thehowlingroad

I spent 2 weeks in the top bunk on the Enchanted (I prefer the bunks on the older ships, honestly...). I'll add that there are guard rails along the side of the bunk bed where it faces out towards the room. They're short, but it would take dangerous, not just rough, waters for someone to be bounced out of the bunk bed and come crashing down on the person below. The type of situation where the ship would likely stay in port rather than risk being on open water. Same for the entire bunk bed collapsing on the person below; those things are solid steel construction, attached to the ceilings on Enchanted/Discovery, and also attached to the walls in the older ships, and it would be insanely risky for Princess to skirt regulations in building them-- the lawsuits alone, if it were to happen, would bankrupt them.

CVS has been partnering with Quest Diagnostics from the beginning and we've always gotten results within 24-30 hours until last month-- my parents never got their results back for our European cruise. We still haven't gotten them, and we've come home from the 3-week trip already. No word or explanation from CVS at all. Princess tested them at the port for free because we had proof that they had test appointments during the correct timeframe but no results. Absolutely no clue if Royal does that because their FAQ page is so broken-- everything just redirects to their useless main page.

That’s about what I expected but I’m glad they didn’t replace the live music or production shows with mediocre stand-up. We’re also on the Discovery’s “comedy-themed” cruise this December and I was considering canceling if the theme was going to impact the entertainment any more than that.

We got back from Norway/Iceland a few days ago on Princess and it was very formal on formal nights and relatively casual every other night. Then again, Princess has a clientele that often expects traditional dining and really formal night… RCL is more casual overall.

We’re on Serenade on September 11th, our first RCL cruise in 8 years. The last one was in the Caribbean and even then, it veered pretty casual, even on formal nights. I think you’ll be perfectly fine with what you listed, especially for Alaska— the European ports are often fancier and involve more hand-wringing about outfits. I’m packing a dress and flats for this one— something I often wear to work and feel comfortable in. My father is forgoing his tie and going with just the button-up and slacks, if that helps. We’ll save the dressing up for our Christmas cruise 😉

yes, if you want them cheaper. Mine were about 7 GBP per person 10 weeks in advance, but I met others who said they paid anywhere from 30-50 GBP per person but booked a few days before departure.

We went the really cheap route with National Express last month from Victoria Coach Station; the ride was smooth and uneventful, 99% of passengers on the 2/3rds full bus were cruise ship passengers going to either our ship or the other one in port that day, and the bus was clean and the AC worked so well, I got cold. I bought tickets about 10 weeks in advance and paid a whopping 21 GBP for 3 tickets. We then got a taxi from the Southampton coach station for the 7-minute ride to our ship. Paid 10 GBP for that, and only because I told the driver to keep the change. When I told local British passengers about this, though, they all winced at the thought of taking National Express, lol. So I'm thinking that it's a very hit or miss thing.

Just got off the Enchanted this week. Didn't drink a whole lot this time, but for fun non-alcoholic drinks, I tried out the Sunshine Daiquiri (I think that's what it's called) and thought it was an excellent thirst-quencher-- it wasn't too sweet and was very refreshing.

We just got back from the 7/22 sailing to Norway/Iceland-- 3200+ passengers, and after the first 2-3 nights, it didn't feel like that many people at all-- the ship is spacious and still has its new shine, the staff work very, very hard, and while we had our general gripes with the cabin size compared to older ships (we were 3 adults in a standard balcony room), that's a reflection on the build, not on the service received. I will say that the ship felt understaffed at first, but they must have been able to add some staff in Flåm, because lines for the MDRs virtually disappeared after that port stop.

Have you tried searching specifically for Skarfabakki port? It's the largest one and most of the major cruise lines dock there, and we did as well on the Enchanted Princess. They don't have offices on-site but from what I could tell, there were car company reps there that dropped off the car and keys for you. That might be what Europcar is doing too.

I know Europcar is there but I don't know what other companies have a Reykjavik base-- Google will help, since car rentals are popular in Iceland. Book early and make sure to get their extra insurance-- Icelandic car rental companies are notorious for charging for damages whether or not you caused them, because their roads are so hard on vehicles. I wouldn't rent one if you didn't plan on taking it out of the city either; parking didn't look convenient in the city. I believe the shuttle was $20 USD/person for a round-trip and you can only get tickets from the port. I think it only drops off in front of Harpa, and you have to find your own way through the city otherwise. If you're more than one person, it's already more cost-effective to get a taxi, since it takes about $30 USD to get to the church or Rainbow St which is a tourist-friendly shopping district. We were 3 people, so a cab at $22 made more financial sense. I've heard some people say it's about $45 USD for a cab to the Blue Lagoon, or you can take their exclusive shuttle bus.

