Thrak

Princess carries Talisker which is quite smoky/peaty. It's the 10 year old. I drank a lot of it on one cruise. My wife hates the smell of it. It fits within the Plus package.

Across from the Denali lodge is 49th State Brewing. We hit that spot each time we've been near. It's a good place to grab a pint or two and they carry the Denali Brewing Company beers. I love the Chuli Stout. In addition to our 2 cruise tours we've cruised Alaska two other times and have made a 7 week camping trip from our home in Northern California up to Fairbanks, AK. Love Alaska and loved traveling through Canada. Beautiful scenery and some really nice folks all along the way there and back.

We always stay at Crowne Plaza. They have a shuttle to the port and, like Double Tree, have a package where you can leave your car there during your cruise. We did take advantage of that one time. You will likely get the most advice to stay at either Crowne Plaza or Doubletree.

1 hour ago, Scubadoc said:

We are Lord of the rings fans and hope to do at least two days seeing Lord of the rings sites. The problem is we really want to see the Hot Springs in Rotorua and do the Hobbiton tour. It looks like both of those are from the same port of Tauranga. 

Be aware that, if you want to do Hobbiton, you can not count on a Princess tour. We did Hobbiton last year and they stopped accepting cruise ship tours. During the pandemic they lost about a zillion dollars due to accepting a ton of reservations from cruise ship companies and then having the ship either not port or having other problems causing all of those reservations to go unused so they had no paying visitors.

I booked way early and privately (even though Princess assured me their excursion was going to be okay) and was glad I did as Princess eventually dropped the excursion. If Princess does offer an excursion to Hobbiton don't trust them. Booking privately they will pick you up at the port and return you there in plenty of time for all aboard.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the tour company we booked with was only accepting 10 people from our cruise. That was it. Once they had 10 people booked they were done. It was also much less expensive than the original excursion listed by Princess.

It would be foolish to take a chance and find that you are unable to board. Why take that sort of risk? Start the renewal process now!

For self laundry we pick a time to do it and then select a movie to watch in the cabin. We queue up the movie and then go put in the wash. We set a timer, go back to the cabin, and watch the movie. (We set the timer a few minutes short of the time the wash will run.) When the timer goes off we pause the movie, go move the laundry to the dryer, set a timer, then go back to the cabin and continue the movie. When the timer goes off we pause the movie and deal with the laundry. It's pretty easy and stress free and setting the timer just short of the actual time needed assures that our laundry never sits unattended in a machine that has shut off. Heck, order some drinks and snacks to the cabin while watching the movie. Make it something other than a "chore" when doing the laundry.

According to multiple posts by @PescadoAmarillo her husband, G, attends them on many cruises so I have to assume that they are actually held frequently. I see them listed in the Patter all the time. (Being listed in the Patter doesn't mean things actually have anybody show up but I'm guessing that the veteran's meetings do indeed have attendees. I've heard that some meetings often have nobody show up and other meetings have a lot of people show up. On our last cruise we were in Take Five way early for the music and somebody asked why had so many people were there way in advance of the music and were told it was the LGBTQ meeting.)

Sometimes a meeting (for whatever group) has a lot of people and sometimes nobody shows up. It depends on the cruise. I'm sure a Veteran's group meeting will be scheduled multiple times on the cruise but attendance can be hit or miss.

On 4/24/2024 at 5:42 PM, Coral said:

I never heard the Sea Princess as an R Class ship. We called it the Sun Class ships (referring to the old Sun Princess). The Pacific Princess (2nd), Tahitian and Ocean Princess (2nd) were all R Class ships. These were Renaissance ships, thus, R Class. Approx 30,000 tons.

 

The Sun Class had the Sun, Dawn, Sea and Ocean Princess. These were around 77,000 tonns.

 

I agree about Sapphire and Diamond Princess wide promenade decks. I don't remember the Coral Princess having that wide but it has been awhile since I have been on that ship.

