sunviking90

Congratulations! Nice to hear a recent success. I think we’ll see fewer and fewer of these as most of the ships start to sail full. We won a really cheap upgrade ($105 cad pp) to a deluxe balcony in January for our Hawaii cruise. Ship ended being only about 60% full though. We are booked on an 11 day Alaska and the starting bid from our obstructed outside to a balcony is $270 pp, and $340 for a premium balcony. I won’t bother as there are only a few premium balconies showing available anyway. Im happy with our deal as we have been to Alaska many times in balconies and it is just a last minute getaway for us. First time without a balcony in 20 years! Should be interesting!

Yes, the Majestic Princess (and the other Royal Class Princess ships) is too large to take the inside passage.

Dive in had a line up of about 75 people, there was no taco bar operating this cruise, no pizza, room service said it would be about 1 hour as everyone else was trying that too. We passed as our dinner was at 5:45, so no point eating room service at 5 pm. Honestly, there was NO food. A first on my over 35 cruises. This was August 2022 and the ship was full. I’ve never seen the lido completely closed before without even the pasta /salad open but there was nothing.

Explorations cafe on the Zuiderdam used to have lots of items in the showcase next to the counter in the old location. We were really disappointed last year to see they have moved it over to combine it with the bar. They only had a few biscotti on a plate when we were there. Disappointing. Especially disappointing when we went up at 4 pm hungry after being ashore and finding the Lido all closed (yup) and hoping for a little nibble of something.

Taxis should be right there I would think. If you need to you can go up to the Pan Pacific or across to the Fairmont Waterfront and they can get one for you. Uber is fine too, but you may have trouble getting one for such a short ride. You may come across some less than scenic areas, homeless camps, etc. It is also a good 30 minute walk even if you take a good route. I’m fit and I wouldn’t do it with a suitcase, lol.

Not quite. We still have them here in Vancouver but most places charge for them. Walmart of all places doesn’t have them at all. I don’t go there often and was surprised. Victoria has banned plastic bags. I always have a light fabric bag folded in my purse, just in case.

I’m sure you know an acceptable route, but I would NOT recommend any tourists try to walk from Canada Place to Pacific Central train station. Best to take a taxi.

We were on the Discovery for a coastal last month and didn’t find her relaxing at all. There seems to be a real lack of public rooms for quiet reading, etc. Piazza always had something going on and was very busy (so it was great for those who want something to do). We like a quieter environment. We spent a lot of time in our cabin and on our veranda.

I’ll be following along. I’ve always enjoyed your live posts on the HAL board. Enjoy your cruise!

No elevators and we avoid the Piazza. On longer cruises it starts to sound like a TB ward down there. We haven’t gotten sick on any of the cruises we’ve been on since the restart. I agree, at this point if we were sick we would simply self isolate. Unfortunately most are too selfish to do that.

I agree. We LOVED our TA on the Emerald Princess last November. We just sailed a 4 day coastal on the Discovery and the ship left me cold. We quite liked the Majestic, but that was last year at 30-40% capacity. Obviously most of us here know there is a very different vibe on a longer cruise, but aside from that the Emerald has so many lovely quiet areas to enjoy. We are looking at a Panama Canal cruise soon mostly because we like the ship so much.

This is why we call to order our tea. We don’t get the plus plan and the only tea thru the app seems to be through it IC with a charge. I also don’t like my tea in a paper cup (and am becoming more and more put off by the waste of all the paper cups, but that’s another issue). When we call to order it comes in a carafe and is piping hot. (And free)

Thank you OP for posting your review. Glad you enjoyed your first cruise! It is strange that you didn’t go the inside passage northbound. I’m wondering if timing was an issue as there is a “window” to go through Seymour Narrows. We always enjoy the scenery coming back down the last day the most and I’m glad you got to see that.

I tried to fill out the ArriveCAN app back in January but since we have Nexus it wouldn’t allow us to do it anymore. Only those without Nexus can still use it apparently. I doubt many are still using it.

That is indeed very confusing. Sadly, there is no Nordstroms though 😉

I haven’t been on RCL in about 25 years, so I can’t speak to that, but we were on Celebrity last month and it was our first time not in Blu. I thought the food in the MDR was about the same quality as on Princess. Cutbacks show everywhere these days. One thing I did notice was that the food on Celebrity was very salty but maybe that was just me. Even my requested “steamed” vegetables were salty somehow. We sailed on the Emerald Princess last November and thought the food was good and noticed the portions were especially large. These things can change from time to time though. We were on another princess ship last year with 2 months in between sailings and the chef had changed in that time and there were differences. Not good or bad, just different in presentation, etc. If food is really a priority these days I’d move up from the mainstream lines.

When you go to order something, their screen may also show the medallions of others around you too. They ask your room number to confirm it is you. Don’t know if I explained that well or not. After the firs5 few days if they get to know you they don’t ask. As far as room service goes, we have had better luck calling room service with our orders than using the app. The print out they get at the other end is often misleading. One of the room service attendants showed it to me once and I could see where the errors in my order happened and why. I’ve never had an error when I call though. I hope things get better for you.

Thank you for doing this report. I love it so far. Art and nature! Nice to see people doing things off the beaten track. you may want to change your title to “May” though. I started reading thinking you had hopped onto the world cruise somewhere.

Yes, that’s a GTY. In most cases the fare is a little lower if they select the cabin for you.

Thank you for reporting on this. Nice to know things have settled down for Vancouver embarkations.

We have had our son pick us up across the street sort of outside or a bit down from the Fairmont Waterfront. It’s a little less congested there (but not much, lol) and there are so many pick ups/drop offs that you can usually get a spot.

Thank you. I was thinking more of instances where people are unable to book at all due to a shortage of spots. While most of us here are pre planners a lot of cruise passengers, especially new ones may not realize how important it is to prebook and get left with nothing.

We don’t drink so would never benefit from the HIA, but I wonder when I hear about being unable to use the excursion credit. Will HAL offer the credit in OBC if it can’t be used? Is there something in the terms and conditions? Otherwise people are essentially prepaying for something they are not being provided. I won’t even get into the numerous types of liquors they are reported as being out of.

Zaandam is my favourite. I’ll be following along for sure. I’m also interested in your comment of trying an OV for retirement cruises. We are also newly retired and realizing we could be sailing much more if we forego a balcony for some cruises particularly on Zaandam where they are at a premium. Enjoy your cruise!

We have been asked for our drivers licences when we boarded cruises on special residents rates before.