cruiselvr1

Absolutely do not do a BVE on a short cruise out of LA. We just did one on the Ruby out of LA, on Sept. 29, 2015. We were doing a b to b & the 1st leg was a 4 day coastal cruise & the next was 15 day Hawaii. We paid for the person that took us to the port & back for this BVE & we were totally embarrassed @ the limited items on the MDR menu. The fish dish , of the 2 main course choices, that was offered, was not good & my DH & friend took a few bites & that was it. One choice for appitizer & one for dessert . We ordered neither. They did not sound very good. We were offered a glass of wine, but turned it down. There was no salad offered. This is just a warning. It was a total waste of $. It was not a good example for people that have not cruised with Princess. I guess it would have been better to go to the buffet or the IC. But we usually love to go to the MDR on embarcation day for lunch. This was our 1st short cruise, so I think this was the problem, because on the next leg to Hawaii on embarcation day the MDR menu was not @ all the same & was way better.

 

There might have been some kind of misunderstanding about the sticker that we received @ the port that AM. Because the lady in charge of BVE people @ the port, was the future cruise person from the Ruby & she did not want the people that were cruising to wear the sticker, even though we were given one to wear. She said only the people that were not cruising were to wear the sticker. And I thought, well how would the dining room staff know we were there for the BVE & get offered the wine???, since we were not all together with the few other people that were doing the BVE also. So I wore my sticker anyway. And one nice thing that came out of it, was that we got offered a nice window table that day in the MDR, for just the 3 of us.

My DW and I did a BVE on the Golden earlier in the year, before she went on a 7 day cruise and loved it. Yes, MDR didn't have a full offering, but that didn't bother us. We did the Golden because we have never been on her before. The only problem was getting off, we didn't want to.

Just done messaging a friend in PV who owns a talavera shop on the Rio Cual in old PV. He said they have rain, but the brunt of the storm stayed to the south, so they are fine.

 

Great news and hopefully Princess will keep the port calls. Puerto Vallarta is one of my favorite ports and our November 21 cruise needs to get there.

 

Happy Cruising:D:D

We went into Mazatlan years ago after another huge Hurricane hit, and saw the damage done. It was also a learning experience told to us by our guide. We learned that a member of the family needs to stay in their home, during an event, so someone else can't claim it. It reminded me of homesteaders, during the early days.

No kidding. I feel for the folks in the path of this beast.

Luckily it was heading into a lightly populated area, and was quite small in size for such a strong hurricane.

She's leaving now, earlier than thought.

She isn't moving fast, their appears to be tugs on both sides of her.

The port schedule has the Veendam down for 20:30 now. She looks pretty all lite up.

She's leaving now, earlier than thought.

I've never seen one so I really don't know. If a mini suite isn't a smaller version of a suite, then what is it?

The only reason Priness calls it a Mini suite, it has a small couch. Big Deal. I like the larger balcony, we will be in our first suite, so it will interesting.

I was on the Royal at the beginning of August and they were insistent about hand-washing. The Captain even came over the intercom at least once a day to give updates about the Noro outbreak followed by instructions on HOW to wash your hands. He pointed out that washing your hands was the single best defense against getting sick.

 

And yet, there were those who resisted. One woman told the attendant at the buffet entrance "I just washed my hands in my stateroom." The attendant replied, "Did you touch anything on your way here?" She ignored him.

 

That struck a nerve with me so I started thinking about how many times I touched something throughout the day that had been touched by others. Stair rails, door handles, elevator buttons. Then gave thought to how many times I touched my face. Wow. You won't have to remind me again to wash my hands before I eat.

 

I thought the hand-washing stations were a good idea and not at all upsetting. What IS upsetting is hearing the Captain remind people to wash their hands "after using the toilet". Yes, he mentioned that, among other things, on a daily basis. Unbelievable that he found it necessary to even mention.

Unfortunately their are so many people who were not taught by their parents to wash their hands, before eating dinner.

Still amazes me that folks want to keep flogging the central stair issue and guessing as to why it isn't "passenger friendly". The existing stairway is there for crew use and emergencies and if there was a consideration to saving money it was only after studies done that showed that there was limited use by passengers. This was explained to my by a ship's officer.

