Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Majestic Princess (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

You have time to rethink this cruise.  You could save a lot of airfare by cruising to Hawaii instead.  Think savings in airfare AND hotel for a Caribbean Cruise.  Then I could really chime in!

 

I recall a lunch time conversation in the teachers' dining room or so very long ago.  What is with the focus on men and bathroom/personal habits.  Women have a broader topics of conversation!  "We" are definitely the classier gender.

Thanks for the suggestion to cruise to Hawaii but too many sea days (5) to get there and back.  My brother in law did the Princess cruise to Hawaii for 15 days few years back but not for us. 

 

First of all, I get sea sick easily.  5 days of open ocean in December is not a good thing for me. I'm not a true CC that can be in the ocean for days on.  After 2 days, I'm ready to get off.

 

Second, can't get away from work for that long.  One plus week of vacation with lots of stuff to do.

 

Well, it’s interesting in what you said about men and their choose to pay attention to.

 

My wife is a firm believer that when few women meet up for the first time, after several hours, the women will share with each on their family situations and what issues they face within their families. 

 

Whereas when you have a group of guys meet up for the first time, they will generally talk sports and DIY home projects and avoid personal topics. After several hours of conversation, all the men know about each other are each other’s favorite sports teams and why such and such team shouldn’t have made the trade last month as well as how to fix a leaky toilet (see how I always bring back bathroom humor? why take the high road when the low road has no tolls?)

 

Oh, yeah, I hope nobody who is reading this thread is in a hurry to learn about Alaska info ahead of your cruise next week as we blabber on about non cruise stuff.

  

Bet you didn’t expect to read about discussion on difference between genders on an Alaska cruise report…

 

 

[harryfat1]

5 hours ago, CruisinFinsUp said:

Yay!! Cheapodad returns to CC!   And on Princess!!    

 

Following!   

 

( a fellow bean counter here too!)

Thanks for the note and following along.  Good to be cruising again after a 4+ year hiatus. 

 

Princess offered better itinerary option for glacier viewing than RCI so we jumped ship (figuratively) but as I will report later on, there are some things RCI offers that we sorely missed.

[harryfat1]

5 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

There are charges for "upgraded" food, i.e. selections from one of the specialty restaurants.

Good point.  Thanks for that clarification.

 

Being cheap, I have never eaten at any specialty dining as I just stick with whatever is part of the complementary offerings so my cheap brain never thinks about specialty dining.

 

So, for the basic items like burgers and hot dogs, you can order it sent to you wherever you are on the ship. We never ordered any food from the app as we were always full from the 3 regular meals but we did ordered drinks on numerous occasions.

 

I think the food ordering on the app can be especially useful feature on glacier days as people sit inside the covered indoor area of Hollywood Conservatory can order food and drink all day and not leave their spot. Don't think these people are getting up anytime soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, NownZen said:

There is a trick to the food or drink ordering. The ship has to detect where you are. That has been pretty hit or miss. A companion ordered drinks 5 times and got a delivery once.  If you wear the medallion on your wrist or on the lanyard outside your clothes, it can often be found (you can actually turn your wrist and it will follow the direction the medallion is pointed). If you put it in your pocket or even put the lanyard directly against your chest, it probably will not work. If you try the location part of the app and it can find you it is probably safe to order something with a reasonable probability of getting it.

 

Well, I didn’t want to go down the negative path on what part of the Medallion app is not working this early in the trip report so that’s why I said if everything works as intended, you will get what you ordered with the price listed. 

 

I’m sure if I start a new thread on “Tell me a story on when the Medallion didn’t work as intended on your cruise”, I can get 50 posts in couple of days from people with their stories on what went wrong. There’s a reason why the app got a 1.5 star rating.

 

Yeah, some of our orders on the app never made it to us even though on the app it said “delivered” to where we were but we never got anything.  Maybe someone else got our drinks.  Not sure. 

 

As we were on the Princess package, we didn’t have to pay for the missing drinks so we just ordered a new round but if we had to pay a la carte, then I would be at guest services trying to dispute the charges as we never got the drinks we ordered.

 

All 6 of us wore the medallion on the lanyards but for our sailing, that didn’t seem to make much of a difference as the app more or less knows where we were per the location menu as it knew we were at the buffet. Although given how buggy the system is, I have no doubts others ran into the same situation as you on placement of the medallion would be key.

