WVHillbilly

POF1234:  Thank you for your review, I have a few questions about the Royal Princess. 

(1)  How were the views from your balcony?   

(2)  Did you go to the Lido Deck or Sun Deck for your outside viewing?  If so was it easy to move side to side and find a spot to take photos?

(3)  Did the ship do a 360 turn at Hubbard Glacier?  Heard the Royal couldn't get to close (may have been do to weather) how was the glacier viewing on your sailing?

On 9/14/2019 at 11:54 AM, POF1234 said:

 

Just posting now in Princess forum.  I grew up in WV and graduated from WVU.  I thought I knew mountains from West Virginia, wait until you see Alaska. 

Great looking forward to reading it.

8 hours ago, POF1234 said:

Just got off the Royal Princess in Alaska.  We also did the land tour since we are East Coast and not sure when or if we will make it out there. 

 

I'm not a big cruiser and I LOVED Princess.  I'm ready to go again.  Alaska is so beautiful - I just sat and looked at the scenery. 

We are booked on the Royal Princess next May/June for a cruisetour.  Please consider doing a review of your cruisetour would love to hear your experiences.

10 hours ago, Vesper2112 said:

Being COMPLETELY new to all of this, and after reading all the opinions about it, it seems it'd be best to shoot RAW and JPG as a "just in case". As many have said, memory is cheap. I'm going on a trip next week and I can't see a downside to shooting in both since I don't have the experience that you all have. I'm "ok" in photoshop, but I'm thinking that I'll have the shots as jpegs for posting stuff on facebook during or soon after the trip, but will have the RAW files in case I want to mess with them later (in which I'll have all the time I want to do that). Thanks!

I found that I prefer the raw files as it gives me the latitude to tweak the image into what I think the pic should have looked like.  I'm often not shooting at the ideal time and am taking shots quickly and may not get the settings correctly.

Nighttime Photos of the fountains in Charleston, SC.

Yes please do a review, we have booked the 17 day Connoisseur Cruise Tour next May and would love to hear about your experiences.

masterdrago;  Thanks for the information I currently have several handles a Joby gorilla pod clone and extendable selfie stick.  I also purchased the external battery handle by Vidpro from Amazon because i was concerned about being able to recharge the batteries on an excursion.  I will be trying it out later this month on a land trip to see how it performs.  Also have the chest and head straps.

I've only done a few videos so i need to get out and use it more, the plan is for me to train the wife to use the GoPro while i take stills with my DSLR.  I have taken a few stills with the GoPro but prefer the results from my DSLR.

How many extra batteries did you take on your day long excursions?  

Hi really nice videos, especially enjoyed the 5 day land portion one.  I also recently purchased a GoPro Hero 7 Black, to take on our Alaska CruiseTour next May/June and have a few questions for you.

1. Are you using Quik to edit the pictures and videos?

2. Are the stills taken with the GoPro?

3. Are you using the GoPro with a handle? or what kind of mount did you use?

4. How did you handle the battery life on your excursions?

I wasn't having much luck in editing multiple videos into one longer one in Quik and finally purchased Windows Movie Maker and found it to be easier to use.  Again thanks for sharing your videos and looking forward to more of them.

Here is a picture of the fountain looking back toward the port.  The blue roofed building is "Festive Place".   It's not a long walk between Festive Place and the Fountain; although we had trouble finding the exit from the port.  The first gate we came to was the correct one, but was closed with a guard in front of it.  It wasn't till we passed it the second time that we saw someone returning and we walked out.

New cruiser with 3 cruises under my belt, purchased DX package with all three, two pre-cruise and one on the ship.  Not a heavy drinker so I need to have the price low enough to cover 3-4 mixed drinks per day to make it worthwhile for me. 

Managed to get the fantastic deal on my HOS Feb 2020 and GOS Sep 2020 sailings, The HOS sailing was going for $57 per day, wasn't going to purchase it at that price.  The GOS sailing is a 9 day and I got drink fatigue on my last 9 day, so that one was going to be a hard sell too.   But when I saw the unbelievable price of $18, I jumped on it knowing that it was to good to be true.  Was really glad RCI honored their mistake; If they hadn't it would have been "Oh Well. win some lose some"; but by them owning up to their mistake along with what I consider more than fair compensation on several less than perfect cruises, It will be difficult for me to look elsewhere for a cruise.  So I think it will be a win/win for RCI.  Now to find a 2021 cruise to book while on HOS.

Saw this on FB , yelled for the DW to grab my wallet and snatched it up for our Feb 2020 HOS and Sep 2020 GOS.  

Ship -  Majesty of the Seas

Deck -  5

Stateroom # -  550

Stateroom Category –  2N  Ocean  View

Starboard or Port Side -  Port 

Quiet Stateroom? - Yes, did hear person snoring next door at times. 

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - Yes

Balcony View - No

Balcony Size? -  N/A 

Was wind a problem? -  N/A

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? -  N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? -  N/A

Any other comments? -  Majesty cabins are on the small size, but we knew that going in.  Having the beds together, one side will be against the wall the other side had ample room to get in and out of bed.  Storage room was also less than we have had before.  This caused the desk to be cluttered most of the time.  Location of the cabin was great as it's very convenient to Café Latte-Tudes and the Schooner Bar.  Below photos are of the room.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the port side balcony.  We are booked in a port side balcony on the Royal for a Southbound in June 2020.  This will be our first Princess cruise and fifth cruise in total.  Interested in hearing your experiences on this ship and cruise.

