capnjack

We chose a guarantee on the Grand for a WS. At the time, there was one left F301 and I had heard some negative remarks, but we gambled that we would not get that WS. Three months later, we were assigned F301. There were some major smoke, air conditioning and vibration issues. Later, we booked F311 on the Golden and it was wonderful.

We had F301 on the Caribbean Princess for two 7 days B2B, and had none of the issues you described. it was slightly smaller and lacked the desk under the windows, but we had plenty of storage space without it. I would take F301 on the Caribbean Princess again.

In answer to the OP question, you would be guaranteed a full suite with a WS guarantee. You may get a suite in the front of the ship with a balcony that unusable except when at port, or you may get one on Riviera deck right under one of the pools and have noise from chairs being moved around early in the morning.

On the other hand, if you are upgraded you will have a balcony.

This is our first cruise on Princess and we booked B750 on the Sapphire Princess for Alaska in 2012. Princess' website has the stateroom listed as having an obstructed/view uses balcony. Looking at pictures of the Aft of Sapphire the only thing I can see is the balcony is partially covered. Is that why it is listed that way? What else should we know. All other cruises have been with Celebrity and Royal. Thanks for any help.

It is listed that way solely because of the support beam that exists in the balcony. But with the huge balcony that you have, it should not be a problem.

The Sapphire and Diamond are sister ships. Here is a picture of the Diamond aft so you can see what I mean:

Your balcony is three times the width of the normal mini-sute or balcony double balcony. The beam should not be an issue. To get an idea look at the pictures of A752 balcony on the first page of this thread. You balcony should be similar.

The answer as so many have already said is yes you can get off a cruise at a different port. In fact I know of several people who have used a short carnival cruise to make a on way trip to Cozumel and take a huge amount of luggage with them. It was less expensive than flying and shipping the stuff.

"In order to embark in a US port and disembark in a second US port, the vessel must visit a distant foreign port outside of the North America(Bermuda counts as Part of North America)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Vessel_Services_Act_of_1886

Therefore, a non-US flagged vessel that transports a passenger from San Francisco and to San Diego without a stop in a foreign port outside of North America, is in violation of the Passenger Vessel Services Act.

I don't consider Victoria, BC to be a distant foreign port. But, In June, Princess allowed us to disembark in Victoria a day early, rather than go back to Seattle. We hadn't planned this in advance, just did it on the ship on our way to Victoria! I also used my cell phone to get a reservation at a hotel! We weren't charged anything!

That is why Alaska cruises starting in Seattle are all round trip (with a stop in Victoria or Vancouver), while cruises to/from Vancouver are one way.