Crookshanks

We are sea kayaking in Ketchikan and the Bike and Tram in Juneau. We wanted to do the train ride up to the summit in Skagway, but it sold out before all of us could decide on one, so we're still going to summit, but a different excursion now. I really wanted to go on the suspension bridge, so we found one that included that. I'm not bringing kiddos on this cruise, so I don't mind doing the more 'boring' excursions as I really enjoy nature and history. I have 2 boys, 9 and 13, so I understand not wanting to push it with your daughter. And so sorry to hear about your wife, I hope you are both healing.

I don’t mind homework for the most part. 😆 7 day Inside Passage round trip from Seattle. I was going to attempt another Live on this cruise, though I wasn’t too great at it last time. I get all wrapped up in food and trivia. 🤷‍♀️

May19th. 5 weeks from tomorrow! 😃

The 5% that do get the desserts sure must get a lot of them, when I was on the Regal in January, the line for the Gelato was crazy more often than not and I saw many people enjoying those huge desserts. I asked at the International Cafe about how many of the massive cakes they went through per day and he said 6-7 chocolate, 4-5 red velvet and 3-4 Black Forrest cakes, at least that he knew of. I expect there are quite a few people who have been judged by their 'gluttony' on this site(and FB) and just don't freely admit to enjoying the desserts. I personally really enjoy them, though we generally shared 1 slice of cake. But the chocolate cake goes amazingly well with the espresso martini as a night cap! When on vacation, I go all in, but I don't utilize the fitness classes! 😂

Lots of info on here already! But I did want to add a little something! Sometimes, the facial recognition software doesn't work properly. Look around at the displays in the photography department and if you see one there that isn't in your App, take it to one of the staff members at the desk and they will make sure it is added to your account. Take all the photos, they are out and about all of the time and some of my favorite photos were actually the candid ones they take on sail away! I've never had the photos put on a flash drive as I've always downloaded them onto my phone, but I like knowing that I could have a 'backup' that way. We get the Premier Package primarily for the photos. Such a fun time and there are some photo staff members that seem to have a great time with silly poses and goofy faces.

It seems that maybe the 'culture' of the Alaska Cruise is a bit different than other cruises. I've always enjoyed the few presentations I've seen onboard, but there don't seem to be quite as many on Caribbean cruises? Though one cruise did have a great pair of speakers that did several talks on the ports and such. This will be my first time going to Alaska, so I am quite excited to see and learn all the things. Though I'm not a huge fan of being cold, hence my love of Caribbean and Mexico vacations.

Good afternoon! I attempted to search for the answer, but I must not have had the correct keywords. We are booked on the December 28th, 2024 New Years Cruise out of Fort Lauderdale on the Sun Princess. I'm just curious if we will have 'special' color medallions or if the 'inaugural season' part is only the cruises in the Med. What is an Inaugural Year? Is it a calendar year from first sail date? Is it any itinerary that departs during 2024? Is it only the first handful of cruises? This is by no means important. Just inquiring minds. I'm excited to get on the ship! Especially after watching the Adam Savage videos on the engineering and designing of the ship. Husband and I really enjoy seeing the behind the scenes stuff and 'watching' it being built was really interesting! And I expect that by December, they will have worked out all of the kinks! Thanks and have a wonderful day!

The only time I've seen the crew unhappy about the ducks is when they found a few stuck in the bulkhead gaps in the cabin hallways. They said it's a safety hazard because it could prevent the doors from closing. Other places they request you not put them is on stairways so people don't trip on them, but that's somewhat obvious.

I think the only way I found this to be true was for martinis. I could get a standard Lemon Drop martini as 1 drink, even though it's automatically poured as a double, but if I wanted Grey Goose instead, they charged me for 2 drinks on my premier package. This is how I actually made it to 15 drinks for the first time.. but no regrets were had. 🙂

Oh yeah! Absolutely different! 🤣 That's where it's a good thing it's unlimited!

I think it was 6am to 2pm? I think I had a couple during a lunch buffet, but not 100 percent sure on that one. It's possible that the hours changed on Sea Days as well.

The Juice Bar was one of my favorite parts of our cruise last Month on the Regal. It was located in the middle of the buffet with the specialty coffees and pastries. Got pretty addicted to them, The Nutter and the Tropical Twist were my favorites.

I've bid twice now, one was won and the other was not. First attempt was a Spring Break Cruise last March and the ship was nearly sold out. Last attempt was already a deal, got a limited time offer from the casino for a free interior, $200 casino Play and Princess Plus included if I could sail within the next 2 months on select cruises. Pretty sure they were trying to fill the cruise. Booked on November 13th, bid on November 16th ($20pp min bid for Obstructed Balcony, $70pp min bid for balcony, $75pp 'fair' bid for Obstructed Deluxe Balcony and $90pp min bid for Deluxe Balcony), bid for Deluxe Balcony was accepted December 13th for our January 14th sailing. I truly don't care about location of cabin, we ended up in D150, so quite a bit forward, but I had no issue whatsoever, I really just wanted more space since there were 3 adults cruising in the one cabin. I'll see how things go on next cruise, we hit 85 days out tomorrow, so I'll see how things go with that one. We are already in a Deluxe Balcony, so I expect there won't be a lot of options for Upgrade, especially since it's an Alaskan Cruise that does not have a huge amount of availability right now.

