tampabrat22

We have only cruised on the MSC Meraviglia and we had a good time. Beautiful ship and all went well, but yes the buffet was chaos every day and the guest culture was just odd. Will be on the Seaside soon so I hope it goes ok. With my kids being grown now we have recently started trying Princess cruises and they are easily my favorite. I took my 20 yr old daughter on the Regal Princess a few months ago and although she did like some aspects of it, she still prefers the lively atmosphere of other cruise lines. Me and the hubby are ready for the relaxed, quiet vibe on Princess but my kids and cruise friends/family prefer other lines because they were bored on MSC/Princess.🤷‍♀️

26 minutes ago, WAvoyager said:

I wish we could get away as much as others on this thread!  Alas, only so many vacation days, and limited number of days away from kindergarten before our DD is considered “truant”.  ☹️  We had to ignore the stream of “free” cruise offers from the casino since our spring sailing, and only went on our two planned trips:

 

April - Majestic - Mexican Riviera

June - Crown - Alaska Inside Passage with Glacier Bay

 

We had a great time on both cruises - definitely saw impacts from restart challenges, but that’ll make us appreciate future cruises even more.

 

 

20 minutes ago, Jeter02 said:

That's some good will power. Totally get it, as I wish I could do more longer cruises. I'm working off a school teachers schedule, so whenever I have off, I'm off on a cruise as it's the most relaxing form of vacationing for me. Dying to do a Trans Atlantic cruise, as I love the idea of only having to pay for a flight one way as I love FLL. One day. Hopefully sooner than later I'll cross that off my list. 

Same here. Between mine, my son and husbands work schedules and then my daughters college classes we have a hard time finding dates that we are all able to go and of course having the vacation time available. Cant wait until we are able to go on longer voyages.

We did 4. All had their pros & cons but I am thrilled to having cruising back and have no complaints.😊

Feb 2022 Sky Princess  

Apr 2022 Carnival Paradise

Sept 2022 Carnival Paradise

Oct 2022 MSC Meraviglia

I sent my request in yesterday it was in my account within about 4 hours. I sail in 6 days and thought I was not going to be able to get it but they made it happen!

On 1/4/2023 at 8:23 PM, jwattle said:

If it is just the two of you, yes. Passengers one and two must both have it. 

thank you so much for the response. I searched and searched and could not find a definite answer.

10 hours ago, sunviking90 said:

Well, luck (and efficiency) was on our side. We purchased the shares Tuesday, and submitted for credit to Princess yesterday. I got an email asking for proof of shares as my attachment hadn’t gone through properly. I resent yesterday afternoon and got the credit last night. Our cruise is in 11 days so we are pretty happy it was so quick.

Yay for efficiency, mine was also added within hours! Lucky for me because our cruise is in 6 days! Have a great time on your sailing!

10 minutes ago, zukecruiser said:

Submitted mine via email yesterday (1-03-23) and had the credit on my account this morning.  Fastest it's ever been.  Have a March cruise on Emerald Princess.

Wow, that's great! Hopefully they keep up that efficiency!🤞

16 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

Good Luck! I just submitted ours for our Jan 16 cruise as we only just purchased the shares. If it’s too late, that’s fine, but nice if it works out.

Hoping for the best for both of us. They seem to be on top of things so I am optimistic!😃

Hi everyone,

Next week I will be on my second Princess cruise with my 20 yr old daughter. I am interested in upgrading to the Princess Plus or Premier but she does not want it for herself (she rarely drinks anything other than water and does not see the benefit in it). Is the only option to upgrade everyone in the cabin?

I forgot to submit mine for my cruise next week!😧 Going to submit that now and keep my fingers crossed they get to me in time. 🤞

It definitely depends on the family dynamics. My kids have been cruising since they were toddlers and are now 20 & 25. We've tried Disney, Royal, MSC, Carnival, Royal and now Princess. When they were young they definitely loved the vibe on the ships with all the bells and whistles, by their later teen years the novelty of all of that wore off. My son was very mature for his age and preferred the company of adults and my daughter is a book worm and just loves to find a quiet spot to read. As for my husband and I, we have grown tired of the party crowd and want a more quiet relaxing cruise.

Families change and evolve as kids grow up. We love Carnival when we want a lively atmosphere, but we also appreciate the relaxing ambiance that Princess provides. And once I have Grandbabies I'm sure we will be back on the Disney ships.😁

That all looks amazing! Thanks for sharing!

25 minutes ago, iriecruising said:

 

We purchased the value plan on 3 separate days, we didn't intend to but I had stuff going on at home so I needed to be able to communicate with family. The service worked fine for social media and the internet. We had to go to the upper decks some times as the service was really slow and spotty down on deck 4. But overall it worked well for messaging and most websites.

Here’s our simple decorations I mentioned above.😁

And the other movies.

These are the family channel movies that we’re playing in the cabins.

I agree with the others about bringing them. I was worried it would be a hassle too but it was super simple. I bought a few paper signs, a banner and a bag of balloons from the dollar tree and packed them under my clothes in the suitcase. Used the command sticky tape and spent less than $8 and maybe 10 mins putting it up.

42 minutes ago, rwilk1129 said:

Did you happen to notice if any blended Canadian whiskey  (Crown royal,Vo,Seagrams7 etc) was available?  We have not been able to get it on Carnival this year. It is sold in the shop but not in any bars. Boarding Paradise tomorrow on a last minute trip 

I am not sure about VO or Seagram's but there was no Crown available at any bars that I noticed. I have heard they are no longer carrying it onboard.

On 4/16/2022 at 7:01 PM, Cigar City Nole said:

 

Hey Brat … hope you had a great cruise … anything that you care to share?

