sunviking90

I had a NY strip on the Royal Princess in January out of SFO and it was also gristle. Probably the worst steak I’ve ever been served. Pretty much inedible and that certainly was provisioned out of the US.

Glad to hear you’re doing ok. I’ve been following your blog. The quality of your writing and photos is really enjoyable.

Volendam would be my personal choice. If specialty restaurants is what you like they actually are the same in that regard. They each have Pinnacle Grill and a Canaletto. That’s it. Zuiderdam is larger, and if you want a veranda stateroom it has more, and they’re cheaper generally, but the Panama Canal port charges may make it come out even.

As am I. I was a little late seeing the cruise (crossing) and by then we were committed to another cruise with family members. Wish I was there!

I would say that on many cruises some are paying half as much as others. Some book early as they have limited time off, need to plan ahead, choosy about cabin location, etc. Others jump on last minute sales. When we travelled with our son and needed a triple we paid more as last minute deals were always for double occupancy only. I do wonder at OPs TA saying Princess wouldn’t do anything. We have been given OBC, or an upgrade to a better cabin in similar situations by our PVP. I wonder if it’s not worth the trouble for the TA for an inexpensive cruise with little commission. Short sighted as that is.

How lucky you are to have Bill Miller on board! I used to love borrowing one of his ocean liner books from the on board libraries.

That’s so sweet! What a wonderful thing to do for your mother.

The report of hotel rates up 64% “on average” is absolutely true. It certainly tracks with what we’ve seen as we plan our travel. Whether it will last is another thing.

Yes, for sure that’s one of those unique itineraries and its good idea to book ahead.

That’s a lot of money to pay for Mexico. We are newly retired and have decided for this year to see what we can do kind of last minute when the deals come up. I see that you need a handicap cabin which makes thing more difficult of course. Konigsdam also seems to have higher prices overall. I’ve noticed that on this years Alaska itineraries.

Sorry to hear that. When I looked about half had pricing, but further down the page I saw the same message. Maybe check back Monday?

A very simple thing would have been to give each person in the stateroom a $35-$40 OBC as a trade for the minibar. They could have then applied it to coffee if they wanted. We were about to become elite and aren’t interested in the minibar, but I’m also no interested in a trade for soda or water. I don’t drink soda and I can get water for free.

I really think the majority (meaning 50% or more) of passengers are buying the plus packages, so this doesn’t matter to them. We are the minority I suspect.

It seems to be pretty select itineraries now that I’ve looked through them. https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/results/?promos=RL2

Sorry to hear that. Good for you for voting with your feet. After a really bad experience with customer service on a Princess cruise years ago we said never again, but relented 5 years later. We had wonderful experiences on our 2022 Princess cruises, but our January one to Hawaii definitely had some issues to the point that I have emailed them twice and as expected heard nothing. We are still cruising with Princess, but we also cruise in HAL and Celebrity so I’m realistic as to what else is out there for mass market cruising. I keep my expectations low and I make sure I don’t overpay for the quality I expect to receive. I wish you well in finding an alternative you will enjoy.

I am still seeing a link to Canadian $ at par on my Princess homepage. Perhaps it’s a different selection now? It shows 123 itineraries.

Princess’s website is very strange, especially if you hit it at a time when they are updating prices, etc. We booked another drop and go Coastal that showed at $228 cad inside for weeks, and at 5:30 on a weekday for some reason I went in and it showed $134 cad inside and $100 USD OBC. I held a balcony at a little bit more and got my CVP to book that one too. When I logged in 30 minutes later, the price was back to $228. It wasn’t a capacity controlled price either. These were the prices my CVP had, but weren’t showing on the website most of the time. OP, make sure your TA has your booking open for upgrade. We had a cruise booked for Hawaii that I was planning to cancel, and I knew the prices had gone down since booking. I got an email from Princess telling me I’d been “upgraded”. When I looked, they had moved me into a higher category that was now selling for what I had paid. They probably did this so I wouldn’t complain as @Coral says.

I stand corrected. I haven’t ever heard of this. Is it only for passengers arriving same day and going directly to the port? OP is staying at least one night pre cruise. Are people being precleared even if spending a few days in Canada?

Last year I had a US customs officer at the port look at my passport and say “your passport is expired”. I felt like he’d kicked me in the stomach. Then he said “just kidding. Have a good trip”. Not funny at all. I wasn’t amused.

Good Morning and thank you to all who contribute to the Fleet Report/Daily. Weather here is cool and threatening rain all day, so.. Vancouver. Love children’s books and all the warm memories of reading DS bedtime stories. @Mr. Boston Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel was a favorite still 25 years ago. My first visit to Cherbourg was on a ferry from Jersey (Channel Islands) when I was 12. I finally returned last fall in the Emerald Princess. I found the classic decor of the terminal really lovely. One of my favorite movies is The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Visually beautiful! I hope everyone has a good day. Cherbourg:

Arriving in Vancouver by air you are clearing Canada Customs. The only Us customs cleared at YVR would when departing for US. I’ve never heard of anyone being able to bypass US customs at the port. We’ve taken many many cruises out of Vancouver and I agree the set up is very confusing. I notice as the ships are bigger and more passengers are being processed, they are using more of the convention centre rooms. We still get confused as to where to go. Having said that, we usually arrive around 10:30 am and are usually on the ship by 11:30. We’ve taken 2 post pandemic cruises out of Vancouver and with the staff using iPads as long as we had completed our required check ins, etc it was pretty fast. We did have to wait a bit when Celebrity’s computers went down but it wasn’t bad. Our cruises are usually closer to the end of the season though.

There are cheap rates on most of the April repositioning coastals right now. They don’t show on the website for some reason. My CVP had the prices on her social media page and we finally booked through her last week. We were waiting as we’ve done a lot of these and they always go cheap last minute. It’s a gamble. Sometimes we’ve paid too much too.

We had a keurig in the office when I was still working, but I wouldn’t want one at home. Seems like it creates a lot of waste (money and plastic) and I could never have just one cup of coffee. I like a whole pot 😊. I realize Via is instant coffee but it still tastes better than most cruise ship coffee. It’s fine in a pinch.

Yes, I’ve heard they will provide kettles in Europe and the UK. I’ll try it next month on the Discovery and hope for the best.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise. I am surprised at a full ship for 14 days and so many children! Do the schools have an extended Easter break in the UK? Where we live what used to be “Easter Break” when I was a kid is now “Spring Break” and in mid March (before it is officially spring, lol).