Mrs.Gosse

I was living in the Stuttgart area with my parents when I met my future husband. He was in the Army stationed at Dachau outside of Munich. After we married to spent two more tours in Germany in the Hanau area which is near Frankfurt. Loved every minute!

My parents moved from Schwabach right before I was born then were stationed again when I was 9. I grew up in Mannheim, near Heidelberg, from 5th grade till college and then came back home a few times after graduation. I used to date a guy from Hanau ;) I feel the food is very authentic. Much better then most stateside German restaurants . Except in Helen, Georgia...the food is great there.

We are sailing on Coral Princess in March. My husband and I lived in Germany for 8 years and love the food. Does Coral Princess have the Café Caribe? Would love to enjoy some good German food.

You will be able to enjoy a german night in the buffet on the Coral unless for some reason they changed something. We were in the coral this week last year and the Bavarian night was excellent! Where did you live?

Sent from my SM-N910P using Forums mobile app

Great question! I am dairy-free now and have two partial coffee cards that I will be using that I will be using this fall. I didn't read page two's responses but in the casino if I ordered a coffee they would check my card and give it to me free. Otherwise they would have charged me for it. The casino is supposedly one of the places where they brew the coffee and it isn't the concentrate.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Forums mobile app

On some of our cruises it has been in the patter, and some of it and has not. Sometimes we see it posted somewhere on the ship sometimes we do not. I'm pretty certain they have a set schedule on what they're making for every single cruise so you could just ask your first day on the ship which day it is if it does not appear to be showing up in your patter. I love Bavarian night! The food is very authentic and delicious. They quite often have Specialties that aren't common in German restaurants in America. It appears that most executive chefs on the ship are Germans so they do a great job at it. The Indian night is really good too, especially if you're a vegetarian in the group.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Forums mobile app

When I saw the map of us going in circles i was floored !!!

We were one that had a really bad experience because of the flooding in our room. That wouldn't have even really been an issue if they've come to take care of it on day one. But we had to ask, I believe it was eight times to get it fixed. And our hallway reeked of mildew and was completely flooded. Water would squish up around your shoes when you stepped on it. And then we were dragging that mold into our room. My husband has asthma and that was not good for him at all. A lot of people gave us a lot of flack on those live postings saying you should have made the best of it, like we did. They didn't have a flooded hallway.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Forums mobile app

I say in my post in now thinking of just doing a 7 to 10 day cruise. I KNOW I'm limited for transatlantic.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Forums mobile app

Flown to Europe a lot? You can help!

So here is the deal. DH and I decided to go to Europe in 2019 before he gets too old to enjoy it (only 50 but has knee issues from desert storm).

We always get a suite (princess only), and for him that is NOT negotiable. He also hates to fly and has issues with it because of his knee. SO he wanted to do one way to Europe then do a transatlantic home. Well trying to do some research this week after our large purchase of land and sea Alaska this Sept, and possibly a cruise with friends in spring of 2018 (all in a suite mind you) I don't feel comfortable with the cost. So now I am thinking we need to just roundtrip flight a 7 or 10 day cruise. He seems (sorta) ok with it. Here is the question:

Cheapest time of year to take a flight to Europe?

Opinions on best European cruise?

Cheapest European airport destinations?

I grew up in Europe but never went to the British Isles, DH has never been but would really like to go to Scotland. I think he would enjoy Italy but I have been there so much I'm not enthused about it. I welcome opinions, especially from those who can compare multiple.

I have looked at 2 different weeks in April to London and they were several hundred different so I thought I would just see if some experienced Europe travelers could give me a rough estimate. I haven't been in ages and don't remember the high periods.

Thanks!!!!

You might want to ask this in the Cruise Air forum.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=128

I'll take it over there too , just looking for Princess specific reviews and itineraries

Flown to Europe a lot? You can help!

So here is the deal. DH and I decided to go to Europe in 2019 before he gets too old to enjoy it (only 50 but has knee issues from desert storm).

We always get a suite, and for him that is NOT negotiable. He also hates to fly and has issues with it because of his knee. SO he wanted to do one way to Europe then do a transatlantic home. Well trying to do some research this week after our large purchase of land and sea Alaska this Sept, and possibly a cruise with friends in spring of 2018 (all in a suite mind you) I don't feel comfortable with the cost. So now I am thinking we need to just roundtrip flight a 7 or 10 day cruise. He seems (sorta) ok with it. Here is the question:

Cheapest time of year to take a flight to Europe?

Opinions on best European cruise?

Cheapest European airport destinations?

I grew up in Europe but never went to the British Isles, DH has never been but would really like to go to Scotland. I think he would enjoy Italy but I have been there so much I'm not enthused about it. I welcome opinions, especially from those who can compare multiple.

I have looked at 2 different weeks in April to London and they were several hundred different so I thought I would just see if some experienced Europe travelers could give me a rough estimate. I haven't been in ages and don't remember the high periods.

Thanks!!!!

Thanks for posting your review as interested to hear the condition of the Coral, since it's been almost a year now since the dry dock.

I was surprised to hear that too since we were on her first voyage after last years dry dock. We had a HECK of a time with post dry dock issues but she did not seem run down.

Thank you guys. I am in good shape but my husband has a bad knee, and weight and asthma issues but feels like he can do it. I do not. I will probably do it on my own. We used to hike when he is younger, (he will be 50 when we sail) but it has been a while since he has been on a hike.

