cruisingrob21

1 hour ago, CruisinMissMolly said:

This is the first time we've done this, so I'm not sure what to do.  Should we go the day before and spend the night? 

We've thought about it (we usually do RT Seattle voyages, actually leaving on Sunday for one), but my concern is the border crossing can sometimes be very bad.  So we'd have to leave at like 5am to get to the border around 1130 or so.  We've also thought about driving up the night before and getting a hotel, or taking Amtrak Cascades from Portland and spending the night in vancouver.  The train leaves around 3pm and arrives around 11pm.

1 hour ago, CruisinMissMolly said:

Thank you.  What is the Canada Line?  

Vancouver's rapid transit system.  It's efficient, reasonably clean, and safe.  I use it every time I take a cruise from Vancouver.

As a fellow Oregonian, I'm wondering if you are driving to canada the day before your departure and spending a night at a hotel?

On 7/30/2023 at 5:18 PM, cusematt4 said:

Hi all,

 

We were looking mg to book a cruise on a grand class ship after not having sailed with princess for awhile.

 

If you haven't sailed on Princess in a while and want to just get "princess standard", all things being equal it will look and feel much the same as it did when you last sailed, especially on a grand class ship (Sapphire being one).  Alfredos was only added to certain ships within the last 5 or 6 years so beyond that, most everything will be the same.  Dining rooms (5 on the sapphire) are still included, intl cafe is included, Lido deck pizza and burger grill are still included.   Crown Grill, Sterling Steakhouse, and Alfredos Pizza will be extra.

Thats probably a question for a Princess representative.  I would call two or three times to get the correct answer (some newer reps won't know).  While they probably will depart later than usual, I wouldn't assume that they will allow boarding too much past the normal 4pm time.  Not sure how long the port will stay open for boarding operations.

6 hours ago, tjcletzgo said:

Yes but it said it was unsupported. I’m very curious about port times, Victoria in particular🐳🐳🐳

None of the the excel files will list port times.  You'll have to wait until the itineraries are officially released.  For victoria, any RT Seattle Alaskan cruise will give you about 4-5 hours in the evening of the last night.  A coastal cruise might give you 10 hours or more.

7 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Itinerary primarily, and length secondly.  Sailing from SFO has the advantage of making flights more cost effective as well.  Weighing that against the UB8 Cruisetour on the Coral. 

ah, well perhaps its more cost effective to do a 14 day RT from vancouver?  even with the more expensive flight to YVR

1 hour ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

I’m also intrigued by the 22 day sailing of the Ruby for the summer solstice. Sadly I think it will be priced above my budgetary range. 

Intrigued because its the solstice or the 22 day sailing?

8 minutes ago, BabsinTX said:

We're sailing on Eurodam to Alaska next year.  HA has great itineraries and we thought we'd give it a try.

We really enjoyed the extra evening call in Icy Straight Point.  While there isn't enough there for a full day to do (yet), my wife did the zip line and the kids and I walked around the little boardwalk.  Seems like there are some nice hikes or just "beach sitting" that one could do there.

The ship seems to stay in GB longer than previous Princess voyages we took.  As a tip, try to have a late breakfast in the dining room when approaching glacier bay.  We got a window seat and it was a very memorable breakfast/brunch.

23 minutes ago, snoozecrooze said:

Personally, I wouldn't dismiss Royal so fast if you must travel from Seattle as the Glacier Bay ship goes back to Royal for 2025.

I'd take the Eurodam for a GB cruise, more deck room, fewer people, and lately been better pricing.  Older ship or not, it still has a lot of nice features for Alaska cruising and HAL has upped their evening entertainment.  We sailed in 2022 on the Eurodam and booked again in 2024 because the Royal Class ships from Seattle made too many compromises to enjoy the princess experience.  We may switch to the Koningsdam RT from Vancouver.  If Princess ever decided to make a sub 3k passenger ship again, I would hope it would be modeled after the K-dam and other Pinnacle class ships which really have a nice balance of venues, climate controlled indoor areas, and nice variety of cabins.

I'd also point out that the Have it All promo, with gratuities is more aligned with what my family prefers.

10 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I am most interested to see what is coming down the pike for increased cruise fare packages and for dining changes.  I plan to tune in next Thursday afternoon - or at least do the replay.  Will be actually get details or over-the-top Carmen talk?  We shall see.  I am intrigued.  Changes to DMW reservation process?  A return to some TD?  Who knows?

