karatemom2

Reservations aren’t required but they do make it more expedient. We prefer a table for 2 and try to reserve for a specific time each night so we can try to get the same table and waitstaff. Then we can just walk into the dining room at our reserved time and not wait in a long line or have to be on a waiting list with a buzzer.

Not the OP, but we were on Discovery last week. We saw a few passengers wearing masks and some of the staff, it seemed to increase as the week went on, probably due to the amount of people coughing everywhere. My son and husband both tested positive on the last day of our cruise. They ended up staying isolated in our cabin for the day and evening and we masked up and walked off first thing the next morning so as to try to avoid exposing anyone else. But honestly, it is everywhere right now. I work in healthcare and our census of positive patients is quite high - also the Flu and RSV. Several people in our Facebook group have similarly reported positive tests since coming home. So, you just have to do the best you can to protect yourself - anyone who is higher risk should probably consider wearing a mask, especially in elevators and crowded venues. I ended up catching it from them and tested positive a few days after we got home. Not fun - but it won't deter me from cruising. We will likely mask up a bit more and get another booster for our cruise this summer.

Yes, the new app has the Locate friends/family. We used it daily on our Discovery cruise last week to find our family members - it's a nice feature.

It will not take three hours to get a ticket. It’s up to you if you don’t want to get off and enjoy the ship instead, but likely at most you would wait for an hour to 90 minutes max. They were moving pretty quickly and they usually have two gangways with two tenders running at all times.

On our cruise last week the Vista lounge was being used for regular ticket distribution. The tickets are numbered and you and your full party need to remain in the lounge as they call out number sequences in groups to let you know when you can proceed to the gangway. We were off the ship by the time it had slowed down, but I would imagine if they announce there is no more waiting and you can go directly off the ship you would not need to stop to get a ticket.

Most of these activities that are sponsored by the spa or the stores are upsell, but if you don’t mind saying “No” you can sometimes enjoy some light services like a free neck and shoulder massage or mini facial (Ladies Pamper Party). I would totally avoid the acupuncture or weight loss talks and despite sometimes walking away with some cheap freebies like a charm bracelet, I’m not a big fan of the shop promotions. Things like the morning group Zumba or Yoga and dance instruction classes usually don’t come with a sales pitch. Arts and craft projects and onboard demos like cocktail making, fruit carving, towel animals, etc. are similarly free from upsell. Port lectures may have an upsell for shore excursions, but some are just informational or cover nature or history topics which can be quite interesting. The good news is you can always hang toward the back if you are unsure and sneak away if it ends up being not to your liking.

That had been our experience as well, however, it may depend on what ships are in port with you. On our most recent trip last week we were in port with a Carnival cruise ship. It appeared they had exclusive use of the Cabo port tenders that day and Princess was only using its own water shuttles.

I don’t believe you are on the same cruise as the OP. They are on a 7 day itinerary leaving Feb 3 and are only in Cabo for one day from Noon to 8. You must be on the 5 day cruise departing Feb 10 that overnights in Cabo. We did that itinerary last year and really enjoyed it. You do have a little more flexibility in timing getting off and on the ship since you are there overnight and people seem a bit less anxious about getting off since you are there for two days. The line will still likely be longest the first day on arrival though.

We just did this same itinerary on Discovery over New Year’s and I will share that the line up for those getting tender tickets as we were coming into port was very long by 11:30 am - a full half hour prior to our port time. We are Elite so went to a different lounge for the priority tendering, but we passed the line of people heading into the Vista lounge for the regular tendering tickets and there were a lot of people. If you want to avoid the crowds and are flexible about when you depart the ship, you might wait until between 1 - 2 pm to allow the initial rush to subside and you will likely get off fairly quickly at that point. Last tender back will be 7 pm and just know the line to come back will be long as well. It moved quickly, but it still took us a bit of time heading back.

I don’t think so unless it relates to a special activity that is planned. I can’t recall my kids getting snacks or drinks, but I think I was able to send a water bottle with them. It’s been awhile as they are all grown up now. Maybe someone with more recent experience will answer.

I don’t remember meals being offered as part of the program on sea days. It seems we needed to manage meals on those days. I think the buffet is far too busy on those days for the staff to try to herd the kids through while it is very quiet on port days which makes it manageable. The clubs close for an hour at lunch and dinner on sea days so I think parents are expected to feed the kids during those breaks. It stays open on port days when parents might be on shore so they need to make sure kids get lunch.

