LIVE - Majestic Princess Alaska sailing on September 19, 2021 from Seattle

[Thrak]

14 hours ago, Purple Gallinule said:

By the way, if you are too full for dessert you can have it delivered to your cabin. It took us about 20 minutes from order to arrival.

 

Wow!  I had no idea. The last time we ate at Crown Grill they seemed peeved with us as we not only couldn't finish our dinner but declined dessert. Wish I had known there was an option to have it sent to the cabin.

[awhcruiser]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

Wow!  I had no idea. The last time we ate at Crown Grill they seemed peeved with us as we not only couldn't finish our dinner but declined dessert. Wish I had known there was an option to have it sent to the cabin.

I think this is new because of Covid,

[dchip]

9 minutes ago, awhcruiser said:

I think this is new because of Covid,

I was posting at the same time. I think you are correct!

Denise

[Purple Gallinule]

Back on the ship after our outing in Skagway. We took the "To the Klondike Summit" excursion and had a great time. Our driver, Paul, was one of the best tour guides we have ever had. He was friendly, informative, and very entertaining. The rain stopped for our trip and into this afternoon. Lots of sunshine. Of course there was wind and the temps were in the 40s, but I did not hear a single person complaining. I am pretty sure I detected smiles under everyone's masks.

 

Downtown Skagway was fun to walk around. Some stores were closed, but we managed to contribute to the local economy in several places. We did not find any businesses with Wi-Fi, and we were told the only free internet access in town was at the city library. 

 

After dropping off our backpack in the room, we went up and got burgers and drinks. Needing just another couple of bites, I checked out the desserts in the buffet and came up with another tip for you. If you want peanut butter cookies, you have to ASK FOR THEM. They are kept separately from the other cookie offerings.

 

Here are just a couple of photos from this morning. I hope you enjoy.

 

[phabric]

Was your excursion a van tour? Did you get out at anytime or was it a straight drive?

[Purple Gallinule]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

Was your excursion a van tour? Did you get out at anytime or was it a straight drive?

Yes, the excursion was in a van. There were 20 plus the driver. We made 3 or 4 stops on the way up for photo ops. While it was blustery and cool/cold, there was some sunshine and no rain. The only stop on the way down was at U.S. Customs where we all had to show our passports. Paul, our driver, let us off next to the visitor center in downtown Skagway, so were could spread our dollars around. Great fun.

[Steelers36]

21 hours ago, Purple Gallinule said:

all the men showed up for formal night last night in suits/blazers and even one tuxedo.

ALL???  the men on the ship????  Never have I seen that on Princess.  And not talking about ages ago of course when men wore suits almost every night.  LOL.

[Purple Gallinule]

46 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

ALL???  the men on the ship????  Never have I seen that on Princess.  And not talking about ages ago of course when men wore suits almost every night.  LOL.

I did not say all the men on the ship. I said that the men in Club Class while we were there...

[californiagirl]

Here is a photo of Mendenhall Glacier when we were there in 2003.  The current photo is shocking to say the least.

[Steelers36]

14 minutes ago, Purple Gallinule said:

I did not say all the men on the ship. I said that the men in Club Class while we were there...

Okay.  Sorry, I didn't interpret it that way.  I suppose that is possible.  I don't really care how dressed up people want to be, but it seemed unusual.

[Purple Gallinule]

20 minutes ago, californiagirl said:

Here is a photo of Mendenhall Glacier when we were there in 2003.  The current photo is shocking to say the least.

Yes, that is a major difference. Wow.

[capriccio]

13 hours ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

I made mention on other Alaska thread, how much it appears Mendenhall glacier

has receeded.  Your pic above.... shocking to me.  Wonder what you thought?

 

I had the same reaction.  We visited Mendenhall on our 2012 and 2018 Alaska cruises and noticed a reduction in size in 2018 but the shrinkage in the last 3 years is much more pronounced.

[hockey-man]

On 9/21/2021 at 12:01 PM, Irisagogo said:

I am going next week, and the forecast is for strong aurora on the night we are in Juneau.  Now, please don't rain!!!

Call guest services and ask for a northern lights wake up call. They keep a list that will get notified from the bridge if they are visible. Sadly on our 9/12 cruise, we never got the call due to cloudy skies. Good luck!!

 

sorry. I posted before I read the last page. Already answered. 

Edited September 24, 2021 by hockey-man
Already answered. 

[testerlady]

9 hours ago, hockey-man said:

Call guest services and ask for a northern lights wake up call. They keep a list that will get notified from the bridge if they are visible. Sadly on our 9/12 cruise, we never got the call due to cloudy skies. Good luck!!

 

sorry. I posted before I read the last page. Already answered. 

