atobols

According to your descriptions, we're not in the target audience. We're 46 and travel with our 17 and 15-year-old sons. We've sailed 7 Carnival, 1 RC, 1 Costa, 8 Princess, and one Celebrity cruise. Our preference lately has been Princess because they sail out of San Francisco, our home port. We sailed our first Celebrity cruise last year and are planning our second one now. There are things we like better about Celebrity and other things we like better about Princess. If Celebrity decided to make SF a home port, it would be a tough call between the two. Celebrity: Food is better Large-venue entertainment is better loved the real towels in bathrooms loved the coffee shop Princess: small-venue entertainment is vastly superior naturalist onboard for Alaska and Hawaii voyages longer itineraries (10+ days), which we prefer food availability at all hours is better wine bar experience is superior

Does anyone remember the hours for embarkation lunch? I'm thinking 12:00 to 1:30 but don't know if I can trust my memory on that. 🤣

I ordered Indian vegetarian each night of our 10 day Alaska cruise. It wasn't great. I pre-ordered with the head guy in the dining room. Even though we had the same dining room reservation every night, we never had the same area of the dining room. They always had to hunt him down to verify I had actually ordered an Indian meal. The food was good once I got it but it was a hassle and there were only 3 main dishes that kept repeating. We're going on a 16 day Hawaii next month and I won't be ordering Indian food again. As others have stated, the buffet always has at least one dish and it's very good. Unfortunately, I never saw an Indian breakfast offered.

We were on the Ruby about 6 months ago and had similar issues with service and long lines to get in. We had 7:20 reservations and it usually took 20 minutes in line and then at least half an hour to order drinks and a menu. It was a 10 day cruise and we eventually gave up on reservations and just went to dinner after 8pm. It seemed to be slightly faster service but there was usually at least one menu item that they had run out of. We're on a 16 day cruise next month and decided to try reservations again. We went with 8:20 in hopes of less waiting and faster service.

On our cruise in June, we had 7:20 reservations and usually had to wait about 20 minutes in line. It also took about 2 and a half hours for our table of 5 to finish. Lines were a bit longer on formal nights. We're doing the Hawaii Christmas/New Year cruise next month. We decided to try an 8:20 reservation for this one. Hopefully, the lines and the time it takes to eat dinner will be greatly reduced.

I wish Princess would change up their breakfast a little more, especially the vegetarian options. I would love to see some breakfast burritos, chilaquiles, or Indian dishes. A spicy sambar would be fantastic. Instead, I usually get some muesli and a side of cottage cheese.

We've done it once out of SF and will be going again this Christmas. It was a decent day in SF on the day we left, sunny and in the 60s. It rained and was cold until we were one day away from Hawaii. Hawaii was sunny, warm, and fabulous. It went back to rainy and cold as we sailed back to SF. Also, the ship was seriously rocking as we left SF. We had to walk down hallways holding onto the wall. My kids were in the pool and the waves were strong enough to toss them up onto the splash zone and then wash them back into the pool. We loved it but people prone to seasickness weren't enjoying it for the first 24 hours.

The naturalist talks are one of my favorite events on Alaskan cruises. Does anyone know if there is a naturalist on the Ruby? I would love to hear any details you might have. I've been stalking trip reports and haven't seen anything for this season.

I feel the same way. We sail on the Ruby in about two weeks. I plan to ask for a vegetarian Indian meal each night.

When you have a chance, could you please let us know the name of the naturalist? I'm loving your posts and you're making me look forward to our cruise more than ever. Please keep these fabulous and informative posts coming!

We've been sailing Princess for 5 years. As a bay area mom who works at a school, I get it. My boys each have one pair of pants that aren't sweats or joggers. They're only used for cruises. I make them pack that pair of pants for each cruise. If we see men being allowed into the dining room with shorts from day 2 on, they are allowed to wear shorts in the dining room. They have been able to wear shorts to dinner on every single Princess cruise we've done. They usually opt to wear those pants on "dress to impress" evening with a button-down shirt. We've done two Alaskan cruises from SF, two Mexican Riviera cruises from the west coast, one Hawaiian cruise from SF, and one Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona. That's been our experience.

We're planning for our 10-day Alaskan cruise in a couple of months. My kids are platinum level but they're staying in their grandmother's cabin, she's gold level. My husband and I are also platinum and in our own cabin. Will Grandma be able to join us at any platinum/elite events or in the lounge for embarkation/disembarkation?

