JimmyVWine

Coronation Day maybe? Whatever the reason, there were many disappointed people who tendered back to the ship shortly after arrival, and a number of people on that train platform who were thankful that they were healthy enough and had the proper footwear for the roundtrip walk to the train station.

Well of course it is. If the "Country" is IRELAND!!!

Final Thoughts I included the phrase “A Crowning Achievement” in the title of this thread to capture both the fortuity that had us sailing around the UK at the time of the Coronation, as well as to capture the notion that Princess had delivered an excellent product at a fair price. This was our second post-pause cruise, the other being in October from Athens to Barcelona. We were very pleased with that earlier cruise, but perhaps that small sample size did not do justice to all of the complaints we had read, complaining about the downturn of the Princess product and the not infrequent threads here started by people who have vowed to never set foot on a Princess ship ever again. As I stated in response to someone else’s thread just after we returned, there was nothing about this cruise that would have me (or the rest of my family) want to put Princess in our rearview mirrors. The ship, its condition, the crew, the food and the itinerary were all what we expected from Princess and there was honestly no slippage that we could discern from our very first Princess cruise over a decade ago. Life as a whole is not perfect, and it is irrational to think that any of its component parts is perfect either. This cruise more than measured up and given that S was free--owing to the “Kids Sail Free” promotion--it would be impossible to suggest that we did not get our money’s worth, even if only looking at her share of the costs! It is worth noting that I am easy to please. K and I raised an only child and we are very used to doing things as a family. We were never the type to go off on our own, and we faced the world together. We were blessed to have an adventurous kid and an adventurous eater who began dining at some of the world’s finest restaurants by the age of three, even if that meant us dining all by ourselves at 5:30 p.m. So what I mean to say is that our family time has always been precious and one of the things I enjoy most about the cruise experience is that it compresses family time. We eat together, three meals a day. Seven if you count all the trips to the International Café! We tour together. We laugh together. We stick together. And now that S has moved, at least for now, to another country, those times together are much fewer and much further in between. So the opportunity for the three of us to compress our time together into an 8 Day Cruise is special and it would take a whole host of disasters for me to ever conclude that the cruise was anything other than “great.” If I am being honest, I would say that the main reason for selecting this particular cruise was that it was the right length of time, departed from and returned to a port that S could get to easily, and qualified for the Third Person Free promotion. The itinerary itself was a tertiary consideration at best. Now that the cruise is over, I can say that this itinerary was fantastic and took us to places we had never been to, and honestly never thought too long and hard about. I am so glad that fate brought us to these places as every port was worth visiting even if some advance planning might be necessary in some spots. We thoroughly enjoyed this cruise, and I would say that even if I were not so easy to please. As for food, I am easy to please, but hard to impress. I’ll explain. I am the principal chef in the house (though S has developed into quite the chef herself), and I cook dinner most nights and share in the cleaning. As a result, any meal that involves a tableclothed table that I did not set, with my order selected from a printed menu and taken by a human waiter that results in the delivery of food that I did not cook, served on dishes that I do not have to clean, starts out as a “6” out of 10 before I take my first bite. That said, the assigned score isn’t likely to rise to a “9” or “10” unless Thomas Keller or Daniel Boulud is in the kitchen. So in my reviews, if I say that “we all enjoyed our meals” or that a dish was “very good”, bear in mind that the very act of me not preparing it gets it most of the way home. But I know a Michelin Three-Star meal when I have one, and I’ll never claim that any meal on a Princess ship approaches that level. I have said before and will say again: If the food you enjoy on a cruise ship is the best you have ever had, then you need to get out more. If the meal that you have on a cruise ship is the worst you have ever had, you likewise you need to get out more. We were overall very happy with our culinary experience on board (and off ship as well.) We did notice that portion sizes had shrunk a bit, but if you cannot figure out a workaround for “not enough food” on a cruise ship, you aren’t playing the game right. As for service, we saw some differences but not enough to cause us to head for the exits. Much gets posted here about how “great” or “awful” their cabin steward was. Again, I am easy to please but hard to impress. We got the sense that our steward was relatively new. He did above the bare minimum required to fulfill his role, but we never witnessed “above and beyond” service, nor were we expecting it. That is something that you take joy in when you receive it, but you do not knock off points if you don’t. (At least in my scoring system.) Our towels were folded and rehung. Changed out on the few occasions when we left them in the tub. Bed made. Garbage emptied. Our sofa bed was converted into a bed on Day One and left in that state for the duration of the cruise, but I am certain that if I had pressed and requested (demanded?) that it be converted to a sofa for daytime use and to a bed at turndown, he would have done that. But I asked S what she preferred (since it was her bed) and she said that she was fine with it remaining a bed and we let the issue die. Given the length along the hallway where we would see our steward from time to time, it was clear that he was servicing more cabins than stewards had to in the past. In my mind, that entitles them to a whole lot of leeway (nautical term!). In the MDR, our Lead Server was on his first week of a new contract, having ended his prior