Cruise Raider

Embarkation in Vancouver is indeed, pretty bad but some of that depends on how many cruise ships are in port. If it’s more than one, it is really horrible. Also, only if your first port of call is in the US, Will you go through immigration before boarding the ship. Then again, if your first port of call is in Canada, your immigration will be when you hit your first port of call in the US and that can be equally as bad. I just buck up and know it’s going to be bad and try to keep a sense of humor about it all. I actually just prefer to cruise out of Seattle instead.

No, it’s $149 per guest (no 18% service added) but depending on when you booked your suite, it may still apply?

No, it does not. Also, the cancellation is once time per policy for the annual term, although you can up the limit for the cancellation for preexisting conditions. It appears this can only be done when booking at least two persons on the policy but you might be able to have that portion increased for a solo policy if you call in. I’m just not sure.

Absolutely! I asked all my friends which annual insurance product they used, read over different policies and went with Allianz. It’s going to save us hundreds of dollars over the course of a year. The one thing I will miss with the Princess Protection is the ability to cancel for any reason to receive cruise credits in return. It’s what just a nice peace of mind option that Princess offers, albeit, not ever used by us. So, I suggest weighing that out ahead of time. Plus, you will want to take notice of the cancellation component that is per policy vs the portions of the insurance that are per trip. The coverage is decent and much more reasonable if you travel a lot.

If you get the Princess Vacation Protection, only then will your insurance increase by a rate of 9% if you purchase the package ahead of time. From what I understand, you can purchase the plus or premier packaged fare on day one or two (if purchased on day two, we were told it was prorated) and you can use OBC to pay for it and your insurance doesn’t reflect any change. A couple of things to consider: If you purchase it when onboard, your insurance also won’t pay out if you need to leave the cruise early (such a rare occurrence, though). Also, if you receive a move over or move down offer (again, a rather rare occurrence), it will be for the stand alone fare only, no other perks included. Of note, I think you may be more likely to get one of these offers with the cheaper fare. You can still purchase your fare package onboard and have guest service apply the AARP gift cards to pay your folio balance. At least they were able to do that for us a couple of years ago. On the cruise where we met you, I upgraded from the $50 plus package to the then $80 premier package ahead of time and it cost $54 extra on my Princess insurance. I did have a lot of OBC on that cruise so I wondered if I should have just upgraded once we were onboard. But, we were lucky on that sailing with Princess Prizes so, I have no regrets. I’ve since upgraded to an annual insurance policy as it made financial sense for us to do so, at least for the upcoming year of travel that we have planned. That way, it makes no difference when you buy the package.

It was years ago but I do remember seeing a tip jar for the piano players. Now, we used to cruise on other cruise lines much more often than we do now, so I can’t remember if it was actually on a Princess ship. I don’t see them anymore.

If you have your medallion and all BC info is entered into your app, you will be able to go through the green lane without any problem.

We pack light so we don’t go that route although, we have some friends that do so. we’ve never been denied nice stemware when we ask for it. BTW, Celebrity serves all their drinks in Riedel glassware except for by the pool. Even their water glasses are made by Riedel. Wow! That is impressive. However, their wine couldn’t match what we can now get on Princess. That hasn’t always been the case.

I tend to disagree with you on a couple of points you’ve made. The wine program has only deteriorated in the last couple of years (not the last decade) when they still had outstanding wines available on the premier package and some very decent wines available under the plus package. Now, what they serve is Canyon Road under the Plus package, where not a no name label, it is pretty much undrinkable. I do agree to ask for a premier wine now and pay the difference if you don’t have the premier package. Also, you may have to ask but the wine packages are still available, they are just no longer advertised. You are correct about getting a decent wine glass. However, just prove yourself to be responsible and return your glass every evening and you will get a nice glass with a thin rim, maybe even a Riedel glass. We’ve not been made to transfer our wine into a bubble rimmed industrial strength glass since the restart. But, when we go to the theater or to a show, we ask the bartender to switch them out so we don’t have to return the nicer wine glasses before heading up to our cabin for the evening. And, while the newest ship we’ve cruised on is the Discovery, without having a Vines, the Crown Grill Bar and Good Spirits have stocked some decent wines for us. We’ve even found that the Salty Dog (now O’Malleys) has found some decent bottles of wine for us. Just of note, I am a huge fan of California wines, both reds and whites. That may make a difference when it comes to those that love wines made outside of the US.

When you arrive at the wine table, usually just past security, they ask for your room number and name and check it against the log they have and write down how many bottles you have with you. They will charge you corkage on anything that is in excess of their limit. It probably show up the next day so you won’t have to pay local taxes in addition to the corkage fee. If you’d like to consume all of those bottles on your balcony, no problem but if you wish to take one or two to the dining room, have them put the stickers on the ones you’d like to consume outside of your cabin just in case.

We had friends that recently went on a B2B on the Sapphire and they mentioned they have slightly over 400 days and were invited to both MTP luncheons. We have yet to be invited to one on an Alaskan sailing because we tend to cruise out of San Francisco, which is our home port. We see the same people as the most travelled passengers on those sailings. The ones out of Vancouver and possibly Seattle, I think you can sometimes get in with just over 400 days to the MTP luncheon.

