July 25, 2021 Live From Majestic Princess Alaska sailing

[BlueFish2000]

29 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I wonder if there will be priority (Platinum, Elite, Suite) queues.  That wouldn't cost them a dime. 

 

Entry through all doors/both decks?

 

A nightmare or a pleasant experience?

We are wondering this too. We are in a suite and paid quite a bit more than we normally do for a suite, but wanted to cruise on the back of the ship in Alaska. We are ones that have not gotten our Medallion to work - have been on very long holds with Princess with no help after we get through to someone. We are 4 days away from flying to Seattle and 7 days away from boarding. We are hoping that there will be a priority line and we will have a check in that's a breeze like we use to before the Medallion app. Will let you know after we experience it. We will try again before we board to call and  find out if now someone can help us. Just hope it does not take up our whole day on hold only to get nowhere. Got a email that they had fixed the problem but it is not fixed for us. 

[Kbwhat53]

5 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I am fortunate (or crazy enough) to be on the inaugural Princess 2021 Alaska sailings out of Seattle with a really great roll call group on CC that are going to join me in posting to this thread.  If you are on this sailing but not on the roll call, I hope you will also contribute.

 

We know there are a lot of very valid questions and concerns folks have about what this Alaska season will be like. What I love about live from feeds that have multiple contributors on the same sailing is the various different experiences and point of views presented.  While I appreciate the professional CC, Points Guy etc reviews and live feeds they are, by design, one dimensional.

 

Our experiences may differ from future sailings as policies, protocols and procedures will most likely be in flux as Princess finds what works (hopefully the the supply chain to restock the bar after we disembark) and what doesn’t (the ap, really?—-what were they thinking?) or as health advisories (OMG don’t even think Delta variant) change.

 

These are some topics that the roll call group (and hopefully others on our sailing) will try to address on this cruise.  I can not guarantee all will get discussed but hopefully most will.

 

Please refrain from asking a lot of premature questions if you can.  Try to wait until we are at that stage of the cruise. For example now we might be able to answer questions you have about how we got cruise ready and on Day 2 we could answer questions about All things Embarkation.   Questions about disembarkation would be best posted on our last day at sea.  Otherwise your questions might get buried and forgotten.

 

1. Getting Cruise Ready and how we fixed problems we had.  Maybe we will have hindsight on what to get worried about and what to just let go once we board.

 

2. All things embarkation: airport expedience, hotel experiences, transportation to the pier, arrival groups (how strict are they?), Elite/suite priority boarding, Blue lane, green lane and is there really a yellow lane (like I was given for a moment in time), showing proof of vaccination and all other travel docs, which MDR is open for lunch, when were the rooms ready (remember we have no disembarking PAX so YMMV).

 

3. Dining  Menus for all dining rooms/restaurants/pop ups and room service.  I believe we have some Full Suite in our group so hopefully we will get to see any special menus they get.  Wait times for Anytime, how the reserved times worked (they are every 20 minutes on Dine My Way), is there a chef’s table??????………………….can we dine with others outside of our travel group?

 

4. Journey View, Entertainment and reservations: I am so curious as to how this will work.  There is a midnight skies event that holds 35 people and it had no spaces left like 5 minutes after it opened.  What happens if show up to a “sold out” event? Can I still just wonder from venue to venue enjoying 10 minutes of this band or spending 20 minutes dancing in another venue like I used to?

 

5. Internet prices and how to purchase, elite/platinum pricing,  what is the speed

 

6. Patters if they exist.  I really hope they do since they answer so. many. questions.

 

7. Capacity  hopefully we will find out how full the ship is.

 

8. Ocean Now Food, Drinks & Shopping okay I will be one of the first to order a drink (with my beverage package) and wait in my room! How well does the ap work around the ship.

 

9. How does Princess enforce the restrictions on the unvaccinated?

Will be following as we join you next Sunday!  

[dskenn]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

HaveDogWillTravel:  Did I miss something?  