I had the same problem. My husband was able to add our credit card but I wasn't. I went into his app and authorized myself as a user under his credit card. It was the only way I could get it to work on my phone.

Here is an old post about the same room.

The room was an aft premium deluxe cabin on the Majestic Princess. The queen bed was fine. The other two beds blocked the balcony door. We had to climb over the pullout couch bed and duck under the drop-down couch to get out onto our balcony. Also, there was absolutely no floor space when all the beds were deployed. It was like walking an obstacle course to get from the balcony area beds over to the bathroom on the other side of the room. The kids had to climb over an end table and the queen bed to get to the bathroom. It would have been a perfectly fine room for 2 people, just not 4.

No, just a standard balcony room. It's actually a really great room for 4 people. We have tried standard balconies, deluxe balconies, and mini-suites. The only room I would absolutely never book again (for 4 people) is the deluxe balcony.

This was our room set up on the Grand Princess, the room was C518 which is a B2 room. https://photos.app.goo.gl/R5USNcNgDTJ7VsNz6

When I get tired of the bland vegetarian options, I request an Indian vegetarian meal for the next night.

We cruise Princess because they use San Francisco as a home port. We tried RC, Carnival, and Costa and none of those were for us. Princess isn't a perfect fit but it's convenient and we know what to expect. We recently tried Celebrity and we would definitely jump over to that cruise line if they made SF a homeport.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread... hopefully you still check in here occasionally. I'm looking at using them for this summer in Alaska. What did you think of your tours through Alaska Shore Tours?

We are in our mid-40s and usually cruise Princess. It's the only major cruise line that ports in SF so that's what we normally cruise. We tried our first Celebrity cruise this winter. We liked it but there were some things we missed from Princess. We are not party people, the only way we stay up until 11 or 12 is if we're waiting on our kids to return from whatever they're off doing with their friends. Entertainment: I don't think Princess can compare to the large evening productions shows of Celebrity. The guest headliners are about the same. Princess is much better in the small venue evening entertainment. I love knowing that there are two or three lounges that we can go to every evening and see different people. We love going to a lounge, getting a glass of wine, and listening to someone sing and play the piano or their guitar. Food: If you love good food, Princess may be a disappointment. They try but it's just not as good as Celebrity. There are usually one or two stand-out dishes each night and the others are just OK. My advice is "listen to your waiter." They know which ones are good and they will recommend those dishes. We found the friendliness of the staff and quality of service to be much better on Princess. I wouldn't worry about dressing up for anything on Princess. A lot of people will say you're supposed to dress up but the majority of people don't actually do it.

I've only been on the Majestic once and my kids were 15 and 13 when we went. It was also right after they lifted covid restrictions and only kids 12+ could sail because of vaccine availability. The kids club was about the same as pre-covid. A cruise in May will probably not have very many kids because that's right at the end of the school year. I'm assuming you'll see primarily families with really young kids. IME, the kids club will adapt to those circumstances. They'll combine groups or gear activities more toward the younger kids. The Majestic is a lovely ship. It's not great if your child wants to swim. The only indoor pool I can remember is the adults-only pool in the conservatory. If swimming isn't a deal-breaker, I think the Majestic would be a good choice. My kids really liked the Majestic. Lots of food choices, a nice layout of the ship, and bigger than the Grand-class ships (which is what we usually sail out of SF).

I have 2 teen boys and they could care less about the ship. We've been on the Grand, Majestic, Ruby, and Regal. They liked all of them. They like the movies at night, the ice cream, the pizza, the international cafe, and the kids club has xbox and PlayStation. We were recently on a Celebrity cruise and they were incredibly disappointed because only xbox was available. Who knew Super Smash Bros tournaments made a cruise that much more enjoyable?!

Our last Alaska cruise was in June/July 2019. It was hot! Our day in Skagway was close to 100F. The pools were packed. My pictures from Glacier Bay show me sitting in a ski jacket, hat, and gloves in the morning. By the afternoon, I was sitting on the deck in a T-shirt and shorts. Alaska has some pretty wild temperature changes and you need to be prepared to be comfortable in all of them.

We always go for MDR. I don't love the embarkation menu but I do love that it's calm and relaxing. That's always the first moment I feel like I'm on vacation.