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Kruzkrazy

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  1. Hello all, DW and I will be taking the Bucharest-to-Vienna river cruise in June. I'm wondering how long it takes for some laundry to be returned to our cabin after it's submitted. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance. KK
  2. Hello fellow cruisers, DW and I will be on the Nov. 17 trans-Atlantic starting in Barcelona. Can anyone advise me on tipping customs in Spain? Specifically, for taxis and restaurants. Also, since our Spanish is essentially nonexistent, can we expect hotel, restaurant and taxi personnel to be conversant in English? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
  3. A thoughtful, insightful comparison. Thank you. DW and I have sailed with V and O and we like them both for different reasons, most of which you mention. We were longtime customers of Princess (elite status with more than 500 nights), and have watched P fall off a cliff in terms of service and quality. They want young families with kids now, and old folks like us no longer feel welcome for too many reasons to go into here. V and O are just the opposite, and we will stick with them for now. By the way, Viking river cruises are wonderful, too.
  4. We are also refugees from Princess. We used them for 40 years, have over 500 nights on that line. No more. We are done with them. We got sick and tired of having our elite perks canceled. Clearly, Princess no longer wants us. Viking does. You will love V. Welcome aboard.
  5. Thanks so much. You've made our decision for us. We're doing it!
  6. I think this has been discussed before, but I'd appreciate some new advice on Luggage Forward. DW and I will be sailing out of Barcelona on Nov. 17, and we'd like to use this service. I'd like to see some comments, both good and bad, if any. Thanks in advance. KK
  7. Hello group, DW and I have just booked the Atlantic Ocean Passage, leaving Barcelona Nov. 17. Pre-cruise extensions there are sold out, so we're looking for a convenient Barcelona hotel for one night. Ideally, it won't be too far from the cruise terminal. Can anyone who has been there give me a lead on a decent hotel, including prices? Thanx in advance. KK
  8. DW and I will be on the 4/1 British islands cruise on the Venus. I've been reading about food shortages, especially fresh vegetables, in the UK. Anybody know if this has been affecting provisioning of cruise ships calling there? Perhaps Viking ships are provisioned in Scandinavia? Any insights are welcome. Thanx, KK
  9. Don't know if this is important to you, but DW and I have been on many, many cruises on many lines, and Viking has by far the best spa I've ever used. Big therapy pool, wonderful steam room, individual men's/women's saunas and even an ice room, if you enjoy freezing (I don't, but maybe that's just me). I could just pitch a tent and live in the spa. KK
  10. Has anyone used Luggage Forward prior to a Viking Ocean cruise? We are considering it for our British Isles cruise in April. Some input on this service would be welcome. Thanks in advance. KK
  11. Mr. Padgett: As a longtime Carnival stockholder and elite Princess cruiser with nearly 500 days at sea with your line, I fully understand that your ships have recently been idle for two years, making no money and piling on enormous debt. You needed to make changes. I get this. If you believe nothing else I write, you can believe that. That said, I must convey to you my enormous disappointment in Princess after a recent 10-day cruise I took with my wife. In fact, Princess now seems an entirely different cruise line, and not for the better. It all began weeks before we even boarded the Crown Princess, when our Medallions arrived in the mail. The shortcomings of this ill-conceived piece of technological rubbish have been well-documented in this forum, and I'll not waste my time and yours by rehashing all that. I'll just say that you would have done well to do some meaningful beta testing before foisting it on your paying customers. Frankly, it's an insult to us. In fairness, however, it does make a nice refigerator magnet, as another contributor to Cruise Critic has noted. Enough said about that. Now, to embarkation day at the San Pedro cruise terminal in California. There was, in theory, a separate check-in line for elite passengers, as always. But the Princess employee was interested only in maintaining lines of equal length, and was unaware that the elite line should have been much shorter, benefitting your most loyal customers. The sign saying so was unmistakable. Clearly, she was ill-trained for her job. Some other problems regarding elite passengers: -- We always received a $35-per-person onboard credit. That is now gone. -- No special toiletries in the bathroom, as in the past. -- No more free internet, just a discount on the regular package. Gee, thanks a lot. It is painfully clear, Mr. Padgett, that you no longer want our business. What you do want is a younger crowd that will accept your rampant nickel-and-diming without complaint. New passengers have no way of knowing what they are now missing.Your most loyal, longtime customers have become just another burden to be disposed of. But these problems are not the end. With no corner left uncut, you have degraded the cruising experience in other ways as well: -- MDR food quality onboard has taken a huge hit. Portions are smaller. I almost needed a chain saw to cut my veal scaloppine. In Crown Grill, same thing. Our traveling companions ordered "tiger prawns" that turned out to be ordinary shrimp, barely an inch long. Steaks came with no sauces offered. -- Dine My Way is a chaotic mess. What was wrong with two MDR seatings at set times? -- You have removed the club chairs from all non-suite cabins. Why? Is it too expensive to maintain and clean them? Or have you simply cut your staff to the point that you now have no one to do it? -- There are no longer any trash receptacles at the elevator stops. They used to be placed at every one, on all floors. No staffers to empty them, eh? -- No padded loungers on the exterior promenade deck. Just hard, uncomfortable, upright wooden chairs. It used to be a pleasure to sit out there and just watch the ocean go by on a beautiful day. What's the matter, Mr. Padgett? Oh, right. I get it. You don't want me just having a lazy day relaxing outside. You want me inside, drinking, gambling and spending money in your overpriced shops. -- No more chocolates on the pillows at night. Is this a small thing? You bet. Is it too small to complain about? Not at all, because it gives a perfect insight into your cut-everything-to-the-bone mindset. If the repeat passengers miss it, too bad. You don't want us anyway. The newbies will never know that the chocolates used to be there. As I said, I understand that you're in a financial hole now. But is saving money on an item as small as this worth deliberately antagonizing your biggest fans? -- The automatic, even-though-I-don't-want-them floor-level night lights that went on in the middle of the night every time I stepped out of bed. Or even if my sheet dangled over the side. And the big one outside the bathroom that awakened my wife every time. What, we're such children that you can't trust us to get to the toilet without your help? -- Last, but certainly not least, here's an item I just can't comprehend: An electronic panel outside my cabin door where I'm supposed to indicate whether I want my cabin serviced or just don't want to be disturbed. Trouble is, I'm standing right there with my medallion, which keeps unlocking the door and forcing me to keep reprogramming my preference, which never seems to work. My cabin steward finally told me to forget about it; nobody else could get it to work either. I mean, really, sir, what was wrong with the old-fashioned cardboard signs we'd hang on the door handle as we left the cabin? Are you so maniacally committed to electronics that you must simply have them everywhere, even when they make no sense whatever? In short, Mr. Padgett, you win. You are rid of my wife and me. We will now take our money, and our combined 1,000 days at sea, and go where we can get a little appreciation. There. Happy now? KK
  12. Cruising on Crown Jan. 6. Anyone know if we can still get the old-fashioned Princess Patter, in print, delivered to our cabin each night? Or is it strictly digital these days? Thanx, KK
  13. How formal are formal nights these days? We'll be doing a 10-day cruise to Mexico on Crown.
  14. If I book my flight with Princess Air, will it include airport-to-ship transfers? Specifically, LAX to San Pedro? Thanx KK
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