Live from the Crown Princess Return to Service Cruise May 7 2022 to Alaska

[suzyed]

1 hour ago, JeffT237 said:

We are currently on the Crown, we are approaching Skagway now, I think we’ll make the 2:00pm arrival.  But I would agree we both have felt like we’re in Alaska but not getting to experience Alaska and we are first time Alaska cruisers. All of our excursions have been cancelled so we feel exactly what you said.  Hopefully for the later Crown cruisers the times are better known and you can book excursions more accordingly.  Planning has been challenging, the 3 itinerary changes have not only impacted excursions but also dining reservations etc.  At this point we’re just hoping Glacier Bay is not cancelled or interrupted. 

Please keep the updates coming~

[pkt1976]

We pulled into Skagway about 1, so a bit earlier than the last update. We were a bit earlier in Ketchikan as well. 
 

the Captain and the ships company are doing the best they can with the hand the got. 
 

i changed my excursion and am now doing the photography tour. 
 

Nino and Jefferson at the Good Spirits bar are awesome. Ask Nino for his watermelon Mojito. There is a guy who is evaluating them and giving them feedback, fine tuning the Good Spirits presentations. 
 

i ate at Sabatinis last night. It wasn’t my cup of tea, partially the food and partially because the service was not up to standards. As I’ve said, I am not supportive of the decisions corporate has made. Their decisions about this cruise and probably those coming soon on this ship negatively affect the crew and passengers. There was a very irate couple who’d apparently been told by someone at guest services they were guaranteed a window table for dinner. That’s not how it works and when they arrived there were no window tables. At first the gentleman was quite rude to the waitstaff and head waiter but a bit later did calm down and apologize. He said he’d been so frustrated with what’s gone on and took it out on them. I do appreciate that he apologized a few times and his apologies were heartfelt…. and I’m sure the crew members did as well. The glares and comments from surrounding tables may have helped that along 😅but I’d like to think he would have done so anyway. 
 

this sailing is over 1/2 first time Princess cruisers. Someone didn’t get the memo about what not to flush in the toilets some areas have had plumbing issues. I will say that the first day in some areas you could smell of so i don’t think that is 100% of the cause, but it sure doesn’t help. 
 

we are having a 2nd Cruise Critic meet and greet that will be attended by the ship officers on Victoria Day. Those officers I’ve talked too have been very gracious and I really feel for them, passenger services and the shore ex desk. They’ve been pummeled all week. 
 

Alaska is beautiful and the scenery divine. I know it’s been an exercise in frustration for many, but the ship’s company is doing their best. 
 

I hope all on board enjoy their day. The sail in was gorgeous. 
 

Reception isn’t great and it’s not wanting to upload photos right now but I’ll post more photos when I can. 

[Crow9]

I saw that the May 14th cruise is still selling tickets with the Icy Straight Point Itinerary, has anyone heard of they are going to keep that itinerary or any news from Princess on if they are fixing the engine issues that caused the May 7th cruise to change so much?

 

Edit: I am on the May 21st cruise and finally got my excursions perfectly scheduled.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Crow9
More details

[pkt1976]

Here’s are some photos from Ketchikan. We just wandered in town and had lunch at the Fish House 

[LCinLB]

8 hours ago, Crow9 said:

I saw that the May 14th cruise is still selling tickets with the Icy Straight Point Itinerary, has anyone heard of they are going to keep that itinerary or any news from Princess on if they are fixing the engine issues that caused the May 7th cruise to change so much?

 

Edit: I am on the May 21st cruise and finally got my excursions perfectly scheduled.

I’m on the May 14th cruise… so far nothing has been said/emailed to me about changing that itinerary. But, this current group (May 7th) didn’t get notified until the Friday before they left. So, we shall see!

[caribill]

13 hours ago, JeffT237 said:

 All of our excursions have been cancelled so we feel exactly what you said.  Hopefully for the later Crown cruisers the times are better known and you can book excursions more accordingly.

 

Unfortunately, your Princess ship will not be the only ship in most of the ports. The same shore excursion providers are used by all the ships. If Princess cannot make it to port as originally scheduled, the tour providers may not have any capability to provide excursions at the new arrival time.

