markgray

Just off Royal. Deluxe desserts are at gelato place. They have three fancy looking cakes and I tried each to be thorough of course.  Two were quite dry and just okay.  3rd was a bit better.  As mentioned, you can get one of the sundaes.  I just asked for 1/2 portion and it was much more reasonable.  But if you just want a scoop or two of gelato that works too and is under PLUS.  In general I thought main dining room desserts were higher quality

On 4/22/2023 at 12:47 PM, loeb said:

I assume you are referring to December 2023.  You might check the impact of El Nino, it may be warmer than the last couple of years during La Nina.  It could also mean more storms,  During El Nino it can result in what is referred to as the pineapple express,  warm rain or heavy snow coming from around Hawaii to the Coast of California.

This is correct.  Assuming we do have a moderate/strong El Nino on the way, the southerly part of the jet stream can be much stronger in those winters.  Could be stormy the first few days.  OR, could be a a quiet weather period between storms and it's calm. That puffy jacket sounds like a good idea.  ...A Portland meteorologist...

Since I spent hours of (mainly at work) time reading these threads before my cruise, I figured I should contribute as well!  Just off September 29th Wind Spirit 7 Day Tahiti cruise.  My wife and I have sailed Carnival and Princess each once the past few years, no other cruising.

Of course Windstar is a HUGE improvement from the big ships, except for rough sea crossing.  We had one day with 10-12' swells when it appeared at least half the guests hardly left their cabins. We kept remarking "where is everyone?".  Port call at Huahine was cancelled and it took us the entire day to sail from Bora Bora back to Papeete.  I got sea-sick even with the medication, first time ever.  I would be quite hesitant to book a cruise that involved several days of open-ocean travel.  Curious how folks deal with that.

- Food is much better than the bigger ships

- Great experience getting to know people since only 120 pax were on this cruise

- Beach day at Tahaa motu was perfect; sunny and dry

- The on-deck BBQ one evening was significantly better than I expected.  Several people on these threads have been unimpressed with this BBQ.  We disagree, I've never seen so many food choices at a BBQ. Good quality food. Other couple traveling with us thought so too.  

- Polynesian show 2nd night at Bora Bora was fun and food was good.  Not much different than a Hawaiian luau though.

- So many friendly workers, and captain Belinda was great too.

- A smaller ship means very easy to get anywhere quickly

- We almost never heard anyone in the hallways, maybe due to angled design of entry to rooms?

One of the few things we didn't like was that dinner seems quite late for such an older and active (morning) crowd.  7-9pm in Amphora and Candles dining spots.  I'd make it 5-8pm or 6-8pm.  We were generally all asleep by 10pm at the latest, even coming from just the West Coast.

We'd love to cruise Windstar again and our friends (first time on ANY cruise) are sold on cruising...loved it.

One more note.  We arrived at airport 4:45am and paid about $65 for day pass (reserve ahead of time) at Intercontinental Tahiti (IHG) near airport.  That included massive continental breakfast and access to pools.  Relaxing start to vacation.  We also stayed one night at this resort AFTER the cruise.  Expensive food/drinks, but nice hotel

Yes on Wind Spirit first week of October.  Was great fun and well attended.  Didn't know morning coffee guy was an excellent "Major Tom" singer!

Very happy with #208 on 9/28/2022 Tahiti cruise.  Steady engine noise when "on the road" but it was like sleeping with a fan on (white noise).  Rarely heard anything from hallway.  Quick run upstairs to lounge and coffee bar!

5 hours ago, lynn2002 said:

Hi, do they have guest speakers on the Regal?

 

Do you know what work will be done on the ship during the dry dock?

 

When I cruised last summer the casino tables were limited to four people so to have a free chair space inbetween players.  Are they still doing that?

Yes, a Spanish gentleman named Julio (forget last name) talked about each port ahead of time in theater.  A woman gave a presentation about Irish potato famine one afternoon.  

