DuncanBlizzard

4 hours ago, wondertwinsmom said:

Here is the link to the website:

https://www.portseattle.org/page/port-valet-enjoy-seattle-luggage-free
You can either sign up there ahead of time or on the ship.  We are on next week’s cruise and I signed up last night. There is a box to check near the end of the sign up, if you get free baggage with the airline and an info box for you to explain why. I included my frequent flyer number in that box as well so it could be verified.

We did exactly that earlier this month and had no trouble.  I'm platinum with Delta, so we added my frequent flyer number on the forms we got on the ship for both cabins, submitted the forms and set out the luggage the night before, and all went well.  It was really, really nice not to have the big bags.  The Delta app updated me to say when the luggage got on the plane and the luggage showed up on the carousel when we arrived home.  That's a nice service!

1 hour ago, late2cruisin said:

I noticed that one of the bathroom amenities in your Elite bag was body lotion. Since I'm not elite, does that mean I won't get any and I'll have to bring my own?

It was our first cruise earlier this month, and we had the body lotion in our bathroom.  I took one to the desk and started using it, and they replaced the one in the bathroom.  So if you use it, you'll even get more -- or at least we did.

1 hour ago, geoherb said:

Can anyone recommend great places on the ship for viewing the glaciers for folks without balconies?

We saw people in the Hollywood Conservatory (deck 17), at tables in the buffet (deck 16), out by the pool (deck 16), and down around the piazza.  My favorite place was above the buffet near the basketball courts accessible by the staircase by the ping pong tables.  It's open air and standing room only, but it was the least crowded and best place to get photos if you have good weather.

1 hour ago, Trvlingal said:

We booked an aft balcony cabin for the first time on our Sept 12 cruise.  Can anyone tell me if the rooms have any extra blankets that can be used on the balcony if we sit back there in the cold?  If not, are they available at the pool deck?  Once years ago we were on an Alaska cruise where blankets were available to borrow for Glacier Bay day if not other days.  Haven't been on Princess in 10 yrs so not sure what they are doing these days.  Appreciate any info on extra blankets for this purpose...also Movies Under the Stars- think we had them for that one year somewhere.  Thanks.

On the Aug 1st sailing, there were plenty up at MUTS -- red and black checked ones.  I used the pool so was up there a number of times, and they had them rolled and sitting on each lounge chair.  At the end of each movie, they would collect the used ones.  (One night they even collected my pool stuff and medallion even though I pulled the chaise lounge close to me at the pool.)  They were also handing them out to people on Glacier Bay day -- many of whom were taking them into the buffet to watch indoors through the windows although it was actually nice outside.

If you keep your eyes open, I'm sure you can find them around if your steward doesn't have any/many.  If all else fails, they always had plenty of towels rolled in the bins at the pool which you could also use.

1 hour ago, ClassyApplePie said:

October will be first time on Majestic. Question for CPAP users...is there an electrical outlet on the nightstand or behind the bed? 

Our cabin did not have one.  There were only two USB ports at the head of one bed.  The first thing I requested when we got on board was an extension cord, and they set it up that day and strung it across the room from the desk.  The steward removed it and coiled it every day, and I uncoiled it and plugged it back in every night.  We passed other open rooms during the cruise, and I saw extension cords in their rooms too.  The rooms in general didn't have many electrical outlets.  Our room had two US outlets (at the desk) and the two USB outlets (at the head of one bed).  There were also other country outlets.  We asked guest services for some adapters, and they said we'd have to buy them from the shops if we wanted them.

It appears from the last post that different cabin configurations may have different outlets.  It was easy enough to get a heavy-duty extension cord once you're on board, though.  You can also request distilled water through the personalizer for your cpap.

