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SAKay

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  1. We were on the Ruby last year and had the Plus package. We were able to order fresh squeezed orange juice with Plus in the MDR & the buffet. It was so good and much better than the regular OJ you get in the MDR. You could order a large glass full if you wanted, too. They said they had to go to the juice bar to get it but it didn’t take long. In the buffet they didn’t seem to know how to get it. Our waiter finally asked someone where to get it and went off to do so. The first time it took him about 10 min but after that we were able to tell him how to get it. On our cruise on Regal in Jan 2024 we didn’t have Plus so didn’t get fresh squeezed. It has a charge if you don’t have Plus. We’re back on there in Mar with Plus, so we will hopefully be able to get fresh squeezed again. Just FYI
  2. SAKay

    Refund

    @Ubu @thinfool @cr8tiv1 @etphonehome24 I contacted our PVP AFTER final payment and asked her to check on the fare for our upcoming March cruise. I was on a Princess cruise at the time so was contacting her through email. I check about once a week to see if the price has changed and email her asking her to check if it looks like it went down. She came back that day and said the new price was $321 less. She changed it without me even asking. A couple of days later I noticed I had a negative $321 amount on the personalizer for that cruise. I emailed her again that day and asked her could she put the amount back to my credit card I paid with. The money was back on my credit card the next day. The whole thing took about 5 days from asking her to check to getting the money back on my credit card. I always thought you couldn’t change your fare after final payment. But I have done it several times and always get the money refunded back to my credit card. Just FYI.
  3. Thank you @MissP22 for your comment about plastic bottles. I know I’ve seen others comment that they too have no problem bringing plastic bottles on. That’s why I wrote my comment on what happened to us at Galveston. I agree about the tables being reserved in the dining room. But I was asking at 5:00 on the first night, hoping there would be a corner table available that they could change us to. On our next cruise in 6 weeks on the Regal I’m going to try and check at lunch on the first day to see what table we’ve been assigned. If it’s not to our liking, maybe they can change it at that time. Worth a try ! The assistant head waiter helping us on the last cruise took our info for the next cruise and said he’d arrange us a corner table for the next one, but I’m not holding my breath ! He was very nice and tried to help. @TexasCruisers2015 I guess we were lucky that we did get to stop at Roatan, as scheduled. I’m sorry you’ll miss it again. I agree it’s hard to see what’s going on.
  4. Wow @eclue You certainly have a different opinion ! And expressed so politely !! I guess to each their own. I merely expressed my opinion. As I stated, I said I know it is written that you aren’t supposed to take bottled drinks on Princess ships. But I also said I’ve done it before at Galveston & read on here other people have also. It was a 6 pack. I wasn’t “lugging” anything around. I merely was passing on info to others of what happened to me. Maybe in the future it would be more beneficial to everyone if you wrote your own review vs coming on here to contradict everything I had to say. I merely expressed what we experienced. Thanks @Paula_MacFan We did have fun. I didn’t mean to contradict you about the cases of soda ; just reporting it didn’t happen to us. I was worried it would after reading your review. I wouldn’t have liked that. Hi @dog We didn’t do much in the ports as we’d been to all of them before. In Costa Maya we just got off the ship and walked around the port. At the port talk onboard they had said the chairs at the pool in the port were free. But they weren’t. So we just walked around and shopped a little. In Roatan we purchased the ship “tour” for the chairlift to the beach. It was $12 each, cheaper than buying a ticket at the port. It was nice, better for us than walking. They were nice and stopped it for a minute for you to have time to get off & on. At the beach we rented 2 chairs with an umbrella for $30, the going rate. The beach was nice, but the water was too cold for us. In Cozumel my friend wanted to go on an excursion to see the ruins as she’d never seen them before. I can’t find the name of the tour right now but it was through the ship. $59. We picked it because it had the shortest ride to the ruins. The guide was nice but I wouldn’t do it again. We drove around town a little bit, then about 20 min to the ruins I think. The entry fee to the ruins was only $5 and we saw people arriving in taxis, if you are adventurous, I think you could do it on your own. We had a stop at a beach lookout with opportunity to buy a drink and a stop at a supposed chocolate factory. Not much to see there except opportunity to buy $9 candy bar. Very expensive. Like I said, I wouldn’t recommend this excursion. We didn’t go to Belize as I said, so not sure why it was mentioned above.
