jeromep

My most recent cruise was on Discovery and yes, they were handling the griddle as I would expect. They were doing periodic scrape downs and periodic water sprays (which immediately creates steam) and scrapes. I had many a burger from the grill on Lido and felt that the food prep area was being handled as well or better than any local burger joint. Not only that the food was prepared in front of me and was plenty hot. I have no problem agreeing to disagree, especially since food is so subjective. On one of my late night walks I happened to notice that when the grill was closed they had a dust cover over the griddle surface. That was also rather impressive considering that I'm not aware of any restaurant that puts a dust cover over their griddle when they are closed. This makes sense considering that the grill on Lido is basically open to the elements, but it also shows conscious attention to detail.

Much smaller ship, and older than Discovery. Island is a Panamax ship, so it is narrower than your typical modern cruise ship, built specifically to fit through the old locks at the Panama Canal. It is missing some of the things most Princess cruisers really crave, like a full International Cafe. Since your trip is very port intensive, I don't think you'll be too displeased with the smaller ship since it is basically a place you have breakfast and dinner each day and a place you sleep. You'll have most of the same Princess style entertainment and shows in the evening. And since it is a smaller ship, fewer passengers, which also means fewer crowds. I was on Discovery last year, and while it is a beautiful ship, you can really tell the difference in the number of passengers on board compared to sailings I've done on smaller Grand class ships.

I agree that eating in port is a great way to find and try different cuisines, but depending on the port, I'm going to be very guarded about where I dine. There are some disgusting commercial kitchens out there, and the cleanliness of the kitchen and the staff running it are going to be directly related to a combination of factors, including how much the kitchen is regulated, how well managed it is, and the cultural and societal cleanliness standards the staff have regarding food preparation. As for flat tops, I regularly cook on a Blackstone. They are carbon steel and are supposed to be seasoned and retain a patina in order to be non-stick. While a good seasoning routing is best, in general, the more you use them, the better their nonstick qualities become. Throughout the summer when cooking on it, you bring it up to high temp, then back it down, do your cooking, remove the food, then bring it up to high temp again, and you scrape the surface while spraying it down with water, pushing excess oil and debris to the catch bin. Then you add a light coat of oil to the whole surface, let it smoke, wipe it down again and turn off. Generally speaking a flat top in a restaurant should not ever be "stainless steel" clean in appearance. And considering that at max temp you can get the surface of a flat top up to somewhere between 800 and 1000 degrees, no bacteria or virus can survive on that surface for any length of time. A griddle is inherently sanitary when it is cooking because it is very hot. I don't disagree with the sentiment. I can't say I've ever run back to the ship for lunch and then run out again... well, actually there was that one time in Juneau many years ago..., but that was about being practical. Choose a line to stand in at an eatery in the port area for an undetermined amount of time or a quick walk back to the ship, then through a very quiet security line to get food that we are generally certain is properly prepared. Agreed! That is exactly where I'm coming from. I grew up with this little chestnut in my brain, good old advice from mom, "want to know the condition of the kitchen, visit the restroom." Well, every buffet that I've frequented in my area is this and more. Most of the buffets where I live are all "Chinese" and I've seen more buffet faux pas occur on land than on board ships. Children running wild around warming tables. People thoughtlessly taking dirty plates back to get more, dropping serving utensils on the floor, sometimes just putting them back, sometimes having the sense to not do that, but then stand there with the spoon or tongs in hand held to the sky like some kind of awkward statue of buffet liberty or a student trying to hail their teacher. And let's not forget the lack of buffet table maintenance, nobody wiping down countertop surfaces or cleaning up little messes. Sure, I'm not a fan of self-serve buffets on ships, but the same behavior that we've all witnessed on board is often times worse on land. I was going to say something similar, that is almost exactly how I feel.

Same here. On a port day, I'm more than happy to eat on board and have Lido deck pizza, or a decent burger. I may consider the buffet, but Lido deck food is just fine. I'm generally back on ship on a port day because I'm either done with the port, in between excursions, or find the ship less crowded than the port (a welcome change).