1 hour ago, Kay S said:

I have had beds on Princess that were like marble slabs before. 🙂

I had a top bunk two weeks ago, and it was like a marble slab.  I sleep on my side and woke up regularly because of the hard bed and had to turn to the other side.  I had to get the pillow from the other bunk just to keep my head high enough because the bed didn't let my shoulder sink into it at all.  The other two on the bottom bunks said their beds were nice.

Make sure you don't have a top bunk if you want/need a soft bed -- or make sure you have a top bunk if you want a marble slab!

6 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

There's an English muffin sandwich with bacon, egg, and cheese. That's the only hot food item on the menu. And when we have ordered them, they've arrived warm.

One person in our room ordered the egg mcmuffin type sandwiches, and yes they were warm but good.  They come in a warming-type bag on a plate.

Funny enough, on the day we were coming into Juneau, we were up in the hollywood conservatory looking for whales.  A server came and dropped two of these sandwiches at our table.  She said the person who ordered them was not there and that she had to deliver them somewhere.  The person i was with ate one and said it was very hot and quite good.  Given the huge lag times everyone had with getting things they ordered by phone or app, I suspect the person gave up and left long before they arrived.

1 minute ago, Kay S said:

Did they have the door hang tag for next day's breakfast?

Yes, they have the door hang tag.  We used it the last two mornings and wished we'd used it before.  It was the only consistent and efficient way to order that we found.  It came within the 30 minute window we checked and the order was correct each morning.  The first morning they even brought coffee because they thought we just forgot to order it.

16 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

If that's how it is, then that's how it is. Not my first choice, but it's not a deal breaker for us. If we had dietary constraints, then I'm sure that would be more of a problem than being able to stick with one set of waitstaff. 

I have untraditional dietary constraints and was on the August 1st sailing.  They assigned us to the Allegro dining room each night at the same table with the head waiter so I had consistency for my evening meal.  We loved our table with a window view which was also nice, and it worked smoothly.  I liked the consistency.  I learned I had to have them scan my medallion for them to know our table, and I just started telling them my table number so they let us find it ourselves.  We ate at 5 pm (except in Juneau), so there was a line up of crew each with a paper table map waiting for the scanning person to tell them which table to take people to.

For lunch we were told to go to Concerto.  We had no reservations and had different waitstaff every meal.  My lunch had been put in my record the evening before (created lunch and dinner menus the night before every day), and as expected, some days were smoother than others.  The last lunch menu was a bit more diverse than others and I had a waiter that couldn't find my order in my record.  He came to me 3-4 times trying to figure out what to do with me, and I insisted it was in there.  He finally said his manager would come talk to me, but presumably his manager found my menu and we quickly had our salads.  (I hope this manager showed the waiter how to find it to be prepared for others like me.)  So other than a short delay and frustrating this particular waiter, it went smoothly because I knew they were entering an appropriate menu and trusted the MD I used to put it in terms the chef would understand.

3 hours ago, lolane1 said:

Hmmm  Am I reading this CDC page correctly?  It is reporting, as of today, August 16th, that the Majestic Princess has Covid onboard and is in yellow status.  

 

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html

• Yellow status means the ship has met the threshold for CDC investigation, which includes one of the following criteria:
  • at or above the investigation threshold for crew COVID-19 cases,
  • at or above the investigation threshold for passenger COVID-19 cases; or
  • state or local health department notified CDC of passenger COVID-19 cases occurring within 5 days of disembarkation.

CDC acknowledges that it is not possible for cruising to be a zero-risk activity for spread of COVID-19. Cruising will always pose some risk of COVID-19 transmission. Therefore, public health measures, including testing and vaccinations, will continue to play a role. CDC recommends that all travelers (passengers and crew) get fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 

 

I don't think I would panic but I might be a bit more attentive to mask wearing.  As the CDC says, cruising will always pose some risk.  

Yes, I believe you are reading it correctly.  The Majestic Princess has been either yellow or orange for multiple weeks now, so presumably they have had covid cases off and on for that period of time.  I was on the August 1st sailing, and we never heard anything about the covid cases on the ship at that time, so they keep it quiet.  We did have a medical emergency that week with a passenger airlifted off, but they announced it was not covid related (and we heard it was a heart attack).