[harryfat1]

Day Minus 1 – Finally we get to the actual cruise part. 

 

As discussed previously, we were required to be Covid tested prior to sailing as that was the requirement to enter Canada during our sailing.  Scheduled the online proctored tests for the 4 of us and got the results within an hour to print hard copies for everyone (Yeah, sue me if I prefer hard copy printouts).

 

For those of us still working, I always said there’s no happier moment than when we walk out of the office right before vacation with car key in your hand knowing you don’t have to come back for one plus week.  For the current Covid days when some people are working remotely, it’s when you closed your laptop with out of office email message in MS Outlook saying you are out for next X number of days. 

 

If I can only bottle this happiness feeling and add it to water and sell it for $1, I would be filthy rich. 

 

Who wouldn’t want that pre vacation happiness feeling in your drink for a buck? It’s all “organic”.  Nothing artificial. No liver damage like alcohol at a fraction of the cost.

 

Anyway, we uploaded all the documents that the Medallion app wanted.  Technically we are “green” lane in the Princess app but as we will find out later, it made no difference on the color of lane for Whittier departure.

 

Also completed the “Arrive Can” app for our eventual arrival into Vancouver but no one checked or asked about it at check in while at Whittier.

 

No matter how early you plan your cruise, there’s always the last-minute stuff to pack on the night before.  You get into the “panic mode” of “just in case” as the anal side of you thinking you have space in the suitcase so mind as well throw it in at 11 PM debating to bring something or not.

[harryfat1]

Day 0 – Flying to Anchorage

 

Typically it’s hard to wake up my boys early in the morning but one first day of vacation, everyone woke up early and were rearing to go. Made our way to SFO and met up with the in-laws there and checked our luggage with Alaska Air and went through the always terrible TSA experience. I think the TSA workers get their pay deducted if they smile or show any signs of friendly human behavior.

 

After the always unpleasant TSA experience, SFO is a rather decent airport to hang out for a bit as we ate our home packed lunch before getting on the plane.

 

So for those wondering, why is this dude calling himself Cheapo Dad?  Here’s one reason:   Bring your own lunch to the airport instead of buying the overpriced airport fast food. SFO has water dispensers so you can fill up with water post TSA security check so save on the $2.50 bottled water that Costco sells for 10 cents a bottle.

 

Speaking of Costco – these were all Costco bought food items for a lunch that’s fraction of cost of airport meal.

 

Everyone gets a brown bag special.  Philly Cheese and some crackers and boba for dessert. 3 course meal plus healthy tab water.🤪

 

 

Water bottle refill.  My sons brought their own water bottle to refill post TSA checkpoint

 

 

SFO had nice chairs you can sit and chill to eat lunch

 

[harryfat1]

Typically I don’t like to fly the morning before the flight.  My original plan was to fly on Alaska for the 8 PM flight landing in Alaska after midnight.  Go to airport hotel and sleep and off to the ship next day.  Yeah, we will be tired but by flying late but this option saves me a vacation day. 

 

For those of us who are still working, you can appreciate trying to save an extra precious vacation day.  Besides, not as if there’s much to do in Anchorage airport area after arriving at 5 PM. I guess if one has extra couple days, then exploring outskirts of Anchorage is an option but not in our case.

 

However, Alaska Airline canceled our 8 PM flight and dumped the 6 of us in the 12 noon flight without notifying me directly.  Only saw the warning on Princess web site one day and noticed the whole family was scattered all over the newly assigned plane seats so I had to scramble to re-seat all of us together. Somehow Princess/Alaska Air did not link the 3 cabins together.

 

So here is another somewhat personal question/survey to throw out there:  Do y’all wear extra loose jeans clothes on long flights?  As I get older (and rounder), I’m finding the looser jeans on flights to be a preferred option. So I put on the baggiest pair of jeans I have so I can sit through the 4.5 hour flight. Next time I fly, I might switch to jogger pants as I won’t have to deal with taking off the belt as the TSA inspection and the joggers are more comfortable than jeans for the longer flight. I can't be the only person doing this, right?  Leave a comment below…

 

Anyway, few pics of SFO as we chilled out waiting to board

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The flight itself was fine.  No complaints.  Although as I get older, my back/butt are less happy to be in the seats for these long flights. After 3 hours, you start to lose feeling in your butt as you wonder when they designed these airplane seats, they must have conformed with SOMEONE’s body as to make it ergonomic but you know for sure they didn’t design it with your back/butt in mind.

