Luvmyrotti

I have been wondering this for a long time. Why do people want to see the Patters before their cruises? Things will probably be different when they board anyway.

Just wondering.........

It give me a general ideal of what activities I might see on my sailing. Mostly it just really gets me excited about my upcoming cruise, even if it's a way off!:)

Winkscruises, yes that works just fine! Thanks so much! More please!

Funch was the piano player in Crooners. He also did a show in the Princess Theater. Son De Mexico played in Explorer's and the Piazza. Tempo Quatro was the Wheelhouse band and Static Band was the house party band for the Vista Lounge and Explorer's too.

 

One evening there was a "Day of the Dead" party in the Piazza with live music, dancing and costumes. I would have brought some skull clothing to wear if I had known in advance. The few kids on the ship were having their faces painted with skull designs. It was something different for the Mexico cruises.

Sounds great! Thanks for sharing!

I'm sorry but I didn't save the patters. :( We have very slow satellite internet here in the country. It's just slightly faster than the ship's internet, lol.

 

The evening entertainment was very good. Our shows were Stardust, Do you Wanna Dance, Motor City, and British Invasion. We also had a couple of different comedians and a magic show, featuring a cute little dog, Indy.

 

MUTS had a lot of football playoffs and some good movies including The Martian and The Intern.

 

There's a new game called "Survival Challenge". It's like Survivor, with teams made up of passenger who have to vote each other off. There was lots of trivia and game shows, the deck party, rock and roll night, country night, etc. The patters were packed with activities. There was always something to do.

Thanks for the info. We can't wait for our sailing! Do you know who was in crooners and which band and other live musical acts they had?

Congrats on the great upsell!!

Enjoy the suite perks!

I know that both people in a cabin are not required to purchase the AIBP. Does anyone know how long one must wait before ordering another drink. I am trying to decide if the package is worth it for us. [/color]My wife can get a glass of wine and I can wait to order one if it is a reasonable amount of time to wait.[/

 

All you need to do to decide if the AIBP is worth the cost is ask yourself if you will EACH average 8 drinks per day. If the answer is yes, then buy the package for EACH one of you. If the answer is no for either one of you, then that person should not buy the package and just pay for each drink individually.

I fail to see any meaning to your last sentence other than that you are trying to both get drinks but only paying for one AIBP.

Great post. The OP is clearly now all huffy as he is being called out, but I fail to see how his post could be interpreted to mean that he is not going to try to cheat the system.

If Princess intended it to be shared among more that one person, it wouldn't be a per person price, with the applicable purchaser only having a beverage sticker on their cruise card.

I was offered an upsell from mini to suite. But the suite location wasn't good. Do all suites have balconies???

Several ships, including the Caribbean Princess and the Grand Princess, have window suites, which are large suites, but do not have a balcony. They do come with all suite perks though

Just off the Grand yesterday and there are no Curtis Stone items. Also, the 50'th Anniversary menu has left the ship.;) Embarkation lunch entrees are the salmon, beef medallions and chicken cacciatore.

Yay! If only they will keep this up until we sail her in September! My DH is quite picky and his go-tos are the medallions and the tri-tip. If those aren't on the always available, dinner will be a struggle.

By the way, you wouldn't happen to have taken the patters with you that you would scan and share, would you? Will you be doing a full review? I'd love all the details, as you did the same itinerary we will be doing in September and I need my vicarious cruising fix until we sail.

Does anyone have recent Grand Princess Mexican Riviera Patters?

 

Or know where I can find some on the Internet?

 

Thanks in advance.:)

I'd love to see these too if anyone has them and would be kind enough to share.

You will love the position. The suite is very private, the balcony large, and not windy. We did indeed hear noise from the 9am Zumba in the Vista Lounge and some evenings we could hear the music between 8.30 and 11pm. We just checked the entertainment schedule and were out most of the noisy times. I would definitely book this room again because the noise was a minor thing and did not happen everyday. The wake is noisy but I found it soothing and we loved listening to it and watching it as we sailed. The steward was awesome. Bed was comfortable and the jacuzzi tub got a lot of use! We had a great cruise on the Grand. I could not fault it.

So glad you enjoyed the Grand. We really liked her when we sailed her 4 years ago, so much so that we have a 10 day Mexican Riviera booked for September this year (a vista suite as well, just on Caribe deck instead of emerald deck) and can't wait! Is that the itinerary you did? If so, did you bring home patters that you would scan and share? Will you be doing a full review? I'd love to hear all the details?

This happened to me on our Alaska cruise. Make sure you look up all the suite perks. Breakfast in Sabatini's and the free laundry are my favorites.

 

Fair warning though, We have sailed in suites on our last 3 cruises.... LOL

Yup, this is what happened to us too. Can't go back now.

OP, enjoy the lovely large suite and all the amenities! Everyone has mentioned Sabatini's breakfast, which is our favorite perk, but several others are nice as well. If you're not yet platinum or elite, you will get priority boarding and use of the pre-board lounge if at an embarkation port that has one. Also, if there are any tender ports, you get priority tender disembarkation, which is nice if you have any private tours to get to.