 

1.  Are you able to make a reservation for the Princess Theater?

 

2.  Are you able to actually pick a particular seat in the theater?  - I'd love to be able to do this.

Hello,

I am going to go out on a limb here as I have never sailed on a Medallion ship.  I don't think there are actual reservations for the Princess Theater.   I think all the activities they are showing are kind of like the Patter that gets delivered to your stateroom the night before.  If they are limiting the number of guests they allow in the Princess Theatre then I could be wrong and I will let you know next week.

[RRFan]

So excited to be able to follow your inaugural cruise next week!  Thanks so much for doing this!  Wishing all of you a happy, healthy, fun cruise with beautiful weather and lots of marvelous memories in the making!  🥰

[Steelers36]

To the Roll Call folks who are going to post here, thanks much.  Your experience and info will be of great value and hopefully comfort to those that follow.

[DUCHESSRN]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

To the Roll Call folks who are going to post here, thanks much.  Your experience and info will be of great value and hopefully comfort to those that follow.

I second this ..Thank You.

[caribill]

3 hours ago, dskenn said:

Hello,

I am going to go out on a limb here as I have never sailed on a Medallion ship.  I don't think there are actual reservations for the Princess Theater.   I think all the activities they are showing are kind of like the Patter that gets delivered to your stateroom the night before.  If they are limiting the number of guests they allow in the Princess Theatre then I could be wrong and I will let you know next week.

 

There are now in this new world of planning in advance everything you might want to do while on board the ship.

 

According to an above post, you can even reserve when you might want to stop by and hear the piano player in Crooners.

[abbydancer2003]

Thanks for doing this.  We were supposed to be on the Emerald a couple of weeks ago, and when it cancelled, we weren't able to rebook for this summer (my niece found out where she's going to college which made it impossible) so we are on the Crown next summer.  

However DH and I are doing an Xmas Hawaii with friends, so your cruise may give me valuable information for that.  

[MsSoCalCruiser]

Thank you for doing this. I can’t wait to follow along. I was read that there are two pop-up dining venues on the Majestic Princess.  If you have a chance please check out Planks BBQ and Steamers Seafood.  Thanks so much!

[Andrew J. Cat]

Many thanks to everyone who takes the time to post here next Sunday!

Every experiential anecdote will be greatly appreciated.

<tongue-in-cheek> I hope to hear about butter pats in the MDRs and of course chair hogs! 😁

[ckfajf]

11 hours ago, BlueFish2000 said:

We are wondering this too. We are in a suite and paid quite a bit more than we normally do for a suite, but wanted to cruise on the back of the ship in Alaska. We are ones that have not gotten our Medallion to work - have been on very long holds with Princess with no help after we get through to someone. We are 4 days away from flying to Seattle and 7 days away from boarding. We are hoping that there will be a priority line and we will have a check in that's a breeze like we use to before the Medallion app. Will let you know after we experience it. We will try again before we board to call and  find out if now someone can help us. Just hope it does not take up our whole day on hold only to get nowhere. Got a email that they had fixed the problem but it is not fixed for us. 

We are sailing in a suite on August 1. Would appreciate if you have time if you could post how the suite breakfast works as there is no Sabatini in the ship. We love our breakfast in Sabatini! We have been able to get the app to work but cannot make any dinner reservations other than the main dining room.

[RLK33853]

This will be wonderful - real life versus speculation.  Thanks very much in advance for each of your contributions.  I'm guessing there will be bugs to work out for Princess but maybe real examples will let those of us who have had nothing but problems with the app know that life will be fine on board if you don't get everything booked beforehand.  Once again, thanks for doing this!

[phabric]

I will be following along.

 

Anybody staying in Seattle before the cruise?  
 

Any recommendations for a hotel near Pikes Market?

[dides]

50 minutes ago, ckfajf said:

We are sailing in a suite on August 1. Would appreciate if you have time if you could post how the suite breakfast works as there is no Sabatini in the ship. We love our breakfast in Sabatini! We have been able to get the app to work but cannot make any dinner reservations other than the main dining room.

 

The suite breakfast has been held in the Crown Grill on previous Majestic Princess cruises. See this previous thread.

