rj59

All the Alaskan ports have really good microbreweries with a variety of beers too, so I get beer flights in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Skagway. On board HAL ships I've been drawn more towards bottles of Grolsch, which are 16 oz and resealable, so I can take advantage of happy hours and take bottles with me to sit out on the promenade to drink. Unfortunately, craft/draft beer is usually an afterthought on cruise ships, with maybe some Heineken or Newcastle, no doubt because there's more of a markup/profit on cocktails and wines. The exception would be the Local brewery on newer NCL ships, which has a huge menu of varied bottles and drafts, and some Carnival ships make their own beers or stock cans of Carnival brews. The Edge-class Celebrity ships have a sort of brewhouse, but like their pubs on RC ships, the selections are meager and dull, and their pricing too high, to encourage people to upgrade drinks packages.

I'd hope I'd never have to see such things on HAL. I get it all the time on RC and Celebrity, particularly from Indian waiters, and one on an NCL ship even had the gall to offer a review form to me to fill out at dinner, even though I'd never seen him before and he was a poor server. To me, it's the same as an American server asking for a generous tip, instead of doing a good job and relying on the generosity of the patron, because begging for money or a rating isn't his/her job and makes things me feel uncomfortable. Begging for a good rating also breaks down the fantasy that they really care about providing good service and are being friendly because they like me. At the same time, I've felt on cruises lately that dining room staff are just overworked and with low morale and are just slapping down plates, without any personal interaction or real warmth--I noticed that particularly on Koningsdam. I call the HAL dining room staff the Indonesian mafia because they don't seem to have any supervision or accountability, with no competition from other nationalities or even females, sort of like some union or government positions in the US who don't care because they're not going to be fired whether or not they provide good service--sort of like visiting a post office, or my carrier strolling along listening to music, while the UPS guy has his every movement tracked but still is friendlier than the postal carriers. I'd give more leeway when a room steward asks me to fill out a survey, since I see their work and friendliness every day, and they have a more difficult job, with few opportunities to get off the ship or even see sunlight.

You seem to be comparing old ships to each other, which isn't really fair. I've been on Discovery and was impressed, but it's not that different from other Royal class ships. I was on Apex, and it was the most amazing experience, in terms of design and uniqueness and wide variety of entertainment and other venues. Gary Bembridge on Tips for Travelers says the same, that Princess hasn't really innovated, whereas Celebrity has. I disagree on other points: 1--Internet. Celebrity throttles the basic internet, and makes it as painful as possible, to induce you to upgrade to a more expensive plan. Princess internet has a single speed, and is upgrading to Starlink as well, and Elite's get it for half-price. 2--Desserts--nothing on Celebrity can compare with the Chocolate Journeys desserts, and newer ships have a gelato ship and offer it for free in MDR lunch. 3--MDR is subjective, but I like having only anytime dining, without the multiple caste systems of Celebrity. Again, though, the new Celebrity ships offer the great innovation of 4 different MDR restaurants, each offering some unique items. 4--Room--Celebrity seems more spacious, with usually a loveseat or couch even in inside cabins. All Celebrity bathrooms have glass shower doors, unlike awful Princess curtains, and Apex has gorgeous faux marble walls in the bathroom. 5--Entertainment. Celebrity wins hands-down, with innovative, sometimes daring shows, with aerialists and acrobats, and Apex adds a second theatre group for a club and the Eden Cafe. 6--Price--Celebrity is fairly outrageous, and the only reason I was able to afford an inside was booking last year, while Covid restrictions were still in place. If you want to spend $5000 to get special access or a special restaurant, that's fine, but the main thing I hated about Apex was most of the front ship closed to those not in a special class, which doesn't happen on their older ships. The only space Princess closes off is the Sanctuary, although that probably will change with Sun and future ships--more people, more of a class system, paying more for exclusive areas. 7--Coffee/cafe--Princess's one is open 24 hours, includes a larger variety of food, and espresso drinks are half the price of Celebrity. The Celebrity cafes don't open until 7 sometimes, which is very annoying for early risers wanting espresso or an early snack. There's no food on Celebrity until the cafe or buffet opens, and they now charge $10 for any type of room service, whereas it's free, delivered anywhere on Princess. 8--Newer ships on both have interesting extra free dining options. Alfredo's is great for pizza, but Apex has an Eden Cafe for breakfast and lunch with various healthy options. 9--Sales pressure is horrible on Celebrity. You get harassed constantly the first few days if you don't have a beverage package, even in the MDR, and they pressure you to upgrade if you only have the basic ones. A minority of beers are covered under the basic package too, and most are deliberately priced too high for the basic package, even more painful if you don't have a package, so you're charged $5 for a latte and over $10 for a basic beer, plus you have to sign slips asking for additional gratuity, which I hate. Princess is pain-free, especially with Medallion technology, and I don't get sales pitches at bars or the MDR. 10--Layout--Apex is amazing, with a long running/walking track that goes up and down over two decks, whereas the ones on Princess are pretty pitiful. Everything on Princess revolves around the piazza, which isn't enjoyable for me on full ships now, and you can still only get front-to-back on one side of the ship. There are only a few aft viewing/sitting areas outside by the water, one side usually for smokers, but Apex has a promenade that goes for most of the side on, and of course its Magic Carpet. 11-Embarkation/debarkation--Celebrity has a really nice terminal in FLL now, and it took me 15 minutes from shore to ship at 12 pm. One of the nicest parts of Apex is a large ship exit area, with spread-out security lines and the Magic Carpet a safe, comfortable, and convenient disembarkation/tendering spot.

