Loreni

 

Yes, this I should my concern. Thank you for this information. Is this still a risk if the lower beds are in the twin configuration or only if they are in the queen configuration?

 

Would it be better/safer just to leave the beds down all the time?

I would appreciate any thoughts from those of you who have tried them. I know many ships have gotten the new mattresses.

Did the upper berths also get new mattresses?

Is their room to add an an egg crate without hitting your head when you sit up?

Will the person in the bed below hit his head when he sits up?

Why fight?

Just offer to meet up with him later in evening.

I agree 100%. Let him know you are eating there and he may join you if he wishes.

Please Princess do not do this. Leave something for the rest of us.

I think I understand why many other lines are creating a Ship-within-A-Ship. The grandparents who are paying for multigenerational family cruising can’t get their children and grandchildren to join them on a luxury cruise line, but they want luxury. The adult children and grandchildren want more entertainment and activity options.

The result for the rest of us is that those who don’t book the ship-within-a-ship are denied access to the views from the front of the ship and may other areas. In some cases, it looks like 5% of the passengers are getting 20% of the public space ... well formerly public space...and crowding is worse than ever in remaining public space.

Some may say Princess is already tiptoeing in this direction with the Sanctuary, the specialty restaurants, and the two super suites with huge balconies on the newest ship design. I agree. But at least anyone can purchase access to the Sanctuary. You need to for forward views on Royal class which is a big complaint on an Alaska cruise. On some of the other new ships, either you pay for a full suite or you are totally locked out of a forward view and much of the ship. Of course, I would rather see the Sanctuary gone and more free seating and lounging available, like it used to be. However, I doubt we’ll get this space back for free and we might lose it altogether. If usage is low for the Sanctuary, rather than return it to us for free, Princess may use the low usage to justify taking it and the Lotus Spa Pool, and the thermal suites and who knows what else for SWiAS.

I doubt we’d ever sail in a suite on such ships. The price just is not a good value for us compared to a land vacation. We find a mini suite on Princess is a good value compared to a land vacation. If Princess goes in this direction, we are probably gone.

Thank you.

Please let me know if any of you are aware of a BVE on Pacific when it is in LA. Also, will Royal be offering a BVE when it comes to LA?

We have sailed on the Pacific, but have a friend who has not and is reluctant. Maybe the BVE would answer her concerns one way or the other.

Similarly, I have concerns about Royal. Specifically is it worth it to trade a useable promenade for a larger Piazza. I think the BVE will answer that question for me.

Well, he has a point. However, it can be justified economically.

1) I read in WSJ that on land, restaurants usually charge about 4 times the cost of ingredients. So if the specialty restaurant spends 7 dollars more per head for the ingredients than the MDR, that upgrade would have cost you 28 dollars on land. Wholesale price for a 4 oz lobster tail might be 6 dollars. What size are the lobster tails at Crown Grill? Maine or warm water? price them and multiply by 4.

2) if there is a show you really want to see and if the ship has a theater that can’t hold all who want to see it, then you must get there early. This can be difficult with anytime dining because you don’t know when you will be seated. It can also be difficult with fixed dining, sometimes. With the specialty restaurants, you reserve your desired dining time. This means you can plan to get a good seat for the show...that may have some monetary value.

3) if you wanted to try a restaurant with similar food and ambiance on land, you would need spend time to drive there and pay for gas and maybe parking and the cost of using the car (wear and tear).

Any Combination of 1) and 2) and 3) plus the value of improved service and atmosphere.

Title of post should read: “Just how good is SHARE”

For those of you who love SHARE, please “share” more details if you can. The presentation of the food looks beautiful. In some videos, each course appears to be on a plate of a different pattern. In other photos, all plates look white. In any case, portion size looks appropriate and presentation looks beautiful. Of course, presentation doesn’t matter, if the taste isn’t there.

The amount of protein looks good too, if all courses are included. It looks like the lobster and beef are prepared sous vide. Lamb looks good too. Compared to the original two Sabatini incarnations, it does look like less money may have been spent on the protein, but probably more labor is involved in the presentation. I always felt Sabatini’s offered a bit too much food, but we still enjoyed it...too bad we can’t have both SHARE and the old Sabatini’s.

Anyway, we look forward to trying SHARE.

Good news about the gluten free. We will probably try it for half a day. I will let you know what we think. I 100% agree with Pam about the balcony furniture.

But I also agree with Don that one shouldn’t have to pay for something that should be free...comfort. Especially since I have my suspicion that the new balcony furniture was deliberately selected to be uncomfortable. Yet I need to accept the current reality on Princess if I continue sailing with them.

