cruiselvr1

A couple of weeks prior to our recent cruise I decided to purchase an IPad mini.

 

Very glad I did.

My email was already set up for outlook when we boarded the Caribbean Princess. I did need a little assistance from the Internet Manager in configuring the incoming and outgoing mail servers for the ship but she added icons for logging in and logging out which was most helpful.

It also took very little time to download the daily edition of The New York Times which I was able to read on my IPad after logging off.

If you don't logoff properly you continue to rack up minutes.

 

Howard

On our Hawaiiian cruise on the Star, we used our laptop, and it was very easy to use in our stateroom. The only problem we had was logging off. Sometimes it would stick on, so I would have to contact the IC manager.

Not true. They took the Skywalker's off the Grand (the first one) for engineering issues. They fixed the problem on all subsequent Skywalker's.

I have heard that Princess found they have saved fuel costs with the Grand. They are still thinking about taking them of the Grand class.

I'm not opposed to Suites having their own lounge, but not Skywalker's. Suites could have the Adagio lounge converted or use Sabatini's.

 

Personally, if I could afford a suite, I wouldn't even sail on Princess. I would charter a private yacht. Even in a suite, one is still on a mass market cruise line. It's not even a high-end cruise line like Crystal. On a yacht, one wouldn't have to share the ship with the rest of us. Just a thought.

You make it sound like, just because someone is in a suite, they think they're better than everyone else.

We stay in suites only been on princess and carnival. Carnival perks are almost nil. But I don't get the butler thing that other cruise lines have. What does he do that I can't. I'm on vacation and have a of of free time to book a diner or unpack.

We are in our first suite in November. I agree who needs a butler, also I don't need someone escorting me my room. Suites already have priority tender disembarkation, I don't have to have priority tender embarkation.

Yes. Often, the staff gets around the state beverage tax by hand writing the receipt and entering the charge once the ship is at sea. I'm guessing that with a late departure, they couldn't do this.

 

Theo, welcome to CA. Someone has to pay for all the wonderful free services and medical care offered to anyone crossing the border. :)

Pam. You have hit the nail on the head.

While it may well be sliced into bacon, it is a beautiful dish in it's own right. It would be on the menu of most fine dining venues in this part of the world. ;)

I believe the Beverly Hillbillies liked pork belly, along with possum. Let's see what Curtis Stone would do with that.

You haven't lived until you've had a well cooked pork belly dish! :D

I think I can live without it.

My wife and I were in San Francisco yesterday and decided to check out the boarding process on the Grand. It was a little before 1pm and there was quite a long line waiting to have their bags picked up by a very few porters. There were vehicles pulling up constantly and the porters seemed to be giving the vehicular passangers preferential treatment.

 

The line of people waiting got longer while the vehicular traffic flow moved pretty well. Luckily the weather was very nice for the people standing in line.

 

The process seemed organized but very tedious. Is this how Princess operates its embarkation typically? We are primarily Royal Caribbean cruisers and they have hordes of porters waiting to whisk your luggage away and you proceed straight to check-in. At least that's what we have experienced in San Pedro over numerous boardings.

 

Is it better to board early or later in SF?

My DW and I took Bart to watch the embarkation, of the Golden and found away to make sure the porters would take our luggage. We walked to the pier along the embarkadero to the pier. This is what we plan to do in a couple of weeks.

Does it actually bother anyone to not have formal night on a 4-Day cruise?

It would take less luggage without a formal night, especially on a short cruise, which I would like. I enjoy the formal nights on longer cruises, and I don't mine taking more luggage for those. When we took our first two week cruise, we didn't know much we would need. We took 7 bags, never again.

I've done six Hawaii cruises. I think the embarkation port would be more important to me than the ship. You will probably have nicer weather sailing out of San Pedro than San Francisco.

 

The Ruby doesn't have a covered pool, while the Star does. I like the Skywalker's on the Star better, but the Ruby has a nice Adagio Bar. The Ruby is getting a new show "Magic to Do" and the new "Stones" restaurant.

