cruisinsince75

Did they do facial recognition for customs?

Quite the lesson on how to debone a fish. We were on Seabourn in the Thomas Keller Grill last April and my wife had the dover sole. Same presentation at the table, but with butchered results.

9 1/2 for us.

Exciting and new!

3:00 set sail 2:00 all onboard 10:30-11:00 embarkation begins. Watching Sky Princess on Port Everglades webcam right now.

I feel for everyone booked on the SP on the inaugural cruise as well as subsequent cruises. You plan that far in advance and two weeks before you find out it isn't happening. We have had two cruises canceled before, but at least they were several months out.

My wife and I both have mobility issues. I can manage a few stairs and can get in and out of a tender, but my wife cannot without a lot of assistance. It is extremely stressful for her, therefore we forego tender ports and just consider it as a day to enjoy the ship without the crowds. I also agree with Rick, that it would be a real safety hazard to attempt to carry an individual onto a tender.

The Cape.

One time we cut getting back to the ship pretty close. We were on the Ruby Princess in Livorno. Our private tour got us and three other couples back about 5 minutes before the all onboard time. One guy kept saying they're going to leave us, they're going to leave us. I said calm down Ted. We are not going to be left and we won't be the last ones onboard. As we are getting close to the ship, we see no other people. We get to the gangway, they checked of our names and pulled the gangway up right after we boarded.

Good point! It has been awhile since we have used it and the little grey cells, just aren't as sharp as they used to be.

I'm not so vain, but I do have a scarf that is apricot. Does that count? 😁

Cost is $25pp. Needs to be with one of the airlines listed. Here is the link https://maketraveleasier.com/holland/faqs

I would do Luggage Direct with HAL for sailings disembarking in FLL. You won't see your bags again until you are at your final destination. In my opinion, it is well worth it. Then early walk off ship and take cab or Uber to the airport and 10:30 flight should be fine.

Hopefully, everything else will go smoothly. We are on the Regal this coming November, so will be following along.

Ahh! Vino Sfuso! That was great! Also, walking the Rue Cler in Paris, picking up a bottle of wine, some baguettes, ham, and cheese and walking to the park in Paris below the twinkling lights of the Eifel Tower at sunset! Much better than dining at an overcrowded and overpriced restaurant on the Champs Elysees! Now getting back to coffee... I prefer mine not to be watered down swill from syrup.

Will see how this works on our November cruise. This will be our first mass market cruise in many years. Driving to Galveston rather than flying is a real plus. We too are like the OP. Morning breakfast in stateroom ordered off the card. We write in our preferences on the card. Even on smaller ships like Seabourn they sometimes get it wrong. We have the premier package and are sailing in an accessible mini-suite. I wonder if I can still get eggs benedict or a Denver omelette delivered to our stateroom.

It was a company sponsored cruise to reward salespeople that made their goals. She was a co-worker that had a reputation of always doing things her way. I was not her boss, but was in charge of booking three private tours on the cruise. She and two of her friends during our stop in Pisa, were busy shopping and stopped to get gelato. Once back on board, i asked her what time it was and what time she was told to be back on the bus. She answered both correctly, but said time got away from them. I told her in front of the entire group, that if it happened again on any of the other tours, that we would leave them. Which we did in Rome after waiting a little over 10 minutes. Amazingly, she and her friends got back in plenty of time on our tour in Malta. As a side note. She got fired a week after that for fudging some numbers.

Happened to us on a couple of private tours I had arranged. Same group of people on our Pisa/Florence tour and again on our Rome tour the next day. It is called no respect for others. We missed our walking tour in Florence because they got back to our bus so late. I warned them the first time in Pisa. However, they did it again in Rome. We left them outside of St. Peters and they had to find their own way back to the ship.

We also sail at 3:00 out of Galveston on the Regal. Originally, it was 4:00, but got moved up to 3:00. That is a really quick turnaround.

We have the westbound crossing booked for 2025 and am curious if this still is a feature, or are there any other cooking classes going on during TA crossings?

Thank you! We are on a 14 day TA crossing, so it seems to be worth the money. I will reach out to HAL.

How much does Club Orange cost and how do you add, if already booked?

This is worrisome for us. My wife and I have mobility scooters. Fortunately, we are in an accessible mini-suite right be the elevators and the scooters are only 21" wide. However, our friends are in a suite that is aft on the Riviera deck, so it may be challenging to get to their room for a visit.

Enjoyed following your LIVE FROM posts. Glad to see they got embarkation and disembarkation procedures smoothed out. Or as someone else posted recently calling it the dismemberment procedure. 🤪

Worked for you but not for me. Mines November 2024. Only minimum deposit. Tried chat, tried calling, and tried cruise consultant. All got the same answer. New bookings only. The cruise consultant was the best. Issue was we booked an accessible mini. It was fared as a standard mini because none were available in standard mini. When they tried to refare the price actually went up. I was able to rebook at reduced fare, then canceled the previous booking. Didn't make sense and still doesn't. But easier than figuring out the new And old Princess apps! 🤣