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And given short staffing, occupancy rate might be important.

I don't want the medallion. I hope I have made myself clear. And I never had a problem opening the cabin door or had a brass key on a cruise. They are marketting themselves as the only medallion cruises. Well that works the opposite for me. And they originally took the personalizer out of play, I guess because it worked and the wonderful medallion did not. I guess they had to backtrack on that. And the latest nickel an diming I now read about in these boards is charging people to be sent the medallion. They should be ashamed of themselves. And why do I now read of passengers having trouble with anytime dining in the new age of the medallion? That was never a problem pre-medallion.

Thank you for your review and for answering questions that I posed. 😊

Will there be a live zoom feed of the panel? Will there be a link later to the panel discussion?

When our Princess ship had Dover for a port, there were various trips back to Heathrow. We took one that had a walking tour in Dover and then a trip to Canterbury. It was more expensive, but well worth it. In 2020, we were supposed to sail to and from Southampton. We would have taken the more expensive trip back to Heathrow with a stop in Stonehenge if Covid had not cancelled the cruise. In fact, DW was looking forward more to that visit than the actual Norwegian fjords cruise.

I am a Luddite. I believe Kurt Vonnegut got it right when he wrote that all inventions should have ceased after the electric guitar. If the medallion is only a glorified key card, why does every brochure sent to us by Princess make it sound like the greatest invention since the discovery of fire? Why does almost everyone seem to have trouble with it? I don't want anything to do with it, and I am entitled to my opinion.

I would add Florence to your list of city's that are good for walking.

Oslo also has a very good bus system, and in fact at bus stops it tells you how much time until each of the next bus lines will be there. I think the sculpture garden seems to be a must see for most tourists. DW teaches art so the Munch Museum was a must see for us.

Our first Princess cruise was on our 30th anniversary. Picked it as the itinerary was exactly what we wanted including Oslo which we did not see on any other Baltic cruise except ones much longer. Our second Princess cruise was in Alaska. We found 3 cruises on our TA's website that met our criteria for time and ports. On the website, it was the most expensive, but after we called and spoke to the TA it was the least expensive. Our third Princess cruise was a British Isles cruise. We liked the itinerary and were very comfortable with Princess. Future Princess cruises? NO--the Medallion totally turns me off!

And sometimes it can work out very well. When we did a Baltic cruise, I communicated with the various companies and felt most comfortable with Alla. Of their tours, DW picked out one that she liked the best. I proposed it on our roll call. We ended up with a group of 10, ourselves, 3 other couples, 1 of which had 2 teenagers with them. We all communicated by e-mail and agreed on some slight changes. We all got along very well. The key is communicating. That seems to be what went wrong in your example. I hope that one bad experience does not cause you to never have to go with a group. But next time, if there is one, make sure that everything going on is shared.

For us it was also in Turkey, but a rug store and on Holland America. I should add, we of course did not buy anything there, but when we went out DW bought a holder for her glasses that was designed to look like a Turkish rug. We paid the asking price of 1 Euro (no need to haggle at that price!). Years later someone admired it and asked where it was purchased. When we answered Turkey, they realized that it was not going to be easy for them to find something similar. 😉

Our first cruise was also on Splendor of the Seas, though 2 years later in 2002.

We are silver, so I guess we get nothing. 😢

OMG, that is almost enough to make me consider cancelling. DW just said she will have to buy a lot of clothes.

A different question. What is the laundry situation? I understand that NCL does not have self service laundromats like Princess. We have an 11 day cruise plus time before it this summer. I am a guy and can just wear the same clothes over and over, but I know DW will not wear the same outfit more than twice without wanting it to be washed.

Ok, I understand now.

LOL, we also had a cruise where the ship was given another name. It was supposed to be a 5 day cruise, but it turned into a 7 day cruise when a hurricane hit and the ship could not get back to Fort Lauderdale. On the last night, the crew put on a show. One of the assistant cruise directors changed the name of the ship from Enchantment of the Seas to ENTRAPMENT of the Seas.

I do not disagree, but he made it sound like cruises were never the way to go. So, I wondered why he ever cruised.

The excursions offered by the cruise line can also give you ideas of what is there that you can do for yourself.

Will you share the questions you intend to ask in advance so we will no if they are ducking any questions?

Different strokes for different folks. Neither DW or I eat meat which makes finding places to eat more difficult. As well as neither of us would ever be considered a foodie. On ships we don't need the extra pay for dining. DW actually would prefer to eat always in the buffet. She says she likes to make her own salad. In the dining room on one cruise she freaked out a waiter by ordering a baked potato as her main course. (Actually at home there have been times when that is all she had as a main course with a salad and maybe something like raisins for dessert.

Yes, I understand that. I always vote no to allowing political contributions even though I know my vote won't matter. But as you said, it feels good.

One thing you left out is not having to find a place to have dinner every day.

In late 2001 I said to DW, "Our 25th anniversary is coming up next summer, why don't we try a cruise.". She thought that was a good idea. I suggested Bermuda as we would not have to fly to the port in NY City (and who at that point wanted to fly). She suggested Alaska. We have since cruised to both, but at that point we both said no to the other's suggestion. I sent away for a brochure from a TA advertised in the newspaper. One of the advertised cruises was in Western Europe, round trip from Barcelona. I knew my art teacher wife would love that. And that ended up being our first cruise.

You may have voted them all out, but if I was a betting man, I'd bet on them all being elected again.