cruisequeen4ever

They have been trying to do this for a while, and thankfully, the experience has not changed for us…yet at least. We value the adult oriented, upscale, traditional cruise experience, that Princess gives. It’s fine if there are some children, but if there are a ton, it really changes the experience. Princess can market to younger adults without making it a heavily frequented by families cruise line. We started out cruising Princess in our 20s. There are plenty of adults in their 30s, 40s, and 50s without kids who would be a prime market to get hooked for life.

There is a website that has great pictures of one of these staterooms. Search for B100 Sapphire Princess, and it should be a top hit. I didn’t realize that the Sapphire has these; I thought they were true oceanviews. They are just like the Royal class forward facing balconies that are huge, and I would recommend them as long as you don’t get seasick. I’m surprised there’s no balcony furniture though; if that’s truly the case, that would suck. On the Royal class, you are warned that they can make it so you can’t access the balcony during certain conditions, but we did not encounter that when we had one. If these are priced lower than other balconies, I say, go for it, but if a regular balcony cost less, I might be inclined to just do a regular balcony.

They’re relatively equal, but there’s just something special about the Sapphire that gets to your heart. Also, like others have pointed out, the Sapphire has Skywalker‘s, which is a really cool venue. Sapphire also has four separate dining rooms, and I don’t know if they are doing this post Covid, but before, they each had one unique entrée to that dining room, and we really enjoyed those. The Majestic would have more for the teens, but you are right that the two you picked have indoor pools, and that alone is super fun for anyone. I’m sure there will still be plenty of teens available for them to hang out with on these two ships. Alaska typically attracts families in the summer.

Goodness; I’m sorry you went through all that with the flights and the fall! Cruise line air works great…unless there’s a problem; if there’s a problem, it adds an extra layer of inconvenience, complication, and stress. If you have a problem, it’s best to be able to call the airline directly, and they are more likely to solve it to your satisfaction, being direct customers. I am very surprised, though, that Delta couldn’t see that they themselves were the cause of the problem on the way home, and should definitely have accommodated you on alternative flights. Good luck getting reimbursed!

Try Princess; the Majestic will take you to Glacier Bay, which is a highlight. Princess was an original cruise line to Alaska and does it best.

I agree! My hubby and I almost booked our first NCL cruise because of the promo, but when I saw the summary screen, we could go on Azamara for less!!

Great plans!

I’m not an expert on this as a legal matter, however I know of multiple people who have done the B2B from Seward or Whittier with no issues.

Seward’s embarkation is very spread out throughout the day, so there’s usually a small to no line, and it’s a small town so very easy to navigate. There’s no customs to clear as you’re still in the US. Vancouver is notorious for long lines and waits during embarkation. Some of it is because multiple ships can be embarking at the same time from the same terminal, so they funnel through one security line before going to separate check-ins. There’s also an extra step involved, to clear US customs, which slows the process down. Don’t get me wrong; we love embarking from Vancouver because we live exploring Vancouver Pre-cruise, but it’s just far easier to depart from Seward.

I’m surprised it was almost unanimously Baltic. We loved our Baltic cruise, but St. Petersburg was the highlight, so I’d personally wait to see if ships are able to return one year. The British Isles cruise is wonderful.

Interesting pricing. Do you get any gifts for that price? Princess charges close to that but includes cool, valuable gifts.

It’s definitely unfortunate to incur extra costs and consequences and be affected by the hurricane. I hate to say it, but it is a known risk when traveling to the Caribbean during hurricane season.

Fun review; thank you!

Yay, mine finally posted! I was worried because everyone was posting they got theirs, and mine hadn’t posted yet. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, I’m sure they’re coming. They must be posting them throughout the day.

To me, they’re not putting their best food assets on the Venezia. This will be an interesting experience!

It’s not Covid safe to crowd everyone for the muster, and I haven’t experienced the new muster to make an opinion of whether it’s sufficient or not. If it’s not safe enough to just do the current muster, then a hybrid is what I would recommend where crowds are not occurring but more information that’s important is being properly disseminated. Already, Carnival was behind times in having everyone crowd on the deck. No need to go way back in time.

I sure hope they compensated you for getting less than what you paid for! I’ll give them points for creativity in their temp solution, but they should have moved you and upgraded someone to your stateroom. That person wouldn’t care since it was a free upgrade.

I can’t believe Grand Turk is still requiring vaccination with how everywhere else has dropped the requirement.

I’m sorry you had to endure that stress and still have to endure stress of the DMV and hoping your bag will come before your next trip. Your experience was the last bit of confirmation I needed to buy air tags. Hope your bag comes in time!

Thank you for sharing!

Holy casino play!! Congrats on qualifying and having fun despite not making it all the way! I can’t imagine a $27 max bet. Happy for all those who hit jackpots!

This was such an informative thread for those of us doing these sailings; thank you to the primary blogger as well as everyone else who contributed!

I’m so sorry you have gone through all of that! Thank you for sharing your experience, so we can all go into Med cruises without eyes open. I had thought, based on one Holland America passenger’s experience at a Rome hospital a few years ago, that Italy was actually a safe place to get medical care if necessary. Perhaps they got lucky with the hospital, or perhaps the pandemic wrecked the medical care there. Regardless, it is scary to think of having a medical emergency in many cruise ports. The MedJet idea sounds best to reduce risk. I hope you recover well and quickly!

It’s my understanding that as long as the girl was not person #1 on the stateroom, she can be dropped or replaced. If it is a two person stateroom, and she is just dropped, then your son would become a solo passenger in the stateroom, and he would still be paying just about what it costs for two people. As a result, it would be more cost-effective to just have one of his buddies join him. Alternatively, since you’re so far out, as long as you don’t have a nonrefundable deposit, you could just have the three of you in one stateroom and save a ton of money!

Woohoo for you!!!