BirdandBaby

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Thinking about booking Jade but was hesitant. We've been on several NCL cruises and like them, but mostly big ships. I was concerned that the lack of variety on the smaller ships would bother me, but the vibe seems good.

Just off Getaway - no tendering at St. Lucia. Only tender for my cruise (10 day eastern Car) was private island (Stirrup Cay).

On 6/12/2022 at 10:57 AM, wolft927 said:

Was on the breakaway and haven forward sundeck smoking was allowed 

Sorry - wasn't paying enough attention. That's one deck down from Haven but convenient. Short outdoor stair goes up to Haven.

Just off Getaway. There was a nice enclosed smoking area on the pool deck forward.

Ok, guys... give me a break. I was trying to delete and start over and now I can't figure out how to delete it. But they say brevity is the soul of wit.... not. Sorry about that.

Thanks so much for posting all these! 

41 minutes ago, I Love Cruising 3 said:

This diet sounds much to complicated for me.

I simply eat what I like (withing reason to be healthy) & whatever weight I gain on a cruise, knock it off within a couple of weeks at home. 

Everybody definitely has to figure out what works for them. "Within reason to be healthy" varies so much from person to person. Also depends on your age and health issues. When I was younger, I could eat, drink, and be merry on a cruise with no problems (other than maybe a bit of a hangover the next day).... now, not so much. Great thing about cruises is they have something for everybody.

17 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

same here. I was on a low carb diet (and losing weight!) prior to the cruise, but we cruise on Princess for its food, so I dropped the diet for 7 days. But if you need to stay on keto diet for whatever reasons, you won't have any problems doing so, either in the buffet or in MDR. I skipped pretty much all of the starchy sides (potatoes and rice) with my meat dishes, but got a fair share of the desserts instead. Oh, and a ton of sugary alcohol! Yummy! I don't drink at all, except on a cruise once or twice a year, but we had a ton of non-refundable OBC, so we drank about 2 drinks per day each.

 

I lost a bunch of weight on keto/low-carb/carnivore, but I also have some health issues it helps with, so I tend to try to stick with it. If it weren't for that, I would totally go off it for a cruise! Must admit what I miss most are those sugary alcoholic drinks. Still have good memories of the mudslides on Norwegian Breakaway.... sigh.

18 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

The newer Royal Class ships have the better Buffet.  So, I kind of hope you will be on one of these ships!  

Ohhhh, I think maybe you will be on the Regal!

Yes, Regal will be our first Princess experience - the buffet seems pretty extensive. Fingers crossed on the quality. 🙂

19 hours ago, Yehootu said:

They finally got Michelob Ultra that keeps me happy, and on track. Since July, 18days on ships and 27lbs down.

Yay - that's my go-to beer. Congrats on the weight loss - that's impressive with so many days on ships.

4 minutes ago, clo said:

You might like escorted land trips. Or trains. We're thinking our next trip to Italy will be trains.

Agreed. We loved our escorted land trip to Ireland - when you want to see the countryside and a mix of small towns and cities I think it's easier than trying to rent a car and drive in a foreign country. Haven't done trains so much - although I did a lot of train travel in Japan several years ago and it was a blast.

13 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

 

The only downside to that is that you are either limited to coastal destinations or you are doing long drives to get from the port to the city.

Definitely - I'm definitely not into those 10 hour excursions from the cruise port. We think about our priorities carefully. If we want to see Rome, we'll just fly into Rome, stay in a nice hotel and fly home. I'm all about the easy these days - still want to explore and see stuff but have to weigh the cost/benefit ratios.

5 minutes ago, reedprincess said:

We both do quite well. We may have a small indulgence here or there, but we do plan for it and get right back on track.  We both eat keto for health reasons and can tell almost immediately when we've gone too far off track, so we don't stray really, even on vacation.   Our health is worth more to us than some foods.  Lol.

Enjoy!

 

Thank you so much - exactly the info I needed! My plan is the same - maybe a couple of indulgences but mostly on track. I just find that I feel like hell when I go too far, so it's all about trade-offs. My keto drinks of choice are dry red wine and good whiskey. 🙂

I hate driving more and more, so no long car trips for me. I wouldn't say "only" cruising, but we tend to look at cruises as our default option. For instance, our next plan for a major vacation is either Scandinavia or Italy. We'll look at cruise options before we consider land tours. I'm at the point where cruising seems so much easier I will only do land-based if a cruise doesn't go there or if it's a "fly into the big city and enjoy the big city" vacation.

