LA to Alaska Back On!

[satxdiver]

19 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Never.

 

When it was passed, cruising as we know it did not exist.

 

It also applies to ferries and cruising on the Mississippi River which are the types of commerce it was aimed at.

 

Never is such a nasty word.  Perhaps maybe never is better as things do happen depending on who is paying the congressmen.  

[gvre]

On 9/29/2020 at 2:21 PM, Pam in CA said:

Pam,

Are these the actual prices?

We were booked on the Sun in a mini suite so it's a let down to get a mini suite on the Crown.

[weedpindle]

17 hours ago, satxdiver said:

 

Never is such a nasty word.  Perhaps maybe never is better as things do happen depending on who is paying the congressmen.  

It was passed on behalf of SHIPBUILDERS, originally for the haulage of freight. See, shipbuilders did not want foreign built ships hauling freight between us ports when that kind of thing happened. Passenger service was kind of an afterthought. people did not cruise just to cruise, they traveled from coast to coast that way. Not everything is today's doing.

[paul929207]

I believe it has be about 10 or 15 years since a serious attempt was made to modify PVSA. The proposal was to strengthen the law, not back off on the requirements.

[paul929207]

I believe it has be about 10 or 15 years since a serious attempt was made to modify PVSA. The proposal was to strengthen the law, not back off on the requirements.

[Pam in CA]

On 10/2/2020 at 11:46 PM, caribill said:

 

Never.

 

When it was passed, cruising as we know it did not exist.

 

It also applies to ferries and cruising on the Mississippi River which are the types of commerce it was aimed at.

I agree. The law was passed to protect US shipping, which still very much exists. Cruising is relatively small compared to international shipping. 
 

Several years ago, Senator Inouye of Hawaii, whose wife happened to be a godmother for an NCL ship, tried to amend the PVSA that would require all foreign-flagged ships to spend 50% of all port time in foreign ports and some other changes. Of course, that would have allowed NCL, which at the time had three US-flagged ships sailing in Hawaii, to be the only ships that could sail to/from Hawaii and Alaska. Then, some senators, such as Ted Kennedy, realized that would also kill the cruise and shipping industry from New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Seattle as well as most of the Alaskan cruise market. It would also kill hundreds of thousands of jobs in the shipping and cruise industry. Needless to say, it didn’t pass. 
 

 

[Pam in CA]

I’m re-booked from the Sun Princess to the Crown Princess 7/3/21. The difference between the “Savers” and “Plus” is huge so the Plus isn’t worth it to me since I rarely drink and get the free WiFi anyway. Got specialty dining plus extra OBC. 

 

[that]

Did you book a Balcony Cabin this time?

[disneyochem]

We booked two cabins on the Crown Princess (from the Sun) for the July 3 cruise!  Yay! It’s back on!  The port times/dates were exactly the same so I’m not going to have to change any excursions or port shuttles!

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the pricing.  We had $150/person OBC on the Sun that didn’t transfer over but we saved over $2500 on the rebook!

 

Princess put a courtesy hold until November 9th  Was told in an email that the deposit/monies that were on the Sun booking could be used on the new booking.  Surprise, surprise—not ready yet...  Of course, we had paid for the Sun trip using FCC....

[bubbapuck]

I rebooked for the 17th also. I am not sure why the price difference is so substantial. Des anyone know? I ended up having enough cruise credit left to fully pay for a 10 day cruise to Mexico on the Grand Princdss in 2022 (minus taxes and fees).

 

Does anyone know why it was so much cheaper? I expected it to be the same or more then the Sun cruise.

[Yehootu]

19 hours ago, disneyochem said:

We booked two cabins on the Crown Princess (from the Sun) for the July 3 cruise!  Yay! It’s back on!  The port times/dates were exactly the same so I’m not going to have to change any excursions or port shuttles!

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the pricing.  We had $150/person OBC on the Sun that didn’t transfer over but we saved over $2500 on the rebook!

 

Princess put a courtesy hold until November 9th  Was told in an email that the deposit/monies that were on the Sun booking could be used on the new booking.  Surprise, surprise—not ready yet...  Of course, we had paid for the Sun trip using FCC....

Hope you meant Oct 9th for hold. I have a hold also. Couldn't believe how fast mini's and suites were sold. Guess there's a lot of FCC out there to upgrade.

 

[mcrcruiser]

23 hours ago, Pam in CA said:

I’m re-booked from the Sun Princess to the Crown Princess 7/3/21. The difference between the “Savers” and “Plus” is huge so the Plus isn’t worth it to me since I rarely drink and get the free WiFi anyway. Got specialty dining plus extra OBC. 

