JeffT237

We'll be on the Wonder next month and we're looking forward to it. Glad to hear your'e enjoying your cruise and thanks for the update!

Our first cruise with Princess was May 2022, when we booked the Princess Plus was its original price of $40pp. Our last several cruises were all on Royal Caribbean and we have never even considered buying a drink package due to the cost vs how much we consume. When I found out the $40pp was for drinks, tips and WiFI I thought it was a typo or a mistake. Unbelievable value at that price for us, we purchased it again for our October Discovery cruise at $50pp, and would still purchase it at the current $60pp price point. As a comparison for our upcoming March cruise with Royal Caribbean the cost of the drink package, WiFi and gratuities comes out to $116.50pp or $1631 for both my wife and I. We never purchase the drink package with Royal, we'll continue to purchase the WiFi separately, pre-pay gratuities and pay for drinks individually.

We took a taxi and did it on our own without any issues. We went a few years ago after one of the hurricanes so there was a lot of traffic due to construction getting back to the ship so plan accordingly. We hung out at the Sunset Bar and Grill and would move to the beach when the planes came in. They have the flight schedule posted at the bar. I also looked online a few days before and confirmed a big plane was due to arrive. We had fun and most people move down to the beach when the planes come in. IMG_1763.mov

Thanks for posting and I'm glad you're enjoying your cruise! We will be on the Wonder in March and we're looking forward to it, it's nice hearing a firsthand positive experience, enjoy!

@CruisnDeb Yes that was the drop off for our cruise. I believe it took about 15-20 minutes one way once the tender boat departed the ship/harbor.

We were on the Discovery in October and the tenders dropped us off in the harbor just west of Stearns Wharf. There were vendors and transportation waiting just outside the drop off point. It was a short walk to the pier and State Street.

This is a link to a cruise compass from November 20th 2022 for the Wonder on the Eastern itinerary. Keep in mind showtimes can change but I'm using this as a reference for our upcoming Wonder cruise until the showtimes become available on the cruise planner/app, hopefully next week. If someone has more recent showtimes and could post them I'd appreciate it as well, thanks! https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compasses/wonder-of-the-seas/sun-11202022-0000

Are you sure it is Wi-Fi that you need for the AICD to connect to your phone or perhaps its transmitter uses a bluetooth connection to your mobile device that you can monitor and stores any relevant info that your cardiologist will need? I'm sure you've looked into this, I'm just inquiring because that is how my wife's medical devices work. Hers is not an AICD, it is a seperate glucometer and insulin pump that she wears 24/7 that works via bluetooth. She has never had any issue onboard with the bluetooth connection. Her phone stores any relevant info that she can share with her medical team at a later date if neccessary. I know from personal experience traveling with a medical issue and with new medical devices can be challenging, but my wife is a very careful planner when it comes to her medical issues and we've always been able to enjoy our travels. If it is a Wi-Fi connection you need I'm not sure as others have said if RCI has a medical exemption, I'd email or contact Royal Caribbean directly to inquire. Best of luck!

We head straight to a speciality restaurant and make our reservations for the week, then explore the ship until our cabin is available.

How is the staff to passenger ratio? Does it seem understaffed or appropriate? Thanks

https://www.portseattle.org/page/port-valet-enjoy-seattle-luggage-free Used it last May and explored Seattle as we had a later return flight home, worked great and you can check online and see that status of your bags.

Were you able to get entertainment reservations pre-cruise or did you have to wait until you were onboard? Some have reported that on their recent Wonder sailings pre-cruise reservations opened up on their cruise planners about a month prior, was that option available to you? Thanks!

For our upcoming March cruise on the Wonder we are traditional at 5:30.

What is "standby fare" I'm assuming this is only for cruise employees both shore side and ship crew? is this similar to what an airline employee would use to fly, I know they can fly for free after taxes, do the cruise employees cruise for free or a reduced rate?

yeah I thought the same, I'm sure someone could argue an agent didn't look at the date. I just don't believe someone would spend all of that money and trouble to travel all the way to Rome and intentionally lie about the baby's age to risk being denied boarding, especially after they uploaded the passport to Princess and having to show the passport at embarkation.

