vmom

There are passport offices in major cities where you can go to directly and renew a passport immediately. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/requirements/where-to-apply/passport-agencies.html

I would also go to a government center and get a legal government ID and I would try to get an expedited passport renewal. 

By by doing both, hopefully one will come thru on time for your cruise.

My guess is that only cabins that were available for both weeks were displayed when you looked for cabins for the 14 day.

I’ve sailed on both ships 2times. For Alaska go with the Coral.  The Royal has limited outside viewing areas and Alaska is all about the scenery.

Celebrity just had a 20% off sale on excursions.  I've never seen something like that on Princess.

I toured with Alla tours in both St. Petersburg and in Stockholm.  Highly recommend them for both cities. 

Been to Alaska 3 times and have traveled on both the Coral twice and the Royal twice.

For Alaska, its Coral hands down.  More and better viewing areas.  You don't want the biggest for Alaska, you want a ship that has plenty of open viewing areas.  

I think its a huge mistake for Princess to have Royal doing the Alaska itinerary.  There's just not enough open viewing area.  No promenade deck.  There is viewing on the top decks, but the top decks are so high up and with so many people on the ship the top decks will be crowded.  It will be hard to move around to get different vantage points. 

For my last 5 cruises, and likely before that, I have always been asked my cabin number in the dining room for dinner.  And each time I was in ATD.  

I have also been asked to show my cruise card a few times at the beginning of the cruise but not so often toward the end.

Also, when I have cruised Holland, each evening when we entered the dining room we were asked our cabin number and it was notated. 

So basically this is nothing new.  Its more likely that you are just now noticing.  They likely don't ask for cabin numbers in the TD since there is a seating chart that they can refer to with assigned seats that lists the cabin numbers. 

 Since the new update it’s difficult to search specific forums for a specific topic or keywod. So often the topic has been discussed previously and rather than re-introduce the topic I would like to read what other people have said in the past. In the ports section, I used to regularly use key words to get information on excursions at a specific port. 

With the new search it forces me to search the entire boards  rather than just searching in a specific area such as the princess forums or the St. Thomas forum, etc.  

i would love love to see the search function go back to how it was in the past with a search feature available specific to that forum.

I always cruised with my husband also. He passed away 6 years ago and I didn’t want to stop cruising and traveling. 

Now I cruise solo and also with friends. I love cruising solo and have had some great experiences meeting fellow cruisers at meals and through the meet and greets.

For non-cruise travel I usually go with a tour company. 

It wont be the same as traveling with your husband but it’s still a great experience. 

You will be surprised at how many solo travelers there are.

Europeans tend to eat later in the evening so princess may keep the old dining times for the European itineraries. On the British Isles cruises there was a nice evenly distributed stream of people dining. 

I can understand why they felt they needed to make the change on the longer Caribbean cruises. Last two cruises I had involving the Caribbean the lines for ATD were long at 5-5:15. Older Americans like to eat early. 

People were lining up in front of the dining room doors at 4:45. The dining room was pretty empty at 8:00.

I think Princess had to make some sort of change in dining times for the longer Caribbean cruises and Panama Canal cruises. They will likely tweek the times as they see how this works. 

I am happy that Princess is trying to come up with a solution to the excessive demand for early dining on the Caribbean cruises.

Thank you. I had forgotten all about the nonalcoholic beverages that also came with the minibar.  I stand corrected.

Its not a 1 to 1 exchange for water.  I exchanged my mini bar twice for sparkling water and each time I got 20 bottles of Perrier. 

I think Princess had to make some sort of changes in dining times for longer Caribbean cruises (not the European or other cruises).

I was on the 15 day Panama canal cruise in Dec and the 10 day Caribbean cruise in Feb and the lines to get into the dining room between 5 and 5:30 were unbelievable. People were lining up at 4:45.  By 5:15 the lines were way out into the atrium area often close to the IC.  

I found the long lines to be very frustrating.  My theory is that the longer Caribbean cruises tend to have more retired older cruisers who like to eat early, go to the show early and then  go to their cabins.  

I didn't find this to be an issue on the British Isles cruise or other European cruises.  A lot of Europeans often eat later anyway so there was more of a consistent stream of people throughout the evening for dinner.

No, passports are not needed for Roatan.

That said, it’s always better to travel with a passport in case of emergency even on a closed loop cruise.

We used a taxi earlier this month. There are several ship docks as previously stated. Our boarding information stated which dock out ship was at.

We used Smith's earlier this month (August) and they were great!

We also used Smith's to transfer from Heathrow to Southampton. For 2 people it was the same price as the Princess transfers and was more comfortable and convenient.

