MacMadame

We got rid of ours over a decade ago. Haven't looked back... 😄 I agree that a security service won't use WhatsApp. No matter how nicely you ask them. But if you set up a friend or family member to be the contact person, that person can message you on WhatsApp when they get a call from the security firm and you can use the ship's wifi to check your camera and decide what to do. OTOH, if the call from the security company is short, it might be worth just using cell service knowing it's going to cost you. Especially since most likely no one will break in and you won't get a call.

There are a lot of articles on "What cruise line is right for you" and YouTube videos that rank the different cruise lines too. There are so many lines that I can't begin to list them all and I'm not familiar with a lot of them except from reading about them so I won't even try to. 😄 A lot of first-time cruisers on the East Coast go on Caribbean cruises and the Mexican Riveria is popular for first-time cruisers on the West Coast. The reason is that you are going to get a good balance of sea days to port days, there are a lot of shorter cruises, and it's not *too* exotic. Are your friends well-traveled? If so, you want to go someplace they haven't been before. Do they want a cruise with a lot of families or one where children are scarce? Do you think your friends will be overwhelmed on a cruise with 5000-7000 people or bored on a cruise without a climbing wall, go-cart cart, and massive water slides?

We have agriculture checkpoints on highways into the state just like countries have customs.

FYI Costco is now using Shutterfly. (I've gotten 50 million emails from them telling me to transfer my (non-existent) Costco photos to Shutterfly or they will be lost forever!)

The Premier packages gives you unlimited casual dining. It's the Plus package that only gives you two.

Oh, that's right. My FPT date is before they even go into dry dock. But people complained about the Island Princess changes so much that I'm hopeful they won't be repeated. I'm thinking that the library and Internet cafe are prime places to downsize but I'm not sure what they'd put there instead.

Princess is upfront that some of the crew appreciation and service charges go to regular compensation. They raised pay when they went to the pooled tipping system and use crew appreciation/service charges to cover it. The rest goes to bonuses. Most cruise ships have almost as much staff as customers. So a 3,000-person 7-day cruise could have as many as 2000+ staff. Not all of them are in positions that get tips so let's say it's only 1,000. If they got all the crew appreciation, that would be $315 per person. That's not very much for a week of hard work. If they work 10-hour days (as has been reported), that's an extra $4.50 an hour. Bottom line: Princess is not raking in the big bucks with our CA so that they have plenty left over for other things.

I would too. Especially since there were other flights from Indy to SFO that get here in enough time in case something happened to that first flight and there are plenty of non-stop flights. The first flight of the day is unlikely to be canceled and the time difference gives her a very big buffer. It's a risk but a pretty small one. Not to mention, everyone is different. I would be annoyed and stressed while it was happening but by the time I got on the ship, it would have turned into a funny story. 😄

The 15 alcoholic drinks a day is a limit to keep people from getting too drunk (and probably Princess from going bankrupt LOL). You do not have to drink 15 drinks a day to get value out of a package. Since soda, bottled water, juices (except in the MDR at breakfast), mocktails, and fancy coffee drinks cost money, you don't have to drink much alcohol at all before you break even. To answer some of your other questions: 1) The food served in all the MDRs are the same. 2) Shows tend to be at 7:30 and 9:30 (but sometimes 8 and 10) so you can make your reservations around that. 3) You don't need reservations but usually, the line for people without them is longer (assuming there even is a line at the time you want to dine). I have cruised before but the last time was in 1999 and cruising is WAY different now. In particular, when we last cruised all non-alcoholic drinks were free and there were 2 dinner times, no buffet, 1 specialty restaurant and no "casual" dining. So I did a lot of research (reading here and elsewhere, and watching YouTube videos from cruisers). Then I made a reservation for 2 at 5:30 pm in one particular MDR for the entire cruise ahead of time. (That's about when we normally eat and it allows us 2 shots at the show.) BUT when on the ship, we will not always have dinner in the MDR and not always at 5:30 pm. Once we see the daily activities and get some reservations in "extra" dining locations we want to try, we will move some of them around. We will also try the buffet at least once but probably more often as I like buffets. However, in general, our preference is for the MDR for dinner because the food is normally better and fancier and because specialty and casual dining costs extra. IOW the reservation is just to put a stake in the ground to plan around and (hopefully) wait less to get into the MDR.