contract as a waiter in the Crown Grill. He joked that either there was no room for him back at the CG, or that he was being demoted back to the MDR! I am certain that it was the former. Suffice it to say that he was a top-level server who had earned his way into the Specialty Dining ranks and we were lucky to have him. His Assistant, we could tell, was brand new but eager to please. I am sure that he will do just fine. With what we detected was a new-ish steward and a new-ish Assistant Server, there was every opportunity for things to run aground (nautical term!) but in our eyes they did not. The entertainment was as expected. Adele did not perform in the theater. Bruce Hornsby was not our ship’s pianist/singer for the week. The stage show was not Les Miserable . That’s not what we expect. AJ Clarke was as good a pianist/singer as we have had on a cruise, and we have had “Bert With An E” twice. The comedian made us laugh and groan equally, which is about par for the course. The trivia games and game shows were right in line with where Princess left off before it hit the pause. The house bands were above the level we have experienced in the past and they generated more dancing and boogying from this crowd of 45-85 year-olds than we have seen on other cruises. No complaints there. The wine service is what we have come to expect. On U.S. based cruises we are likely to always bring our own wine and supplement that with cocktails here and there. But on cruises where we cannot transport wine from our cellar, we will continue to purchase the Plus Plan. There is better-than-decent wine if you are willing to spend above the $15 limit. Even then, $15-$18 will get you perfectly fine wine. (Though for the life if me I cannot get over the $24 price tag for a glass of Veuve.) You may have to kiss some frogs and be persistent, but you should come out on top. I still think that the use of generic wine listings on the Plus side of the menu is unforgiveable. People may claim that this is because of changing inventory, but I say phooey to that. I can promise you that they have on board more cases of whatever generic Cabernet they are pouring than they have of the $18 Cabernet. If they can list the latter by name, they can do the same for generic stuff. And if the ship is going to use the QR Code system for the most accurate wine list, then they needn’t worry about having to print up paper lists each time the generic wine gets swapped out for something else. A good wine director should spend 30 minutes each day in front of their computer updating inventories. As for Dine My Way, I think I have said enough about that. Prior to the cruise we booked the Concerto MDR for every night at the same time (7:20) and made it clear on Day One upon arrival that our goal was to achieve a nice table that we could have for the balance of the cruise. Before our first course arrived that evening, the Maître’d offered us a perfect table, (not the one we were actually seated at that night) as long as we were willing to shift our reservation to 7:30. We did, and received exactly what we wanted, and apparently everyone in this area of the dining room had as well as every single table in this area was similarly occupied by the same people each night, thought at staggered times. By Day Three any casual observer would have sworn that we were either in Traditional Dining or in Club/Reserve Class Dining. A final note on the Plus Package. We had had “Plus” on our October cruise, but it was added in as a free promotion so we weren’t really paying for it in a transparent sense. I did monitor the price of that cruise to see what the pricing looked like once the promotion ended, and it never did change to the point where the cruise was ever sold at a price where that price plus the addition of Plus equaled what we were paying. We really did get a very good deal on that one. But for this cruise, we paid a la carte for Plus and added S into that Package at the rack rate. We were on Old Plus at a cost of $400 per person for the cruise ($50 per day x 8 days). $1,200.00 in all for the three of us. Here is how it broke down: --Had we paid out-of-pocket for Gratuities, Wi-Fi, Sabatini’s and Drinks = $2,532** --The cost of Old Plus + Sabatini’s + extra for wines over $15 = $1,392 --The cost of New Plus + Sabatini’s ($35) + extra for wines over $15 = $1,644 --The cost of Premier with no extra costs whatsoever = $1,920 ** I was not so obsessed as to keep track of our coffee purchases, but this number does not include coffee which would have to be added in if we were sailing without a Package. Easily another $100. I had done the math ahead of time and was confident that Old Plus was the way to go, and I was right. I also did some guestimating as to what our overage costs would be for alcohol so that I could post enough OBC to cover that and walk off the ship with a zero balance. Want to know how I did? I cashed in some credit card points for a $25 Gift Card so that was “free.” I bought a $100 Gift Card from AARP at a cost of $90. So we banked $125 in OBC for a total cost of $90. At the end of the cruise, our daily overages with the Plus Package came to $117. The extra $8 and some of the OBC that we were refunded from the unused excursion were used up in the cosmetic shop, with about $230 left over. Still waiting for my check. So that does it. At the outset I promised that this would be long, irreverent, and hopefully informative. I delivered on the first two promises, and I leave it up to you to assess the third. It has taken me longer to recount the trip than it did for me to take it, but in some ways that was intentional. It allowed me to relive the trip a second time as you were living it the first. I trust that if you have gotten this far you did not find it to be overbearing or overly self-indulgent. If you aren’t reading this, you probably did, and gave up long ago. You all have given me so much in my time on these Boards and I hope that I have given a sliver of it back. Not sure where our next adventure will be, but I promise that the next time we book a Princess cruise, you will be the second to know. Trying hard to make a Norway/Sweden trip work out in 2024, but we shall see. Either way, whatever and whenever the next trip comes to pass, I will do my best to pay forward what you have all given me. Until then, cheers to all, and I look forward to reading what you all have to say about your adventures.