I feel best when eating keto/carnivore style - any tips on maintaining this sort of "way of eating" on Princess? I think one of the great things about cruising is that you have a lot of choices, so I know that getting enough meat isn't an issue, just looking for things that have worked for some of you or things to look out for. For instance, can I get a cheese plate for desert in the MDRs? Thanks!

6 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I have nothing to add to your comment, just wanted to say I like your moniker and enjoyed a lovely meal at the Eagle and Child (er, Bird and Baby -- or as some say, the Fowl and Fetus) this summer.

 

🙂 I hadn't heard "Fowl and Fetus"! I'd love to go back to Oxford - wonderful memories from past visits. So much history, so little time...

Just adding my 2 cents as someone who has never sailed HAL, was considering it for a recent cruise, but didn't pull the trigger. My reasons echo the concerns many have mentioned on this thread. My husband and I seem to be in HAL's 'natural' demographic - late 60's, interested in good food and wine, interested in a variety of on-board activities, and looking for a reasonable (not cheap) cruise experience. We want a step above Norwegian (don't need the go carts and climbing wall, thanks) but don't want to spend the money for luxury. We enjoyed our one Windstar cruise a lot, but actually prefer a mid- or large-sized ship for greater activities available and dining choice.

So, when we were looking into an Eastern Caribbean getaway, we considered HAL, Princess, Celebrity, and MSC. We ended up choosing Regal Princess, although I was initially trying to talk my husband into the Nieuw Amsterdam or Staatendam. Why not HAL? Three reasons: (1) husband kept hearing it was nursing-home-at-sea - he prefers a livelier mix, (2) husband afraid not enough to do on board since this is an itinerary we have done before, and (3) the website. The last kind of clinched it. The website was a nightmare to navigate, uninformative, and the choices of cabin on two separate dates we checked was terrible. We couldn't even tell if the other preferable cabins were sold out, being held out, or what the h*ll was going on. On other lines' websites you can look at deck plans, see sold vs. unsold, etc. It ended up not being worth the hassle.

I also agree that HAL needs to up their advertising. We get brochures from NCL, Oceania, Azamara all the time. We have never gotten anything from HAL or seen any print or tv advertising. If my husband had seen some glossy add to counter the negative impressions he had from who knows where, it might have made a difference.

Just now, arowe6 said:

I would guess around 40 inches, which is good for cruise ship standards IMO. I don’t really have a good photo of a tv. This is from a mini suite, but the tv size is the same in all rooms. 
 

Enjoy your cruise!

Andrew 

Thanks - he will be reassured. Looks like a good set-up.

1 minute ago, MissP22 said:

Around 42 or 43 inches. 

Perfect - that's what he was hoping.

We are cruising on the Regal soon in a deluxe balcony. My husband is just curious - anyone have a guestimate on the size of the tv in the cabin? I know, first world problems... but we had a really dinky one on our last cruise (Disney).🙂

I definitely wish I had taken one (not two) on our Windstar cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona a couple of years ago. There were many times on tours or just wandering around towns, cobblestone streets, and castles where I would have felt safer and steadier. For instance, going up and down uneven stone steps at the Lisbon castle with no handrails. Will take one from now on on certain itineraries.

On Fantasy the first week of June. Agree with poster above about shows. We didn't go to any (too 'kiddy' for us), but younger people in our party enjoyed the ones they went to, although they said they were a bit long for the littlest ones (toddlers). We enjoyed the more casual music on board - excellent guitarist and violinist.

As to food, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food in the buffet and MDRs. We thought it was a cut above Norwegian Breakaway and a cut below Windstar. We enjoyed all our MDR meals in the different venues - always lots of choices we were interested in trying for all three/four courses. I particularly enjoyed the lamb and seafood choices at dinner. Didn't have a bad meal the whole time. Not a buffet fan generally but thought the choices/food were fine there. We didn't try specialty dining, but some of our family enjoyed Palo.

17 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

Exactly the same as it is anywhere in the world.  All cell phone service on ships is through satellites which are largely available mid-Atlantic.  There may be spotty outages with both the cell service and TV service.

Thanks - the "largely available mid-Atlantic" was exactly what I was wondering about.

12 minutes ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

I was pleasantly surprised with the wifi service.  I kept my phone in airplane mode but was able to text with other IPhones using wifi and I also was able to use Facebook Messenger to stay in touch.  I was also able to receive and send emails. I tried not to rub it in too often that I was at the pool crossing the Atlantic while my friends and family back home had snow 🙂

Thanks - very helpful to know as I try to sell him on TA. And the "rubbing it in" is part of the fun. I noticed he was always careful to drop in "I'm in Tortola" (or whatever) when calling clients from our latest cruise. 🙂