Nightowl11

On 6/30/2019 at 10:05 AM, Lynniepoo said:

that was really nice of you!  😀  We are not cruising until December so ours will expire before hand.

Do you have any friends or family that will be cruising before the expiration date of August 31st?  If not, would you be willing to send them our way?  I’ll have 3 college kids with me on an upcoming Alaskan cruise that all drink coffee. 

1 hour ago, ian441672 said:

Crooners is smaller on the Grand, and the new cocktail menu has removed a lot of the old favourites, much to my wife’s disappointment, the Raspberrytini has gone plus a lot of others. Some new to try which is good, but many of the Bond ones and a lot of others have gone. New wine list however is great and some amazingly good choices. 

I read on some other reviews that if the bartenders have been with Princess for awhile, they still can make your Raspberrytinis and other favorites. Let us know if you order old favorite drinks and they make them for you. We are boarding in August and my sister has favorite drinks that might be missing from the menus. 

On 4 Alaskan cruises, my son has worn a tuxedo. When he was younger, he wore the tuxedo with tails. He looked fantastic. My daughter has always worn a long formal gown.  They are now 18 and 21 and they still like to dress formal. On their 5th Alaskan cruise in August, my son will probably wear a suit and tie for the first time since he no longer fits into any of his tuxedos. My daughter wants to buy a new formal gown. I think it’s fantastic that my kids still want to follow the rules/ “suggestions.” I guess they are the exception nowadays for the younger generation.  

On 5/28/2019 at 9:57 AM, hillslife said:

Thanks for this info.. have done the Escape Room twice, didn’t realize they only had one mystery to solve😩, so this sounds like a great adventure.

 

Thanks for explaining.. I’ll look for it in the Patters 😍

Which ships have an Escape Room?  Do they have them on Princess Ships or only on Royal Caribbean Ships?  My family loves Escape Rooms. In fact, we just did one yesterday.  It would be awesome if the Grand has one. 

I couldn’t find the fine print on the new classic soda package but I did find it for the new Premier Coffee & Soda package:  

• The package includes all, specialty or premium coffees and teas, hot chocolate, fountain sodas, fresh juices (if available), Gong Cha items (if available), Frappes at Coffee & Cones, mocktails, and smoothies as per the menu, Red Bull and Milk Shakes (if available).

What I notice here in the fine print, it says: “as per the menu”. Does that mean you can only pick from their limited menu per area?  Usually there are only 4-5 mocktails listed but what if you want a Mocktail not on the menu such as the chocobanana Mocktail that everyone has been raving about?  Do you have to travel the ship to find it on a menu?  

We will be sailing for the 4th time on the San Francisco Round Trip to Alaska.  We LOVE Alaska!  The Princess Patters were just posted from the most recent cruise.  Why do they still have the same old production shows on this ship?  It lists British Invasion and Stardust.  British Invasion has been on the Grand since 2010.  The Princess website doesn't even have these shows listed anymore and haven't for a very long time.  I was excited to see a new lineup of productions shows, "Born to Dance", "The Secret Silk", "Encore", "Fantastic Journey" etc. on the Princess website.  Princess even states this:  " And with every season, Princess finds exciting ways to deliver something new so that you’ll come back dazzled."  Well, there's nothing new on the Grand, hasn't been for years and we aren't dazzled anymore 😞   Does anyone have any insight on whether the Grand will ever get new shows? 

Is this a new game to Princess?  I don't see any other posts about it.  It would be great if all ships could add new entertainment like this.  I'm so tired of Bingo, Trivia, Bingo, Trivia, Bingo, Trivia and the same production shows for years and years.  We will be on the Grand this summer again and someone just posted the May Patters.  Stardust....again.  British Invasion.....again.  Uuuggghhh.  Those shows aren't even on Princess's website anymore and haven't been for a long time. I really thought with booking a cruise this year, I would finally be able to see a new show like "Born to Dance", "The Secret Silk" and/or "Encore."  Is it up to the cruise director if he/she wants to go beyond the basics?  When will they change things up on the Grand?

We will be in rooms 6214 and 6216 port side in July and I think you mentioned that you are in 6217 which is the same category, starboard. How long are the couches and can they sleep a 6'2" person comfortably when it is made into a bed?

Are there any games such as checkers, chess, rummikub, mancala, backgammon, sorry, etc. on the ship for adults to play?

It looks like you'll still have to jump through hoops to find a cabin by selecting aft, midship, forward and then deck. I would prefer to see all of what's available on each deck and then pick from there. It's really difficult when you are trying to book a balcony across from an inside, or a veranda suite next to a vista suite. Or even side by side when one room is considered aft while the room that is available right next door is considered midship and so you have to keep switching. I often go to other cruise websites to see the whole deck at once to find what I am looking for and then come back to Holland's to book.

I recently booked another cruise and found out that I had 3 Mariner numbers. All 3 had my name a little different and the one that had my past cruise on it had an incorrect birthday. Just have them look up variations of your name and if you had other phone numbers or zip codes. I also was surprised to find out that my daughter has a mariner number and she hasn't sailed with Holland yet but my son did not have one and they have only sailed together. We've been on Princess so maybe they signed her up from there? Another thing that was strange was that both my parents were listed with my address. I've never sailed on Holland with my parents and they have never lived at my current address. My sister had my phone number and the wrong birthday and her husband, who hasn't sailed Holland either, has a number.

Their system seems to be all screwed up.