[SandySetsSail]

16 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

We first noticed reservations open in journeyview July 4.  But pickings were very slim. New events posted everyday and sometimes multiple times a day. Maybe once things are more stable the entire thing will get posted at once. I just noticed a new event on Skagway day. They are bringing on a musher and the dog(s).

 

Doesn’t OM mean ocean medallion? Idk who there would be to invite from there.  

Thank you so much for doing this for all of us that will be sailing at a later date. Do you have any idea what time the musher and dogs will be on board? I’m likely to schedule the rest of my day around the chance to see them. 😊

[Sea Hag]

I don't know if you're doing Princess transfers (or if anybody reading this will be before the 8/29 sailing), but if so I'd like to know what time the first shuttle back to the airport left on disembarkation day. 

[cruzrbachoua]

Will be following safe sailing. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

17 minutes ago, 1travelinggal said:

Thank you so much for doing this for all of us that will be sailing at a later date. Do you have any idea what time the musher and dogs will be on board? I’m likely to schedule the rest of my day around the chance to see them. 😊

Sure do here you go. 

[Alaskanb]

So grateful for you doing this. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

When I put this Live From together I tried my best to read all the earlier posts about what folks wanted to ask those who sailed first and put most of those queries into one of the 9 categories in my first post. A lot of questions I didn’t put will get answered as we post patters.  I got pretty tired eyes and forgot to add

 

#10 all things disembarkation 

 

I did see that thread about the early return flight and the concerns about getting to the airport on time. @seahag I am taking the Princess shuttle at the end of the cruise for an 11:40 am flight and will post information as I discover it about that. It would be great if the query about the earliest shuttle was reposted here on our last sea day with the time that is needed. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

I am going to try and mostly refrain from making any speculative remarks about what I think will happen or what my PVP said would happen, buuuuuuuuut regarding reservations for the Princess theater and all events on board in journey view I was told by my PVP that if I make reservations when I show up at the event I will have a spot. Not a particular seat but a spot. 
I may be wrong and my friend @dskennmay be right that it is not that. 
This topic, at least for me, is one that I’m really dying to know the answer to. 

[dskenn]

1 minute ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I am going to try and mostly refrain from making any speculative remarks about what I think will happen or what my PVP said would happen, buuuuuuuuut regarding reservations for the Princess theater and all events on board in journey view I was told by my PVP that if I make reservations when I show up at the event I will have a spot. Not a particular seat but a spot. 
I may be wrong and my friend @dskennmay be right that it is not that. 
This topic, at least for me, is one that I’m really dying to know the answer to. 

Yes I am with you.  I am going to try out making reservations for some places and just showing up.  We will see what happens!  I am so excited to be getting on this ship!!!  One more week

[HaveDogWillTravel]

14 hours ago, jimdee3636 said:

It's great you're doing this! I'm booked on the Majestic for its first post-Alaska sailing in early October and I'll be eager to hear all about the ship.

 

One thing I'd particularly like to know is whether the noise level inside the Bistro Sur La Mer (I think that's the name---one of the specialty restaurants) is high. Early reviews said that because this restaurant is located close to the atrium, all of the sounds from musicians, singers, DJs, and everything else permeates the dining area. Hopefully, they've fixed the problem.

 

Actually, I'm also interested in the Cantonese specialty restaurant. If you go, please let us know what you think of the cuisine, service, and ambiance.

 

Thanks in advance!

Hi there. It would be great if you would ask these kinds of questions later after we’ve been on board a couple of days. We are all on vacation and while we are happy to donate a little time every day to this I don’t imagine many will scroll back and find these types of questions. 

[EDDY0827]

This is going to be the most anticipated "live from...", and should win an award!

A tip o' the cap to all contributors and a TIA!

[voljeep]

32 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I am going to try and mostly refrain from making any speculative remarks about what I think will happen or what my PVP said would happen, buuuuuuuuut regarding reservations for the Princess theater and all events on board in journey view I was told by my PVP that if I make reservations when I show up at the event I will have a spot. Not a particular seat but a spot. 
I may be wrong and my friend @dskennmay be right that it is not that. 
This topic, at least for me, is one that I’m really dying to know the answer to. 

I will be interested in the 'standby line' for when the booked placeholders don't show up 🦄