cruisingrob21

Both ships are very similar and better suited to alaska cruising than most other Princess ships (owing to a covered pool and at least 1 high level, climate controlled, indoor observation area). The grand was, at one time, the largest ship in the world, and has several "younger sisters" that all made improvements. The sapphire is one of those younger sister ships. Both ships are popular among Princess cruises, with the Sapphire likely being more preferred. Why to choose the grand: -OneFive nightclub (I think that's what its called) has a unique indoor and outdoor area with heaters (although its been several years since I've sailed on the grand) -Vista Lounge (aft lounge) on the grand is a better layout -The grand has a dedicated, and nicely decorated Crown Grill (steakhouse) whereas the Sapphire turns part of the buffet area into a steakhouse (Sterling Steakhouse), if that matters to you. -The grand has a library of sorts which is in a space where gourmet tea was once sold (maybe still is?). It's not big but is better than what the sapphire has which is effectively nothing if I recall. -The grand has window suites if that interests you Why to choose the sapphire: -Although they are very similar design, the Sapphire has a wider exterior promenade deck, so much so that loungers are placed out there (similar to HAL ships) rather than benches on the Grand. -Sapphire has 5 dining rooms vs 3. They all have basically the same menu but are differently themed, but if you like to vary your surroundings and have a meal in a smaller setting, its a nice touch. -Sapphire has the Skywalkers lounge which is great when the weather is poor since its a climate controlled, high level observation lounge/night club. -The layout of inside, oceanview, and balcony rooms on the sapphire is subjectively superior since it they include a small "walk in closet" area to access the bathroom. -Sapphire has a larger Wheelhouse Bar which can be a nice, quiet location during the day. Its large also. -Sapphire has an extra pool I think and a better "aft pool terrace" -Sapphire is 6 years younger, but we are talking about the ship being 20 years old, vs the grand being 26 by the time next summer rolls around.

Do you have particular ships you "keep tabs on"? I've pulled down the last version of the schedule from Princess only I could find, but I need to check on some of the changes. Trying to add some new filtering capabilities to it as well.

Ok give me a day or two and I'll start it up and then share in this thread.

It's a good idea - quite honestly, a few of us doing that should create a useful spreadsheet that covers the whole fleet and minimize the effort. Anyone interested? I can set up and host a spreadsheet online similar to the one on PrincessOnly.

Princess and now Celebrity are continuing to try to cultivate the 7 day coastal voyages that are RT west coast ports. It's a good hedge against potential future issues with Mexican ports but certainly has its own issues. I think they will need to focus more in the north where there are some decent, untapped Canadian ports and excellent scenic cruising available.

As a former resident of the Central Coast, I think it would be highly unlikely that Avila beach (aka Port San Luis) would ever welcome a large ship. Pismo beach might be a place that would welcome the ships as an alternate however. I doubt anything around San Simeon (Hearst Castle) would welcome a ship, but who knows. The problem is everything else is an hour away and there isn't much to see for 2-3k passengers without going on a tour. But I could be wrong. Coastal voyages still rank around the "exotic" itineraries as far as popularity and their port charges can be pretty high making voyages there pretty expensive.

Monterey City council has been pretty hostile toward cruises since the pandemic, I think they passed a resolution restricting ships but not sure if it carries any teeth. Santa Barbara has been similar. Unfortunately there aren't many small city, west coast ports. Seems like Astoria is one of the last ones as well as Avalon, but even Avalon is pushing back lately. A fall cruise on the Kdam was switch from Avalon to Astoria a few months back. Personally, I think Astoria is a great port but HAL and Princess, who are the big players on the Pacific coastal voyages, will need to find some new ports soon. Ports that will both accommodate ships and welcome them. Years ago, HAL had port calls in Port Angeles, WA and Eureka, CA but beyond that, there are only a handful of mostly Oregon ports on the West Coast that have the infrastructure to even handle tender operations.

I'm right there with you. Now that Princessonly appears to be defunct, I was going to try to expand upon my coastal cruise tracker sheet (which looks a lot like the one that was posted on Princess only). I had a script for a while that did some of that work, but it gets tricky with some of the voyages that are doubled up, ie 7 day, one-way voyages in alaska doubled with 14 day roundtrip voyages. I need a better coding algorithm to check for duplicates and haven't had time to make one.

These sites mentioned do post the info, but its rarely updated - and Princess does make a fair number of adjustments to schedules from time to time.

I think on the newer Royal class ships, you need to have universal remote to switch inputs.

It's a good idea. Make sure you check the WSDOT travel apps to see if one crossing is shorter than another, there are 3 that are convenient for your route. https://wsdot.com/travel/real-time/border-crossings

We've thought about it (we usually do RT Seattle voyages, actually leaving on Sunday for one), but my concern is the border crossing can sometimes be very bad. So we'd have to leave at like 5am to get to the border around 1130 or so. We've also thought about driving up the night before and getting a hotel, or taking Amtrak Cascades from Portland and spending the night in vancouver. The train leaves around 3pm and arrives around 11pm.

Vancouver's rapid transit system. It's efficient, reasonably clean, and safe. I use it every time I take a cruise from Vancouver. As a fellow Oregonian, I'm wondering if you are driving to canada the day before your departure and spending a night at a hotel?

