dara90210

I always look at the menu and pick the most expensive one I can get with the drink package.  Usually it's Patron Silver (at least on Princess which is the line my last several cruises have been on), some times one bar will stock Patron Reposado.  Ordered over ice with a couple limes and I'm a happy camper!

32 minutes ago, tinaclose said:

I went to the Mar 7  Equinox Cruise and it’s under Dining:  Special Event - Progressive Lunch - Tuscan Grill. 
 

it’s not something you can pre-book. 

When I go to the app and go to dining, it just says "We're putting the finishing touches on your cruise. Check back for updated information."  I'll keep looking! That sounds like it might be fun.

Where did you find this in the app?

Fe Fe and the Sentiments were on our March 2019 Grand Princess 10 day Mexican Riviera out of San Francisco cruise and they were great fun!

On the Silhouette in 2015, my husband fell in love with some white chocolate chip cookies on like day 2.  Everyday we searched the buffet and any where that had cookies looking for these cookies.  On the last sea day we went to the Top Chef contest/cooking demonstration with the head chef.  After the demonstration was over, hubby walked up to the head chef and asked about the cookies and where he could get them.  The chef was like we make them every day, they should be anywhere you can find a cookie.  Hubby told him he'd searched high and low.  The chef took down our room number and later that day we returned to our room to find a room service domed plate of at least two dozen white chocolate cookies waiting for us.  Another example of great service on Celebrity! 

We travel a lot with my parents and Princess is their favored line.  We all agree that the food on Celebrity was consistently the best we've ever had at sea.  My parents aren't buffet people and will chose breakfast and lunch in the MDR normally.  On Celebrity they chose to eat in the buffet for breakfast and lunch daily.  Husband liked the full salad bar and deli sandwich station.  I think he had an egg salad or tuna sandwich every day with a big salad.  He also enjoyed the eggs Benedict station during breakfast as he likes his eggs more done.  We all agreed that Celebrity had the best pizza.  We are very much looking forward to our March 7, 2020 Equinox cruise.  

Hubby and I also returned to Carnival after 11 years this past November.  We cruised the Mexican Riviera on the Miracle.  We had no reason for going away from Carnival other than we travel a lot with my parents and their preferred lines are Princess and Celebrity. We had a great time. It was easy to compare our experiences with other lines and past with Carnival and each line has their own pros and cons.    We enjoyed the evening shows and comedy shows.  We almost never go to the shows on Princess as they are cringe-worthy bad and awkward (like very, very Caucasian people singing a Motown extravaganza, etc., and the disco dancing one--oof!). The evening production shows were a pleasant surprise for us.  Husband really enjoyed the MDR food, while my experience was more miss than hit, but there's always something to eat somewhere so I didn't go hungry. We both agree that the steakhouse was the best steakhouse meal we've had across 11 cruises and that we set the bar too high by eating there the first night to take advantage of the free bottle of wine.  We had the most fun in the casino than we'd had on any other cruise too.  We didn't take extra money home with us but we won enough to keep playing for quite a while and I received a Premier Cruise offer before we even disembarked!  We would not hesitate to book Carnival again in the future.

On 12/6/2019 at 10:45 AM, XBGuy said:

Since you are interested in food.

 

A few people have mentioned the Winemaker's Dinner.  On our Royal Princess cruise in September, that event took the form of a Super Tuscan Dinner held in the Sabatini's room.  That was the the culinary highight of our 12-day cruise (which also included the Chef's Table Luminiere).  Multiple excellent courses each paired with an Italiian wine.  Actually, not all the wines were Super Tuscans--a Prosecco was handed to us as we entered, then a Sardinian white with the appeztizer, then Super Tuscan reds with the next three courses (a soup, a rissotto and a steak) and a lemoncello with dessert.

 

We learned about this dinner while bantering with the headwaiter, Franco, on our first visit to Sabatini''s on Day 2 of the cruise.  He and I had a great time discussing wines.  So, he asked if we would be interested in this $60 pp event.  It did not even take a millisecond for me to agree, and he signed us up.

 

On the night of the event, Sabatini's was closed to other passengers.  When we were taken to our table by Franco, my wife was absolutely thrilled with the corner table next to a sea view window that was assigned to us.

That sounds amazing!

Our niece bought it for her family on our Alaska 2017 cruise.  It was well worth it for all the photos she got.  We usually never stop when getting off the ship for the cheesy photo ops, but since she had the package we stopped for all of them.  

