DSLibrarian

I often book with my big box TA but sometimes it makes more sense to book directly with the cruise line and transfer it later to the TA. For instance, AMEX recently had a promotion for a $100 refund when charging $500 on a cruise. Our TA doesn't accept AMEX so by keeping the booking with Princess, we were able to save $200. (Both dh and I have AMEX cards so we could each use the offer.) I'll still transfer the booking to the TA sometime before final payment for an additional 8-10% savings

We were on the Caribbean Princess.

Our experience was amazing (YMMV). Nelson was the HeadWaiter and Magdalena was our server. They were both extremely attentive and went above and beyond for ourdining experience.

We would go to dinner depending on the port scheduleanywhere between 6:30 and 8:00 and always had immediate seating. There were many tables occupied but always afew available. Magdalena and Nelson provided a cheese/olive/bread (sometimesfruit too) plate every night for us.

We did have the regular dinner menu of the MDR and had a specialtyitem prepared nightly. A few that I recall were lamb chops, filet mignon, and apasta and shrimp dish. One night Nelson served peach flambeau for dessert. Nelson did the ‘cooking’. As previously stated, it is not preparedtableside but in the dining room and not the galley.

I heartily agree with DJVKN. Our experience was the same. We were on the Caribbean Princess last month for a British Isles cruise. We are usually HAL Neptune Suite cruisers and this was just our 2nd Princess cruise. We had a Vista Suite so were able to experience CC dining. We thoroughly enjoyed it and didn't feel the need for specialty dining as we usually do on HAL to avoid the MDR. We also had Magdalena as our server. (What a gem!) Velson was the assistant server and Jelena was the head waiter. Jelena always enthusiastically greeted us, led us to "our table" by the window and offered something special she prepared, in additional to the regular menu items. Although we tried Sabatini's for breakfast a couple of times, we preferred the atmosphere of CC for breakfast and more often went there - even without the "happy juice" mimosas. We are looking forward to enjoying a similar experience on the Ruby in February 2019.

Very informative review. Thank you for sharing. We'll be on her in 2 weeks so your review is timely and helpful for us.

We are booked on the Star Mexican Riviera Feb 2019. I received a call from Princess yesterday telling me that we would not be on the Star but on the Ruby instead. This was followed up with an email from Princess last night with additional information:

VOYAGE REDEPLOYMENT

Please be advised that due to deployment changes, your voyage will now sail on Ruby Princess rather than Star Princess. Ruby Princess features the same signature Princess amenities as Star Princess, including the Sanctuary, Lotus Spa, Movies Under the Stars, International Cafe, and Crown Grill. In addition, Ruby Princess has SHARE by Curtis Stone, a fine-dining experience featuring ultra-premium meats, seafood and more! For more information on Ruby Princess, visit http://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/ru-ruby-princess/.

You will be rebooked on the new voyage, and you will receive your new booking information no later than July 19, 2017. Your cruise fare and promotions have been protected, and your new booking will be in the same category type and located in the same area of the ship. Once you receive your new booking details, you can verify your cabin location using the deck plans available at http://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=RU. We look forward to welcoming you aboard Ruby Princess.

Just received a call from Princess that our Feb 2019 Baja Peninsula/Sea of Cortez cruise on the Star Princess is now on the Ruby instead. Not sure what's happening with the Star Princess but this provides some info on the Ruby Princess.

Fantastic review Alaskanb - Thanks for posting it.

Wondering.. how do Kcups work with the filters? Do you just remove the foil top from the Kcup and set it in the filter?

We were booked on the Dec 1 sailing and cancelled. We prefer not to sail with large groups of ANY kind. In fact, we cancelled this same cruise last year due to a totally different, nonpolitical group. Very large groups do affect your overall enjoyment. We had prebooked a family retreat cabana and found out there might be times we could not use the area.

Please remove us from this cruise (We've now had to cancel 2 years in row due to large groups on board):

Westerdam - 01-Dec-17- 7 day Mexican Riviera

DSLibrarian

and add:

Koningsdam - 18-Mar-18- 10 day Southern Caribbean Seafarer

DSLibrarian

Thank you!

OMG. I just saw that our Dec 1 - 8 Westerdam Mexican Riviera cruise now shows a political group (The Nation) on board. We cancelled this cruise last year due to a large group. Does anyone know how large this group might be?

We are mostly HAL cruisers. Our upcoming cruise is only our second time on Princess & first in a full suite on Princess. We plan to trade in our mini bar for 2 coffee cards. What is the procedure? Do we just call room service? How soon does this happen - Is it done within the first day or two?

Here are a couple pictures of Deck 10 from above. As you can see, they have quite a bit of work to do.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for posting this. Sure lots of work yet to be done.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Thanks for posting!! Subscribed. Are the retreat cabanas finished or is that area not expected to be done until later in May? Reserved a family cabana for December. Hoping to see some pictures.

