runner2013

My thoughts. (Some of you may agree with me, some may not. To each their own right?) Those of us who have been 'around' for a while remember what cruising was like way before covid came along. Since then, it seems ships are marketing towards families and 'newbies' by offering more and more attractions, more food venues that mimic eating 'on land', and the mentality that cruising is just like a land vacation. Of course, they've achieved this by raising prices on absolutely everything to pay for these additions and enhancements. First time cruisers, who don't 'know any better' as well as families who are already so conditioned to pay exorbitant prices for a vacation will continue to demand all the bells and whistles for a 'land vacation experience' and pay for those experiences no matter what the cost. Even if those of us who remember, and actually enjoyed and appreciated dressing nicely for dinner, relaxing with our fellow cruisers with a drink before a Broadway type show, or even just enjoying some nice music for the evening chatting with new friends, completely stopped cruising all together, the cruise lines won't even blink. They'll just keep pushing those who are willing to pay more for less to spend. I honestly don't ever see or expect prices to level out or go back down to something more manageable. It's a shame. I feel a lot of us out there who really appreciated what a cruise was, or even could be in this day and age, will end up finding alternative ways to go on vacation and take our long standing 'tradition' of cruising with us. Give it another year or two and a good portion of the 'mass market' cruise lines will all just be floating versions of Epcot Center or Universal Studios in Florida, and the ones who've managed to 'hang on' to the 'old' cruising experience will be the 'luxury' lines that not a lot of us can afford. I know DH and I can't, and it's too bad. I introduced him to cruising when we met 7 years ago, we were recently married on a cruise and have always dreamed of cruising the world when I retire in 4 years. More and more it seems that dream is slipping away. But hey, as long as little Johnny can ride a roller coaster while floating around the St. Lucia it's all good right?

Ahh, Thank you for clarifying. Much appreciated.

Hi all, I have a question regarding the benefits for drinks I'm seeing for Emerald level members on the Crown & Anchor page. The first benefit listen under the Drinks and Dining heading says : 50% off glass wine/beer/soda (2 coupons per sailing) Note1 after it is saying 50% off purchase of glass of wine, beer, soda This offer can be redeemed twice per sailing. Ok seems pretty self explanatory. Now.... 3 discounts below that the next benefit says: Discount on any glass of wine/beer/ or soda. Note 3 after that says a onetime discount per sailing will be applied for a glass of wine. beer or soda. (we're emerald so it would be 10% for the glass) Not sure why there would need to be both of these benefits? Shouldn't it be one or the other, or am I missing something? Thanks

Hopefully the app is wrong. It is up to date. Guess we'll see when we're on board.

Hi all, Couldn't find another thread pertaining to this, apologies in advance if this has already been addressed. DH and I have a trip booked for October on Serenade. I just downloaded the app and was looking at the dining options. From what I found, (not taking into account the specialty restaurants) it looks as though the buffet is only serving breakfast and lunch and is now requiring reservations. Otherwise, you are seated according to availability. At least that's what it says on the app. The My Time Dining Room is from 6:45pm until 9:00pm. (we aren't interested in fixed dining at 5:30 so I'll not include it as an option for us) Park Cafe will have 'snacks' from 12:30 until 6:00pm. Then from 8:30pm until 11:30pm. The only other option would be room service which charges $7.95 if you get something other than a continental breakfast. To me is seems they are almost 'forcing" you to use the main dining room or pay extra for room service unless you only want a 'snack' for dinner. Is this something that's been happening fleetwide? We haven't been on Royal since last Oct and it wasn't like this at that time. If it is, this will definitely change who we sail with after October.

Hi all, Does anyone know if there's a place in the app showing the times we get into and leave the ports each day. I thought there was somewhere you could pull the itinerary and times for each port, but I can't see to find it. I checked the JourneyView tab but that doesn't have the times listed. Any ideas? Thanks

Thanks for the replies everyone. Guess we'll have to plan on a ride after all.