We kept our masks on the entire time except when in the dining room or our cabin or swimming laps -- and that was before it was required.  We have also continued to keep our masks on around our area before and after the cruise.

27 minutes ago, harleysmama said:

I have a question for you guys. There is usually a burger place and a pizza place on the lido deck. All I see is a lobster place and noodle bar. Can you tell me if either one of these serve burgers and/or pizza?  Thanks  

The lobster place is actually a burger and lobster place.  I don't think I saw any lobster rolls purchased, but I saw plenty of people leaving with burgers.  Someone else can hopefully help with pizza.

9 minutes ago, seacruise9 said:

I am booked on a cruise on the Majestic Princess for this fall. I am currently trying to make dining reservations through the Medallion app. What are the typical times for the main shows each evening? I like attending the shows and want to make sure that my dining reservations don't conflict with the show times.

 On the August 1st sailing, show times were 7:00 and 9:15 every night.

We had 5 pm dinner and started notifying our waitstaff that we had the show at 7:00 to speed dinner along a bit -- and they had no problem with that.  We wanted a bit of a break between dinner and the show instead of racing from one end of the ship to the other for the 7:00 show.

2 hours ago, wondertwinsmom said:

I have seen on some vlogger’s  videos on YouTube (my closest thing to cruise experience so far 😂), that the ship gift shops usually have big sales at the end of the week so if you plan to buy any souvenirs from there to wait til the end. Is that still the case?

We walked through some of the gift shops regularly on the Aug 1st sailing to get back and forth to rooms, dining, etc.  There were lots of 30% off signs on Saturday.  They also had a $10 sale on earlier in the week on ties, scarves, and other items.

7 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

BC (before Covid) there were things like bartender demonstrations, ice carving demonstrations and so on. Not sure if those are still going on. Same with staff-led games like trivia.

We were on the Aug 1st sailing.  We went to the fruit and vegetable carving demo up on deck 16.  Perhaps on Saturday was the ice carving, but we missed that.  They announced each night at the 7:00 show that there were hosted games nightly at 8:15 and 10:15 in the Princess Live lounge like the Yes/No.  We never went but did watch one of the Yes/No ones on TV and thought it looked like fun.  We were also passing once during the day and saw another event at the Princess Live where they were guessing songs.

They also have a couple of pools and lots of jacuzzis on decks 16 and 17 (indoor and outdoor).  They aren't really long enough for laps, but I still did laps regularly and saw others swimming or watching the movies on deck 16.  They ran during the day and night on a giant screen.

7 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

They did a good job containing the spread   .however this is the 3ed cruise ship that I know of that  has had the covid  . It is apparent that the Delta variant is   as   aggressive as chicken pox  ,so expect more cases on ships; but ,as long as there are strong protocols in place it is containable

The Majestic Princess has also had cases -- and more than one or two as have many other ships sailing right now.  Look at the CDC Cruise Ship Color Status.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Ftravelers%2Fcrew-disembarkations-commercial-travel.html

They say on the page what each color means.

The Majestic Princess is yellow so it has met the criteria for being above the threshold although they don't say what the threshold is.  It's been yellow or orange for multiple weeks now, so we know they've had cases because the data is updated regularly.  I was on the ship last week, but we never heard about cases.  Nevertheless, they are happening.  We kept our masks on last week except in the dining room as did quite a few others on the ship just to help minimize the spread.

1 hour ago, Freightgoddess said:

Does anyone know if the gym has a recumbent bicycle?  I has a chair with a backrest 

Yes.  There were a few of them on last week's cruise.  The gym tends toward the warm/hot side, so bring light-weight workout clothes.

