Cruise Raider

Be sure to visit the concierge lounge on day one to learn of everything you are entitled to. Also, take advantage of the room service from the dining room menu and get breakfast at whatever specialty restaurant they have set up for suite guests. On the Discovery, I’ve also seen a special reserve section for suite guest in the theater for production shows.

A bit off the subject but has anyone had problems checking their balances on their cards lately. I am due a refund and I am trying to determine what card it went onto. For the life of me, I can’t get the AARP check balance function to work and I got through a few of my gift cards and the check balance screen on the Princess website now just comes up blank. I’ve tried it on two devices and it just won’t work. Is it just down? Hope this is just temporary but have tried for over an hour. I know I can call but have so many to verify, it’s making me a bit crazy.

I may do that. I see the reservations are wide open for our next sailing.

I went on a solo cruise once in a balcony and a friend was also sailing solo, but in a club class cabin. She asked if on a night or two, if I could join her in the reserve section since the smallest table is for two and I wouldn’t be taking anyone’s seat. She was told no, which was fine. I wasn’t expecting it anyway.

I believe you are right! My mistake.

Yes, it’s Lavazza and it is really delicious! I believe they have it on the Ruby and Crown now, too.

I must be the rare bird that loves the location of The Catch. I like to listen to the music and watch the activities below. We eat early, though, so the music is usually just a solo artist or violinist and not a huge party band. And yes, the value of the unlimited dining under the premier package will be better for most when the remodel is complete. I’m looking forward to trying O’Malley’s. I hope they are open for lunch on occasion. We have 2 more on the Majestic, one on the Discovery and then off to the Ruby for the next 3 sailings next year. We will probably upgrade on all of the Royal class sailings, especially on the Discovery, but won’t do so on the Ruby. I cannot imagine eating more than once per cruise in the Crown Grill and Sabatini’s … way too much food.

We hear calls for blood on every 10 cruises or so. There was a request for O- on the Majestic about 3 weeks ago. So, maybe not so rare but also something you don’t hear about happening really often. PS .. if no drinking within 48 hours, I am out. I asked at my donor site and they said, that wouldn’t matter, they just want to sober enough to give consent.

I will definitely miss Vines but hopefully, they will stock our favorite wines in O’Malley’s, like they did on the Discovery. The Crown always kept it there in Good Spirits for me .. even better because Vines isn’t always open when they are in port. We only get the plus package on the Grand/Crown class ships as their dining is too limited. And even though some wines we like are just a dollar over the limit, we can just pay the $1.18 extra per glass.

Correct me if I’m wrong. I think Princess moved away from that coffee syrup so all ships now have freshly brewed coffee.

Good to know! Thank you for that

We wish to do the same on our next cruise and are wanting to use our OBC for the upgrade. I was concerned about not being able to get reservations to the specialty restaurants so, I was considering buying it ahead of time, but it doesn’t look like a possibility to do so on the website under my personalizer or on the app. So, I am just going to wait. I think you may still be able to upgrade via your travel agent. I read somewhere on these boards that the premier package may be limited to make sure they aren’t overpromising what they can deliver. I don’t know how true that is. I also read that they will be charging a $10 pp cancellation fee if you don’t cancel your reservations at least xx hours ahead of time if you aren’t going to show. So, that may cut down on people making reservations they don’t intend to use. On our B2B sailings, a lot (I mean a lot) of people had the premier package. However, it wasn’t an issue getting in early at Harmony and The Catch (we never inquired about the Crown Grill), once we were onboard. Of note, there were no reservations at the specialty restaurants on the app ahead of time for us and of course, that was before it was unlimited. I would say, before you buy it in advance, check online to see if you can even make your reservations via the app and if there is nothing really available for the times you want, I’d just wait until you are onboard to purchase the upgrade. You will be able to upgrade on day 1 or 2, provided they don’t change that policy between now and when you cruise. If you purchase it on day 2, it will be prorated .. again, if they don’t change that.

It wasn’t for the MTP party but we did attend a cocktail party for sail away with Jeff Corwin that was limited to about 30 or 40 people and it was held up in the Hollywood Conservatory. It was quite nice, too! The PES happy hour was also held up there on the first leg of our B2B. Also, just of note, there is a small area of the Double Down Bar that has two gaming tables (I believe they were high limit tables) but the remainder of the bar still hosts patrons of the bar. As a matter of fact, they used that bar for the second leg of our recent B2B sailing for the PES event. BTW .. The MTP luncheon was held in Harmony on deck 5.

We just attended two MTP luncheons, with the most recent being just a few days ago. We were assured they weren’t phasing the luncheons out. I suppose that could change???

I was trying to upgrade to the premier package for our next sailing but am not able to do so from either the website or the app! I won’t worry about it .. if it’s completely sold out by the time we board, we will live. We will have the plus package and will just pay for any additional meals we want.

