muggo11

27 minutes ago, red4u2 said:

Off the main topic....but what did you think of the Sky aft cabin for the Fjords?

It was perfect for us.  We spent a lot of time bundled up as we sailed through the various fjords.  Not to mention seeing the northern lights!  I’ve also gotten aft balconies for Alaska and New Zealand.  To me, it’s worth the extra $.  Otherwise, I’m happy with interiors!

On 3/21/2024 at 6:42 AM, dleahy4444 said:

Hello just found this old post of your. I’m hoping you can give me some info about the view from your aft balcony as your ship approached and left Iceland? I’m going to Iceland this summer and booked an aft balcony but it was at a premium price and I’m wondering if a regular balcony on either side of the ship would be just as good. I can still change and get my money back, if the upgrade isn’t worth it for Iceland, since it doesn’t go to the fjords in Norway 

We were in D729 for Norway and absolutely loved it.  If I can afford them, I always scoop up an aft balcony!  

We have bid twice and were wildly successful once, scoring an aft balcony for Sky Princess through the Norwegian fjords the day before it sailed.  We only bid $200pp.  When we arrived, the couple next to us it was their sister who was supposed to have the cabin—she had gotten COVID the day before.  I guess we were first on the list?  

I have bids in now for upgrades for our world cruise on Coral out of Auckland.  We’re in an interior so I’m pretty sure I’d be happy with anything.  Though, in the be careful what you wish for department, we WILL be on the ship for 110 days.  But, gee, a balcony would be nice and the low bid is $2K.  We shall see.  

20 hours ago, JordanCruising said:

Regarding the "Come Back Offer" have you had this offer on Australian sailings? 

CBS offers are not offered on Australian cruises.  They, do however offer free play.  I got a certificate for $1500 of FP on the Royal last month.  It has to be used on an Australian cruise!  #whenis$1500not$1500?  

Having said that—the offers I get in my account for Australian cruises continue to be dramatically better than for US cruises.  Elite offers, freeplay of $1500 (last year, one was $2000). I’ll have to let future offers for Australia go now—we’ve been here for 4 months come the end of April.  Time to board the World Cruise!  

9 minutes ago, Busy Mum said:

Same here, east coast of Australia & it’s 8.30am Wednesday where I am. 🤷‍♀️ 

We are sailing into Sydney ourselves.  Hoping when it’s back up, the new itinerary for our Coral WC is posted!  

I think I’ve booked all the comped cruises I can for 2024 and even one in 2025.  Four cruises for 45 days).  They’re all balconies with $400 in FP—no Princess Plus BUT since they’re all in Australia (where gratuities are not charged), I may upgrade in Australian dollars when I’m on-board.  We are also, FINALLY, taking a long delayed World Cruise for 110 days rt from Auckland (and, folks, sadly, no free play or discounts are offered on a world cruise!).  I’m working on my casino strategy for that 110 days!  

Thanks, all. I’m happy just to be cruising but thought I’d ask!  

30 minutes ago, muggo11 said:

People don’t change.  And new customers—always new customers (which is a good thing!). After nearly 10 years on CC and thousands of posts, I still learn things. And sometimes I can help others—which I also enjoy. By and large, it’s a kinder forum than the FB pages.  And I have an endearing loyalty towards it, for sure.  

Haha. . . Quoting myself because I have nearly 20 years on CC. . . .We need anniversary presents for these special moments.  

5 minutes ago, Woody14 said:

Carnival is very nice in this regard as if you are achieving a new status during a cruise they grant it to you right away so in your case if you are turning diamond during that cruise you will be issued your diamond card when you board.

 

How wonderful!  Unlimited laundry on this long cruise!  Now I’m gonna go check out the new Diamond perks.  

Been Elite a long time now but I seem to recall something special for cruise #25?  It will be our World Cruise on Coral Princess so anything special will be most welcome!  

People don’t change.  And new customers—always new customers (which is a good thing!). After nearly 10 years on CC and thousands of posts, I still learn things. And sometimes I can help others—which I also enjoy. By and large, it’s a kinder forum than the FB pages.  And I have an endearing loyalty towards it, for sure.  

