Sky Princess - May 2019 Update

To start, here are a few actual pictures:

Tenders

Ship construction progress 

Interior lounge lights being hung 

And now, more renderings around the ship.

Aft Pool area showing "infinity pool"

Main pool area

La Mer

Sky suites

Interested in a cruise on the Sky Princess?  There are a lot of great rates still available on sailings this fall and next year.  Contact me by email to see what's available.
captainrob21@gmail.com

Final Update - Caribbean Princess Drydock

For the final update, we notice that MarineTraffic.com has reported that over the past 24 hours or so, the Caribbean princess has achieved 20.7knots, maximum speed.  This would be faster than she has been able to sail for the past 2 years or so.  This is a good sign that the problems have been generally resolved.  More updates when photos become available.

Princess Cruises - Ocean Medallion Update

Princess has announced that their Ocean Medallion program will expand beyond the current trio of Ocean Medallion enabled vessel of the Royal, Regal, and Caribbean Princess.  By the end of 2020, guests on most itineraries will be sailing with the technology.

Note that the Pacific, Star, and Golden are not mentioned.  This is interesting since the Star and Golden have recieved some of the foundational upgrades for Ocean Medallion on previous drydocks.  When we sailed on the Star in late 2017 after her drydock in Victoria, there were several technicians working on-board wearing uniforms with Ocean Medallion logos and labels on them.  It's likely that the Ocean Medallion program will be activated on these ships after their transfer to P&O Australia in 2020 and 2022.  The Pacific Princess has an uncertain future and may not ever get Ocean Medallion.  It is also interesting that the Majestic, Sapphire, and Diamond are not mentioned at all.

The list of ships and planned activation dates are listed below the messages from our sponsors.

h/t: https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/20825-princess-to-activate-six-more-medallion-ships.html


Booking.com

Ship	Code	Year Built	OM Activation
Sun	SP	1995	Not Announced
Grand	AP	1998	3/29/2020
Sea	CP	1998	Not Announced
Pacific	PA	1999	Not Announced
Golden	NP	2001	Not Announced
Star	TP	2002	Not Announced
Coral	CO	2003	10/16/2020
Island	IP	2003	12/20/2020
Caribbean	CB	2004	Active
Diamond	DI	2004	Not Announced
Sapphire	SA	2004	Not Announced
Crown	KP	2006	7/24/2019
Emerald	EP	2007	8/16/2020
Ruby	RU	2008	1/27/2020
Royal	RP	2013	Active
Regal	GP	2014	Active
Majestic	MJ	2017	Not Announced
Sky	YP	2019	10/12/2019
Enchanted	EX	2020	6/15/2020

Caribbean Princess - Drydock update 4/29/2019

More photos - after an ad from a sponsor.  Please pay them a visit to find great hotel deals before or after your Caribbean Princess vacation.

Booking.com

Atrium work

Lots of cranes

More cabling for MedallionNet?

More Caribbean Princess Updates - 4/23/2019

I came across a few more photos on the internet.  These all indicated they were posted in the last 5 days however, there is a chance these could have been from the Crown's drydock - it's hard to say for sure.  Either way, I would imagine the same work is happening on the Caribbean while its in such an extended drydock.

Cabin chairs getting inspected and fixed.

Explorers lounge couch being re-springed and re-upholstered (finally!) 

More work in Explorers 

Lots of work in Explorers 

New couches? 

New dining room chairs 

More work in Explorers

Fixing up seats in the Princess Theater 

The hard working Xaler team - note that it appears every seat in the theater will at a minimum get reconditioned. 

2021 Princess World Cruise Details - Island Princess in, Pacific Out?

Princess has announced that the 2021 World Cruise will be completed by the Island Princess.  This is interesting as it either would indicate that the demand is high enough to justify more than doubling the capacity of the current World Cruise vessel (Pacific Princess) or that the Pacific will be taking on different duties with a different line.

Booking.com

Some early booking benefits include:

• On board spending money
• Free Gratuities
• Free Wifi
• Free airfare for balcony and above
• Free room location upgrades
• 4 free specialty dining nights
• 4 free bottles of wine per booking

The Island is an interesting choice for this voyage since it's not nearly as popular now as it was before her extensive refit which added capacity for 200 guests at the cost of public areas.  Her "Passenger Space Ratio"  dropped pretty substantially after her drydock and is now on par with the original Grand Class ships.  While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's definitely a downgrade from where she was before, being a near twin of the Coral and a big downgrade from the Pacific.  Regardless, most people will book a world cruise for destinations rather than the ship.

