lhsail

I respect those who wish to 'escape completely', but our son is still in college and we have older family members that we like to keep in touch with. We totally enjoy the free internet access we get as Platinum. The current speed is frustrating, but we have managed to do a FaceTime with our sons. Hoping one of the new packages will replace the free minutes.

This seems to be a great mystery. My husband is currently getting the casino credit and due to it, we are taking a very inexpensive 4-day out of Houston in a few weeks. I have no idea how he became eligible. He is very conservative in his gambling. Now come to find out, our 22 year old son is apparently eligible as well. He cruised with us last December and also gambled some, again very conservatively. It's great for however long it lasts.

I have a recipe for Waldorf Salad in an older Princess cookbook, but I'm guessing it's the Stilton Mousse that makes it special and I can't help with that.

I would never rely upon the advice of a bunch of anonymous strangers on the internet when one can easily run up a cell phone bill in the hundreds if not thousands while on a cruise ship. Nor would I want to give advice on how to manage a phone when that advice has the potential of being expensively wrong.

 

The only safe thing for OP to do is to contact his provider and follow their instructions. If he gets bad advice from them, at least then, he can roll back on the provider.

 

I had copied your quote and supported your advice. I gave the example of the text situation we have as an option, which I found about by checking with our carrier. My comment was given as an example of a way you can use your phone, depending on your carrier and how they help you set it up, and it many not be horrendously expensive. I apologize if I was misunderstood.

The best thing you can do is to call your cell phone provider and do as they tell you to do. You would be much better off relying upon their instructions than upon the instructions you'll get in this thread. Verizon sent me a very nice one page PDF with complete instructions on how to set my phone to avoid charges.

 

Very good advice, and it depends on what you want/don't want out of your phone when cruising. Text messages are very inexpensive for us and our son, who is usually back at college when we're cruising these days, knows he can always reach us by text if a situation comes up. It gives us both peace of mind and our carrier helped me understand how to set it up. I've never been charged anything other than 5 cents for any text he sends me and 50 cents for any text I've sent back to him.

I have been in communication with Jany in regards to our stop in Rome next March. She has been excellent in responding. One concern that's come up today is the amount of time allowed at the Vatican. She says it must be limited to 2 to 2 1/2 hours to ensure we can leave by 4:00, our ship leaves at 7:00. For those of you who toured with their guide was this sufficient time? My MIL and her sister will be traveling with us, 81 and 79. This is cerainly a once in a lifetime for them and I don't want them feeling rushed and disappointed.

Have read a lot of information regarding private tours of the Vatican and/or paying the additional for the guide arranged by RomeInLimo. I assume someone has simply taken the guided tour available through the Vatican. I would like to hear about your experience.

After many years away from NCL the pricing on a last minute cruise out of Houston got us back last February. It's a different vibe than Princess and we went in with eyes wide open and had a great time. We've got both Princess and NCL cruises booked. However, NCL is also pulling out of Houston. For those of us who love driving to a Texas port we'll be down to Carnival and RCCL. I'm not anxious to try Carnival again and not impressed with the value proposition of RCCL. Will hope for cheap flights to Florida on Southwest and Jet Blue.

Can't say this is the "best" card. With few exceptions we have had great service from Barclays. We basically charge as many transactions as we can and pay the card off each month. We love being able to pay down or pay off a cruise with points.

We will be paying 180€ when we go in Sept

Thank you.

Several have mentioned they hired their Vatican guide through RIL and it was worth the money. This is different than booking a guided tour through the Vatican, correct? Would someone be willing to share what they paid for the guide through RIL? Thank you.

We are fortunate enough to have free internet on Princess due to our loyalty status so it's a "nice to have". It is slow and you'll eat up the minutes quickly. We also have/are cruising quite a bit on another line recently where we don't have that freebie and I'm too cheap to pay for it. Research your ports and you'll most likely find information about wi-fi availability. It may be a place you have to buy a drink or a cup of coffee, but will be much cheaper than the ship and most likely quicker.

Looking to book on the Royal for November 2016. These deluxe balcony cabins are available and look good from an obstruction standpoint, but I'm concerned about noise. They appear to be right over the upper level of the Princess Theater. I'm needing to make a decision fairly quickly so greatly appreciate if anyone has some experience they can share.

I found it doing a search. We have booked with this agency in the past, but not for some time. I've sent my TA there an email. We are retired and have FCC for deposit. If there are any departures out of Houston included I'm thinkin we're bookin.

[quote name='caribill']We live near the ports of Houston and Galveston. Most seven day cruises from both ports have basically the same itinerary, if not the same, then the same number of ports.

