Cessna140

Thank you all for the responses!

We are getting ready to book a balcony cabin on the Ruby Princess out of San Francisco, up to Alaska, visiting Juneau, Skagway, Ketchican and Victoria. I tried looking in the forums to see which side of the ship would be better for scenery but I cant find anything. 

So which side would you recommend?

Thanks!

Thank you all very much!

We have not cruised on this class of ship and we are wondering if there are any balcony cabins that are half covered, half open? We always book the 
Caribe deck on the Grand class ships but are not sure about the Royal. 

Thanks!

I also looked into the public bus to get to Bathsheba....but didn't feel comfortable going that route. There are some posts on cruise critic about it so just try a search. Good luck!

If you go bring water shoes of some type with you. There are lots of rocks along the shore. 

It was US Dollars......pricey I know but for us it was worth it. 

7 hours ago, cyndyga said:

Thanks for the review I am excited to be leaving on the Crown on the 6th of March! I too will be on Caribe deck aft! Are there foot stools or loungers on the balcony? Thanks! Any other tips for the Crown?

There are two adjustable chairs and a table on the balcony. Also two foot stools.

Don't miss the 19th floor walking loop at the back of the ship! 

Just returned from our cruise that stopped for the day in Barbados. We have been before and only wanted to spend the day at Bathsheba on the opposite side of the island. You can't really swim there, the water is too rough. Some of the locals do surf there though. It's a lovely place devoid of noisy crowds except for the occasional tour bus that stops for 15 minutes. There is a small restaurant there. We took a taxi there for $100 round trip. It was about a half hour ride each way. 

We sailed aboard the Crown January 26 - Feb 5th. I have read many negative posts about the Crown lately so thought I would post my thoughts. We are not Princess cheerleaders although we have cruised with them enough to have Platinum status. We have also cruised Holland America, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. 

We boarded with no problem at all. We had our Medallions delivered to us at home so we were all ready to go. We did have some trouble with traffic around Port Everglades. There were eight ships in port that day and the traffic was incredible. We had rented a car with drop off right near the port and thought that if we dropped it off by 12 we would be on the ship shortly after. Didn't happen. We boarded at 230 due to the back up of people who had rented cars, were dropping them off and then waiting for the free shuttle to take them to the port. There had to be at least 100 people waiting in the shuttle line when we got there. The traffic was so bad the shuttles had trouble getting back and forth in a timely fashion. And the shuttle only held 8 people! So we had a long wait in the warm Florida sunshine. Next time, we'll drop off the car much earlier!

We had a Caribe deck cabin five doors from the back of the ship. We enjoy the Caribe deck's half covered half opened balconies. The cabin was fine, our room steward was a busy guy. 

He didn't seem to have a helper with him. The bed was very comfortable and the hair dryer seemed more powerful than on past cruises and dried my thick long hair very quickly. Yes, there were a few areas of rust on the balcony, who cares?  We had some noisy neighbors....wish people would realize how voices carry!  My other pet peeve is letting doors slam when you leave your stateroom. Really, people, just close the door by hand. 

The entertainment on board was good. They had an incredible opera singer at some of the shows. We saw two comedians and took advantage of Movies under the Stars to catch up on  some movies we had missed. They came around with popcorn but I miss the warm chocolate cookies they used to bring around. We enjoyed the ports. We took a ship tour out to the Pitons on St. Lucia on a catamaran. It was beautiful and they anchored off a small beach so we could swim for about a half hour. I would recommend that if you want to hear anything the guide is saying to sit in the back with her because we were up front and heard nothing after the boat got out to sea.

At Turks and Caicos we just went to the beach right at the port. When we arrived after 1 there were plenty of open chaises with covers. They were free so we grabbed one right away.  We soon found out why the seats were empty. The beach on the right side of the dock has a very rocky bottom, making it very difficult to walk out to deeper water. Luckily we had water shoes so we were able to get in but we saw many people struggling and finally giving up and leaving to go to the other side. I don't know if there was any charge for the other side or not. 

In Barbados we spent the day at Bathsheba. It was gorgeous and quiet with very few people around. The  taxi was $100 round trip. It is quite a good drive to get there, almost a half hour's ride. But we enjoyed it so much. You cant really swim at Bathsheba, the water is too rough which is kind of nice because not many people go there because of that. 

In Antigua we went to a small beach area called Beach Limerz, about a ten minute cab ride from the port. The cab was $30 round trip for both of us. We had prebooked online. The place is very small, there were only about 15 people there when we arrived. Unfortunately they had already run out of cushions for the loungers so that was a problem. The conch fritters they served in the restaurant were good but the service there was nonexistent. After sitting at a table for ten minutes and being ignored by the waitress my husband finally went to the bar to order. The beach there was wonderful, no rocks and so refreshing. 

