done particularly well, then a couple extra bucks on the tip line above and beyond the enforced service charge is a nice gesture. Of course, I would only recommend doing that if you are already familiar with a particular service and know what you like out of that service. If you are not familiar with a service and are getting it for the first time on board, don't feel compelled to tip extra. I will say this, some of the best massages I've ever had have been on board ship. The second best ones (close second) have been at destination day spas or resort spas. What I can get locally are all very good, and serve their purpose, but day spas and resorts do attract a different caliber of practitioner. In short, look out for on board specials, typically on port days, don't book too far ahead, but if you are interested in services, get a spa tour, and talk with the spa manager or whomever is running the front desk. Let them know what you are curious about, and ask them for recommendations. You'll have a fine time.

When are you going? That has a lot to do with balcony weather, or the odds of the kind of weather you will get. And odds are all you get with the weather in Alaska. Averages indicate that you'll find warmer weather, think spring in the lower 48, from late June through July. But you'll experience a bit of everything. We arrived in Juneau one morning to a cool mist, fog over the fjord, and jacket weather, by mid-day it was 75 going quickly toward 80, the fog was gone and the open pool on the Lido was full of kids and adults and many others had changed down into shorts and t-shirts and were soaking up the sun on the loungers. In Glacier Bay we experienced tremendous cold when the side of our ship was facing the glacier, then when it turned for the other side of the ship to see the glacier, we had full sun and 75 degrees of warmth, and we hadn't moved, just turned 180 degrees. Huge daytime temp swings are very normal and should be expected. As for your exact questions, you can request a robe in the cruise personalizer. I always do when booking so it has been a while since I've done it. About half the time the robe is there when we embark, have the time no. Just ask your cabin steward for a robe and they will get one for you. Same goes for extra blankets. Remember, pack layers for Alaska, because most days in port you will start out bundled up, and as the day goes by you will be stripping them off and trying to figure out where you are going to store them while you are meandering around in port.

Woah, $6! That is way over the top. If it was a half gallon of ice cream that showed up at your lounger, that might be acceptable, but a tiny container? I suspect that this whole Tyra Banks ice cream initiative has gone away. Instead, replaced by the ice cream "nightmares" that @AtlantaCruiser72 mentioned.

Don't mark my words on this, but MDR breakfast is like 8 to 10. Also I'm pretty sure they do not vary the times in the MDR for port times or excursions. What I can tell you is that we have almost always picked up breakfast at the International Cafe prior to an early excursion.

Just curious if anyone knows what the production shows are on the Discovery Princess for the Alaska season? I'm curious, but I have some friends that are really curious? I also wouldn't mind seeing Patters if anyone has any.

We've done a different version of this itinerary a few years back. It was a great cruise. Alaska is far from a formal cruise. My experience has been mixed formal nights. There are folks that dress up, and folks that get by with clothing which may not be formal, or even business wear, but isn't overtly casual. I've seen a lot of chinos and sweaters on guys on formal night in Alaska, I'd call that far from formal. That said, you are more than safe attending formal night MDR dinners in a button up shirt and slacks. I think you'll find that formal nights are not enforced at all in the specialty venues. I too have worn suits for work for years and avoid it whenever I'm on vacation.

For coffee, no need to be carrying around a thermal tankard of it all day. I'd order room service coffee when you were in your cabin and didn't want to leave. I'd think that room service can also get you set up with tea. You'll find good tea and coffee at the International Cafe, all day. I highly recommend having Princess Plus as it will get you your better quality NA beverages, including brewed coffee and tea from the IC at no extra charge. There is so much ship, that you will really more likely spend a few hours in your cabin, and then find that you want to be more active so you'll go out, attend something that is on the schedule, and while you are moving about the ship you'll have the opportunity to stop by so many venues that you can get beverages in. It is easy to get a fresh beverage of your choice anywhere on board and generally very convenient to where you are. Plus, with the Medallion, you can order items on the app and they will be delivered to you.

I book direct with Princess on the web site, but a number of conditions and changes from booking till now caused me to find an agent and have the cruise transferred to them. I was getting poor post booking support from the Princess call centers and decided I'd had it with trying to get straight answers from random folks at the call center. Best decision related to travel I've made in many years, having my booking handled by a TA. My TA threw us some additional OBC. I didn't ask for it and wasn't expecting it but it was a nice touch. A good TA will throw in little thank you gifts for booking with them, from OBC to things you may get on board when you arrive at your cabin, maybe a flower arrangement, or a special desert. While you may not value advice, a good TA is also an active cruiser or traveler and can let you know what their experiences have been and what is going on in the industry for you to avoid or take advantage of. You don't get any of that from a call center.