I have access to a therapy pool with water temperature of 92 degrees, give or take a degree. This pool is used for physical therapy several hours a day, but otherwise can be used by anyone. I find it very helpful for arthritis and it does not need as much chlorine as a hot tub. I can stay in longer too, as the typical 103 degrees of a hot tub is too hot for me.

Does anyone know how warm the Enclave pool is?

My favorite pool is the "Lotus spa" pool on any ship that has it.

As noted above, it has nothing to do with the Lotus spa other than being near it. It also has nothing to do with the Sanctuary other than being near it.

It's free, (usually) under utilized because many think it's part of the spa or the sanctuary. The temperature of the pool is usually on the cool side, warmish, but not real warm. The hot tubs can feel boiling hot or just super warm. And the loungers are suite quality.

The "swim against the current" is almost always turned off. I've heard several stories which may or may not be true. The most common consensus is that it's a legal/safety issue.

Thanks, JF.

I haven’t used the Lotus Pool in a while, but when I did, I had to turn on the current. Are you saying it can no longer be turned on. That is a shame, but if it was dangerous then it is for the best especially in the somewhat remote area.

I was hoping to be able to exercise there and that the water would be between 80 and 84 degrees, so I could keep my routine going. It is the best exercise I can do with arthritis. Sounds like it will still be good for a quick dip.

I wish Princess would have a therapy pool set at about 92 degrees. I have access to one at home and it is very helpful for arthritis. If the Lotus Pool is no longer swim against the current, then maybe they can raise the temperature.

Maybe this is the temperature of the Royal class enclave pool? I will start a separate thread to try to find out.

Thank you both for answering anyway. I still enjoyed reading them and I learned some things.

I wonder if any of you who have tried the sanctuary on Emerald would share your opinion.

I would like a quiet place to rest with my feet up. Ideally it would have been my balcony, but the new furniture is miserable for my back (perhaps by design). The promenade deck is closer to the water and thus, in my opinion, much more scenic. However, unlike on the Sapphire, you can’t put your feet up. Since my back surgery, I need to put my feet up to be comfortable. So this leaves the sanctuary or other upper deck areas.

I like the idea of having lunch in the Sanctuary. Do you stay at your lounge chair or move to a table? If DH has preordered gluten free lunch would they bring it. Or can he order gluten free from the Sanctuary menu?

Do you feel you are too far from the water to really enjoy the view of the ocean?

For those who have sailed recently on Emerald, do you recall the pool temperatures. I am especially interested in the temperature of the lotus spa pool with the swim against the current feature.

Also, how is the chlorine level?

Thank you, Cruiser411.

...and the same 2 are shareholders. Does it matter who is designated passenger 1,2,and 3.

Please let us know if you have any experience with this situation.

They destroyed the promenade and shrunk the balconies. That was a game changer for me.

if what I am reading about the pizza and tea are true, I have to wonder. Especially since they are doing well.

Why change to cheap sauce and cheese, unless they think we can't tell the difference and will scarf down anything they decide to serve us.

Why switch to brand X tea, unless they think we can't tell the difference and will slurp down whatever they pour.

How much money are they saving in exchange for treating us so contemptuously. And they may not even save any money, if some decide to skip the lousy pizza and have something which actually costs Princess more to provide.

Many new ships are coming out soon. None have my favorite feature: a covered walkable promenade with an ocean view. But at least they are offering some exciting innovations. It doesn't make up for taking away the promenade, but it is something.

What does Princess offer after taking the promenade? A larger piazza? Ocean Medallion ? Club Class? All seem stale compared to the competition. Sure the competition may be offering mainly bells and whistles and thinly veiled attempts to nickel and dime...but at least it seems exciting.

I wonder if Princess is regretting their "evolution" rather than revolution approach. Sky Princess seems stale and even the announcement didn't convey any energy or excitement.

I have seen photos of the Ultimate mate Balcony Dinner that show large cold water lobster tails and thick beef tenderloin, but most of these pictures are from several years ago.

I have seen more recent photos showing the same puny warm water lobster served in the MDR. In these photos surf and turf was served and the beef also looked not as nice as the beef served years ago.

Yet, I found one recently posted photo showing the nicer lobster and beef...but maybe it was an old photo that had been recently posted.

To me, walking around the promenade deck is more like walking around a school track field. The same view...the same view...the same view. One can sit on their balcony, or sit on the promenade deck and see...the same view. it's not going to change wherever you are out at sea.

 

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I find it does change, sometimes dramatically, depending upon time of day, sun position, wind direction, wind speed, and weather conditions. DH and I love walking on the promenad and it is an experience that we can't find anywhere else. Where else can one walk in the shade so close to the sea...not on a beach.

