arizonaperson

@JamieLogical 

Interesting differences ship to ship on luggage out the night before. Here is Majestic instructions.

I have enjoyed reading along.

sounds like you enjoyed your games,food, & drink for the most part. Hope you do a Live from in August.

@Jetswdo hope the take out process isn’t as long of a wait for you, compared to dining in.

Let everyone know how it goes.

@CineGraphic status match program from other cruise lines Sounds like a very good perk on VV. Enjoy your upcoming voyages. Some day I would like to try VV.

@trintrav great information so far. Wow 68th cruise! 

Discovery Princess also has this drink (Amaretto Manhattan) in Crooners.

@LACruiser88 I hope you will continue Live from on your next voyage ( October), very much enjoyed reading and following along.

Here is menu from Take 5 on Enchanted. I cropped it, to pretty much only include The Amaretto Manhattan. So same info as @HotRoot,just different ship / bar?

not my photo ,so ….. I think this menu is from Take 5,but it could’ve been crown bar grill?

@FancyPants21 great observations about dress code and  liked reading your Live from.

6 minutes ago, chatuga said:

I got 2 different answers as to whether carnival stock and other obc could be used for gratuities. Have not been on this line since before Covid so am asking what cc members have found

Pretty sure you can use onboard credit for anything that gets charged to your account. It’s not designated to what it goes for. If you have $100 in onboard credit and you have $100 worth of charges( i.e. gratuities -because you’re on standard fare or drinks or photos, or excursions,etc.that you owe to the cruise line, it gets taken off line by line, if that makes any sense 

4 hours ago, Scottdalfonso said:

I'm cruising Princess for the first time and all these "MDR is a madhouse on night one" posts are confusing me- on RC with a set dining time, we show up and get seated on night one, no problems, not hectic.... we already reserved our times for MDR on Enchanted for every night (6pm..every night) so you're saying it shouldn't be that hectic since we set a time in advance, correct? I assumed the lines and craziness are people who just show up and wait for tables? 

Are you cruising before September 14, 2024? If you are then your 6 PM ( check your app to double check) every night reservation in the main dining room should be fine ,but there is a new dining program starting in September.

Sometimes the first night ,it’s a little hectic just because. there is usually a line for Reservations and a line for walk ups ( every night),but it can get confusing for some and I find the later that you dine the better ,but of course not everyone wants to dine later -so yes, you may have to wait in a line even if you have a reservation.

Lots of people will be checking in for a reservation, so there will be a line or potentially a line . Sometimes the lines really aren’t marked and that’s where the hectic part may come in to play. But that doesn’t mean you need to avoid the main dining room .

I also find the dining room that may be located on deck 5 or 6 in the aft/back part of the ship sometimes it’s not as crowded as a dining room right near the Piazza. Of course, this varies ship to ship.

Because there’s all kinds of choices, even with a reservation. One for example may have reserved 7 PM for a table for two and perhaps somebody showed up at 5:30pm for a reservation and all the tables for two are not available ,because the diners are still there eating when you show up for your reservation at 7 PM , so there always has to be a little bit of patience .

2 hours ago, hjlee7215 said:

I will be on Ruby Princess in June for inside passage Alaska cruise.

This is my first time cruising with Princess.

I thought I chose "early dining" at the time of booking, my travel summary doesn't have any dining preference listed (all the other cruise companies had this info on the booking summary).  

Anyways, now I have downloaded the app and it looks like I can make reservation for dining for each day.  Do I have to do this? or I assumed my preferred dining option is secretly listed somewhere in the system?

Agree with other posters…

Now that you have downloaded the app -yes you can make a reservation for any or all of the days and times that are available. And no, you do not have to do any reservations at all. Because maybe one night you want to eat at speciality ,maybe one night you want to go to a casual restaurant ,or one night you may want to go to the buffet or you’ve been out on tour all day, and you just want to grab something quick at the international café if your ship has one. So a wide variety of choices ,but if you know that you need or want to eat at a certain time in the main dining room, then try to make a reservation and if you cannot -just go to the restaurant when you’re hungry and just realize there may be a wait. There may be a wait, even if you have a reservation. 

You may even decide on the day of dining or once you get your patter/event listing that you want to go see a particular show that evening -so you can adjust your dining time based on that. Some people get so set in making all their dining reservations, they end up changing them once onboard or not showing up because they want to go see the comedian or they want to go see the marriage game or they want to take a nap, etc. 