Last presentation was a big splash about new embarkation process.  What I heard was "if you want to board fast, get plus/premiere or pay for shipping.  Those boarding times, which were never enforced, are gone now"  Not much difference so I'm not expecting much with the new plus/premiere features.

11 minutes ago, danny8826 said:

 

The ship that sailed to Alaska for last year was the Majestic.  I love that ship and services from crew members are better on that ship then Discovery or Royal Princess.  I sailed all of those 3 ships last year. I live in SF, but I am not crazy about the Ruby Princess as there are always so many COVID cases reported on that ship.  It makes me wonder why.

Yeah I noticed that as well.  I sailed on the Crown and Discovery for Alaskan samplers last year (and sailing on the discovery in 2 weeks).  The presence of Adagio and Skywalkers on the Crown was very much appreciated.  As was the separate pool areas with and without MUTS.  It allowed the pool area to be quieter when just sailing in scenic areas.  As much as the walking track on top of Skywalkers on the Crown is kind of a joke, it truly is about the best place to walk/jog (what I do) and not miss any scenery since there is very little ship structure obscuring views at any given moment.  I also really enjoy the aft terraces of the Grand class ships.  I also appreciate the ability to book a cabin aft on Riviera deck and have very easy access to the terrace pool area.

I think in terms of Royal class, for me its a tossup between the Majestic and Discovery.  I appreciate the aft pool ambiance of the Discovery, but the conservatory area on the Majestic is nice, even if it smells too much like chlorine at times. I sailed on the Royal earlier this year and I'll avoid that ship if possible - too many compromises were made in that original design.

I think its pretty unanimous that the order of preference for ships (not considering itinerary) is as follows:

Vancouver Sailings:

Coral - covered pool, fewest passengers for a Princess ship, lacks a climate-controlled upper deck observation lounge other than Horizon Court.

Sapphire - covered pool, wide promenades, fewer passengers for a Princess ship, has Skywalkers as a good upper level, climate controlled observation deck

Grand - covered pool, fewer passengers for a Princess ship, but lacks skywalkers, and is one of the oldest ships (if not the oldest) sailing from Vancouver (not a detriment necessarily, but certainly has some longstanding issues)

Caribbean - does have some unique features like the elevated Skywalkers, but lacks covered pools, has 400 more passengers than Grand and Sapphire.

*Fortunately, all Vancouver based ships should sail the Seymour Narrows route*

Seattle Sailings

Discovery - although larger than the Royal, is the newest ship in the fleet and the most updated decor and corrected many of the "wrongs" of the older sisters in the class, has more hottubs and 2 extra pools, but none covered.

Royal - Personally, my least favorite ship in the fleet, previous generation ship decor, useless fountain show, gimmicky skywalk.

*Both Seattle based ships only have the buffet as the only climate controlled, upper deck observation area*

Honestly, if sailing from Seattle, there are better ships that go to GB (Eurodam, NCL Bliss).  I would also consider the Ruby out of SF over the Discovery and Royal, but that's my preference.

7 minutes ago, BobAnne said:

Important note: I am aware that specific CVPs cannot be recommended on this board.

 

My CVP is beyond useless. How do I go about getting a new one or having someone assigned to me that actually returns calls/emails? (Sorry, if I sound itchy but this guy drives me nuts and we are about to lose the cabin we wanted due to his lack of follow-up and general frustration with the core CSRs.)

Find a travel agent - or just tell them that you've found a travel agent you would prefer to work with.

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Unfortunately, even though HAL has a cool itinerary to Nome and we’re 4 star, they just got too boring for us when they implemented their Music Walk entertainment strategy. So, hopefully one day Princess will hopefully offer a similar itinerary. After all from what I have seen, Princess “owns” Alaska when it comes to cruising and hopefully won’t want to be outdone by HAL. 😉

We sail HAL and Princess pretty much every year to/from Seattle for Alaska.  Last year we went on HAL and I was a bit shocked - they had 2 nights of comedians, game shows (that were a bit rowdy even) and more evening activities than I remember HAL having in the past.  It's not where Princess is today, but its getting close to where Princess was maybe 10 years ago in terms of activities, game shows, entertainers.

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

That would be nice to see, but PCL seems to stick to same-old and I also think they want to keep sea days so they can sell more stuff.

Agreed - its been that way for a while.  They seem to value new cruisers over established clients (no surprise there) and accordingly run many of the same itineraries.  If you are a repeat cruiser you'll likely have the same menus, same entertainment, same ports.