I agree about the smoking, but that should only be on one side.

I think a Royal class ship will be coming to the California in a year or so. But I hope this doesn't mean we will lose access to Princess ships with a walkable promenad so soon.

Steak certainly isn't inconsistent with authentic Italian cuisine. (Neither are veal chops or lobster.)

While the new menu looks intriguing, it appears the ingredients (while perhaps innovative) are far less expensive.

I guess Princess has decided to "sell the sizzle, not the steak."

We think the food is just OK. We wish Princess would use butter in their croissants and provide 100% butter with the bread... even modest restaurants and bakeries in our neighborhood do so. Most people realize now that margarine and Crisco are not healthy. Also, butter tastes better and is not THAT expensive.

We also thought the pub lunch was terrible. The batter on my fish and chips was greasy, but there was plenty of it. When I peeled it off to eat just the fish, I found less than one ounce of fish on my plate. There were no gluten free options for DH not even a simple salad.

The green salads in MDR are good. Most desserts are overly sweet for us or seem to rely on sponge cake rather than a cake that includes butter. We used to order ice cream or sorbet, it is still OK but not as good as we remember, so now we usually just ask for fruit. This usually ends up being mostly melon, that's OK but more variety would be nice.

We originally started cruising with Princess many years ago because DH has Celiac disease and land-based restaurants just didn't handle it well. All that has changed. In fact, Princess has been much less accommodating lately, while land-based restaurants have become more accommodating. For example, the International Cafe used to offer one gluten free dessert per day, now it is one different GF dessert every three days...this at a time when more and more people are deciding to eat GF?

There are so many vacation options now. Food is not a selling point for Princess, but we do like the idea of being able to walk from our accommodations to dinner in a car-free environment, so we still like cruising. Might try a different line.

Princess does offer fantastic pizza by the slice. No complaints there!

That's reasonable. A doctor told a patient in a face-to-face consultation to avoid certain foods. That's not the same thing as a ship's doctor going on the ship TV and telling everyone to adjust their medication because there is too much salt in the food. (I still think that never happened.)

You are right that never did happen. The ship's doctor warned the passengers of the salty food and encouraged those taking blood pressure medication not to hesitate to visit him if they need their medications adjusted or if they had forgotten their medications on this month-long cruise.

Again, the point of my post is that those of you who are getting sick on Princess, and there are many, should consider how well you are sleeping.

It certainly is not inconceivable that a company that would willfully pollute to save money (without regard for the environment), might also decrease the air conditioning to save money (without regard for its impact on passenger sleep and thus health). After all, those who get sick might blame the airlines, or themselves for not being careful enough, or others for "licking their hands."

Certainly crowded conditions are part of the problem. The only time one or both of us have not gotten sick in the past few years was on the Pacific Princess.

Also, since the balcony furniture was replaced with the uncomfortable furniture we don't spend much time on the balcony, if we even book one, and instead are spending more time in public spaces. We used to believe a Princess mini-suite was the best value in cruising before they changed the furniture.

So, yes crowded conditions are part of the problem. The other part is an immune system that is not as robust as it could be, this is where poor sleep comes into the equation.

And no it is not a cold. A fever and coughing up discolored sputum is not a cold. It is curious to me that the ship's doctor immediately suspected bacterial infection, while my own doctor (on a different occasion) suspected viral. By the way the waiting room on the ship was full of people coughing. Of course we get flu shots...they don't protect you from all strains of flu.

So can the sleep problem be addressed? A low sodium diet and mattress pads are very easy fixes...although the mattress pad takes up an entire suitcase, it's worth it.

Fixing the room temperature is not as easy. I agree with the suggestion of colder weather destinations. We will try either Norway or Alaska next. Maybe both, depending on the results of the first choice.

We will also book a room with a balcony, even though we won't use it much with the miserable furniture and cold destination. I would never sleep with the balcony door open...imagine if your door was open during the Star Princess fire. However, I read another thread where a passenger with COPD had been told by the ship's doctor to leave the door open for twenty minutes to get fresh air. This could be an option.

For those who think the AC does not turn off, I noticed a trickle of air coming into the room at all times, but when the AC was off (regardless of the room being hot and the thermostat set on the lowest setting) no cold or cool air was flowing. This is how I define the AC being off...a hot room, thermostat set low, and NO cold or even cool air flowing.

So for now, cruising to a tropical location is not an option. We just booked a winter escape to a cottage with its own private pool...looking forward to cocooning and enjoying the weather and not having to worry about missing the ship if we relax on the beach too long.