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47librarian

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    Old coffee card honored

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    On 2/15/2020 at 3:42 PM, MissP22 said:

    They'll also accept them on the Regal.

    Not the Crown from what I heard lately.

    Glad I kept some of mine. Maybe I should put them back up on eBay. 😉

    They accepted mine on the Crown two weeks ago. I used three of the fifteen so they allowed $2.00 per punch left and credited $24.00 to my medallion!

    Paradise Cuba cruise

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    On 5/2/2019 at 5:44 PM, DannyNJ said:

    Just finished a 5 day cruise to Key West and Cuba on the Carnival Paradise. Overall, nice cruise, with my wife and nine other friends. Some observatrions in order of occurrence:

    1. Tampa is an easy port to depart from, this might be the first time I ever walked into the terminal, went directly to the counter, took a few minutes to register, etc., and walked onto the ship without ever sitting or standing/waiting (except the few minutes at the counter checking in). Had an 11:30 appt., arrived at 11:15, was onboard by 11:30. Nice!

    2. We had a suite (U97), and it was fine. Rooms available at 1:30 per posting, but after having lunch at the buffet, we noticed a few people opening the closed corridor doors and accessing the rooms, so we followed. By 1:30, our bags had been delivered and we were unpacked and back on the deck. 

    3. The muster drill was 3:15, and it was very poorly run. We arrived at our station before 3:15 (casino) and sat down. Then we were told we weren't allowed to sit down as they were saving all the chairs for handicaps. We were lined up like soldiers, and staff paraded back and forth like my old drill sargeant telling us to stand straight and not to look at our smart phones. As we waited, more and more people came in and many took seats, though not handicapped. After 30 minutes, with nothing having happended except all of us being scanned onto IPads, they started searching for missing people whilke we all waited. Eventually all missing guests were located and we started the actual muster drill. I've been on 27 cruises, and never saw anything like this. I guess things have gotten tougher?

    4. Food was fine for us, we are not very fussy. We ate dinner in the Elation dining room and found meals to be good with many choices. Service though was slow, two hours per dinner, and we generally eat quickly but there was much waiting between courses. The "dinner shows" were silly in my view. We ate breakfast in the buffet dining room, all good, and lunch either at the deck burger place (great burgers!) or in the buffet. Pizza 24 hours was nice too. Room service was free for some items, charge for others. This is a change for us.

    5. Mel the Cruise Director was terrific! Energetic, and very talented. She did several evening shows in the main lobby (Motown, 80's rock, etc.) and she owned the crowd. Fantastic effort on her part and we all loved it. 

    6. Theatre shows were decent, didn't go to the comedy club shows though

    7. Casino was easy to find tables, liklely because they have bad odds. Craps allowed 2X odds, pretty sad, and Blackjack paid 6/5 on Blackjacks, as low as I've ever seen. Automatic continuous shuffle machines aren't great for players either. Poker table was unused the entire cruise, and I went there every day or night the casino was open looking to play. Disappointed as I wanted to play Texas Holdem, no joy. 

    8. Key West was, well, Key West. We did a Helicopter tour which was great. The ships helicopter offering was 12 minutes in the air, we called a local company (turned out to be the same helicopter company the cruise line used) and got a 30 minute tour for about the same price. We even were taken to the airport with cruise booked guests in the same van. 

    9. Havana was awesome. The port stay was from 8:00 AM to 2:00 AM, quite long! Despite our fears for a delayed immigration process, we basically walked off the ship and through customs in minutes, no lines. We booked a tour with an individual tour guide who arranged our classic car tour in the morning (three hours), then lunch in a great little Cuban cafe, then a van tour for 4 hours to finish the afternoon. So much to see. We decided we were tired so we went back on the ship before 6 PM, and relaxed. There was virtually nothing to do on the ship for the evening except Karaoke. I was surprised they didn't even have things like trivia contests, etc. And there were many guests who were wandering around looking bored

    10. The Cuban people were very friendly and we had no issues throughout the day. It is safe, and it's a shame the country is still relatively difficult to visit. 

    11. Disembarkation at Tampa was pretty good, though the cruise staff managed to make it harder than necessary by requiring us all to walk all around the 7th floor to form one line to exit. Not a big deal, but I'm not sure who dreams this stuff up.

     

    All in all, a good cruise. We've been on the Paradise before, and though old, it's a nice ship. They don't treat suite guests like VIP's which was surprising though we aren't demanding of that, but essentially you purchased a larger room, not VIP treatment. The cruise staff were all friendly (except when they are doing muster drills!) and the ride was as smooth as I've ever had on a cruise ship. We did have to shorten our last day to rush back to port arriving around midnight due to a medisacl emergency, which forced all stores and the casino to close at 11 PM, but that is understandable. Bottom line, Carnival did a good job, though we still prefer Royal Caribbeak and Princess

     

    What cafe did you eat in for lunch in Havana? TIA

     

    Alaskan land tour questions

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    Hi, I'm doing a land and sea tour in May. Our land tour starts on the 17th at the princess Fairbanks lodge, and our flight gets in at 12:47am (so technically the 18th). Are we still able to tag our luggage and set it out for pickup at this early hour? It looks like every flight (at least for us) got into Fairbanks around midnight or later. Have any of you experienced flying in early morning, getting a few hours sleep and then heading out on your land tour? Any advice welcome. Thanks

     

    I too am doing a land cruise trip in July. We arrive around midnight so we booked a night at the hotel where we will be staying. It seemed like the easiest thing to do. No place to leave your luggage until morning so it beats hanging around the airport for 8 hours!

    Elite/Plat Nightly Event

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    On the Crown in January and they told us only the drink of the night. We saw others getting a choice of $5. drinks. Asked the waiter and she said she would have to o.k. it with supervisor. I wish they would offer all 6 drinks each night.

     

    The ships that I have been on have allowed us to get any of the specials for $5.00 any night....but that has been on longer cruises.

    Lima Daily Tours

    in South America

    Posted

    but we have them booked. they have a great site and great prices and were really prompt to deal with. guess time will tell. we are on the march 1/14 sailing, probably same one:) martha

     

    I was wondering if you have room for two for your two day Lima tour or can we be put on a waitlist? Thanks

    Donna and Ann( 47 librarian)

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