RoperDK

18 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

In my youth, all straws were paper. Perfect?  No.

 

Yes, I am older and remember paper straws.  I have learned to do without straws except for very acidic drinks like a bloody Mary or margarita.  My lips break out. I won't give those up on vacation so I will bring my own reusable straws. Not my first choice, but doable. 

8 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Princess already has an extensive recycling program.

It has been in place for many years and is updated accordingly.

Perhaps it is going to be updated again. 

5 hours ago, Murex said:

Curious why you prefer Deck 6, if you don't mind sharing. We are still learning! 

4 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

 

We get a cabin on deck 6 for the reason bballmomma lists.  We also prefer to be by the aft elevators but would pick deck 6 either way.  It is one deck down to Royal Promenade, same deck as the Boardwalk where we enjoy free breakfast at Johnny Rockets (it is a fee otherwise), two decks down to theater and dining room or two up to Central Park.  We find we use the elevators less if we are on deck 6 as we can easily go up and down a couple of decks on the stairs.

Ditto this.  Great location.

Here is the letter from Carnival.  It does include all of the lines under the Carnival umbrella.....

33 minutes ago, RoperDK said:

 Don't get me started on the drink venue changes.  I can do without a straw for most of my drinks, except for acidic ones.  How am I going to get my olives?  Stainless steel olive picks or no olives at all.  

17 minutes ago, skynight said:

See above. I don't think you will suffer as much as you might imagine. 

As for the wooden toothpick for olives and fruit, very logical option I might add, Carnival is doing away with toothpicks, too.  So I ask again, what are they going to use?  

I get the sugar dispenser, salt and pepper shakers at the buffet and MDR, but what about room service?

BTW, I think the butter pat option is totally logical and a great solution.

I will try to post the letter that was sent out since it says it will apply to all sister cruise lines.    

3 minutes ago, fishywood said:

https://www.carnival.com/about-carnival/carnival-guest-update.aspx

 

The letter in question is specifically addressed to Carnival Cruise Line passengers, not to all the corporate brands.  But it does include the following:

 

Along with our sister brands that operate under the Carnival Corporation umbrella, we are making a concerted effort to enhance our sustainability practices so we can achieve our goal of being the environmental leaders you expect us to be. 

 

Last summer when in Alaskan waters there were no straws given from outdoor bars, and indoor bars would only give one if asked. Were not automatically placed in drinks.

 

Other lines (not Carnival Corp ones I believe) have gone to including reusable water bottles as part of their drink packages. 

 

The letter does sound like Carnival (the cruise line) is a bit behind the times; I don't recall seeing butter in foil pats, or salad dressing in plastic pouches, on any Princess ship in quite some time. Though it is surprising that cereal and milk are still offered in single-serve form rather than from common dispensers--unless there have been issues in the past passing CDC inspections with the latter.

 

And dispensers rather than tubes of shampoo and body wash have been fleetwide on Princess for several years now. Though not for hand soap at the cabin bathroom sinks as of yet (NCL does). So what will happen to the "premium bath accessories" for Elites if Princess goes this way as well?

 

As for the wholesale changes in bar service that would have to come if all this is implemented: I can't believe it wouldn't be more cost effective to just follow the existing environmental regulations in the first place rather than have to placate the courts with this self-serving "pledge" in consequence of past failures. 

When we cruised to Alaska on Princess a couple of years ago there were special rules about disposable type cups and straws while cruising in Glacier Bay.

I have a problem with the reusable water bottle concept.  How are they refilled?  In the lido it is not allowed to refill personal water bottles at the water stations because of contamination from unclean bottles to the spigot that then transfers to the next person getting water.  Plus, it may be a conspiracy theory of mine, but when I drink onboard water I swell up like a balloon. Don't do that with bottled water.  

I haven't seen individual condiment packaging on Carnival for some time except for the wrapped butter.  They are all in some sort of pump device. The Carnival solution is to now offer communal tubs of butter that one would dip into to get the butter. I see trouble there. There has to be a better way.  How does Princess serve butter?  Individual serving cups?

I can see large dispensers of cereal at the lido, but what about room service?  No sugar packets? When I get room service coffee are they going to send a sugar dispenser? Salt and pepper shakers?  Are they going to be sanitized between orders?  Bizarre.

As far as the wooden coffee stirrers, they are going to use reusable stainless steel stirrers.  Why not just use spoons.

The shower dispensers have been on the ships for years, but if cruising in a suite (which we do) you get upgraded bath products.  The letter states that suites would be limited to the dispensers.  Sounds like a cutback to me.

Don't get me started on the drink venue changes.  I can do without a straw for most of my drinks, except for acidic ones.  How am I going to get my olives?  Stainless steel olive picks or no olives at all.  

