SiliconCruiser

Those are 375ml bottles, they just charge you 750ml prices for them.

Um ... the Captain's Circle number would also let them know if the person is actually on board one of the ships ...

Did any of your cruises have a formal night? It is generally held on the first formal night, or in the case of 5-6 day cruises, the only formal night.

It is. Straight from the streets of New York.

I preferred Prince Rupert to the glitz and canned tourism of Victoria. Lovely little town with genuinely friendly people.

They often do not tip as it is not customary in their country, if they're part of an organized tour, the tips are often factored into the tour price. In countries like Taiwan, tipping is not expected, though most restaurants where you are served will add a 10% service fee. As I recall, my late wife's relatives in the UK (native born Brits of Welsh descent) did tip at some establishments (but at my age, sometimes my memory may play tricks on me. 😂

Yes, we were there last July. Quaint little town. You can explore it on your own or take a local excursion. As for things to see, it all depends upon your tastes and expectations. If you're one of those people who will only go on organized Princess excursions (for whatever reason), then probably not. It does have some shops and museums that are interesting. You can check travel sites like tripadvisor and others for organized tours and excursions. We just wandered around town, visited places like the Museum of Northern British Columbia, some of the shops, and took pictures of the bald eagles flying around. Just remember when you need to get back to the ship. And don't worry about getting lost, you'll most likely have the ship in sight from most parts of town (it's not that big 😏

Please delete this posting. I did not see kiwimum's post above attesting to the legitimacy of this site.

It should be noted that excursion operators at all ports are not operated by Princess, rather they are contracted by Princess. They are paid by Princess after Princess extracts their share of your excursion fees. Contrary to Princess' claims of getting you back to the ship on time, those same companies may also be operating other tours and are very familiar with the cruise ship schedules. So much so, that they are often aware of any changes the porting times well before you are. That being said, if your tour bus is delayed in traffic, the very same company may have some of their own buses ahead of the "Princess" bus that are also stuck in traffic. One company in Hawaii, Roberts is very familiar with most of the excursion routes. They contract with Princess for excursions, but also have their own excursions for the same routes. They also contract with some of the municipalities in Hawaii for their public transit bus service. In one instance they called me when we were in Honolulu to tell me that they had to refund my excursion because "Princess took our last accessible bus." After explaining that my wife's motorized wheelchair could be folded and fit into the baggage compartment, they said they might have a solution. When we arrived, they had sent a 55 passenger bus with a luggage compartment ... for 16 passengers! Our destination specialist on the ship just said "that's the Aloha spirit."

Is that the one that tries to ask you to log in using your Princess account ID and password? Looks very suspicious.

I've never been, since I was of the opinion that it was just a ruse to sell watered down cocktails. But some of the offerings look inviting, especially those that aren't available in the MDRs. Might be worth exploring ...

Generally it is ADA, Suite/Elite/Platinum, Club Class, and then the time slots. Don't know how it will be in Galveston, but in San Francisco, the later arrivals tended to be stuck in lines outside of terminal for long periods of time, generally causing a late departure, since they have to transmit the manifest to the Coast Guard an hour before they set sail.

It's the middle of summer, but the weather may still not be that appealing.

The one case that I've seen showed a Chicago PD officer who was issued a medallion with a shield rather than a Princess logo. There are some first responders (especially law enforcement) who would rather not have their occupations broadcasted while they're on vacation.

46 amongst passengers alone would be well below the state average, even if they only had 1800 passengers on board.

We were probably on that cruise. We did a b2b on the Regal in December of 2019.

Why not?

But it was one of their 'regulars' in the everyday menu.

40 years ago, when things were more "formal", I worked in one of the highly respected teaching hospitals in the country. The M.D.'s that I worked with generally wore a shirt and tie (sometimes with a sports jacket) when they met with vendors or were teaching as Assistant Professors. But when it came down to days (as they described it) when they were "playing doctor" they just wore scrubs (maybe a lab coat if it was cold; this was in San Francisco after all.) Oddly enough, employees in lower/lowest pay grades were more likely to be seen walking around with lab coats. Currently, I have never seen my doctor in a shirt & tie, only scrubs. Though he does wear a lab coat on occasion. Doesn't affect my confidence level one bit. Especially after my stint working in a hospital where the highest paid surgeons wandered around wearing scrubs (and a cloth mask.)

Get a friend/relative to drive you, or you can take BART into the City then the F streetcar to Pier 27. From the South Bay, we can take CalTrain, N Judah, F Streetcar. But we usually get a friend to drive us and pick us up.

No more tuxedos and accompanying jewelry, not more cocktail dresses and jewelry. Will most likely be considering less clothes and just using the on-board laundry (can't trust the free laundry.) Am really considering a couple of 22" bags for a few b2b2b cruises. The cost of a few laundry tokens may be worthwhile. And we are even throwing around the idea of using public transit to get home after the cruise, with the lightened luggage load. (We'll be able to get home in plenty of daylight ...)

The TV show fiasco had very little to do with the Princess marketing people other than grasping upon the opportunity to add it in as an attraction to some of the cruises. If Princess wants to attract a younger demographic, they have to develop a different marketing image rather than riding on the tail of a TV show that ended before much of the younger demographic was even born.

For all of the Hawaiian ports, take a look at what Roberts Tours has to offer. They are the largest tour operator in the islands and also contract with local municipalities for their local transit systems. They also contract with Princess for many of their excursions. Super nice people that embody the Aloha spirit. They know what they're doing and usually will be running their own tours that match the Princess tours. Don't buy that 'get you back to the ship on time ' line that Princess feeds you about them waiting for you. When Roberts offers an excursion directly, they will also only do it for one ship. So if the Roberts bus is late getting back to the port, the Princess tour that Roberts is contracted for will also be delayed (maybe even later.) We had an experience where they didn't have a 16 passenger mini-bus with a wheelchair lift (they said that Princess had taken it.) When I told them that the chair would fit in a baggage compartment, they said they could arrange that. The following morning, there was a 54 passenger bus for 16 passengers and a wheelchair! ... the Aloha spirit at work. Oh, we went through the entire Hawaiian cruise without booking a single excursion with Princess and were quite pleased with our experience with Roberts at all the ports. (except Oahu where we used DaBus.)

On our last outing, the waiter told us to order 2 lobster tails each. It was brought out as a single order. It was as I was finishing the second lobster tail that I noticed a slight tingling on my tongue and remembered that I wasn't supposed to eat too much shell fish ... Wellington and lobster next time.😄 On the other hand, on another cruise, I had the beef Wellington, and asked for a lobster tail a la carte, and the waiter refused to do it saying that I had to order the entire entree and he would only put in the order after I had finished the first entree. I now know that I should have summoned a head waiter or just gotten up from the table to request a table away from that waiter.

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