jeromep

A full entertainment schedule is only fully available when on board. Music and entertainment is everywhere throughout the day. Music and activities in the Piazza most of the day and into the evening. You'll have music in Take 5 in the evening. Also piano singer in Crooners. There will be at least a couple of shows each evening in the Vista Lounge, along with a couple of production shows or larger band and singer acts in the theater, also every evening. Game shows and television productions will be done in Princes Live a number of times each day. Up on Lido at the central pool you have both live band entertainment along with music videos and Moves Under The Stars in the evening. I'm sure I missed something. There is activity going on all the time on board. You will not be without entertainment options.

I stated this in another thread; what is old is new again. This isn't all that different from the old differentiation between Anytime Dining and Traditional Dining. I don't think it was more than 5 years ago that they transitioned away from the two dining systems to Dine Your Way. Be prepared for the return of folks bemoaning not being able to get a Traditional Dining time slot when they try to reserve a seating and how they can finagle getting one when they get on board. So many of those threads are in the archives, just go look for them, they are there. I'm just guessing, but the difference is now that your Trad Dining time isn't set when you book, but when you go on the app and try to book one after you have booked the cruise. This will be something that bothers the anti-app cruisers, for sure. So, basically Anytime Dining, like it used to be, but with separate dining rooms focusing on first come seating or reservations. I think this should be an improvement on the Anytime side. I'm just not sure I see the big deal here. I suspect my misguided viewpoint will be dealt with swiftly.

What's old is new again. That is all.

That has to be a wild ride, right now.

I'm glad you asked this question. I am no expert. Last year in Juneau we booked a Jeep through Princess. We literally walked off the dock to the booth they were at, handed them our excursion pass, and were handed a Jeep, its key, and a booster seat for my daughter and we were off. Their iPad with their custom routing and audio program was mounted to the dash and tethered to the audio system and we followed that all the way out to Eagle Beach, as our first stop. I think it was about a 45 minute drive out to Eagle Beach, about 20 minutes from Eagle Beach back to St. Therese, another 30 minutes from St. Therese to Mendenhall. Of course, you get out and spend time at these locations. Travel times to places around Juneau aren't excessive and Google maps is going to give you pretty good time in transit estimates since traffic doesn't seem to be a big deal. I hope somebody else will answer your question, too. I'd add to your questions, this year I'd like to just rent a car and navigate around on my own. Where can I rent a car that is within a short walking distance from the dock (that Majestic Princess will likely be at)?

Ron Goodman was the Cruise Director on one of the cruises we took about 12 years ago. We liked him. I shouldn't say this... he's aged. Well, so have I.

We also have travel clothing which needs to be cleaned when we arrive on board. We usually fill a laundry bag on embarkation day and provide it to our steward, sometimes before the ship has even left port. We tend to get this laundry bag ready to go while we are unpacking. There is no limit to the amount of clothing you can have laundered, and their dry cleaning services are very good, too. If you have both regular cleaning and dry cleaning, you'll want to fill out two slips for two separate laundry bags. If you are in a suite, don't accumulate your laundry. Send out a bag every morning so that you always have clean clothing coming back, clothing in your closet, and some clothing that is out being cleaned.

I'm not an Alaska expert, but this is about the best list of things in Juneau to do which are not related to Mendenhall. We got a self-guided Jeep rental excursion that went out to Eagle Beach, but we knew the Shrine of St. Therese from a previous visit to Juneau and wanted to return. The road to Eagle Beach goes right by the Shrine, so it was easy to spend some time there. Plus we used our own GPS to meander around Juneau and explore a bit. On our next visit we'll probably just rent a car for the day and explore on our own. As for the current condition of Mendenhall, I still like going out there to visit. The visitors center is pretty typical NPS, it does its job. I've never been overwhelmed with NPS visitors centers, and I've been to quite a few. They are utilitarian and provide basic interpretation for the NPS site, they aren't meant to outshine the natural environment they are set up to serve. I'm not sure on our next cruise if we will go out there, but we'll keep our minds open to it.