It was great for me! I booked the free interior casino comp cabin. You can bid for the next 4 categories above what you are booked in. So I was able to bid on an Obstructed Balcony, Balcony, Obstructed Deluxe Balcony and Deluxe Balcony. I did the minimum bid for all but the Obstructed Deluxe Balcony as we weren't worried about where we were on the ship but really wanted more room since there were 3 adults in the cabin. I bid $20 per person for Obstructed Balcony, $75 per person for Obstructed Deluxe Balcony, $70 per person for Balcony and $90 per person for the Deluxe Balcony. About a month later, they accepted my bid for the Deluxe Balcony, so we paid $180 to upgrade our cabin. It was pretty awesome!

I just went back to my emails in November. I booked on the 13th and got the email to upgrade on the 15th. I bid for upgrade on the 16th. My bid was accepted on December 13th.

I did have to wait for final payment to be confirmed. So that makes sense. Did you book with a casino offer?

I booked a January cruise in November and was able to bid for (and win) an upgrade. I booked on November 13 and sailed on January 14th. I do think I got the email 2-3 days after I booked, though I used the website before the email came to place the bids.

I enjoy dressing up, as my job is jeans/tshirt on the daily. So I'm happy to take smart clothes along for the ride. I enjoy seeing people dressed up, too! It's just pretty. I also enjoy all the photos! And there are just some fabulous poses you can do best in spiffy clothes. I'll see if I can find a good one from our cruise a couple of weeks ago. Myself, my mother and my brothers will all be on an Alaska cruise in May and we are all planning on bringing Formal wear. Brothers may not be in Tuxes, but definitely suits. I understand that some people just don't want to take the time, effort or suitcase room to do the formal thing. My husband pretty much hates putting on a suit, in fact in 18 years, the only time that's happened was when we got married and when we went on our first cruise. I don't get offended by those that don't dress up, nor do I feel outdone by those that do more than I do. I also am from a generation that doesn't see a hat indoors as something that should make me angry. Of all the things to argue about, the only thing that can truly cause difficulty for me on a cruise is the chair hogging thing. But that's because when I took my children on a cruise and couldn't sit anywhere near the pool because there were clips and towels everywhere, a group of pissy grouchy older ladies got upset that my children were 'swimming without supervision'. I had to go to them and say, oh I'm so sorry, I guess I should have removed your towels and clips when I arrived 2 hours ago with them and you only arrived 15 minutes ago. They didn't have anything else to say. Sorry, off topic. 🤣

If you look on your Cruise Personalizer, Click on Payments, Scroll down, it'll list your OBC and whether or not it is refundable. There is as asterisk that shows what is nonrefundable. However, if you book a Casino Comp Cruise, the deposit turns into Refundable OBC once the cruise begins and then it will be listed as Refundable on your Folio onboard.

January 2023 on a 7 day cruise we earned 3 $25 OBC prizes and multiple entries in end of cruise drawing. Last 2 7 day cruises have given absolutely nothing, not even drawing entries.

Well in between my aunt and I, we'll give them what they want! 😄 Maybe not me as much as her. She's a much higher roller than I am. The noodle bar looks great! I'm excited to give it a go, though I do really enjoy pizza. The pictures of the indoor pool look very nice. I didn't get into a pool at all last week, but no one else in the party was all that interested and I'm happy being entertained by all the shows and such.

