Live from the Majestic Princess at last! August 1 2021 to Alaska

[MsSoCalCruiser]

8 hours ago, lbfluffy said:

I had a birthday last Sunday. I read that calories don’t count on birthdays and vacation 

Happy Belated Birthday!

[MsSoCalCruiser]

6 hours ago, Jeter02 said:

Farewell Dinner Menu for tonight

Why do some items have a symbol after them?

[caribill]

11 hours ago, CruiseChick33 said:

One of the passengers is having a medical emergency on board. They are stopping the ship, evacuating all aft rooms from floors 9-17, and landing a coast guard helicopter on the ship to evacuate them

 

10 hours ago, bflysmile said:

We saw them lower a stretcher and fly off but then they came back. And are now circling. From our vantage point (deck 14 midship) it looked like they tried to land and pulled back. Then lowered the stretcher with 2 guys. 

 

Helicopters never land on a Princess ship.

 

They hover above it and evacuate patients using a stretcher that is lowered down to the top deck and then brought back up to the helicopter.

 

Some cabins are evacuated just in case there is an accident that causes the helicopter to crash into the ship.

 

[Jeter02]

19 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Why do some items have a symbol after them?

The little image icon next to some of those foods just symbolize that they are a vegetarian dish. The Astrid is just a warning of how your meat is cooked

[UT-Volsfan]

We were in Walkoff Group A this morning.  Left the ship at 07:20.  Grabbed a taxi to the airport and were sitting at the gate for our flight at 08:10.  We have TSA precheck so that made security a breeze.   Regular security has long lines.

[#1Nanna]

Hope you had an enjoyable cruise! Thanks to all that shared info! Much appreciated!

[Mary Ann 2]

3 minutes ago, UT-Volsfan said:

We were in Walkoff Group A this morning.  Left the ship at 07:20.  Grabbed a taxi to the airport and were sitting at the gate for our flight at 08:10.  We have TSA precheck so that made security a breeze.   Regular security has long lines.

That's great to hear.  Thanks for posting!

[AF-1]

15 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

This is also why we have Medjet Assist. Once we have been admitted to the hospital in Canada - or anywhere else - they will fly us home to the hospital of our choice. Medical emergencies don't always happen in places like Canada where there is reasonable medical assistance available.

Is that part of your travel insurance?. My travel insurance has like $500,000 emergency evac

Edited August 8, 2021 by AF-1

[Jeter02]

3 hours ago, UT-Volsfan said:

We were in Walkoff Group A this morning.  Left the ship at 07:20.  Grabbed a taxi to the airport and were sitting at the gate for our flight at 08:10.  We have TSA precheck so that made security a breeze.   Regular security has long lines.

Ieft around 9. Grabbed an Uber which came instantly. Yessss praise that TSA precheck. It was such a quick disembarkation that was smooth and a breeze. Almost too smooth, as I wish I were still on the ship continuing to sail.

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Is that part of your travel insurance?. My travel insurance has like $500,000 emergency evac

 

Medjet Assist is separate travel insurance. No matter where you are in the world (even right here in the USA) if you become hospitalized they will get you home to your preferred facility. If you are able to fly commercial they fly with you and provide medical personnel and support. If not, they provide medically equipped and staffed jets to get you home. Imagine having a major issue in Morocco. You end up in a hospital with unknown doctors, unknown health procedures, possibly being required to pay upfront before anything will be done. Medjet Assist will fly in a team in a private medically equipped. They will handle getting you from the hospital to the plane and fly you back home to your preferred medical facility. It's not expensive and you can purchase it for a year, 3 years, etc. We only purchase the medical option but if you are visiting a political hot spot you can also get coverage to get you the heck out of there without having to be hospitalized for anything. Say there is a terrorist event or political uprising. They get you out.

 

I learned about Medjet quite a while back from @Pam in CA posting about it. It can literally save your life as well as saving many (many!) thousands of dollars. We won't travel without it.