5 hours ago, caribill said:

Looking at the timing of the Princess Theater shows vs those three time slots, only the earliest of the three would end in time for the show based on past experience in the time dining room dining takes. Maybe since DMW asks if you want to eat at slow, medium or fast speed, you need to pick the time slot that would fit your speed the best.

We ate at 5:00 every night except in Juneau when we were on shore later.  We asked for fast speed in the system, but it was slow and we found ourselves racing to the show and were even a couple minutes late for one show.  We started letting them know we wanted to be out in time for the show, and eating sped up considerably.

And I'm surprised everyone keeps saying that if you have the same wait staff, they learned your preferences.  I had the same wait staff every night, and I was still asked for every salad and every entree if I wanted fresh pepper.  I never want pepper and started waiving them off as they headed to me with the pepper.  Same with the bread which I can't eat.  They never gave up on me wanting bread.

On 7/23/2021 at 10:29 AM, Denali2003 said:

I am unable to eat white breads, pastas, & rice. High sodium foods and high sugary foods.  I can eat whole wheat or gluten free foods.  I am not Diabetic nor do I have Celiac.  However, I do have the "side effects" from these.  

On 7/23/2021 at 4:09 PM, Denali2003 said:

Thank you all so very much!!!  I feel better knowing that I do have options.  Glad to hear that the ships carry GF food.  I'm also a Vegetarian, so I'm sure my meals will be very different from most people's.

I just got off the ship last Sunday, and beware of gluten free if you can't eat rice.  I have a restricted diet, and after a couple of days of berries for dessert, they decided to bring me a dairy free, gluten free piece of apple pie.  My restrictions go beyond gluten free, and I was pretty sure I couldn't eat it.  They actually got the flour package, and the first ingredient was rice flour.  I passed on it and asked that I have mixed berries every lunch and dinner for dessert.  I like them, they were simple, and I didn't find any other easy options.

I saw sugar free dessert options every day at the International Cafe but never tried them.  I guess I should have asked the sweetener but just passed on desserts.  I never met with the buffet chef and usually didn't have much for breakfast beyond some vegetables from the night before and some fruit.  Know that I regularly saw incorrectly labeled things in the buffet and IC.

Copying what I wrote in the live thread:

In both the buffet and the International Cafe, I got foods that were not what they were labeled.  In one case, the salad had pine nuts and not pistachios like it said (and I can have both so no problems for me).  In other cases, they just labeled things wrong -- listed cabbage when it was lettuce, omitted various significant ingredients, etc.  I mostly got the little salads in a cup or on a plate in those places for breakfast the next day and was disappointed at how bad they were at labeling things.  Again, it wasn't a big issue for me but I can tell I ate some of the wrong things most likely from these types of things I ate outside the dining room. 

I can also attest to the fact that perhaps because so many of the crew are from different countries that they struggled when I said a not-so-common word.  For example I got pecans at the buffet often to snack on, and many didn't know which nuts were pecans and I couldn't point well given the glass barriers between me and the food.

43 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Ombud, I have a rare severe dairy allergy called FPIES so I have to be extremely careful. I also always meet with the head waiter in the dining room nightly. Can you tell me how it works for you when you are ordering off of the medallion app to have food delivered to you wherever you may be?  I’m really curious about everything ordered to be delivered to your cabin or wherever you may be… Food from the MDR, snacks, burgers/sandwiches, and also the specialty dining.  Like I’ve said before I’m excited but nervous to try the DMW Technology. Thank you so much!  

I am not Ombud and didn't have anything delivered to me through the app.  I just got off the ship Sunday, though, and was a bit scared for people with severe allergies.  Luckily some contamination doesn't hurt me significantly so I didn't have to worry about that with my food restrictions.

In both the buffet and the International Cafe, I got foods that were not what they were labeled.  In one case, the salad had pine nuts and not pistachios like it said (and I can have both so no problems for me).  In other cases, they just labeled things wrong -- listed cabbage when it was lettuce, omitted various significant ingredients, etc.  I mostly got the little salads in a cup or on a plate in those places for breakfast the next day and was disappointed at how bad they were at labeling things.  Again, it wasn't a big issue for me but I can tell I ate some of the wrong things most likely from these types of things I ate outside the dining room. 

