Dadofsix

The linked article is a couple days old. The current mandate will expire at 12:01 a.m. Sunday June 12th. and will eliminate the mandatory testing for boarding international flights headed back into the U.S.

Great review! We got off Ecstasy a week ago and also had a blast. Its funny mentioned I Putu on Serenity because I just got done writing lengthy survey about how awesome he was on our trip. This last cruise showed us how these small ships have their own kind of charm and we booked another one for the end of this month.

There appears to be a lot across Water St. from the terminal. I do not know much about it, just have seen vehicles parked there on our last two cruises. It appears limited security with little to no fences surrounding the property. With only one ship currently using the port there appears there isn't much in the way of competitors willing to jump into that market for cruise parking unlike other ports.

For the Chef's Table you will most likely have to do this once onboard. With the Chef's Table being a small event, "several couples" could quickly fill it up (you haven't specified how many people) or if others have already booked your large group would not be able to be accommodated so easily. In my past experiences with this event they limit the group to about 14 people. 

33 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Yes, but it isn't 18% per cost of each drink like it is when you charge to your S&S.  The $10.79 daily (18% of $59.95) CHEERS grat is divided between each server that provides a beverage to you, be it a latte, water, martini at Alchemy.  If you order 15 drinks in a day, mix of alcoholic and non-alcoholic (or all alcoholic, I don't judge), $10.79 divided by 15 is 72 cents tipped per drink.  

On the receipt for every drink that you get  it will show the cost of the drink and the 18% gratuity per drink and NOT a diluted gratuity based on the number of drinks a passenger has consumed that day. If tips were calculated in the fashion you were describing waitstaff would have little to no incentive to cater to cruisers beyond 5 drinks and instead shift their focus towards those that were not on Cheers or under 5 drinks. The automatic gratuities to my knowledge are placed in tipshare while additional gratuities and cash divided differently. 

25 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

My experience is the oldest ship in the fleet, and being scrapped later this year, Ecstasy, had more than sufficient crew, and many smiling faces. Absolutely no service complaints from me.

I saw your posts about your trip and looks like they worked the kinks out. We were on the second sailing of the Ecstasy when they reopened Mobile and while the crew appeared short staffed we didn't have near the troubles the O.P. is reporting on the Dream. No bourbon of any brand? or Pepsi to be had? I just can't see that being 100% accurate.

47 minutes ago, Jring said:

Thank you for your reply. So that means even fully vaccinated parents will be forced to stay onboard on ports that doesnt allow unvaccinated kids who are under 5 😨?

Yes one parent/guardian will need to stay onboard with the kids and the other will be allowed onshore. At this time San Juan is strict with the rules and with Carnival not opening the kids clubs to those unvaccinated it leaves parents of young ones with limited options.

Not crazy at all and traveling with a larger family presents different challenges (says the man with six kids) but can be a great time. 

Obviously driving to the port would be much less expensive than flying to a port considering a party of six. From the great suburbs of Buffalo the two closest ports would be New York City and Baltimore with drive times being just about equal to the minute. Those would present a solid days drive of around 6 and half hours plus stops. Two day drives opens up Florida and other Gulf coast ports but that would be adventurous depending on your vacation style.

I would recommend connecting cabins with the age of the boys if possible or two cabins side by side/across the hall from each other. We have done both and found when traveling with really young kids connecting rooms seem to have a more relaxed feeling for all involved. As our kids get older its two or three kids to a cabin depending on who is going.

Get the kids involved with the kids clubs from day one of the cruise. Most love the programs and it gives parents some down time.

Consider early assigned dining in the MDR not Your Time Dining. Yes you will hear many arguments for YTD but with a large family with young ones having a structured time has its benefits. You will have the same table and waitstaff every night. No waiting for the next table that can fit your party plus your waiters get to know what you like and can expedite known childrens favorites to keep them happy.

The Hub app offers a chat feature for somewhere near $5. If you think there will be times of divide and conquer while on the ship use this feature it beats leaving notes in the cabins. 

