Discovery Princess – Alaska May 22 Occasionally Live From

[5:00_Somewhere]

We boarded the beautiful Discovery Princess in Seattle, pier 91, Sunday, May 22, and I thought I’d offer a few thoughts throughout the week. This will NOT be a true “live from” thread, both because I try not to be online a lot while I’m on vacation, and because the MedallionNet internet service is already proving to be extremely slow and choppy, and it seems especially bad with CruiseCritic.

 

First, despite early forecasts, Sunday turned out to be an absolutely beautiful, sunny, warm day in Seattle. We were visiting family so didn’t board until 1:00. There were lines inside the building (none outside), but it only took us about 10 minutes in the Priority/Elite line. I heard others who were Green Lane but not priority say it took them almost 45 minutes.

 

One tip: there was no internet and no cell reception inside the port terminal, so we could not access the Medallion App, ArriveCan, the Novica app our email with our eMed covid test results. So, I strongly recommend doing what we did and either take a screenshot of or print out your Green Lane QR code, your Negative Covid Test Results and ArriveCan receipt with QR code. They were fine with screenshots from our phone.

 

Once on board, we found the ship absolutely beautiful, the staff friendly and helpful, and the service very, very good, as usual. Sail Away from Seattle and through the Puget Sound was spectacular. We spoke with an officer who said there were 2,143 passengers on board, or a little less than 60% (rated for 3,660). The ship  seems lively and active, and comfortable, but not “packed”.

 

We have a standard balcony cabin on Sun Deck (17) forward, which we quite enjoy. The balcony is somewhat larger than the majority of standard balconies on Royal Class ships, and our front door opens onto the windows looking over the Retreat Pool, which is very nice.

 

We dined in the Skagway MDR and, again, found the service great, and the food tasty – with the exception of the Bananas Foster dessert, which was shockingly inedible, but our waitress brought the chocolate soufflé which was a wonderful replacement.  

 

We enjoyed the Jazz trio in Take 5 after dinner and had a sound night’s sleep.

 

Today we are cruising the inside passage, and it’s gray, windy and cold (45 degrees f) with high ocean swells. The ship is rockin’ and rollin’ quite a bit, and the pools are sloshing. They have closed the Retreat Pool and The Sanctuary. There seem to be a lot of indoor activities throughout the ship today, from bingo and trivia to the art auction and various classes, games, music, etc.

 

One odd thing I wanted to report is that, all over the ship, we hear more creaking and squeaking – especially in our cabin – than I can ever recall hearing on any other ship.

 

And finally, I have to report that virtually everyone I have spoken with is having problems with the Medallion App. No matter which way I log in (using my email and password, booking number, stateroom number), it will only stay properly connected for a short time, and then my picture will disappear and all the features become non-functional (such as Dine My Way, viewing your onboard account, Journey View, everything). Oh, and it makes my phone think it’s on US Eastern Daylight Time instead of Pacific Time. The tech’s on board cannot explain or suggest any fix these issues, and the only solution seems to be that you have to log out, then log back in and hope it functions long enough for you to do what you want to do before becoming inactive again. This is especially disappointing because, this time, the app actually functioned properly and well right up until we boarded the ship, which is the exact opposite of our prior experiences. I’ll report back if I become aware of a permanent remedy.

 

Oh, and because people always ask, the formal nights are the 2 sea days: Monday and Friday.

 

I’ll try to add more thoughts as the week goes on.

Edited May 23, 2022 by 5:00_Somewhere

[RJAM3]

thank you  have a great time!

[newbie1900]

Thank you for this info! Any chance you have the patter from yesterday? I am trying to make my mdr reservation and don't want to miss out on the opening day events. I'm sailing next week...

[dog]

Log out and log back in— worked for us. 
only issues we had with app was getting to menu, but success. And can order from tv.

internet near Vancouver was terrible.

otherwise worked well.

 

enjoy that beautiful ship.

[5:00_Somewhere]

Just now, newbie1900 said:

Thank you for this info! Any chance you have the patter from yesterday? I am trying to make my mdr reservation and don't want to miss out on the opening day events. I'm sailing next week...

 

Here is the one for embarkation day. I will upload others later, but it's taking forever to upload a single image right now.

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by 5:00_Somewhere

[5:00_Somewhere]

Just now, dog said:

Log out and log back in— worked for us. 

 

enjoy that beautiful ship.

 

As I mentioned, that works, but only temporarily, unfortunately. I have to log out and back in everytime I want to use the app. 

 

It really is a beautiful ship.

 

We saw whales spouting a little while ago. 👍

[panda64]

Thanks for the helpful info!  I'm boarding next Sunday. Will you ask about the number of passengers for our sailing? Thanks so much. 

[white cap]

I am so excited to see your posts.....  We will be doing this same trip in Aug., on the Discovery,, so will be looking forward to your updates.  Thank you.

