KarmaCruisers

If you watch any YT, it’s the same one Tony and Don just did, haha.

Getting the party started a little early. We’re just about done packing two giant suitcases haha. This will be my wife’s first time across the pond, but my second (went to open a new office in Leeds&London in early 2019). This is our 5th Princess cruise (Platinum here we come!) First time on the Regal, but our other four were all Royal class ships. (We love ‘em!) We booked EZAir because it was $1000 cheaper than booking direct with Virgin. We’re flying SFO<>LHR on a DreamLiner (Boeing 787-9), in “Premium”. We are flying out tomorrow, Friday, at 5pm PST, and will land on Saturday at 11am GBT. (10 hour flight) We’re staying a night in London, at Club Quarters Covent Garden; in the front and back of the cruise, to get a little bit of London exploring in. We’ve got our “No International Transaction Fee” credit cards added to our ApplePay, our Leap Cards (Ireland train passes), and some extra Pounds/Euros (as tips). Just finished buying a pair of Orange Holiday Zen eSim’s. Our loose plan for London visit sites is… Big Ben, Parliament, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Kings Cross (platform 9.75) and HOPEFULLY the Crown Jewels. We’re using National Express (Bus) to get between London and Southampton. As far as excursions.. - Guernsey on our own. (No plans) - Blarney Stone visit via PaddyWagon Tours - Dublin on our own (Guiness, Jameson, St Patrick’s) - Liverpool on our own. (No plans) - Giants Causeway + Titanic Exhibit via Finn McCool’s Tours - Scotland Adventure Day Trip via BusyBus Tours - Loch Ness cruise via Princess - Royal Mile Walking Tour via Princess - Paris Easy Day Trip via Princess I’ll be posting live updates as we go, so follow along!

The only offers I’ve ever seen from princess that were worth a damn, were the “bounce back” offers that you earn per cruise, and they slip under your door on the last night. Previously on the Sky princess, 7-day I earned 8000 points on a mix of slots/vp; on the last night I got a “bounce back” offer of: - Free Balcony up to 10 night cruise - Free “Plus” package - $500 freeplay NOW, MAILED offers, haven’t even been anywhere CLOSE to that..literally like free interior with no other perks. To wrap up, I doubt they’ll honor it, even if you have the email..if the offer isn’t in their system, there’s nothing they’ll do. (Why have employees if it’s just humanoid-bots reading from computer screens?)

I’ve bid on three different cruises, never been accepted..in fact, after I bid I never hear anything (accepted OR rejected..and believe me I keep checking the upgrade website)…the only reason I know they’re rejected, is when we board, we’re in the original room we booked, lolz we sail in three days on the regal for a 10-day UK..we’ll see if we go from BB Balcony to deluxe balcony (hopefully not in a poop location)

Thanks again for this report! we fly out Friday for this run. (Also flying virgin, Premium)

I remember when I got DSL…in 2001…it’s 22 years later…I’m a software engineer (who moonlights as a network engineer haha) and I only have 100Mbps at home and i never have any issues doing anything I need to do…in reality, to use “vacation internet”, 5Mbps is plleeeeennntty. If I needed to work though, a reliable 25Mbps is pretty much the minimum required. (To connect to a VPN, you’re going to lose 30% of that bandwidth right off the top)

You’re tapping your BANK card..in EU/UK they are beyond that..they’re using Apple Pay/Samsung pay. No physical card needed.

No but they CRUSH the U.S. on tap-to-pay..paper currency is almost laughed at in EU/UK.

Shiiiiiit I’m glad to have had an endontist! (And believe me I’ve had probably six root canals) no pain at all. (Other than having to have my jaw agape for an hour)

Can you actually go to Fast.com and see what it says? It’s “branded” Medallion-Net..but it’s actually StarLink providing you with the bandwidth (it’ll show that as the provider on any speed test website)

Will be following. we board her on the 25th. that’s also hella funny that the whole cruise vlog gang is on that ship. too bad not earlier, so I could watch their videos before WE board. Lol

America cost X for software dev india cost (X*0.25)

What is this “ticket” you speak of? I just look in the airlines app, for my flight using my confirmation code. 24 hours prior, check-in; and put boarding pass on my phone

Also another huge thanks! We’re on this ship at the end of June!

Huge thanks for posting this live! we’re on this same ship and ports next month! (Except we get Liverpool instead of Stonehenge..I’d of rather done Stonehenge but it is what it is)

Honestly; if you can get a solid 5Mbps download speed, you can do anything you want on a mobile device (stream HD, browse web, video calls)

So a $1200 upgrade?? that seems like just a normal price difference between interior and balcony, on an Alaskan cruise…. EDIT: just noticed it was for a DELUXE..not too bad then; I think probably half retail

I see you’re a roulette player..roulette is literally the only table game with odd rules like that. every other game, if you make a bet anywhere it’s gotta be the table minimum (sans “bonus” bets, those usually are only $1)

Damn even $10 is a shock to me..every CCL cruise I’ve been on has had $5 “carny” games and $6 “super unfun 21” STRANGELY though; when I looked at the computer (while I was playing UTH) I noticed that the COMPUTER has the minimums all at $10-$50 (instead of $5-$25) so basically if you were playing stone cold minimum of $5 you were actually getting a better comp rate. (However we played at $25, and they still rated us for the $10 computer minimum haha)

Lol mine was an obscene photo; unfortunately it did not get “accepted”, so I figured I had to actually use MY photo..even had to be SPECIFIC of me without sunglasses on, so I figured it was for security..but I dunno as a friend had a crew member take a NEW photo of him as we got off in port at Cozumel…

I’d be curious which casino partnered with carnival…I’ve NEVER heard of them partnering before (NCL, and Princess are the usual players who partner with land-based casinos to give our free cruises)

If you want to tip; give Visa gift cards..the railroad…sorry I mean cruise line can’t take that away in taxes (yes your cash tips are turned in and taxed before being split amongst the entire fleet)

For us; we’re flying in, one day in advance. SFO -> LHR (direct; premium class on virgin) the trick for us, leave in the morning from california (noonish) and arrive in London around the same time..it makes our bodies adjust easier and then we just have a SOLID 8-9 hour sleep that night, then head for the ship. however, coming home..the time difference will get ya..so plan on being tired for the next couple days after (for us; that’s fine as we can sleep in our own bed for that weekend to recoup)

The crew doesn’t have to worry about that..all cash tips are turned into the finance department onboard, and reported/accounted-for; then the entire fleets’ “tippable” crew, gets that cash evenly split amongst them, in their pay check.

It’s more than $200 each. We just finished a “comped” cruise (using a princess “come back soon” offer earned on our last cruise in November) it cost $720 total up front (7 day on sky princess) the way it broke down per person was: $200 “deposit” $160 taxes/portfees once on board, we received the $200 each back, as OBC. So, technically, out of our pocket was $160 each.