Departure Day Our original plan for departure day was one that would have been filled with fun and excitement, but it was not to be. K and I had a flight from Heathrow to Boston scheduled for just after 5:00 p.m. and S paired that up with a flight from Heathrow to Edinburgh also just after 5:00. As a result, we all “qualified” for the Princess Transfer Excursion to Heathrow that went by way of a side trip to Windsor Castle. This would have been especially special since the Castle had hosted the Coronation Concert and festivities just the night before. I was certain that the excitement would still be in the air. But alas, two days before we departed British Airways cancelled our flight and we were rebooked on a flight that departed just after 2:00. I checked for some other options, but it wouldn’t work out. At that time I contacted Princess to cancel the excursion and was told by the agent on the phone that I was all set with my cancellation and that a refund would be forthcoming. However, when we got to our cabin on Day One, the excursion tickets for our departure day transfer were there waiting there for us. I took the tickets down to the excursion desk to see if I had indeed been cancelled with a refund provided and they checked and confirmed that no cancellation had been initiated and no refund had been issued. So they took the tickets right then and there and added a refundable OBC refund to our accounts. The issuance of that refund was instantaneous as confirmed on our Journey Account. The lesson here is not to trust the people who you talk to on the phone. Once our flight change was made before we left home, we had no transfer back to the airport. I texted S and asked her, with her home court advantage, if she could secure us a private car service from Southampton to LHR. She booked us with the same company that took us to the ship from the Leonardo Hotel to begin the trip. Then, as if to add insult to injury, on the last day of our cruise, S received word that her British Airways flight to Edinburgh had also been cancelled, only they provided her with no alternative booking. She was on her own. Thankfully she was able to speak to a BA agent from her cell phone on our Sea Day and get herself on another flight, and as luck would have it, her flight was also just after 2:00 so we would all be together. How in the world did we ever travel before cell phones and wi-fi? Had all of these changes happened to us in 1990, I don’t know what we would have done. With all of this taken care of, when the sheet of paper landed in our cabin asking for our departure preference, we were able to indicate that we would be not taking a Princess transfer or tour, and could walk off the ship as late as they would reasonably allow. I suppose this tiny bit of extra time on the ship was the small silver lining to all of this. When morning came we were out of our cabin around 8:00 and bided our time in the Piazza near the IC having a final quick breakfast. At around 9:00 our departure group was called and by 9:15 we were off the ship, had located our luggage in the very organized terminal (with luggage bundled according to departure group) and were headed to the area where taxis and arranged rides could be met. Our driver arrived on time and in the largest vehicle possible, per our instructions given our luggage, and away we went to Heathrow. Another family vacation completed with happy memories and a tinge of sadness that it was over. That concludes the travel portion of the Journal. One final post to come with final thoughts and a financial tally.

Thanks. One more installment coming to wrap it all up with some final thoughts.

