Cruise Raider

I was notified when my bid was accepted a couple of weeks ago. I’ve also been notified when it hasn’t been accepted in the past. But, there is no consistency in those notifications.

Possibly, however you may not find out if you bid was denied right before you board.

Never a problem helping out. Fellow cruiser. It’s funny because a cruise on the Crown years ago prompted me to join cruise critic. Many things have changed since then .. so no need to go into that. We’ve also cruised on the Solstice a few times in the past and as recently as back in April 2023, so can make some comparisons for you. Princess keeps you quite entertained throughout your cruise whether you are at sea or in port. And Princess allows you to order food through your app for delivery whereas Celebrity really doesn’t have anything like this. You can order food to your cabin on celebrity but I believe it will cost you $15 (possible with an 18% gratuity added) for not orders to your cabin. On Princess, if you have a plus or premier fare package, any delivery fees are waived. If you are on standard fare, you pay a one time fee to activate your Ocean Now feature on the app or if you chose to use your phone in your room, there is a delivery service fee of $5 for each order. The specialty restaurants are less expensive on Princess and the food is really good. However, the Crown Princess doesn’t have a great variety of casual or specialty restaurants to as you will find on the Royal class ships, thus making it a lesser value IMO. If you book a balcony cabin on the Caribe deck on the Crown, your balcony is half covered and is quite large, larger than those on the Solstice unless you get a cabin on the hump or the aft on deck 6. The aft facing cabins can also have larger balconies on the Crown. We particularly like the ones on deck 9, as they are large but completely covered. The dolphin deck balconies on the sides are for the mini suites and are completely uncovered. There are also covered balconies for the mini suites on deck 8. Some don’t like those as they are right above Club Fusion and you can sometimes hear the noise from below during shows. But, they are well sought after cabins, especially the two very aft ones, as they have an extended balcony. As for Celebrity, their bathrooms are much nicer than on those on Princess in standard non suite cabins. Celebrity has the nightlights around the mirror and glass shower doors. Princess has a motion sensor bright light as you approach the bathroom at night. Not many people, including us, like those. They also have motion sensor lights under the nightstands, which are also pretty annoying. There are a multitude of tricks you can use to not have those wake you up at night. The nightstands have actual drawers on the Crown vs those little night tables on the Solstice. Now, I like the open closet feature on Princess and their beds are a lot more comfy than those on Celebrity. Celebrity ships do have a couch, albeit sometimes a small one, in their cabins. On Princess, you need to be in a deluxe balcony, not available on the Crown, or a mini suite to get a sofa. We were in that big huge line up in San Francisco last week. The good news was it had stopped raining just as we got to the port. We’ve had much better embarkations in San Francisco but we’ve also had much worse, too. I’d say we stood in line about one hour outside and it took us another 20 minutes once inside to go through security. After that, because we had our medallions, we went right through the green line with no wait and then right onto the ship. For those in the blue line, it looked like that may have taken another half an hour or so. They’ve given up on giving out particular boarding times because everyone ignored them anyway. It just got to be a mess. So, not sure about boarding times down under but I’d show up between 10:30 AM and 2:30 PM for a 4:00 PM departure. I’ve seen the numbers given out but that is only for those that show up and have gone through security and get checked in prior to the ship being open for boarding. The outlets on a regular balcony cabin on the Crown are on the balcony side of the desk. There is also one behind the TV on the shelf above the refrigerator cabinet. This is only true for the Crown class ships. However, there is a 220 volt outlet along with a USB-A and a USB-C port built into the desk near the nightstand. Brilliant! I’ve included a photo below. There is an adults only pool on the Crown up near the spa. While I didn’t visit that one on this last cruise, I’ve been on the Ruby several times and it was our hang out. There is no admittance fee for using this pool other than being an adult. There are no accessibility features for this pool, though. A small set of stairs surrounds the pool area. And yea, there are 4 pools but none of the, are covered. It was cold last week except our day in San Diego so we never went to the pool.

Oh yes, that makes complete sense. They were well aware of the issue but will share with management if it happens again. I am impressed that the bar and restaurant managers step right in to help when it gets super busy.

We were recently on the Discovery and the service on the front end was great. Our waiter, who has always been fantastic, explained there was a new cook that was getting his bearings and did apologize that the meal prep was taking longer than usual. Perhaps they should assign more help in back.