I just got back from an Iceland cruise yesterday. If you're overnighting in Reykjavik and Akureyri, your possibilities expand a LOT. We did a private Diamond Circle tour in Akureyri with some other folks in our roll call through Saga Tours, which was well worth it-- we visited double the number of sights that the standard Lake Myvatn tours do, and even lucked out with some puffin sightings. We didn't have time to explore the city and the weather wasn't conducive to it either, but it is very walkable from the port. With Reykjavik, you can definitely do a Golden Circle tour or South Coast tour one day and explore the city the next. There is a taxi stand, a city shuttle, and car rentals at the port (Skarfabakki is pretty far from the major tourist sights in the city). I wouldn't walk it-- much of the city is uphill from the harbor and it's an estimated 1-hour walk from the port to the church. We got a cab for the return trip and it came out to $22 USD from Harpa Concert Hall back to the port. We also booked a Golden Circle tour with Iceland Everywhere, as well as some of our other Iceland ports, and I would recommend them for any cruise passengers.

About that… our port stop got canceled due to bad weather so I don’t know how the bus tour was! But Go Viking Adventures was so responsive with issuing refunds as soon as they were notified by passengers and the port authorities that we would not be docking. They said my refund would be issued within 5-10 business days but I had mine 17 mins after our email exchange.

We are also doing the glacier on our own in September— we’ve been there before and wanted to hike to Nugget Falls this time around, plus my father has a senior National Park pass that will help with the visitor’s center fee. I booked shuttle tickets with Juneau Tours, since they were running an early bird sale at the time. Afterwards, we may just walk around the port area for a little while if the weather isn’t good enough for the Mt. Roberts tram.

Literally just keep checking throughout the day. I got my conditional approval in mid-May, original appointment was March 2023. I got it bumped up to January, and then September, and I figured I would try to interview on arrival in August when coming back from London. And then LAX opened a bunch of slots for an early June Saturday morning the Thursday before. Immediately snagged one of those and I was in and out of there two days later. I was notified by one of the Twitter bots, as well as a text notification bot that I found through Reddit, but refreshing the site at the right time was actually faster than the bots.

2 out of my 3 cruises this year were booked before we knew what the airports were going to look like, so I just booked direct flights that land the day before embarkation and will continue to hope for the best. We're prepared; we packed a carry-on with the basic essentials, made sure our Global Entry accounts are valid and active, and will be leaving the house an hour earlier than originally planned. Our 3rd cruise is a short getaway that's 45 mins' drive from the house, and that was a major reason for booking that one in particular.

I posted a long comment about my own laundry tips in a different thread-- copying below so I don't have to rewrite it, lol.

CVS sends out the test samples to external labs-- all my insurance claims come back with one claim for CVS MinuteClinic, and another claim with the name of the lab. That being said, I've always gotten my test results back within 48 hours of taking the sample, usually less. The last 2-3 times I've taken PCRs from them, I got the results 24 hours later.

fancy seeing you here! 😆 but yes, our Enchanted RC is a bit of a perfect storm for activity... a long cruise, "exotic" ports, multiple travel transfers for a lot of people, the rush to get things booked because it only opened for booking 4 months before sail, and lots of interest in private or small group tours because the Princess ones are so expensive. In comparison, my Alaska and CA Coast roll calls are very quiet, but they're much shorter itineraries too.

What was your driver's answer? I'm not on this sailing, but my Golden Circle tour has an option to drop off "downtown" instead of at the port if you want to spend extra time there after the tour. I'd like to do that, but if it's difficult to get a return ride, then maybe not. We're 3 people, so a taxi sounds way more cost-effective than the shuttle!

I’m a big fan of their chilled soup appetizers, the escargot, and the afternoon tea sandwiches. If it’s Chilean sea bass night, I often stop up at the buffet later in the evening to see what their version is… once they had a lovely pan-fried sea bass with butter sauce, and I definitely went for Second Dinner that night.

It does! I don't like the taste of Nyquil, so I buy the gel caps and they work just as well. 1 gel cap is a good night's sleep, 2 will knock you out for the rest of the night and well into the morning.

I've sailed Princess and Royal Caribbean, my parents have added Viking (river cruise), Norwegian, and Carnival to their list in addition to those two. They didn't like Carnival at all and were meh on Norwegian, and found Viking a bit too expensive for anything other than once-in-a-lifetime trips. For now, Princess strikes the right balance of okay pricing and good service, food, and itineraries. In 2018, we had one of the best cruises in our experience onboard the Regal Princess. We're happy to explore other lines, obviously, but we compare any itinerary we find to Princess's offerings first. I was also not very impressed with RC's handling of our refunds and FCCs from the pandemic shutdown... it's forced us into a slightly unwanted Alaska cruise this fall with them. That being said... our first post-pandemic cruise is coming up in July on the Enchanted. We have some friends who were on Discovery's maiden voyage and said that the standards have slipped a little, but we'll see for ourselves! I've put a deposit down on a short little SoCal coastal cruise during the winter holidays (on the Discovery), but if our experience next month is truly awful, we'll reconsider and maybe drive to Las Vegas instead.

I buy from Project N95 and/or their suppliers, such as Bona Fide Masks. The KN95 masks they sell are legit.

We went to the Pancake Cottage back in October and liked it a lot! It's basically a brunch menu, and it faces the harbor, near the golf cart rental shop.