Two questions:  

I will have 175 points when I board a 25-day cruise (Singapore to LA) next year:  Will I be Diamond for the entirety of the cruise?

It will be by 25th cruise. . . I seem to recall that Carnival does something for passengers on their 25th cruise?

Thanks.  I’ve been platinum for so long, I thought I’d never get to Diamond!  

5 hours ago, cruisingteachers4 said:

I was looking to book this cruise and it is no longer available (October 12th, 2024 was the date). Does anyone know what the Panorama will be doing instead? We are booked on the pre-dry dock in August going from LA to Tokyo. 

 

Thank you for the 411!

We, too are on this cruise (and the roll call for it). . . No notice that anything’s amiss.  

So appreciative that the 2025 QM2 sailing were posted on this site. . . This allowed me to plan my 2025 travel itinerary around the 14-day sailing on July 25 that will get us back to the States after 3 months in Portugal, Spain and the UK via Norway and Iceland.  We’ve always loved 7 days on the QM2–14 days sounds like heaven—even in a cozy interior!  Made the downpayment and put in ink on the calendar.  

Now to find the CC Roll Call for that cruise.  

Thanks so much for posting these schedules. . . We are working backwards from a QM2 crossing in late summer/early fall 2025 and now I can get a handle on what’s what.  Thanks. . . 

Hmm. . . Well it looks likes the on-board charge for Princess Plus WILL be in AU$ but the Princess reps weren’t able to give me a rate.  So, given the time value of money, I think I’ll wait to upgrade when I get onboard.  Happy sailing, all!  

Thanks, all, for your thoughtful responses.  I do plan to call Princess today to ask them about the situation.  In the US Princess Plus includes gratuities and, as a US booker, I will be charged them as well.  I have the option to pre-pay the gratuities so the question is whether the other benefits provided by Princess Plus make financial sense.  In what currency and at what cost will help me make that decision!

I have 5 Princess cruises booked in Australia in 2024.  All are currently booked as standard except for the World Cruise out of (rt Auckland) which came with perks that are now named Princess Plus.    All of them state that the on-board folio will be in AUS$.  I decided to upgrade one of the cruises to Princess Plus and it charged me in US dollars.  Would I be better off waiting until I’m onboard these cruises to purchase the upgrade?  Or has the AUS$ per day to upgrade set at current exchange rates so it would make no difference to my bottom line.  

Well, I held an aft balcony on Sapphire for a couple of days on the 17 day Antarctica (Jan 5 2025) while I worked on our calendar for 2024/25 but it just didn’t work out due to two other cruises we booked.  It also wasn’t eligible for a casino discount (though that may happen in the future as the one in Dec 1 2024 shows as a comp) so I released it yesterday (hope one of you could people waiting for a B4 got it!).   

If and when the Jan sailing shows up as a comp, we will be on it!  In the meantime we’re splurging on an Oceania from Miami to Lima in December and then taking a comped cruise NCL Star  from BA to Ushuaia in Feb which goes to some of the same places.  We plan to spend extended time in Lima, Montevideo/Punte d’Este Ushuaia and Cuenca/Quito before heading to Lisbon on a repositioning cruise in March.  

We took the Star Princess from LA to Rio in 2015/16 and it was one of the best cruises we’ve ever experienced (right up there with the Baltic, Alaska and Norwegian fjord cruises).  Happy sailing, all.  

1 hour ago, CalLuvsCrusingToo said:

 

Right on what you said muggo.  I'm not sure if the new poster above (from united states lol)  is serious or not?🤔

As for me, theres No way to know what the hold is on slots.  I rarely ever play slots, especially on ships.

But you CAN know paytables if you are a Video poker player, its listed on the machine.

 

I just learned that CLIA, the cruise line industry association requires its members to adhere to gambling regs in either Nevada, New Jersey or England.  They require regular audits of payback percentages AND do unannounced audits.  And, yes, video poker pay-tables tell me what I need to know (I’m a table-game and VP player with a few hundred dollars  ritually sacrificed to Buffaloes and Golden Drums).  