The ultimate fate of the Pacific remains to be seen, but it certainly doesn't look good for her going forward as a Princess ship.

Finding Cruise Ships on Google Maps - Alaska

Sometimes it's useful to find ships on Google Maps satellite views to see how the upper decks look, or where ships usually dock in a certain port.  Here's a list with links to ships docked or in transit on Alaskan Itineraries in the current version of Google Maps satellite view.

Skagway - Norwegian Sun - 2015


Glacier Bay (Tarr Inlet) - Unidentified Vista Class ship, before some upgrades - 2014


Glacier Bay (John Hopkins Inlet) - Volendam or Zaandam - 2015


Sitka - Regent Seven Seas (unidentified) - 2019


Juneau - Silver Seas ship (unidentified), Celebrity Infinity class, Island Princess, Voyager of the Seas class - 2016


Ketchikan - Silver Seas ship (unidentified), Disney Wonder, Oceania R class (enroute) - 2018


Vancouver - Disney Wonder and Norwegian Pearl/Jewell - 2018


Seattle - Voyager Class ship - 2018

Princess Brochure from 1976 or 1977

I stumbled across this scan for "Weekend Party Cruises" on the Pacific Princess.  These voyages generally left LA around 8pm on Fridays and returned 8am on Mondays after a scenic cruise around Guadalupe Island and a port of call stop in Ensenada.  Enjoy!

Link to Document

Star Princess - Post Drydock Update and Review - 12/19

Hi Everyone, as promised, here is our post drydock review of the Star Princess....but first, please consider supporting us by clicking a link below.  Note that the price is the same whether you click the link below or go through Amazon directly, we just get a small percentage of the sale to help us continue to devote time to this blog.

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Hey please support this blog by just checking out some of these fine products sold by Amazon.  Did you know that all the walls in a cabin are magnetic?  You can hang just about anything with the magnets pictured below.  

• Strongman Magnetic Hooks
• Beach Towel clips for pool loungers
• Monster Outlets To Go - 3 outlets, 2 USB
• Cell phone / tablet solar charging pack with flashlight - up to 5 fresh charges!

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Back to the Star...

So taking a look at the list shown in a previous blog post compared to what was observed, the drydock was woefully scope limited.  There is a silver lining here however, its apparent that Ocean Medallion will make its way to the star along with some of the technological updates which includes sensors in cabins, smart tv's in cabins, and a variety of large display information screens throughout the ship.

PHOTOS: http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/pictures-of-star-post-drydock-121617.html

VENUE	LIKELY?	RATIONALE	INCORPORATED?
Camp Discovery (kids area)	ü	Added to Grand and Caribbean, no reason why it wouldn’t be added to Star.	YES
New MUTS screen	ü	MUTS on the star was added later so the system is better than what was on the Caribbean.  However, since both ships got the upgrade, its likely the Star will as well.	NO
World Fresh Marketplace	K	The Star has the improved Horizon Court which maximized seating and added desert bar.  The Grand did not receive the marketplace but had a drydock nearly 5 months before the Caribbean.	NO
Planks BBQ and Steamers	K	The Star lacks an aft buffet area (Café Caribe on the Caribbean) so major work would be required indoors as well as outdoors.  However, given the ability to upcharge passengers, this can’t be completely ruled out.	NO
Salty Dog Grill	K	Seems reasonable to add, however not added to Grand	NO
Slice Pizzeria	K	Seems reasonable to add, however not added to Grand	NO
Mix bar concept	ü	Seems straightforward to adjust.	NO
Coffee and Cones	ü	Added to the Grand also	NO
Wake View Lounge	K	This will hinge on whether Planks and Steamers is added.	NO
Improved Sabatinis	ü	Given the location is the same as on the Caribbean, this seems to be very likely – and timely.	YES
Hull Art	ü	All ships have been getting this.	YES
Interconnecting Rooms	ü	The Caribbean added 56 connections between cabins, given the similar design era as the Star its safe to assume that the design changes should be similar to those required on the Caribbean and this could be included.	NO
Alfredo’s Pizzeria	û	While present on the Grand from an earlier drydock, this has only been added to 1 other existing ship, the Sapphire.  Based on the limited roll-out, it seems unlikely this would show up on the Star.  It deserves to be noted that before the late 2011 drydock, the Star was advertised to include Alfredo’s.	NO
SHARE	û	Only exists on Emerald and Ruby and family style dining on a cruise ship appears to be a flop.	NO
Fiesta Deck Window Suites	û	The Star has the Casino in this location that was relocated here in 2011, unlikely they will move it again.	NO
One5	û	Skywalkers serves this purpose – although it can be argued that the One5 has better patronage on the Grand than Skywalkers does on the Golden, Star, or Caribbean.  An upgrade of Skywalkers is certainly warranted.	NO
Salty Dog Gastropub	û	The Wheelhouse bar on the Star is too small to host this type of venue.	NO
Sun Deck Cabins	û	The Golden is the only ship with these, partly due to the kids area being on Sun deck just aft of the spa.	NO
Leaves Tea Lounge	û	Doesn’t seem to be a big hit on the Grand and hasn’t shown up on any newbuilds.	NO

