karatemom2

The main dining room food is a big factor in our continued preference for Princess. Despite some of the complaints we see here, we have still found the main dining room food to continue to be very good to excellent on our cruises, as well as the service level. While NCL has some fabulous specialty restaurants, we have found the main dining room food to be very disappointing. We try to book a FAS package that gives us the option to eat in a specialty restaurant most nights of our NCL cruise which helps. But the Princess dining experience is still far superior in our estimation.

We are primarily Princess cruisers - it’s definitely our favorite. But, that being said we have cruised a number of times on NCL and really enjoy many aspects. The amount of onboard activity like the Go Karts, Laser Tag, Escape Room, Bowling, Pool Table and Water Slides is great fun and a hit with our young adult family members. We also love the entertainment - their production shows are outstanding, definitely a level above Princess in professionalism. I would agree that the standard dining room food is subpar compared to Princess, but I tend to prefer some of their specialty restaurants over Princess. A few of the best meals we have ever had on a cruise were at Le Bistro and Ocean Blue. I do like Crown Grill better than Cagney’s though. Despite all this, we still give an overall edge to Princess for the cabin size, beauty of ships, elegant feeling, onboard CD level activities, regular dining meals/buffet and overall experience. Plus we get better perks with our Elite status and casino benefits. But we will still continue to cruise NCL as well and enjoy it too!

I see this thread has been resurrected since I first posed the question. @Nickh101 I’m glad you were able to get a clear answer from NCL. What you were told has been our experience in real practice. Since first asking this question and coming back to report our real life experience we have been on many subsequent cruises on both NCL and Princess and daughter’s boyfriend (now husband) has had no issues. In fact, they recently returned from their honeymoon cruise within the last month and came home with some incredible photography from the ports they visited. So, despite any naysayers here you should have no problem.

We love cruising to Alaska in May. Generally less rain and still lots of beautiful snowy mountains. It can be cold but also very temperate as well. Only downside is that salmon aren’t running that early but still plenty of wildlife to be seen.

We have done a number of Christmas cruises on Princess on a few different ships and typically the decorations are beautifully done, especially in the Atrium. Christmas trees throughout the ship, lots of festive touches everywhere with garland and lights. Activity wise, especially the week of Christmas there is usually a gingerbread house decorating contest, some holiday arts and crafts, caroling - sometimes with the onboard singers leading. One year they had a caroling group that performed in old English costume. On Christmas day, Santa visits and the kids have a host of activities, arts and crafts, cookie decorating, etc. We have loved our holiday cruises and found that Princess does a good job of making it festive.

I think it has been clearly established that children can go anywhere on the ship where drinks are being served with the exception of the casino to get a drink. The argument seems to be around whether kids can plant themselves at the bar and indulge in ribald conversation with drunks sharing their inappropriate tales of conquest - which is patently ridiculous on its face. Children do not habitually hang out on barstools on cruises and join in the adult patter. If they are at the bar, it is usually to order a drink and go. This conversation has gone off the rails. Kids are fine in lounges and they can get drinks at the bar - the end.

Exactly - they "look" expensive. It is all optics. I'm sure Princess realizes that most people will not only NOT eat two per day, they are likely not to eat more than two per cruise. Sounds like many people don't eat them at all. So it is a classic marketing ploy to enhance the perceived value of a product to help sell it, knowing that in actual practice it will be seriously underutilized. It's bells and whistles.

This thread is so crazy. I've been cruising with Princess for years, many of those when my kids were little. They are all grown up now, but never frequented the bars by taking up barstool space - beyond maybe waiting briefly for their drink before returning to a table with our family. Try as I might, I can't recall ever seeing a gaggle of kids sitting at a bar where people were boozing it up. I don't think this is a real issue but a highly exaggerated scenario that holds no relation to any reality I have ever witnessed on a Princess cruise. And that includes being at a bar where someone is drunkenly talking about their "exploits". This is all much ado about nothing - and frankly kind of hilarious!!

Pizza is still free at the pizzeria by the grill and pool. I actually prefer it to the pizza they serve in the restaurant. It’s easy, convenient and delicious.

I thought I deleted quickly enough when I realized I posted in the wrong thread. My bad.

This is always such a heated topic for some reason - always has been. I remember a day on this board where the argument over jeans in the DR on smart casual nights caused the equivalent of virtual fist fights. And now, that is a non-issue as jeans in the dining room are commonplace. I think we can all agree that society has changed and cruising has changed along with it. In general, in all aspects of life people dress more casually now for all sorts of things that used to require a stricter dress code, including places like church, school and work. When I started my career you wouldn't catch me at the office in anything less then a suit or dress and always pantyhose. 30 plus years later, my work wear is most often more casual trousers, flats and a sweater set - never pantyhose (thank goodness). And often I'm still the most dressed up person at the office. Princess still has guidelines, but that is all they are. It is "suggested" and there is very little enforcement unless it is pretty egregious like someone showing up for dinner in ratty gym shorts and a tank top (I have seen that turned away). By and large, you should do what feels comfortable for you. It's a wide range of apparel, especially on formal nights that can range from very casual to full tux and gowns. We dress somewhere in the middle - DH in a suit, sometimes a tie, sometimes not, and me in dressy evening pants and a dressy blouse. That's about as far as we go these days and on more casual cruises like Mexico and Alaska we veer even into the slightly more casual dressy. So you can assess what works for you - we don't dress the same on every cruise. We have noted that our European cruise, especially out of Southampton tend to be very dressy. Our cruise a few weeks ago featured lots of stunning gowns, tuxedos and even some kilts. We knew this would be the case so we dressed up more on that cruise. It won't be the same story on our Caribbean cruise next year, so I will pack accordingly. Just dress in the way that makes sense for you and grab some popcorn and enjoy the banter here! : )

Delete - wrong thread.