Don't know about dry dock work.  Casino tables didn't seem to be blocked off

13 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

With regards to the internet service, did you ever do a speed test? But more importantly were you able to at least send and receive email? Also, were you able to access the cruise critic forums? I know asking about accessing the CC forums sounds a little strange, but it’s a multi-tiered website which needs a little bandwidth, at least around 2 mbps or higher based on my experiences on other cruises this year.

I didn't try CC forums (sorry!), but email was usable at times.  Mainly tried looking at websites with weather information, I'm a meteorologist.  Strange, I know...

1 hour ago, JandJ Cruisers said:

What percentage of men would you say were wearing a Tux on Formal nights?

What times were the live shows ?  And did the theatre get full.?

 

 

Maybe 20% men wearing tuxes either walking through or sitting in Piazza area.  We didn't go to MDR on those two nights.

13 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Did anyone official offer any explanations for this? It seems pretty strange that post-covid the previously working-well internet is not usable. Not doubting your experience, just curious.

The last evening the guy running the Internet Cafe was really nice, but mentioned to coworker "his head felt like a nuke went off inside".  Woman beside me had paid $300 for internet for the week and had just been refunded.  Apparently he was refunding left and right considering how bad it was.  He didn't have any good explanation, but I didn't get the impression he was hiding any info.  Maybe some satellites were offline for some reason?  It was bad enough for at least those last two days that I couldn't get onto AA website to check-in and change seats IN THE CAFE.

14 hours ago, Married15 said:

How were the shows? Worth going to? Was it easy to get to Capri on your own? We are planning to to that next month. So no covid that you are aware of on the ship?  We used to do Carnival when our 3 girls went with us, more for kids to do on that line. Now that it is just my husband and myself, we prefer Princess. 

We didn't go to any shows, and the last night's orchestra performances were suddenly cancelled a couple hours ahead of time.  Other than my wife running into a husband that mentioned his wife was in quarantine, no sign of COVID on ship.  Deck 8 (I think) had the starboard side closed off and that must have been quarantine area.  Capri was a bit easier than I expected.  Walk across Naples port parking lot (ignore taxi drivers), and ticket sales/dock right there on left. It's a bit confusing since there are maybe 4 lines for tickets; several ticket companies all sell the same fast boat tickets.  Seems hectic, but it's more organized than it appears at first glance. Once in Capri, it seemed easy enough to get around with bus and taxi, as long as you are willing to spend some $$$ here and there.  We were more than happy to spend E25 to get from Anacapri back to port.  Plus what a taxi ride down winding scenic roads in an open car!

1 hour ago, markgray said:

First time Princess cruise. This family of 4 had only been on one other cruise (Carnival) 4 years ago.

We had a great time!  Athens, Santorini, Kotor, Messina, Naples (we did Capri).  All on our own, no planned tours/excursions since I did not want money wrapped up with possible Covid issues.

Good:  Excellent workers and organization. Free antigen Covid test on embarkation (only added 45 minutes to the start)  and then again on day before disembark.  Cabin steward brought us swabs and we did it in middle of hallway that last sea day.  Late that evening a certificate showed up in cabin.  Presented that at Barcelona airport check-in heading back to USA.  All went well testing-wise at both ends.
Food is decent, but definitely not “amazing”.  Spent much of our time down in Piazza and heavily utilized the coffee drinks and breakfast items there. 
Worker said we had 2600 passengers vs 3800 capacity.  
Masking:  People were a bit sloppy with it. Blue signs everywhere say “recommended”.  Maybe 1/2 masked in general through the week.  In a few specific spots a sign would say “Mask Required” and 1/3 of folks STILL didn’t bother.  I’m talking theater and tenders.  Either enforce it or get rid of “required” signs. But I heard almost no coughing all week = good. Workers were not looking forward to dry-docking in a week.  One told me it’s a real zoo for two weeks.  
We were surprised at dining room attire.  We prefer casual and didn’t bring any fancy clothes, but tried to look our best while in MDR (2 of 7 days) with a sort of business casual look.  But you see baseball caps, T-shirts, etc…

In general we think we would come back to Princess and sure wouldn’t do Carnival again. We are in our 50s, that might explain it.  

