Mo Jito

Anyone have any insight into the single occupancy inside cabins? There are only 4 of them on deck 10. They are slightly smaller than regular inside and apparently have a queen bed instead of two singles (which could of course be put together as a queen). I checked pricing on some random cruises, and found the single cabins were often more expensive than a regular interior with a single supplement. When they were less expensive, it was only by $40 or $50 dollars for the whole cruise. I don’t see that there are any special amenities offered with the cabins, so why would anyone pay more (or about the same) for less space?

On NCL, for example, the solo cabins are sometimes more expensive than a regular inside with solo supplement, but NCL’s solo cabins have some unique features that make them more appealing, as well as a dedicated lounge with complimentary specialty coffees and snacks. 
 

it just seems like Princess slapped a few single cabins into the deck plan so they can tout themselves as a line that caters to the growing market of solo cruisers. Don’t get me wrong, I have sailed solo on Princess several times and think they are a great choice for solo sailors, but the approach they’ve taken with introducing single occupancy cabins on their new ship design just seems pointless. Am I missing something?

Enjoy you cruise! I was on the Enchanted inaugural cruise back in 2021 and will be on for the second time later this year. It is a beautiful ship and the wake view terrace is one of my favorite spots. 
 

I saw that DuVaul Gamble is the current cruise director. You have to make sure to attend any of the game shows or trivias he hosts, he is so much fun 🤩 

Thanks for this thread! I was able to purchase wifi for my November 2024 cruise at the current platinum discount cost of $7.50/day through the “old” app. On the new app the discount wasn’t applied, so I updated the old app and made the purchase there.
 

I didn’t receive an email confirmation, but it does show up under Special Services in my Travel Summary.

Sky Princess - Western Mediterranean (May)

Caribbean Princess - Canada/Greenland (August)

Was thrilled to be back to cruising, and both trips were overall wonderful experiences. Staff was super friendly and helpful - the usual Princess standards, on both ships.

Both experiences were a bit less smooth than pre-pandemic cruises, but that was honestly to be expected due to all the challenges with staffing, supply chain, and ongoing Covid issues. I’ve got my next cruise scheduled on Regal Princess later this year 🙂 

Princess’s on land guest support is appalling. Sure, this guest will be able to correct this issue on board, but when an erroneous charge is applied before the cruise, on land support should be able to correct it. The land reps do not seem to be empowered to do any problem solving or corrections, which is incredibly frustrating. I love the Princess onboard experience, but my interactions with the land side - including zero response to email requests for help, have soured me on the brand overall. 

On Enchanted last November and Sky this May, I had lotion and liquid soap in dispensers on the countertop, and shampoo/conditioner combo and shower gel in dispensers attached to the shower wall. No bar soap or tubes of lotion in either cabin (both inside cabins, and I’m not elite, so these were just the standard offerings).

5 hours ago, Meditrina said:

 We didn’t get our credit issued to our account for over 6 months. Too late to use for a cruise we had scheduled in March. 

I think it is terrible that Princess won’t expedite a credit to pay for another booked cruise. They have your money, so the phone reps or PVPs should be empowered to manually move the pending credit to a new booking.

7 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

Interested in seeing the Iceland itinerary.

Me, too. If the timing for Iceland works out with my planned time off, I may go for that. Otherwise, I’ll just take the cash from my cancelled cruise and look at land vacation options in North America. 

Interesting. I am booked on the May 4 Baltic out of Copenhagen. Would be good to know if I need to change my flights. I was looking forward to spending some time in Copenhagen pre- cruise, so will be disappointed if we switch to a South Hampton embarkation. Direct flights from London to Boston are crazy expensive right now, so this could be the straw that pushes me throw in the towel on Northern Europe cruising this year. 

I am pleased with the overnight in Stockholm on the May 4 Enchanted itinerary. We were originally going to berth at Nynashamn, which is quite a distance from Stockholm, so it will be great to not have to cut the day short to get back to the ship. Also really looking forward to sailing into the Stockholm Archipelago, which everyone says is beautiful and which we would have missed docking at Nynashamn.