If you’re interested in wildlife, I would highly recommend a whale watching excursion in Juneau.

Deluxe balcony cabins have a small sofa so that is another option besides mini suite.

Alaska is a really reliable place to do your own excursions. We almost never do the ship excursions on our Alaska cruises anymore because we find independent tours so superior in terms of experience, flexibility and personalization. I'm not a big fan of crowded bus tours or the limitations that often come along with ship tours. Since most private tour vendors in Alaska really cater to cruise ship passengers, their businesses rely on them making sure people get back on time to board their ship and they take that very seriously. We have never had one instance where we were even the slightest bit worried about making it back in time. There are so many great tours and vendors in Alaska and so many easy ways to "do it yourself" there that you can do so with confidence

If that's the case for most people who purchase the package, that's great. As I said, it can be worthwhile for those who have done the math and really will fully use it to it's greatest extent. My impression is that a good many people buy it for convenience and then may struggle to get the full value. Good example, on our recent cruise we conversed with some fellow cruisers who shared they were really trying to make sure they used their package, but were struggling on our port intensive cruise where some port days were 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and given the destinations, most people wanted to take full advantage of those days. So they were trying to make up for the use on other days. The day we spoke with them, they were headed off to get one of the desserts. It was near the end of the cruise and they hadn't yet taken advantage of that benefit. She shared that she didn't really even want it, as she felt she had already indulged so much on the trip, but felt like they had to get it or feel like it was wasted. In my estimation, feeling pressured to eat more, drink more or use benefits just for the sake of using them while I'm on vacation isn't particularly relaxing or fun. Again, everyone is different and viva la difference! We find it is not worth it for us, but for others who have thought it out and find it cost effective and beneficial to their cruise experience, good for them. It's great to have options.

We have been to the Alaska State Museum in Juneau and found it very interesting. The Juneau Douglas Museum there is small, but interesting if you are interested in the Gold History in Juneau. When visiting Haines, the Hammer museum is a novelty, but will take you all of 5 minutes. Since you will be there on two different days, you might consider taking the ferry to Skagway on your second visit to get another port and more of a sense of the Gold Rush history at the excellent museums there. And while I love a good museum, much of the real joy of Alaska is getting out in nature and seeing the beauty of this amazing place. Be sure to schedule time for that part as well - even if you don't want to do ship tours, which we tend to avoid as well, you will find most ports are easy to plan on your own. We find rental cars a great way to get out of the towns and see more of the surrounding area and there are many private vendors in every port that you can book that provide great and more personal experiences as well. Enjoy!

It will be interesting to see at what price point Princess finds this isn't marketable as more passengers do the actual math and figure out it doesn't make sense for them. I'm sure Princess has done the math on their end and are not offering this as a losing proposition from a financial standpoint, realizing that a great many passengers who purchase this "money saving" perk will actually end up spending more by purchasing this than they would have otherwise because they won't actually fully utilize the benefits up to or over the amount being charged each day. This is especially true on port intensive cruises where people are often off the ship most of the day. We have done the math for our own personal utilization and already find the $60 amount more than we would spend per person per day on the "perks" included. Part of that is helped by our Elite benefits with our reduced price on wifi and evening cocktails in the Elite lounge. Still it would be a stretch for us to see it make sense for us as low level drinkers. I highly doubt most people experience a 50% to 60 % savings as is being touted by Princess unless they drink like fish. More likely most are lucky to break even and many end up paying more then they would buying alacarte.

Mini suite will not have a bar set up unless you are Elite level. In terms of kettles and coffee/tea set up on Princess cruises, we have only seen them on our cruises out of Southampton. We have never had them in our cabin on any of our other Princess cruises outside of the UK. I would imagine you can ask your room steward if they can supply one, but Princess ships outside the UK market may not have them available for passengers.

This might give you a better idea. It will hold a couple small travel size bottles of shampoo and conditioner, bar of soap and a razor. Not a lot of space but room for a few items.

There is a small alcove for this purpose - it will hold a few small items, but not much. Travel sized items work best for the space. There is also some shelves just outside the shower in the bathroom where you can keep items that are easy enough to grab when you go in and out of shower.

Tenders will start running as soon as the all clear is announced. It’s early but if you get up and grab a tender there will be restaurants on Medano beach open and serving breakfast. Have breakfast in the beach, maybe get a nice massage at the Sand Bar and enjoy your morning by shopping in town and grabbing a margarita and chips and guacamole before heading back to the ship. Cabo is great - get up early and enjoy your day there, short though it may be. You can take an afternoon siesta when you get back onboard!

This is a dream of ours when we have the time to do a similar trip. We have cruised many times to Alaska but never done a land itinerary and a back to back cruise with land tour in between has been something we have talked about for years. We will definitely plan the land portion on our own with a rental car for transportation and setting up our own schedule and lodging. We are more independent travelers and almost always do our own shore excursions in Alaska which is so easy to do. I’m sure you’ll be able to plan a fantastic land itinerary that encompasses what you want to see and do with some planning which is half the fun. Please be sure to share your experience so we can learn from what you choose to do!

And the example shared is a port day - even more to choose from on sea days.

Only place kids are restricted is casino and adults only pool areas. They can join you in any lounge for trivia, music, games, entertainment, karaoke - even bingo, although they can’t play on their own cards.