While I haven’t been to Alaska yet for this year, we do cruise up there about twice a year. All cruises from June through August will have a lot of kids onboard and they drop off in May and Sept. Seven day cruises will have a lot of kids, whereas the 10-11 day cruises usually have fewer children and 14 days and more will have even less.

We’ve seen this on the Royal as far back as I can remember. It is not loud at all in there. The number and variety of machines is inadequate, IMO, and there is a very small section for table players but never saw that operating. It was completely nonsmoking making it very nice to play without being subjected to smoke, albeit way too small.

Changes can happen whether you’ve paid in full or not. It’s the airlines that changes flights, not EZ Air. We’ve had both good and bad experiences with EZ air. There are very stiff penalties if you change your EZ air flights .. like 100%. But they will guarantee to get you to your cruise or back home if there is a delay on your flight there or back. the choice is yours

We traveled extensively on her when she was home-ported here of SF (after the restart) and they have had nonsmoking casino machines, I’d say about 30 casino machines, give or take, in that area. Now, I haven’t been on the Royal since she left SF but even though I thought the area didn’t have a great variety of machines, it was a nice way to avoid the smoke. It’s a shame that nonsmokers have to settle when we are the majority of gamblers. I haven’t seen this on any other Princess cruise ship.

There are slot machines on the Royal in the Take 5 Bar area .. far too small and not a good variety of machines there but that always where you could find us gambling, as you didn’t even get a whiff of smoke in there. There was still a large area where for the Take Five Lounge area for those that lent there for visiting or to watch sporting events on their TVs. It wasn’t noisy, either.

I’ve gotten a few move over offers in my cruising lifetime and they are usually offered very late in the game, as inevitably, people cancel (or don’t) late in the game. Since they didn’t get the number of expected last minute cancellations, they made the offer. They will always have someone like us that will accept their offer. I actually have my fingers crossed that I get one of these offers on just about every cruise I take. 😆

Please .. let this rumor be true! While I can respect the fact that smokers pay for their cruising habit, just as I do, I would absolutely love it if their smoking was limited to one section OUTSIDE on the ship. Smoking has no place anywhere inside! I include that in all my surveys. The casinos went nonsmoking onboard during the return to service and it’s a shame they ever brought it back, as they had their policies in place .. why did they ever go backwards on that? I would gamble more frequently if I had some clean air to breathe. I know a lot of others that share those same thoughts. Since they closed down Churchills, the problems have seemingly gotten worse and even non gamblers are now just using the casino as their smoking section.

According to the cruise ship schedule, you will be boarding at Pier 91, along with the Radiance of the Seas, so it will be quite busy at the Port that day. https://www.portseattle.org/sites/default/files/2024-05/2024 Regular Season Sailing Schedule 5.1.24.pdf You will be asked to wait in a line to get into the terminal along with everyone else for your ship if you arrive early. Once they open up the terminal for embarking passengers, you will go through security and check in. You will go through the green lane if you already have your medallion and the blue lane if not. Once through all that, you will be given a priority boarding group number if boarding hasn’t already started but be allowed right onto the ship if it has.

Once dining changed to DMW, perhaps it was missed by some of the diners, as it was only done once per night and maybe even only in a specific main dining room. We’ve definitely seen it several times since the restart. I remember thinking that flinging napkins around in the air wasn’t the safest practice.

They still do the baked Alaska parade but instead of candles, they now have those little tea lights.

Call room service as soon as you get to your room and have them deliver bottles to your cabin. Sometimes the limit is 6, sometimes it is 12. It’s included in your plus package fare.

We would take $100 pp per port stop just to be on the safe side although, we’ve never spent that much in each port. Take smaller bills for some of it.

Good to know and I will definitely confirm unless we don’t get a card in our room to show our reservations. Recently, that’s what we have experienced. We like to go early so, we haven’t had any issues while onboard to switch it up if needed, even for very booked sailings.

I actually like the Hyatt on the Embarcadero for its proximity to the BART [Bay Area Rapid Transit] station and only about a mile to the pier. It’s all flat and has sidewalks if you walk across the street to the FerryBuilding and further down along the waterfront on the Embarcadero to Pier 27. (you would walk opposite the direction of the Bay Bridge .. towards the Golden Gate Bridge). BART is our local public transportation station and we sometimes even use it for when we go on a cruise when we don’t have a lot of luggage and the weather is decent. Also, the BART train does go from SFO (a bit of a walk but good directions given and all under cover) into downtown San Francisco with one transfer in Daly City (I think.. it will be obvious). Taking BART would really depend on how mobile you are with luggage. Even so, you could alway get a taxi there but if you would be going that route, you may get want to stay in a hotel closer to Fisherman’s Wharf. I like the Hyatt on the Embarcadero as it is a bit quieter down that way but still close to what the City has to offer along the Embarcadero with an even shorter walk to the BART station to get to the middle of the City.