KarmaCruisers

Neither have I and over 5 cruises I’ve lost $30k! Best was last year our bounce back offer was $500FP and balcony and Plus package. same play on this cruise last week..only balcony and $500 freeplay, no plus. EDIT: we’ve never gotten snail mail or email offers worth a damn..only the “earned” offers from the boat itself (use within 6 months of debarkation)

Following! (As we got off the ship as you got on) I agree on Sabatini’s being a LOT of food..but it’s good AF!

Good choice I say..I would sail this ship and/or Itinerary again in a heartbeat! (Hell I wanted to do a back-to-back and just do the same ports again! Hahah

This actually may be a thing; cuz we were watching Marriage Match Game on our last cruise and the one dude said “my brother-in-law’s wife” and the CD (and crowd) said..”wouldn’t that just be YOUR sister??” Haha they cleared it up..it was his wife’s brother and HIS wife.. So in this situation it could be her child’s spouses sibling+husband (no relation to cruiser at all; but she did say “daughter-in-law”…so…

We liked it just like any other Royal class ship. Food options were great (Royal class has a GREAT buffet, for quite literally from 5am - 10pm) a lot of people don’t like the Royal class because it doesn’t have a “promenade” to walk around on outside..but we like it because it’s a larger ship than the Grand class

It’s such a slow moving line, that you don’t even take one step per minute, lol.

Don’t get me wrong; if you’re somehow mobility limited, the drive through Paris is great as it hits all the major sites…it’s just a “sampler” though

I mean; I thought we’d be walking around more (the ticket literally said “must be able to walk long distances”) but it was like 100% bus ride. for $225 a pop; I don’t think it was worth it. Honestly if it was just me, I would have no qualms about riding the train/metro. (Someone pickpockets me, they’ll pull back knubs) If you’re going with a spouse who’s pretty street-smart. Then same..just ride the train and metro. I really wanted to get out at Arc De Triomphe and take good photos and also would have like to have had time to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The train is only €50 each (round-trip) and a metro day pass is €7…so €57 each; where we spent €220 each!

The bus ride wasn’t bad..it was 2.5 hours each way; with a stop at a large service station (think truck stop, in the states). The food was about as expected for a princess excursion.. Starter - Deviled Eggs Main - Chicken Thigh with rice Dessert - Some sort of marshmallow crème thing.

It’s only on Gala Night, and it’s specifically the “surf & turf” option. Anything else..fair game on ordering several portions.

So, with this trip, is was literally a bus ride around Paris with a 1-hour stop at the Eiffel Tower. We got to see the Arc De Triomphe, The Louvre, Notre Dame, and drove down Champs Elysse. if I had it to do over again I’d of just went on my own (riding the train from Le Havre) to save money and reserve tickets to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower…but I know another poster on here did that and he said his wife was attempted-mugged on the metro train (you’d have to take metro from the main train station, to get around the actual city of Paris) Its odd because in NO OTHER ports did they warn us of pickpockets or did we even FEEL unsafe..and also; in all the other ports it felt like, as tourists, we were WANTED there. Also (probably not a big surprise) but NO signage in France is in English AT ALL, so if you don’t understand French or are handy with Google Translate; you may be up a creek.

Well Paris left a super bad taste in my mouth… For starters when we were going to get off the bus at the Eiffel Tower, our tour guide said “Be careful; because you’re Americans you’ll be targeted by pickpockets…especially a group of young girls, look out for them” So we take our pictures and head over to a small cafe close and sit down, just really wanting to get a snack..we decided to get some cokes and split a burger.. we ask for a couple cokes and the waiter says “Large?”..sure why not… WRONG! EACH of those “large” sodas, were €22,50!!!! And then the burger was ALSO €22,50!!! Literally look at this soda..it was honest to get a little more than a liter…so obviously this is an American tourist scam, where you want to order a coke, expecting to pay around €5, and they say “a large right?” And you think nothing of it…OOPSIE! so yeah, it’s quite obvious Paris says “American tourists, KEEP OUT!”

As a fat WASP; I need alllllll the food! Haha

That’s so insane what the pandemic did to the world…makes you wonder how the previous generations felt when they had to deal with the plague, etc…

If your from the Midwest..Beef *is* a religion haha

As well a good point if you’re a pescatarian…

Didn’t believe my eyes…tonight, in the MDR (Concerto on Regal Princess) it was Gala night..so I was looking forward to ordering the Steak&Lobster tail...to my shock; if I wanted a second order of it, I’d have to pay $10. Now, as many of you know; if you like Lobster; the ONE they give you; is very small. LUCKILY my wife doesn’t eat seafood so she ordered the Steak&Lobster and gave me her lobster tail. I know, before they did cut it back to; if you wanted a THIRD order, you’d have to pay..but a SECOND!? Anyone else see this recently?