On 4/18/2022 at 7:37 AM, Tristaprista said:

 

I'll be on this sailing as well!

Here you go!

Hi everyone! We recently did a 5 day cruise to Grand Cayman & Cozumel to celebrate my daughters birthday and I've noticed a lot of questions about the Paradise so I thought I'd post the fun times and answer any questions I can. We live in the Tampa Bay area so this was a last minute booking for us and it was my 3rd time sailing on the Paradise so I'm pretty familiar with her. 

Embarkation went fairly smooth, we were onboard within 20 mins. The ship was definitely not at capacity which was nice, the only time it seemed crowded was by the pool area and buffet at meals times. Finding a spot at shows or a place to sit and relax was not an issue. The casino was empty most of the cruise, I've never seen the casino so quiet, ever. But that was a nice change after our Mardi Gras Ultra cruise. We had an ocean view cabin, midship on deck 4 and I was very happy with that, as it is our preferred location. The ship is in great condition given her age, the new paint on the hull looks really good, reminds me of the classic ocean liner look and I am here for it. I haven't sailed on any of the older (Joe Farcus designed) ships in a while and I have to say I don't miss that gaudy look. I love the newer, bright and airy look most of the Carnival ships are going toward.

We ate in the main dining room every night, some nights service was a bit slow but nothing horrible. The food was good, but we are not picky eaters and food is so subjective. I did miss the flat iron steak on the menu since I tend to eat that most nights, and the replacement was not that great. But there were plenty of other options and we always had plenty to eat. We ate at the buffet for breakfast, again there's plenty to choose from. We did the sea day brunch on both days and that was great as usual. We had the filet and eggs one morning, I've seen some bad reviews about it lately but I liked it.🤷‍♀️ I always see people asking if there are healthy food options and yes, there are plenty of options to choose from. I normally eat high protein, low carb and had no problem finding tasty options at every meal. I had eggs, sausage or bacon and cottage cheese almost every morning, guy's burgers with no buns and watermelon (from the salsa bar at the Blue Iguana) for lunch most days and of course plenty of salads and fish/protein choices at dinner.

The Cruise Director Lei Lei was great, very fun and she was everywhere. We went to a few of the theater shows, I think the dancers/singers are still trying to get in their groove because something seemed off. Most nights they didn't even dance, they just sat on stools singing which was odd. But I did enjoy 80s Pop to the Max and Epic Rock. There was plenty of trivia, we always enjoy those and we came home with 2- 24k gold ships on a stick!

We called on both of the ports we were scheduled for with no issues (G Cayman and Cozumel). In G Cayman we got off the shipped and walked around for a bit but returned sooner than expected when we realized most of the businesses near the port were still closed. But we have been there at least 8 times so we didn't mind. In Cozumel we did a fun ATV, Snorkel & Cenote excursion that I booked through Tortugas Cozumel (not a Carnival excursion). We have also been to Cozumel many times, so we felt comfortable not booking with Carnival. This excursion is amazing and we had a great time but keep in mind it is a very active excursion, I wasn't ready for all that and it kicked my butt.😆 

The few issues we had were that we had to replace our sail & sign cards 3 times each because they kept peeling, but there was rarely a line at guest services. Our room steward was super nice, but for some reason he couldn't remember to bring us wash cloths, towels or our towel animal most nights. We never found a room service menu or QR code to look it up. It was not on the TV, not in the app and when I asked the room steward he gave me food allergy information. So we just called and they had what we wanted, lol. And at the last sea day brunch I tried to use my VIFP free drink for a Bellini and they said I had already used it. I checked my sail & sign account in the app and I had not, the waiter said he would double check on it. I told him I would still like the drink either way. After over an hour he never came back, no biggie but I would have liked that drink.😜 🍹

The last day there was a platinum/diamond party with plenty of drinks (no appetizers). We brought a young couple that was seated with us at dinner and they enjoyed it. The head of most departments were there but the captain was not. I'm guessing he probably needs to avoid the public as much as possible so he stays healthy and that makes complete sense. Over all we had a great time, the small things I mentioned in no way affected our cruise. The one thing me and my daughter agreed that we missed the most was the Dive In Movies and just having the big screen on the lido, we love watching movies at night so that was really missed. But this was a nice getaway for me and my daughter to celebrate her birthday and we cant wait for our next one! 

The fun times are attached and I will try to come back to post some more info and pics tomorrow.🥰

Paradise Fun TImes.pdf

There was a Diamond/Plat party on our Apr 4th Paradise sailing (5 day). Unlimited drinks were flowing, no food and the head of each dept was there but no captain.

We have stayed in all type of cabins and areas of the ship (except the suites and up).We used to only book inside cabins, but I realized I need a window or balcony because I am quite claustrophobic. If the inside cabin works for you, that is great, you can save so much money!! 

I love tea time and have missed it on a few of our past cruises, but some people just want too much. Cruise rates are some of the cheapest I have ever seen them in the past 20+ years, they are practically giving them away. They lost revenue for 2 years and are short staffed, they are doing what they can to survive and keep the ships running. If not getting a filet at breakfast, reduced pizza hours or limited tea time is enough to make you never want to sail with them again there are plenty of cruise lines to choose from. It's like going to Cracker Barrel expecting a 3* Michelin experience.🙄

1 hour ago, icft said:

Well, it is good for you that you had the issue resolved. But it would have been a real hoot to hear they woke you up at 5:15 just to put you on hold for a few hours. It is quite possible that is what would have happened if you had stayed on the line though.

No doubt that is what would have happened. I was just so shocked they called at such an early time.😜

47 minutes ago, maluhia87 said:

Take a copy showing your shares with you. If you don't hear back, go to guest services, they are supposed to be able to add the credits. 

Ok, thank you! I will take all the info with me!