Pizzasteve

Yup. Just off a Royal Princess cruise. One passenger on CC chose to create a travel log thread. Nice person. Thread ended with him having caught Covid and self reported for final 2 days stuck in cabin. Applaud the self reported sacrifice to help fellow passengers avoid sickness, but the general population was not practicing great hygene. So for person you originally replied to, even with a small sample size of one person posting a log, we had 1 covid case on our ship for certain. With all the maskless coughing, I am sure there was more. Seemed casino related, which was full every night (I think many casino gift cruises were offered to fill the ship) where I saw very few masks. We always wore one when passing through the casino or in a crowded theater, or when self-serving at the buffet until seated (really wish that could have become habit). We have stayed covid and illness free on every cruise.

Small thing, but we liked the asian and indian food buffet items available for often, including Chai Masala tea every day. A very nice treat in the morning or in the afternoon.

Very admirable Bob, though all of us should (and we would hope) would do the same. My wife and I wore masks in crowded spaces on the ship and when getting food at the buffet. I know some feel that masks are inconvenient, but they really work and are very reasonably comfortable for us. We noticed people coughling and only a few wearing masks. It seemed those openly coughing were never those wearing masks and we are sad that one of them, or someone in the weeks prior, spead an ilness that limited your enjoyment of the ship. Get well soon.

Yes the pier runners were very funny and more at our next port! One would think people would learn by example, but… Sad to hear about the rude folks in elevators. As able bodied hikers, we challenge ourselves to let those needing help have the lifts and always take stairs. With from 5th to 17th levels after returning onboard we feel the burn. I’ve been impressed with the general good will of passengers this cruise. Better than our three previous Princess cruises, I think because of so many west coast residents (CA, OR, WA, AZ, BC, NV etc). great log

Later arrivers facing a bit longer line, but was moving pretty fast.

Super speedy and easy check in. Ship looking good, beautiful weather. A little bit of everything from the India themed lunch buffet with view of Alcatraz Island and Coit Tower the other direction.

Please post a picture. Too bad Monterey was cancelled as a cruise stop. Maybe this is intended to memorialize that change of itinerary. Big Sur marathon along PCH probably among the prettiest...

Tahoe had 87" more snow from Sunday to Tues, so much that all ski resports are closed. Imagine water levels are swift and high, so perhaps that is another reason for the cancelled trip.

Kind of agree. Was in tipping heaven when I lived in Japan. All restaurants include wages in basic food costs, as advertised. A 500 yen bowl of soup was 500 yen. No tipping even taxi drivers (who also wore white gloves).

Um...of course they can track every penny. Financial accounting for a public company requires that all financial payments be recorded in the General Ledger and not only must they be tracked but there must be internal financial controls sufficient to allow audits and fraud prevention. This is a basic requirement of both IFRS (relevant accounting standard for publicly traded companies) and their board members who are accountable to the tax authorities. Software tracks and records every allocation and payments received and dispursed to the penny. That said, on topic we have the means to pay gratuities so we do so (wealthy and privledged). I try not to judge those on fixed tight budgets who cant afford to cruise without removing a gratuity that is automatically added. Removeing it if you cant afford to be generous to the hard working staff, isnt a crime IMHO. I am annoyed that after payment in full, the automatic gratuity was increased to above what I agreed to when I booked the cruise, without opportunity to pay at the agreed amount. That seemed clumsily handled by corporate, punishing those who didnt buy the plus package, while making those who did whole.

Ours were red (Ruby level frequent guest).

Way too many people on CC with excess time on their hands who like to argue. Dont smoke on that balcony.

Have you ever tried to implement a major policy change for a company with thousands of employees and billions in assets, with booking going out 3-4 years? Issues with existing booking having a reason to cancel, existing labor contracts with multi year terms, thousands of employees to train, shareholder and board members to convince, time to assess data and risk/rewards re: revenue are among only a few of the areas to work out, policy manuals to update. Companies like these often have a schedule of when they make major changes, because they combine a bunch of them and implement them as one shift, including new operating manuals and the like. It is not a 'simple task easily done,' as you imply. Changes, even minor often take years as all the customer, employee, regulatory, and legal issues are worked through.

