walkingsoon

Glitch: Yes Should I worry? No. Princess should worry. They should worry a lot. They should dump the app and all the managers who have been pushing it.

You can. You don't want to. Ombud and kiwimum are right. Just don't do it. I had a free transfer from Smith Cove for the Royal this summer and the company that they contracted with really dropped the ball - very long disorganized lines and a ninety minute wait. There are very few ports where the ship offering is worth it. Seattle is not one of them.

I too had a problem selecting the same time every evening but worked around it by booking each individual day for the same time one at a time. Time consuming, but no more so than trying to call the help center. As soon as I get seated at a reasonable table (I'm not too picky), I ask the head waiter or the ladies at the entry desk to make it permanent for the duration.

1-Sapphire 2-Grand 3-Royal

Yes. You can get it removed with a phone call to guest services.

"Will guest services remove your name?" Yes. Easily and quickly done with a phone call.

I'm on now. It's fine, supports my occasional streaming.

1- keep your medallion in a faraday pouch 2- remove your name from your cabin door 3- check your account

"Should we expect to arrive at the main dining room and be seated? " Generally the host/hostess greets you at the door and sends you off with one of the waiters to guide you to your table. Later on in the cruise, if you have a static reservation time and have arranged with the headwaiter for a specific table, you can saunter in to 'your' table on your own. "Will we need reservations for the main dining room? When can reservations be made?" No. You don't need to make reservations. According to their "Dine My Way" program, you can make reservations or you can simply show up without a reservation. If you choose to go without a reservation, you'll probably have to go to a specific dining room and there might be separate lines for those with and those without. That's how they've been doing it on the other smaller ships anyway. You should be able to make reservations using their phone app (good luck with that) as soon as you pay. Once onboard you can use your stateroom TV or a public monitor to make or change reservations. "If we have reservations for the main dining room, would we expect to arrive and be seated or would there likely be a wait? If a wait, what is typical?" My recent experience on the last few cruises with a 5:40 reservation is that I've shown up, checked in with the hostess and been on my way to the table in a couple minutes, the slight delay allowing for them to scan my medallion. I've also observed while leaving at 6:45 to 7:00 there is often a crowded lobby with fair sized lines clamoring to get in, though even the bad looking lines are probably less than ten minutes. What's unknown at this point is how well organized the Sun's new crew will be. Sometimes new ships take a while to get their act together. Also, the biggest problems I've encountered have been on the biggest ships. This one is huge. The old Sun was wonderful and their traditional dining was great. This Sun has over two and half times the number of passengers. Fwiw, the wait times I've seen on Princess are pretty similar to those on NCL. "When can we make reservations for specialty restaurants? Is there typically a wait for a table?" Same as for the MDR. "We're thinking of booking a Deluxe Balcony, maybe stateroom 11403. We prefer to be nowhere near a smoking section. Does this look like a good choice?" That looks like a fine, fine choice! It's a couple of decks up from the ?promenade? deck and thus probably away from wherever they're going to put their smoking area. The Princess Deluxe balcony rooms are a reasonable value as a compromise between regular balconies and mini suites and that one looks like it might have a nice balcony. Hard to say though from the Princess website and cruisedeckplans.com understandably doesn't have photos yet. Enjoy your cruise, walkingsoon

"Would be nice if were less expensive than an obstructed balcony" If they're still available and indeed not as expensive, I'd consider the obstructed balconies L101-104 or M101-104. Even after final payment you might get a swap done if you talk to the right person. The balconies are huge, forward facing and very near, location-wise - just a deck or two below. Either way, for cruising the inside passage, you'll have a great view. Been in both cabin types and enjoyed them. If you do stick with the premium oceanview and your steward won't provide a table (I expect he will) the existence of furniture on the inaccurate diagrams provides you with a reasonable argument point should you escalate the request to guest services. Otherwise it's just a large odd space; furniture would be very appropriate.