If you are flying in a couple of days before the cruise you obviously want to visit Seattle and see some sights. This would be impractical if you stay south of Seattle in the SeaTac or Renton area. The only way staying south of Seattle would be reasonable would be if you got a rental car to get you around. If you want to explore Seattle on foot and with rideshare, then a Seattle downtown hotel is a must. The prices might take your breath away, but you should be able to find a room for less than $300/night, but the Fairmont Olympic, Edgewater and a few other high end properties will be off the radar. There are a few decent properties in the lower Queen Ann neighborhood. The Mediterranean Inn is nice and prices are generally good for a downtown property. You'll be closer to most of the tourist activities there, too. You have lots of options on where to stay. Any chain brand will be just fine. There is a lot of hotel room competition in Seattle, so the vast majority of the hotels are clean and well kept, especially the chain/franchise brands. Google is your friend when looking up hotels. If you are a member of a chain loyalty program, don't be afraid to book direct with the hotel and get your points and stays. My recommendation is to determine what you want to see while in Seattle and then find a hotel location which is within walking distance of your most important points of interest.

Click one name only or else you will be overcharged. The bungalow will be reserved in that name, but is open to the limit of the number of people they allow at the bungalow. It has been a long time since I booked a bungalow on Princess Cays, but we had a Sanctuary Bungalow, which is all the way down past the rainbow colored regular bungalows. It has a pergola covering the lounge chairs. I recall that we could host up to 6 people in that bungalow. Your hosting number might be higher than 4, but that may also have changed since we last booked. We had two loungers and 4 chairs in the bungalow around a table. It was very nice. I'm sure the regular bungalow will treat you well.

I'm glad to hear that Discovery has "better" Internet, or at least a dry run at trying to provide better Internet. My next cruise will be on the Discovery, so this is a nice touch.

Yes, we have done guarantee cabins and have generally had good luck, however the last guarantee we did was a full suite, so that limits the number of less desirable cabins you might be exposed to by quite a bit since the accommodating is suite grade. You won't find any obstructed view or obstructed balcony suites. Biggest concern with a guaranteed suite would be on on a Royal class ship where the balcony is fully open to the elements and sun, which might not be to somebody's liking. If you are booking a balcony or mini-suite, it is always possible to get a cabin with an obstructed view balcony. You also might find yourself in a cabin directly over or under a public area which may expose you to noise from the deck below or above you. What kind of cabin get you get from a guarantee really is a bit of a gamble, but I look at it this way, you'll be on a cruise. I can think of much worse places to be.

My experience has been that you get the best on board pricing on port days. We rarely spend the whole day in port, so we find ourselves being able to take advantage of port day specials. And some ports we just aren't that interested in, which makes taking advantage of port day specials even easier If the spa isn't being utilized as much on a cruise as they would like, your massage therapist or service provider will often offer a significant discount on a return visit to them for a similar service or different combination of services that they individually offer. A few cruises back we got a really great deal (even by local day spa pricing standards) for a 90 minute couples massage on a port day. It was a very good massage, BTW. After we were done and we'd signed for the bill, the practitioners offered us another visit at 30% off if we came back again the next day, which was a sea day. So, we did book another session with them and got another couples massage with another treatment tacked on for good measure (I think it was a mud or scrub or something) for a great price. Admittedly, the spa was underutilized on this particular cruise because of the type of cruisers we had on board, but most cruises we have been on we've at least gotten really good pricing on spa services by following the specials, booking on port days and doing a little bit of negotiating with the spa manager.

Embarkation night is chaotic as far as dinner is concerned. Last time we were in a suite we got on board and called the dine line and had a table at the Crown Grill. When we were actually dining there that evening there wasn't a huge demand, most tables were empty, and only a few guests dining there. The meal was excellent, as usual.

Ah, you beat me to the answer. I recall most of the Lido deck grills were named the Trident Grill, in the past. So, yes, this is just rebranding and augmentation of the menu. I'll take food from the Lido deck grill or pizza place before I hit the Trough, too. I'm going to have to use that terminology more.

I think your questions have been well answered, but I agree with @mom says, get into your roll call and talk with those on your sailing. They likely have good suggestions about excursions on your cruise and where to get them. As for Princess having a pre-cruise excursion desk you can talk to, they don't, and it is disappointing. Sounds like you are booking direct with Princess. I moved my next cruise to a TA to handle because there were some discrepancies that my Princess Vacation Planner couldn't iron out and I got tired of being one of thousands of clients. My TA has access to resources for booking tour provides independent of the cruise line, and their offerings are quite impressive. They also only direct you to tours or excursions which line up with your ships ports of call and times in port. However, if you book independent, make sure that you are staying on top of the actual port times posted the day you are in the port, as those can change. And your tour operator needs to be aware of those actual port times.

