I Love Cruising 3

3 hours ago, Lynniepoo said:

no, they would have a job at the fitness center/photography center/spa handling customers who actually came to them.  It's once out of a hundred times I actually see a person talking to them or taking advantage of what they are offering. 

You don't actually believe that, do you?

With all the cutbacks I've seen in the crew personal they have only the people who they need & if a job function isn't required they simply cut it. 

1 minute ago, twodaywonder said:

Do not remember which. But there have been large posters prior to entering the MDRs on the dress code and what is not accepted. Same as the buffet. Swim suits are fine at the pool not in the buffet. 

From my experience you'd have to be dressed pretty badly to be denied entrance to a dining room on any night. Sure, if you show up with raggedy jeans & T shirt on a formal night they might reject it but a pair of dress pants & a dress shirt will always work even without the jacket & tie.

Chairs in the already crowded cabins. 

39 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Actually, they kind of have. For men like me who really don't like wearing a coat or suit to dinner for any reason, they have provided us the optional minimum on formal nights which is a dress shirt, slacks and a tie. This makes most of us happy. For ladies of similar thinking with regards to gowns or similar formal attire, all they have to do is wear something nice which makes my DW happy.

 

BUT at the same time, folks who like to really get dressed up in tuxes and formal gowns, Princess has at least decided to continue to offer official Formal Nights in the MDR unlike HAL and X that have gone to a more informal attire which they refer to as their Gala (HAL) and Chic (X) nights. So, from my point of view Princess has chosen a middle ground position which makes a majority of their passengers happy.

Most people miss that part of the dress code & continue to complain that people are just ignoring it when going to the DR. Too bad that Princess doesn't make it more obvious to put an end to these discussions. 

1 hour ago, CruiseVA said:

Dear lord - Effy!!!  Ugghh Sweet Caroline pullezzz!

Could do without the elevator rusher's! Slamming doors (but that can happen), loud talkers in the hallway late night or early morning, hmm, sounds like pablo222 in post #15- LOL. 

Go ahead Trak - click on the link, it's not what you think...

What's with the song Sweet Caroline"?

4 minutes ago, Lynniepoo said:

also, how about getting rid of making the poor employees stand for hours by the elevators, stairwells, etc. trolling for "free" mini- massages, pictures, tests on how good your feet are, etc?  I feel bad for these people, but it also irks me that the up-sell is everywhere.

So if they got rid of them they might not have a job at all? 

1 hour ago, denmarks said:

Drop the canapes delivered to Elites on formal nights. They are no good.

Ours were delicious last cruise.

Maybe you're ordering the wrong type.

Don't forget about the loyalty credit of up to $100 per cruise if it's a 14 day or $200 for two 7 day trips.           

Perhaps installing a folding movable partition separating the DR so neither side would take offence.

On 1/4/2020 at 12:20 AM, mevs904 said:

I agree.  All of the soft serve that we have experienced on Princess ships has been poor quality and very disappointing.

While all of the ships offer soft serve, which is a poor substitute for regular ice cream,  on the Regal it was recently very good the time we tried it. 

They seem to have the mix down correctly. 

It's still not comparable to the DR real ice cream.

It sounds nice but we've never tried it. I don't know the cost. 

The regular buffet is more than adequate for a quick lunch. 

We always moved our own clothes when changing cabins but they'll do it for you if you prefer. We don't really like the crew to have to move our personal things.

btw- the draws in most cabin are interchangeable & it's easy to switch them if closeby. 

8 minutes ago, Coral said:

For me -it is not worth traveling for a 7 night cruise as I have a full day of travel. I haven't done a Caribbean cruise in a very long time as I find them boring. So maybe if you only do Caribbean cruises, this maybe true.

In the past 15 years that's about all we've done & it might be easier to shift them around in that region. 

1 hour ago, satxdiver said:

On my cruise last year I overheard the maitre'd telling someone who was complaining about the lack of enforcing the dress code on formal night that corporate would not allow him to strictly enforce the dress code making it pretty much an honor system.  Several years ago I complained to the maitre'd about women wearing what appeared to be pajamas with some sparkles and flip flops.  I was told that women can wear anything and declare it fashionable.  November 2018 I was on the CB at my usual TD in the aft MDR.  They were allowing shorts on regular nights which I had observed and later tried it myself.  On formal nights they were allowing jeans and polo or even Hawaiian shirts.  On my HI cruise on the Star I saw several men in shorts on regular nights for TD in the aft MDR.  On both these cruises I am not referring to the usual first and last nights dinner when about anything is allowed. 

 

Every patter I have ever seen the formal night patter includes the usual formal night dress standards and have seen signs at the entrance to the MDR with the same message.  The other cruise lines (CCL, RCI and HAL) have all moved from formal night to a less dressed standard.  CCL calls it elegant night.  Princess is trying to maintain the image while the world moves on.  One thing I am starting to see more of is men in suits and no tie and also more sport coats and way less tux.  So yes the pax following the "standards" is becoming less.  

We were on the CB cruise with you that Nov & it was one of the most casual trips we've ever experienced (along with our recent Crown trip).