[newbie1900]

52 minutes ago, 5:00_Somewhere said:

 

Here is the one for embarkation day. I will upload others later, but it's taking forever to upload a single image right now.

 

 

 

Thank you so much...off to change my ressie!

[Sea Emerald]

We were on the Discovery 15th - 22nd.  We had a fabulous time.  Found the ship beautiful and the crew amazing.  Ate lots of great food.  Weather was fabulous especially coming out of Skagway.  Simply stunning!!  I haven't slept that well or had that much fun in a while.  Can't wait to go back.  Enjoy!

[Eaglecw]

Does anyone know who the onboard naturalist is this week

[milogurd]

@5:00_Somewhere "Oh, and it makes my phone think it’s on US Eastern Daylight Time instead of Pacific Time."

 

Possibly it's because the satellite internet feed to the ship originates from the east coast. If your phone's clock setting has automatic time updating, it will do that.

[ceilidh1]

8 hours ago, 5:00_Somewhere said:

One odd thing I wanted to report is that, all over the ship, we hear more creaking and squeaking – especially in our cabin – than I can ever recall hearing on any other ship.

 

Yes - I was on in April for a coastal from LA to Vancouver and we had one day/night that had pretty rough seas (though nowhere near the worst I have experienced). I was shocked at just how creaky the ship was. I wasn't expecting it from such a new ship (but maybe it IS a new ship thing) and also have never experienced it to that degree on any ship previously.

[Buckeye10640]

12 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

Yes - I was on in April for a coastal from LA to Vancouver and we had one day/night that had pretty rough seas (though nowhere near the worst I have experienced). I was shocked at just how creaky the ship was. I wasn't expecting it from such a new ship (but maybe it IS a new ship thing) and also have never experienced it to that degree on any ship previously.

We noticed alot of that creaking noise in our Sun Deck cabin on Enchanted last December. Enchanted had only been sailing for about a month so quite new. We had no noise in our Lido deck cabin on Majestic last week. Both cabins were mid-forward. So maybe it IS a new ship thing. 🤷‍♀️

[Shelly97060]

19 hours ago, 5:00_Somewhere said:

 

As I mentioned, that works, but only temporarily, unfortunately. I have to log out and back in everytime I want to use the app. 

 

It really is a beautiful ship.

 

We saw whales spouting a little while ago. 👍

We were on Discovery last week and the internet was worse than the old dial up from years ago and that is when it worked at all.  Internet pages with any sort of pictures wouldn’t load at all. Worst Internet we have had on a Princess ship in quite some time. We constantly got bumped off of medallion app. 

[Shelly97060]

17 hours ago, Eaglecw said:

Does anyone know who the onboard naturalist is this week

 

Micheal Modeleski (sp)

[Shelly97060]

For those interested, last week the buffet on Discovery was self serve as was the drink station. 

[PharmDisney]

Thank you for all the information! Do you know if the Chef's Table Dinner is being offered on this sailing?

[lotus land]

For those on this sailing, Copy of menu for Sabatini and Sur La Mer if you have time please. Also interested to know if Chef’s Table is being offered.

 

Thank you for taking the time to share your vacation. Our family is on the July 3 sailing - so excited 

[seagunthera]

Thank you for taking the time to write a bit.  I third the request re: the Chef's Table.  Don't go out of your way but if you happen to hear any chatter about it, please do let us know!

 

[Eaglecw]

9 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

Micheal Modeleski (sp)

Thank you

[Baywoodmc]

Does anyone know the passenger count? 

[5:00_Somewhere]

Hello all, I have tried and tried and tried to respond to questions and upload Patters all week, but have had repeated issues. I don't know if it is the ship's WiFi, the Cruise Critic site, or both. I will try this one last time.

 

First, the "not ideal" (I don't want to say "bad" because the cruise has been amazing for the most part): but, the wifi is pretty terrible and the Medallion app remains very glitchy. I note this only so that people will have realistic expectations and so these issues hopefully don't overshadow all the good.

 

That said, this cruise has been amazing! We have had spectacular weather, the ship is beautiful, the service has been outstanding, and we've had fantastic excursions. One of our best in a long time. 😍

 

To answer a couple questions, they ARE doing both the Chef's Table and the Winemaker's Dinner. 

 

Also, the Captain reported 2253 passengers on board. I've asked about next week, and the best I can get is "somewhere over 3000".

 

Since my longer posts with more info refuse to post, I'm going to stop here and cross my fingers. 

 

Oh, as for menus, I'd recommend googling it or looking on Princess.com. This wifi connection simply won't let me upload anything, unfortunately.

 

Hope this info is helpful, and happy sailing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by 5:00_Somewhere

[Baywoodmc]

Do you know what day they do the chief dinner

[5:00_Somewhere]

On 5/28/2022 at 3:45 PM, Baywoodmc said:

Do you know what day they do the chief dinner

 

Unfortunately, not, and I didn't see your question until after we disembarked. Perhaps someone else can help.