We just disembarked from the Crown yesterday, after not having sailed on her since her inaugural year. I was hesitant to book a cruise on her but the price was right and she sails out of our home port, so I booked a few cruises on her when they had a big sale. We were on a short 5 night sailing and this was going to be the cruise to determine if we would go back to the Majestic (my favorite ship) or on the Crown back up to Alaska this year. Cons: 1) Yes, there was a slight sewer smell on both embarkation and disembarkation day, not at all in the middle of the cruise. We had no problems with any of the toilets. 2) The ship did this weird little vibration thing every so often more so than we’ve had on other ships but, that really could have been the seas. It really wasn’t bothersome. We did have a few seconds of severe vibration on the last night that I’m sure awakened most passengers. 3) There are just two casual dining venues, Vines that has a charcuterie board with crudities and the GastroPub, which opens only for dinner. They also have just two specialty dining venues plus a pop up Crab Shack dining menu up in the buffet area. 4) The buffet just doesn’t have the room for all the options offered on the Royal class ships. Pros: 1) The crew! As the Hotel General Manager stated while on the Wake Show, “We may not be the newest ship or the glitziest ship, we want to be known as the happy ship”. They’ve pretty much succeeded there! 2) She is kept clean and well maintained. We even had what looked to be pristine blue matting on our balcony. Along with that, they’ve put some heavy duty slip covers on their balcony chairs and footstools. Our cabin was clean and very comfortable. Everything was in working order. 3) The food was very good to excellent. I never had anything that was what I’d say wasn't fresh or served at the wrong temperature. As above, the choices were limited but what they did have was great. The coffee at the IC was absolutely fantastic! And they serve it in proper cups. 4) The entertainment and activities were great. If you’re bored on this ship, that would be your own fault. There were always choices of something to do. oh .. and did I mention the great crew? I’m sure I did .. they were impressive. So, I always fill out my post cruise survey they day of disembarkation while it is still fresh in my mind. These were my recommendations to make our cruise experience better .. 1) that they allow those with the packages on these older ships to order a whole pizza or sushi via the app for no extra charge. The packages just have better value on the Royal class ships. 2) please do not allow smoking in any indoor venues including the casino (those in Australia are so lucky) 3) please use better wine glasses with the purchase of premium wines in all venues. While we did have nice wine glasses available in Vines and in the Crown Grill, it would be nice to see them in every venue that have premium wines available We had a fantastic cruise .. most of it is all in what you make it!

We’ve always have another little table each and every time we’ve cruised with Princess.

Thank you so much! You know, I try to never complain about having rain as we’ve lived through historic droughts. The only time I don’t live the rain is having to drive in it .. or stand and wait for an Uber with no cover. I did slip and umbrella in my carry on right before we left. So happy I didn’t even have to open it up. Yay!

I love where they installed those new ports. They are in perfect positioning to the beds.

Bon voyage and have a great trip!

We absolutely love the Salty Dog and never have been disappointed with the food. Too small plates each is plenty, even too much for us unless I just order off the top of the menu. We never even have room for the dessert when we go there. The chicken sandwhich, scotch egg over mushrooms and the asparagus are my absolute favorites but the lobster Mac and cheese is also really good. But, I believe the Echanted may have O’Malleys instead of the GastroPub and if so, you won’t have to worry.

I don’t believe so. Ours always sits on our little table in the cabin and that is in a regular balcony cabin.

There was a pan emergency medical evacuation last night. The Captain had given a talk about that just earlier in the day during ‘Coffee with the Captain’ hosted by Jodi, the cruise director. Anyway, those in the area of the emergency were directed away from their cabins. I’m not even sure what time that happened but we were awoken when the announcement was made. After that, we were awoken again so not sure what that may have been but the ship shook severely for a few seconds. I just assumed it was the helicopter but can’t be sure of the timeline of those two events. It could have been several minutes or several hours between the announcement and the shaking. I just don’t know. Maybe someone else knows. We cruise quite a bit and never felt a ship shake like that on any other sailing. One of my friends that was onboard said it felt like a jolt.

I just thought of something else to report, the small plate lunches in the dining room are just fantastic! We split 3 small plates and another one each of chicken tacos. I loved those chicken tacos. Equally as good was the calamari but it’s not what I’d call a single portion. It was delish but definitely something to split. The roasted cauliflower was not as good as I remember it being but I thought it was very good, nonetheless. My DH had me eat some of his portion. The Thai Spring rolls were also very yummy but the clear winner were those spicy chicken tacos.

No, our room steward was Advin but I have had a steward named Carlo in past for 3 cruises on the Ruby and he was also so wonderful. It might be the same Carlo. I felt so bad for Advin as either the kids above us or somebody that had way too many drinks threw a bunch of chips down onto the caribe deck balconies. Shame on them and/or the parents that allowed this. Poor guy has enough work to do without thoughtless people adding to it.