In St Kitts we took a taxi to Carambola Beach Club. Beautiful beach, plenty of chairs.  St. Thomas was a short day, we left at 3pm so we just browsed around the shopping mall and went back on board. 

We had anytime dining and ate both in the MDR and in the buffet. Food on the buffet was lukewarm most of the time. Main dining room food was better in my opinion. Anything I don't have to prepare and cook is good with me. Is it the best food ever? No, certainly not. But we were never hungry. 

Generally we noticed that there didn't seem to be as many waitstaff. Many times we noticed buckets of used glasses and utensils sitting around. Didn't see as many waiters in the Princess theater either. I suppose this has to do with the Medallion but the one time I tried to use mine to order drinks it froze and the drinks never came. We approached the bar to get our drinks and the waiter was closing up and couldn't help us. 

We didn't go to Art Auctions or Frequent Cruisers cocktail hours so can't comment on those. Also didn't use the gym or spa other than using the spa swimming pool. One area that we did enjoy was the 19th floor at the back of the ship. They have a small putting green there and a walking path ...16x around is a mile. Great place for sunsets too. 

The engine problem that the Crown has did not prevent us from making all of our stops. The last stop in Turks and Caicos was quite late, after 1 pm so it was after dark when we sailed away from there. 

All things said, it was a wonderful cruise and I wouldn't hesitate to sail the Crown again. In fact, we booked another Princess cruise while we were on board 🙂 

Hello, we are looking to do the same at Bathsheba. How did this work out for you?

Thanks!

Thanks for all the helpful answers everyone! We're going to wait till we are on board, see what we have and if it isn't a good time for us we'll try to change it right away.

Hello

I am a newbie to HAL and have a question about a perk Pinnacle dinner. My TA tells me my dinner date and time will be in my cabin on embarkation day. Can I go onto the HAL website and pick a date and time to my liking ? But am I correct in thinking that if I do that, I will be charged the $29 fee to my credit card and won't have use of the "perk" money?

Thanks!

HAL Zuiderdam offers two zipline choices in Costa Rica for out partial Panama transit cruise. They are:

"Rain Forest Canopy & Zip Line Adventure" for 3 hours.

and "Rain Forest Canopy & Adrenaline Adventure Extended" for 7 hours.

The description sounds like these are at two different places. It seems there is a 2-hour bus ride on the longer tour.

Has anyone done a zipline thru Holland America?

Thanks!

We were four cabins away in 8021 on the Zuiderdam and had no noise problem.

.

Thanks for answering my question :)

Hello, we are new to HAL, have cruised many times on Celebrity, RCI and Princess. I am looking at booking a VE cabin, #8015 on the Navigation deck. It appears to be under the spa dressing rooms on the Lido deck. Has anyone stayed in this cabin vicinity? Much noise from above? I tend to doubt it because it is the spa and not the "gym" but thought I would ask.

Also wondering how late the pools and hot tubs are open until? Thanks!!

Were there a lot of people really dressed up on formal nights?

Thanks for the info Bluestocking!

Thanks for posting! Nice to be able to plan ahead :) We sail next month!

Thanks for the info RCI !

We are interested in this as well!! Can anyone give us any info on what is around the cruise port?

Thanks Sail 7 but I was trying to get a handle on what the price would be for what we want to do ahead of time. If it is too pricey we will just do a half day trip with the ship tour. Obviously if we wait till that day to find a driver and the price is too high it will be too late to join the ships tour.

Hi

Does anyone have the name of a private driver we could hire for the day on Barbados?

You cannot buy it through the liquor store for use on board. Yhat liquor is not delivered to you until the last night of the cruise

@westlakegirl:

Classic Stateroom Bar Setup

The Classic Stateroom Bar Setup includes a sophisticated collection of brands such as Seagram's®, Beefeater®, Captain Morgan® and more. You may also choose from a list of mixers, including Coca-Cola® products, Ginger Ale, tonic water or juices.

*Starting from: 80.00 USD Per PACKAGE

Oh, I thought this was a post about a different type of liquor - one I'd never discovered. bummer.

this made me laugh out loud! :)

I've searched thru posts for the answer to this question.but can't find anything.... I was thinking about purchasing a bottle of liquor from Celebrity to have in our room. What size bottle will I get for my $80 ? I know I could call Celebrity but thought I would ask here too. Thanks!