 

Anyway, I was trying to get the free texting thing to work in the air but was never able to connect on WhatsApp. I downloaded few episodes of the Sci-Fi series “Expanse” to watch to kill time as well as listened to few songs I typically listen to while flying. 

 

 

As it was a 4.5 hour flight (same distance as flying from California to Georgia) , they served drinks twice which meant there was a long line for the restrooms after each serving – you know, that intake/outtake equilibrium thing so that the more comes in, the more it needs to go out. 

 

They now serve Vegan snacks

 

 

As I get motion sick easily, I always opt for ginger ale on flights to calm my stomach

 

 

The scenery did become interesting the last 30 minutes of the flight as we flew over numerous snow capped mountains as we approached Anchorage but would be better if there were less clouds to cover the mountains

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JF - retired RRT]

12 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

If I can only bottle this happiness feeling and add it to water and sell it for $1, I would be filthy rich. 

Sounds like the original COCA Cola.😉

[JF - retired RRT]

11 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

So here is another somewhat personal question/survey to throw out there:  Do y’all wear extra loose jeans clothes on long flights?  As I get older (and rounder), I’m finding the looser jeans on flights to be a preferred option. So I put on the baggiest pair of jeans I have so I can sit through the 4.5 hour flight. Next time I fly, I might switch to jogger pants as I won’t have to deal with taking off the belt as the TSA inspection and the joggers are more comfortable than jeans for the longer flight. I can't be the only person doing this, right?  Leave a comment below…

I'm always cold (hands, feet). When we fly, I wear sweat pants with shorts or long pants (depending on arrival airport) underneath plus a long sleeve shirt & a sweater. When we arrive, I remove the sweater & sweat pants and am ready to roll.

[LACruiser88]

11 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

So here is another somewhat personal question/survey to throw out there:  Do y’all wear extra loose jeans clothes on long flights?  As I get older (and rounder), I’m finding the looser jeans on flights to be a preferred option. So I put on the baggiest pair of jeans I have so I can sit through the 4.5 hour flight. Next time I fly, I might switch to jogger pants as I won’t have to deal with taking off the belt as the TSA inspection and the joggers are more comfortable than jeans for the longer flight. I can't be the only person doing this, right?  Leave a comment below…

We both wear very comfortable jogger type pants to fly in.  Because we travel so frequently, we have Global Entry which gives us TSA Pre-check.  So, no need to take off a belt (which I usually do not wear with jogger's) or shoes.

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

I'm always cold (hands, feet). When we fly, I wear sweat pants with shorts or long pants (depending on arrival airport) underneath plus a long sleeve shirt & a sweater. When we arrive, I remove the sweater & sweat pants and am ready to roll.

 

9 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

We both wear very comfortable jogger type pants to fly in.  Because we travel so frequently, we have Global Entry which gives us TSA Pre-check.  So, no need to take off a belt (which I usually do not wear with jogger's) or shoes.

 

Thanks for the feedback on wearing sweat pants/joggers.  I'll need to start doing that going forward.  Still have the old school mentality of trying to be more dressed up in public. When I started in my profession, we all had to wear suits and ties to work even if it's 95 degrees outside.

 

Good idea on the TSA pre-check.  I just got a new credit card that will give me $100 credit to offset the TSA pre check fee so it's effectively free.  Only drawback is we travel as a family and it's gonna to be politically incorrect if I am in the "fast lane" while the family is in the slow lane.  If I upgrade, it'll be a whole family thing and then it becomes expensive for us infrequent flyers.

 

Something to think about but it's definitely tempting. 

 

[harryfat1]

After landing in Anchorage, we collected our luggage and called the hotel for the free airport shuttle pickup. 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Anchorage for the night.  The hotel is just ok.  Nothing to write home about.  Anchorage hotels during the high cruise season is crazy expensive with your average La Quinta and Hampton Inns going for $350+/night. This was a “bargain” at less than $250 when I got it “on sale”. Did I mention I’m cheap?

 

I booked this hotel originally with the thinking we would land after midnight and then just crash and wake up in morning to go to the port so any non-bedbug infested major chain hotel near the airport should do the trick to sleep for 6 hours. That was before the flight change that had us landing at 5 PM. By then, all the other mid range price hotels were booked so I was stuck with Holiday Inn Express but at $100 savings for a night, I might still stay with it as it was convenient walk to dinner and it was only for a night.

