Cdude

Thank you everyone for your input.

Taking votes on best dinner reservation times for Eden please. Will be on Apex over NYE. Please help me by telling me which time I should book and why.

TIA!

29 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

 

Hiro has a 10:30pm performance one night, so as long as your pair that dinner time with that show res, you should be fine.

 

Skating is earlier, so I would shoot for 7pm.  Last skating show is normally 9:30pm, and it's a small theater...

Thank you!

44 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

There will be multiple performances at different times on different days.

 

Set the app to the current sailing and you can get an idea of when they are.

40 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

 

If you have early dining, show times are never an issue.

 

The earliest show was 7pm (last day Flight) - the latest "early show" was Hiro at 8:30pm - all the other shows start sometime in between or at one of those times for those with early dining who want early shows.

 

They ran doubles of most shows each day, so Hiro was 8:30pm and 10:30pm and 2.0 was 7:30pm and 9:30pm on a day (as examples).  So, MTD and late dining can make the late shows - you just want to make sure you aren't starting to eat too late (like I wouldn't sit down for a pay restaurant at 8pm and try to make the 9:30pm of Iskate 2.0)...that said, if you make reservations to eat by 7:30pm on any day, you should always be out for a show.  Some days, like Hiro day, you can go later, but you'd need the exact reservation you'll have for that (b/c you can watch it on 3 separate days, I think)...

Very helpful, thanks! I think I will gun for 7 PM dinner each night so we are done before the 2nd show.

If I have dinner at 7 or 8, do you think I have a shot at seeing Hiro and the skating shows?

Hi, we’re sailing Symphony in September and I need to make dinner reservations. What are safe times to reserve dinner so that we don’t miss the shows?

W’re mostly interested in Hiro aqua show and the ice skating show(s).

TIA!

Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed account of your trip and for helping to answer questions.

I’m sailing Symphony in September and need to make dinner reservations. What time are the shows? I don’t want to schedule dinner at a time that overlaps them. TIA!

Thank you everyone for your help. I will ask my agent for D730. No rooms left on Baja even after trying to book with 3 guests.

@TAW1963 did D730 have bed or sofa near balcony, please? Just want to confirm. TY!

Princess gave me substantial FCC for numerous issues on a recent Sun sailing, so I’ll be sailing with them again after all. I need help with noise and bed location, please.

I am looking at booking Premium Deluxe Balcony - Aft on Sky. I can select cabins on deck 15 (Marina) and deck 14 (Riviera). I’m wondering if the noise from deck 16 (Lido) would be annoying since that is the wake pool area? Also, can people in the wake pool or on the Lido look down on either deck 15 or 14? It looks like Marina deck cabins are mostly covered and shielded from anyone trying to look down,

Also, Princess site deck plans say all 4 cabins in this category on deck 14 have the balcony door blocked when sofa bed is in use, so the sofa is by the balcony. They do not describe the 2 cabins on deck 15 as having this restriction so is it safe to assume the bed will be closer to the balcony on deck 15? How reliable are the Princess deck plans on their site? I’m interested in a cabin with the bed near the balcony.

TIA!

Had the extended balcony on Sun across from laundry room. The laundry is actually in a hallway across from the cabin running parallel to the cabin, so it’s not literally right across like you may imagine. I don’t know about the proximity on other ships though.

We loved having easy access to check availability of machines and we didn’t need to lug clothes all over the ship. Convenient to wait and check on your wash too, right from comfort of your cabin. We heard no noise.

4 hours ago, ANNA40 said:

Perfect! Thanks for your reply 😊

The “diner” MDR on deck 8 has a french dip that I really enjoyed. Not much that stood out food-wise for me, but that one did.

On 4/3/2024 at 9:20 AM, cheeseheads4ever said:

Resolved!

Celebrity quickly within 2 days resolved the issue with a thorough email explaining and clearing this up.

The issue was what looked to be a charge with code OBR-cruise air/port tax free credit of $104. They did not say anywhere that this was a refund for port and taxes because we couldn’t dock in Bimini. The $72 refundable OBC. Both dollar fiquires were in a gray highlighted box which was entitled Payments with our credit card # next to it.
 Who would not have thought that these were not charges.

I am getting better at deciphering Celebritys codes but why do they have to be so confusing.

Congratulations! I’m dealing with a very similar issue with a recent Princess sailing and all I got back so far was a canned email stating they’re overworked and be patient.

I hope this doesn’t ruffle feathers, but common billing issues like this make me want to go back to all-inclusive on land. Very different experience, I know. But, much, much lower chance of stress and lots of beach time if that’s your itinerary. Isn’t competition from all-inclusive resorts why cruise lines started offering drink packages? Maybe they can get their billing up to speed. Hard to imagine these discrepancies are all inadvertent in 2024.

5 hours ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Should have handled the problem while still on board.  Good luck getting it resolved now that the cruise is in your rear view mirror just like your future Princess sailings.

As I said, multiple attempts while ON board and they didn’t fix as promised each time. Then they started charging me within minutes of kicking me off. Good luck to you on your Princess sailing. I hope you don’t get the Princess regal treatment.

1 minute ago, DavidOrawan said:

So 4660 If no casino offer?

Basically, but that’s including the DDP and UDP and a ocean view balcony.

1 minute ago, DavidOrawan said:

But how much if no casino offer?

I think it was $2,200 for an ocean view. This is for the 9/1/24 sailing. That is just for the cruise not including the booze or upgraded food.

