Cruise Raider

I believe the wine tasting for elites is tomorrow afternoon.

we’d take that in a heartbreak. I don’t think they offered it to us, though.

We saw Alvin the first day at lunch on this sailing but haven’t been back to the dining room since then. The lines are so long and we’ve just been interested in going. But, we will probably go starting after this cruise.

So, another fun day at sea yesterday. Contrary to the weather forecast, we are blessed with full sunshine today in San Diego after a night of very calm sea. Although it was formal night last night, we just hit the buffet … it was surprisingly good. They had plenty of selection (no Bavarian night so far) and lots of Asian themed dishes. The place was absolutely barren, too. we heard the comedian was excellent but we were just too tired to stay up last night. The dining room lines are consistently way down the hallway. We’ve only made it there for the embarkation lunch and haven’t gone back since. I am doing a B2B so maybe on the next sailing we will go more often. We were certainly spoiled on those low capacity sailings. I knew it was just a matter of time to get them filled to capacity. Yet, the only place I have really noticed crowds was for the dining room. The pools may get more crowded now the weather is getting better. Nobody was out there yesterday, though. we also went to the future cruise office and booked for the fall. It’s so nice they have three people working there now. The wait times are so much better.

Last year, we were able to buy several bottles of it in the shops onboard, so I know what you mean. It came to about $60 a bottle when we purchased it but if you can find it for under $100, I’d still say that was a great deal. Trouble is finding it … what an extremely great marketing campaign they have with limiting the supply and the horses all having a separate letter. We e looked in many of the ports for it as well … it’s just nowhere to be found.

there is absolutely no Blantons onboard, neither in the bars or in the shops. This was confirmed by the bar supervisor yesterday. He said they gave up on trying to get it as it was just never available.

I went by the watch store and there were 4 cases of the Tissolt watches. They have 29 differ t styles. There are two expensive watches that run $1700 and the rest are in the $400-$500 price ranges.

so, we paid $50 for the plus package and it would be $10 a day pp to upgrade to the new plus package or $30 a day pp to upgrade to the premier package.

We may or may not go to the formal dinner tonight. This is the menu from the app. we tried to hit up the chicken Korma in the MDR for lunch and it was crazy packed with a line way down past the main entrance of Alfredo’s. I now saw the lines that reflects the passenger capacity. we went upstairs to the grill and had a wonderful lunch of chicken tacos. Very tasty!

Sorry for the repeats in that one post above. anyway, there are no stated dairy free options in the IC. I will check again for later in the day … this is still breakfast. they do have fruit and some avocado toast options that would be dairy free.

The mini bar can be swapped out for the digital coffee card. The passes to the enclave is $299 for a 15 night sailing on this ship. There are no discounts for couples. also, since this was brought up, the plus and premier packages no longer stating that coffees are unlimited in the packages. I just confirmed that non alcoholic drinks are unlimited. BTW, there is a complimentary Zumba exercise class in the piazza. There was also a small one outside as well. The juice bar was all set up and ready to go in the Horizon Court this morning. Nobody was in line.

here is what I saw in another thread. it almost pays to just get the plus package unless you don’t use WiFi BTW,

sorry .. I have a hard and fast rule about phones in the MDR. Possibly, someone else will post photos.

Im sure we probably have met .. we also go on a lot of cruises, especially since the restart. I do tend to cruise with @HaveDogWillTravel frequently. I was going to trade my minibar out as we already have the package. I was just going to inquire what I could trade it out for in case someone out there wants to know. I didn’t get a lot done yesterday because I was so interested in meeting up with old friends that are onboard. Wow, it was so much fun! thank you .. this is starting out to be another perfect cruise!

Anything on under $15 is allowed under the plus package with no surcharge.

Pier 27 is awesome and has a large circular drive through. Wherever your ride drops you off, there will be a porter nearby to pick up your luggage. The Concerto dining room on deck 6 midship will be open for embarkation lunch from noon to 1:30 PM. The food has been excellent so far.

This sailing is a 5 night comedy cruise and we are staying on to combine it with a 10 day Mexico sailing. We are headed to Hawaii on this ship later this month, though. I will check out pricing in the spa.

