AlibearNS

So much enjoying your experience and comparing it to our own. We’re just off a Celebrity cruise so also comparing this to that (elite on both lines). We got off to a rocky start Saturday with no water in the cabin. It took two hours from reporting for maintenance to come with an easy fix. I was at the point of brushing my teeth in the public washroom (I’m obsessive about my teeth lol). My big suitcase arrived minus one of it’s wheels. The ship’s upholsterer (who knew they had one!!!) is attempting to fix it. I told them I don’t care if it comes back as Frankenstein’s monster as long as I can wheel it onto the skytrain. I have a broken wrist so a little stressed about how I’ll manage. Princess overnight changed our dinner reservation to shared table, gaslit us and left it to guy at the restaurant to sort which was incredibly stressful for him. Big thumbs up for Henry.

Staff have been friendly but chaotic and slow, many telling us they are new and still learning, so things should settle down. 

We’re positive people and we ARE going to have a great cruise! One difference I can’t help noting is Celebrity have soft drop toilet seats and I’m still getting used to the change. If you hear a loud bang from the ladies loo, that will be me!

Just now, nini said:

I am so sorry about the confusion. However, we found that being at a table for two may as well have been a table for six. The people next to us on each side were about 12 inches away.

That’s very true! But at least you don’t feel obliged to talk to them 🙂 Last night our two pairs of neighbours on the left of us decided to have a conversation about their kids worst bodily mis functions. And I always thought it was only politics and religion you shouldn’t talk about at dinner 🤮

6 hours ago, SleepyBunny said:

A few notes for followers on this Live. Currently on this ship as well!  Super friendly staff, ship is super clean and in great condition.  Does not feel very full, but I haven't heard the total pax count yet (maybe at the M&G we will find out).

 

Coffee has not transferred to the Lavazza brand deal yet. 

 

Dinner was delicious at our slightly later visit to the International Dinning Room also, but our waiter & his partner had a rough day. Slow, no drink orders, took forever to even put our order in, water glasses stayed empty for long times, had to get a HW twice to be looked after.  2h30 minutes for dinner ☹️ Going to try a different dinning room tonight for formal night.

We had a similar experience in Vivaldi. And this morning we noticed while checking the menu that our long-standing reservation for the Savoy tonight had been switched from a private table for two to shared! Reservations line insisted their system wouldn’t do that, nothing they could do except advise we turn up and wait as usually someone doesn’t show and we’d get THEIR reservation! Here’s the thing, DH’s app hadn’t been updated and still showed the reservation as it was before they changed it so we got a screenshot! His app changed to shared just after. Also just noticed an email very late last night to say our reservation had been changed but the details looked the same so someone did something! Needless to say we’ve taken it higher but still waiting to hear. Very frustrating that we’ve lost our reservation for formal night and annoyed at being gaslit by Princess ☹️

21 hours ago, chamima said:

No vegan menu on Celebrity either. 
We always have to rely on getting a good waiter or Head Waiter. 
(Although we’ve had good luck about 90% of the time on Princess and Celebrity. It’s MUCH better than what happens in restaurants on land. ) 

Just got off Celebrity Silhouette and first two nights ordered directly from a vegetarian menu. They then asked if we would pre order each night to make things easier for them. After dinner the head waiter brought the daily menu for the next night along with the vegetarian and the vegan menu. Lots of choice, amazing food!!!

We're on the Sapphire Princess next week, hoping there will be a vegetarian menu. Could be the deciding factor for our next cruise. Will report back.

51 minutes ago, kathynorth said:

 

I think I finally found the mast grill, but don't see a hat or X anywhere. 

Me neither, ugh. I hate this whole thing.

4 minutes ago, thebaehrs said:

@Stockjock @AlibearNS Clicked 'L' and they sent me for the day 3 challenge, the Petite Chef in the Grand Plaza. Which I found. Looks like they've already shifted to the next challenge? This app is so buggy.

 

Never found the towel.

Okay, will try because there's just no towel to be seen. Oh, found the chef, thanks. I reckon the towel has gone. So annoying!

3 minutes ago, thebaehrs said:

 

Did you find it?

Nope, I'm getting up close and personal beside the shower cubicle where everyone's huddling but no sign of any towel. This whole thing makes me extremely motion sick.

3 minutes ago, thebaehrs said:

@Stockjock - ditto. Can't find it. Pic makes it look like it's in one of the shower cubicles near the pool. 

I'm in the shower cubicle lol. Can't see a towel. Where is the picture?

Just now, Ipeeinthepools said:

I was just able to access the Wonderverse.  I didn't find any Easter eggs but I did spend some quality time in the pool.

I got stuck in the pool for a couple of minutes.

I'm leaping for coins and captains hats for absolutely no reason. But I am second on the leader board...

Hunting for the egg had me feeling ill with motions sickness. Terrible frame rate. So jerky.

Ugh, I'm so motion sick right now!

14 minutes ago, Bill B said:

 

I've never heard of this before either. It's a little vague. Perhaps we should not assume the laundry coins were free i.e. Banditdog was just getting change at the "service desk".

I thought all ships use medallions/cards to charge stateroom before dispensing coins? I've heard that on the Discovery there's no charge at all, which if true is amazing.

I'd love it if someone can confirm if Elites can get coins free from Guest Services for self laundry? I do send to the laundry, but we also do at least one wash and dry ourselves.

On 2/10/2023 at 8:33 PM, Banditdog said:

I too am elite status, but like to do my own laundry. I go to the service desk and ask for laundry coins for the washer and dryer machines. Which I feel is a big plus. 

