farsight

We are having a great cruise!!! Staff is excellent and I love to engage them about restart, pandemic layoffs and other general things. Found a sale on Alaska fleece jackets 75% off just before Princess shops closed in Juneau. $15 apiece! Now leaving to head into Old Town.

19 hours ago, 4cats4me said:

I’ve heard September is a crap shoot.   My parents went one time in mid Sept and it was harsh at sea.   Band instruments tipping over, glassware crashing, waves breaking over the bow.  This was on the Dawn Princess.   

@4cats4meA crap shoot, yes indeed!!! However, the dice are loaded in favor of rain, overcast and colder weather!

8 minutes ago, vernonrjones said:

If you liked the seas last night, take a look at this special weather statement from the Juneau National Weather service office. Might be bumpy

Oh, baby, oh!!! May test the limits of my excitability. May make me re-think my speaking before thinking. However, if I haven't learned at 66...

47 minutes ago, trey420 said:

We are on lido you get some great positive and negative G feelings going.  Great for me not so much for the lady.  She's ready for this thing to dock.  She just took the seasickness pill hopefully she will be up soon.

@trey420Sea Emerald has some wrist sea bands (several colors) and she is more than happy to share with your lady. Let us know. We will be in our cabin for a bit. I think you can just call E333. We can meet somewhere. She is having problems posting and hers didn't go through.

Please know that no matter your good attitude on a cruise, posting to Cruise Critc would test the patience of Jobe. I think that's somewhere around level 10 and I am thinking I'm somewhere on level 8. Login, logout, refresh, repeat, peat, repeat! The surge from the balcony is really nice though! 🙃

Pictures of the Enclave. We were noodles yesterday afternoon. The steam room met up to my expectations. ❤️💖❤️

Remember to click on the image to get the right aspect ratio.

Sorry to have started the thread then disappeared. It has been hard to get started back on a post with all of our return to cruising excitement.

We have been having an absolutely fantastic cruise and I sometimes wonder if we could have any other kind. We tend to roll with the punches on cruises better than any other facet of our lives.

I have been absolutely loving the rough seas. Maybe it's my fascination and enjoyment of roller coasters, but I love the bucking and swaying of the ship. It appears that my iron stomach also applies to motion sickness. I think our next cabin might be on a higher deck and further forward. I do feel for those less fortunate and wish that they weren't suffering.

I don't like typing on a smartphone or tablet so brought my laptop. I need to buy a Bluetooth keyboard for my mobile devices. With some futzing around, I had the phone and tablet connecting to MedallionNet in fairly short order. I do sometimes have to reconnect to my internet package but now know the drill. This good fortune did not extend to my laptop and taxed my troubleshooting endeavors.The laptop refused to connect to the WiFi. As I am tech savvy, I tried multiple potential solutions with no love. Finally went to the internet cafe and discussed at length, as well as retrying possible solutions, with one of the staff. Still no love. He was great and we left it at me trying my suggestion to later disable the firewall and give that a try. He didn't seem to be interested in trying that with me (probably due to that being risky behavior that he didn't want to participate in). This morning I disabled the firewall and was able to connect. I immediately re-enabled it and have had no further problems. I didn't make any exceptions but won't be tempting the fates by delving any further.

3 minutes ago, 4cats4me said:

Oh, that’s too bad about the weather. 

It won't dampen our spirits!

27 minutes ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

So youre onboard, but the ships leaving Seattle at 6am? 

Yes. Bad weather!

Leaving Seattle has been delayed until tomorrow morning at 6:00AM due to weather. No Skagway. We're just glad to be here!

IT's Ca-ruuuise Day!

2 hours ago, left the dog at home said:

So excited to be following along virtually. 

Still brokenhearted that we aren't there with you all!

 

Sea Emerald and I wish you could be here as well!

