Cruiser1862

Thank you for responding. I should have clarified that I’m on the east coast so Galveston is out. The one this year has the itinerary we want and we were surprised we couldn’t get it for next year. Tampa goes to KW for half the time and then onto Cozumel which we didn’t want. Thank you again

Getting a bit frustrated so maybe someone can give an answer. We would like to go to Key West on a cruise that does not stop in Mexico. For 2019 there is one particular one that is 5 nights. Departs Ft Lauderdale and goes to KW and also to Bahamas. 2 sailing days. But nothing for same time (fall) for 2020. Am I missing something??

Thank you so much!

Which ones did you do? Thanks!

I just booked a cruise for a 2020 sailing. Ok price, not great, some perks. But, we wanted to make sure we got the special our TA offered. If it goes down prior to final payment, great. This happened to us once years ago. Think I changed twice due to better offers. But, I am perfectly fine if after final payment the price drops and I miss out. It’s a gamble. A choice we made. I’d chalk it up to “sometimes you win, sometimes you lose”.

Thanks. I hope you enjoy it. Please come back and tell what you thought of it!!

Which tour did you book? Thanks

Decided to go with the ocean view! We are very excited and now have plenty of time to look into excursions, planes and arriving few days prior. Thank you for your help. This board is a plethora of info

Thank You for responses. Our travel agent gave us $75 OBC along with the NCL freebies they’re offering now. The gratuities for the specialty meals is about $31. The room was less than advertised on NCL site as her company bought a block of rooms. We decided on an ocean view room. The inside cabin makes me a little nervous that it’ll be too dark and claustrophobic. Anyone stay in them before? What’s your opinion? I feel we’ll be out most of the time from the room. It’s a big savings...$600

Hi fellow cruisers! We’ve cruised about half dozen times to Caribbean. Almost always on Princess but also with RC. We started to give thought to going to Hawaii in 2020 to celebrate our 60th birthdays. I see that Norwegian is the only ship to do a 7 day around the islands and port intensive. Exactly what we want. We were surprised by the prices though. Double for a 7 day Caribbean. And almost double from a 15 day from LA to HI. So here’s our questions and we’d really appreciate your responses First, we are not big drinkers at all so the free alcohol package doesn’t interest us. We’d take the 3 free specialty restaurants. Curious to what the gratuity is for that. The $50 a port toward the excursions also doesn’t appeal to us since we were planning on going on our own or other tours not affiliated with ship. We’re not sure if this is a good price to “get in” and we can always change it if rates decrease. We want an ocean view. We feel this cruise is port intensive and we won’t be on the ship but to eat and sleep mostly. I usually take our time doing some research, but our TA that we use is away and the person filling in for her has advised the special ends Fri. In your experience, are there better packages coming? We are used to Princess (we wait for free gratuities and onboard money). Not sure what Norwegian has I’d appreciate any info you have. Trying to read on this forum all day yesterday trying to familiarize myself but just don’t know what to do. BTW, we picked next May 23-30, 2020 for our trip, but are very flexible. Ocean view room before taxes is $2049pp. Thank you very much.

I had anytime dining so I'm not positive about the traditional dining times, but I believe they were changed and start earlier now (5:00). The shows are at 8 and 10pm in the Princess Theater. The Medallion program was only working in small amount of rooms, but there were people onboard working on them. From what I heard they are trying to work as fast as they can to get it up and running. Hopefully all will be Medallion ready by your sailing.

I know that the charging of towels isn’t the answer. I think it’s just so frustrating. Not sure what the answer is, but would be nice if people could be more respectful.

Water temp was very nice. Weather was beautiful for our entire trip. Enjoy your cruise!

We went on a 7 day Caribbean cruise on the Regal the week of Nov 11-18. It was FANTASTIC! This was our 6th Princess cruise, first time on the Regal. Starting with embarkation. We walked right up at 11am and into our room. By 11:30 we were unpacked (we brought our bags up ourselves). We were in an obstructed room (E516) and yes, the balcony was obstructed. For those of you that want to see a picture of the room I'll upload it. The balcony was very small compared to all of our othere sailings that were not obstructed, plus the obstruction was kind of right in your way. But, it still was nice to open the door and hear the water and just sit ocassionally out there. My husband gets up a bit before me and he would sit out there until I was up. Bed and pillow were very comfy and I found the bathroom had plenty of room for a cruise and the shower pressure was more than adequate and hot. Our wonderful TA left us a case of water and one day sent chocolate covered strawberries to our room (plus a goodie package before we left). We did get a good deal on the obstructed room (included gratuities and Sabatinis one night) and was less than whenever I checked prices without these extras. We found the buffet to have anything and everything you could possibly want to eat. I have to admit that we're not foodies so we're not the best to review food. We went to Sabatinis one night (start with the dessert...that Norman Love chocolate concoction is truly the best dessert I have ever had). We all (4 of us) found the main dish way too salty for our tastes, but the salad and pasta dish was excellent. And they really took their time. We ate in the dining room twice and both nights had a fish dish and I got a side of the fettucine as well (how can you not on the Princess?!?) Enjoyed my meals and again the desserts were outstanding. We ate in Alfredos and their pizza was really excellent. We went to afternoon tea a few times. Love that. We also had a nibble at the International Cafe a few times. All in all found food to be quite good. We get the coffee card and I loved my afternoon treats! The entertainment was outstanding. Loved every show. Plenty of room in the theater. One night we got there 30 minutes early and relaxed while waiting. Other nights maybe 15 minutes prior and found seats easily. We went to the 8pm shows. Ashlee Amber was amazing. She did a Whitney Houston show. The 2 main performance shows were so enjoyable as was the ventriloquist. We loved listening to AJ Clarke at Crooners in the evenings. I think we saw him 4 times. He performed different venues (Rat Pack, Broadway, Elton John & Billy Joel and took requests). Very entertaining. We thought the band was lively and loved their upbeat music. We also went to a variety of programs that we enjoyed on sea days. One was with the cruise director on life at sea. Learned a lot. Went to a decorating class with the art curator. Did zumba, line dancing and generally just enjoyed ourselves. Princess Cays was nice. I said I wasn't a foodie and I admit I didn't even go near the lunch (it's bar-b-q). We ate a good breakfast and when we got back to ship went to afternoon tea. St Thomas and St Martaan were nice as well. St Martaan is really being built back up. But, we were approached by one local to come rent chairs from them and when we said "no thanks" (as we just walked the beach, shopped a bit, went and had a drink) he got very nasty and said that we weren't helping his island get rebuilt. Was surprised by his attitude. Everyone else was very friendly. Wifi was a mess. Seriously. I get 120 free minutes and 2 times they wiped out my minutes and there was no one in the internet cafe to help me. It's truly a "work in progress". Disembarkation was ok, very quick, but the staff needs to be a little more forceful to those rude passengers that think it's ok to line up their luggage, block the aisles, and then no one else can get through when they're called. Minor blip But, Princess has to work on the lounge chair situation where people put towels out early in morning and hardly come back. RC scans your room card. If you don't return towels it's $25 each towel. It would stop the hoggers who never return leaving people like us that just want to sit out for an hour or so out of luck. Again, it's just selfish people. They're no different when they cruise. All in all this was our best cruise to date. We already are planning our next cruise (to Europe). If anyone is thinking of cruising to the Caribbean, you will have a great time on the Regal! Happy Sailing!