They'll give free laundry coins to Elites? Last cruise I occasionally did our own laundry and paid each time. Thanks for this info.

9 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

Just returned from our first Celebrity cruise & their Italian specialty restaurant Tuscan Grille is $55 + 18% tip = $65. Sabatini’s is still a bargain at $35 and is nearly half the price. Their steakhouse Murano is $71 including tip so $39 for Crown Grill is a good price.

 

Celebrity specialty dining is much more expensive, but they sell them at discount onboard; often there's a set up outside the buffet during the day. If you haggle, you can get the price right down on a quiet night.

We are considering canceling a non refundable cruise before final payment. Reading here and as I understand it, we would pay $100 each penalty to cancel and get the remaining $700 as a FCC? Is there any time constraint on using the FCC? If it’s 12 months do we have to sail within that time or simply apply to a new cruise before the expiry? Thanks for any help 

Is it working, I wonder

Testing here!

8 hours ago, Kabuki12 said:

This is the email response that I received from the production company:

 

Thank you for your email. We acknowledge that you do not wish to be featured in the programme.  It would be helpful if you could forward a headshot photograph of yourself to me so that I can alert producers to try and avoid you in the back of shot. We will, at all times, display public notices in the areas we are filming in, there are no hidden cameras.  In the event that you are caught on camera in these public areas, we will ensure that you are not included in the final cut when we edit the programme.

 

Kind regards

 

Nicola Warren

Production Coordinator

 

 

Displaying notices where they are going to film for the day is helpful.  They won't be roaming around the ship catching people off guard.  The passengers that are into reality shows can attend and those of us that detest them be elsewhere during the filming. 

Imagine if they get hundreds of emails and then headshots...that's a lot of work for them. 
I'm glad they will be putting out notices. I shall avoid them as best I can. I don't want to give out my email or photo. I really wish this was an opt in thing instead. I hope it won't be disruptive. Anyone find out what the show is? My TA says he knows nothing about it.

6 minutes ago, Ptroxx said:

 

It’s not the Cruise.  Wrong production Co….   Title role productions does the cruise.   And this is Monkey Kingdom.   

Just looked up Monkey Kingdom. They do "Made in Chelsea" - ugh. Maybe they are making their version of the new Love Boat dating show? I think what's upsetting me is throwing this at us last minute with no information, and us having to email the production company by Sunday to opt out.

I'm unhappy too. They must have known this was due to happen and we should have been informed. As it is the UK channel ITV I think it will be The Cruise, so they will be filming all over, following the crew as they do their work and interact with passengers.

I see we can opt out. I wonder if that would mean they would blur our faces.

Before our May cruise on the Majestic we reserved a private table for 2, alternating every few days between the two MDR's, some at 6pm, some at 6.20pm
Once onboard we found they'd changed our reservations; same times, but now all in Allegro! It seemed they wanted to give us the same table each night, and they did.
After a while we switched some by cancelling and rebooking as we wanted to try both MDR's.
Allegro, being AFT was a long walk as we were forward, but on a cruise that's not a bad thing unless you have mobility issues. You can only access it by the AFT elevator. We liked Allegro as seemed more intimate and cozy, and less open plan than Concerto. The elevator is also less crowded at the back, the lines much better because it's tucked out of the way so walk ups don't tend to go so much. Concerto was more easily accessible being midship but, both dining rooms were fine; you can't go wrong with either.

41 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

Before my recent cruise, someone had posted to log off the app when you get on the ship. Then log in using your stateroom number and birthdate. We tried that and it also appeared to make a world of difference!

 

Yes, we struggled with the app playing up for a few days but when we did as above it worked perfectly for the rest of the cruise. We loved the ease of both the medallion and app. The crew knew us by name at the bar and I loved not having to line up at a busy Guest Services when I could just sent them a text about an issue. We loved ordering snacks and drinks to wherever we were sat and also to the cabin! Only problem was someone thought I was cheating during the quiz in Live when I ordered our cocktails on my phone, ha ha. 

We had a nice upgrade for our GTY on the Majestic in May; came through when least expected, Easter Monday, 20 days out. Very pleased, but the morning of the sailing the cabin number disappeared on the app. Three hours of excitement and then the same cabin number reappeared. For a while we dreamed of a suite....most probably a glitch!

3 hours ago, omynameistaken said:

I found this link today on fb

https://profcruise.com/the-new-princess-beverage-packages-with-updated-bar-menus/

Ooh that mermaid mimosa is calling my name along with some others.. 

Cheers🥂

 

 

Thanks, really helpful.

18 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

On our upcoming 15 day Royal cruise next March we made reservations for Concerto one night and Allegro the next, repeating the rotation with an occasional specialty dining reservation and one night dining ashore during an overnight stop thrown in. We wanted to mix up the venues for variety. We're also hoping we are seated in different areas of each room for different perspectives of these beautiful venues. We are looking forward to not having to sit at the same table over and over again, looking at the same people and décor over and over again, like with the prehistoric traditional dining format of the past. 

 

We did that for the Majestic last May. A couple of days in Concerto, then a couple in Allegro. We like moving about. Sometimes for 6, sometimes for 6.20. Got onboard and found they'd changed ALL our reservations all to Allegro. I think they thought we'd like the same table! We did change a few via the TV but it was too much trouble to go through it all again. Worse thing was, I'd written down all the times and which dining rooms, which turned out to be useless.