HaveDogWillTravel

Just off the Ruby yesterday. The balcony on B755 was unusable due to heavy smoke over the course of several hours while in port. At sea it was usually but not always ok. Our first and last days were sea days we had 4 port days. When the stewards got off at 9 pm regardless of at sea or in port the smoke was evident. I made 3 formal complaints regarding w separate occasions. I was told by the daytime GS manager that they moved the smoking aft bc those in the forward balconies complained too much. That’s the first time I’ve been given that excuse. I asked GS to please log my complaints. If this is a contest of who complains the most gets the crew smoking area moved then I suggest everyone in an aft facing balcony who can’t use their balcony due to smoke asks GS to log their complaint. For those who are curious I did not expect nor did I want any compensation other than the smoking to ceases. None was offered.

Thanks for the picture of the wine glass. This what I call the joker glass as it has the rolled lip. I’ll be sure to pack my own “real” wine glass that doesn’t have that lip for my Royal sailing Tuesday. That lip really adversely effects the taste of the wine.

I’ve sailed out of SF on Ruby last November, December, January, April and May. The boarding was from not good to flipping ick just horrible. I boarded the Ruby today. Omg it had to have been all those really well written emails listing clearly the requirements of testing, vaccination & ArriveCAN as it went the quickest and smoothest I’ve ever experienced. We got in line (who am I kidding there was no line 😆) to board at 11:17 and were on board at 11:35. Rooms were ready by 12:30 while we were at lunch in Michelangelo.

The sky was cloudless at !1 am.

I was in Mazatlan April 13, 2022 on a Princess cruise. Not my first time either. This photo shows that port side faced the port. This was taken at 6 pm.

The ArriveCAN records are electronic and matched to the passenger records. On my b2b to Alaska this spring I didn’t fill out the ArriveCAN for my second leg and they tracked me down to get it done on turn around day. Thanks for doing the live from. I board when you get off and am looking forward to the entertainment you’ve suggested.

Some of my fondest memories with my mom & dad were from our special fancy restaurant dates. I loved taking my little boys out for the same experience. Children are most welcome everywhere on Princess. The very few times I’ve witnessed a meltdown the parents were on it quickly and took the child out to recover. I am sure the wait staff are already aware that little ones need to have a shorter service time. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to the restaurant manager beforehand to make sure they have adequate staff to give you whatever length of time you desire for dinner. Simply request an hour an hour and a half, 2 hours….. whatever you’re comfort zone is with the kids. The crew is so incredibly responsive and accommodating when a clear and deliverable request is made nicely. The reason I say to discuss time line expectations in advance is that I’ve more than once failed to do so in Crown and found myself after 3 hours in physical pain & just dying to get out! Their bad first time…..my bad the second, third and fourth time! Now I do remember to ask for a 1.5 hour service and that’s what I get. Sounds like your children will fit right in.

Seems like HAL isn’t any better.

See post #3. You have a typo in the customer relations email address.

I guess because those stand alone drink packages are sooooooooooo expensive I forget they still exist.

Crew will figure out pretty quickly that Parent is ordering and handing it off to Child. Which is of course against the rules. If Dad makes a comment about having a package but child doesn’t so go ahead and bill me, the crew member may or may not bill it. But Dad should be absolutely upfront about being willing to pay for it. Some crew miss their own little ones at home and enjoy spoiling the kids. If too much sharing goes on Princess will make it mandatory for guests 3 and 4 to pay for packages similar to (age appropriate of course) to guests 1 and 2. It wasn’t that long ago that Guest 1 could have a package and Guest 2 didn’t have to. I loved that about Princess. But too much sharing and bye bye to that.

Ahhh yes! Thanks for correcting that. I was on her for the inaugural and enjoyed reading up there on those couches.

Correct the Royal class ships have very few public viewing areas and no forward facing public viewing areas. I am talking about the Emerald here, a Grand class ship that the person I was replying to is sailing on.

