fabby50

Love to do that brunch.  Wonder if you can pre-book it?  Haven't seen it in the offerings on the app.

38 minutes ago, CptBoatface said:

As a new England transplant, I wholly support pure maple syrup. Grade A or grade B?😄

Grade B or even higher!  Never knew there was such a thing until we went to Vancouver and a maple tasting.  Really like that stronger stuff!  You could always bring maple sugar, though I prefer the fruit toppings on cruise ships.  The syrup is definitely a miss.

I miss horse racing!  It was fun and when bingo was not a cash making venture, but more just for fun.

Just like most people, we are returning to cruising.  Did our first 5 day a little over a month ago.  A week after we got back, I weighed one pound less than when we left.  Usually, I do the same as you and gain 5 or so pounds per week when cruising so this was monumental for me!

I attribute it to a several things:

We did an hour long walk around the panorama deck every day except on port days, when we walked even more.  Never took the elevators, did the stairs.  We were on a mid-ship deck, so it was up 3 to 4 decks or down 3 to 4 decks to do anything.

I tracked what I ate.  This is the first time I've ever been successful doing this.  I always have good intentions, but I never follow through.  The act of writing it down, even if I was unsure of exact calories or portion size, helped keep me accountable.

Except for 1 lunch and 1 dinner, we avoided the buffet.  When I did go, I had a huge green salad with toppings.  Other meals, I ate what was on offer, but frequently left 1/3 to 1/2 of what I was served.

Our next holiday is a 17 night stay at an all inclusive - another trip we have been rescheduling for almost 2 years.  We'll see how I do at that!

I wish they would offer a half price deal at lunch and just have the salad bar and soup.  I'd probably eat there every day.

I booked a cruise for September 2022 and bubble tours are still listed/bookable for that cruise.

I am not a meat eater, but have gone just to have the salad bar.  By the time I'm done with that, I'm full anyway!  Cudos to you that can still eat after a run through the salad bar.

yes.

I have seen many post from people who spoke to the dining staff on the first night and were able to make special requests for the following night.  There are usually Indian vegetarian selections on the lunch time buffet, so I'm sure they have the ingredients.

45 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

My daughter does Zumba dancing, she would love to continue practising it on board the cruiser. I mean, in general its a great option to send you kids to while you are having fun at the bar or in the swimming pool. I wonder how they deal with kids on board these days 

There aren't any kids on Princess right now - have to be vaccinated.  SOON though - 

They had Zumba classes just about every day in the theater on our recent Grand cruise.  It seems to start around 9 am.  I was out walking the promenade deck and would go right by it every loop (had to pass by inside to make a round).  Wide variety of music and everyone looked to be having a great time.

My favorite things about Carnival are the Alchemy Bar (in our opinion, the best bar concept EVER, plus amazing staff) and their steakhouse.  We think they have the best steakhouse even better than more pricy lines, more creative menu and more accommodating to dietary needs/requests. Although we enjoy Princess steakhouse', we think their menu is staid.

We were on the first cruise of the Grand this year.  One of my happy discoveries was the change to the buffet since the pandemic.  I liked the little individual servings of salads, fruit, vegetables, etc.  for lunch.  I liked the little cheese trays with the nuts and dried fruit, the small sandwiches, just really liked the new set up.  A couple of times I got a big bowl of salad greens from the salad lady and then dumped various small container concoctions on top for a great salad.  I would eat a different roll every day.  I much preferred it to the large serving bowls that everyone dipped out of.  They still had a hot line with servers, but I've never been impressed with that food, no matter what cruise line we've traveled on and tend to avoid it.

I forgot - on the hot side, they had these little steamer containers one day with dumplings and peanut sauce.  I could have eaten 20 of those, but the individual serving container helped me control myself 🙂

We are in California.  Royal used to sail out of LA a few years ago and then stopped.  We sailed on her quite frequently, 3, 4 and 7 day cruises down to Mexico.  Can't give an opinion since its been awhile.

We have three cruises booked right now - all on different lines.  They all have things we like and things we think can be improved, but it beats work with whatever line it is.

When we were on the Grand, some were given out at the spa.  They were the blue surgical masks.  You can also buy cloth masks with Princess logos, different colors in the gift shop.

