umbluemusic

We just booked our first cruise since 2019, and it has 3 sea days and 3 port days. I want to escape winter and go somewhere warm, and we do use wifi and the included tips makes it worth it to me. Maybe there is a slight chance we would come out under if we were paying as we went, but having the flexibility as well to order a cocktail I wouldn't normally because I want to try it (and if I hate it, I get a different one) while on a Caribbean cruise is worth it to me. If I was sailing in Europe or somewhere more port intensive where I expect to be off the ship a ton and also exhausted each evening - probably not.

On 7/21/2021 at 6:24 PM, cltnccruisers said:

Where in Pgh?

Penn Hills, but only a 30 minute bike ride for me to get to work in Oakland!

5 hours ago, carefreebee said:

We love the Sky. We also love Regal Princess and have sailed on her 6 times. We were on the Sky Princess over the Holidays in 2019 and again in March when sailing stopped. We will return to the Sky this year in December.

Of course the Piazza is great for people watching and we also found the open Princess Live space to be great for watching people as they pass during the day. In the evening I enjoyed the Crown Grill Bar area. The bar has nice live music in the evenings and I especially enjoyed people watching here on formal nights. Seeing all the lovely gowns on the ladies and surprisingly jazzy shoes on the gentlemen passing by as they head to and from dinner in the Cielo Dining Room was a real treat.

You must walk around the open track on Deck 18 to see the lovely murals painted around the track. They are great for all those selfies I know you'll want to take. Deck 17 (Sun Deck) is great for some  nice ocean vistas, cloud watching and sun sets.  It also is a popular deck for sun worshipers so there's that element of people watching too. Like the Regal, Outriggers Bar at the back of the ship is a nice place to watch the wake. The bar in the Retreat pool area is a popular gathering spot for adults. 

The Sky has some great art and beautiful tile, marble and glass work that is worth a walk about to see. Don't forget the stairwells for some interesting art and like the Regal, passenger hallways have the beautiful photos taken on Princess cruises. I suggest you visit Deck and look for photos #268, #289 and #148!

If Captain Tuvo is "driving the ship" (Captain will tell you..."driving the ship is easy, it's parking that is hard.") during your cruise you will cross paths with him in the early morning as he makes his daily ship tour, often with an Officer zipping around with him. He visits every deck and area of the ship, every day. It's like seeing a rock star as he is adored by passengers and loved by the crew. If you're lucky you'll see for yourself. Captain Laakkonen is also great captain to passengers and crew. He was our Captain when cruising stopped and returned us passengers safe and healthy to a world in distress.

Before the shut-down the crew were outstanding and the Princess Theater shows top notch. I expect they will be just as good when Princess welcomes us back. The Sky Princess is a beautiful ship and you will enjoy sailing on her!

We sailed with Captain Tuvo over Christmas 2019 and he was such a highlight! My favorite captain by far. 

For us it comes down to the voyage. We have a Christmas 2021 cruise booked, 10 days, a few sea days. It’s just me and my spouse. We went for the plus when we booked it ages ago - I don’t think I would now at its current price, but it is nice to order and try different cocktails etc without worrying over the bill. We will have a little OBC too from our FCDs but probably will just use that on an ornament or something for our tree when we get home. 
 

if we had a more active cruise where we would be off ship a lot I would just book basic. 

On 11/5/2018 at 2:39 PM, happy_travellers said:

Thanks for the beautiful pics, makes me even more excited.

What would be your perfect port day  for Rarotonga?

Also have you made it into port every time, I heard it might be a 50/50% chance of being able to tender?

Thanks, Karen

During their rainy season it could be 50/50 - I went in late January to early February this year and I believe they had a ship have to skip port before I arrived; however, another one was able to bring in the tenders during my time there.

Lol I know what you mean. It seems like we really should try to make friends with our roll call and invite them up. Are you on the Dec 14 2019 eastern Caribbean?

Ooh I am! We are booked B2B for the cruise after it as well.

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Near the airport, along the coast. You can’t miss them, they’re actual big black rocks haha.

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You’re just like my husband [emoji4] ours isn’t until Christmas 2019 but he literally went right in and filled in everything he could. I’m going to wait a little haha.

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We booked as 14 since it was significantly cheaper than separately. But posts like this say that it does happen mid cruise, and my account already reflects I will earn 2 credits for this itinerary instead of just 1.

 

My mom is single in an inside and it shows her earning 4.

 

 

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sorry image didn’t post originally.

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Did you book as 7 or 14 days? If 14 do not think you will be platinum the second week

We booked as 14 since it was significantly cheaper than separately. But posts like this say that it does happen mid cruise, and my account already reflects I will earn 2 credits for this itinerary instead of just 1.

My mom is single in an inside and it shows her earning 4.

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Semi-related: we have booked a 14 day for next year that is two 7 day itineraries. I should technically be platinum after the first week. I feel like I’ve read conflicting accounts; some say I do get a new card, some say no - and I don’t know if I’ll get internet for the second week or not. Any recent data points on this?

