Mike & Zen

Captain Christopher Lye. Have sailed with him a couple of times…very personable. While ship at Pier 27, he disembarked, walked to the end of the long line, and proceeded to chat with the passengers apologizing for the delay.

Courtesy of Cruiseypop:

From Cruiseypop, on their Discovery Princess Live thread yesterday: ”They upgraded the medallion door screen this morning. New fresh look and they no longer display last name, just initial. I previously saw a lot of complaints on this privacy issue, so Princess listens!!”

Good choice. I’ve had our luggage out past midnight a few times with no issues. There’s always someone from the hotel dept “cruising” the decks for luggage. You can walk off anytime from disembarkation start to “last call.” Just get in line when you want, (no one checks anything), wand your medallion, and your done. Just remember to take your tag off your luggage. Safe travels!

Thank you for your blog. The reason you didn’t have to do clearance when you disembarked in Vancouver is that the ship had already completed clearance with CBSA in Victoria, which was the ships First Port of Arrival (FPOA) in Canada. Here’s an excerpt from the CBSA website: “Cruise ships, including passengers and crew, are fully cleared by the CBSA at their first port of arrival (FPOA). The ship can subsequently navigate freely in Canada and transit foreign and international waters between ports of call in Canada without having to report to the CBSA.” Link here: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/cscp-pdnc-eng.html#a6a

Military benefit and CCL shares are in one name. Applied for one CCL shareholder benefit via email (sbpcl@princesscruises.com) this morning, Fri, 20 Oct 2023, at 1140 Pacific time. CCL shareholder OBC was in my Princess account approximately 15 mins later.

Thank you for the current opening times. Mike

For those who have recently disembarked QE, what time does the Princess Grill open for supper? We have sailed in QE previously (3X) eating in the Britannia MDR. Any tips or advice you have for the Princess Grill or for the PG suites in general? Thanks. Mike

I emailed three shareholder benefit request forms in one email for cruises in Apr & May 2024, along with proof of ownership, in my name only, late Sun, 25 June. I receive the automatic military OBC. This morning, 26 June, only the first request for SOBC had been posted in my Princess account. I decided to email the last two requests again but this time in two separate emails. Within 20 minutes, both SOBC had been posted. We now have a total of eight cruises with SOBC & MOBC in my name only sailing past 12 Sep 2023. On or after 29 June 2023.....??

You are sailing in Glacier Bay today and into the early evening. The internet will be spotty (on and off) due to the mountains blocking the line of sight (LOS) from the satellite and the ship’s antennas. Also, sailing in these higher latitudes impacts as well.

Agree, Symphony Dining Room on deck 5 midship, and Concerto Dining Room on deck 6 midship for the same reasons.

Cruzrbachoua, have you read Caribill’s excellent review about their Princess Connoisseur land tour in 2012? Keep in mind everything from prices, etc, is from 2012, but it should give you an idea of what’s entailed.

Stealthdog, I’ll answer question No. 2. You can take that one off your “things to do list.” The Hollywood Pool Club/Conservatory are open for everyone. The rules for children in the pool are posted on the bulkhead in the pool area under, “Please note:” and “For your safety and comfort:” in the “Swimming Pool - Health and Safety Advisory.”

We disembarked this morning and headed to our hotel for the night. Tomorrow morning we head back to Pier 91 to embark in the new Discovery Princess (Royal Class) for two weeks. In the beginning of this last cruise, we asked for an appointment in the medical centre for a COVID-19 antigen test, with a paper result, for boarding Discovery Princess tomorrow morning. Yesterday morning at 9am, in the medical centre, we had our test, and in the afternoon received our negative test results on paper. The antigen tests cost $10 each, which were very reasonable. If I recall, I believe before, if you boarded another Princess ship right after the end of your cruise, the tests were complimentary. Has anyone does this is the past? Our cruise schedule will be very busy this Spring/Summer with 3 months of Alaska/BC cruises out of Seattle and Vancouver. After Discovery, we’re home in Victoria for 9 days, head to Vancouver for one month in Queen Elizabeth, one month in Royal Princess, then 10 days in Majestic Princess. We’ll be back in Crown Princess for three cruises starting 18 Oct, after her dry dock. She’ll be sailing out of Vancouver to Hawaii and back, then reposition to LA, and then sail for the 28 day South Pacific returning to LA 7 Dec. We’ll do our annual Christmas/New year cruise in Royal Princess that Princess changed from the Ruby Princess. I’ll post some photos of Victoria I took a couple of weeks ago to complete this itinerary. As you can see I haven’t posted much since becoming a member in 2005. What got me started was trying to correct all the misinformation and misinterpretation with respect to ArriveCAN. Ok, that should be it for now. If you ever see us on a cruise please stop and say hi. I’ll attach a photo of Zenny and I. Oh, perhaps someone on the current cruise could start a new thread to keep all up to date. Cheers, Mike

I spoke with a housekeeping supervisor and two cabin stewards on port and starboard side, and the cabins were not affected with issues from last week and none this week. However, just like anything mechanical, you can’t forecast what may happen in the future.

It was just announced by the Captain that due to technical issues our arrival into Victoria will be delayed until 2015 hrs. We were to arrive at 1900 hrs. Then the Associate Hotel General Manager announced that all shore excursions in Victoria have been cancelled. No mention of what the technical issues are. Without knowing for sure my best guess would be a DG (diesel generator). However, we are doing 20 knots at the moment. If I hear anything else, I will post.

I’ll go there tomorrow for you and talk with the cabin stewards in that area.

From our perspective, overall the cruise has been going very well. Speaking with a couple of plumbers this week, there have not been any major issues like last week with people throwing things into the toilets that continuously clogged the pipes. Small maintenance issues throughout a cruise, though, are normal. With respect to any major foul odours, we have not noticed any in the areas we have walked through, certainly not like last week. The technical issue with one of the diesel generators that restricted the ships speed to about 16 to 17 knots during last weeks cruise, had been repaired at the beginning of this cruise. We continue to do about 20 knots or so in the open ocean without issue. We have been on schedule for all our port visits to date and for our scheduled time slot for Glacier Bay. As previously mentioned by a few people, the crew continue to be outstanding despite being short staffed in some areas. They are all happy to be back after a 2 year pause. The first cruise last week had about 2200 passengers. This cruise has about 1500, and nexts week cruise will have approximately 1465. Anyone else on this cruise have any comments?

Some photos of Icy Strait Point today from 5pm to 8pm. Next stop, our home, Victoria, BC, this Friday.

72 hours for Air and Land. 96 hours for Marine. It gives you an extra day for Marine