roadster08

If wine is important, premier is best  but for a modest upcharge  you can get a glass of premier wines on plus. 

Of course  that assumes they don't "run out" of the premier wines everyone wants. 

On 4/11/2023 at 11:26 AM, wowzz said:

Interestingly, when in a queue last night, an American actually said he was sorry that he was not wearing a tuxedo, but he was on a long trip, and couldn't pack everything.

Personally, I thought he looked great - jacket, smart shirt, no shorts, and told him so.

The thing is, I think that if you make an effort, that is all that is required. If you wear the same clothes as you wore on the beach all day, then that shows a lack of respect.

Wowz, you know I love you like family, but you really need to get over this disrespect thing you have going over dress codes. 

When an American wants to disrespect you, he doesn't do it by wearing shorts, that's way too subtle. 

When disrespecting someone, it's critical that they and everyone around them knows it. Typically it's verbal with a lot of side-to-side head movement and hands on hips during the delivery. 

Gelato is great but if Princess really wanted to up their game they would add a true Italian pastry shop in the Piazza. 

21 hours ago, eclue said:

We would never carry our passport ( except when required as in Alaska to the Yukon)..We have laminated copies of our passports and carry them. American passports are worth a lot of money in some places.

A criminal can also sell passport data on the Dark Web from a copy.  

This keeps coming up because cultural differences won't allow it to be resolved.

We Americans break rules because it's often the start to secular change. Before the American Revolution tea was dumped in Boston harbor. Before civil rights an unassuming black woman refused to move to the back of the bus and young black men sat in the white section of the lunch counter.

We dress up when we have something to celebrate. It's weird to dress up without purpose. The formal dress rules are weird too. Why are long pants formal and short pants not? Why are top hats formal but baseball caps not? Some caps are OK, however. Would the Pope be denied entry to the Princess MDR unless he removed his cap? 

Who elected those who set these arbitrary standards that are mindlessly followed? 

You are cruising in North America. Business casual will be fine on formal nights. 

7 minutes ago, EDDY0827 said:

The plans start when you first board until the morning of the last day when you disembark.

Maybe. If you sail out of Galveston, TX it doesn't begin until you leave the Texas territorial waters. Why? Because in Texas its illegal to offer services that are determined to encourage overconsumption of alcohol. 

Don't look at it as missing 2 port days, think of it as 2 extra days for cardio. 

As you figured out,  pacing over several hours is key to enjoying a full blown Italian meal. They are designed to be shared on Sundays and special occasions at a big table with lots of story telling,  joking and ribbing. 

10 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Our reservation is at 5:40 each night. We showed up a couple minutes late on night 1 (still unpacking) and a few minutes early tonight since it was formal night and the dining rooms were going to be more crowded. Both nights we have been in and out by 7:00, which is perfect as the main show first seating is at 7:30. Gives me plenty of time to go in, get some decent seats, get us drinks at Wheelhouse, and come back to (hopefully) enjoy the shows. If you like to dine a little later, I would say 7:00-7:20 would probably be a decent time to make the 9:30 showtime since it would be a little busier and thus take longer. 

 

We requested a private table for two but you have the option to share. We are both pretty introverted and keep to ourselves so that’s definitely not for us but a lot seem to enjoy that social aspect so it is a popular option. 

The main reason why we like to share tables with other guests is because we like to find out where they live and exchange ideas on what makes the places we are all from special.  Also, exchange ideas on fun places we have all visited. You are from the Hill country and I am sure many people would be interested in your tips on what would be fun things to do there.

Those conversations have added to the enjoyment of our vacations. You might want to give it a try and see if it works for you too.

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

The Plus and Premier package elements are considered onboard revenue, just purchased pre-cruise.

 

Of course those who purchase drinks and Internet and tips pre-cruise would normally have little to pay post-cruise from onboard purchases.

 

Cruise lines have found that psychologically people who expect a very low onboard bill will actually spend more and end up spending more than if they had waited to purchases drinks, Internet and tips until they were on board.

True, and similarly so with casino discounted cruises.

I prefer to surrender my third upfront rather than be turned upside down and have the loose change shaken out of my pockets at every opportunity while onboard.🙂

There is another element to this discussion that is worth mentioning. At least before COVID, cruise lines expected to get 2/3 of their revenue from cabin prices, 1/3 from onboard purchases, and make a net profit on those revenues of between 14 and 18%.

By taking the plus package, you are making it a lot easier on yourself to meet the minimums that cruise lines expect you to pay in total for your cruise. In other words, if you don't take plus, they are going to find other ways to extract that 1/3 from you, on average.

4 hours ago, wowzz said:

So, first formal night.

