mjmalino

Holiday cruises tend to attract a lot of families  on them given it's time of year. That being said, I would avoid the first week of January once schools/colleges go back as there will be very little in the way of teens/young adults. (learned this the hard way)

16 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

We - and many others - did all our own tour arrangements on our S.A. voyage.  Except for two:  (1) a penguin experience to a farm area where they were totally booked with Princess, and (2) I think it was Beagle Channel where the timing and pricing was identical and was no difference in group size, etc.

 

It worked great doing our own thing with some other couples.  99% terrific experiences.

We generally do most of our excursions independent as well, but only holding out until we see if they will be allowed.

We are currently scheduled on a South American cruise in February 2022 and are still waiting to see 1) if the cruise will sail, and 2) if there will be any requirements for excursions before we begin booking. We did, however, schedule one on the day of our disembarkation that is an all day excursion that gets us to the airport in time for our flight. Other than that, we are still waiting to see what our options are.

Also keep in mind for these cabins the first 4 passengers are at full fare and single supplements will be charged for less than 4 passengers.

10 hours ago, eyore said:

Thanks so much, vakamalua!
Thanks so much for all the time you spent putting this together, and also for your very helpful reviews on Trip Advisor.
Unfortunately, our entire cruise was cancelled two days ago. I'm so disappointed, although I suspected it might happen and I think it was the right decision. For now we have the same cruise on the books for Dec 2022. One of our group has already bought flights for Nov 2021, and may go to BA and Santiago and tour around, if the covid situation improves. I will forward him your post.
Your recommendations are fantastic and greatly appreciated. I'll refer back to them when planning again for 2022!
Thanks again so so much
Take care

Oh no! I am sorry to hear that your cruise was cancelled. May I ask which line and date? 

We did a7 night cruise in January 2020, and it was our first while doing IF. For the most part we were able to keep up with it during the cruise (we usually only eat in a 6 hour window) I think there might have been a day where we ate something small before our tour as it was going to be a late lunch for us. It should also be noted that I am used to working out in the mornings before I eat, so I am used to being active without a recent meal.

There are 2 websites that I use when putting information together for clients: wunderground dot com and worldweatheronline dot com. In both of them, once you find your city/area there is a way to find historical weather for a certain date. What I would do is do put in the date you will be in that port and look at the weather in that port for  past 3 years or so. Worldweatheronline is a bit better because when you get to the portion that is historical you put in a date and it will give you the weather for that date for several years whereas on wunderground you will need to keep changing the date (year). Please note that the buttons to get the historical weather is somewhat buried at times, so you will need to scroll down until you find it.

Just now, dides said:

 

No, each cruise should have it's own Travel Checklist and step 2 to Choose Your Ocean Medallion. I've chosen medallions for 2 of our 4 booked cruises so far. The remaining cruises still have a white background for step 2 rather than green.  Check your other checklist by switching between cruises by clicking the top left profile icon and selecting the cruise from the My Journeys left hand pane.

I checked the travel checklist for both cruises, and both are showing the medallions as being green.

So this is the first time I have 2 medallion cruises booked at the same time. I went into the app and ordered my medallions, did it automatically order them for BOTH cruises?

On our last cruise our son had to fly back to school the day we disembarked and I think his flight was even a little earlier than that, and we didn't do self-disembark, so you shouldn't have any issues.

22 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Apologies if this has been asked/answered...I did a VERY brief search but found nothing.

 

When I open the app it always defaults to showing info for the first upcoming cruise.  How does one "switch" to later cruises?

 

Click on your portrait on the top left. At that point you will have your first cruise listed in the white portion, and to the left of that (in the blue portion) there should be a list of "My journeys" where you can choose a voyage.

We did a 14 night Baltic cruise in 2016, our kids were 18 and 17. My older son had a blast with his group and my younger son made a had a group in the teen center that he would meet up with there, then they would leave and do other things at night. I can't tell you how many, but there was a decent number. Also, just as an FYI, on the cruises in and out of London (not sure if that is what you are looking at) the majority of the people are from the UK and they will lower the drinking age to 18.

Call Princess and ask them to book a table for 12. It cannot be done online, or through a travel agent, but they should be able to help you. 

They were cancelled a while back because, at least at the time, the CDC conditional order to sail stated until the order expires (Oct 31st)  no cruises that entered a US port could be longer than 7 days. 

Go into your cruise personalizer on princess.com. Click on the "Onboard Services" tab and scroll down. Your included packages are listed after the various available packages.

We have been cruising since our kids were 7 and 8 (they are now 23 and 21) and all but one of our cruises have been on Princess with one being on Carnival. The cruise that my kids liked the least was on Carnival, so don't discount a Princess cruise with your grandkids.

21 hours ago, Lucky TGO said:

Hi mjmalino,

I hope so myself only if it’s as good as it once was. I was on the Caribbean Princess in 2019 and it was awful. 😳 I thought well maybe It’s just me? So I asked some other people and they agree with me. 

Tony

 

Oh that's sad. I don't think we even tried it on our last cruise, Sky in 2020, but that was because there were some new restaurants that we wanted to try, we didn't even look for it. The best had to be on the Emerald in 2016 on our Baltic cruise from London. Not really a surprise there.

I don't know, but I hope they will still be available.

Princess has a group from ages 8-12, but can break down groups depending on number of kids on voyages (so it may just be 11 and 12 year olds together). My kids loved the kids camps on Princess from their first cruise at ages 7 and 8. My older one outgrew the teen center by the time he was 16, but my younger son (who is not as outgoing) found his group in the teen center right through 17.

2 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

 

During that webinar they stated & had this slide that passengers who were booked by 6/7/21 could also make DMW reservations before final payment just like Elite/Platinum passengers.
 

Thus anyone who booked before that cutoff date can make DMW reservations & if not it’s another glitch that needs to be fixed.

 

 

You are correct! Sorry for the misinformation.

4 minutes ago, birdiebill said:

My app does not let me use the Dine My Way or arrival or departure groups.  I believe these will be accessible once final payment is made.  

Per the TA webinar last week, I believe, the Dine my way is available upon booking for those who are platinum or elite status, and everyone else at final payment. 

As for arrival and departure groups, they weren't mentioned, but I think that they will be available at final payment.

Yes! 

I didn't read all of the replies, so I apologize if this has been addressed. How old are your kids? I know that you mentioned teens, but what are there ages. Our first cruise was Alaska back in 2007, my kids were 8 and 9. We did a minisuite on the Coral. Starting with our next cruise we did 2 cabins, 1 balcony and 1 inside. At that point, technically, I was in the balcony with 1 kid and my husband in the inside with the other, both kids slept in the inside with my husband and myself in the balcony right across the hall. We also used a walkie talkie with a monitor function in the cabins at night and got extra keys for both cabins. Once our oldest turned 16 we were able to book the kids together in a cabin within close proximity to ours. By the way, we found that the price of the 2 cabins (balcony and inside) was almost identical to the minisuite for 4 people, and we had an extra bathroom (but no tub).

3 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

We have Sail/Sea/12-8/8-6/7-5/Sea/Sea/Disembark

 

So I am guessing first and second Sea Day. Right ?

Second night aboard seems soon but no better way to fit two nights in, no reason to use a Port day.

I would assume you are correct.

15 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Probably applies to things like milk and juices

There are also a couple of water companies that are doing paper type containers in an attempt to do away with the single use plastics.