Princess Sapphire to Alaska

Tour will be coming up shortly.... Only after we made the final payment,
were we notified that the balconies for the CC class cabins were locked
during voyage and open in port. Yet the balconies for the adjoining
suites, on the ends, are open, all the time. What's going on here?

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:51:46 -0400, syzygy
wrote:

Tour will be coming up shortly.... Only after we made the final payment,
were we notified that the balconies for the CC class cabins were locked
during voyage and open in port. Yet the balconies for the adjoining
suites, on the ends, are open, all the time. What's going on here?

Hi,

Didn't you post this before? CC class cabins do not have balconies.
They don't now nor never have. They are ocean view not balcony
cabins.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
--

"syzygy" wrote:
Tour will be coming up shortly.... Only after we made the final payment,
were we notified that the balconies for the CC class cabins were locked
during voyage and open in port. Yet the balconies for the adjoining
suites, on the ends, are open, all the time. What's going on here?


Hi, Syzygy,

Cruising with Princess in Alaska is a wonderful travel opportunity! We had
an incredible trip--I am sure you will, too.

It's my hearsay understanding from past research into those CC cabins on the
bow of the Sapphire (and Diamond) that Princess now sells them as outside or
"oceanview" cabins instead of balconies because of a design flaw.
Apparently, when the ship is underway and the sliding glass doors are open,
the flow of wind into the cabin is such that furniture and objects can be
blown about and into the glass doors, causing breakage. So Princess keeps
the doors locked down and markets the CC's as oceanviews (and because you
said in a previous post that you asked for an "unobstructed (view) outside
cabin" when you made your booking, your AAA travel agent did, in fact,
secure a cabin that met your specs). Apparently--again, this is second hand
information--you may be able to get your cabin steward to unlock the door
while the ship is berthed in port. Of course, I'm not sure how much time you
will spend in your cabin while in port on an Alaskan cruise. We got off the
ship each morning and didn't return until the last minute in the afternoon
because Alaska offers so many unique activities that aren't available to us
back home.

Have you booked your shore excursions? If not, I'd recommend you start
researching your options and consider booking now instead of waiting. Some
of the more popular activities sell out. If you have questions about the
activities, come back and ask. Lots of RTC'ers have experience in
Alaska--I've only been privileged to go once, several folks here have been
many times. An Alaskan cruise trip is truly one of the more spectactular
travel adventures a person can enjoy!

Have a great time.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

On Jun 12, 9:28 am, Ray Goldenberg wrote:
CC class cabins do not have balconies.
They don't now nor never have.

Ray,

I think you should check out the deck plans. The cabins may be labeled
oceanview, but the deckplan clearly shows the outline for the
balconies.

Warren

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:36:22 -0700, Warren
wrote:

I think you should check out the deck plans. The cabins may be labeled
oceanview, but the deckplan clearly shows the outline for the
balconies.

Hi Warren,

All of the deck plans I have of the Princess Sapphire show balconies
as the same color as the stateroom. These CC cabins are one color and
then "Black" in front of these forward facing cabins. They do not
show any balconies as they do with all of the other cabins having the
same color cabin and balcony. In the description of CC cabins,
"Deluxe Oceanview two lower beds". All standard balcony cabins begin
with an "B" such as BE, BD, BC, etc. Mini-suites and full suites are
labeled differently. All that being said, the original poster started
a thread with the same complaint a week or so ago so I am not sure of
his motivation for posting today.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
--

Ray, maybe one of your Princess contacts can confirm or deny the second hand
report I believed carried some credibility. The issue isn't how the CC's are
marketed or depicted now, it's how they were originally intended to be sold.
(Although, based on what the OP reported, it does seem AAA needs to change
their description on confirming paperwork, which actually further confirms
the notion that the cat CC's were first marketed as balconies and thus set
up in AAA's invoicing database as such.)

Diana

Ray,

No one is debating how the cabin category has been (re)classified. On
the deckplan at the following link from Princess' website, you can see
*clearly* that they demark balconies albeit in white rather than the
cabin color.

http://www.princess.com/ships/sa/dec...ibe_index.html


" All that being said, the original poster started
a thread with the same complaint a week or so ago so I am not sure of
his motivation for posting today.

Does it really matter? Many topics are repeated often in the
newsgroup. I didn't see last week's thread so I'm chiming in on this
one having been curious about what Diana posted.

Warren

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:20:30 -0700, Warren
wrote:

Ray,

No one is debating how the cabin category has been (re)classified. On
the deckplan at the following link from Princess' website, you can see
*clearly* that they demark balconies albeit in white rather than the
cabin color.

http://www.princess.com/ships/sa/dec...ibe_index.html

Hi Warren,

In the brochures they are black. Interesting they make them white on
their web site. They are still not the same color as the cabin which
is the way Princess marks the balcony cabins. It is still described
as an ocean view not a balcony cabin.

Does it really matter? Many topics are repeated often in the
newsgroup. I didn't see last week's thread so I'm chiming in on this
one having been curious about what Diana posted.

He posted the same exact whine and it brought a number of folks out
that explained it to him. I don't think we often discuss the same
whine in response to the same complaint from the same person at least
within the same week. :+)

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
--

On Jun 12, 9:29 pm, Ray Goldenberg wrote:

In the brochures they are black. Interesting they make them white on
their web site.

But you do admit that to a lay person, the deck-plan makes it appear
as if there might be, or once was, a balcony there?

Or perhaps you wish us to believe there's a big U shaped inset on the
forward bulkhead that somehow doesn't appear on photographs of the
ship? grin

They are still not the same color as the cabin which
is the way Princess marks the balcony cabins. It is still described
as an ocean view not a balcony cabin.

Why are you harping on this point?

He posted the same exact whine and it brought a number of folks out
that explained it to him. I don't think we often discuss the same
whine in response to the same complaint from the same person at least
within the same week. :+)


I just did a search, and I didn't see one post in that thread that
explained it. It was only Diana's post to this thread that revealed
the reclassification. Even you adamantly insisted that these cabins
have *never* been balcony cabins nor do they *have* balconies. In fact
they do, but are locked. So even though you, of all people, are
complaining that the OP posted on the same topic a couple of days ago
- there was new information in this thread posted by Diana that made
it interesting for deckplan geeks like me. You had nothing to add, and
no insight to share that explained this interesting bit of trivia in
either thread.

Warren