No shorts in sight, no baseball caps either, but lots of elegant dresses, majority of men in tuxedos,  the rest in suits. Admittedly, I didn't go and see what people were wearing in the buffet, but, for this European cruise, formal cruising is alive and well.

The piazza was buzzing, and full of people in formal clothes. Especially nice to see the children dressed up as well.

As to the dining set up. We had a 20:00 reservation in Soleil. Joined a short queue. Although our reservation was for a table for two, we thought we would be helpful and said we would share.  So, shown to an empty table for eight.  And we sat and sat and sat, whilst people behind us in the queue were shown to tables for two. Eventually the waiter took pity on us, and on his own initiative moved us to a two top. Just sheer nincompoopery.

What is the point of having a table for eight left empty ?

Staff were great, (I always like it when the waiter asks if I want a large glass of wine !) food was pretty good, but the seating arrangements were rubbish. It will  be  interesting to see what happens on quieter, non formal nights.

Thanks for all the comments so far.

Tomorrow, Vigo, and a stroll through the old town. 

Happy to hear your cruise has gotten off to such a fine start. In case you missed it preparing for your cruise,  baseball season began last Friday and millions of new caps are awaiting purchase. 😉

Have a great cruise! I am curious how you would rate the experience of dropping off your car before boarding. Is the parking covered or open? Did they provide transportation to the ship and how was luggage handled after you parked? 

Another tip. Check your pockets too for old food packaging.

One time in New Zealand I bought a meat pie on an excursion and put the paper wrapper in my pocket because there were no trashcans on the street.

When we went through security to leave the ship before our next day excursion, the beagle stopped in front of me and the port security pulled me out of line.

They insisted I was trying to take food off the ship and then I remembered the wrapper in my pocket. I showed them the wrapper and one was very angry with me  thinking I was trying to test their system. Eventually I convinced the other port officer I only had the wrapper in my pocket because there were no trashcans on the street. Otherwise I would likely have been fined. 

4 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Given that I always keep mine in my pocket, and DW keeps hers in pocketbook getting a custom medallion would just be wasted money (for us).

With a custom medallion you might want to show it off; even walk about with a little swagger in your step. 🙂

1 hour ago, david63 said:

I would take a different view. On the basis that Princess refund port charges when a port is missed is not reasonable that when another port is added that passengers should be charged the additional port charges? You can't have it both ways.

And in the same view, cruisers that pay more for their cabins should be more generously credited for their loss when consideration is offered. 

If the cruisers on this thread were in a group therapy session,  the leader would interrupt at this point and say something along the lines of the following.

The feeling of loss can be unbearable for some people. When they reach out, they are not necessarily looking for a solution. Sometimes, they are just looking for a way to stop that painful feeling of loss. Telling them to be rational or every cloud has a silver lining won't help.

What sometimes works is to tell them about a similar situation where the solution ended up being worse than the one they are dealing with. For example, one of you wrote something roughly where you took the $100 credit and won 600 in the casino. Better would have been to say you took the 100 and used it to lose 600 in the casino. The person dealing with loss would think well at least my situation is not that bad. 

2 hours ago, Cbtours said:

Only if you’re in my cruise otherwise I’ll be front of queue though I’ve never used laundry tokens, and since we became elite, I’ve been very happy with the free laundry service, everything has been fine, ironing done better than I ever could, nothing shrunk, stretched etc. 😁

Do they use bleach? 

25 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I'm going to take a wild guess.   The ocean??  😎

Ha. Ok, I'll elaborate.

Since getting older, I'm more aware of what I eat. Unfortunately, not all countries have the rules we take for granted in the US. For example, China and India are not only the 2 largest producers of DDT, they permit it for agricultural use. Spray the crops, runoff ends up in the water, you can take it from there.

I'm not saying the food from certain countries is unhealthy, just for me it's not worth the risk. 

As an American with Neapolitan and Bari roots, I am impressed by this menu. It has a diversity of dishes from across Italy.

I would be happy to order just about anything on that menu. The only thing I might hesitate on would be the shellfish because I would want to know where it was sourced from.

5 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

The Embruix, Spellbound and the Malbec were gone a few days into our voyage.  How can you run out of Malbec while in Argentina!  All of their wine shipments have been coming from Ft Lauderdale or LA. Crazy!!!

When the margins disappear, so will those wines unfortunately.

I looked up a few of the wines on your Vines menu and they looked much more interesting than the ones I saw listed on another post for a different venue. The other wines were the type you would expect to find at a sorority social. 

Since this is your first visit to Australia I'll give you a little tip. On land, the Australians like to have a toggle switch on their electrical outlets that they switch to off when it is not in use.

If you plug something into an outlet and it doesn't work, flip the switch on the outlet and voila.