sunviking90

The orange souffle is always my test soufflé for the cruise. If it’s a good tall one, I know they know how to do it, and I can safely order more soufflés through my cruise!

True. I’m 58 and I would love that. Much more than the boomer 70s music

I see. Makes sense.

Regardless of the numbers, my PVP posted the top deals of the week on her social media page and that sailing is on it. If you are really interested in it, there is a much better price available. The special price below actually comes up for me when I search this sailing, BUT you’re right, that it is over 2x the price to pick your own cabin.

Things may have changed. My TA forwarded the upsell email to me a few days ago, and the wording to the TA clearly says, “Enhance your clients cruise and increase your commission with this offer”. I thought it was too much and offered a reasonable counter. They declined. We are still almost 4 weeks to sail date so hopefully another one will come.

I agree plenty of the 30+ Marriott brands have microwaves. We always stay in Marriott brands to try and maintain our perks, and have stayed in these outside of the larger cities, but I haven’t seen one recently in a full service Marriott hotel (not a Fairfield, Residence inn, etc) that has restaurants and room service. It sounds like you’ve found some. They even seem to be taking out some of the desk areas with the new renovations. As long as they leave the coffee makers alone I’m happy! I don’t need popcorn, but I do need coffee.

We bid on (and won) on a 5 night cruise. It doesn’t matter what the length is.

My experience is that the more you pay, the less they provide, lol. I think they usually have a few that can be requested for special circumstances like heating up formula, etc.

Yes, you’ll have a production show. Often it will be on the dressy night which will be the sea day. We don’t usually get off the ship in Ensenada, but there is quite a large pedestrian area at the port. We were there on a holiday weekend once and there seemed to be family events going on.

Any hotel above a 3 star would be considered “Full Service” and won’t have microwaves in the rooms. You won’t walk down the hall of a Fairmont or even an Marriott and smell food being microwaved. Only the Hampton Inn type places, Courtyards, suite hotels, down to lower budget hotels will have them. I would think HAL considers themselves Full Service.

It started to work for me about 2 hours after I posted, so hopefully all is well now. Oh, and I use the term “work” loosely, meaning it is operating with all the usual glitches.

Is anyone else having problems? I can’t log in with either of our accounts and if I try to look at a cruise itinerary it doesn’t load.

This restriction must be new for British Columbia. We bought it for our first post Covid cruise in January 2022 and Quebec was the only Canadian restriction at that time.

Enjoying your trip report. We were on the Crown in June and really enjoyed her. I also thought we were the only ones who spent our evenings watching Love Boat episodes! Who knew?

Agree with this completely. This would be my deciding factor.

I think this will likely get a lot of people to book now, which is what they want. It doesn’t make sense though. Empty cabins, just like empty airplane seats cost money. It is sort of like a store bringing in winter coats in September and promising that is the best price and not to wait for discounts. Are they not going to reduce in February when they are stuck with inventory? Even stores that don’t generally have “sales” will reduce to clear at the end. Maybe they’ve decided if they can fill the ship 80-90% at full price, they can let those cabins go empty, but I doubt it.

I agree that you should at least attempt to claim this through your travel insurance. I will warn you though, insurance will usually classify a dental accident as something (another body, pavement, hockey stick, etc) hitting your tooth. The tooth breaking ( or in this case the implant) from something you put in your mouth even unknowingly won’t usually qualify. I am a retired dental office manager and dealt with a few of these claims. I hope you get something from Princess that will at least help with your costs. Your story reminded me a bit of an incident with a patient of ours who was out to dinner with 10 friends. She broke a crown that had been placed only 2 years before while biting into something that should not have been there. The restaurant in an attempt to make it right comped the meal and drinks for the entire party. Nice for them, but it didn’t pay for her tooth to be repaired. Her insurance wouldn’t pay either as the crown was only 2 years old, so she was out of luck.

Join the rewards/loyalty programs for Pan Pacific and Fairmont (Accor) and you’ll also get 10% off generally.

Fairmont (Accor) usually has a Black Friday sale offering 20% off of Fairmont gift cards. Would help with your costs if you’re set on a Fairmont. Vancouver is very expensive in high (cruise) season, but there are a lot of options for 4/5* hotels in the downtown area. Taxis also have a flat rate from YVR to downtown of $41, so this is one place where Princess transfers are really not needed.

Still following your blog and really enjoying it. I really appreciate that you address the environmental effects of cruising. This is something that I also struggle with. We try to do everything we can at home to minimize our environmental impact, and having worked hard to enjoy more cruises in retirement it’s hard to think of giving it up.

They are returning. On the Majestic Princess (much newer ship than Crown our minisuite had one. I was surprised.

Those steamer chairs look great. My favourite thing on a HAL ship! I see they have covered them with light fabric. I wonder about the wisdom of this. We saw the same thing on the Zuiderdam last year but they were light striped fabric. So many marks and stains showing that they really didn’t look very good. I get that they probably wanted a lighter look to go with the refurbished interiors, but the old dark blue or dark red fabrics were much more practical.

That’s pretty funny. The whole point of an app is that it’s supposed to be easy and simple to use. Any app that needs an hour class of instruction needs an overhaul.

Completely agree about the RSV. We were in Europe for a couple of weeks last fall before our TA and happened to hit London when all the European schools were on a 2 week break. I remember riding the tube the first day being the only one with a N95 and DH declined masking. I was feeling silly until I realized there were tons of kids on the tube coughing, sneezing, etc. A couple of days later DH started to feel like he had a cold, but right in his lungs. It lasted about 3 weeks, and one night he seemed so I’ll I remember thinking we might have to take him to the hospital! Keep in mind he is 60, and very fit and healthy and that’s how bad it was. It was much worse than Covid for him. Luckily I never got it. We are planning to get all our shots this fall, but I respect others decisions. Just letting you know his experience with it as a healthy adult. Now back to the lighthearted nature of this thread 😊

Good Morning to the Dailyites. We are in Vancouver, but would love to live in Victoria if the stars aligned. It’s a favourite getaway. @Quartzsite Cruiser, this building is finished and is now a very high end condo development. https://customshouse.ca If you’re interested 😉.