 

Now it's possible that in the future the existing stairway will be "beautified" and made available to passengers but for now take a look at what is the current situation. We have timed the walk from midship to either the forward or aft stairway and it takes about 1 minute to do this. If folks are into doing stairways then an extra minute or two of walking isn't that bad (and probably a good thing after a few days of the HC or MDR). The lifts usually arrive very quickly during normal usage periods so waiting for them would possibly be less time then a nice walk to either of the stairways.

 

So let's move on to other things of interest such as interesting places visited off the beaten track on the voyage or how you liked the images on the wall taken from some of us that you can see while you walk to the stairways available. Let me know if you have found my photos on both the Royal and Regal.

I'm sorry that just doesn't make sense. On any ship I have been on that has center staircase, there always seem to be more people on the staircase, than using the elevators. People like myself like walking up and down the stairs, just to try keep off the weight you can gain even on a 7 day cruise. I have never been on the Grand before, it is sad that it doesn't have a center staircase. Luckily we are aft on both of our upcoming cruises, and can use the aft staircase.

Thanks for the live. We were on the Golden on the August 30th Alaska cruise. On that cruise there was an Princess entertainer vocalist/dancer, Bret Bell, who we had met on our Panama Canal Cruise last fall on the Island. He remember both of us and stayed after one of there performances in the Atrium celebrating Princess 50th Anniversary. He stayed after there performance to talk to us or a few minutes and to autograph our photo we had of him from our Panama Canal cruise..

 

Here's 2 photos of Bret.

 

 

If you happen to see him say help from Tom & Becky who were on the August 30th cruise to Alaska.

 

Enjoy your cruise and thanks for posting you review of the repositioning cruise.

 

Tom:)

We did the BVE on your August 30 cruise. I hope it well.

Ships time 10:30 pm, slight following seas, temp 69 degrees.

 

Good evening from Coral Princess cruising on a southeasterly course just north-west of Baja California. Average speed 13.5 knots. It is approx. 845 miles from LA-Cabo San Lucas. We are due to arrive on Sat Sept 26th at 7:00am. We will be in port until 4:30pm.

 

From LAX we caught a Yellow Cab (van) for 4 of us and 6 varying size pieces of luggage at 9:45. We asked the driver if we could stop to p/u some water on the way to San Pedro. He suggested we stop at a 7-11 which we did. Typical fare is $60 and has been for several years. They do use the meter but even with us stopping was still only $65. Got 2 small cases of water and we were on our way again. Arrived in San Pedro around 10:30…….tipped the driver well for his detour. Its a beautiful day in LA with temps around 85.

 

Dropped off the luggage at the terminal and took our water on with us as it was pretty flimsy. The porters offered to slap a luggage tag on the water but we declined as I thought it would have been ripped apart within 5 minutes of handling. We made our way upstairs at Pier 93 and wisked right through check-in.

 

We found that there were only 775 boarding in LA today due to prior stops in Vancouver and San Francisco. So this was billed as a 21/19/15 day cruise. We went through security and they were ripping apart passengers carry ons etc looking for booze. They actually ripped open the cases of water and holding the bottles up to the light and shaking them over and over again looking for the tell tale signs of alcohol, whatever that may be in a water bottle.

 

Several minutes later they were through and we pieced together the bottles and headed to the Elite/Platinum Lounge. They were diverting preferred boarding Platinums to a sitting area just outside the lounge. I guess because there were too many Elite/Suites? Not sure. I heard one of the reps say that there were 666 in transits but that did not make sense and did not add up. But it was nice to have a quiet boarding. We boarded about 11:50 and dropped off out carry ons in the cabin then headed to the Provence DR for lunch.

 

The menu was the very limited embarkation lunch menu that I have been reading about on CC. The one that popped out at me was the trout instead of the salmon.

So a couple of appetizers (smoked salmon) 2 main courses trout or beef selection

and 1 dessert the almond soufflé. No salad available on the menu! Very strange indeed. No always available anything.

 

Finished lunch and while reading the Patter it stated that the HC is open for dinner each day from 5:30-10:00pm. Not sure what to make of that.

IC open 24 hours.

