sashas_mom

Thank you, that would be great. I was getting help with the spreadsheet from Renmar but he must be very busy. He was going to post a link to his site. If that doesn't happen soon, I will see what I can do.

Have a wonderful cruise.:)

I had a similar experience recently on the Sapphire BVE. We didn't get the pictures and since we don't drink wine my husband ordered a coke. Our credit card was charged for the coke. I sent an email to customer relations explaining what happened, and asked that they credit us back for the coke. I got a call from them a few days later and the representative was very apologetic and offered a shipboard credit on our next cruise, because we didn't get the advertised pictures as well as the problem with the charge to our card. I was very impressed with their generous offer and excellent customer service.

Wow! How scary! Where was the epicenter?

Four of us will be on the Grand Princess on 9/7 as well. It sounds like a really wonderful trip. This will be our first time going to Alaska and I can't wait. The excursion that you went on sounds fabulous. Will have to convince the DH to spend that much on an excursion but it sounds like it would be worth it. I wonder what the weather will be like in September. We have no idea what to pack. Sorry for the rambling, I am so happy to read about our cruise, and now I am getting excited. Would love to go on an excursion to see whales. Thanks again for the review!!

I suggest you look in the ports of call section of cruise critic for Alaska. It will have lots,of helpful information about what to pack and generally what to expect. I can tell you, you will want to get some wide angled binoculars for whale watching from the ship. We saw whales every day but it takes patience and determination. Big Five had them on sale for $20.00 and we were so glad we got them.

Dave has gone to bed. :) Here are the photos I have:

 

 

 

Hi Pam,

The last picture doesn't look like the sideways I've seen. Which cabin is that?

Progressive eating tour? What island and what is the name of the tour? Haven't seen that and it sounds like something my husband would enjoy:)

Thanks.

For Princess Cays, Grand Turk, St. Thomas and Grand Cayman you can check out my blog for some ideas for doing things on your own. We used a ship's tour in Cozumel. Tags are on the right side.

 

http://www.pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com

Thank you so much!!!

Don't want to hijack this thread, but if any of you did your own thing on your Caribbean cruise and posted a thread about it, would you share the link? We are doing Eastern and Western for the first time and don't do snorkeling or lay on the beaches. Any suggestions of where to look for ideas would be welcomed.

We loved the Royal on the TA so much booked the Regal for the Caribbean.

Thanks.

Probably a weight support issue.

No comment:o. LOL

All kidding aside, that's a very reasonable explanation. Thanks, Dave, it makes sense to me:)

We love the sea days and not having to fly. It will be our 4th time in November. Would love some suggestions on doing it on your own if not doing excursions. We are not water sports people or beach goers, but love the beauty if Hawaii, just wondering if there is something wonderful we should know about and may have missed?

Have a wonderful cruise.

Why couldn't they make it the whole width? Water shortage?:D

Also, when we were on the Royal the pools were too cold. I think in an effort to be "green" they didn't care about the passengers turning blue:eek: at least being "green" was the explanation I got from the supervisor I spoke to at the retreat pool. I miss the "indoor" pools on the older ships. A lit easier on the skin, providing some protection from the sun and heated. I do live so many of the features on the Riyal/Regal though.

We found the food in the buffet on the Royal to be excellent and wish it was consistently that good on all the ships. It was even hot! It was so good we rarely ate dinner in the dining room, something we've never done before in 14 cruises.

We did the tour during the full transit on the Island. It was great! Sign up as soon as you board. Don't go to your cabin first. It's first come/first served and we boarded early (among the first group in priority area) and there were already 6 people on the list. They only took 12 on our tour.

 

It was great! You can see so much sea life from the bridge! They serve champagne and canapes while you tour the kitchens. The tour is long, ours was several hours. Be prepared to walk up and down narrow stairs and you have to wear closed toe shoes.

 

Be sure to keep spare room in your suitcase because you will be given gifts. They put my suitcase over by 5#! :)

Where do you sign up for the Ultimate tour?

The Grand had a standard, routine dry dock. Dry docks are for work that can't be done while passengers are onboard. Inside maintenance is done constantly. Most of the dry dock work is nothing passengers would notice or think about: hull scraping and repainting, thrusters checked and cleaned, engines checked and maintained, electronics updated, propellers checked and polished, public lounge soft goods deep cleaned, etc.

 

All ships show wear and tear. After all, not only are they subject to the elements but also thousands of passengers are walking on carpets (often with muddy or sandy shoes), putting their feet on chairs and otherwise causing wear and tear every week.

 

Everything is cleaned constantly and is in working order. If something in your cabin isn't, let your steward know. After all, even at home, light bulbs burn out. If you're expecting a brand new ship that looks as though no one has ever been on it, you'll be very disappointed.

 

I personally never care whether the balcony railing needs shellacking, there's a small stain on the carpet, there are rust spots on the hull, etc. That's meaningless to me no matter how much I spend for my cruise. After all, my home looks "lived in." So do cruise ships. It's the "living" that matters.

Love how you think, Pam:):)

Hi All

 

Hotel charge built into fare

Can be shown the way taxes and port fees are.

 

If Princess needs more income then raise the fare.

 

Offer an all inclusive price for those that want it. Giving so much drink. A number Spa treatments etc.

 

Or make one ship all inclusive and see what happens.

 

Yours Shogun

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Forums mobile app

Hi Shogun,

With all due respect, What you are suggesting sounds very expensive to me, especially when you mention spa treatments" etc. We wouldn't be able to cruise, something we both love doing, and exclusively with Princess. I'd rather pay for a spa treatment separately, if I can afford it.

