chisoxfan

Well said. We typically leave a tip for our room steward but do not feel it necessary nor should one hang their head in shame for not tipping above the required daily amount. Being thoughtful, respectful, making reasonable (if any) requests, keeping the room orderly (in the case of the room attendant), and mentioning great service in the all powerful survey should be adequate to make one feel like a solid passenger.

Not interested in 'small ship' cruising but understand while you may like it. Attraction for us is cruise is on Nieuw Statendam relatively new HAL ship and will be 'easy' extension of other cruise from Dover. We did not want to cruise from Bergen or Rotterdam. Some fiord cruising for us is good. We are still ambivalent on this cruise but it makes sense as an 'easy' option. THX

Not sure what that means (not being argumentative). Apparently there is some fiord cruising which I find interesting. My concern is that none of the ports look that interesting although we will cross Arctic circle. We had planned this as a follow up cruise on Nieuw Statendam from Dover. Please feel free to enlighten me regarding any negatives to this itinerary as to me it looks similar to those offered by other mainsteam lines (perhaps better since the HAL cruise we looked at this year had no fiord cruising). Thanks.

We booked a 14 night HAL in May 2026. Prices were reasonable and their Club Orange allows dining in a designated DR and upgrading cabin (in our case obstructed balcony to aft balcony). I am concerned about how 'interesting' this cruise will be but this cruise is a follow up from Dover on a 15 night UK cruise. Good luck.

I can only respond with a quote from the union steward when I was working over the summer in a steel mill and making what I thought was an exorbitant wage: 'Slow down college boy you are making us all look bad'.

Thought this glitch had been fixed. We were on Sun in Jan. with 'original premier' and when we tried to book dining were required to pay for it and promised we would get resulting OBC. We wound up cancelling this cruise and rebooked a week later and had a suite and new premier (unlimited dining) and when we tried to book specialty dining message appeared 'you need to be in suite or elite' and we were both. After many call to Princess they finally squared this away and booking did not require any payment (availablity for us was OK except for Teppanyaki which is sold out for complete week. I think the answer is Princess has no idea what they are doing and one will have to weather the storm of customer service to achieve what you should simply be able to do in the app. Agree that unlimited dining will only put more stress on an already flawed system.

Downloaded the app last night and educated myself regarding the 'process' and also read MANY complaints on line. I get that for some/many the system works(or eventually works). I refuse to see how it is better/faster than the old system which was print/scan/edit/ send statement. You could always resend if you did not hear back quickly and I had no issue ever with this. First of all a version still isn't avaliable on windows or mac which is more comfortable for many of us. Secondly I cannot imagine sending my broker account link to these people (through Plaid) which is 'recommended'. So now I have to download the app/ familiarize myself with it to send a pic or pdf which I may do once or twice a year and do it through my phone. Obviously Princess is doing this for their convenience not their customers. I have no choice but to spend time on this if I want the OBC. I will be happy to report favorably if it works well but I have already invested more time learning about the app, downloading it, figuring out how to send edited brokerage page and that is before sending anything. My cruise is in Jan so I will have to wait until Nov. Dec. (not the app's fault). Maybe they will supply Windows or Mac version (promised for this summer) before I need to do battle. JMHO

People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. Isaac Asimov

Ah... too young to understand. When you added the quote from a concentration camp survivor as a PS to your original post that only incuded the 'platitudes' about attitude you initially posted you imply that I labeled Dr. Frankl's subsequent quote as a meaningless 'platitude' . Very deceiving and condenscending. Why any of this should be raised in a simple CC post on putting a handmade 'Priority' sign in a car I do not comprehend. I feel the sign is pretentious and silly but you have every right to do so (as you have the right to wear bright neon clothing). As far as being too young... I am a very senior citizen and will wager I travel with more experienced bags than you (although thankfully not so many). I have leather French bags made in the US 30-35 years ago (as well as some newer 15 year old Bric's bags) and I receive compliments about them even without attaching a large tag proclaiming their age. Hopefully we can cease and desist regarding this topic and I sincerely hope your sign brings you safely to the YC tent on all of your future cruises.

Appreciate the life coaching platitudes but too late for me (I concluded that any saying on numerous coffee mugs, cheap office art, or bumper stickers probably doesn't offer deep wisdom or a life path). To reciprocate and offer my humble suggestion I would suggest you put this sticker on your 12 pieces of luggage:

Sometimes life sure is tough.

We are big C fans but never bought gas there. Always a line.... if it takes 20 min in line to save 5 bucks I would rather skip the aggravation. And that is if I go to Costco anyway.... if you have to drive there you figure the cost of gas and it makes less sense IMHO. I think high pricing in food, gas, insurance has numbed us down. Three years ago a 15% increase in insurance had me scrambling for new coverage....now I call my agent and thank him for still considering me worthy

Agree with comment that third party insurance is easy and probably better. Insure my Trip great and Foursqare good. Just tried Trip Insurance and things were quite a bit higher (we were seeking med and evac only). Web site was wonky (Not sure how amateurish and excellent fit in the same description). A few thoughts.....1) do you need trip cancellation at all? Insurance is supposed to cover financial impacting events and while I would hardly be happy over the loss on a cruise that has already been paid for (you would still get taxes, fees, excursions, etc. back) it isn't a life changer. Do you insure a car worth 10k for collision-probably not a sound idea. We make sure we are covered for evac and medical which is where the potential big money lies (analogy to liability on auto). 2) there is great and 'free' trip cancellation out there on credit cards. Chase Sappire Pref at 95$ a year covers trip cancellation (and luggage and trip interuption and delay.. My new Chase IHG card has it as does Chase Hyatt, AMEX Plat and Venture X. Using a CC with trip cancellation one needs to focus on evacuation and medical (AMEX Plat and Sapphire Reserve have this b ut are high fee cards) which is amazingly cheap. For two weeks upcoming coverage (which is greater than Princess Platinum) is 66 bucks. We paid 20 bucks for a one week cruise last Jan with a Warren Buffet insurance company. There is no one size fits all but I would urge to at least examine trip cancellation using a CC and then using third party to cover all important med and evacuation.

You're kidding right? If I am going to go to the trouble of making signs to put into my vehicle I am going to use 'EXALTED'. Then again I better make sure to get a stretch limo to make sure my status is acknowledged properly.

Notwithstanding the taboo of changing a ship's name I agree with you and nominate "Surprise Princess" as the new moniker beginning for Caribbean cruises. This rolls off the tongue better than Mysterious Princess, Evolving Princess, or Exiled Princess.