LawDog61

4 minutes ago, CPs4591 said:

Thanks to both you and Cruise Feen for the great info!  Eases my mind.  LawDog, my heart goes out to you as someone who has celiac.  I do not have celiac but have other autoimmune diseases and am NCGS and eating it adversely impacts me.  My docs have me off it.  So feel for you because you have to worry so much more about cross contamination even a grain of sand portion.   But I am also glad to hear that I can get GF pastry, pasta and pizza!  Thank you both so much for brightening my day!  

Even though not on the menu, GF pasta available every night in the MDR.   Always my fall back option if nothing else appeals to me.  No worries for me about being Celiac……..it forces me to think before eating and eat healthy 😄

A few thought from a celiac cruiser.   They do a great job in the MDR and speciality restaurants.  If you are in a ship with a Gigi’s or Alfredo’s they have a reasonably good pizza.  Be very,very careful in the buffet. I have been gluten poisoned (quite badly) in the buffet, and that is after seeking out a “tall hat”chef and being give the “what’s safe tour”.

I have had different GF breads on Princess over the years…some better than others.   For me it works best when well toasted ( not just warmed up as they seem to want to do.

Hello from the Emerald Princess.  Yes, we did have on bumpy night and day, but seas are now very smooth.  Looks a little overcast today.  I hope then sun comes out.  Tomorrow is Honolulu, our first port.  All good on board.   My one complaint (hey, this is Cruise Critic right?)  is the entertainment.   My main activity at night is listening to the music in the lounges.  No traditional Wheelhouse singers.    A guy playing a Steel pan……what ever that is.  This Hawaii cruise is kind of a one off for Emerald and the Music is mostly Latin and Caribbean ( lots of Reggie from the party band).   Not a real “Hawaiian feeling” on board.  I guess I miss Tiki Dave LOL.

1 hour ago, CanadianBurger said:

Nope. In a hallway outside the Reserve dining room. This pic is pretty much all of it. But it’s become our go-to bar now when we want a quiet drink. Crooners is usually our spot but they’ve got too much loud stuff in the Piazza. 
 

Thanks for the report  Canadian burger.  That’s what I expected, unfortunately.  Really enjoying your live-on-board. Cheers.

9 hours ago, CanadianBurger said:

Since there’s no Library, games are on a cart at Wheelhouse. Seems like an odd location. 
 

Is the wheel house an actual venue, like on the old Grand class ships or just a small area called “wheelhouse” like on the discovery class?   Music and dancing at night ?   Thanks for any info 

I always hit the beach in Honolulu and Nawillwilli

2 hours ago, GK95 said:

Yes but from what I’ve heard, most brokers are under the validation tool where you need to enter your brokerage login and password. Some aren’t comfortable doing that. Fidelity is listed separately so the trick is to pick Fidelity and then upload the image so you don’t have to provide you login info. 
 

Caveat: my broker is Fidelity so I can so for certain this approach works or not if you don’t have Fidelity. But it was a fairly simple process to upload the image and it took less than a week to get the OBC in my Princess account.  

Yes, Fidelity worked great for this.   When I was looking using my Schwab account, a pop up screen called “plad” wanted my log in credentials for Schwab.  No thanks.

20 hours ago, BamaVol said:

I can’t find any reports on a Stockperks data breach. Where’s your stock account?

I opened my ccl dedicated broakerage account with Fidelity, because as far as I could see, that was the one which Stockperks accepted an uploaded ( and redacted ) photo of account,   The notice of PW leak came to me as a message with a list of my compromised passwords.  It was not fro m Stockperks.

Like many people here on this forum, I was reluctant to give Stockperks ( a third party vendor I have never heard of) access to my brokerage accounts to show ownership of CCL stocks to receive SHC.   I set up a dedicated account with a brokerage holding only 100 shares of CCL and provided that to Stockperks.   Within a week of setting this up, I received a notification that my PW had appeared in a data leak and I need to change it.  Glad I set it up this way.

BTW, it had been a while since I took a good look at CCL stock.   I bought a little extra (for my regular account) and it is doing nicely.  Ships seem full with lots of spending so hopefully they are overcoming the huge debt cliff incurred in the COVID years.

As a lap swimmer, I keep a close eye on the pools.  Usually they are heated , although frequently not too warm ( which is ok for lap swimming).  Always check the different pools, as the temperature can vary a significant amount.  The best heated pools on the old Grand class ships with the enclosed pool.  Nice and warm.

Trying to enter my pw for account in the pop up screen which occurs on plaid.  My paw has numbers in it and the number function key is greyed out.  

