dad2my3

No one who abandons their personal items in a public area and walks away should consider themselves a victim of theft.

My wife and I did the balcony dinner on our fifteenth anniversary cruise, and it was one of the highlights of the trip.

We’ve only taken three and four day cruises because that’s what our budget allows, but we were gifted a ten day cruise this summer for our anniversary, and I intend to enjoy it completely.

I have been known to leave my top button undone with a loosened tie casually hanging below. The formality of a tie, but casual and with a little breathing room.

A cruise without all those awful chemical drinks might add few months or years to your life.

If drinking one week’s worth of Coke Zero was worth a few months or years of my life, I think I’d be dead by now, lol.

If I want a soda at a restaurant, I order a Coke Zero. If they only have Diet Coke, I get a water instead. I don’t know what the difference is, but I don’t enjoy Diet Coke. Cherry Coke Zero is my favorite, but it’s hard to find. If Princess doesn’t offer Zero, I’ll stick to water on my cruise this summer.

We will be on the Grand this summer, sailing to Alaska and back from San Francisco. The 4th of July is going to be our last sea day.

Has anyone sailed on the 4th before? If so, was there anything special to celebrate? (I can’t imagine a 4th of July without fireworks, but I’m preparing myself.) Is it possible that they might have something festive happening because of the holiday? I’m just curious...

Thanks so much for posting! I’ll be taking this cruise in June.

I enjoy fresh air from outside—but if leaving my balcony door open negatively impacts others, then I’ll step outside and shut it behind me rather than leave it open and possibly make others uncomfortable in their own rooms.

Don’t sit with other people. That will slow you down. Do any time dining, and request a table of your own. You will dine at your own pace and be finished much faster than with a larger table, where all ordering and serving will be done together. Also, if your kids get impatient and squirrelly, you won’t be worrying about how the strangers at your table might respond.

My wife and I did this on our 15th anniversary cruise, and it was such a wonderful experience. Enjoy it!

I'll be on board this Thursday.

I will be on board with my family the 26th through the 28th. We would love decorations, but it sounds like they will start going up just as we are getting off the ship. I hope you get lucky and see at least a bit of decoration happening by the end of your cruise. Good luck!

I would have been happy to use an onboard computer, or even go somewhere to wait in line and talk to someone behind a counter. The situation with the telephone was not ideal.

I called the dining line as soon as I got to my cabin to schedule a balcony dinner. There was no answer, so I waited and called back later. They told me to call a different number. When I finally got in touch with the right person, they told me to be waiting in my room at a certain time so someone could call and discuss the details. Nobody called at the appointed time. I called back and asked to get things set up. They told me to wait in my cabin and they would call back. Eventually they did call back and we got things arranged. The whole process took much longer than I expected and it was a bit of a hassle. (I was under the impression that someone was going to meet with us in person to discuss the details and menu options, but that certainly didn't happen.)

In the end, it was well worth it and the balcony dinner was one of the best experiences of the cruise. However, if I could have made the arrangements online in advance, it would have been absolutely perfect. They were not at all organized or quick to respond, and as a result, I spent time in the cabin waiting for the phone to ring that I could have spent exploring the ship. I am highly in favor of online reservations based on my experience trying to get reservations made on the ship.

Even if it can't happen on embarkation day, I would recommend that you try it another night. It was the highlight of our cruise. Such a nice experience. Try to schedule it around the sunset and you should have a nice romantic view. (Assuming that you are on the right side of the ship!)

And of course' date=' they are basing their hires on how many kids that have booked. They do know the quantity of kids per age that have booked at final payment time and odds are, the numbers aren't going to drastically change from those levels.

 

As I said, they have just changed the school calendars for the Los Angeles school district (which according to their website is over 600,000 students) a few years ago...and many of parents weren't too happy especially in this area of LA where it's generally over 100 degrees til sometime in October. It's decisions like this that make me glad my child is graduating in June. This was the first week of school for her school since the administration there likes to be different (most schools started last week) and yesterday she said it was way too hot when she left her senior homeroom to go to her first class.[/quote']

 

My wife started teaching (high school) this semester and her first day of classes was August 7th. It felt pretty early--the summer heat is definitely still with us.

Interesting. When did the Golden sail out of Long Beach? I thought Princess always embarks in San Pedro so this is new to me.

I am a big dummy and said the wrong place. My mistake!

When my wife and I sailed on the Golden out of Long Beach, I knew that our lunch options would be reduced after 1:30. We dropped off our things in the room and went straight to the main dining room for lunch, and it was not crowded at all. It was such a nice way to start the cruise.

I did have to wait in line at times. I found the staff to be busy, never inattentive.

On our four night cruise, we arrived for our dinners between 6-6:30. The wait times for our three meals were 7, 8 and 26 minutes. (The other night was our balcony dinner.)

I can finally add my opinion after trying it for the first time. I give it a thumbs down. Like a little bowl of warm brownie batter--there is nothing cake like about it. It kind of works as a hot fudge topping for the vanilla ice cream, but only in small doses. I did not finish it and would not order it again.

Had to leave the pool area with my kids a few times on the Inspiration because of the loud music. We couldn't sit and eat out there if we wanted to chat over lunch. It wasn't an issue in most other areas of the ship.

There was an 11:30-1:00am Mexican buffet on the Inspiration last week, but I didn't partake. My belly can't handle a massive load of burritos and salsa at that hour if sleep is going to happen at any point afterwards.

My wife and I took a four day Princess cruise to Ensenada last fall and I tried the same itinerary on Carnival last week with the kids. I will not return to Carnival. Lots of younger party people. Lots of parents at the bars and clubs leaving their kids to noisily roam the ship unsupervised, late into the night. People cutting right in front of you in various lines. Staff absolutely everywhere intrusively trying to sell you drinks or take your picture.

My kids wanted to swim in the pool (the only one on board) on the sea day and they were having a hairy chest contest at the time. Then they had the hairy chested men take a "sexy shower" by the pool with the female judges rubbing them, and then the three finalists had a cross dressing competition. Lots of alcohol and loud music was involved. It was not an atmosphere that I enjoyed, nor one that I wanted for my kids. We would leave and come back a few minutes later just to find that the competition was not only still going on, but getting worse, lol.

My experience on Princess was pretty much the total opposite, in the best way. A relaxed, fun and friendly atmosphere that still had a sense of class and respectability about it. I was surprised at how the two ships had such different personalities. I will be happy to return to Princess for our future cruises.

I just sailed with my three kids on a Catalina/Ensenada cruise with just birth certificates. If I had been required to spend an additional $300 for passports, we wouldn't have taken the trip at this time. We just didn't get off the ship at Ensenada because there was nothing that interested the family more than relaxing by the pool.

However, I will make it a priority to get them passports sooner rather than later. They enjoyed the trip and we'd like to cruise again. I wouldn't want to be evacuated in a foreign country because of a ship emergency and be without passports. (Assuming they would let me take the time to go back to my room and collect my documents in the event of an emergency. If the ship is on fire and sinking, I don't care whether it's a birth certificate or passport that goes to the bottom of the sea inside my cabin's safe.)