Ohh wow! This is new..I know before, if you wanted more than TWO orders of steak/lobster, (on Gala night in the MDR) you’d be charged…but NOW, if you want a SECOND steak/lobster, it’s $10! I can’t believe they’ve cut it back so far!! Luckily my wife hates seafood so I can get a second lobster-McNugget (called that because the “lobster” they give you has to be the smallest legally allowable warm water lobster…as cold water lobster minimum size is still GOOD size)

Last sea day! (Next to the last DAY; womp womp) slept innnnnn today (woke up at 1pm; haha…but in our defense, we lost an hour last night because of the time change to Paris time, so it was 1am before we got in bed) Going to grab some lunch and then maybe take an “official” stroll around the ship (as this trip has been so busy we have gotten a chance to just leisurely stroll and look at the entire ship; as this is the first time we’re on her) Tonight is Gala Dinner (steak and lobster!) Then after dinner, sadly; will come the packing. We’ve decided that we can probably do an interior room from now on (we’ve only done balconies up to this point), as we really didn’t ever go out on the balcony, other than like when we got up (to see the port) then when we were sailing away (again to see the port). Both of these could easily be accomplished from just going up to lido and looking around. Although, if not interior, then definitely Deluxe Balcony (as we’d like to have the extra space for in-room eating). Unless the Grand Class ships have sofa’s in their regular balcony rooms (we’ve only sailed Royal class; which we love)

We booked the Princess Paris tour…so if it cancels then we won’t go..but we’ve been watching the news pretty closely..seems like the riots calmed down a lot last night, and we still have tonight and tommorow..so; fingers crossed; but I think it should be fine. Now, for YOU, I’d just recommend the advise by the French government..just stay alert and don’t go out late at night.

For sure it does! The only place it was “warm” was in London and Southampton..Guernsey was either/or shorts/pants..but for the rest of the ports, for sure pants and a hoodie.

And that wraps up our day in Invergordon! We got up at 8, cleaned up and went down and ate and met our Princess Excursion in the Symphony Dining room at 9:45. A short one today, with just a bus ride over to Loch Ness, coupled with a 55-minute boat ride around the Loch. (Which basically was a cruise over to Urquhart Castle, and back to the Clansman dock). Then they drove us through Inverness proper (which the high street looked like a cute little place to walk around), and back to the ship by 3pm. We grabbed some lunch in the buffet when we got back; then took a nap, lol. Just woke up for sailaway, and we’re going to go down to the main theatre at 7:30 to see the Illusionist they have. Man, we’ve taken a few Alaska cruises..but they’ve always been around this same time (July 4th) and they’ve always been hot as hell! (Like literally hitting 90*!) but THIS cruise has been the coldest one we’ve ever been on! The ship is so cold I have to keep my hoodie on, and out on the balcony..forget it! Blanket too! I think, if we get a “bounce-back” offer, we’re going to try to book it as far out as we can (as we have a cruise booked for October, November, and December); so we can hopefully book it in January or February..and we’re thinking about either doing a Norway/Iceland cruise or maybe a Greek cruise. (Although we know the flight tickets will again be suicidely costly)

I mean…I didn’t TRY to use them for free; but last year on our 10-day Alaska cruise on carnival; you tapped your card on the machine to start it; and I looked at our bill and I was never ACTUALLY charged, so; who knows. on another note; I came to Loch Ness..only to find (and buy!) one of the most rare whiskeys from the US! Haha

Yup, +1 to pods. The cost is $3 per load (wash or dry), we had two loads, so all in our cost was $12

Finally at 11:30pm the laundromat on our floor opened up! (Was jammed with people all day) so I’m wrapping up drying our clothes now. it’s just absurd; that even WITH StarLink, the internet is SO unreliable! I can sometimes get 3Mbps, but it’s not 100% consistent. I can run 10 speed tests in a row here sitting in my room and 5/10 will be 3Mbps and the other 5/10 will be 56Kbps! If I had to actually work from this cruise I’d be SOL! Literally the only thing I’ve seen it be able to consistently do is my wife uses gChat (text chatting only, no images at all; just maybe the small emoji’s) and it hasn’t skipped a beat she said…but I’ve tried to watch YouTube videos and they default to the lowest resolution of 144p (which is basically so blurry on an iPhone XR I can’t even see the video) Also oddly I’ve noticed, on YT here in the UK, they jam a TON of ad’s in and they’re LONG 20 second ads!