westcoaster

I've done several 28-30 day cruises in inside cabins.  I really like them: they are quite, stay cool, and stay dark for sleeping.  I always sleep really well in inside cabins.  

If you want to see the scenery, I would much rather use the open public decks where I can move around for different views.

Everyone is going to have their own experiences with the weather, but if you look at averages, then May is much drier in Alaska than September.  Compared with May, average September rainfall is 65% higher in Ketchikan, more than 2.5 times higher in Juneau, and nearly 5 times higher in Anchorage.  As others have noted, May also has much longer hours of daylight.

And the Coral Princess is a much better ship for Alaska than Caribbean Princess.

Cabin type and location is not important to us, so we always book an IF guarantee (30+ cruises).  We used to occasionally get an upgrade to an outside or balcony cabin, but since Princess started charging for upgrades, we've nearly always got the same or very similar category to what we booked.  Prior to Covid, we would often get a category IE or ID cabin in the aft.  For the last few cruises since Covid, we have been given a category IF cabin near the front of the ship.

I've taken the 2 x 7 = 14 day RT from Vancouver a couple of times.  The entertainment has mostly been the same, but both times there were some differences. 

Most recently, on the Grand in 2022, there were 2 production shows during the first 7 days, but 3 production shows on the return cruise Whittier to Vancouver (2 of which were the same as going up).

On the Crown Princess in 2014, there were 3 production shows on each leg, but one of the shows on the second leg was different, so we saw 4 different shows over the 14 days.  

44 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Actually, I think that you have much more wasted food with self serve.  We’ve all see those folks who pile their plates high with everything imaginable, take a few bites of each item then leave.  The wastage is horrendous.  If someone else is handing you food, you will tend to downsize and choose only what you really want.  Also, you’ll not be taking the other guy’s germs from the serving spoon back to your table.

I have found the opposite.  When using Princess' self-serve buffets, I like to take small amounts of a wide variety of things.  When using the HAL crew-served buffets, I always end up with portions that are way too big, despite asking for very small amounts.  I also find the crew-served buffets take a lot more time to get your food.

19 hours ago, reedprincess said:

You mean, the promenade deck where you have to cross through the ship to complete a circuit, cuz they cut it off with added cabins? That promenade?  Yeah, lovely. Lol..  and somehow, people complain about Royal class ships without a wraparound promenade, yet love Island's, which isn't wraparound and hasn't been for 9 years. 

I would still take the promenade deck on the Island any day over the Royal Class ships, which only have a few disjointed sections of promenade deck.  The promenade deck on the Island Princess goes almost completely around, except for the aft section.  And even there, you can complete an outdoor circuit by walking up a short flight of stairs to the aft outdoor section of the Emerald deck - it's really no different from having to go up the stairs to the forward Emerald deck section on the Grand Class ships.  Island also has a wider promenade deck with full loungers compared with the Grand Class ships.

In addition to having fewer passengers and the covered pool, the Sapphire also has a wider Promenade deck than the Caribbean, which allows for full loungers.

I always book inside cabins.  I'm a light sleeper, so I find that I sleep much better in the darker and quieter inside cabins.  It's also easier to control the temperature of inside cabins.  

I've been upgraded to a balcony a few times, and it has only reconfirmed for me that I'm not a balcony person.  I found the layout of the balcony cabins to be less efficient compared with inside cabins since you lose the back wall. 

I also found that I rarely used the balcony.  When I'm outside on a cruise, I like to roam around on the open deck and view things from different angles.  I don't like being confined to one spot on a balcony.

35 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

I think we are on the same cruise as you. I also noticed this, but not too worried. We’ll all be in the same boat (ship 😉). It so happens that that date is our anniversary so we’ll probably go to a specialty restaurant one of the days.

I also have the issue that my reservations are attached to a long cancelled duplicate booking and won’t appear in the new app and no one seems to be able to fix it, but have reassured me that the reservations are valid. I’ve just screenshot them all in the old app in case there’s an issue.

If your reservations are the same time daily as ours are, there shouldn’t be a problem.

I'm not too worried either.  Just curious about how this is handled.  My dining times are different on different days, but I'm less concerned about sea days.

Nice timing that you get to have 2 anniversaries!

I'm going on a 22-night trans-Pacific cruise that crosses the International Dateline heading east.  As a result, we have two days with the same date.  However, when I try to book dining on the app, it only shows one day for that date, and only shows 21 nights to book dining overall, even though the cruise is 22 nights.