[AF-1]

34 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Medjet Assist is separate travel insurance. No matter where you are in the world (even right here in the USA) if you become hospitalized they will get you home to your preferred facility. If you are able to fly commercial they fly with you and provide medical personnel and support. If not, they provide medically equipped and staffed jets to get you home. Imagine having a major issue in Morocco. You end up in a hospital with unknown doctors, unknown health procedures, possibly being required to pay upfront before anything will be done. Medjet Assist will fly in a team in a private medically equipped. They will handle getting you from the hospital to the plane and fly you back home to your preferred medical facility. It's not expensive and you can purchase it for a year, 3 years, etc. We only purchase the medical option but if you are visiting a political hot spot you can also get coverage to get you the heck out of there without having to be hospitalized for anything. Say there is a terrorist event or political uprising. They get you out.

 

I learned about Medjet quite a while back from @Pam in CA posting about it. It can literally save your life as well as saving many (many!) thousands of dollars. We won't travel without it.

Thanks I appreciate your answer.  Have a nice day

[blondee419]

So, @PKT1976 - 
Question about your cabin. I'm taking the 3 day in October, my first solo cruise ever!, before my mom and I do the mediterranean (hopefully) next summer. Hopefully it's still a go. If you don't mind sharing, where was your cabin located, and is it an interior? 

Thanks! 
~K 

Edited August 9, 2021 by blondee419
Fix OP's name

[Jeter02]

1 hour ago, blondee419 said:

So, @PKT1976 - 
Question about your cabin. I'm taking the 3 day in October, my first solo cruise ever!, before my mom and I do the mediterranean (hopefully) next summer. Hopefully it's still a go. If you don't mind sharing, where was your cabin located, and is it an interior? 

Thanks! 
~K 

Awe, you're going to have so much fun on your solo trip. I travel solo 99% of the time even was on this sailing I was solo. Personally, some of the perks of traveling solo simply are you're not working off of anybody else's schedule but your own. You can do whatever your little heart desires. Also, you get to meet so many interesting new people along your journey. But that piece really comes down to how much you're willing to socialize with others and just randomly stir up conversations with people around you. It's a lot of fun! Or, you can enjoy sitting back and just soaking everything in and play The observer people watching is always loads of fun as well. My favorite personal saying I say all the time is a vacation or a cruise is whatever you make it to be.

[tarheelz1995]

Thank you to all the great people we met on this cruise.  While our family of three may not be the biggest fans of cruising in general (we have plenty of gripes), the people we met were some of the greatest.

 

Whether you are a solo or in a crowd, I encourage you to press outside your comfort zone to say Hi to a stranger on the Majestic.  You'll be amazed how well it pays off.

 

Note:  This advice extends to young adults on our cruise.  The teenagers on the Aug 1 cruise who registered with the "Beach House" (or "Lounge" as the teens called it) bonded pretty tightly.  (You may have seen their roving "gangs."  Our daughter counts this as the best of her three cruises -- and the two prior cruises were with DCL!)

Edited August 9, 2021 by tarheelz1995

[Jeter02]

7 hours ago, tarheelz1995 said:

Thank you to all the great people we met on this cruise.  While our family of three may not be the biggest fans of cruising in general (we have plenty of gripes), the people we met were some of the greatest.

 

Whether you are a solo or in a crowd, I encourage you to press outside your comfort zone to say Hi to a stranger on the Majestic.  You'll be amazed how well it pays off.

 

Note:  This advice extends to young adults on our cruise.  The teenagers on the Aug 1 cruise who registered with the "Beach House" (or "Lounge" as the teens called it) bonded pretty tightly.  (You may have seen their roving "gangs."  Our daughter counts this as the best of her three cruises -- and the two prior cruises were with DCL!)

I love this! It's so true, you can meet some incredible people along the way. 

[DuncanBlizzard]

On 8/5/2021 at 6:22 PM, Tripmaven said:

I appreciate how important food is to everyone.  We can't live without is, but I would like more information on other areas of the ship.  Have there been any Princess theatre shows?  If so how is that handled with the "covid restrictions?  Are there "movies under the stars?  We know that Alaska has suffered in the "pandemic".  We hope that cruisers can help with some of the suffering.  Anything else is helpful, except "food"'

 

We went to the shows every evening at 7:00.  I've never been on a cruise before so can't compare them to other cruises.  There was always plenty of seating, and people were free to sit wherever they wanted with no restrictions.  No reservations were needed.  You just walk in and sit where you want.  I was especially fond of Tom Franek, the piano player.  It wasn't traditional piano playing -- included singing, playing the piano while standing on his head or behind his back, etc.  He was great.  Our least favorite was Encore -- a combination of singing and dancing.  The comedian and magician were good too.

