azbirdmom

For those who have been trying to find Live Chat using Chrome, I recall that it didn't appear for me until I cleared cookies. I hadn't done that for a very long time and after I did the Chat option appeared as did the newer interface for booking a cruise.

I think you'll make it to Skagway. On August 18th there isn't a ship scheduled to be in the aft position at the railroad dock so I think they will simply shift the Discovery from forward to aft. You'll likely have to tender off but you should be able to enjoy Skagway on your cruise.

Very interesting. And I think the following answers why we haven't heard anything more about the first Sphere class ship: Up until the pandemic, Carnival Corporation and its major rivals such as Royal Caribbean Group had long pursued a strategy of ambitious growth that involved ordering new ships almost as fast as they could be built. The arrival of new ships at major brands, often with new features, seemed to be always around the corner, and it drove both excitement and bookings among cruising fans. It was at the core of the rapid expansion of the industry. But since the pandemic began, such orders have been on pause, and restarting them at Carnival Corporation carries new risks given the company’s high debt level. When asked whether ship orders could soon resume, Weinstein is noncommittal. He notes that the company is determined to get its debt level down and rebuild the “fortress balance sheet” that it once had. To do that, the company will have to divert a significant chunk of any profits it generates in the coming years to paying down debt, not buying more ships. Any ship orders that are to come are likely to be for delivery several years into the future, he suggests. “I will say that our order book is set for the next few years … [If] everything works out the way we hope, we’ll have the opportunity to pay down debt in a meaningful way [in the coming years],” he says. “That doesn’t preclude us from doing what we think is appropriate in the growth profile … [But] we’d be looking at ships [scheduled to arrive] in four, five, six, seven years down the line.” The good news for cruising fans who love new ships is that several of Carnival Corporation’s biggest brands including Carnival and Princess still have new ships on the way — vessels that were ordered before the pandemic began. But the pipeline of new ships on order for Carnival Corporation brands is quickly running dry. The company has just seven ships on order across its nine brands, all but two of which will arrive by the end of next year.

This is where it is on my laptop using a Chrome browser (tried to circle in yellow highlight but with the dark background it doesn't work well)

A gentleman was so unhappy with the the CDC's relaxation of the Covid rules for cruise lines that he is sharing Covid data reported for each ship. Some of the charts are tough to decipher but if you're interested in seeing what the numbers are on each ship, here's the source https://observablehq.com/@andy-bloch/andys-cdc-cruise-ship-covid-outbreak-tracker

We boarded in Seattle two weeks ago and I did fill out the trip information within 72 hours of boarding. Very easy. You do need to indicate Victoria as the Canadian port and the location is something like Ogden Pier 1 & 2. There's a lot of other dropdowns that appear but having been there before I knew that was the right one. We did show it to our steward and he said he just checked us off the list. It's all electronic so other than being asked at check in if we had completed ArriveCan, we didn't have to show it to anyone else.

Would have been more appropriate to have toilet flushes trigger prize entries. A win is if the darned thing works!

There are cruises that visit the Australia ports now but they haven't opened up the other ports just yet. It seems like they are playing it safe with itineraries leaving from Aus / Europe / US. Other cruise lines are selling cruises to other places which is one of the many reasons that we plan to stray from Princess next year.

There's two Thursdays in August that only 3 ships happen to be in port and your's is one of them. On your date specifically there was a ship scheduled to be at RRA but that ship can be moved to the Ore dock and the Discovery moves to RRA. So you'll be one of the lucky ones on a Princess ship that actually make it to Skagway.

Well that is very interesting. So the casino wants people to be at their cabin door recording entries instead of playing in the casino when they are open? Another promo they didn't quite think all the way through.

Guessing they will work something out before next season. Too much $$ involved on both sides of this issue.

I was on the Discovery last week and was chatting with the Internet Manager about poor service that was even worse than we had ever experienced in the past, even in Alaska. The Cruise Critic issues persist, and I was unable to retrieve personal email at all as my email service thought I was a bot. He was able to replicate the last issue on his device and was going to report it as he hadn't seen that particular behavior for my email carrier (although he had seen other issues). And he said that Princess isn't doing anything to block any sites like CC. Among other things he told me that they have been with SES for at least 7 years so the provider has not changed. I also asked about Starlink and he indicated that they don't yet have enough satellites to provide service to Princess. He was aware of what's happening with Royal.

It really depends on where the ship is. We had good luck in the Caribbean on the Regal and Caribbean Princess. It was hideous last week on the Discovery in Alaska.

Now that's a memorable gift.

Yes! That's the place. And I said they have nothing but gold but they do have some other treasures as well. It used to be nothing but gold.

Me too. We were on one of the last ships to berth at the forward Railroad dock a week and a half ago and were also there last year on the Majestic. Both times we stopped at a small book store talking to the owner (as I call it helping the local economy by spending $$). I said that I bet she was glad that the ships were back in force and she said it helps but the ships aren't full yet so it's nowhere near back to normal. And now this. I do feel bad for the local business owners as they haven't had normal business since the summer of 2019.

If you like wildlife I can highly recommend the Otters, Raptors and Bears excursion. We did it a couple of years ago and loved it. You will be on a boat for part of the excursion to see whales, otters and perhaps some seals and eagles. We saw them all. Then on to the Raptor sanctuary and finally the Bear sanctuary. Someone posted an excursion sheet on FB that they received last week and it's still being offered.

Caribbean Princess indeed has a new captain but Tim Stringer is now at the helm of the Discovery Princess. We were on the Caribbean Princess at the end of May / early June and on the Discovery last week. First time we've had the same captain two cruises in a row.

I saw them in every stop, it just depends how much your hubbs wants to spend. Ketchikan does have a store that pretty much sells nothing but gold nugget jewelry. It's in the Creek Street area. We've looked but have never priced.

If that was on the deck plan then it probably is a restaurant. But with all of the fanfare I had been thinking that it might be a Cirque du Soleil type show.

We just got back from our fourth cruise since the restart which is also our fourth cruise since we have been required to use the Medallion app for check in. For each of these cruises we have used my credit card. For cruise #1 both of our folios were visible to me. For cruise #2 I could only see my charges but my husband could see both. We didn't think anything of it. For cruise #3 the same thing happened but I went to passenger services and they just asked me to confirm that I was the cardholder and within seconds they corrected it so that I could then see both folios. And the exact same thing happened on cruise #4. My suspicion is that something happens in the app when credit card and other information is carried forward to another cruise. I've thought of deleting my credit card in the app and then reentering it but the app has been working great for me and I don't want to chance messing anything up. So I will just continue to look at the folio on the app and if only my folio appears, I will simply go to the PSD to have them fix it.

Makes sense. They keep kicking the can down the road to provide information about the new ship so it's very likely that there is a delay. I'm still holding out hope that they launch from Port Canaveral and will use the new facility built for the Mardi Gras. Our good friends have a condo in Cape Canaveral and it's a two block walk from their place to that terminal. Would be awesome to walk to a cruise LOL.

The replay is here. And there won't be an announcement about the Sphere class ship until September.

There was a webinar for TAs this morning that I listened to. At the end it was mentioned that they will probably be able to share more info about the new Sphere class ships in September. They had said earlier this year that it would be in June so we shall see if there is something shared in two months!

Here’s a picture I took from our balcony last Thursday of the older slide that is deemed capable of causing catastrophic damage. Very glad they have closed this area of the dock.