Day 8-Sea Day-Last Day of the Cruise (Continued) We returned to our cabin to finish packing our biggest bags so that we could leave them outside our cabin when we headed to dinner. I went to the safe to unlock it and retrieve our passports and whatever currency we had stored in there. Just as I put in the last of the four digits for the code, the LED display flashed like a supernova and went blank. Dead as a doornail. Me, mouth wide open on the outside, and our valuables on the inside, separated by what I could only conclude was an electrical malfunction or dead battery. My first instinct was to call Guest Services from our cabin phone. After a couple of rings I was subjected to the familiar “hold music” interrupted every now and again by the statement that all customer service representatives were busy, but rest assured, my call was important to them. Is it really? After 15 minutes S offered to try to initiate a live chat via the app. Seemed like a sound strategy. But after initiating the chat, she too was on cyber-hold, waiting for an agent to converse with her. Now more than a bit frustrated, I decided to walk down to the Guest Services Desk and we would have our own little race. S would be in charge of the chat, K would guard the phone, and I would try the manual approach of speaking face to face with a CSR, though this being the last day of the cruise with people storming the castle to dispute charges that they did not make, (and perhaps even ones that they did), I didn’t favor my chances of getting to the front of the line in under a half an hour. Turns out that the line at the Guest Services Desk was only one person deep at each station, and I was face-to-face with someone in under three minutes. I explained my situation and the agent picked up the phone to call the proper department and got crickets. She said that the person responsible for this issue must be on break, but that she was able to get a message to him. Best I could do, I suppose. So I headed back to the cabin. Just as I entered the room, S informed me that she just concluded a chat and that we were “on the list.” It troubled me a bit to know that there is “a list” for this, but I suppose with over 1,300 cabins, each with a safe, the law of big numbers commands that my situation was not unique. As for K, she hung up the phone with that method of communication being less helpful than had we opted for a carrier pigeon. About 10 minutes later a helpful gentleman showed up with a trainee, and between the two of them they had the safe open, repaired and operational 5 minutes later. We thanked them and they left. About 5 minutes after that, he knocked on our door a second time and when I answered it, he said: “Are you still having an issue with your safe?” and I then realized that we had probably made “the list” twice—once from Guest Services and once from the chat. I explained the situation and off he went to attend to the next person on “the list.” After K hung up the phone, she commented that “You can dial 911 from here” and I said that this was pretty standard. Only with the way our call was handled (or not handled) one is left to wonder if a call to 911 might go something like this: Recorded Voice: “Your call is very important to us. Please press 1 if you have fallen and can’t get up. Press 2 if you are having a coronary episode. Press 3 for uncontrolled bleeding. Press 4 for all other issues. And please know that here at Princess, your call is very important to us.” Followed by hold music and then a repeat of the chorus above. We actually finished our packing in less time that expected and decided to use the time that had been gifted back to us to sit in Crooners, have wine/cocktails, and enjoy one of the rare instances where a live performance was held in this venue. At 5:45 the Prestige Quartet Band ended their set in the Piazza, and at 5:45 and 10 seconds, the Gold Strings Duo began to play in Crooners. So there we sat, summarizing our trip and musing about the places we would like to put on our short list for future travels together. And while staring our from Crooners and gazing over in the direction of the Ocean Terrace Seafood Bar, we joked about the underutilization of that venue. We had taken a peek at tonight’s dinner menu on our cabin TV and saw that it was heavily loaded with seafood. S theorized that all of the unused fish from the Ocean Terrace must make its way to the galley for the last night of the cruise. And K joked about how incompatible it is for there to be a razor-sharp knife wielding sushi chef to be working his craft on a ship in rough seas. Aside from the airlift evacuation, there were three other instances throughout the cruise where the medical staff was summoned to Deck 6, and one where the medical staff was summoned to a specific cabin, (which I won’t reveal). K wondered how many times the medical staff is summoned to the Ocean Terrace after the sushi chef misplays his knife and has to call 911 and “Press 3 for assistance.” Off to Vines for one last time to load our glasses with a nice glass of wine, and then to our 7:30 table for the last time. S started with the “Ocean Terrace Leftover Soup”, or as it appeared on the menu: “Scandinavian Fish Soup”. K and I each had the French Onion Soup which reappeared as a Princess Favorite. Incidentally, this was the only night that the Fettuccini Alfredo was not on the menu. I’m guessing that they could have prepared it if asked, but you may not want to risk it and save this dish for the last night. I might get bumped from the rotation owing to the influx of leftover fish coming in from the Ocean Terrace! For Mains, I had the lamb Shank which was very good. K had the Sole Palermitana (which I suppose is some sort of riff on “Palermo”) and S had the Prime Rib. We were all happy with our dishes and all things considered, this was a pretty good “Farewell Dinner”. I remember from our years past that the Farewell Dinners were often best described as “Soup Kitchen Thanksgiving” but maybe that happens more on U.S.-based itineraries, with Roast Turkey, Meatloaf, Pot Roast, and other items that could have been plucked out of a Swanson’s Frozen Dinner from 1974. For dessert S had the Baked Alaska as I explained for her the “old” tradition of how that dish was made and presented. She made a note to search for a video of that on YouTube. K did what I had done the night before, which is even more rate for her than it is for me which was to “make her own Sundae”, and I had Apple Pie a la mode. S didn’t seem to “get” the supposed extravagance of the Baked Alaska and concluded that something must get lost in the transition from “Flaming Dessert Ball” to “Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake.” K and I both enjoyed or desserts. For the entertainment portion of the evening we opted to see AJ Clarke one last time, only this evening he would be tickling the ivories over in the Wheelhouse. Over the course of the cruise his audience and loyal following had grown big enough to make the Wheelhouse a tough ticket to score. Getting all of his fans into the seats there was like stuffing 2 pounds of sausage into a one-pound casing. But we hung out at the rail long enough to score a sofa around a coffee table which we shared with another couple. (The coffee table, not the sofa. This wasn’t one of those “alternative lifestyle” cruises.) We listened, drank, submitted requests, rinsed and repeated until the last chord was struck. Then off to bed to get ready for departure day, the details of which will be covered in the next post. Seeing how this was our “hit all of the remaining bars on our BINGO Card” day as well as a day when we hung out at Crooners pre-dinner, our bar tab for the day was not shy (for us). 6 glasses of wine and 14 cocktails which would have cost us $273.76 out-of-pocket. With Plus our bill was $2.36 and with Premier it would have been $0.00. Our final tally and thoughts on Plus will also be posted in an upcoming post.

