HRHMadonna

On 3/14/2024 at 4:08 PM, hmorrow said:

Was there a LOT of walking?

I would say only a moderate amount of walking--most of it was on sidewalks and level ground--nothing I would consider strenuous.  Most of my group members were in the 65-80 year old range and did not find it difficult. Dora's bus would usually drop us off near the attractions and park and then come back for us.  Her assistant and the bus driver were very attentive and assisted us when stepping down from the bus. The assistant also stayed near the back of the pack and made sure everyone stayed with the group. 

I imagine everyone has a different opinion on what would be considered "a lot of walking"--but we found it to be a comfortable pace and no complaints about the amount of walking. 

Our group of 17 ladies had a lovely tour of Old Town and highlights of lovely Cartagena with Dora as our guide. Dora was prompt, thorough and professional in all of our communications prior to the trip. She provided complete instructions with a map for meeting in the port area and took great care to see that everyone was safe and enjoyed the tour. The bus was new, comfortable and air conditioned. Her driver and assistant were attentive to our group and helped everyone off and on the bus and helped keep aggressive vendors at bay. Dora's love for her country and culture come through in her narrative and she was most interesting and informative. The tour was a very pleasant mix of walking and riding on the bus with water provided, frequent rest stops and brief opportunities for shopping. We had a most enjoyable day in Cartagena and enjoyed dancing in the square to live music at our last stop for the day! We highly recommend Dora's tour!

Our group of 9 ladies had a fabulous, entertaining, educational and fun-filled day with Larry as our awesome guide and Giovanni as our awesome bus driver! All correspondence with Federico was quick, complete and professional. He was patient with all my questions and provided precise instructions with a map for meeting in the port area. The well organized tour featured the highlights of the the Limon area and included a lovely visit to a fruit stand where we were given free samples and had the opportunity to purchase local produce, food, drinks, and coffee to take home for souvenirs. We also walked through a lovely banana plantation, saw monkeys, sloths and a wide variety of birds on the Tortuguero Canal. Our boat driver and Larry were great at spotting wildlife and maneuvered the boat so that all could have a good view and take photos. We also enjoyed a stop at Playa Bonita where we enjoyed mojitos, margaritas and local beers. Some took a brief swim but most just walked along the lovely beach. We had frequent rest stops and several opportunities for brief souvenir shopping. It was a perfect day in lovely Limon thanks to our Guide Larry who made sure everyone was safe and had a good time. Larry was everything we like to see in a guide: informative, entertaining, attentive and well organized. And as an added bonus he was funny and he could sing! If you are wondering what you should do while in Limon, now you know! Relax Day Tours!

Thanks to all for the info and links!  Cruise Critic folks are the BEST!

If anyone is currently on the Ruby or has photos of balconies (especially on Caribe deck) I would appreciate any information you could share.

My group has been cruising with Princess for 20 plus years, and although we love the newer ships, we really miss the larger balconies on the older ships. We always have the steward open the connecting balcony doors and enjoy having a "balcony row". The newer balconies are so narrow, it is difficult to move from one to the next so we are thinking of booking the Ruby, one of the older ships for next year.

I am having a difficult time locating specific info on balcony sizes for the Ruby Caribe deck.  One Princess deck plan stated size as 45-90 sq ft --That's quite a large range!  I also checked the template for ship staterooms compiled here on CC, but while it has a lot of useful info, so many people described their Ruby balconies as adequate, normal or standard so that information wasn't very helpful.

TIA for your help.

I've been on hold for 57 minutes listening to the same bad music!  Tried to "Get Ocean Ready" But I keep getting an error message that states "Unable to get all details."  My personal info was entered months ago and shows "complete".  

Clearly Princess Medallion is not yet Ocean Ready!

Any suggestions welcome...I am ready to bail on this darn app!

Cruise departs Jan 18.

Thanks Astro Flyer!  I found it, but will probably ask again this time next year!

Found it!  Thank you geoherb for such a quick reply.

Could someone please refresh my memory?  Where on the Princess web site will I find my Shareholder OBC, Loyalty OBC, and OBC offer that came with original booking. The only OBC I can find is $50 for the FCC.

Thanks!

On 2/4/2019 at 5:37 AM, Expat Cruise said:

Well I have  never had any dealings with the Australia booking site. But I knowon the US Site we got 1 cabin free (plus port fees, tips) out of every eight.  Second 8 days is not a short cruise, the industry average is less than 8 days. (7 days median)  The facts are the facts your TA are making a lot of money hear and becasue they can take advantage of you they have. Good luck making this work, it seems you are way over your head here.   Maybe you should step back and  rethink this.  

I would love to know what cruise agencies are offering one free cabin for every 8 cabins booked.  I have organized 19 group cruises over the past 19 years:  2 were with Celebrity, 3 were with Royal Caribbean and 14 were with Princess.  All three cruise lines provided one free berth (minus taxes & port charges) for every 8 cabins booked.  I'd love to find the deal you're getting on free cabins.

Thanks Paul929207...we'll be sure to inquire about fire walls.

Thanks!

Can anyone tell me if the aft balcony doors on the Royal Princess can be opened so that you can share your balcony space with an adjacent cabin. When cruising with friends we normally book standard balconies and have the room steward open the doors so we can have breakfast and cocktail hour on the balcony with our friends.  We are considering moving up to deluxe balconies on the aft of the ship...But only if the balcony doors can be opened.

Thank you!