22 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We’re hoping they offer a new expanded Alaska itinerary, preferably RT from Seattle, that includes heading up to Nome. One can dream anyway. 😁

I think you need to try HAL if you want that voyage

Ironically, the Majestic is the best of the royal class ships for Alaska, and probably the worst for warm weather cruising.  Since the forward pool is covered and adjacent conservatory is covered, its a nice climate controlled forward observation area - something that pretty much every other Princess ship lacks (other than the Coral and Island to a degree).  But given the covered pool, the entire top deck area forward of the elevators has no outdoor sunning space for warm weather cruises, and no wake view pool that the Sky, Enchanted, or Discovery have.

TA's usually get notice a week or two before.  No notice has been given but usually a "warning" is given in a TA email blast on thursdays.

As for alaska, it seems like much the same.  The main difference I anticipate is that the Majestic will be in europe during summer of 2025, and the crown is doing an aussie world cruise.  By process of elimination, it would seem like the Alaska ships will be Ruby, Coral, Royal, Discovery, Grand, and Sapphire.  Expect the Royal and Discovery being Seattle based, the Ruby in SF, and the Grand, Sapphire, and Coral in Vancouver/Whittier.  I'm not sure what planning there is to do - Princess is pretty stubborn when it comes to changing Alaskan itineraries - even HAL has added ISP to the RT Seattle voyages that stop in GB the last few years.  NCL is running some 7+ day itineraries, but princess has eschewed their "Alaska Samplers" for the most part.  There is a semi-unique voyage on the Majestic that includes Ketchikan, Astoria, Seattle and Victoria from Vancouver this fall, and a few 10 day voyages to alaska, but otherwise, Princess hasn't innovated much on their standard itineraries.

Choose the NA - the Sky lacks any sort of high level, climate controlled observation area other than the buffet.  The Sky also lacks a outdoor wrap around promenade.  If you have tender ports, pack some patience.

Resurrecting this thread - Princess did just cancel the Sapphire's call to victoria on this voyage (May 7th, LA to Vancouver).  Unfortunately they did not substitute in Astoria or Nanaimo as alternate ports.  Part of my aspiration for this voyage was to go on the Sapphire again since the days of the original Grand class and similar sisters seems to be nearing an end, but now without a single port call I might be looking at another similar voyage.

2 hours ago, jmelnick said:

I've never seen the "Tea Lounge" open. Just some old stale tea left in the display area.  I'm a tea lover, having this open would be great. The stuff from the IC is barely acceptable.

The interface between "innovative new venues" and the actual onboard execution and operation of these facilities is pretty spotty for Princess it seems.  If a venue or program doesn't have a direct return on investment, PCL management is quick to abandon.  Since the US is pretty ambivalent toward tea in general (compared to much of the rest of the world) I imagine that this venue never earned the money to cover its cost, much less station an employee there.

13 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

Where on the ship is the library?

deck 7, just before the atrium.  Shares a space with the "Tea lounge"

They have this booklet now which has the deckplans for some ships.  But their deckplans show much less detail than they did 6 or 7 years ago (showed dining room table configurations).

https://www.princess.com/html/global/brochures/pc/princess-cruise-experience.pdf

edit - my mistake, it doesn't show the deckplans for all ships.  But I thought I heard a while back on a TA call that the physical brochures were coming back in one form or another later this year.

Princess used to run 1 day cruises between Vancouver and Seattle for repositioning purposes, but only HAL does those now.  They probably changed that to a 2 day voyage so they can run out the straight of juan de fuca into international waters, and open the casino.  On these short cruises, I would imagine that the casino is the money maker when compared to all other onboard venues, especially if the weather is poor and people stay inside.

11 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

I believe that there is internal turmoil within Carnival Corporation which could bring more change. What is the future of Costa Crociere?  Two ships have been transfered from Costa Crociere to Carnival Cruise Lines this year with a third next year. Those three are similar to two classes that Carnival already sails. The Costa Deliziosa is referred to as a hybrid Vista/Spirit-class. Appearance wise and deck layout it is similar to the HAL Vista/Pinnacle classes. If Costa would thin its fleet even more could HAL become a possible recipient of the Costa Deliziosa? It's sister ship, the Costa Luminosa now sail as the Carnival Luminosa. That might help with an easy and absorbable increase in the HAL fleet.

I've wondered the same thing myself about Costa ships and being transferred to HAL if the need arose.