 

Pam We looked at a BE cat balcony ;but ,wow the prices per day are really high . Alaska cruise port taxes are very high  .A long time ago we recall discussing on  cruise critic the Alaska authorities raising there port fees . It certainly appears that they got their way with these port fees  .We looked at the bare bones pricing & unfortunately on this cruise they priced us out of the market  . We have  sailed Alaska  5 times as well as extensive land trips add ons .Thus ,we are not missing much . If we were wanting to go back we would fly into Anchorage  & arrange our own lodging ,at a fraction of the cost of this cruise  .On the other hand we got a spectacular deal on majestic for Mexico Jan15 ,2022  .Then we also booked  a balcony cabin for Oct 14 ,2022 on Carnival Miracle ,15 night Hawaii  BC cat balcony for under $4000  total cost with a Carnival $250 on board credit   .since we live local & can drive to both the SD & San Pedro ports ,we also find looking at prices after final payment can mean substantial savings ;but ,these Alaska cruises are getting so expensive 

[mcrcruiser]

Oh interestingly  the Carnival miracle std cabin size is 185 sq ft vs a paltry 168sq ft for the  std balcony cabin & the Miracle's balcony  physical size is also a tad larger .  We really prefer larger cabin sizes like what Celebrity Soltice class offers 190 sq ft plus the balcony which is decent size .The only problem now is that Celebrity rarely sails from California ports any longer except perhaps the Panama Canal cruises

Edited October 7, 2020 by mcrcruiser

[disneyochem]

1 hour ago, Yehootu said:

 

Nope, it is November 9th (have the paperwork).  Princess told me it would take that long to process our FCC from the cancelled Sun trip.   Of course, some folks already have their FCC processed from the Sun cancellations.  Guess we’re one of the lucky ones!

 

I did have to request this extension on the hold.  A supervisor came on the phone and said she would extent the courtesy hold until November.  I stayed on the phone with her until I received the email.
 

 

[Pam in CA]

11 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Pam We looked at a BE cat balcony ;but ,wow the prices per day are really high.

Not sure what to tell you. I’d booked an inside guarantee on the Sun with the Plus package and have now booked an inside guarantee on the Crown without the package and the price difference is huge (less.) Massive. Like the Crown is half the cost of the Sun would have been. I don’t spend time in my cabin so a balcony isn’t a “must.” I’ve never done a guarantee before so we’ll see what happens. 

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, Pam in CA said:

. I’d booked an inside guarantee on the Sun with the Plus package and have now booked an inside guarantee on the Crown without the package and the price difference is huge (less.)

Plus is $40 per person, per day, correct ? - and if you figure grats at about $15 pp pd - then net to $ 25 pp pd

[mcrcruiser]

1 minute ago, Pam in CA said:

Not sure what to tell you. I’d booked an inside guarantee on the Sun with the Plus package and have now booked an inside guarantee on the Crown without the package and the price difference is huge (less.) Massive. Like the Crown is half the cost of the Sun would have been. I don’t spend time in my cabin so a balcony isn’t a “must.” I’ve never done a guarantee before so we’ll see what happens. 

Pam just once out of 5 Alaska cruises did we take a outside cabin & that was the first cruise via Carnival in 2000 .After that can't get my wife away from a balcony cabin on any cruise .Why the prices are so high on a BE balcony for this Alaska cruise we can not understand ;but ,it is what it is  .We like our land trips as well & we are planing a extensive  land driving trip to Moab Utah  to visit the 2 national parks in that area next September  21 through 26th .No we don't camp except at Hiltons LOL

[bubbapuck]

46 minutes ago, Pam in CA said:

Not sure what to tell you. I’d booked an inside guarantee on the Sun with the Plus package and have now booked an inside guarantee on the Crown without the package and the price difference is huge (less.) Massive. Like the Crown is half the cost of the Sun would have been. I don’t spend time in my cabin so a balcony isn’t a “must.” I’ve never done a guarantee before so we’ll see what happens. 

I know our cabin was much lower. On the Sun, our price minus taxes was $4398. On the Crown it was $3118. With the difference plus the 25% FCC, I was able to book a 10 day mexican cruise that will only cost me the tax/port fees. Very happy camper now. 

[roxievegas]

I tried to go online to the Princess website to check prices for the July 3rd date.  The web page would not load.  I went to my online travel agency and they do not show the cruise.  So I called the casino department for Princess and asked about the cruise and I booked , used our deposit from the FCC we had purchased on our last cruise.  So we have the following

 

BB cabin on Deck 11 mid deck (balcony) - we won't due anything less just in case we get stuck on board 

got the princess protection plan

taxes and port fees

total cabin price is $5, 029

we are getting the premium beverage package, wifi, gratuities and $200  OBC

 

we were booked for May of this year for the same cruise but we were in an Oceanview - it was $1500.00 less in price but difference is the cabin category same freebies, but lost some OBC. 