 

Decide what is most important to you, and then pick. You really can't go wrong with either ship.

I agree, more information is needed. If I had a choice, I'd pick the Star again. We took her to Hawaii, and the ship was great.

I don't see any menus at this site newer than 1/13 but it may give you an idea. I'm hopeful someone will come along shortly and provide a more current link if one is available on line.

 

 

http://www.zydecocruiser.net/Princess/EmeraldPrincess/ep_mdr_dinner.htm

It's not fair that my stomach won't hold all those desserts, in one sitting. They looked so good.

"ROTF & LMAO"!

 

Seriously, just ask the "Steward" for another Ice Bucket and he will usually oblige and keep them topped off with Ice! The Suites are wonderful and so are the Stewards! Don't to forget a "Tip" for extra considerations! (Oh no, not another Tipping battle issue!) :eek:

Just Mike

Thanks, We are planning to bring a lot cash for tipping.

Can someone tell me if the refrigerator in the vista suite is any bigger than a standard balcony.

I appreciate the answers, we wanted to put wine, coffee creamers etc in. This is our first suite, I was hoping to be able to put more in, then before.

I laughed when I read the title of the thread, picturing stored luggage full of popcorn. ;) Another free option is the Trident Grill on deck where you can get hamburgers, etc. Then there is the pizza station, also on deck, with great pizza. There will also be an ice cream counter in the same general area. Oh, and the popcorn is free during Movies Under the Stars. Afternoon tea in one of the dining rooms at 3:30 will have sandwiches and sweets, including scones. Don't forget the main dining room food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I wish I had place (besides my stomach) to put all the food you can eat. Lunch in HC, the trident grill, the ice cream bar, (I can't eat cheese), so I can't say pizza, but my DW loves it. Food, you never have to worry. Oh I forgot the desserts at the IC.

Okay, and I forgot to mention afternoon cookies and milk. Some servers will come around on deck in the afternoon with free cookies and milk. They also show up in the Piazza. I don't remember if this is just sea days or not, but someone else will know.

Of all of our cruises, only once were we able to get cookies. My DW was so happy. I guess we were in other places when they were served.

Everyone

 

I'm doing a couple separate posts so I don't lose something on my phone after typing a lot.

 

We missed Princess Cay yesterday. It was too windy to tender. It was a very windy day. The ceiling panels on the aft lido outdoor area were vibrating and making noise. Looked like they would come down.

 

Most traveled on my first 10 day cruise was 842 days.

 

Last night Perry Grant did a cabaret show in the Vista Lounge. 2 shows.

 

I went to dinner for formal night in the MDR and had lobster. Food was good. I had a nice time. Last night was American night.

 

Want to mention that Sabatini's has a dress code sign that states dress should match the dress for the MDR...meaning formal on formal night.

I was happy to see the dress code. Usually their are only two nights of formal ware, on a 7 to 10 day cruise. Those who don't want dress, can go the other nights.

Can someone tell me if the refrigerator in the vista suite is any bigger than a standard balcony.

I am looking for some advice please. Bob, any thoughts? I always appreciate your wisdom.

 

We have a cruise booked for Jan. Some older friends decided to join us.

 

We had final payment on Oct 20. Since we were on another cruise at that time, we made our payment early, on Oct 16th.

 

We always get insurance because of older parents and young children at home. I was planning to purchase insurance this week after we were back from our cruise.

 

Here's the problem: over the weekend our friend had a heart attack, thankfully he is doing ok. But obviously he will have a recovery period. He has had heart conditions in the past but nothing recently.

 

I feel terrible, since I did not get the insurance purchased yet.

 

I have been on insure my trip, but I am not sure what I should be looking for. I don't totally understand the look back period, or waiver conditions with insurance.

 

 

Is there a policy that would still cover him?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Please no flaming, it is intimidating sometimes, posting on this forum.