My cruise planner/history thing on the website does show I’ll receive 2 for this cruise so I figured that is a good sign.

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Hm. My husband mentioned ***** since we booked the Sky and since we haven’t had any cruises booked in awhile I hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on. Sounds like if it hasn’t rolled out by then though we aren’t missing much yet.

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Interesting! I’ll move to Platinum in the middle of my next cruise since it is a B2B. We get internet in most ports though now thanks to Sprint, so I think we can get by without the unlimited on our trip. On our last vacation in the Cook Islands we paid about $75 over two weeks for a bit of internet but that was mostly to check in on the dog and work, which I can do on port days. [emoji3]

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So - my husband and I just spent two incredible weeks in the Cooks; mostly on Raro but also spent four days on Aitutaki as well.

There is so much to do! We snorkeled almost every single day; we loved Black Rocks a lot (saw lots of blue sea stars and other fish) and also Muri Beach has great snorkeling one morning during high tide. If you prefer hiking, they have a good cross island trek - we weren’t really fit enough to do it but it’s a good day hike I think. Probably one of my favorite things was the Raro Buggy tour through the abandoned Sheraton resort. We got so covered in mud but I couldn’t stop laughing

What else? There are lots of great restaurants; breakfast was honestly my favorite thing each day. We rented a car while we were there although I wish we had gone for the scooter licenses and tried those - I was just too nervous. They also have some stand up paddle boarding and lots of other water activities.

Oh, I loved going to the brewery tour at Matutu too! It is this little local set up but I learned a lot about it and their beers are really good; well worth the $10-15 NZD.

I can’t adequately describe how much I loved the Cook Islands and I hope one day to make it back. It was the vacation of a lifetime.

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I didn’t do it at Princess Cay, but I snorkeled on my own off of Sapphire Beach in St Thomas and saw several sting rays. It was a highlight of my vacation and it was made even better by the fact I didn’t pay a bunch to do it!

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Last cruise in 2016 where we had pre-paid gratuities, the amount paid and the daily gratuity charge never showed up on our folio at all. I have seen others post the same observation. It is not a big issue however since what they giveth they taketh away!

I asked about this and they said since they just cancel each other out that is why they no longer add to the folio. I got nervous since our previous cruise it started negative and then added all the charges - I was worried I had messed something up when I prepaid!

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We loved Kelly on our sailing!

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I am now on Sprint and was able to use free data/text in every single port - Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica, St. Thomas and Grand Turk! I also made a couple calls at 20 cents per minute to check in on my dog and family members who have been in and out of the hospital. My phone bill was only $6 more than usual - amazing!

I can't say enough good things about Sprint. I know their reception isn't great in other areas but luckily for me, it has really worked out and saved me a ton of money from Verizon and AT&T.

The package I got was $49 on the Royal Princess. However, you only got one of each picture taken - so if you are buying multiples it wouldn't help you as much. Still, we got 15 pictures from the gangway as well as formal nights and we would have bought two or three normally and spent the same amount, so it was a good buy.

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Passports don't have your address on them. I have lived at three different addresses since getting mine, and I've traveled by air to Turkey, Kosovo, and taken two cruises - and no one has batted an eye.

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The only time I have seen this happen is on the Royal or Regal - because there aren't any OV.

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We used Alamo but just caught an uber to port once we returned the car to the airport - next time I'll have to look into the shuttle more! I didn't realize it was even an option.

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My DH and I just got off of a cruise where we had it - we got it by booking during a promotion.

In my opinion, I wouldn't ever pay for it - but I would get it again as part of the promotion if it comes up when we want to cruise! It was so convenient; we didn't have to sign for anything, and there was one drink I ordered that I HATED - if I hadn't gotten the package I probably would have suffered through drinking it because I hate to waste money, but I just ordered a new drink.

We only had three sea days where we could really fully make use of it. On port days, we only had a few drinks and were nowhere near the full value - which obviously is the point, because Princess offers it to make money. But it just depends on how you feel about it!

I've only sailed Princess but I loved the Royal Princess so much last year that we decided we had to book the 10 day southern route for our honeymoon - and we leave in just about a week (!!!!). Every now and then I look at NCL's pricing and wonder if it would be worth it to switch for a cruise "just to see" but with our vey limited time off I would hate to go on a vacation and deal with the uncharges and food and then regret it. We may go on a Royal Caribbean or Celebrity cruise with some of DH's friends at some point - because those are the lines they like, but Princess' style is my favorite. :) We are on the younger side as well (30) but have never had trouble meeting new people and enjoying our vacations either. :-) glad you liked it!

I love the Outrigger Bar - in my opinion, it is so underutilized by other passengers! We found it so convenient and ate breakfast there almost every morning. :)

I am also interested to see about the food though - I don't think we ever asked about it, we always just got margaritas when we were there. This time, we will have an AIBP and be on our honeymoon so the Bloody Mary Bar will also be of service.