ccruzer123

Thank you, this is very informative and helpful. We will be doing this cruise in October and you are answering a lot of our questions and helping with our decisions.

Question: I'm good for walking long distances but my other half isn't. He can do 30+ minutes of walking non-stop but begins to have problems with stairs or sharp uphill climbs. Do you feel there is any particular tours we should avoid?

American Queen Steamboat does week long Columbia River and Mississippi River cruises. American Cruise Line also does short cruises along the East Coast. Pearl Cruise Line does the Great Lakes. Received a brochure yesterday from a cruise line (can't remember the name but never heard of them before) that cruises the canals and rivers in the NE, like the Erie Canal.

We disembarked in Vancouver this May. My sister had a 10:30 am flight, got off the ship around 8:15 am and made her flight. Her flight was to the U.S. West Coast. Do not know if she had Princess transfers or did private transfers. I questioned her about having such a short time period from ship to airport and she said she has done it before without any problem. I wasn't going to disagree with her since she is a TA.

However, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this but other obviously do. I think it depends on how comfortable you feel with this time change and making the flight.

Pacific Princess is scheduled for Manhattan. Looks like Port of Calls are Manhattan, while Embarkation/Disembarkation will be Brooklyn for Princess ships.

Thank you for guiding me to the information that will answer my question.

This will be our first time on Regent and an all-inclusive ship, Explorer. When we have taken tours in the past on other ships (40+ cruises) we usually give a tip to the tour guide and driver. But we are not sure if this is done on all-inclusive ship tours. Plus I know tipping is much different in Europe than in the U.S. Can anyone tell me what the norm is for this situation?

Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed on your trip. We will be doing this exact cruise in October so we find this very informative. Question: What hotel did they put the group in while in Milan? What were the rooms like and were meals on your own or did they handle them?

Quote: "It seams like almost every ship spends its time at the bottom of the barrel. Last year the Caribbean Princess was the "Ship to Avoid". Now it's the Crown. In a couple months it'll be another ship.."

Very good point.

Quote: "Island Princess (Apr 2018)"

If this is true I feel sorry for the cruisers in the room we just left. Was on the Island the first part of May and I had to stick a pillow on my side of the bed so I didn't roll into the crater that continued to the edge of the bed. The edge of the right hand side of the bed was almost completely collapsed. I did find the sweet spot of the bed right in the middle, which is where I ended up sleeping. Hubby's side was okay, it was just my side.

Was on the Emerald in February and we had the new beds, they were nice. Looking forward to the new beds in Club Class in June.

Quote: "Will the M2s on Pacific get Club Class? "

Yes. We are M2 on the Pacific Princess and listed as Club Class. We will be sailing on its first voyage with Club Class so I'm sure there will be a learning curve for staff and waiters with this new arrangement.

We prearranged a meeting with the officer prior to our cruise. We were told they would be expecting us at the prearranged time. At the prearranged time we went to the customer service desk and told them we had an appointment about scattering ashes at sea. They contacted the assigned officer who came immediately to talk with us. They took us to a semi-private area where we discussed the process and selected a time.

I suggest, if you have not received a letter in your cabin by the end of the first day that you contact the customer service desk and ask to speak with the officer assigned to assist you.

Just a note: we brought along a copy of the death certificate, the application and permit for disposition of human remains that was provided by the mortuary and a copy of the description of the urn. The officer did make copies for their records to show they were in compliance with international laws.

Princess does not charge a penny for this service. Like said earlier, everyone was wonderful and very helpful.

We just scattered my mom's ashes in the Pacific Ocean on a Princess ship this last week. You are required to carry the ashes through security at the airport and security in the cruise terminal. I carried my mom's ashes in a biodegradable urn which I placed in a Princess bag. I placed bubble wrap around the urn so it wouldn't get crushed on the plane or going through security.

When you approach TSA agents at the airport notify them that you have human remain ashes in one of your carry-ons. They will assist you with getting the ashes through security. In our case when I approached the individual who checks your passport and airline ticket I told them about the ashes. They told me what line I needed to be in and told me to inform the TSA agent in charge of the scanner/xray. That individual placed an object underneath the container holding the ashes which was placed in one of their trays and sent it through the machine. Everyone of the TSA agents we came in contact with was so nice and each one said they were sorry for our loss.

I did the same thing at the terminal but they just ran it through after mentioning the ashes to the person running the machine.