Should watch interviews with Mr Rodgers about actual childhood development and the importance emotionally of being able to play out imagined scenarios. Technology manipulates in a way that is not healthy play, so I disagree and many specialists will also. Early childhood play is more complex than just learning manual or technical skills. Ego is developing, as is the sense of self., feelings of confidence and security, which support ability to assert oneself and plan. But is good you care.

For kids? Drawing class and coloring templates were a fun activity for us on a recent cruise. Only sad thing was class was too short for us to show teacher our finished sketches. They exceeded our expectations.

Happy valentines day

As an unvested reader who jumped to the last few posts, I would like to say that your response to her very reasonable comment was argumentative and rude. Your 'summary of the other poster's position' is completely inaccurate and slanted, forming conclusions that are not what the person said. If you want to restate them, then quote them. This post uses a classic 'false straw man' tactic people use to attempt to put words in other people's mouths, they didnt say, when they do not have a strong position, but want to 'be right' anyway. For example, saying they consider posts in future cruise decisions is not the same as 'basing their decision solely on the posts'. Thats just nonsense. One assumes, price, timing, other options and a whole host of issues come into play, but one might be a CC review or complaint. It seems obvious if you assume a rational person is posting and/or reading. I post this to show sympathy to the cruiser who is obviously interested in the experience of other passengers, both positive and negative. If one doesnt like complaint threads it is very easy to not click on them.

Definitely a class thing. My pet annoyance is people who bring them on hiking trails in parks. Nothing worse than wanting to walk in nature, see birds and hear them, and be on the trails with kids carrying a boom box blasting something. Why hike in nature to hear load music? You wont ever see an animal that way...on second thought maybe they are scared of bears and are trying to scare them off... Of course Jimmy Buffet is an allowed exception on Mexican Riviera Cruises.

We did is at 53 and love the freedom. Why wait if you can?

Agree. There is even a popular Reddit thread dedicated to quotes from this web site’s boards with pictures of all the complaints, making fun of ‘all the entitled Karens complaining about absolutely small problems. A class action suit seems like a big hammer for someone’s credit card reward coupon requiring a process that doesn’t fit someone’s exact desire about how to apply it (eg over the phone). I will try to help educate a bit about the ‘perhaps why’ it may not be ‘simple’, as most people haven’t had to design systems that manage what is effectively electronic money. Most of these reward cards are run by banks, so the money has to get from the bank to the ship, then from the ship to Princess corporate. Like a credit card charge, there are lots of criminals looking to scam systems to steal money. Unlike a credit card, coupons have much less anti fraud features built into them and this is why early reward coupons were often stolen, because they would have a simple number, easily copied or misapplied with one typo. It is not easy to check the name matching, etc. So a phone operator applying your coupon has lots of risks. You might mistake on the number, they might mistake in the number, they might apply to the wrong account. Untangling this after the payment posts is a nightmare. Preventing misuse and fraud is a nightmare. So most likely they want a physical person to apply the credit to verify your identity and make certain the proper payment is applied and to prevent a man in the middle type scam where a phone operator could tell the code to a friend and they get your credit first and the money is missing. It’s more complex than this, but trying to keep it simple. Maybe some phone staff can apply coupons, but if they can’t this is likely why.

Anyone else get a ‘Congratulations you just reached the next loyalty level’ email when your loyalty was unchanged that said something like ‘after your last cruise to Hawaii, you are now qualified for XX level…’ (note we’ve never cruised to Hawaii)? wondering what is going on or are they that desperate for clicks or attention that they are just spamming with random inserts?

I only brought these up as real issues I have read forcing room changes on these boards. Sorry if they don’t meet your standards.

Thanks for the update. We take this sailing on the 2nd of March and are happy to see your trip.

Cruising to beautiful Stockton! Sign me up.

All I said was there can be legitimate reasons a room becomes unavailable. You have the right to be pissed if you booked a room and didnt get it. That said, it is ultimately healthy to let it go as bad luck and move on. So lets say the toilet was clogged and needed portside work to repair. You wanted your room without a working toilet? Lets say someone isolated with norovirus was in that room the day before. You still want that room? Anyway, that was my only point. Best wishes for your future cruises.