[Mike & Zen]

[flaminog]

17 hours ago, cruzin4us said:

Just my opinion for what it's worth.....   I'd switch to the Discovery, it also sails out of Seattle and they have rooms available showing about 2 weeks from now.    If you are going to spend the money to go to Alaska, you might as well get what you pay for (or at least close to it).    It's not worth the stress.   If you want to go on excursions and don't want to worry whether your ship makes it in time then make the switch.   Having to juggle excursions does not make cruising any fun.    That's my 2 cents

I’m thinking of doing this even though my cruise isn’t until July. We have to fly in from Florida and will be first time on Princess and first time to Alaska (seasoned cruisers) and don’t want to have a sour first experience with both. Our honeymoon in December was Crap with cancellations in the middle of Omicron so we don’t want to deal with port cancellations again if we can see it coming this time. 
 

Will Princess be accommodating to shift the cruise to the Discovery?

[Namvvet68]

17 hours ago, pkt1976 said:

We pulled into Skagway about 1, so a bit earlier than the last update. We were a bit earlier in Ketchikan as well. 
 

the Captain and the ships company are doing the best they can with the hand the got. 
 

i changed my excursion and am now doing the photography tour. 
 

Nino and Jefferson at the Good Spirits bar are awesome. Ask Nino for his watermelon Mojito. There is a guy who is evaluating them and giving them feedback, fine tuning the Good Spirits presentations. 
 

i ate at Sabatinis last night. It wasn’t my cup of tea, partially the food and partially because the service was not up to standards. As I’ve said, I am not supportive of the decisions corporate has made. Their decisions about this cruise and probably those coming soon on this ship negatively affect the crew and passengers. There was a very irate couple who’d apparently been told by someone at guest services they were guaranteed a window table for dinner. That’s not how it works and when they arrived there were no window tables. At first the gentleman was quite rude to the waitstaff and head waiter but a bit later did calm down and apologize. He said he’d been so frustrated with what’s gone on and took it out on them. I do appreciate that he apologized a few times and his apologies were heartfelt…. and I’m sure the crew members did as well. The glares and comments from surrounding tables may have helped that along 😅but I’d like to think he would have done so anyway. 
 

this sailing is over 1/2 first time Princess cruisers. Someone didn’t get the memo about what not to flush in the toilets some areas have had plumbing issues. I will say that the first day in some areas you could smell of so i don’t think that is 100% of the cause, but it sure doesn’t help. 
 

we are having a 2nd Cruise Critic meet and greet that will be attended by the ship officers on Victoria Day. Those officers I’ve talked too have been very gracious and I really feel for them, passenger services and the shore ex desk. They’ve been pummeled all week. 
 

Alaska is beautiful and the scenery divine. I know it’s been an exercise in frustration for many, but the ship’s company is doing their best. 
 

I hope all on board enjoy their day. The sail in was gorgeous. 
 

Reception isn’t great and it’s not wanting to upload photos right now but I’ll post more photos when I can. 

When you have the meet and greet, please query the officers about expected repair time for the generator problems and specifics on what is wrong. Inquiring minds want to know.

[MarcsSharon]

Thanks for the updates. We are on the June 4th sailing. Can you tell me if hot tubs are available?

[JeffT237]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

The same shore excursion providers are used by all the ships. If Princess cannot make it to port as originally scheduled, the tour providers may not have any capability to provide excursions at the new arrival time.

Yes, when we got off in Skagway us and many others went straight to the private tour operator, we were trying to get a helicopter tour to a glacier but no luck. I’m sure most of the good tours were booked by the passengers from the 2 ships that were already in port. They had a 3:00pm train but that was sold out too. I think that was a later train departure than they usually do. The only things left were city tours and a fixed wing plane that flew over Glacier Bay. 

[mlh0500]

3 hours ago, flaminog said:

I’m thinking of doing this even though my cruise isn’t until July. We have to fly in from Florida and will be first time on Princess and first time to Alaska (seasoned cruisers) and don’t want to have a sour first experience with both. Our honeymoon in December was Crap with cancellations in the middle of Omicron so we don’t want to deal with port cancellations again if we can see it coming this time. 
 

