4cats4me

On 1/18/2020 at 7:29 PM, rdsqrl said:

A charming girl pulled out my chair and smiled and introduced herself (I promptly forgot her name) and identified herself as the assistant waiter – as I order a lot of wine (thank you for the Gold Package, Princess), she was my new best friend – I want to say “Marcella?”  I noticed everyone else at the table had menus already.  Okay, fine, I was the last one to be seated and we’re not the only table so I imagine the waiter will be over in a moment.  And I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Much like Vladimir and Estragon.  Unlike them, I did not wait in vain, but I felt myself envying them, as my own Godot turned out to be the Worst Waiter in the World.  He was not only a bad waiter in terms of his job performance – there was the added bonus of his personality:   rude, sullen, unfriendly.  He just cast a general pall over the entire dining experience.  We’ll call him Rene.  Because that’s his name. 

Here are some of Rene’s greatest hits: 

 

**I smiled and said hello and paused before ordering for him to say hello.  Silence ensued.  I ordered and he snatched the menu out of my hand before I had time to close it. 

 

**Everyone had menus already when I sat down.  Rene was MIA.  He returned and everyone still had menus except me.  He pretended not to notice and went around the entire table taking orders until he got to me.  I asked him for a menu and he oh-so-graciously handed me one he had just collected from my tablemate, then stood over my shoulder tapping his pen on his notepad while I read it. 

 

** Appetizers were delivered to the wait station by our assistant waiter, and Rene served the entire table, except me.   He then went around the  table with the pepper, getting to me and started to pepper the tablecloth until I said, I think you forgot to give me my plate.

 

**The experience of waiting tables was apparently physically painful to him as he did everything he could to make it as quick as possible.  He flung plates upon the table as though he were in Vegas dealing out cards for a speed blackjack tournament.  Before you had even half-finished  your app or salad, he was setting down at your place the silver for the next course (even if it meant reaching over and round your hands/arms as they conveyed food from plate to mouth).  When asked for recommendations (which I began doing just to annoy him, since he clearly hated to engage in conversation), he would simply repeat the name of whatever dish you asked about or point at a dish at random. 

 

Two people at the table (it began as a table of eight) switched after the first night to Anytime, so we were down to 6.  He removed a leaf and the table size shrunk to 6.  Another couple at the table tended to dine in specialty restaurants so were only there about every other night – Rene would stand at the table on the nights they weren’t there and announce plans to remove another leaf and turn the table into a table for 4 the next night.  He said this with a slightly bloodthirsty air; one got the distinct impression that he’d like nothing better than to shrink the table down to the size of a plant stand, leaving no chairs and only the bud vase with its limp alstromeria to mark the erstwhile presence of 8 annoying passengers who had the temerity to dine in his section.  I don’t mind telling you, I was afraid to walk the decks alone at night. 

 

Another diner and I each spoke to him separately and I went to one of the white-coats, but nothing changed.  We decided to make it a joke and I’m sure our (okay, my) derisive comments and downright snarky rudeness about him were overheard by him, but I was past caring.   A scathing letter, as well as post-cruise comments, have been conveyed to Princess.  In the interim, if you’re aboard the Emerald and on that first night, your waiter’s nametag says Rene (because he sure won’t introduce himself!), run fast and run far . . .

Yikes, what a miserable experience having to sit in Rene’s section.   I definitely would have moved.  Shameful that the white coats did nothing to rectify the situation.    

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/02/16/travis-air-force-base-cruise-ship-coronavirus-evacuees-test-positive/
 

delete

Thanks for the review.  We were in E108 in October and have it booked for April.  Were in 107 last year.  Best cabins ever.   Lots of motion up there last April.  No motion when we were on in October.   

3 hours ago, san diego sue said:

Did you have the Medallian before you cruised? You mentioned you downloaded app prior.

My additional question is if you already had the medallian, did you still have to check in at the desks?

Or did you just go through security and wait to board. You said you were group 6.In Europe we just went to security and then boarded. Wondering how it is done in San Pedro? We board on Saturday.

We were onboard in October, and after going through security all we had to do was tap our Medallion to the reader and breeze onboard.  No more desk.   (Unlike 6 months earlier when we’d boarded the Royal)

On 10/22/2019 at 2:04 PM, Oak City Man said:

 

Well, the airfare and the cruise is pretty much the entire trip for us.  I'm not sure what you mean by "shuttle".  

 

BTW, I hope you realize the agent was "selling" you a policy.  What would you expect her to say?  I suppose what the agent was referring to about the car getting in an accident is trip delay coverage.  Princess also covers this, as do most (all?) vacation insurance policies.

 

I also just checked, Princess is cheaper than Travelex for my next cruise.  So if you prefer Travelex go right ahead.  Just do not act like the Princess coverage is somehow inferior.  It's actually quite similar.

