sunshine nana

Are there large balconies for any of the minis on Carribbean Princess like there are on Emerald and Crown? Thanks

I tried to check in for our March cruise today and kept getting the oops. I called and the rep said we could still board if we did not check in. Can someone confirm that? We will be making a stop in Cozumu. I hope it is true.

When we disembarked from our Silly cruise last Sept., the hall was full of unopened bottles of champagne.

Have you looked at the "ports" section of CC? Go to Europe and then you will find a lot of info. As for what we did, I had read "The Potato Peel Society " book about the occupation during WWII, so we found a wonderful museum privately owned that was started by a man at the end of the occupation. There are also several other places to view. We got there via a bus that went around the entire island, but if we go back, we will take a taxi since we ran out of time. Check the cruise lines excursions. Princess had one to the museum, but doing on our own saved money.

We leave the auto tips in place. In addition, we gave our first butler for our S1 $50 more because he really looked out for us. He set up our breakfast with table cloth etc., brought scrimp every day for me along with ice tea and brought DH goodies without sugar every day. He made sure we had clean wine glasses etc. The second butler did none of the above. Even when asked, he would not bring ice tea or wine glasses. He set the breakfast tray down and left.He got no extra tip and in my opinion, he did not deserve more than $2 per day for the breakfast tray plop down.

We have always tipped the steward and his/her assistant an extra $20. Also, when we have eaten at the same table for dinner, we tipped the waiter, assistant and wine person an extra $10-30.

DH does not like any kind of complaining, so I let it go. The MDR food (we had early traditional) was great.

Thanks for the heads up on the Tuscan Grill. We will probably not go there. We were disappointed in the Grill on Silly in Sept.. DH had loved the filet on our Equinox cruise, but it was not good on Silly. Also, my lobster tail was not good. I asked the waiter to not put all the extras on top and he still did. Since we did not pay because we were in an S1, but did not complain. We did tell our waiter in the MDR that his food and service were better. We will try to Oceans since we have a lot of OBC.

I know you must be disappointed to miss Athens on a Greek cruise. Thanks for the heads up that your TA did not pass on the message. I will check our cruises more carefully from now on as we book with the same TA.

We have been in an S1 on Silly and Equinox, but on a cabin crawl, we saw all the bigger suites. We have now booked a Celebrity Suite for a 5 night cruise. I honestly did not think 2 of us needed any more space. The main reason I booked it was to have a separate bedroom. It includes all of the perks of RS and PH except the booze and as we drink wine only and have the bev. package, we won't need that. I think the CS is much less money and plenty of room unless you are planning to have a big party.

We have the same problem as you do. We took the UK cruise from London on Princess 4 years ago and it was a great cruise! We want to do it again from London, but the reviews of the Royal do not sound good. DH likes to sit on the balcony of a mini-suite and the size of the balconies on the Royal sound terrible.

We love Celebrity and would rather do UK on Celebrity, but do not want to start and end in Amsterdam.

I am waiting to see if the 2016 Princess cruises from London are on the Emerald or Crown instead of Royal. Or if Royal is used, maybe we can book early and get one of the few minis with a larger balcony.

I really wish Celebrity would do one UK starting in London.

Thanks for the replies. I will check when we board.

Loved your review and reliving our Adriatic cruise this past Sept. We had no problem and saw no protestors in Venice. We were in Venice in May of 2010 and it was cold and rainy, but this time it was nice until all of a sudden at 7pm it poured hard! We gave ourselves a sea day in Ravenna and didn't think we missed much. We loved Kotor also. We stopped in Koper and it was the only day it was cold and rainy. We loved Split also. Our cruise stopped in Malta which we really liked. Thanks!

I have read some people say they ate lunch in a specialty restaurant. We will be on Connie for a 5 day out of FLL in March and I'm wondering which specialties will be open for lunch and which days? What is the price? Also, do we need reservations? Thanks.

After a bad experience with our bags not in the correct area, we take our own bags off after each cruise. We pack lightly and can carry them ourselves.

I asked point blank if the cruise had been chartered because I had read it on CC and was told "NO". Also, people who found out which online TA was selling the cabins for the chartered cruise were able to book it. I would say it was not canceled, but was chartered. Anyone who knew which TA was booking could get a cabin as it became a fund-raiser. It was not a specific organization you had to belong to. In the end, even the charter was canceled. Princess disappointed the original booked customers and the chartered customers.

