san diego sue

Pia, I guess it is just down. Hopefully there will be some nice price changes. Too late for a couple of mine, all sold out cruises.

Yes all the saved ones are but I also have ones I am just following and hope will reduce before I book.

Now I can't even get on the site. I think there may be a maintainance thing going on right now too.

If this is new thing, it only started with me this morning. I have both booked and potential cruises saved and nothing will update.

To Sassy Red Hat:

You said you haven't sailed on HAL anymore since they pulled their ships from San Diego.

HAL is alive and well in San Diego and in the fall through April sails every week. They do Mexico cruises, Panama Canal, SA, Hawaii etc.

We usually fill in with HAL cruises, last minute deals, between our Princess

cruises. The ships are the older ones but on short cruises , works fine for us.

I still prefer Princess.

While we are on the subject of EZcheck. Anyone know if we can do this

from ships sailing RT. San Francisco. We are going to Alaska on the Star

in a few weeks.

I know for sure that Alaska airlines does it for SeaTac.

Very convenient.

I found the Golden a bit tired looking (in October ), but it may have been cleaned up since.

Surprised to hear that poster had to bring his own luggage into the terminal (and it was after 12:00)and lift on conveyors. Last summer for Alaska cruise(on the Star) we arrived very early , a little past 10:00am. No porters to help take luggage and we also had to bring it into the terminal . However, once at beginning of the short line, there was help that took luggage and put on conveyor. Friends arriving a few minutes after us had their luggage taken by porters instead.

I think people were still exiting ship and the porters were assisting them

when we arrived early.Don't know why the Poster had that experience. I wouldn't have been happy, especially when there are big crowds all trying to get into terminal too.

The Crown, Ruby, Emerald, and Caribbean Princess all have the same passenger count.I have been on all of them as well as the Grand class ships and the little ones.

The Crown is a wonderful ship, well maintained. On all Princess ships, no matter the size, the crowding occurs when people are rushing to the shows after dinner.To avoid this we go up to a cabin deck (8), and am able to avoid the crowds to get to our destination, then go down one flight to appropriate venue.

Or if a ship arrives in port late and everyone is waiting to get off the same time.On Caribbean Princess they handled it like getting on a tender, gave out tickets to avoid the big rush.

On the Crown and the Emerald, they did a couple of lines on two different decks.

Princess is a well organized cruise line and will do things right for passenger comfort.

On pretty much every ship and cruise line that we have sailed, there are toilet issues. Passengers don't follow the rules and flush things that don't belong in the toilet system. Don't judge a ship by a passenger review of a toilet issue.

Food is subjective. We all have different eating habits.

You didn't mention room service.Full hot breakfast is available on HAL. Really great choices.

We cruise mostly Princess but do sail HAL once a year. HAL ships are not as modern.

The thing that bothered me the most about HAL's buffet in the evening. You stood in a huge line, couldn't just take your main course and sides. Had to tell person behind the counter what you want. Only thing you could take on your own was the salad, and it was already made.Took forever to get your food.

And this was any day on their cruises, not just the first couple of days. Lunch was a normal buffet and you helped yourself after the first 48 hours.

We always find dining room service and food on both cruise lines very comparable.

any mini is great. In Alaska , you are cruising slow and enjoying the view. Uncovered wonderful. However, if rainy, you would probably like the covered.

On the Island, don't miss the On the Bayou show in Universe lounge.

When the ship goes into drydock soon, that lounge with the rotating

stages will go away. The show will then go to the Princess theatre.

More cabins will be added where the Universe lounge is now.

We were told this when on the ship this past April.I think the show will have a very different look when this happens but of course more people will have the opportunity to see the show. That Universe lounge is quite small.

We were unlucky to have faxed ours Monday afternoon. When I called

to confirm it was received yesterday (even though I got confirmation), was told it went down then. I got someone very nice and she gave me another fax number, went to that machine and waited for it to come in. Then she immediately posted the shareholders credit to my cruise.

Didn't keep the number , sorry.

I have another cruise I just paid for but will wait till next week to send. I will call first.

We did the first one on the Golden in October last year. Then they offered it on the Sapphire for January and we did it again.(I think Dec. was 50% instead of 100%)

I am on B2B roll calls for Dec. Really dead. I hesitate to step up to do the M&G because of the poor responses. I only step up if no one else wants to do it and there is lots of people wanting to participate .

There have been a couple of people canceling after complaining what a dead roll call it is .

