lissie

We tend to do buffet for breakfast and lunch. We will be cruising with an inside cabin the balconies are significantly more expensive. We don't mind insides - so long as there are places to sit around the ship. I'm still fairly evenly posed between the options LOL

I got home to NZ in November - it took me a month to get around to putting some currency in my wallet! You don't really need any

Yes the Royal is about 10% cheaper than Grand (but both are very reasonable) - the itinerary for Grand is slightly better. The extra pools may swing it Grand's way - we don't sit outside onsunloungers to get skin cancer - but we like pools - we swim and then retreat to somewhere shady for a drink or 2 .

Hi I'm looking at a trans-pacific relocation from Vancouver home to New Zealand in September. Both the Royal and Grand sail on similar days from Vancouver to Auckland in September. We've never sailed Princess but did 2 long cruises on Queen Elizabeth last year so we know what a trans-oceanic cruise is like. The itineraries are a bit of a wash for us - either is acceptable. With the number of sea days I think it comes down to ship choice. We like shows and music and drinking nice cocktails with live music. We love ballroom dancing but not expect to do that on either ship. We like a good lecture on a relevant topic but I'm not sure that Princess does those? We like to eat a variety of food so the ship with the more options would probably be preferred. I know the Royal is 3500 pax and the Grand about 2500pax - we've only been on Queen Elizabeth which is about 2200 - with the Royal feel like a floating shopping mall? No interested in spas or lying all day in the sun - but like a good promenade deck and nice pools. I dont' think either ship will have a huge number of kids on them because of the time of year and length of cruise.

8am-5pm so I thought we would have enough time as its not a tender port.

I normally carry an empty plastic water bottle -something like this Sistema Drink Bottle 800ml Quick Flip (storagebox.co.nz) do I need to go buy a stainless steel one to get it on board. Not issue with drinking tap water but I like a bottle particularly for shore excursions.

We were told we'd lose it - but as it ws a completely trivial amount ( about US$40) - we didn't care

Is there an outlet near the bed? My partner uses a CPAP and I'm sure he's not the only one.

Dorky shoes - comfort wins all the time. I thought wearking sneakers with dresses was odd for years - but when I really looked I noticed that everyone under 30 does just that - so I do now! Maybe brink the cute black sandals for evenings for a few hours ?

Haha - small world I know what you mean about the language barrier - i always hesitate to use "jumper" for that warm layer you put over a shirt because Americans get confused !

Your husband is right - I did 3 weeks in China - 2 weeks in high altitude and freezing cold -10C at times. The Chinese don't heat indoors so there was zero point in trying to wash anything - so literally I wore 3 layers of merino for 10 days and nights. They needed a wash at the end, but it wasn't horrible the way polypro or cotton would have been.

Merino is merino wherever we are 🙂 I think I agree - I think I'll have to just hand wash it

Interesting - I've just checked my favourite brand and yes I can dry clean the heavier items

My partner doesn't own a tux. He wore a dark charcoal (gray ) suit. He wasn't the only one. You can wear a tie or a bow tie (which actually take less space... In fact socks are optional... But I think underpants are a good idea...

Oh that would be great if they do...

Do you have a price for a bag? We are only a similar length cruise so I'm doing the maths

One thing you may want to think about - I'm not sure how cold it gets in Alaska but we are cruising Greenland and Iceland this July and the temps are cool enough to justify quite a lot of our merino clothing. The issue is that merino can't go through the dryer - and I'm not sure that you can rely on a laundry service to return some clothing wet (we know from previous cruises ours will easily dry overnight hung up in the cabin because of the air con) .

Any guesses how many gala nights we will have on our Boston/Iceland/Boston cruise in July? There are a LOT of port days embark 1 port day 1 sea day 3 port days 1 sea day 1 port day 2 sea days 6 port days 1 sea day 1 port day 1 sea day 3 port days 1 sea day 1 port day debark I'm trying to minimize luggage, we already need to pack some warm gear for Iceland and Greeland, if we can avoid a suit jacket it would make life much easier

So far we've only cruised on ships with self-serve laundries. But currently booked on 25 day cruise which is cold weather. The ship doesn't have laundries you have to use the laundry service. I'm fine with that EXCEPT much of our clothing will 100% pure merino wool. Its incredibly warm and breathable and perfect for the weather we expect. It also will be ruined if it's put through a dryer. You also can't dry clean it. I don't mean have its life shortened or slightly faded - I mean very, very badly shrunk and rendered unusable. With a laundromat - I just hang it up wet around the cabin overnight and the air con drys it by morning. But is is possible to get clothing returned wet - not dried ? Do pepole do this routinely? Or is this a totally odd request and will I have to resort to hand washing (totally annoying) . This is Holland America but I know othe rships also have no self-service laundry

I agree its totally weird - but we were advised to do the same in Philadelphia and it worked like a charm. Basically, as you enter the lobby of a 4 star or better hotel look for concierge or bell hop desk - its usually off to the side rather than straight ahead. We just asked to leave the bags for a few hours and they agreed a time we'd return for them. There was no discussion where we were staying - and as we'd just come off a long-haul overnight flight it would be fair to say we didn't look like we could have afforded stayed at the hotel LOL

Horrible? It's the end of civilization as we know it and they are defecting to a different cruise line - unnamed of course! They will also make up what they think the rules should be. The actual rules are here Our packing guide - Ship dress code - Cunard cruises

We come off the Zaandam in Boston 23 August. We are looking at a flight to Quebec (via Toronto) at midday. HAL says we will "arrive" at 7am so I imagine we will be in port fairly early. We can self-disembark. My main question is do we need to allow 3 hours to checkin for Canada. We are flying on NZ passports and will have an ETA. Most large airports have a 3 hour check in suggestion - I'm just not sure how it works between Canada and the USA . We may need to check luggage (haven't decided whether we can do carry on only yet).

Thanks for your efforts - I'll give them a go early morning their time.

I'm really glad you're getting home. I actually think that's quite a short flight time - but yeah New Zealand is always a nightmare - anything under 24 hours is good!

Probably yes - or leave them at home and when you get to NZ go to any local corner diary (store) or supermarket or pharmacy and buy some Kurols - they are dirt cheap and the most effective throat lozenge you will ever use. They are often by the till rather than on the shelves Kurols Original - 85gm packs | Lollies NZ