sunviking90

I agree. The cruise lines have all promoted their onboard coffee bars as the place to get specialty coffees, then they sell all inclusive packages, so more people will be ordering and more often. They need to staff them properly to meet the demand. We are strictly americano or occasionally latte people but I don’t begrudge people expecting to get what they’ve paid for.

While it is OPs first post, I find it a credible review, mostly disappointing but a few good points too. People have different patterns on cruises and interact with different crew, may patronize the Lido at busier times (hence the crumbs and mess, which I’ve often seen myself) and therefore have very different experiences. It’s possible the crew are getting burnt out in a very busy Alaska season, and Alaska is not a favorite of most crew anyway.

They were either trolling us or just realized how ridiculous the idea was in the first place.

Haha, my parents both emigrated from the UK. I guess they arrived here and thought, yup, feels like home, lol.

Yes, Cafe Caribe. Thanks for reminding me of the name. We always end up calling it the Lido. Too much time on HAL ships in the past I guess.

Crab Shack was offered on our Crown Princess cruise June 23 on 2 consecutive evenings. It was in the back part of the buffet, and there were signs at the entrance with a crew member to sign people up. We did not attend.

You should probably adjust your thread title in someway. It makes it sound like this is factual happening. I know I read it thought “What??!!” By “home port” do you mean year round? Halifax is lovely, but not in the winter. It can also be difficult to get to even for those of us who live in Canada. Vancouver would be a more logical choice with milder weather if ever a ship was homeported year round in Canada (pacific coastals heading south, Hawaii, etc) but then the secret of how cold, dark, wet and dreary it really is here would get out 😉. I’d rather let tourists think it’s always beautiful here!

Yes, you are too kind and helpful. OP hasn’t even thanked you for your efforts on his behalf.

Princess has just started the “white and gold” night with a party in the evening. The dress suggested is of course white and gold. We haven’t seen a lot of participation as far as dress, but I’m sure you’ll see more on a holiday cruise. I would say the lines are more similar than different. We have sailed more than 10 cruises on each. We haven’t sailed on Diamond Princess but we love her sister Sapphire Princess. She has a full wrap around promenade similar to the HAL ships. You’ll find dress code very similar. A few differences we notice: You will find staterooms smaller without a couch or a tub unless you are in a mini-suite. We really prefer HALs staterooms in this regard. Breakfast menu in the MDR is much smaller on Princess. We love HALs options especially Greek yogourt and berries. Berries are scarce on Princess ships for some reason. Buffet hours are much more extensive on Princess. You can pretty much go up there anytime from 6 am to 11 pm and find a wide variety of options. We find HALs Lido hours ridiculous with mid afternoon closures or next to nothing available (our experience on our last HAL cruise). We are not big buffet people, but we do like to go up and get a snack after being ashore. Princess does not have set early and main dining. It is all “open”. We like set times and waitstaff, so we make reservations in the medallion app as soon as possible at the same time every evening. We let the restaurant host know that we would like the same table daily, and they usually can accommodate. Princess has the medallions that you wear instead of key cards which open your stateroom door, etc. They also have the medallion app which you’ll use precruise to check in, etc, and can be used during the cruise for various things like ordering food, drinks, etc. We don’t bother using it to order anything as it seems just as easy to get things ourselves. While we used to really enjoy the speakers on HAL, we have found recently that Princess has been superior in the cultural enrichment area on our cruises. The speakers are usually very good, and there are many other cultural enrichment activities on the cruises to unique areas (Hawaii, Alaska, Japan, etc) These are the main differences we notice. Keep in mind that the Diamond is unique among Princess ships in that she has been customized in many ways for her Japanese/ Asian itineraries making her even more special. @Ken the cruiseris doing a really good trip report currently that can give more insight.

These are the windows. It depends on the length of the sailing. It is 5 days after final payment due date.

I think they will still do it. I’ve noticed when they have done this to me it is usually when the cruise price has gone down from when I booked. They “upgrade” to a category now at the rate I paid. I think they’re hoping to prevent people rebooking at the new lower price if they do this.

Yes, I see your point and I considered it for a brief moment but we’re non drinkers and generally have enough OBC from various sources to cover CA. I have also found cruise ship wifi too frustratingly slow to get anymore. We usually get Esims for in port use and take a tech break on the sea days.

I was on the Crown end of June/beginning of July. I was also told the plus and premier were at 50% off. We don’t do the packages, so I don’t know if that would have worked out to be true.

We were able to use a FCD for ours. Purchased onboard and applied immediately, so it sounds like it may depend on the ship and their understanding of the terms? As always with Princess, consistently inconsistent.

We are the same way. If we find a nice hike, or get ourselves somewhere on foot we’re doing it!

Your pictures are great and really show people how much can be seen in the ports independently just walking around.

To the best of my knowledge, they do need a pilot on board to go inside. Seymour Narrows in particular is tricky and the cruise ships can only go through at certain times.

Are you saying you were required to do full payment right away? We booked a short cruise off of the list onboard last month for Early October. It was a great deal, but I offered to do full payment right away myself. Reason being I had booked the current cruise we were sailing on with a TA I didn’t know (one time promo thing) and as this new sailing had to be credited to that TA I felt it was easier to pay up front. It wasn’t a lot and pretty close to final payment date anyway. I wasn’t told it was mandatory. Cancellation terms seemed to be standard. The cruises available on the list are “slow sellers” in the words of the agent onboard. A lot of one ways, repositioning, etc, through to April 2024.

We were on the June 23 sailing and heard they no longer had a hotel manager. Our Captain was Captain Lye. His daily talks were very informative and I learned a few things I didn’t know even living in this area all my life! We also sailed on the outside of Vancouver Island on the way back. It was disappointing as we love sailing back on the other side through Seymour narrows. Fortunately we’ve done it before, but unfortunate for those doing the Alaska cruise for the first time. I was very sceptical that we would sail as mapped though because we were stopping in Victoria rather than direct to Vancouver. Whenever we've had a cruise stop in Victoria it has been reached after sailing outside of Vancouver Island. It looks like you had much nicer weather throughout than we did. Very happy for you in that regard!

The passengers left the ship in Kauai after already having visited 3 other Hawaiian ports including Honolulu so the situation would be different than yours I think.

I agree, to resubmit, after confirming your spelling of course. Make sure your device, computer, etc is not auto populating the email address based on a previous misspell. I have usually received the credit within 1-2 days, but my most recent one had not been applied a week later even though I had received an auto reply to the submission. I resubbed and it showed up the day after.

My understanding is that the cruise you are mentioning has a last “foreign” port of Ensenada 2 days before LA. The passengers that left the ship wouldn’t need to be processed thru customs as the ship was still in US waters from the last US port (another Hawaii stop I think). The issue there was the passengers deciding to finish their cruise in Hawaii which is a PVSA violation and not informing Princess. I would also be interested in an answer to OPs question as we have a cruise in the fall finishing in LA the day before “official” debarkation. We have an overnight in LA. I’m thinking we don’t have to do the usual wait until after 1pm for a flight.

Interesting comparison. Thank you.

Eww, that’s a horrible example of dangerous cross contamination. I would have reported that.

Interesting. I guess it once again depends ship to ship. We were on Celebrity Solstice, then on the Discovery the next day. We found Celebrity coffee in the buffet to be surprisingly good and the coffee on the Discovery to be undrinkable. We have also found the Al Bacio specialty coffees on Celebrity (lattes, americanos, etc) to be much better than IC specialty coffees. Also more expensive, so I guess you get what you pay for.