jsn55

Wish I had read this 2 weeks ago! The app is indeed full of handy features and fun to use when it works. Many of us would be terrified of choosing 'Force Stop' on an app. This is super-good advice for any app that's behaving stupidly. Thank you!

I suggest reading all the reviews you can find on each ship. Not the 'official reviews' but reviews from people who have sailed on each ship. It should become obvious which one you'd like the best. People seem to love and hate things and only by reading a great many reviews can you make the decision. However, having said this, I'd book a balcony over an ocean view cabin every time.

Silly boy, it's the fungible ones that have retained, and in many cases, increased in value over the years. Sorry, you lose.

If your husband is phone-savvy, it's kinda fun onboard. You can find each other with the app. As for the never-ending issues with Medallion, the peeps at the Internet Cafe fix it, and fix it again and fix it again. The first two days of our cruise there were at least a dozen techies available to straighten things out at all hours. I never waited more than ten minutes and in a couple of days both my phone and my laptop worked fine. The internet on my laptop comes and goes, but it works pretty well as long as you have patience. When cruising Princess, a sense of humor is very helpful. I was at a presentation this afternoon by the Captain's wife and a waiter appeared with drinks on a tray to deliver to someone in the audience. She never missed a beat, and the waiter was able to walk right up to the proper people.

I try to avoid tenders, don't like the waiting around or being stuffed into an airless lifeboat with far too many pax. The trip between ship and shore is not a problem. Usually if you book a ship's ShoreEx, you can receive priority tender boarding ... but on my Royal Princess Zodiac experience on Maui, we were instructed to meet on the Pier which made me laugh. I could have saved a lot of money booking direct; I had the annoying tender experience anyway. But it's no big deal, half hour out of your day, so just go do it.

Just like anything else, if you are pleased with what you buy, you're a winner. Jewelry, artwork, gimcracky stuff, 'resortwear' you'll never wear again ... never mind all the scoffers ... if it makes you happy, go for it. I have a friend with an online consumer advocacy, Michelle just told the story about a woman who bought a $20K diamond in the Caribbean, then changed her mind after she got home, wanted her money back. She actually told Michelle that Diamonds International had 'forced' her to buy the thing. So be honest with yourself and enjoy whatever you purchase. But maybe put a dollar limit on your shopping?

Agree ... the ShoreEx details start popping up closer to the cruise date. If there's something you absolutely HAVE to see/do (like a Zodiac whale watching trip on Maui where we saw 30+ Humpbacks) book it right away. Otherwise, pick the ones you like and be ready to book them as soon as the times are released. But be warned ... you'll probably not get more than "AM or PM", there are too many loose ends to tie up.

Yes ........ the operative phrase for Princess is "should be". LOTS of things 'should be' but they aren't, and the pax just wait until Princess makes them available. I'm still waiting for 'everything' on the app to be available in my stateroom TV ... my DH doesn't use a cell phone ... still have a couple of days to go, so it 'should be' all on there pretty soon.

When I booked air with Avalon and later with Viking, they did want my TA on the phone. Too many instances where the pax tries to 'cheat' the TA by going direct, so the travel providers have set up this system. Since my TA books my cruises and I plan her air, she didn't have to say a thing other than arrange the conference call and establish her presence. I can't emphasize too strongly to know all your options BEFORE the call. I had upgraded tix with United to Beijing, and I waited a while to book the return. I watched air fares carefully before booking. When I booked Hong Kong-SFO with Viking, the o/w fare for biz that morning was $8500; the Viking air desk got two tix for that price. The agent had no problem giving me the confirmation number so I could choose the seats directly with Cathay Pacific and keep an eye on the flight.

For Budapest, I can highly recommend the Hilton up by Fisherman's Bastion on top of a hill. Right on the hop/stop bus route and terrific service. We spent a week there before a river cruise and it was magic, I'm trying to figure out how to get back to Budapest one of these days. We rented a car for a few days and found a park on the outskirts of the city full of humongeous communist statues that had been torn down. It was FASCINATING. I believe they've changed the name to "Momento Park: where communist statues go to die". Wherever you land in Europe, you might want to spend a night or two at a nice quiet hotel to recover from jet lag and hit the ground running. This is just something I've learned over the years. I just build the time into the whole trip calendar.

THIS is what you want ... you can probably find what you're interested in with a couple hours research. I do wish we could recommend websites, but they're not all that difficult to find with searches.