You are getting a lot of the same advice from many of us; find a travel agent. I also had some difficulties with a booking last year for a cruise this year. I wasn't able to get my Princess Planner to resolve the situation, so I got some recommendations from friends who also cruise about independent travel agents, contacted one, and they had me complete some forms which moved the booking to them. It was really quite painless. Once the booking had been moved to the TA they were able to see the issue with the booking and work their magic on their end. There are some limits on transferring bookings to a TA. The biggest one is that it has to be done inside 90 days of booking through Princess. Then Princess has to approve the transfer to the TA. They have the option to not allow it, but I understand that is pretty rare. After the transfer all inquiries about the booking have to go through the TA. And honestly, that is a good thing. Travel Agents have a lot of access to the cruise booking system and various internal systems. They also sometimes have their own promotions, discounts, and OBC offers. After my final payment my TA threw some extra OBC on my account, and I wasn't offered or was expecting that. It wasn't a lot of money, but it is the thought that counts, sometimes. Your experience may vary, but post disease that shall not be mentioned, I like the idea of using a travel agent and helping somebody "local" make a living.

Similar sign up, as the teens are still minors, and you can identify if they have the right to come and go as they please or not. We have a much younger daughter and we have her access rights in the kids club set up so that she can show up at the club on her own, but she can't leave without us picking her up. That way, if she were to "get lost" on the ship or was looking for a safe haven she could go to the kids club and check-in, but we'd have to be there to check her out. Yes, you can set some form of limits, but I'm pretty sure you have to arrange that through passenger services. I think a better option would be to get the non-alcholoic beverage package for the kids, especially if they are pop drinkers. Then you have no worries about spending on beverages. I think the NA beverage package includes smoothies and mocktails, not sure about ice cream or gelato. Its been a while since I looked at the packages since we last booked with Princess Plus.

Thank you for the pictures, looks wonderful, so far.

Yes, they take the whole steak house thing a bit far. If you are getting a larger cut, like a porter house, the plate looks more complete. Filet from a good steakhouse should taste great and cut like butter, however, it is a rather small piece of meat on a large dish. But the meat coming out on a plate and the sides served "family style" is pretty typical for a high end steak house. You kind of have to make your own plate for it to have eye appeal. Looking forward to your next entries in your live thread.

That is too bad. It has been many years since I've visited Canada and didn't clearly recall how we were handling tipping during our last visit. With the prevalence of the severe increase in minimum wage in many parts of the U.S., supposedly to better the lives of service workers, I had hopped that the U.S. could break itself of the tipping culture. As prices have gone up, I'm no longer doing the 20% thing. While the mental math is a bit harder, I'm starting to max out at 15% and am hovering around 10%. Minimum wage in Seattle is over $16 because the city seems to think it is its own fiefdom. I believe the minimum in the rest of the state is just over $15 now, and it is supposedly indexed to CPI, which makes for an ever worsening cost situation. If anyone wonders why McDonalds and nearly ever other fast food joint is moving to self-service kiosks and "order on the app" methods, this is why. If you can have a limited number of front staff, wiping tables, and tidying up the dining room, and not programming a till and taking cash, and focus your staffing costs on where you absolutely have to have it, in the kitchen, you might be able to keep your prices in check. Otherwise, it's "Nellie, bar the door". Always read your bill before paying, any kind of surcharge or "commission" will be listed. If they have put it on the receipt you are stuck paying for it. I'm not aware of any legal actions which specifically state that a surcharge has to be declared up front on menus, however most reputable restaurants will have the surcharge listed on the bottom of their menus or the bottom of their display boards. It saves them the headache of having a bunch of angry customers and gives the manager some documentation to use to justify the line item on the bill. As for tipping, with or without any surcharges, I wouldn't worry about doing so. As a visitor, your contact with servers in restaurants will be limited to that visit. Don't feel like tipping, don't bother, they will never see you again and they will survive without your tip. Feel like tipping, through a couple of bucks down, maybe a $5 and be done with it. As an aside, you don't see this surcharge junk in rural or less populated America. So, using Washington State as an example. If you go east of the Cascades you don't see this occurring at dining establishments (not 100% no, but incredibly rare). And if you are a good distance north or south of Seattle, it also tends to disappear.

You absolutely must call the airline and work to get an alternate flight, but don't expect your flight out to be the same day, I suspect that ship has passed. You should try, but if not get an early next day flight. Then stay overnight near SeaTac and try to enjoy some Seattle sights. You and your children will be so much happier.

