Fa-Li

We sail Princess and Royal Caribbean. The plus or premier package on Princess is such a better value than any package on Royal that for us it's a no-brainer. $80 a day for drinks, photos, desserts, specialty meals, etc with Princess Premier, compared to $75-80 a day just for drinks package, $170 for a ten photo package, $154 for a 3 night dining package on Royal. I would much rather pay the one all-inclusive and just enjoy my holiday. I agree with Drew B 58, without the package we don't tend to indulge as much. Our upcoming cruise on Royal will be our first as Diamond, so we get 4 free drinks a day. That with our suite lounge drinks is enough to make the drink package a no-go for us, and we aren't willing to buy the other packages, having been spoiled by Princess. It will be interesting to see if we feel like this cruise is "less than" compared to our last one on Princess with a Plus package. (And I'm glad our next cruise after this one is back on Princess!)

Have a great cruise! Thanks for doing all the research!

It was served up in my Apple News feed this morning too. I did not recognize it as satire, it was just so ugly and negative. I suppose the repeated references to David Foster Wallace should have tipped me off, but this author was no DFW. It was just so mean spirited, in so many ways.

Safe travels and have a great cruise!

They aren't that heavy. The two clips just hold it in place and the curtains stay closed.

You can always use a pants hanger from the closet to clip the curtains closed

Thank you for doing this live. I remember following your other trip when your DH fell and I’m so glad he’s doing well and you are enjoying cruising again! We will be on Anthem for the first time in May so I’m excited to follow along as you explore her.

Wondering if anyone has used CitySpareSpace at Maynards in Southampton to store luggage for a day? Or had good experiences with some other place? We will be getting off our cruise on a Sunday morning and eventually will take a train on to Bath. But first we are meeting friends for lunch in Southampton, so will need to leave our bags somewhere for the morning through early afternoon. Any input would be helpful!

Thank you for all this info and for time you are taking from your cruise to share it! It's interesting to me, having always sailed in a suite but never been interested in the Sanctuary. I feel like there are so many nice places on Princess ships to soak up the sun, which is my main enjoyment. But I am excited to try that aft sun deck. FWIW, I've sailed on a Royal Caribbean ship with a suite sun deck and, even with lots of suite passengers, there was never a problem finding two loungers. Apparently a lot of passengers want other things out of their sea days.

Awesome, thank you! We very much are breakfast people and that's part of why we book the suites. I had not realized Sabatini's was still there because I was only looking at the deck plans in the app. Now that you've told me, I thought to look in the restaurant list and there it is.

Thanks for your review. We were on Enchanted the same time last year, and are booked for it next year. (did land tour this Feb) I might have missed your mention of it, but did you eat the suite breakfast? I see that Catch has replaced Sabatini's so I'm wondering where suite guests get their private breakfast served these days. Thanks!

This was our experience cruising with our daughter before she turned 21. Always was served at dinner, they just charged to my sea pass. I never had to ask, this was just sort of glossed over by our servers. Also was always served in the suite lounge.

Thank you for offering to do this! I'm interested in how the signature experience compares to the general suite experience on other princess ships. For example, wondering how the signature restaurant will "feel" compared to the quiet privacy of breakfast in Sabatini's (where we rarely are seated within 5 tables of anyone else) or the clubby vibe of the reserve dining area on Enchanted. Also wondering all the same things as everyone else about how the sanctuary/suite sun deck operate. And wondering if the location and amenities of the sun deck make up for lack of suites with large aft balconies. Finally, will be looking forward to hearing how you utilize the concierge club. Does it feel friendly and like a good place to hang out? Are the happy hours fun? Is it more crowded with such easy access on the suite decks? Looking forward to hearing all your thoughts!

Have a great time! Looking forward to following along.

Good information! I wanted to add that in several places in Argentina, especially in the southern part of the country, they wanted the US Dollars to be in pristine condition. No rips, no writing on them, and as crisp as possible. I had a shoddy looking ten dollar bill that a vendor said he couldn't take. I switched to a crisp one and he was much happier. If I had known this before we went, I would have made sure I got new bills from my bank at home.

Hi, yes, we were also a group of 4 We paid $70 per person Kamal was in a small sport SUV, can't remember exact model but one of us sat in front and three of us in back. It was very comfortable and could easily get around the island.

We were ultimately joining a tour with Tauck, so they arranged a greeter and driver for us. They were with a company called Southbound Travel, the phone number given to us was +56 9 9639 1191 The company Esteban suggested if we had not had something prebooked was called Transvip and they have a counter just after baggage control. If we had asked ahead of time, he would have simply booked someone for us I believe. The main advice from all sides was do not go with any of the "pirate" drivers who will accost you and try to take control of your bags. Our hotel was the Singular Santiago and it was lovely. Very comfortable and quiet room, great bathroom. The staff was overwhelmingly wonderful. Good restaurant onsite (we only ate breakfast there) and nice little rooftop bar. Very easy to walk from there to many sights, including the central Plaza in one direction and Pablo Neruda's house in the other. Just around the corner was a pedestrian area with many, many wonderful restaurants and a colorful street scene.

