LIVE - Coral Princess - Circle the Pacific - 09-19-2018

[TheRabbit]

The bed in our mini suite had no problems. Not completely sure if the good beds went into all rooms during last upgrade.

[jagsfan]

3 hours ago, abbydancer said:

What strikes me as really bad about this is that they are selling the beds (as do most hotel chains).  If they wear out after 18 months, that's ridiculous, since a mattress should last a lot longer than that.  Ours is "if it still has the don't remove tag it's way too old", so we are debating between Princess and Marriott.  I think we'll go with Marriott if this is the case.

I think that would be smart. 

Comfort Suites have really comfortable beds, too. 

I don’t understand what makes cruise ship mattresses wear out so much faster than hotel beds.

Do hotel chains spend that much more??

[caribill]

15 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

CCrain, I thought I had posted earlier in response to your question about the Pacific Princess internet situation but it must have been lost in the ethersphere, which kind of tells you all you need to know about internet on the ship. I don’t think it’s been updated at all since we first sailed on her in 2014. I believe I saw the upgraded internet packages available when I first logged in but I can’t imagine how they can offer them. Maybe those folks are getting the big pipes...

 

Ships that have the improved Internet are offering what is called MedallionNET. Those that do not have the new and improved Internet are offering PrincessCONNECT. So the PrincessCONNECT packages are not "upgraded" but are just unlimited use of the old system instead of just by the minute.

[ccrain]

4 hours ago, caribill said:

Ships that have the improved Internet are offering what is called MedallionNET. Those that do not have the new and improved Internet are offering PrincessCONNECT. So the PrincessCONNECT packages are not "upgraded" but are just unlimited use of the old system instead of just by the minute.

Not quite "unlimited". They limit total useage on a 24 hour basis. 200MB throughput is the lowest tier. 500MB is the highest tier. Not sure if they throttle you down bases on the package or just cut you off at the limit.

[ccrain]

Patters are scanned and up.

 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnklLO6ZVH8F1zh7rxMvWfFxsrB-

 

This is a shared onedrive folder that you should be able to download from. These are full color 400DPI scans so they are huge ~ 250MB each.

 

I don't have the log of the cruise for the first leg. Not sure what happened to it, but if anyone can scan it and send it to me I can include it in the file.

 

Enjoy...

[PescadoAmarillo]

I am sitting at the Venice airport and was talking with a fellow passenger just off the Pacific Princess. She bought the unlimited internet for $9.99 per day ahead of time, in combination with her Elite benefits. She said streaming speed was available for $10 per day more. 

 

Sorry, I can’t personally confirm this, but will have to trust that the big pipes are there for an extra cost. 

[Barry H]

On ‎11‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 9:56 PM, jagsfan said:

I don’t understand what makes cruise ship mattresses wear out so much faster than hotel beds.

Do hotel chains spend that much more??

 

In my opinion, a reason is that the cruise ship mattresses do not have a box spring for support. The metal wire frames sag in the middle and don't support the mattress. Frame sags then mattress sags.

Unless you are in a minisuite there is no couch to sit and watch TV. The chairs provided are not comfortable. As a result people sit on the edge of the bed or in bed to watch TV. This means more people hours on the bed than at home.

Because the ship feeds the passengers around the clock, many passengers are larger than the normal population putting more stress on the mattress.

 

Lastly, ships don't carry new replacement mattresses. Mattresses apparently don't get inspected and evaluated for replacement.

[ccrain]

Videos, photos and patters are now up on One Drive –

 

Photos and Patters are here:

 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnklLO6ZVH8F0HEArN0rbt0TKF9Y

 

 

Photos are arranged by contributor, along with a large patter folder.

 

The patters are 250MB each and will take a while to download or open.

 

Videos are here:

 

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnklLO6ZVH8F0HKQ1y2iHV61o3p5

 

Videos are arranged by Port or activity and some are quite long and LARGE! Some are almost 2GB. They are better viewed downloaded. These are raw .mp4 files, no editing, so parts with you in it or more interesting stuff might take a while to see, hence the reason for downloading.

 

If you would like to contribute, and some already have, you can attach photos to emails to me or link me to a cloud folder and I will download and copy them over to the appropriate video or photo folder.

 

Since I have a OneDrive account with a 1TB limit, this is the best way I could figure out how to distribute everything cheaply…

 

 

[ccrain]

Travelog is now up at:

 

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AnklLO6ZVH8F2W_bFC9liLoG6rvm

 

[ccrain]

Did everyone who was on the 60 day cruise get credited for 2 cruises in their history? I just checked mine and it says 2 cruise credits...

[ccrain]

On 11/23/2018 at 4:27 AM, PescadoAmarillo said:

I am sitting at the Venice airport and was talking with a fellow passenger just off the Pacific Princess. She bought the unlimited internet for $9.99 per day ahead of time, in combination with her Elite benefits. She said streaming speed was available for $10 per day more. 

 

Sorry, I can’t personally confirm this, but will have to trust that the big pipes are there for an extra cost. 

 

BTW - Since you were just on her, any idea who the CD and ED are going to be for the 2019 WC?

[Crzn-Life]

 

6 hours ago, ccrain said:

Did everyone who was on the 60 day cruise get credited for 2 cruises in their history? I just checked mine and it says 2 cruise credits...

 

I checked the 21st and had only 1 credit for the cruise. Yesterday I saw that it had been changed to 2.

[TheRabbit]

6 hours ago, ccrain said:

Did everyone who was on the 60 day cruise get credited for 2 cruises in their history? I just checked mine and it says 2 cruise credits...

We both got 2 as they said we would.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Ours changed from one on Tuesday to two today.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Such an interesting cruise blog; thank you! It’s shameful to be without LETTUCE on a premium cruise! I understand things can go awry, but the basics of a cruise should always be made available. That includes plenty of entertainment from start to finish of the cruise. Hope your next one is smoother sailing in more ways than one!

[Crzn-Life]

Can someone tell me who the ED was that replaced Mike in Hong Kong? I'm drawing a total blank.

 

Thanks,

Wanda

[ccrain]

46 minutes ago, Crzn-Life said:

Can someone tell me who the ED was that replaced Mike in Hong Kong? I'm drawing a total blank.

 

Thanks,

Wanda

 

Marahscalh Stanton

[tlcwill]

On 11/5/2018 at 11:34 AM, ccrain said:

Simple runs to sights close to the mall were close to $100 roundtrip. A trip to the Hilton hotel, about 2 miles away, would have run about $50 each way! No wonder the taxis did not offer by the hour tours! The meter was far more lucrative.

We took a cab from the Outlets to the Hilton to go the beach.  It was $16 each way.  Still expensive for such a short ride.

[karioncruising]

On 11/25/2018 at 4:54 AM, ccrain said:

Travelog is now up at:

 

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AnklLO6ZVH8F2W_bFC9liLoG6rvm

 

Wow! What a great cruise! I have a question. Were you charged about $34 for the Vietnam visa? 

Thanks so much!

[ccrain]

7 hours ago, karioncruising said:

Wow! What a great cruise! I have a question. Were you charged about $34 for the Vietnam visa? 

Thanks so much!

$32 according to my folio.

[ccrain]

10 hours ago, tlcwill said:

We took a cab from the Outlets to the Hilton to go the beach.  It was $16 each way.  Still expensive for such a short ride.

The person who told me about $50 each way was probably taken for a ride...literally...

[brucedodge]

14 hours ago, ccrain said:

 

Marahscalh Stanton

 

 

Aha!!  No wonder you had trouble with dancing opportunity.  He's very inflexible, even when presented with ideas, and he could care less about those who like to dance.

[ccrain]

10 minutes ago, brucedodge said:

 

 

Aha!!  No wonder you had trouble with dancing opportunity.  He's very inflexible, even when presented with ideas, and he could care less about those who like to dance.

Now it makes sense why the schedule was so, so screwed up from Manila to HI, and then things opened back up after HI. He was following a 'script' from HI to LA, typical of the HI runs to LA.

 

Manila to HI didn't have a prior script and he was limited to what corporate gave him. Probably never thought to deviate from the corporate offerings to try something new and unique... Shame....

 

Also, an interesting thing happened. He got on in Hong Kong. Never saw him in Explorer's during the 5-7 canned music dance hour -except for one night and that story bears a little explanation. 

 

The night of Manila and two nights after, the 5-7PM dance session was not in the patter. We showed up in Explorer's the night after Manila and Russel, the A/V dude, put the music on for us. We thought it was an oversight. The very next night it did not appear in the Patter again, and once again, Russel put the music on for us, but several of us also wrote into the Wake Show asking for the music to be put back on.  (Russel gets a big pat on the back, and some Alaskan fudge, for his efforts.)

 

The next day it shows up in the Patter, and he shows up in Explorer's talking to a group of entertainers, who typically hung out in Explorer's from 5-6 every night in the back. He sits down so he can watch the dance floor and for the entire hour watches us dance, goes over to talk to Russel every now and then, sits back down and keeps glancing over at us dance. He leaves at 6.

 

Was he checking up on us? Checking up on the situation? Never showed back up again in Explorer's.

 

We would have went over and thanked him, some people did, but our interactions with him previously were not comfortable. So we stuck with dancing...

[TheRabbit]

On 11/1/2018 at 1:31 PM, ccrain said:

11-02-2018 – At Sea to Guam

 

Manila was interesting. I’m on the fence as to my overall impression. Primarily because of the traffic. Oh geez! Our tour was cut short because of it. Take LA traffic at rush hour, take away the freeways, add in a whole bunch of cycles (motorcycles with side cars), then add a bunch of pedi-cabs and street traffic and you have downtown traffic. Waze was so confused. Time back to the port from the Intramuros was switching between 15 minutes and 30 minutes as the streets turned red, then yellow, then green, then red, all in about 5 seconds.

 

Lunch was at an authentic Filipino restaurant in Tagaytay. Don Juan Bulalo on the main road from Manila to Tagaytay. Outdoor covered kitchen with woks, flats and grills. We had a fried local fish, rice, a little slaw, a fried egg, stir fried noodles, stir fried veggies, some rice snacks and fruit. It was a very rustic meal, not fancy, not bad, but very representative of what the Filipinos eat all the time.

 

 

Here is a picture of this Kitchen.

[jrblach]

we have been on 3 world cruises on the Pacific Princess. Charles Crain - you will find this to be a SMALL, TINY ship. Food choices limited. entertainment choices limited. suggest you bring a DVD player and lots of movies to hook into the TV. Internet is poor - very slow - many places NONE. but, the places you see and visit are fantastic - great way to see them is from a cruise ship. have fun. we were on Holland America 2017 world cruise - they had a night club dedicated to classical music - none to rock & roll. Pacific Princess, with all its drawbacks, is 1000% BETTER.