jasbo49

Your best bet is to cross your fingers for an upsell to a full suite. They (at least the ones I've seen) have just a few feet of floor space between the bed and balcony door.

1 hour ago, fishin' musician said:

I'm guessing you don't "need" a boarding pass with or without the medallion.  Presenting your passport and a credit card should be all you need to get onboard.

In the past (all non-medallian cruises), we always needed to show it just to get in the door to the terminal. 

Jim

4 minutes ago, Colorado Coasty said:

Pretty sure that all balconies face the water😇.

Not when you're docked in Juneau.  Ours faced land, but we still saw a mess of bald eagles. Ours were in the trees.

BTW, 1965, I agree. Nice upsell indeed.

Jim

1 minute ago, Bubbs33 said:

I'm considering the coffee package and love specialty coffees. However, I only drink decaffeinated. Are there generally decaffeinated specialty coffees available?

Yes. Any of the espresso-based coffee drinks is available in decaf.

Jim

Man, I don't want to be a world class curmudgeon, but how can this be anything other than cutting in line?

Jim

15 hours ago, patrickmoran said:

We stayed on South Bank and eat and drank there mostly: Prince William Henry Pub, Doggett's Coat and Badge, and Southwark Tavern. No music at any while we there.  

Thanks. Those sure sound like authentic British pubs.

Jim

Thanks for the review. We'll be doing a British Isles cruise on the Crown starting June 6. We're staying in London four nights before the cruise. What pubs did you enjoy? Is it like Ireland where they have live music? I know it's a big city, but hey, we can get around.

Jim

As you can tell from the above responses, Princess offers occasional attempts at Mexican fare, chips and salsa, taco bar, and so on.

But there is really no effort at all to provide an actual Mexican dinner as you would find in any California town. We live in an Oregon town of 2,000 and there are two Mexican restaurants who could cook circles around anything Princess does.

Jim

1 hour ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Yes.  Oddly enough they don't carry the brewed coffee there, but they do make all the specialty coffee's there.

I believe the reason is that ALL the coffee on the Royal-class ships is brewed. So you can get specialty coffees either at the IC or at the buffet on these ships. And you can get freshly brewed coffee either place.

Jim

41 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

I absolutely love good Scotch. The problem is they offer Cutty Sark which is nasty stuff. Room service offers "upgraded Scotch in the form of Johnny Walker Red. GAK. Not as bad as Cutty Sark but still not something I'd be willing to pay for or drink.

The mini-bar scotch is Dewar's, which I like just fine.

Jim

15 minutes ago, theronald said:

We are sailing in Nov.and have a onboard credit of $500 but if I go to prepay gratuities my only choices are credit card.Shouldn't we be able to pay for our gratuities off of our $500 onboard credit ?

Thanks 

I fully agree with this. I'll bet a lot more people would pre-pay grats if they could apply onboard credit. Just like you do with excursions.

Jim

3 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I know you can take advantage of the FCD promotion while you are onboard an existing cruise...is there any way to take advantage of these perks prior to being on that next cruise?  I think the cruise I'm interested in is filling up!

Short answer is no. You buy it on board a cruise and use it on a future cruise. Your $100 deposit covers the "down payment " on virtually any cruise and you get on board credit to boot.

I don't think you'll find many people recommending the Island Princess here. It had major surgery in dry dock a few years ago and much of the public space was converted into new cabins. So more people and less space for them to be out and about.

There's a lot to like about the Regal, though some will say it's too big. A real drawback is the small balconies for most balcony cabins, roughly 4 by 9 rather than the usual 5 by 9. If you book early enough, though, you can often find some of the extended balconies. The Regal is fairly new and has one of the best buffets you'll find.

Jim

I would add that I found the Grand Princess to have one of the friendliest crews we have sailed with. Two cruises,  both excellent. 

Jum

16 minutes ago, skynight said:

The Star also has a covered pool. 

Thanks for the correction. I was going from memory, never a good idea as I approach 70.

Jim

3 hours ago, skynight said:

I would select the Star. Tiki Dave and Leialoha are scheduled to be the Hawaiian Ambassadors on the Star for the 2019/2020 season.

This, to me, would be the Star's biggest plus.

