karatemom2

In my personal experience, our British Isles cruise offered a wonderful opportunity to visit castles, cathedrals and historical sites which was a huge priority for me. Just to give you a sense of what we were able to do on our 12 day British Isles cruise with 4 days pre-cruise in London here is a list of what we visited: London: Buckingham Palace Westminster Abbey Tower of London Churchill War Rooms Shakespeare's Old Globe Theatre St. Paul's Cathedral Maritime Museum at Greenwich Southampton Departure Day: Windsor Castle Guernsey: Castle Cornet WWII Sites and Museum Cobh: Rock of Cashel Dublin: Glendalough Monastic City Christchurch Cathedral Belfast: Giants Causeway Dunluce Castle Titanic Museum Liverpool (tour to Wales) : Conwy Castle Snowdonia Park Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Invergordon: Dunrobin Castle Cairn Liath Falls of Shin Dornoch Cathedral Glasgow: Sterling Castle Castle Leoch Village of Luss Loch Lomond Trossachs National Park Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle Royal Mile St. Giles Cathedral Royal Yacht Brittania Le Havre: Omaha Beach American Cemetery Bayeux - for Cathedral and Bayeux Tapestry Southampton Departure: Hampton Court Palace Stonehenge. So, you can find that you will have ample choices of castles and historically significant sites if you prioritize those things for your ports and pre and post departure days. I will always remember our British Isles cruise as one of our most memorable and wonderful travel adventures!!

Yes, either order is fine. You just need to do both before sailaway. You can also watch it on your stateroom tv.

Any crew member can direct you based on your stateroom number. But your room will be available by 1 pm and I don’t recall them setting up the check in stations before that time.

Princess has made it much easier. You can identify your muster station by looking at the map on your door. Simply check in at the station where they will scan your medallion and then watch the safety video in the comfort of your stateroom and you will be all set.

It doesn't appear there are any Hawaii sailings from Seattle, but there are from Vancouver which should be close enough to avoid a flight if you are in the Seattle area.

Victoria is a lovely town, but given a choice, I would choose Sitka any day. It is one of the most beautiful ports in Alaska in my opinion.

So surprised by all the replies about changing in the treatment room - in all the years we have been cruising with Princess I have only had that experience once on our couples massage and I figured it was unique to that service. Maybe that is the new trend now on the newer ships. I actually really liked having the ability to change in the locker room and leave my clothes in the locker and slip into a nice robe and go sit and have a tea or water before my treatment and then shower and dress afterwards so I don't get my clothes all oily. It makes the experience seem a little more pampering.

We were on the Sky for a 14 day Med cruise this summer and we’re able to reserve the same table for two in Soleil for the entire cruise. We had a 6:30 reservation time and the first evening when we checked in requested a table for two that was separate and offered a bit more room and privacy then the long line of shared two tops. They found us a great table with fantastic servers so we locked it in for the same time each night of our cruise. It was no problem at all. The first evening in the restaurants is generally light because people are still getting situated, especially at your preferred time of 5:30. Just get to your preferred dining venue a bit early and speak with the manager and I’m sure they will be happy to accommodate your request. I got the impression they prefer to have reserved guest tables wherever possible as it ultimately makes it easier on the front desk staff and servers.

It’s been a long while since my kids were in the clubs, but as I recall in the afternoon of embarkation they had an open house where the provided schedules for the week, tours and sign up opportunities. Kind of like the spa does. Not sure if this is still a thing, but I’m sure they have some sort of orientation process for kids and parents.

In addition to those items mentioned above, the menu generally includes spinach ricotta ravioli and chick pea soup. Soufflé is usually Grand Marnier. And there are always the everyday choices like burger, fries, etc.

Yes we visited on one of our stops in Mazatlan. It’s a nice aquarium and a good place to spend a couple of hours. There were several school field trips there the day we visited. We took a taxi - it was very easy.

I wish they stayed open that late. Breakfast hours in the MDR are 7 - 9 am. Hence the reason we rarely make it even though we much prefer it to the buffet.

Yes, by the visitors' center - at least that was our experience. Then you are told how much time you have to hike through on your own before getting back onboard..

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Who is paying for the cruise? Are you and Mom splitting the cost? Since you really seem to want it so much, maybe you can cover the cost for the both of you and gift it to your Mom.

