VibeGuy

Some of them are sculleries for in-room dining glassware and tableware. There’s also the bell boxes, where some in-room dining orders originate.

I’ve hosted parties of 8-12 in specialty dining several times. Unless otherwise requested, each guest’s cover goes onto their own folio.

I don’t believe Ruby had any balloons on the public decks on any of our 6 post-restart sailings, but I’m almost absolutely certain I saw at least one cabin door decorated with them as part of a group.

I have to admit, I’m inordinately impressed with the buffet feature sheet - I don’t make a habit of stalking the buffet, and it’s not always in the patter dining times section, but I really enjoy some of the feature stations and themes.

The balcony access is more a warning than actual practice. About the only actual inconvenience is that, depending on the specific deck and relation to the bridge, you’ll likely be required to keep the outside light off and the curtains drawn when the ship is in motion after dark. With Sapphire, since you’re a bit further down, it may be less strictly enforced. But I wouldn’t count on it. The metal balcony is definitely too high to see over when seated. So if blue sky and tall things in the distance are what you like to see, terrific. If you want to actually see water, not so much. Some people have brought inexpensive plastic bed risers to put under the chair legs to get a better view. Might be $20 well spent. As to the size, the difference is all in the balcony rather than the interior of the stateroom, to my memory. It’s not enough to be immediately noticeable if there is a difference in the interior portion, anyway (like, less than three inches of depth, leading to more space between the bed and the sliding door, with a slightly larger desktop area).

Not on the Royal class ships. There’s a spot where they are just too large to clear safely during some tide and current conditions (Seymour Narrows). The Grand/Gem class vessels are fine. So 3/4 of the ships sailing from Vancouver, representing about 63% of the line-haul capacity and 75% of the total Alaska capacity from Vancouver (2x as many Ruby sailings - I’m happy to show my math) can truly offer an inside passage experience between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland. Practically, on the northbound sailings, this isn’t much of a disadvantage - with a 4-5pm departure from Vancouver, both have attractive scenery during the remaining daylight hours. On Southbound sailings, it’s a bit more of a loss as you’d have quite a bit of close-in sailing time during daylight.

The app notification is *extremely* reliable. It causes blinking user avatars on every foodservice handheld device when your medallion is detected, and it goes into overdrive if something that conflicts is ordered. For example, I have shellfish marked, and while I eat bivalves just fine, if I order clam chowder, the server is immediately alerted. As I and others have said here before, Princess is really, really good about handling food allergy these days.

Tobacco products won’t be collected after purchase ashore. As for the passport, they’ll ask for it well in advance of the port(s) where it’s needed. In most cases it’s possible to either delay the surrender until just before that port or get it processed quickly. I’ve needed mine for banking purposes onshore and the only problem port was Panama. The ship departure was actually delayed because the authorities hadn’t finished processing the passports!

60s with a 15 knot wind, at best.

The secret ingredient in my Hollandaise is three drops of Crystal sauce per stick of butter. It’s not hot, it’s not vinegary, it’s just *better*.

Princess has shown complete willingness to consider DMW reservations to be a suggestion. They’ve closed dining rooms and shifted or deleted reservations with all the care of a toddler with a pair of scissors.

I’d be very surprised if they moved the Ruby CC dining from Deck 6 mids to Deck 5 mids - I am quite certain they kept 6 open rather than 5 right after the restart specifically because of the Club Class branding elements on the starboard side of 6. I’m much more inclined to blame an app display glitch.

I suspect they’d be given the aft dining room on Deck 6.

Hang Up Call Again. The Plus package can be added to casino rates. Have you tried doing it via the website? on mobile: log in, go to the account page (not shown) select sailing by clicking Manage This Booking, click “onboard services”, the upgrade should be the very top of the page that comes up. See below.