I think the strongest and most well rounded of the cruise lines in terms of their overall Alaska offering are Princess and Holland America. Both have permits to access Glacier Bay. Both have good on board entertainment and production shows. Between the two, I think that Princess has the edge in terms of production show quality and complexity. On Princess they do two shows per evening in the theater. They interleave different shows through the cruise. So, if you want to eat early and see the late show, you have the opportunity to see all that is offered on board... and vice versa. The theater schedule toward the beginning of a cruise leans toward the production musicals and toward the end of the cruise is a mix of production shows and comedians, vocalists and musical groups. I don't have an old Patter in front of me to reference, but that is how I recall it working out. And the above isn't a 100% or totally accurate representation of how they schedule shows, but a pretty good representation. Shows sometimes get canceled or changed depending on cast availability, availability of other entertainers, etc. Additional shows will be put on in different lounges. Most Princess ships have an aft show lounge, the Vista Lounge. A much smaller space than the theater, but everything is loud enough, and there is a bar in the lounge. Some princess ships have a midships show lounge, Explorer's Lounge, with similar capabilities as the Vista Lounge. These spaces usually host bands and vocalists, and during the day game shows and presentations. Some ships have the Princess Live space, which effectively replaced the Explorer's Lounge, different concept, think TV studio with live audience. Most of the "game shows" are held in Princess Live or Explorer's Lounge. Game show style of entertainment is a rather small part of what is on board. Most ships have a Crooner's Lounge, which is a piano bar and is very popular with Princess cruisers. They dispensed with it on some ships, like the Majestic Princess, which is sad, but other lounges and bars have filled the gap. I hope you enjoy Alaska. It is a great place to visit.

The piece from Alaska Public Media was more positive. They interviewed a couple of passengers and some of the local vendors and didn't get much in terms of negative feedback about the season starting this early. https://alaskapublic.org/2024/04/10/cruise-ship-season-begins-in-juneau/ https://alaskapublic.org/2024/04/08/juneau-had-a-record-breaking-cruise-season-last-year-this-year-should-be-about-the-same/ But apparently there are forces that want to flatten or reduce the number of passengers that get off ships on any given day. https://www.juneauempire.com/news/first-cruise-ship-of-the-season-arrives-to-welcomes-planned-protest/

And be sure to use the SEA Spot Saver to book a time through security. https://www.portseattle.org/SEAspotsaver

I have an 8 y.o. So I do understand the difficulty you are facing. The choices we have made are that we cruise less and we only vacation when she is out of school. If a cruise, trip across the U.S. to see the other side of the family in Georgia or another vacation option doesn't line up, well, we don't do it. We either find something else to do, or we don't do anything. Such is the cost of having school aged children. Seeing family is difficult because we loose a whole day to air travel, even when we can get direct flights from SEA to ATL, we have one commuter flight from home to SEA, a layover there of at least 1.5 hours, but sometimes as long as 3, then 5+ hours in the air from SEA to ATL, along with the time it takes to retrieve luggage, get the rental car, and then drive north to where the in-laws are. And we loose a whole day coming home with flights and layovers that are similar. I don't consider visiting family much of a vacation. They aren't as curious or historically excited as I am. When we visit Atlanta and Georgia I want to visit historical landmarks, Civil War sites and such. I still haven't gotten to the MLK Jr. Memorial, and it is near the MARTA line to Buckhead (right?). They just aren't into that. We end up visiting a lot of malls and chain restaurants. I can do that at home. I am glad that you are not willing to pull your kids out of school to vacation. My mom taught 3rd grade for many years in a low performing and low income school district, and the kids that need to be in school the most were the most likely to be pulled out of school for a week or more just to visit family. The kids that wouldn't be impacted by being out of school for a couple of days were always in school. The irony of it all. We all make our own decisions and have our own tolerances for "risk" when traveling.

I have not dealt with a casino booking, so any advice I gave about transferring to a TA may not be accurate. Do you wish to share with the group what issues you are trying to resolve? We may have some insight.

Things have changed quite a bit since the Royal class ships came on the scene. When Princess's fleet was mostly Grand class ships cabins were almost always ready when you boarded, assuming that you liked to board early. So, 11am, noon, cabins were ready to go and fire doors were not closed and nothing but the occasional service cart "blocked" the passageways. There are so many more passengers on the Royals, and I think the cabin stewards are spread a bit thinner, that they are still working if you happen to board around 11am. It is a toss up if you can drop your carry-ons at your cabin or not. We have been fortunate in that our cabin has been done and we could drop off our carry-ons, but we would just drop and go to the MDR for lunch and come back around 1 when everything had calmed down in the hallways.

Pop can be had fountain or can. More often than not if you don't have a beverage plan or Plus/Premier, pop will be from the gun behind the bar, served in a tall red cup with ice. If you don't have a plan you'll probably get a can. I think the can price is $2.50. If you are on a beverage plan you can request a can instead of fountain. Princess does not have any self-serve machines, everything comes through a restaurant or bar, so no non-carbonated, syrup based, beverage options, like a Freestyle machine can do. There is a juice bar on board. I don't recall the prices, thanks to having Plus or Premier on my last cruise, but juice, smoothies, and mocktails can add up if you consume a number of them for the cash price. And remember, cash price will also incur an 18% bar gratuity for each beverage in addition to the list price. Oh, and if she is ordering room service from the TV in the cabin, be sure that she is logged onto the TV with one of your profiles, not hers. Your Plus includes room service, but her profile will not. If she orders under her profile it will ding the onboard account $14.99 once to cover room service and OceanNow delivery for the entire voyage. Just some food for thought.