Interesting. I sent mine in yesterday for our December cruise and had a reply within a couple hours that said I'd have to wait until after the board meets in April to resubmit. BTW - the 206-280-6080 number worked perfectly.

Sorry.. Fat Finger mistake. The correct number is 206- 270-6080

I already got mine applied for my Dec cruise, so I expect that they will renew.

A couple of years ago, we stayed 3 nights at the Hampton Inn (Hilton) in Croydon. It's right next to the East Croydon rail station. Although the rooms are small, it was modern, very affordable, free breakfast and very easy to use as a base for exploring. We bought the London pass with travel card and it was great.

Thank you all for the information. We will confirm with Sebastian and post our review afterwards.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Forums mobile app

I plan to be in Acapulco this fall with my nephew Sebastian and am considering the Acapulco City Highlight tour with acapulcoforall by Sebastian Hernandez. Have any knowledgeable cruise critics used his service recently? Is he reliable? I have been in touch with them & their tours sound perfect for us but I would appreciate receiving feedback from anyone who has dealt with them. As my nephew shares the same name I thought it would be a fun surprise for him to hire Sebastian.

Sent from my iPad

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Have to check pricing very closely, especially if you are flexible as to cruise line.

 

I have found that Princess is frequently several hundred p.p. higher than HAL on comparable Caribbean sailings, but several hundred LESS on Mexican Riviera out of SoCal.

 

Lots of variables.

I agree.. We have HAL booked for next December (Westerdam - Mexican Riviera - Neptune Suite - Dec 1, 2017) Had hoped to be able to add Explore4 for little or no increase as we have in the past but this time it adds $800. That's not worth it for us. I'll keep watching, but we'll probably cancel this one.

I've also booked Princess (Ruby - Mexican Riviera - Full Suite - Dec 9, 2017) for the same price but also includes the Sip & Sail promotion. We'll probably keep this one.

Do the Zuiderdam Neptune Suites already have the in-suite coffee/espresso machine, even though the suite upgrade drydock is not scheduled until late 2017?

Just off the Zuiderdam a month ago - in Neptune suite 7086. We had the new coffee/espresso machine. Like others have said, it is OK for a small cup of java before the Neptune Lounge opens.

Thanks OlsSalt. Anybody else on whether the On Demand services are yet available on the Zuiderdam?

 

Brian

Nope - No on demand TV services on Zuiderdam as of July 4.

She mentioned she was on the Westy a "few weeks ago" which led me to assume European cruises, and I had seen a post from a gent complaining about the 20% value added tax on drinks on his Med cruise. The amount of each charge she was complaining about seemed to fit the 20% scenario. HAL collects it and remits to the appropriate authority, whether paid by the bev pkg or not. The pkg pays the HAL service charge but not the value added tax.

I'm pretty sure this was an Alaska cruise, so it wouldn't have been a VAT.

Just off 12 days on Zuiderdam earlier this month. We thought she was in great shape and never heard any complaints. We were in 7086 and occasionally the toilet was a little slow to flush (sometimes took up to a minute or 2 but never longer.) I can't speak much to the AC because it was rather cool (50s & 60s) on our Fjords & Highland cruise so we really didn't need it.

Yes (that is correct) a lot of little service charges on our account from the beverage package. Our beverage package was from an explorer 4 that was offered almost a year prior to our cruise and our drink cost limit was $7.50 or under. We realized the charges to our account on the second day and kind of took the fun out of trying to go for 15 drinks a day because those charges add up quickly over a week. [emoji15]

That still seems really odd to me. We are recently off 12 days on the Zuidersdam (Fjords & Highlands out of Copenhagen) and had the Explore4 package that was added last year, too. We had no little service charges added for any beverages we purchased. I'd call HAL and inquire. They are usually responsive. (I had to call them last week for a refund myself. We are 4* so receive a 50% discount of Pinnacle Grill dinners. We had prepaid for 3 dinners - including Le Cirque - but never saw the refund on our bill. A call to HAL got that refunded to our credit card.)

Just off the Westerdam a couple of weeks ago and the 15% gratuity was not included on the Explorer 4 drink card but taken from OBC or charged to our account once OBC was used up.

So.. you had a lot of little ~ $1 to $1.20 charges on your final bill? It should be easy to flag them and contact HAL's customer service to have them refunded.

I want to assure you that what blizzardboy says is correct. TA OBC is refunded if it isn't used and HAL provided OBC is used first. We returned from our Zuiderdam cruise a little over 2 weeks ago. We had almost $1800 total OBC. ($900 HAL and $880 from our TA.) I had to work hard to spend the $900 HAL OBC (especially since we had Explore4 so SBP was included!!) but we managed to spend it all. Within 2 days of disembarkation we had a refund on our credit card for all of the TA OBC and even a little extra for some port fees that were refunded as well.

I suggest buying your kids beverage cards online as gifts before boarding and they will be ready for them in the room at embarkation.