Redwood10D

We're looking at a Travelscoot tomorrow. But the Luggie also looks like a good option. My husband can walk short distances. But his balance is off. Which one offers more stability?

Thank you.

I have not compared the two. I wanted a dealer close by and Luggie had a dealer 15 miles away. Prior to settling on the Luggie I talked with a guy who was on a travel scoot while we were on a cruise to Mexico. He liked his. Stability was not an issue that we talked about which I took to mean non-issue.

However any three wheel scooter will have a tipping motion in some conditions. This motion needs to be anticipated and, like a motorcycle rider does when cornering, the body shifted just a bit ( leaning into the corner). I have felt the motion and have learned to work with it.

If you want a fairly non-tippy scooter you need to go to the 4 wheel model where each wheel is at a corner. That said, even the 4 wheel versions have their own tipsiness.

I love my Luggie and have had it for nearly 18 months. I have ridden it everywhere on a cruise ship and folded it up to go ashore. Very handy! Have not had a problem with it at all.

I appreciate both of your replies. It helps to know how others have successfully ventured in to this new territory(for me anyway) and how they have fared. Thanks again!

Redwood

My COPD continues to move along:eek: and I am now on full time oxygen (the "2" level setting). I am thinking of going the Inogen route but am open to advice from other users. I have a fall cruise coming up and will want to take something besides my portable oxygen supply and a wagon load of little bottles.

Any thoughts?

Redwood

Question, my in laws will be traveling next month. He uses a CPAP, can they call guest services to have a gallon of distilled water delivered to their cabin? I know they would hate to have to cart around a gallon of water. Thanks in advance for the help.

As others have mentioned, all you have to do is note your request for a power cord and distilled water via the Princess web site.

Just a note about the tap vs. distilled water debate. I find, for me, that distilled water gives me better therapy than does tap water. While salts and minerals do not vaporize there are dissolved gasses that do: chlorine being the most common. This tends to aggravate my system. I know the amount of chlorine varies from source to source and sensitivity to this gas does too. The easy way for me is to use distilled water.

Redwood

Considering booking a 15 day Hawaiian return cruise from Vancouver next year. The longest of my 4 cruises was a week to Alaska and and the most sea days in a row was 2. This cruise has 5 sea days on either end. I think its on the Star Pricess. Has anyone done this before that could tell me what type of acttivities they have and how are the seas? Ive not been seasick but my travel partners have varying degrees of seasick.

Seasickness first: You must begin medicating before you get sick, like 12 hours ahead of time. How do you know when? If you take the medication at bedtime you get the benefit without most of the side effects. I usually recommend Meclazine to my sail-boat guests. Plus a lot of good food choices going in. Heavy fat diets are a real aid to throwing up...

Sea days are an experience of a past time when our ancestors spent time on the sea in their travels from one land to another. Even a generation or two ago had this experience, so in a way you are able to experience a part of what the saw and felt, albeit in pretty posh surroundings. The pace of life slows way down, if you allow it to. I find sea days to be wonderful !!

We have done the LA roundtrip version of both the trip to Hawaii as well as the south seas venture several times and love it all.

Thanks to our upcoming Roll Call as posted by loonline (thanks Rhonda and Brian!), it was just announced that the gratuities automatically billed to guests on their stateroom portfolios will be increased.

 

Effective on voyages departing on or after January 1, 2016, the gratuity charge will be $13.95 per guest for mini-suites and suites, and $12.95 per guest for interior, oceanview, and balcony staterooms.

 

The current charges per day are $12 per person for mini-suites and suites, and $11.50 per guest in all other staterooms per day (including children).

 

All guests who have pre-paid their gratuities before October 15, 2015, will have their current daily gratuity amount protected. If you have a cruise sailing after January 1, 2016, you may want to prepay your gratuities before October 15 in order to lock in to the older rates. This can be done by logging in to your cruise personalizer and choosing the pre-pay option when prompted.

 

Above was copied in part from another site I can't mention here.

Wow, thanks a lot! We have a 15 day cruise in Feb. and this will save us a bit for spending elsewhere! Besides I think this was a good time for us to exercise the pre-pay option.

Thanks again for the info-

Redwood

When I decided I needed to move from my walker to a scooter I began my research and ended up buying a "Luggie Elite" for several reasons. It folds up like a roll on suitcase (hence Luggie), and when folded you can extend the handle and walk it behind you just like a roll on, it weighs just short of 60#, came with a lithium battery (great long range), has a weight capacity of 320#, has arm rests that are easy to attach/remove, and fits through most doors I have found, plus it has a forward and reverse power mode as well as a free-wheeling/power off mode. I can maneuver it in and out of lots of tight places

I have now used it for 8 months or so. I love it. It has given me back my mobility in the best way. I could recommend them to my friends who need a scooter. I am not employed nor do I have any connection to the company nor am I being paid anything for this. I just happen to like my Luggie a lot!

Would you be able to give me some assistance please in booking tours. I have booked the 10 day Mexico - Riviera cruise on Crown Princess, 23 September 2015. I have never been to this area so are asking some advice on tours. Happy to book ship excurisions as I'm travelling solo and my roll call is not busy, like it is with transatlantics.

 

Just a bit of advice- you are going during hurricane season which is not so much a danger (the ships avoid the problem areas) but therein lays the problem. You may miss a port or two and so forth. You need to be flexible and adjust as you go. Ship tours will be easier to cancel than private ones.