 

We are now booked for an April 2021 California Coastal 7 night cruise which is paid for in full and now this 14 night Alaska cruise.  Finally payment is April 4 on the Alaska cruise, so hopefully we will be going on both cruises.

 

 

[Linsifer]

On 9/25/2020 at 5:24 PM, CRUZBUDS said:

The Ruby is currently booked for some 10 day Alaska's May 2021 from San Francisco 

We’re booked on Ruby out of SF in early August 2021.  I assume it’s still on.  I’m still on the fence whether we’ll keep that booking  depending on the status of the pandemic.  I have to admit, I’m not quite as excited as I was last year when we booked it pre-COVID.  Time will tell! 

[wallyj]

On 10/6/2020 at 12:19 PM, bubbapuck said:

I rebooked for the 17th also. I am not sure why the price difference is so substantial. Des anyone know? I ended up having enough cruise credit left to fully pay for a 10 day cruise to Mexico on the Grand Princdss in 2022 (minus taxes and fees).

 

Does anyone know why it was so much cheaper? I expected it to be the same or more then the Sun cruise.

Princess last Friday, blocked all Crown sailings from May-Sept 2021, I am guessing to reprice as finally late yesterday 10/12/2021 fares were finally visible again at Princess.com. The July Alaska sailing were showing sold out and all others were saying pricing not available since Friday. Now the Alaska sailings have increased with saver fare for interior at $1599/person, last week it was priced at $969/person which in hindsight was a deal. If you look at the launch fares, see earlier post,  that Pam in CA posted before the fares were released for elites on 10/06, the current fares are now in line what Pam posted. 

 

So so those who booked the Alaska Crown14 day last week probably are very happy they locked in the low fare that was a mistake? Or Princess felt demand required fare increase? 

[disneyochem]

1 hour ago, wallyj said:

Princess last Friday, blocked all Crown sailings from May-Sept 2021, I am guessing to reprice as finally late yesterday 10/12/2021 fares were finally visible again at Princess.com. The July Alaska sailing were showing sold out and all others were saying pricing not available since Friday. Now the Alaska sailings have increased with saver fare for interior at $1599/person, last week it was priced at $969/person which in hindsight was a deal. If you look at the launch fares, see earlier post,  that Pam in CA posted before the fares were released for elites on 10/06, the current fares are now in line what Pam posted. 

 

So so those who booked the Alaska Crown14 day last week probably are very happy they locked in the low fare that was a mistake? Or Princess felt demand required fare increase? 

I’m very happy I got the lower price!

 

I know it’s a business but maybe Princess lowered the cost because they canceled the cruise and they didn’t want to offer compensation for it?  We were allowed to book at the same time as Elites.
 

 I know, I know but I’m a happy camper!  We saved (on two cabins) about $3000!

[Melonn]

On 9/28/2020 at 10:31 AM, Pam in CA said:

If you were booked on the Sun 7/3/21 and haven’t joined the roll call, it’s there. 🙂 

 

I’ve been booked on this cruise for quite a while and was disappointed to learn it’s been canceled. 
 

For those of you who have been on these boards a while, “Wizard-of-Roz” and her dog Horton were booked on this cruise. Her sister-in-law just posted on the roll call that Roz passed away last week. I’ve sailed with her quite a few times over the years and was so sad to hear this. RIP. 

I'm not on this cruise (I'm sailing from Seattle to Alaska) but I was just thinking about Roz and Horton. I remember her from the 50th anniversary cruise.  RIP Roz.

[LawDog61]

The title of this OLD thread got me excited until I realized it is completely irrelevant to today’s world.  Princess currently has no round trip LA-Alaska presently scheduled. 
However, Princess’s corporate sister Carnival has two 14 day Alaska from LA scheduled.  It’s a great itinerary, including Sitka and IcyPoint. The only problem is, it’s Carnival. Come on Princess!!!

[AtlantaCruiser72]

1 hour ago, LawDog61 said:

However, Princess’s corporate sister Carnival has two 14 day Alaska from LA scheduled.  It’s a great itinerary, including Sitka and IcyPoint. The only problem is, it’s Carnival. Come on Princess!!!

Princess had a smaller fleet than Carnival pre-pandemic (18 vs 27) , with much more focus on international cruising. Post Pandemic Princess has lost Golden, Star, Pacific, Sun and Sea and gained Enchanted and Discovery, so still down 3 ships in total with a post pandemic fleet of 15 compared to Carnivals 25 (once the Mardi Gras enters service and the Celebration is delivered in 2022).  A larger domestic presence, and larger fleet gives Carnival more options for US homeports and cruise itineraries.