I can also attest to the fact that perhaps because so many of the crew are from different countries that they struggled when I said a not-so-common word.  For example I got pecans at the buffet often to snack on, and many didn't know which nuts were pecans and I couldn't point well given the glass barriers between me and the food.

Hopefully all goes well for you.  I feel for those that have to be more careful than I do.

49 minutes ago, Ombud said:

I have an unusual allergy + a souvenir from having cancer 6 times. I'm perfectly healthy now just waiting to test Thursday for Sunday's cruise. I do not repeat my meals unless I want to. (Love veggie stuffed baked potato with bechemel or cheese sauce for my main course)

 

In the past 8 cruises (not for the 1st few dozens) I have met with the head waiter in my dining room and explained it: vegetarian with an allergy who can no longer tolerate spicy food. I have been accommodated.  

 

I strongly encourage you to ask to meet with the HW who will come to your table & have you pre-order for the following day

My head waiter deferred to my MD (asst MD?), and the headwaiter told us he'd been with Princess 17 years and a competitor for 16 years.  He was experienced unlike some of the younger ones I had at lunch.  Every night when we sat at our assigned window table, the headwaiter said they'd start my meal but that Simone would come by to confirm it -- and he did plus set up the next day's menus.

After the first day when I struggled to get any idea of what was in their food and walked out of the dining room in frustration, I was fine with this arrangement.  I ate whole foods that were steamed and grilled and I could see exactly what was in them.  It worked and relieved the stress.  Now that I'm home, I can make whatever I like to eat every day.

I wasn't there for the food.  I was there for the wildlife and scenery.  I didn't want the food to be a distraction.

8 hours ago, trbarton said:

Perhaps if they still have the machines whereby you can print out a statement the night before or get one from the customer service desk. What do people know?

We got them from the customer service desk, but there was always a line in part because of the problems with the billing and the medallion (which notifies the crew who is in the vicinity and pops up their picture leading the crew to often charge the wrong passenger).

I know people tried to view their statement in the app the last morning and complained they were no longer visible so they didn't know what they were actually charged.

8 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Actually, you were meeting with one of the Head Waiters who supervise a section of the DR.  Your table has a Waiter and Assistant Waiter, so sometimes the Waiter may be thought of, or referred to, as the "head" waiter.  It would be rare for the MD himself to be seeing each guest with their dietary needs.

 

You are right.  I actually saw the overall MD himself very briefly soon after boarding the ship and he set me up with Simone who I was told was the MD for the Allegro restaurant (an assistant MD?).  Simone then set me up with who I was told was the head waiter for the restaurant, Nemesio.  Simone told us that he had previously been a head waiter, and I know he was assigned to multiple passengers with dietary restrictions.  Nevertheless, he made me feel like I was his only guest.  It was Simone who told us to go to the Culinary presentation the last day because we would see Nemesio there since he's the head waiter.

1 hour ago, pspatti said:

I appreciate that you pointed out the positives as well as problems and areas that need improvement.  In reading your comments I am alarmed at the number that relate to understaffing  - especially because you were sailing at reduced capacity.  I'm booked on the Majestic on 8/15 and I have heard that Princess has already increased capacity to 100%.  If they can't handle food and drink and buffet service with guests at 60 - 80% capacity how will they handle 100%?  oh boy ...

I could relate to many of the items listed above having just come off the ship yesterday.  I would add that part of it is understaffing and part of it is training.  Hopefully there is a quick ramp-up in training/learning, but I fear it might not be too quick.