 

Anyway, the hotel shuttle came within 10 minutes to take us to the hotel to check in.  The staff person at the front desk wasn’t particularly friendly in his welcome but whatever.

 

Technically it was not Hotel California but every time I check into a new hotel, this song plays in the back of my head:

 

 

After going to the room and freshening up, we just walked over to the parking lot next door as I saw on Google maps there were couple of restaurants there. Jinmi Korean restaurant was rated by many online as the best Korean restaurant in Anchorages so we wanted to try it.

 

I’m no Korean food expert but the food was decent but certainly not a WOW thing but given this isn’t SF or LA, I will grade it more on a curve.

 

 

 

 

 

Given the area is mostly airport hotels, there’s not much to do after 8PM so just made our way to the hotel and chilled out after going down the road to a gas station mart and bought some bottled water to drink for the night.

 

I know time is constant but has anyone ever wondered if you can “store time in a bottle” (yes, I know that’s a song) such that if you have extra time for an hour, instead of wasting it, save it in a bottle. Later on when you need time, you whip out that bottle and use it.  The extra hours we had that night would have been great use on day 8 of the cruise as we ran dangerously close to missing the flight home.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Day 1 – Embarkation Day (Anchorage/Whittier)

 

I am inserting the Day 1 version of the daily schedule (Princess Patter) here as going forward I will put it at the beginning of the daily postings.  Technically we didn’t receive this until we got on the ship at 12 noon but for consistency sake, I will put it here.

 

My eyes are bad and I typically can’t read half of the pages when other cruisers take a picture of the Patters on the cell phone so I tried scanning them instead. Hopefully the scan is ok to read but it doesn’t look very good.

 

I’m also attaching it via PDF format for anyone to download to print on your end.  Let me know if you can read it as I’m old school and I like hard copies whenever possible.

 

 

 

 

 

August 6_pg 1.pdf August 6_pg 2.pdf

[harryfat1]

 

There’s something about a cruise vacation that’s different as it’s measured by Day “X” as most of the passengers start and end their vacations together. Whereas on any other land vacation, you have people starting/ending their vacation on any given day, there’s no real “common bond” as you would have on a cruise.

 

For me, the best day of the cruise is day 1 where you get to see in person the ship that you have been seeing from endless amount of YouTube videos. For some, it’s only good from day 2 onward as they can relax and settle into their cruise vacation.  But as I pointed out in the introduction, relaxation isn’t why I take cruise vacations.

 

Woke up and went to the lobby for the hotel breakfast. Nothing to write home about but it does the job as we got ready to check out of the hotel and waited for our bus transfer to pick us up at the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took out all the luggage tags and asked to borrow a stapler from the front desk when we went to the front lobby to check out of the hotel.  Now is the time to staple all the luggage tags to the handles.  I saw some people walk up to the baggage handling at the port and asked the people there for tape to seal their tags.  Do it at the hotel lobby.  Much easier.

 

For those unaware, the port of Whittier is over 60 miles away from Anchorage so it’s not like Fort Lauderdale where you can arrange for any Uber or taxi to take you from hotel to the port.  See the Google map for distance between the two towns:

 

 

 

If you think that’s far, wait until you have to travel from Anchorage to Seward – which is used primarily by RCI/Celebrity/NCL on their every other week sailings. Technically it won’t be 3 hours as the map shows going to Whittier first but it’s a 2.5 hour drive to Seward if you are on the other cruise lines:

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We had a choice between Princess bus/train transfer or use Alaska Cruise Transfer (ACT). Princess bus transfer costs $59/pp and you have to meet them either at the airport or the downtown convention center. ACT transfer is around $46/pp and they come and pick you up at your hotel if you are staying on a list of hotels they pick up.  If your hotel is not on the list, make your way to the airport and meet up with them there.

 

Being lazy and cheap, I opted for ACT as that was one of the primary reason I chose our hotel since it was on ACT’s list.  As it turns out, others have the same thought as well as ACT picked up quite a few of passengers from the hotel.

 

The instruction was to wait at the hotel lobby and the big bus would come anytime between 9 to 9:45 AM. At around 9:15, we saw a big bus pull up and sure enough it was ACT and at least 15 of us piled into the bus so I'm not the only cheapo person on the cruise opting to stay at Holiday Inn Express.

