Treven

I have the type of simple power strip that Chengkp75 mentioned/recommended It has 4 or 5 receptacles which is "usually" enuff for all yer "gadgets/toys"🤓

As been stated, The Rock will be visible while you are in port, off the back. However you need to be out on one of the upper decks while departing. You'll need to be moving around to see Alcatraz off the starboard side, The City off the port side, then under the Golden Gate Bridge above you.

This is, by far, my most favorite port to leave from or to arrive at.

From what I have read and learned, any crew member participating in the pool must turn in any tips given to them in cash. If they get caught pocketing the tip, it can mean getting off at the next port.

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It's also to my understanding that when the waiter turns his cash tips in to whomever is the responsible person, that person checks to see if the guest has the auto-tip in place. If so, the waiter gets to keep the tip. If Auto-tip has been removed then the cash tip gets tossed into the tip pool.

I'm another one who leaves a cash tip when dining in one of the speciality restaurants. I always leave $20 as a tip.

Congrats! I'm sure you'll have a great time. I'm a crusty old curmudgeon that has cruised by myself for a number of years and I love it.

Clarea summarized it well that if you are a US citizen and it is a closed loop cruise, that is leaving from and returning to the same port, you don't need a passport. I want to add that if you did need a passport it wouldn't matter that you don't plan to leave the ship. As soon as the ship enters that country's waters passengers are in that country. So, if a passport were needed, the ship wouldn't let you board without one.

This is muy important, but it wouldn't apply to your particular cruise.

I've boarded by noon and my cabin has always been ready. One of the nice things about Princess.

My go to hotel is the Marriott Renaissance on 17th. St. Close to the pier, restaurants are within walking distance and there's a Wallgreen's right across the street for those munchie attacks or forgotten sundries.

As a dyed in the wool Pepsi-holic, I always bring on a couple 6-packs of Diet Pepsi. It used to be Pepsi Next until PepsiCo decided not to continue making that😳. I guess I was the only person in the US, at least, who bought that on a regular basis. Anyhoo, there is nothing that says you can't bring on the diet drink of your choice.

The Chilled Golden Delicious Apple and Peach Soup that SuiteTraveler mentioned is found in Princess' cook book, Courses. Unfortunately the Chilled Coconut soup is not in their cookbook.

Thanks all for the comments and ideas. I have started looking at all available routes. And Sis and I have talked about the possibility of stopping after the cruise either instead of, or in addition to that first day. Wish we had more time but I'll take whatever I can get.

 

I love being prepared enough to have options. Or like my nephew likes to say: "If plan A doesn't work out, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet!"

Oh, I like your nephew's outlook on a possible problem/solution.

90 minutes is correct, but I'm the type to always make sure I'm aboard at least 30 minutes before the required time. So I'm aboard two hours before departure time, starting my cruise, regardless of whether the ship is still tied to the pier.

I do. She is the light of my life and the ultimate test of my patience :-)

I have a red-wheaten colored Scottie and I couldn't count the number of times people would come up to me and ask, "Is this a Westie?" My immediate response is, "He's not white!" Of course the two dog breeds look nothing alike, but perhaps folks who haven't been around either for a good portion of time, wouldn't see the differences.

Oh hell, go for it!; alone that is. My recommendation would be the full transit of the Panama Canal, it's one of the man-made wonders of the world, and one not to be missed.

Based upon your "screen name", I gather you have a West Highlands White Terrier?

My steward has never unplugged anything in 21 cruises.

Neither had mine.

From Princess:

 

 

Low deposit of $100 USD per guest made under the Red, White + Blue Sale is non-refundable and non-transferable.

I'm under that, and I agree that's what it said; non refundable, non transferable.

I always cruise solo, I don't want to share the cabin/bathroom with someone else, I'm somewhat an introvert. I eat in the anytime dining room, and also Horizon Court, about 50-50. Regardless of which, I eat alone; dinners, especially, are "me time". I want to sit quietly and go over what I did that day or plans for the next day, excursion or whatever. I also bring my iPad to read between courses.

Definately bring a simple power strip - not surge protector. You'll be able to charge all your toys/gadgets at one time, probably overnight which is what I always do.

I find that Maker's Mark does it as well as anything.

Pack as you normally would but leave space for purchases along the way.

I thought one was supposed to bring along an empty suitcase for those.

I feel we get very good sound from the SoundLink and is is quite compact. However, we only use it in the cabin. On the balcony we will use the wireless Kinivo's or the wired QC20i's. We don't believe we should play music on the balcony. The only exception might be playing Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli singing "Con te partiro" as we sail away from Venice some year.

I probably have half doz or so albums of Andrea Bocelli and a few albums of Il Volo; in addition to 30 or so albums by other assorted artists. Among my favorites are the Willie Nelson singing the Gershwin songbooks albums.

Yes, that duet is something else. I think any/every Princess ship should play that over the ship's PA system while preparing to depart any of the Italian ports; or departing San Francisco for that matter.

We may be on the excessive side [emoji848] but this is our list for most cruises:

 

2 - iPhones

2 - Apple watches with charging cables

2 - iPads

2 - Bose QC20i noise cancelling headphones

2 - Kinivo wireless headphones

1 - Kindle

1 - Bose SoundLink mini Bluetooth speaker

1 - PC laptop with charger (will be switching to a 15" MacBook with the next refresh)

1 - Epson DS30 Portable scanner (no documents to take home)

1 - Canon S100 with charger, spare battery and memory cards (this camera is getting a little out of date now but I still like to have a camera in addition to my iPhone)

2 - Two outlet 1' pass through extension cords (no surge suppressors on the ship)

I - assortment of USB micro, USB mini and lightning cables for charging

 

We leave all of the USB chargers at home and bring the compact Anker Power Port 10. With 10 ports and 60 watts output we can charge all of the devices we need to at one time.

Do you like the Bose SoundLink speaker? I've been thinking about getting that to take on a cruise & hook it up (Bluetooth) to my iPad so I can listen to my tunes while reading out on deck during sea days.

I'm planning to pack long johns. And I will do the layer recommendations. Thanks.

Personally I think you'd be better off going with long silks instead of standard long johns. The reason being, silk is a better insulator plus it's light weight, both for packing as well as wearing.

Yes, dress like an onion, layers.

Motion X GPS-HD

 

it's easy to download maps. Just highlight the area and set how detailed you want the map to be.

 

I also use it on the airplane to idenifity the cities that we're flying over, speed, altitude, and distance to destination.

 

Let me know if you need help.

I downloaded it. When I last flew cross-country to pick up a cruise out of FLL, I was intrigued by the app on the video screen showing where the airplane was, speed, distance, etc. I'm sure this is certainly more up to date.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned, or I didn't see it, is long silk undies. I was fine with them, jeans, T-shirt, long sleeved T, sweater, insulated jacket, beanie style cap and gloves. HOWEVER!, I thought I was going to freeze my you know whats off on my Tracy Arm Fjord day! For my next trip I'm seriously thinking of packing my ski jacket just for the Yukon train ride as well as for Glacier Bay.