Morgsmom

THANK YOU! I've made a note for my cruise in November. It will be far easier to dry off, and change back into daywear, even if I don't feel safe in the shower-sailing in a Handicapped Accessible Window Suite due to balance problems, I upgraded from a Balcony Stateroom to enjoy the Suite Perks as a Belated 50th Birthday Present to myself. I have a waterproof cooler bag I can use for the wet swimsuit and towels-already put that on the packing list for shopping pre-cruise. Multi-tasking to the max!

Note that in your H/C Accessible suite shower you will have a full set of rails as well as a pull down chair. There is also an emergency "pull cord" in the bathroom (reachable from Shower). It will be a very large shower and offers many opportunities to stabilize yourself.

The showers in the spa, while large, do not offer either the rails or the seat. What you will have is the potential to have more people nearby in case you needed to call (verbally) for help.

You might be pleasantly surprised to see how amenable your in cabin shower will be for your needs.

I really liked the free coffee in the Horizon Court on the Regal. If it's syrup, it's pretty good. The coffee in IC is better, but I still enjoyed the free stuff in the morning. The pastry shop in Horizon Court also has a mini IC where you can get coffee card drinks, which was nice. The barista guy there was awesome and made cute pandas on my tasty cappucinos. :)

That is great to know! Looking forward to sending DH out for my morning latte :rolleyes:

I saw elsewhere that Serafinas recently closed for renovations.

 

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Fortunately there are recent YELP reviews for Serafinas so it appears that the bakery is still open!

I took the $45.00 tour on December 19. A $5.00 deposit holds your seat. The cruise lines run a very profitable excursion business and therefore use their clout to bar private tour guides from hawking on the pier. Thus the need for pre-paid reservations.

 

I saw elsewhere that Serafinas recently closed for renovations.

 

My tour guide with Bernard's was the Mailman - I highly recommend him.

They switched to a deposit situation I should think to discourage the high number of no-shows that would have been experienced with any kind of no-penalty booking process. $5 is just enough to show interest, and to give them a little bit of money in case of a no show, but not punitive enough that people won't hold a spot in advance.

We use BOOZE IT UP in StM. Just order over the phone or Internet and they deliver or you can collect (and browse). BIU will look to price match and will try and obtain that rare/special bottle of liquor or wine not on their standard menu.

 

The standard Liquor price list link.

http://www.boozeitup-sxm.com/sites/all/themes/framework/content/files/booze-it-up-other-liquors.pdf

 

The standard Wine list link.

http://www.boozeitup-sxm.com/#!/wine-store

this looks great, but is FAR from where the ships dock. Do you take a taxi there? or do they deliver?

Thank you to everyone! I think that I'll be somewhat conservative; I don't like the thought of putting in "too much" and then waiting for a check to be mailed to me.

Say I add some OBC to my account (which I will really be buying through my cruise personalizer) and don't use it all, is it refundable? Why, you ask? It's easier if there is some OBC on the account so DH doesn't get all frugal on me.. and he won't know where it came from... (On our last cruise we had some OBC from the cruiseline so it was 'free money' to him and even then he had a hard time spending it. On this one we don't and I want to avoid any issues :cool:)

Same experience on both the Regal and the Ruby. I guess it all depends on how much you throw in the dryer at one time. Oh yeah, and possibly what heat setting you use. :confused:

I have found that if the dryer does not dry in one cycle that you can pick up the phone in the laundry room and have a "mechanic" come by; they will use their magic key and pop open the box and hit the reset to give you another cycle to get it dry. I do two loads (light/dark) mid-cruise and usually they are fine w/ one dryer cycle (on high) but occasionally the dryers are not up to speed in which case I will call for a "jump start."

Thank you for the pics; my DH would be crazy if I posted a picture of him shirtless... (then again, you might not want to see it! :rolleyes:)

So if we pay at final payment date and the price drops what does Princess do? Do they offer any OBC or refund? I know other lines do that we've cruised with have given us extra OBC.

In my experience, no. Last year we booked a Balcony Gty for our anniversary cruise which was a 5 nighter (since we didn't want to sail the day after the wedding until our kids were back at college safely). The price dropped by less than 1/2 after final payment. No OBC or refund and to make matters worse we didn't get an assignment until the day before the cruise and it was the (in my opinion) worst possible balcony assignment (literally the forward most balcony). It was a real bummer.

However it was one of those situations where it was the only date/sailing that would work and I saw that there was TONS of availability when I booked the GTY. Was hoping that they'd assign those cabins before doing a "fill the ship." Lesson learned.

I've used Nativeways several times; they don't overfill their boats like some of the other companies. Highly recommended!

very disappointing :( but thanks for the info

how were you notified, may I ask? We are on the Regal on the 10th so I'm curious if our port order will be changed, too.

bumping.... as I, too, would like to know -- for the Regal in January 7 days.