I went round and round to figure out how to tackle this statement. First, there are many galleys on board. If you take a good look at your deck plan you'll notice that on most shops there is a void on deck 5 and 6 adjacent to the dining rooms at those locations (also I'm referencing the general deck design for Grand and Royal class ships). This would be the location of two large galleys, one on deck 5 and another on deck 6, serving the immediately adjacent dining rooms. There is a void area near Sabatini's and Crown Grill, and other casual dining locations. Same goes for Worldfresh Marketplace. This is all kitchen and crew spaces. Princess uses a lot of raw ingredients, very few prepared items. All bread and pastries are baked from scratch. Beef comes in as cryovac sections in boxes (similar to a grocery store or local butcher). There is a significant amount of prep work that occurs below decks. Prepped, raw, foods, meat, vegitables, etc., then make their way up to kitchens near dining or serving areas for final preparation. The foods that supply the specialty restaurants are mostly different than those that supply the MDR, unless we are talking about flour, sugar, spices, and other commodities; and final preparation of foods for specialty restaurants are done in the kitchen that serves that location. The ships are large enough that if all food came out of one central galley and was transported to the various dining areas, most of the food would arrive cold and it would take an army of staff just to schlep prepared dishes around the ship. So, whomever you spoke to that heard that food came from one central kitchen from was mistaken. Is the cover charge for specialty dining worth it? I used to unequivocally say yes. These days I'm more guarded. Sabatini's is generally excellent and highly consistent. That is going to be your best bet. The reports of the food quality, quantity and presentation coming out of the The Catch are also excellent. Crown Grill (and Sterling's for that matter) are up and down. I've always had mixed feelings about Alfredo's/Gigi's. It is basically good pizza, but sometimes they are chintzy on the toppings, and sometimes it is perfect. I was fine with dining there when it was included, but now that "casual dining" is cover charge without a package, I advise that you look and see what is coming out of the pizza ovens before I'd commit to dining there, at least not without it being part of a package.

I noticed your comment about the Piazza on the Caribbean Princess. Everything is relative, I guess. Compared to the Royal class ships, the Piazza on the Grand class ships is quite small. On the other hand, I still remember my first cruise on a Grand class ship and the Piazza seemed so large. It helped that there were like 1000 fewer passengers on board.

All cabins have fridges. They are not stocked unless you are in a full suite (not mini-suite) or are Elite in the Captain's Circle. There are some bottled/canned beverage packages you can purchase which would stock the fridge for you. I've never had to ask a cabin steward to keep ice in my fridge, but mine always have. If your cabin steward isn't refreshing your ice, you can ask them to and they will keep you stocked.

I can't speak about hotels the area, but I've done Uber/Lyft in many different cities and have found that, especially in urban areas, specific destinations, like ports and airports, have a great deal of coordination and instruction built into the app for the driver to know exactly where to go if you pick the correct destination Some destinations will ask you to specify even further once you select the destination as to what part of that location you are going to, if that is applicable. The rideshare driver will be able to find you because you will upload your photo to the app, plus you will find the rideshare driver because the app will display the color, make, and model of the vehicle they are driving along with the license plate number. The Uber app even has a "beacon" mode that will turn your screen on your phone a particular color and some line of identifying text which the driver can look for. You just turn on the beacon mode and hold up your phone and that could help the driver find you in a crowded place. Really, the rideshare services have thought of everything and have an excellent product.

I agree. I work for an organization that is standing up a small call center as we speak and knowledge base software is essential. And yes, we will fill the knowledge base with our straight forward policies and rules. There is no doubt in my mind that the rep the OP talked to read the exact same text that is on the web site, and on all the printed material you are going to encounter that talks about formal night. In fact, I'm a little surprised that that one member of the community hasn't come on the thread with a copy and paste of the web link to the formal night "rules" that is published on the Princess web site. They usually come by and post that whenever there is a discussion about dress code or formal nights. In practice formal night is a lot like boarding group times (which I think have gone away, not sure). It is a suggestion that is clothed to look like a rule, but since nobody enforces it, it is barely a suggestion. Have a great cruise.

This is the current thread from the Majestic that is doing the 33 day transit from Australia to the Pacific coast.

