rbtan

We really prefer the order system. It reduces sloppiness & hogging at the same time. We vacate when ordering from Waves. I'm not about to slog it down in order to get back to the chair.

Ok....No one ever takes 20 min. to have breakfast or lunch. You reserve a lounge at 7AM & we are expected to believe you get everything done in 20 min? I've seen balony stories in my day & this is a good one. Basically anyone who leaves for 45 min. loses their right. to the chair. My spouse does a couple of tricks: Check the drink & see if its still cold or see if the chair is damp.If not he'll remove the books that most hogs swipe from the library & we'll move in. We did this several times on our Jan. 19 trip. People came back normally after we had been there nearly an hour. Not one said anything(good for them) We leave to do the following: Swim/rest room/relax. When we want food we just pack up & leave.We are not so rude as to bring food back to the chair. Nothing like seeing a mess where some slob spilled food on the lounger. Seen it a few times..

Considering you might get in trouble, I'd recommend not using one. They can get really quite hot. We use them in Sous Vide.

Nota very good looking Filet Mignon. The Lobster tail is likely prepped on shore,frozen & heated on board. Looks like one of the Sysco variety I see frequently.

I'm referring to an electric kettle that you plug in..

No they do not. Too many pax want to get their packing done.

Tea kettle will NOT be provided. Too much of a fire hazard for SOLAS to allow.

Yes it was. Was by far the best meal on our cruise.

Works better in a minisuite,but still a little tight.

We did this pretty often,as the food at times was pretty bad. The steak/lobster comes from the specialty rest.pantries on board. They are not "holdbacks" in the MDR kitchens. they will be prepared to your liking. You'll notice the difference in Lobster tails(not New England, Caribbean Lobster)from the specialys rest. You'll find them quite a bit larger than the ones in the MDR during the last formal night.

I guess if pax want to include the gratuities as part of the cruise. That's fine. Just be aware the price will go up to (now) $20/day or more. Either way we'll still tip extra to those who go over & above. If you're in the hospitality fields like us, we like to take care of our own.

Yes we reward extra to those who directly interact with us. We leave on the gratuity. There are those who pocket it at the end of the cruise. You'll see loads of them skipping the last night(presumably to pack) Though for some reason they are crowding the guest services desk.hmmm.

They were not my family. They were relatives of some great friends who introduced us to cruising(first cruise was on Cunard) Personally we couldn't stand this couple(mother & son)When they bragged at what they did, they were booted out of our table. There were 50 of us. Called the "Cruisin' Cousins". The 2 I mentioned were pariahs to the extended family long before this incident.

Fabricating?

Have you not "read" the Princess policy on the gratuities? The line "knows" who opted out. There are cameras everywhere. Don't think they can't see what goes on. Most who opt out, unfortunately just "pocket" the money On our first trip on the QM2 years ago, a family did just that.They bragged about it at dinner.We kicked them out of our dining table in Britannia. & nearly made them not take the charter bus home. They to this day pretty much are banned from family get togethers.

Sorry, but pretty much everything you said is flat wrong! Any tips GO to the staff, NOT to Princess. The fees are broken down as to what each staff member gets.The bar staff do NOT share in the tipping pool, as they are tipped from each drink you buy. Not sure where you got all this wrong info.If you remove the auto tip, any money you give to a crew member then has to go into the "pool". As long as you leave the auto tip on anything you give over & above may go to the staff of your choice. We always give extra to our attendant & assistant. They get to KEEP that.We do not tip in the diningroom as we do anytime dining & they all share in the auto tip. I suggest you learn to properly document your statements rather than saying it's well documented.

We moved up to Bronze & yes we got the credit a few days into our trip.

Never liked this ship yard. There are constant delays. Also the quality lacks. Was just on the Vista. We had tiles popping off the pool area & a sheet of them fall from the ceiling in the sauna. We noticed 2 window "crackle" up likely from wave action. I feel the ships are not built as sound as they could be. The vibration from waves should not be popping off tiles & breaking windows. The window breaking in Horizons was from the ship shaking in the waves. Not a good sign for ship longevity. The same happened along Waves grill as well. Look at the QM2. It never had that problems to this effect..

Yes. My spouse & his brother one of the larger catering co. in New England. That being said it's what the client wants that determines their food budget.If it's the Moon & Stars, that's what they'll get. If it's a burger & dog cookout that's what that client gets. It always amuses us when a customer wants a very high-end wedding, but is only willing to pay for a very simple meal & then gets upset when what they want is Prime grade Filet Mignon, but are willing to pay for what would be burgers/dogs & bbq chicken. Really amazing.We saw the Sysco truck off loading at the pier for our trip. Now like us, Sysco is only limited by the cruise lines' budget. You would never see O's level of food on Carnival except perhaps in their most expensive specialty rest. Sorry that my review was rather :scattered". We just arrived home & I decided to do the review. I was annoyed that the review section would not allow me to write it properly. I'll try again.