I'm going to ask that our names be added to the list, too. That's on my bucket list.

[farsight]

Pardon me if I step on any toes. It's not my intention. I have started the September 26th Live thread and thought that I would provide a link here as a courtesy to those who are following along with rapt attention. I know DW and I have read every post from this and all the previous live threads. The next cruise after ours is not to Alaska, but many of the diehards will be coming along for the ride I'm sure. Thank you for this thread! 🙂

 

[Purple Gallinule]

We are in Glacier Bay National Park. 31F with rain and low clouds. The park rangers are onboard and will be giving lectures and commentary throughout the morning.

 

If you are onboard, the rangers have situated themselves in the Hollywood Conservatory. I encourage everyone to stop by at least once to see their displays. Bring your National Parks Passport along to get stamped. We are hoping for lots of wildlife activity and I will post again later today about it all.

 

This also gives me a chance to wear my new Alaska stocking cap that I bought in Skagway.

  

[Purple Gallinule]

Well, my post from Glacier Bay finally got posted.

 

Today we were in Ketchikan and went on an excellent excursion. It was called "Lighthouse Totems & Eagles" and was a fun and informative boat ride. We saw lots of wildlife. I recorded more than a dozen species of birds. We saw several whales, too. My only negative comment was that they only seemed to want to point out eagles. Beautiful birds, but hardly the only birds.

 

There was a three person crew - Captain Jeff, Brooke, and Kyle. They were super nice and well versed in the Ketchikan area. They served a  great snack of homemade salmon dip, smoked salmon, pickles, and a square of dark chocolate. They had drinks including hot chocolate, coffee, and sodas. I would not hesitate to recommend this excursion. 

 

We have had sun most of the day, and the only rough water was during the night last night. However, yours truly slept right through it all.

 

One other note for right now. Last night was the second formal night. We had a fine dinner in the Club Class dining room. All the gentlemen that were there when we were were dressed nicely, from collared shirts to suits. The ladies all looked great in their fashion choices. After dinner we enjoyed the production show "Sweet Soul Music" and laughed ourselves silly at the Marriage Match game show.

 

I have really had fun doing these posts. Hopefully we will get better coverage as we head south and I will be able to post tomorrow. We are staying an extra day in Seattle, so I should be able to post about disembarkation on Sunday evening.

 

In fact, we had so much fun on this cruise that we booked the same one for June 6, 2023. Wanna come along??

[Senga]

Purple Gallinule, I am so enjoying your commentary.  What a pleasure to read posts from such a positive, happy gentleman.  Our Alaska cruise (Vancouver to Vancouver) isn’t until May 2022 on Grand Princess.

[Song in my heart]

On 9/24/2021 at 5:11 PM, Purple Gallinule said:

Well, my post from Glacier Bay finally got posted.

 

Today we were in Ketchikan and went on an excellent excursion. It was called "Lighthouse Totems & Eagles" and was a fun and informative boat ride. We saw lots of wildlife. I recorded more than a dozen species of birds. We saw several whales, too. My only negative comment was that they only seemed to want to point out eagles. Beautiful birds, but hardly the only birds.

 

There was a three person crew - Captain Jeff, Brooke, and Kyle. They were super nice and well versed in the Ketchikan area. They served a  great snack of homemade salmon dip, smoked salmon, pickles, and a square of dark chocolate. They had drinks including hot chocolate, coffee, and sodas. I would not hesitate to recommend this excursion. 

 

We have had sun most of the day, and the only rough water was during the night last night. However, yours truly slept right through it all.

 

One other note for right now. Last night was the second formal night. We had a fine dinner in the Club Class dining room. All the gentlemen that were there when we were were dressed nicely, from collared shirts to suits. The ladies all looked great in their fashion choices. After dinner we enjoyed the production show "Sweet Soul Music" and laughed ourselves silly at the Marriage Match game show.

 

I have really had fun doing these posts. Hopefully we will get better coverage as we head south and I will be able to post tomorrow. We are staying an extra day in Seattle, so I should be able to post about disembarkation on Sunday evening.

 

In fact, we had so much fun on this cruise that we booked the same one for June 6, 2023. Wanna come along??

I have enjoyed reading your posts.  Would you mind telling me what are the main differences aboard now from before Covid please?  You mentioned masks.  Do you have to wear masks all the time?  Was the entertainment in the theater and other venues still on? Were there less passengers or are they at full capacity?

[Purple Gallinule]

Okay. Here we are at the end of an absolutely wonderful cruise. There are a couple of questions above, so I hope I get the answers in this last post.

