SiliconCruiser

It's no different other than an occasional ethnic demographic difference. Hogs is hogs and discourteous doesn't differ though in some cultures it may seem appropriate.

We provide an additional token of appreciation to room stewards and wait staff (waiters and junior waiters.) Also occasionally to MDR hosts/hostesses (not head waiters, or managers.) We do not tip wait staff in the buffet (since we already do that when they are in the dining rooms.) On one (and only one) occasion, when we had particularly bad service from most of the crew, I pulled gratuities, (after having tipped those who provided service above and beyond.)

We were on a B2B and never experienced that. But understood since they probably have a lot of Elite in FL (and I think a lot of them think of themselves as 'elite'.)

By ourselves. Since the shutdown, it seems that most of the tables are individual, even for solo travelers. Also, because the Royal currently caters to a demographic that seems to receive different information about Covid and is distrustful of the U.S. CDC, they seem to try to honor those concerns. I don't think it is likely that you will find many shared tables. We used to like those and have met a few people that we have become friends with, or were people that I already knew (SF born and raised) or people that knew people that I grew up with.

Clipper card, we're on a reduced fare.

We always took a power strip (with surge protector) on all of our cruises. Never knew they weren't allowed. Then on one cruise out of FLL we discovered that we'd forgotten our power strip. Contacted our niece, who was in FLL and gonna meet us on turnaround day and told her to go to Home Depot (or whatever) and buy the cheapest power strip she could find. Sure enough, not surge suppressor and that is the one that we take now.

Royal. It is going to Vancouver for it's PVSA stop before going to their new port in Seattle for the Alaska season. Like most cruise ships, the 3 day trip to Vancouver is to make the repo a revenue generating trip.

Couldn't you just take the F street car to the pier?

I had that same issue! We just went to Concerto and Sergio and his asst. mgr. took care of us. All of a sudden we had "traditional dining" (same table each night, and also for most breakfast and lunch days).

Odd. In February, the assistant restaurant manager asked if we would like the same table each night, and we were accommodated. They even held the table for us one night when we didn't expect to be on board. We were mostly able to use the same table for both breakfast and lunch on most days. Apparently this information was also conveyed to the restaurant manager as well. On most occasions, when someone saw us in line to enter the dining room, we were pulled around the line and led to our table. Also, as it is not customary to tip supervisory/mangerial staff, we did not, but we did show our appreciation to the wait staff.

We were there in February and it seems that they've gotten their act together. If you get there early (disregard your selected boarding time) you'll be able to get on board, drop your luggage off, and go have a leisurely lunch, and relax while everyone else boards. Bear in mind that the pier is run by a company called Cruise Metro and for lack of personnel or trained personnel, they can cause a mess (also take into account that many of the people are elderly (and we're sometimes kinda slow,) so they try to follow what they've been trained (maybe) to do, but may require more time. Then you have to go through security (also not Princess) before you get to the Princess employees that do the check-in. We were also there last July and while we got on early without issue, the ship left the port over an hour and a half late (the ship has to transmit the passenger manifest to CBP and hour before.) We ended watching the ship sail under the Golden Gate from the MDR during dinner (no big thing, I'm a native.)

Are you one of those people working pay jobs on turnaround days?

Maybe not in your world, but there is a Platinum/Elite area for both embarkation and disembarkation.

It has been our experience that they don't really care about the arrival times. Ever since our very first Princess cruise, we get to the port early, get checked in early, and board early, regardless of embarkation port. That's been our experience at multiple U.S. ports, Europe, and Asia. On our first cruise, we were just told to get there early so that we could have lunch in the MDR. We have since found out that we have always had priority board (before suites and Elite/Platinum.)

Would never work for us. My wife does not drink alcohol and she wouldn't let me drink her share ...🤣😂

:Ya mean having a group of waiters singing off key with Happy [insert occasion] to the tune of Happy Birthday. And yeah, I don't like the desserts 'cause I'm not much of a cake eater.

I always ask them to refrain from singing. I got caught off-guard on our first cruise and didn't welcome the attention.

The ones are those small groups who hog a large table in the buffet. I even saw one guy pull over a table for two to a table for four, for his group of four and refused to let anyone sit there. Then they moved their chairs to hog both tables. Or the ones who hog a round table of 6 for their mahjong while others are trying to find a place to eat..

The Ruby has 6th floor ADA access as do all of the Royal class ships (like the Royal currently sailing out of San Francisco,) Not sure but it looks like they may have retrofitted some ships (like the Grand?) for 6th floor access during the shutdown. We looked at the nosebleed section when we were on the Royal a few weeks ago, and they've got both ADA parking/seating space, and additionally rows of seating behind that as well.

It is very annoying and difficult for people who are confined in mobility devices, when chair hogs hold ADA seating. Even had one who acted as if she never heard of ADA (I was aware that she was an immigrant, but she spoke enough English to understand and probably lived in the SF Bay Area.) But just as annoying was a person in one of the rental scooters who parked her scooter in one of the ADA cutouts and sat in the row behind it, using the scooter as a footrest, blocking access to two rows of seats.

I seem to remember the lobster tails served in the MDR on the 2nd formal night, not being much more than about 3oz. If that is what they are passing off as a 6oz lobster tail, there is a problem.

The airport and the cruiseport are right nextdoor to each other. Far more convenient to catch a cab or rideshare. Didn't even know that Princess had an airport transfer there.

Yup much of my maternal family as well as my late wife's family are Canadian and I'm well aware of the "sin taxes" in some of the provinces. Other provinces are a little different.

Losing the medallion is no big thing, they'll just make a new one for you. I lost one on a port call and didn't realize it until I got to the security gate at the pier. They asked me for my name and cabin number and called guest services, then let me through. On the way to the ship, a guest services employee was running towards me with a new medallion (they have your picture, so they know what you look like.) It is more important that you don't lose the AirTag holder. Also, I had to really fight it a lot to get the medallion into an AirTag holder, however the medallion is easily dropped from many of the Princess holders since they are only held in with the magnet.

But we both know how those costs or bypassed 😉