Hi all, My husband and I recently dropped my in-laws off in Port Everglades for a cruise. While we were there, we noticed how easy it seems to be to walk from the Hilton Marina hotel, (or the Renaissance Hotel) to the port. We have a cruise scheduled for Christmas and were tossing around the idea of just walking to the port instead of arranging transportation. We're in our 50's, good health and walking isn't an issue for us. Has anyone done this, if so, how was it? We are on Celebrity if that helps with the terminal location. Thanks

We have a reservation at SLM on Majestic for our upcoming Alaska cruise the end of May. I'm guessing we should hear something telling us we're cancelled. We'd be willing to give the new place a try if our reservation was lateralled over to same date and time, but if we're expected to fight among the masses to get another spot then we'll just skip it all together. 🤣

Do you just get 1 extra point per person, or 1 extra point, per person, for every night of the cruise?

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look. We're on a 7 day trip ending in Whittier

Hi all, We've only sailed on Princess twice, our third is Alaska this coming May. After we picked our arrival time in the app, the bar above the QR code on my app is gold while it's still blue on DH's phone. I don't think it's anything to worry about, there's not much we get at such a low status anyway, but DH is concerned it may make a difference once onboard. We have the latest app version, and we're using n android phones. Has anyone else run into something similar? Will the issue rectify itself or should we just bring it up when we check in at the port? Thanks

Personally, As long as I don't have to stand on deck with hundreds of other folks watching a crew member put his/her lifejacket on, I'm happy. Tv, phone, it's all good. I'll gladly stop by to have my medallion checked with a drink in my hand. 🥂

Thanks for the replies. Good to know the cabin size is the same on the Equinox.

Hi all, We are planning on a Christmas cruise (no offense to those who don't observe:) on the Equinox this year. We've never been on Celebrity but always wanted to try so we decided to take the plunge. I would like to surprise DH with a cabin in the Concierge class instead of a 'regular' balcony and wanted to know is it worth the extra money? From what I've read, we would enjoy just about all the little perks that come with the cabin class except for the debarkation lounge. We prefer to walk off with our suitcases. Any thought or advice appreciated. Tia

Do they allow guests to go up and pour champagne down the waterfall or just the officers and Captain?

Did they list it in the patter or on the app?

If we were to purchase GC's and our TA is able to have it applied as OBC before our cruise, would we then be able to use that (in addition to the OBC we already have from the CL &TA) to pay for any excursions we book ahead of time through Princess? Also, what happens if we don't use all the OBC by end of cruise. Is it 'lost' or refunded? Thanks

Thanks Everyone, We're on Majestic in May to Alaska, looking forward to seeing this.

Hi all, Does anyone happen to know if the champagne waterfall is back? I thought I read somewhere it was a while back but since then can't seem to find any validation either way. TIA

Not a chance on this planet I could get DH into something gold. A white shirt, absolutely, but gold, not happening. 🤪

We are flying on Delta and usually check in on the app as soon as we can. We also try to drop our bags off first thing. Hopefully this makes everything go smoothly.

GTJ, We are, in fact, flying back to Massachusetts. I asked about customs because we were coming from Canada to the U.S., but any customs business will be taken care of at the ship.

Thanks everyone, We both have Global entry(which we won't obviously need) and TSA precheck. Our shuttle is through Alaska Cruise Transport and their website says drop off is 11:30 am. I didn't think we'd need to clear customs at the airport, figured it would be on the ship itself, but I always like to think of every situation so we're prepared😁

HI all, We are taking a Princess Cruise to Alaska ending in Whittier. We'll be taking a shuttle to the Anchorage airport when we disembark, which drops us off at 11:30am that same day. We've got 2 choices for flights back home (in the U.S). 1:20pm or 3:55pm. We'd like to book the 1:20pm flight but weren't sure if the drop off time gives us enough time to go through customs-do we actually need to do that? - check our bags and get to our gate. We've never been to the airport and don't know how big it is. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks