lstone19

6 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

There have been singers scheduled for other nights.  There’s really nothing scheduled for tonight as they will be having “puppies in the piazza”.  
 

The Patter has a movie in the Princess Theater tonight. So no big live show tonight. It's an 8:15 All Aboard tonight.

Making lemonade out of lemons, we’re now enjoying our rare daylight passage of the Clarence Strait and soon Sumner and Chatham Straits. I believe all our previous cruises had had us here after dark northbound and middle of the night southbound.

14 hours ago, Knickearth said:

I agree, the Ruby is in fine shape and I can’t imagine what they will do in dry dock.

What of they keys to keeping it in fine shape is doing the constant maintenance a ship requires. And some of that requires that ship go into dry dock so the hull can be inspected below the waterline. Going into dry dock does not mean there is something that needs to be fixed or change. Think of it as like your 90,000 mile maintenance on your car that is needed to keep it going another 90,000 miles.

19 hours ago, Belle said:

Dry dock, one thing their doing is taking the double table games away and adding more

slot machines, that's where they make their money.  All I heard was 2 weeks in Oregon.

Can check by seeing when the next cruise starts. Panama Canal.

 

 

We're currently on Ruby Princess.

The second table game pit (including the craps table) is only open after 8pm. So it's largely wasted space. I only play Craps on the ships as I will not play 6:5 blackjack and to get 3:2, you need to be at the $25 minimum table which is more than I want to risk.

Of course, reconfiguring the casino is not something the ship needs to be in dry dock for. Dry dock is for below the waterline work although you can do above the waterline work at the same time. If they really wanted to reconfigure the casino, it could be done on a turnaround day or even overnight while underway (just like a lot of the painting and other stuff happens). 

Also, while I agree private details are nobody's business, knowing about it does explain the obvious course changes anyone tracking the ship can see. I posted above that we're now diverting to Ketchikan but I saw the course change four hours ago and wondered why we now going inside Haida Gwaii when our original course had us going outside. I assume the captain and Princess were working out details and the captain said they tried to see if a port swap could be arranged.

I'm also onboard Ruby Princess. It was just announced that we are now diverting to Ketchikan for a second medical evacuation expecting to be there tomorrow morning, then will skip Juneau and pick up our schedule in Skagway on Saturday.

Thanks. Found it. They must have had it blocked or something else on the screen yesterday during embarkation.

Changes for Ruby Princess (unable to edit the list right now):

Ruby Princess

Captain Steven Lewis

Restaurant Operations Dir. Giuseppe Gelmini

Currently on Ruby Princess and cannot find where they have the board with the officer pictures on it. Anyone know where it is on Ruby? I haven’t had a chance to ask anyone on board who might know.

I concur with Thrak and that applies to captains as well. While some people take the view that the captain doesn't matter as the captain is there to steer the ship, when a captain is keeping an eye on the entire operation, people below him notice and things are better. I've been on a cruise with a captain whose eyes were never inside the ship and only looked outward at the ocean and service was not all that great. The Hotel GM knew he wasn't being watched by the captain so he wasn't watching his department heads, and so forth and it showed in the service. I don't really care how personable the captain is on the daily announcements or at the CC reception but I do care that the captain is watching the entire ship and not just concerned about navigating the ship. I've been on two cruises with the same person as captain (have not seen his name post-COVID so he must have retired) and both had service issues because the captain and his senior staff wasn't paying attention inside the ship (did the Ultimate Ship's Tour on one of those and he didn't even show up for the bridge reception that concludes the tour leaving a cadet (student) to host it (I believe the captain is who is supposed to host that reception as when I mentioned it to the CC host on another cruise, she was shocked that the captain had skipped a UST bridge reception). 

2 hours ago, Coral said:

It wasn't on mine! The tours were pathetic such as "walk the Brooklyn Bridge".....

 

We were hoping it would be Manhattan.

We were on the Regal Princess TA at the end of the Baltic season in 2017. Due to a hurricane, we skipped two ports and arrived in New York a day early. We first went to Manhattan for our added port day, then re-positioned overnight to disembark at the Brooklyn port.

And they did have tours for our Manhattan port day including the “walk the Brooklyn Bridge” for a ridiculous $80. But it sounded like fun so I did it … but on my own as having grown up in northern NJ and knowing they NYC subway very well, I knew I could do it for $5.50 (two subway fares) plus the time to walk to/from Times Square.

After our next cruise in August, I intend to send Princess a big thank you for the changes ...

