Semi-Live-- Grand Princess June 1, 2022 Southbound Whittier to Vancouver

[erber]

I will venture to start a semi-live cruise thread. We arrived in Anchorage last night around 7:00 p.m., traveling from Southwest Florida. We were originally supposed to arrive after 1:00 a.m. this morning, but we were able to change flights in Atlanta to get a direct 7 hour flight to Anchorage due to our original flights being over booked. And...they upgraded us to first class. It was amazing! 

 

We did our proctored BinaxNow tests on Monday through Emed and it was pretty simple. We usually go to Walgreens or CVS for testing, but they were not providing testing on Memorial Day and we flew out early Tuesday so we needed to do the antigen tests on Monday. We downloaded and completed the ArriveCAN app and uploaded our negative tests and vaccination cards to MedallionClass app. The only thing we were unable to do is select a boarding group. Anytime we tried it said selection was not yet a available. That app is truly useless. Yesterday the app said we were already at sea. Today it says our room is "not available" and also has deleted our purchase of the medallion net for the trip. I can't wait to see what happens at the port!

 

Now we are getting ready to take the Alaska Cruise Transfer bus to the port. We booked the bus transfer that also stops at the Wildlife Center first. We should arrive at the port around 4:30 p.m. or so. 

 

I'll try to post periodically throughout the cruise, depending on internet cooperation. 

Edited June 1, 2022 by erber

[erber]

We are on board. Check in was a bit crazy. The medallion scrambled my passport information, removed my husband's passport information, but everything else was fine. They resolved it all quickly and we boarded within 10 minutes finalizing all the checking in matters.

 

Our room is clean and nice. We called room service to change our mini bar into 2 coffee packages. Room service answered quickly and someone was in our stateroom within 5 minutes to switch out the mini bar. 

 

We grabbed a quick dinner in the buffet where food was either served by a crew member or properly portioned and plated to be taken by the passenger. 

 

Watching the muster drill safety video now and will check in with the muster station. 

 

 

[DougH]

The first few hours out of Whittier are some of my favorite views. Try and be on deck for a while

[erber]

You read my mind. Going on deck now. Very excited as the weather is crystal clear, which is not typical for Whittier. 

[erber]

32 minutes ago, DougH said:

The first few hours out of Whittier are some of my favorite views. Try and be on deck for a while

Sailing away shortly....

[cr8tiv1]

I'm sorry that they had to bump you up to first class.  Wow, what a way to start your vacation.  Too bad you didn't have a few minutes to walk around Whittier.  I found it to be a charming little village.  Thank you for taking the time to do a semi-live.  

[erber]

11 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 Too bad you didn't have a few minutes to walk around Whittier.  I found it to be a charming little village.  Thank you for taking the time to do a semi-live.  

We did not arrive in Whittier until almost 5:00 pm. So we checked in immediately and tried to unpack, get organized and eat an dinner before sailaway. We have done the Alaska trip several times before, so we are very familiar with Whittier and the other ports. But this trip always astonishes us with the amazing  beauty! 

[erber]

Beautiful day today. We started off with a delicious breakfast.

 

We plan to spend a lot of time viewing Hubbard glacier this afternoon and have formal night dinner in the MDR before seeing the British Invasion show. So, we tried to book dinner reservations using the app but it would not work. It got to the point where it said there was no journey associated with this reservation. Then we tried booking it on the TV, but we could not add two more guests to the reservation. So, we booked "the old fashioned way", over the phone. 

[erber]

Captain just did a little broadcast and in it indicated there are 1,387 passengers on board. The Grand can accommodate 3,100 passengers when at capacity. 

 

Hubbard Glacier was beautiful, but the captain told us the  ship was unable to get as close as they planned due to strong winds. We watched the approach to the glacier from the bow of the ship on deck 8. It was very windy and it felt very cold. But if you went further back on deck in the sun there were passengers wearing shorts! It was a beautiful day. 

 

We had appetizers at the platinum and elite lounge up on One Five (on deck 15) before we get ready for dinner. 

 

[cr8tiv1]

The Grand is one of the smaller ships in the fleet.  She holds around 2600 passengers.  But that is still a terrific passenger load.  She is one of my favorite ships.

