GweninTX

Just out of curiosity, do they tag the bottles that you paid corkage on somehow ? How do they differentiate between the two bottles for consumption in your cabin or the others you paid and can drink anywhere ?

They put stickers on them and then you can even take them to the dining room if you like

I have thought about buying one of those "space bags" you suck the air out of to make my wonderful pillow at home flat and pack it in my suitcase. We are on the Royal next and I have heard that the bedding is new and wonderful. I sure hope so!

I complained on the CB and got a great pillow! I complained for 24 days on the Crown and never got a good pillow! I believe it is a crapshoot. maybe a $10 bill with the complaint on the Crown might have gotten met a better pillow - not sure? But they were awful!

Thanks- really looking for personal endorsements from other cruisers! But I will check those out!

We will be in port next May and are looking for a tour guide to take us to delft and the Keukenhof flower gardens. I am having issues with the ones I have found as they all want payment up front and they will not refund money if ship misses this port. Anyone know any that are more cruise oriented and know that we have no control when we miss a port?

The strawberry margarita - they will do the rim in sugar or salt, I asked for nothing. Served in a huge martini shaped glass and has a pretty slice of lime and cherries for garnish. Yummy! We also like the piña colada. They use a refrigerated mix, but it is very good!

How luck to have the Graham's on this cruise! I am praying they will be on our TA in April on the Royal!

If you cannot get your luggage repaired while on board, be sure and get a claim form from Princess. We had 2 pieces totally destroyed by forklifts - pierced our luggage and destroyed. I found Princess very easy and fair to work with. I had a check in 6 weeks from turning in my claim for brand new pieces.

You can get sugar free hard scooped ice cream at Scoops - you have to ask for it - they have a different flavor every day and it is really good!

They have one on the menu each night in the MDR and they are hit and miss! The one thing we found out after 6 cruises we did not know - is that the ice cream shop that serves soft serve cones on the same deck as the HC also has a sugar free, hard packed scoopable flavor every day and they were ALWAYS excellent! No charge and enjoy!

Thanks all! We also now have a reservation for lunch at the Brick Pub! I was so happy they took reservations ! Now another 74 days till then!

We will be in Newport on 9/22! Thanks all for the sound advice and especially knowing that the first bus does not run till 9:40. We can eat a nice breakfast and get off the ship in time to make that first bus or we could share a taxi and bus back. Can we pay for a one way back on the bus and get on at the Breakers when we are finished touring? Any ideas on cost of taxi to the Breakers!

The Brick Alley Pub also was my preferred place to eat - so that will help firm up our lunch plans! I love Cruise Critic - everyone always has the best advice! Thanks again for your help!

We are a group of 8 that will be in Newport on a princess cruise in late September. 4 of us want to go to see the Breakers by bus route 67 and the other 4 want to just wander around and shop. We would all like to meet for seafood for lunch together. We are considering the Red Parrot and the Brick Alley Pub - which is an easier place to meet for the 8 of us - or if all things equal - which would you recommend? Also - if we get right in by tender and go directly to the Breakers - would 12:30 or 1:00 be a reasonable time to meet up for lunch?

Do those pods work only in a washing machine? I thought people used the sheets because they can use them to hand wash --

Yes they only work in a washing machine. For hand washing put some liquid Tide in a small plastic bottle and put in a ziploc for safekeeping. The sheets do NOT work for hand washing.

The company no longer makes them LINK but you can find them on Amazon.

On our most recent cruise I took Tide Pods in a double ziploc bag. I put two in a snack size ziploc and then put that ziploc in another ziploc and they made it fine! I find the Tide pods work much better than the 3 in1 sheets by Purex. Tide pods clean much better! I also took bounce sheets folded up in a ziploc snack bag. Since then I scored some trial sizes of Tide Pods that were one sealed Tide pod in a small bag as a sample rubber banded on the top of a bottle of liquid Tide. I stocked up on liquid Tide and now have 3 of these samples for our next cruise !

