drew2d

New to Princess as well figured I'd piggy back on this with a question of my own. We booked ours with Princess Premier. When we're making specialty dining reservations it's still asking us to pay for them at the add-on price. Is that normal? I figured it's either because we haven't had to pay the full amount of the cruise yet or they will do a refund once they go to charge you but it's one more thing to keep "track" off when we're paying for the reservation now in March but our cruise isn't till July...

Their phone is probably their life in their tiny room / on the ship 9-10 months/yr.

We tried 4 specialty restaurants. My wife just wised up and ordered the Filet Mignon at each stop. The descriptions of everything else always fooled me and I ordered it and was always disappointed (especially seafood) but her filet was always pretty good and cooked right. Le Bistro was our favorite with the steak tartare, escargot and filet and my wife enjoyed the ambiance it offered. I ended up spending more on nicer wine than I ever had. The bottles included in the beverage package were just... not good and I'm not a wine snob. We drink whatever is BOGO at Publix lol.

I agree tough spot for all around. Would of rather of had them go get the kid and tell them to find their parents. They need some sort of system because it could also back fire when one of the kids is hurt and their parent can't be found. Saw a few "stranger" parents consoling other's kids that got banged up at the kiddy pool. I saw plenty of security type staff walk around though. We were often one of 4-5 parents in the arcade out of 20-40 kids and quite a few not old enough to be wandering around unsupervised. At least the American Diner had a staffed bar right around the corner from the arcade we took advantage of as no one was ever there...

We just finished that itinerary. We were extremely disappointed that once we were onboard they told us the Splash Academy was closed. We spent $6k to basically do what we do at home but on a ship with the tiny room. We had plenty of things planned for our kids but we were looking forward to adult dinners and the kid movie (usually an upcharge at splash academy) nights so we can see shows. We aren't huge cruisers but we were sold on it since we have no reliable baby sitters at home and wanted some adult evenings and we can drive to the port and not risk flying anywhere right now with a high risk of delays (and bored kids stuck in an airport). So what did you get instead? There were kids all over the place unsupervised as some parents obviously did not care to follow the 13+ rule to move around the ship unsupervised and the staff did not ever step in. The splash pad / kiddie pool was unusable with some really naughty unsupervised kids there bullying the younger ones etc. It was horrible. It was our first time on the Getaway. Not sure if it's not a Caribbean ship, but the Getaway pool deck space and kid pool was very small for the size. There was lots of dead space on the ship that could of had a better purpose (American Diner, landing areas on the stairs from 15/16 etc.). The food at Cagney's was questionable too. 12 oz lamb chops were really like 4 oz and all fat... they did provided a second option after I pointed it out but their stated weights on all the steaks was clearly not what you get. I asked the server how the lamb was and he talked it up, then overhead him tell the next table not to order it! You could tell they were really holding back on expensive ingredients even at the specialty restaurants. All this will make us think very carefully about cruising with kids or cruising on NCL again.