desertdwellingsailor

Now we are looking at April 13. I can see that the mini suites are significantly more expensive which is no doubt why the balconies fill up first. I guess April 13 might be warmer than March 2. Well, we will cruise one way or another.

I must have been dazed and confused when I wrote this. I meant to say that I could not choose a balcony room but there are many mini suites available. I guess the less expensive balcony rooms fill up first. Any reason not to go on March 2nd? Should be fairly warm in Mexico.

So, we pushed out our March Discovery Princess Mexican Riviera cruise because of all the uncertainties over my parents' health and its impact on our finances. Now I am feeling better financially and wonder if I could go in March after all. I looked at the March 2nd Mexican Riviera cruise and the balcony rooms we pretty much booked in the since that you could not choose a room. But there are plenty of mini suites on level 14 and the total seemed pretty reasonable. Might be nice not to wait until October. What do you guys think?

Have fun!

Found this from 2015: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-reaches-agreement-carnival-corp-over-ada-violations-carnival-cruise-line "Three percent of the cabins on 49 ships will be accessible according to three levels of accessibility: fully accessible cabins, fully accessible cabins with a single side approach to the bed, and ambulatory accessible cabins." It sounds like at that time Princess and the other Carnival brands had to provide three types of ADA accessible rooms. I am not sure how to request each type now assuming that is possible.

Doesn't ambulatory just mean that you are able to walk? That would be most customers. Never mind. I can't figure out how to delete this.

Sorry. I have only been on one ship Discovery Princess. Sounds like I would like those Celebrity ships.

I like the walking track. I saw a lot of scenery why walking 7 times around the track to get in 1 mile. I like the mocha early in the morning (like 5 am) at the International Cafe watching the water out the windows. Mostly I just like being on the water. I guess that is not Princess specific.

I have not tried WIFI calling. Posts on the internet say SMS text works with it. Might be a good option on a ship if you pay for internet access. I've only used an iPhone without wifi calling on a Princess ship.

SMS based text message do not go over WIFI or the internet. They are a separate network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS You cannot get SMS messages in airplane mode on an iPhone. You can use iMessage over the internet while in airplane mode if your iPhone is connected to a WIFI network that has access to the internet: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/about-imessage-iph4e9799206/ios On a Princess ship you need MedallionNet to connect over the internet: https://www.princess.com/en-us/ships-and-experience/princess-medallionclass/medallionnet On my cruises I would get backed up SMS messages when we got into port and I took my iPhone out of airplane mode. I had MedallionNet and texted my children who also had iPhones throughout the cruise while in airplane mode but those texts were all iMessage texts. I don't know if Android has an equivalent internet based text protocol but it wouldn't surprise me if they did. Bobby

Sounds relaxing! We will stay the night before with my mother-in-law in Fullerton so my wife gets to catch up with her then we cruise then stay over on Saturday night after. Pretty good trip.

Excited to have rebooked our Mexican Riviera cruise on Discovery Princess for October 12th out of Los Angeles. We were booked for March but my parents have been having health issues and we had to cancel. We should know a lot more about my parents situation by the time the final payment is due for the October cruise. And it is great to have something fun to look forward to after all the stresses of caring for my parents. I decided to go with conventional wisdom and get a balcony room on deck 14 so it would be quieter with rooms above us. I wanted to be near the top decks this time but two decks down seems close enough. I had deck 15 balcony reserved for the March cruise but that was right under the pool deck which is a risk for noise. Should be nice and warm after freezing on our otherwise awesome Alaska cruise. I'm happy to be able to drive to the port from home and park instead of taking a uber/cab. My wife and I are looking forward to it! Bobby

Where do they store the Harley?

This was true of me. I thought I might feel claustrophobic and uncomfortable in the tender off Santa Barbara but it was a lot of fun and the scenery was something else. Just watching the ship as we motored off was an experience in itself for me as someone who had not cruised for 20 years.

I don't remember the music being too loud on Discovery, but I do remember wishing I could find someplace where it was completely quiet. Maybe that is the same thing you guys are talking about? The music didn't hurt my ears or keep me from having a conversation but it was constant. At least that is what I remember.

That is good information. In this case I was just debating cancelling today or in a month and decided that I would not know any more a month from now and I might get the small deposit back sooner if I cancel now. Not a big deal since it is only $200 but it is something.

Cancelled our cruise. It is not a bad thing. We could use the money for the $200 deposit while dealing with my parents care at the end of their lives. Hopefully we can sell their house and use the money to take care of them but until it happens money is tight and even the small deposit refund would help. Hopefully we can go on a cruise later in 2024 once everything settles down. We went on two Princess cruises in a row so we could wait a few more months for cruise number 3!

We paid $313.57 per day US to stay at Hyatt Regency Vancouver April 28 and 29. Was a little disconcerting being in a high rise but it was nice. We walked to the cruise terminal pulling our bags rolling behind us.

We went on April 30 this year. We had never been to Alaska and had a great time, but the weather was mixed. We were able to go on all our excursions. It was just a little rainy in Juneau and Ketchikan. Very nice sunny day in Sitka where we walked around everywhere. We had two beautiful sunny days in Vancouver before the cruise. But the real problem with the weather was sitting on the balcony or walking around the walking track. I was able to walk but it was chilly and windy. Sitting still on the balcony was just too cold even with two coats on. Of course I'm used to 110 degree Phoenix summers. We also didn't see much in the way of whales or dolphins. Maybe later in the season is better? But I don't know what it will be like next year. I'm not complaining. We had a nice time and the weather didn't stop us from enjoying the cruise.

I enjoyed The Love Boat reruns on the stateroom TV. I think the first or so episode with John Ritter dressed like a woman to share a room was quite amusing.

You are all correct. 90 days or more prior the deposit is refunded. Hopefully it will not come to that. Depends on several factors.

I've got until December 5th or something to pay my final bill for my March cruise but my parents are having some health issues which may empty my savings account temporarily. I'm thinking that there will always be more cruises in the future. I've gone on two in a row the past two years. The nice thing is that I have not committed the money and would only lose my deposit. Since we are fairly close to the San Pedro port in Los Angeles we could even do a drop and go fare if our finances clear up at some point.

My cruise booked for March looks the same way. Signed up for Plus but app says premier. I'm fine with just plus but if they give us premier I guess I'll use it.

The cake looks pretty good. I had one of the specialty desserts and it was gross. All sugar.

I've been in Skagway and Ketchikan. There was vibration in the middle of the floor in Ketchikan because of the propeller shafts or whatever. That only happened once out of 5 nights there. The rest of the time we were on the edges. There is kind of a weird layout on Discovery where you cannot get everywhere from all the stairways/elevators on some levels. So, to get to Ketchikan I think we had to go to the elevators near the back of the ship before going down. I would pick one of the two dining rooms in the middle in the future but we had a nice time both trips.