I don't think the Canadians are as stuck on the tipping thing. I think you might find their practices more in line with NZ (especially considering that you are all part of the Commonwealth). The Queen er..... King is still on your coins and stamps, right? The U.S. still has a tipping culture, but that is starting to vary from state to state, and frankly is starting to get political. Washington State has a very high minimum wage. In Seattle the minimum wage is so high that some restaurants have started putting "service charges" on their bills. If a restaurant charges me a service charge or tacks on a predetermined tip amount, I will not add a tip. You'll find a lot of restaurants that have Square or Clover terminals, that do both the order and card processing. Most of these places have limited table service. They almost always offer the ability to tip. If I'm having to schlep my food from a counter to the table and then clean up after myself, no tip. If I tip, I also tip on the pre-tax amount. I'm not going to calculate any tip on the sales tax value, just on the value of the product ordered. That receipt that @Elaine5715 shared is pretty typical Seattle these days. You see all kinds of Mickey Mouse stuff on bills now. Full on service charges, "cook's commissions", etc. I did a little math with my handy dandy 10-key next to the computer and found that the tip recommendations are based upon only the product purchased and before any any surcharges and tax. Also note that the sales tax in Washington in a gross receipts tax, so that "commission" is also taxed to you. I guess I'm a jerk, but if I saw the "cook's commission" on the tab I would have subtracted that from any tip I might have provided. And, oh wow! SeaTac's sales tax rate is like 10.1%! Wozers, that is high! So, to make this simple, if the place you are dining at is full service, and your bill is only for food and beverage and you do not see any additional "service charges", then tipping anywhere between 10-20% of the pre-tax value is ok. Don't feel obligated for any particular rate... or frankly at all. Remember, you are tipping and paying AFTER the meal and service is provided, so if you are on the low end of tipping, what does it matter? They will likely never see you again and even if they do, they are supposed to provide good service no matter what. If the place you are dining at is limited service or no service, no tip. For baggage handling, I typically do $1/bag. I'm not going to adjust for inflation. I'm sure there may be those that accuse me of removing on board tipping, but I don't do that. I've always left the on board auto-tip in place and am happy to tip for other services on board. Frankly, I get so much better service on a cruise than I do on land. On a cruise I have a well dressed, friendly, smiling, and apparently happy person getting me my morning coffee. At home it is a perforated and branded 20-something with pink hair and a bad attitude. Now, you ask me who deserves a tip?

I'm aware of some differences between Dr. Pepper formulas. What we have our here is the "national" formula. It may not be quite the same as what you folks in Texas get, but it could also be the same for all I know. Dr. Pepper is just as common out here as Coke and Pepsi. The western U.S. is more Pepsi country, but Coke is all over. I prefer Coke on fountain, and Pepsi in the can. But that also varies from place to place to. Here in eastern Washington the local bottlers for Pepsi are much larger, mostly due to the larger presence of Pepsi and the greater number of licensing agreements they have purchased. For example, the Pepsi bottlers are also the holders of the license to bottle Dr. Pepper, 7-Up, and a number of other pops and beverages. The Coke bottlers are smaller operations, that focus on Coke brands. For quite a while if you were at a fast food joint or mini-mart with a fountain and they were exclusive with Coke, you'd find Mr. Pibb on Coke fountains as they didn't bottle/resell Dr. Pepper. That has changed a bit. The fast food joints with the Coke Freestyle machines have Dr. Pepper, but that is because the concentrate for those machines comes in cartridges that load into the machine kind of like a VHS cassette, so easy to ship and store, unlike canisters of syrup or the huge boxes of syrup with the bladder inside. Anyway, Seattle has a sugary beverage tax, so I'd avoid purchasing pop in Seattle proper, and try to do so outside of Seattle. If you are flying in pre-cruise, I recommend staying in one of the hotels surrounding SeaTac airport. In that area you are quite a few miles south of Seattle. Grocery stores and mini-marts are abundant as SeaTac is surrounded by residential suburbs like White Center, Burien, and Tukwilla, to name a few. Typical grocery store names are Safeway (Albertson's companies), Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger), QFC (Also Kroger). Your club card for your Texas grocery store might just work, so don't be afraid to use it. You can't spit without hitting a Safeway. Your best prices will be at the grocery stores. Of course, you can visit mini-marts, or corner markets. However, I'd be surprised if your cruise line didn't have Dr. Pepper in the can, if not on the bar gun, when you are actually cruising.

I would wait until you were on board to attempt to arrange this. Some of us here on CC have found that pre-booking things that are outside of the programming of the system doesn't work well on shore. But once you get on board and are dealing with the staff, everything becomes easier to accomplish, and often more accurate.