Cruise Raider

It was listed in the Patter and then, because we are in the piazza in the morning, we noticed everything being set up. Uvidou, who is the maitre’d for the Catch, also runs the Crab Shack with his crew. Best guy ever!

They take down your cabin number and list if you have the standard, plus or premier on their sheet when you walk in. Not sure what they would do but if you are both at the table and eating, I’d be prepared to pay for two meals.

I asked that very question at the GastroPub on the Ruby and they said no. You’d each be charged the $14.99. But then, some people posted on here that they were allowed to do so. So, I really don’t have a set in stone answer for you. They do have la carte options starting at $6 a plate. Sometimes, that’s all I want to eat. It’s actually better than it used to be with a cover charge of $18 pp.

The beverage package alone, whether it be the plus or premier package, does not include delivery fees for room service or for using Ocean Now. The Plus and Premier ‘fare’ packages, or as noted, ‘cruise’ packages, include the respective beverage packages, crew appreciation (tips), WiFi, deliveries fees, some casual or specialty dining, etc.

I kind of thought the same thing. Then, I saw someone that had commented that it wasn’t accepted as one of the two specialty dining options included with the premier package. I can’t verify that, though. I would just love it if those specialty dining options were available at lunch time, with the real menu and not the pop ups.

BTW, you are getting there just in time for the group, Mockingbird, to join the ship! Lucky you .. their musical talent goes above and beyond ..

Long pants and a collared shirt would be appropriate. You will see very few men with a suit tie or tux. Some with Khakis and short sleeved shirt. Whether the fashion police like it or not, it’s not really all that formal anymore.

Ocean Now is used for ordering food, drinks or other items or services while onboard. It’s worked fine for me right from the start. I’ve used it on every cruise we’ve been on with the old app and recently on the new app. No problems to report.

The Ocean Terrace serves sushi and is located right before entering the casino. They were open for lunch on sea days and then throughout dinner hours every day. The GastroPub opens at 5 PM every day .. no lunch. As mentioned, they do use the location for pop up specialty dining at lunch on some sea days.

I hear what you are saying about the Chicken Korma. That was my favorite as well. The Gastropub is a casual dining venue, along with the sushi place and GiGi’s. Each of their price fixed menus was $14.99 and way too much food for one person. You can also order a la carte plates in each of these venues. The specialty dining venues are The Catch by Rudi, the Crown Grill and Sabatini’s. I know thy had a pop up in the GastroPub location for lunch on two of the sea days and believe it counted as specialty dining. I believe it is around $39 pp and was staffed with the crew from the Catch.

While we can’t report a specific CVP (Cruise Vacation Planner) on cruise critic, they have a main number which can be found on Facebook and you can request one for booking a cruise for you. They work for Princess but one is unlikely to do all of that for you if the cruise has already been booked. If you do get one, perhaps they can put it under their name and get credit for the booking. A cabin change within the same exact category is easy for them to do, as is adding the insurance. You are able to cancel the airfare on your own via the website if you chose flexible fares and it’s not within 45 days of the flight. I would try to give you the name of mine but she is no longer taking on any new clients. But, any time you are going to book direct with Princess, definitely try to use a CVP that is responsive to your needs.

If she picks the exact same category she is currently booked in, she shouldn’t have any issues. But, I get what you are saying!

Just of note, the coffees delivered to your room may come from an automatic machine and not from the barista. I ordered a cappuccino all the time in the past and it had a nice layer of frothed milk on top, the espresso was great. Now, they come very weak and the milk is completely mixed in .. more like a latte .. a very weak latte, at that. I honestly think it’s just half milk with regular coffee mixed in. Plus, they put it in a paper cup, which doesn’t help. I get it, though .. it’s hard now that ships are mostly all at full capacity. Anyway, while you can order them to room delivery for now charge with the packages, it’s so much better to go to the IC for a really good specialty coffee and in a ceramic mug.

If I might ask a silly question but if you wouldn’t mind, can you find out if they have the pickled ginger at the sushi bar? If you don’t get around to it, no worries! Just enjoy your trip!