I was just emailed an upgrade offer on the 12/17/15 Emerald sailing. I have 3 inside cabins booked, and 2 of those were offered an upgrade to an ocean view or obstructed ocean view for $49 per person. I have 2 questions:

 

1) Since only 2 of my 3 rooms were sent the email, can I call and request that all 3 rooms be extended the upgrade offer? Has anyone had ever asked for something like this before? and

2) Do you think this is worth taking?

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

On an 8 day sailing I'd JUMP at the $49 upsell offer (unless there were kids in some of the rooms and you had deliberately selected cabins right next to each other in which case you probably can't/won't move). Otherwise it's a bargain, IMO.

We just received our Moveover Offer. We are a family of 8 in 5 cabins. We purchased three category BD cabins and selected our cabins. We purchased guarantees for the other two cabins (one was a DD, and the other DF). As of this morning the guarantees have yet to be assigned. The three BD cabins received the following offer:

 

Change the sailing to either:

24 January 2016

31 January 2016

 

Receive the following:

50% cruise fare refund (as refundable onboard credit)

FREE UPGRADE to a mini suite.

Air change fees up to $150 per person

With no discussion of the other 2 cabins?

Given the # of people going and the possibility that you are flying in, I (personally) wouldn't do it. Christmas with your family with the beautiful decorations and special events (not to mention if there are school or college aged kids) is priceless and could not be replicated later in the month.

There will be a ton of GF options available on the island. There is an extensive fruit bar and as prior poster said burgers/hot dogs/other proteins can be had w/out Bread. There are pre-made salads but there are also separate "fixin's" for the burgers (sliced tomatoes, lettuce, etc) if you are worried about any ingredients in the salad dressings for the marinated salads.

Thank you for posting. I would have been really peeved if the room steward entered my cabin so early on the last morning WITH the privacy tag in the door. Clearly he had seen them leave, but that's when I likely would have had my stuff out of the room safe and packed up (but now accessible.) Mental note to self.

 

The check in table was way off to the side and I never saw anyone stop there to ticket for extra bottles re: corkage.

 

So while none of us smuggled or brought more than our standard allowance, short of wheeling your own barrels through security I think you can bring as much as you want in practical application.

 

Your mileage may vary. this is not an endorsement to break rules. I am just reporting what I experienced.

How I wish this were the case, however on our last boarding at Port Everglades hubby and I were both directed to the table. We each had 2 bottles but we had two cabins (one was for the kids). We both had to show boarding docs. I think it really varies day by day!

I've got to chime against of those folks who pack wine in their checked luggage -- I would have to say that I would be LIVID if someone packed wine in their luggage and it broke and spilled into or onto my luggage/clothes/etc. Princess would have ZERO liability and I'd be stuck with stinky clothes. Why would anyone risk having broken glass and wine in their luggage?

I ALWAYS carry on wine. Back in the good old days a lot of it - whatever bottles I hadn't enjoyed I'd give to the maître d', waiters, whomever (in a 'better safe than sorry' and have too much mode!)

I'm still going to carry on my wine in January. If they want to charge me, fine. It's still WAY cheaper to pay $15 to carry on what I like.

So happy that the upgrade fairy visited you! The more experiences I read about the Less I believe that the fairy is random in her sprinkling of good luck. There is a human behind there making these decisions based on the potential future benefit of the upgrade (and getting or keeping you hooked!)

In either case, hooray! Enjoy your balcony.

Wow! I wish I lucked into flash sales!

As PP have said, you take the chance. Last year we did not receive our assignment until the PIER and it was (IMO) the WORST balcony cabin on the ship. But that's the Cat we paid for. What really burned my behind was that there were still the "names" of the folks who had been originally assigned the cabin on the door and they were first time cruisers. THEY HAD BEEN BUMPED UP and upgraded and we got their cabin. If it was just a matter of getting what you paid for, I'd grumble and move on. But it was a slap in my face (but probably a wise move on Princess's part to try to make new guests happy)......

Sorry for your loss; we just lost my Mother-in-law this week and had to cut short travel plans ourselves.

I think it's terrific that Princess responded as they did! Kudos, Princess!

That's disappointing. On our last cruise, with Carnival, they were putting stickers on any towels left on unattended chairs. You had 30 minutes to return and if you didn't they'd take your stuff and store it at the beach towel pickup area. They didn't mess around as we saw 3 or 4 unhappy people come back to their chair after an hour only to find someone else in the chair and their stuff gone. That seems perfectly fair to me.

!

Oh how I WISH Princess would do this!!! I am on the Regal in January and chair hogs make my blood boil.

Can anyone use it? do you make reservations? Is there a day rate? Looks lovely!