I haven't seen any official letter or announcement that Princess was going to modify their onboard single use plastic (or other single use items) policies.  Have I missed it?  On the day of the court decision Carnival Cruise Line sent out a letter detailing upcoming changes.  This included no individual cereal boxes, no straws (except for edible straws in frozen drinks), no wrapped butter packets, no individual condiment packages or sugar packets, and no individual coffee stirrers.  All beverage containers would either be glass or reusable plastic.  No drink umbrellas (to hold fruit) or olive picks. Bottled water was still going to be available for the moment, but they were evaluating other options.  Was this letter for all Carnival brands?  Have any of these policies been implemented on Princess?  While I'm all for reducing waste and keeping plastics out of the ocean, some of the changes seem bizarre.  I know this is a Princess board, but I visit other cruise line boards and haven't seen the same policies implemented.  If they have been would you please point me in that direction so that I can see how cruisers were affected by these changes? Thanks!   

The room service menu looks quite varied.  We have had some bad room service experiences on another cruise line.  Does Royal do a good job of delivering hot items still hot and fresh?  Nothing worse than cold eggs or fries.  

I am interested in this, too.  We will be at Coco Cay in September.  On our last cruise, by the time I walked down the long pier and walked around the port area then walked back to the ship, I was totally done.  After a couple of port days and of course walking around the ship I was basically crippled.  On our next cruise, I was planning on renting a wheelchair for the first time.  From what I've heard the tram from the ship to the island doesn't run very frequently and gets crowded.  I should be able to walk on the sand area as long as haven't had to do all of the other walking.  For those that have been to Coco Cay, would it be feasible to use the wheelchair to lessen my walking, but still walk the sand areas while pushing my wheelchair?  Using a wheelchair on the cruise will be all new to me.  Thanks. 

Is this the room service menu for all ships or just Symphony?

45 minutes ago, Tracey said:

I posted them but I don’t know which days are formal. We are going Western Caribbean with day 2 at Coco Cay

I saw where you posted the menus and they are much appreciated.  In the past, CK just had a rotation of menus.  They never deviated according to itinerary.  I do remember that they had lobster tails, in addition to the regular menu, on whatever was the second formal night. It wasn't listed anywhere, they just said they were available.  They were good, too!   

13 hours ago, Tracey said:

We are going on the Harmony

We will be on the Harmony, also.  I didn't think about itineraries affecting the CK rotation.  Does the CK serve prime rib and lobster to align with the MDR formal nights?  We are on the Eastern (Coco Cay, St. Thomas, St. Marteen) route.  I know that the first formal night is day 3 because of Coco Cay.  The last two days are sea days, so the second formal night would be on night 6.  Can everyone see the CK menus in the Royal app or just those in full suites?  We haven't cruised on Royal in a couple of years and it seems that a few things have changed since then.

11 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Gotta love seeing the same pics over and over and over........

Sorry about that.  I tried to delete part of the screenshots to make the quote shorter, but just couldn't get it to work.  😨

1 hour ago, Tracey said:

Thank you Tracey!  Working on my game plan now.  Hoping to get at least a couple of nights reserved.   

3 minutes ago, CynCyn said:

And how many of these ‘changes’ really help the environment versus increase the company’s bottom line with the excuse of helping the environment. These fixes seem disingenuous to me.

Agree. Mixed feelings here.  Suites not getting upgraded toiletries.  I need a straw for certain acidic drinks.  I don't care if it's plastic or whatever is a "green" material. Cereal not coming in individual boxes.  I keep some in the cabin for snacks.  How stale will the big dispenser cereals taste?  No olive picks or drink umbrellas?  How do we have our olives and fruit delivered for our drinks?  Will they just not be offered?  If they do away with bottled water I have a big problem.  The water onboard while tasty and potable has a lot of sodium in it.  I use bottled water to keep from swelling up like a balloon. I'll wait to see what is truly offered onboard.  I am flexible, but don't scale back even more in the name of the environment.  We are intelligent people and can see through the "stuff" .       

39 minutes ago, Tracey said:

We are going in August, I can see the menus in the APP. Do you just entrees & are there certain days? I am at work right now, won’t be home til about 8 PM EST, let me know, I can screenshot 

Thank you Tracey. The app doesn't have info yet for our cruise. I am looking for just dinner entrees. All nights if possible.  To add to the mix, I have some food restrictions so I like to do pre-planning.  Much appreciated!

7 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Try and get the menus. Some nights are a dud

I've been trying to get current menus for Coastal Kitchen.  We are on the Harmony in Sep. in a JS.  Not much hope, but will try to book as soon as we get onboard.  Anyone have the current menus?  I loved the veal chop offered on the last night.  Still there?  I love lamb, DH loves duck.  Both love steak, scallops and lobster.  Working on a strategy. Any suggestions.  We don't care when we eat.  The later the better.  Will not do this again. At least a GS for us!!!  Thanks in advance. 

Thanks for your review.  We were on the Breeze a few months ago.  I have to give a shout out to the bar waiter Nicola!!!!  He was a hoot and really put on a show in the Ocean Plaza when the band played.  BTW,  our cruise had Five o'clock Dock and they were one of the best bands we have heard.  We get premier cruise offers, but are kinda over them.  Too crowded.  Enjoyed the casino on the Breeze.  Came back with a few extra $$ in my pocket.  A definite win!         

