wineglass

We live in LA, so San Pedro is a port we can drive too. Because of the wheelchair, we rarely fly to board a ship, so our cruises are, Mexico, West Coast and Hawaii. We usually for the cruise and the ship, not the ports. Airports, shuttles and hotels are really a pain with a wheelchair ( but it does expedite security, usually)

As stated later in this board, the ship and the tender may move up and down quite a bit, but not always. It depends on the bay state that day. The ship anchors in the bay in front of the city. With us, the crew would take the folding wheelchair aboard separately and stow it after all were aboard. If the person can not walk to the seat and back off the boat, I don’t think they will let you board. Go down and to the boarding port before you take them down, If it’s calm, maybe they will allow it, but what if it gets rougher when you return? On the plus side, Cabo is our favorite Mexican port, but to be honest, we rarely go ashore in Mexico anymore. The cartels are wverywhere.

We have cruised to Cabo many times. It is a tender port and they use both local tenders and ship’s tenders. Our Mom uses a wheelchair and has always gone ashore with us. The crew are very helpful getting her on and off the tender, but there is a caveat: she can walk the few steps onto and off the tender (with help). If you cannot walk at all, do not attempt the tenders! That’s our experience over many visits.

You can get it for free at Slice on the Lido deck

Is the 24 pack of bottled water still available, or do you have to purchase a drink package to get it now? The beverage package app no longer will open, so you can’t order it as before

The dinning rooms are basically the same. We dislike the aft dinning room because you sometimes feel vibrations from the propellers and you must first go up to deck 7, walk all the way aft and join the crowd at the elevator to get back down to deck 6. Foods the same thought.

We love the L101/102 cabins over the bridge. Huge balcony. Some do not like that far forward, but it does not bother us. They do NOT lock the balcony door while underway, but it can be too windy to use the balcony on occasion. So far we have never had a problem. Our Mom uses a wheel chair and it is so convenient to get from the cabin to the buffet, also the forward elevators are not as busy as the center ones. With a wheel chair, you are dependent on the elevators. Drawback: there are only two on deck 16 and two on deck 15. 102/104 are similar, but the balconies are a little narrower.

On my presently booked 15 day cruise, plus+ would add $900 per person to my fare. Remove gratuities and internet and that means almost $400 per person to spend on drinks. They are not adding value, they are adding something you used to get included free. If you are just standard basic, you are now charged for what you used to get free. Not happy

On my presently booked 15 day cruise, plus+ would add $900 per person to my fare. Remove gratuities and internet and that means almost $400 per person to spend on drinks, or about $26 a day. If I drank a lot it might work, but I don’t. The new ship Sun Princess is going towards exclusive sectioning similar to Celebrity. I don’t like that either. Perhaps they don’t care, but Princess is rapidly pushing this elite customer towards another cruise line!

1 hour ago, dog said:

Yes, I understand that.

it just did not make much sense to us that we embarked in Vancouver, went to Ketchikan, disembarked in Seattle.

and still needed ArriveCAN to embark.

 

 

Princess rep actually phoned us two weeks prior to cruise to tell us what was required. The ArriveCAN app, the negative Covid test , vaxed.

 

Now that was near beginning of the season & it was unclear,   They may not require it now.  Maybe check in the Canada forum for recent cruisers. 

 

The Arivcan requirement is not for the ship, it is a requirement for ANYONE entering Canada. You must enter Canada to get to Vancouver. Canada also will do random Covid tests when arriving by air. They just pull random people passing through immigration. Canada is still way behind the rest of the western world when it comes to Covid. But, at least they are ahead of Asia.

We are less than two months from departing on a cruise to Japan. Japan has changed their visa requirements in that ALL visitors to Japan must obtain a guided tour visa to enter the country. A certificate is required from the cruise line to apply. We have heard nothing from Viking about this, MVJ says It is in process. With the difficulty of getting or changing flight arrangements now, we need to know sooner, not later, if this cruise is still going to sail. Has anyone on the cruise Vancouver to Hong Kong received any information about this? Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and even Hong Kong are still not letting visitors enter as of right now or are requiring quarantine. 

Does anyone know how to delete a travel companion from ocean ready? Somehow I have a unknown person added. 

We were on the inaugural cruise of Discovery Princess. This was our 4th cruise on a “Royal Class” Princess ship. I found I did not like the Discovery Princess experience. I am not sure why. The ship is basically the same as Royal, Majestic and Enchanted, but I just found it “cold” in a atmosphere sense. Our cruise on Enchanted in November was also an inaugural cruise, but we found the ship warm and inviting, unlike Discovery. It will not stop me from cruising Princess, or even Discovery again, but I would much prefer Enchanted if it I had a Choice.