HRH Madonna

One of our favorite shore excursions on the Mexican Riviera was with Juan Bernardo Pena. We call hm “The Juan and Only”, but he actually goes by the name Berny. We found him to be so charming, entertaining and knowledgeable that we have toured with him 3 different times over the past 10 years. We had a great time every time, felt totally safe and highly recommend his services. He is really charming and you can meet him and learn more about his company on his web site is http://www.mytoursvallarta.com

He offers several tours including a Canopy Tour and he will customize a tour to meet your specific needs and interests. We usually do his basic City & Tropical Tour which includes visits to Malecon downtown, a drive through the residential area, numerous scenic stops for photos, tequila tasting, shopping stops and a delightful lunch at a Mexican restaurant situated just above the river cascades in the rain forest. The tour lasted about 5 hours and cost about $25-30 pp.

He is really charming and his email is: juan_onlyjr@hotmail.com

Bon Voyage!

Madonna

PS *Oh & he is so, so very charming...Or did I say that already? ;)

Be sure to tell him the "Princesses recommended him".

Does it show up as applied to your cruise? Or is it not applied to any cruise?

On Princess web site, it shows the referral reward has been applied to my next cruise, but it is not shown on the invoice our TA emailed me....Guess I'll give her a call.

This, plus if you sail with your friends, you get it on the same cruise as your friends. Otherwise, you get $25 pp off on your next cruise. It is pretty easy.

My $25 referral reward shows up on MY Princess online, but is not shown on the TA's invoice for my next cruise. Shouldn't it be deducted from my total on the invoice? Thanks for clarifying.

Can someone tell me if the dividers between balconies on the Regal Princess can be opened or removed so that we can move from one balcony to another to visit friends....We have several cabins in a row. Thanks for your help!

While some cards may provide more comprehensive coverage...The reality is that many cards are somewhat limited in what they actually pay for....Just be sure to read the fine print. See info in link below:

http://blog.credit.com/2011/10/guide-to-travel-insurance-medical-evacuation-coverage/

LindaO & Truffles....thank you both for answering my question about signing up for price drop info here on CC. Appreciate your help so much!

But I do watch the prices every day... more than once a day to see if the prices are going up and down. Also signed up for the Cruise Critic price watch deal... just to see how that goes. IF you can... Email your TA... so they can work on it while you are at work. Good luck!!! But a GS is WONDERFUL!!!

LindaO: Would you elaborate on what you mean by "signed up for Cruise Critic price watch deal"? I usually just monitor prices myself and check "Roll Calls" for price drops....It sounds like you are talking about something new...or at least it's new to me. thanks for your help. Madonna

Thanks to all who recommended Patsy (Patricia) Little for our shore excursion in Tennerife. She was every bit as good as advertised!

She was always prompt and thorough in her pre-cruise emails and our half-day tour with her was absolutely lovely. Our only regret was that we were limited to a half-day tour because our cruise ship didn't dock until noon.

Our group of 13 traveled to the UNESCO site at La Laguna where we visited the local market and then had a most enjoyable walking tour of La Laguna - easy walking, level sidewalks. We continued on to the north coast for a scenic drive and then drove through the picturesque wine country with one stop for wine tasting and wine shopping...Note: If your cruise ship allows it, be sure to take some wine back with you.

Patsy is from Connecticut and has excellent "American English"...She truly loves her adopted home and seems to thoroughly enjoy sharing her passion for the Canary Islands with tourists.

She will work with you to arrange your itinerary and the size group you want.

patricialittle@hotmail.com

While this tip is too late to be helpful to this OP, I'd suggest using a simple name and address sticker on your cameras, chargers, and other electronic equipment with which you travel.

I got in the habit of doing that when traveling with high school students abroad and it proved to be such worthwhile advice. One time a student lost his camera at Dulles Airport -- before we even left US soil! An honest person forund the camera and his camera got home before he did! A few months later I left my camera at a covered bridge in New England -- my name & address sticker was still in place -- and my camera beat me home!

A couple of cruises ago, I lost my camera and before I even realized it was missing, the purser's desk left a message on my cabin phone that my camera had been turned in.

Two important lessons here: 1.) I should be a lot more careful with my own camera! :eek:

And 2.) Fortunately there are still honest people in the world! :)

Thank you so much for your posts...what a wealth of useful information!

Our cruise ship will dock one day at Haifa and the following day at Ashdod. I just realized that the day we are at Haifa is a Saturday...How will that affect tours and sightseeing? Can we expect the major tourist attractions in Jerusalem & Bethlehem to still be open? We'd appreciate your advice on whether we should schedule Jerusalem & Bethlehem for Saturday from Haifa or wait until Sunday and arrange that tour from Ashdod?

Also, would appreciate anyone's input on this dilemma...What to do? :confused:

A day trip to the Dead Sea and Masada?

Or, a day trip to Nazareth & Galilee?

Thanks!

Would appreciate your experience & recommendations RE: the earliest flight time out of Rome (FCO).

Our Princess ship arrives Civitavecchia at 6 AM on a Saturday morning. Since we recently spent a week in Rome, we are thinking about hiring a private car and going directly from Civitavecchia along the coast the 56 miles (90 km) to Rome's FCO airport.

What has been your experience with early flights out of FCO? Also, I've read that one should allow 3 hours for international check-in at FCO -- Is that about right in your experience?

I realize that there can always be unexpected delays...In the past, we have always strictly followed the cruise line's recommendations RE: flight times. However, we have found what Princess says and does to be very inconsistant. On one cruise, Princess told us "no departing flights before 1 PM", yet many passengers with Princess air left the ship early for 11 AM flights back to the states. In another case, Princess told us "nothing before 1 PM" and yet many Princess air cruisers were booked on 9:40 AM flights.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Madonna