1 hour ago, Astro Flyer said:

Long Beach IS in LA County.

Sorry - thought it was in Orange County.

I have had the stewardess mention it on planes flying in and out of LA.  They said to go on line and fill it out.  Never have and no one has come to my house yet.  Was not mentioned at all on our cruise in and out of San Pedro or Long Beach.  Long Beach is not in LA county.

I think its the "cooked to order" aspect and the service.  The suite breakfast menu on Princess isn't that creative, kind of like the dinner menu in the Crown Grill.  We did try something new to us off the breakfast menu that the server said he'd never had anyone order before - the "fruit milk".  Tasted like the milk leftover from a bowl of cereal, I still need to research that and find out who came up with it.  I also like that the toast, english muffins, etc. are always HOT, never had any hot breakfast breads in the main dining room or from room service.  TIM - my favorite breakfast place on Princess is the International Cafe.

1 hour ago, Sail away MK said:

One time on the Island, my 8 year old was too small to go on our zip'lining excursion so she stayed on board in a special kids only excursion to go into the kitchen and bake a cake with the pastry chef.  She LOVED Princess!

 

I would LOVE to do that and I'm 63 😉

We travel frequently to the Caribbean on land based vacations.  I go to each island's government website to get the most currently information.  At this time, everyone is requiring masking and pre-COVID testing, some have entry forms you have to fill out, and some require vaccination.  We have a holiday planned for Grenada in December we have to:  pre-pay for COVID testing to be preformed when we get there, show proof of negative COVID test, show proof of vaccination, complete a form (per person) for the Mininstry of Health and get approved for travel.  Once there, we get tested and are quarantined until the results come in, we will be restricted to our resort for 5 days, tested again, and then, if passed, can go on a "bubble" land tour.  I think Grenada has the strictest rules right now, but other islands are similar.

4 minutes ago, jondfk said:

 

As a 10+ time WS lover who actually WAS quarantined in a WS I don't share your view.  We were allowed out for fresh air only once in 6 days, for 30 minutes, very late afternoon and once out to promenade had to remain out there shivering for the entire allocated time (they didn't want "traffic" in the hallways).  

 

I've heard some say quarantine didn't seem so bad, trust me, 20 days (6 on ship, 14 at Travis) with even the most basic choices (meals, drinks, etc) removed was no kind of fun.  We go back to Grand in January, WS are available (even now) but we'll have a balcony, as do all of our 7 future sailings.  

 

I'm not saying we'll never sail in a WS again, but surely not until C19 is a distant memory.  

 

I agree.  Loved our time in window suites, but the thought of being stuck in one for days (no matter what the reason), has made me change my mind.  I will never book anything without a balcony again.  We caught some good sales for our upcoming cruises and were fortunately in being able to get suites.  I am looking forward to being able to "pull the curtain" on my husband from time to time (as I am sure so is he).

We too had many of the problems discussed here until about 2 weeks before our cruise, then stuff started to work well.  We have another cruise scheduled for April 22 and I am again faced with a white screen on a lot of the steps.  I wonder if they have some clocks set or a priority based on cruise date or something?

I also see that other cruise lines are going this way with their own versions of Medallion (called something else of course).  I wonder how those are doing?  Anyone have any experience with another line?  We have a NCL cruise booked for December 22 and I haven't started working that one yet.

They were playing Trivia in one of the lounges two or three times a day on our recent Grand cruise.

23 minutes ago, memoak said:

Another issue with the home tests is many of them have expiration dates in 2021. What about cruises in early 2022 ?

My understanding from the website is they expiration dates were extended by the CDC for an extra year (started out at 3 months).  We have called and emailed to try and get written confirmation of that from eMed, but haven't heard back yet.  We're going to keep trying.  You can also buy the tests one at a time, which is probably what we'll do next time (we got the 6 pack).

7 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Easy if you live in USA or can get someone in the USA to forward an order to you if live out of country.

 

I did a quick search, looks like eMed will ship anywhere.  Policies are changing all the time, so who knows until its actually time to test.  Our next cruise is in six months, maybe we'll all be taking a pill that eliminates the virus by then (we can all hope).