symui

For me personally the aft facing balconies on Emerald, Dolphin, Caribe and Baja, have ample shade. Another favorite on the grand class ship are the port and starboard balconies on Caribe. They have ample shade and are larger than regular balconies on Baja, Aloha, Lido, Riviera. Take a close look at the deck plans. Although they are not exactly to scale IMO they do give a fairly accurate idea of the size differences between the aft facing balconies and the many of the port and starboard balconies. Generally speaking the deeper the balcony the more shade. One exception are the Mini's on Dolphin, all the balconies are fully exposed with no overhang. The aft Mini's on Emerald are have ample shade are are a favorite for those who want more space and a couch. IMO the best balconies (excluding Suites) on a Grand class ship are the aft facing and port and starboard on Caribe. YMMV, let us know what you decide and have a great cruise.

Four of the aft facing balconies on Baja are marked obstructed because they have a vertical structural support beam that obstructs the view from the cabin and the rear half of the balcony deck. Once you walk past the beam and closer to the rail there is a full UNobstructed view. Personally the advantages of an aft facing cabin far outweigh the obstructed view so I will book these cabins. The balconies do provide shade and are deeper than most port and starboard facing regular balconies. The four obstructed balconies on the Baja deck are 751, 753 and 750 752, the other aft facing on Baja have no obstructions and when I have a choice I would book those first. The aft facing balconies on Caribe are also a good choice but I have not stayed in those cabins so I can't say for sure. My understanding is the same vertical support beams run through two of the suites C750 & C751. Maybe others can comment on the suites.

I was on the Sapphire last Dec/Jan in South America and the ports in Chile and Argentina have a very good selection of wine. I would tour the port etc during the day and pickup a few bottles on the way back to the ship. Usually no corkage fee charged when boarding but even when they do I'm still ahead $ wise with much better wine than is generally available on the ship. Be sure to bring a credit card with NO foreign transaction fees. Every place I went to gladly accepted CC for wine purchases - and just about everything else.

Contact a travel agent, they probably can book it for you. It's possible the cruise is sold out but more likely something else is going on. Unfortunately princess.com has been in continual state of decline the last 2 years in fact is the buggiest most unreliable website I have ever seen. I have a good CVP with Princess, without her I probably would not sail on Princess. That said, just off a two week cruise on the Discovery and it was one of the best cruises for us. IMO, the onboard experience at Princess is very good for the price point.

We were on the Dec / Jan Antarctica B2B also on for an 11 day Alaska trip on the Sapphire in April 2023. No Poker or Baccarat tables on either cruse. I would NOT count on a Poker table for your cruise but there is a chance they will add it by then. It is odd they don't have it on that ship as most Princess ships have an electronic Poker table.

I received the same offer just after 11am this morning. -Rick

Agree, IMO both are world class destinations. If you prefer touring and vacationing some of the great cities in the world Tokyo is one of my favorites and this trip would be a great choice. I enjoyed my business trips to Tokyo so I booked a two week land based trip to Tokyo and other parts of Japan. I could spend a month or more and be perfectly happy and never run out of interesting things to do. If you prefer scenic beauty and nature the Sydney, NZ trip is one of the best. DW and some friends did this trip in 2019 and loved it. Sydney is a beautiful city and the sail out is one of the best in the world. The southern Fiords in NZ are amazingly beautiful and the port stops heading north towards Auckland are some of my personal favorites. Tahiti and particularly Moorea are stunning is their own right and also have one of the best sail in / sail outs in the world. Sailing north out of Moorea toward Hawaii is one of the most beautiful sights I have seen and will be etched in my mind forever. If I had to pick one it would be the SYD-YVR trans pacific since I enjoy scenic beauty and nature more than cities. Let us know what you prefer and what you decide.

Wow, this is great. Many thanks !!

Thanks for posting - timely as DW and about a dozen friends are boarding on Sunday. How is the wine selection at other venues and availability on the Plus or Premier packages. Any Caymus, Rombauer, Ferrari Carano? Other favorites etc? Thanks again and enjoy the remainder of your cruise.

The Emerald is headed to Hawaii from LA right now. Use a ship locator website to get the coordinates when the ship is 3 days out from LA. I would guesstimate that the ship will pass through a partial eclipse with about 25% of the sun obscured by the moon - so worth a look with eclipse glasses. Duration with be about ~1.5 hours from first contact at 16:30 (UT), to max at 17:15 (UT) ending at 18:00 (UT). Double check the ship time on day 3 vs (UT). I would use the website below to match up the coordinates and help with the time conversion. There are many sites available but this is the one I use for eclipses. http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2024_GoogleMapFull.html?Lat=20.13909&Lng=-152.02051&Zoom=7&LC=1 Enjoy the partial eclipse and your time in Hawaii.

I have always used OBC at the casino (tables) most recently on December and January cruises. I check my folio daily and see the debits from the casino hit my cabin account using the OBC.

I just saw that, 3 Sky and 6 Owner suites. Also provides an upgrade path for existing cabins. Folks get your upgrade bids in quick if you have not already.

Agree most Princess ship have a electronic poker table but not all. Just off the Sapphire, no electronic poker or tournaments, also no Baccarat table. Aside from that - the ship and the crew were great and we enjoyed the cruise

I use Uber or Lyft to Pier 27 on a regular basis and find the service reliable, never missed a cruise or had an issue. Your can get pricing with the Uber and or Lyft app for different sized vehicles and compare that against other services.

I boarded at San Pedro on 12/1/23 without a medallion. All you really need is your passport but we always bring a hard copy and screenshot of the travel summary as some agents can find your reservation faster if you have it handy. Agree with CruiseRaider that boarding was a bit of a mess but I have certainly seen worse. We arrived at 2pm and there was a line outside the tents so we were glad it was not raining. If it was better organised the total time from curb to cabin would have been about 30 minutes faster. Green lane might have saved about 15 minutes on that particular day/time at San Pedro Most of my embarkations with Princess (San Francisco) have been in fairly smooth with or without a medallion. Much better than airlines on average which IMO are the weakest link when traveling