Then this wins the award for worst tender port-worldwide. No taxis. No shuttle buses to town. And a mile and a half walk to the train station. Every person within earshot of us who was striking out on their own was cursing and grumbling as they walked around the landing area wondering what they were going to do for the day. I know that it pays to plan ahead, and I am certainly a compulsive planner. But it never occurred to me that we would be dropped off 30 minutes from the train station with no transportation to get us there. I just re-checked the official port website to see if I had missed anything and confirmed that I did not. At least now I know. Though even now knowing, I'm not sure what the workaround would be other than to try to get on the first tender to make the earlier train.

Space and kitchen configuration limits how much they can upgrade. And again, an apples to apples discussion would have us comparing how NCL has upgraded its buffet areas in ships launched in 2006-2009. Is it fair to whipsaw Princess for not doing what NCL also did not do? (Assuming that they haven't made significant changes.)

There was no evidence on my shipment that it came from China.

I did not look at the Busy Bus website since I knew that we were going to tour on our own. It is odd how the Holyhead Port website makes no mention of the tendering process but perhaps that is because they are so proud of their new dock that can handle ships up to 900 feet. Unfortunately, in today's cruise industry, that comes up a bit short for most new ships.

Yes, that is a picture of S. And thank you.

I wondered if the captain set his career back 10 years by doing that show.

Our last cruise before the pause was in the Caribbean and ended on 12/19. So it didn't capture the actual week of Christmas, but was close. I do not remember the dining being any different. Lots of Christmas décor, but the Formal Nights seemed to be the same as we had experienced in the past.

Wow. So nobody on the ship knew. How odd.

OP: The process has been described in earlier posts in correct detail, but be aware that if there isn't a rush to get off the ship, it is possible to go to collect a ticket with an aquatic creature's name on it (at the Photo Gallery on Deck 6) and be told that the ticket system isn't being used at that time and to just proceed to Deck 4 whenever you are ready to disembark. We had two tender ports on the Regal earlier this month (Guernsey and Holyhead) and neither time did we require a ticket to get off and we were trying to get off at what I would have thought were the "prime" hours (8:00-9:00).

But when it comes to comparing two buffet areas, the differentiation as between old and new is apt. The buffet areas on the Royal Class are world's apart from the Grand Class ships, as if Princess was saying: "We know we need to do better here", and they did. So it is only right to acknowledge that they made an improvement to align with the competition. One should not reach the conclusion tht "I will never sail Princess again because their buffets are awful" without first experiencing a state of the art buffet. OP: The ship's pool hours should be listed at the bottom left of the back page of the Event Listing Sheet that you receive each evening. Yes it is odd that someone at Guest Services would say "I don't know" instead of "Let me find out." That is poor performance by the crew member as well as his/her supervisor who should be training better. As for asking for your cabin number, the Medallion readers that the crew members use capture information about anyone within a specific rage of the reader itself. Maybe 20 feet or so. At a bar, or while lounging at the pool, that circumference can capture many more guests than just you. The crew member is just trying to avoid creating a billing issue that would frustrate you even more than you are frustrated by having to say your cabin number. Pick your gripe: Having to utter 5 syllables or having to have an unwanted charge reversed at the Guest Services Desk by someone who doesn't even know what the pool hours are.

I think that all ships and all itineraries will have elevated menus, but they may not be on Formal or Dress to Impress nights. It is unclear to me why the sip will have regular menus on Formal Night, but have escargot and Surf-n-Turf or Beef Wellington on Smart Casual nights, but it is definitely happening. Irrespective of the menu, your cruise will have a Formal Night with the Captain's Greeting and the Champagne Tower and the opportunity to have photos taken of you all dressed up.