[cruzin4us]

thanks for taking us along for the ride.  Alaska has been having some beautiful weather the past few weeks!

[DougH]

They always seem to have an excuse for not getting closer. I usually do a North/South B2B and always laugh when I hear them say how luck we are, this is the closest we have gotten all year. lol

 

Sure hope the weather holds as I get on when you get off.  If you think the ship is nice with 1400 passengers I was aboard for Christmas and we only had 400+, Talk about deserted 🙂

[DougH]

If you get a chance I would like to know the cutoff for the Most Traveled luncheon. 

[wallyj]

Hi @erber, if you get a chance, would you stop by and see who are the Loyalty and Events Manager and Future cruise consultant on the ship currently. Their offices are located just left next to Crown Grill.

[cr8tiv1]

Loyalty and Events Manager was posted on another thread.  Liz must have left shortly after dry dock.  She came on in January (first contract).  Surprised she left so soon.  She was fantastic.  Elizabeth Pentz

 

Found it:  5/24/22

Edited June 3, 2022 by cr8tiv1

[wblotner66]

What is in the coffee package that you say replaced the minibar? 

[cr8tiv1]

18 minutes ago, wblotner66 said:

What is in the coffee package that you say replaced the minibar? 

 

With either the complimentary suite and/or the elite mini-bar (10 alcohol/10 non-alcoholic beverages), you may trade them out for 2 coffee cards (package on medallion).  Unlimited brewed coffee, tea, and sometimes hot chocolate plus 15 specialty coffees (lattes/Americano/espresso).  

 

You may also exchange like for like.  Plus there are a lot of other combinations offered for a mini-bar trade.  

 

Coffee packages are listed for purchase also.

Edited June 3, 2022 by cr8tiv1

[erber]

14 hours ago, DougH said:

If you get a chance I would like to know the cutoff for the Most Traveled luncheon. 

I chatted with Liz Pentz,  the manager at the Loyalty desk. I think she said the cut off for this cruise is 245 days, so we almost made it. We have 236 days at sea. The luncheon is the final sea day, June 7th. We have made the cut off on several Alaska trips in the past. 

Edited June 3, 2022 by erber

[erber]

We've had a lovely day in Glacier Bay. Sunny and clear. A couple of photos of the day. Tried to upload more, but wifi is not cooperating. 

[cruzin4us]

6 hours ago, erber said:

I chatted with Liz Pentz,  the manager at the Loyalty desk. I think she said the cut off for this cruise is 245 days, so we almost made it. We have 236 days at sea. The luncheon is the final sea day, June 7th. We have made the cut off on several Alaska trips in the past. 

Sooooo close!

 

[alibabacruisers]

Thank you for taking the time to post your experiences and those beautiful photos!

[erber]

18 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

Sooooo close!

 

She said there were four parties ahead of us. We are having a fabulous time with family.  We are not disappointed! It is a great itinerary and almost everything on the ship has been lovely. 

Edited June 4, 2022 by erber

[Coral]

30 minutes ago, erber said:

We've had a lovely day in Glacier Bay. Sunny and clear. A couple of photos of the day. Tried to upload more, but wifi is not cooperating. 

Great pics!!! Thanks for live thread!

[Coral]

3 minutes ago, erber said:

She said there were four parties ahead of us. We are having a fabulous time with family.  We are not disappointed! It is a great itinerary and everything on the ship has been lovely. 

I agree. Great ship, great itinerary!

[cr8tiv1]

20 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Loyalty and Events Manager was posted on another thread.  Liz must have left shortly after dry dock.  She came on in January (first contract).  Surprised she left so soon.  She was fantastic.  Elizabeth Pentz

 

Found it:  5/24/22

 

 

6 hours ago, erber said:

I chatted with Liz Pentz,  the manager at the Loyalty desk. I think she said the cut off for this cruise is 245 days, so we almost made it. We have 236 days at sea. The luncheon is the final sea day, June 7th. We have made the cut off on several Alaska trips in the past. 

 

Oops....I am guessing "my" Liz and "your" Liz is one and the same.  She is from South Africa???  Please let her know that Mac Nut passenger sends her aloha.  I was a teacher and always had trouble putting faces (on the board) to names.  Mahalo