JimmyVWine

National Express bus service is easy, inexpensive and frequent. Once in Southampton you will probably want to take a short taxi ride from the bus terminal to the ship if you are arriving on the day of your departure.

With departing guests needing to coordinate travel plans, arrange for taxis, make calls to tour providers, call airlines, etc., this seems like an impossible ask. And for arriving guests, their entire onboard experience is now app driven requiring the use of their mobile devices. Again, restricting phone usage seems like an impossibility.

The burgers are more of a "smash-burger" width so medium rare is pretty hard to achieve. I am not aware of a rule against medium rare burgers, but I can't say that I've ever received one that I would classify as being truly such.

That would be something, wouldn't it! No. At the end of each day (or before the heavier drinking starts at dinner) I jot down notes and observations for the day, enough to spark my memory about what I want to write about when the time comes. Plus, 95% of my photos are taken in RAW with a DSLR so I can't process them until I get home. The financial aspect of my review is a bit outdated since they changed what you get (or don't get) with Plus as compared to Premier. In this thread I did the comparison to show how we did better with Plus, paying the upcharge for better wines. But with the new(ish) changes, I re-ran the math for our next cruise in September and concluded that the same strategy would have us very close to even with Premier, and given the number of Sea Days we have and the number of times that we might want to dine in Casual Venues that are limited to 2 per cruise with Plus, but unlimited with Premier, it is highly likely that we will do better with Premier, so that is what I booked. And I don't factor in the cost of water as we are like you and have no problem with the ship's tap or what is available in the World Market self-serve area. I hope you get to take that Regal cruise next year. It's wonderful.

We agree. The sanity and refinement of the sit-down experience in the MDR does not offset the blasé menu and meager portion size for us. But instead of the Lido Deck, our workaround is to go to Alfredo's and then the International Cafe for dessert and espresso.

The burgers from the grill on Lido Deck are cooked to order and served hot. The ones in the MDR...not so much. If a burger is what one craves, I find the outdoor grill to be the best place to grab one.

Agree. Family style means a huge platter of chicken parm that gets passed around and everyone takes what they want. What they are really creating with various food stations is a Food Court. Someone in corporate must think that "Buffet" connotes a free meal that you get with a coupon in a cheap Vegas hotel, or on some other, "less classy" cruise line. Time for someone in Santa Clarita to go back to English Lit: What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title.

Princess Patter 10:00 a.m. Scooter Agility Contest-Come test your skills on our new scooter slalom course. Weave in between the white poles and see if you can beat the time of your fellow free-wheeling motorheads. Deck 8-Aft.

The adjustments wouldn’t be that severe. For example, if two Signature Suites were booked by single cruisers, they could make another one available without throwing the universe on tilt. And right now they are just guessing (educated guessing for sure) as to how much usage the amenities will get. If they conclude that the Lounge and Dining Room are being underutilized, they can make adjustments without offending anyone. With so many new dining venues of interest and the creation of the Signature Dining Room as a new venue, the rate of usage of that Signature Dining Room on a nightly basis is frankly anyone’s guess right now. It will take many cruises for them to gauge the actual cadence. They certainly wouldn’t want to make changes that would make the Signature benefits over-allocated. But the ability to make changes exists if they sense the ability to do so.

Q: What happens when you have two piers to choose from?? A: You have a paradox! 🤣

Cloudy Bay? I remember giving a tasting seminar about 20-25 years ago raving to my attendees how they should seek out this 'barely-known' NZ Sauvignon Blanc at the approachable price of around $16 per bottle. I guess word got out a bit more than I would have liked.

As far as I know, there is no dress code. But if you want to wear a suit, knock yourself out!

I am so glad that you found it useful, almost a year later. But I suppose that is one of the great things about taking a cruise in the Jurassic area. Not much changes over the course of a million or so years! I hope you enjoy your upcoming cruise!

Why nickel and dime when they already have your quarters and silver dollars!

That is certainly one strategy. Another one is to find people who are like-minded with you and who (generally) share the same likes and dislikes as you, and stick to their content. That is what I do with wine reviews, restaurant reviews, and cruise reviews. It certainly shrinks the amount of content that one has to digest and filters out the noise.

Thanks. That is definitely new since a web update. Was definitely not there when I booked or when I added the Package for the third person. However, when I click on it, I see this: Applies to guests 1 & 2. Additional guests can be added onboard.

That is only for the Beverage Packages, and not for Plus/Premier Cruise Packages. If I wasn't clear earlier, I apologize, but what I was adding was the full Cruise Package.

Really? The first time I did this, I started my Chat by asking if I could self-service this need through my Personalizer or if I had to call. The Chat person said that I could not do it myself, but that she could take care of it for me if I gave her my Booking Number. 5 minutes later I was done. The second time I just went straight to Chat.

Was I replying to the OP?

And those people will probably wake up to bare doors the next morning!

100% this. People have pushed the limits of substantive content as well as construction materials and the natural tendency of people to want to outdo one another, or at least outdo what they themselves did last time, pushed this practice past the point of tolerance. So the solution is to limit door decorations to only those supplies by the ship where content and construction materials are known and approved, and there is no risk of "decoration escalation". Simple as that.

So how, exactly, are the Princess-supplied door decorations any safer than the self-applied ones? Seems to make the claim of safety patently false. If safety were really the reason, they would make a rule that all door decorations must comply with the SAME safety protocols as used by Princess in the decorations that it supplies. If they did this, Amazon and Etsy would be selling compliant decorations within hours. Personally, I don't care one way or the other. We never indulged. But it saddens me when something that doesn't affect me is taken away from others when they feel so passionately about it.

The concept is brilliant. The execution needs a bit of work. And we, as website users, have to start getting used to avoiding starting posts with "Well, on my cruise..." What one sees on one cruise may not be true on another.

As I posted a few days ago, Princess has created a "Lego Block" ship with a whole host of new categories where cabins can have benefits conferred upon them (or taken away) with a keystroke and a color change on the schematic specific to that cruise. A Signature Suite can become a Mini-Suite and vice versa. A D0 can become a D1. When what they are selling now are benefits as opposed to cabin configuration, the sky is the limit, and changes can and will be made based on booking patterns. If there is a strong run on Signature Suites, they can make more. If they need more (or fewer) D0's, they can do that. It's pretty brilliant actually.