LibrarianMonroe

Honestly, I fill out the request every cruise, and then need to tell my room steward I need it anyway.  

We quite enjoyed the Connoisseur tour when we did it.  Meant we didn't need to worry or arrange anything, it was all done for u s.

19 minutes ago, Teechur said:

I agree. I have always enjoyed reading but it's tough getting the younger generation to read anything. They are always on their phones watching Tik Toks and other short-attention-span "crack".

I'm a librarian, and I figure I'll just post this here in response.

https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/gen-z-and-millennials-visit-libraries-at-higher-rates-than-older-generations-199820869874

Insides adjacent to the art gallery are how my wife and I started cruising.  We loved them.  Didn't find them noisy at all.  (We've moved up to minisuites because we like the shower/tub better, but that's not relevant to this discussion.)

Someone said that everyone eating these was kids and very large adults.  I suppose that's true, but this very large adult wouldn't eat one.  Ugh.

The roaches thing gives me pause, too, but we were on her in March and didn't have any problems, really.  We've sailed her 4 times over the years and never had the problems other people have had.  Is she older?  She is.  But we aren't sailing for how shiny and new she does or doesn't look.

9 hours ago, reedprincess said:

I I have to wonder where people eat when they say food is so much more expensive in Alaska! 

My friends who live in Alaska say the same thing, so... home?  🙂

On the connoisseur tour, literally everything is handled for you.  meals, tours, etc.  Its the "set it and forget it" option of the tours.  My wife and I did that so we wouldn't have to make any more decisions.  If that appeals to you, its worth it.  If you think you might want atypical tours and/or try to save money eating (good luck with that) then other tours may be worth your while.

I had the Burrata Caprese, which was very good.  It had a VERY large amount of cheese, but if you like cheese, that's not a problem!

For the pasta I had the carbonara, which was fine.  Nothing to write home about.

For the main course I had the ossobuco, which was also huge.  I've never had ossobuco before (I had it on the recommendation of the waiter) and I enjoyed it, but I can't compare it to ossobuco anywhere else.

What features of the Sky did you particularly like?  There are definitely things on the Sky that aren't on Caribbean, such as Alfredos.  All in All, Caribbean is a nice, older ship (she's the ship I've been on the most, but that's coincidence more than anything else).

We've cruised Alaska twice, once in an inside, and once in a balcony.  The trip on the inside was fine, and I don't regret taking it.  That said, I'm not sure I would have been outside when scenic cruising on our second (balcony) one when the most amazing rainbow appeared,  and we were able to watch it a long time sitting on our balcony.  We may or may not have seen it, or had seats to comfortably watch it, if we had an inside.

Need a balcony?  No.  But I recommend it.

They may honor it, but they've also been known to contact the person and say "This was an error, and we aren't honoring it."  It may depend on how much they'd lose by honoring it, I dunno.

I'm a librarian and deal with Libby quite a lot, but don't know the answer to this question.  It doesn't help you at sea, but I'd ask your library system to investigate it once you are home.

Overdrive's answer on their website is less than useful - basically, that it should work overseas unless the country in question blocks Overdrive.

My wife and I have stayed in the interior cabins near the art gallery and never been bothered by the noise.  Obviously others have been, but I wouldn't discount those interiors completely.  We like them.

3 minutes ago, richsea said:

I checked out YouTube videos of balcony rooms, & their bathrooms are about as small as ours on our first cruise on Celebrity Meridian which was built in the 60s. Talk about tiny! And now I see I was wrong about Princess being the only line without a loveseat, but at least they do have a small chair. I was also surprised that Virgin balconies are as small as Princess Royal class. The hammock doesn’t entice me. Looking forward to hearing about the on board experience.

The bathrooms are tiny enough they have a class of balcony rooms that are noted for their larger bathrooms!  I think its Balcony XL or something like that.  (Its what we sailed in.)

The Virgin app was still a little persnickity last October when we cruised Virgin.  Glad to hear they improved it...  enjoy your cruise!

On our last cruise (June of this year) for some reason it wouldn't acknowledge that we had watched it in the room (as we unpacked) so we put it on our phones and that worked.  Not sure why that happened, but something to watch out for.

3 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Virgin is keeping numbers low. I honestly don't think I've seen a service related complaint about Virgin posted anywhere. Maybe @Thrak will find a few, and share them here.

The *only* complaint I have about Virgin after our cruise on the line is that some of their venues have odd hours, but that's okay, as long as you pay attention schedules.  And its a minor quibble at best.

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

I don’t believe room service is open that early.  Turn around day is very hectic for the crew so not sure you would get your snacks on time for sail away.   It might open up around dinner time.  
If you cannot order through the app, you can always snag some snacks up at the buffet or the pool deck and take them back to your cabin.  

I ordered chips and guacamole right before sailaway on a recent Alaska cruise, and it came to me just as sailaway started.

On 8/19/2022 at 4:24 PM, rheathslc said:

I still have mine too. The local libraries gave them out for free. 🙂 But will want to get new ones. Hopefully some that have the specific ecplise info on them like the last ones. Seems a bit silly maybe but they are a fun memento.

Speaking as a librarian who is pretty much directly under totality, local libraries will be giving them out for the 2024 eclipse, too.

Every time I had problems with the App it was because the App needed an update.  Not saying that's the problem  here, but it wouldn't hurt to check if it needs an  update.

We got an upgrade from a Lido inside to an Aloha inside.  I submitted a request through chat to have it changed back.

12 hours ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

I have a good one!!!!

We we’re on Ruby 3/8-3/27! All I can say as a first time Princess Cruiser but not from cruising and last on Princess. ( Long story)  Our lines are Oceania and HAL.  We were on an elevator 4 people all masked, and  door opens and 2 really heavy people tried to get on without masks and the elevator door kept beeping because the weight was too much!LOL. They were embarrassed and quickly got off! First time I ever saw that on any cruise elevator!

Denise

That's interesting, I would think something is wrong with that elevator?  I'm a very heavy person and my wife is heavy too (though not very heavy, like me) and we've never seen the weight alarms go off, even when an elevator was stuffed to the gills.

We're thinking of taking a cruise aboard the Caribbean Princess, a 10 day partial transit of the Panama Canal.  Normally, we'd book a balcony high up on the forward of the Lido (Deck 15), but we were also considering a mini-suite, which is down on Deck 9.  Is there any advantage to being lower on a Panama Canal cruise?  This would be through the new locks, if it makes a difference.

Also, when we went a few years ago, they had trouble recognizing the new designs of bills.