2pbears

I agree with Jennybenny. I prefer midship on lower decks as I am somewhat sensitive to motion. This is a personal preference however.

Why don't you use your credit card for the both of you and let your gf give you the cash? :)

No offense to you and certainly no reflection on the OP, but these are the types of situations that end up on Judge Judy or The People's Court.

The only plus for us was having a love seat in the room. We considered it a very nice advantage having a comfortable place to sit inside when it was either too hot or too cold out on the deck.

But, what about Alaska??

I believe the OP covered that in the first bullet.:D

There is no way in the world I would do that. Too many things can go wrong and I don't need that much stress in my life (especially at the beginning of a cruise). I would go a few days early, fly directly to Paris, spend some time there and then catch a short flight to London or take the train.

Got home yesterday from the 14 day Land of the Midnight Sun cruise out of Southampton. The scenery was so spectacular. The waterfalls, fiords, and mountains were something to see. Norway is such a beautiful country. The weather was mostly nice. We had rain the day in Geiringer but it was not a total washout. Overcast in several ports but no rain. Bergen is absolutely beautiful. The Sapphire Princess is really nice after the spring drydock. The food and service were also pretty good as well. Did not see the Northern Lights but August is not really the best time to see them. The passengers were Americans, British, Canadians, and Aussies. I would highly recommend this cruise to Norway.

We just recently booked this cruise for 2019 so it is good to read your positive comments.

I'm so glad that this has been resolved to your satisfaction. We are on the same cruise and several weeks ago Princess "upgraded" us to a balcony cabin on Aloha deck just below the swimming pool deck. :eek: I called immediately when I read the email but they said our old cabin had already been assigned. They were able to move us to a balcony on Emerald deck which will be fine but we lost our large Caribe deck balcony (my bad for forgetting to mark it as "no upgrade"). Hope you enjoy the cruise and your new location. We plan to do the same.

I would welcome a new ship out of SF. The Grand is OK but it lacks pizzazz IMHO.

Wow! Congratulations! That is a great offer. We have only sailed in a suite once for a one nighter. We just wanted to try it out to see if we liked it. Of course, we did. We just booked a window suite for a coastal cruise next fall because we were able to get a great deal on it. Can't wait to have a suite for seven days. Enjoy your cruise. The "fairy" was really looking out for you on this one.:D

I'm so happy someone resurrected this post. As I read through it I became curious about our Fall, 2019 booking on the Grand and checked to see if there were any Window Suites still available for the October cruise we have booked. By moving from the October 13th to October 20th cruise (same itinerary) we were able to book the last available Window Suite for only $400 per person more than the BD Balcony cabin we had booked (including the Sip and Sail package). I'm so happy I checked this out!

Thanks for posting this. We have not yet sailed on the Pacific Princess but just returned recently from two weeks on the Azamara Journey which is basically the same ship. It was fun to see the similarities and it actually made me kind of homesick.

The time line for sip and sail promos is usually about a year and a half out. For instance my October 2019 cruise I booked as soon as it was available which I believe was either April of May of this year. Sip and sail for Fall 2019 - Spring 2020 came up in June I believe - I switched to the s an s promo at that time..This is a promo that only really applies to those of us who book well in advance

I completely agree with this. We have booked Coastal cruises for the past three years under the Sip and Sail well over a year before the cruise. We figure we can always cancel if something else comes up or if we change our mind. So far it has worked out very well. We drink enough that the drink package is a great bonus, but we don't drink enough to justify paying $68/day for it so the strategy works for us. I know there are those on CC who say "nothing is free----they get you on the cruise price" but so far (in three cases) the price of the cruise has never dropped substantially below what we paid for it when it was under the S&S promo.

I hear you loud and clear!! I did put in for a meta upgrade only ... always do! So, I wouldn't lose a good balcony for an icky one ... the only direction they can go is from OV to balcony. At least I will know what to expect ... even if that is an undesirable balcony.

We've cruised extensively on different lines but mostly on Princess. In over 2 dozen cruises on Princess, only have we been upgraded once and that was from an inside to an obstructed OV. It was actually a very nice upgrade!

We've gotten incredible upgrades on Celebrity, though, with only half the number of sailings on them ... not sure why on that line and not so much on Princess. Either way, we'll be on a cruise so will be happy in whatever cabin we end up with. Thanks for the concern, though. It is most appreciated!!

We pretty much share your attitude. In our twelve years of cruising with Princess we have only had one upgrade that we considered to be a "real" upgrade. We had booked an OV on Plaza Deck because we were curious about that location and when we arrived at the port we learned that we had been upgraded to a Handicapped Balcony room (which apparently no one needed). It was a great room and ten years later we have yet to try the OV Plaza Deck location. :')

Congrats!! That's the second one you've gotten so far this year, right?? That's awesome.

I am hoping for one for my cruise next month. I keep checking my email ... wishing and hoping. Do me a favor, keep your fingers crossed for me. And again ... happy cruising and congratulations on your upgrades.

