JeffT237

If you do leave out of ONT post cruise what time is your scheduled flight? It's not that close as others have said and weekend traffic in So Cal is often bad, especially going inland. As far as the airport itself it's nice and a smaller airport that's really easy to navigate and much less crowded than LAX. But coming from San Pedro it's probably the least convenient of our airports to have to travel to post cruise.

Being from Southern CA I'd say yes it can be done but like others have indicated, there are a lot of potential risks . SoCal traffic even on a weekend is very unpredictable, plus Cal Trans always has projects scheduled over the weekend especially with the toll lanes/carpool lanes. As many times as I've flown out of LAX in my lifetime it always seems some type of road construction is going on around the airport. The obvious key to the whole thing is docking on time and getting off early, there are plenty of routes to the LAX area, but once inside the horseshoe design of LAX things tend to bog down, even on a Saturday. And is far as the 24 minute time estimate on Google Maps I'd say no way, nobody gets anywhere in SoCal in 24 minutes! But if you're a risk taker, go for it!

Definitely look into Port Valet, we used it recently on our cruise as we had a 7:45pm flight and it worked flawlessly, our bags were delivered to SeaTac checked in and arrived waiting for us at ONT airport. You can even check your bags status online. We did the Space Needle and Chihuly museum and they have free lockers to store our backpacks we were carrying. Took the monorail to downtown and explored Pike's and the waterfront area. Light rail to SeaTac was easy from downtown.

We are on the October 15th Discovery and are looking into this company for a wine tasting excursion: https://greendreamtours.com I read on their website that they do pick ups at the pier and the times should work with the 7am-10pm port stop in SF.

Another from SoCal who votes to avoid LAX if you can. I know sometimes it's not feasible due to flight schedules and cost, but we generally search and chose SNA, ONT and LGB even if it's a little bit more. LAX in our experience is not traveler friendly and not our favorite local airport. As previous users stated if SNA is an option and you are coming the day before staying in OC near the beach is a better option if it's in your travel budget.

I think it's pretty well documented how short of a notification each sailing got, we were notified about 9 days before and then subsequently each sailing after was notified with a short notice of the itinerary changes. If I remember correctly Princess stated this "scheduled" or "temporary" change would be solved by the late July & August sailings and the Crown would return to its original itinerary by then. I think most of us were skeptical at the time. My biggest complaint is with Princess's decision making on the Crown issue. The communication was poor as well as the transparency. I also feel Princess has been dishonest with all of these Crown sailings, if they do claim everyone was notified in May that's not completely true, the early sailings were but the later sailings were not.

So our take as we were on the May 7th Crown sailing as first time Princess cruisers was that we'd enjoy the week and worry about contacting customer service to discuss our unsatisfactory experience when the cruise was over. We both agreed onboard that this can't be the real Princess experience and we'd be willing to give them another try if they raised the FCC from 20% to 50%. Although the experience post cruise dealing with customer service was poor we did end up getting what we felt was fair, the 50% FCC. So we are cruising again with Princess, in October on the Discovery for the California Coastal cruise. With our FCCs and refunded excursion money it just about paid for the cruise. Also since we won't have to fly and it is a new ship we both felt less travel risk. We look forward to our upcoming Discovery cruise and are confident that it will be much better than our previous Crown cruise.

Can anyone who has recently sailed the Discovery report if there has been a Chef's Table available? I know it's not available on every ship and every sailing and with staffing issues I'm sure that is impacting the availability as well. Thanks!

We are on a March sailing on the Wonder and the lowest I've seen is $207.99. We opted for the 3 night package instead, we also have a voucher from our TA and booked the Chef's Table for another night so we'll have 5 nights of speciality dining. We'll probably do the Solarium Bistro the other 2 nights. We also feel the speciality restaurants offer a better overall dining experience for what we like despite the cost. If your'e looking at the drink package keep in mind it does not cover the onboard Starbucks.

Of the speciality restaurants we've dined at I'd rank them as: 150 CP, Chops, Giovannis Kitchen, Izumi, Sabor. We look forward to experiencing for the first time Wonderland, Chef's Table and Giovanni's Table on our upcoming Wonder cruise in March.

@Riley_Mon I can only speak from my experience and what I did and what we were offered for our May 7th Crown cruise. I filled out the post cruise survey, contacted guest relations and customer solutions as well as e-mailing the executives. Some of this was on the advice of CC posters as well as Princess guest relation representatives post cruise. Chats were quicker, phone calls led to 2-3 hour wait times, my main frustration and I saved the emails and chat transcripts, were Princess reps giving me a date in which I would be contacted by someone with the authority to grant or deny my request and each time came and went without contact. I did not appreciate that, I realize they are busy but if they say 7-10 days or within 24-48 hours and not follow through with that then that's just dishonest or bad business. I finally got a response when I went through the Better Buisness Bureau, although Princess is not accredited with the BBB they do respond to them and have several complaints filed against them. My advice just be professional and clear with what you are requesting and why. I acknowledged clearly my satisfaction with the crew and the good parts of our trip as well as the disappointment and why I felt a 50% FCC was fair considering the circumstances. In the end Princess agreed. Our timeline was June 21st Customer Relations called me and notified us of the increase to a 50% FCCpp and we received our refund for cancelled excursions and OBC on July 11th.

