jsquared

26 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I never set it up for onshore and when I installed the original app and all my info transferred to my new app.  There’s no indication I need to set it up to use the new app.  

I also didn't have it set up on the old app but even though everything transferred over it is requiring me to enter a card for shoreside transactions. My husband's account is "complete" and doesn't require it, however mine is the main account (his doesn't even have a spot to choose to enter a shoreside payment method if he even wanted to.

4 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

I don't get why they charge different rates except they can

I always assumed that it was based on the additional time needed to clean mini-suites and suites based on the square footage and stateroom features.

11 hours ago, geoherb said:

He said he and his wife usually eat up in the buffet except when he sees lamb on the menu in the dining room.

This made me chuckle. We check the dinner menu each day to determine whether we're go to the DR or buffet (btw - having it accessible on the TV is awesome!) but my guaranteed 'go to the dining room' dish is Carbonara 🙂 

On 8/21/2022 at 6:01 PM, Daniel A said:

Is anyone staying in an aft minisuite on Emerald Deck?  How is the noise at night from Club Fusion?

We were in E731 (starboard) in February and had no issues with noise from CF. (Note: this was on the EP but it should be the same as the CB). We did occasionally hear noise from crew in the morning but we were already up so I don't know if it would have awakened us.

On 8/17/2022 at 2:21 PM, geoherb said:

I finished up my time on shore at Salty's, a restaurant on the waterfront.

We had been looking forward to getting lobster rolls from Dave's Lobster on the boardwalk. Oh well - only 359 days to go now 🙂 

On 8/15/2022 at 6:50 PM, geoherb said:

Bars of soap are gone. There's a liquid soap dispenser at the sink as well as a lotion dispenser.

Thanks for the info. We started bringing bars of soap for the shower when they changed to dispensers - we'll have to pack a couple more now 🙂 

1 hour ago, pd7277 said:

 

Thank you both!  I'm hoping that's the case.  I've counted up the available cabins as 133 plus guaranties on most levels.  I figure 200 cabins tops...that's only 400 people, double occupancy, so hope they have cabins blocked out to reduce the capacity.  Otherwise we are at 2,700, give or take.  

 

Fingers crossed.

The fire doors on Aloha deck are closed with some sort of warning sign on them so we're thinking that that is likely the quarantine deck.  Those staterooms would have appeared as though they were sold on the map so your cruise might have something similar. 

22 hours ago, pd7277 said:

Could someone inquiry about the passenger count?

 

We sail 4/2 on the Emerald, so quite curious.

 

TIA

The captain just announced that we have 1,668 passengers on board plus 1,087 crew.

On 2/10/2022 at 11:00 AM, phabric said:

Following along.  I am trying to decide if we should do FLL to LA or LA to FLL.

We've always sailed west to east just so we have a shorter trip home at the end...and also so we're in CA for at least one night beforehand and can go to In-N-Out  🙂

41 minutes ago, c-boy said:

perhaps a pilot program  🤷‍♂️

What about all of the passengers who aren't pilots? 😁

Not sure how much room/weight allowance you have left in your luggage but they sell footstools that collapse to mostly flat that might be helpful.

Ask when you board. ESPN International will be on in the cabins as well as the casino (and possibly cigar bar) but the ship occasionally buys access to special sports programming (I've seen Playoff football, Cricket, and World Cup Rugby).

16 hours ago, mreasier said:

Yes, I am quite aware of Princess waiting for one of their tours being late.  I still have not heard of anyone being left behind because a private tour was late.  

We visited Costa Rica on our first cruise (10-day Panama Canal in late 2003). We were on the ship's rainforest canopy tour. The total tour group consisted of 2 buses and on the drive between the port to tour we ran into an area in which the road was down to a single lane and sat at a full stop waiting for our turn to go for about 45 minutes. The 2nd bus didn't make the first window and had to wait an additional 45 minutes. We arrived back at port about 20 minutes after we were supposed to have sailed. The 2nd bus arrived about 30 minutes later and drove right up to the ship. Passengers were rushed right on board, everything was closed up, and we pushed away fairly quickly. We were fully away from the dock when a car was seen speeding down the pier. Two people jumped out of the backseat and were jumping up and down waving their hands in the air. We did not go back from them. I do not know for sure why they were late but I've always assumed that they had gotten stuck in the same construction zone that we had but had been on their own.

3 hours ago, DMT1970 said:

Thanks everyone,  I decided to stick with the ships excursions for this trip.  I have seen other posts where people have referenced their excursion tickets.  I have booked an excursion at each port but do not see anywhere to print tickets.  Will these be delivered to my stateroom or did I miss something?

 I would suggest bringing a printout of your travel summary which shows the excursions that you have pre-purchased in the event that your excursion tickets are incorrect (has never happened to me but I like to be prepared).

1 hour ago, finucane said:

 

JMHO

It appears that even as of today, Princess, even on their "3 for free" promo is taking the non-refundable deposit route, for their bookings as far out as May of 2021.

To me it appears that, at least for their promos (to this date) are going to be non-refundable deposits!

