alwalaska

Hi. Can you please tell me more about your experiences on this tour? My typical experience with Princess tours is they load everyone onto a bus stuffed into every available seat. Then after driving a distance, you all get off of the bus where you walk to place 1, stand around and wait for everyone to catch up. Hear about place one, walk to place 2 (at a fairly rapid pace) then wait for everyone to catch up, hear about place 2, and repeat. The other type I've seen is where you load and unload the bus multiple times which takes forever each time since there are so many people. There are a couple of ports on this cruise where I'm tempted to give the Princess tours another try, but I don't want to be disappointed again.

Please come back after your visit and tell us about it. We don't sail until Feb 2025.

The web version of the app has an "other" box that can be filled in. That is where I put my citrus and rolled oats allergies because they are too abnormal to show up on anyone's lists.

1) It allows the cruise line to plan for how many people will be sailing with special dietary needs. 2) When I've added the info to my account (used to be email, now I used the web version of the app to add the info to my reservation), it is in the computer system and easier for the busy people in the dining room to look something up than try and enter all of the information into the system.

I'm glad I used the website. I don't have "popular" or "normal" allergens and there is no way to list other items from what I can see here. On the website, there is an Other box with a freeform entry.

I haven't sailed Princess in a while and my allergies are different from yours, but I was watching videos on YouTube and they showed a whole section of gluten-free pastries and muffins at breakfast and at least one gluten-free dessert was shown each day. Every cruise I have been on they recommend that you not eat in the buffet if you have allergies, but mine are mostly annoyances, not life threatening. At the buffet, someone can get a chef to help you with ingredient info. I'm sure there is at least one non-dairy "milk" on board, but if you want a specific brand or type, I would recommend bringing your own. Although this is a really old email address, you can and reach out to dietaryrequest@princesscruises.com with your questions.

Actually, that is not true. One of my daughter's friends when growing up could not go to restaurants that served certain types of seafood because the oils (or something) can become airborne and he would have very serious life-threatening reactions. When they went on a school trip, he had to stay on the bus for one restaurant because there was a last-minute substitution of places and he couldn't go into the restaurant. Luckily, his mom had packed a ton of non-perishable meals for him just in case.

Thanks!! That is really good to know.

@chrysalis Thank you for the menus. Were you able to see all of them at the beginning of the cruise, or did you capture them on different days?

Once I have gift cards, do I need to give the info to my TA to may payments, or can I do it online on the Princess site?

Good to know. Thanks. We had a surprisingly easy time at LAX this past Feb (but we stayed at an LAX hotel with a shuttle, rather than trying to get an Uber and all), so I wasn't as "anti" big airport as I normally would be.

Thanks. We live in the midwest at a small airport, so very little is direct. Also, for this trip, we'll have a companion pass, so Southwest will most likely be the cheapest and all of the surrounding airports when I checked different dates (ours aren't out yet), were within $10 of each other. We do not plan on flying in the day of the cruise. I'm wound a bit too tightly to be able to handle doing that. 🙂 I'm guessing since Long Beach is so much closer, the Uber or whatever transport we take to our hotel will be less expensive too hopefull.

These look like they have square holes and the pictures of the medallion look round. Does the medallion stay secure in this?

If price, airline choice, and route are all about equal, which airport would you choose for heading to San Pedro for a short hotel stay and then a cruise, and why?

When NCL switched from Pepsi to Coke, they included Coke Zero and that made me very happy. I'm debating whether or not to get a soda package on our upcoming Princess cruise because I strongly prefer Coke 0, but can stomach the diet as long as it isn't served in the can. I'm glad we can still carry on sodas and waters on Princess. We'll at a minimum bring diet mt dew for hubby since he doesn't like colas really at all.

I know it was a long time ago, but we stayed at the Doubletree in 2017 and loved it. I was only Gold back then and we were upgraded to a suite on the top floor overlooking the marina. We spent two nights there and enjoyed the overall experience. Service was good, hotel was clean. I'm looking at it again for an upcoming cruise, but we may end up at the Crowne Plaza depending on points and costs. I wiped out my Marriott and Hilton points on our last big vacation.

Do they charge for the shuttle if you are staying there, or is it included in the price?

Please let me know how your rental with Enterprise goes. We did something similar in 2017 and returning the car was a long and hard process. They didn't have anywhere to line the cars up to return, so the employees would go and put one car away before processing the next. What we did was hubby dropped me at the ship with all of the luggage and then he walked from Enterprise to the ship. It is too long of a walk for me, but not for him.

Someone complaining on another cruise lines forum said that with the Princess app, you could see the menus for the whole voyage so that you could pick which nights you would prefer to do specialty dining or the buffet, etc. Is this true or an exaggeration?

Thank you for taking the time to post all of that. It is very helpful.

@XBGuy Do you happen to have a copy of your spreadsheet that you would be willing to share? I tried to look through your older posts, but wasn't able to find it.

I thought on Reserved you would be able to pick different times on different evenings. Way back in 2018, last time we sailed Princess, you could reserve a different time each night. Traditional is same time whole trip, same table, same people, etc. I hope that is what it will be again.

Thanks all. I think we have decided on booking the historical locks. I appreciate all of the info.

I wonder what will happen on ships with only 2 dining rooms, like the Coral Princess?

Thanks. What is DMW? Is that Dining My Way?? If yes, is that different from the previous Any Time Dining?