Oakman58

I consider the 20% tip on drinks to be more than generous. Tipping just $1 on a $12 dollar drink increases the tip another 8%. I'm not that generous at my local bar and grill so I'm not going to overtip on a cruise. Over tipping in my opinion just leads to employees expecting something over and above. Just look how luggage porters (longshoremen making a union wage) at the ports expect that tip for simply tossing luggage onto a cart.

Probably a group of "kissin' cousins" from a certain southern state.

I like to have my bacon so crisp that when I bite it, it crumbles like a hard taco shell.

Apparently a lot of seniors feel the way you do. I'm just not that sedentary yet. I want to have fun, dance to disco, and laugh a lot.

That was Internet click bait.

Lessons learned; don’t rely on air transportation booked through NCL. Don’t rely on NCL to get you to the ship. Don’t rely on trip insurance booked through NCL. In other words, don’t rely on NCL for anything. Sorry you had your dream trip ruined because you relied on NCL.

I can't agree with you on that point. Vista suites on Holland, and the Ocean suites on Carnival are larger than NCL's club suites. And the mini-suites on Princess are a lot bigger than what NCL offers. I wish I would have booked a mini-suite when I took my Princess cruise.

I'm Platinum level and I've been looking for a new cruise line too. So far I've tried Holland, Carnival, and Princess. Carnival was great just don't do any short cruises with them. Food was very good in the main dining room and onboard entertainment was very good. The comedy club left much to be desired on our cruise. My Holland cruise was excellent but they come up a little short on entertainment, but still good. Food was very good in the main dining room. I just returned in January from a 16 day Princess cruise and all I can say is, never again. With the exception of the French Onion soup, the food in the main dining room came up short. I didn't get to try either the steakhouse or the Italian because Princess cancelled our reservations and closed the steakhouse. Standard balcony cabins don't have a loveseat in the cabin, instead all they have is one chair. When we ordered breakfast room service I had to drag a chair from the balcony in so we both had a place to eat. Both Holland and Carnival still serve filet mignon and lobster tails in the main dining room. Of the three ships I had the most fun on Carnival however, I wouldn't cruise with them during spring break or when school is out for the summer.

While the Diamond does have a full walk around promenade, toward the bow of the ship you have to take stairs up to deck 8, wrap around the front, and then stairs back down to deck 7. For the sixteen days I was on the Diamond those stairs up to deck 8 were always closed.

We just returned in Jan from a roundtrip on the Diamond Princess out of San Diego. The first couple of days we had rough water and I thought those who had walkers could handle the motion of the ship much better than those of us without. Take your trip, you will both have a great time.

The only thing cruise critic members can do is spend their money with other cruise lines. Since my last cruise on the Bliss, I've cruised with Carnival which was an excellent cruise and Princess which was a cruise for the dead and in a sucky balcony cabin that was not my cup of tea. This June I'll be cruising again with Holland in Alaska and in December with RCL in the Caribbean.

If you ask me, you sound like the perfect candidate for Princess or Holland cruises.

I wonder if that 25% increase in the service charge for balcony cabins and below will have people thinking twice about giving an extra tip to the cabin steward.

I'm not a fan of Princess. One thing I really don't like is a standard balcony cabin only has room for one chair for sitting. When we ordered room service breakfast I had to drag a balcony chair into the cabin. On some of their ships, even a deluxe or premium balcony only has room for one chair. I was recently on the Diamond Princess on a 16 day Hawaiian cruise and the music in the lounges and on the pool deck was easy listening lounge music or the ballroom dance variety. We never heard any disco, motown, Beatles or true rock and roll. Princess is not for us.

So your saying if you're not married to NCL for a cruise line you shouldn't be looking at the NCL forum. That's rather pathetic. No, I'm not looking for another cruise line on this forum, I'm looking for cruise conversation. I have plenty of experience with NCL which is why I'm hoping to find a cruise line I like better. Currently I prefer Carnival, but cruise lines are making changes so fast it's hard to keep up.

We tried to get the same waiter on a couple of our cruises and it never worked out. In my experience waiters might not be working the same restaurant every night.

If you don't like what NCL is doing then go looking for another line to cruise with. That's what I did.

Excellent choice if for no other reason, the itinerary. I loved the Bliss but the Sun would have been my choice hands down.

In my opinion yes, a balcony is well worth the money for an Alaskan cruise. And you don't have to stay on your balcony, you can always walk around the areas where inside cabin people will be. Depending on the weather it can be windy, rainy, and very cool so a balcony would be a must in those conditions. Also, when you first wake up you can open the drapes and see beautiful scenery and perhaps wildlife. The day we cruised Glacier Bay I would not have gotten this early morning photo if I didn't have a balcony.

Thank you everyone for the responses. I called and was able to get credit for our first cruise. My wife still had the booklet that Royal Caribbean had sent us in the mail back in 2005. I'm guessing RCL no longer rents tuxedos.

Just a heads up. If you book a standard balcony cabin on the Diamond Princess, your cabin will not have a loveseat and will only have one chair. If your ship is near full capacity your cabin steward might not be able to get you a second chair. Sleeps two, seats one.

Do Crown and Anchor member numbers expire? I ask because our one and only cruise with RCL was back in 2005 and when I booked a cruise on the Explorer for December our Crown and Anchor numbers weren’t recognized when we entered them. Not the end of the world but just curious.

I recently returned from a 16 day roundtrip Hawaiian cruise. Considering the age group of most passengers (65+ to 80) I rarely heard music from the era when those folks would have been young. It was rare to hear rock and roll music, and I never heard a note of Motown or Disco. All the music seemed to be ballroom dance or easy listening lounge music. The one band I did like was Los Brilliantes, a Hispanic group. I felt like I was on the ship of the dead. BTW, I'm 77 years old and for me, many of the ship activities were a bore. This was my first cruise with Princess and I won't be cruising with them again. I would choose RCL, NCL, Carnival, and even Holland over Princess.

Be sure to come back and give us your opinion of your Princess cruise.

I hope you like ballroom dancing.