Want2Cruise 701

Just got the survey a few moments ago. I’m a hard NO!  Wonder why it came a week after the OP’s came?

I just looked at the menus for our silhouette cruise. They have indeed changed and not for the best. I was quite disappointed at the offerings and how few choices there were. Looks like the classics are mixed in with the main menu. Take the classics out and there are just a few unappealing options. 
 

We’ll see how it goes and make our decision whether X is still the cruise line for us or not. 

We were on our first Princess cruise to Alaska this summer. We did enjoy it very much. We sailed for much less including Princess plus than X for a base fare and non-refundable deposit. Our deposit with Princess was refundable if need be. 
 

I do like Celebrity a little better, and we are Elite but would not sail Celebrity if the cost was much greater. I don’t think the little extras are worth the increase X is charging these days. 
 

We also were in a regular veranda as opposed to Suites on our last 5 Celebrity cruises. The experience was still the same.  I didn’t miss the Retreat experience so on our next Celebrity cruise we are sailing in a regular veranda. 

23 hours ago, vacationislife said:

We sail in January and there are still no excursions available.

We are on the 29th sailing as well. The St Vincent stop on the March sailing that the OP was referring to has been replaced. The Celebrity website says they do not stop in St Vincent. I’m wondering if we are not stopping and it’s just a placeholder until they find another port?  Don’t know but it’s odd that 5 months out there are no excursions.  At one point, St Vincent was removed from our itinerary than put back on. 

My booking cruise fare went up $600 and now only includes $200 OBC as opposed to $450. The July 4 promo definitely favored me better. I repriced with that one. 
 

X drives me crazy with their gimmick so called sales all the time. 
 

As everyone has stated, the Elite Cocktail Hour is meaningless when you have a package. Enjoy the package and drink when and where you’d like. 

When I did a mock booking, it did reference “all included” on the payment screen. I did not have the option to opt in or out when booking. 

I know it’s the beginning of the season but was curious if any ship has made it through?  We are scheduled in a couple weeks on the Discover Princess. We are waitlisted for the boat excursion so really hoping it’s passable. 

21 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

Didn’t see hardly any drinks delivered to the theatre; I wonder if relying on the app vs having waiters walking around is leaving money on the table for the ship…

 

There were ample reminders of the impending time change.

Since you can order through your medallion and app, are there no longer waiters walking around even in other venues too?   First princess cruise on the discovery in a few weeks. We usually sail celebrity so have no idea. Thank you and enjoying the review. Very helpful since we will be on the discovery very soon. 

On 5/1/2023 at 5:20 PM, toofewcruises said:

Thank you for posting! I will be boarding the Discovery in Seattle in 20 days. Hoping for a smoother embarkation! Sorry about yours 

Are you on the sailing the 21st?  We will be on as well. 

Our medallions arrived today. The sea turtle art I ordered for my medallion face was cutoff. You can’t even tell what it is. My husband ordered the moose and it’s completely recognizable and centered. 
 

Has this ever happed to anyone else?  Waiting for Princess to call me back. Doubt I can get a new one in time. Hopefully they’ll refund since this this not what I paid for 😢

Would just a sport jacket and tie be ok?  My husband usually brings a suit for formal nights, but we will be traveling with so much extra and heavier clothing due to the cold weather itinerary. This will mean an extra pair of pants and shoes. TIA

If you could only do one, which one?  Cost issue. We are going late May if that makes a difference. Also, morning or afternoon tours if that makes a difference too. 
 

If we don’t do the helicopter land on Mendenhall with hike, we will still go to Mendenhall via land and go to the falls. 
 

If we don’t do the seaplane to Misty Fjords, we are considering the Zodiac Quest to George Inlet Fjords or a Misty Fjords explorer cruise.  I will say the seaplane crashes do make me nervous but not ruling it out.

TIA

Loving your review. Thank you. Have they locked your balcony door at all during the voyage. We have a forward facing booked for our Alaska cruise. 

On 1/3/2022 at 2:53 PM, skynight said:

Go to the deck plans on the Princess web site. Select a cabin. Any with solid railing walls will be indicated in red print. These are the forward cabins.

I know which ones they are. You can’t book them anymore. For any sailing. It seems as if they are holding them for guarantees???  When you choose forward obstructed deluxe cabins on 15 and 16 for choose your own, it pops up guarantee on any Royal class ship and sailing???  

