Torfamm

It seems like you made the perfect choice for you. For people who aren’t going to drink specialty coffees, bottled water or alcoholic beverages, the packages aren’t likely to be a cost saver

Princess helpfully posts that information on the screens in the elevator lobbies on port days so it’s easy to grab a photo of it as you leave

I’ve contacted them for information on a tour and found that they are very slow to respond. I finally got details sent by contacting them on WhatsApp after no response to the “contact us” feature on their website or to email. It concerns me when I can’t get get a reply in a timely manner.

I agree that trying to make reservations one night at a time is worth a try. Alternatively, I would go at my preferred time without a reservation. Making 2 reservations for tables for two won’t guarantee that you won’t wait anyway if you want to sit together. You can also ask about reservations at the MDR on the first night.

A recommendation for easy small group tours you can join in Kusadasi and Ephesus is Ephesus Shuttle owned by Curio Travel https://www.ephesusshuttle.com/ This mini-group tour to Ephesus, including the Terrace Houses, was well worth it. The max is 10 people https://www.ephesusshuttle.com/tours/mini-group-tour-1-option-with-terrace-houses?tur_id=22 We also enjoyed the mini-group tour using the tram in Istanbul, it is also capped at 10 people. https://www.ephesusshuttle.com/tours/mini-group-tour-with-tram-max-10-guests-with-private-option-ancient-hippodrome-blue-mosque-topkapi-palace-st-sophia-grand-bazaar?tur_id=40

That will depend on your nationality. See the links in post #6

This is definitely not true for all ports.

A tour can be a good option if you’re far from whatever your destination is. For example, Barcelona is very easy to do on your own since the ship docks right there, Rome or Florence involve some travel from the port. I will almost always pick a private or small group tour over a big bus. Starting out by checking your roll call to see if anyone has already organized something is a great suggestion if you don’t want to have to do the planning. Other good resources to find small group tours worldwide include Tours by Locals, Shore Excursions Group, Viator, Get Your Guide and By Locals. In Italy, I can recommend https://www.bellaitaliatour.com and https://www.italytours.eu for small group shore excursions. ItalyTours.eu also has small group shore excursions out of Marseilles. If you want to just get transportation to a city from a port, like Rome from Civittavechia, or Florence from Livorno, “on your own tours” from Princess can be a good option.

They definitely have orange juice in the buffet. I’m not sure what other varieties are available.

On the last couple of ships I was on it was at a pool bar only in the morning and they had a variety of fruit and vegetable combinations.

We had the best luck at Bellini’s and the Crown Grill Bar.

If you cancel now you should probably have the money back on the gift cards before you leave but you will just have to keep checking the balances on all of your cards periodically to figure that out if you’re not sure what card they were charged on. Waiting until you are on the ship would likely result in OBC based on my experience with onboard cancellations.

Whether you need a visa depends on your nationality. US citizens do need a visa for Vietnam. Ha Long Bay is normally the port for Hanoi. Cai Lan is one port used in Ha Long Bay, the more common one is the Ha Long International Cruise Port. Both are a part of the Hon Gai Seaport complex. The list below of the seaport complexes where the ports Celebrity uses are located comes from an email they sent out to people on an upcoming sailing. You can see the full text below. There are helpful links there. Ho Chi Minh (Vung Tau Seaport) Chan May (Chan May Seaport) Nha Trang (Nha Trang Seaport) Ha Long Bay (Hon Gai Seaport) Da Nang (Da Nang Seaport) Dear Guest, We're looking forward to welcoming you onboard your upcoming Celebrity Cruises sailing! Before we set sail, we have important details to share regarding your travel documentation. PASSPORT As a reminder, your passport must be up-to-date and valid for at least 6 months after your sailing concludes. Additionally, all guests will need to bring printed copies of their passport's photo page for each port of call visited. We highly recommend also having a soft copy or picture of this page saved on your phone. Certain guests may be required to have two (2) blank pages on their passport for certain visas/visa waivers. VISA Vietnam Most guests are required to apply for and receive a Vietnam visa prior to arriving to the pier. • Visa-free • Certain nationalities are exempt or waived from the visa process. We have put together information to help you get started on securing your travel docs for Vietnam. We highly recommend staying up to date with your local embassy or consulate as travel requirements may change. ◦ some information to see if you can travel to Vietnam visa-free. • E-visa ◦ All countries and territories are eligible for e-visa. However, certain countries may take longer period to have their e-visa approved. (Please ensure to apply your e-visa 2 weeks prior to the sailing). ◦ Once you are ready, apply for your E-visa. • Important note: Visa on Arrival (VOA) will not be offered for this sailing. Guests must secure any necessary visas and have all required travel documents prior to boarding. Guests who require an E-visa or a physical visa must apply no later than 2 weeks prior to our sail date to ensure timely approval and delivery. Be sure that when you apply, you provide your name as it reflects on your travel documentation. Additionally, you'll need to provide the seaport for entry and exit. For our sailing, entry is Vung Tau Seaport and our seaport for exit it is Hon Gai Seaport. Guests who enter incorrect information risk being denied boarding, so please be sure to double check all your information before submitting your visa application. Hong Kong Many of our guests may also qualify for visa-free travel to Hong Kong. Please review your country's requirements here (open the Part I & II sections for the full breakdown). When debarking in Hong Kong, be sure to keep a printed color copy or a digital copy of your passport photo page. You'll need this to complete immigration before returning to the ship. We hope this information helps you navigate your travel document requirements. If you have any further questions, please reach out to your travel advisor, yourpreferred visa specialist, or contact us directly. Sincerely, Celebrity Cruises

