Alaska05

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

May I suggest you first check to see how many ships will be in port on the day you embark on your cruise. If there are 3, just make sure you get to the airport transfer collection point early rather than later. If there is just one or two, you should be fine.

There will be 3 in port (Edge, Koningsdam and Sapphire) so it will be busy at Canada Place.  Good thing we are staying downtown the night before.

What is the site you use for the ships position that you posted

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We finally boarded the ship a little after 2 pm, over 3.5 hours after checking in with the ship transfer POC at the airport. The first part of the adventure took over 90 minutes to go 12 km from the Vancouver airport to the cruise terminal, mostly caused by some serious downtown traffic jams due to ongoing construction along with 3 cruise ships in port today!

 

 
But after creeping along or standing still for over 90 minutes, we finally saw the ship! 
 
 

 

After reading your experience from the airport, we are seriously considering taking the Skytrain from YVR when we arrive about 6:00 pm on a Thursday evening.  We are staying at the Marriott Pinnacle on W. Hastings. 

1 hour ago, Hillmom said:

On the Sapphire now. Pre cruise zero reservations available. In cruise dining after 7 doesn't appear to be an issue, if you are willing to share. Before seven is awful. Avoid especially Ms. Witchy pants Marianna in the International dining room at dinner only ( seating "hostess"). She seems to feel you have a lot of nerve asking to eat.

Oh no.  We have reservations in the International DR for our upcoming 14 day Alaska cruise on the Sapphire.

14 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

You all got us to looking at the excursion details a little more closely as we initially thought it was a train ride up followed by a bus ride back down the mountain. To our surprise, it’s a roundtrip train ride, which makes us kind of wonder why we would need to change seats.
 

But we will definitely also go outside between the cars to take pictures if the windows are too dirty. 😁

 

The train doesn’t turn around so you would get the same view on the return ride. 

Curious as to why you didn’t make the dining change on the app when u acknowledged it could be done. 

We will be arriving YVR about 9:30 pm on a Thursday night.

Is it better to grab a taxi or order a Uber. We’re not very experienced with Uber (only taken 2 and 2nd one a piece of our luggage flew out of the back when the hatch opened!)
 

You said they made dining reservations for you but you can’t see them.

I couldn’t find mine either until someone pointed out how to do it.

once you are on the app, click on the “Book Dining” tab underneath the number of days until embarkation. Then in the upper right hand corner there should be a calendar icon with a red heart. Click on that.  See if your reservations show.

I know lots of people report having problems with the app, but for us it has always worked fine. Guess we are lucky.

Our last cruise we could hear our neighbor’s TV. A first for us and we did NOT have connecting rooms. 

Just now, 555 said:

Typical early seating is usually around 5:30 PM and late seating around 7:30 PM. 

I could deal with 7:30 but not 8:00!

We've never done traditional dining because we don't like to eat too early or too late.  Like that sweet spot in between.

Now that we're a bit older, we may consider for our January 2025 Panama Canal cruise.  What times (give or take) are traditional dining usually.  I know it might vary a little from ship to ship.  

2 hours ago, Ashland said:

Avis and Budget share the same building just outside the Port Everglades gate on Miami Road. They offer a comp shuttle to your ship terminal.

 

If you're a Costco member check out their rates online.

Thank you.  That is very helpful. Since we arrive mid-morning the day before our cruise, by renting a car, we can stay further from the port and save some money plus be able to drive somewhere for dinner.  The rental cost is just about what 2 taxis or Ubers would cost.  There was a big difference between Avis and Budget

Are there any car rental companies that have a drop off location near the Port Everglades terminal. Sailing on Princess. 

On 4/9/2024 at 1:12 PM, johnk24 said:

Yes, and you can do nothing about that data that they get - the booking number, name, etc.  That is not the data I am worried about.  When you have an app on your smartphone, any app at all, you are the product.  That app is harvesting analytical data about you - your location, how long your are there, what email servers you use, who your contacts are, what pictures you take, what you buy, what other apps you use, all sorts of stuff that is none of their business.  They then sell that data to the highest bidder, people that use it for marketing, insurance purposes, investigations, etc.  You agree to these terms, many of them hidden in legalese,  when you download the app.  Many of them claim not to do this, but how many times has Zuckberg or Google been exposed for the same, even when they said they are not!  Best to avoid any app unless absolutely necessary IMO.

To address some of your concerns, could u just delete the app after you get your OBC, then reload it the next time u need to request OBC again, then delete again..Just wondering. 

On the app, click on your Profile picture in the bottom right corner.  It should show all your booked cruises.  Need to swipe left.

If u look on the app now it should show the 50% discount price (at least it does for me). The only reason we wait until we board is to use OBC for WI-FI.

I think previously you paid the full price if purchased in advance and then they gave you credit back once on board.

Yes.  Mine is in my IRA investment account.  
 

I have never had any trouble getting the credit. 

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

Just something one needs to be aware of if they select a 3 or 4 person room for 2 people, when 2 person capacity rooms are available in the class.

 

 

Exactly, especially when Princess continues to advertise 3rd and 4th person are free!

How can u tell if your reservation has been ticketed.

I booked our January 2025 Panama Canal tickets thru EZ air (Ft. Lauderdale/return from San Francisco) and flights are on Delta and chose seats.

I hope they have not been ticketed. I specifically didn’t book direct with Delta in case we want to cancel trip, either by choice or medical.

@sharon_peiYou didn’t say what cruise line u are sailing on.  
 

If it’s Princess you can make your dining reservations ahead of time on the Princess app.  I’m sailing in May and made my dining reservations several months ago.

Our upcoming May cruise will be first time being Elite.  
 

When u call room service to have items swapped, do u just tell them what u want to swap and for what and put those items out for them. Especially if you’re not there when they come. 
 

I don’t drink any alcohol and DH doesn’t drink beer. 
 

Thanks. 

You do it on the App.  Select profile.  Click on the pencil in the right hand corner to edit.  It will ask you to upload a photo 

Mine is an avatar I created.

5 hours ago, Italy52 said:

This is a first for me:  I entered our independent flight information into my Cruise Personalizer and received the following information from Princess:  "This flight departs too early to reliably make your fight after arrival.:  How can that be, our flight departs 4 hours AFTER we are scheduled to disembark the ship -- we are not using transfers and we will be self-disembarking.  We have flown many times out of YVR and never had a problem.

How early is your flight?

I haven’t provided our independent flight information for YVR yet, but we have a 11:40 am flight from YVR.  We plan to self disembark.  I guess I will probably get the same warning.

46 minutes ago, waltd said:

Here is  a thread from last year.

Thanks for the link  

10 hours ago, wallyj said:

I believe the Sapphire was in dry dock before returning to service in Sept 2022, so would not be scheduled for about another 3 years? I saw another post Sapphire had a 14 day dry dock in April 2023?

Do they do much interior refurb during drydock?  The Princess website says last "refurbishment" was in March 2018.