ladychater

Oof, I don't know that you'll find much.  I just got off the Diamond Princess.  The problem is that, even if you have a bus that can take you around, pretty much every shrine requires walking up stairs.  Most of them are unpaved or unevenly paved and stairs seem to always be involved.  My big takeaway from Japan was that it's not a great place for those eitb limited mobility.  I kept thinking that my Mom would never be able to see so many of the places that we went to.

9 minutes ago, memoak said:

If that is your view than I would not dine outside my house or even trust a butcher or produce manager in a local grocery. We have been on over 60 cruises and have yet to have a food emergency on any of them as long as we are diligent 

I shouldn't have to be "diligent.". It would be ever so simple for Princess to label the food.  Then the servers and customers would know what to eat and what not to.  I feel like you're being a defensive of Princess because this isn't an issue that affects you.  Don't reply to me, I don't care what you have to say, as you don't care about my concerns.  

On 4/9/2024 at 4:46 AM, Paula_MacFan said:

Agreed -- it took me about 10 seconds to open the app and look under Profile. 

I did this.  No waiter I've encountered has been aware (I couldn't get the same table every night).  They don't know what food is or isn't vegetarian.  Ask 2 waiters, you'll get two different answers.  I'm telling you, Princess does not care.  If you have food allergy/religious/ethnical issues with eating certain foods, this is not the place you want to be.

I'm sitting on a Princess cruise right now and it is not a good place to be a vegetarian/vegan.  It's day 2 of the cruise.  Last night we only got the vegan menu because I told the waiter that I was sure there was a vegan menu, he then asked someone else and they brought it. It had 1 starter and 1 entree. In the MDR, menus have a symbol meaning vegetarian that they put beside the foods.  But what you see on the menu and what you see on the app don't match, so which is right?  I would think the Caesar salad isn't vegetarian, but the menu says it is.  In the Dining room I was told that the miso soup wasn't vegetarian.  In the buffet, a server told me it is.  Does anyone working here know or care???  There's no marking in the buffet to let you know if food is vegetarian or not.  You have to guess or ask a server who just looks at it and guesses.  It's awful.  Princess clearly doesn't care.  And on this ship (Diamond) you get a different table and waiter every night, so please don't tell me to work it out with the waiter.

5 minutes ago, twruger said:

https://osanbashi.jp/locker/

 

Thanks.  It looks like they have fewer than 100 lockers in the whole terminal, and many of them are quite small.  I don't think I want to depend on availability of that.

Hi, 

I'm going on the Diamond Princess on April 7th and I'm wondering if anyone has images of the Princess Patters from any Japanese ports.  They provide good information, like the exact port location and information about available shuttle buses that I can't find anywhere online.  If anyone could post them, particularly for Sakata, Aomori, Mt. Fuji and Yokohama, I'd be very grateful.  

Thanks,

LadyChater

I recall that there were nachos (I ordered them often).  Couldn't tell you about anything else.

It really depends on how much you drink and how much time you're going to spend on the ship.  I don't drink much and will be on a 10 day Japanese cruise with only 2 sea days.  There's no way I'll drink $29 worth of beverages on most days, so I'll just buy wifi and drinks a la carte.

I was on the Wonder on May 2022.  While the Solarium Bistro was free, it was just a Mediterranean buffet.  I never saw lobster (and we ate there on elegant night because we were too exhausted for a long meal).  I don't think you'd want your lobster off of a buffet, would you? Cause even if they had it, that's what it would be.  

In May I got an invitation to come to the Effy store for a free gift. It was a tiny red crystal solitaire on a chain. I doubt the chain is silver. This was on the Wonder.  I wore it to dinner, as I had brought any necklaces, but other than that, I doubt I'll wear it again.

I was on the Discovery Princess on the Sept 4th Alaska cruise.  I was surprised at how underwhelming the "production" shows were.  Both of them were just folks singing and dancing to songs we all know.  No special effects or acrobatics or anything flashy at all.  Rock Opera had some fancy costumes but the other show (set I. A coffee shop) didn't even have that.  I was on Carnival Magic a month earlier and their shoes had lasers and special effects and all sorts of cool stuff - and Carnival is meant to be the budget cruise line.  Princess was a real let down.  The singers were quite good but the shows felt really cheap.

It's too far out to have any idea what testing requirements will be, but I'll say this: the hold times for proctored tests are taking much longer than they were, probably because eMed is scaling back it's business as testing becomes less and less of a thing.  Other than cruises (and only very few of them) I don't know anything that's requiring a proctored test anymore.

Just got off the Magic on 8/15.  There was a lone steel drum player who would play along to backing tracks.  He was mostly on the pool deck and sometimes in the Atrium.  The music was really nice.

22 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

Was there a charge for the lox and bagel like there was with the tower? Thanks

 O, the lox were free.  I never paid for the tower in the past, either.  It was free on the Panorama.