We were on the Discovery inaugural on the 27th. I agree with most of the items mentioned above. The whole bus thing at embarkation was a mess. We arrived at 1pm and there was a line of luggage waiting to be transferred 10 ft deep and 1/2 a block long…with one small haul van to transfer it. I told my wife departure would be delayed for luggage, and I was right. They were wise to decide to dock at berth 93 on return. Our biggest disappointment was Sabatini’s. No tablecloths, slow service and the removal of lobster 3 ways from the menu without any mention of it. The hazelnut ice cream dessert was a bust.. just a big hollow ball of chocolate with a teaspoon on ice cream. It will be a long time before I ever book that restaurant again! The service throughout the ship was very slow. If you asked, they tried to comply, but you HAD to ask or nothing was done. The only quick, friendly service were the two ladies who met you at the MDR door. Another complaint: we always had traditional dinning and except for the first night would just walk straight in to our table. Now, you must always que up at the door and HOPE you get the table you want. Our MDR waiter tried, but he was overworked with no helper and often forgot our orders. Most dinners took over 2 hours to eat start to finish. This was our third Princess cruise since last November, and our 2nd inaugural. It was also the least enjoyable of the three. Still, any day at sea is better than a day on land.

Booster is not required as of yet, but if you are bolstered it eases the Clovis test requirement somewhat 

We were on the inaugural for Enchanted and the sail away buffet was nothing special. In fact, it was kind of a mess. Cold food, pancakes so hard you could not cut them, little selection, hard to get a server’s attention. I complained to the buffet captain and he apologized. By the second day, everything was running smoothly, the food was good and servers attentive. The buffet captain even came to our table at dinner and apologized again and gave us a bottle of wine. You have to expect  the inaugural first day to have glitches, they will fix them quickly. We have nothing but praise for Enchanted’s crew! I am sure it will be the same on Discovery, they will try their best and get better every day. 

For our March, 2022 cruise. On our ocean ready profile, it’s the third item down. For a seven day cruise, I can get 4 devices for $139.93. Since we are platinum, we get a $70. Onboard credit once on board. On our last cruise in December, I purchased a one device plan pre cruise, but changed it on board to the 4 device plan. I still got the 50% discount.

If you are a past guest with Princess, you will get a discount price when logged in. Usually about $100.

We are platinum. I booked the 4 device package pre-cruise for the Enchanted and on the 1st day on Majestic. We got the 50% discount on both. It is unlimited minutes for the duration of the cruise. As everyone is attached at the hip (ear) to their phone theses days, it’s a good deal

On 1/7/2022 at 10:56 AM, wineglass said:

when I go to dine my way for our Discovery Princess cruise in March, it only gives me the option of “party shares a table with others” or “party spread across multiple tables”. There is no private table for your party option. Our party are only 3 people. We have always asked for a private table for 4. Has anyone else seen this result?

Finally, I was able to re-book a private table for each night of our Discovery Princess cruise. Of course, we will see what we actually get when we arrive at the MDR door. You have got to be flexible during theses times right now

We have stayed in these forward cabins several times and all in all really like them. Less foot traffic in the corridors and even the forward elevators are less used. lido cabins give easy access to the pool and buffet. There was no noise problems, but you will feel more ship motion. 

when I go to dine my way for our Discovery Princess cruise in March, it only gives me the option of “party shares a table with others” or “party spread across multiple tables”. There is no private table for your party option. Our party are only 3 people. We have always asked for a private table for 4. Has anyone else seen this result?

we were on Enchanted in November in L102, which is right next door to L107. Great cabin and balcony. Contrary to what has been said, you can use the balcony while under way. We did often and wind was not a problem. You will feel the ship’s motion more up there, but it was never to the point of bothering us. Our only problem was that it’s a LONG walk to anywhere on the ship. Since our mom uses a wheelchair it was a long push to anywhere. Unless you are very sensitive to seasickness, I recommend these forward cabins…and they are cheaper too.

We sailed on Enchanted princess in November with 978 guests, and on Majestic Princess last week with 1700 guests. Both ship hold over 4,000. You do the math. 
with omniron rising, and increased cases on ship, suspect the numbers will down. Up side: ship less crowded and fewer lines and less chance of infection. Fewer servers in the dinning areas. Downside. Buffet serving stations reduced as well as food selection, less shows and entertainment. Service was always excellent and friendly. We would, and will(March) go again. 

We were on Enchanted Princess for 10 days on her inaugural in November. We had the same private table for 3, the same wait staff every night of the cruise. The waiter, asst. waiter and dinning room manager were there every night and were more than attentive. Our assistant waiter even asked us to come to her section at breakfast and lunch and gave us outstanding service. The dinning room manager even intervened with a problem we had at breakfast in the buffet and ordered a complimentary bottle of wine for us that night at dinner. Most of the tables around us at dinner were the same people at the same table every night. Traditional dinning Is certainly still possible on a Princess ship.