Live From Royal Princess 6/24/23 Alaska Glacier Bay Seattle R/T

[iamaqt2]

2 minutes ago, 2MellowCruisers said:

Over the years I have checked on prices to move back.  I agree on the prices.  Much, much more now.  Also, I remember the traffic being bad but it seems like every time we visit it is worse than before.  I guess that is the nature of things.  Each and every time we fly in, I am looking out the window of the plane and thinking how much I miss it.  Great, now the pendulum is swinging back towards Seattle area again!

Welcome back! 😉😉

[Eileen G]

I have found the roll calls steadily declining in the last few years. I think most people now go to FB. There is a great group called Alaska cruises on Princess and there is probably a group for the Royal and maybe your particular cruise. My cruise is on the Crown and we have a roll call  group on both CC and FB for our cruise. We sailed out of Seattle in 2021 and we really loved it. That year the ships didn't stop in Victoria so we decided to go on the Crown as it has a full day there.

[gottagoacruzn]

Hey Eileen, when will you be on the crown? Will be on there Sept 5th cruise, an I can't wait. Gettin ansy!!!

[bayportkat]

Cruising on the Royal in 2 weeks!  Excited to follow your live- haven't been on Princess since our last Alaska cruise 20+ years ago.

[Faeanna]

Looking forward to this! Our sailing on the Royal is in two months. Especially interested to hear about what shows and naturalist talks are good!

[iamaqt2]

Day 1

 

Fast easy 30 minute drive to port.  Arrived at Pier 91 at 11:15.  Port traffic was light.  They have a new to me baggage drop system.  They don't have porters outside in the drop off area.  You have to take your bags inside the terminal and they have porters dropping them immediately through the xray scanners.
Dropped bags, cleared security, checked in, picked up medallions and onboard in less than 20 minutes.  Seattle is a hundred times better than Vancouver at this process.
Went immediately to excursion desk to use OBC and watched safety video while waiting in line.  Then headed to Concerto for lunch which also happened to be my muster station, so got that out of the way as well. Rooms cleared for passengers at 1 pm, bags delivered by 2. 

 

Sailaway was about as beautiful of a Seattle day as you could ask for.

Had no reservation for dinner, so headed down to Deck 5 Symphony for open dining around 6:30.  Reservations were in Deck 6 Concerto dining room.
Wait was fairly short, service was fairly long, and the food was fairly good. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw the 9:30 pm comedy show in the theater.  Lenny Schmidt.  He gets a mixed review from me.  I'm a 50/50.

Late night DJ is spinning in The Piazza. Fairly small crowd. Had my first Alaska cruise eagle sighting just after midnight.

 

 

[Cruise Raider]

The Royal is my favorite ship so am living vicariously through your posts.  Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.   
Love your Eagle sighting!  

 

[snoozecrooze]

Love your style of rundown! Sending you all of the fun and relaxing vibes onboard!

[gottagoacruzn]

Funny, thought you saw the real thing!!!!😶

[LN1Casey]

Oh wow, i was not expecting the "extra cost" of the steak/lobster to be full restaurant prices. Like, the amount you'd pay when you're buying ala cart off ship somewhere. That is insane to me. I can see $5, maybe $10 extra at the Main Dinning facility, but starting at nearly $20 extra?

[iamaqt2]

15 hours ago, LN1Casey said:

Oh wow, i was not expecting the "extra cost" of the steak/lobster to be full restaurant prices. Like, the amount you'd pay when you're buying ala cart off ship somewhere. That is insane to me. I can see $5, maybe $10 extra at the Main Dinning facility, but starting at nearly $20 extra?

It's been that way for a while now.. costs on everything have gone up.

Excursions, packages, specialty dining, etc.

[RicoRoxy]

On 6/25/2023 at 11:35 PM, LN1Casey said:

Oh wow, i was not expecting the "extra cost" of the steak/lobster to be full restaurant prices. Like, the amount you'd pay when you're buying ala cart off ship somewhere. That is insane to me. I can see $5, maybe $10 extra at the Main Dinning facility, but starting at nearly $20 extra?

Respectfully, other cruise lines do the exact same thing. RCCL sells a filet from its steakhouse with similar pricing. It's a better cut of meat and worth the $ in my opinion. Great option for the meat lover in the duo or group without having to pay the premium cover at the Princess steakhouse. 