6 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Absolutely.

Since I have you here, question, does the Breeze have a different or new improved air conditioning system?  I found out of all my Carnival cruises,  the room on the Breeze was the coldest that I ever had, real nice!!  Or was it because I booked late and only had a choice of Oceanview or cove balcony, with us choosing the cove balcony on deck 2, is it possible the room was cold due to the location of our cabin being lower?  Any truth to that?  On our other upper deck balconies we did keep the curtains always closed with the thermostat on its lowest setting and never did we have cool air, but the Breeze was actually all cool in all public rooms too.

Cruisegirl6, we were on the Breeze in February and the room temperature was definitely better than on other ships.  We had an OS on deck 7.  Even with curtains open and sun streaming in, the AC seemed to keep up.  It was nice!  We really enjoyed our Breeze cruise, but it wasn't perfect.  While we had carving stations each day and night in the buffet, the evening buffet was quite sparse.  It seems that the dinner buffets are not what they used to be.  I really used to enjoy them and have been disappointed lately as we just don't do the MDR for dinner anymore.  I respect your opinion about wanting to cancel your Mardi Gras cruise and realize that there is a monetary concern for your family.  We have 2 cruises booked on the Mardi Gras.  Did you know that it will be powered by clean burning liquid natural gas and will have many other "green" improvements?  I believe the removal of the pens, drink umbrellas, foil wrapped butter, and having to ask for straws is a way to cut down on "junk" that may make its way into the ocean.  I hope so, anyway.  We love the Oasis class RCCL ships and are on the Harmony in a few months.  Variety is the spice of life!       

Dumb question I think, but is the Sea Day Brunch served on every sea day?  Even if there are A LOT of sea days on the cruise? We only have 2 actual port days during an 8 day cruise.  Would the "cruising the Panama Canal day" be considered a sea day?  Just curious.  Not a big deal either way.  Could someone post the new menu in this thread?  Know it's out there already, but would be nice.    

45 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

We started cruising over 25 years ago and remember the midnight buffets, tablecloths, pillow chocolates, wearing tux and formal gown, past guest cocktail parties, etc.

 

Do we miss all of that? NOPE.

 

We think all of the new things offered on the ships far outweigh anything that has gone the way of the dinosaurs. In the "good old days" of cruising, there was: no specialty restaurants, no quick food options (Guy's, Blue Iguana, Pizza, etc.), no big-screen movies under the stars, no thermal spa suite, no YTD, no balcony cabins (or very few and very expensive), no multiple comedy shows, no almost 24/7 activities...I could go on and on.

 

We prefer the casualness and "fun" of cruising these days and wouldn't trade one single new thing for all of the "good old days" things combined. 

 

 

 

 

I totally agree. We've cruised on Carnival (and other lines) for 20 years.  The only thing I really miss is better food quality.  That is true for all cruise lines.  I wish they could kick things up a notch.  Wouldn't want to go back to the structured, formal days to get it though.   

We just did our first "Cheers" cruise on the Breeze a couple of months ago.  We are also long time cruisers and used to do the smuggling thing.  Once we decided that smuggling wasn't for us anymore, we purchased booze and mixers for use in the cabin. We've done that for years and having a drink on the balcony was great.  We decided to take the leap to buying Cheers last time and I think we will continue.  We pretty much broke even, but it was very convenient.  We were able to try new drinks and got plenty of bottled water and even tried the specialty coffees.  We stopped by a bar on the way up to the cabin and still had drinks on the balcony!     

Following.  Thanks for the info!

We have more cruises with Carnival, but enjoy RCCL and Princess, too.  I had moved away from Carnival due to some lackluster ships and declining food quality.  However, our last cruise on the Breeze was fantastic!  I think we will keep to the newer Carnival ships now.  I still think the Carnival MDR experience and dinner buffet are not up to par.  However, I think lunch options are great and we just pick up deli or pizza for dinner.  It works for us.  Actually, we really like the flexibility of not being scheduled.  I agree that the fun Carnival vibe suits us.  We are probably unique as we only cruise in suites.  Didn't start out that way, but that is where we are now.  RCCL's Royal Suite Class cannot be beat.  We love the energy of the Oasis class ships, but being able to escape the crowds in the suite areas is a blessing and the private suite dining room is amazing.  I don't think the experience would be the same if we had to deal with the lines and crowds.  Princess is missing some of the fun, but itineraries and service are better.  I've been on NCL years ago and am tempted to try The Haven.  We will see.  We currently have 5 cruises booked (3 with Carnival, 1 with RCCL, 1 with Princess).  For us, the fun always wins out!   

17 hours ago, markeb said:

If your AD or retired ind go to Waikiki, the Hale Koa is worth a stop.  Small exchange with lots of souvenirs, decent restaurants, and a very cool bar right off the beach. 

 

The Hale Koa (Armed Forces Resort) right on Waikiki is a great place to visit.  Right next to the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  Lots to see on the beach area.  Several pools, hot tub, water sports rentals.  Great beach bar and IMHO the best Mai Tai's on Oahu!