9 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

We also enjoy the Coral.  We will be on the Oct '24, 32-day, Singapore to LA, sailing.

 

Coral was our very first Princess Cruise back in 2004 (Panama Canal).  And we will be on her for 180 days in 2024 (WC, Sydney to Perth and Perth to Singapore) so I sure hope we like her!  

Intriguing. . . We took the Star Princess from LA to Rio in 2015/16 and swore we’d return to some of the ports for longer stays.  Some of these SA cruises might replace ones we have booked.  We travel full-time and 2025 is our Year of South America.  We are currently booked on Oceania from Miami to Lima in early December.  And then on an NCL from Lima to Ushuaia in February that goes as far south as Elephant Island.  We may try to pick up a “local” option to see more of Antarctica from Ushuaia.  Still waiting for more trans-Atlantics from South America to Europe to be announced but we’re tentatively scheduled to head to LIsbon from Miami in March.  I’ll check to see when Majestic is repositioning and to where when it concludes its SA itineraries.  Getting out the map and having a discussion with my ChatBot tomorrow about how to efficiently go where we want to.  

Gaming WITH slot machines or gaming the machines?  You can do the former but NOT the latter. All the information I could find (and I once asked Michael Shakelford, the Wizard of Odds himself) is that the regulation of cruise slot machines is most likely by the country the ship is flagged in.  And many of those countries have little or no regulation.  So the payout percentages are anyone’s guess.   Play for fun and play for no more than you can afford.  And don’t chase comps!  Those are my recommendations.  

Oh, also. . . NEXT year we’re going from Miami to Lima, spending 3 months in South America and then going from Miami to spend a month each in Madeira, Tenerife and Lisbon before heading to eastern Europe.  Probably will come back to U.S. again on the QM2 (we love love love that crossing!)

On 6/6/2023 at 12:52 AM, DebInAntigua said:

Hi, everybody - I can't think of any other board to post this question, so here goes. 

 

In 2025, my husband and I who own a business together out of NC and currently live in Guatemala (USA citizens) are interested in sailing over to Europe on a TA in the spring, staying overseas for the summer months and then returning on a western TA in the fall of 2025. We know that we can only stay 90 days in the Schengen area with that visa, which is not enough time for this type of adventure. Is it true that we can stay up 90 days in Ireland without a visa and that's outside the Schengen area so we could do a combo of these two locations without special visa arrangements? 

We're just now beginning to explore this idea, so would love to know which EU countries and locations are good for extended tourism stays and keeping in touch with our team remotely back in the USA? We're interesting in discovering locations that are affordable with long term rentals, good for mobility challenged older folks, fast internet, easy to get around without a car, with lots of culture like museums, good restaurants, etc.) Recommendations are very welcome!

What you are considering is very doable!  We are full-time travelers.  And whenever we can cruise rather than fly, we DO.  Last year we took the QM2 to Southampton, stayed our full Schengen time (88 days) in Vienna, Paris, and Germany (with a 30-day break in non-Schengen Andorra!), then went to England and sailed home on the maiden voyage of Carnival Celebration.

This year we spent Feb and March in Bonaire and Aruba and took Oceania from Aruba to Barcelona, arriving in April.  We have now been in Spain for over 2 months and are headed to England and Scotland tomorrow with plans to return stateside on the QM2 in mid-August.  (We’ll run the clock out on our Schengen time on a cruise to Norway next week).  

So, yes, due to BREXIT, you can extend your time in Europe by going to the UK OR in non-Schengen eastern European countries.  We are slowmads, meaning that we like to stay places a month or longer.  So far that has included Croatia, Lake Como, Paris, Vienna, Andorra, Barcelona and Denia Spain.  Next we head to a couple of different suburbs of London.  Our rent budget is $2000 a month—we offset higher rents with petsitting.  

There is a FB group called Go With Less with thousands of nomads like us.  Lots of tips and travel hacks there.  I recently wrote a guest blog on the logistics and fiancing of this way of life.  

https://www.caniretireyet.com/reader-story-nomadic-life-retirement/

Good luck!