 

The last day was a sea day highlighted by rain and lousy internet. Of course, we had to pack our bags and put them out right after dinner. Once that was taken care of we headed down to the Princess Live venue for a program put on by the Cruise Director staff called Hollywood Hiccups. It was really fun. It was something how willing the cruise staff was to make fools of themselves for our entertainment. This group under the direction of Cruise Director Kevin is probably the most fun group we have seen.

 

Following that show we went to the Princess Theater for a final production show that I would rate as okay - at least until the end. At the end of the musical performers, the CD staff once again put on a skit that was hilarious. A great send off.

 

This morning went super smoothly. The dining room was open from 6:30 to 8:30, so we went down for a final breakfast on board. We went back to our cabin to get our carry-on and we were off the ship 10 minutes later. Since we were going to stay an extra day in Seattle, we could just walk off and not go to a designated location to wait for a transfer bus to the airport.

 

NOTE: If you have not already done so, be sure to sign you passport. One of the customs officers told us that fully one-half of all travelers have not signed their passports. We didn't even know where the signature line is. Who says vacations can't be educational.

 

We took a cab to our hotel just three blocks from the Space Needle. We were able to get into a room right away, even though we arrived at 9:00am. After checking in online for our Monday flight on Southwest, we walked over to the Chihuly Gardens. Wow. If you haven't seen this great attraction be sure to go there next time you have some time in Seattle.

 

So, the week is over. How have things changed on Princess since our last cruise? There is the constant cleaning. Masks are required at all indoor venues. Some of the layout on the Majestic is different from other ships in the fleet. But we got around just fine.

 

The masks did not seem to bother anyone. After all, we knew about it before we sailed. I would suggest the you have more than one mask for the seven days. The buffet was another big change. As you probably have heard, you do not get your own food, but rather it is plated for you by the staff. They are friendly and will get you what you want from a very wide selection. 

 

We were told that the ship was at 60% capacity. I know that is not the most profitable level for Princess, but it was great for getting around. No problems getting seats at any of the venues, and no lines at the dining rooms.

 

So, did we enjoy ourselves? Let me just say that we booked the same cruise for June of 2023, although it is RT San Francisco rather than Seattle.

[geoherb]

Thanks for doing your live posts. Unfortunately, I did not have time to see the Chihuly gardens in Seattle before or after my cruise last month. We saw a couple of his large installations two and three years ago--at Kew Gardens in London in 2019 and at the Biltmore House in Asheville in 2018. We've also been to the Tacoma Glass Museum and enjoyed his bridge of glass there. There are also Chihuly pieces at the Atlantis in Nassau that we've seen. 

[tzyf]

On 9/17/2021 at 7:29 PM, lovemy3boxers said:

@Purple Galinulethanks again for staring thread. As I posted in our Roll Call, I'll be on this cruise also and will be happy to help with any questions also.

 

We came in to Seattle Thursday 9/16,3 days prior to cruise. After much stress of trying to find a test site. I ordered the BinexNow AG home test. I did in hotel, took less that 5 min wait time for initial call for both my mom and I separately. Had results emailed within 8m of eMed reading. So easy and simple. Any question on this, please don't hesitate to ask. 

Our group has been stressing about this test. Where did you buy it? When we buy it will it be obvious how to proceed?

[EDDY0827]

1 hour ago, tzyf said:

Our group has been stressing about this test. Where did you buy it? When we buy it will it be obvious how to proceed?

From an email from Princess:

Ø  JUST ANNOUNCED – At home COVID-19 repid tests - We partnered with OPTUM so U.S. guests can order an FDA authorized at home antigen test kit shipped to their door in 2 business days or less.   This includes video-supervised visit with an eMed Certified Guide to help guest properly administer the test and verify the results within 15 minutes.  Cost is $69.99 for a set of 2 tests.   Your test kit includes a personal virtual visit with an eMed Certified Guide who will help you properly administer the test and third party verify the result. You must provide your official eMed Labs report in order to board your flight. The report is provided via email and can be printed or displayed on screen to provide proof.  **You must meet all requirements as outlined by the CDC to purchase this test. Click “Get Started” below to see if you qualify, simple 8 questions and then you are advised if you can order. Must be at least 18 years of age to order. Test authorized for use by persons age 4+. Test takers 14 or younger must be accompanied by an adult during specimen collection.           https://store.optum.com/shop/products/abbott-binaxNOW-COVID-19-ag-at-home-test-kit-2-pack/

********************************************

Here is a video taking you through the entire process of testing:

 

 

[JG-TX]

Thanks for sharing. I think we are going to book Majestic for Christmas tomorrow. First post Covid cruise for us.

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

Bumping for those who have cruises soon, to watch

the Test kit vid.  I've watched it a couple times already.....helps.