Yes, it's Alaska. It's for my brother's birthday and he likes cold and wet, hence why he lives in Seattle! 😄 It's on the Majestic, so that'll be a new ship for me. I've only been on 3 ships so far, the Grand, Regal and Ruby. Kind of excited to try the japanese restaurant on that ship. I'm not a fan of the cold, but I am very much looking forward to seeing Alaska. It's one of the states I've yet to see. I'm not sure if we will taxi/uber from my brother's house or if he's got someone lined up to drop us off. I think it'll depend on how big our party is when it's all said and done. Other question about Alaska Cruise. Since it all seems so close to shore is the casino open much? I feel like they'd have to close it often when you got out of International waters. I could see that! I was raised by parents who found value in all kinds of music. Some of my strongest memories are of going with my Dad to the VA Hospitals/homes when he was playing Big Band music. Us kids got to talk to all the residents, and I grew to love the standards. We were given instruments early, though I haven't kept up with them as much as the singing. We listened to a lot of classical music and a whole lot of hymns and praise music. I wish I could have heard his performance, but he was really nervous. He sings in groups in college, so I think the solo thing was rather new to him. I think song choice is important with the competitions, too. I prefer ballads, but all shows need some up tempo numbers to break up the monotony. We each had to pick 2 songs and the coaches helped picked which ones to sing in the Final. My other choice was I Will Survive, but they liked Natural Woman better. I actually kind of expected Roger to take the trophy. He was great! He used to sing with Elvis back in the day! 72 and still going strong, crazy impressive. He and the Gold Jacket guy who sang Always on my Mind in auditions play together in Branson, so he has a lot of practice. I enjoy watching if it's a good game, but I'm not invested in sports. Don't tell any of these southern folks I work with though. I'm pretty sure college football is a religion down here! 😆 We had a similar experience in Sabatinis. Thought the server was dry and grumpy, but he warmed up. He just had a dry sense of humor. My brother pointed out that he was from Ukraine and they generally look more serious than they actually are. I want to sail the Mediterranean so much!! I'm thinking we may make that the goal next summer, but that's a long way off. I got a CBS offer last week for a Balcony and now I have to see if I can make it work with my PTO and kiddo schedule. While I enjoy drinking, I try not to be crazy about it and belligerent drunk people can be a bit overwhelming for me, though that's more because they usually end up being mean to staff or other passengers and that makes me uncomfortable. I was a bartender for years and saw my share of sloppy drunks. I've seen some crazy videos of Carnival cruises and the havoc the party people cause. I'm Gold in MGM, there's no casino close to us here anymore as they sold their Tunica location to another company. I can only get down once a month or so anyways, so I don't gain the points super consistently. I like Princess because it seems to be a good mix of 'older' cruisers and younger ones. Not just a party ship, but not boring, either. I love trivia and silly game shows, musicals and educational presentations. I'll have to give HAL a try at some point, though. I'd like to try most all of them eventually, though I doubt I'll do Disney. I like the music of Disney, but none of our family ever got into the characters and such, so I think the extra cost wouldn't really be worth it to our family.

Thank you!! I enjoyed singing so it’s a win win! 😃 I’m going to stick with singing at church and karaoke. I don’t think I could handle any kind of fame. Ship famous works for me, if only because it’s an ice breaker to meet new people. Thank you for the compliment! It does make me feel good. ❤️

Great insights! We chose this port because my oldest brother is in Houston, so it's easy to get to and from the airport and we get to visit with him. Made disembarking easy as well as we just walked out and he found us. We had a cruise booked in May out of Seattle. This will be my Mom, both brothers and 2 aunts. That should be fun, too. I did notice that there were plenty of grumpy people yesterday. I probably would have been more angry if I had to be somewhere early. I try and follow suggestions, such as don't fly out before 2 in the afternoon. But seriously, I was standing outside the theater watching the parade go by and not only were people getting hot about passengers going to the Theater, but also those trying to get to the bathrooms. That kind of behavior is so sad to me. I think it's because my Dad always told us that the only thing you can control in life is your attitude. But once that line started moving, it was easy! You could have yelled at me at any time! I love cruising because I get to meet all the people from all the lands! That show was fabulous!! All of the finalists were just wonderful! The kid, Scott, who I lovingly referred to as Baby Frank, blew me away! He was so kind and so much talent! I wish I had been able to listen to the performances a bit better, the green room doesn't have sound, so we didn't get to hear each other much. Really enjoyed Phillip's rehearsal of You Raise Me Up, so I can only imagine how that sounded in the Theater! Thank you for all your kind words there, it was so much fun but I was so nervous I was gonna fall over if another big wave hit us! 😄 The Judges told us after the show that they were afraid no one would come to the Finals because the Texans were in the playoffs at the same time, but it was still a pretty great crowd, or at least it seemed that way from all the noise. I couldn't see anything past the front row! I also didn't see a whole lot of kiddos. My last cruise I brought my sons, who were 8 and 12 at the time, and there were a ton of kids. But that was Spring Break last year, so that made sense. Staff was just amazing to me. I'm not sure I had a bad experience at all. Never had anyone hamming it up for tips or anything. Buffet servers were on point, omelet station was great, too. Dinner servers picked up on our frivolity and sarcasm, my brother and I are pros, and gave it right back. Sure made it fun every night! My cruise was also from the casino, I've only ever sailed with Princess as they continue giving me free cruises. I also still need to have the PTO and such to go. Was a great cruise, though! My brother had never been on a 'voluntary' cruise, he was in the Navy for 10 years so that cruising was a lot different than this! 🤣 My bestie had fun even though she didn't have all the clothes she'd planned on, but again, it's about attitude. She focused on the fact that she made it on the ship and we had time to go get some clothes and such before we boarded. Thank you so much! The audience was pretty awesome! At auditions, during karaoke and the show. Makes it so much more fun!!