1. Balcony partitions can usually be opened by your cabin steward if the cabins are not separated by a fire door. 2. the Sanctuary can only be booked onboard 3. I really enjoy Take 5, it’s my favorite spot in the evening 4. Coffee makers are not available or allowed 5. You are correct about the casual dining, the pool grill and pizza place are free for everyone Hope you have a great cruise!

Princess has the same requirement that everyone in the party have a password if only one adult is traveling with one or more minors. It’s very important to check your cruise line’s document requirements along with the requirements of your ports.

The math is not complicated. What is complicated is predicting what you will want to spend money on. Never having been on a Princess Cruise, never having been on a cruise over 7 days in length (16 days), or with so many sea days (more sea days than port days), or any cruise in over a decade (so much has changed), I have no idea how things are going to go. I'm used to cruising where all drinks but alcoholic ones are included, where there are no specialty restaurants and only two seatings for each meal, etc., etc. It's really hard to know how many drinks we'll drink that aren't included, if we'll even go to casual dining, etc. Yes, for sure there are lots of questions if it’s your first cruise with Princess. My take on the Plus Package is this - crew appreciation and Wi-Fi total $31 per person, per day for most cabins. That means you are spending an additional $29/day on everything else if you get the plus package. A specialty coffee is about $4, water and soda are $3.50, beer or mixed drinks are maybe $7 to $15 and wine is about $15. One of each per day plus 18% automatic gratuity is going to have you coming out ahead even if you assign no value to the other benefits.

Have you contacted your travel insurance issuer? I would think you’d have to file a claim with them before anything else can happen.

A passport card is accepted as a government issued form of identification at any port in the way a drivers license is. There’s no concern in using one for that purpose. Losing a DL can be an huge issue when traveling, especially if you need to rent a car, and replacing one costs as much as a passport card in my state. Lost passport cards are just inconvenient and don’t require immediate replacement or even replacement at all. That’s worth $3 a year to me.

No library on the Enchanted and there were no announced book swap events when were on board. I’m curious, have you tried a Paperwhite Kindle? I was really resistant, but have come to really love mine. I can’t stand reading on a tablet, but the ability to read without a light and the small size make using a Kindle worth the negatives of giving up physical books. If you haven’t tried it, it might be worth it, at least for traveling.

A passport card is useful if you are crossing the border by land into Canada or Mexico. Carrying it ashore in most ports in the world you are kidding yourself. It is not good for air travel. Most ports are not going to know what it is. No country but the US has passport cards. Ports in the Caribbean might be familiar with it but not all. Martinique and Guadaloupe for example don't accept passport cards I carry a passport card as my required “government issued ID” when going ashore. It’s much less of a nuisance to lose that than a driver’s license.

And even if you don't the waiters in the specialty restaurants will charge meals to different accounts if you ask. Yes, good point. If they don't want to reserve before the cruise, they can possible wait and deal with it onboard.

I've never heard of a book club on most cruises but I know there was one on the World Cruise last year.

You can link your bookings and reserve one table for all of you.

Some of this might depend on how long your cruise is. On a short 4 night for example, the premium package can make some sense to get the 2 specialty dining meals along with whatever other benefits you might enjoy - free room service, use of Ocean Ready, bottled water, exercise classes etc. On a longer cruise, I wouldn't imagine that you would come out ahead. There is no reason you can't book specialty dining with your friends if they have a meal credit and you don't. We've done it and had no problem.

E-visas are available for entry at seaports as well as airports . It's a good warning about river cruises though. The challenge for ports for ocean cruises is knowing if your port is a part of a larger seaport. They don't seem to publish lists of the component ports for each seaport. For example Phu My, the port used by Celebrity for Ho Chi Minh, is a component port of the Vung Tau Seaport.