Everyone poo poos the daily canapés that you can request be delivered, but we like them. The shrimp one and the one with salami are our favorites. Also love the chocolate covered strawberries.

Have a great cruise!

Though a delayed embarkation can certainly be frustrating, I try to focus on the magic of the cruise that awaits after just a bit of pain in the terminal!

To any of you doing the 10 day Mexican Riviera on the Grand, I would be most appreciative if you would take the time to bring back, scan and post the patters and menus. We're going in September and I love to get psyched up by perusing the patters and menus!

Will be on the Royal in December. Can you still use OBC for chips in the casino

Some of the promotional OBCs specifically state in the small print that they cannot be used in the casino. If it is simply OBC you pre-purchase, you can use it in the casino.

Some are hop she stays on the west coast and takes over for the Crown.

Ooooo, that would be great! Let's hope so! Though the later itineraries don't usually come out until May or so, so I guess we have a bit to wait to find out for sure.

Anyone have any idea if the Emerald will be headed back to the Australia market after it finishes up it's 2017 Alaska season in September 2017? We'd like to sail her again, maybe doing an Alaska combined with a Pacific coastal if she sticks around on the west coast after Alaska.

This is very helpful, keep me posted on any updates and when I return I'll share mine..

I would really like this as well.

You are going to love it! It truly will make you not want to go back. We were upgraded on our very first cruise to a full suite and now, with the exception of two transatlantics in minis, we've always booked full suites. We love the aft and always book a vista suite. You will love the extra large cabin, the split sided bathroom and the whole experience in general.

Congrats and enjoy!

If you are talking hardware as in how the suite is then Princess does not have anything special. A standard veranda cabin on Celebrity is much better than some of the suites Princess have. On Princess the bathrooms are a compact unit with shower curtain, plastic basin and shelves behind a mirror. The bathroom on a Celebrity cabin has a sliding perspex shower door, tiled floors, wood or imitation wood paneling in the bathroom with drawers and cupboards and shelves as well as a raised porcelain type sink with lighting above the mirror. With the exception of the couch in the cabins on the Solstice class which looks like some excess stock from the 50's the Celebrity cabins are much better than the cabins that Princess has.

 

Bear in mind however that Princess was designated as mass market and Celebrity as Premium so it stands to reason that Celebrity facilities would be better. Unfortunately the GFC hit cruise lines hard and lines like Celebrity dropped the price to compete with the likes of Princess so I fear that now things are improving Celebrity may be trying to raise the bar again.

 

I cant really comment on service as I have only ever been in Princess full suites for 2 night cruises. I love the Princess style and I also found Celebrity great. I sometimes refuse to compare aspects because I know there are some things each of them do better than the other.

I don't know what suites or mini suites you've been in on princess, but I've sailed in both mini suites and more recently full suites (all Grand class ships) and none have a plastic sink, a compact shower unit or a shower curtain. Full suites have a split room bathroom with a jet tub and large glass-enclosed shower on one side and a large sink area with shelving and storage on the other side.

Also, both Princess and Celebrity can be classified as "mass market" or "premium" depending on who you ask, so don't kid yourself that Celebrity is somehow a step above. As is soften said on these boards, they are more alike than different.

As for perks, I am intrigued by some of the suite-only venues that Celebrity has launched and that does escalate their perks in my mind. though opinions differ on what perks are desirable That being said, I don't take a suite for the perks (though I do love breakfast in Sabatini's), I take it for the real estate of both the extra large room, the stateroom set up itself with the separate sleeping and living areas, as well as the aft-facing balcony of the vista suites that we have booked the last three cruises.

I'm seeing a price for 2500.00 plus taxes of 215.00 for a grand suite for alaska, is that a good price, should I go ahead and take that price for a bigger suite? the mini suite is 1999.00 plus taxes. If I book the S6, I believe that's the cheaper one, if a new promotion comes along, could I get that? There seem to be so many obc, etc always in January for Alaska. My cruise isn't until 2017, will princess honor those new sales if I book now? Thanks

In my experience that's a really good price for a full suite.

 

Now the second part. You mention dinner. If you bring your bottle to the dining room you will be charged a $15/bot corking fee.

Not if it is your one bottle per person that you check in with the wine table at embarkation. The mark it such that you won't pay the corkage fee.

Very nice! Don't forget to mark it as no upgrade if you want you keep that cabin.

Great deal! Enjoy!

Thanks so much for this Coral! I was just musing on another thread about which ships would be in Europe in 2017 and hoping there would be a couple of Grand Class!

This is great news! We'll be looking for a TA repo back from Europe to the U.S. in fall 2017. I will be interested to see which ships are sailing in Europe in the summer of 2017. Hopefully it won't only be Royal Class ships. We are big fans of the Grand Class.

I just got off the Royal today.... Sitting in FLL airport now. We were told by the staff at the captains circle party that both Alaska 2017 AND Europe 2017 would open for booking on December 3, 2015

That would be fantastic!!