Ship Review:

The Star definitely was showing off the new Ocean Medallion related technology as well as a lot of brand new carpeting and upholstery.  Here's a venue by venue breakdown of the condition and updates:

• Cabins
• As far as we can tell, all cabins received new smart TV's
• These TV's appear to have an extra HDMI port, but no apparent way to access that mode
• The TVs have multiple modes
• 'Live TV' which currently shows the assortment of channels 22-48 or so that were previously available
• Photo/Video mode which we assume will show pictures tied to the Ocean Medallion technology in the future, but currently only have a few sample photos.  There is a USB port in the back of the TV which can be connected to a phone and I was able to view photos from my phone, on the TV.  Since every phone is different, the workflow to make this happen beyond plugging in the USB is difficult to describe, but it is possible.
• Music mode which seems to work similar to the photo/video mode with the ability to import music from devices.
• Bluetooth audio is a nice mode that allows the user to use a bluetooth media device to broadcast music to the TV speakers.  This is a pretty simple setup but the pairing can be challenging given the how many TV's are in close proximity with very similar, and cryptic names.
• Multi-view is probably set to provide a service in the future; I couldn't find any way to make this a useful feature.
• Lamps have been replaced with new ones with similar "arm" features.  The workmanship of our lamps wasn't the best; they wobbled and flickered.  They do include a USB port in the base for nightstand charging.
• New knobs on drawer pulls in the cabin
• New carpeting
• New BEDS.  Although they were very comfortable, my bed seemed to tilt to one side.
• Specific to our cabin was a light switch that was loose and would turn lights off or on when the door closed. There was also some fiberglass cracks in the shower.  It's disappointing some of these shortcomings weren't fixed.
• Plaza Deck
• Some new carpeting
• Fiesta Deck
• Entrance to the "Club Class" area of the dining room has a sign
• Some store adjustments
• Casino has many new games and carpeting.
• New slots
• New table games
• Still a lot of "empty space" particularly near the aft starboard side of the casino.
• New carpeting
• Promenade Deck
• New carpeting throughout
• New chair upholstery in Explorer's Lounge, Wheelhouse Bar, and Vista Lounge.
• Explorers lounge features a lot of "vinyl" whereas the Vista lounge and Wheelhouse Bar feature a thicker berber-esque patterned material on chairs and couches.  Strangely, it seems as those most of the cushioning in the lounges was not replaced.
• Some new automated doors to the outer deck near midship.
• Sabatinis has been re-themed with new carpeting, menu, and style.
• Lido Deck
• Several hottubs have new drain covers that will hopefully stay in place better
• New tile-work around the covered pool splash wall.
• New tables and chairs in the Horizon Court
• New cutlery holders in the Horizon Court - this is a fantastic improvement as it allows crew to basically fill up the containers rather than provide settings constantly.
• Sun Deck
• Updated childrens/kids/teens clubs - same as the Caribbean Princess
• Updated exercise equipment

PHOTOS:

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/pictures-of-star-post-drydock-121617.html