 

 

 

At first I thought we would get a tour of Anchorage hotels in going from door to door to pick everyone else up but as it turned out, the next stop for the bus was back at the Anchorage airport.  At the back parking lot, we met up with another ACT bus where they divvy up the passengers in line and we sat and waited perhaps another 15 minutes waiting for everyone to show up before both buses headed south for Whittier.

 

 

Back to the airport to pick up other ACT passengers:

 

 

 

Maybe now it’s time for a Willie Nelson song as we left the airport (I like the guy's name - maybe I should change my screen name here at CC to Seasick Cheapo Dad):

 

 

 

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

AND this is why I never do a one way voyage in Alaska.  Thanks for the graphics.  It is much further than I had imagined.  I prefer the inside passage.  Therefore, I usually book a back to back round trip from Vancouver.  

 

I can remember going to Seward, but don't have a clue how I got there.  I've never done the train tunnel.  That must be a hoot.  I love the little town of Whittier.  

 

I am enjoying. your trip report.  

[caribill]

4 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Good idea on the TSA pre-check.  I just got a new credit card that will give me $100 credit to offset the TSA pre check fee so it's effectively free.  Only drawback is we travel as a family and it's gonna to be politically incorrect if I am in the "fast lane" while the family is in the slow lane.  If I upgrade, it'll be a whole family thing and then it becomes expensive for us infrequent flyers.. 

 

 

o At least get pre-check also for your spouse. Often if the two of you have pre-check, they will let your children go with you even if they do not have pre-check.

 

o Since you cruise a lot, I assume some of the time you fly back to the USA from overseas. If that is the case, go for Global Entry ($115, your CC should cover $100 of that) which includes pre-check. With Global Entry you could save hours at some airports clearing immigration and customs. However, you would need this for all in your family, not just you and your spouse.

[caribill]

4 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

My eyes are bad and I typically can’t read half of the pages when other cruisers take a picture of the Patters on the cell phone so I tried scanning them instead. Hopefully the scan is ok to read but it doesn’t look very good.

 

I have found an easy way to read pictures such as the Patters you are posting.

a) Click on the picture. It will show it by itself.

b) Click on the picture again. It will open it up in a new window.

c) Click on the picture in the new window. It will enlarge it enough so it is very easy to read.

 

This works with Firefox. I assume it also works with other browsers.

[harryfat1]

14 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

AND this is why I never do a one way voyage in Alaska.  Thanks for the graphics.  It is much further than I had imagined.  I prefer the inside passage.  Therefore, I usually book a back to back round trip from Vancouver.  

 

I can remember going to Seward, but don't have a clue how I got there.  I've never done the train tunnel.  That must be a hoot.  I love the little town of Whittier.  

 

I am enjoying. your trip report.  

You are not alone in wanting to avoid the one way sailings.  

 

On our sailing we were at 60% capacity and per another thread, Majestic sailing this week is at 50%.  This compared to the Seattle round trip on the Discovery Princess that's being report at 90%+ capacity. 

 

I believe that near full capacity number as we saw the Discovery Princess came into Juneau late at 12 noon and holy cow, the number of people that streamed off the ship the first 15 minutes overwhelmed the pier area.  That sailing was PACKED.

 

People want to avoid the Vancouver/Whittier sailings as flights are infrequent/expensive/inconvenient in Anchorage.    

 

Seattle flights are easier/more frequent/cheaper, so yeah, people avoid the Anchorage part.  

 

Princess knows this and that's why they were giving each person that booked a balcony cabin or higher a $300/pp airfare credit.  Not sure if I have showed this or not but our flights was only $205 for 2 people per cabin or $103/pp out the door after airfare credit.  That's dirt cheap.  Cheaper than flying to Seattle as I can't get Seattle round trip from SF for $103/pp.

 

 

 

The big draw of one way sailing is you get more hours at each port and Princess scheduled at least 2 sets of glacier viewing days (Glacier Bay National park + either Hubbard or College Fjord).  Round trip sailings can't offer that.

 

We did north bound 20 years ago.  Seattle round trip 13 years ago.  So the natural selection this time is south bound to complete the set.

 

Yeah, the tunnel will be on tomorrow's uploads.  Certain part of this trip reporting is time consuming as I have to transfer the screen shots saved on my phone to the laptop to upload as well as consolidate various family pictures as sometimes if I want to make a point, I have to search for a picture that shows it.