The Alaska brunch sounds very nice, especially since adopting a single, disappointing lunch menu for an entire cruise is very low-market and disappointing. I enjoy having naturalist talks on Princess, particularly in fjords and for glacier-viewing, so having the same on HAL ships would be nice. They used to have Mexican Ambassadors on all their Mexican cruises, for language classes, dancing, and singing, so having something similar for Alaskan cruises would be quite nice, even if it's not terribly authentic, like the faux Native Icy Strait Point artificial tourist village. They can't do the 5K walk on Koningsdam, can they, with no actual promenade any longer, just a tiny, dangerous running track on the top deck? I'm really looking forward to a classic promenade on Volendam this week, but moreso, being on a ship with only 1400 pax or so. I got too spoiled by larger ships at 30-40% occupancy during restart year, so full ships last year were a bit too stressful and have made me rethink my commitment to cruising, which is why I'm hoping Volendam will be restorative.

You don't have to order a full meal that way. I often use it to order a salad or dessert for late-night snack, especially since there often isn't anything open between buffet closing and the late buffet meal. It's also a way to try a second main course or dessert, either early or late, and still go to the MDR, so you have two lighter meals. Ordering early means it's easier for your steward to pick up plates during evening service, although they also ask you to call to have someone pick up your plates, but then you have to wait around your room. People on other lines seem to just leave plates in the hallway, even on Celebrity and Princess, but that's always seemed wrong on HAL.

Another reason I forgot to mention to avoid a Princess transfer is that if you cross the border by bus, you have to take all your luggage off, wait in line, get processed by immigration, and then all your bags xrayed by very aggressive and often outright rude customs agents looking for any sort of food. So if you're on a bus full of cruise passengers with tons of luggage, who might have trouble wheeling their luggage around and lifting it themselves onto an x-ray machine and then putting it back on the bus, it's going to take up to an hour, especially on a weekend. I also found when returning from Majestic a few weeks ago that scheduled buses have priority over cruise transfer buses, so when I arrived on Flixbus there were 3 buses in line, but we jumped ahead of a cruise transfer buses, and they probably waited half an hour just to get off the bus and into the customs processing, so imagine the irritation and grumbling. On the other hand, if you take the train, they check passports in Vancouver and at a stop at the border where agents just pass through the train and you just pick up luggage in Seattle and make a short walk to airport light rail.