Kids staying on board on port days while parents are onshore will be taken by club staff as a group to the buffet for meals.

Haha - afraid that won't fly. Casino is strictly pass through for the kiddos. You and your hubby will have to take turns, or maybe get some of the family you are traveling with to do some babysitting.

Princess is very firm on the age requirements and the kids club has a manifest of all the children onboard with their age, so you will not be able to lie about the birthdate. As Kerry's Girls mentioned, it has been the case that a younger child could use the facilities at certain times when accompanied by a parent who remains with them, but you would have to verify that with the staff when you get onboard.

My daughter and her new husband stayed at Hotel Manfredi in Rome for their honeymoon after their cruise ended and they absolutely loved it. It is very near the Spanish Steps and in a lovely part of town. They said it made a perfect base for exploring the city and it is very charming, not your usual cookie cutter hotel rooms.

I can share my experience. I had the bangle bracelet, which I really liked and had used on a couple of cruises, when it broke on one of my recent cruises. Unfortunately, the kiosk was out of bracelets, so they offered me the necklace instead which I ended up using for the remainder of that two week cruise. In all honesty, I hated it. While it worked well enough to open our stateroom door and at some bars where the sensors picked it up, it was terrible for getting on and off the ship or at any point when someone needed to scan my medallion like at the stores, or at the buffet when ordering drinks. Either they had to bring the scanner up to my neck, or I had to lean way over to touch it the scanner because the chain is soooo short. I don't know what they were thinking with the design. If it was long, like a lanyard, it would have been much better - but it was a giant pain and actually made me feel awkward and uncomfortable. I ended up purchasing a new bangle bracelet on our next cruise that I am still using and love - it is way easier and they look very nice. My advice - skip the necklace!

The Call Center situation is terrible. Where we live in So Cal I could drive to Princess headquarters in Santa Clarita and plant myself in front of someone in less time than I am usually holding on the phone. But even worse is the general lack of knowledge when you do speak to someone. Honestly I don’t mind the outsourcing if Princess would just invest in providing their new staff with proper training and knowledge to provide accurate information and assistance.

There is no requirement to tip on your prepaid shore excursion. Choosing to tip or not is completely up you. Cash tips for the driver and tour guide are appreciated and in some cases they will have a little bucket or basket where you can drop a tip as you depart the tour. In most instances if you feel they have done great job and you enjoyed your excursion, it is nice to leave a tip. We usually tip - sometimes a nominal amount for a standard experience, sometimes more if the team has really exceeded expectations. But it’s a personal decision. You might want to take some cash with you in case you decide you do want to leave a tip.

This is a very good observation. Edinburgh is a tender port with a very long and sometimes choppy ride. The day that we were there the weather was so bad that they almost ended up canceling our port call. Although Princess does allow a deviation with prior approval, it may prove difficult at this port due to the tendering issue if people are getting off the ship with bags. Also, they would need to keep in mind that, although not common, there are times when they have to miss the port due to weather conditions that make tendering too difficult. Those are issues you would want to make sure to discuss with Princess in advance.

No more chocolates and no more complimentary Elite toiletry bag. They have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

The closets on the Grand are very small - a reduced version of the standard Princess closets. (See photo). If you Google “Grand Princess closets” you will find many images online. It won’t give you exact measurements, but should provide a good idea of the space.

