Paula_MacFan

Agree 100% We were just on Regal the week before last and even though we did attend a couple things in Princess Live we really do not like that venue and miss Explorers! That is one of our favorite venues on the older ships. We were on the Island in Sept/Oct and found ourselves comparing her to the Regal a lot on our recent cruise. We had been on Regal 2X before so we did know what to expect, but after having recently been on the Island we realize how much we enjoy Explorers, a full-sized Wheelhouse and not the one cobbled onto the front of the Crown Grill like on Regal, and Crooners which had actual live music on the Island but not on Regal. The Vista seems criminally underused on Regal and has been relegated to live sports broadcasts, movies, bingo, and the occasional comedian. Back when we started cruising you could find live music in Vista but not anymore apparently, as everything is more focused on the Piazza.

There actually is a Princess FAQ page regarding the Medallion process. https://www.princess.com/en-us/ships-and-experience/princess-medallionclass/ocean-faq For #2 it says this:

Glad you found the info. We definitely had a separate paper in our cabin upon boarding, wonder if your steward just missed it.

With limited time in port and limited excursion options I would never leave booking until the day of port arrival, but that's just me. We've had our excursions booked for months for our May/June cruisetour and the prices have only gone up and choice excursions sold out. Also you might check the port schedules to see how many ships will be in port with you. For the ports on your itinerary there can be as many as 6 ships in port at once. Think about jockeying for an excursion with thousands of other people. Your choices will probably be limited. https://claalaska.com/?page_id=1551

1. Yes, it's a typical hotel hair dryer and works fine. Not worth bringing one from home IMO. 2. Yes, you'll get one every day in your cabin. There is plenty of entertainment every day and evening. 3. 75 days 4. We like Alfredo's on Royal class ships but you should have plenty of options -- buffet, Lido pizza and grill, MDR, International Cafe, Vines.

You realize that post is almost a year old..... Also not sure what 'pic' you're referring to as my post was simply a Google search results link to an article here on Cruise Critic.

We sailed 1/21 and got the lounge paper in our room on day one. It was held in the Vista every night except for Sunday when they showed NFL playoff games in that venue.

No idea! I just tried to do a mock booking and got the same results as you.

That is exactly how we looked at it -- like a floating hotel! We enjoyed our entire days (and evenings at the overnight stops) away from the ship in port. We had a lovely aft room, a good variety of food, and the itinerary went exactly as planned. We couldn't have been more pleased with the whole experience. If we wanted to just float around by the pool all day we would have done the Caribbean (which we did last week 🙂) Edit to add we also did almost a week in California pre-cruise doing the PCH and redwoods. It was a great, long trip. Those were days better spent than a bunch of sea days, in our opinion.

It was about 6:30 for us last week.

Different strokes for different folks 🙂 That many sea days are just too many for us, with too few ports. We are not retired so we only have so much vacation time and want to make the most of it. We had an amazing trip to Hawaii but will probably not go back anytime soon, so we wanted to do and see as much as we could on one trip. If I lived in the LA area like you I'd probably consider going more often too!

Is this it? Not sure about rotating items. It was posted on another thread from a few weeks ago. We were on Regal last week but didn't eat in the MDR.

It's basically a photo op. We don't go either and have no interest, but the OP is going with a group of people so it sounds like they want to see and do everything, and take pictures.

We are longtime loyal Princess cruisers, but when we decided to go to Hawaii we just couldn't stomach the 10 sea days for 3 or 4 ports. We decided to do NCL Pride of America with their land package in January 2023 and have no regrets. We got 11 full days in the islands with no sea days. We went to PCC and Pearl Harbor/Arizona Memorial, rented a car on Maui and did Haleakala on our own + evening in Lahaina, Volcanoes National Park while Kilauea was erupting, went to Waimea Canyon on Kauai, sailed by the Na Pali coast with amazing views from our aft balcony, and so many other wonderful activities during the cruise. After reading so many reviews of rough seas across the Pacific to and from Hawaii, that led us to investigate alternatives and we are so happy with our decision. We had great weather and a smooth cruise around the islands.