They’ve been known to renew it every year on July 1st. I applied it to my cruises in late April but wasn’t able to go beyond that. Time will tell what the future holds OK .. I just tried to submit this for a cruise I have booked for August and it didn’t make me verify I still had the stock but it did say I would have to wait until May to submit my request via the Stockperks app. it is currently good applicable for sailings through July 31st .. so strike the June comment I mentioned above. I have no reason to sell my stock as 1) I bought it at a much higher price and 2) I intend to use it for however long they offer this benefit and I’m still able to cruise.

Currently, I believe you can only get the credit through cruises beginning through the end of June.

No, this is not true. If you have one device it means you can only use one device at a time. You can log in and out of the devices so, you can use your iPhone or iPad at different times. I’ve done this hundred times. Just switch back and forth between the devices you want to use. they will help you at the Ocean Navigator station onboard but it is really evident when you try to log into a different device. It will ask you if you want to swap devices right on your phone.

Not really sure if any of the bands onboard currently play only Latin music but you can always request a song or two. We were onboard recently and there was a good Mariachi band in etc piazza that you might enjoy.

It’s only in the old app, which will be gone soon but you can go to Explore Your Ship (you can only look at a cruise on which you are booked on the new app) I use it for booking cruises all the time because I sleep better if my bed faces a certain direction. They did not even know about this feature at the Future Cruise Sales office. But, I wish they’d have it in there. If the little door alcove is at the back of the room, as in D707, your headboard faces forward. In D709, the headboard of the bed faces aft. I believe in D720, the headboard faces the middle of the ship. BTW, for the OP, the laundry room closes down at night and I’ve never noticed any noise from there when we’ve been right across from it.

Unless there is some special pricing for the 14 night sailing, I also prefer the B2B as two separate bookings, especially if you can stay in the same cabin. As others have said, you have more flexibility with pricing and the perks you would like. I find I’m kind of done with eating and drinking much towards the end of a 14 night cruise, so, I’d pick the premier package for the first half and only the plus for the second half. That’s not doable if you book it all as one cruise. I think the only thing you will miss out on is $50 if you hold CCL stock. For 2 seven night cruises, you will receive $200 in OBC and for 14 nights or more, you would receive $250. Again, it is all about the math, though. Even moving rooms isn’t that difficult when all is said and done.

Over the last year, we’ve done several cruises on Royal class ships, including the Discovery, the Majestic and the Royal, as well as a couple on the Ruby and one on the Emerald. I absolutely love the Royal class ships and hadn’t been on the Emerald in 13 years, so I was not expecting much. Well, we had the best time on her! The service and food were both excellent! I thought the ship was in excellent shape and what they did in refurbishing the buffet area was quite a surprise. It’s not like any buffet area we’ve seen on a Princess ship. it was so creative and fresh looking! We only went once but saw a crew member from the Ruby that we fell in love with. She calls herself ‘the little one’ and understand she will be going back to the Emerald after her vacation. We should all be so lucky! The entire crew was just fabulous! I would have no qualms to sail on the Emerald again!

Sounds like that was so disappointing. The only time we had substandard service at the Crown Grill happened to be on the Grand. It was for my birthday to boot, so it was especially disappointing. We waited and waited, others came and left and we were still waiting for our main course. Then, the waiter took our bread basket away and started clearing our table. He thought we were just done with our meal and completely forgot to serve our main course. At that point, we asked to speak with the maitre’d and told us to come back another night and he would make it right. Well, that he did! He invited us back another night and while we explained we would just have the main course, as we did have a soup and salad on the first meal, he insisted on giving us the whole shebang. We got the best waiter they had. The previous waiter came back to apologize and that went a long way. I always say, everybody deserves a second chance and I told him as much. Anyway, the service and food were just perfect! We ended up getting charged a second time for the meal but they fixed that for us up at guest services. So, all was good in the end. That is how it should have been handled in your case.

I actually just tried sushi for the first time onboard last year. So, I really have no idea there was different grades of rice. But I can honestly say, I thought it was delish!

Does it show as two bookings on the website? If so, you can just upgrade one of them right there even though it will be listed as one cruise on the app. I’ve mentioned this in the past but think that the premier has less to do with drinking alcohol (although nicer wines are great) and more to do with all the other extras it provides, such as the unlimited casual dining and specialty dining, photos, Princess prizes, etc.

Princess usually has several different bands playing in different venues throughout the cruise. While there are no guarantees you will have the best band playing pop or rock, I can almost assure you with certainly that someone will be to your liking.