I realized that the $100 credit showing for my cruise is the military benefit, because shareholder credit never shows. It also said 'valid until 2/25', which means it will apply to future cruises automatically. You can confirm by practice booking a new cruise, since it says '$100 military credit will be applied'. So that's definitely a good thing, and more in line with how Princess handles it, and might be even better if they give a $100 for even a 4-night coastal cruise, whereas on Princess it's only $50 for under 7 nights.

I'd go with Westerdam, because of the covered pool, but more importantly, because of the outdoor promenade, which will help keep you sane when you haven't seen land for many days. One possible advantage of Royal might be fewer passengers--I was on a Majestic Pacific Coastal after an Australia-LA passage, and they said they only had 1000 or so passengers on board, so around 30%, but it's still really unpleasant not to have a covered pool area, particularly if you want to eat or watch a movie outside.

That was on the ship in December, which was very irritating, because on the upper deck you could only get around one side, the other reserved for a crew smoking/rest area. It's really a bad look (sort of like the shock of seeing steward carts in the Kdam hallways, something I'd never seen on a HAL ship before), not to mention irritating for those in a lounger nearby possibly having to breathe smoke. I imagine the covering is to protect them in Alaska--or maybe they're charging crew for smoking cabana access.

You can take the train, but it usually leaves after 5 pm, but has spectacular coastal scenery. I like taking Quick Shuttle, which picks up right at the terminal and goes to Seatac, with stops along the way (a bus is slow, because there's no freeway out of Vancouver and no more than 2 lanes until you get closer to Seattle). To me the time savings would be well worth flying, since Alaska and Delta have many 1-hour flights daily. Another secret is to take a bus across the border and fly out of Bellingham (my home), which has Southwest service to Vegas, Oakland, and Denver now, as well as cheap Allegiant Air to West Coast cities. If you have time and want to be adventurous, you can get to Victoria by ferry or quick boat, and then take the Victoria Clipper fast down to downtown Seattle.

Go to the Lido, either side. The other good spot, if breakfast is crowded, is aft outside, which I used on the LA-Vancouver Majestic trip since there were hundreds of Chinese on board, so there were many filling thermoses and water bottles straight from the spout--one guy filled a backpack full of bottles of hot and cold water. Fortunately, there are two coffee machines at each station, and iced tea also. You can also simply order a pot of decaf delivered to your room. They have a good selection of teas in the buffet too, including several variety of Twinings and decaf, so you might try making your own tea in a bottle and then storing it in the fridge, so you have some always available.

This really isn't an issue for LA or San Diego, since they have the facial recognition machines. Seattle still doesn't, and you're getting larger and larger ships out of the terminals in Seattle, which can make embarking and disembarking a nightmare, especially since they have to man the NCL pier also, with the huge Encore and Bliss. That's why I'd advise anyone planning an Alaskan cruise to check port schedules for Seattle or Vancouver, but also for each port, since it will affect tour availability, crowding, and getting a berth near town or having to tender. Of 3 Seattle Alaska cruises last summer, Discovery Princess was the worst boarding experience, since for some reason they made everyone take their own bags in a long line to the luggage scanners, instead of using porters and going straight to check-in. I decided to go small this summer, and picked the smallest ship possible--HAL Volendam, and made sure there would be only one smaller NCL ship in Vancouver for embarkation and only Sapphire Princess at disembarkation, to cut down on lines and stress. The N/S ones on Princess and 10-11 day r/t from Vancouver on Crown Princess are also extremely cheap compared to Seattle, and you get either Glacier Bay or Hubbard on most of them, whereas Discovery never got close to Dawe's Glacier.