We were on the Regal last week and I already responded to the OP in another thread with the schedule we had for the champagne tower. It was on the first formal night which populated in the app a few weeks prior to sailing (not everything populated that quickly in the app however, as I also reported previously). The champagne tower is in the Piazza area as others have stated. You can't miss it 🙂

We have a window suite booked for an upcoming cruise. I didn't have any available FCD when the booking window opened and I wanted to jump on it since I know window suites can book up quickly. There was also the $100 special running but it required $1,600 deposit for the suite category. I went ahead and paid it at the time to get it booked. After we came home from our cruise last week where I purchased additional FCDs I called our CVP to cancel the original booking and use the FCDs just to get the OBC applied. Our CVP asked if I wanted the original $1,600 refunded, which I said no, just apply it to the new booking. So my point being in our case the CVP was able to rebook our window suite with the new FCDs so it must be possible. This will be our first time in a window suite. Usually we get an aft balcony or a mini-suite, but the price was too good to pass up on this cruise with all the suite perks. We've had full suites too so we've experienced the good stuff that come with it 🙂

I suppose if, like the OP, you are booking an independent tour then local time is important.

That's what we did, in addition to using an old-school analog watch just in case 🙂

Sorry I misspoke, Belize was the port the captain told us to verify time. It was confusing and the itinerary wasn't even what we had initially booked. Roatan/Mahogany Bay was cancelled not long before the cruise. Anyway that's why I posted the Patter so you could see how the ship's time worked for us.

We were on the Regal last week. We had a different order of ports but here is our daily schedule. We turned clocks forward on day 3 and stayed on that time until day six. The captain announced we should check our watches and ensure we verified ship time vs port time in Cozumel. We missed Costa Maya due to weather.

Our Princess CVP did it for us with a quick phone call. It took just a couple minutes. Do you have a CVP or TA? It should be a simple thing, sorry you're having issues.

The astronomer enrichment speaker looks interesting. Side note -- during the cruise director's behind the scenes presentation he answered many questions, one of which was 'what happened to the onboard star gazing program'? He was joined at that time by the assistant cruise director who both explained they didn't have the proper equipment onboard to properly block the ship's lights at night to make the program feasible. They both said it had been offered on the Regal in the past but unfortunately they no longer had the equipment. Maybe since they are bringing on an astronomer speaker they will once again offer the nighttime guided star gazing program. We enjoyed sitting on our balcony in the evening and star gazing on our own. It's one of the things we love about having a balcony, and from the aft you don't get much light pollution from the ship.

It was on our paper schedule and the app both; however, many events populated only after we boarded. So maybe they will show up later.

No charge. You can also mark events on your app so it will filter down to only things you've marked for the day. I like the paper daily schedule to look over the night before, but the app is handy throughout the day. Due to our schedule change missing Costa Maya they had to reprint the daily Patter so the app was more up to date quicker. Some of the entertainers were supposed to leave at that port and others join us there. When that didn't happen they had to refine the schedule.

I was on Regal last week. We aren't into the production shows but we did enjoy the comedians, cooking demonstration (frankly the head chef and dining manager had a funnier repartee than the comedians at times 😄), illusionist show, house band, and acrobat show. The 'behind the scenes' presentation by the cruise director was interesting and worthwhile, as well as the 2nd officer's navigation presentation. We learned a lot about the ship's operation during these talks. We also enjoyed the onboard enrichment speaker. He gave several talks during the week about vintage travel. He was leaving the ship the day we disembarked though after having been onboard for 3 weeks. I will caution you that the entertainers will likely change as was explained to us during the cruise director's talk. He said they regularly rotate around through various ships so your options may be different than ours. We also really enjoyed the Crown Grill and had excellent meals there.