If you haven't sailed on Princess in a while and want to just get "princess standard", all things being equal it will look and feel much the same as it did when you last sailed, especially on a grand class ship (Sapphire being one). Alfredos was only added to certain ships within the last 5 or 6 years so beyond that, most everything will be the same. Dining rooms (5 on the sapphire) are still included, intl cafe is included, Lido deck pizza and burger grill are still included. Crown Grill, Sterling Steakhouse, and Alfredos Pizza will be extra.

Thats probably a question for a Princess representative. I would call two or three times to get the correct answer (some newer reps won't know). While they probably will depart later than usual, I wouldn't assume that they will allow boarding too much past the normal 4pm time. Not sure how long the port will stay open for boarding operations.

None of the the excel files will list port times. You'll have to wait until the itineraries are officially released. For victoria, any RT Seattle Alaskan cruise will give you about 4-5 hours in the evening of the last night. A coastal cruise might give you 10 hours or more.

ah, well perhaps its more cost effective to do a 14 day RT from vancouver? even with the more expensive flight to YVR

Intrigued because its the solstice or the 22 day sailing?

We really enjoyed the extra evening call in Icy Straight Point. While there isn't enough there for a full day to do (yet), my wife did the zip line and the kids and I walked around the little boardwalk. Seems like there are some nice hikes or just "beach sitting" that one could do there. The ship seems to stay in GB longer than previous Princess voyages we took. As a tip, try to have a late breakfast in the dining room when approaching glacier bay. We got a window seat and it was a very memorable breakfast/brunch.

I'd take the Eurodam for a GB cruise, more deck room, fewer people, and lately been better pricing. Older ship or not, it still has a lot of nice features for Alaska cruising and HAL has upped their evening entertainment. We sailed in 2022 on the Eurodam and booked again in 2024 because the Royal Class ships from Seattle made too many compromises to enjoy the princess experience. We may switch to the Koningsdam RT from Vancouver. If Princess ever decided to make a sub 3k passenger ship again, I would hope it would be modeled after the K-dam and other Pinnacle class ships which really have a nice balance of venues, climate controlled indoor areas, and nice variety of cabins. I'd also point out that the Have it All promo, with gratuities is more aligned with what my family prefers.

Last presentation was a big splash about new embarkation process. What I heard was "if you want to board fast, get plus/premiere or pay for shipping. Those boarding times, which were never enforced, are gone now" Not much difference so I'm not expecting much with the new plus/premiere features.

Yeah I noticed that as well. I sailed on the Crown and Discovery for Alaskan samplers last year (and sailing on the discovery in 2 weeks). The presence of Adagio and Skywalkers on the Crown was very much appreciated. As was the separate pool areas with and without MUTS. It allowed the pool area to be quieter when just sailing in scenic areas. As much as the walking track on top of Skywalkers on the Crown is kind of a joke, it truly is about the best place to walk/jog (what I do) and not miss any scenery since there is very little ship structure obscuring views at any given moment. I also really enjoy the aft terraces of the Grand class ships. I also appreciate the ability to book a cabin aft on Riviera deck and have very easy access to the terrace pool area. I think in terms of Royal class, for me its a tossup between the Majestic and Discovery. I appreciate the aft pool ambiance of the Discovery, but the conservatory area on the Majestic is nice, even if it smells too much like chlorine at times. I sailed on the Royal earlier this year and I'll avoid that ship if possible - too many compromises were made in that original design.

I think its pretty unanimous that the order of preference for ships (not considering itinerary) is as follows: Vancouver Sailings: Coral - covered pool, fewest passengers for a Princess ship, lacks a climate-controlled upper deck observation lounge other than Horizon Court. Sapphire - covered pool, wide promenades, fewer passengers for a Princess ship, has Skywalkers as a good upper level, climate controlled observation deck Grand - covered pool, fewer passengers for a Princess ship, but lacks skywalkers, and is one of the oldest ships (if not the oldest) sailing from Vancouver (not a detriment necessarily, but certainly has some longstanding issues) Caribbean - does have some unique features like the elevated Skywalkers, but lacks covered pools, has 400 more passengers than Grand and Sapphire. *Fortunately, all Vancouver based ships should sail the Seymour Narrows route* Seattle Sailings Discovery - although larger than the Royal, is the newest ship in the fleet and the most updated decor and corrected many of the "wrongs" of the older sisters in the class, has more hottubs and 2 extra pools, but none covered. Royal - Personally, my least favorite ship in the fleet, previous generation ship decor, useless fountain show, gimmicky skywalk. *Both Seattle based ships only have the buffet as the only climate controlled, upper deck observation area* Honestly, if sailing from Seattle, there are better ships that go to GB (Eurodam, NCL Bliss). I would also consider the Ruby out of SF over the Discovery and Royal, but that's my preference.

Find a travel agent - or just tell them that you've found a travel agent you would prefer to work with.

We sail HAL and Princess pretty much every year to/from Seattle for Alaska. Last year we went on HAL and I was a bit shocked - they had 2 nights of comedians, game shows (that were a bit rowdy even) and more evening activities than I remember HAL having in the past. It's not where Princess is today, but its getting close to where Princess was maybe 10 years ago in terms of activities, game shows, entertainers.