We stopped at the platinum/elite lounge held in Explorers from 5p-7p. Tonight was my fav the El Mejor Margarita ($5). Guac and chips and assorted veggies.

 

Another note the basic Coke package not available anymore. So as heard here on CC they are pushing the soda and more, AKA-UKP @$7 per day. With a large plastic tumbler with the curly straw. Some with a little animal on the top of the straw and some not.

 

Had a quick dinner in the Provence DR. Traditional early 5:15pm and late 7:30pm.

Its been a long day. Coral Princess looks outstanding.

 

I had major issues when I tried to post this around 4:00pm. I used my Iphone as a hotspot (AT&T) and the area signal/system was terrible. I suspect that it had a lot to due with the Crown Princess berthed right next to us and some several thousand passengers attempting to use the cell towers in the area. I did call AT&T to add a text/call/data package and they said they were having issues. I gave up.

 

This is posted on the ships internet, seems smooth but probably because everyones in bed.

 

Well heading to bed. I am beat. Like I said not promising I can do this much but I will try. It will most likely be due to bad internet here onboard if I don’t post. 2 glorious sea days ahead. :D

When my DW and I took the Star to Hawaii, while in port in SF, I tried to use my hot spot and it didn't work. While we were in Islands we didn't have any problems, I am wondering if California is the problem.

I have only had Prego pizza on all the cruises we have taken so far, because we have not gone on a ship that has a Alfredo's. In November we will get to finally taste Alfredo's on the Grand.Up to now Prego's has always been excellent!

Hey fellow cruisers, I hoped you could help me out here.

 

We have previously cruised on P&O, RCCL, Thomson & Princess.

Princess being our favourite by a mile.

We sailed on the Grand 3 times, last time being 3 years ago, twice before her refurb & once after.

Each cruise was just superb and could fault nothing.

A big thing was the entertainment throughout the day & evening was just second to none, just fantastic!

 

My kids are now teens (13 & 15) but have been cruising from a young age & this year we chose the Caribbean Princess as we loved the itinery for our dates.

 

We have just returned from a 14nt Med sailing from Southampton on 18th July.

 

One huge difference I noticed was the lack of entertainment!

What's happened to the big production shows, with singing, dancing etc?

In my opinion it was sub standard for a cruise & probably the worst I've encountered in all my cruises.

The entertainment team tried but there was just nothing there.

Other than an odd quiz, all the other entertainment was audience participation, where the staff sat back, judged and let the passengers provide entertainment.

Yes is good to see every now and again but part of cruising IS the entertainment and what the team put on.

 

I felt that the ship was geared up to sell, sell, sell!!

Loads of retail, art auctions, bingo, etc etc.

Went to a couple of seminars on well being, health etc and after sitting through a 45 min long informative talks etc, then the hard sell comes along... $300 for tubs of vitamin tabs & excercise sheet!!

 

Loads of wee things missing... Eg no cookies & milk trolleys poolside, not saying this in particular ruined the holiday, as it didn't, but it was small things like this that just made previous holidays for the kids a bit special.

 

I felt there was something seriously lacking on the ship, not just one thing but loads of small things.

 

There was also a strong smell of sewage in various parts of the ship, at different times of the day etc. This was obviously not pleasant.

We also had lots of welding going on just along from our cabin on 4 different days. Strong smelling of grinding/burning metal.

 

The food was fantastic as is to be expected, staff fab too, give or take a couple of rude ones.

 

I am looking to book our cruise for next year and I'm in a quandary as to which way to go.

 

Have Princess standards slipped across the whole line?

Or was CB just not the best ship?

Is the Grand still as wonderful as she was 3 years ago?

What are your views on the Royal & Regal?

 

Any advice or your views would be most welcome.

:)

I agree the shows aren't as good, for the past years. We're not show people, so I would not want to pay more for shows we don't see. Our first cruise was our wedding cruise in 2006, and the show they had was good, but it was on our next three cruises.

I charge all my gambling to my cruise card, that way I get double points on my princess visa

Hi there

Is buying casino credits on the Princess Visa card considered a cash advance at Barclay's?

Or ? Because your not buying a "product" is there a higher percentage rate for this transaction from the Barclay's side?

