HaveDogWillTravel

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Tonight and maybe even tomorrow, as we will be farther north in Skagway, is looking pretty good! 🤞

We’ve seen them twice sailing out of Skagway. Like you we book the aft facing suites for Alaska. Set our alarm for midnight after going to bed early and then bundle up on the loungers that are facing north for that long sail down the fjord. Good luck!  I hope you get to see them. 

On 4/30/2024 at 6:50 PM, Alaska05 said:

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. 

Last year 4 of us flew in the day of the sailing from SFO and took the sky train. We all had one large bag with a smaller bag on top and a backpack. It was really easy and cheap. 
we had no problem walking our luggage from the station to the pier. We even stopped and bought wine on the way to the ship. 

13 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

Nobody even bats an eye when we ask for a decent glass.

I’m hoping this will be the case on the Ruby when I start sailing her out of SF this Nov. (& then January,  & June). But I’ll still pack mine for my room.  

13 hours ago, Hillmom said:

Currently on the Sapphire Princess 24 days into 32. I'm a red wine drinker. Lest you  think Snooty red wine drinker, I'm talking grocery store and Trader Joes. The wine by the glass does not rise to that level. I guess this also applies if you're thinking you can order by the glass without the package. 

I sailed Sapphire for 34 days this past December (and into January). Agree completely about the Plus wines. There is one blend called Aqui that is drinkable. If I remember correctly it’s on the room service menu.  It should be available at one of the bars. You can order 4 glasses of it at one time on room service. 
 

And it was so very annoying that you could not get a decent glass without a rolled lip on it without begging. I really really really hate that about Princess.  I always pack my own glasses because of it but that is getting so old. 

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

But we’ll still try to plan ahead and sit on the left side in the last car just to make sure we get a good seat at the beginning of the ride. 😁

The train turns around at the top.  No need to change seats as the folks on the right side are on the outside rail going down. Also some people don’t like to sit on the outside (left going up and right going down) as there’s some really steep drop offs. If you are not a fan of heights don’t sit next to the window on the scenic side.  
 

I’ve taken the train 5 times and everyone has always been super polite and accommodating.  People share the spaces well in my experiences.  
 

Safe travels and Bon voyage. 

9 hours ago, Level six said:

But, the whole CC meet and greet thing with sending email, etc.  And the person who wanted so much praise for doing so much for us..........ugh.  I just couldn't make myself go.  But maybe some other time all the "famous CC names" will be onboard a cruise we take in the future. 

It was so weird wasn’t it? I feel the same way. 

On 4/24/2024 at 7:53 AM, Cruise Raider said:

Ever since we have done solo fare cruises, I can’t combine our accounts so we always have two different folios.  Oh well!  
I read that recently, it’s only been taking a couple of weeks to get our refundable OBC back by check.  Maybe we will get home to another ‘prize’ in the mail

Neither Adam nor I have gotten the refundable OBC back from the Sapphire cruise that ended Jan 4th!  
 

On this eclipse sailing I went to GS and had them combine our folios. Hope you get the prize thing worked out. 
 

50 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for coming along and for your insights. We had been on the White Pass Railway before, but that was in July. Since that was one of the few stops we didn't have an excursion booked yet, the potential of seeing a frozen waterfall sounded pretty cool. One question if I might ask. Do you remember which side of the train was the better side to sit on to take pictures?

This will be a very different experience than July. I did one trip in August and while I appreciated many facets of a summer trip to Alaska I greatly prefer the less crowded & colder early spring experiences.  
 

The best side depends on which way you’re headed.  Going up out of Skagway sit on the left. If you do the Yukon tour that drives you up into Canada (they were doing that again last year- we saw Dall Sheep 🐑 on the mountain at the Yukon border.  Close enough to see with the naked eye but fortunately we had our binoculars that put them up close and personal) then sit on the right heading down back to Skagway.
 

Of course be sure to spend some time on the open area at the back of the cars. I also prefer sitting in the last car. Best views out the back! You also get nice views of the rest of the train as it goes over bridges and into tunnels. 
 

We were on the train May 5th. 
 

We were at Hubbard Glacier May 2 and it snowed on us! I grew up in the snow in NY and while I do not miss living in it I do sometimes miss those snowy silent fluffy flakes days. 
 

@Ken the cruiserthis will be a fantastic journey and I will definitely love following your adventures. I sailed an 11 day RT Vancouver Sapphire itinerary that left April 29th last year. I’ve sailed the early May trips often but last year leaving those few extra days earlier really made a difference.  In particular the White Pass Railway out of Skagway was even more stunning than usual. When we went thru the tunnel the waterfall that is usually flowing was frozen solid. It was spectacular…everyone was surprised and oooohing and ahhhhing. We didn’t get pictures as we were just so gobsmacked by how pretty it was and didn’t want to take our eyes off what we were seeing. 

FWIW we sailed between Vancouver Island and the mainland during the evening last year while still light.  It was such beautiful scenery. I just checked my photos and we entered around 4:30 and were at the south end around 8:30.  I’ve sailed it at 3 other times and it was always during the daylight hours. At least on my sailings the naturalist always let us know where we’d be when and what to look for. 
 

