Mud_Shark

We stay in interiors, and spend some time in them, but it is just us two. It would be very tight and uncomfortable with 4 adults in one interior room. I would only do it if finances force your hand. If I was in a room of 4, I would find a reason to be elsewhere until bed time, so it is do-able, just very tight. There are plenty of other places to be on the ship when you need space.

Don

This problem is far more endemic than just the cruise line. As companies outsource customer service and technical support more and more, it becomes increasingly frustrating and a waste of time to try and contact any large company with which you may have a concern. Customer service reps simply tend to parrot the standard company line and seem trained to deal with only the most basic of issues, and seem trained to avoid forwarding your concern to anyone with any real power to effect change. It has become so frustrating over the years that now, the first instinct is NOT to even make an initial call to customer service to any large company because you can only beat your head against the wall so many times.

I say this with only very limited exposure to Princess customer service but with enough bumps on my head from other companies in the past few years, such as internet providers, banks, cell phone companies, software companies, web hosting etc. I realise that Princess sales and customer service reps are still located in North America, but for how much longer? Tech support is heading off shore.

Don

Wow! If Princess really listened and cancelled the new policy - koodos for them. That's a big +1!

They know how to win my vote back.

Don

A question I have is ---

Is the afternoon tea time with snacks free? (ok "included with your cruise fare" - for those who feel the need to be precise)?

I think High tea was different and was round $10 - but was only held some days. We didn't try it but wondered if it was good.

We saw afternoon tea on the patter most days. Not sure if it was on sea days only.

Don

We absolutely loved the production shows on the Caribbean Princess, but preferred the newer ship feel of the Royal (haven't been on the Regal).

We are walkers, and my wife far preferred the Caribbean's deck 7 promenade over the Royal's short top side walking track, but I could take either.

The buffet on the Caribbean was certainly good, but more choices on the Royal.

The Big Screen for MUTS on the Royal has better resolution. I like to watch the movies under the stars, so I like the Royal for that.

The Royal's cabin TVs have on demand movies. A big plus if you watch TV while cruising. Caribbean Princess has flat screen Tvs - but still on the old system of having to catch the movie at its scheduled time.

One more vote for Alfredos (Royal), but hey, I can get by with some prego pizza when the hankering arises.

The Royal balconies are small, so you can't really stretch out at all. Just sit.

Skywalkers is only on Caribbean - and is a great indoor view spot for sail away if the weather is contrary.

Love the Aft pool and wake view from Caribbean. Royal does not have an aft pool. In fact, has fewer pools but the main pool area is more of an activity hub.

The Royal has some small extras. I did not try it, but I think they have a golf simulator or something. They also have a batting cage open for a couple of hours during sea days. As a baseball guy, I liked that little plus, though often it was set for softballs.

We would choose based upon itinerary, but if those were similar, I would give the nod to Royal/Regal.

Don

Looks like the Canadian exchange rate with Princess took another 5% hit recently.

I noticed all the cruises I had been following jumped in price a bit and after making a quick calculation found them all to be priced at an exchange of 1.35 When I had last looked (early November) they were all at 1.30.

Forecasts at this point don't call for the official exchange rate to improve much or at all in the coming year so I guess this is to be expected.

Don

Are you talking about the Star Princess in Nov 2017? I had my eye on a cruise on the Star then, but it too has disappeared.

Don

Sorry - have not been on those particular excursions, but just so you know...

You can snorkel with turtles without going on a catamaran or boat.

We did it. We got off the ship and walked over just past the Boatyard (beach area). The walk is 20- 30 minutes. From the beach, you could see where all the catamarans were anchoring and letting off all their snorkelers. We had our own snorkel gear and simply swam out to that general area. If you are an average swimmer, it is not a difficult swim. (Fins definitely make it faster). Probably about a 10 minute transit time at a comfortable snorkel speed.

Anyway, we arrived in the area and the turtles came right up to us. We saw as many and were as close to them as any of the people on the excursions.

We spent the day at the beach and swam out to the turtles twice. Total cost for the day was $10 for two chairs and an umbrella rental.

Don't get me wrong, we did plenty of excursions on other islands, but after a little research, Barbados looked like the ideal island to save a little money on, and that's what we did. Was still one of our best days in the Caribbean.

Don

Hmm...

1) Often excursion rates are slightly higher onboard than they are when reserved in advance. This means, even if you can book the excursion you desire when you get onboard, you will likely pay a little more.

2) Princess sale prices are now focussed on granting more OBC, not discounting the price of the cruise. We, probably like many others, plan to use that OBC on excursions. This makes the "sales" far less desirable.

3) As non drinkers, the bulk of our OBC is used for excursions, with a little for coffee cards, laundry, miscellaneous purchases. Other than paying off gratuities, OBC now has limited appeal.

4) It might become better to play the waiting game and look for last minute deals rather than early "sales" which grant OBC instead of price discounts. At least last minute deals still discount the actual price.

We have only done 4 cruises, all with Princess, so we are not yet tied to Princess for the platinum or elite benefits. We were thinking of continuing the trend of 1 or 2 cruises per year, but little by little, the benefits of cruising over other vacations is eroding. Not ready to say yet that we are taking our ball and going home, but certainly ready to investigate other options. We have until the summer to make final payment on our 2017 Fall cruise plans, and will think carefully before deciding on cruising or something else. I am a planner and like to pay things off very early. No more of that while we consider our options.

Don

We just used one. Went to Guest services on day one and had it applied to our account.

Only problem was when cruise was over, we still had some money left on the card (it was a $1000 gift card). Guest services told us they don't refund the balance - it just goes away.

That didn't sit well, as our balance was over $450. Got no where with guest services and they told me to call Customer Relations when we got home. Did that, and customer relations had no idea why the on ship staff did that and provided us with a stateroom account that showed it all non refundable. Guest relations told me today I should get the $450 back.

We will see in 6 to 8 weeks if we actually get it back or not.

Don

We were onboard for this cruise and the one previous to the ABC islands.

Great cruise. 3 Comments --

1) The singers on the Caribbean princess are fabulous! All 3 production shows that they performed are the best 3 we have ever seen. All 4 of the lead singers can really sing.

2) In Cozumel - I highly recommend the Cenotes and Turtle Swim excursion. Wow what a fantastic day! You have to take the ferry over to Playa Del Carmen and we all got back later than the all aboard time (along with all the other excursioners on the ferry who had done other excursions to Playa Del Carmen) - but since they were Princess excursions the boat was waiting. You have to be able to take stairs down to the Cenotes (and be able to do basic snorkeling), but those underground water caves are just beautiful. Would love to do the cave dives in those Centotes some day - but snorkeling them was great. best excursion we have been on.

3) The Voice of the Ocean was wonderful! Both weeks it was a great show. the judges are hilarious.

Enjoyed the cruise. Will look forward to the review when you get back....

Don

Bill,

yes you can use your gift card to purchase future cruise deposits while on board - but you must not apply the gift card to your shipboard account. Keep the pin number and gift card number and simply provide them to the FCD desk and you can purchase FCDs.

Don

When we were on the Royal last year in the Fall, we got too much football. I like watching a game or two, but there was Thursday Night Football, Sunday afternoon and evening football, Monday night football, and some college game on MUTS on Saturday afternoon and then another in the evening. There was more football than movies.

Don

We have not been on the Regal, but on the Royal last year for our Caribbean cruise:

1) The hot tubs were surprisingly warm (hot but not scalding). They were very inviting to sit in during the evening.

2) Were open until the end of the 2nd showing of MUTS, which, depending upon the length of the movie or football game, ended around 11-11:30pm. At that point, attendants began putting the netting over the hot tubs for the evening.

Don

OBC from a travel agency or self gifted never shows up in your cruise personalizer. It will show when you get onboard - there should be notification in your room when you arrive.

It has been there for us both times, but it does leave you wondering.

Don

We had this last September. We were on the Royal's first Caribbean cruise immediately after they arrived from the transatlantic. There was an expected delay for customs and they were running some kind of drills as well.

We were only told of this late boarding about 4 or 5 days prior to the cruise. We were told to arrive about 3pm. We had already locked in bus transportation from our motel in the Florida Keys - so we were stuck arriving at 11am.

When we got there, many others were also aware of the late boarding but were also lined up at the port as per usual due to coming straight from the airport or whatever. We were able to drop our bags off at the porters, then got in line outside. It is covered, but it was humid!. We stood in that line outside the terminal for probably about an hour, then they staff directed us non priority boarding types over to the terminal across the road - which they opened up just for us to wait in. We were able to find chairs there to sit in, but by about 1pm that terminal room was standing room only, and I felt bad because at least 500 or so people were standing and waiting. There was no food, but there was a bathroom and a drinking fountain, so it was much better than being outside.

By about 3:30pm or so we were escorted from this holding terminal to the main terminal for processing, and we got onboard around 4:pm. When it began - it went quick.