We were in Santiago for a few days before a land tour, and I spent time on these boards to get some ideas, so I wanted to come back and recommend the company/guide we used in case that helps anyone else. I know a lot of cruisers end up looking for a guide pre/post cruising out of the nearby port. I booked with Privatetours.cl https://www.privatetours.cl/index.html The little form on the contact page of their website seemed to have a glitch, so I just emailed directly info@privatetours.cl and got an answer within hours. Esteban is the contact person and he was wonderful. Their website has a bunch of tour suggestions, many of which suited our purposes (we wanted one day of city tour and one day of wineries, there are many other options too). When I asked about the ones that appealed, he was quick to ask about particular preferences - favorite wine, how we felt about funiculars, etc - and then suggested a personalized itinerary that was ideal. Pricing was very reasonable and paid through a link online to confirm booking. For just two of us, two full days with guide and driver and all admissions, it was about $900 The day before our first tour, Esteban reached out to confirm again and to offer tips for safe navigation through the airport and to see if we had already arranged transportation. We had, but if needed he had people who could help. The first morning, when we came down to meet our guide in our hotel lobby, she was already there about 15 minutes early, which was so nice to not have to worry. Jeanette was our guide and it turned out she had worked in guest services on Royal Caribbean cruise ships for many years - an immediate bond! We had a driver and a super clean Mercedes van to take us around, so we had Jeanette's full attention the whole time. Cold water was available, and the cooler was nice to have when we had leftovers from lunch and when we bought chocolate that we didn't want to melt. All through the first day, out in wine country, Jeanette got to really know us so that she added stops that we would enjoy that day and tweaked the plan for the next day in the city to be perfectly suited to our tastes. It was awesome. The tours at the wineries were conducted by their guides, and we had been booked into the highest level of each of them. This meant a private tour at Santa Rita, where Jeanette stayed with us, and a small group second tasting with a sommelier at Concha y Toro, where she waited for us. We would not have known to book those particulars and they really added value. Jeanette was a wealth of information and we learned so much. She is also available to book on her own, though I don't know how that would work as far as driver/van set up. If anyone wants her email I can share it. I am happy to answer questions about the exact things we did/saw/ate, but I figure most of us are just looking for a place to start and a reliable company to work with so I'm not putting all those details in this first post. If you have time to spend in Santiago and its surrounding area, lucky you! We loved it!

Just to follow up (a year later lol) since this thread is getting new attention: We did use the service last Feb from Enchanted Princess in FLL and it worked great. We were in a suite so asked the concierge about the forms a few days before the end of the cruise and he delivered them to our room and then asked us to turn them back in to him personally. I had airtags in our bags and could see that they stayed at the dock for a couple of hours, then could see them move to the airport. We had an afternoon flight, but went ahead to the airport. Since we were not checking bags upon arrival, we were able to go straight through security - normally at this airport we've had to wait to enter until 2 or 3 hours before our flight. Most of the day, we could see that our bags were literally sitting directly below us as we sat at the gate. And they did indeed arrive back at our home airport that evening. All good!

We were called a couple of weeks out and told a day and time. When we got onboard, we asked the suite concierge to look into changing this so we could go at the same time as our friends (also in a suite). He was able to do this with no issue. Of course, this was before it was available for booking for a fee. It may be harder to shift others around now.

Enchanted Princess is a great ship. I haven't been on Wonder but have been on Harmony. There were pluses to both, and the experience was similar in a lot of ways. Enchanted won on: The entertainment, which was amazing - really high level production shows. The "vibe" there were not a lot of kids onboard, which for us traveling as a couple, was really nice. It was less party-like in general, which may be a negative for some. Harmony won on: drinks, better wine, more "fun" cocktails. The piano bar - way more lively crowd and more fun. Bartenders who got to know us and were fun. Both good but different, and depends on what you like to do - more places to dance nightly on Harmony than on Enchanted, but a reliable dance band in the piazza, and many couples dancing every night. A factor that may tip your hand if you are willing to splurge: Enchanted has 360, which we experienced for free as we were in a suite but is now becoming available to book at $149 pp. This was hands-down the most amazing dining experience we've ever had on a ship and we would absolutely pay $300 to do it again.

We adored our aft penthouse on Enchanted so much that we've booked it again. Such a fabulous experience. As to dining, keep in mind you will be in Reserve not MDR. So you may not need to pay for much specialty. The Reserve dining experience was excellent and the breakfast in Sabatini's is one of the best perks of suite bookings. Also be sure to pop up to the concierge lounge for snacks all day and drinks during happy hour. The staff there is excellent and will do anything to make your cruise a good one. If you find you are still wondering about anything when you board, just go ask the concierge and you will be given info and advice. You should get a call before your cruise about 360 (it's a California number so watch for it) but if you need to change the date/time or you haven't heard anything, the concierge can help with this as well.

The past two cruises, when I did the mock booking to assess what a reasonable bid was, I realized that I could simply upgrade directly for less than I was being asked to bid. I imagine this will go the way of the dodo as cruises are every more fully booked, but it's worth checking.

Thanks, Terry! This is exactly the kind of article I’ve been looking for!

Not directly from a cruise ship to Cusco, but have gotten off a plane and onto a tour bus there. The bus had small oxygen tanks for if anyone in our group was having an issue. Not to keep with you, but to take a few hits so to speak. My favorite tip for high altitude touring is to bring some BC powders. Dissolve in your water bottle and you’ve got a perfect preventative - hydration plus aspirin to thin blood plus caffeine to vasodilate. Of course, you say “geezer” so check with your doctor to make sure this is ok for you.