I would love to see St Petersburg some day, but I am going to enjoy the ports we have. That said, I can understand people wanting to cancel since SPB is normally a highlight of a Baltic cruise. I kind of expected Princess to make the offer even though port changes are allowed per the passenger contract. Perhaps if this war hadn’t come on the heels of the pandemic pause, Princess would have been more inclined to be generous with refunds.

I hope this isn’t going replace Voice of the Ocean. I don’t think they’ve had Voice of the Ocean since the restart, but karaoke seems to be back based on some Patters that have been shared, so my fingers are crossed for Voice coming back in time for my next cruise in May.

11 hours ago, curlybelle2 said:

I have a question about the coffee on the Enchanted. Is the coffee in the dining rooms and buffet syrup or brew? I am trying to decide if I want to pay the extra money for a coffee package. We are on a 10 cruise and I only drink one cup a day. Any thoughts? thanks

I found the dining room/buffet coffee hit or miss - some days quite drinkable, other days terrible. But if you only drink one cup a day, you can purchase brewed coffee from the International Cafe for about $1.75 a cup, so no need to buy a package. 

On the Enchanted inaugural cruise in November, I asked to see the vegan menu (which I only knew about from a thread here on CC) and the head waiter checked into and reported that it had not yet been rolled out on Enchanted. 
 

I'm not vegan, but sometimes travel with vegans who were disappointed by what was offered on our last cruise together (Golden Princess August 2019), so having a vegan menu available on all ships would go a long way toward getting them to cruise with Princess again. 

@Jadn13 thanks for posting the Patters. I was very excited to see karaoke back on the schedule!

I’ve done a lot of solo travel, including several cruises, and I think cruising is one of the safest options for a solo woman. As someone else noted, the crew (and fellow passengers) will look out for you.
 

If a persistent man were bothering me at a land resort, I am not sure that the resort staff would take adequate action to make him cease and desist. But on a cruise,  I am absolutely confident that if I reported bad behaviour from a fellow passenger, my concerns would be taken seriously. The cruise ship is its own little world, and the captain and his or her crew do not want any trouble in their world, so they will address unacceptable behaviour when they are made aware of it. 
 

Also, unlike a land resort or city hotel, when you are heading back to your room at night you are not walking down any deserted pathways or past any dark alleys; you are walking through well lit passageways with plenty of people within shouting distance who would come to your aid if anyone attempted to harm you.

8 hours ago, Ray._.Chul said:

Thank you for sharing and the photos of the Princess patter. Very disappointed to see literally no games shows. What a disappointment. I'm very concerned we are going to be bored with a 10 day cruise. The entertainment looks to be a bit of a snooze feast and little to no comedy. What's up with that? Is this a cruise director issue? 

There were quite a few game shows - Yes/No, Liars’ Club, Marriage Match (I think that’s what it’s called), plus a few fun games the cruise director’s staff created in addition to trivia. We thought the cruise director and staff were terrific.
 

One problem with the shortened version of the Patter is that there are no descriptions for events or performances. there was a comedian on the first night, a comic magician on another night, and a musical impressionist. And I think there was another comedian that we didn’t see. Plus the two production shows and an Aretha Franklin tribute. There was also lots of live music in the piazza, Crown Grill Bar, Take 5, and Vista lounges plus piano singer in Crooners. I will say we didn’t find a lot to do on sea days, but definitely had plenty to choose from most evenings.

21 hours ago, macaroni said:

We loved Gigi’s the best. ate there several times…Pizza and location, sitting outside, was great.

we found the buffet sub par. We would get breakfast there which was good because we got eggs to order but lunch and dinner was not appealing. I think because there was not enough turn over of the food because of low capacity. The made to order salads were excellent though.

 

Agree with pretty much everything you said. Gigi’s outside dining was a highlight of this cruise for me.

buffet breakfast was great in some ways - loved the banana smoothies, yogurt parfaits, muesli and fresh fruit cups. Hot items, however, were not always hot - even the made to order omelets we had on the first morning were not hot. But there was a nice variety at breakfast, including grab and go quiches and bagels w/various toppings on different days.

the made to order salad was a highlight at both lunch and dinner. I always found good options for lunch, but the time we did the buffet for dinner we were disappointed by the lack of options. Turned out to be German night, which is not a personal favorite. Although the apple strudel with vanilla sauce was terrific. We couldn’t find anywhere that told you ahead of time if there was a theme in the buffet.