Day 8-Sea Day-Last Day of the Cruise Reality starts to set in that this is the end of what has so far been a magnificent cruise. Fortunately, in stark contrast to our previous Sea Day, the weather today was fantastic. Maybe a bit chilly for carefree lounging by the pool, but we’ll see how that goes. And of course, we need to finish off our Bar/Lounge BINGO cards as so far the only outdoor bar that we had been to was the Outrigger where we had wine and cheese for sailaway in Greenock. The weather looked quite befitting of a day for catching up on skipped bars. And alas, we needed to fit in time to pack. Always the least enjoyable part of any cruise. Having stayed up late watching the instant replay of the Coronation, we were certainly not first in line at the Horizon Court for breakfast. But we did manage to get there before they started tearing the station down for lunch, which seemed to be a bad habit of ours. We made it a priority to actually get to breakfast while breakfast was the top priority of the kitchen staff. And so we did. It was here that we encountered our first service issue of the entire cruise. We are quite used to being descended upon by eager servers in the Horizon Court, ready to pour coffee, orange juice, whisk away used plates, etc. But today, it seemed as if we had become invisible overnight. We were so ignored that we eventually walked up to a server station where the pitchers of beverages are kept and poured our own orange juice and water. The coffee station in the Pastry area was again understaffed and a sizeable line developed with people waiting to get their orders filled. S ordered an omelet using the “ticket” system where they issue you a ticket and then a server comes to take your ticket and retrieve your order. But despite waiting an appropriate amount of time and then waiting for a server to take the ticket, and then trying to flag down a server to take the ticket, she eventually had to get up and approach a server to ask if she could get her dish. Oddly, after all of this do-it-yourself shenanigans took place, we were then descended upon by eager servers for the rest of the meal, which I suppose is fine, but we really needed service at the beginning of the mean and not the end. Not sure if any of this was the result of understaffing, undertraining, or underexperienced crew members. Either way, it was the first time that this easy-to-please family was a bit uneasy regarding service. The food was as expected, and as we left we began to see the signage being put out for lunch, even if the food was not ready to make an appearance. We saw the sign for “gyros” and actually did spy the vertical rotisserie of meat being cooked, or as S called it from her year living in Athens, “the meat tornado”. She and I nodded with approval and decided then and there that we would be coming back here for lunch. By now the “End of the Season” sale was taking place in the Princess Shops, and even though we were only at the very beginning of the UK Cruise season, we decided to see what the “End of the Season” sale was all about. Well, it was about the worst of Black Friday at your local mall. Merch scattered everywhere, most pertaining to cruises from long ago. No way to ferret out sizes or styles. We didn’t waste any time there, but K and S did manage to use up the balance of our OBC on makeup and skin care products at the boutique at prices that they swear were about 20%-30% less than what they would pay at Sephora or Ulta back home. While up on Deck 6 shopping, we could hear the “Crew vs. Guests” Jenga Trivia game going on in the center of the Piazza, so we grabbed a spot at the rail to see how that would turn out. Back to the cabin for the first round of packing until it was time to return to the Horizon Court to visit the meat tornado. Lunch was good and the service issues we experienced at breakfast seemed to have disappeared, thankfully. With that out of the way, it was time to hit up the outdoor bars. So to do that, while K went back to the cabin to pick up reading material and drop off her packages, S and I staked out some lounge chairs by the pool and got some towels and blankets. With the first real opportunity for people to enjoy some heaven-sent vitamin D, the outside deck was well-used, but certainly not “crowded” in the way it would be on a Caribbean or Med cruise. Chair hogs did not seem to be an issue, and we had no trouble finding three loungers together on the Lido Deck. Had we failed in that, there we could have had our pick of lounge chairs on the Sun Deck or Sky Deck as you will see in the upcoming photos. K used the “Find My Shipmates” feature of the app to be directed right to the spot that S and I had claimed. And let me tell you. If K could use the app and locate us on the ship, anyone can. Once settled, it was time to go to the Mermaid’s Tail for our first cocktail of the day, and another square crossed off on the BINGO card. The afternoon largely followed suit, with a “rinse and repeat” feel to it, only while we “repeated” the concept of getting cocktails, we did so at the Retreat Bar and the Sea View Bar to finish off our circuit. Every bar now visited. S and I noted that what we had observed at the Outrigger Bar seemed true at the Mermaid’s Tail as well. That bar seemed better stocked than a number of the indoor bars. Or maybe “better stocked” isn’t the right phrase and what I really mean is, there are liquors found there that we did not find at other bars. Your mileage may vary. In between sips of drinks, I spent a bit of time taking outdoor photos as the day was conducive to getting some nice pictures. And I am not the sort who can plop down on a lounge chair and read for two hours. Or even twenty minutes. My restlessness can drive K and S nuts sometimes, but they just have to live with it. Fortunately I had my camera to keep me busy so I headed up to the Sun and Sky Decks to take some overheads. MUTS was showing a travel photo-journal of places Princess visits and it was fun watching the show with us commenting on the places we have been. I thought that I could zoom in and get a candid of S, but her ears must have been burning because she turned toward the camera just as I took the shot. I headed over to the Retreat area to take some shots there. Note the distinct lack of people. And then I headed over to the Sea Walk area for some perspective, and to see if I could get a photo that answers definitively the question of: “Can people see into my cabin from the Sea Walk.” As you can see, even with some leaning and a telephoto lens, the best anyone could so is see the table and chairs. I made sure that there were no people on their balconies because I didn’t want anyone to think that I was a creepy stalker. But here is your answer. I walked around taking a few more pictures… And then headed back over to the pool area for one last general shot with K and S hidden in front of the starboard side hot tub, and one more undetected candid of S reading her book. And this proved to be the last photo that I took on the trip. This (in)activity proved to take up the balance of the afternoon, and we headed to and sat at the Sea View Bar for one last cocktail before heading back to the cabin for more packing so that we could clear some luggage out before heading to dinner. Second customer service issue, dinner and evening events coming up in next post.