Do you already have the Alaska book Princess sells onboard?  The big foldout map inside is worth the price. 
 

Have a great time and thanks for taking us along. 

1 hour ago, IpswichChris said:

Yup, that's exactly what happened...my TA called Windstar and we got the all-in packages, didn't have to cancel and re-book.  We hadn't made final payment yet and more than 180 days from sailing, so it worked😀

That’s great!

Oh and no folio for me either. I last disembarked a princess ship Jan 4th of this year and the folio was in an email before I got to my hotel after the cruise.  I had a balance due at the end of this cruise and it has been correctly billed to my card (I always take a screen shot of my folio last night of the cruise).  

@Cruise RaiderI am sorry you are having to chase down that spectacular prize.  We have enough videos and photos to remind corporate of it though lol. They made a huge production about giving that prize!  

@beg3yrs We saw you at the Marriage show!  You two were adorable!  I will not tell your secrets. 😇We didn’t stay for the second half so I don’t know if you won or not.  

@Cruise Raider my dear friend, thank you for doing this review.  As always a beautiful job.  

I agree with everyone’s comments regarding Captain Tony.  He even graciously signed the Stanley Bear I gave the 11 year old in our group who was on her very first cruise and saw her very first eclipse.  We also had an 80 year old in our group on his first cruise & first eclipse! 

Renee was simply as charming and lovely as @Hulagirlsaid.  It was lovely to meet @Hulagirl @dreams_of_travel @SharB  @Fun4sure @rheathslc and @Thrak  I do wish I had been able to meet others as well.  

The concierge lounge on Discovery was quite nice.  They had wonderful food and the adult beverages in the evening were great quality.  They even threw @Hulagirl a birthday party with the Mariachi band and a big buffet set up in the adjoining chapel!  LOL.  Yes it really was just a coincidence that the Mexican themed party in the lounge coincided with your birthday….nice all the same.  🙂 

Woz gave a great talk.  As the theater was packed we were really happy to find his talk on the TV later.  Ivan said he was a very low maintenance passenger and did not want any special treatment.  After hearing his talk it became clear that it really never was about money for him.  It was always about the excitement of what technology could do and become.  He was very transparent about his abilities and the stories he told about how he used them were amusing.  As we disembarked Ivan told us that Woz had hacked into their satellite system. The gist of it was  something about a game he wanted to watch and whatever he was using to watch it was not working so he just hacked into the satellite to watch it.  That fit right in with the mischievous techy boy attitude (which btw is a compliment) I witnessed during his talk.  He is just like all of Adam’s friends in the tech industry (he’s been in that industry for 24 years now).  Just a down to earth guy who sees himself as very talented nerd.  

There was definitely  a palpable excitement among everyone, crew and passengers alike, leading up to the eclipse.  And the shared feelings about the experience afterwards were simply amazing. The only other experience that comes close to this would be the Inaugural sailing on the Majestic following the Pause back on July 25th 2021.  @Cruise Raider was with me on that one as well.  

On 4/15/2024 at 4:55 PM, IpswichChris said:

That is such great info!  I thought that travel insurance was completely inflexible. I’ll call Allianz & if insurance is transferrable to a new booking, I’ll see what cabins are available if I cancel & rebook👍

 

Whenever I need a refare like this, my Windstar consultant sends it off to corporate and then I get sent a new set of documents.  Same booking number. So there is no need to cancel and rebook. 

On 4/6/2024 at 12:11 PM, JimmyVWine said:

But they would still wear a lapel pin.  It is as much a part of their "uniform" as stripes are to a ship's officer.

In 2023 I tried to work with the sommeliers on Sapphire and Emerald. I knew far more about wines and the proper glassware for different ones than they did. The most frustrating discussions were when they blathered on stating absolute nonsense yet insisted they were correct. 
After two sailings I just gave up.  They did not have real sommelier training and did not wear pins. 
 

While I do enjoy a real sommelier’s input it’s pretty low on my wish list for Princess. My wish is just stock and sell a variety of good wines…….in particular dry whites & roses.  They typically have only one good white and one good rose by the glass. I hate drinking the same wine for 14-30 plus days. I’m really tired of bringing my own too. 

3 hours ago, esad9556 said:

Yes it was just luck.🤣

But your TA beat us out by a minute.

We met the family in the other sky suite (wonderful people too!) and I think they beat you out by a minute. One of the first things they asked me was how did I beat them to the sky suite?  Mine was the first to be booked followed a second or two later by their booking. And the rest is history.  I won’t lie, in the beginning that expense was pretty difficult to justify but in the end I wouldn’t have done it any other way. We had 14 friends and 5 new friends ( @Thrakand his other half among them) to share that incredible space with.  We made memories that will be treasured for a lifetime. Absolutely priceless. 
 

I have an excellent Princess CVP not a TA.  

17 hours ago, fedexretiree said:

THANKS for this info!  This is what we are going to do!