Princess should send you a letter informing you what you will need to do in order to spread the ashes. We had an appointment with one of the officer the day after we embarked the ship. He took copies of all the paperwork they require, and asked when we would like to spread the ashes. He notified the appropriate individuals on the ship and we showed up at the assigned time. He took us to the back of the ship to a small open area off deck 7. He told us we could have as much time as we wanted and even volunteered to video tape or take pictures of the event for us. After tossing the urn in the water we stayed until we couldn't see it anymore. The officer was very helpful and understanding. They recorded the event in the ships log and gave us a copy. Very nice touch.

Quote: "Viking called me again yesterday afternoon with an offer of a voucher for future cruises I thanked the rep and declined and told her that the the food got worse but the wait staff was great! As was our room steward, it's just a shame we had a bad chef and poor quality food, but it's over and we're home safe!"

Interesting, Viking offered a future cruise voucher. Makes me think that Viking realizes there might have been a problem with the chef and food on the cruise. I doubt very much they would have made such an offer if there hadn't been a problem. Just my thoughts!

Quote: "Assumed that you paid a deviation fee I order to select your flights. IMO, it is worth the deviation fee in in order to select your airline and flight 270 days in advance."

Yes, we did pay the deviation fee plus a small additional cost which we feel is well worth allowing us to fly out of our home airport. We selected our flights, our TA called Regent and they booked us. Very easy, we are happy.

Coral Princess or Pacific Princess

We tried to book the water bottle package for our Australia/New Zealand trip this last January. Was having a hard time getting it ordered online so I called Princess to order it. They told me that they do not do the water bottle package on the Australia/New Zealand cruises. She told me she didn't know why, her information just said not available for Australia/New Zealand.

Smaller ships with less passengers. Would be nice to have a couple of ships around 1000-1500 passengers. Smaller ships can get into ports the larger ships can't adding for a more interesting cruise experience.

We have also looked at Viking ocean cruises but decided in the end that we didn't care that much for the decor of the ships. On the other hand, we really like what we saw on Regent Explorer and booked it. I feel one needs to book what one feels the most comfortable with. Just wouldn't have felt comfortable on Viking.

Regarding the Oceania Rivera, that was my first cruise away from Princess and we were extremely disappointed. Yes, the ship was lovely and the room very adequate but the food and overall cruise was poor. Of course it didn't help that this was one of the trips that had the norovirus. The food began to taste like disinfectant, not very appealing. We probably would have overlooked everything and sail Oceania again but will not because of the way Oceania handled the entire situation.

We recently booked a cruise with Regent and they gave us business class the whole way, AZ to Italy and return. I even requested certain flights and was given those flights.

With the Club Class eating on deck 10 this will free up 48 seats in the MDR. This will made MDR passengers happy. On the Pacific Princess the early seating usually is the preferred time and many that ended up being assigned to the late seating time wait at the entrance area of early seating hoping to snag a table from someone who did not show up that evening.

On our first trip on the Pacific we where assigned late seating which was way to late for us so we ate the entire 2 weeks at the buffet, which was good. We didn't know at that time that we could have tried to get into the MDR early. Anyway, my point is that 48 more people will most likely get early seating times.

I'm excited to hear that Princess plans on keeping the Pacific Princess. We will be on the June 9th sailing so I'm looking forward to seeing all they have done. Pacific is our favorite Princess ship.

You are spot on... check your flights numerous times before you actually fly.

I have caught numerous changes over the years with some being major changes. I check my United flights the most, I have caught some very potential problems with them. Example: We booked a Global First Class flight from LHR to LAX, without telling us, United changed planes and downgraded us to business class in addition to changing the time. After calling and talking with them they told me that we had the new business class Polaris with aisle access even describing the new layout for Polaris. Problem is I found out later that the 787 will not have the new hard product for several years. A month later while checking I saw they changed my entire flight to a 777-200 with a completely different flight departure (note they did notify me later). I called again and they told me that because of the a time change we couldn't make our connection in LAX so instead changed us to SFO. Problem is we are getting off a cruise that day, have a 2 hour drive and would not be able to make the flight requirements. In addition, the SFO layover was over 7 hours and we wouldn't be getting home until 1 am. Unacceptable. After trying to work something out and having one agent disconnect me I finally found an agent willing to straighten things out and change our flight to something that would work. Since then, the flight times have changed 2 more times but the flight is still doable. Fingers are crossed

Great information and recommendations. Another quick question: Do they deliver the luggage to the actual ship or just to the cruise terminal?

Thank you for the information, big help. Luggage Free is definitely a possibility or I'll just have to learn how to pack 3 weeks worth of stuff in one large bag... eeks!

We have a one week tour in Italy prior to us boarding our Regent cruise out of Venice. We are being limited to 1 suitcase per person on the pre-cruise tour. Question: Does Regent have a program where you can ship your luggage to the ship? I know Princess has a luggage shipping program but I can't seem to find anything on the Regent website.