seamanfs

I sure wish they would rethink changing the Coral. It was our favorite ship due to her size and layout.

Agree completely!!

The dining room Princess food is better than Carnival by far. Yes, it's not gourmet, but you're not paying those prices either. :)

Agree!! The prices we pay aren't for gourmet food and that's ok with us! We are very satisfied with Princess food. We will never starve to death that's for sure!!

Until this March I would have agreed with everyone that there are lots of waiters - but in March we did back to back 7 day cruises on the Caribbean Princess and found that around the pool deck, waiters were pretty much non-existent - unless there was a special event like a sail-away, deck party, etc.

 

We discussed this a lot and our thoughts were that this was a decision based on the new drink package - don't make it easy and maybe people won't order as much. This also seemed to affect the bartenders around the pool - we have never seen such an unhappy bunch.

 

In other venues there were waiters.

 

The flip side though - in October/November we were on the Royal and there were waiters everywhere.

 

Thus like a lot of things on Princess - we are of the belief that each ship runs under the rules of the management on board, and not necessarily those of the cruise line.

 

So - unfortunately the answer is yes and no..........

We did B2B on the Caribbean in Feb and noticed the same thing. Also felt the Casino was a dificult place to get any kind of drink! Had to go up to the bar to get a drink.

Emerald 2014 Caribbean 20 days for 1500 pp for A705 Balcony!!! It was listed for that amount as I was doing my daily price checking. We were a guarantee OV unobstructed. I called Princess immediately and was expecting to be told" forget It-a mistake" but the rep said we could take it. It was fantastic and that was our best deal yet in 26 Princess cruises!!

Sailed on the Star for the first time 2 yrs ago to Hawaii and we loved it!! Had never had the occasion to sail on her before then and we would not hesitate to sail anywhere again on the Star. It seems somehow more cozy and elegant than its sisters. Maybe it's just us!!!

For the first time on a Princess ship our onboard credit was not posted when we checked our folio a few days into the trip. Luckily because of Pam Hilton posting a while ago on CC, I brought along my printed travel summary showing our military,elite and CCL shareholder dollars. Passenger services made a copy and our credit for the 3 B2B cruises was in place within hours! Grateful that I read Pam's experience and followed the excellent advice!

I loved reading her blog every day. Will really miss that a.m. treat! Thanks to Jeannie for taking the time to post each day. We met her and hubby on the CB a few weeks ago. It's nice to put a face with a name for the next time!!

Thanks for the great review. We board on Feb 7th and this will be our first time on that ship. Probably will do the Royal for 20 days next year as we like the itinerary of the 2 ten day routes.

If we eat at the HC we take a smaller round dinner plate, not the platter. Smaller space to put food!! Eating in MDR is better for us as portions are smaller.

Personally I believe that asking a room steward to empty a commode every am is too much. He/She is not an aide in a medical institution. Just my own opinion....

I don't use the benefit. They use such hot water it sets the stains in instead of washing them out. Some sturdy clothes your DH may have will be fine. For the dedicates use the self serve laundromat.

Exactly what we do!! Can't imagine sending delicate items through their hot wash and hot dry cycles! It doesn't take very long to do laundry and quick dryer and then hang to finish the job.

Would definitely use the interactive feature if available. Why wouldn't anyone like that??

Thank you so much for the report on the Caribbean!We board on Feb 7th for 19 days!! Anxious to hear your thoughts on the experience. We are on Aloha deck 638.

I'm always uncomfortable with "absolute" answers like this. In reality, it depends on the individual taking your order at that moment. We used a very old coffee card on Emerald last March. I would get a fresh coffee every time I used the card for DW's latte. I never had to pay for the coffee as long as there was a specialty coffee punch left.

 

A better answer would be . . . Don't EXPECT to be able to get free fresh brewed coffee when using an old style card but it might happen.

 

Good luck & enjoy!

That's just what we experienced on the Coral last August. There was only one server who would punch our old card for a brewed along with the latte,etc. So yes totally up to the person helping you whether you lose a punch on an old card for brewed coffee!!!

Take but carry-do not wear or put on until they tell you at your muster station!!

Basic pedi was 45.00 on the Coral last Aug. Other variations of the pedi are more expensive, including the gel!! I believe a gel was about 10-12 bucks more than a basic pedi.

We also have 3 B2B's coming up. Always put all three #'s on the same request sheet and never had any difficulty with credit being applied for each cruise. We are sending the request next week for these so hopefully will work again!!!

We also saved about 600 total for our 3rd B2B2B leg on the Caribbean for Feb 21st. Glad I looked at my saved cruises this morning!!!

Oh great!! I love her blog. Read it every am with coffee.

We were invited to the cocktail party on the Aug. 30th 2014 Alaska southbound cruise....we had 175 days. There were a total of 33 elites and about 100 platnum on the entire ship. Most on the ship were first time cruisers. Was very surprised and happy to go as it may be the only one we ever get invited to!

We were invited on the Coral to the MTP cocktail party twice-we did N and S bound trips this past Aug. We had about 240 days. Had a very nice time with the smaller crowd in the card room of the ship.

Never had a problem downloading from Amazon to my Kin dle Fire while using ship's wireless. It's slower but it got done. I try to download enough books before we leave but this was a new release and I had been waiting a long time to start reading it!!!

We are very happy with Carnival Stock!! Made $$ both on OBC and on the shares themselves!

My favorite slot machine is one that I have never found on board the ship.

 

That would be the one that pays out big while I am playing it. :cool:

Took the words right out of my mouth!!! Ha!Ha!

Concur with all the replies. Just got off the Coral and preferred Bayou to Sabatinis, at least this time on that ship!!!

I have to agree with you. I pretty much have found the same thing. :) And in the case of the free coffee I have even asked them to punch the old card and in some cases they smiled and told me not to worry about it.

Same thing with us and the old coffee card. Only one server punched the old card for brewed coffee. The rest over a 15 day period never punched. I always put the card on the table when ordering (even after a few days when they knew us!) in case a punch was to be used. Still have that old card with a few punches left and is in our folder for yhis Sat., Aug 9th, when we board the Coral.