Nothing much new to report from the Crown ..a dn now we are back home with the rain falling down. We threaded that needle just right and avaoidex it both getting there and getting home. Just of note, the line was really long getting off the ship as walk off in the early morning but it did move pretty quickly. Most people chose walk off after this short cruise. There was no elite lounge set up, which was a bit surprising. Maybe we just missed it??? The only real problem we had was that everyone seemed to be trying to order a ride share and were getting canceled. And each time we tried to reorder one, the cost went up by $15 more. It wasn’t just us, it was happening to everybody. So, we ordered a Lyft instead and chose to wait the 15 minutes and pay a little less. We had already waited 30 minutes anayway and still no ride. It didn’t even take that much time for the extra wait and we got a nice driver, one that even insisted on helping us with our bags, although we didn’t expect that. We were just so happy to finally have gotten a ride as it just started to drizzle. Just know what to expect in SF at the port as the ships are now sailing full again. Such a wonderful short little getaway.

I heard rumor but the last source I heard it from was also from a reliable source.

Wow! That was generous.

the list of flower arrangements you can order for your cabin Also, the coffee from the IC is just the best! It was lacking any real taste of coffee on both the Discovery and on the Diamond. But this ship has excellent espresso based coffees. I love the mugs they serve it in. Not a real complaint, but the Discovery moved over to those chunky mugs like you can find at Denny’s. Just like a nice wine deserved a thin rimmed glass, a great cup of coffee deserves a proper ceramic cup, too.

I cannot travel without my white noise machine set to the sound of heavy rain. I could probably even stay right under the pool deck with that. I know there are apps you can use from your phone that do the same thing but I find this to be so convenient. It even has a small nightlight it in. It runs off USB so the location of that port in the desk is just perfect. We even got the cutest little friend for our cabin. We have a great steward!

We went to the PES happy hour event last night in Club Fusion. They had crudités, cheeses with a port wine reduction, preztels and some nuts. For the hot dish, they had delish shrimp wrapped in bacon. There was some easy listening music performed by a duo on stage. It was rather well attended. We got a chance to get to know the future cruise consultant but he is gong on his holiday at the end of this cruise. What a really fabulous person! The staff in that office is also so friendly. While the main office is on deck 5, the loyalty desk, also run by the future cruise consultants is on deck across from the Wheelhouse Bar. We also got a chance to chat with Micheal, the Hotel General Manager at the entrance of the lounge. We met him on the Ruby and he always takes the opportunity to make sure we are having a fabulous experience. Of course we are! I have zero complaints. I don’t think I could find something to complain about even if I were looking for it. Even that slight sewer smell that I noticed on the first day has just disappeared. Oh, and I forgot to mention there was a card on top of our toilet when we boarded, I meant to take a photo to post on here of what it said. Although mentioned in the muster drill, it also reminded people of what should be flushed and what should never be flushed. I’ve heard they’ve had a particular problem on this ship with toilets not working. We have not seen any evidence of that in our cabin or in any of the public bathrooms. A friend of ours i staying in an inside cabin right next to a crew entrance. He commented that his room is pretty noisy. I have a feeling it might be the room service galley. Other than the kids that are nearby, our cabin has been pretty quiet. Oh, and the nearby kids seem to be very well behaved so have not bothered us in the very least. We did them barking back at the Sea Lions this morning but that just made me smile. 😊

We’ve noticed how new looking the balcony furniture looks. We discovered that they put covers on the chairs and footstools. Brilliant idea. The blue matting on the balconies, which I’ve never liked, does look brand new. It does keep the chair scraping noise to a minimum so, I don’t hate it to much. I’ve always thought that it is a filth catcher but it’s very pristine looking on our balcony.

Here are a few pictures from the ship. While not very noticeable, the carpet on the starboard side has small green dots and on the port side, small red dots. I always think of port (red) wine to help me remember which side is which. Also, I’ve included a photo of our usb ports built into the desk. The cruise director, Jody and her assistant Shaun gave a talk on the the ships features, mostly for those that are new to cruising but I still like to learn something new every day. With the exception of the two elevators on the sides that are midship, when you are exiting the elevators, you are walking forward. Good to know. The cabin TV’s are not mounted on the wall as we’ve seen on other ships. It works out nicely in the corner as the balcony door opens from the other side. If it didn’t, I’m sure that would be quite the hazard as it reaches far over the shelf on which it sits.

What a gorgeous day we had in San Diego yesterday. There was a cool breeze in the shade but the sun was shining. We spent a great deal of our day on our balcony and loved every minute of it. We even sat out there in our PJs for sail away and it was comfortable with the sun having warmed the air during the day. This is the sunrise we also woke up to this morning in Ensenada. My DH just commented on our welcoming committee as we are pulling into port .. yes, all the barking sea lions. I love it so much!

I really think that will depend on the itinerary. The sanctuary is oftentimes booked up by those on B2B sailings before new guests even get a chance to step foot on the ship. It’s not booked up on this itinerary in the middle of winter. I have even seen where in bad weather, the sanctuary is closed down for the day.