Great, fair video 1. The buffet chairs are an abomination. They're heavy, so difficult to move and get frayed so easily. The entire buffet area has too little seating, since the food sections expanded so much. 2. When I went on K. in December, I was going to get the coke package, but none of the freestyle machines worked. 3. The gelato place is wasted space, since anyone can get free scoop ice cream in the buffet. 4. The walking track is ridiculously small and dangerous, with very low side windows that don't offer any wind protection. The upper outside decks are confusing and irritating, since one side you can't get through because of a crew smoking/surfing area (not a good look). 5. The showers are the best I've had, with huge space and (gasp) no shower curtains or gross tub. 6. I was happy to see it possible to get around the outside lifeboat deck, but at the rear it goes to the space of one person, with no mirrors at corners, also dangerous and irritating for the many who are used to walking miles on a HAL promenade.

I found that the Indian vegetarian options are more interesting, larger, and taste better than regular vegan/vegetarian options, so I'd ask for both menus and compare. The other big advantage of the Indian menu is that you have Indian cooks and chefs, so you're going with their specialty and where they can show off creativity--I remember asking the Indian head chef in a HAL elevator about the Indian menu, and he took great delight in organizing a tasty, varied, personal menu based on my likes. I love Prof Cruise, not only her humor, but her hints and menu/drinks guides with photos. I thought I knew all the HAL hints, but I didn't realize that one could still order off-menu creme brûlée--I remember being angry when I didn't see it on Koningsdam last December, and thought it was just another awful cutback (like the single lunch menu for the entire cruise, cutting out their delicious cold soups, and the free chocolate-covered strawberries that used to pop up every evening in the explorations cafe). I'm also happy to see one can still order MDR dishes as room service, something I think really separates them from lines like Celebrity and Princess and is really comforting for a shy solo cruiser like me who doesn't like crowds or what I felt on Koningsdam and other large ships at full capacity of waiters just taking orders and slapping down plates, and a brusque unfriendliness that wouldn't earn them a good tip on land.

Princess applies military benefits automatically, after you've applied, so no jumping through hoops. It's also refundable, so I usually use other OBC and get a check for my military benefit after the cruise. Carnival has military fares, but usually their VIFP deals are better. RC/Celebrity usually offer 5% off the cruise fare upfront. NCL now offers 10% off fares for military, once you verify through id.me, the same system you can use to get 10% off Apple products and to use the social security system online. So if HAL makes it a hassle or doesn't honor their promise to veterans, using fine print or deadlines as an excuse, there are other options.

I've sailed on most lines, and Princess is not only cheaper, but they also don't have throttling or censoring, as other lines do--Celebrity basic wifi is almost unusable, because the speed is throttled so much and will block any video site. One way to cut down on cost is to simply buy for one device, and sign in and out. Another option is the usual response to inflation--cut back or do without. So on my Pacific coastal cruise on Sunday, I'm going to use cell service in SF and Victoria and then either suffer without wifi, or buy a 'remainder of voyage' plan, which is still 50% off for elite, or I also sometimes buy for 24 hours, if I need to check in for a Southwest flight. You can expect some degradation of service as all the ships are much fuller, but I believe Princess is upgrading to Starlink, which might help things. One of the drawbacks of one-level of wifi and more people getting it through Plus, is that more people are using it, expecting streaming-level quality, and so that slows down things for everyone, particularly in areas with poor wifi coverage, like Alaska. Personally, I think it's sort of sad to see people staring at phone or tablet screens while sitting overlooking the sea or in a beautiful piazza--the same older people who I suspect look down on young people for constantly staring at their phones, and I know that personally it keeps me sometimes from participating in activities or appreciating my surroundings or the beauty of the sea, so I find it better to unplug for at least some part of a cruise, even if it causes some discomfort and boredom. But overall, I don't like significant increases in fares or costs for wifi, drinks, or excursions, and if that happens I simply choose other options, since I don't care for the frequent cash grabs, decrease in service, and other blatant attempts to draw down the immense cruise line debts through the wallets of passengers.

