cflutist

5 minutes ago, Catlover54 said:

What "options to consider" do they offer -- change to the Cloud or Explorer?

40 minutes ago, rosewood jo said:

Did this letter come by email? Or regular mail? 

It was an email that my TA received.

It's official Antarctica season canceled for the Wind

Still hopeful that our December 22nd Wind to South Georgia will sail, but it doesn't look promising. 

2 minutes ago, kaju said:

This is the newly cancelled cruise list?

Yes, my TA sent it to me.

My July 23 to the Russian Far East on the Explorer is not on this list but I fully expect it to be on the next list.

Here is the list from my TA

8 hours ago, nini said:

I also think the demand is high due to it being a "convenient" trip for half of the USA. 

 For us, we can drive 3 hours to Seattle, park the car, get on theship. Love it!

We have been to Alaska 8 times now, 1 on RC and 7 times in Princess. We have done NB/SB B2B from Vancouver and the 10 day from San Francisco where we take BART (public transit) to the port. We have seen Glacier Bay, College Fjord, Hubbard Glacier, and Tracy Arm.

But there are still parts of Alaska that we want to see. So sailing on this cruise in July. Spending 6 days in Alaska and 12 days in the Russian Far East. There are still cabins available if anyone would like to join us.

23 minutes ago, Coral said:

It is also the multiple ports in Norway trips that are expensive. Our trip went all the way up to North Cape. TA with just one or two days in Norway is going to be different. My trip was on the Sapphire and it was the most expensive trip I had been on.

We visited North Cape too, then farther north to Longyearbean in Svalbard where the Global Seed Vault is, and hiked on mushy permafrost.

Then over to Murmansk Russia. It was the best cruise we were on until we sailed to Antarctica on Silversea and made multiple landings daily.

We liked Silversea so much that we now have an expedition cruise to Southwest Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and the Russian Far East this year, and another SS cruise to Greenland and the Canadian northeast.

We also have another cruise back to Tahiti (our 4th cruise there) on the Pacific Princess.

Norway is more expensive than Alaska, and Antarctica is more expensive than Norway.

2017 - 18 nights to Norway on the Pacfic Princess in an Owner's suite was $28,130 or $1562 per day.

2018 - 10 nights to Alaska on the Grand Princess in a Penthouse suite was $9,411 or $941 per day.

2018 - 15 nights to Antarctica on Silversea Cloud in a Veranda suite (equivalent to a mini on Princess) was $39,570 or $2638 per day.

Oceania has 4 of the R ships currently. They are currently updating all of them.

The Tahitian/Ocean Princess is the Sirena on Oceania. I sailed on their Nautica last summer for 20 nights, fabulous cuisine that puts Princess to shame.

2 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

The current position of the Coral Princess

 

What are the dots?

21 minutes ago, Hulagirl said:

CFlutist your pictures of the ship are excellent.  We love these ships and now love sailing on Azamara since they have these ships also.  We were on the Pacific a year and half ago and have it booked for next year again also.  Granted this size of ship isn't for everyone, but we love it.

 

Yes on the Grand Class ships the full suites do have the wetbars.  They are small but useful along with the desk in the cabin by them. 

 

Thanks for posting the link to your photos.

 

Susan

Yes we have been sailing on Oceania as well. We have the same suite 7004 booked for the Pacific to French Polynesia and the Regatta to Alaska. I love Oceania cuisine, 28-day dry aged USDA Prime grade beef in their steakhouse. Lobster every day at the grill for lunch, and a slew of No Sugar Added desserts and ice cream/gelato for me (am diabetic).

Silversea is also nice but they are all inclusive and we really don't drink. Alcohol flowed freely on that ship which had 200 pax and 240 crew to Antarctica. 

I just looked through all of our photos for the Owner's Suite 8067 that we stayed in on the Pacific Princess and I didn't find a wet bar.

We hosted afternoon tea for our CC RollCall group but didn't host a party where alcohol was served.

The Grand Class (Grand and Star) penthouse suites that we stayed in had wetbars. The new Premium and Penthouse suites on the Majestic Princess had an area above the mini fridge where our mini bars were set up, however there was no sink with running water.

Just now, memoak said:

Is club class true anytime ?   We will be in her for 14 days later this year 

When we were on her in 2018 it was a 45 min leeway from the start time of the fixed dining times. However I did read that someone more recently could arrive anytime and they were served. It is a very small area of the dining room. We noticed that in Norway pax preferred to dine later than earlier.

5 minutes ago, echoshipmate said:

Does it have anytime dining or it is it traditional, early and or late?

Fixed early and late seating.

However they do have Club Class (anytime) dining for Full Suite and Club Class Mini suite passengers.

1 hour ago, compozer said:

Do the full suites have a wet bar?

 

No but they do have two bathrooms (full and half).

The Pacific is one of our favorite ships.

We sailed on her in July 2018 after her drydock.

As I understand they continued to change out cabin furniture after we disembarked. 