Wanted to come back and share our experience with the Holiday Inn Express on 17th Street.  After gathering our luggage we made our way to the hotel shuttle pick up points, (this is the same spot that you can catch an Uber/Lyft.  I called the hotel and told them I wanted to get a shuttle ride to the airport, they asked if I could hold and put me on hold.  After waiting about 5 minutes, they came back on line and I was disconnected; I called back and was immediately placed on hold before I could tell them why I was calling.  After about 5 minutes I hung up and called for an Uber.  My Uber arrived in about 6 minutes and was off to the hotel.  Cost of Uber $13.38 + tip.  They had two clerks checking people in and there were maybe 4 people ahead of us.  At first they couldn't find my reservation, I pulled out my confirmation and the lady found it, it had been misfiled.  By this time I was not very pleased with our experience, our room was in tower 2 and was very nice and comfortable.

After settling in we walked to the Publix to pick up a couple bottles of wine, 12 pack of water and a few items we forgot.  Once back in the room, I decided to try and get a soda to drink, housekeeping staff did not speak enough English to understand what we wanted.  After wondering up and down the halls on several floors and asking staff we encountered, we found a vending machine it wouldn't take my money, so I gave up and drank some water.

For supper we opted to walk to 15th Street Fisheries which was about a 1 mile from the hotel.  It was a long hot walk, that made the drinks and food that much better.  I'd recommend the food, we ate dockside ordering two appetizers for our meal. 

Breakfast in the morning was okay, they had cereals, yogurt, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, breads, juice and coffee.

In the morning we called for an Uber to the port around 10:00 and was in the terminal by 10:30.  Cost of Uber $8.16 + tip.  The driver seemed unfamiliar with taking passengers to the port and had to basically show him where to drop us off.

Bottom Line:  I would consider this hotel in the future but would not attempt to use the hotel shuttle.

On ‎4‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 9:11 PM, cruisegus said:

Have stayed at this Holiday Inn on 17th a number of times and i don't think its that bad (don't expect resort quality), but rooms were clean.  Breakfast is not that great almost your typical fare this chain (not going to get the cook to order that you do a Embassy Suite - but you also should be paying their room prices either.  I have had pretty good luck with their shuttle from the airport, but Uber to port rather than pay their hefty shuttle to port price.  Ask for a room in the new section.  For just an over nite you should be fine.

Thank you, coffee, juice and cereal is just fine for breakfast.  I will probably use their shuttle to get from the airport to the hotel, but will definitely use uber to get to the port.

We have booked the Holiday Inn Express for this coming Friday as our pre cruise hotel.  I had not seen the comments about the hotel shuttle, I was torn between using the shuttle or Uber/Lyft between the airport and the hotel.  Sounds like Uber/Lyft will be the best option.

4 hours ago, kcbookworm said:

The crew was very good,.  I feel like the service on Symphony was better - but the service on Symphony was exemplary!  We enjoyed the Schooner Bar and Boleros in the evening and also went to the theater shows.  There was also a late night adult comedy show that was great  We were off the ship basically 2 1/2 days, but while on the ship, we really enjoyed the upper decks at the front of the ship.  And there are some great chairs under the movie screen by the pool!  It is quieter up there and a great place to people watch.  We arrived about 11:00 am and were onboard by 11:30 am.  Checkin was very quick.  We really enjoyed the Park Café on Oasis and Symphony - so I will point out that the Compass Café on Majesty was like a small version.  One day they even had the carved roast beef sandwiches!

Thank you, we loved the Schooner Bar on the Grandeur and the Majesty looks very similar so looking forward to a few drinks there and also would like to have a few dances at Boleros.  Planning on a few lite lunches at Compass Deli the soups and sandwiches were great on the Grandeur.  

How did you like Key West?  I was there in the late 70's and looking forward to see it again.

We were on the Grandeur this past December, our stop on Miami was shortened by 2 hours, due to weather and a late departure from Port Canaveral.  We had purchased a Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour on Groupon.  Lil Havana is not walking distance from the port.  We saw Domino Park, Bay of Pigs Memorial, strolled along the streets and had lunch all in about 2 hours.  I agree that there isn't a lot to see or do in Lil Havana but still glad we did it.

We set sail on the Majesty next Saturday and this will be our third cruise.  The first being the Oasis and we were wowed by her sheer size, shows and things to do; the second was the Grandeur and we were wowed with the friendly crew and the intimacy of the ship.   What was your experience with the crew?  Where was your favorite place to spend the day and evenings?  What time did you board on embarkation day?

The cherry blossoms are in bloom at the Tidal Basin in Washington DC.

We are actually staying at the Holiday Inn Express, do you have to call for the shuttle or are they just waiting at the airport?  Only reason to use uber is because I don't really want to have to wait.  Were traveling Southwest and they use terminal 1, so to catch a hotel shuttle or uber you cross the street towards the parking garage right?

9 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

FFL is Fairfield Iowa. The Uber would be extreme...

 

FLL is Ft Lauderdale.

  Hah Ha, yeah I doubt there are many flying to Iowa to take a cruise.  Thanks for the correction.

11 hours ago, JohninDC said:

Yes!  UberX should be under $10 t o PE

Thanks, I assumed it would be better, is there a specific pick up point at FLL?

Arriving at FFL the day before our cruise and staying the night at a hotel along 17th Street.  The hotel offers a free shuttle between the airport and hotel, but would an Uber be faster or more convenient?

We did it in April of last year, lots of people dressing up and the drinks flowed freely. They were too sweet for my taste so I just nursed one, no way to get anything else unless you carried one in with you. There were some type of food available but we didn't go up to see what was offered.  The show it self was funny and entertaining.