dglish

I called Princess after 10 weeks, and was told to fill out an online form. The instructions for the form said it would not expedite refunds of onboard credit. But it seemed to help, as the check arrived the following week. Maybe just coincidence.

1 hour ago, malba2366 said:

I remember reading that somewhere.  I’m not sure what the advantage of having a medallion in your hand before embarkation is, and why they chose to make this a selling point of the plus package.  

When there is a long line of passengers waiting to board, the embarkation crew often is looking for passengers with medallions in hand that they can send through to Step B of check in. (Step A is getting the medallion.) This happened to us in Sydney, and medallions in hand saved us more than 3 hours standing in line.

We always liked TD; we got to know our tablemates and servers, and the crew got to know us and our preferences. We haven't sailed yet since the demise of TD, so we'll see how it goes on our January cruise.

On 3/18/2020 at 4:18 PM, rgmacm said:

My research led us to book in January.  I learned that the Fall (Oct-Dec) can be the rainy season...and by mid-Feb - certainly March, you can have HIGH humidity rates.  However, I've also learned that weather is very unpredictable.  You can travel to destinations during rainy season and have dry...and during dry season and have rain....so we went in with an open mind. 

Our reality taking the cruise mid-January was the weather was absolutely DELIGHTFUL.  Warm but never extremely hot or humid.  We enjoyed afternoons on the pool deck on sea days and were never miserably hot as I was actually expecting.    Some ports were hot (90 degrees) and we were glad to get back to the ship and a/c but they weren't 'un-survive-able'.  🙂 🙂

The downside to our cruise was the choppy seas.  I don't know if that was related to time of year or just our 'luck' but it was SIGNIFICANT...the entire time...  There was NEVER a calm day the entire cruise.  We were never without our sea sickness remedies...sometimes using more than one.   I rarely wore my heels to dinner because it was actually dangerous to try to walk around the ship in them.  and finally...we missed a port due to winds making it impossible to approach/dock.   Again, I don't know if that's related to the time of year or just a random thing...  but our experience.  

I agree with your assessment of January weather. We went just after the first of the year last year. Only Cartegena was in the 90's.  Other ports were mid 80's and not as humid as I expected. We had very calm seas; no need for sea sickness remedies.

I recommend a Caribbean to Pacific itinerary due to time changes. We had one early a.m. excursion planned, which became very early with the loss of an hour.

We booked Australia/New Zealand land/cruise package for February 2021 with refundable deposit under the Landmark Sale. That seems to be the best sale for us, since we don't drink much. We found just the itinerary we wanted; so no problems concerns about booking early.

Although Princess doesn't "open the bow" I definitely recommend Coral Princess. They open two forward areas for canal transit viewing. Coral still has a full promenade, which is great for getting some exercise (walking) on sea days. The ship has a great ratio of open space to passenger numbers; we never felt crowded even though the crew said all cabins were booked. We did some research before we cruised, and most past Coral Princess passengers said it was their favorite ship. Having cruised on her, I can understand why and now count her as a favorite myself.

I've never done one outside the US. I did one in Washington, DC. It was two college guys, history majors. They were great! They took us to all the monuments and other historical sites. They had great stories and really knew their stuff. You paid whatever you thought the tour was worth; or you could pay nothing.

I know that in some major cities in the US you can meet with a local to provide a walking tour. I've never done it, so don't know about cost.

1991 Song of America and we were hooked! We haven't cruised nearly as often as some on this thread. Or as often as we would have liked! Next up is Coral Princess Panama Canal Full Transit in January 2019. Can't wait!

Looks like we made a good choice for our January 2019 Panama Canal Cruise!

223 till Anniversary cruise

 

 

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You might be on my cruise! I also have 233 days til cruise, but only 42 days til retirement! The cruise is my retirement gift.

You're definitely not alone. Our cruise isn't until January (panama canal), and I'm already driving my husband crazy with my preplanning. But that's half of the fun. Then when I get onboard I can relax and see all my plans come to life. We make a great couple: I do the planning and he steps in when things go wrong (as something usually will). He has great capacity for thinking of solutions on his feet.

I started counting when I chose the retirement date. Started at more than 400 days and now down to 80!:D