We’v found that Princess's coverage isn’t nearly as comprehensive as private insurers like Travel ex.   My big concerns are  itinerary and cost of helicopter airlift.    Princess insurance caps out at 50,000 or at least that’s what it used to be and that’s not nearly enough if you get stranded overseas and then need a helicopter evacuation plus surgery.  

 Helicopter airlift alone is minimum  $25,000, so that only leaves $25,000 to cover remaining medical costs, and if you need open heart surgery or something major, it might not cover.   One never knows what can happen on vacation and I’ve seen it over and over where the helicopter  had  to come in and take people off the ship OR  people have to be taken off because they have appendicitis attack or kidney stones, et cet.    

 It depends on people‘s comfort level and a lot of different factors that we’ve always found travel ex to be the cheapestfor us, ages 55/60 , but for my mother, who is elderly , we have found princess insurance to be cheaper than Travelex 

Also, by purchasing  A different policy tham princess we can add on our airfare later, with Travelex  versus having to buy two separate policies, one for air and one for cruise because 

We never purchase air through Princess for Europe, et cet.  

We’ve been on the Royal Class ships half a dozen times, and also Celebrity 4 times.  We’ve done Alaska with both Celebrity and Princess, 1 on X and 3 on Princess, 

first cruise to Alaska was on the sister ship to Millennium.  Those aft cabins are amazing, or at least used to be.  

On the Royal, Unless you booked a full suite on  Baja or Dolphin deck, your balcony won’t be covered very much.  Also, there is definitely a soot problem in many of those aft facing.   However, the steward will clean off your furniture every day.  

I just went through this process of choosing a cabin for my friend for his first cruise, and on this same ship and itinerary, and ultimately he chose a corner full suite on Dolphin since it is covered.   

At any rate, both cruise lines are very nice, and the Royal has  a beautiful atmosphere with a beautiful atrium and a nice martini bar to rival the one on the Millennium.  In fact, it’s nicer. 

Since you’re only accustomed to CC class on X, then you won’t be missing all the bells and whistles of AQ, or else I would say that you would be in for a bit of a disappointment on Princess.   

Celebrity service isn’t what it used to be 20 years ago, so I find the two lines to be more comparable now.   

We definitely prefercthe food on Princess.  The stewards are friendlier, the waiters are more engaging, too.  The activities are better and more plentiful.  Also, the most important thing:  We’ve found Princess to have the best itineraries and port times.    

On 1/11/2020 at 2:52 PM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

 I also have the chair clips but I use a Kindle ; definitely would not want to leave that there.  I was hoping with the sign that they would realize that I was coming right back and not out for the afternoon.

Um, I have a confession to make.   15 years ago I printed up my own little tags that said

“reserved for Suite# ..... Mr and Mrs.” ... and I put the Princess seawitch logo on them,

brought them along, but then didn’t have the nerve to actually go through with my “plan.”

We don’t reserve chairs for hours or anything and never have, but it was more in case we wanted to leave to go to the buffet to bring the food back to our loungers .

now we just take turn so.    

Reminds me of Celebrity’s offers which include 3 perks, or as I like to call it, the all-inclusive pricing, grats, Internet, booze, but the pricing will spike a lot.  

2 hours ago, CruiseVA said:

Nice, I've never received these automatically, I've had to track & check & call if it was a better deal than my current booking (which it usally wasn't). Granted I do not use a TA.

I just booked another cruise  on Tuesday for 2021 ( Mexico Sea of Cortez) and got the four device WiFi, $300 OBC, free specialty dinner and two bottles of wine , plus we will get money from our FCD, then we are going To transfer it to our favorite TA and she always gives us either a significant reduction or a lot more OBC.   

9 hours ago, I object 2 said:

We plan to book a suite on the Star Princess for our 50th wedding anniversary next year.   There's a difference in size between D737 (listed as being 495 sq ft) and E732 (listed as 527 sq ft).   Just wondering if the difference is in the actual room or the balcony.   

The difference in size is only the larger balcony on D deck. We’ve stayed in both suites 

on the sister ship, Golden Princess.  Both are very nice. I prefer starboard if on E deck duecto location of bandstand used to be on the port side.  We never heard noise from E733 on the opposite side. 

We did love the deeper Dolphin deck.  However, both are sufficient balconies for two, and each balcony has two teak loungers, as well as dining table with 3-4 chairs.  

On 6/30/2019 at 3:49 PM, rickandjanie said:

We are booked on the Regal in November for an Eastern Caribbean 7 day cruise.  We have booked B735 the starboard aft corner suite on Baja Deck.  i have a couple of questions.  Is there a dining table in the suite that will set 4, 6 or 8 people?  We are traveling with 3 other couples.  Can we order lunch or dinner for service in the suite for all eight of us?  I doubt it but thought I would ask what other's experience has been. 

Thanks in advance for your help.

No. 

You would need to dine on the balcony and the table there is for four.  

52 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

Star Princess, April 23.

Are you thinking of joining us, or avoiding us!? Either way, now you know!

