modes

7 hours ago, juanarcin said:

Thank you for this reply, my concern was the entertainment and things like trivia might make them feel sort of left out, but you're right I'm sure they will have fun either way. Thanks, 

If they don’t speak or understand English of course it will not be too much fun. The comedy and show room shows are not in Spanish at all and neither is trivia.

On 6/1/2022 at 8:26 AM, Raxter54 said:

After 7 cruises (soon to be 8 on Carnival and Royal Caribbean), my wife and I are looking to upgrade to either Princess, Holland America, or Celebrity for out 50th wedding anniversary in 2024. Had a Celebrity cruise in mind, but the Sunset Verandah went up $900 since April. But, neither Princess or Holland America have any cruises listed for 2024. Does anyone know when Princess might be releasing their schedule for 2024?

It seems Princess gets later and later every year when it comes to releasing there itineraries for the coming year. We are now in the first week of June and still nothing.

On 5/28/2022 at 6:22 AM, Dittos said:

Help me understand why I am seeing such a huge price difference between cruises in 2022 and 2023?  I am hoping to book an Island or Emerald Princess Cruise around the British Isles for June 2023.  The starting prices are twice as much as the ones for the same cruise in August of 2022.  Any ideas?

Get use to it.

Every year Princess gets later and later.

8 hours ago, HSBC said:

I plan to use Princess transfer instead of taxi, would it be still enough time?

Thanks!

That is the last thing you want to do because they wait for a full bus before departing, with a taxi you’re on your way.

On 5/8/2022 at 12:46 PM, ashkir said:

Hello all! I'm usually very quiet, but, I've been on CruiseCritic for many years. I usually don't have much to say because I enjoy cruise ships. But I just boarded the Panorama yesterday and my experience was anything but pleasant. I've been to Mexico and Alaska before on the cruises. Always enjoyed it. Never once had a bad experience... Until now. 

 

I've had issue after issue and am honestly pretty unhappy and already a day into this. 

- Checkin process/embarkation was chaotic. They disembarked late, which is okay. But there was no staff telling passengers anything. The luggage drop-off was almost non-existent and things were getting mixed up of things going on / off the ship.

- There was no organization of embarkation.

- There were limited check-in staff and security tables that made the process last until almost 4pm. 

 

Now we got to our cabin:

- We waited until the time we were told we can go.

- The bathroom was unclean. We had roaches as well. Never seen that before!

- Our stateroom had broken furniture.

- The laundry bag, and other standard forms were missing. Our steward had to give them to us so we can get a shirt pressed for elegant night.

 

Got our sail and sign cards!

- We found we were already charged almost $50 at a bar we haven't been to! 

 

Okay, maybe just a bad start yep? Went on the spa tour. We were promised a $249 deal for a couple. We were told we can get complimentary scrubs each day. Went today:

- They want $9 per person now. 

- $108 more in fees basically if we continue to use the facilities.

 

We went to Vista for breakfast. We used the app to check in. 

- Chaotic. One hostess. 

- There were massive lines of people down to the staircases just waiting. Everyone's table stated ready. They obviously weren't. The notifications were wrong. Nobody was ready and the movement was so slow because people who didn't checked in yet, were standing there and getting priority over people who did check in which caused a bigger mess.

- no regular orange juice. We were told they only have the specialty orange juices. 

- Took about 35 minutes before we even saw our server. 

 

Guest services

- Waited in a line for 2 hours to fight the bar contests yesterday (Before the spa issue). 

- Guest services only had 2 people the entire time we’ve been here that we've noticed. The one girl looks like she’s about to faint. I saw her at 10 pm last night and again at 8am when walking by. Again at noon just now. 

 

Kiosks

- The card readers are broken on the sail and sign places in the third floor. 

 

Food

- We wanted to go eat about 10pm. They already closed all the restaurants. 

- We went to the pizza place. 

- The only food is the pizza. Their pizza quality declined. We were given black burnt pizza. They ran out of basil as well. 