For those who may be going on a future cruise to Alaska from Seattle and are looking for something inexpensive and interesting to do, a ferry ride to Bremerton WA might be a good option. Walking on only costs $4.50/Senior (65) or Youth (6-18) and $9.20/Adult. You only pay one way to Bremerton and is an hour each way. It is a very scenic ride and on a clear day the mountains are stunning. Once in Bremerton the terminal is next to the Puget Sound Navy Museum. It is free. If you drive it is more expensive but it opens more options. I took the following pictures several days ago.

The ferry terminal is to the left of the museum.

1 hour ago, Irisagogo said:

Thank you so much!   Hopefully, we will meet on the M & G. 

If you are there, the smart money is on that being the case. Even if only 3/4s of those signed up come, we will have a pretty good turnout!

Pardon me if I step on any toes. It's not my intention. I have started the September 26th Live thread and thought that I would provide a link here as a courtesy to those who are following along with rapt attention. I know DW and I have read every post from this and all the previous live threads. The next cruise after ours is not to Alaska, but many of the diehards will be coming along for the ride I'm sure. Thank you for this thread! 🙂

10 minutes ago, CapeAliso said:

I love how you credited the starters of the previous live threads and provided the links! 

I'm looking forward to following your adventures!

They, and their shipmates, nourished my enthusiasm and excitement! Credit was most certainly due, and they provided the motivation and resolve for me to start the live thread for this booking. It's my way of showing my appreciation and saying, "THANK YOU".

Please forgive the mixed tenses.

Sea Emerald (DW) and I live on the Kitsap Peninsula, only a short one hour ferry ride from Seattle. We have been on seven cruises. Four cruises have been with Princess and five have been to Alaska. We love Alaska, and the cherry on top (especially this year) is no flights or hotel before the cruise.

We have been on a veritable roller coaster ride. It started with the Medallion Class App functionality, then on to “what qualifies as vaccine proof”; “what are acceptable tests“; ”is testing 72 hours or 3 days”; “where do we get tested’; and finally “it’s 2 days vice 3 days”. It was a stress buffett. None of which was appetizing! Another thing to stress about; PCR tests are more accurate but the results could have arrived after embarkation. However, I had a plan. We scheduled a PCR test for two days before the cruise. This was to be followed by an antigen test at our local drug store. I was still a bit twitchy and purchased 4 Binax Now proctored tests. For me, importance begets leaving nothing within my control to chance. It’s what I do. DW will tell ya. 😊

I retired last summer and we were planning to book a celebration cruise. Yeah, how did that work out? Fast forward a year. Both DW and I are now retired; it is our 30^th wedding anniversary; and DW turned 60 this year (The WeFit disagrees. It thinks she’s in her early forties, or late thirties on good days – can you say, well balanced? (I’m a little more off-kilter.) Yes, we have a boatload to celebrate this year.

Two days after cruising opened back up in the US I booked this cruise and we have been jazzed for it ever since. We have replaced almost all of our evening TV time watching cruise vlogger videos on YouTube. Our favorites are La Lido Loca, Don’s Family Vacations, Cruise With Ben and David, Tips for Travellers, ParoDeeJay, Emma Cruises and EECC Travels. These vloggers provide a wealth of information and entertainment, and have given us much joy! We have followed our roll call, the ‘Live Froms’ threads, other roll calls, and various other threads. I also keep track of where the Majestic is positioned (more so  on the first six cruises than the last three). I’m hoping our future doesn’t hold an intervention.

I was originally going to post this thread much later tonight. However, after receiving DW’s and my negative antigen tests and the fact that I have been champing at the bit to post this ‘Live From’ thread was so strong I could taste it. Tastes like cruise souffle! Oh baby oh!

This is the last sailing of the Majestic Princess from Seattle, Washington to Alaska in 2021. I was questioning how a “Live From” thread from this last sailing of the season could benefit the CC community. However, I recently had to go without a ‘Live From’ for a week and was on the verge of  withdrawals. Then, I noticed that others who had been following the ‘Live From’ threads were thrilled to find a new one after the week hiatus. All doubt cleared out.

I hope to post some pictures, answer some questions and maybe give a touch of perspective. Some of our other roll call members should be active as well.