While the midship CC minis do have a larger balcony than their neighbors, it’s really a stretch to say they are big. You really need to look at the deck plans and also find pictures and videos of the cabins online. https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=GP https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/deckbydeck.php?ship=Regal-Princess&deck=9 Aft facing balconies have reasonably large balconies. But not all decks are created equal. It is easy to tell which are the deepest from the deck plans. The CC M6 minis all the way at the front have enormous balconies as do the other forward facing balconies and minis. Whether you should go for a lower deck, upper deck, middle deck and whether aft, forward or mid ships depends entirely on your level of mobility and what areas of the ship you think you will utilize the most. Again the deck plans will let you know which part of the ship makes sense for you. There’s a sticky thread on the Princess board with cabin reviews. Once you start narrowing it down you should look at that spread sheet and find out if the cabin has any noise or other issues. Remember ships like Royal and Regal will be the same (please someone correct me if I’m wrong I sail mostly Grand and Coral class) so comments about a cabin on one should apply to the other. . Have fun planning!

I am in control of my exposure or lack of exposure to other passengers. I. just. Don’t. Care. What other passengers do or don’t do. I have an incredible time. Every. Single. Sailing. 81 days done and 41 more days in the next 3 months. I must be doing something right. 💃🥂

I’ve done the Panama Canal and I’ve booked sanctuary on a glacier bay day. So not quite exact experience you are looking for. But I can tell you the price for a lounger will double and you have to book the whole day…..so $80. The cabana stayed the same $220. You really want to be moving around the ship as you go through the canal. On the Emerald you have really great outdoor viewing areas. There’s a full promenade deck so you can get great forward, aft, starboard and port views close to the water. Deck 18 mid ships has my favorite viewing platform for almost 360 panoramas. Deck 17 and 16 aft have lots of great viewing areas. It’s either Lido or Riviera deck forward that has a great forward viewing deck. That said I think the sanctuary would be worth it anyway as a place to get away to after being all over the public decks. It’s so peaceful and lunch there would be really nice.

Thanks for coming back with this information. I’m getting ready to start sailing again now that school is back in session lol. I’ll be on some new to me ships so I’m pretty excited. Glad to know what I can expect in terms of the sanctuary.

Here’s my invoice from April this year on Discovery. It’s $220 full day and $140 half day cabana rental for up to 2 people. One person costs the same as 2. You can not invite people to join you as your guests. They would have to rent their own lounger. Earlier in this thread I posted a bunch of photos showing what’s included with cabanas. You get a 375 ml bottle of booze or a bottle of wine for each half day rental. We ended up with like 8 half size bottles of Bombay gin that we couldn’t drink. You get a full set of waters and cans of soda for each half day as well. I asked my steward if he’d like the cans of soda and he did. So we swapped out for his favorite type and gave him 16 sodas EVERY day! The cabanas outside the sanctuary on Discovery are free and for anyones use. They don’t have any amenities though.

Absolutely not. I could not care less about what other passengers do or don’t do. Other passengers don’t come into my stateroom, don’t lean over me to serve me and so on.

I love pictures you took of us wearing them. Fun times! I’ll bring mine too on our next cruise together. And both our DH looked great in them.

Of course anything is possible. This is primarily transmitted thru airborne particles. Crew wear kn95 masks at all times. They are required to immediately report any illness. They can not get away with just not telling Princess they are sick. I am more concerned with infecting my steward than visa versa as I do not mask in my room. If I’m asymptotic my viral load is all over my room.

@rheathslcI am wondering what type of wine glasses are used on the Royal. On the grand class ships the nice glasses without a lip (sometimes even Riedel) are only available in Vines and the MDR upon request. And they don’t like you to take them out of their spaces. So I carry my Riedel on now. However, on the Discovery last April all venues served all wine in nice glasses without a lip. ‘Does the Royal have the nice glasses everywhere or only in limited venues? Welcome home. I hope your cruise and birthday were everything you hoped for and more.

This demonstrates why it’s important to check your account daily.

This feature is only available once you board and are on the ship’s intranet. It’s really the best part the medallion class ap. I’ve been using it since the inaugural sailing on Majestic in July 2021. So I guess that’s new.

I have 2 shirts and that’s enough lol. You don’t trade the deck in. You get to keep it! My DH, friends and I took great pride in actually drinking each and every one of the cocktails. We earned those shirts! It really was such a blast over the 10 days. I do hope they keep the T-shirt promotion going.