The Coral Princess is going into dry dock in Oct. Maybe they'll add some more then. I do think that Princess is going to change a lot of stuff before our cruises as well. (I'm doing the Jan 4th, 2025 East->West) so I try not to stress too much about it. I really, really, really hope that they change the 2 this-or-that per cruise into per week of cruising. Because then we'll get double! 😄

Never talk about politics or religion at the dinner table.

I used the new app and booked dining over 300 days out and I haven't paid in full. This is supposedly not possible but every time I check, my reservations are still there. 🤷‍♂️ I mention this because I believe you should be able to regardless of how far out your cruise is.

Alfredo's is still a popup but now it's not free. The Salty Dog Gastropub is also a popup and also is not free. I believe they alternate between the two on sea days. If you have Plus, you can get 2 free casual dining meals per cruise. Premier fares give you unlimited casual dining. Standard passengers have to pay.

Plus and Premium FAREs including crew appreciation as mentioned. There are also Plus and Premium DRINK packages. They are just drinks and cost more than the fare package that includes them so they make no sense and you might as well ignore their existence. Hope that helps.

Princess prices are a lot more than going to my favorite local spa (which is very high-end). A 50-minute massage there is $190 (Member price is even cheaper). So Princess is almost double that. Not sure why the difference but I have theories.

The same thing as if it's part of the fare like it is for Plus & Premier. Princess can't give you a breakdown like this because they handle tips/crew appreciation differently. All the money from all the ships is pooled. Some of it goes to everyone to pay for the increase in wages that Princess & staff negotiated when they moved to pooled tipping. The rest goes to bonuses for high-performing crew. The bonuses seem tied to mentioning crew in the after-cruise survey which is why the crew encourages you to mention them. Pooling the tips was something many crew wanted because tipping varies so much depending on the itinerary of the ship and how many people are on it from high vs. low tipping cultures. Pooling is considered fairer and it also probably helps Princess get the better crew members to work on the low-tipping itineraries (but that later part is just a guess on my part).

Thank goodness!

There have been 3 times since I booked my cruise this past July that the price has been lower than what I booked. Every time it was part of an announced sale. This last time, I not only got the best price so far, but I got that price for a cabin in a better location. Which makes the cost savings even better! Based on this, my advice is to always check your cruise for a price drop when there is a sale.

So they aren't doing White & Gold night anymore?

That happened to me too. I ended up doing all the research for which excursion I wanted at a port and then logged in to book it. Repeated for each port. I found that while doing the research, I was getting logged out but the website didn't show that so I'd be in the middle of booking the excursion and it wouldn't work because I was logged out!

So far, all my cruises have embarked from the East Coast; for all but one, we lived on the West Coast. Because of time zone differences with a 5-hour flight, we have to either take a RedEye or fly in the day before. There was a time when I would take a RedEye (and have), but these days I'd be too afraid of the flight being canceled at the last minute. So that means flying in the day before. Since I'm still working, a Sunday embarkation usually means 1 fewer day off from work. But not always and the cruise leaves when the cruise leaves. 🤷‍♀️

Princess has one and it includes Mocktails and the Juice bar and a few other things besides soda.

I am totally fascinated by the idea of a capsule wardrobe but I am unsure how to go about getting one especially as 90% of my wardrobe is free t-shirts/running shirts from triathlons and running races. 🤣 But I also was mystified by someone on that 9-month Ultimate World Cruise who packed 7 pairs of white sneakers. Sure, each one was slightly different, but still...

stroopwafel. 😄 (Cyclists eat them all the time so I've learned to spell it.)

When I first booked my cruise, no excursions were available. But very soon after, they were except for one port (which is still not available less than slightly less than a year out). So I booked a Jan 25 cruise in July 23 and booked Princess excursions in Sept 23 (so about 16 months out).