srpilo

This last year for the first time I've received several Princess Casinos "Free Cabin" offers, some with Princess Plus, some without..

My question is, how much does the casino expect you to play (total amt $ per day or total $ cruise) to justify the free cruise ? 

While obviously these offers are appealing, I don't like the thought of the casino's expectation of me having to gamble the actual cost of the cruise once onboard... So what the casino's expectation of you on a free cruise ??  

6 hours ago, JockoFlocko said:

I booked the Denali Explorer tour from 6/8 to 6/18.  The trip begins with a night at the McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge and then a night at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.  And then a train ride down to Whittier on 6/11 to board the Majestic Princess for a 7-day cruise down to Vancouver.  So, if I need to have a negative COVID PCR or antigen test result within 2 days of embarkation on the Majestic Princess, where will I be able to do the test prior to boarding the ship?  Do they test at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge?

Yeah, I wish they'd just come out and tell us how they're going to handle the testing for the Alaska cruise-tours so we all know before making final payments.

Certainly, they must have thought about the pre-cruise tours testing for this Alaska season already, they've had 2 years to figured it out, so why keep it a secret from the tour guests now ??? 

If you call and ask you get 3 different answers from 3 different agents...  #@!$#!!

Come on, just tell us what to expect.....

I too have a land tour coming up, and it seems ridiculous that HAL is even hinting we'll need a test to start a land tour ?  A test to stay in a Hotel with other untested people, a test to ride on a pubic train in the USA, and test to ride on a pre cruise bus ???. To me the obvious solution will be to test all tour guests in Whittier prior to boarding , not 3, 4, or 5 days before when starting the land tour.

The CDC  covid recommendations mention nothing about land tours in the USA requiring a covid test, but are rather specific about the pre-boarding time frame --> "2- days prior to boarding a cruise ship"... Just saying ....

Here's the official EU link...

You can sign up your email address for notification when the registration and requirement system will offically commence

Link : ETIAS for Americans | Europe's Travel Authorisation for US (etiasvisa.com)

Pre-pandemic in Anchorage HAL used the "Westmark" on fifth ave. which happens to be owned and operated by HAL.

On 2/7/2022 at 8:19 AM, flamingos said:

The park road, that the bus tours use, will be closed at mile 43, less than halfway in.  

 

From my HAL cruise in May:

 

UPDATED INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR TUNDRA WILDERNESS TOUR The National Park Service has announced that a section of the Denali Park Road will be closed for the 2022 and 2023 Alaska seasons due to road construction. Your Tundra Wilderness Tour will now go to Mile 43 and will continue to offer the best opportunity to view Denali's iconic wildlife and North America's tallest peak. We will provide an onboard credit of USD $35 per person on bookings made before February 4, 2022 to compensate for this change.

 

https://www.ktoo.org/2021/08/31/denali-park-road-landslide-prompts-closure-and-search-for-long-term-fix/

We too have a HAL cruise tour in May, with the TWT included, and have not received this notice of the change or OBC compensation, if you don't mind could you tell me when you received the email from HAL ?

44 minutes ago, happywandering said:

 

You were faster than I was.  😷

 No one will stop you from wear your mask if you're still so inclined.

 Your situation is different from that of @grooker that RuthC was addressing. You booked your land portion through HAL, they did not.

I wish you the best! Please let us know what HAL eventually says about this

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I guess that's the problem when not using the quote feature when replying to a specific post...

No worries I'll certainly report back any testing formation I hear directly from HAL about any pre-boarding logistics for the  pre-cruise land tour

 😉

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

If HAL has nothing to do with your land tour in advance of the cruise, then HAL has no responsibility for testing arrangements (should testing still be necessary then). The responsibility is with you, and the tour company. 

OP here..  We booked a HAL cruise tour thru HAL directly , so HAL is not a separate land tour company, ---> HAL train cars, HAL lodges, and HAL tour reps during the entire pre-cruise land portion ---- So I absolutely feel and think that HAL is responsible for providing at a minimum the opportunity and location to be tested (if still required ) pre-cruise, or if not testing us directly in Whittier.

.

We're doing a cruise-tour, and our land portion is pre-cruise, so just wondering how the 2-day pre-cruise test requirement will be handled, we'll be on tour in Denali with HAL at the two day prior mark ?

So any idea's how HAL will handle the pre-boarding testing for the pre-cruise land tours?

A quick question for all the experienced HAL cruisers..