Don’t assume your dining preference is secretly listed somewhere. It should tell you on app. Once you make a reservation if you do -try to print them all out so that you can see where you’re supposed to be on any given night..

12 hours ago, No Sea Legs! said:

Thank you all very much. 

I have cruised before, so I know that the first evening in the buffet and MDR can be a little over whelming. At the time of writing, I do not know what time we embark, we may not have the luxury of having masses of time to 'physically' explore all of the options and then picking the right time before they are snapped up by others who are more organised than us.

 

Using one of the causal dining options is an excellent idea - thank you! 

 

I also aware that others may read this post for information, so I hope they find your advice useful. 

I see that you posted that you don’t know what time you are going to embark -that’s why I was asking in an earlier post what month,what year ,what ship, what port are you leaving out of? Probably will not involve your dining time, but others may be able to help you on the embarkation time ,if you let us know and if you prefer not to, that’s fine too. I’m guessing it is 4 pm. So if you get onboard anytime between 11 and 1 PM, you would watch the safety video ,check in with your medallion and go explore the ship or vice versa and then you could see where you might want to dine for dinner?
As far as physically exploring all your options for 1st night dinner,probably not necessary to do that??
Just keep in mind that the casual restaurants that are on your plus package -you cannot currently make reservations you just show up.
Now for specialty ( Crown Grill, Catch, Sabatini’s) you can make a reservation and you can usually just do that once you get onboard or through the app  prior to your cruise. You can also use the app when the time is right to make dining reservations in one of the main dining rooms or just show up at the time that you want to dine -yes you may have to wait a little bit. You may have to wait a little bit even if you have a reservation just part of the cruise waiting game ,but if I’m understanding correctly, you don’t want to do the buffet or the main dining room because it’s too crowded .I’m sure you could explore online the deck plans now if you have not already and see what your other choices are that would fit your culinary taste.

Happy cruising.

@No Sea Legs! will you be on The Sky Princess ? 2024 or 2025? From Southampton?

Most of those itineraries embark at 4 pm.

So many choices of where to dine on the first evening, up to you.

So you’re looking to use your casual dining promotion on the first night with your Princess plus, am I getting that correct? I believe the choices would be Alfredos, & Ocean Terrace..Vines is on deck 5.

@suzyluvs2cruise nice photos.

O’ Malleys looks like very nice decor.

17 minutes ago, BoopTennis said:

I checked. No Dr Pepper. No Pepsi. Only Coke products

Thanks for checking. I appreciate it.

Just exactly what I thought ,but you, never know on cruise critic. Someone else posted that there was definitely diet Dr Pepper on board their ship. ( Out of Galveston earlier this year)Maybe there was ?? it doesn’t seem likely..

@kywildcatfanone thanks for checking. My thoughts were that there was none but I’m just checking ship to ship because another CC poster says that it was on Princess.

Appreciate you checking. 
if anybody is barhopping and you have something different to report, I’m following along.

@BoopTennis or @MissiCruzs

If you are barhopping, could you please ask if there’s any Dr Pepper onboard. Thank you so much. My thought is they do not have it but I’m doing an informal survey. I am enjoying reading your live from and pictures are gorgeous.

@JamieLogical

I am enjoying your Live from and photos.

could you check at any of your bar hops if they have Dr.Pepper.

Thanks,just trying to do an informal survey.

5 minutes ago, 2 to Sea said:

I forgot to check for a definite answer.  With that said, it is my favorite and I didn’t see anyone with one, nor was it in the app.

No problem. Thanks for answering.

I’ll keep checking with the live posts. It’s just my own informal survey. Trying to see what ships might have it ,my guess is none of them have it ,as far as Princess cruises goes.

Anyone onboard this past week find Dr.Pepper onboard at the bars?

@Ken the cruiser I have an iPhone SE,but the very old & small one. I like the size & takes good photos.

@Ken the cruiser great photos.

@FancyPants21 thanks for checking on the Dr Pepper situation. The only reason why I was asking is because one person on CC stated that there was Dr Pepper and then they further back tracked and said oh it was their cabin mate not them that got the diet Dr Pepper. It was maybe a substitution and maybe only on the Regal etc.

So -thank you so much for your answer. I definitely have never seen it onboard. so this confirms.

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

Sorry, no Dr Pepper onboard.

Thanks for checking. I didn’t think they did,but another cc member said they did on one cruise out of Galveston this year. Appreciate the answer.