Tinknock-- " forward facing outside cabins" Are you referring to the 'premium oceanview' cabins on Sun deck, S101-106? I was in one earlier this year. The Princess website deck plan floor diagram implies that there is a small oval table and barrel chair. Neither was there, just a very large empty floor leading to the slanting windows. I asked my steward for a table and he kindly supplied a folding type metal chair and card table which worked for my desired computer workspace. I would expect that you could do the same. One other issue is the half sized closet, also not as implied on the website deck floor room diagram. As another poster has pointed out you might do well to look at photos and videos displayed on cruisedeckplans.com. This half sized closet didn't bother me because I was traveling solo, but if my wife was with me it would have been a deal killer. The front facing slanted windows are pretty spectacular and the far remote cabin location way up top and forward of the retreat pool was kind of fun. At the time I booked I could've gotten a regular balcony or deluxe balcony-obstructed for the same price, which I probably would do next time around. Enjoy your cruise, Walkingsoon

I'm on now. We sailed on 5/17 with 2200 passengers (or so I was told once - didn't verify that) and the ship seems to be handling that (?85% cap) quite well. I haven't seen lines for the MDRs. We went through Johnstone Strait rather than the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, though it mostly happened in the dark. Alfredo's is limited to pizzas only. No soup, salads, appetizers or alternate pasta dishes. Likewise, the International Cafe seemed to have more limited offerings than I've seen on other Princess ships. That's just an observation, not a complaint. It's probably a result of being on a bit smaller ship, which is a good thing. In fact my overall opinion of this ship, as is the case with all of the non-Royal class ships, is that it is greatly superior to any of the Royal class ships. That might change with the arrival of the Eclipse class. (Yeah - I'm one of those) Certainly, it's got a great promenade deck and balconies that are bigger than window boxes. The Crown Grill is a Sterling's. We had a little intermittent misting in Ketchikan but nice weather since. Today was brilliant in Glacier Bay with more calving from Margerie Glacier than I've ever seen before. In Juneau, the trails on Mt. Roberts were snowbound from the timberline tram station on up. In Skagway the trail to and then around lower Dewey Lake was absolutely dry. Starting next week, the wooden trestle bridge on Basin Road in Juneau will be shut down to pedestrian traffic from 7:00am to 7:00pm, cutting off access to the Mt. Roberts and Perseverance trailheads. This will impact, quite negatively, those who take the tram up Mt. Roberts and then decide to hike down. In Skagway, we were forced to take a locally sourced shuttle service to the head of the pier. That's supposed to be for safety purposes, but given the three point turn they have to do on the pier, I'd feel much safer walking out on my own, more in control anyway. Waiting was minimal for the shuttle once the early morning rush was over. Most travelled luncheon was replaced with a most travelled cocktail party. All in all, I really like this ship. The crew is great and seems relatively happy. You'll have a great time!

The dining rooms are essentially identical with identical menus. They're in different locations, with Concerto midship on deck 6 and Allegro on deck 6 aft. I prefer Allegro, though not by much. I like the windows on three sides, rather than just port and starboard. I also like a bit of variety and they usually (but not always) serve breakfast and sea day luncheons in the Concerto, so I like going elsewhere for dinner. I also like the out of the way feel for that dining room. Note that many complain of getting confused with that location since one can't walk forward to aft on deck six. I don't mind the walk or the extra ladder, but I recognize that the midship location might be more convenient for some. Another small consideration might be that during really busy times on a full ship the midship dining room is better set up to handle queues while the aft dining room check in sometimes gets messy with full elevators arriving to an already crowded entry lobby.

Might I suggest Uber (or other rideshare) as possibly being a better alternative for both Jemnibabe and Deisemum? I disembarked from Discovery in San Pedro in mid January. Traveling solo, I purchased a transfer onboard to save a few bucks and burn excess non-refundable OBC. With a 2:00 pm flight, I joined the casual slowpokes at the end of the line to disembark and when I got out of the terminal there were no buses, just several score of angry transfers milling about in a disorganized mess waiting for the original group of buses to roundtrip back from LAX. The pier side representative pretended like they had no way of knowing how many people had purchased transfers. I waited close to an hour for the ride and regretted not having simply hopped on a rideshare. My experience LAX to San Pedro and back is that Uber costs about the same as two transfer tickets, so if you're traveling with someone else you save nothing by using the Princess transfers. For larger groups it's even worse. Ironically, on that sh*tsh*w of a transfer I was possibly the only person on the bus for whom it was economically sensible to be there. Factoring in the hassle of getting an additional shuttle to a nearby hotel, I'd definitely prefer a direct rideshare. There are very few Princess embarkation ports left where I'll rely on the ship offered transfers. ymmv

Thanks all for your responses😀

As a potential newcomer to Silversea trying to price a specific cruise, it appears that some of the more attractive TA offerings include OBC, sometimes quite substantial. Can anyone provide me insight into how valuable the OBCs are? Good as cash, or hard to use? I tend not to order extras (specialty dining, spa) on other cruises and on a cruise line billing itself as all-inclusive, I'm not sure I'd find a use for them. Can one launder them in the casino? Regards, Walkingsoon

Given the current trajectory, I expect it'll start working in ten or eleven years.

