OccasionalSanta

Probably the best was when we flew to Auckland, NZ for a trans-Pacific cruise back to L.A. Our flight over included an 8-hour layover in Sydney which allowed us time to visit the harbor and the Opera House. Then we had 2 days in Auckland to see some sights. The cruise was filled with sea days (19 days, 4 ports - Tahiti, Moorea, Hilo and Oahu) which we love, including the "Crossing the Equator" ceremony. Recently, we took a Ft. Lauderdale to L.A. cruise through the Panama Canal, which is probably 2nd place at this point. In both cases, one of the perks is flying out to the embarkation port, but being an hour from home when we arrive in San Pedro.

There is a current thread for the Crown RT LA-Hawaii. They posted the patter for day 1. I suspect they will post more as the trip progresses. You might want to skip to page 5 or 6 as the first set of pages were pre-embark.

I was also on the Emerald recently. I was not impressed with the replacement ice cream. (I don't think it was gelato.)

End of season HAL voyages often do something like this but you'd have to be careful about PSVA violations. You need to find a 7 day RT Vancouver voyage that then continues to a 3 or 4 day repositioning voyage to San Diego. Usually they only make 1 stop on the west coast however. I was referring to the currently scheduled 7-day RT from San Francisco, which hit both Vancouver and Victoria, thinking that if would be nice if it hit just one Canadian port, but extended a few days to hit another California port

I've gotten to the point where, if I have to fly to and from a departure port, 7 days doesn't seem long enough. I guess one option could be to do the 7-day NW coast on the Ruby leaving on April 30, then stay on for the 10-day Alaska trip, but that would hit Vancouver and Victoria (twice) I would still be more intrigued by a 10- or 11-day coastal that hit a few California ports as well as Astoria and/or Seattle. Perhaps if the 7-day one noted above skipped one of the Canadian ports but also hit Santa Barbara or Monterey 7-day NW coast https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=R312 10-day Alaska https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=R313

... or perhaps out of San Diego

I think you might be able to do this, but I would go to the Future Cruise office on board during your April cruise and ask them.

Princess did a number of L.A. roundtrips to Alaska pre-covid. My brother did this twice, I believe. Having dealt with the multiple customs hassles of Vancouver RT to Alaska (technically a B2B Vancouver to Whittier and back) it would be nice to save the pre and post cruise travel by going out of L.A. Also, a West Coast cruise out of L.A. with Vancouver or Victoria as the foreign port (Ensenada gets old) and Washington/Oregon ports would be nice.

If she created a login on the Princess site, then she has a captain's circle number. When you log on, go to My Account .... Profile Information and it will be near the top of the page

There are no perks to booking on board other than being able to talk face-to-face with a knowledgeable person. Future cruise credits are worth doing if you plan to cruise again. For $100/person, you get the total $100 credit towards the next cruise plus additional on-board credit (OBC) up to $150 depending on the length of the cruise. The $100 Future Cruise Deposit (FCD, different from FCC) also counts as a complete deposit even when booking the cruise yourself asks for a larger deposit. What you may also be able to do is book the cruise with cash/credit then apply the FCC retroactively after your cruise. (Not entirely sure about this, but might be worth investigating)

So far, the wifi has been better than what's usually reported in here. Some sites seem to take a while to load, but once up, the response is decent. I also got a video call from my daughter/grandkids that worked well

There was karaoke the first night, but we missed it. Haven't seen it listed since then. The comedian (Troy Thirdgill) was good on night 2. Last night, dinner ran a little long and we missed the night trivia, so we caught most of the singer (Donny Rae Evins) show. He did all Nat King Cole tunes... was also a good show

Be nice.... I know where you live.😄

I reported it.... they removed the charges.... All is still good

It's Josie again this time

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I've heard that there are a bit under 2,000 guests on the cruise, so about 2/3 capacity. The staff seems to be breathing a little sigh since the last cruise or two were apparently busier with the holidays and kids out of school. We ate at Sabatini's last night.... took us a while to find it as it is kinda hidden in the back on deck 16. The place was practically empty, only about 4 or 5 tables in use the entire time we were there. So, we received a lot of attention and good service. Our server also overheard Mrs. OS mentioning it was my birthday, so she brought me an extra dessert and the staff sang for me. (Not the worst version of "Happy Birthday" I've heard on a Princess ship.) Today, we discovered that they are having Princess Pop choir again.... We've missed that the last couple years. I have already noticed some bogus bar charges on my account. (I drink very little and haven't ordered any alcohol yet.) But I'm sure they'll fix that when I get a chance to report it. Mostly, all is good.

I would agree... other option might be the 4th night if you leave Kangaroo Island early enough... I also noted on my last two short cruises that they designated one night as "dress to impress." This is NOT formal night, so don't get confused

Get there about 10 minutes early.... Once they have the equipment set up, they'll start doing signups

And many of those people are going to be in front of you in line and slow you down as well

The Discovery does not have an area called the library. This was disappointing as we would normally drop by daily to pick up the puzzle(s) of the day. Also, the Wake show used to always have some form of trivia question which allowed those with correct answers to win a little (definitely not life-changing) prize. Without that, the show has become kind of blah.... How many times can you listen to the shopping concierge or hear about the available spa treatments?

On the Discovery, the photo area resides in a smaller area near the plaza... They do not print out pictures ahead of time, you have to view them on a computer. I had walked past it several times without noticing it, so I wonder if their sales are down due to lack of foot traffic. You can (theoretically) view the pictures on your mobile device, but the first time in you have to accept their terms. When I tried, this is what I got.... Granted most people never thoroughly read these things, but if you don't even give me an opportunity to do so, I'm gonna pass

I ordered the medallions for our March 2023 cruise a few days ago to avoid the shipping fee.... Going forward I'll just pick it up at the dock. I suspect that check-in times will be a bit longer going forward as more people will opt to avoid the $10 charge.

After the Alaska season, the Crown went into dry dock. I have not heard any complaints regarding engines or anything since the dry dock. I am hopeful that all is good as I am booked on a Hawaii cruise out of L.A. on the Crown

The did stop karaoke (and other activities) during covid, but they have been bringing it back over the last 6 months or so. For a while, the singers had to wear masks, even after other masking requirements were being relaxed. On our last cruises in November there were multiple karaoke nights including one out by the pool where the singer is displayed on the MUTS screen as they are singing. None required the singer to wear a mask. As to the list of songs, I'm guessing that Princess must have gotten dinged for having songs that they weren't supposed to have due to copyright issues. The selection is, I suspect smaller than the old days when they did have the song books. The most notable for me is that they seem to have few, if any, Eagles songs; some of which are my normal "go to" songs. As a somewhat humorous side note: It is not uncommon for Karaoke songs to have occasional lyric mix ups. Another of my "go to" songs is Jimmy Buffet's Margueritaville. In the last verse after "I blew out my flip flip, stepped on a pop top" the actual lyrics are "Cut my heel had to cruise on back home" but I've been on several ships where the lyrics come out as "Broke both legs had to limp on back home" which seems a bit overdramatic and highly unlikely had that actually happened.