I agree with Daisi. We LOVE Avalon. They did a great job with our air for a cruise in France. While this kind of trip is best planned with a good travel agent, you can set things up well with a lot of research. CruiseCritic is a treasure-trove of good advice and ideas. Have a look at a good map; Deggendorf is closest to Munich (for airport) I believe. Your cruise is one of many that we've booked and had cancelled during the virus hysteria. All those cities are magical, so you will be happy with visiting any of them pre/post cruise. Contact Avalon's air desk to see what they have available. Research fares and schedules so you know what's the best for you and can book with Avalon if they come close. The transfers are very helpful and comforting to travellers inexperienced with an area or type of travel. Same rationale for booking pre and post stays through Avalon. Pack light; river boats are built skinny, so cabins can be smaller than people anticipate. I don't think you can go wrong with Avalon!

I had no trouble using my computer to book dining and ShoreEx before leaving home. On this Royal cruise, Symphony was 'no reservations'; Allegro and Concerto took reservations.

Makes so much sense when you describe it ... but I never would have thought of it. We've only made 4 MDR reservations on a 14-night Royal cruise and Princess has screwed up 2 of them. Usually we hit the buffet, but this one is such a mess we avoid it whenever we can. By the time you've wandered around past the empty displays looking for some bread or a salad, your food is cold. Fortunately, we enjoy 'dinner' in the late afternoon at home, and at 5pm you can dine anywhere!

I dunno ... they look perfectly fine to me! You could wear them to dinner with white/beige pants unless it's a formal night.

I did a search and came up with this: https://www.knowyourslots.com/swinging-for-the-fences-group-pulls/ Good luck.

We did have the QR code on my phone (after months of diddling with the Medallion) and the SF checkin guy used it. But the experience recedes far in the past when you're actually on board and trying to USE the app. Shore excursions and restaurant reservations seem to be all quite a mystery to the app, so it keeps some, changes some and obliterates others. When you go back in to correct it, your dining times aren't available and sometimes it can't find your chosen shore excursions at all. I don't think I'm made to be a Princess cruiser; I lack the proper patience to deal with incompetence.

I wouldn't count on it. We've had issues with shore excursions, dining reservations and the infamous 'app'. I'm still not sure where we'll be dining on NYE. Princess seems barely able to function with many of life's details. My favorite so far was our steward coming in to clean the room despite my request for no service ... he had shown me how to set the privacy button. But he came in anyway, despite the privacy button he had set himself and my instructions. So we had to rip the beds apart to get rid of the duvet again and my extra hand towels disappeared. We set a time for him to come in a couple of days later and he didn't show ... said our 'privacy button' was on.

VERY good point. We are experiencing no 'shortages' in of service or food, so I thank you all for the reminder that Princess is probably struggling with all kinds of issues after the virus. I'll try to keep a more open mind, but it's difficult in the face of such obvious bad management over such a wide range of fairly simple issues.

We are on Royal with 3 MDR reservations; so far 2 have been totally screwed up by the app, but the MDR crew swept in and made it all right both times.

Everything is monetized now by Marketing Departments. A cruiseline runs a game, it gives away stuff, but it doesn't care about the pax who wins the stuff. The point is to 'give' the pax things, at no cost to the cruiseline. Marketing Departments couldn't care less about the pax, they just want to cause excitement (they think) amongst the pax. We're on our first Princess cruise and it's obvious that cost-cutting and 'excitement' is the name of the game. The pax' needs and wants come last. They had one security line open today in Maui, it took forever to process all the pax in each tender. But it cost Princess less to do it this way. Princess thinks that the glitz of ordering stuff delivered to your lounge chair will override common sense. We might be coming to a critical point one of these days when only the ignorant and poor book mass market cruises. I know that some of you think we got there quite some time ago! I am leaning that way.

You make a good point, but a cruise line that doesn't care about it's pax is not a cruise line I'm happy to sail with. Wasted another half-hour today unscrewing dinner reservations; no confidence that they'll welcome us at the times we chose ... again. We will make a list of the good and bad, of course; but we enjoy cruising with a line that wants us to be happy all the way around.

There is a wealth of information and excellent advice in this thread. Experienced and novice cruisers will benefit greatly from reading all the posts.

Um ... OK, if I boarded with certain documents, I will definitely have them with me on the cruise. I would assume anyone knows that you bring your room key and ID when you venture off the ship.