There is no direct ferry service between Seattle and Vancouver. That's the bad news. The good news is here is a link for ways you can get from Seattle to Vancouver. ;)

 

http://gocanada.about.com/od/vancouver/qt/seattle_to_vancouver.htm

 

Tom

Thanks, after all this we are doing The LA through the canal instead.

I went down this same route a couple of years ago trying to arrange this same trip and was told no, and rather rudely told no.

 

What we ended up doing was taking the overnight from Seattle to Vancouver on one ship and then spending two nights in Vancouver (lovely, by the way) and took another ship down to LA. We talk about this being one of our best mini-vacations.

 

This year we are taking the train to Vancouver and then sailing to LA. No problems there.

i think we will just fly into Seattle, and spend night there and take the ferry to Vancouver. Again thanks for all the help. I knew I would get my question answered on CC.

Cruising from Seattle to Vancouver, and then taking the same ship to LA. If you have the same stateroom, can you leave your luggage there? I know you have to go through Canadian customs.

Could you take the Seattle cruise to Vancouver, take your bags off the ship, and go through boarding process again?

I just redeemed some points for an upcoming cruise. I got a nice OBC and with the left over points I ordered a dozen roses for the cabin as a surprise for my DW.

 

Just make sure you redeem the points early enough. I believe there is a minimum of 4 weeks before the cruise to make sure it goes through.

Thanks all. I knew I would get more help here, than calling Barclay's which I did. I was on the phone with them, for a good hour. I was concerned about the date my points expire, I finally got the answer.

Basically, the Passenger Vessel Services act (PVAS) says you cannot travel between 2 American ports on a foreign flag vessel without stopping at a distant foreign port.

 

Vancouver is not a distant foreign port, so it is a violation. I do not believe Princess will allow you to book such a trip.

 

Distant foreign ports are really distant. In the Caribbean region, only the ABC islands qualify. South America does too.

 

That is why you'll see the Panama Canal cruises and the New York to FLA cruises go to Aruba.

 

If you make a round trip back to the same port, you only have to touch at a foreign port, which is why Ensenada and Victoria, Canada are stops.

I thought Vancouver would cover the act. I guess I was wrong. I wonder how many miles it needs to be, since endsenada isn't that far from the U.S. boarder.

Cruising from Seattle to Vancouver, and then taking the same ship to LA. If you have the same stateroom, can you leave your luggage there? I know you have to go through Canadian customs.

Anyone with the Princess visa redemption experience? Any problems?

I think it is crazy they charge for it to begin with. We have cruised with 3 other cruise lines and it has ALWAYS been out with the self service coffee for free.

 

We are going to pack the packets and just ask for/get hot water and make our own. Now if they made the real stuff with milk, that might be different.

Years ago I ordered a large hot cocoa and it came in a huge cup with only one pkt of powdered cocoa in it. It was horrible! Bring your own packets so you can put the right amount in it.

Alright. Off the cruise now just waiting to get home to humid heat of Texas. So I will start my review. I will work on adding days as I get time.

 

Day 1: Embark

 

I might repeat things that I have stated before in my initial summary so just ignore if I repeat myself.

 

Embarkation was easy and very quick, under 30 minutes and onboard. We went out to a celebratory brunch first and then took an Uber to the pier. Got there by noon and onboard shortly after. I printed out the health form before hand and it saved a lot of time as there was a long line at the table to fill it out. So I strongly recommend to everyone to print it out and fill it out that morning. Will save you time and headaches.

 

Got to our room right away. Very helpful in helping people find their cabins and getting around. My first criticism comes when we got to our cabin. Not a huge deal but it was disappointing. It was my sisters birthday and I filled out online that we would be celebrating her birthday and put in the date, the day that we boarded. I was told that the door would be decorated to show that we were celebrating. I noticed as we walked that a lot of doors were decorated with birthday signs. However, when we got to our door, there was nothing. I thought hat perhaps they just hadn't gotten to it yet but it was never added. It is any a huge deal but I was looking forward to surprising my sister with it. What I didn't understand is why we didn't get the door decorated? In our cabin we had a paper for a celebration in the MDR to bring in but no decor on the door. Does anyone know why this was done? I would like to know so I know how to get them to do it next time.