Leaving for Alaska next month, same thing, no M&G set up. I just booked the cruise and although people are chatting, nothing set up, not even at sailaway.

In all the years I have been a member of CC, this is the first time I have had dud roll calls. We always look forward to meeting new people on our roll calls.

Denmarks, we have been on Hawaii cruises with you and loved your

website that you set up for our roll calls.

In April we boarded the Veendam in San Diego. We were allowed one bottle of wine per passenger without paying corkage. Any more than that you paid $18.00 corkage a bottle. We had to show our bottles in the terminal.

I made a mistake and we only had one bottle for both of us. I intended to purchase another one in the first port. Well, I was told even though we hadn't reached our limit, in ports we would still have to pay the corkage.Next time will bring our two bottles when we board. $18 too high a corkage. May as well just buy your wine once on board.

Was on the Island in April. A good portion of the anytime dining room was used for fixed dining. We were assigned there. Noticed the same people around us the whole two weeks. There was so many that wanted fixed dining they just opened the anytime to them too. This left so little room for people that didn't have fixed.This was a Panama Canal cruise. I think in Alaska more will want anytime than fixed. The viewing is so beautiful you hate to go into dining room and miss out on seeing it.

We leave for Alaska in three weeks and are doing anytime(on the Star).So if you want the fixed,you will probably end up with it, especially if you want late sitting. Alaska cruises have lots of families sailing and with kids they eat early.

Don't do it in a balcony cabin. It will be so tight with three women.

Get the mini.

Didn't like the aft suite on the Golden, Caribe deck. It had the obstructions(beams). With the large teak furniture very difficult to move around on the balcony and the balcony was shallow.Hardly used it.

Next time on the Sapphire we had a side facing suite . It was so much nicer,

also on Caribe deck. Huge balcony.

Yes that one is partially covered.

We were recently on the Island and had a forward Mini suite on Caribe deck

C226 and it was completely covered, love it.

They aren't made in advance. There are several pizzas to chose from. I usually get the Veggie one . These are thin crust personal size pizzas that have very little cheese to begin with on it.I would imagine they can leave the cheese off it.I am also lactose intolerant and just ate the Veggie one as it came and had no problem at all.

Alaska is very casual. boys should be fine .

Don't worry about the packing. Layering clothing is what you will do.

When we go to Alaska I actually pack lighter than on other cruises.

And you can repeat outfits, no one will notice.

Have been on the Crown a few times. You will love the ship.

You can always get milk(at buffet or dining room). Juice only in morning.

Tea or lemonade available too. Lemonade I think only in buffet.

Childrens program is very good. Enroll them when you board.

There is laundry on every floor where there are cabins. You can purchase detergent in laundry as well as fabric softener.I had heard while in Alaska waters sometimes they don't allow laundry to be done. Don't know if still in effect. We have done laundry and also sent it out while in Alaska so don't know if it is at some locations.

Have fun.

When we recently had our freebe cruise credited to an already booked cruise at final payment, our insurance cost was drastically reduced (Princess' insurance). Don't know that it covers that part of the cruise.

I do know if you cancel a cruise with that credit on it, it gets moved to another one you have already booked for this year (happened to a friend).

So hard to pick a favorite. It is also the people you meet, that adds to the total cruise experience. We have been all of the Princess ships except the Ocean,Pacific(although have been on the previous little Royal, same ship),Sun and Sea. Even though the big ships have large

passenger load, have had great experiences. The Coral and Island probably the ships where we got closest to passengers we met.

At this time my favorite ship is the Royal. Love the new and modern

look of the ship.

Fly into Heathrow. Take the bus(it is right between terminal 2-3) and you can walk to it. Lovely bus ride to Southhampton and very inexpensive. Use to have senior rates but that may have changed, still cheap. We arrived in Heathrow at 7:30am, was on the 9:30am bus, and there is one at 11ish too. Got to Southampton in a couple of hours, cabs

at bus station are cheap, took a few minutes to hotel. We stayed at

Holiday Inn. It was nice and clean and reasonable. Walking distance to an indoor mall where we bought our wine, ate our meals in food court.

Next morning very rested, hotel called a cab for the short ride to port.

Don't remember the name of bus but it may have been National. We booked on line but you could do it right at the bus terminal if you want to. Seems like we paid about 25 pounds or less for the two of us. Check on line. We had considered car service but didn't want to pay over $200.00 for that service when not necessary.

On a different cruise that ended in Southhampton, we did the ships transportation back to Heathrow.