billco

It appears that once you get to actually booking a cruise, the refundable deposit required may be much higher than $1.00. For example, bookings on the new Sun Princess still require $800.00 deposits. While most cruises are $1.00 deposits, many are not even though it says so on the cover page.

Here is an itinerary I am considering for a 13 day cruise on the NCL Gem for next August. Venice (Trieste),Italy Venice,Italy Venice (Ravenna),Italy Dubrovnik,Croatia Kotor,Montenegro Corfu,Greece Santorini,Greece Athens (Piraeus),Greece Mykonos,Greece Zakynthos,Greece Catania,Italy Naples,Italy Florence/Pisa (Livorno),Italy Rome (Civitavecchia),Italy

Crooners 7-11 PM

Last Spring, we sailed the Enchanted on the TA followed by the Western Europe. We had lunch at the Salty Dog Gastro Pub several times. The main reason was we are vegetarians and Beyond Burgers was on the menu. For us, it was well worth the $18.00. Unfortunately, on our August cruise it was closed for dining due to a technical issue.

Last night, after too many glasses of wine, I booked the lowest level deluxe balcony on Deck 6 under the lifeboats for $7800. Balcony looks like the one I had on the last Sun Princess. Woke up this morning with OMG what have I done. Think i'll be cancelling this behemoth for sure.

I like this article from 2018 Carnival Corporation's MedallionNet™ to Set Industry Apex for Wi-Fi Bandwidth Capacity at Sea Powered by SES Networks Regal Princess set to eclipse 1.5 gigabits per second stream during special event Staying connected allows guests to share photos and videos, and stream movies, live sporting events and other content onboard Regal Princess and at Princess Cays https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnival-corporations-medallionnet-to-set-industry-apex-for-wi-fi-bandwidth-capacity-at-sea-powered-by-ses-networks-300603933.html Also, a detailed look at coverages on SES website helps to explain https://www.ses.com/our-coverage#/explore/search?type=network&q=United States

Our Cat DG Deluxe Balcony for the February 8 10 day Barcelona to Rome cruise was $7809 including insurance. Quite a bitt more than similar cruises.

I agree. Nothing compared to the attention given the Royal Princess years ago. Nevertheless I went ahead and booked a deluxe balcony midship deck 6 for the Barcelona to Rome cruise in February 2024.

ok. You are old.

I go for Princess Padgett

I agree. More and more the lure of places we want to see has decreased while we find ourselves looking forward to the latest innovations. For us the ship has become the attraction vice the itinerary.

Sure. As long as they are concealed.

Princess now has a callback feature to address the long hold times. It works well, except the people who call back seem to be new employees who only have basic training. My recent experience was in trying to change two 7 day Alaskan cruises into one 14 day cruise (Voyage of the Glaciers R/T Anchorage). First try, I didn't get a callback. Second try, I got a callback within 1/2 hour, but the person didn't understand what I wanted to do. Third try, I got a callback in 5 minutes, but again the person didn't understand and put me on hold. I gave up and tried Live Chat. He understood, but wasn't able to do it. I lost interest, cancelled the 7 day cruises, and booked a 15 day Panama Canal cruise on NCL.

last Spring, we flew from Frankfurt to Toronto following a cruise and stayed at the Embassy Suites in Niagara Falls, CA. The next morning we walked across the Rainbow Bridge to the US side. On walking back to the Canadian side the Customs officer told us our ArriveCan receipt wasn't good any more, but he let us go anyway.

Here is a link to the roll call

I was booked on the following cruise, but needed to cancel. It was cancelled anyway, due to the pandemic. That one would have been at sea during the eclipse. 15 days Cape Horn & Strait of Magellan (with Total Solar Eclipse) Coral Princess Thu, Dec 3, 2020

Maybe it is just a cruise that happens to be in Mazatlan when there is a solar eclipse. Makes a good marketing ploy to call it a solar eclipse cruise. But, Princess calls it a 10-Day Mexican Riviera with Total Solar Eclipse, not a Solar Eclipse cruise. They price it about the same as the other Mexican cruises.

Not everybody on a cruise is on vacation or is content just checking e-mails. I like the same access to the internet on a cruise that I do at home. Princess advertised they could do that. We have also done quite a few TAs. 9 on Princess, 6 on NCL. Never seen internet as bad as the last two. Actually, our best internet experience was a Transpacific on Celebrity from Vancouver to Tokyo several years ago. I was able to stream Netflix just about anytime during that cruise. Again, the problem is Princess is not providing acceptable internet and they aren't being transparent as to why they can't.

We sailed the Regal Princess lats November from Southampton to FLL. Internet was just as bad then.

We did the 14 day TA from FLL to Copenhagen last April. Prior to the cruise they announced it would be bad and gave us $140 pp refundable credit. We stayed on for the 11 day cruise from Copenhagen to Southampton. The internet was still bad, so I complained to the internet manager. We got $109 pp refundable credit. We sailed on the 14 day Enchanted from Southampton to Norway/Iceland in July. I complained again, but this time only got $20/pp refundable credit. Understandable considering how far North we were.They have a video that describes MedallionNet, which tells me they have a problem they aren't willing to divulge, because it works nothing like they describe it. Though i never saw him Commodore Nick Nash did make periodic announcements.

If we had gone through what happened to you I think we would feel the same. Fortunately we were only moderately sick for a few days after departing the cruise ship. A 10 day inconvenience at worst. I guess we are slow learners as we have an Alaskan cruise next month, followed by a Coastal in November, a Panama Canal cruise and Caribbean cruise in January. Hopefully, a little less risk with the newfound natural immunity on top of the vaccinations and booster shots.

Good point. I'll remember to ask next time. On the Enchanted last Spring we had lunch at the Gastropub 3 times. I don't think there were more than 3-4 other tables occupied. I don't think people wanted to spend $18.00 PP for lunch. On last month's cruise the Gastropub was closed for technical reasons.

No. Having a stroke and losing family members was bad enough. In my case eating vegetarian is part of a healthy lifestyle along with exercise, weight control, etc. Here is a good place to start learning. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian

My first inclination is to say I would start gagging until I could throw up. Fortunately, I carry a stomach pump for just those occasions. Actually, for me it is a health choice, based on family history and a belief that animal products, particularly red meat contribute to atherosclerosis - stroke and heart attack. One grandfather died from a stroke in his early 70s, the other from a heart attack in his 60s. My older brother died of a heart attack in his 70s. All heavy meat eaters. Even though I have been a vegetarian for over 15 years, I had a stroke two years ago from a blocked carotid artery. Fortunately I had a good surgeon who cleaned it out and I have been fine ever since. I just turned 81. OTOH, my wife has a strong belief against eating anything that had a mother and also the animal cruelty involved in processing. I do eat seafood, she is much more stringent. If we found out we ate something not vegetarian, we would learn from it and move on.

Sorry, but Regal doesn't have them.