On 4/17/2022 at 9:38 AM, bar1068 said:

Yea, some weird liquor laws related to taxes that apply to cruising out of those parts. 

I have previously done some research digging deep into TABC regulations and it is more than just the taxes it seems. Some of what I found has dealt with customers that buy a "package" can't pay less per drink than than those without said package. If the daily limit was 5 drinks (basically the "breakeven" point of Cheers) it would be fine, but if someone got all 15 on day one that makes each drink approx $3.46 and those without the package are still paying approx $10. Navigating this loophole would be an accounting nightmare that makes it more difficult. If I remember correctly this rule was made to counteract drink all you can drink for $5 nights if in the door by 8 and Ladies drink free all night with $5 cover charges. In my younger days I remember being to go out to the clubs with less than $20 and have one heck of a time on Nickel nights. Of course Texas also wants their taxes on the alcohol paid. They now even want to nail you for bringing liquor back from your cruise claiming the ability to enforce a tax on what you bought "duty free".

2 hours ago, Jelly_Toast said:

This was not my experience last month on Liberty. All cheers drinks had a wait time in between which was enforced. 

Yes they enforce the time limit between alcoholic drinks but you can order and adult beverage and a water or soda at the same time.

Non-alcoholic drinks do not count against the 15 limit and can be ordered at the same time as the alcoholic drink. No waiting 5 minutes like you have with the alcoholic drinks.

Welcome to the Post-Shutdown world. I haven't had any problems on the three cruises so far since the restart and my overall observation is this new system is working more efficiently. It may be directly related to needed  the COVID vaccination now that must be taken at least 14 days prior to cruising.

We have done this plenty of times (when you have six kids you look for every configuration) and always see what the budget will allow. The last sailing out of New Orleans before the COVID shutdown we took four of our kids with us, two boys and two girls (teens down to ten) and booked wife and I in one cabin, two girls next door and two boys beside them no problems at all. This was on Carnival and I did go straight through them to have it booked correctly. Those were inside cabins at a rate to good to pass up but we have also gone adjoining spa balconies with all six kids with us (just have to get kids to do their own thing sometimes if adult time is needed) and had a blast (4 girls and 2 boys).

1 hour ago, Bollycats said:

Which Princess ship is this? And when?

Just found this article https://abc7.com/cruise-ship-los-angeles-covid-19-grand-princess/11774742/

There is no mention of it turning back or cancelling a voyage, just that it was returning from a 15 day cruise to Hawaii.

Is it worth it? As loaded a question as debating Inside Cabin/Oceanview/Balcony/Suite being worth it. 

From the $$$ standpoint it really depends on what and how much do you drink when on vacation. If you might have a couple drinks on the lido deck in the afternoon, maybe a cocktail at dinner, one in during the show in the theater and one at the comedy club the Cheers package could easily be worth it. Don't want to leave your chair to go back to the cabin and get that bottle of water you bought? Just ask the waiter to bring one and not have to spend your time walking back and forth. Feel like grabbing a soda same thing.  If you consider "heavy drinking" as one or two adult beverages a day then I would say it is NOT worth it.

Personally it is a convenience factor to buy the package. I can try drinks outside my comfort zone to see if I like them and not feel like i wasted money if I don't like them. I can grab bottles of water anywhere on the ship and not have to run back and forth to the cabin, same with even a soda. One of the biggest advantages personally is controlling my expenses without constantly having to check my account balance to stay within my budget. That piece of mind of not worrying about what I am spending at every turn is PRICELESS when I am trying to disconnect from the REAL WORLD. 

7 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

May 1st it goes to $59 a day from $51. 

Yup $8 increase per day PLUS the 18% automatic gratuity added on it making a grand total of $70.74 a day per person after May 1st. Of course individual drink prices have also gone up already and may also increase. Buy it before May 1st and if you simply drink 4 drinks a day at the Alchemy Bar you have come out even. Breakeven point is still around 5-6 cocktails and you still get all the bottled water and coffee you can drink to counteract the alcohol.