In my experience, when going for an individual massage, you check in at the front desk and they direct you to the ladies dressing room where there are lockers and showers. You are provided with a robe and slippers and can leave your clothes in the locker. You then go out and relax in a waiting area where they have infused water and tea and clipboards with a form they ask you to fill out and provide to your massage therapist who will come and collect you and take you to your treatment room. Very much like a doctors office. It was different with our couples massage - in that instance we were taken directly to our treatment room and undressed with our clothes set aside in the room. I didn't really like it as well - I prefer to be provided with a robe.

Yep, we don't keep getting those awesome "free" casino offers because they are losing money on the degenerate gambler that I married. : )

I never thought about it this way before, but you have a great point. I'm not a non drinker, but very light drinker, like maybe one glass of wine or one cocktail occasionally, and definitely not everyday. So on behalf of those like us, I thank you all! Seriously, these conversations are getting downright silly. It's becoming the new formal wear debate. It really is such a personal decision based on how you partake in your cruise - great for those who love it and get a great value, and not necessary for those who don't.- No debate needed. There are a lot of people who are probably appalled that my DH loves to plays Craps in the Casino. That's where a lot of his time and dollars go when we cruise, and I'm sure there are tons of people who think it's a waste of time and money. I don't really care. He loves it and we get great cruising benefits because of it. Thank goodness Princess is a cruise line that offers something for everyone - and hey, to all the nongamblers, you are similarly welcome that our donations at the Casino help keep costs down. Haha!

Not necessarily exotic but there is usually a duck dish or appetizer one night. Also we did find the had escargot on the menu again on our last cruise. I remember years ago when my kids were younger they had frog’s legs in the menu one cruise. They both insisted on ordering it over my protestations. It arrived looking as nauseating as I anticipated and they both changed their minds rather quickly. They both still love escargot, though.

The shows aren't a make or break for us in choosing, hence why we stick with Princess for other reasons. Overall Princess shows are just ok in general compared to some other lines we have been on. By far the best and most professional shows we have seen have been on NCL and Disney, but NCL really does it right. Their productions of Six, Choir of Man and Jersey Boys are top notch!

Yes, there will be holiday activities. Probably caroling and ginger bread house contest, special activities on kids club - maybe card or ornament crafts. The ship will be decorated and festive. Since you will be getting off before Christmas you probably won’t get the Santa experience but who knows? Usually that’s reserved for Christmas Eve or Day in our previous experience. But no doubt there will be some fun, Christmas themed activities.

It's not on the Lotus Spa menu of offerings. https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/wellness/lotus-spa-favorites-menu.pdf

It was all four years when we did our Hawaii cruise out of LA, first year was Diamond and subsequent three years on Golden. We had never seen them before and had no idea what they were! It just happens we met some fellow passengers onboard who had a daughter the same age as ours and we all became fast friends. They were also from CA, but Mom was raised in the UK and she explained the tradition to us with the crowns and jokes. We had a fine time at dinner sporting our tissue paper crowns and reading our silly jokes. And even better we remain friends with them to this day and our girls are all grown up. And Christmas Crackers have become a beloved part of our annual Christmas Eve tradition ever since!

Like I said I’m my initial post, it’s been a few years since we did a holiday cruise, but I would say in our experience people definitely were dressed more formally, especially on New Year’s Eve. Christmas Eve usually featured many special things - Christmas Crackers on everyone’s plates at dinner, caroling, a reading of the Night Before Christmas, Ugly Sweater contest, etc. And there are generally religious services as well, or at least there used to be.

Hank offers excellent advice. As he suggests, we usually do a combination of ship and private tours on our cruises depending on a number of factors - priority of what we want to see, time in port, types of tours offered (both ship tours and private) and of course cost. Planning is a big part of the fun for me as it offers months of anticipation and I get to learn about the ports as I plan. We did a Western Med cruise last summer and here are some examples. In Livorno (Florence) we did a private tour as we found a well reviewed company (Italy Tours) that offered exactly what we wanted and had a proven track record catering to cruise passengers. In Rome we wanted to fully maximize our day without worry about getting back to the ship so we opted for an expensive ship tour that covered our top priorities because that was a really important city for us and it was distant from port. In Barcelona where you port right at the city we fully did our own thing without any tour, but planned our own sightseeing day using our feet and taxis and purchasing our own entries to the attractions we wanted to see. Sometimes those end up being the best days. A great source for research is the Ports of Call board here; https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2-ports-of-call/ Happy planning!

No, not as of a few weeks ago on the Sky. We asked one of the waiters in the Vista lounge about it and it sounded from his response that there are no plans to bring them back. Even with COVID restrictions going away, they have probably figured out they were a great way to spread other things like Noro as well.