fpsphil

Any other onboard questions? Been a bit in “cruise mode” and will post up patters tomorrow.

13 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

I have a couple requests if you have time.

 

Do you have the daily buffet theme schedule that's usually provided in the room on day one?

 

Have you noticed if the Trident Grill has the usual burgers/etc menu or are there Alaska themed items? The Princess website said there were supposed to be themed items such as crab cakes and fish tacos. A picture of the menu would be awesome.

 

Thanks of you have time, but no biggie if not! 😀 

 

Nothing special at Trident

Beautiful day in Skagway today. Discovery is in today and tendering from RR forward

Pretty long lines for Discovery tenders this afternoon

7 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Thank you! I am sending this to Princess on Instagram to see if they will finally fix it. I have a dairy allergy and I can’t even order salad. Thanks again! 

The new princess app is a hot mess. I actually preferred the old one more which they cut access to. Reservations are a complete PITA to change/make

33 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

 Would it be possible for you to go into ocean now and act like you’re going to order a chef salad. Does it give you choices to leave things off of the salad? A few  years ago, it would give you choices to leave off eggs and things like that but there was never a choice to leave off the cheese. I’m just wondering if they ever corrected that and if we can leave the cheese off. Thank you. 

Day 4 patters

18 hours ago, Derfman60 said:

Thanks for sharing the daily schedule. Curious - I am not seeing any Stretch Lab times - do you know what time this is available?

 

 

On the patters posted below

12 hours ago, Derfman60 said:

Thanks for sharing the daily schedule. Curious - I am not seeing any Stretch Lab times - do you know what time this is available?

 

 

I will check

Side note. Churchills is still alive and well on the Sapphire

Beautiful day in Glacier Bay…

Glacier Bay Patters

Hubbard Glacier:

Weather was cold and rainy but we were able to get super super close. Happy we didn’t spend the extra money for the excursion that went even closer. We ended up probably less than 2 miles from the face

29 minutes ago, Sprocket said:

 

Where did you receive the packet?  At the hotel in Fairbanks?  We did have transfers but cancelled them as we don't need them otherwise we would have picked them up at the airport.

 

We didn't book the meal plan so I am hoping we won't have any issues with the restaurants at the lodges.

 

Good to know about the Chalet, hope they don't move us.  But one of the couples on our cruise I met in March so we should be able to compare information the first day.

 

Really enjoying your posts and pictures, we are just over a month now until we fly out.   Literally can't wait......

We got packets each night. Fairbanks they have a booth at the airport next to baggage claim, chalet was when the bus arrived and when departing the chalet they gave us  packets for McKinley upon boarding the bus.

Picking up pilot for Hubbard Glacier at 3:30. A bit behind schedule due to sea and wind. Not mechanical or ship related.

Snow is expected in Glacier Bay tomorrow so that will be interesting

3 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Wondering the same thing.

Felt very disorganized there. We got moved from the wilderness lodge to the Chalet and we were already having some issues with our schedules and packet not lining up with the others we are traveling with. Trying to find a person that could do the Princess logistics at the chalet was impossible until the morning of our departure. Also dinner in the steakhouse took almost 3 hours for mediocre food at best. Just felt disorganized, may have been early season growing pains but Fairbanks and Mt McKinley lodges were night and day difference

Train and boarding.

Was an amazing train ride down to Whittier today. Weather was absolutely perfect until we got closer to the ship. Clear/scattered skies all the way down. We were on one of the smaller older trains but still enjoyed it. Really happy with the land tour other than chaos at the Chalet resort in Denali.

Boarding was super easy today. They brought port staff onboard in Anchorage to do our passports and give out medallions to those who didn’t have them yet. This was nice since we were the last train/group to join the ship boarding around 7:00

Great dinner in Santa Fe tonight as we sailed out. Ship and staff have been great and currently are doing 19 knots leaving Prince William Sound. Expecting 50knot winds tonight so captain gave us a heads-up it might be a bit choppy.

Been absolutely stunning here at Mt. McKinley lodge yesterday and today. Can’t ask for better weather.

We are off to the train to Whittier this afternoon. Super excited to be boarding tonight!

Ships doing 20knots again

16 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

That's the propeller slipstream (also called prop wash). The wake are the waves pushed out to the side and behind the ship due to the water it is displacing.

The prop wash looks very different than just displaced water

Made it to Denali. Today we are doing the natural history tour before heading down to McKinley Resort for tonight. Riverboat was great yesterday, really a good experience. Here are couple pics.

3 hours ago, rjhollan said:

Back to cruising at 15 knts again this morning.

Saw her going 19.4 for a bit last night. May have slowed down since the extra speed wasn’t necessary

4 minutes ago, LyndaMR said:

We were going 17 knots according to the screen a minute ago and are going 16 now. There hasn’t been an announcement but considering it was after 10:30 and we were still stopped, I expect an update in the morning. I’m guessing that little box was the testing. 

Fact that the speed is up that high hopefully means it’s fixed 🤞

44 minutes ago, Sea Bronco said:

Any update on the repair? I know the ship is still stopped. I have a girlfriend on the crew and I'd like to know this has come off smoothly given they are doing the repair stopped in the open ocean. 😬

Still sitting probably testing still. Ship is safe even if drifting they do have the one active prop

4 minutes ago, LyndaMR said:

Currently stopped for the screw to be re-engaged & testing. 🤞🏻

🤞🤞🤞🤞

17 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Thank you so much for doing this! We fly to Fairbanks next Friday for our land tour before boarding Sapphire. I look forward to any reports you have!

 

I'm glad to hear the Princess Fairbanks Riverside is great for you. We are staying there 3 nights over Memorial Day weekend. Could you tell me if they still have the local shuttle service? If so, where does it go and how much? I've read old reports that it takes you downtown and some shopping venues, but those were mostly pre-pandemic.

 

Thanks again!

Shuttle was 10 dollars to the cultural center downtown and the holland America hotel, ran about every hour. We ended up just getting an Uber.