VibeGuy

As for how high you should be on the balcony, I can’t believe I’m the first to suggest “comfortably relaxed, but not so high you’re captivated by your own fingers”.

Minis are all on Dolphin or the very aft part of Emerald on that design. Full suites are scattered throughout the decks.

Also Absolut Raspberi and Vanillia. I believe there are also a couple of Polish vodka options - maybe Wybarovka and one other. Gin, the options are Beefeater, Tanqueray, Gordons, Aviation. Hendricks seems to have been phased out fleetwide. Botanist may fit in the new $15 limit.

You can mark it before sailing in the Dietary Restrictions part of the Personalizer, and that may or may not trigger your room steward to pre-provision it, but they’ll always have it for you by bedtime on request.

Not only small bills, but *uncirculated small bills*.

It depends on where they’ve provisioned it. For the US west coast it’s usually Crystal Geyser spring water. But we’ve also had Ciel (Mexican purified) and Arrowhead.

Frequent Princess cruiser (1:5 days last year) with life-threatening crustscean allergy here. There’s a spot in the personaliser to mark for shellfish allergy. It’s remarkably effective in the MDRs and specialty restaurants - if I order something with scallops (fine for me, and delicious), it prompts nervous inquiries by multiple waitstaff and managers, at least the first time I do it with a given waiter. Setting the allergen actually makes your photo blink or change border colour on their handhelds (can’t recall which). I routinely order dishes that usually have crustacean garnishes or components like the Asian seafood bowl and just ask that the shrimp be left off, or no sauce in the case of one of the fin fish that usually has a shellfish bisque plating. Something you might not know, and made me feel much more at ease - every hot dish on the menu is prepared at a completely isolated station during service - so if it’s steak and lobster at station A, the chateaubriand at station B can’t get cross-contaminated at all. Like, risk approaching zero.

There are usually pretty substantial queues for a taxi at the cruise terminal, but there’s now a shuttle to a Uber/Lyft pickup area about four city blocks away (see graphic) , so I think total net time door to door they’re all about the same. A point to ponder is that there are generally more Lyft and Uber and cabs available around the city than there is demand, but Seattle Express is booked to capacity on cruise days. If something goes wrong (traffic getting to the pier, mechanical failure, meteor strike), I think Uber/Lyft/cab has a better chance of getting you to the airport on time. Southwest does not have curbside here. There is a dedicated area to meet wheelchair assistance just inside the terminal, closer to the doors than the counter. Strong Opinion: An 11:00 flight has about ten minutes of cushion from my earliest recommendation, and I’m generally pretty optimistic in my predictions. One big risk is that you’re really limited to using the Departures drive at SEA, which is the first place that gets gridlocked on a cruise day. You don’t really have the option of diverting to Arrivals (less jammed at that hour) or the garage (free parking if the ticket clears within 15 minutes) because of the mobility impairment and the need to get wheelchair assistance. Combine this with the possibility of delay getting off the ship with wheelchair assist, and it’s honestly tighter than I would personally feel comfortable with. My 10:50 guidance is based on being able to rapidly switch TSA queues, vamp the specific location the car drops at, etc. I think odds are decent you’ll make the flight, but they’re definitely lower than 90%.

I can’t emphasize enough, for the sake of the crew and the passengers, how much the *88% of adults in North America who don’t smoke* want Princess ships to be like *any other workplace* and be smoke free. It’s 2023. on a related note, why isn’t Carnival Corp and PLC taking a proactive approach to emissions and refusing to use bunker, even in places where it’s still technically legal? Clean outdoor air is good, too.

Of all the itineraries, I honestly think Alaska is about the most important to have a balcony - right up there with Norwegian Fjords. being able to sit and relax and really soak in the scenery, especially on a Glacier Bay itinerary, is really the entire point of glacier days and scenic cruising

Local here. 1:00 is totally fine. Do Port Valet for the luggage and you even have time to do something fun before the airport. I twitch at anything earlier than 10:50 on cruise days

Weird. It’s been as depicted on every sailing we’ve been on since the restart, as recently as two weeks ago!

Aaand, bringing this back to the OP’s question. I’m local, I used to live on the hill to the west of the pier. absolutely no way on earth would I book the 10:00 departure, and I’m the sort who lives dangerously - it’s a combination of the next flight not being for six and a half hours and planes flying really, really, really full from Seattle all the time now.

The onboard Steamers/Crab Shack events haven’t resumed but the branding is still in place even on Discovery, so there’s always hope.

I wouldn’t give up hope on the rental just yet. They don’t really start actively managing the inventory until the season actually starts. All of the Avis outstations in Alaska are one licensee and they know where the money comes from so they’re generally pretty good about getting cars in the right places.

It’s a bit of a tossup as to whether you’ll actually have to make your way to the gangway or whether they’ll do it in a lounge/theatre, but the ship does have to be zeroed at a specific point. As someone who sails this route fairly frequently, I’ll pitch that renting an Avis car in Whittier and touring for the day, or doing the Umpteen Glaciers tour, is a good idea. I live where there are trees, mountains and water, and I still find this part of Alaska beautiful. We’ve even seen a mama bear fishing with her cubs.

Inaugurals of a new class are especially fraught. Even with experienced crew, nothing is in the “right” place and something always gets overlooked in the provisioning. Your guess as to whether it’s the specific kind of gin you prefer or the salad forks. Really.

They’ve been having Princess shorex meet somewhere like the theatre and just sending them to the tenders without tickets - they just don’t call any numbers when there’s a group headed for shorex. I could explain the Elite/Suite mechanism but it’s like Fight Club, and I obey Rules 1 and 2.

1) crappy proprietary shower gel from the same people who supply prisons - it’s dreadful 2) Tickets will be distributed in a lounge starting some time before tenders are ready. You can then wait elsewhere for your number to be called - it’s broadcast on the PA into public spaces or on the bridge cam channel. 3) Feast away. No charge for extra courses.

Yup. They’ve badly oversold one or more categories and can’t accommodate everyone in at least what they’ve booked.

Same as before, same as you describe.

Because nobody in the chat line has ever been onboard a Princess ship. They are as useless as a fur coat in Cairo. Yes, you can disembark and reboard. You won’t have a transit card, but when you come back, after you go through the security check, you’ll just proceed directly back onboard.

The area for P/E/S guests in Seattle is just partitioned off in front of the check-in desks, next to the windows / doors facing the ship. It’s most akin to the facilities at Berth 92 in LA (movable partitions, stackable chairs, a table for water, juice and coffee) rather than Berth 93 (soft furniture, actual walls). About as luxurious as a waiting room at the Free Clinic, or so I hear.

I stand corrected for the new policy. I’ll be curious to see if you can use OBC as well or if it gets sold the same way FCDs are.

I stand corrected regarding the new policy.