CruiseCrabs

We had eight available across two seven day cruises this past fall and a transatlantic a few years ago had five so I think it depends on a number of factors.

Same but in January. The seating is beyond inadequate for the volume of people who want to experience it.

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We second the Terrace Pool, if you can get one of the bar seats that face aft. For Alaska, bundle up! Aft will be somewhat shielded from the wind but not completely.

Suites generally have first crack at the seats (the host will make the reso) and the number of evenings is dependant on the length of the cruise, the ship, chef, and heath of passengers. Often, the maitre d’ will also make inquiries with passengers who may be a good fit for the remaining available seats at a seating.

If it is a standard wine bottle, most crew staffing the table won’t know the difference between “regular” wine and fortified wine. When embarking, the table often isn’t set up yet for early arrivals and you will only get corkage grief when trying to open the thing outside of your stateroom. In port, the table isn’t well-enforced. Just don’t get cute and hand a case off to the stevedore. I used to be able to do that with no problem, paying corkage onboard in the dining rooms. After twelve bottles had to be negotiated for—individually—on a cruise when that sort of insanity was a little too much for the circumstances, we walk on the very special bottles. We have drink packages and don’t avoid corkage so it’s not like we are trying to get one over on the line; we just like great wine that they don’t tend to carry. Princess is in a weird spot and I hope they get their “stuff” together. Walk on your wine bottles with pride.

The desk drawer ones are decent. The wall ones are a nightmare. Princess ships have predominantly 110 outlets (American) so, if you are from NY, you should be good. Always use a converter, not just and adaptor, when traveling to a 220 country. Otherwise, you’ll either blow out your appliances or fry your hair.

Princess does Christmas, Hanukkah, and the new year quite well. Christmas is very special with lots of decor and gingerbread displays. Pre-pandemic, each guest had a small stocking with candy on the bedside table at turndown, a guest choir was formed, Santa visited on Christmas Day, and more. In the Caribbean, the New Year’s Eve party is on the pool deck and is a blast.

You ac easily order a custom window cling that is easy to put up, easy to remove later, and is less likely to pop off or get cleaned off.

Thank you so much! I’ll pack accordingly and will see you on the next trip.

When you go on a cruise that touts their food and you have had beautiful food on the line before, the prosciutto and melon as well as the veal situation is just sad. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have concerns. Call me Karen if you must (apologies for Karens everywhere for getting dragged) but I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect food coming out of a cruise ship kitchen—not the buffet; different story entirely—to be as good or better than what you can get at home.

We board next week and will not be thrilled if the food prep, cook, and plating is sub par.

I have a selfish ask. Can you tell me if Ruby currently has the dumb wall hair dryers or the nicer, in-drawer ones? I’m trying to reduce packing weight, if possible.

You should be able to load multiple cruises. I know I had two on there at one time and may have had three.

See if Paradise Cove is available that day. You’ll need a rental car to get there but it is infinitely better than the others.

This makes a lot more sense business-wise, to be honest. Why reward those who gamed the system to get to elite (I’m looking at you, three-day cruisers) and reap rewards while not really spending while onboard? No loyalty program is really free per se and the entitlement has gotten out of hand.

I think the main problem is that working adults don’t accrue loyalty quickly enough to enjoy the perks and elites are often pins in the rears who take many cruises yet sleep in chairs in all of the prime real estate, yell at guest services, and make entitled demands yet pull shenanigans like reversing the crew appreciation. Loyalty programs are supposed to entice rebooking while encouraging word of mouth advertising and spending dollars in new areas of the brand. Princess knows darn well that many elites are cheating on then and are turning others off to the brand. I love Princess… I don’t love many of their angry, entitled elites.

Dump any hand baggage in the room after greeting every room steward along the way; store carried-on, good bubbles in the mini fridge International cafe for toasted ham and cheese sandwiches and a “thank God we are on vacation” cocktail while watching safety videos. Sign offs with photos (ship and or food/bev) for family and coworkers. Deployment of the first of the cruise crabs. Muster check in. Spa appointments for final attitude adjustments for vacation. Sail away prep (unpack, uncork, order warm potato chips on the app, and watch the last of the dock scramble.

My husband left behind his keyless key fob once. It must have been wedged out of sight. Despite contacting lost and found multiple times and it being a unique brand, it was never recovered, which turned into an expensive mistake. The good news is we now put all items into an organizer and then into the safe! We joke that the staff must have a mini museum of lost items somewhere.

Doc Martens have been a classic travel companion and many have no break-in issues. My go to trial pair have zippers so they are a breeze when I forget to put my TSA Pre Check number into a flight booking! i picked a new pair up on on sale for an upcoming cruise and a few test wears went great with no hot spots. They’re waterproof, super stable, and have some grip in case you need it. https://www.drmartens.com/us/en/1460-trinity-waterproof-slip-resistant-boots/p/27861001

An investment in an aggressive, proactive survey of current, former, and potential clients to define the real client target for each of the brands before gently nudging each brand to that target. Princess got shoved in a direction it and it’s current clientele wasn’t quite ready for and they are overlooking a generation of empty nesters who are used to being overlooked but aren’t happy about it. The increasing ship size is also changing what ports can be accessed, which is creating additional challenges for marketing. Crisis communication personnel on each ship, ready to handle major issues like security incidents or health issues and minor issues like missed ports due to weather with similarly clear, effective language. It would save ship personnel from verbal abuse and passengers from frustration due to not knowing what they need to do in some situations. Seriously, that app should be able to blast a notification to passengers, when necessary. Nobody is hanging around their cabin waiting on a paper letter. Smaller groups/fewer motor coaches, experiences truly unique to the port regions, and greater connection cultures with shore excursions. A renewed focus of food quality, technique, and service in all dining rooms and restaurants. Streamlined app that covers all reservations (including spa and salon, meals, excursions, onboard offerings, etc) in the calendar function, feedback function for reviewing meals, shows, etc. (a la most other apps), and gets rid of the casino, games, and other fluff few use that bog the whole thing down. Tighter menus in all dining rooms to improve food quality, menu cohesion, and technical execution. No smoking onboard save for one enclosed venue (not the casino) with fantastic ventilation.

I am a huge Doc Marten devotee for travel and they have some great waterproof pairs that are also slip resistant for early season Alaska voyages. The boots last virtually forever, are incredibly stable the insoles are replaceable/interchangeable, and many pair are lightweight with little to no break in period… and they are timelessly cool.

This was a special event (PR escapade, really) and not your typical vow renewal.

We thoroughly enjoyed our B2B that were two seven day trips in the same cabin. We didn’t have to disembark so we had fun hiding out on our balcony with coffee watching the disembarkation shuffle. None of our shows were repeated so perhaps we were just lucky.

👻 Methinks autocorrect has you sailing on a pirate ship!