cruisequeen4ever

Yep, we restarted cruising the end of 2022, and it felt so good!!!!!!

I always recommend the Pan Pacific and Fairmont Waterfront, however, they can be quite costly. If you want a less expensive alternative, there are some hotels a few blocks back that work and are still 4 stars. One trick is to stay at a hotel along the sky train route close to the airport and just take the sky train back and forth to explore Vancouver. We did that one time for a one night stay that was a long layover, and it worked well.

That’s too bad your NY was thin. My husband’s was thicker than any we’ve ever gotten at Crown Grill in the past. We do agree with you that the general food quality has declined onboard, unfortunately. Some were still hits but others were noticeably different.

We have always loved Crown Grill so we pre-booked Crown Grill twice for our Royal Hawaii cruise. Both times were so good, we went back a third time. We covered the filet mignon x4, New York x1, and Lamb Chops x1. All were cooked perfectly and of superb quality.

We definitely had all 4 port days in Hawaii, and we arrived on time to all 3 islands. The captain did alter our course to Hawaii to avoid worse seas. We only missed Ensenada; the captain announced that if we had sailed there, we would have been sailing up the coast in the worst of the storm. I tracked the wave height forecast of the storm on an app, and he made the right call. The Royal cut through the waves beautifully, but I did take Meclizine a few times when we were really rolling. I think the captain said something about feeling the motion more with the direction we were rolling. One day in the Retreat pool, the water was sloshing all the way down to the bottom on one end and then would blast to the other end all the way down to the bottom! I swam laps, and it was truly a swim against the current pool! 🤣 It was a fun adventure!

Technically it’s considered enough, however, I always seek layovers there of 1.5-2 hrs to be safe. Seattle has gotten so bad with plane traffic that we often are delayed 10-30 min sitting on the tarmac waiting for a gate. There goes the transit time; you’re stressing to race to the next gate which could mean down the way or could mean a train ride or a trek to another terminal. Not fun IMO.

So did you make the cruise in SD?? What a stressful experience you’ve had. This year has brought way too many delays and cancellations of flights. I hope from today on will be smooth sailing for you!

Years ago on a Christmas cruise, they had a list of all teens onboard and actively monitored the ship, so they could make sure they didn’t break any rules late at night.

If I remember correctly, there were 8 ships one year.

Ruh roh; me thinks I may not like this ship either! 😱 I haven’t studied the deck plans yet, so this was all news to me. DH and I both smile when we hear the British accent speaking the deck name in the elevator. I enjoy the deck names so much that I’ve nicknamed various items by those names. The grill and pizza by the pool are our embarkation day go-to’s. I ❤️ traditional Princess and may just have to sail the Royal and Grand classes til they’re gone and then switch to a small ship cruise line. I’ll be interested to see if any of the new venues attract my attention. DH already had no interest in the Sun due to its size.

That’s helpful info; thank you. Congrats on getting invited!

1) Pan Pacific- directly above port and can have luggage sent to the ship from your room 2) Fairmont Waterfront- across the street from the port with a great view of the ship(s)

Boy am I glad I booked ours last week!!

I’m definitely sorry you’ve experienced a negative impact by this cancellation, but Princess has 0 control over airline schedules, classes of service, and cancellations. You might wanna try a different routing if your priority is Business Class.

It was fun reading about your adventures as we have been to some of the same places and are about to embark on our second Hawaii cruise aboard a different cruise line. Hawaii is such a magical place, whether you’ve been there once or tons.

3:15 would be a great flight time. There can be traffic from Southampton to LHR, long checkin lines at LHR, and then long security lines, so playing it safe with that flight time is wise.

In my household, we are split about this. I never got bored and loved every sea day. My DH missed land. I’ve convinced him to do the cruise again, though, at least!

It’s nice to see you back; you were one of the best bloggers on here! Congrats on the baby and hope you blog your next cruise!

That sucks. It sucks for the people who have been cancelled, and it also sucks because the first voyage isn’t a unique one.

All of your priorities are a match with Princess. We consider the food to be far superior on Princess to Celebrity.

Thank you for sharing. We will be doing a Hawaii cruise soon, and it’s nice to know some tidbits of what’s currently happening on them.

Interesting and frustrating; your guess seems likely about the custom one being the issue. I know I feel a lot better having my Medallion in advance. Maybe try calling Princes and seeing if you can switch your daughter’s to a generic one?

Do a one way Voyage of the Glaciers and do a cruisetour that includes Denali at least. Ideally, do a Connoisseur Cruisetour that also includes Kenai and Copper River. Happy planning!

Thank you, OP, for asking this question! I was wanting to pose the same one. Thank you to everyone for the great info!

Thank you for the comparison. I too agree that Princess’s food is far superior. It’s all in what you’re looking for in a cruise vacation.