 

We then went to he HC for a late lunch. My sister and I had a bad experience on RCL when we went to lunch in the MDR and they sat us at a table with other people so she won't go back in case it happens again. We really don't like having to sit with strangers. We have found that it ruins our vacation. So we went to the crowded HC. Anyone know if you can get a table for two in the MDR for breakfast or lunch, for the future?

 

By the way, she loved the HC, much more than I did, because of all of the vegetarian options. The MDR has limited options as it comes to vegetarian options, specifically for the main course so she really enjoyed having more than one option.

 

Then we finally got a drink! Been waiting for this. One of my favorite parts of cruising, the food and drinks. We didn't purchase any drink packages because they were either too expensive or they didn't include anything that we liked. The soda packages didn't include root beer so that was a no go, I drink dr pepper, root beer or mr pibb, no diet coke for me. The all inclusive package that I know a lot of people get, I personally feel is very very expensive so we didn't get that either. Almost 400/person for 7 nights. Outrageous. My sister got a mojito, which she really likes as she ordered it several other times. I got a Blue Hawaiian. It was one of my favs on our last cruise with RCL so thought I would try it again.

 

 

 

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Hi there

I am glad you enjoyed your cruise! I read where you printed out the health form ahead of time. What a great idea! Where do you find that to print it out?

Thank You,

Heidi

To be clear, it's Carnival Corporation that received approval for their "fathom" brand, not Carnival Cruise Lines. fathom is the new brand where you pay an arm and a leg (something like $3,000/pp for seven days) to volunteer your time helping the disadvantaged. It's just a shame that Castro destroyed the country so that they need the help. I'm not convinced that money spent by tourists isn't going to go directly back to the dictatorship government.

Pam we love reading your post remarks. I also agree about going to Cuba, NO THANKS..

I just went through an exercise for friends who are considering sailing with us next year that may help. As others have said, the great majority of the balconies ont the Regal and Royal are of a uniform size (very small, in my opinion), and virtually all are fully covered by the balcony above.

 

The few exceptions on the sides of the ship are some of the larger balconies far forward on Emerald Deck; and the midships balcony cabins on either side of the "point" on the "bump-out" section beneath the Sky Walk (Starboard side) and the Skyview Bar (Port side).

 

If you look at the deck plans it will be immediately obvious which cabins have the largest balconies.

 

Some of the aft cabins also have large balconies, but both the Regal and Royal have serious problems with soot from the stacks raining down on those balconies making them virtually unusable for many (us included). It's too bad, because those large balcony and wake views from the Deluxe Balcony aft cabin we had were spectacular, but we could not use the balcony at all.

 

Finally, I would note that, while the Emerald Deck balcony cabins in the midships section I mentioned above are designated "obstructed view", there is actually no obstruction in front of these midships cabins, and some of the balconies in this area are some of the biggest on the ship. For instance, we were in E429 and a friend was in E433 last year, and we LOVED these balconies (though the cabins, themselves, were only standard balcony, and seemed smaller than the standard balcony cabins on the Grand Class ships). In this instance, however, in my opinion Starboard side is much preferable to Port side, as there is nothing "noisy" beneath these Emerald Deck cabins on the Starboard side, but the Crooners Bar is directly beneath the similar cabins on the Port side, and people have reported noise issues in the Port side cabins.

 

Being a fan of the Grand Class ships' Caribe Deck balconies, I've made a study of which balconies are the closest to those on the Regal and Royal.

 

I hope this helps.

 

p.s. - here is a sample of the section of the Regal deck plans pointing out some of the largest balconies available on the Regal and Royal. Every deck has some variation of this same balcony configuration in this area.

 

I agree the Grand class ships caribe balconeys are the best. My DW and I have made the decision to stay away from both new ships, and continue crushing with large balconeys. We spend so much time on them, I like to be comfortable.

Hi there

My DH and I went to San Francisco today to see the new pier 27 terminal (Outside of it anyways). We sail on the Grand in November. The San Francisco symphony was performing a free concert there today and there were a zillion people. I have a question since you have been inside. Where do you drop off your luggage? Is it on the side where all the taxi's and buses drop people off? Or ? Thank You.