 

For us, if that's the case, we are done. Have been with Princess for 25 + years. Many, many wonderful voyages/memories so we have done more than our share, guess its time to step aside and leave the adventures for others.

 

Again, IMHO, all the cruise lines are getting even more greedy. I guess its time to find another venue for our travels after our last 6 bookings we still have are done. Lots to do out there...

 

I myself really cannot understand why they would be going this route, but then again, I am only the consumer...

The good times are not going to last forever for these cruise lines, or for the paying public, someday the tides will turn, no pun intended. Maybe we (wife and I) need to take a sabbatical and wait for those tides to turn.

They are saturating the market with all these new mega ships, ruining the ports with so many more people, quality has diminished greatly, troubled ports and they still want more, the list is endless.

 

Its all about The Money and always has been, especially for the cruise lines!

A good book to read for an eye opener would be "Devils on the Deep Blue Sea". It tells about entrepreneurial genius and bare-knuckle capitalism that mate with cultural kitsch as the cruise lines dodge U.S. tax, labor and environmental laws to make unimaginable profits. A true (read) story...

 

Just imagine the whole deposit thing alone. Take every deposit for every person for every ship for every sailing (every week) and most often hold it for a year or two. Even if they were to take a simple interest (let alone invest all that deposit cash) the $ numbers are a staggering, shear profit for the cruise lines just to hold onto whether you cancel or not.

Not to even mention the topic of how much cruise fares have increased the past 5+ years is another story...

 

Well that felt good, was fun, rant over, eat me up now! 

You are certainly entitled to your opinion and I am not trying to beat you up. And I agree having to deal with non-refundable deposits will definitely have to be taken into consideration when I plan future travel. However, I also try to see it from the other side. I imagine that there are many people that book multiple cruises knowing full well that they are going to cancel some of them (I've seen posts of people talking about doing just this). The cruise line can't sell these cabins to a new customer while they are being held by another customer. If held until the last minute the cruise line might have to sell these cabins for less than the original reservation. And of course they're all about the money - this is a business after all 🙂.

There are a lot of land based businesses (specifically thinking about those that provide services for weddings) that have non-refundable deposits too. Ultimately it's all about their bottom line. 

We, as consumers, have the choice on where to spend our disposable income and should let that speak for us. Eventually someone will have to listen.

Pistachio pudding cup

Orzo salad with cranberries and goat cheese

I would guess that using the Medallion to order would put your order into a general queue to be filled first in first out so you wouldn't be able to target it to a specific server. But you don't have to order using your Medallion and can continue to order from your favorite server in person.

1 hour ago, kruisey said:

This all boils down to those that although they have the 500 days specials and get the special lunch they still feel they should get more OBC and a Super Elite status than those who have not obtained 500 days.

I see a lot of complaining on these boards about the delays due to the number of people using the laundry perk and I have wondered myself whether they will create a level above Elite when there are too many. I was around when they added the Ruby level so I know it can be done. 

3 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

DH has only encountered anything resembling status flaunting one time, where a lady was impressing upon him all she knew about cruising on Princess because it was her EIGHTH cruise. He never let on that it was probably his 88th

This made me laugh as a very similar thing happened to us. During the first Captain's party after we became elite we started chatting with a lovely couple who was probably 25 years old than us. We talked about different places we had traveled to and then they started talking about the perks of the different Captain's Circle levels. The CC host started her spiel about the numbers of passengers at each level of the cruise but when she got to the elite number she asked us to stand up. I glanced over at our neighbors; his jaw had dropped. We had a good laugh afterwards and they said that we should've been telling them about the perks as the were only platinum.

I don't think that the elitist attitudes are a result of being elite. I've seen those attitudes at every level of CC. I think it is just the person.

In addition to the other locations mentioned, we got to visit the backstage area on our tour. I also think that we were told that if the medical center was in use it might be skipped. I would do it again!

1 hour ago, Ep010835 said:

 

Would you please elaborate.  What’s a mechanical mule?

The machinery used to guide the ship through the canal. 

We've done the partial transit from FLL through the old locks in 2003 on the Coral, a full transit through the old locks in 2013 on the Island, a partial transit from FLL through new locks in 2018 on the Caribbean, and we're booked on a full transit in 2019 on the Emerald. No matter if you choose the partial or full transit, I would recommend the old locks. While going through any locks is an experience, ships are guided through the old locks with mules (mechanical not animal 🙂 ) and is neater.

We were on the Regal and had left Ft Lauderdale that evening. There were scattered clouds throughout the evening but the view was pretty great when it was clear. They turned the lights off on the Sport Court and surrounding area on decks 17 & 18. I think the best view was from the lawn on 18. Here is one of the pictures we took (it looked much better in person - this is a cell phone). 

Sort of. I couldn't log into the internet from my device from late Saturday (10pm ish) until we disembarked on Sunday. I received an error message that my device was already registered and to logout and try again (which didn't work). My husband has no breaks in connection.

The Western segment should only have the single formal night as Cozumel is a late port night (10:00pm).