I'm just wondering if others have experienced this issue and how was it resolved?

On 1/21/2024 at 3:15 PM, charliedalrymple said:

 

Umm--huh??  🙂.  I've never heard the term "pop" to refer to soft drinks.

It's pretty common in parts of the northern U.S. and in Canada

Pop vs. soda

I was on a cruise from Auckland to New Zealand earlier this year, and instead of the usual $250 US for the Shareholder obc, it was only $250 AUD.  Same thing for the Future Cruise Deposit obc.

I've had a similar problem to the OP, where the App doesn't recognize my Elite status and doesn't give the 50% discount.  On my last cruise, I spoke to one of the agents who are supposed to help with Medallion app issues.  They said to go ahead and purchase at full price, and I would get the 50% discount once on board as OBC.   I did that, but I had a hard time convincing the person at passenger services that I should be getting a discount.  She was adamant that I shouldn't get it.  I did eventually get it, but only after going to passenger services a couple of times and arguing with them.

For my next cruise, I'm going to wait and purchase the internet while on board!

Here are a couple of photos of the Crown Princess passing by Victoria this morning.

On 8/5/2023 at 5:58 PM, wallyj said:

Yes, on my SYD to LA sailing earlier this year on the Majestic, they had a couple of different pizzas available by the slice in the buffet. My opinion was they were not as good as Skice on other ships and definitely not as good as Alfredo’s.

I asked my server at Alfredos on the Majestic, and he said they supplied the pizza for the buffet.  I guess it's just not as fresh out of the oven when it's at the buffet.

I was on the Majestic for 2 weeks earlier this year in Australia/NZ.  They had pizza by the slice every day for lunch at the buffet.  I think they also had it for the dinner buffets.

I found it very comparable to the pool-deck pizza by the slice on the other ships I've been on.

31 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

Here’s the map showing the routes the cruise ships take. It is from the book princess sells the Alaskan Cruise Companion bh Rachel Cartwright. I do not see 3 sections of inside passage. 

 

There's definitely a section of the Inside Passage between the northern end of Vancouver Island and the Alaska border.  I've sailed it several times, and it's beautiful.  

As I said, the big ships don't generally go through this section, so that's probably why the route on the map in the companion book stays out in the open water.

6 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

There are 2 inside passages: upper and lower. Only the smaller ships go through the lower (between Vancouver Island and the mainland).

There are really 3 sections, from south to north:

1. the east side of Vancouver Island

2. the inland waters along the B.C. central and north coasts from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaska border

3. the inland waters of southeast Alaska.  

All the ships sail through section #3.  The Grand class ships sailing out of Vancouver also sail through section #1.

Unfortunately,  no Princess ships sail through the middle section (#2).  They stay well out in the open waters of Queen Charlotte Sound and Hecate Strait.  When ships were smaller, nearly all the ships used to cruise through this middle section of the Inside Passage, but now that seems to be limited to only the smallest ships on certain cruise lines.

The ships with covered pools are:

Majestic

Sapphire

Diamond

Grand

Island

Coral

Several years ago (2014) I was able to use a $USD FCD for a cruise booked in $CAD.  Princess was able to convert the $US FCD to a $CAD FCD.  Essentially, they had to refund the $US FCD then allowed me to purchase the $CAD FCD over the phone. 

More recently (2022), I was able to do the reverse: use a $CAD FCD on a cruise booked in $USD.  This time it seemed to be much more of a hassle, and it took a couple of weeks to get it all sorted out.  Perhaps they have now done away with this entirely.

A couple of shots of Discovery Princess arriving in Victoria this morning.  It's been a cool spring here so far, so it's nice that the weather has improved.

In terms of decor, I like the Savoy the best.

Princess seems to be doing more of these promotions recently.  All 3 cruises I booked last year were the same price in Canadian dollars as the US dollar price.

On 1/10/2023 at 12:54 PM, ceilidh1 said:

 If you want "low cost" you won't find it in the Downtown/close to port area.

There are still some good deals, if you don't mind not being at an international chain hotel.  I'm from Victoria and I visit Vancouver frequently.  We usually stay at the Barclay Hotel on Robson Street, and usually pay around $80-100 CAD in the summer and around $50-$70 in the off season.

What you the OBC in Australian dollars was correct.  Princess gives the same dollar amounts for standard OBC (such as Shareholder of Future Cruise Deposit OBC) but in Australian dollars.  Since the AUD is only worth $0.68 USD, that's a substantial discount compared with what you would normally receive.