We ended up at the pier at about 10:00 AM and did stand in some lines but they weren’t all that bad. We heard a some complaints from the others in line .. not sure what they were expected. Inguesx you can give you luggage to a porter but Seattle has an entry in the booted level of the terminal where you could just drop off your luggage with a guy placing it right onto the belt. I much prefer this as you know it’s going onto the right ship. I didn’t see a lot of people tipping this poor guy. He was most appreciative of those that did. Anyway, from there we got into line to have our passports and medallions checked at the bottom of the escalator. Sorry that I cannot remember if we went through security down at the bottom or top of the escalator. But, I do know that check in was upstairs and then people were seated according to their boarding number or in the elite or suite lounge. It was totally full by the time we got there but we just stood in line for about 10-15 minutes and were allowed to board by 10:45 or thereabouts. To avoid long lines, I think I’d show up around 1:30 PM after shortly after that.

So, we’re now back at home and a couple more things to note from our most wonderful trip. We didn’t have to go through any immigration or facial recognition when disembarking. That was a first for us. We learned a bit more about the new premier package. Time will tell if they will have to limit the premier specialty dining reservations once it is in full force. We booked another cruise while onboard and we were hoping to upgrade to the premier package onboard using our OBC. I may wait to see how easy it is to get a reservation before I upgrade, though. We wouldn’t go every night as we really just can’t eat that much food but we’d like to use it for half the nights onboard. Speaking of booking another cruise while onboard, we were disappointed to find out our cruise we just booked couldn’t be refared a couple days later when the price dropped. Why? Because we booked the air through EZAir. If I’d have been smarter at the time, I would have booked it independently, directly through the airline. Live and learn! Crew can’t is a treasure. We used it a few times on our cruise and the response came back within a few minutes. It really beats standing in line at the front desk. everything solved within record time. And no challenges from those that don’t realize there are two lines at guest services, the one for suite and elite and one for all others. There is a sign right there but they still wish to challenge others in the suite and elite line. Things we love about cruising in and out of Seattle: - the disembarkation was just so quick and easy - Seattle Express have a shuttle at the pier where you don’t even have to reserve a space on their shuttle at a specific time. They leave very 20 minutes or so or when the shuttle is full, which ever is quicker. Do note, though, since cruising is back in full force, the shuttle was full of people coughing and sneezing, The shuttle driver had someone coughing the entire trip and asked her to please put a mask over her face. - Port Valet for your luggage and without any charge. We’d have had another 90- 120 minutes in line to check our luggage if it hadn’t been for this invaluable service. Things I did not like about cruising out of Seattle: - SeaTac airport .. it was an absolute zoo! No places to sit, very long lines for the restrooms, nobody seemed to know where they were going! It didn’t help that their systems had been hacked and so all the computer systems were shut down. Even their WiFi was down, all the airport monitors were down. Such a mess. Some flights were canceled and others, including ours, were delayed. There was completely inadequate signage to indicate the separate lines for security and which baggage conveyor to get your luggage for the arrivals. There were signs we saw for SeaSpot Saver but nothing for TSA pre check or Clear. There is construction going on making traffic getting in and out a compete mess. To be fair, we usually fly in and out of smaller airports whenever we can. Regardless of the inconvenient ending, we really had a fantastic cruise! 🚢

No, OBC can only be used onboard or in advance for excursions.

Not that I noticed but that isn’t saying it wasn’t held. We had so few sea days and I think the Catch had the sushi lunch offered on those 2 sea days.

The first week, it was held in the Hollywood Conservatory but this last week, it was in the Double Down Bar. There were many new cruisers on both legs of our cruise so, there was rarely more and a handful of people attending. Also, the first week, it was from 5-7 PM but the second week, it folded up at 6:30 PM. I’m not sure what time it started but I think it was 4:30 PM.

We ate a specialty restaurants a couple of times but we usually don’t eat dinner. We did just go to the PES happy hour event for small bites around 5 PM. Lunch is normally our bigger meal. We enjoyed the pizza at Alfredo’s and the noodle bar up on the pool deck. We’ve not eaten dinner in the MDR in quite some time .. probably the last dozen cruises or more. we had two specialty dinners in our package for each sailing so, we went to the Catch by Rudi twice and Harmony twice. Both restaurants were outstanding. We plan on getting the premier package on our next sailing and will probably do the same and not eat every night in specialty restaurants even though they are included. We don’t like to stuff ourselves.

They do … sorry for the omission

That’s what I heard about O’Malleys. It will be a causal dining venue. Sounds great to me.

We have only eaten in the MDR for lunch 2 times and breakfast 1 time. The lunch was decent on embarkation day, great on the next time we went and breakfast was excellent. We haven’t gone for dinner once.

there is a set menu but you can customize it every so slightly. Just of note, the $12 options for pizza are not part of the packages.