Here are some photos 

http://www.websailor.org/index.php?/category/1047

FYI, Antarctica FAQs

https://iaato.org/frequently-asked-questions

1 hour ago, AryMay said:

I feel bad for all of you facing so many disappointments on this cruise. First the unrest in Santiago that changed many plans and now missing ports and time in Antarctica. 

 

We did Holland America's version of this itinerary last season and although I'm sure it was more expensive (with 22 days), we had double the number of ports from what the Princess itinerary shows. Our only missed port was Puerto Montt (which now is a substitute port for this cruise.) That was the only port we missed. We were forced to skip it due to swells that made tendering too dangerous but the captain went directly to the next port of Castro. The ship spent the night at Castro which gave us the late afternoon/evening and all the next day to explore the city. Hopefully the conditions will be good enough to allow the Coral to stop.

 

This truly is an amazing itinerary but if you are considering doing this in the future, it might be wise to look at other options with more ports. Here is what the HAL itinerary looked like this past February. I believe their cruises might have one less port for next year.

 

 

 

We have 32 Princess cruises but this is the 15-night roundtrip cruise from Ushaiua to Antarctica that we took on Silversea an all inclusive luxury expedition cruise.

Something to consider for those who want to go in the future. All cabins have butler service and there were more crew onboard than passengers. 

We missed two stops in the Falklands because the Captain wanted to get across the Drake Passage before the weather got worse. We missed going ashore on Elephant Island (where the Shackleton statue is) because elephant seals were blocking our path and had to settle for photos from our zodiacs. We missed two other stops due to 50 knot winds but got to Deception Island a day early so we overnighted in the caldera and made two landings instead. 

1 hour ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

 

I know you said "one year ago"...but what was the itinerary?  Was it in a cold environment or did they just have the AC cranked up too high?

I didn't find the MDR too cold.  We were on a 18-night cruise up the coast of Norway,  stopping at Svalbard in the Arctic,  then over to Murmansk Russia. 

We spent 9 days above the Arctic Circle. 

Perhaps they had the heater on?

Maybe microclimates in the MDR?

This was my typical dinner attire (no sweater). 

10 minutes ago, jondfk said:

 

We're booked on PP twice over the next 18 months, 19 days each time.  It'll be our first (and second) experience with the small ship.  

 

I've had conflicting input regarding Club Class dining, I wonder if anyone can share their experience.  We've been told, by a onboard cruise consultant, that even CC is fixed seating / fixed table.  Princess Phone reps have stated that CC is Anytime as on the larger ships.  We'll know the answer soon enough having booked one sailing with and one sailing without CC.  Still, the benefit of someone's experience would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

Pacific Princess does have Club Class dining but it is only a 45 minute leeway from the start times of the two Fixed seatings. There are no assigned tables in CC so you can dine with whomever you choose. There were 6 of us who dined together on most days and we took turns sitting at the table for 2 by the window.

8 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

 

Yes, that one caught us somewhat by surprise as we generally do Anytime Dining.  We're just approaching it as a chance to meet some new friends!

Club Class Dining is available the Pacific but it is not true Anytime as on the other ships. They did give us a 45-minute leeway as to arrival time.

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Oceania also bought 4 of the original Renaissance Cruises R-class ships and renamed them to Insignia, Regatta, Nautica and Sirena (formerly known as the Ocean Princess when Princess owned her). 

We have sailed 4 times on the Tahitian, Ocean, and Pacific Princess. We really like the size of the old R ships and have also sailed on the Oceania Nautica and will sail on the Regatta in 2021. Oceania cuisine blows Princess away (USDA Prime grade 28-day dry aged beef) and is equivalent to the cuisine on Silversea. 

All the lobster and filet mignon you want available at the grill everyday of the cruise.

We also like the fact that the Owner's and Vista suites of the old R ships have two bathrooms and real dining tables with 4 chairs. Been told that balcony cabins and insides have sofas.

After sailing twice on the Majestic Princess (Penthouse and Premium suites) we are turned off by the crowds.

We also don't like the fact that there is no dining table, but rather only a small coffee table.

There is more intimacy on the Pacific and while others may be bored we are fine with books loaded to our tablets.

We didn't sit out on the balcony (Cloud) for any length of time but hubby sure ran out there a lot to take photos.

29 minutes ago, Sumitro Ong said:

Hi erber, do you think investing in telephoto lens 70-200m will be able to capture the “far away” penguins and whales? My initial plan is to bring my 2 lens 10-24mm and 24-70mm, however looking at wildlife that you saw but unable to capture due to distance, I am considering investing in a telephoto lens. 

I think that you will need more than that.

Our ship the Silver Cloud had 200 pax and 240 crew. It was a small ice class rated ship that could sail close to the coastlines allowing us to take zodiacs ashore.

The Coral is about 2000 pax?

Hubby took two camera bodies, one with 16-300mm and the other with 100-400mm. He used both of them too in the zodiacs and from the ship. There is no time to change lenses, hence the two cameras. If you want close ups of penguins and their chicks, see lions, albatross, or the various whale species, you will need a longer focal length lens.

Here is a photo of a whale fluke taken with the 100-400mm lens that hubby registered with the Happy Whale tracking site.