Does anyone know why you are not able to book the forward facing obstructed on 15 & 16 as well as the far forward port and starboard on 8. It seems to come up as a guarantee now. These are for sailings 1-1+ years out. TIA!

1 minute ago, morpheusofthesea said:

Captain Matthaios Karandreas. Were told today that all positive cases in isolation are NOT serious.

We’ve sailed with him before. Very good. No surprise he’s doing his best for all!

I’m glad you’re enjoying but thinking of the sick passengers. Our Apex sailing was not as forthcoming and transparent as compared to yours currently giving people a false impression. Who’s your captain?  Kuddos to him for informing passengers and taking precautions. This is the way it should be. Stay safe and enjoy. 

21 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

This post wasn't clear. Are you saying that you and your entire party all tested positive for Covid after being on the ship? I ask because you keep mentioning flu, but loss of smell is not a flu symptom and is a key symptom of Covid.

 

And the reason the cruise line recommended you test after you get off the ship is to lower their numbers showing positive onboard. What is confusing here though is I thought everyone had to be tested on the last day or next to last day of the cruise before debarking? Did that requirement go away?

The only people tested are the ones doing a B2B and traveling international I think on the latter. 
 

I don’t know why, but I’m just blown away after reading that X would tell you to test when you get off the ship. I know they don’t want the numbers and statistics but that’s just wrong. 

On 12/29/2021 at 11:07 PM, Lourex said:

I’ll agree with about everything Want2Cruise stated.  The ship was great and the service was outstanding.  With it being only 1/3 full made it completely stress free.  The only spoiler was Covid.  There were a lot more than 7 people on that ship with Covid (we know of 4 ourselves amongst a small sample size of people we met).  And the staff indicated there were a lot.  I certainly don’t blame the ship for that as it is a known risk especially given how contagious omicron seems to be.  However, the communication once it was spreading was non existent as we were in close contact with some of those impacted.  We were not warned even though the impacted party communicated they were with us.  Unfortunately we did not find out until we had symptoms at the very end of the trip.  I would suspect there will be others like DH that will experience symptoms after disembarking (and unfortunately likely jumping on airplanes).   Again, I really enjoyed the ship, staff, food, entertainment and overall experience.  I just think everyone needs to understand the risks of testing positive and what that brings with it  (potential illness, passing on to others, Quarantines, no flights home, the impossibility of finding a rental car when you can’t fly, confined to your stateroom, etc.). 

I hope you are well and safe. I’m sorry. It’s disheartening to hear about so many other cases we didn’t know about, and there wasn’t more transparency. I wish Celebrity would have communicated more. I know we took the risk, and as stated we wore our masks less toward than the end than in the beginning and let our guard down. We still distanced ourselves to the point we didn’t communicate with other passengers other than a hello and had no idea what was going on amongst the ship.  If there was more communication, we would have worn them more and sanitized more frequently. Our fault. We should have anyway, but Celebrity could have done a little more too. 
 

Just curious if you have more numbers?  Was anyone put off the ship who tested positive?  Were you or the others in The Retreat?

On 12/28/2021 at 9:21 PM, kwokpot said:

I'm sorry about your covid situation spoiling your wonderful cruise. We were on the sailing prior to yours also in Retreat Class and it wasn't crowded at all. In fact most of the time the Retreat Lounge was literally EMPTY. We generally went for Aperitivo around 6:30-6:45 and either two or three other couples at the most, some evenings we were the only ones in the Lounge. Dinner at Luminae around 7-7:30 it was never crowded and we never had to sit next to anyone. 

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

I will say the lounge wasn’t very crowded but Luminae was. The 3x we ate there we were always seated next to another couple. Because it was a holiday sailing, there were large groups taking up the big tables making the smaller, closer together tables the only option. 

42 minutes ago, Want2Cruise 701 said:

I am really sorry as the OP here. I tried posting a couple days ago but couldn’t to everyone’s posts. Anyway, DH did indeed test positive. Results came in around 11pm last night. Great job CVS on the PCR. Results in a little over 24hrs. Tested at 4:30PM and received them at 11PM the following day. 
 

This Omicron is so contagious right now. We arrived home today after driving to find out everyone here we know has it. Our family in another state has it only because he has to be tested because of his profession. All asymptomatic or mild. Our adult son and GF are traveling too. They had their test to travel back to the US and have tested positive to their surprise. Unfortunately, they are there to stay until they can test positive to fly back. 
 