Day 7-Holyhead, Wales (Coronation Day) (Continued) We arrived back on the ship fully deserving of some refreshment from the stress that we (or the port) had caused us. We plopped down at one of the sofa and chair set-up in the elevated portion of the Piazza by the IC and enjoyed some wine from Vines (where they would not allow me to take a “nice” glass off premises even though Arvind and I had become good buddies by this time of the cruise) cocktails from Good Spirits and espresso and sweets from the IC. Because we were quick to the sofa, I didn’t take my camera equipment back to the cabin first, and that allowed me to take some photos of the Coronation Day décor in the Piazza. The whole day was full of parties and celebrations, and one of the bands was playing in this area upon our return. All British music, all the time. I wasn’t going to attach my flash, so the coloring is a bit “yellow” owing to the natural state of the lighting in the Piazza. That can be overcome with a filter, but I wasn’t carrying any filters with me on this trip. We headed back to the room to shower and change for dinner, eagerly anticipating the Coronation Menu that our server, John, promised would be the best of the cruise. We arrived at our usual table at the usual time and were seated amongst the usual people at their usual tables. Honestly it was just like Traditional Dining during the reign of the previous monarch. As John promised, the Coronation Day Menu was the best of the lot, and the menu that most guests would be offered on either Formal or Dress to Impress Night. I mentioned earlier how we were unimpressed by our menus on those nights during this cruise, but last night’s menu and this night’s menu made up for it. Here we found the Escargot and the Surf and Turf (with lobster) and at no extra cost. We deviated a bit from our standard of all ordering different things, but it was worth it. S started with Cheesy Tortellini, K had a Caesar Salad and I had the Fettuccini Alfredo to start. We then all got our own mid-course of Escargot. And then we all got the Surf and Turf. The meat was tender, cooked to the proper medium rare and very tasty. The lobster tail was cruise ship lobster tail. I find it to be just fine but others complain that it is “nothing like a real Maine lobster.” Whatever. My brother and I used to run 10 lobster traps in Long Island Sound when we were growing up and we pulled many lobsters from the depths over the years, cooking them at home. I know what a “real” lobster is, and I have never sent back a lobster tail on a cruise ship. Are they the best? No. Are they so bad that one has to avoid them? No. For dessert S got the Crème Brule, K got the Chocolate Caramel and I got something that in all my years I had never ordered—a made to order ice cream sundae. Not sure why I never did this before because ice cream is a basic food group for me. But I always opt for something that takes more talent from the kitchen staff than scooping out some ice cream and then ladling on some chocolate syrup. Still, I was craving one, and wanted to have some ice cream that did not come with pyrotechnics, moving parts and theatrical fog machines. We were all very pleased with our meals and left stuffed. Keeping with the Coronation theme, we headed to “British Invasion Music Trivia.” We didn’t feel too good about this one, being three Yanks after all, on a ship packed with Brits. But the trivia entailed naming both the song title and artist with one point awarded for each, meaning that there were 40 total points available, so maybe we would do OK. The event was fun, though slightly dampened by the fact that our emcee for the event did not know any of the songs, barely knew some of the artists, and refused to take his role seriously, (or as seriously as one should for a lighthearted quiz). His utter contempt for some of music history’s greatest songs and bands did nothing to enhance the show. Entertainment Director (and really, can they come up with a different abbreviation than “ED”) Martyn Moss stood at the door observing the event, and I am genuinely curious to know if he considered the emcee’s performance to be endearing or off-putting. I know how I would vote. In any event, when the music stopped and the scores were tallied, we had a healthy 32 points. As scores were called out, hands kept dropping and dropping, but ours remained held high. Until they called out “34 or higher” and we had to surrender our raised arm. One team was left standing. Another second-place finish, and our third in a row. Still, for the week we finished 1-2-2-2, and I will always cherish that achievement. Coronation Day celebration musical entertainment abounded on the ship and we bounced in to a couple of venues, but the big party seemed to be in the Piazza with great music and lots of dancing happening, including a large number of crew members/officers joining in the fun. There really was a palpable positive vibe on the ship and one would never mistake this night for a “Princess is boring” type of cruise. When we were all funned out, we headed back to the cabin and turned on one of the BBC channels to see if we could catch up on the Royal Goings On and were able to watch a condensed replay of the major Coronation events which was perfect for us. Cut out was much of the marching and carriage riding and the broadcast stuck to the more “official” events which is really what we wanted to see. Our final drink tally for the day was light, with 6 glasses of wine and 6 cocktails, and our out-of-pocket cost would have been $184.08. With Plus we paid $7.08 and with Premier we would have paid $0.00. Final Sea Day ahead! Patter Day 7.pdf