Does anyone know how the couch is set up for the third person in the Vista suites on the Zaandam? Will a 6' 2" person be able to sleep on it? Is it a pull out mattress that has to be put away every morning in order to walk around? Or is it flip type/ convertible single person couch? What are the dimensions of the sleeping area? I tried to find pictures of one made up like a bed but have had no luck. Does anyone have pictures? Thank you.

We just experienced Nathan on the Zaandam. The worst we’ve ever had!

What is Nathan's last name and do you think he will still be on the Zaandam in July? What was so bad about him?

We will be on the Zaandam in July. I have a lot of questions about the vista suite staterooms and the ship. I have not found updated answers using the search.

How many outlets, what kind and where are they located?

Do the vista suites have refrigerators or do you have to rent one and if so, how much? If not, and it is a minibar set up, can you or your room steward take everything out to put your own drinks/meds in?

Where does the third person sleep? Is the sofa/couch a full bed that pulls out and then takes up a lot of walking space? Or is it a convertible couch that folds/flips into a twin bed like they have on Disney? Or is there a drop down bed from the ceiling? Does anyone have a picture of it as a bed?

Do the vista suites get individual shampoos, conditioners, soap, etc? Or are they on the wall in the pump bottles?

What type of bottled water does the ship carry? Is there a package deal just for waters?

Do they have activities/ meet and greets for 18-21 year olds?

I read that the library area is getting scarce with books and games. Is that true? What board games are available to play?

Do they have adult scavenger hunts, interactive game shows, or any other activities besides the basic traditional bingo, trivia, music, dancing and casino?

Who will be the cruise director for July 2018? Is there an ongoing/updated list here on Cruise Critic?

What are the package prices for formal/informal pictures taken by the ship's photographers?

Thank you for any help answering these questions. It's been ten years since we've sailed with Holland and I am sure things have changed since then.

Yes. There were 2 a day on some days. From 3-4pm and 10-11pm. Wheelhouse Bar. You can also get it at the Explorer's Lounge. But be sure to watch the clock. I made the mistake of ordering 2 minutes before 10pm and then had to "threaten" to return the drink if he wasn't going to do the BOGO +$1. The bartender was arguing with me and even pulled the receipt to show that he rang it up early. He eventually said "just this one time..."

My daughter has been on 2 Disney cruises and 3 Princess cruises. My daughter liked the clubs on the Disney Magic and the Disney Fantasy. She really liked the clubs on the Princess ships, Grand, Star and Golden. We've done 3 Alaska cruises out of San Francisco (10-11 days each). There were plenty of kids for my daughter to meet.

On July 5, 2017, I emailed my stock statement to revenuesupportdepartment@princesscruises.com. The credit showed up on my account within a few days. For my statement, I printed it out and then crossed out with a sharpie all the info that they don't need like my account number and other stocks. I then took a photo of it and emailed the photo with a note containing my name, booking number, dates of cruise, ship name, cabin number and in the subject line, I typed Shareholder benefits for "booking number." I also include that I do not have access to a fax. This worked every time that I've submitted the statement for the past three cruises.

Last year we sailed out of New York so we didn't have any bottled water with us since we are from California. The hotel that we stayed at the night before sold bottled water and we were able to buy a case for regular price from them. No mark up. It was great that they did that for us since we couldn't get to a store before we sailed. I'm sure some other hotels would do that too.

We just got off the Grand, 10 day Alaska, and we brought 3 cases (24 - 16.9 oz) with us in suitcases. No problem at all. Just like others have said, we can tell the difference in the taste. Three of us do not like the taste of the ship's tap water at all. And once we drank them, we had empty suitcases to carry home all of our souvenirs.

The bottled water that the Grand carries is Crystal Geyser in the 16.9oz. size and then a larger size. You can pre- purchase a 12 pack of the 16.9 oz. for $6.90.

We ran out of our bottled water at day 7 so we purchased another 12 bottles in Ketchikan at the Tongass Trading Company for $6.00 and carried it onboard. They sell Crystal Geyser in 6 packs for $3.00 each with carry handles. My son just carried one 6 pack in each hand. No problem again.

Where do I find the Princess form to transfer my booking from Princess to a travel agency? I've always been able to find it before but I can't seem to find it now.

We have/had a June cruise booked and I thought my sister was going to cancel this cruise and move the monies over to our existing July cruise... But she forgot yesterday and I just received an email at 12:19am that it's been cancelled and we lost the deposits on 4 people. Ouch!

Will Princess be nice and let us use that deposit money towards the July cruise or will they say "S.O.L." and keep the money?

Any advice before I call when they open up this morning?

We just finished doing the iFly. We were only able to get reservations on Day 5. 3 of us at 3:00 and 2 of us at 4:20. It was organized if you had reservations. We had to give up our 4:20 reservations so I'm hoping they let someone else on. There also was a spot available on the 2:40 group because they were going to let my niece in that group when I told them we couldn't come back at 4:20. There were only 8 people in the 3:00 group. And I overheard another family canceling one because there daughter was too small. Also there were two kids that had been on it 2 times already just hanging out to see if they could go on again. I think they were just telling everyone no because they didn't want to deal with it anymore.

Piano Bar: Matt Ganim.

I'm currently on the June 11-16, 2016 Anthem of the Seas. Any questions?

I am currently on the Anthem right now and just finished reading the Teen Cruise Compass right before I logged on. So I figured I will take pictures of it for you right now. Otherwise, I'll probably forget. Now I have to figure out how to upload them. There are 4 pages.