 

Thank you for your help.

You asked some very good questions, and received some good answers. I hope your friend recovers quickly, and is able to go. Cruising is very relaxing, and might even help in his recovery. It would be helpful to CC members when you get find out what your options are, to let us know.

I believe it has to do with trying to make it so that everyone is equal. Meaning, everyone will go to dinner with wrinkled clothes, therefor no one will feel out of place.

Love it. I wouldn't be surprised. Next, dressing up not allowed.

Little late to cancel if they don't get it together by then ?

Can't wait for the reviews from the ongoing cruise.

So off I went to meet the group by the pool after I would say an hour later. My wife just got her first drink, you cannot get near the bar that has 2 bar tenders and a huge line. The wait staff around the pool non existent. One that I did see honestly only went to the young girls, we also saw him in the theater and he was doing the same thing there, I had to be pushy to get him to get us drinks and it was like I WAS BOTHERING HIM. My wife overheard a bar tender mumbling he doesn't get paid enough for this crap. It was hard to find any employee that smiled around the ship. All the servers made you feel like you were an nuisance. The buffet was like a cafeteria nothing special, and closed early with one line with ok stuff on it late except the last night they closed around 10PM. The main dinning rooms were nice. I did find one employee that was always smiling and helped in any way he could, find Wilfred Anthony for your drinks in the dinning room and casino, he is the star of NCL. The last night the captain decided to get back early that caused the casino to close at 10:30 again not happy. See you at dismemberment....

Unless you notice, spellcheck will mess you up.

I was also on this cruise and my husband says he will NEVER sail on NCL again after this cruise. I will start another thread on it since this is mostly about the propulsion issue but that was by far the least of the issues.

I have NEVER written a negative word on cruise critic and love cruising but this was beyond awful.

This was our first Suite experience and it was not the "sweet life" we were looking forward to.

I read this thread from the beginning, and read about all the concerns if this cruise was going. The highs on finally going, to the lows not enjoying the cruise. I think we will stick with Princess.

It's no big deal to check them in too other than a carry on with your valuable, medicines, breakable items etc.

 

Keith

I agree, 9 out of ten times the bags are always waiting for us, and we get on as soon as they start boarding. The one time it didn't, our "paper" tag on two suitcases came off, it was raining that morning, we had to claim them after dinner. It was the first year Princess stop sending out luggage tags. We learned really quick, on how to put the tags on.

This year and hopefully next year as well there was a 40 passenger ferry from Ogden Point (where your ship will dock) to the Inner Harbor with a stop at Fisherman's Wharf. I tried it out and you get a very nice introduction to Victoria from the water, and the ferry docks right in the harbor, almost in front of the Legislature and close to the Empress.

 

It is a short walk from your ship to the ferry dock - it is near where the pilot boats dock. This year the cost was only $5 but might be more next year - good value at either price.

 

As a local I really enjoyed the trip and if I was a visitor I think this would be a great introduction to Victoria. Much better than taking a shuttle bus.

Do you have to make reservations?

My wife and I got off the Grand six days ago, and I figure if I'm ever going to jot some things down, I'd better get going. Overall, it was a nice cruise. No major complaints, but as usual I figure if we point out the few problems we did encounter, Princess stands a better chance of fixing them.

 

THE PROS.

First, the ship: I don't know how the Grand became a target of the "tired, old ship" finger-pointers. It may have been built in 1998, but it doesn't feel or look like it. In fact I saw very little difference between the Grand and the recently renovated Crown (Alaska in early June) in terms of condition.

 

There were a couple times I wished there were public stairs covering all the decks at mid-ship, but that's the extent of my criticisms of the ship. There were no buckets to catch drips, and there was no musty smell that I've seen others complain about. I'm not saying these things didn't happen on another cruise, but they sure didn't happen on ours.

