MacMadame

I forgot to say: why would crew want to eat in the buffet in the first place? It's generally not the best food on the ship and they risk being accosted by pax when they are trying to eat. Maybe there's a day when the buffet has something you particularly want to eat that the crew mess doesn't have. But on a regular basis, it's not something I would want to do if I were crew.

I wanted to say this in my original post but couldn't figure out how to say it diplomatically. 😄 When I've seen these people in passenger areas, it seems like they are actually "on duty" in the sense that they are there to interact with passengers to enhance our cruising experience. But this would involve them going from table to table to chat with guests or sitting at a table with guests, not eating in their own area. That may explain my experience on my first cruise where, without going into too much detail, I did go into the crew area. A piano player in the jazz band was involved and he didn't act like he was going to get into trouble. 😊 🤣

It was a question, not a statement. 😄 But also, if 90% of WCs take place on ships with less than, say, 2,500 passengers, that says to me that these cruises mostly happen on smaller ships. It doesn't have to be 100%.

Given how hierarchical cruise ships are, I would be surprised if the behind-the-scenes staff are allowed. Maybe someone who works on a cruise ship will tell us what the actual rules are but I've never seen cruise personal from behind the scenes eating with passengers.

Because they have their own dining room in the crew area?

Don't most of these World Cruises happen on smaller ships -- like the Island Princess and Serenade of the Sea?

Social Media.

when you find it, can you see if mine is there too? 🤣

You don't really have to drink that much alcohol if you drink soda, fancy coffee drinks, bottled water and/or fresh juice. For Mr. Mac and I, we figure we'll break even with just 1 alcoholic drink a day. Since OP's husband doesn't drink, OP will have to drink 2 a day though. 😄 It made sense for us because we do plan to drink 1 alcoholic drink a day, maybe 2 and Mr. Mac likes soda and coffee and I drink a lot of water and would want to bring bottled water on all our excursions. But I plan to use the fitness classes and we will both use the casual dining and turn on Ocean Now while other people might not.

I think the idea is that you have access to lounge chairs that are limited to a small group of people. So you aren't fighting for one in the more public areas. I see other lines have "balcony" cabins where the balcony leads to a deck and not a view of the ocean so I guess people like that. Not me. But other people. 🤣

January.

FYI: I prefer a Shout Wipe to the pen. It works better IME. You didn't mention magnet hooks to put hats, purses, clothes that have been worn but aren't ready for the hamper, etc. I see those on lists all the time.

Not everyone, just one person. And, based on the Accounting class I took when I was working on an MBA, they are correct.

I'm job searching and got an email from a recruiter for a contract job with Princess. I was very interested in this one line from the email: Client is getting off of First Data (AUD) and customized mainframe solution (POLAR) for shipboard financial settlement/tokenization. (For people who don't know, POLAR is the system the TAs and cruise lines use to book and manage your cruise -- and other travel. First Data is a company that processes financial transactions, i.e., credit cards) The job description also says: Must be an expert in Java 11 development. They also will be using SpringBoot for this project and the middleware layer is MuleSoft. The backend database is Oracle. Translation for non-techies. It seems that at least some of your onboard folio is managed via POLAR and the credit card processing, at least for cruises that use AUD, is done by First Data both 3rd party products. And Princess wants to stop doing that for some reason (most likely to have more control or to avoid paying those 3rd parties). For my fellow techies, what do you think? IMO they use what I consider to be a reasonable but old-fashioned tech stack where you run all the logic on the backend (using Java/Spring) and it burps out the HTML/CSS/Javascript that you see on the screen. These days the majority of web development job postings I see are for jobs where a Javascript/Typescript framework of some sort (Angular, React, Vue.js) runs on the client and gets data from the backend via APIs. I am wondering if this explains why sometimes princess.com is not very responsive. IME, too much backend processing can lead to 504 errors. Also, IME, using an older tech stack can make it hard to attract quality talent. I've been writing web apps using React, Typescript/Javascript, and GraphQL apis that run on a node.js server for over 8 years now so even though I have done a big application using Java/Spring on the backend, I am totally not interested in this job. (Okay, the fact that it's a contract job doesn't help. LOL) Anyway, I thought it was interesting and some IT/Software Developers on CC might have some opinions about it. I don't consider this private info since I got it from an unsolicited email.

Yeah, it might be better to charge one casual dining (free) and one a la carte dessert.

IIRC, it was a mixed bag. Not a lot of reports and with slightly more failures than successes, but with so few reports, it's hard to say. ETA and @2and2's experience is yet another one who got charged for 2 meals when only 1 person ordered the fixed prix option.

I do want that if at all possible.

Oh, that's a good idea!

We're cruising out of Port Everglades next year and I'm looking into making hotel reservations and (possibly) booking our flights. It seems like Fort Lauderdale is pretty close to Miami so I'm wondering if there is any benefit to flying into Miami instead. Is it cheaper or easier to get transportation? I'm also wondering about cruise line transfers. Should we book those and stay near the airport or just take a Lyft in the AM from a hotel near the port? We would be flying in the day before from the West Coast, probably SFO but maybe Oakland or San Jose airport if that turns out to be cheaper or more convenient. So probably getting there in the evening and going to the port first thing in the AM. IOW, sightseeing is not on the schedule but a nice dinner at a local restaurant might be.

That's awesome! I plan to live that long so ... goals! 😄

I booked our excursions the day they became available and now 2 of them are a lower price with only one being the same price. So for our 2025 cruise, it wasn't a bait and switch. I was planning to book the excursions at the new price and then cancel my original ones but it sounds like, if I do that, I'll end up with OBC and not a refund to my credit card. Is that correct?

Or using OceanNow.

I fly AlaskaAir a lot and our carry-on fits. It's 22.5 x 9.5 x 13.5 if you include wheels and handles and anything else that sticks out. There was one time this carry-on didn't fit in an overhead and it was because of the wheels. I don't remember which airline. Something I have come to realize is that many luggage companies advertise a "carry-on" item that, like ours, is slightly too big in one or more directions. Most of us just take their word that the carry-on size is the correct size. I know I did!

If the 21-day segment is also divided into 3 7-day segments, wouldn't they get 6 free dinners? That's my understanding of how it works.