Every time I have checked pricing on Princess, NCL, RCI and Carnival I find that Princess has the lowest pricing. Following is without any past passenger pricing or TA discount pricing for a 7-day cruise in November, 2015 over Thanksgiving.

Princess balcony $799
NCL balcony $1099
RCI balcony $1235
CCL balcony $979

Of course, of these four cruise lines, only Princess allows TAs to give a discount.[/QUOTE]

Think this is so timing dependent. We are also loyal Princess fans, but NCL has gotten our business this winter. We did NCL out of Houston in February and then again early April. $500+ for an outside in February and $700+ for a balcony in April. Both included the beverage package, which I agree is not what everyone wants, but the most recent NCL promotion provides gratuities as an bonus option. We've also booked NCL in the Med for next March.

We'll continue to cruise Princess and I've got Princess Rewards points to use when the time is right, but right now I'm looking at Celebrity for December 2016 and seeing pretty good pricing plus perks.

We cruised NCL several times in the mid-80s and hadn't been back until mid-February when a great price including UBP allowed us to take a very last minute cruise. We've cruised extensively on Princess and Celebrity the past few years. We knew the NCL experience would be very different, but we enjoyed it and purchased FCCs and now have three additional cruises booked with NCL, one leaving Saturday on the Jewel. The frequency of these recent changes and the way in which they've been handled have me second guessing our decision. We'll probably keep the cruises we have booked, but I'm back to taking a hard look at the Princess and Celebrity offers that are coming my way. And, I'm certainly open to checking out MSC.

On the Jewel in a couple of weeks. Can those who have experienced these early arrivals lately tell me if it impacted any of the ship's services?

We were on the Jewel a few weeks ago in an oceanview but I requested a coffee maker for our cabin steward. He brought us a 4-cup maker with pre-filled packets. The last day we walked around and checked out several different cabin classes, including mini-suites. The only place I remember seeing anything different was in the suites where they had the special Lavazza makers.

Been pondering your post for a few days and decided to chime in. We have only a few RCI cruises behind us and just tried NCL again a few weeks ago after many years away. We have three future NCL cruises booked now. But, I keep thinking about your comment that you like "elegance". If that is truly important to you, it seems you'd be happier on the Brilliance. NCL has it's hooks in us right now with the prices and promos they are offering and we're really excited about the cruises we have booked with them, but the ships don't have the elegance of some of the other lines. Good luck with your decision.

We love wine and we love to cruise. That said, this is hard to answer without some idea of your taste in wine. We were just on the Jewel and had the UBP, so we were ordering by the glass. There's really not a wide variance in the price of wines by the glass. They range from $6.25 to $11.25 with most in the $7 to $9 range. We did look at the bottle prices in the dining room and found them to be somewhat better priced than other cruise lines.

 

Some of the wines we enjoyed include:

North and South Sauvignon Blanc $7.25

Robert Mondavi Chardonnay $8.50

Estancia Pinot Noir $10.50

North and South Red Blend $8.50

Cht. St. Jean Cabernet $10.00

 

They have taken a couple others we enjoyed off the wine list with the March 1 update. My only disappointment was I really like a glass of dry sparking wine. The only sparkling they have by the glass is Prosecco, which tends to be sweet. Give me a Brut Champagne, please.

 

Good luck.

I am booked for March 16th of 2016 on Epic for the 12Day Med cruise....

Current temps in Barcelona and Italy are in the low 60's ...

 

We just booked this cruise yesterday. Although it will be a bit cooler than I would prefer, this is all about seeing the sights and the price was very good. Now the airfare watch will begin shortly.

Think there might be a variance in type of coffee maker by ship. We were just on the Jewel and they still had the 4-cup ones.

I thought it was much better than anywhere else on the ship, but if you're very picky about your coffee it would be easy enough to bring some filters and your own coffee.

On our recent Jewel cruise you were to be out of the cabin by 8:30, which is more generous than some other lines. What I didn't like is that they called the groups quickly, which only resulted in a lot of confusion and long lines for customs, and they were well staffed.

We are considering taking a river cruise with my mother-in-law. She thinks she wants to see castles and cathedrals. We probably could not do this before the summer of 2016, at which time she would be approaching 82. She is in good overall health, but is slowing down and when she visits us prefers a day of activity followed by a down day. We're concerned about how she would handle the shore activities. I'm assuming there is a lot of walking, uneven surfaces, perhaps a lot of steps at the castles and cathedrals, etc. We've traveled some in Europe but not a lot so I'm kind of out of my league here. Any thoughts would be appreciated.