Can't seem to do review in review section so will do it here Overall an excellent trip with a few niggles. The Ship) Vista is really luxurious compared to Riviera our usual ship. Grand Dining room is really nice. Though we think the central dining section is gorgeous we prefer to not dine inside it, as it can get noisy. The glass sculptures in the grand lounge are very nice & took some talented people to make them. The similarities to these locations & Martinis bar on Marina/Riviera are tweaked a bit.Saw the obvious issues about chair hogging. We just moved in when pax were gone & had no issues.We also spent a lot of time on Aqua Terrace due to Concierge accommodations & enjoyed the location very much. Entertainment) Vista Lounge is more elegant than Riviera. Some pax have complained there is not enough room between aisles. We did not find any reason for this. Shows were pretty standard. Cancers & singers are quite talented, but it is still small compared to large ships. Then again most large ships don't have the food quality, either. Saw Linda Gentille twice this time. Pleased she remembered us from 2 years back She spoke to me in Mandarin(I'm Chinese) She loves to mingle with guests & is always a riot. The String quartet was down to 2 as two of them missed the boarding. Martinis is similar to Riviera & has a very good piano player. The show band is really talented & did an excellent job overall. Restaurants) GDR has already been mentioned. Ember replaced Jacques on this ship. Though many have disliked this, do remember food costs! Jacques has very high overall food costs & this is a way to balance that fact. This is dining 101 to anyone in the food industry like us. You have to find balance. Overall the food was fine. The Fish & Chips(with Chilean Sea bass, by the way) The rest. is larger than Jacques dut to the fact that the "hallway" to the back of the ship is eliminated. It was amusing to watch pax pile up outside the rest. looking for the now nonexistent hallway. Red Ginger on the other side of the boutiques was our favorite. A few tweaks to the menu were nice additions, such as Soft Shelled Crab were excellent. Polo Grill will not disappoint with the high quality seafood & Steaks. Toscana still is excellent .I prefer the Filet Mignon here as opposed to Polo. Waves Grill is about the same as Riviera/Marina.A nice addition is Aqua dining, which took the place of La Reserves, which has moved to smaller areas in the Tuscana/Polo Privee dining areas. Baristas has a nice bakery which took the place of Connections(now called Link along side Horizons) Baristas does not offer the splendid Illy coffee that was on Riviera. Cutbacks) this is in the food areas. Maine Lobster was supposed to be served in GDR, but has been replaced with Caribbean Lobster( It still states Maine in the ads) Seeing the big Sysco truck shows that some item ares now being outsourced some Pastries are now prepped off ship(no matter what chefs may tell you) French Fries are obviously Sysco fries. We in fact use these in some of our venues. Horizones has too many repetitions of their once fine pastries. The Slogan "Finest Cuisine at Sea" is starting to show a little rust. Still compared to the mass market lines the food is still much better. The port stops)Costa Maya, sorry folks rained out & skipped. Roatan Island Did a beach excursion. Snorkeled & saw true coral reefs. with loads of colorful fish. Colon,Panama. Very hot!! Did a tour of the new locks on the Canal.Saw a few cruise ships in Gatun Lake waiting to pass through. A good tour. Santo Tomas Guatemala. This is a food export port. Some tours but they are far out & require long excursions. Port Limon, Costa Rica.Nice port with a lot to take in. Lots of excursions of wildlife. Again we did a city & country tour. Managed to see some baby Sloths in the trees in the park just outside to port. The taxi driver explained about the earthquakes in 1991 that raised a few miles coast line about 2 meters out of the sea. The evidence is still visible. Belize City we did a city tour & saw many of the local landmarks. There are far off tours. Some of which delayed our departure by 2 hours. Since it was a ship based excursion, they have to wait.Next up was to be Cozumel, but due to strong wind it was skipped. I'm finding the more frequent occurrences of Oceania skipping tour disheartening, As I feel they can still do them/ Thirty min. after we skipped Costa Maya the sun was fully out. This seems to be an increasing trend in the past few years. For a score I'd rate a total of about 4 & one half stars.

Ok first: do it early! It is amazing how fast Suites & Concierge fill up early. You put down $500. You can use some of it on your current cruise or transfer it to your future on(what we did) On Concierge you should go for the cabin of your choice with the extended balcony. I tried this with the 2 rear PH suites. Unfortunately, they book fast(very large wrap around balcony) We lost out on those but booked one below our Concierge(with extended balcony) Balcony extends quite a bit further than the other PH suites.You also save at least $200 over waiting till you get home.

They said no.No big deal.

How do you know they ARE premium? Compared to some local flavors here in New England or Tillamook from the west coast, we find Slocumbe good but not better than what I mentioned. The names, however are generally better than the product. Oh,by the way personal taste is indeed an option. Slocumbe is good, but I've had better.

Ok. We got off our Vista trip this Wed. & did a few days in Key West & one day back in Miami.Got home a couple of hours ago. What we saw for 12 days was typical. Lots of chair hogs(to the point the CD did a rather terse reminder about it) We solved it 2 ways.Pax usually hog chairs & go eat lunch. We just removed their belongings to the tops of the pool towel bins & took our spots.Not one person said anything(how lucky for them LOL) The other thing was we were Concierge & generally stayed in Aqua Terrace. Next year my spouse booked a suite & we'll likely enjoy our loungers on our deck at times.

It's what we do.