lstone19

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.

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Royal Princess ED, spelling correction

And I have the name of the new Royal Princess Entertainment Director: Caitlin Messerchmidt

2 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Interesting as I’ve never heard of a staff leaving without someone replacing that person so that position is always staffed. 
 

Tom😀

See my latest post. There is a new Entertainment Director but not on the board until they have a proper portrait.

New Royal Princess Entertainment Director is Caitlin (sp?) (did not get last name). She joined in San Francisco but is not on the board yet until they get a Platinum Studio portrait of her.

24 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Here’s the current officers on the Royal Princess with one exception. The Entertainment Director, Ruth Sandell, left on Sunday when we arrived in San Francisco & they didn’t announce her replacement.

 

Tom😀

We are currently on Royal Princess and there is no Entertainment Director on the officer board. I’m guessing there is none for a few days - maybe the new one is joining tomorrow in Victoria or Wednesday in Vancouver. Since the ED is more of a planning job, they can probably go without for a few days assuming adequate advance planning.

24 minutes ago, trbarton said:

EDIT: The quoting on this is all messed up but Internet is too slow on board for me to fix it. Comment and new picture is mine.

I'm starting a new topic for this issue that has been discussed in the current Medallion App topic as it seems to be specific to Sun Princess (scheduled to enter service in Feb 2024). As mentioned starting at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2787341-ocean-medallion-app-part-3/?do=findComment&comment=65071566, it appears that a lot (if not all) of us booked on Sun Princess are getting that error message ("Unfortunately, there seems to be an issue with the service. Try again later.") when attempting to enter our OceanReady information. In addition, Dine My Way says "Sorry - Dine My Way is not available right now. We are currently making updates to available reservations. Please try again later." I have contacted Princess but nothing has changed.

Is there anyone booked on Sun Princess who is able to get to OceanReady or Dine My Way? 

Whether you can or can't, please reply with what you're getting and what your departure date and length of cruise (after its inaugural cruises and until September, Sun Princess is on the Med rotation of B2B2B2B seven-night one-way cruises from three different embarkation ports that can be booked for 7, 14, or 21 nights so length may be a factor).

We're booked on it Apr 27, 2024 out of Rome for 21 nights.

14 minutes ago, DHP1 said:

Why am I getting this error message?  I have contacted Princess several times in the last few months, and nothing. Is it because my cruise is not until summer 2024?

 

As I posted upstream, I am getting the same thing. Our cruise is April 2024 on the new Sun Princess. Which ship are you on? And are you on any sort of special fare not available to the general public? I'm on an interline fare (special fares for guests in or retired from the travel industry - airline in my case) so wondering if that's a factor. I have done online chat and sent an email to the Medallion support people (askoceanmedallion@carnival.com) and while both acknowledged the problem, there has been no fix yet. I also get an error when I try to go to DineMyWay.

EDIT: I just saw from your signature you're also on Sun Princess. I wonder it that's the cause.

14 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Do not use the Link a Booking option.  You should be able to login.  But no guarantee the thing is working.

So, I clicked on the link for the web version which brought up "link you booking" screen at https://oceanready-personalinfo-ui.prod.ocean.com. Instead, I logged out and then tried to log in again. But at that point, whether I use my princess.com password or an old ocean.com password (although my notes say that's dead and it should be using my princess.com password, I get "Username or password is incorrect." Same with my wife's login. 

34 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Princess has had a web version of the Princess App for quite some time now and they do mention it on their website in a couple of places.  Login to your booking (Cruise Personalizer).  If you click on the Check In tab, you will see promo to download the App and also a link to the web version.  The web version lets you do most of the pre-cruise setup information, including DMW.

Tried that but when I entered the booking number, it said "This booking has already been claimed."

1 hour ago, Tug10 said:

This is the exact same issue I am having. We booked a cruise about a month ago and paid the deposit and every time we try to access the Ocean Ready section we get the same error message. 
We can access the Medallion app okay and have booked our dining reservations with no problem but just cannot get any further.

We have tried on several different phones, iPads and even tried the web version but it just won’t work.

We phoned Princess and they too couldn’t gain access and so we have had to email all the info & error messages to their IT department.

Fingers crossed they can sort it out as it appears something somewhere is not working or being recognised as it should be.

I can't make dining reservations either. Tapping on Dine My Way gets me "Sorry - Dine My Way is not available right now. We are currently making updates t available reservations. Please try again later." And it's been saying this for three days.

Just booked a cruise for April 2024 last week and deposit is paid. The Medallion App initially shows the cruise but then when I tap "Ocean Ready" to start entering information, I get an error "Unfortunately, there seems to be an issue with the service. Try again later." It's now two days "later" with no change.

I don't know if it's relevant but we have a guarantee booking. And we were first going to go two weeks later (overlaps the current booking which is for 21 nights) and that still shows on courtesy hold per the website Personalizer but does not show on the Medallion App.

8 minutes ago, that said:

The captain sets the tone

for all the crew

in our experience

Concur. When the captain and other senior officers are keeping an eye on things, service is good; when they're not, the crew knows it and service suffers. One of the best cruises had a Hotel GM who was constantly visible, sometimes just sitting in a lounge having a drink while keeping an eye on things and a Maitre D' who was in the dining rooms almost every meal (and one day saw him and the executive chef checking things out in the buffet). OTOH, a cruise where the captain was invisible (no-showed the CC receptions and my Ship's Ultimate Tour) and where the Maitre D' seemed to be only visible for his ceremonial jobs (champagne waterfall, cooking demonstration) had poor service.

59 minutes ago, jwattle said:

@dands154 are you sure that Captain Michele Tuvo is no longer with Princess, or is he just on a break?

Seems like there are a lot of cruise neophytes (and even some non-neophytes) who think captains and other officers are permanently assigned to a ship and don't get any time off. And they don't get that while on the ship, they are working 7 days a week and on call 24 hours a day (particularly the captain) and therefore when they get a break, it's for multiple weeks, not just a weekend or equivalent. Others have more knowledge of contract lengths but I believe for many of the senior officers, they are only assigned to a ship abut 50% of the time (e.g. three months on, three months off).