2jeffs2

Happy to help. It's a safe bet Princess will be more than willing to take more of our money. Still, I have to say a "free" cruise for the cost of my Premier package is about the best deal I have had on any line so no complaints.

I had the exact same issue. I just called Princess directly and the rep checked with the Casino desk. They added Premier for me no problem. I'm sure it will work for you also.

Definitely planning on watching the bids but we are going on a Panama Canal cruise the month before so this one is just a bonus.

It' a free interior room so balcony doesn't matter. We are going with Regal. Thank you everybody.

So I have a free cruise offer and my limited vacation availabilty limits it to one of these two options. I recently took my first Princess cruise on the Caribbean Princess and although we enjoyed it we did find her to be a bit dated. I prefer the Eastern Carib stops of Turks and Caicos and Dominican. Stops in Nassau as well but never liked that port. Western goes to the usual Costa Maya, Roatan, and Cozumel, all of which are kinda been there, done that for us. So the question, is Regal enough of an upgrade from Caribbean to make up for the better stops?

Oceano, Bottecelli is Reserve and Michaelangelo is traditional on Emerald. Da Vinci is walk in. And you are correct if you already have reservations booked it will not give you available time slots for those nights. Same applies if you have Specialty reservations. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why I couldn't get reservations for one night for our group of 5, finally realized 2 of them made specialty reservations that night.

Bunzini, you should be able to see your reservations by tapping "Book Dining" and then in the top right you should see a calendar icon with a heart in it. Tap that and you should see your reservations.

Just made my reservations for my February cruise on Emerald. Botticelli for reservable dining. Was able to get 6:40 reservations for 5 for the nights I wanted MDR. Looks like Da Vinci is for walkins and Micaelangelo is for traditional. The whole process was loaded with errors and took several attempts for each night so I suggest just keep trying until it works.

Do we know which dining room will be used for reservable dining on Emerald Princess yet?

Wr sailed on her this last February on an 8 day Caribbean cruise. They had just filled up reservations when we got there (and we went ummediately). But they put us on wait list. We showed up a couple days later and they got us in. Our attendant Iliajas took great care of us and made sure we had spots available on the other 2 days we wanted (probably didn't hurt that we tipped very well but he deserved it). No priority for getting a week. Honestly they were just writing reservations in a plain spiral notebook. I think the prices were as you stated or real close to that. Didn't do the cabanas so can't really say if they are worth it. I live in Wisconsin so for me the whole point of a cruise in February is to soak up as much sun as I can. Our ship was close to capacity but I never really felt like it was chaos, with the exception of tendering for Princess Caye. Gave up on that and went to the Sanctuary instead.

My husband and I both wore jeans or khakis to Sabatinis and Crown Grill on our Southern cruise in February. Did not feel out of place at all. I never wear shorts for dinner on a cruise (except for buffet) but did see some others in shorts. Wear what you like and you will be fine. Enjoy your cruise.

Sailing on Royal for the first time next month and have a quick question on the bidding system. I am in a Central Park interior room now. I bid on both an Ocean View Balcony and an Ultra Spacious Ocean View. Am I right in assuming the system would put me in the Balcony first but if I don't get that then would try for the Ocean View. I prefer the Balcony but would take the Ocean View if that is my only option. Thanks.

My family of 5 is booked on Wonder for March 17.Izumi Hibachi currently shows completely sold out on the website. Is it worth trying to get reservations as soon as we get on the ship or are we out of luck?

We have a beach cabana booked on our Wonder cruise next month and the price just dropped by$400. Already called and rebooked. Woohoo!

Suzanne they just did the same thing to my cruise on 2/25 except wr also swapped Montego Bay for Falmouth. Think there may be an issue with Grand Turk. Anyway, they did not change the map after they did it so the previous post was correct. Go with the written schedule.

66th? SHOWOFF!!! Have a WONDERFUL anniversary!

Thank you all for your prompt response. Looks like I will be making a call to RCL to change my reservation to 150. 😆

We are celebrating our 5th Anniversary married and 32nd Anniversary together so want a special dinner. Any thoughts?

Thank you to both of you.

4 looonnnnnggggg days.

I am going to be on the Epic next week. We lost our bid up to a Spa Club Balcony Suite. The cruise only has 1 sea day and we have things planned in ports every other day so we don’t really want to spend the money on a weekly pass. First question is do you get access to the Thermal Suite if you are having a massage on the same day? Second question, any tips on daily passes? Thanks in advance.

All things being equal as far as itinerary, age of ship, and price I would go with Celebrity. I think Celebrity is just a little bit nicer in almost every category that matters. The thing is though that “all things” are probably not equal. NCL does tend to be a better price value. So that really leaves it up to you. They both offer a good product but you have to decide what matters most.

We will be in Aruba in a couple weeks with a group of 11. I am planning a beach day at Reflexions. Never been there before, did I make a good choice? All mid 50s adults that just want a good beach with decent drinks.

I need to vent so I figured I would tell you about my first and last experience with NCL Air. We are booked in a group of 12 people on the Epic for Feb 5 cruise out of San Juan. We all chose to use NCL Air. 10 of us are flying from Milwaukee and 2 from Cincinnati. Us Milwaukee folks were hoping to be on the same flights but we are on 5 different flights. I knew that might happen so no big deal there. What I was not expecting is the married couple from Cincinnati was actually put on 2 separate flights that leave about the same time but connect through different cities. Seriously? On top of that my DH and I were originally booked on a Southwest flight to San Juan, however when I called SWA to give them my TSA number they said they have the request but NCL never had us ticketed through them so we are not on that flight. Found out about that about 10 days before Christmas and was told by NCL (our group cruise consultant never calls back so I don’t even bother calling her) that an expert from their air department would call me in 1-2 weeks with a new reservation. No call…..so I called them last week and was told it would be escalated and I will get a call in 1-2 days since we are so close to our cruise. No call……so I called again yesterday and was told it is now “super escalated” and will get a call back shortly and to keep an eye on my email for new reservations. I have been very patient and nice through this whole process but we are now about 3 weeks out from this cruise and we do not have an outbound flight. I am a bit of a Planny McPlanner so I am getting nervous. If I have to call again tomorrow I would not want to be the unlucky NCL rep that answers.

Jim I would love to say that I will be following your review but I am going to be far too busy having fun on this cruise also. 😝 This is going to be our first cruise since COVID and we are really looking forward to it. This is actually one we rebooked after we cancelled ours last year when Omicron came out a few weeks before we were supposed to leave. Feel free to say hi if you see us on board. Jeff and Jeff here.