  5. We returned from our Regal Princess 7 day cruise this past Sunday, 4 Feb. We were a group of 3, 60 year olds, doing our 7th Princess Cruise. We stopped at Costa Maya, Roatan, and Cozumel. We stopped at all 3 ports. Overall, we enjoyed the cruise. As everyone on here says, any cruise is better than being at home cooking, cleaning, and working ! It was our first time on the Regal. It was newer than any other Princess ship we'd been on, and it was very pretty and clean. Last year we were on the Caribbean and the Ruby. I actually enjoyed many things on them more than the Regal. Before leaving on our cruise, I read many Live and Reviews of the Regal cruises. I will just comment on our likes and dislikes of this cruise for anyone going on a future cruise. Embarkation - It was easy. After having read about long lines to get on, we arrived around 10:30, and were onboard by about 11:05 I think. We sat in the Platinum/Elite/Suite area for about 10 min after checking in, and then right on the ship. On the ship, someone said you could drop off your bags in your rooms, but not stay in them yet. We went and dropped off our bags. The stewards were still working on the rooms and the doors were all open, but we left our carry on size bags anyway. A little hesitant since the doors were open, but all was OK. Just an FYI. I tried to bring on a 6 pack of waters. I had read on here people saying you could bring them, and I'm pretty sure I've brought them on in Galveston before. I know the website says you can't but I've read on here people saying you can. They confiscated them, along with the 6 pack of bottled Diet Coke I tried to bring. We also brought 2 cases of soda in our carry on. No problem with those. I read on here right before the cruise a lady said that at Galveston they actually opened her soda cases and took out her sodas to inspect. They did not do that to us. Entertainment: We enjoyed all 3 production shows. The singers and dancers were very good. They had a guest soprano for Bravo, Carolyn ??. That was my favorite show ! We also saw the other shows each night. We enjoyed them all, the illusionist less. We also enjoyed the comedians this cruise. We really enjoyed the games and shows put on by the Cruise Directors staff. They were mostly all Brits and Australians and quite fun. We enjoyed the game shows after the Production shows each night that were held in the Princess Live Lounge. Unfortunately, as many others say, the chairs and room are horrible ! The chairs are so small and uncomfortable and too close together. The Explorer's lounge on Ruby and other ships is so much nicer ! I wish they'd change the chairs at least. They also have the Vista Lounge which is bigger and more like Explorers. They used it during the day for Bingo and meetings occasionally, and for Comedians at night. I don't know why they can't use it for the game shows as that would be better. Internet: Slow Food: As always, food is subjective. We usually eat dinner in the MDR on each cruise. We again did this. I had booked us the same time and restaurant for the entire cruise on the App. When I did this in Apr 2023, I was able to speak with the Maitre' d after dinner the first night and get the same corner table and wait staff we had that night. This time we arrived the first night and found we had been assigned a table for the entire cruise. Unfortunately, it was not a table we liked - in the center of the room, surrounded by many people. I asked to switch to a corner table as far from people as possible. They took us to another table, in an equally crowded area. They didn't seem to understand what corner meant ! We sat there anyway. After dinner I asked the Dining mgr to change our table to a less crowded area with a corner table. He assured me he would for the next night and rest of the cruise. Unfortunately he did nothing and we arrived the next night and were given the same bad table from the night before. We eventually ended up with the 2nd table we got the first night. We weren't happy about it and did not enjoy our dinners for the rest of the cruise. We did have the same wait staff the entire time and they were very nice and did a great job. Food in the MDR was OK. As others say, you can always find something on there to eat. Just some nights there was only one thing I liked. The beef on this ship was not very good. I'd say low quality. The tenderloin on the first day lunch was very good, the only day it was good. I don't think we had tenderloin again. On our Ruby cruise last year, they had tenderloin almost every other day. We were surprised. This time there was strip loin one day, prime rib one day, and beef Wellington. None of them were particularly good. And it is pointless to ask for your beef to be cooked a particular way. I don't know why they bother asking - you get what you get ! We didn't go to any specialty restaurants on this cruise, so I can't comment on them. The layout of the buffet was nicer on this ship with many choices. We don't usually eat at the buffet but had lunch there a couple of times. It was OK. Service was quite slow in the buffet area. If we asked for something, sometimes it never came or we had to ask a second server. One thing I found interesting was they have things behind the counter they don't put out, but if you ask them they will give you some. For instance, one day they had Mexican food out, but no guacamole. I asked if they had any. The guy said yes, pulled out a big bowl of it from under the counter, gave me some then put it under the counter. I'm not sure what that was about. Same with cookies another day. Food