... because it is giving us a good reason to check out other cruise lines rather than remaining loyal to Princess.

1 hour ago, broberts said:

 

Why? Offering an explanation for scheduling decisions would be a non trivial undertaking requiring a massive amount of background. More importantly, it would not silence the questioning. Nor would it end the second guessing. 

 

I largely agree. There are plenty of posts by people who just seem to be unable to grasp that ships actually need time to travel from one port to another and think that if you can't go to one port, it should be trivial to substitute another port - sometimes, there is no other port that can be reached the same day (and if there is, is there room for another ship). For Ruby Princess sailing out of SF, the two sea days on both the front and back end of the cruise are needed for the distance to be covered. SF to Ketchikan takes about 55 hours while SF to Juneau takes about 70 hours. But no doubt there are some on-board questioning why Princess didn't eliminate the sea days rather than port days and magically transport the ship from SF to Alaskan waters overnight so it could have been in Glacier Bay yesterday and Juneau today.

1 hour ago, ninka26 said:

Since the Itinerary was so drastically altered and this was to be a bucket list vacation, to say I'm disappointed is an understatement. We opted to get off and return home. What was offered, in MHO, doesn't even come close to being "enough". So much of my heart went into the planning of this cruise just for it to be crushed. This was my first cruise AND first cruise with Princess. The experience has left me with no desire to cruise with Princess ever again. 

It's unfortunate that the incident happened but these things do happen. IMHO, getting off was a mistake unless you had something else you could do this week other than just going home. The offers returned the same amount whether you got off or not - 150% of what you paid. The only difference is how much was a cash refund and how much was an FCC. 75% refund and 75% FCC if you stayed on; 100% refund but only 50% FCC if you got off. So for taking that 25% as FCC rather than a refund, those that stayed on got a seven-night cruise - granted, not the cruise they wanted but I would have been all over it if it was us. We are doing Ruby Princess on 8/15 and having been to Alaska before, it's an opportunistic cruise for us- right date and price with the itinerary being secondary. So if it turned into a seven-night cruise with three port days in SF and the refund/FCC package, we'd be very happy.

Now I'll admit some people cruise for the ports and the ship is just transportation and they are disappointed. Others cruise to be on the ship and the ports are a bonus. For most people, it's somewhere in between. 

FWIW, we were on a cruise in 2017 that missed ports due to a hurricane and arrived at our disembarkation port (NYC) a day early giving us a port day there before disembarking. Were we disappointed? Yes. Did we enjoy our port day in NYC? Yes doing things that hadn't been in our plans but were fun to do (despite having grown up in the NYC suburbs, there is a lot I have not done in that city). Did some people get off a day early and go home? Yes. Their loss. Have we cruised on Princess again? Yes.

Chengkp75, thanks for wading in here. From past posts, I know you have better expert knowledge than any of the others claiming expert knowledge, some of which is in conflict.

Nothing but speculation on my part but assuming it does sail today (18 to 24 hours late), my guess is they will skip Sunday's scheduled port call in Sitka (can't get there until Monday at this point) and then do the rest of the cruise as scheduled starting with Glacier Bay on Monday. That assumes that the temporary repair does not restrict the speed although once in Alaska, most of the distances to be covered do not require top speed until they start the return to San Francisco.

49 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

It's 16:45 and there are no signs of the Ruby Princess approaching the Golden Gate yet.  She's in berth with the Carnival Miracle, and it hasn't left yet either.  Having sailed from SF before, ships are usually sailing under the Bridge at this time because the tides are right.

 

Tide times vary from day to day. They are not on an exact 24 hour cycle. So just because 5pm was the right time one day does not mean it's 5pm every day.

Almost every country requires the use of local pilots by large or foreign ships in the harbors and inland waters (there are exemptions for local ships such as ferries that are regularly in the same waters). A cruise out of Vancouver going up through the Seymour Narrows to Whittier will have a Vancouver pilot on board until well near the border and shortly after that, an Alaska Southeast pilot boards and stays with the ship until it's out on the Gulf of Alaska (can be on board for four days given the usual itineraries), then a Whittier pilot for the arrival there.

Nothing official I've seen and I don't know what the availability was before this morning but as of right now, all Ruby Princess cruises through the departure on 8/15 (which we are booked on) are unavailable to book.

3 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I’m booking that sailing just to be sure to get to Vancouver for the next day when we join the Majestic.  I’m booking the cheapest cabin there is and if it goes down, I will upgrade to a balcony.  
 