We started cruising booking balconies. First cruise was an aft extended balcony and then a few spa balconies. Some of the earlier cruises we would book connecting balconies (Dad, Mom and 6 kids) split between the cabins. Always hunted for a deal with that kind of crowd and were fortunate to find them. Then one cruise we found three inside cabins on a trip when we only had 4 kids with use much cheaper than two balconies and got hooked on them. We find that much of our time is out and about the ship and really little time in the cabin. Now if I ever book Alaska I will go back to balcony again in a heartbeat.

18 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I don't see it listed and the server last night indicated it was gone. Maybe just Ecstasy?

We were on the second sailing out of Mobile this year and don't recall it being offer then. Most noticeable on that cruise was no Chef's Table was being offered.

We did the Chef's Table on the Dream in Oct and wine was included. I am pretty sure that  wine is provided fleet wide for the Chef's Table.

Be careful considering the plan from the phone company it is rigged in their favor unless all you want to do is talk and text. It comes with 200Mb of data and then every 1Mb of data is charged at $2 and will add up quickly. Even basic apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are now using tons of data that most people do not even realize so it can get expensive really quickly. The real kicker is the data these apps use just running in the background can sneak up on you also. MaBell knows how to make a quick buck and this package is easy pickings for them.

8 minutes ago, dbrucern said:

Just off the Magic and we did not use the Verifly app only because we were part of the group which can test 3 days out and unfortunately the app was not updated to allow us to download our test results. I bought all paperwork and from what I could tell most embarking did the same.  We were not really asked about it until all paperwork had been reviewed so I'm not so sure that I will use on next months cruise either.

We just used in last Thursday out of Mobile and tested three days out and didn't have a problem with it.

Just got off the ship today from her second voyage. They are still working out the kinks but everyday is getting better. New crew and a ship that has not had passengers for two years can make a fun learning curve. That being said we had a good time and a memorable trip. I will be working on a trip report over the next couple of days to give more details. 

Just got off the Ecstasy in Mobile today and used VeriFLY at check in and was not asked for any paper copies. We just had to show the app and off we were on to the next station. I did have paper copies of everything ready because you never know when an may crash but did not need to get them out. It was a real "cluster you know what" when we going through the terminal because the ship was late coming back but we spent less than 2 minutes at that part of check in. 

Our last cruise in OCT (Dream) embarkation was relatively quick when we arrived in our window. Sign and Sail cards will be outside your cabin at 1:30 and then if you need extra cards for kids cabin just go down to guest services. We had our teenagers in another cabin although when we booked it was one adult and one teen in each, guest service will just make you spare cards to unlock the cabin as needed. I would recommend waiting until late the first night or even the second morning for the initial rush to die down at guest services, I am just the kind of person that is unwilling to stand in a long line for a simple 3 minute transaction that isn't an emergency when on vacation. 

Thursday the wife and I are going out of Mobile and will be using the new VeriFLY that is being rolled out that has been promoted to speed up the embarkation time so we will see how that goes.

4 hours ago, bananatami said:

 

How do you get a spa pass??

 

I have read some very mixed reviews regarding the Dream.

I had origanally booked on the Magic and an hour after I booked, found out my friend from HS and her family were on this cruise, so I switched. Just hoping i made the better decision.

We were on the Dream in October with two teenagers, one in middle school one in high school. We told them to just go down and check it out on the first night and test the water so to speak. After that we hardly ever saw them apart from their "new friends" . The staff working those clubs are OUTSTANDING and that is coming from my kids. The entire crew of the Dream is really outstanding and go out of their way to make it your best cruise. If you happen to run into a bar waiter named "Skinny" on the Lido deck you have found probably the best server on the ship. Not only will he remember your name for the entire cruise, what your drink, but he will also remember everyone in your party including your kids and give you updates if he sees them throughout his day.