at the pool, pizza and grill, was good, but sometimes quite a wait to get it. Things we particularly didn't like: - No real promenade deck. Deck 7, promenade deck had just a little bit of walking space. It was not wide like on other Princess ships. The walking space didn't even run the entire length of the ship. The lifeboats hang down in the way, so in some places the walking width is barely wide enough for one person. You of course can't go all the way around on it. We particularly didn't like that they don't have chairs along the sides to sit and look out after walking for a while. On deck 7 they did have a few spots where they just had straight chairs lined up by the rail, but it wasn't like a normal Promenade deck. They had a walking/running track on Deck 17, but it wasn't very good for just a leisurely walk or sit. And it was not covered. - Piazza. While bigger than the one on Ruby is was not laid out like Ruby's. And it was always so LOUD and crowded ! They had many games, classes, and activities going on there all day long that on other ships are in different locations. You couldn't sit and just talk and enjoy a drink, it was so loud. Also, even the background music was loud with singing, as opposed to MUSAK type music. We found it difficult to find anywhere on the ship to just have some quiet to sit and read. We really missed Skywalkers on the Ruby. We liked going up there on sea days and reading and having lunch or a snack. There was really no where on this ship to do that. Really missed that ! - Service. Everything was Ok, but we didn't feel it was as good as on other Princess ships. We found ourselves having to ask multiple times for things. For example I tipped our room steward on the first day and asked him to keep our ice bucket full and give us 2 Patters each day. He did it the first day, but didn't do either the next 2 days. I said to him I meant every day, not the day I tipped you ! As I said we had to ask multiple times in the buffet for things. Another thing that we noticed were the stewards in the hall. On all our other cruises, they would always say hello or how's your day going, etc. On the Regal I felt like some of them looked the other way not to have to speak to you. They are usually so friendly ! Not a big deal, but an observation. Disembarkation. They had said they'd clear the ship at 8:00. We went to breakfast in the MDR at 7:00 thinking we'd be done and ready to get off at 8:00. At around 7:15 they announced people carrying their own bags could now get off. We were off the ship and on the way by 8:05. Easy ! That's all I can think of right now that might help others. Overall, we enjoyed our cruise. If you have any questions, I"ll be glad to answer !
  6. Is Alfredo’s open for lunch on port days ? Thanks for any info !
  7. @palolake I always wait until about 2 days before final payment date, to pay. I also don’t add the insurance until then. I’m trying not to lose any money by doing it that way I’ve only ever had to cancel one cruise after final payment, and that was during Covid. I got all my money back, except the cost of the insurance, so it was worth it !
  8. Can you add the Princess insurance to your fare, without Princess Plus, make your final payment ( thus saving the 6% difference) , then add the Princess Plus before leaving on the cruise ? Hope that makes sense ! Would you end up saving the same amount as booking Plus on the ship ?
  9. Do you have to pay for the chairs or umbrella at the beach in Roatan ? Thanks !
  10. As usual with Princess, no consistency with policies. I sent my CCL stock info to my PVP in July 2023 and it was applied to my Mar 2024 cruise two days later. On my Personalizer still. So, you don’t necessarily have to wait until 90 days out. Just FYI …….
  11. Way back in 2019, we had a full-transit Panama Canal cruise booked for Mar 2020. They had a Best-Sale-ever promotion. I was able to refare my cruise fare with my PVP and it went down $1000 for the two of us, not each. I was able to do it due to a post on CC telling me about the sale. Sadly, the cruise got cancelled became of Covid, and we didn't get to reap the benefits of the sale. I haven' seen anything like that kind of savings since !!
  12. We recently went on a 16 day Panama Canal full transit. It only had 4 ports to visit and the Canal cruising day. So, 11 sea days ! Yes there was trivia several times a day and a couple of games each day. And of course 3 meals a day in the dining room. We thought it would be relaxing. But by day 10 it was all very repetitious and a bit boring. We decided it was way too long for us. Too many sea days. Just our opinion !! 😋
  13. @beg3yrsOn our April Ruby cruise, canned sodas of any kind were included in the Plus Package. I got Diet Cokes any time I wanted. We took them with us when we got off the ship to go to the beach in several ports. No charge !
  14. I don’t know if this will help you, but here’s what I do. My husband gets the military credit. Our investment account is in both our names. When I bought the stock it was automatically in both our names. I always just print out the one page from our account that has the CCL stock. At the top I just cross out his name with a sharpie, along with all other info I don’t want Princess to see-account number, other stocks on the page, etc. I just leave my name, date , and the CCL stock showing. Everything else is blacked out. Works every time. Military credit is in his name and stock credit in mine. I just did it for a cruise next Mar 2024. Hope it continues to work this way !
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