 

A real plus for the Grand is Alfredo's. We'd never been on a ship with the free sit-down pizzeria before and found it to be a great addition. It's among the best pizzas I've had, for my tastes (great crispy crust), and splitting a pie for lunch was a good way to keep it light so we wouldn't stomp on our appetite for dinner.

 

I should also say for the second straight cruise, I was happy not to be hounded to buy wine tastings and extra drinks at dinner. This became a real downer a year ago for us.

 

THE CONS.

On our 7-day cruise, there was exactly one production show. That's pretty lame, and it seemed like they had a lot of second-rate fill-in stuff going on in the Princess Theater just so it wouldn't go unused. On the other hand, given the quality of the production shows in June on the Crown, maybe they're doing us a favor by sparing us shows like Motor City. We love the old motown music, but this was more like Bobby Sherman singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" on Shebang. Where's the soul in that? Entertainment is just a real weakness for Princess in our opinion.

 

Going along with the lack of quality entertainment was the lack of anything that could be called lectures or port talks or enrichment, unless you count line-dancing classes or martini demonstrations. I know the California coast doesn't present the rich opportunities for education that Alaska or the Panama Canal might, but if they're not going to offer anything (maybe a little mission history?), they shouldn't promote it in their pre-cruise communications.

 

This cruise also marked our first experience at Crown Grill. While we found the food wonderful, the service was pretty sad for an extra-charge venue. Our server took probably 20 minutes to get to our table for drink orders, telling us several times as she brushed by that she'd be there in a minute or a few seconds. When the food came, my wife asked several times for steak sauce and it never arrived. And it took another 20 minutes for me to get coffee after dinner. It came after the dessert it was supposed to go with.

 

THE SUITE STUFF.

This was our first cruise in a full suite. I've saved this till last because people who don't book suites and never plan to might not care to read this. We took an upsell and wound up paying about half what an aft Penthouse would have gone for. We loved it, but agreed it wasn't in our budget to do this again unless we got a similar deal.

 

When it comes to added amenities, we agreed with a lot of Cruise Critic posters that breakfast at Sabatini's was a huge bonus. You can order pretty much whatever you want. There was only one true server, and she usually had 8 to 12 tables to deal with, but she handled it nicely, along with three or four male helpers.

 

For us, an unanticipated perk of being in a suite was our steward. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing they assign only their best stewards to the suites. We had Augustin from the Philippines. He was so smooth and capable that he seemed to get his job done with virtually no intrusion. Whenever we left the room, he would notice, greet us and go do his stuff right away. If we happened to come back 25 minutes later, no problem. He was finished. Wish we could have Augustin as our steward on every Princess cruise.

 

Another possibly underappreciated perk is the ability to make ATD reservations whenever you want. For the most part, people trying to get reservations in an MDR have to choose between early (5-5:30) and late (8-8:30). When you're in a suite, you can get a reservation for 6 or 6:15, 7:30 or whatever. We tried to be sensitive to the fact they needed to use that table twice, so never made a 7 or 7:30 res, but if it was important, we had the flexibility to do it.

 

The only disappointment in staying in a suite was our one experience with ordering dinner off the MDR menu. I'd read here on CC that if you ordered dinner from a suite, they'd come and dress up your balcony table with table cloth, etc. When ours came the room service gal just kind of plopped down a tray of plates and split. And of course the food was lukewarm at best.

 

We did enjoy being able to order a room-service MDR breakfast on disembarkation day. While most were doing battle at the buffet, we were enjoying our last breakfast on the balcony, with the San Francisco skyline as a backdrop. Too bad we can't afford this more than once in a great while.

 

If anyone's stayed with this till the end, thanks for your patience. And again, it was a good cruise. I tend to spend more time on the negative, but that's just a personal flaw as an old newspaper editor. We had a great cruise and bought two more Future Cruise Deposits each. That must mean something.

 

Jim

It was nice reading about your suite experience, we will be in our first suite also the Grand in three weeks. What we wanted to do was have our dinners in our room, except for nights at the Crown grill.