Will Princess be accommodating to shift the cruise to the Discovery?

You'll have to call and ask them.  It probably depends on who you talk to. Good luck !

[mlh0500]

47 minutes ago, Namvvet68 said:

When you have the meet and greet, please query the officers about expected repair time for the generator problems and specifics on what is wrong. Inquiring minds want to know.

From what I have read on Cruise Critic boards, this problem has been ongoing for years. If they didn't fix it during the 2 years it wasn't operational then they probably don't plan to anytime soon. This isn't the only ship experiencing this issue. 

 

[Namvvet68]

3 minutes ago, mlh0500 said:

From what I have read on Cruise Critic boards, this problem has been ongoing for years. If they didn't fix it during the 2 years it wasn't operational then they probably don't plan to anytime soon. This isn't the only ship experiencing this issue. 

 

Engine problems if a rather broad term. It is true that the Crown has had engine problems in the past but we don't know that the current issues are the same as several years ago. 

Because of Princess changing itineraries at the last minute rather than months ago, this "maintenance" was unscheduled and I believe it just came up while the Crown was in Southern CA and Mexico.   

[pkt1976]

It was a beautiful day in Glacier Bay! 
 

will post photos when Wi-Fi is better 

 

I’ve lost my voice 🙄it’s almost a cruise tradition with me and I’ve found nothing that helps over the past 10 years. 🤦🏼‍♀️
 

One of the entertainers also lost his and couldn’t perform last night, I feel his pain. 
 

our 2nd meet and greet with the ship officers will be at 11am on Victoria Day in Adagio. 
 

I may need to recruit someone to call others because I can’t talk. I can whisper so if I leave messages, it’s not some creep 😂

[caribill]

11 hours ago, flaminog said:

 

Will Princess be accommodating to shift the cruise to the Discovery?

 

If final payment date has not occurred yet, there should be no problem switching although the price and benefits may be different.

 

If final payment date has passed, you can only plead your case that this is not the cruise you were promised and want to switch to a Princess cruise that does not have these problems.

[JeffT237]

2 hours ago, pkt1976 said:

 

It was a beautiful day in Glacier Bay! 

 

We agree, for our first time to Glacier Bay it was amazing!

[Becky_Mac]

1 hour ago, JeffT237 said:

We agree, for our first time to Glacier Bay it was amazing!

Awesome photos, especially the first one. I really like that one. I was thinking about switching to discovery but these photos are reminding me why I picked Crown in the first place. Thank you for sharing. 
 

[Steelers36]

On 5/10/2022 at 5:51 PM, pkt1976 said:

we are having a 2nd Cruise Critic meet and greet that will be attended by the ship officers on Victoria Day. Those officers I’ve talked too have been very gracious and I really feel for them, passenger services and the shore ex desk. They’ve been pummeled all week.

Damage Control.

[suzyed]

2 hours ago, JeffT237 said:

We agree, for our first time to Glacier Bay it was amazing!

Absolutely Gorgeous!!  I can't wait!!

[Mike & Zen]

[mlh0500]

On the excursions you had already paid for and will miss due to the rerouting, has anyone received a refund ?  I have called Princess twice and was told 'soon'. I started a few weeks ago...  I have $800 tied up and would like to get it back !  lol. At this point I am thinking of calling credit card and disputing the charge. 

[ImperialLady]

16 hours ago, JeffT237 said:

We agree, for our first time to Glacier Bay it was amazing!

WOW!!  Thank you for sharing these photos with us!

[pkt1976]

14 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Damage Control.

The person I gave the invitations to inadvertently did not get Them to the ship officers. The ship senior officers offered to set up another so they could meet with us. 

[Oscar13]

Beautiful pictures of Glacier Bay.  This is also why I chose Crown.  We have friend coming with us that has never cruised and I know she will be awed by GB.  We've been into GB 3 times and it is always a wonderful experience.

 

If all goes well we will be there June 8th. Crossing finger, toes, arms, legs etc etc 🙃

 

Karen and Kevin