LuckiePuris

Thank you!

Wow what a queue! Not to pry but just to prepare myself, is there anything specific that we would need to line up at the desk for that day? Or wouldit just be to load the account with cash? Thanks!

Unfortunately advanced bookings for excursions prior to embarkation are not an available option on carnival at this stage

Botticelli on Grand has early or late set dining

I found when I clicked on dining in the medallion app it listed the available times for each dining room and gave an idea of how each one worked. from memory one was set dining only (Botticelli), and I think one was anytime dining, and one a mix. we went for the set dining only one as we’re not fans of anytime dining as we don’t feel that it flows as well as there is variety of dining stages throughout the passengers.

Correct 14 days prior online check in opens and you can then select your boarding time. Some high up membership levels and or suites I believe open up 16 days prior.

Wow very efficient from the tour company

That’s fantastic!

Thank you, hoping to have this prebooked though as it’s very important to us and don’t want to risk missing a spot on the day or rushing

What sort of shopping did you find? Thanks

I'm currently considering same thing. The risk with non cruise ship excursions is that the ship won't wait for you if you're late back. And it's also tricky to time what time you'll be able to get off the ship to miss your independent tour. That being said, if you time your time with buffer time either side, independent tours can often offer more variety. Of all the cruise lines however, the Princess tours do seem to be best priced, so if you find something that suits on Princess, I would go that option.

Looking for feedback please on this Princess Cruises shore excursion for Napier. Would love to visit the wine region. Have also considered non cruise line excursions however they look to be either full day or afternoon only, and cutting it quite fine to the time we need to be back onboard. As we've been unable to find a morning tour independently, we are leaning towards this one offered by the cruise line. Have also posted on the ports of call board but not sure if that one gets as much traffic as this one. Thank you!

Looking for feedback please on this Princess Cruises shore excursion for Napier. Would love to visit the wine region. Have also considered non cruise line excursions however they look to be either full day or afternoon only, and cutting it quite fine to the time we need to be back onboard. As we've been unable to find a morning tour independently, we are leaning towards this one offered by the cruise line. Thank you!

Highlight of my day was checking after lunch once they placed the dinner menu up, what was on that night!

That is handy but I’m often deciding up to last minute what to order and like to also have the menu at the table to decide and order 🙂 It’s good that there are alternative options if one doesn’t want to use the smart phone for menus though!

I also agree bad manners but also see the pros - ease of reading menu plus camera - and can also make anytime dining bookings with notification to app when your table is ready. It’s a bit of a balance 🙂

That’s a great idea as an alternative

Like with everything though, not all guests will use technology for those reasons mentioned. We enjoy using our phones other times for social media, news, catching up with family, and will take the phones to dinner so we can check the menus/take some photos, but meal times are important times for us together so phones wouldn’t be used in the MDR for those reasons. The people you describe above may use their phones at the table regardless if it was needed for the menus or not.

I’m not too sure sorry but i imagine it could be hard to remember them by the time you’re ordering (it would be for me!)

Thank you, we enjoy dressing up for formal nights hence the tie/jacket and I’ll have a dress/heels 🙂

We’ve dined and had drinks at the Opera Bar and have been very happy.

We are doing similar - Carnival and Princess in coming months. Carnival - from what I’ve read, formal night on Carnival is much more relaxed. Trousers and a shirt are generally enough. It’s a much more casual version of formal night. Princess - I believe they’ve done away with tuxedos. My husband will probably pack dress pants, shirt and a jacket. Maybe a tie.

Thanks for the tip. Was the car available at the port / easy to find? Thanks!

For food alone, I would recommend Princess over P&O. P&O back in the day 2004 - 2016 ish, good quality and variety was fantastic. However since they made the changes to the buffet and a more modern style of cruising, m we found the food quite average, and not traditional quality cruise fare. MDR was more along the lines of basic pub food at best, the pantry (buffet) often required multiple line ups to get a complete meal ; (one queue for eggs, one for bacon). Link below is for my P&O cruise in 2016, goes a bit more in depth on the food. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2327093 I haven’t cruised on Princess yet however have been fortunate to dine onboard a number of times as a travel agent, and the food is very enjoyable and high quality.

I traditionally like the paper menus however I understand why they’re limiting them at the moment to avoid spread of germs between guests with menus being passed from guest to guest.