Please don't suggest they raise their fares, not everyone who loves cruising on Princess would be able to continue to cruise. We can chose if we want something extra or not.

As for the recent charge debacle, I think it was,ridiculous and just wrong to spring it on the passengers of Regal unannounced, but that has been resolved for the moment.

I always tip for room service.

In fact, I preferred the Pizza on Lido. However, Alfredo's has an expanded menu only on Royal and Regal and it is wonderful. The ambiance is beautiful too, but I wouldn't pay extra for it.

Agree 100% RDC! Why raise the fare....I rarely use room service and let it be my decision if I want to eat at a pay venue!!

I agree too. I don't want to give Princess any ideas about raising the fares to cover these things. I'd rather choose what I want to spend our money on and leave the fares lower.

I do thank Princess for listening.

I wonder if those on the Regal will get their portfolio credited? Doubt it. We are just a minority on the ship, wonder if they even know about the uproar that occurred by faithful Princess cruisers and Cruise Critic.

Royal is the lowest rated (by far) ship in the fleet. Regal is essentially her twin and will likely have a similarly poor approval rating. So why is Regal being targeted for unpopular up charges? This cannot possibly increase its favorability rating; anyone could predict this. Could it be that there is an internal battle at Princess over the design of new ships. Maybe if Regal breaks the 65% level for "loved it" it means more ships like Regal. But, if it doesn't, maybe that means more ships with reasonable sized balconies, central stairs and a promenade deck that isn't "in name only."

 

It is hard to explain these new up charges any other way. Ten dollars for Alfredo's to keep the crowds down? What crowds? I have never seen crowds at Alfredo's on any of the other Princess ships that have them. Have any of you? We don't drink wine or soda, so we will not be going to Alfredo's if this up charge goes fleet wide. Frankly, I prefer Prego's pizza.

.

I also like the Prego's Pizza more, however, I don't think you can compare Alfredo's on the other ships to the one on the Royal/Regal. The ambiance is so beautiful as well as the location. The new additional food choices were so good we ate there 4 times on our 18 day TA, sometimes for dinner. If they are doing the new charge on the other ships, which I'm not happy about, I don't know why unless they offer the same new dishes. I would love to see the menu expand in the other Alfredo's, it is awesome!

We have never had a problem in 15 cruises. Laptop left in cabin. iPads left in cabin. jewelry on desk top (costume jewelry, but not inexpensive). Our tour tickets in a drawer. Cash for,room service tips in the drawer. This is why these reports surprised me. The fact that the Grand has had a few reports that have been written about recently, and we are sailing on the Grand in the Fall, made me concerned. I will be more cautious now, that's for certain, however, I have always found our cabin stewards to be honest, hard working people and it's a shame a few dishonest people have to ruin it for others.

Thanks. That makes sense to me:)

When we did a b2b to Alaska we had to change cabins. We carried our hanging clothes to the new cabin and brought the empty hangers back to the first cabin. Then we switched the drawers from the first cabin. All we had to pack is what was on shelves, which wasn't much. Fortunately the cabins were in about the same location but on opposite sides of the ship so it was easy. However, we found out later that our steward could have brought one of those luggage carts like they use in hotels and that would have made it even easier.

See above

Why is this 14 day cruise treated so differently than any other? If we get shipboard credits for being stockholders and from our FCC I don't understand why it would only apply to the first 7 days when we are booked for 14 days, not a b2b. The FCC gives you credit based on your cabin and length of cruise. They gave me credit based on a 14 day cruise, not 7. So why wouldn't it last for the duration of the cruise?

I have a good agent but she was surprised they gave me the cabin I wanted when they had them blocked for the two 7 day cruises. She to,d me she's been turned down for that in the past. I only called myself because she wasn't available and I wanted to get it settled. I just checked my personalizer and I also am showing 2 cruises. Since we are Elite it won't do anything for us regarding cruise credits, however I've read elsewhere that we will get new set ups for the second leg even though we are booked as a 14 day cruise, so that's great!

We were on the Grand this month to Hawaii, and our friends noticed that the envelopes they were preparing for tips ( that they had placed under books, etc.,) had been gone through, and the cabin steward took his, even though it was buried under a lot of other papers.

Another friend noticed her clothing had been looked through.

Hi Julia,

This is wrong on so many levels. I think someone at Princess needs to know about this. In all our cruises we've never experienced any problems, but I can see the Grand has someone, or a few of the crew who are just not measuring up to their standards. The cabin steward had no right to do that, and I definitely would have talked to them about it. No, I don't want to see someone lose their job or get into trouble, but this was very inappropriate and the fact that your friend had an experience too, makes me wonder what is going on with members of that crew?

I'm so sorry this theft happened to the OP. We were on the Grand at the same time. We put our wallets and passports in the safe immediately. However, there was one time that we returned to the cabin to find the door wasn't securely closed (could have been us or the steward). We found that the door needed to be slammed shut to latch properly! Also, our verandah door (Caribe deck) wasn't secure, couldn't be locked properly. After reporting this to the cabin steward (who said he already knew), we arrived back the next afternoon to find our main door to the hallway not working with the key and finally realized it was ajar again. A maintenance person was in the cabin repairing the sliding door to the verandah. The sliding door did lock after the repair, but the handle was still very "loose". It was a short cruise; otherwise I think it would have been an ongoing issue to try to have our cabin doors secure! Obviously we were not terribly impressed, unfortunately.

Thanks for the heads up, as we will be on the Grand in the Fall. May I ask what cabin you were in?

Thanks.