We were surprised that none of the shops or casinos were open on our last sailing on that last evening when we went from Victoria to Vancouver.  I spent a ridiculous amount of non refundable OBC on spa items.  It was either that or just letting them keep it.  
 

We did the 3-night San Francisco-Vancouver on Royal Princess on 4/30 - the two intermediate days were a sea day and Victoria. The casino was not open the last night (that was posted in advance); I did not pay any attention to the shops. Victoria to Vancouver is 100% on Canadian waters and not for long either as on that cruise, we needed to be under Lion's Gate Bridge before 2:00am due to tides,

13 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

Not really sure what you mean by "2-day (1 day actually)". Is it a one-night cruise or a two-night cruise? If it's a one-night cruise (I've done three), then I doubt it will be open.  You'll sail up to off Port Angeles, drop the U.S. Puget Sound pilot, sail across to off Victoria, pick up the Canadian pilot, and head to Vancouver. You'll never be out of coastal waters and the casino will not open. If it's a two-night with a sea day, you'll probably head out onto the ocean for the day (no sense in paying for an extra 24 house of pilotage) and then the casino will open.

With more research, this might be Royal Princess in which case it is two nights with a sea day. The casino will probably be open on the sea day and perhaps after departing Seattle.

The OP asked about the "Direct to the Wilderness" trains which run directly between Whittier and Talkeetna or Denali without a need to overnight in Anchorage. Anything involving scheduled Alaska RR trains requires an Anchorage overnight (too early a departure northbound and too late an arrival southbound).

Direct to the Wilderness trains are charters. The last I knew (did a cruise tour in 2018), Talkeetna is served by a train of Alaska RR equipment that goes Whittier-Talkeetna-Whittier in one day. Denali is served by two trains of Princess equipment that go one-way Whittier-Denali or reverse (too far to be covered by one train).

Schedules I had from 2018 are:

Talkeenta service: Dp Whittier 7:15a, Ar Talkeetna 12:45p, Dp Talkeetna 1:45p, Ar Whititer 6:45p

Denali service: Dp Whittier 8:15a, Ar Denali 5:45p and Dp Denali 8:00a, Ar Whiiter 5:30p

The Talkeetna equipment was Seward-based as it was also used for Seward-Anchorage-Seward charter service for other cruise lines on the other five days of the week. So on Princess days (Wednesday and Saturday), the equipment deadheads Seward to Whittier first and then Whittier to Seward at the end of the day.

Not really sure what you mean by "2-day (1 day actually)". Is it a one-night cruise or a two-night cruise? If it's a one-night cruise (I've done three), then I doubt it will be open.  You'll sail up to off Port Angeles, drop the U.S. Puget Sound pilot, sail across to off Victoria, pick up the Canadian pilot, and head to Vancouver. You'll never be out of coastal waters and the casino will not open. If it's a two-night with a sea day, you'll probably head out onto the ocean for the day (no sense in paying for an extra 24 house of pilotage) and then the casino will open.

15 minutes ago, kamelia said:

Shouldn't the showstopper be having it BOTH ways? - being able to utilize all of the functions of planning and taking a Princess cruise on my laptop -or- using the app on my phone/tablet to arrive at the same GREEN LANE end point?  Every other travel-related app I use gives me the ability to do the bulk of the preparation on my laptop and still have easy access to all of the same features and functions using their app once I've left home, should I need it.  The MedallionClass app is the only one for which the preparation is piecemeal, requiring both my laptop and a separate device with the app to complete the process.  It should NOT be this arduous to get onto a Princess ship! 😢

That's not what "showstopper" means when it comes to technology. While in theater, a show stopping number is a good thing (the applause is so thunderous that the show cannot continue until it dies down), in technology, a showstopper problem is one that must be fixed before things can continue. IMHO, the Medallion program has showstopper problems but unfortunately, Princess has continued with it despite the problems.

1 hour ago, pppatpc2 said:

Does anybody know if Gary Golding will still be on the Enchanted in October?

Still? I doubt it. Entertainment staff contracts are not normally that long. Will he back then? He might not even know. While there may be a tentative schedule, I get the feeling there are enough changes (people leave Princess as well as other issues) so that even if he is currently scheduled to return, things could change.

19 minutes ago, Thrak said:

More of the idiotic Princess policy of naming different things with similar names.

With that, I wholeheartedly agree. Creates nothing but confusion with many, many passengers. I am absolutely convinced that the people who come up with this stuff have never used them as customers.