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Day by Day Cruise Review: Grand Princess Alaska/Glacier Bay May 20, 2013

MilliesMom

By MilliesMom,
in Princess Cruises

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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My wife of 38 years and I are on the Grand 10-day Alaska out of SFO in July. Read you did the Bon Voyage Experience so a few questions… What time was lunch? Which dining room? Did you order off the std menu?

Also, what were the MUTS they played? Was it too cold to watch them in the eve?

 

You’ve posted such a fantastic day-by-day travelogue – did you post the daily Patters?

 

Thanks! LOVE your travelogue! Enjoyed both reading it (multiple times!) and sharing it with my wife!

 

Thanks!!! Brian

 

Brian ... we must just be missing each other. I saw your note/comment on my blog and just responded. In fact made it a blog post as I felt others would have the same questions as you. I will repost it here.

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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I received the following from Brian, and felt it would be helpful to post my answers here to the blog for others to see also. Here’s is his note, I will post his questions in red and respond directly underneath them.

 

My wife of 38 years and I are on the Grand 10-day Alaska out of SFO in July. Read you did the Bon Voyage Experience so a few questions… What time was lunch? Which dining room? Did you order off the std menu?

 

You are going to have such a wonderful time on the Grand Princess. It is a beautiful ship with a fantastic crew. My husband and I celebrated our 26th Anniversary in January. Congratulations to both of you. 38 years is wonderful. May you have many more together filled with lots of cruises.

 

Yes, our friends signed up for the Bon Voyage Experience on the Grand Princess for the same day that we sailed to Alaska. It was wonderful and we were able to board early (just after 11 am) because our reservations were linked together. They served lunch at noon in the DaVinci Dining Room on Deck 6. They had a special section of the dining room for those in the Bon Voyage Experience and Passengers linked to them. I believe it was the same menu offered to anyone that ate in the dining room that day. The exception was that we were offered wine and soft drinks at no charge with our meal.

 

Also, what were the MUTS they played? Was it too cold to watch them in the eve?

 

The only time we watched the MUTS screen was at sail-away under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was fun to watch as they were catching passengers on the camera. Too funny to watch expressions as they were caught dancing to the band. The little kids LOVED being on camera and the big screen.

 

Many days/nights it definitely was way too cold to be out on deck. Our first 2 sea days, they roped off the promenade area totally because we were in such rough waters. No one was to be outside. I know that they offered blanket check-out in that area, so some most of watched the movies outside. Also offered blankets in Glacier Bay if you wanted/needed them.

 

Movies were shown numerous times throughout the day and evening. Some of the movies were also shown in the cabins on TV, but not all. Here are the movies shown during the cruise:

 

1. Trouble with the Curve (shown twice during the cruise)

2. Big

3. 9 to 5

4. The Guilt Trip

5. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

6. Back to the Future

7. Parental Guidance (we watched this in the cabin)

8. Breakfast at Tiffany’s

9. Skyfall (shown twice during the cruise)

10. Oz the Great and Powerful

11. Jack Reacher

12. Overboard

13. Mama Mia

14. Life of Pi

15. The Devil Wears Prada

16. Les Miserables (2012)

17. Dirty Dancing (Patrick Swayze/Jennifer Grey)

18. The Philadelphia Story

 

You’ve posted such a fantastic day-by-day travelogue – did you post the daily Patters?

 

Thank you so much. I am really glad that you enjoyed it. No, I didn’t post the patters. At this point no way to scan them easily.

 

Thanks! LOVE your travelogue! Enjoyed both reading it (multiple times!) and sharing it with my wife!

Thanks!!! Brian

 

Brian, again thank you for all of your comments. I hope my answers to your questions are helpful also. I know you are going to love the cruise. Alaska is our absolute favorite destination. Of course, the fact that we met on a cruise to Alaska almost 27 years ago could have something to do with it. We have now cruised 11 times total, and 3 of those have been to Alaska.

 

http://cruising.kreateskards.com/2013/06/28/answers-to-questions/

 

....

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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Mary,

 

I was wondering - were you checked for the one wine bottle per person in San Francisco?

 

Thanks,

Julie

 

Julie, we didn't have any wine with us when we boarded. Also we did early check-in (around 11 am) because we were with friends on the Bon Voyage Experience.

 

We did have one of our bags set off the beeper on the xray machine. They only thing they asked was if we had water in our bags and we did have a bottle of water with us (about a quart size bottle that we had purchased at the store the day before). They didn't open our bags, just said that water/liquids could trigger the alarm.

 

So I really don't know how thorough they are at checking.

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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Mary,

 

Many thanks for your quick response. I have enjoyed your review. We are on the Sept 7th cruise ....yyyipppeee!

 

Julie

 

Julie ... you are welcome. You are going to have an amazing time. We really enjoyed the ship, the crew, and especially the itinerary. Glacier Bay was amazing.

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  • 2 weeks later...
pooheart

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Mary,

SO enjoyed reading about your trip and viewing the photos! I've been to Alaska twice and going again soon. You have ignited such an excitement inside me that I thought couldn't get any bigger!! Thank you so much for putting the time, effort and obvious caring into your review, it was amazing to read!!

........Gail........

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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Mary,

SO enjoyed reading about your trip and viewing the photos! I've been to Alaska twice and going again soon. You have ignited such an excitement inside me that I thought couldn't get any bigger!! Thank you so much for putting the time, effort and obvious caring into your review, it was amazing to read!!

........Gail........

 

Gail, thank you so much. You made my day.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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I am a fan of CruisePortInsider (website) and Kindle E-Books from amazon. Bob Haefliger (author) is now offering his e-book for Half Moon Cay (Bahamas) for free. Not sure how long it will be FREE, but please help me pass the word. He's also just added in new e-books for Victoria BC and Belize. His e-books are around $5. We used his Alaska ones for our cruise in May. Highly recommend. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=cruiseportinsider

 

Wanted to spread the word about the free e-book, plus the update of Victoria to his e-books too.

 

UPDATE: 7/20/2013 ... I just received an e-mail from Bob Haefliger. He said that the issue of his e-book for Half Moon Cay is FREE until Tuesday, 7/23/2013.

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MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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Mary,

 

Thanks so much for the information on these books. We are doing the Alaskan ports on our own in September and these are much better references than I have seen on other websites.

 

Regards,

Julie

 

Julie ... you are very welcome. I loved that I had the e-Books on my iPad and that I didn't need WiFi access to check on something or review the port and what was offered there. At $5 each, they are affordable too.

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  • 1 year later...
MilliesMom

MilliesMom

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Just saw that my photos in many of the posts have disappeared from my review. I apologize that this has happened. A while back I gave up my website because it was extremely expensive to maintain.

 

I hope the other links (not blog related) will still be helpful to those cruising to Alaska.

 

We had such a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again.

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