That’s the cruise I am getting ready to put a $2 deposit on! 

We enjoy these obstructed deluxe balcony 

rooms at the front of the ship

e107-108. Two are larger 109-110, 

My cruise packing list keeps getting longer and longer.   Haha 

7 hours ago, Daniel A said:

 

 

I wonder if this is another example of Princess not enforcing consistent policies fleet wide.  Between ships handling early cabin access differently, erratic dress code enforcement in MDR , continuing to honor coffee cards on some ships and not others, and now it may be that only elites are getting access to the pre dinner lounge.  I'm really beginning to wonder what to expect on a Princess cruise anymore.  I starting to think that it's time to start looking elsewhere.

Sadly, many of the lines we travel on are inconsistent as well.  Celebrity, for one. 

On 11/21/2019 at 10:15 AM, junglejane said:

Last month on the Royal it was open to all three categories.  Actually, what struck me was the total absence of any effort to check who was entering.   Anyone could walk in and sit down.  If an "ineligible passenger" tried to order drinks, perhaps they would have been refused service and ejected, but I doubt it.  

We were onboard your cruise, as I recall, on Oct 4.  We never once made it to the lounge. That wa a first for us.  I don’t even know where they had it. Usually it is in Club 6, but with the sheer amount of Elites and platinums, not to mention suites,  that was around 2,000 people.   I haven’t see no anyone carding anybody since at least 2007.  

As for thosec who are worked up about it, it really just is not a big deal.   And since they’ve switched the hours to 4-6 instead of 5-7, it holds zero appeal for us since when we did bother to attend in the past we usually went to the Lounge from 6:00 to 7:00 after getting back on the ship. 

I have always brought my own French Provençal soaps and special color-safe for color treated hair shampoo and my own special body lotion (Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods generic lotion) Recently, I have started bringing Cera-Ve onboard.  It is a good lotion.  

In the past we have come home with dozens of those Eucalyptus mini bottles of lotion and soap discs, , which I still had in my drawers after umpteen years, and finally threw them away in Sept.  must have been 25 soap bars (which had lost their scent) and 40 bottles of lotion, conditioners, and shampoo. 

I am not a fan of refillable bottles if the dispenser holders aren’t being cleaned properly, as in mold, and some people have posted pics on a different forum of the crud that was growing on one of those refillable bottles underneath the cap.  

Yuck. 

Excellent  Review! 

Beautiful ship.  Isn’t this the ship without Crooner’s? 

I love the new look of Princess Live and Take  5 compared to the badly designed Club 6. 

The Vista looks nice, too, and reminds me more of a Celebrity decor as does the redesigned Alfredo’s.  Those chairs are a bit spartan looking for my taste though and I like the decor of old Alfredo's  with comfier appearing chairs.  

The photo of the inside cabin definitely reminds me of a Celebrity cabin.  

10 hours ago, RMMariner said:

Just went to one of the Emotional Support Animal websites. You can register your snake, iguana, miniature horse, pig, rat, chinchilla (there was a space for other - tarantula?, camel? elephant?) etc. for $19.99 a year. No questions asked. You can buy official ID for $49.99 a year. The website says it is applicable for free air travel and is legally acceptable in all 50 states. You can buy tags, vests etc. as well. The site also clearly stated that no one is legally allowed to ask you how the animal supports you.

 

I went all the way to the payment screen. For this price, I could have registered my dog and brought it with me on our cruise. That is why people are tired of this ridiculous situation.

Absolutely disgusting.  Gee, I kind of miss the olden days, when something like this would have been next to impossible before everyone could just press a button and print out a bogus certificate.  An emotional support spider would be the breaking point for me.  OMG.  Unbelievable!!! 

11 hours ago, I Love Cruising 3 said:

I think it was suppose to be sarcastic but I would pity people who had a cat allergy who went into that cabin if it were true.

Yes, it was a joke. 

I wrote a review a month ago and posted it on here regarding our experience Rolling our luggage through dog poo on disembarkation day.  There was a woman with her dog onboard that growled and barked every time I saw it.  The finale was rolling our suitcase through one piece of poppy.  There were two nuggets.  We told personnel so as to prevent more people getting it on their shoes or luggage.  

When we were called to disembark 20 mins later, one poop was still there.   

15 hours ago, pms4104 said:

You are joking, right?

Yes.

I think I’ll bring my emotional support cats onboard with me on my next cruise and let them enjoy the run of the ship. That way I won’t have to pay for a pet sitter. 

4 hours ago, john_galt said:

We were in D736 and booked the same cabin on the Caribbean Princess for next year. 

We've had that one, too. D736 was spectacular.  

  C753 isn’t a full suite though, so different category altogether.   We were just as happy with C753.  

We did love both cabins due to their aft facing views.  

I’ve had that cabin on the sister ship the Golden and it is fully covered, and one of my favorite all-time cabins due to the huge balcony.