I went to the culinary presentation the last day at the recommendation of our maitre d who told us our head waiter was in it.  It was the head chef and head of the restaurant operations for the ship and was quite entertaining.  They said that 60% of the crew were involved in food and restaurants which increased to 70% if you included the bars.  They said there were 72 nationalities represented in the crew.  That is a lot of different languages and cultures, and the guests are overwhelmingly American given the covid situation.  I got a number of "I don't know.  Ask someone else." responses which were preferable to the "Your event was cancelled." when it wasn't or just plain wrong information.  It will take time to get them all up to speed and able to answer appropriately.

I will say that if you can get someone's attention in the Marketplace (which I did by shuffling a bit left or right and peeking around the ends), most quickly shifted to where you were to get you what you wanted.  I really wish they had just had a stack of silverware wrapped in napkins available for the taking like they did in the International Cafe, though.

4 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Next time work with your headwaiter to plan your meals in advance.

 

The headwaiter will meet with you each evening to go over the menus for the following day. A number of the items can be prepared specially for you without the ingredients you cannot have. The headwaiter will make it happen.

That's exactly what I did to get to the menu I had.  I had a head waiter and a maitre d.  Each night, the head waiter got the maitre d who gave me the next day's lunch and dinner menus.  From those, we put together meals for the following day.  Those were put in my record to pull up the next day.

It was the maitre d who kept telling me that something I thought I could eat had other ingredients not listed.  He told me when they could be modified and when not.  For example, I can eat goat cheese and asked about the goat cheese soufflé.  He told me there were other cheeses in there and that they had tried multiple times for other passengers to only use the goat cheese, and it didn't work.  Same with soups although the last night they did modify the mushroom soup so I could eat it -- the only soup I had during the trip.  So we basically set up a pattern of items that I rotated -- salad followed by a few rotating grilled seafood options and rotating steamed vegetables -- with berries for dessert each lunch and dinner.  It worked and was easy for them and fine for me.

32 minutes ago, Snaxmuppet said:

One thing is certain... I shall certainly be recording down everything I buy (I'll record it on my phone!)  and checking my account daily to make sure there are no mistakes. With everything so apparently disorganised I can see loads of error creeping in. Fortunately I have the plus fare so there won't be much on the list 🙂 

I just got off the Majestic Princess, and there were plenty of mistakes.  When they scan their systems, they see pictures of the people whose medallions are closest.  They then use those pictures to apply the charges.  We had erroneous charges on our bill.  The ones the last night we never got fully removed.  I also heard plenty of people at guest services (was there too often) trying to get charges removed if they had ordered two drinks but the system charged them both to one person and they violated some limit.  Guest services told them it was a known bug, but part of that line was people trying to get charges removed.  I have to wonder if we'll get charges after we leave the ship once they input all of the paper sheets they're keeping of people making purchases that aren't input until later.  Then we'll be on the phones.

5 hours ago, mike x ftc said:

I agree, we're just off Regal and anything booked on the App is meaningless once on board.  You haven't 'reserved' anything, apparently you have just 'expressed an interest'!  The staff in the bars don't even use them, they just write down your room number, and on deck there was always drinks waiters wandering around calling out names to try and find the owners of the drinks!!  

We saw the same.  The crew erroneously told me one of my activities had been cancelled.  I talked to others who went and said they were told reservations were made so the crew had an idea of interest.  We ended up going later without a reservation and not a word about reservations was mentioned.  No activities, shows, or anything seemed to even ask about reservations.  Just go.  Chances are that reservations don't matter.

We also saw a number of situations where the waiters couldn't find the people who ordered something.  It was saddest in the Princess theater where I saw them walking the aisles and going from one end to the other trying to find the person.  We also had some food dumped in our cabana in the Hollywood Conservatory.  We were on one end, and the woman delivering it said the person was nowhere to be found and she had to leave it somewhere.  We inherited it.  Then again, our orders (and many others) didn't come the second day.  Apparently they didn't have the staff or something to deliver what was ordered and just ignored it.  We stayed up waiting for it before finally going to bed.