Don't use the Princess shuttle from Hobby, either way. The problem is that most people go out of Bush, so at Hobby they wait until they have a full bus, which in my case was over 2 hours at the airport. I booked Galveston Express on the return trip for $30 or so, a smaller van that was quick and efficient and was already mostly full of passengers it picked up first from a Royal Caribbean ship, so there was no wait once it got there and I loaded. Hobby is a small airport, so it's easy to find the shuttle waiting area and they give good directions, whereas on the Princess shuttle there was a long trek to a bus parking area, with all the infirm passengers taking forever to get there and on the bus with their tons of luggage. There was no traffic going to and from the port on a Sunday for Ruby Princess, so it was under an hour each way, I believe, and again quicker going back in a smaller van than in a big bus. You can do practice bookings with Uber and Lyft also to check price, and I think it might be cheaper and more convenient to just get a pickup at a hotel and go to the airport on the return trip that way, so there's no delays, and with 2 people the price would probably be cheaper than any sort of transfer. I used Uber to visit the Museum District near Downtown Houston the day after my cruise, and it was dirt-cheap, and after all the transfer hassles, I wish I'd just gone with them to get to the ship, since I wouldn't have had to go back to the airport at all.

I had to call once, using a number given on past threads here, and a nice woman helped me right away, looking up my email, checking everything with the statement was right, and giving it to me right away. Of course, the question still remains about whether the OBC is worth it for those who bought CCL at a much higher price and could have bought a stock that's been growing and paying dividends. But it's definitely helped make me more loyal to Princess, along with the refundable military benefit, which is now automatically applied. I bought some RCL last year, when its price swooned just because Carnival had some bad earnings, and that got me credit on some Celebrity cruises and a good profit when I sold it.

It varies, but September has higher average rainfall. I'm local, so the first September after restart I kept looking at last-minute cruises that had a positive weather forecast, but I had to wait until the end of September to find a last-minute cruise with decent weather most of the way, and even then we got caught on high seas off Vancouver Island, in between hurricane-force storms, which delayed return to Seattle by 5 hours or so. The Princess ship that left a day after ours was stuck in Seattle the first night, because of similar storms on the open ocean, while our ship left the day before in summery weather and had a good sailing up. Overall, Juneau has twice as much rain in September as in June, and even 2 more inches in August than in June, so you'll get clearer skies and longer days in May and June, and warmer weather but more rain and spawning salmon in August. It's the luck of the draw, but I wouldn't commit to something like a Mt. Roberts tram in Juneau until you get there, since if it's cloudy and rainy you won't see much of anything. I also definitely wouldn't pre-book any sort of sightseeing plane trip in Ketchikan until you get there, because both Royal Princess and a HAL ship had passengers die in plane crashes there in poor conditions.

I doubt there will be sell-outs for n/s cruises--just look at the low prices compared to the r/t out of Seattle. That's because families don't want to fly to Alaska, so even with all the megaships going out of Seattle, all the lines have some sell-outs and high prices. There are also 2 ships doing the n/s route, so they're trying to fill both of them every Wednesday and Saturday. As a back-up, you also have the Crown doing r/t trips out of Vancouver, and some visit Hubbard and some Glacier Bay and some are longer, 10-11 days.

I've been on 20 or so coastal cruises between San Diego and Vancouver, which usually have Canadians dominating, as well as a lot of Asians from Vancouver, particularly if it visits SF. It can be pretty brutally dull if the weather is bad and they close the outside promenade and decks, and everyone sits all day in the packed Lido. They have a captive audience, so they try to make as much money as possible on sales, bingo, and other events. You can get a weird mix of old and young too, since the coastal ones often continue around the Panama Canal. SF charges high port fees, so that will increase the overall cost, although sailing under the Golden Gate can be memorable, as is sailing under the Lion's Gate bridge in Vancouver (and scary if you go on the Konigsdam or a tall ship on another line, which often have to go under at odd times to fit with the tides). The r/t coastal ones are usually just fillers before and after the Alaska season and are different, because they're all about making excursion money and would seem to be dull and repetitive, with the added required stop in Ensenada.