A lot of speculation on intent of the parents and if they knew and were trying to circumvent the policy or it was an honest mistake that perhaps Princess should have caught. The truth will not be found on CC or TikTok, my personal opinion is both parties share some blame here. Of course as a traveler especially with international travel you should be pretty sure of what the restrictions are when traveling with an infant. Having dealt with Princess's customer service it is completely believable to me that he could of received bad info or conflicting info. I do have a hard time understanding how this wasn't caught pre-cruise, unless in fact he deliberately used a false birthdate.

I understand it is ultimately the responsibility of the cruiser to know the policies of the cruise lines to travel with them but how does someone "bypass" the age requirement to have their child sail? Not taking sides just curious. Is it factual that the family gave a fake date for their child and that they knew what they were doing so they could take the cruise? If because of ignorance of the age policy they did give the correct date I would assume Princess would catch it pre-cruise, seems like when you input the birthdate you'd get an error message or it would get flagged somehow. Again not taking sides.

We were on the Discovery in October and had a few speciality coffees per day from the IC. We'd order the fresh brewed coffee in the morning and usually have an afternoon Espresso, flat white or cappuccino in the afternoon. For our morning coffee we take it black and found it strong enough for our taste, maybe comparable in strength to a medium blend at Starbucks but not bold. We enjoyed the speciality coffees and espresso drinks there.

We haven't cash tipped since the cruise lines moved to the auto gratuity, back then the cruise line would have a recommended cash amount for the crew members in the different departments that served you. I'm sure this thread will go multiple pages, just be prepared your'e likely to receive a lot of criticism for even suggesting removing the auto gratuities. I do think you are asking a legit question and you seem genuinely concerned about rewarding those who serve you on your vacation. In addition you are likely to hear exactly how a ship's tipping system works, who gets it and who does not. I have no idea if they are right or wrong we just try and do what is expected and appreciated. We leave auto tips on and tip extra when we feel it's warranted and enjoy our cruise, it's really made it easy for us as we like to have everything paid and accounted for prior to our cruise. It sounds like if you do remove them you've given lots of thought on who you'll cash tip.

Haven't sailed Royal since the start up but there are plenty of posts negatively commenting on the quality of the food and service, it's concerning. We're on the Wonder in March so we'll soon see for ourselves. We have cruised twice since the start up both on Princess. The first one in May was disappointing, but that was more due to the mechanical condition of the ship, service was good and the food was inconsistent. The second in October was great, food, service, experience was much better. Hoping our upcoming Wonder cruise will be the same as the latter.

We make the request with our TA and confirm it once we are onboard. We've have always received a table for 2 the times that we've requested one.

There has been a lot of posts relating to the key and if it's worth it lately. For some reason it has become a hotly debated topic. Maybe we're all getting burnt out on tipping and dress code threads!

We’ve only purchased any drink package on a cruise line with Princess, the Plus bundled with gratuities and WiFi works for us. We have cruised with Royal Caribbean more and our next cruise in March is with them as well. I can assure you the plans Princess offers are much cheaper. For our upcoming RCI cruise the drink package by itself with gratuities is $1200 for two for a 7 day. At that price point it’s not even close to being considered. We know how much drinks cost and what we drink so it’s easy for us to figure the value for us.

If you're sorry to nitpick, then why nitpick? I can assure you with our spending and what we, keyword "we" spend out money on and what type of drinks (both alcoholic and non) that we enjoy, and not you, we are slightly ahead even at the $60 rate. I am very aware of the drink prices as we have recently completed 2 Princess cruises as I've stated previously. Now I would agree that the WiFi is poor, but it has served us well at times and we always purchase WiFi, again for our own reasoning. Looking at our past 2 folios, at both price points we were ahead and would have even been slightly ahead at the $60pp. Our OBC picked up the few times we went above the Plus drink prices. If the standard fare works for you, that's awesome......enjoy your cruising style as we'll enjoy ours.

We had the Plus on the Crown in May at $40pp and recently on the Discovery at $50pp. Both times for us it is of great value since we always pre-pay gratuities and each get a WiFi package anyways. We had very little problem getting past the break even point with drinks at both price points. Speciality coffees and bottled water would cut into the drink portion before we even had our first alcoholic drink. A typical day for us would be 2-4 adult beverages each so even at $60pp we would still purchase it.