International Cafe was also a highlight. Nice variety of pastries (including peanut butter cookies on request) and always available sandwiches and specialty salads, plus some delicious hot items like a spiced lentil pie and various quiches. At breakfast there were donuts and muffins, plus muesli, fruit salad and yogurt parfaits, breakfast sandwiches, and various other hot items. We only had breakfast in the dining room one day because we preferred the options at IC and the buffet.

on Lido, Slice Pizza was excellent. We were disappointed with the burgers from Salty Dog Grill - found them greasy and not very tasty, so only ate there once. But we enjoyed Slice several times for a quick bite after returning from port too hungry to take the time to make ourselves presentable for indoor dining. 

14 minutes ago, sunsetme said:

What is the situation in the ports? Do you have to book shore excursions through Princess???

Dominica was the only port that required you to book shore excursions from Princess. All others you could do on your own.

54 minutes ago, mtfasls said:

Thank you for all your posts, it has been much appreciated.  From the comment above it appears you had the same table every night, did you request same table and same wait staff or was it just given to you, that is what I am looking for and was not sure we would receive it with the new dining way.

Barb

Same as others who commented- we reserved table for 2 at the same time for every night and were seated at the same table each night without specifically requesting it. Funny thing is, we had reserved Capri because we prefer the mid ship dining room, but we’re changed to Amalfi, which is aft. But we liked our table and wait staff, so we didn’t ask to be changed back to Capri. 

20 hours ago, Barbie075 said:

Did they have a chef's dinner on this cruise?

Yes, didn’t attend, but we were seated in Amalfi behind the chef’s table and saw it take place twice.

1 hour ago, paradiselivin1 said:

@Mo Jito Now that your cruise is coming to an end; wondering what your favorite thing(s) are on this ship? Sailing on Regal next week and would love to jump on a cruise on this new ship. Love getting on a ship while it is still new although I know they are still working on some kinks!

Enchanted May be different from Regal, but some of my favorite things about the ship are:

Wake View Bar - some nicely positioned seating that allows you to gaze out at the wake, and a sunset if the timing is right, while enjoying a delicious drink. 

Gigi’s al fresco dining - I don’t think this is available on Regal, but it was great. And the pizza is delicious! Bistro Sur la Mer also has the al fresco dining.

Larger piazza than Grand Class - plenty of seating (of course, the fact that we had fewer than 1,000 passengers helped with the seating,)

Variety  of lounges - we mostly frequented Princess Live because we enjoy the trivia and game shows, but Take Five, Vista, Crown Grill Bar and Crooners are all beautiful and offer different atmospheres to suit different tastes.

Better showers than Grand Class - more spacious with adjustable handheld shower head and built in ledge for holding shampoo and such.

Photographs in passenger deck hallways - this may have started with Sky, but it is very cool to see pictures from different destinations as you walk down the hall. Aloha Deck has pictures from South American ports; other decks feature different regions.

Lots of hot tubs and loungers on deck 18 above the retreat pool. We didn’t end up hanging out here, but it was very inviting. 

hopefully others will be able to chime in with their favorite things!

13 minutes ago, c-boy said:

😵 I'm gettin' vertigo

I pack plenty of Bonine!

Lefty Mo Jito strikes again with an upside down view of the lovely Enchanted Princess docked in Aruba. 
 

I had an amazing diving excursion, booked through the ship, with stops at two shipwrecks. There were only eight divers plus the dive master. We saw tons of fish, a few octopi and gorgeous coral. I am a newbie diver, but even the experienced people said it was among the best.

after the dive, we could walk freely around town. We had lunch at Downtown 94, which has a deck overlooking the main street- we wanted to go to Iguana Joe’s but it was not open; signs said reopening soon.

On tap at Salty Dog pub. In addition to Heineken and Newcastle, they have Strongbow cider and something called Alligem Blonde - which I am not certain was actually available.

I definitely missed having a full walk-around promenade deck (first time on Royal Class), but enjoyed these deck chairs in the tiny aft area of open deck on Promenade. This is port side; starboard side is a smoking area with the same set up. Note that many evenings the deck chairs were not set out when we walked out here, which was likely due to the frequent rain showers we experienced throughout this cruise.