We've cruised HAL many times, but just booked our first HAL cruise tour in May to Alaska, and I'm curious if charges in the lodges or land excursions (if any) are a charged to the onboard account or if the tour charges are a separate folio, and will have a different chargeable final tour statement apart from the onboard folio or are just paid as consumed ?

3 hours ago, imgagesmom said:

I'm on the nieuw statendam leaving tomorrow last cruise was on it in 19.  What are some good drinks w the Dutch liquors? I want to try them all but not were what they even are or taste like lol. 

I do know that "Dutch Coffee" has Vandermint Liqueur, but that's the only Dutch specific drink or liqueur's I know of..  Probably many more but I'm just not a big international alcohol connoisseur  🙃

5 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Something that has not been mentioned in this thread is the age of the Grand.  It is now the oldest ship in the Princess fleet and shows her age.  It is in the LA market competing with the Majestic, a much newer and more luxurious ship.

 

IMHO this was a major marketing mistake by Princess.  If I have to pick between two ships, cruising similar itineraries, I will pick the newer ship.  We have and so have many others, as the Majestic has been sailing with around 1,500+/- for the past couple of months out of San Pedro

Its good to remember when the Grand was deployed to Los Angeles from SFO for the 2021 season, she wasn't intended to complete with the Majestic at all, but rather to handle the Hawaiian schedule which as you know personally was interupted by the Hawaiian Government, and to a lesser extent Covid.   Hopefully come January she'll return to her slated schedule and passenger loads will return.

IMO she's still a great ship 😎

2 minutes ago, Coral said:

I have been on Mexican cruises where it is over the New Years. The Christmas decor start disappearing on the 30, 31st and by the 1st or 2nd, it is all gone. So it isn't done on turn around days in port. I remember it being a sea day and in the morning, the Christmas tree was by the elevator and by afternoon, it was gone. It was weird. I never saw people take them down but they just disappeared as the cruise went on.

  Gee thanks ... Your experience must be correct then (?)

Historically Princess ships in the USA are Xmas decorated on the first turn around day in December, and are contracted out to onshore companies who come aboard during turn around , and are finished and off the ship by embarkation time. The reverse takes place on the first turn around day in January . 

Over sea's ships are done by crew members onboard with pre-shipped decorations & with stored onboard decorations.

Solid take, thanks for your open minded report

6 hours ago, chrysalis said:

Cut off for the most travelled passenger luncheon was 493 days

 493 --- Yikes !!

Option ...

There's a Fly Away bus from Burbank airport to LAX, I believe if runs once an hour (check online), and from LAX you could take one of the scheduled Princess transfers or taxi/Uber to San Pedro

          (edit : sorry in your case for a return flight do it in reverse)

.

3 hours ago, chamima said:

I keep hearing there is no more bar soap in the cabins?

Have gotten bar soap?

I was on the Emerald for 15 days last month thru the Canal , definitely still bar soap in the cabins at the sinks. I prefer it in the shower also, and the steward happily supplied additional bars

another nothing burger ....

Following 

2 hours ago, puggymom said:

Just off the ship and waiting at my gate at FLL for my 11 am flight. 
 

Disembarkation was very quick and easy. I was in the first group after the self walk offs. Easy face scan and off to the taxi stand. It looked like they had several lanes open so hopefully for the later groups it was just as easy. 
 

Princess did a great job (except the app😂). I completed my post cruise survey sitting here at the gate. The app was my only criticism. Several times it froze up and I had to delete and reinstall it.
 

Was everything perfect no, but it was the reaction of the crew when something went wrong that counts. 

 

The Panama Canal excursion that returned late, that was in no way Princess’s fault, was fully refunded. When checking my statement yesterday I noticed a goodwill credit in the amount of the excursion price. This was completely unnecessary. They left a note in my cabin at the beginning of the cruise explaining to bring water etc that it could be a long day. We were at the mercy of the canal rules and authorities.

 

Again it’s how one reacts when something doesn’t go right. 

My next cruise is on the Emerald as well in 6 months for the British Isles. I’m already counting down. I can’t wait to be back on  board. 

 

 

Thanks for all your posts onboard, it was great to follow along

2 hours ago, philv said:

Anyone do a b2b recently in Ft. Lauderdale? We are doing first b2b on the CB in February and would very much like to hear about procedures on turnaround day. Especially what happens if you test positive.

If you test positive on the antigen test, you'll be retested with a PCR test, more than likely they'll send you to your stateroom to wait for the PCR results, and if positive will be instructed to pack your belongings and then at some point within their Covid protocols disembarked

Don't forget the 2 beers, 10 alcohols total 

Yes, was on the Emerald last month, and embarkation lunch is still a go 🤩