We_like_to-cruise -- I'm sorry that you're having this issue. As I recall, I was part of that earlier conversation and made (or echoed) the recommendation. Ever since I had first gotten that tip from someone else here some years back that adapter has been a real game changer. I've used it probably twenty times or so, including on the Island. You might want to get your steward involved. On my last cruise the steward, walking in to see me putting the adapter in place, seemed disappointed that I hadn't first asked him for his help. DavidsNana -- She will absolutely not need that adapter. It is, however, a nice alternative to stringing an extension cord across the cabin to the plugs adjacent to the desk. In any event, it's a handy adapter to toss (and keep) in your luggage and not particularly expensive. Again, ask the steward if you're having trouble getting it working.

I cruise both NCL and Princess a fair bit and won't say I prefer one line to the other. One point, as yet unmentioned, that I've noticed is that I occasionally had trouble finding a spot to sit at the NCL buffet when the ship was (pre-covid) crowded. I've never had that problem on Princess as long as I was willing to walk a bit. I love the specialty restaurant benefits for platinums on NCL and I also think they handle the anytime dining very well. I never wait too much as long as I'm willing to follow the hosts' advice to "go downstairs, there's no wait there". But I respect your preference for buffet eating and believe you'll be able to find food to your liking on Princess. Your described mode of dress will be fine everywhere on Princess. Please note that all the lines seem to be struggling right now. Try Princess. I hope it works for you. ymmv

There were several reasons, Happiest. Most importantly, the gentleman with the uniform and badge told me that I wouldn't have enough time to do so. Had I planned to stay for a land tour visit, I would have certainly complied. As it was, I was back across the border within an hour. Would you, in my shoes, have missed the sailing in order to get a test? I've received no communication from CBSA about the test and have had no problems with several subsequent crossings within the last six weeks. Interestingly, there are a number of ongoing scams related to border crossing tests in which people from apparently hacked lists are being blackmailed by crooks posing as CBSA agents. Thank you for your feedback. I generally try to do the right thing, yet still run afoul of the occasional government regulation. I would suggest that your government is indeed doing what it says it is (and I'm a fan of the concept of random testing, btw - I wish it had been done more earlier on), but there are some wrinkles in the program as it relates to visitors such as cruisers who are in and out so quickly. Perhaps the man's advice was based on his recognition of that. Princess had no electronic record of my vaccination status or negative test result as far as I know. I was never able to get the very faulty app to accept them. I had paper copies to show, but was never asked.

Last month I drove through the crossing at Blaine, WA. I had filled out the ArriveCAN app, which required a snapshot of our vaccine records. Their border agent told my wife that she had been randomly selected to take a Covid test. He asked how long we were going to be there, as it would have required going to a pharmacy and having the test witnessed. When I told him we were only in Canada long enough to drive on to Vancouver, park and board the ship he said: "I'd just ignore it, then". At the port, the US border people were remarkably quick. I had never gotten the medallion app to recognize my vaccination record upload, but the first Princess employee I ran into scanned my medallion and directed me toward the brow .As I walked on I realized that no one had asked for either vaccination proof or test results.

It's the electronic version. Not many takers last month going to Alaska.

"if anyone knows if they have electrical outlets by the bed stands" Sorry, I just realized that I bypassed your actual question. The answer is: No, not really.

1) Pull bed out 6" from wall. 2) Unplug the bedside lamp from the outlet behind the bed. 3) Install 2-in-1 Type A/Type E,F adapter. Don't have one? - buy it from Amazon, try this one, perhaps. 4) Replug in the bedside lamp and your CPAP plug. 5) Push bed back in. 6) Sleep like a baby. No extension cord needed.