We are home and so far I’m still testing negative. Hubby and son are feeling better but still not great. It’s nice to be back after an eventful cruise, so I’ll share some closing thoughts. All cruises have ups and downs - this one certainly did, but I will say it’s the first time we have come home from a cruise not that eager to cruise again soon. We do have a Norway cruise on the Sky scheduled this summer which is a bucket list item and something we are really excited about. But we left this trip realizing that cruising has changed for us. We no longer really want to cruise just for the cruise - it will be very much destination driven and with consideration of the timing from now on. In large part that’s because the onboard experience isn’t exactly as fulfilling as it once was for us. DH enjoys the casino, but it was way too crowded on this sailing. The food across the board from dining room to buffet was quite good, but service was dismal and very unfriendly. I don’t even know why Princess continues to offer room service - it’s unreasonably slow and then delivered with items wrong or missing. Either do it well or don’t do it at all. The only time we were able to get drink service was in the buffet - other than that we went to the bar and procured our own drinks. Service was nonexistent in the lounges - even when I tried in vain to flag someone down. The New Year’s Eve celebration was awesome and the Cruise Director was terrific - entertaining and energetic. But the rest of the entertainment staff and events were lackluster. Trivia’s were boring and uninspired with a couple notable exceptions hosted by the CD - most felt like a box being checked. Production shows repetitive and tired and the talent is inconsistent - although I still enjoy Spotlight Bar. The live music onboard was weak compared to our other Princess cruises. Comedian was just ok. Things like the Egg Drop Challenge, line dancing, and arts and crafts from kits are getting very old. Princess needs to consider how to go about keeping the onboard entertainment and activities more fresh, fun and engaging. We realized in retrospect that we have highly romanticized memories of our previous holiday cruises to Hawaii which were idyllic. This cruise, like the one we took last year on Discovery over Super Bowl weekend, was frenetic, overcrowded, impersonal and not the least bit relaxing. The Mexican Riviera is a different kind of destination and though we had fun on our excursions it was largely because we have enough experience with these ports to choose our activities wisely. Going forward we will likely not choose to cruise during these super high capacity dates and to destinations that are simply convenient as opposed to somewhere we really want to visit. And we likely will stick to longer cruises - 7 day or less itineraries just don’t seem to offer the same level of care or service as longer cruises where you have more time to get to know the crew. It kind of feels like a “move em on, move em off” mentality. Please note, these are just observations and lessons learned about how our preferences are evolving after years of cruising Princess. This is not to indicate we did not have a good time (well except for the COVID part). We loved our 360 experience, New Year’s Eve was a blast, our port days were really fun, food was very good and we enjoyed seeing the kids onboard having fun. Hats off to the kid’s staff who appeared to be doing a stellar job keeping the young ones through teens entertained. There were tons of kids onboard and we did not notice one issue with any of them. As parents who raised our kids on Princess cruises, I really appreciate the way they offer a stellar family travel experience. The Family Fun Fair they held in the atrium reminded me of when our kids were little and joining in those activities. We are still big Princess fans and loyal consumers of their product - but we can be honest about where we see room for improvement and aspects of the service we truly miss. That being said, we are beyond excited for our Land of the Midnight Sun adventure on the Sky in 5 months! Thanks for following along on our most recent journey.

Thanks for thinking of this reminder. DH doesn’t charge to account - just cash to chips. He plays table games exclusively - mostly Craps. I took his chips down and cashed them in last night.

Yes, I took a bit of a break. Seas are rough these last two sea days and apparently a lot of people are seasick. I myself love the rocking and rolling! After a great day at Las Caletas with absolutely gorgeous weather for a beach day at the edge of the jungle we came back to the ship pretty tired. That fatigue seemed to linger into the day yesterday and by last night my son and husband seemed under the weather. Lo and behold and to no one’s surprise given that people are literally coughing everywhere, they both tested positive for COVID this morning. I’m fine, but likely a sitting duck - tick, tock…. They really have minor cold symptoms at this point but obviously we will be sticking to our cabin today. I’m the food and drink runner! Thankfully we get off the ship as a walk off first thing tomorrow morning and have a fairly short drive home. And the casino will just have to miss hubby tonight! We knew this was the chance we were taking on a crowded holiday cruise with all the COVID and flu going around. Thankfully we are all vaxxed. Cest La Vie! I will do a recap when we get home!

We had a fun day in Mazatlan today. We have been to these ports a number of times and Mazatlan is typically not one of our favorites. But we booked a ship excursion called Salsa and Salsa which we did once many years ago in Cabo and it didn’t disappoint. The margaritas were flowing freely and we made six different salsas - all delicious. And then we practiced up on our Salsa dancing. We had about an hour after to kick back and relax on the beach at the resort. It was a beautiful day and we had tons of fun. We were pretty tired and a little tipsy when we got back but managed to make our dinner reservation. It was Italian night tonight and the food was delicious. I especially enjoyed my lasagna entree. I will note a rare critique of our waiters this evening. We have been on lots of Princess cruises and I have to say these were the most unfriendly waiters we have ever had. No introductions, no friendly inquiry “How was your day?”, nothing. It was strictly business - menu in hand, order, food delivered. No offer of ground pepper, no parmesan for our pasta, no offer of coffee or tea with our dessert. It was so cold and officious! They brought us our dinner and the food was good so I can’t really feel too disappointed, it was just really odd and uncomfortable as they barely said two words to us. First world problems really! We had planned to watch Barbie on MUTS tonight but are opting to turn in early (except for the degenerate gambler) as we are losing another hour tonight heading into Puerto Vallarta and we have an early tour booked to Las Caletas. Looking forward to another fun day ashore!