Have you tried the coffee shop in ketchikan, is it strong good coffee, yes, I can't live w/o my starbucks, I go almost everyday. There is one in ketchikan called "Tully", I believe, I've been there before, but that was before I started drinking starbucks.

I looked on YELP and there are several coffee shops in Ketchikan, some right in the front \. Sweet Mermaids was one, it had ok reviews. But there were several shops. I suggest asking someone when you get there that lives and works there and be clear on the fact that you like strong coffee. I am sure they will have recommendations. And you should be fine, there were several. Thanks for the post, I will be trying some myself.

Here is a list of all Starbucks in AK

 

http://starbuckslocations.net/United-States/Alaska/

 

Remember as I tell my students Google is your friend.:)

True about google but there is nothing wrong with a little social interaction to get your answer either.

In Ketchikan the starbucks is in the grocery store but it is not walking distance. There is a private coffee shop in Skagway. You won't miss it. Skagway is super tiny, but adorable. THey had great popcorn there too. Lots of flavors. I am sure there is some good ones in Juneau, try Yelp. I'm going to try and remember to look it up too. Good question. I'm a starbucks junkie to . :)

I'll be anxious to hear about this as well as I will be doing this myself on 6/30.

Did you end up taking this hike? I want to do it but I'm not sure my husband can and I am looking for some real reviews.

Hi friends, I just got on yesterday to looks at excursions for our land portion of our Alaska land and sea in Sept 2017 and some of them are already sold out!!! Is this normal and they are just all done, or is it possible more will open before then? All the ones we wanted are already booked! That almost makes me want to cancel the land portion.

I have no problem with the increase as the employees on the ship work extremely hard and I feel like they deserve a good wage. But.. But... It seems like the increases have been rapid fire over the last few years and I'm concerned that in 10 years are we going to be looking at $25 a day per person and gratuities? And I know that this is my own personal problem but we stay in Suites only. Now because of Club class all of the Suite fares have gone up. Soon as we are not treating ourself to a suite but that has become the standard that we cruise by we are already paying a lot more then we would have and I feel like increasing our gratuities isn't 100 hundred percent Fair.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Forums mobile app

My steward always questions me when he sees me heading to the laundry mat. Lol. I'm always so worried about clothes shrinking. We send clothes to be pressed only. They come back on hangers.

I would tip with whatever currency would give you the easiest conversion to the amount you wanted it. I'm assuming you are American so if tipping in pounds or Euros would make you tip a little more than you're comfortable with by using only bill or coin then use dollars. For drinks we usually only tip $1 for a drink to our bartender, assuming the service was good. So if the Euro or pound conversion to the easiest Bill we are going to use was $1.48, I might consider using dollars. Have a great time on the emerald! She is a really large ship and there's always something to do! She's a lot of fun.

My husband had initially booked the similar route on HAL for us. I called HAL with an unrelated question and the rep said "oh, do you know how long the bus ride is?" She recommended a different land portion that puts on a bus only about 3 hours from Fairbanks to Denali with the train from Denali to port.

Intersting! Thanks for your input. I'm worried about losing money by changing the itinerary now because now that princess is doing Club class dining, the Suites have gone up.

One of the problems w CruiseTours is that people book them w/o really understanding the details of exactly what they are booking. The cruise companies are very good at hiding details until it is too late. I am not sure what your options are at this point but if you have a really good TA, they may be able to help you. If you have booked with Princess, you can have them transfer the booking to the TA of your choice. If you have booked w a TA, they will probably not be willing to transfer the booking to another TA unless you pay a penalty.

 

 

DON

I book directly through princess. I did lots and lots of research. I even asked the princess representative when I booked this how many hours at a time we will be on a bus. She told me no more than 4. I also you had no way to find out that tundratour spent half the day on the bus. All of these details were just added to my cruise personalizer recently. I booked it 3 months ago and these details were just added now.

Yes we are two nights and Denali. It didn't offer us the train. Is that something that I can ask princess about? And noticed that the map shows a train link from Denali to Whittier but we were automatically placed on a Motorcoach transfer. I've spent a lot of time on a motor coach over my life and I can handle it, as long as I know there is a bathroom. If I have to wait for a stop my bladder will go into panic mode LOL. That is 50% of my concern the other 50% is my husband with his bad knee needing to stretch. The train would solve that. But also I hate that we are losing an entire day in Alaska on a bus. I completely understand that Alaska is a great mass of land and it takes that long but it is very disheartening. I tried to look tonight at other itineraries but I just did not have the time.

We were never interested in Caribbean but now we have done two Caribbean and one Alaska. One more Alaska on the way. I actually preferred the weather of the Alaska because people were a little more reserved. Even if it was a little cold to watch MUTS,I liked that Cool Breeze. Granted I go at the end of the season so in September it's not as cold as it could be.

Okay I just talked to DH. We will be on princess. Can anyone tell me if we will be on a motor coach with a bathroom? Can anyone confirm that it will make stops like HAL? He is not liking the sound of this and even considering changing our itinerary.

I think I agree Tony. I adore see days. I really do but if I'm going to have that many I think I'd rather do transatlantic. That itinerary really needs to stop in San Francisco and Seattle. It could do San Francisco on the way up in Seattle on the way back. Or hey why not even go down to Ensenada for one day and then back up to LA.. LOL Mexico and Alaska on the same cruise! That would be a really cool thing to Market.