So, it has been a perfect day onboard. We got to the pier early and were allowed right in within standing in line outside. We were checked in immediately and too a seat to wait for boarding to begin. I would say we boarded shortly after 11:00 AM. the ship is at capacity with approximately 3500 passengers but it doesn’t feel crowded in the very least. We dropped off our carry on luggage in our room … most rooms were not ready but fortunately, ours was. We headed back downstairs to check out the new packages and mainly, wines that were included. I couldn’t be more than happy with the wine selection included in the Plus package at Vines. I took a photo of the wine menu but on my phone and not my iPad so will try to post those at a later date. I also learned that the MDR, which was open for lunch, also had some decent wine choices but you have to specifically ask or you will be served the Canyon Road. While I see no reason to upgrade to the premier package on this sailing, I did notice that the app now has the packages for purchase or for upgrade and you can use your obc to pay for it. I didn’t want to take it all the way through the process so not entirely sure but it didn’t look like the insurance would be added. The wine prices may have gone up by a dollar or two per glass but since the limit was raised on the packages, they now actually don’t incur the additional charge. So, the wines we used to get that were just a bit over now fit squarely in the plus package. I’m pretty happy with the selections, whereas on the Diamond last month, they selection was awful. The prices for a glass of wine at Vines range from about $14 - $20 a glass, with a lot of the premier package wines at about $18 a glass. The limits are $15 for the plus and $20 for the premier. I can’t say how the WiFi will be for Hawaii but so far, it’s decent on this sailing and it is nearly at full capacity. The wines at Alfredo’s were listed with the varietal and not brand name and were $10 - $11 a glass. It was too cold to go up on deck for sailaway but some friends have a suite so we had a small sailaway on their aft balcony! It was just perfect. Looks like they brought the sail away party down to the piazza! So far, the menus are exactly the same as the last few times we’ve been on the Royal. I assumed they were switching up all the menus fleet wide but that’s not what we were seeing. I’m hoping someone else on the cruise will post photos because we probably won’t be taking photos at the dinner table. But, having cruised a lot since the restart, I can only say they are exactly the same as what we’ve seen in the past year and a half. I will have to check on the coffee grounds package tomorrow. I will ask our room steward if we can swap out our mini bar for the coffee package tomorrow. we did go to the buffet tonight to look to see what the had and it was Indian food tonight along with a great looking salad bar and some other standard options. We decided to go get pizza at Alfredo’s and it was a wise decision. It was perfect! The buffet looked good, just not in the mood for what they were serving. I will also check out their watch selection tomorrow. Taking the Royal to Alaska in May; if you get to any of these questions: 1) Best indoor scenic viewing spots. I would have to say Horizon Court as the windows are vast. 2) Free dining establishments besides MDR and buffet (Alfredo's and Trident?)--what's the menu like? The menus are to my liking. I do not eat any read meat, though. My DH does and he thinks the meat is pretty good. We were just beat from a day of excitement that we didn’t eat in the MDR. 3) Any Children's activities outside of the kids club area, i.e. arcade? I don’t believe so .. I haven’t seen any kids on this cruise thus far. M 4) Any indoor pool or jacuzzi areas (besides the spa)? no, not on this ship 5) Complimentary room service menu there is a great room service menu on the app with everything from soups and salads, sandwiches, hot food, desserts, etc. I love it and it is very convenient 6) How is Medallion working? And WIFI working? the medallion is working fine and even the WiFi seems to be quite satisfactory. We seem to be hitting a lot smoother seas than the previous cruise, our cabin is midship, though and there’s very little movement to be felt. My eyes are dropping so will pick this back up tomorrow..

Hi all…. Heading out to the pier from the San Francisco Bay Area in about an hour or so. I understand our cruise(s) is at full capacity. It was requested that I start this thread to answer any questions people have about the new packages, use of obc, new pricing, new menus, the elite bar swap outs, etc since 2/20. Topics I will try to cover, if I get cooperation from the WiFi and this site, will focus on these new policy changes. However, if there are any other questions you may have about the Royal Princess in particular, please feel free to ask. I will answer them if I am able. We are with a group of friends and we are hoping for a very quick and easy embarkation. A friend of ours works onboard and he too,d me this morning atht the seas were rough calming back from Hawaii. I’m not at all surprised. We’ve had some very unusual weather along the California coast the last couple of months. It is soooo cold out! I’m sure there were flights canceled so, not sure how that will impact our capacity or departure time. The rain has let up for boarding today, thankfully! Will continue from the pier in SF. It’s CRUISE DAY!

I will do that.

I will check it out today. someone posted a photo of his app .. once onboard, supposedly, you can buy or upgarde your package via the app under a heading called packages. we shall see.

headed out on the Royal in an hour or so. I will try to start a Live From post with the new info. sometimes cruisecritic fights with me onboard, though. I did just notice on FB in the Princess elite forum that the drinks in the PES happy hour have gone up from $6.50 to $8.

I sure will. Wine is my drink of choice so I will be on the hunt!

Well, we board tomorrow so will find out the scoop. I am really interested in finding out if we can just update our plus to the premier package on the app and use our OBC to do so. I will come back and report my progress. I am also interested in knowing the cost of a glass of Rombauer Chardonnay and a glass of Seghesio Zinfandel. I guess I will find out soon enough.

nice job on getting to elite. while we are pretty much on cruises nonstop this year, to bad those are not two of the ones we are doing. we are leaving in two days to catch the Royal in SF and doing a B2B, home for two weeks and then back on the Royal for Hawaii. We will be heading back out a few days later to head to LA to go on a Celebrity sailing but will be changing ships in port to get on the Discovery. After that … we definitely need to get new passports. but thank you for letting us know your upcoming itineraries! hopefully, we will cruise together again! See you in the piazza!