So torn. We had regretted cruising since we contracted it even though one of our best cruises, but given what we know after returning, it seems like we would have caught it either way.  
 

The worst part is we most likely passed it to people unknowingly and hopefully the person or persons we contracted it from were asymptomatic. Big takeaway on all this is be vaxxed and boosted. If we weren’t, I don’t even want to know or find out. 
 

Happy New Year all!!!

Oops. I’m not the OP. Thought this was my thread I posted about. I was just too quick with my notifications. 

I am really sorry as the OP here. I tried posting a couple days ago but couldn’t to everyone’s posts. Anyway, DH did indeed test positive. Results came in around 11pm last night. Great job CVS on the PCR. Results in a little over 24hrs. Tested at 4:30PM and received them at 11PM the following day. 
 

This Omicron is so contagious right now. We arrived home today after driving to find out everyone here we know has it. Our family in another state has it only because he has to be tested because of his profession. All asymptomatic or mild. Our adult son and GF are traveling too. They had their test to travel back to the US and have tested positive to their surprise. Unfortunately, they are there to stay until they can test positive to fly back. 
 

So torn. We had regretted cruising since we contracted it even though one of our best cruises, but given what we know after returning, it seems like we would have caught it either way.  
 

The worst part is we most likely passed it to people unknowingly and hopefully the person or persons we contracted it from were asymptomatic. Big takeaway on all this is be vaxxed and boosted. If we weren’t, I don’t even want to know or find out. 
 

Happy New Year all!!!

I’ll start with the positive. 
 

The Good. 1/3 Full. Only 7 confirmed cases. Thought that was good since it was inevitable there would be some cases and hearing about other ships. Read below for more. Service excellent. Staff willing to go above and beyond. No waits. No lines. No problem getting seats anywhere. Staff willing to go out of their way; whereas, they wouldn’t normally do so at full capacity. Eden dinner was the best dinner we had. Rooftop Grille was good too. Stayed in the Retreat. Lounge and Sundeck they really did it right with this class. 
 

The ship is absolutely gorgeous. I was hesitant  at first given the negative reviews of Edge initially. So glad we decided to give it a try. Some of the furniture is a little uncomfortable I will add. Not all but some. 
 

The Bad. DH most likely has Covid. He has had the flu since yesterday late afternoon/evening after disembarking. I have no symptoms. We are both vaxxed and boosted. He is getting tested tomorrow. I will post results when we get them. Could only get one appt. If he is, I’m most likely asymptomatic. There were probably way more cases than known about given us now. 
 

Only about 10% wore masks. We did always then didn’t as much given no one was, and we got into the vacation mode I guess. We do regret that now but would it have changed things who knows. We still wore them compared to most. We even kept our distance and didn’t do ship excursions to keep away from crowds. 
 

Even though only 33%, they packed the Retreat. Only two available cabins due to one cancellation and another cabin had to disembark the ship due to a family emergency our butler said. Luminae was packed and tables very close together. Hardly ate there for that reason, plus we didn’t love the menus and it was a very busy atmosphere with the decor and capacity. Not relaxing to dine there at all. 
 

To my surprise, they held a captains club event in Eden on night 2. We left as soon as we got there. No social distancing. Standing room due to tables being full. They were coming around with drinks and passed hors d’oeuvres. BUT, they won’t hold an Elite cocktail hour 🤔. Would have been less people if they just had it for Elite and above rather than for everyone with just one sailing completed. Makes total sense. Some things I just don’t get. 
 

We didn’t love the Sunset Bar setup on this class. Very narrow and more curved around the aft as compared to the S&MClass. Same with the oceanview outdoor seating. Fine Cut was a disappoint. Good thing we had an extensive amount of OBC because it wasn’t worth a surcharge at all let alone $70/pp. 
 

Overall, if it weren’t for the fact that we now most likely have Covid, it would have been one of our best sailings. We did say that when we got off how enjoyable it was with reduced capacity and excellent service. 
 

Instead of enjoying a post cruise week in Boca, we will be spending it with DH sick in the hotel room while I quarantine as well tending to him. We will drive the rental back home instead of dropping it at FLL for our flight which we will cancel. 
 

We did receive our survey today. I will wait to fill it out until after we find out DH’s results. 
 

Happy New Year all!