D'Oh! My bad. I know that Sea Princess was not an R Class ship. What a dork mistake. Sorry about that but many thanks for the correction. We never sailed on the R Class ships. We thought we might sail on Pacific Princess but Princess sold the ship before that happened. Thanks again for catching that and making the correction.

1 hour ago, Coral said:

I personally liked the ships that came before the Emerald/Caribbean Princess. The Grand, Golden, (old) Star, Sapphire and Diamond Princess. They had 500 less passengers and seem less crowded. Unfortunately most are gone. 

 

I agree about the Promenade deck. That is a huge plus. I just wish they had a covered pool.

For a huge promenade one can't beat Sapphire. Our first cruise was on the old R Class Sea Princess. It too had an extra wide promenade and we thought that was how they would all be. Imagine our disappointment when we found that wasn't the norm. If I remember right Coral has an extra wide Promenade as well but, of course, it's not a Grand Class ship.

When we stayed a few days in Barcelona between cruises we also took a cab to the cruise port when leaving. It was easy and, if I remember correctly, it wasn't really very expensive.

I would sail Emerald Princess anytime. I love the large balconies on Caribe Deck. I love the quiet space of Adagio. I like the setup of the Piazza/Atrium far better than the setup on the Royal Class ships - which are much too loud for my taste. We have only sailed on two of the Royal Class ships - Royal Princess and Discovery Princess. Between those two I liked Discovery much better. I still prefer the older Grand Class ships though - even those such as Emerald Princess that have the extra passenger deck. I've never felt crowded.

54 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I will .. am waiting patiently for now.  
I have quite a bit of refundable OBC coming back to me so, am hoping if I don’t get the folio, I will soon get my check from Bottomline.  
 

I can't remember for sure but I "think" we had something like $89 refundable OBC left. Hopefully it will show up in the mail. We didn't get a copy of the folio either. I had intended to print it out at the kiosk the next to last day but forgot to do so. D'Oh!

We do the land tour first so we can unwind on the southbound cruise. Both times we started at the Fairbanks lodge. They provided breakfast the first day and we then went on included excursions. The attached document is a bunch of snips from our Travel Summary for a 15 day Connoisseur Escorted Tour. I did it in a hurry just now so hopefully didn't miss a day or double a day or something dorky like that. Lot's going on here at the moment so I did it in a hurry. However, even if I messed it up it should give you an idea of what is included. Also, I will attach a link to an old post by @caribill which is one of the factors that helped us decide on this type of tour in the first place.

TRAVEL SUMMARY PORTIONS

Travel Summary Snips.docx

POST BY caribill

EDIT: Be aware that the Tundra Wilderness Tour can't go the full distance at the moment as part of the mountain slid off and took the road with it. It will be quite some time before they can "replace" that portion of the road.

To me, the easiest way to find out where my muster station is so I can check in before heading to MDR for embarkation lunch - or up to my cabin - is to simply ask at any muster station. It's always simple to locate one and they will be able to tell you where your proper muster station is located. Quick and easy with no ambiguity.

On 7/12/2015 at 4:30 PM, srice said:

Ship: Discovery Princess

 

Class: Royal

 

Deck: Dolphin (Deck 9)

 

Cabin #: D226

 

Category: Standard Balcony

 

Port/Starboard/Bow/Stern: Mid-Forward

 

Connects With Cabin #: N/A

 

Accessible: No

 

Quiet: Yes

 

Balcony Size: Very large. Compares to Caribe balconies on Grand Class

 

View: Unobstructed

 

Privacy Issues: None

 

Wind: No issues

 

Soot: N/A

 

Problems: No real problems but this ship doesn't seem to have the "Princess Beds" that were so popular when introduced. At home our bed is considered "firm" but the bed in this cabin was quite a bit "firmer" than what we have at home. I was surprised by this as our last multiple cruises all had the "Princess Bed" that is so comfortable.