 

There were movies going on regularly on deck 16.  I never watched one, but they were listed as showing throughout the day on the patter.  I saw bits and pieces while swimming, and some were better attended than others.  There were always plenty of lounge chairs available when I was up there as well as blankets available.

 

We went to the naturalist for each presentation, but I got less and less impressed with him.  He seemed to insert too many of his own views into the talk instead of focusing on Alaska.  I liked the two national parks women that were on during Glacier Bay.

 

One of my least favorite aspects of the cruise was getting on or off the ship each time.  It was generally a free-for-all with long lines and no one knowing what was going on.  As a first-time cruiser who couldn't download the app, it was not always easy to figure anything out.  I did a lot of wandering around the ship.  By the end, I was pretty good at knowing where things were just as the cruise ended.

 

I was at guest services at least once a day (and they always have a line) trying to get things resolved.  We still got overcharged because they didn't always fix what they promised to fix.  We also ran into quite a few employees around the ship who didn't have answers.  I liked it best when they said they didn't know and told us to ask someone else instead of giving a wrong answer or making something up.

 

I was totally unaware of the chef-s table and other things people are discussing.  Those things are invisible to a random passenger.  I have significant dietary restrictions and thus ended up at the same two restaurants (Concerto for lunch and Allegro for dinner).  They took good care of me, but food wasn't a big part of my cruise once I figured out how to get what I needed.  I mostly rotated the same handful of things.

 

[DuncanBlizzard]

On 8/6/2021 at 5:58 PM, Steelers36 said:

I notice one of the Curtis Stone special mains made it on this menu - plus a dessert.  Has anyone noticed if the Sea Bass & Mussels dish or the Chicken Pot Pie dish also made an appearance?  Perhaps they are slowly building repertoire.

 

The chicken pot pie was Saturday at lunch.  No sea bass this past week.

[DuncanBlizzard]

On 8/6/2021 at 11:07 PM, DougH said:

Did anyone notice how the salmon are running in Creek Street or the small river in Skagway? I usually sail early season mid May / early June too early to see salmon. I'm also a big fan of Tongass Trading upstairs, the small Hardware/general store in Skagway is also fun to explore

The salmon were running on Creek St. -- mostly at the ladder or further upstream.  It had rained and the water was too strong to bypass the ladder.  We saw the most salmon on a walk out past the old town section of Dyea in Skagway.  There were tons and tons there.  You could see them from the boardwalk but also walk along the river and see large groups of them.

[DuncanBlizzard]

On 8/7/2021 at 7:42 PM, mringenoldus said:

Did anyone from this sailing have to complete the 24-hr prior to sailing Health form at the pier? The Medallion App has gone berserk for my friend and Princess is closed for the night.

You may already be on the ship, but check-in was extremely quick for anyone regardless of how much they did or didn't do beforehand on the app.  I got their threatening emails and was threatened on the phone with being denied boarding, and it was all bogus for our sailing.  Then again, we were there early and waiting for the doors to open so the lines might have gotten longer later.

 

I really wish they hadn't been so nasty before boarding given what we experienced.  As a first-time cruiser who couldn't download their app, it really soured me forever against cruising.

[JF - retired RRT]

30 minutes ago, DuncanBlizzard said:

One of my least favorite aspects of the cruise was getting on or off the ship each time.  It was generally a free-for-all with long lines and no one knowing what was going on.  So now you know (if you cruise again) wait until the scrum is done. Much easier when all the "I gotta be first" people are gone. 

As a first-time cruiser who couldn't download the app, it was not always easy to figure anything out.  I did a lot of wandering around the ship.  By the end, I was pretty good at knowing where things were just as the cruise ended. That's what the second cruise is for 😁. Now you know how to navigate a ship. They're all essentially the same, with some differences here & there.

 

 

I was at guest services at least once a day (and they always have a line) trying to get things resolved.  We still got overcharged because they didn't always fix what they promised to fix. Always get the name of the person who is promising to fix it.  