 

Well, more info about "sausage making" than most people care to know...

 

Appreciate all the feedback and having you along on this  journey.

 

[harryfat1]

17 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

o At least get pre-check also for your spouse. Often if the two of you have pre-check, they will let your children go with you even if they do not have pre-check.

 

o Since you cruise a lot, I assume some of the time you fly back to the USA from overseas. If that is the case, go for Global Entry ($115, your CC should cover $100 of that) which includes pre-check. With Global Entry you could save hours at some airports clearing immigration and customs. However, you would need this for all in your family, not just you and your spouse.

 

3 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

I have found an easy way to read pictures such as the Patters you are posting.

a) Click on the picture. It will show it by itself.

b) Click on the picture. It will open it up in a new window.

c) Click on the picture in the new window. It will enlarge it enough so it is very easy to read.

 

This works with Firefox. I assume it also works with other browsers.

 

Thanks for the heads up on global entry.  Will take a look at that as well.

 

Actually we don't cruise that much.  Only once a year, if that, as we have other "bucket list" items such as visiting all the Disney parks world wide.  So far only done 3 (2 in US and 1 in Japan). 

 

I still call my kids, "kids".  They are both in college and taller than me so they are probably not "kids" anymore by most people's definition.  I will introduce the "fam" when we board the ship in future postings.  Others who have read my previous reports knows what they looked like from eons ago but they have grown since.

 

Yeah, I use Chrome and it's more or less the same way to view picture scans.  I was hoping for a clearer picture in my scans in the original attachment but my scanner isn't the best quality scan on the face. But as you said, one can click ono the picture to get a better view up close.

 

Eons ago when we had to post pictures with our reviews here on CC, it was a painful process to upload the link from a 3rd party web site and manually trim the link so CC can read them.  The current format is much easier to attach but I think CC degrades the upload quality as my original version is much more clear than what's showing up on the post.

 

I'm trying to be nice to the viewers by also providing a PDF copy they can download to read offline (bathroom reading?).  As a Princess newbie, I found myself searching up and down the internet for copies of the Princess Patter so I can have an idea what it's like to be on a Princess cruise. Just in case there are others that wants the same, they can download each set.

 

[cr8tiv1]

@harryfat1I don’t  know if you have an iPhone….so don’t know if these tricks will work for you.

1.  Use your computer to write out your posts, submit…..then go to your phone, edit post, and add your photos straight from your phone.  It will eliminate one step.  Or Airdrop photos from phone to a file in your Home Screen.  
 

2.  Just learned this (again iPhone, sorry).  Open Notes app.  Upper right corner are three dots.  Click to open.  It will automatically scan.   Hopefully it will give you a clearer pdf.  

[JF - retired RRT]

8 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

If you think that’s far, wait until you have to travel from Anchorage to Seward – which is used primarily by RCI/Celebrity/NCL on their every other week sailings. Technically it won’t be 3 hours as the map shows going to Whittier first but it’s a 2.5 hour drive to Seward if you are on the other cruise lines:

 

 

You get to see a lot of AK before you even get on the ship. Bonus! 😁

[JF - retired RRT]

5 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I'm trying to be nice to the viewers by also providing a PDF copy they can download to read offline (bathroom reading?).  As a Princess newbie, I found myself searching up and down the internet for copies of the Princess Patter so I can have an idea what it's like to be on a Princess cruise. Just in case there are others that wants the same, they can download each set.

 

Why not just provide the PDF? Then if the reader is interested, they can click & open. Those not interested (me 😉), just keep reading.

And you save time (you could put it in your bottle).

[palolake]

13 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

 

 

Good idea on the TSA pre-check.  I just got a new credit card that will give me $100 credit to offset the TSA pre check fee so it's effectively free.  Only drawback is we travel as a family and it's gonna to be politically incorrect if I am in the "fast lane" while the family is in the slow lane.  If I upgrade, it'll be a whole family thing and then it becomes expensive for us infrequent flyers.

 

Something to think about but it's definitely tempting. 

 

 

Here's something to consider.  Because of a snafu (that I corrected immediately after getting home) I didn't have TSA Precheck 2 weeks ago when I should have.  I had the husband go through precheck with the laptop, Kindles, liquids bag, etc.  It made it much easier for me to go through the regular line.