I was working my way through the app, but I must say I am not comfortable giving so much information about my brokerage account.  So, my plan is to open a new brokerage account holding only 100 shares of CCL.   Does anyone have a good experience importing the data into Stockperks from any of the major brokerage? Vanguard? fidelity? Robin Hood etc?  Thanks guys.

I think another option may be to open a dedicated brokerage account (EZ on line) with just 100 shares of CCL in it.  Let the bad guys HACK away.

Yes, there is a box to check…..but it doesn’t mean a darn thing.   As suggested, make it know to the restrauant manager and they will take good care of you. The buffet is iffy.   I am celiac and have gotten poisoned twice in the buffet, despite having the chef walk me around and show what’s safe. I suggest you stick with the MDR.  Good luck, and understand….it is all on you.  Be vigilant and assertive,

Fasted boarding ever.  15 minute Uber from home, 20 minutes through checkin and on board.   Nothing but our passports in hand.   It’s a massive waste of time playing their game with their app.  

Princess is well aware of and , assumedly ok with the sound level.  You will see the tech support staff walking around the atrium,  even on deck 6 and 7 measuring the volume.

It looks like Discovery is going to be late arriving in San Pedro because of heavy fog.   Anyone on board have an update?   I am following closely as we will be boarding her today.

Is this now the required way to submit or another option?

I am doing an experiment this weekend.  Saturday we board the Discovery for a 7 day cruise.   It’s kind of a last minute decision to go, and I have been extremely busy the last few weeks doing a remodel, so I have done absolutely NOTHING on the app.  We will just show up dockside.  
I have found the app time consuming and frustrating, although it seems to be getting easier to use. I will report back about how my “just show up” works.

I Agreed that volume in the piazza is probably disturbing to many guest.   As someone who enjoys most of the musical performances,  piazza is my least favorite venue.  The old Explorers lounge worked much better. 

So Sapphire leaves on her 32 day South Pacific cruise today.  My dream cruise on my favorite ship.   I hope some one does a live on board or blog.

11 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

We had a fabulous low key day today.  We started off with a very slow morning before me heading to the CC meeting in the Take 5 and my DH attending Leo Rossi’s talk.  
we both had lunch from the buffet with some old and new friends out on the back deck.  
I love the Indian dishes they make up in the buffet.  I was going to hit up the dining room for my traditional first sea day lunch of Chicken Korma but understand they were changing the menu on this sailing and it seemed more inviting to visit with friends and we are glad we did.  
We did go to the Crown Grill tonight for a most wonderful meal, once again.  The food and wine, service and atmosphere were spot on!  
After dinner, we went to Rock Opera and WOW!  I’ve seen this show once or twice last year while on the Discovery and it was excellent back then but even better tonight!  Bravo!  Bravo! Bravo!  What an extremely talented group of singers, dancers, musicians and stage crew!  
We finished our evening at the Yes / No game show and it was absolutely hilarious!  

All in all, it as another really perfect day at sea!  

 

I just have one more comment that we were rather puzzled when getting back to our cabin as there was an apology with some confections from Christine, who is the guest services representative.  We thought the in transit process was pretty much seamless and very well done.  Maybe some people were annoyed but it never even occurred to us that this was out of the ordinary or something that required an apology from guest services.  
Perhaps the treats were related to the charges for our specialty coffees and mimosas on turnaround day.  Either way, it was unnecessary but most thoughtful and appreciated.  

I agree the Indian food in the Discovery Buffet is great.  And if you are celiac lie me and must eat gluten free, most (but not all) is safe for celiacs.


 

9 hours ago, Carnevale said:

We have enjoyed some time in Take Five after dinner having night caps (really good staff and bar tenders at this bar) and listening to the jazz trio.  Right now it’s great venue.  Hope it stays that way.

 

For us our pillows have two challenges.  Some (not all) are crunchy which might be the pillow protectors.  And all of them are really thick and firm They are too thick to use two (as we normally do) yet not enough to just use one.

Happy to hear the jazz trio is back in Take Five!

Thanks for posting the live on board.  I am following with great interest as we have a couple of Discovery cruises coming up ( a costal and a Hawaii).  I know the Discover well, as we mostly sail local port (I.e. Pedro) and we  really do enjoy her.  
I didn’t think I would like Royal Class ships as much as the Older smaller Grand class ——but I do 😄

I always bring my own pillows with me. Thanks again for posting!

Really enjoying your post.  Thanks for posting.   Sapphire is my favorite Princess ship I think.   I got to agree with you about the buffet.   Generally the buffets on the Grand class ships are lacking, although I find the buffets on the Royal class ships to be outstanding.