- Had to wait in a 25 minute long line, to only be told my preferred pizza isn't available, and told to wait and stand aside. Once it was available, they gave it to the next person in line... Three times! So it took me almost 45 minutes to get a pizza. This ordeal cost me almost an hour and a half

 

Our only enjoyable experience so far was the Italian restaurant dinner and the cabin bed is relaxing.

 

I'm already regretting this and we're only 1 day in. I skipped my college graduation to spend the travel money on a cruise instead. 

The reason you were late getting on was because there was a felon on board and the police were there to find him and arrest him and we all know how the police are in no rush and drag everything.

On 5/16/2022 at 3:28 PM, ashkir said:

Wow! I went 3 times on Panorama! It was the best part of my trip. 

I totally agree , I went 4 times!

Be safe and take the original.

On 5/10/2022 at 9:53 AM, Tenderpaw said:

Today I saw on John Heald's blog a complaint about "door slamming" by someone's neighbor in which the complainer was practically begging for mercy to be spared from more door slamming.   I've also seen people on here also get positively twisted up over "door slamming" with numerous posts about it practically ruining a cruise.  

 

My question is, what is "door slamming"?  Is it where you just let the door close and latch on its own?  Or is it when you pull it shut hard?  Do you have to ease it shut manually in order to "not slam"?  What is required to socially acceptably close a cruise ship door?

 

I confess, i often just let the cabin door close on its own.  From what I have observed,  it is pretty common. 

 

So, am I a slammer?

Yes you are a slammer, just hold on to the door and close it slowly especially at night.

I just did a b2b on the Panorama and got a cheap bottle of champagne and a fruit basket.

Does anyone know when Princess will release the schedules past April 2023 ?

Just got off the Discovery on a B2B and it carried over.

Debarkation will be one hell of a mess. I hope I’m wrong.

It’s a very good change, enjoy!

Way too cold to enjoy it.

Has anyone received an email from Princess regarding this mess?

23 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I live in Texas and I know that the gulf can sometimes be rougher waters in Dec.-Feb.  And August through October is at high risk for hurricanes in the gulf.  And July/August is just miserably hot.  But I am not as familiar with the Mexican Riviera.  Is there a period of time where the seas are more likely to be calm?  And less likely to have weather interruptions?  

Feb- May then Nov.

No that is why i carry my luggage in.

On 3/7/2022 at 8:28 AM, rsail203 said:

We each have $29 OBC  for specialty restaurants. My Travel Agent tells me that there is no choice to be had for the day, time, or choice of restaurant. They will be assigned when we get on board and if we don't like the assignment, it's unlikely that we can change it when we get on board. Is this true? I find it hard to believe that we have no choice in this matter. What has happened in this situation in the past?

Not true at all , I’ve changed it the last 2 cruises.

Looking for Mexico and coastal.

Since March 1 is Princess buffet still being served or is it back to self serve?

I got 2 stickers and the booster is hand written.

On 2/14/2022 at 10:18 AM, AandBmom said:

We have $3000 to use up. 

Thinking drink package for sure. 

Not really looking at excursions as we have plans that involve hiring locals.

Can we direct this towards the daily tipping?  How much is this again? 

I understand we can use it for specialty dining fees. 

 

What are some other fun ideas to use up credit?  

How about donating to St Jude’s children hospital.

2 hours ago, HappeeSayler said:

Traveling with kids and am wondering what the water temperature is these days? Not going for another couple weeks but just want to see how many swimsuits to pack because if the water is too cold there's no way any of us will be by the pool😆

First and last day can be chilly but once to get to Mexico it’s in the 80’s.

41 minutes ago, riviera said:

We sailed on carnival in October 2020, completely vaccinated. I booked a carnival cruise for April. I just got email saying my cruise is cancelled for not being totally vaccinated!!!! Do they think I got unvaccinated??? I tried calling but I got a recording saying “ due to an unusually high volume of calls, we are unable to take your call. Please call at another time”

Suggestions?? Would they refund my

money?  It’s paid in full !  I certainly don’t want FCC.  Wow! Stunned!!!

Before every cruise you have to complete the vaccination questionnaire, if you didn’t it’s your fault.