 

Comments: Located very conveniently to the forward elevators/stairs. Loved the location and had zero issues. Cabin was clean and in excellent repair. Most balconies on this class of ship are quite small. Dolphin deck has a bunch of larger balconies on the aft portion but, as far as "standard" balcony cabins go there are only two large balconies on the mid-forward portion of the deck. These are D226 (this cabin) and D227 (on the Starboard side). They are located where the mini-suites end and have the same large balcony as those cabins.

 

We have never done a cruise tour to that area but have done two Connoisseur Cruise Tours to Alaska. We loved them and were pleased to have so much taken care of for us. If we ever do another Princess Cruise Tour we will almost certainly do another Connoisseur tour.

19 hours ago, Bemidji Ty said:

2. Teach the staff to read their audience.  A while back, probably pre-covid, we were on a ship and went to Skywalkers after dinner for libation and dance.  A look at the crowd would have revealed that 80% or more were Medicare eligible.  Noone was on the dance floor.  The DJ was playing loud electronic tunes.  I asked if he had any Motown, Stones or Doobie Bros.  He played "I Heard it through the Grapevine" and "Mustang Sally".  The dance floor quickly filled up.  He was unable to detect the reason and went back to evangelizing his electronic sounds.  The dance floor emptied and many left. 

This is a huge peeve with me. I mention it on every survey. The DJs don't ever seem to realize that most older folks don't like the crap they play.

Once you use the link provided above just put Princess into the search bar on the page.

35 minutes ago, bladerunner6 said:

In regards to Woz using a mainstream cruise line to see the eclipse:

 

He wanted to see the eclipse and Captain Tony did an impeccable job of finding clear skies and setting the ship adrift.

 

I am dubious that a private yacht charter would have done any better.

We tried to see "The Woz" when he spoke in the theater but it was totally packed and even standing room at the back was a zoo. I'm not an "Apple" guy and have never had any form of fondness for Steve Jobs but The Woz is a "real" guy and contributed so much to computing. He's one of the real heroes of the computer revolution.

1 hour ago, devonuk said:

Do you ever get asked to remove the medallion at security so that the engraved details can actually be seen? 

We use air tag holders that cover the info on the rim of the Medallions. Never been asked to remove them.

43 minutes ago, ninka26 said:

If one can't view the folio after disembarking, just to be cautious, I will probably screen shot the folio in app before I leave. Hopefully I won't have any issues but at least this way I'll have documentation.

Just get a printout from the machine...

2 hours ago, charliedalrymple said:

 

Them's fightin' words for members of this community!   🙂  Many of us enjoy the onboard experience as much as the ports, if not more.  

 

 

Not "fightin' words" for me but I do definitely tend to enjoy the sea days more than the port days.

4 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

2024 and they still don't have USB ports for charging? Other lines literally have charging stations in the room. Do they have night lights in the bathrooms yet. I haven't sailed Princess since 2013. I strayed to Celebrity and Royal Caribbean and never went back. 

Grand Princess, the oldest ship in the fleet, has USB A ports on the bedside lamps.

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

This is the new 220v / USB ports that they have installed on Grand. 

 Coral has something similar but with a Australian socket and two standard USB ports  I expect they will be changed over to the above style once Coral leaves Australia after our world cruise. 

 

When they do install night lights in cabins I wish they'd make them optional. I hate being forced to endure lights brighter than I like in the middle of the night. The light emitted by my Kindle on a relatively low setting is all I need to see my way around the cabin at night. 

 

We must be the only people in existence who don't really have a problem with the automagic lights. Yes, the ones under the nightstands are annoying but we just drop the bolster in front of them and the problem is solved. A small piece of painter's tape works well also if you have some. The ones in the closet area don't cause us undue problems. I have more of an issue with the dang things turning off when I'm trying to get into the safe for something. Yes, I prefer to be able to simply use a switch but it's not an earth shaking issue.

2 hours ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

How about a slice of cheese cake floating in Bailey's?

I saw that movie...😉