Scubadoc

I'm confused. We are on the Jan 16 Crown as well and  I just checked the Personalizer on the princess website and princess cays is right there. It does show us one hour earlier in St. Thomas and one hour later arriving in Bonaire  which seems weird to me. Has anyone called princess about this? 

We are on the next cruise as well. We have never been to Princess cays and we absolutely love beach days! I sure hope it’s fixed before the next cruise. But if not will find a good way to spend that money! 😊

Thanx everyone. So helpful. Think we will either change plan or leave earlier. 

 Less than two weeks now to our cruise on the crown!  How much of a buffer do you give yourself when you do a private excursion? Specifically we will be at Laluna resort in Grenada which has an amazing spa and beach.   All aboard shows to be at 1:30 on the Crown  My concern is I don't know how the traffic will be going back in a taxi. I'm thinking about   Leaving the resort at 12:30 to give myself a full hour to get back just in case. Thoughts? 

I would love to add this to our cruise January 16. Is it still true that this only works on cruises after March?

I’ve always wondered why this does not happen more often. Isnt lightning drawn to the highest thing in a region? So you have a big tall metal thing in an ocean!  I’m probably just showing my ignorance of all things scientific and electrically related.  But does anyone know why this is rare? And is there something about a ship that protects people on it from being electrocuted if lightning strikes it? 

 Wow thank you all for such great answers. I'm ready to start packing. We just got our medallions in the mail today which is a little earlier than I expected for a January 16 cruise. So excited!

I will add a few of my own thoughts on things to park that you might tend to forget:

Binoculars-  I forgot them once and was so sad. I love using them as we come in and leave port. 

Water shoes-a lot of beaches where we snorkel have rocks.

 Bug spray 

 A good pair of Bluetooth headphones  to listen to music while I'm relaxing by the pool 

 Selfie stick 

 A couple of small ponchos in case we get caught in a tropical shower on an excursion

 Happy new year everyone!

Amen drjpreston!   Some of these responses are getting on my nerves. Some of you should just be quiet honestly. The OP asked a perfectly reasonable question.  I was curious about the same topic. If you think it's a foolish question or it doesn't interest you just ignore it! When you make sarcastic comments you sound arrogant.  Just stop. 

 We are three weeks away from our cruise! Starting to think about packing. What unusual ideas do any of you have for things to bring?   What is easy to forget? And what do you pack that no one else thinks of? 

We love the spa on a  Cruise but we have had mixed experiences as far as the quality of the treatments. We will be on the crown in January. A couple of questions-I see that they offer  "spa tasters" early in the cruise. Anyone tried this? Is it enough of a "sample" to tell how good the therapist may be? Are you able to try different therapists or is there just one giving the sample?

Anyone been on the crown and have a great therapist to recommend?

thanx!

Our problems last year involved them double charging once and then not giving a promised discount the second time. I may be cynical but my concern is whether they do things like this expecting that people won't check the bill that carefully

Last year we were overcharged twice at the spa. I wasted a lot of time showing them the overcharges. They were pretty defensive until I put the figures in front of their face.  I finally got them to correct it. We will be on the Crown in a few weeks. Hoping this will not be an issue again. If it is I am going to question whether this is intentional. And that would send us to another cruise line. We love the spa and don’t want that frustration every cruise. 

I completely understand OP question and agree snarky comments aren’t needed. I love planning my days on the cruise in advance. I would not only like to know what movies are playing but what nights!  Then I cud plan what nights to do other activities like dancing, shows in the theatre etc. we are so busy we don’t see a lot of movies. We love MUTS and look forward to watching at least 2 or 3 on the cruise. 

We will be in E733 on the Star in July. We love that cabin on the Crown and it looks close to identical on the Star. We will be in the same cabin on the Crown again in January. To me it is one of the best cabins on the ship from all my research. I too read about noise. Never heard a sound.  Quietest cabin we have ever had. I've heard nothing about smoke and certainly never smelled any. The D Aft suites go fast cuz the balcony is deeper. But the E balconies are plenty big. We loved it!