Princess is trying very hard to please all of their passengers without offending anyone. (except that the women have always had a pass on dressing which seems totally unfair) 

8 minutes ago, Coral said:

My experience is a lot of entertainers stay on for months.

We do many B2B trips (almost exclusively) and they always seem to rotate the guest entertainers on our trips (comedians, singers, etc.) each trip so they would have fresh faces for people doing repetitive cruises. Thankfully they tend to move them to other ships for a week or two & them back again so not to be boring for the same passengers. 

5 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

You know, an ice cream cake is a terrific idea!  

I'm thinking of something like a small Carvel ice cream type cake. 

12 hours ago, nini said:

I do not even think we had the outlets on the Regal. However, we have also purchased

True. There were no USB charging outlets on the ship during Dec in the typical balcony cabin. Possibly the other categories may have had them installed?

A lot of good points made by everyone.

Most cruises we do as B2B trips and although we enjoy the longer sailing times we hate wasting a turnaround day in Florida where we travel often. The morning is a complete waste of time since you can't do practically anything except go to breakfast & wait till it's time to walk through immigrations.

There are usually 300-400 people doing a B2B and many times a few will show up late for the time when everyone must go through imagarations together making the rest wait until they arrive unless you've left the ship earlier. 

The first afternoon is also interrupted by hectic people running around before the muster which you don't have to attend but there's no other events scheduled to attend. 

You could leave the ship early & go to the beach for a day if you prefer.

The repeat of menus is always OK with us especially if you wanted to try another choice from the first trip.

The production shows will repeat but the guest entertainers usually rotate each cruise so they'll most likely be different except for the bands.

On 1/3/2020 at 3:42 PM, chrysalis said:

nope.....see post #94 and read the Notifications....

 

 

The part of the statement is absolutely not true and was a mistake including the speciality restaurants. We were on the Crown & dines in Sabatini's wearing jeans & a T shirt around the same time. We were not questioned at all about our dress.

It's been a long standing practice to not include the speciality restaurants in the formal dress code since they began operation.

3 hours ago, memoak said:

They also attract people who see those destinations as a once in a lifetime so not as many elites as you will find on trans Atlantic cruises. Plus Alaska and Panama usually are more expensive especially Alaska

I see lots of good deals for Alaska at less desirable sailing dates from time to time but of course it involves expensive airfare.

1 hour ago, wallyj said:

My understanding is breakfast in speciality restaurant is granted at the 750 and up milestone so interesting that OnVacation11 stated they got this perk for celebrating 500 milestone. Also specialty dinner perk starts at 750, I was told.

 

Possibly some of the perks can be swapped, if allergic to flowers then ask circle host if swap is available.

We'll just have to see how flexible our Host is when the time arrives. Hopefully they'll be understanding in her situation. 

11 minutes ago, BarbinMich said:

347 days and counting here, but we've already been to the Capt's (Tony) most traveled cruiser lunch.  Must have been on a cruise in the Caribbean where there are lots of younger and less well-traveled pax than us <g>!  Don't think we'll ever reach 500 at our ages.

You always have a better chance of going to one of the luncheons in Alaska and the Panama canal.

For some reason those trips attract the younger crowd with less days. 

On 10/27/2019 at 3:47 PM, mycruisey said:

We are leaving on a cruise in a few days and just printed our travel summary.  I see under Special Services a "500 cruise day celebration (value $114)". Does anyone know what this is?

So how did you 500 day celebration cruise go? Did you receive everything you were supposed to?

8 hours ago, OnVacation11 said:

I celebrated 500 days on the Christmas cruise last week and received flowers, champagne, chocolate covered strawberries and our group had breakfast at Sabatini’s every morning with amazing service.
There were 2 other couples celebrating the same milestone on that cruise.

I was told that the bennies are at the discretion of the CC host.

Eva

 

 

My DH is allergic to most flowers especially in such a small cabin space like on the ship. I'm thinking something could be substituted for the flowers, like a Specialty dinner perhaps? I've read here on CC that some people even received a dinner with the celebration package. 

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

Good Idea but without opening a hornet's nest on this thread, it's been my experience that on Regal, you can't get access to the decks where the staterooms are until they release all the staterooms.  I would expect that once they're released she will want to go right away to see her stateroom and balcony.  I'm sure I will be able to cobble some type of plan together.  I was just thinking it would be so much easier if Princess could do it for me.

Not really true. We were in our cabin at 10:45 a few weeks ago.

3 minutes ago, pablo222 said:

 

 

...where some guy named ernesto cooks your burger.

 

Same burger as  before, but this is now an ernesto burger!

 

 

Yea but they've made it extra thick & added additional items so they can now charge you to eat lunch. 

Have one for lunch & you'll probably skip dinner.

It's a win-win for Princess. 

2 hours ago, Shaver John said:

It is true that the Most Traveled Guest event is very special, but on the last couple of cruises we have been on it took over 750 days to be invited to this event. With all the folks with so many days you seldom get invited unless you are going to Mexico or Alaska. We do not have 750 days, so it will be a very long time before we get to go to this on the longer cruises.

Sounds like fun.

Sign me up. 😄😎