cruisequeen4ever

Oh interesting; it’ll be cool to get your perspective on MSC. My hubby was recently mentioning it, and I’m on the fence. Food is the most important detail for us on a cruise.

Exactly!

I’m sorry you didn’t have a great experience, and I hope your husband gets well soon. I always enjoy your blogs and was excited you were cruising my favorite cruise line this time. Though the Emerald is near and dear to our hearts, you might give Princess one more try on a newer, Royal class ship. It’s probably more of what you like. As for the closest layout, I am one who highly prefers the Princess closet because it’s so spacious and tucked away from the main room area. The great thing about variety of cruise lines is that we can each find the one(s) that suits us! Whichever cruise line you go on next, keep blogging please! 😀

I need to use a scooter now, and I’ve determined though not technically a requirement to have one onboard, I will only book handicap staterooms or larger staterooms. A regular balcony is just too tight a squeeze and would require a lot of tough maneuvering. Also, it makes me nervous that the cruise line could deny my scooter if it’s deemed too big for a regular stateroom. Good luck!

I’m sorry that happened to your husband. I was curious about acupuncture on a cruise as I know locally, I was told it takes 5-11 sessions to notice a difference.

You will be exhausted at the end of the day, because the days are full of long tours, but it is all worth it because you see the most magnificent sites. You go to bed much earlier and thus, don’t participate in as much evening entertainment as you would in the Caribbean because you have to get up early for the next port. There is more planning involved Have a blast!

In my opinion, you’re getting a much better port! Mykonos is gorgeous and has amazing food.

The new brown bags rip way too easily. I had 2 items lost because of a hole in the bag. I really hope they go back to their older, sturdier bags. I highly doubt you’ll get your item back post-cruise. I’m sorry you lost such a treasured item. My husband has stopped using our Elite laundry benefit because of the risk of loss/damage. I still use the benefit because I don’t want to waste my precious vacation time doing laundry, but I do get nervous now after having 2 items lost.

I’ve noticed and ebb and flow to itineraries. In 2015, it was hard to find an ABC itin, so we jumped on the one we found. Then, loads of ABC itins came about the next years.

This was the pistachio on the Royal’s Christmas and NYE cruise. It is still really yummy but is different than before.

It was always available on the Royal over Christmas, but let me tell you, it was nothing like its former self! The color was different and the flavor was 100% off. I’m frankly shocked as the head chef is a long time Princess chef and Italian. He clearly didn’t sample it!

In the world of massages, my favorite is the Hot Stone massage because it’s terribly relaxing and soothing. I think it was priced fairly onboard. It cost more online pre-cruise. If you’re Elite, you get a 10% discount if you book onboard.

Finally returning to the Med this summer! Super excited to go back and to experience the Enchanted Princess! Oh and a Mexican Riviera on Celebrity this spring. Wish it was on Princess, but free is free!! 😬

I agree that it seemed more passes were being sold. I even saw some people getting a tour toward the end of the cruise and thought how are they going to consider it exclusive if they’re gonna allow even more in?! I also agree about the chair hogs. The sign saying not to was completely ineffective. I’d pounce on a water bed if one became available, and I just didn’t use the stone beds. Personally, I don’t know how anyone could stay in there for hours and read in that heat. It’s therapeutic for an hour but then I’m out!

We pre-purchased at $299 pp for the Hawaii cruise. I don’t know what the onboard price was. There were definitely more people using it than in our past experiences, between all the sea days and it being a holiday cruise, that’s not surprising. It was well worth it and would highly recommend it!

Yep, we restarted cruising the end of 2022, and it felt so good!!!!!!

I always recommend the Pan Pacific and Fairmont Waterfront, however, they can be quite costly. If you want a less expensive alternative, there are some hotels a few blocks back that work and are still 4 stars. One trick is to stay at a hotel along the sky train route close to the airport and just take the sky train back and forth to explore Vancouver. We did that one time for a one night stay that was a long layover, and it worked well.

That’s too bad your NY was thin. My husband’s was thicker than any we’ve ever gotten at Crown Grill in the past. We do agree with you that the general food quality has declined onboard, unfortunately. Some were still hits but others were noticeably different.

We have always loved Crown Grill so we pre-booked Crown Grill twice for our Royal Hawaii cruise. Both times were so good, we went back a third time. We covered the filet mignon x4, New York x1, and Lamb Chops x1. All were cooked perfectly and of superb quality.

We definitely had all 4 port days in Hawaii, and we arrived on time to all 3 islands. The captain did alter our course to Hawaii to avoid worse seas. We only missed Ensenada; the captain announced that if we had sailed there, we would have been sailing up the coast in the worst of the storm. I tracked the wave height forecast of the storm on an app, and he made the right call. The Royal cut through the waves beautifully, but I did take Meclizine a few times when we were really rolling. I think the captain said something about feeling the motion more with the direction we were rolling. One day in the Retreat pool, the water was sloshing all the way down to the bottom on one end and then would blast to the other end all the way down to the bottom! I swam laps, and it was truly a swim against the current pool! 🤣 It was a fun adventure!

Technically it’s considered enough, however, I always seek layovers there of 1.5-2 hrs to be safe. Seattle has gotten so bad with plane traffic that we often are delayed 10-30 min sitting on the tarmac waiting for a gate. There goes the transit time; you’re stressing to race to the next gate which could mean down the way or could mean a train ride or a trek to another terminal. Not fun IMO.

So did you make the cruise in SD?? What a stressful experience you’ve had. This year has brought way too many delays and cancellations of flights. I hope from today on will be smooth sailing for you!

Years ago on a Christmas cruise, they had a list of all teens onboard and actively monitored the ship, so they could make sure they didn’t break any rules late at night.

If I remember correctly, there were 8 ships one year.

Ruh roh; me thinks I may not like this ship either! 😱 I haven’t studied the deck plans yet, so this was all news to me. DH and I both smile when we hear the British accent speaking the deck name in the elevator. I enjoy the deck names so much that I’ve nicknamed various items by those names. The grill and pizza by the pool are our embarkation day go-to’s. I ❤️ traditional Princess and may just have to sail the Royal and Grand classes til they’re gone and then switch to a small ship cruise line. I’ll be interested to see if any of the new venues attract my attention. DH already had no interest in the Sun due to its size.