Thank u missAretha!

 We will be off a cruise ship in January and are going to finish our day with a massage at Laluna resort spa. We sure don't want to miss the ship! Is anyone know how much time we should leave to get back to the cruise port by taxi from there? 

Thanx everyone. Very helpful. We have been to Grenada once before but just got a taxi to Laluna resort for the day ( which I recommend!). So I just don't remember much about the port

Sorry that was dumb of me. Port is Grenada

 We are on the January 16 sailing of the crown. We have noticed that the ship is scheduled to arrive at seven. And depart at two. That's not a lot of time in Port and we have a lot  we hope to see on a tour of the island. Has anyone noticed what time is normal to be allowed off the ship on an early port arrival like this?  I need to tell our tour guide when to meet us and I want to do it as early as possible. Do you think it's possible we will actually be able to get off the ship about seven?  We are in a full suite if that makes any difference 

How do they decide which cruises they do it on?  We would be very disappointed if they didn’t have it on the Crown Jan 16

 In the past, if you are in a suite you had to wait till you were on the ship to book the first night specialty dinner. Is that still the case? Or can you book it on the Personalizer before hand? 

 We loved participating in The Voice a year ago on the crown. We will be back on the crown in January and hope to do it again. Anyone done the Voice recently? It looks like they have moved it to the last afternoon instead of the night. Is that correct?

Also does anybody know if they update the list of songs for karaoke and the voice? The only disappointing thing last year was that I don't think there was one song less than 10 years old available to sing in karaoke or the voice.

I see a lot of complaints about the food on cruise ships.  We have done about 20 cruises over the years and I always approach cruise food differently than other dining. Every cruise I have been on has unusual dishes that I would not normally order or maybe even see. That can be kind of fun. We get to try new things.

Also in a normal restaurant  if I don’t like the entrée I normally don’t just get something else. And I certainly don’t order two entrées like I regularly do on a cruise! 😊

 Also I try to do a lot of sampling in the first day or two to find things that are regularly offered that I love. If I eat a meal that is not very good I always know there is something I love waiting for me somewhere else!  

So for instance if I get a bad dessert, I know that I love princess ice cream so I’ll just get that.  if I don’t like anything on the menu, which is rare, I can always get salmon and fettuccine Alfredo which has never let me down.  If I get a bad entrée I’ll just go get some princess pizza because it’s the best at sea. I have found things on Princess  that I like better than almost anything I’ve ever eaten so I can always go back to my main stays. I could hate 2/3 of the food and still eat like a King!  

And crown Grill? Or the specialty Ernesto burger at Gastro pub? Amazing treats. That’s the way I approach cruise eating. 

And if that doesn’t get me in the right frame of mind I just picture some of the things I see people eat in the impoverished I sometimes go to as a part of a nonprofit I lead and I feel like the most blessed person in the world to be on that cruise and eating that food! I can’t wait to start eating on our January cruise. 

Bon appetit! 😀

We will be on our first Medallion cruise in January. I’m trying to decide on whether to get a beverage package. One of the advantages for me is just not having to fool with ordering every one of them and then keeping track of that on our bill. I’ve had more than one occasion where my bill has been wrong and so I check everything.

  So I have two questions:

First does medallion make it easier to order drinks if you do not have a package. Do I still have to sign receipts etc.? Or is it seamless and simple?

Second,  if you order drinks individually do they show the details of what you ordered on your bill? For instance do they say something like “bar purchase“ or something like “chocolate banana mocktail“?  😊

 The details would help me keep track to see if our bill is right but then I also have to take time to do all that. Trying to decide how much the beverage package would actually be worth to me. Thanx!

Dang. I thought I saw someone was able to add the perks for a feb cruise. Maybe I misunderstood.