Forgot to add, internet was just about unusable all week.  Only worked reasonably well this morning when many had left the ship on disembarkation morning.  At no point could we have done any sort of video, streaming, etc…. Even basic functions like checking in for flight didn’t work.  Same with Medallion app, extremely slow or not useful

We just had 2600 passengers out of 3800 capacity on Regal 7 day sailing ending the 16th in Barcelona

First time Princess cruise. This family of 4 had only been on one other cruise (Carnival) 4 years ago.

We had a great time!  Athens, Santorini, Kotor, Messina, Naples (we did Capri).  All on our own, no planned tours/excursions since I did not want money wrapped up with possible Covid issues.

Good:  Excellent workers and organization. Free antigen Covid test on embarkation (only added 45 minutes to the start)  and then again on day before disembark.  Cabin steward brought us swabs and we did it in middle of hallway that last sea day.  Late that evening a certificate showed up in cabin.  Presented that at Barcelona airport check-in heading back to USA.  All went well testing-wise at both ends.
Food is decent, but definitely not “amazing”.  Spent much of our time down in Piazza and heavily utilized the coffee drinks and breakfast items there. 
Worker said we had 2600 passengers vs 3800 capacity.  
Masking:  People were a bit sloppy with it. Blue signs everywhere say “recommended”.  Maybe 1/2 masked in general through the week.  In a few specific spots a sign would say “Mask Required” and 1/3 of folks STILL didn’t bother.  I’m talking theater and tenders.  Either enforce it or get rid of “required” signs. But I heard almost no coughing all week = good. Workers were not looking forward to dry-docking in a week.  One told me it’s a real zoo for two weeks.  
We were surprised at dining room attire.  We prefer casual and didn’t bring any fancy clothes, but tried to look our best while in MDR (2 of 7 days) with a sort of business casual look.  But you see baseball caps, T-shirts, etc…

In general we think we would come back to Princess and sure wouldn’t do Carnival again. We are in our 50s, that might explain it.  

9 hours ago, moonglum said:

Flying from UK to Greece to join Regal Princess on 9th April.  We are both fully vaccinated and have had Covid several months ago.

 

Can anyone tell us what test we need to do before arriving.  Seem to be getting mixed messages at this time so any advice gratefully accepted.

We (family of 4) flying in from USA (via London) on the 8th and on same sailing as you.  We plan to do testing "for the nominal fee" at the terminal.  Hope it's under $100.  We will see

Sailing out of Athens April 9th.  We are planning on getting tested at embarkation, which seems easier than getting it done the day before flying (more rushed).  Hopefully less than $100 each.

2nd part is very interesting "If a negative COVID-19 test is required for re-entry into your home country, subject to availability, Princess will cover the costs of any COVID-19 test administered on board within the timeframe required prior to travel. Please note that if your travel plans go beyond the validity of the onboard test, you are responsible for securing and paying for your own test"

We are reading this as "You can test on the ship the day before you disembark, with a test administered by Princess".  We are headed directly off ship back to USA (Barcelona).  Does anyone else read it differently?

23 minutes ago, nini said:

Currently, it is required to test within one day of returning to USA. Previously, Princess said that they would accommodate passengers onboard, the day before leaving the ship.

 

The policy is now:

"If a negative COVID-19 test is required for re-entry into your home country, subject to availability, Princess will cover the costs of any COVID-19 test administered on board within the timeframe required prior to travel. Please note that if your travel plans go beyond the validity of the onboard test, you are responsible for securing and paying for your own test.

Guests are encouraged to review their home country’s health authority and travel websites to understand the latest guidance on required testing and timing for return travel."

 

My question is: If we bring onboard a test, can we use the computers onboard or have a medical staff be the proctor?

I read this as "you can use our tests onboard, as long as we don't run out".  We are on Athens April 9th cruise and assume this means we will test (on the ship at their facility) the sea day before we fly out on disembarkation morning.