Bring a bottle of hand soap (maybe two if your cruise is longer than seven days).  So much better than a wet bar of soap sticking to the bathroom counter!

I noticed that for our Miracle sailing in November  the spa was booking appointments on the first day too and I thought it was odd.

We are booked on the Miracle in November and can't wait.  Our prior Carnival cruises have been on the Sprint (LOVE IT) and the Splendor (Meh.).  

We were on the Island for a partial Panama Canal transit in April 2017 (over Easter).  We LOVED the ship and the cruise.  I was nervous going in because I'd read so many terrible reviews. Hubby and I were traveling with my parents, and his mom and his Aunt.  The Aunt can be cantankerous and makes it known when she is displeased.  My MIL and her sister were in an aft cabin (not on the promenade deck) and LOVED their cabin.  It was one of the newly added ones.  I saw it and I also thought it was nice.  Hubby and I and my parents had neighboring mini-suites, I think on Dolphin, and enjoyed them as well.  While there is no International Cafe, there is a coffee bar in the Piazza and I think I remember there being pastries.  After our breakfast mornings we adorned to the coffee bar for after breakfast lattes, so we weren't looking for food (yet).  We liked the buffet layout, it was bright, clean and open and there was a good selection of desserts and sweets.  Didn't notice congestion issues during peak times like on the Ruby and Emerald.  The covered pool pictured in this thread with the tiki/Buddha theme is adults only, if I remember correctly and so are the loungers in the area surrounding it.  It seemed to be the best place on the ship for a nap because mostly everyone in a lounger was snoozing.  That pool was deep and very nice.

On 9/9/2019 at 2:53 PM, jondfk said:

Oh, and I've been told repeatedly that shorts are permitted (not encouraged but permitted) first night / last night to accommodate those who may not have received their luggage / have already packed their luggage. I'll be testing this myself in a couple weeks on Royal. . . 

 

 

Our waitress on the Grand in March told us shorts are okay in the MDR on first and last nights, as well as port nights.  My husband was ecstatic.

I also say Celebrity first , BUT since you said you're looking for some additional sea days, how about one of Princesses 10 day itineraries?  We've done one 10 day to Mexico out of LA on the Ruby Princess, one 10 day Mexico out of San Francisco on the Grand Princess, and one 10 day partial Panama Canal Transit out of Ft. Lauderdale on the Island Princess.  Love the 10 day itineraries!

We did ATD for the first time on the Grand in March 2019.  We were traveling with my parents and usually would do early seating in the MDR, but the change to early seating being 5 p.m. was too early for all of us, so we decided to try ATD.  We went to the Crown Grill on the first night since it was hubby and my wedding anniversary.  On night two, we went to ATD around 5:30/5:45.  Walked right up and got seated right away.  Had a WONDERFUL team of Janelle and Maurice from the Philippines.  Janelle's husband worked one section over and it was fun to tease her and watch her wave to him as she was talking about 'her handsome".  After dinner the first night in ATD, my husband stopped and talked to one of the head waiters and asked what we could to, if anything, to always be seated in Janelle and Maurice's section.  He told us that as long as we showed up before 6 every night and promised to let them know if we weren't going to eat in the dining room on a particular night, he'd make sure we always got our table.  We communicated the three nights we did not eat in the dining room and he indeed made sure that we sat at the same table in the same section every night.  We had a great experience!

2 hours ago, 2old4this said:

Guests wear their Princess robes to and from the pool?  People drinking out of plastic glasses?  Friends made poolside by you and hubby?  I am really pushy when it comes to asking questions.

We didn't wear the robes, but don't see why you couldn't.  The bar is just up a flight of stairs and there was an occasional server that would wander through and we got plastic glasses, and aluminum cans/bottles of beer.  We also made friends in the pool.  There was kind of a group that was in the pool at the same time each afternoon.

2 hours ago, SiliconCruiser said:

Nothing formal about formal nights.  While I did wear a tux for the Hawaiian cruise, there is certainly no need for it.  You don't really even need a suit or jacket (with or without a tie) as Princess suggests.  And since it is Hawaii, do be aware that Aloha shirts are considered formal business clothing in Hawaii.  They may object to you wearing shorts into the dining room but then again they might not.  I recall wearing shorts into the dining room several times during the Hawaii cruise, on a recent (last week) Baltic cruise, they would only allow men to wear shorts in the dining room on the first and last nights of the cruise.

Our waitress in Anytime Dining told us that shorts are okay on first and last nights and port nights.  This was on a 10-day Mexican Riviera.