This first post is meant to be an homage to all those who have contributed to the “Live From” threads for the Princess restart of 2021.

The first “Live From” thread was started by @HaveDogWillTravel. She launched what became a tradition for the 2021 Seattle to Alaska sailings on the first cruise of the season that disembarked July 25, 2021. Thank you @HaveDogWillTravell! These threads have been very popular (DW and I have followed every one of them). They have allowed us to travel vicariously and electrified our cruise starved senses. We have been able to ask questions about the cruising restart, view Princess Patters, peruse menus, and see pictures of the ship, ports and excursions. Thank you all!!!

Also, a special shout-out to @PescadoAmarillo (Yellow Fish) who captured her experiences in a great blog (a most captivating writer!) on the August 8^th and 15^th sailings:

https://pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com

Following are the original posters (authors) with links to each of the Princess Cruise Restart “Live From” threads in descending order:

OP: @Purple Gallinule

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2802469-live-majestic-princess-alaska-sailing-on-september-19-2021-from-seattle/?tab=comments#comment-61843553

OP: @Musky Ike

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2800267-live-on-majestic-princess-09052021/?tab=comments#comment-61781034

OP: @4cats4me

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2798693-live-4cats4me%E2%80%99s-last-minute-cruise-on-the-majestic-princess-august-29-2021/

OP: @geoherb

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2797649-live-geoherbs-solo-cruise-on-majestic-princess-august-22-2021/?tab=comments#comment-61693478

OP: @WAussieSFO

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2796075-live-from-majestic-princess-august-15-2021/

OP: @azbirdmom

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2795203-live-from-the-majestic-princess-august-8-2021/

OP: @pkt1976

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2793653-live-from-the-majestic-princess-at-last-august-1-2021-to-alaska/

OP: @HaveDogWillTravel

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2791112-july-25-2021-live-from-majestic-princess-alaska-sailing/

Some nerd background:

With the passing of the Alaska Tourism Restoration Act (ATRA), this and all previous 2021 Alaska sailings were allowed to sail to Alaska. Legislators from Alaska sponsored the bills due to the halt of cruises devastating their economy. The act basically considers a round trip voyage between ports in the states of Washington and Alaska to be a foreign voyage and temporarily waives the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 (PVSA) until February of 2022. The PVSA has not been waived from Seattle to LA and probably explains why I can’t find what would have been a three-day cruise at the end of the Alaska season. There is now legislation introduced to make it permanent. Please no discussion needed or desired in this thread.

You could add 'EECC Travels' to your YouTube list as well. We vlogger addicts have to enable each other. 🙂

Just now, mina said:

Yes, the Turkish hamamm area was between 110 and 120 per the sign and I can only stay in about 10 mins. Stone seats were quite hot.  Not blistering, but pretty hot.  Stone loungers were just barely warm though.  Like them a little hotter.

@minaThanks for your response.

At one of our local Navy installations, the gym had a steam room that I would have to really push myself to stay in 10 minutes. Around 6 minutes, I would start wondering whether I was going to make it. Loved it! I was an absolute limp noodle when I was done. I could do an extremely hard workout and be tired but, oh boy, if I went in the steam room I felt like I had done five times the workout afterwards. As a side note, the steam room on the Ruby Princess was excellent.

2 hours ago, mina said:

Stayed on board in Juneau as have been many times.  Had the enclave to myself.  A few pics. 

@mina Is the steam room very hot? Almost blistering would be my preference. 🙂

3 hours ago, Musky Ike said:

I see no masks in the hot tubs. Here in Alaska it would be a shock to the system stepping out of one.

Sounds exhilarating!

Is the steam room in the Enclave really hot? On the Ruby in 2015 it was scorching. Loved it! The aroma therapy steam room was not as hot but nice; it was very relaxing.

4 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

Strawberries on Fire.

Thanks, I really appreciate your response! I don't drink alcohol, but that doesn't mean I don't want a little pzazz in my life. 🙂

I'll see if I can get them to go heavy on the jalapeno at the bar.