I'm on the fence. The medallions come is slick packaging that cannot be cheap to produce or ship. We are used to getting free shipping from Amazon, but is it really free? Not when you pay a hefty annual fee for Prime. 15 ships leaving each week, each with an average of 3,000 people is 45,000 people per week. Assuming two medallions per package, (we receive two in one box and one all by itself when we travel as three) and that is 22,500 boxes a week, times 45 weeks (to account for the fact that many cruises are more than 7 days), and you get to over one million shipments per year. (But I assume it is less than that if they are not shipping them internationally.). So cut that number in half. 500,000 shipments per year at a cost of probably $10 per package. $5M per year in shipping costs is not nickels and dimes, especially when there is no inconvenience to the passenger if they pick the Medallion up at the port. I see no problem in having the customer pay for the shipping if they really want the Medallion to arrive early. I don't see that I am "entitled" to free shipping." While they could add the cost into the price of Plus or the cruise itself, that would be unfair to people who cannot get the Medallions shipped, or who prefer to pick them up at the port. Better to just ask: "Do you want it shipped? If so, check this box and we will charge your card on file." I prefer transparent and honest charges when it comes to shipping.

We ordered drinks from every single venue on the ship (purposefully filling out our hypothetical BINGO card to see if we could make it to every bar and lounge) and we were never limited to a $12 cap. Not at Good Spirits Not at Sabatini’s Not at Bellini’s Not in the Concerto Dining Room Not at Crooners Not at the Wheelhouse Not at the Princess Live Bar Not at the Vista Lounge Not at the Mermaids Tail Not at the Sea View Bar Not at the Retreat Bar Not at Outriggers Not at the Casino Bar Not at Club Six Not at Alfredo’s Not at Vines. Now, we never actually ordered a drink at the Guest Services Station, so maybe they would have held us to a $12 cap. But since that is not a place that serves drinks, I wouldn’t care one wit what they say. The bartenders and servers know the rules. If you read my thread you will see that at the end of each day I provide a summary of what we ordered and what we were charged. I would imagine that the staff on board the ship now has a 95% overlap with the staff that served us two weeks ago. I don’t think that in the intervening two weeks they forgot the way it works.

I haven’t noticed anything close to that. Our standing reservation was for 7:30. The people at our table before us could not possibly have had meals that lasted that long or else the table would not have been ready for our arrival. And if we had dinners that lasted that long we would have been leaving the restaurant at 9:30-9;45 and we were never close to that. So no. We did not experience any service issues in the MDR that would call into question the level of service in either the front or back of the house.

I have to ask...what sources are you consulting? Because if you are reading trip reports and "Live" threads on this board, I am not at all sure how you could reach that conclusion. We just finished a cruise (two weeks ago) and there was no discernable drop in quality or service. I am nearing the end of my Review and Journal and when I post my "Final Thoughts", that will come through loud and clear.

They used an odd but necessary affectation where they would say something in period Scottish and then translate themselves into modern parlance. But sometimes even the modern was rough on the ears.

Uh… no. It is not. You have gone from asserting that an Elite wife bringing her non-Elite husband into the lounge to buy a drink will result in the immediate termination of crew members to now arguing that the husband has committed the criminal act of fraud and is subject to prosecution. Really? You don’t see this as a profound overreaction?