sunviking90

We’ve found this varies from ship to ship. Some are better organizing this than others. We also make reservations for 5:20 or 5:40 to avoid the “scrum”. It can feel like an airport boarding gate at 5 pm.

Yes, but it sounds like he hasn’t booked the Vancouver to LA yet, so was giving him a heads up in case that was his intention.

As long as you are not on the previous sailing from Whittier to Vancouver and planning a B2B. That may run you into a PVSA violation regardless of where in the US you plan to disembark. If you’re just doing this cruise, you just need to request a deviation. You will have cleared US customs in SF though, so customs won’t be an issue.

We usually start to feel pudgy and boated about halfway through the cruise. We get home and in 2 days or so our weight is normal and we feel “healthier”. It’s for sure water retention from all the salt. I have asked for steamed veggies in the past hoping for something healthier, but they tasted like they had been cooked in salt water or brined. It’s certainly easier to better options in the buffet, but I really don’t enjoy eating up there.

Yes, our first cruise on RCCLs Sun Viking in 1991 was also out of Ballantyne pier. RCCL often ended up there as Princess and HAL had priority at Canada Place. Canada place increased their berths about 20? years ago.

Wow! The Storm they’re hyping is supposed to hit western Vancouver Island this afternoon/evening. I wonder if they’ll bring you into Vancouver early?

Agree, Canada Place was never designed to accommodate so many passengers. They are now using the old convention halls to process people, but nothing can help the fact that almost all those people will then have to file through US customs which is unique to Vancouver. There is also almost no way to expand the terminal. The upside is that is is right in downtown Vancouver. There are not many cruise terminals in the world anymore where you can walk a few steps to your 5 star hotel or a world class dining and shopping.

We absolutely find the newer ships the be priced lower obviously due to higher numbers and operating costs. More bang for your buck in stateroom choices (couches!) too. Having said that, we prefer the older ships. Now that ships are back at capacity, we find the public areas always feel crowded on the newer ships.

Your download doesn’t work for me, but my SIL said she heard on the news a “storm” is coming. It’s a beautiful, partly sunny and calm day here (Coquitlam) so far. If you’re feeling it, I guess the island will get the brunt of it.

I actually saw these used long before I was reading CC on a Disney forum probably 20 years ago. I just thought it was a thing on forums. Doesn’t bother me.

We have found filling out the “how are we doing?” comment sheets left in our cabin the first few days to be surprisingly effective.

I saw a comedian booked on the patter.

Sorry to hear your cruise was so disappointing. We have been pleased with most of the service and food on our princess cruises since the restart. We have found that food and service, etc can vary even on the same ship within a few months due to chef and crew changes and contracts though. We’ve also heard from crew over the years that Alaska is NOT a favorite of theirs. Lots of large groups, short 7 day cruises, not much of interest (from their perspective) in the ports, etc. Perhaps you experienced the effects of staff burnout. Hopefully the Sapphire will turn it around.

Totally agree with this. It’s only pending for now. See what “sticks” then deal with it. Your CC company likely won’t deal with it while pending either.

I submitted a bid 3 days ago for our cruise in 2 weeks and heard back the same day, but that is likely because it was so close to sail date. There is a thread that has a lot of info:

3 star and I am not seeing these prices. Checked under DH’s account too. This is the not unusual scenario of HAL loving newer cruisers more, lol! I’d grab that Neptune if I were you!

That probably explains her upgrade! Enjoy your mini cruise!

As I thought. Thanks!

On Royal Class ships, Deluxe has a sofa. Premium will have the sofa as well as a larger balcony. Grand class ships don’t have deluxe balconies ( no sofa unless you go up to a minisuites) but the premium ones will have a larger balcony.

Would OBC be retained with the refaring? I see our cruise next year has gone down a total of about $200 CAD, but we booked with $600 usd OBC, so I’m not sure.

Thanks for your report! It pretty much matches our experience on the Crown in June/July. We felt the food in the MDR was good to very good, but the buffet was pretty poor, including the staff up there. Very surprising as we usually find the crew in the buffet to be wonderful. We were in the 11 day itinerary and really enjoyed this different than the usual 7 day itinerary. I’m sorry to see it looks like Princess isn’t doing it next year (that I can see). We never get tired of Alaska. You say you used the dine line to book dining. Did you try the app all? We found that worked well for us prebooking.

Then the short answer is no.

If there are cabins available in the same category that you prefer, pick a few options and call Princess. You may have to do a mock search for 3 people for the available cabins to show up these days. I did this today and in 5 minutes they had switched my cabin. I didn’t mention anything about a “bid” or “upgrade” so as not to complicate the matter. I just said I wanted to switch my cabin to another location, same category. No problem.

Following along. I really hope the weather settles down for you and appreciate you taking us along with you. I’m also wondering if @Roz made it the ship. Hoping she did and is enjoying herself too much to report back.