cruisequeen4ever

If the ship you’re going on has a covered pool, the roof will definitely be closed; Princess doesn’t have roofs that open and shut. Many of the newer Princess ships don’t have covered pools, though. I’ve swam outdoors on a few AK cruises thanks to unseasonable warm sunny days in Juneau. You just never know. I hope you get to swim!

Over Christmas and New Years, the food was not the best and not the worst we’ve had on Princess. Crown Grill was just as good as always. The ice cream sucked; was grainy and ice milk. The specialty coffee drinks, mocktails, and cocktails were as a good as always. Prego and the Grill were both as good as always. The MDR was actually better than our last few Pre-Covid experiences, for the most part, including the lobster. The fettuccini alfredo was a sad representation of its former self. Breakfast in Horizon Court was mainly the same as before, except the fried eggs weren’t quite as good. Lunch and dinner in Horizon Court were similar to before with just a little less variety. Alfredo’s was the same. The Intl Cafe didn’t have any of the yummy salads they used to offer, and over half the desserts were GF; the sandwiches were good, though. As for Hawaiian food, there wasn’t much, and that was a complaint of DH. They did make your own poke bowl on the sail back, but neither of us cared for it. They had some Hawaiian twists on items in the MDR, but then you’d go to the MDR, and those twists wouldn’t occur, presumably from sourcing issues? The main thing they did do was offer pineapple brûlée a lot. We learned that our sailing had a lot of new crew, and I think that accounted for a lot of what we experienced. Hope that helps!

This was many years ago, but they had a St Patrick’s Day Casino hot seat contest.

I’ve done Alaska cruises in an Inside, Oceanview, Balcony, and Window Suite and enjoyed all of the cruises, so no, you don’t HAVE to get a balcony. The balcony is definitely the best, though, as it gives you way more opps to view wildlife and scenery than if you have to go up on deck each time. For instance, you’re getting ready for dinner with your curtains open and can quickly run outside to view a passing waterfall. Or, it’s a freezing day, so you want to be warm, but Horizon Court is crowded, you don’t have to worry because you can just stay in your stateroom and pop in and out of your balcony at your convenience.

Pack layers that would prepare you for anything from 40s in the rain to 60s in the sun and everything inbetween. You may even get a day in the 70s. The most common temps are 50s-60s, though.

Me thinks it’s doubtful they have it, since not even one person has responded. Does anyone have experience one way or the other with whether pickleball is offered on the Grand?

Is there pickleball on the Grand?

Ohhh, that helps; thank you!

I’m glad you got it solved! We were looking into the newest promo for Galapagos 2024 and 2025, and they must have deeply buried the free airfare side of the promo. Although the promo email had it in big letters, it was nowhere to be found once I searched the cruises on Celebrity’s website.

It was enjoyable to hear from people who had hesitations coming in and have tried many lines. Thank you for sharing.

Oh good; you’ve come to the safe conclusion!

Don’t risk it! There are multiple lines you have to wait in at that airport, and each one can take a very long time to get through.

The cruising experience is the same. The only difference I noticed was that they let their hair down a little with standards of cleanliness/sanitation/hygiene because there’s no oversight while abroad.

Hawaii by land gives so much more time to explore the islands, BUT especially now, it’s terribly expensive. Hotel prices soared there when travel started coming back in 2021 and 2022, and they haven’t come back down. Our Uber driver told us a 3.5 star hotel on Maui was $1,200 on NYE! That makes a Hawaii cruise a huge value!

That’s very good news, and I hope it applies to all ships!

Many things remain open and available. Some things close early or go away early. The spa usually closes hours early for cleaning. We noticed poolside pizza shut down early for cleaning. Occasionally, a food like a certain fruit, veggie, or might run out toward the end.

Search online for “Sapphire Princess B747”. You’ll see plenty of pics of it in the Images section that should help you make an informed decision. It’s the type of balcony that some will love and others will try to avoid; it all depends on what your priorities are.

I think like Hank said, the problem is that the insurance companies are overwhelmed and under staffed. I’d wager that they are also paying out a lot more in claims each year than they used to pre-pandemic. That may have them being more nitpicky than before, not saying that’s right to do to consumers at all, just saying that’s my guess of why they’re being tougher. My only experience with a travel insurance claim was actually with Aon through a cruise line, but I had a good experience. This was long before the pandemic, though. They paid out in six weeks, which was exactly what they told me it would take. I’m sorry some of you were having a terrible experience getting your claims paid. This thread has been very informative and eye-opening as I prepare for our next cruise. I sincerely hope insurance companies do right by their customers and process claims in a timely manner!

I’m sorry I don’t have any menus to share, but I will say that from my cruise over Christmas to other people’s cruises since then, I have seen some similarity and some variation. Princess gives chefs some liberty at adjusting the menu, especially on cruises longer than seven days, so you may have the same menu or a different one from what is posted Online. Even from what was posted on our stateroom TV to what was actual reality in the dining room was slightly different on our cruise. Typically, there is baked Alaska on the last night. There is filet mignon on one of the formal nights. There is lobster on the second formal night. At some point, there is usually beef Wellington. Steak may be offered a few nights. Every night offers lots of seafood. There’s always a vegetarian option. There will be appetizers, a soup option, a salad option, and 2 pastas every night. For dessert, there will always be ice cream, sorbet, a crème brûlée of some kind, and then rotating desserts.

Since they were doing it in the middle of the night, my guess is they just wanted to notify everyone in case anyone heard anything, but they didn’t expect much noise to actually occur. It’s very good to hear that you were not woken up. I too have never experienced this, but I’m not surprised as I know they have to do many routine tests and maintenance on everything.

Embarkation day is normal, except that you’re not stressed about missing the ship. Yes, you can come and go as you please after you have boarded. Depends on the port whether you can come and go throughout the night or not. Crew typically love overnights because they can go out and party in the night. They may allow emergency check in on the second day for those who were delayed, but normal check-in would probably not occur because it’s not a standard check-in day. I can’t say that for certain, though.

Well, I guess they plan on keeping it just for suites. 😏 I wish it was free for suites and a paid experience for others.

I’m curious to know what will change as we will be on it this summer. I’d love to try 360 if they opened it up to everyone.

Interesting. We weren’t thrilled with our recent Sabatini’s experience. It started out strong and then wilted away with meh entrees and progressively slower service. We’ll have to give this adjusted menu a try.

Congrats on the nearly free cruise!