This is a screenshot for our cruise planner on the Wonder that is sailing in March

We have also seen a table set up in the Royal Promenade for speciality dining purchases and reservations, however we've always found going to a speciality restaurant right when we board is the quickest way to secure the venues and times we want.

We have the same set up, purchased the 3 night package and have a free one from our TA. I do see on our cruise planner that we can purchase the Chef's table for a $49.99pp up charge. We assigned our first specialty dinner using the 3 night package on the cruise planner for day one, once onboard we've always gone to any specialty restaurant and made all of the reservations and have always gotten the restaurant and times (or close to them) that we wanted. Not sure how you would reserve the Chef's Table pre-cruise utilizing the 3 night package but I'm sure there is a way since it's offered as part of the package. We booked the Chef's Table and paid for it seperately as we wanted it a specific day and time.

No way we can easily get to 20+ pages!

I believe the last 2 Crown cruises have made the changed itinerary and all on time, and watching her performance on CruiseMapper the Crown is achieving 20 knots pretty regularly. It does appear that the Crown propulsion issues are improving, and hopefully for your cruise in August she will return to the original itinerary. As far as notice of itinerary change we were on the May7th and we found out a week before but I wouldn’t compare ours to what is occurring now. Hopefully the Crown continues to improve, enjoy!

On CC and pretty much every other message board.

I hope you respond to this question and not just be one a done, why start with the derogatory comment when you begin your post? Wouldn't it more productive for you to vent your frustration over the disappointment of your Alaska cruise and your first experience with RCI? And no I am not loyal to Royal, I've sailed and enjoyed multiple lines including Carnival as I see you have too. Did past RCI cruisers hurt your feelings and leave you with with such a negative perception of them that you find it necessary to lash out? I believe the upcoming Quantum sailings are missing their glacier day, how disappointing and I know of the frustration this leads to especially when the info pre-cruise is lacking. I recently sailed on the Crown Princess to Alaska, owned by Carnival Corp. If you want to hear about frustration and disappointment read the reviews, especially the May sailings. Known propulsion issues, plumbing issues, the medallion app onboard not functioning, non working equipment on board the list goes on. We were notified the week before which led to multiple itinerary changes and all excursions being cancelled, still waiting for my refund. We totaled 15 hours in Alaska on a 7 day cruise. Not sure if you have already sailed the Quantum or it's upcoming but I hope you enjoy Alaska and can manage to enjoy yourself with the ports you do get to call on and you might be surprised with the RCI crew, experience and passengers if you approach it with an open mind. You might actually have a good time. https://www.cruisecritic.com/princess-crown-princess-alaska-cruises_cl28-sh347-de115/mra/ https://www.tripadvisor.com/Cruise_Review-d15691419-Reviews-Crown_Princess

Great to hear the Crown is making the new itinerary, seems like the propulsion issues and plumbing issues are in the past. Hopefully things continue to improve and the Crown can make the original itinerary in August and September. We know some people who were on last weeks sailing and they made all of the ports as well. Enjoy your cruise!

Oops, misread your post, took it as "is there" a Chef's Table not "where". Enjoy!

We sail on the Wonder on the March 5th 2023 sailing and there is one available on my cruise planner. It's currently being offered at $79pp, we booked it. We're looking forward to it as it will be our first Chef's Table.

According to the current roll call the Crown has made her itinerary including Icy Straight Point. That's great news for those who are on the upcoming cruises. Sounds like ports have been on time and excursions have gone off as scheduled. So really only Ketchikan is missed from the original itinerary but Icy has replaced it and a shortened Juneau time, that's not ideal but you should have some more time on land than the previous Crown cruises. Plus according to Cruisemapper it looks like the Crown is hitting 20 knots pretty regularly now, enjoy!

What is the new itinerary that the Quantum will now be sailing for your cruise? What is RCI offering you for the change, just the $100 OBC? So sorry this is happening, I know how much of a disappointment this is, we sailed with Princess in May to Alaska and had the same issue and we ended up with cancelled ports and were late to all of them. Resulted in all excursions cancelled and about 15 total hours in Alaska.

Thanks, yes we are looking at either the Grand or Sapphire specifically so we can cruise as much of the inside passage as possible. But we are a little concerned with the older Princess ships after our Crown sailing. If you look at the itinerary maps for the Vancouver sailings Princess specifies which ship takes which route.

I agree 100%, my kids who are now young adults and have had the privilege of traveling quite a bit still give me grief for never taking them to Disney world and Orlando. Standing in long lines to go on a ride isn't my kind of vacation! Oh Yeah, we also live in SoCal and we've all gone to amusement parks for our entire lives, especially Disneyland since we have so much family that works there we get signed in all the time. Glad you enjoyed the Symphony, we love the Oasis class and our next cruise is on the Wonder as well.