Is the Chef's Table available on one-night cruise?

[Wolfhunt]

We have a one-night cruise attached to the end of our 7-day Alaska cruise in May. Do they do the Chef's Table on one-nighters? And if they do, would we be able to book it for the one-nighter while on the 7-nighter since they are back to back?

[cherylandtk]

I've never heard of it....too little time to arrange.

Edited March 29, 2016 by cherylandtk

[VibeGuy]

No. Specialty dining is open, and if you wish to use it that night, it's advisable to book it before embarkation begins for the 1NT.

 

We've never seen the Chef's Table on 1, 3 or 4 night sailings on the West Coast.

[cubfan63]

No. Specialty dining is open, and if you wish to use it that night, it's advisable to book it before embarkation begins for the 1NT.

 

 

 

We've never seen the Chef's Table on 1, 3 or 4 night sailings on the West Coast.

 

 

Specialty dining on Princess is not open to pre-booking on any length cruise. You can only make the reservation after you board. There are many threads here than have noted this.

 

Perhaps you have confused this with some other cruise line that makes you pre-book and pre-pay.

Edited March 29, 2016 by cubfan63

[Wolfhunt]

Thanks all,

 

If the Chefs Table is not offered then we will just do one of the specialty places that night. I will go ahead and ask at the beginning of the first cruise and maybe there will be enough interest from others doing the back-to-back that we can get it set up. The worst that could happen is we are told no.

[VibeGuy]

The OP said they were on the 7NT prior to the 1NT; what I suggested was making the reservation for the 1NT while sailing the 7NT. Sorry you were confused by what I proposed.

[1025cruise]

First thing is first, make sure your cruise is legal. If the start and endpoints of the cruise are different US cities, then you will not be allowed to do this. This is very common for ships repositioning to/from Alaska.

[VibeGuy]

Per their sig, the itinerary the OP is booked on is the Crown 7NT circle trip from Vancouver then the 1NT Vancouver-Seattle, a perfectly legitimate pair of sailings, with absolutely no cabotage issues.

Edited March 30, 2016 by VibeGuy

[Wolfhunt]

First thing is first, make sure your cruise is legal. If the start and endpoints of the cruise are different US cities, then you will not be allowed to do this. This is very common for ships repositioning to/from Alaska.

 

It is, everytime I have called Princess to make payments the rep checks to make sure what we are doing is ok. The first time I was a little worried as I thought they checked when we booked it, now I just get a chuckle when they check everytime. While it adds time to any call I make, it makes me feel good that every rep so far has noticed it and makes sure we won't have any issues.

 

This is the first Princess cruise and the first cruise out of a non-USA port so I asked the reps at Princess and Amtrack (we are taking Amtrack from Seattle to Vancouver on the way there) quite a few questions to be sure we had all of our ducks in a row. The trip there will be a bit nerve racking making all the connections (Cincinnati-Houston-Seattle on United then Seattle to Vancouver on Amtrack all in the same day) but ince we get to Vancouver we will be able to relax.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Wolfhunt

[VibeGuy]

I'm sure everything will go smoothly, but just in case something doesn't, and it doesn't look like you'll make the Amtrak departure, it's completely viable (and usually around the same price for two, when you're booking close in) to just pick up a car from National or Alamo at the Seattle airport and drop it at Canada Place. You might want to keep that idea in your back pocket in case of travel chaos. It's a lovely drive - in my mind it's much preferable to getting stuck with one of the Amtrak bus services in the event of irregular operations.

 

Bon voyage! We'll be on the 1NT.

[caribill]

 

This is the first Princess cruise and the first cruise out of a non-USA port so I asked the reps at Princess and Amtrack (we are taking Amtrack from Seattle to Vancouver on the way there) quite a few questions to be sure we had all of our ducks in a row. The trip there will be a bit nerve racking making all the connections (Cincinnati-Houston-Seattle on United then Seattle to Vancouver on Amtrack all in the same day) but ince we get to Vancouver we will be able to relax.

 

I'm sure everything will go smoothly, but just in case something doesn't, and it doesn't look like you'll make the Amtrak departure, it's completely viable (and usually around the same price for two, when you're booking close in) to just pick up a car from National or Alamo at the Seattle airport and drop it at Canada Place. You might want to keep that idea in your back pocket in case of travel chaos. It's a lovely drive - in my mind it's much preferable to getting stuck with one of the Amtrak bus services in the event of irregular operations.

 

 

Assuming you are traveling on embarkation day, why not just take the Princess xfer from the Seattle airport to the ship?

[VibeGuy]

Assuming you are traveling on embarkation day, why not just take the Princess xfer from the Seattle airport to the ship?

 

My guess is they're traveling the day before embarkation day - the itinerary they describe is pretty brutal, and has them arriving at the hotel in Vancouver about midnight.

 

The upside is that they have the morning in Vancouver to explore (or recover) and aren't on a bus for three hours and change, that inevitably has an early show-up time and requires at least 40 other people to have their acts together. Personally, I would rather have a very long travel day and wake up in Vancouver sans bus, vs a moderately long day and wake up in a Seattle airport hotel with a bus ride ahead of me.

[1025cruise]

Per their sig, the itinerary the OP is booked on is the Crown 7NT circle trip from Vancouver then the 1NT Vancouver-Seattle, a perfectly legitimate pair of sailings, with absolutely no cabotage issues.

 

I have signatures disabled, so I didn't see the OP's itinerary. My warning was because it has been posted quite frequently that people booked a B2B repositioning to/from Alaska, and find out, sometimes last minute, that the B2B was booked in error.

[Wolfhunt]

Assuming you are traveling on embarkation day, why not just take the Princess xfer from the Seattle airport to the ship?

 

We are traveling a few days before the cruise so we could have a full day to explore some of Vancouver. We always travel at least one day before the cruise because I am always worried that something will get delayed and we'll miss the boat.

 

As long as United and Amtrack have their acts together, that travel day we should be fine, just a long day. If something does delay us we will have a full days cushion. My only concern is getting into Seattle on time. If we miss Amtrack we will have to find a place in Seattle and catch the train the next morning. A hassle but not a big deal, that's what travel insurance is for.

[LeeW]

As long as United and Amtrack have their acts together, that travel day we should be fine, just a long day. If something does delay us we will have a full days cushion. My only concern is getting into Seattle on time. If we miss Amtrack we will have to find a place in Seattle and catch the train the next morning. A hassle but not a big deal, that's what travel insurance is for.

 

There are some good hotels just east of Seatac near the train station, so that is one option if you get stuck. But the drive is pretty nice in the daytime. We do one-way rentals northbound all the time and they are fairly cheap, as long as you turn in the car and don't park at the hotel.

[geoherb]

When we took our b2b cruises last year, they let us make reservations for the second cruise for the specialty dining restaurants on the last day of our first cruise. It was great to have reservations. I heard from a lot of fellow passengers who were disappointed not to be able to get them--or to get them for times they felt were too early or too late. We ate at Sabatini's on the first night of our second cruise, the Crown Grill the second night, the Crab Shack the third night, and an Ultimate Balcony Dinner the last.