But the Grand has some too. Alfredo's, covered pool and sailing out of San Fran among them.

In the end, I think I would go with the Star, because, with so many sea days, I would want to sail with the Hawaiian Ambassadors I've heard so many good things about.

Jim

It's tough to be specific, but I think you have the right idea. Not every tender is the same. The tender rides in Belize were so long they ended up being fodder for comedians' jokes.

Cozumel, on the other hand, there will be lots of pier-runners just trying to beat the ship's sailing. Lots of time to spare there.

12 minutes ago, ron46936 said:

Can the half bottles also be purchased on board of do they have to be precruise?

On board is fine. Just call room service. Same price as pre-ordering.

Be prepared for a wait on the phone either way. They're pretty busy on embarkation day.

Jim

Their rates are always better than the airlines in my experience. 

Jim

4 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

I just got off the Emerald Princess yesterday...

 

First off, being Platinum Captain's Circle members, even for this short 3-night cruise, we got a free 150 minutes each...Good, huh?  Not if they are completely unusable...

 

First thing one discovers is that just logging onto the internet is a confusing two -step process...You have to log in to Princess at Sea, then click on a button that says "Connect to Internet"...While you're doing this (and slowly), your minutes are ticking away.  Logging off is even worse...it's at least a two step process...and one of the links is hidden under a pull-down...Click in the wrong order and your minutes just keep disappearing--because you haven't really logged off...I lost about 85 of my 150 that way!

We're still waiting to hear why your 150 minutes were "completely unusable."

I don't think the Princess Internet is perfect. Sometimes I have trouble signing on the first time. But once I'm signed on, I've never lost a single minute logging in or out. The minutes don't start until you start using a browser and logging out is instantaneous.

It seems to me the OP has posted a number of things in the past that are not friendly to Princess. That is fine, but it makes me wonder, why did you sign up for a Princess cruise?

Jim

We did this last August and it was super easy. There's almost no one in the terminal, so you practically walk right on. Muster was sometime around 4, I think, a small one just for the Berlin passengers.

I don't have specific recollections about timing in Copenhagen, except I think we had a Princess excursion, so all was smooth.

Jim

2 hours ago, JRA1708 said:

I have been notified by Princess that our boarding time is at 1:00 pm, ugh!  That's so late!  Does anyone have experience with this?  If we board at 1:00 pm will our cabins be ready?

When you say you've been notified boarding is at 1 p.m., is that one of those board by deck things? Those don't seem to mean much.

The main thing is almost everyone on that ship (Crown, I assume) will have boarded a few days earlier in Southampton. Dublin is kind of an alternate point of embarkation where maybe 10 percent of the ship comes on. So the crew won't have a whole shipload of cabins to ready, and the cruise terminal should be almost empty. My guess is you will be able to board pretty early, then drop your stuff in the cabin and go explore the city.

Dublin is a fun city where, even during the daytime, you can find pubs with live music. In the Temple Bar area, there are fun shops and reasonably priced pubs for lunch.

Jim

For us Club Class works well because we get the convenience of true anytime dining and the service quality you expect in traditional dining. We really don't like committing to a set time every night. What if you have a late lunch? What if you get involved in something you hadn't planned and it runs into your dinner time?

And it seems like no matter when our set time is, it interferes with something we want to do at night. So traditional doesn't work for us. And anytime can be chaotic with significant waits if you want to eat at what we consider a normal time (6 to 7).

We've only had Club Class twice, but both times found that the added dishes were worthwhile and the service was mostly a cut above the basic MDR. On one cruise, the hostess who seated us every night was so welcoming I think she got a bigger tip on the final night than any of the waiters.

So it's hard for one person to put a monetary value on someone else's cruise, but I'll just say we really like it and when we feel like it's affordable we'll do it.

As for posters who suggest using the money for specialty restaurants instead, I may be in the minority, but I think I'd be bored to tears staring at the same Crown Grill menu every night.

Jim

It's fleetwide. No life jackets at muster on any Princess cruises now. I suppose a captain could make an exception, but I haven't heard of it happening yet.

Jim

I've usually tried to avoid cabins close to elevators, but one time we ended up in one and I was surprised by the lack of noise.

Jim