[SSAtlantic]

Hope you had a great cruise. Please come back with an update on the rest of your trip. 

[Tinknock50]

I will enjoy your reports.

 

Any string duos onboard?

[Robbie555]

If you played in trivia contests, what were the prizes?

[caravellov1]

Will you be posting the daily schedules and MDR menus?

 

[Faeanna]

Really hoping you’ll come back to this post and finish!

[iamaqt2]

Ok.. I have to apologize.. I really meant to keep up with this thread during the cruise.  But my fellow cruise mate had other plans that involved never sleeping, dancing til the break of dawn, and basically I now need a vacation from my vacation.  I will however be continuing on with the posts as best I can from photos and memory, although there may be a gap or 2.

[iamaqt2]

On 6/20/2023 at 8:52 AM, CruzeQueen2 said:

@iamaqt2 Thanks for doing this. Please post the officer board if you have a chance. Have fun!

I'm terribly sorry I didn't snap a picture of this, I stared at it at least 10 times from the Piazza to remind myself to swing by and somehow still forgot.

[iamaqt2]

On 7/1/2023 at 7:07 AM, Tinknock50 said:

I will enjoy your reports.

 

Any string duos onboard?

Yes, I saw one playing Violin and Cello but didn't catch their name.  There was music all around the ship every day.  It was great.

 

23 hours ago, Robbie555 said:

If you played in trivia contests, what were the prizes?

I didn't do trivia, but the 4 prizes I saw handed out at other events were Princess bubbly, a drawstring cinch bag, coasters and a Princess medal.

[iamaqt2]

Day 2
Sea Day.

 

 

Slept in after a late night of dancing and partying. I will say that's going to be a nightly recurring theme. The DJ late night is held every single night in the Piazza as is much of The Jaames band. DJ Anthony does a good job playing to the crowd. All the musicians have been fantastic, but Serendipity Duo, a two person group from Argentina has been absolutely outstanding.

I realize summer cruises draw more families with children, but this particular cruise has more multigenerational cruisers than I've ever seen.  I'm not sure exactly how many kids are on board, but I heard the teens club alone has 260+.
Other than some occasional hall running and door slamming they've all been mostly well behaved. They are traveling in large groups together mostly clogging the pizza and ice cream lines.

Dinner tonight was the first formal night.  Many people went all out to get dressed up and look nice for the evening, my friend and I included.  We decided to take advantage of the fabulous cost/value of studio quality portraits on board.  There were lines at many of the photo stations, which was surprising to me.

Dinner was delicious.  I always enjoy formal night options, but Princess has really upped their game with the new addition of Alaskan specials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we attended the production show Sweet Soul Music, a tribute to the music of Motown.  I'm not a big fan of Motown, but it was pretty well done.  No complaints from me.

 

 

Then off to the Yes No Game Show.  I love this one.  Always funny.  We had 3 second Tom this cruise.. setting world records hahaha.

Next up, the first round of Voice of the Ocean.  We have some amazingly talented singers on board with us! 

Shut down the dance floor late night with a conga line and some line dancing.

 

[iamaqt2]

Day 3

Juneau, AK

 

 

 

The day dawned cold and wet, with rain coming down from every direction. Grabbed some coffee and brunch from the buffet and headed to the Theater at 11:45 for meet up time for our 12:15 tour to Mendenhall Glacier. Princess REALLY dropped the ball on this. Instead of having people join their numbered groups, stay seated and wait until called, they said if your party is all here, leave the theater, go off the ship and wait on the dock for your tour. There were hundreds of people standing in the pouring rain with nowhere to sit and all the buses were 30+ minutes late. Our tour was oversold and they were scrambling to find buses to accommodate everyone.

We finally got on a bus and transported to Mendenhall. Tour guide was fairly new. He got us there and back, and did impart some local flavor. It's a short ride, so was thankful for that.

 

The fog and rain had visibility of the Glacier down to a shadow through the mist, but we hiked out to Nugget Falls which is an easy, flat, mostly paved trail 1.5 miles round trip. Totally worth the 1 hour stroll even with my bad knee.

 

 

 

 

At this point even our rain gear was giving up and soaking through to our clothes. We headed back to the visitor center which is very well done to get warm and find a restroom. There must have been 200 people inside all with the same idea. It was packed! The bus was 15 minutes late picking us all up, so we were all standing in the rain again, even those with mobility devices. And the air conditioning on the bus was running because they aren't allowed to turn the heat on due to fogging and steam issues for safety. 