Be careful what you wish for! We received an upgrade about a month ago for our September Coastal Cruise from a Caribe deck balcony to a mid ship Aloha balcony (right under the pool deck). :eek: I called within hours of the email being issued but they said our previous cabin was already occupied. :evilsmile: We were able to move to an Emerald deck balcony which is a satisfactory location so all was not lost.

Enjoy your upgrade, Party Barbie!

Another vote for the Coral for all the reasons mentioned above. For a different cruise I might choose the Royal (a California Coastal, for instance) but for Alaska I would go for a smaller ship with fewer passengers and a larger (and most definitely at least a partially covered) balcony. Enjoy your trip. Alaska is beautiful!

Was also curious from any recent wine country cruisers:

 

Other than the allotted 2 bottles (1 pp.) at embarkation, were you able to bring additional bottles

on board from shore excursions, without paying the customary fee?

 

Thought it would be nice to have an extra bottle or two in our cabin during the week.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

Our experience from a recent Coastal cruise was that when we returned from a Princess sponsored wine country excursion, the Princess folks were waiting at the security scanners to collect our purchases and hold them until the end of the cruise. This seemed like a wasted effort as we were disembarking the following morning and they ended up returning the bottles to us later in the evening. I think if you are doing an independent wine tour there is a possibility that some wine bottles might slip through security unnoticed, but I'm not sure of this.

I am a bit sensitive to motion so I probably would stick with the location of the balcony.

I suppose if you want to grab a drink immediately when you board the ship you might want to purchase in advance. Otherwise, I can see no reason to purchase before embarkation. :')

FYI - Only a VERY small percentage of those onboard the Emerald Princess on any given day actually read (or have heard of, for that matter) Cruise Critic. Lost and Found would have been a better option.

:mad:

Some research on the West Coast Departures board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=413

 

would be very relevant. The Mods will likely move this thread there.

 

There is a Frisco in Texas, and one in Colorado. Princess doesn't have any stops there, but they do stop in San Francisco.

Thank you CruiserBruce. The hair is still standing up on the back of my neck! :mad:

We have only had a HA room once when upon check in we learned we had been upgraded from an ocean view to a HA Balcony. We loved the room. It was spacious and well laid out. The bathroom was exceptionally large and we did not notice any down sides to the bathroom. This was only for a one night repo cruise but we wished we could have stayed longer in this room. As long as there is no one who actually needs this room I would jump on it.

Hope this is not too late for you.

 

The electric tram leaves the north end of Douglas Promenade to Laxey and onwards to Ramsey - this trip has some lovely views. In Laxey you can visit the Lady Isabella - the old waterwheel which used to pump water from the old lead mines. Also in Laxey you can transfer to a Snaefell Summit tram, the views from the top of our only official mountain are spectacular, but you really need a fine day to get the most of the views.

 

The Steam Railway leaves from North Quay in Douglas and goes to Castletown, where you can visit the medieval Castle Rushen (10/15 minutes stroll from the Station). The train also goes onto Port Erin, which has a beautiful sandy beach.

 

Here is a link to information you might find useful.

https://www.visitisleofman.com

 

Feel free to ask any questions you have and I will do my best to answer them for you - I have lived on the Isle of Man all of my life.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

Tricia,

We are on the same cruise as pickypicky and we were thinking of taking the Steam Railway south to Port Erin. Can you please tell me if the Steam Railway Station is walking distance from where we will tender ashore? Also, if we were to get off for a stop in Santon how far would the station be from Murrays Motorcycles Museum and if it is not walking distance, would there be some form of public transportation available (bus, taxi, etc.)? Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Diane

We’re staying in Fisherman’s Wharf pre cruise and someone stated for a couple in our party to Uber/taxi to the port with our luggage, and for the rest to walk to the Embarcadero. Would you say this is a safe option? FYI, we do have 3 teens in our party of seven.

 

We plan to use Super Shuttle from the airport to our hotel and also from the ship to the airport after our disembarkation.

I would not hesitate for a moment to do this. In fact, in spite of what Elliair says, we always walk south of the Pier to the BART station and take BART home to the East Bay. Yes, you do see some homeless people and drug users but the walk along the Embarcadero is beautiful (in nice weather, of course) and will be full of local business people, joggers, tourists, etc. I have never felt unsafe there.

Very confused as to which ship you are referring.

 

The Grand Class ships are all mini-suites on Dolphin Deck (other than some with two stern-facing B4 cabins).

 

On most other ships Aloha Deck has at least one, if not two (on Royal and Regal) decks between it and Lido Deck.

This is on the Coral.

I was excited to see in my email yesterday afternoon an email from Princess containing an upgrade notice. Proceeded to check it out and found that we had been "upgraded" from a BD Balcony on Dolphin Aft to a BC Balcony on Aloha deck Mid Aft ----- right below the pool deck. :eek: I called immediately and told them we were not interested in the upgrade and they filed a "form" to request that our original cabin be returned to us. They said it would take 72 hours to process. We don't really care if we get the same cabin back, anything similar would be fine, but would definitely be unhappy with the Aloha deck location. We shall see what happens.