The problem with ordering on board is that they make you sign a slip that requests an additional tip, which is a hassle, and the even larger hassle is the hard sell the first days of a cruise to induce you to sign up for a beverage package or upgrade. On Apex they tried to intercept everyone going through the solarium on the first day of the cruise to sell packages, and the sales pitch at every bar, Cafe el Bacio, and even at dinner. It's almost as annoying as the aggressive begging at dinner for a good review rating, particularly from Indian waiters. I mostly cruise Mexico and Alaska, so instead of carrying soda on board, I just wait until the first port and hit a convenience store--Oxxo in Mexico, and bring back a 2L of Coke sin azucar. The problem with bringing drinks on board at embarkation is that security might be dealing with multiple ships with multiple policies, especially ports that handle Carnival or NCL ships as well, who don't allow any liquids on board.

You could cancel Plus and just pay a la carte for drinks and tips and wifi once you're on board, so you're not just buying stuff you don't want or need. There's a 1L limit on duty free alcohol brought back to the US, not that anyone will check with the face ID customs machines now. I try to use OBC to try things a little out of my comfort zone, as a solo cruiser too. You might try bingo, classes, tastings, some gambling, specialty dining, and maybe there's some excursion activity you're never tried before (I found electric biking in Mazatlan and on a beach in Cabo to be exciting and memorable). I know on a Celebrity ship I used OBC to try a different sushi roll and kind of ramen every day, and I had a much better time with the female servers there than I did in the MDR. Another thing you might consider is asking about upgrading to a mini-suite after boarding, which has a couch by the window.

Coffee is about to get a lot more complicated and probably expensive, since they signed a deal with Lavazza a few weeks ago, which will probably involve price increases and new drink options, and they mentioned integrating it with meals, tastings, etc. To put price in perspective, though, there's no coffee drink on Celebrity that's under $5, and you get a hard-sell to pay for a drinks package every time you try to buy a coffee (as well as the hugely annoying slip to sign with a spot for additional tip beyond 18%). If you walk into a Starbucks or any other coffee place now, any latte is going to be well above $5, just as restaurant rampant price rises make the zero cost of MDR dishes an even better bargain. Personally, I find the perks of Princess superior to me than any other lines, which usually involve discounts to get you to buy things, rather than outride freebies. One reason I've never swapped out the minibar for coffee is that it's so much more valuable to me to make my own cocktails than to use the generous military/shareholder OBC for a daily Americano or latte, and most of the minibottles go home with me and are used for cocktails at home. Another reason I don't swap for coffee is that it usually takes 1-2 days to get anything swapped out, especially with room service completely slammed by the ease of ordering through the app (free room service is also disappearing on all the other lines), and it's rather pointless to get a coffee card full of value if I only have 5 days (fewer on the 5-night Cabo and shorter coastal cruises I like), and I don't want to have another meltdown waiting for room service to do a swap, as I did on a full Discovery last summer. I'd say that if you tally up what those outraged by losing coffee cards pay for their cabins and transportation and excursions or just a nice meal out at home, it's likely to be trivial. I've had plenty of meltdowns over changes and bad experiences on every line and have made the same "I'm never sailing with them again" vow many times, but then I miss ships and things about lines and I find a good deal and I end up coming back. I ask myself "Are you going to run out of money"? No. "Are you going to run out of life?" Yes, so I try to act accordingly and not sweat the small stuff. Except for no more pillow chocolates..heads will roll at Princess after my sternly-worded letter! 🙂

Nice! I was sorry to miss the La Paz/Loreto trips by Diamond and Sapphire, so I'm glad Majestic and Grand will be going there and break up the monotony of just having Discovery there.