I got an ocean view on SOTS for 7 nights on a casino offer free. Had to pay total $350 for taxes and port for two of us. Paid $210 to upgrade to an OV balcony we got to pick. Paid $1200 for drinks and $700 for UDP. Total for everything $2,460 for two with all the trimmings:)

O’Malleys was only dinner on our 3/9 sailing. It was terrible. Food cold and not good. Menu limited. Don’t waste your time. Staff not sure if they will open for lunch, but they should. The pizza joint was slammed with long waits on sea days during lunch.

21 minutes ago, Anton said:

I'm on Caribbean Princess in a couple weeks with the Princess Plus package.  I've been reading about how they screw up the bar sales in many ways.  One being that they charge the medallion that pops up on their screen, so if I go to the bar to get drinks for my wife and myself, they charge both to me by default.  Some even went over the 15 drink limit because of this and were cut off even though they hadn't had 15 drinks.  I just can't wait.

 

As for Royal Caribbean - at least 30% of every cruise they are doing now is "new to cruise" or "new to Royal" and they have nothing to compare the drink package price to, so they buy it.  And it's not going to stop anytime soon.  Eventually the company will tip the scales and package sales will decline enough for them to adjust the pricing. 

Be careful on Princess you have to tell them whose medallion to charge. We were always lopsided on our drink count unless we told them to charge one drink per medallion. You need to manage your folio. Princess accounting is awful.

Now how does the price on RCCL sound, LOL!

17 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

@DavidOrawan one other thing you have consider with Royal’s pricing is as @Cdude said CCL and it's childern line have a limit on drinks, Royal no limits.  NCL even when part of included is a lower level package that you still pay gratuities on, and if you want good liquor you need to pay an upgrade to that package.

MSC I'm not knowledgeable.

 

Yes Royals DBP is much more expensive now than say 3 years ago. Some will benefit if for no other reason than, knowing up front the cost, no surprise end of cruise bill.  Maybe just not having to think of cost in the decision, do I have a drink or not.

 

I hope whatever you decide it works out for you

To the point about “no surprise end of cruise bill”, Princess never gets their billing right. My cruise a few weeks ago, they started charging me for drinks even though I pre booked the drink package. After they coded my account properly, they left me with erroneous charges that never got resolved after repeated attempts. I had billing issues on prior Princess sailings before this too. Never had an issue on RCCL or NCL.

Just to clarify, we had pre booked the drink package and on embarkation day we started getting charged on drink one. We had it fixed but racked up a bunch of drinks already and they never took them off after updating our account to reflect the drink package. This is why I had made multiple attempts throughout my cruise to get it fixed. Honestly, it was annoying and felt like a job while trying to vacation. After the cruise, I recalled having folio issues on all four prior sailings with Princess and that had been one of the reasons I stopped sailing with them over 15 years ago. It all came back to me. I have sailed with NCL, RCCL, Celebrity and never had one accounting issue with them. Suffice it to say, my next sailing is booked on RCCL SOTS and the one after that on Celebrity Apex.

1 minute ago, Thrak said:

 

One should keep track of their account while onboard. It's extremely easy to do with the app. I check every day and it takes almost no time at all. Getting an erroneous charge fixed while onboard is simple. Doing it once one has disembarked could be problematic.

Yeah, I know. I had multiple chats via the app where I was assured it would be resolved and then I went and spoke to someone at Guest Services the day prior to disembarkation. Then on disembarkation day I started getting charged for drinks even though I had the package and it was good until 10 AM after I left the ship. The nice service member at IC knew me and was confused why I was being charged but assured me it would be taken care of. Then, I never received my folio which was supposed to be emailed to me and after you leave the app doesn’t let you see your bill. Based on what my credit card was charged, I know there are still errors. Anyone sailing Princess better watch their folio closely, but I did and I still have an issue on my hands so…

On Sun, we had to go all the way up to the outdoor pool deck for the premo sundae and it was not such a nice ambiance or experience on a cool night sailing the Med in March. We made it a point to try it once. Totally overrated IMHO. BTW, had I not researched it prior, I would have had no idea where and what was included as a “premium” dessert in our package. Princess doesn’t do a good job communicating, or is that by design?

As an aside, I still have erroneous charges to contend with and my cruise ended on 3/19. I guess when I have “free” time this will be a project for me. Never sailing Princess again.

It depends on how much you drink, doesn’t it? I just paid $86 pp for an upcoming 7-night on Symphony. Some beers and some cocktails averages about $10 per drink using rough math. If I drink 9 per day I basically even. So, do you intend on drinking 10 or more per day?

Judge if you will, but we hated the 15 drink per day cap on our recent Princess Sun voyage. It was a bit cheaper, but who wants to keep tabs on vacation? 15 sounds like a lot, but when at sea it isn’t hard to do. A shot of bailey’s in your cappuccino and a couple mimosas at breakfast; a couple pops at lunch; a couple at Bingo; a couple before dinner, and so on and so on… We actually hit our max a couple of times on our 10-night, both times were sea days. That’s another question you need to ask yourself, how port intensive is your voyage and does a port include Coco Cay or Labadee where your drink package works?

9 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

That is one thing I miss on the RCL ships , no outside eating area in the buffet 

Also no sunset bar 

I can not  see us going on another RCL ship in the future unless it very cheap or outstanding ports of calls 

I think most (all?) have sunset (wake) bars. 
 

I do agree about only booking if it’s a good deal. We got a “free” cruise from the casino so I don’t mind paying for some extras.

5 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

If you get up early the MDR is not open 

and never had a hot breakfast in MDR 

I don’t recall what my MDR experience was like but I disliked Windjammer, that I know. Maybe the bigger issue is RCL’s food overall. I remember not liking the MDR for dinner. Lunch on the outer decks was best IMO. We purchased the UDP so we never have to step foot in the MDR. Breakfast will probably be something quick at the coffee place.