Fa-Li

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.

In my experience with Caribbean cruising when my daughter was 19 or 20, she was served when she was with me and I was putting the drinks on my cruise card. This was before all the packages so it may be different now. They will not charge a drink to a passenger under 21 - it just doesn’t work with their sea pass. (Unlike on European cruises) You may want to bring on a couple bottles and then each carry a full glass with you into dinner. I guarantee they will not bat an eye at that.

If you are standing in the back of the theater, facing the stage, they were in the left hand section at the first rise, close to the aisle. So not direct middle, but very good sight lines. There were plenty of good seats available without this, we were just standing in the aisle assessing our options when he approached us. I don't know that the seating is particularly an extra value, it was more that we appreciated feeling looked after, if that makes sense.

I'd forgotten to come back and report our experience, which was wonderful. The concierge lounge for suite guests was a fantastic resource on this cruise. Our cabin was on the same deck, so we popped in and out almost every time we left or returned. The fridge was stocked at all times with soft drinks and waters, and there were always little snacks out. And yum, the cookies! Plenty of alcoholic beverages offered during happy hour, and the wonderful staff did offer to get us any particular brands we wanted. We enjoyed getting to know other cruisers, especially as this was a 10 day cruise and many had been on the previous 10 days as well, so everyone was relaxed and looking to chat. But it was never crowded and our group of 4 always had seating options. The concierge, Rafael, and Francisco, his assistant, were amazing. They spend time getting to know each person and figuring out ways to be helpful even outside the lounge. They took care of adjusting invites to 360 and making sure we knew about special events on the ship. Francisco even kept an eye out for us in the theater and invited us to the premiere seats even though we did not have that package. We really felt the lounge added a ton of value to our suite, especially being so close to it.

I am trying to figure out how this works with travel insurance and wondering if anyone has done this: We have an annual policy with good coverage. We have to cancel our Sept river cruise due to a cancer diagnosis. This is a covered reason and I'm expecting no issue with the portion of the claim that covers our loss for the cruise tour. Our airline tickets are another matter. These days, when you "cancel" a flight, it is not just a loss. The airline assures you the value of your ticket is still good for a year from purchase and can be applied to other travel. We are in no position to book other travel. The insurance requires proof of cancellation/loss to confirm the claim. Which we won't be getting because the cancellation email just states we have the travel credit. I suppose it will become a loss in February when the year has run out and we haven't used it, but by then the policy will also have run out. The people I have spoken with on the phone for Allianz have not really had an answer to this, and have just stuck to the script of telling me to file with the online form once I've cancelled the flight. It has been difficult to explain this scenario to someone in a call center not US based. Has anyone successfully gotten around this situation and claimed the ticket as a loss? Or come up with a creative solution? Thanks for any thoughts you can share.

I wonder if he meant something less pushy and more supportive of the team? I didn't really think of the host in club class as the "head waiter" but more as an overall concierge of our experience. He expertly managed the flow of the dining area, made sure the wait staff catered to our every whim, and still managed to cook specialty dishes every night. It was a perfectly orchestrated symphony of service. I can see a scenario in which he humbly declined to be tipped in favor of spreading the love around to his team, who worked so hard. We did tip the whole team on the last night, with the highest amounts going to this concierge and to the head waiter of our table (we had the same set of waiters every night and for the three lunches we enjoyed in club class), and then slightly smaller sums to the constellation of waiters who assisted. We also tipped the greeter/hostess, who somehow made sure our preferred table and wait team was waiting for us no matter what time we showed up. We were a group that required some extra attention, due to allergies and preferences that all conflicted, and we had a truly bespoke experience starting with embarkation lunch and going perfectly through ten nights, so we felt this was well worth tipping.

This reminds me of when the kids were small and we frequently went to WDW with another family. Their son was the master of disappearing, and this was before tracking devices, but after we all had cell phones. The mom wrote her phone number in Sharpie on his tummy 🤣 Got at least one call from Disney security saying they'd found him - or rather he'd found them and showed his belly once he realized we had not all followed on his latest adventure

Did they actually have that Affligem blonde available? That was one of the ones that was on the list but no one could find a few months ago. It's such a good one for day drinking☺️

There were a few decent offerings at some of the bars, but it was extremely hit or miss. Often beers listed on menus weren't actually available. Occasionally, the bar staff was unfamiliar with a beer even if we could see they had it (Chimay red label at salty dog really stumped them for some reason) If Rolly is still working the retreat pool bar/take five bar when you're onboard, seek him out. The retreat pool bar had a pretty good selection and Rolly was great about learning what we liked and making sure it was available.

We always book aft cabins. One of the things we love on Princess is that it is a short run up to the food court and aft pool area without having to walk through the whole ship.

Both these stations have robust apps for phone or tablet - you should be able to stay up to date on the news that is important to you, just with less of the anchor chatter

Great thread! I don't think of this as "odd" but no one else has mentioned it - I bring a bath puff for use with the shower gel. Makes it lather up so much better. I used to bring clips for the curtains until I saw a tip that pants hangers work great for this, and they do!

Following! Have a great trip!

We were pleasantly surprised by how many were in white and gold in March on Enchanted. Our group of 4 all dressed up, mainly because my friend and I wanted an excuse to buy new outfits and we wanted to force our hubbies to buy new shirts lol. It was a lot of fun to pass others also dressed for the night and to compliment each other on "getting the memo." We saw every shade of gold, and found some fun places around the ship to take photos that accented our colors.

Great news! Have a wonderful cruise!

Haha, not until September. Plenty of time. I'm just one of those people who doesn't sit well with open mental windows.

Updating to say that today the status changed to "shipped"! So relieved! So it was exactly 11 weeks to process, to the day.

So appreciative of everyone sharing - it's helping me stay (a little) sane. Sent passport in for renewal on March 13, a few days after our last cruise. Status shows they received it on March 20. It's been "processing" ever since. The processing time advice from state dept is 8-11 weeks if received before March 23, 10-13 weeks after that, plus shipping time. Tomorrow is 11 weeks from when they received it, so obviously that first time window is...out the window. Hoping it shows up or at least changes status in the next two weeks but I actually have a couple more months before I really, truly need it in my hands. It just makes me so nervous to have it out of my control lol! Interestingly, I realized my global entry also needed to be renewed this summer. I figured I'd go ahead and do that while I technically still have the old passport number, then can go online and update when I finally get the new book. The renewal process for GE took about 7 hours from hitting "submit" to being notified there was a new expiry date. Another 8 days and my new card arrived. If only CBP was the agency running passport renewal! Or the databases could at least communicate. Good grief!

Interesting report. Glad to hear about your experience in Grenada because we chose to do a land tour when we were there last month. Sounds like we made the right choice and didn't miss too much snorkeling. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with Woodwind. We've been out with them three times and always had wonderful communication and service, even when I've mixed up my port days. Last month would have been our fourth time, except our ship missed port that day. When I whatsapp'ed them to let them know, they had just heard about it from other passengers. I think it must be word-of-mouth for them when ships change, rather than any official communication.

Bartender that we spent the most time with last month said he had to write it all down and enter into the system at the end of his shift because the technology didn't work well. Also, apparently more than a few people think they are being cute when they put photos of their dog in as their medallion photo. He was like am I supposed to say "Drink for dog!"