1 hour ago, cmukid87 said:

I was just on Magic the last few days.  After the "mega deck party" we walked by the Blue Iguana and they did have chips and salsa out.  Completely shocked me.  Never saw it again, though.

Yes, I saw that during/after the two Deck Parties on the Magic's 8/11 sailing.  The pici de Gallo with chips was a delightful surprise.  TASTY!

I just got off the Magic on 8/15, and the Lox Tower was gone.  They had a bagel with lox, but no gravlax.  Somehow, I soldiered on.  😁

Thanks so much.  I'm soiling my shorts here, thinking "where is this QR code???"  I'm responsible for both my paperwork and my Mom's, I don't want to be the reason why we don't get on the ship.

Hi,

Carnival keeps calling the Bermuda travel authorization a QR Code, but the only thing I have from Bermuda is a form with a barcode on it.  Is this ok?  If anyone could put my mind at ease I'd be very appreciative!

Thanks!

2 hours ago, Stick93 said:

I will be testing because I can see the writing on the wall. But that email is gonna confuse the $&@$ out of people on this cruise. That ship will not leave on time! There will be hundreds without tests from that email. 

I agree 100%.  I listen to a lot of cruise vlogs and read these boards, so I'm very aware of what's  going on.  If I weren't, I would have read the email sent to me by Carnival, referring to me as "Dear Carnival Guest" and assumed that when it said that as  of 8/4 cruises of 5 days or less are exempt from pre-cruise testing and assumed that it applied to my 8/11 Bermuda cruise.  After all, they know where I'm going and they sent me this email!  However, I was fairly certain that it was incorrect, so I clicked  the link to the Have Fun Be Safe policy, which told me that Canada and Bermuda cruises are still requiring testing.  The email made NO mention of exemptions, based on where you're sailing and didn't instruct you to check if your cruise destinations still required testing.  I predict CHAOS at the terminal for the first Bermuda cruise that sets sail after 8/4.

18 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

 

 

I'm surprised no one has reported on its replacement - when you embark, you'll get a code for a special rate (maybe - YMMV) and $50-100 OBC per cabin.   

I don't recall ever getting this and I was just on Carnival in November.  Has anyone else heard of this?

I've been on a few lines and I think Carnival has the most active cruise directors.  By that, I mean that you see them (and hear them) all over the ship, hosting parties and events, being silly, keeping the dance floors filled...it's not really like that on other ships.  Royal is a ton of fun, but it's more the "we're going to entertain you" ship, where Carnival is the "we're going to get you participating" ship.  I've done 4, 5, and 7 days on Carnival and feel like on their ships, there's always a party to be found, whether it's the hairy chest contest by the pool, the 80's dance party on deck, or a concert in the atrium.  If you're looking to have a good time, a good time is being had somewhere most any time from the afternoon to late into the evening.  Of course, if that's not your vibe, there are always plenty of places to sit and chill or have an elegant meal, etc.

Seattle itself provides this service.  Forms should be brought to your cabin before disembarkation where you can provide your flight information and the night before you get off the boat they will give you a tag for your luggage which you'll leave outside your cabin.  If all goes according to plan, you won't see your bag again until the baggage carousel when you arrive at your home airport. I'm about to cruise Alaska on Discovery Princess, too, and Seattle is the first city I've ever sailed into that does this.  I guess they really want people to spend some time in their city.

1 hour ago, MsTabbyKats said:

The third was to Bermuda....a long and messy check-in.  I think it has more to with "destination of the cruise" than the terminal or cruiseline.

What do you think caused the slowdown?  Was it because people had to show that they'd applied for a Bermudan visa?  I could see that slowing things down as a lot of people probably turn up without having done that.

12 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

 

I'm hoping my 7day Magic to Canada in Sept won't have children or college aged people.....hopefully it will a ship full of seniors.

I've done that itinerary twice, and, yes, it's all seniors and tame 40+ folks.  Lovely crowd.  The ports are a bit boring, but I had a fun time on both cruises.

49 minutes ago, kodiac said:

So we just got off the Magic yesterday. Muster drill - a breeze. Go up to the check-in point without your life jacket. Scan in, listen to a few minute drill and you're on the way. 

 

Was the ship full? YES! Lines like crazy and people everywhere. A huge communication issue on the ship itself with staff members, officers, and other employees. I honestly have to say I've not seen anything like this in all the cruising that we've done. There are many other things that need repair and fixing, but I don't want to post off topic here - that is for my review which I will post later.

 

I really, really hope they sort things out (for future passengers). After our cruise on the Magic, we will very likely not board this ship again. We really are thinking about not booking another Carnival cruise ever due to this sailing. As you can see, we've been on quite a few. 

Looking forward to your review!