35 minutes ago, 2old4this said:

Were you two the only ones using the aft adult pool?  What is there about this pool that makes it for adults only - other than the sign saying so?

It was pretty busy but we were always able to find a spot.  We didn't usually head to the pool until 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  There is only signage about it being adult only.  On all the ships we've been on that have aft adult only pools, I've never seen children in them or children trying to be in them.

We loved the aft adult only pool and spent most afternoons in it.  It wasn't warm enough until the third sea day at the beginning to use it, and we were only able to use it on the port afternoons and first sea day back to San Francisco.  We enjoyed every second we got to use it!

47 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

Contrary to any information (or misinformation) that you might get from Princess, you can usually start boarding around 11AM.  If you get on board early and can drop your carry-on bag in your stateroom, you can go to the DaVinci  dining room for a sit down lunch (ship personnel will try to steer you to the buffet and may fib about the dining room being available.)  DaVinci does close at 1PM for lunch service.  First night dining in the three dining rooms is usually mass confusion, go early (5PM) or late (after 7:30) if you can.  The Horizon Court (14th floor buffet) is good for breakfast, okay for lunch, and absolutely horrid for dinner.  Unless there have been major changes, use the dining rooms for dinner.  If you have Anytime Dining, and plan on eating between 5:30 and 7:30, make reservations in the morning otherwise you'll probably be holding a pager for a while before being seated.  Bars are a big money maker for the cruise lines, you'll find them all over the ship.  Waiters have also been trained to offer you "exclusive" wine tastings (I think they must get a commission for each sale.)

For our March 2019 cruise (the first after drydock) we were at the port, through security, checked in and onboard just after 11 a.m. thanks to my parents who we were traveling with being Elite (after this cruise, my husband and I reached Elite) and our puppy dog eyes explaining that embark day was our 20th wedding anniversary and it would be really special to board with my parents.  I think every staff member we encountered attempted to steer us to the buffet and lied about a dining room being open (we knew better!).  We finally said we were in search of an open bar and were directed to the International Cafe bar and low and behold found the DaVinci dining room that was opening for lunch in about 15 minutes.  We had a lovely lunch and my husband got his coveted shrimp and avocado salad!  Since it was our anniversary, we ate in Crown Grill on the first night.

On 8/18/2019 at 2:51 PM, jondfk said:

I'll add my voice to those who love the Grand.  Yes, I love the Window Suites, but also love the fact that she's the smallest of the "Grand" class ships.  One deck less of cabins than later ships in the series.  We were on her one cruise before and one cruise after the recent dry dock and saw how much effort and money was put in to keeping her nice. 

 

She is however plagued with water leaks which are not a big deal unless they affect you in which case they ARE A VERY BIG DEAL of course.  I can't deny that she has more of these problems than other ships in the fleet.  

 

Still, I too will be sad to see her depart San Francisco and have booked a final trip next February to say goodbye.  

There were a lot of leaks in public areas when we were on the Grand in March.  Luckily we didn't personally experience a leak in our room.  We had no hot water for the first 24 hours and no one bothered to tell us until we tried to shower at 10 p.m. on embarkation day, but that's a long story for another time!

21 hours ago, Dicecatt said:

same sailing! 

Same sailing!  We were on the Spirit in 2009 and loved it and the Splendor in 2011 and didn't care for the layout.  Looking forward to the Miracle.

We were on the Island for a partial Panama Canal transit in April 2017 and on the Grand for a 10 day Mexican Riviera in March 2019, the first cruise after drydock.  The Grand was okay.  An older ship, and we observed and encountered issues, but had a good time.  We loved the Island.  It's a smaller ship but we didn't notice crowding or issues with getting a theater seat or slot machine, etc.  

We did ATD for the first time on our March 2019 Grand Cruise.  We chose ATD because the "late" seating is too late for my parents, and the "early" seating now at 5 p.m. is too early for all of us.  My husband and I, if alone, would have done the late seating.  But we tried ATD and really liked it.  We ended up having a great waitress and assistant waiter and we spoke with one of the Head Waiters and asked about being seated in their section every night.  He said that if we showed up before 6 every night, he'd make sure we were seated in their section.  We made sure to communicate the night we went to Sabatini's and the night we had a late excursion and ate burgers at the grill, or the night we just had pizza in Alfredo's.  Overall we had a great experience.

Glad to read such a fun, positive review!  We are on the Miracle in November to Mexico out of LA.  Getting excited!