Haven’t received anything back from my complaint, so I just took all the gratuities down to $0. Tip my waiter and room lady personally instead. Yeah rest of cruise is good.

It doesn't seem quite fair to hold everyone responsible for your poor spa experience.

You may not be aware spa staff are not cruise line employees. They're contract people who work for the spa company, just like the art auction staff are contract people who work for the art company, not the cruise line.

that is one reason you'll never see them wearing princess uniforms.

On my last cruise on the Royal I found out that the manager of the jewelry store on the ship is an Effy employee not a Princess employee. not sure about the others who work in the Effy store.

Excursions can also be booked through the princess app which is available once you get onboard.

To book specialty restaurants you can either go to the restaurant or once you get to the room you will notice on the phone there is a button you can push for dining reservations.

I believe his point is once you sign up and are in a massage session, there is a lot of upselling that takes place, in a fairly pushy fashion.

The OP was complaining about the upsell. I sympathize with this. I hate high pressure sales.

My post was reference to a post by " my fuzzy " who was complaining that spa staff were in the corridor watching people as they walk by.

My only problem is that they should be inside the spa area and not in the corridor. I don't even give them the courtesy of a smile

On the Royal (and I assume it's laid out the same on the Regal) the spa check in desk shares the same space in which people walk thru v to get to the forward elevator. The spa staff are usually standing right next to the desk . where else would they stand?

It's more a matter of how the ship is laid out rather than the spa staff trying to pressure anyone for a sale.

since the check-in desk is in the corridor it would be difficult to man the desk if the staff remained behind the spa doors.

Hoping to go to the Military Tattoo next year, how was it?

Someone in our group is going to join “Friends of the Tattoo” so we can buy tickets before they go on sale to the public. Any suggestions as to wear to sit?

Thanks

We just got off the Royal BI cruise and went to the tattoo. I loved it and would recommend it. We booked through Princess just to avoid some of the hassles.

First off, the day to go to the Tattoo is when the ship docks in Greenoak, not when you are in Edinburgh. For the stop in Edinburgh, the ship tenders and there is not enough time to do the tattoo that day.

What I did not previously realized is that in August, when the Tattoo is going on, there is also the Edinburgh festival, the Fringe Festival, and a special book/author festival. The number of people in Edinburgh doubles. I had been in Edinburgh a couple of years ago in June and although there were people around I never felt that it was crowded. This visit last week, was extremely crowded. There were people everywhere. People who wanted to tour Edinburgh castle were not able to get in unless they had previously purchased tickets and those on tours said the castle was so crowded it was difficult to tour comfortably.

We sat in the side corner area where the curve of the U is, section 6 row R about 2/3 of the way up. I found it to be a good location. If you are down too far its hard to get that panoramic view which is impressive.

Make sure you are on the government website and not on a website that charges extra for obtaining an Indian Visa. just a word of caution. The sham sites look very official but want to charge more for the visa, plus you don't know who you are giving your information to.

When I first applied, I had thought I was on the official site but after filling out a form, I realized I was not of the government site.

We’ve always been able to make reservations in ATD. In a couple cases, we found a server team who we clicked with and then made a standing reservation in their section for the remainder of the cruise. If we wanted to eat earlier, we would let them know and they would hold the table for us. That way we were able to, still, dine on our schedule. Princess has been very accommodating this way.

 

 

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What time is your standing reservation for? Again, I have asked for reservations and been told no, I had to call in the morning....so I'm wondering if I'm handling it wrong, or is there a change of policy.

The reason I have asked for reservations is that people start lining up about 4:45 for dinner in the dining room and there have been several cruises that although we were eventually seated, we ended up standing in line for 30-40 minutes.

Frankly, I wish there was some consistency. Either allow reservations or don't, but don't allow some people to have reservations and some people not to.

Also, what I wasn't able to figure out, is that when I called in the morning to make a reservation, I was usually told that reservations had to be made for after 8:00, occasionally I was offered a 5:00 time slot.

So if those are the only reservation times allowed, how is it that in the "reservations only" line there are people going in at all different times between 6:00-7:30????

As an aside, we are always open to sitting with others, so table size availability is not an issue.

My suggestion would be the Ruby. Alaska is all about the scenery and wildlife. Its important to be able to roam the open decks.

I would suggest a smaller ship.

The Royal class ships do not have a promenade deck, which means more people will be forced to go up to the upper decks. I don't think the views are as good way up high and I think its nice to have a choice between high and low. Even with a balcony, it is better to have a choice to be in an area where you can get more expansive views.

I also think wildlife viewing is better closer to the water rather than on the high decks.

I found the Royal great for the Caribbean, but would choose a different class of ship for Alaska. My vote if for the Ruby.