The 10NT Mexican Riviera + Sea of Cortez menus plus five nights = the 15NT full Canal transit, so if you refer to Travelin.Sisters’ Live from her recent 10NT Sapphire sailing, this will give you nights 1-9 and 15. 10-14 will not be dupes of any of the others, and the added formal night was quite good to my memory. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2882789-live-from-the-sapphire-princess-first-post-pause-sailing-924-1042022-baja-peninsula-sea-of-cortez/?do=findComment&comment=64105632 start here - the menu posts follow in short order

I had mostly eschewed the buffet until the Restart - I found I rather liked the individual portions of cold items (much more attractive than people destroying larger platters to get the specific tidbit they want) and the service of hot items. I especially like the garde manger items - charcuterie, pâté, terrines and rillettes and of course, preserved fish. They don’t often make an appearance at home and very few restaurants do them as well as Princess. The Indian dishes are also quite good. They’re more savory than fiery, so if you like a good burn, plan to spice them up a little. If they feature lamb sausage (merguez) during breakfast or brunch, leap on it. It never makes an appearance in the MDR, and the Princess version is especially good. I’m glad you are still able to travel together. Enjoy your trip.

And the boat shaped ten tops are awful. Adjacent sixes are much more pleasant.

Steelers36 posted an excellent description of how to do this: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2795666-dine-my-way-all-new-dining-questions-since-cruising-restart/?do=findComment&comment=64308503 Book two private 6-tops at the same time in the same dining room. The reservations that you as a guest can make via the app are time:table size. When you are onboard, have the booking numbers of your two “designated guests” and speak with a dining room manager. They have a magic button that can convert those time-and-size reservations to time-and-specific table. There is no way to do the time-and-specific-table reservation prior to being onboard and nobody shoreside at Princess can touch dining arrangements for a group this size, so calling is useless. As others have alluded to, the specific dining room to reserve, that can best attempt to mimic traditional dining, may vary by ship. In *general*, I’d say the Deck 6 aft dining room but I will caution you that, because of the limited “holding” space between the elevator lobby and the host stand, these are almost certain to be chaotic on the first night (regardless of dining time) and *every* night if you wish to dine early - diners waiting to be seated back up onto the stairs. The limited elevator capacity to this area can also be problematic for groups with members with limited tolerance for stairs. Having spent a lot of time on the Ruby in particular since the restart (70 nights), I found the management in the Midships dining rooms VERY accommodating towards converting to a same-time-same-table reservation. We were invited to proceed to our table directly on subsequent nights, bypassing both the Holding Reservations and the Reservation-Free queues.

They sound like a lot of fun. The NYT recently ran a story about how the most in-demand reservations have crept earlier and earlier of late. I admit ours onboard have edged closer to 7 than to 8, in part because an 8 with four courses or more pretty much guarantees being the last people in the MDR of late, and I don’t enjoy a bunch of side work going on around me. Our experience since the restart (70nts on Ruby) was on less-full sailings and we found ourselves with a time-and-table reservation after we found a service team we clicked with. When we unexpectedly showed up a few weeks after we left, the only question at the MDR was if we wanted the same table again. as others have said, make a time-and-party-size reservation on Dine My Way (after the final payment date for all passengers, after you’re paid in full for Platinum and Elite) and if you find a service team that meets your expectations, the DR managers may be willing to click the button that converts it to time-and-table.

I’ve never had to wait for a machine during boarding or sail away.

The answer to this depends on the tides. There’s a spot (Seymour Passage) that requires specific tide and current conditions - so the speed out of Vancouver is adjusted to hit these narrows (and the power lines that cross them) at a specific time on target. This varies from sailing to sailing. So “maybe” is the best I can give you.

I’ve literally taken suitcases directly from in front of the cabin door to the laundrette before so much as stepping inside the cabin - either work or abutting travel (or, for that matter, abutting work travel) has meant I don’t show up with everything laundered. My mother would be mortified to find I’d flown dirty socks across the country. But she’s dead and I don’t fear haunting.

It really is the perfect ship for that route. Stunning space ratio, all the amenities, covered pool for inclement weather. We sailed her both directions and had one of our best cruises ever.

They didn’t lose the magrodomes until the Caribbean Princess - MUTS was prioritized. I had this discussion with an executive who retired during the pause, about how the PNW and Alaska merit the covered pool as much as UK and Nordic itineraries, and he agreed - the issue is how much the demand grew and how they simply filled the needed cabins with larger and larger ships from the fleet because of the relatively inelastic port and Glacier Bay slots. Also, Island and Coral are actually newer than the Grand-class vessels. They were purchased to provide a more modern Panamax-sized option with lots of lucrative balcony cabins.

I’m an advocate for northbound and on a Grand/Gem class ship. Daylight cruising the Inside Passage is likely to be your best weather for shoreline viewing.