I like your idea of Scotchguarding the jacket. Could you tell if the spray affected the feel of the jacket (stiff or sticky) or the fabric? I am borrowing a friend's very thin down jacket and would like to spray it, if you think it would be ok.

 

 

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Trust me - scotchguard spray will NOT make a garment even close to water resistant - I tried! Buy a waterproof jacket - you will never regret it! I was the only one who did not have one in our group and I was wet and miserable! Bought a Columbia Bugaboo 3 in one jacket when I got home! Is perfect and kept me water proof in Venice during all the flooding last December. Light weight and can be worn several ways! See if you have a Columbia outlet near you- best money I have spent in a long time!

You can take it to the pursers desk and they will give you OBC

The other thing we found odd is they have NO sugar free syrups for those of us who need sugar free! They do have soy milk though unless they run out, which happened on our transatlantic!

2 things I learned on our most recent cruise on the Golden - the ice cream shop serves sugar free ice cream - a new flavor every day! My husband is diabetic and this was a GREAT find for us - it is scooped by hand and the strawberry and chocolate were really good! I also learned that the great crew at the IC will make you a fruit and cheese plate even if they do not have any currently showing in their case. I went down about 4:00 one day and the sweet crew member asked what I wanted and I said that I guessed I would have to walk to the HC as I wanted some fruit and cheese to have with a glass of wine in our room. He said - no problem, went to the back of his kitchen and made me a lovely plate with 3 kinds of cheese, some beautiful grapes and packaged crackers (like Ritz)! Needless to say I wrote up a card immediately for his wonderful service!

Just off the Golden and the Eggplant parmigiana appetizer is alive and yummy! I agree with the goat cheese soufflé appetizer and the escargot! The penne arrabiata is great - cooked by the maitre'd table side! Mushroom soup and French onion are must haves! The shrimp and lobster was especially yummy on the last formal night too. Cauliflower fritters with cheese sauce! James Beard french toast is another must have! It is served at lunchtime in the dining room as a brunch item now!

YES! We had 4 vans with 4 guides in Rome and 5 vans in Florence and they were ALL amazing! He checked with all of them thru the day to make sure we were all having a good time!

She will be fine, but the vegetarian choices on our 2 most recent cruises lended heavily to the Indian style - I.e. curries and some strange combinations. There is always spaghetti with red sauce in the MDR and I ordered it many nights even though it was not listed. I also got steamed veggies every night and they were great! The pizza by the pool always had cheese pizza. And the burger bar always had veggie burgers that the cooked separately in a skillet - they were very slow to cook also! I received the following nights menu each night by the maitre d and he would ask if I needed anything special.

I had problems getting my confirmation number from our 12/2 Crown Transatlantic, but finally after repeated emails and escalations, finally got replies. I have completed my book and got a confirmation email with the USPS tracking number today! I cannot wait to see it! I did one for Alaska and it turned out great! I asked on our recent Caribbean Crown cruise in Feb. and they said they had discontinued Panraven as they had been having too many issues! I thought that was an understatement for sure! My sister is still trying to complete hers from the Transatlantic and has been complaining about the site crashing and being slow to load. I think some of this has to do with broadband speed also, but not sure! Keep sending emails - I ended up with an extension to complete it and a 10% discount after all of mine! Did not need the extension, but the 10% discount was nice since I added 20 pages and upgraded the cover!

Better to buy a small room spray- Yankee Candle makes a very small one and so does Scentsy if you know a dealer. Really comes in handy in the bathroom! I keep mine in my suitcase. Yankee is a true aerosol, but the Scentsy is not - just a spray.

On our Transatlantic Crown cruise we had a huge slot pull and the Casino host was very helpful and provided lots of prizes- hats and tshirtsI am sure it depends on the ship and the host, but I encourage you to ask! They were also helpful in providing dollar bills for the payout!