This exact thing happened to my wife, she had independently created a login to Princess many years ago. Their system assigns a captain's circle number when you register on their web site. To be honest, this isn't the best way to onboard new cruisers and provision them to your loyalty program. I agree, the OPs, problem is likely that they have two CC numbers, the one they actually are cruising with, and the one that is linked to their login. The only solution is to do some research first, find your two CC numbers, the one that is linked to your login and the one that is linked to your cruise. The one linked to the login should be visible to you after you have logged into Princess' web site and visited the Captain's Circle pages and the CC number linked to your upcoming cruise should be on your booking documentation. After you have found both numbers you have to call Princess and get them to merge the two together. After that is done, your login to Princess.com should take you directly to your bookings.

Dolphin and Baja decks seem to have the most coverage. They aren't fully covered, but I'd find it good enough. I'd love to try out one of those corner suites on a Royal class ship sometime, but now knowing which decks are more covered than others really kept me from jumping on that.

The US dollar is worth about 1.33 Canadian dollars, so they immediately get a 30% increase in value when they go to exchange it. Since the U.S. and Canada are close, both physically and in terms of trade, Canadian banks maintain U.S. funds accounts for Canadians and are adept at dealing with and making U.S. to Canadian exchange super easy. These are checking accounts which hold funds in U.S. dollars and allow the user to have checks that clear in the U.S. just like a check drawn on a U.S. bank clears and there is no exchange rate to deal with when trading or doing business with Americans. I think the accounts have even evolved to have debit cards. I've never known a Canadian to turn down U.S. dollars. And since their banking system is aligned in such a way to make handling U.S. dollars easy, any cash they accept in tips or possibly for purchases, will just be taken to their bank, and likely deposited into a U.S. funds account at face value. If they need to exchange to Canadian, that would be done electronically as a transfer from a U.S. funds account to a Canadian funds account in the same bank with the value of the exchange occurring during that transfer.

I would gladly take the train to a cruise port over flying any day. We've looked at some cruises departing out of LA and thought about taking the train down there before the cruise, and maybe after, but it would make for a very long vacation. The Empire Builder is one of the most scenic routes in the U.S. I wouldn't hesitate to take it, but ensure that your arrival day is at least a day before your cruise. Things happen on the route of the Empire Builder and delays are common. I would also strongly recommend booking a sleeper. When you book sleeper service on long distance trains all your meals are included. Last time I checked I think the Empire builder from Chicago to Seattle was listed as 44 hours; in reality it is usually 48-52 hours when there are no extraordinary circumstances on the route. Most of the delay is attributed to freight trains on the route. In the U.S., passenger service on shared track is supposed to give passenger trains priority over freight. But that goes out the window when most of the freight consists are longer than the sidings that were built to give freight trains a place to pull off to allow the passenger trains through. The irony is that the sidings are more than long enough for the typical passenger consist. So, that means that the shorter train gets to pull off and wait, and that happens quite a bit. Getting from King Street Station to anyplace in Seattle is as easy as taking an Uber or Lift. I wouldn't consider trying to use Seattle public transit as a tourist. Pier 66 is located near some downtown hotels. The Edgewater is next door and they will walk over to the Pier with you and your luggage. The Edgewater has rooms with excellent views of the bay and is at least a 4 star property. There is also the Seattle Waterfront Marriott, which you can lug your luggage down to the Pier with not too much difficulty. These are about the only two locations where you could limit your use of rideshare to just getting from King Street to your pre-cruise hotel. Otherwise you'll need to consider a rideshare from King Street to your hotel, and then another from the hotel to the pier. I don't think getting around Seattle is your biggest issue. I think you'll need to ensure that you have a pre-cruise overnight to accommodate for any delays on Amtrak, which means starting your journey out west a day earlier and some additional lodging and ground transportation expenses.

I agree with @Ferry_Watcher on all points. If you feel a shuttle service will work better for your group, the service in Seattle is called Seattle Express. https://seattleexpress.com/ I'd recommend calling them and having a chat to determine how they will handle your special needs. With 7 people, and one with limited mobility, I would expect that you'd want to schedule a private transfer and not share with others. It will also make your trip to and from the hotel and the port more organized and more timely.