DCThunder

Won't your 4 beds be the two regular beds, the sofa bed, and a bed that drops down from the ceiling? It would be an interesting arrangement if the two regular beds were put against the side wall and the closet wall with a night table in the corner. Y'all better be REALLY good friends for this to work. The Golden Girls Go On a Cruise... 😉

All I can say is I'm flabbergasted.

I think everyone at the event was astonished when a lady with over 2000 days was announced as the winner on my last TA. That's almost 5 1/2 YEARS of cruise days!

Heading West the sun will be predominately on the South (port) side of the ship. However, the course from Southampton to FLL will be essentially East-Southwest so the sun will be setting over the port bow. Frankly, in October, I wouldn't worry about it too much. My experience on TAs has been you don't spend that much time on the balcony whilst in mid-ocean.

I'm curious. If the 2nd person cancels a week before sailing, they wouldn't get any refund of the cruise fare. So why would Princess charge the 1st person a solo supplement since they already have two fares for a double occupancy cabin? Perhaps I'm not understanding something, but that seems like Princess would now be getting 3 fares. (person 1 + cancelled person 2+ solo supplement).

There is usually at least one cash-bar reception for Platinum and Elite level members where the Captain or other senior officers welcome everyone and thank them for their loyalty. The person(s) with the top three cumulative cruise days is usually announced (usually someone with 2000+ days cruising wins). It's like a CC meet & greet except its more crowded since on my last several cruises 75% of passengers were Elite or Platinum. There's also a daily "happy hour" type buffet for Platinum and Elite. I'm only Platinum, so there may be other Elite level events.

You can also use the Barclay's points to purchase "beverage cards" which can be used at the bars in the event you don't have a HIA package.

I was in Kristiansand, Copenhagen, and Oslo earlier in 2022 and can give you this advice. Copenhagen: If not on an excursion, you must take a shuttle bus to/from the main square of the city. The ship berths in an industrial port that is 5 miles or so from the city. The shuttle bus was free, but it's about a 30 minute drive to the main square. Once in the square, Copenhagen is a great city, lots of beer, food, history, etc. You cannot walk to town from the ship. Some of the castles that Copenhagen is known for require transportation to reach. I did a full day excursion to the three main castles (including Elsinore "the Hamlet castle" which is probably 40 miles from downtown. Oslo: The ship berths in the middle of the city and you can easily walk to shops, markets, restaurants etc. I did an excursion that went to several of the more prominent sites, but you can do HOHO or other walkable type things on your own. Be sure to check out the huge ski jump that is prominent in the hills around the city. It's been the site of several Olympic ski jump championships and hosts an annual competition that's world famous. Kristiansand: Small town. Easily walkable area. The day we were there (in late April) it was cold and windy, but there's many interesting things to see just by walking around. But you can easily see most of what there is to see in a morning. It was so cold that after walking around for a couple of hours, I wanted to get back on the ship to warm up. We couldn't dock in Skagen because of adverse wind and sea conditions, but it is reportedly a very small town Hope this helps.

I'm a solo traveler and I've been offered attractive looking upgrades (before this bidding system started) and the small print always said something like "solo travelers pay double".

Let Ben Franklin talk to the restaurant manager on embarkation day...😉

I stayed at Sandmans which is downtown next to the Vancouver Place stadium. Lots of decent restaurants in the neighborhood. If you like raw oysters, check out the Fanny Bay Oyster Bar. Some of the best oysters I've ever had.

Sure, when they are 4 years old and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy are real. When the dude's old enough to grow a scraggly beard, I'm not buying it.

Well, what did the "heartbroken child" want? A big hug and apology from Stanley Bear? (And from the picture, the kid looks to be about 19 so he's hardly a child.) The OP NEVER said what they wanted, just that this incident had ruined Christmas. And don't forget, we're only hearing one side of this "tale of woe". The B&M Manager might have a completely different take on the situation, especially if there's an irate husband and father storming around the Piazza and Guest Services desk.

What I don't quite understand is what the OP wants Princess to do. She acknowledges that she understands her son isn't eligible to win and that a mistake was made to ask them to be in the Piazza for the prize ceremony. But what remedy does she expect from the "higher ups" that her husband is going to refer the matter to? If $100 in OBC (or comped dinner) isn't enough, would $500 in cash soothe that "heartbreak" that everyone had? Or would it take a grand?

That was essentially what I was trying to say. You were much more economical with your words.😉

It would seem to me that if HAL can become an "expedition lite" type line it could get into a nice market. Let the Lindblad/Nat Geo and Hurtigruten do the small ship, heavy duty and expensive expedition cruises, but if HAL can get a clientele for the type of cruises described in this article (as well as some bread & butter Caribbean itineraries), it could be a very profitable business model. I agree with the poster above who said that you can only go to St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Lucia so many times before they get boring. Let the Monstrosity of the Seas sail there with 6000 drunks.

Have people seen this article from The Points Guys about HAL shifting focus to longer cruises? Shifting focus: This cruise line is betting bigger on long cruises and unusual itineraries - The Points Guy

I've done seven solo cruises in 2022 (six with Princess, including 3 TAs). If you travel solo, it's up to you how much you'll enjoy the cruise. Do you live alone or enjoy traveling by yourself? If so, you'll have a good time. If you're used to traveling with others, perhaps not you will not. If you travel by yourself, you can do what YOU want, when YOU want. There is usually a "solo group" organized through the CC Roll Call and also a daily meeting time at a given bar. If you enjoy meeting new people, go to a couple of those meetings and see if there are people, you're compatible with. You can end up hanging out with them during parts of the cruise. Tell the headwaiter you'd like to share a table at dinner in the MDR. You'll meet interesting people and even if you don't like them, at worst, you've spent 90 minutes with them and may never see them again. This answer is sort of all over the place, but in my opinion, traveling solo is what you make of it.

Best Western Ft. Lauderdale Airport/Cruise port on W. State Street is the one I stayed at.

DO NOT stay at the Best Western. It is one and a half steps up from being a dump. You can do better. I stayed there this past spring mainly because I had Best Western points I needed to use up, but it was not a pleasant stay. It was totally safe, but the hotel really needs a refurbishment.

After May 7, 2025, everyone will need a "REAL ID compliant" drivers license to board a domestic airline flight, carrying a valid passport for all travel by common carrier should be the default position. Identification | Transportation Security Administration (tsa.gov)

+10000

Both Regal and Enchanted had Texas Hold'em tables as of late September 2022 and December 1, 2022. I can't tell you about limits or tournaments or the like, but they had electronic tables on both ships. Haven't been on Sky so can't speak to that ship. There was always a notice in the Patter for a time for players to meet, usually sometime after 9 pm.

I wish I had been so lucky. The Paxlovid did a great job, but the Covid fatigue is lingering. And I wasn't aware of some of the weird dreams you could get during the time the Paxlovid is doing its thing. Did you know that there is a secret simulation of World War Two (involving over 2billion participants) that is somehow linked to the Matrix movies.

This. +100 Since I'm old, I prefer paper boarding passes so always get them at the airport when I check my bags. Several times the TSA Pre-check hasn't been on the boarding pass and the check-in agent has always been able to correct this,