 

I was totally unaware of the chef-s table and other things people are discussing.  Those things are invisible to a random passenger.  That's what Cruise Critic is for 😉. I knew about Chef's Table, Ultimate Ship Tour (not available yet with the Covid restrictions), balcony breakfast/dinner, Future Cruise Deposits, Veteran's & Shareholder OBC, CC roll calls before our first cruise (now 25+) because I found Cruise Critic after we'd made our first booking and before our first sailing.

 

If you cruise again, you'll be prepared.

[westcoaster]

On 8/7/2021 at 11:33 AM, CruiseChick33 said:

One of the passengers is having a medical emergency on board. They are stopping the ship, evacuating all aft rooms from floors 9-17, and landing a coast guard helicopter on the ship to evacuate them

There was a story in the local paper about the passenger from the Majestic Princess being airlifted to the hospital in Victoria.  The article doesn't really have any additional information, though.

 

Sick cruise passenger airlifted to Victoria General Hospital

[nini]

2 hours ago, DuncanBlizzard said:

You may already be on the ship, but check-in was extremely quick for anyone regardless of how much they did or didn't do beforehand on the app.  I got their threatening emails and was threatened on the phone with being denied boarding, and it was all bogus for our sailing.  Then again, we were there early and waiting for the doors to open so the lines might have gotten longer later.

 

I really wish they hadn't been so nasty before boarding given what we experienced.  As a first-time cruiser who couldn't download their app, it really soured me forever against cruising.

 

I am so sorry you feel that way. However, nothing is rainbows and roses all of the time. We have also experienced a few negative incidents on and with Princess, but we still LOVE cruising and Princess is our favorite. Also, please note that they are just now getting up and running after close to a year and a half.

 

I do so much research on CC that provides us with information about cabins, special dinners, shore excursions, etc. Otherwise, I would have never known about Chef's Table, Winemaker's Dinner, or the Tuscan Dinner and many other topics.

[AF-1]

DuncanBlizzard,  thanks for your honest feedback.  Being a first time cruise with Princess;  I hope most of your wishes were fulfilled, enough that you may consider another cruise in the future.  Cheers and remember to smile.

[memoak]

3 hours ago, DuncanBlizzard said:

You may already be on the ship, but check-in was extremely quick for anyone regardless of how much they did or didn't do beforehand on the app.  I got their threatening emails and was threatened on the phone with being denied boarding, and it was all bogus for our sailing.  Then again, we were there early and waiting for the doors to open so the lines might have gotten longer later.

 

I really wish they hadn't been so nasty before boarding given what we experienced.  As a first-time cruiser who couldn't download their app, it really soured me forever against cruising.

This good news as we cannot get the app to work at all on an iPhone 12 - can't even change names, scan passport etc.  Did you just show up with passport, travel summary, CDC card and the always needed credit card ?

[DuncanBlizzard]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

This good news as we cannot get the app to work at all on an iPhone 12 - can't even change names, scan passport etc.  Did you just show up with passport, travel summary, CDC card and the always needed credit card ?

Yes.  For our cruise, they seemed more concerned about getting everyone on quickly than checking anything carefully.  We talked to others that could do nothing beforehand, and all said they got through quickly and more easily than they feared.  They say our ship was 75% full and we got there very early.  Hopefully things continue to run smoothly for later cruises.  My maitre d even mentioned out of the blue how much trouble everyone including the crew were having with the app and hoped they could get it working better in the next couple of months.

 

One caution.  Go to guest services a few times during the cruise to check your bill.  It seems the medallions aren't always optimal for knowing who to assign drink charges to.  We got erroneous charges on our bill when we had ordered nothing and had trouble getting them removed.  Presumably we were somewhere in the vicinity when they should have charged someone else.  Same thing if both of you have drink packages.  While at guest services, I heard people trying to get one charge per every two drinks they ordered removed.  Guest services said it's a known problem that they bill one person when that person gets a drink for them and a companion because the system automatically charges both to one drink package.  Guest services will give you a printout so you can check your charges and get them reversed.  And know that some areas kept written paper lists of charges because they said the system was too slow to use so charges appear later.