Needless to say, I felt like an ice cube upon returning to the ship. Immediately took a hot shower, then ran all the sopping wet clothing to the laundry to dry it.

 

Still couldn't shake the bone chill, so headed up to the hot tub and parked there for an hour until I felt human again. The hot tubs have been great this trip. None of this lukewarm business.. I'd say running around 101° F.

 

Forgot to get copies of the MDR dinner menu for this evening as we ate at Alfredo’s. The agnolotti and the pizzas are 2 of my faves.

 

 

 

 

Then back to the dance floor for some more late night shenanigans.

Edited July 3, 2023 by iamaqt2

[iamaqt2]

Day 4

Skagway, AK

 

 

Mercifully today was overcast with no rain.

Small favors and all that.

 

We had booked the Easy Skagway: City, Klondike Highway & The Days Of '98 Show tour.

 

Our meeting time was 12:15 at the top of the docks, and it wasn't handled much better than the day before. We had to tender here even though we were berthed on the Railroad dock. The forward berth tendered, while the rear berth is using a shuttle system and shipping containers on the dock. I've done both systems now and they're both a PITA. Our tour ticket specifically stated to allow 45 additional minutes due to the tendering process.

 

We arrived to the top of the dock and were told to look for a sign for our tour group. Waited 15 minutes until someone showed up and was pointed to a flag way down the walkway. Got to that flag and then was pointed towards an even farther flag in a parking lot in the marina area where two different tour buses were waiting. Neither bus was labeled with which tour they were doing, so had to ask the drivers themselves to figure it out. Many passengers were confused and frustrated. Then we were missing passengers so waited 30 minutes past tour start time for them, but they never showed. I never book ship excursions, and now I remember why. If it wasn't for the need to use that OBC.....

 

I have to say, I've done just about every Yukon tour out of Skagway, but have never toured the town itself. This tour was a lot of fun.

Our tour guide Lisa has lived here for 27 years and she was amazing. We got a lot of local color and commentary just driving round the town, including some local dirt on people walking by.. love this kind of stuff.

In no particular order we drove out to the Gold Rush cemetery, hiked to lower Reid Falls, drove up to the town overlook, and visited the local Eagles hall to watch the Days of '98 show.

It was campy, cheesy, done with a whole lot of heart, and I absolutely loved it!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stayed in town afterward to shop and found the most amazing popcorn shop. They had so many good flavors and the smell was out of this world. 

Walking around town, you can see the sense of humor that the locals have, and it appealed to my own juvenile sense of humor.

 

 

 

 

We came back and ate dinner in the MDR. The app menu and the actual dinner menu were completely different, so I snapped a pic of the menu at the dining room.  

Dinner tonight was really good. I always love the Twice baked goat cheese souffle. How they're calling this a main now is crazy. It's still the same appetizer size. Order 2.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner went to see Naathan Phan do his comedy/magician/music shtick. I've seen him numerous times as he loves working the cruise circuit. He's a funny guy. Bought him a couple rounds at Good Spirits this trip, as he's not shy about hanging around and visiting with passengers and he'll straight up tell you he doesn't have the beverage package.

 

 

Then off to the dance floor to shut it down once again. DJ Anthony has a look of fear in his eyes at this point. Or maybe it was an eye roll.

[iamaqt2]

Day 5

Glacier Bay

 

 

 

 

Today was more like Glacier Nay.

The bay was completely fogged in and raining.We did see some seals and sea otters, but Glacier viewing was not going to happen. People could hear the cracking of the ice, but no one could see it. 

 

After breakfast in the buffet I swiftly dubbed it recovery day and went back to bed.

 

Dinner tonight was our second formal night, but was much more subdued than the first. Very few people dressed up in fancy clothes. Dinner was pretty good, and the lobster was cooked perfectly. Very surprising as it's usually rubbery. Kudos to the chef for that.

 

 

 

 

After dinner went to the main production show Colors of the World. I really like this show even though I've seen it a few times. I just love the colors and the energy here. Didn't snap any pics for some reason.  

 

Late night shenanigans commenced after the show. I should add at this point that there is a core group of about 20 of us that are now late night regulars. We ran International Cafe out of Brie sandwiches tonight. 

[iamaqt2]

I will catch you all up on the rest of the cruise tomorrow night.  Can't wait to share Ketchikan with you.