 

We have done this 10 day cruise twice and loved it each time.

 

Redwood

We have seen cutbacks over the years, just like many of you. Sometimes, the cutbacks are so subtile I have to think about it for awhile. Like our recent cruise on the Crown with no note pads, etc. Another one was the lack of dinner mints at the MDR exit. I liked them and I miss them.

So, cutbacks are, for me, not deal breakers. But what I, and I think most of us look at, is the total package. Since that can be ever so objective it will vary for each of us.

But my list is itinerary, ship quality, food that is average or better, but most of all service. A mediocre meal can be a good dining experience (for me) if the service is great. A great cabin steward is a must. The top of the list is the staff at the International Cafe. We have been lucky, perhaps, on our last three cruises to have had the best wait staff in that area one could ever ask for. So, this is an area that I feel has not suffered loss or cutbacks!

I hope my response is not seen as hijacking, didn't mean for it to be, anyway.

Redwood

My wife and I renewed our passports two weeks ago via our local post-office. We had our photos taken at AAA (cheaper at CostCo) and did all the paperwork at the post office, put it all (paperwork, old passport, and check for $110 each) in a registered (?) Post Office envelope and off it went.

Today 11/03/14 I saw that the checks had cleared our bank. On checking with the government online passport web site and entering the required data we see that the processing time will be 4 to 6 weeks as per our original expectations.

Our passports may arrive sooner but we are not holding our breath. As a future guide to anyone re-newing I would say count on the 6 weeks and be nicely surprised if it is less.

I've been troubled by seeing cabins propped open while the steward is cleaning, and lately there seem to be more reports of passengers having items stolen. Maybe Princess ought to change the procedures for cabin cleaning. I know it's much easier and quicker to get the job done with the door open, but it makes it too easy for dishonest people.

I see the need to keep the door to the cabin being cleaned propped open. But on a recent Crown Princess cruise (and others I recall), there was more than one cabin in the same area propped open at a time. I know I have seen two and maybe three open at a time while the attendant was only in one of them. Just one cart in the passage-way, so one attendant. This is where I think theft might happen. I don't see the great need for this practice. One at a time? Sure. Beyond that it would encourage a weak link to pilfer.

Redwood

Can you order room service on embarkation day? I am thinking of ordering lunch when we get to our cabin instead of fighting the crowds in the buffet.

 

Also on a related note, I would like to order guacamole for the sail away. Possible? I have heard room service is spotty or takes a long time on embarkation day.

 

Can any of this be preordered? I think the guacamole can. Any comments or tips?

We were on the Crown recently for a 7 day Calif. Coastal and we had room service for lunch just as you are thinking about. It may depend on a lot of variables, so a call to room service, once you are onboard, will be the only way to know for sure it is available on your ship on that day.

Redwood

Anyone have any thoughts about the Crown Princess they want to share? I'm looking at a B2B to Alaska on her and have several friends that have a very negative opinion about this ship, and a lot of the reviews are also negative.

 

I've also looked at dates on the Island and Coral (both of which I love) but the prices are significantly higher for the dates I'm looking at (June/July 2014) I'm a big Princess fan but so are my friends. Did they just hit a bad cruise or would I be unhappy with the Crown?

We are just off the Crown (yesterday) from a California Coastal Cruise and have a few observations. You asked about the ship but I must say the crew on the Crown was superb. In particular, the wait-staff at the International Cafe was the best we had ever seen. Overall crew services were at a very high level we thought.

Getting on was a mess, the worst we had ever experienced with Princess. It ranked quite close to our FLL-HAL boarding. There was a delay for some unexplained reason. No, not noro cleaning. I asked and was told no. They were loading carpet rolls but this continued up until near departure so don't think this caused delay. Who knows? Clearly the staff out in the terminal either didn't know or were not telling. Poor PR and organization on some administrators part I think.

This same lack of organization seemed to crop up from time to time throughout the cruise, but was not a deal breaker, just aggravating and not up to what we expect from Princess. It happened with reservation times made for any-time dining not getting to the door. That happened twice. There were other little things but they are out of my mind now. Moving on, you know?

I thought the ship itself looked tired in places. We had a Riviera Deck balcony and the bottom of the Lido deck above us really needed painting. A lot of painting, as the rust was everywhere. Our carpet had holes in it in places and in other areas it looked like it had been swept many, many times. Getting thread bare I guess.

Would we go back again? Sure. If we had a choice between ships like the Crown or the Island or the Golden, and so forth for the same itinerary the Crown would not be at the top of the list. Bigness provides the opportunity for added facilities and for massive mistakes.

You pays yo' money and makes yur choice.

We are thinking about taking a 28 day cruise on the Crown Princess next Oct (2014) the longest we have been on one ship is 16 days. Just wondering if anyone out there has any recent long term time on the Crown. We are active 60+ and are interested in the shows, entertainment and change of menus during the sea days. This cruise will go to Hawaii, Samoa,Tahiti, etc. Thanks for any info.

We did this cruise last Fall and wondered where the time had gone! We were worried about the 28 days a little bit at the start but not at the end. Sea days are like living on an island. Some folks just want to get off even if they are in paradise. It's all in the head. At home we are pretty much self-contained. We don't rely on others for our entertainment. The ship had more than we could do!

It is a not to be missed area of the world to visit. The time aboard gives you a sense of the vastness of the Pacific. What beauty! What vistas! What colors. I think I need to go again!

Redwood