So it was very nice to have an air conditioned terminal to wait in, but it looked like someone just stepped up and problem solved the growing outdoor line and found a solution to let us get out of the heat. Hopefully they will do that in your case as certainly many will still arrive in the morning - just like us. Some complained constantly, but others just made the best of it and were glad we were inside and comfortable.

Don

I don't know a thing about any other company, and since we have yet to actually go on the excursion, I have no recommendation I can offer for Belizecrusieexcursions.com

I simply emailed and they responded quickly with a link to make a reservation and all the required details. They did take a 20% up front payment on the excursion by credit card, which they say will be refunded if the ship cannot tender or if the weather will not allow for the excursion. All the correspondence came from island marketing, but had specific details of where and when to meet the cruise operator on the day of the excursion.

We shall know more in a little more than a month.

Don

In Nov we are going to Goff's Caye with Belizecruiseexcursions.com (the one referred to in the OP's comments - the one that is handled by island marketing)

- when I saw the pictures of this tiny beautiful island, well, this excursion jumped to the top of several possible options.

- price is reasonable, snorkeling is said to be "good" (not excellent), and the island is just like a Caribbean dream. And, it is a little closer than Caye Caulker.

- If we ever go back (which I hope we do), Caye Caulker remains high on the list of other excursions we would like to try, but just look at the photos of Goff's caye and tell me you don't long to stretch out on the beach, breath deeply, and live the dream (if only for a couple hours).

Don

I have 3 pairs of Binoculars (small, medium, and large). One our first cruise, I brought the small ones for the portability of them, but found them of limited use. On our second cruise, I brought the medium ones (which could still go on a belt but were a bit bulky). Better, but still kinda longed for the view from the big ones.

On our next cruise in 4 weeks, I will probably not bring any. If we were going to Alaska or the Panama Canal I would bring the good ones, but we try to be extremely careful in not over-packing and for a Caribbean cruise I just don't think they would warrant the space.

I tend to use them on Day 1 as we sail away, but then forget about them most other days. It takes an intentional trip back to the room to get them at other times and I usually don't bother.

Don

Our experience was that we found a card in our room informing us of the free dinning experience and telling us to bring the card with us to dinner when we went, but no time or place was specified. We called the DINE line and they told us - you go ahead and pick the date and location and they will give us the best available time for that evening. Worked out great - exactly the date, place and time we wanted.

Don

Is this sale over already?

The "Sale" tag in red still sits over the excursions tab, but the details box is gone, and when you click on the excursions available, they are back up to the old prices.

Wonder if they didn't count on everyone just cancelling reservations and rebooking - so they put a stop to it to rethink their strategy?

Or maybe its just that the sale ended for our cruise - but we don't sale for another 35 days.

Don

The excursions for our cruise in November also went on sale yesterday.

I had 4 ship excursions booked (have had them booked for months now). On the website, I simply cancelled them and then rebooked them, and the new lower price now shows. Well, I cancelled and rebooked 3 of them. One of them had gone up in price since we first booked and even with the 10% sale, it was not as cheap as our original booking.

We ended up saving over $40 from what we would have paid if we did not cancel and rebook. Took less than 5 minutes and all done on the website.

Don

We bring our snorkel gear with us each cruise. It's bulky, but my wife is a good packer, and we can get it in with our formal wear in our one checked bag.

We can just head to the beaches of our choice without worrying if there is a rental place there or not. sometimes we take tours where gear is provided, but we also head out on our own at some ports.

Last year we also spent a few days pre-cruise down at the Florida Keys and snorkeled in the state park there.

We got my wife's set of snorkel gear at Walmart, but I got mine at Costco. Amazon carries most brands at about the same price.

Don

We had the last inside cabin down your hallway towards the middle of the ship on the Grand (P331 if I recall correctly). There was some sort of mechanical lift or winch or something that did make some noise from time to time right beside us, but it really didn't bother us very much. If the layout is similar, you would be insulated by a few cabins from the direct noise.

Oh I loved being close to the IC. Midnight snacks every night!. I don't sleep well so I would take a book and sit by the IC and grab something decadent anytime I was restless. Often I was the only one in the Atrium except for the staff. I had so many pistachio puddings and fruit tarts!!!!

I would not hesitate to take that location again.

Don

This is more about navigating the Princess website than about the sale, but we are trying to book a 3 for free cruise for next fall. My question is, how do you apply a future cruise deposit instead of the required $100 deposit?

There used to be an option to select an FCD, but I can no longer find that option under the payment part of the booking.

We each have one remaining FCD (purchased last year) so I think we should be able to apply those to secure this new booking but confused on how to do it. Do I have to call Princess to have them do this for us?

Thanks

Don