I wrote about our May 2015 cruise being "canceled", but really chartered and how disappointed I was that Princess lied about it at first.They said it was canceled. We had bought train tickets to come home from Vancouver after the cruise that could not be changed. We were able to cancel hotel res. and had not bought plane tickets. Princess did give us $15 for our trouble which has now disappeared from our account.I know it can happen with other lines, but the lying by Princess was bad. Also, I think Princess does it more than others. We tried Celebrity for the first time in 2012 (and loved it!) after a Ruby cruise dropped Istanbul AFTER final payment but well before the cruise embarked meaning it was not weather or mechanical. Beware.

We met a couple on our Baltic cruise that asked for and got a guaranteed 6 pm window table for 2 for the whole cruise because by the time they booked their suite, all the traditional 6 pm window table for 2 were taken. We were anytime, but ate a 6 every night and sat next to or near them because we asked for the same great wait staff. Can't hurt to ask. BTW, they had been on 30 Princesses cruises.

We were in an S1 on Silly this past Sept. and therefore could have eaten in Blu, but we had a great window table in traditional MDR and a great wait staff. I checked the menus every day and we never ate in Blu. We ate 2 nights in specialties and the rest in the MDR where the food and service were great!

Thanks for the review. I too am surprising DH with a Celebrity Suite. I think he will really like it. I know he will miss the aft balcony, but I think MC will make up for it. I know he will like being escorted there at embarkation. We will probably not have an Celebrity suite for our longer more port intensive trips, but this cruise in March is only 5 days and we will probably spend more time on the ship than usual.

Thanks Pam for the advice. We kept the train tickets because we booked a one of a kind cabin on the first day the tickets were on sale. We are still taking the train trip, but we were disappointed that Princess chartered the cruise as it would have added a lot to our trip. DH is a train buff, but I love cruising. At least we had not bought our plane tickets or we would have had to sit in Vancouver and pay for a hotel where we have already visited for 3 days waiting for the train. The worst part was that Princess said the cruise was canceled when it was really chartered. Then they let new people buy the charter cabins and then they were dumped also. Live and learn.

I was one of the ones who was upset. (not crazy). We booked a 3 day round trip from Vancouver with a paid for train trip back to Toronto after the cruise. Then it was "canceled", but really chartered. After finding out the truth on CC, I was finally able to find out the one large TA that was booking the charter. Then before I could book, that was supposedly canceled.

Our train tickets are not refundable, so we could not change dates, Princess lied about the "cancel, really chartered" and when I called, they gave us $15!!!!! That has since disappeared .At least we had not bought the plane tickets yet. We are still doing the train trip, but I do not trust Princess any more. We have taken 5 Princess cruises and enjoyed all of them, but...

Princess has been the only line to do a partial of the Panama Canal. We loved it on the Coral. That itinerary avoided a long and expensive plane trip. We also really liked the Princess itinerary around the UK because it started and ended in Southampton, not Amsterdam.

We also took NCL for the itinerary around Hawaii without having to cross the Pacific to take it. I would only go on NCL in a suite and would plan to eat in the specialties or buffet every night.

We weren't even that close to the elevator on a 2009 cruise from Copenhagen and because it was July, there were a lot of teens or 20 something's that hung out in the hall near the elevators who were very loud. There were also several couples who had the aft suites, but their children were in the cabins down the hall next to us. The kids who were very young were left unsupervised most of the time. For that reason, we have avoided being anywhere near the elevators and do not do summer cruises if we have a choice.

I hope you get a great butler. If not, complain quickly. We had a wonderful butler on the Equinox in 2012 and a poor one on Silhouette this past September. He should set up a nice table with linen for any meal in your cabin, bring what you request for the afternoon tea, check your cabin for needed wine glasses, ice etc. and make any reservations you request. You are paying extra gratuities for him as well as more for the cabin. You will love the S1!

We did Guernsey on our own. Have you read The Potato Peel Society? It is about the WWII occupation. There is a private museum that has a very interesting display and explanation of what happened. We took the bus there. It was a little hard to find and we did not have enough time to see it all since we got to the port late. We are going back and this time we will take a taxi directly to the museum to have enough time.