@ReadyToCruise2 gave the most complete & correct answer.  They are absolutely spot on. 
Book the standard fare and then add any extras once onboard with OBC. 

The only thing that you might want to buy before boarding is the cases of water if you are not getting a package and want bottled water. It’s $7 for 12 before boarding and then $2.50 a half liter bottle onboard if you don’t have a package. 

And yes a good Princess CVP can remove a Plus or Premier package if that’s the fare you booked and revert it to a standard fare. If you’ve already made final payment the refund will be $60 or $80 per day depending on the package back to the credit card used to book the cruise otherwise you’ll just get an updated travel summary with a the same booking number. Go to your CC meet & greet and ask for recommendations for a good Princess CVP. 

Will they sell out?  I would say no after my recent experience on the Discovery March 31 of this year.  Our little 3 day Easter weekend sailing out of San Pedro was oversold with 4200 passengers (3600 is considered a full ship). My friends boarded and were able to purchase the premier package (drinks, specialty dining, grats, WiFi, blah, blah blah…..) without issue.  If ever they were going to limit the number of packages (especially premier with that specialty dining benefit) it would have been on this 3 day, oversold ship.  

The disembarkation perk was one of my favorite perks of all. 
We did not put our bags outside the night before. Instead Ivan came and picked them up at 6:30 am on disembarkation day. We had a nice relaxing breakfast in Sabatini’s then waited in the Sky Suite until Ivan came to escort us down around 8:15. 
 

We had a dedicated elevator, a special immigration clerk with no line, a dedicated porter with all our luggage already loaded and he walked us behind the scenes where no other passengers could be to the street. It was seriously such a no stress way to end the cruise.  

On 4/13/2024 at 9:23 AM, Suite Susie said:

Wow that look incredible. With our Sky Suite rapidly approaching in 2 weeks, this makes me very excited, but tinged with anxiety as there is now some doubt that we will be able to travel. You have made some incredible memories that you will treasure for ever. 

Yes we did!  I do hope you are able to take your sky suite sailing. 
Our farewell tea had to be held inside due to weather. I was a little concerned about space for 15 people but it worked out great!  
 

We all shared what we loved best about the cruise (besides the eclipse of course!). 
 

We couldn’t believe it when one of our group won the free 7 day balcony cabin sailing on discovery from having the premier package!

I just requested a refare on a little 7 day Rome to Barcelona Wind Spirit sailing for this fall. I will lose $100 pp OBC but gain the All In package, grats, WiFi and drinks, at no additional charge. IOW my cruise fare is the same but now I have the All In.  The sale lasts thru June and seems to apply to many (if not all?) 2024 sailings. 

We usually send our laundry daily. we take pictures of what we send as well. Smaller batches are easier to track if something goes missing. Which btw has never happened to us. We’ve used the laundry service many hundreds of times without issue. I do not send anything I would be truly sad to find ruined or lost though. 
 

There is no limit to how much or how often you send.  Of course we have never sent anything but our own clothing.  I’m not sure what happens if someone tries to send friends/family members’ clothes. Not that you would. But it’s the only instance I can think of where a limit might be imposed. 

18 hours ago, MacMadame said:

How did you know which side to book on or was it just luck you could see it from your balcony? (Asking for 2026 planning.)

Just luck. We were on the port side and the captain had the ship positioned for starboard viewing. If you look on the deck plans for Discovery you’ll see those Sky Suites on Deck 18 have 270 degree balconies.  The sun was so high in the sky we were able to see totality from the forward and aft sections of our balcony. We were so fortunate because the port side section was entirely in shade providing great relief from the heat. 
I don’t think there’s any way to really know with any certainty how the captain will position the ship until you are either onboard or really close to sailing.  We just picked the cabin we wanted and figured we’d work out the rest. 

32 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Love it!!!  Hey, what's more important on a cruise ship?  A celestial event, or food!!!!  😁

 

Do you have a link to the 2026 Cunard cruise? Can't find anything on their website.

There’s a link in this thread to all the Cunard 2026 eclipse sailings 

Captain Tony also delayed moving our clocks ahead. That’s why our eclipse was at 11:02 ships time instead of noon. 
He did not want the eclipse to conflict with lunch service. And he gave the crew the time on upper decks to also experience this amazing event. 
I LOVE Captain Tony! 

We received this great letter on nice cardstock when we embarked explaining where we’d be and how to best view the eclipse. And then we were given this lovely certificate afterwards. Princess delivered solar glasses to all cabins the day before. 

On Discovery, we are all having way too good a time to focus on a live from. But I did think about it!  
 

The Captain and crew made the eclipse the focus of our life on board with enrichment lectures, themed trivia, games, star gazing nightly and special events like the planetarium set up in the theater.  Our ship was so stable during the eclipse that our telescopes gave outstanding views. We set them all up on our balcony, not on the public spaces. 
 

Two nights ago we also had amazing clear skies and had excellent star gazing with our own telescopes. Service, food and entertainment has been outstanding.  
 

I would definitely choose Princess for another eclipse cruise.  I would be shocked if Princess did not continue to offer these. 

I’ll post some pictures if they will load.