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It’s still a conference room. There’s an escorted group on board and the travel agents are set up there to distribute their daily gifts.

I haven’t seen anyone with cigars. Smoking is permitted in the casino, deck 16 by the pool bar, and deck 7, starboard, aft.

No, we have a pricey cruise to Australia next year, so we need to go home.

Photos of the arcade, formerly the cigar bar.

I will get some pictures this afternoon

I believe a luncheon. We are still waiting on the invitations.

I forgot to mention that the cigar lounge was converted on a video game room. There are only 30 minors on the ship and I haven’t seen any of them using the room. I don’t think it’s a very good use of the space.

Believe me, it was a complete surprise.

Good morning all! Everything does seem to be back online. There was a problem with the bingo tablets yesterday, so they substituted the old paper cards. The ship doesn’t seem crowded to me either. Our friend, Paul, is the piano man in Crooner’s. We are really enjoying his shows. Another friend, Grace, won $250 playing “Deal or No Deal”. Then she won $200 at bingo. So lucky! About 5:00 am this morning, water started dripping out of our ceiling. We had to put a trash can under it. It seems to have stopped though. There’s a few water leaks throughout the ship. Hopefully they will be repaired soon. If anyone is interested, the cutoff for the MTP luncheon was 381 days. With 799 days, I am the most traveled passenger on the ship. My DH and I have been enjoying our breakfast in Sabatini’s, one of the perks for being number one. Anyway, still having fun and enjoying the ship.

I’m currently on her. We have all new bedding, beds, and carpet. Lots of new paint. The app is down, all of the slots in the casino are offline, and bartenders can’t ring up drinks. Internet is slow. Still having a good time though. The ship looks better than it did compared to my sailing last year.

@MissP22 I’m sorry to report the Cuban sandwiches are no longer available.

@MissP22 Yes, I will check. Hopefully we will have good internet.

If you are a fan of Crooner’s (martini bar), our friend, Paul, is the pianist. He is excellent. Also lots of live music and places to dance on this ship.

Sunday night’s show is vocalist Bryan Cheetham. The first show is 7:30 pm, in the Princess Theater. Go to the app and look under Journey View. It gives the events of the day there. Bon Voyage 🛳️

I’ve bought a few leftover mini-bottles back onto the ship. I packed them in my toiletries bag along with my makeup and little bottles of hair products. They went through the scanner and no one said anything. Now my hot roller set is a different story, can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to explain how hair curlers work, lol.

I used to book my own cabins, because like you, I felt I had more control over the booking. However, the untrained and incompetent employees that work in the Princess call centers have convinced me otherwise. I will only book through a travel agent now. If I experience a problem, or need to change something, my TA takes care of it, saving me time and avoiding the frustration of dealing with the Princess call center. BTW, the agency I use gives extra shipboard credits. On my cruise next week, it’s $300 for the cabin. If I had booked directly with Princess, it would have been zero dollars.

Prior to the “package”, our bar tab was running $100 a day. It sounds like a lot of drinks, but not really when a cheap bottle of wine on the ship costs $40-$50. It’s a money saver for us.

Hopefully this information from my upcoming Australia/New Zealand cruise will be helpful. I’m going in February, so I can report back. My last cruise down under was five years ago, but the information appears to be same now as it was then.

Thank you for the kind words. I’m sure we have met before. What we were told in regards to the tips is if you book through an Australian travel agency or website, then the gratuities are included in the price. However, if you’re in the United States, the gratuities aren’t included and separate payment would need to be made.

Yes, they would charge you in AUD, but that $60 drink package in US dollars might cost $90 in Australian dollars. Also, there’s a service charge for paying your shipboard account with a credit card. I found it cheaper to prepay before the cruise.

I made elite on my husband’s first cruise. We’ve had multiple cruises together before he became elite and he was never denied access to priority embarkation, priority tendering, or access to the PES lounge. If someone is in the cabin with you, it won’t be a problem. It was never a problem with my aunt, mom, or sister either, as we were sharing a cabin.

This is from the US State Department’s website. You should be fine. Don’t worry about the yellow fever vaccine. You won’t need that for Cartagena.

My Covid vaccine record is a little piece of paper that Oregon Health Authority gave us with our first vaccine. Every time we got a booster, the nurse just signed off on it. Mine isn’t current, as it’s been over a year since my last shot. It’s not required though. The website I checked said the Covid vaccine requirement was waived back in May of this year. It is always good to check though because things can change.

Mine are the same for both. Awhile ago, Princess revised the password requirements. To work on the app, I believe the password needs at least 8 characters, including a capital letter, a special character and a number. You might need to change your password on the website, then try using the new one to access the app.

I’ve had success with logging out and then logging back in. The app worked fine after that.