Questions, Questions and More Questions

[JamieLogical]

My experience has been as others have mentioned: $3 each for washer and dryer and $1.50 each for detergent and dryer sheets. The token machine takes your medallion. The washer/dryer use big tokens and the dryer sheet/detergent take little tokens. Would be awesome if you could just use your medallion to run the washer/dryer instead of the whole token thing, but alas, that is not how it works.

[happy42cruise]

We're just off the Crown & the washers & dryers were free BUT most were not working.  On most ships you do pay.

[alwalaska]

On 6/7/2024 at 10:26 AM, MsTabbyKats said:

When you order pizza thru OceanNow....do you get a slice or a pie?  If a pie, what size.... personal pizza size, or enuf to share?

You can get slices by the pool for free.  The delivery is the cost others mentioned and is the whole pizza.

[paddingtonbear]

Has anyone noticed if the IC (specifically on the Majestic but any ship will do) has gluten free food or cakes? 

[Thunderbird19]

On 6/1/2024 at 4:20 PM, arizonaperson said:

@MsTabbyKats here are what the cakes look like. No charge with your package,price in photo is cost if no package.

 

 

 

Regarding the "specialty dessert" included in the Plus package, exactly where do you get the cake slices?  I don't recall seeing them anywhere and can't tell where your great photos were taken from.

[arizonaperson]

@Thunderbird19 not my photos. ( I just shared them)

Cake location varies ship to ship. International cafe, Swirls? ,Coffee & Cones, or Gelateria.

Edited July 6 by arizonaperson

[riansgrammy]

On 6/9/2024 at 10:59 PM, happy42cruise said:

We're just off the Crown & the washers & dryers were free BUT most were not working.  On most ships you do pay.

Got off the Caribbean Princess 3 weeks ago. The laundry situation was awful! Baja had 1 washer/2dryers. Caribe had 2 washers/1dryer. Or worse. Then I got behind the family who’s going to do 3 loads.  🤷🏻‍♀️

[Thunderbird19]

Ouch!  I would have not gotten behind that family and returned during off hours when the laundry room tends to not be busy!  (Mornings and late at night tend to be empty)  We've been trying to pack much lighter recently so I still really appreciate that Princess has reasonable do-it-yourself laundries available in case I need them.  On NCL your only option is sending items out  which gets costly (and doing undies in your sink!).

Edited July 6 by Thunderbird19

[jlawrence01]

1 hour ago, Thunderbird19 said:

Ouch!  I would have not gotten behind that family and returned during off hours when the laundry room tends to not be busy!  (Mornings and late at night tend to be empty)  We've been trying to pack much lighter recently so I still really appreciate that Princess has reasonable do-it-yourself laundries available in case I need them. ).

 

I have always found that late night is the best time to do laundry when most people are partying or sleeping. 

 

We always carry 6-8 3 in 1 washer sheets in our laundry bags for use in laundromats.  They take up no space and add little weight.

[Cruising Lynne]

My first Princess cruise is next month. I was glad to see this thread, and hope Ms. TabbyKats comes back to let us know how the cruise was. Thanks to everyone for all the good info. We just did on line check in today, and I had been wondering if I needed to print out a boarding pass. Now I do not have to worry about that. I just have to go back and print luggage tags. Medallions are being delivered.  

 

I was wondering how many formal nights there may be on a 7 night cruise. I usually dress smart casual for dinner unless we have had a crazy busy day and go to the buffet. Is that good enough on formal night? 

[arizonaperson]

@Cruising Lynne Formal should be 2 nights on a 7 night cruise. Not that formal any longer. Think for woman sparkly top and skirt or pants. Of course you may dress to the 9’s too.

For the guys think dark pants/ khaki pants and dress shirt,long or short. With a tie or no tie,sport coat or none.

Smart casual should be fine.
Don’t skip the dining room for dinner if that’s where you want to dine.

There are a lot of dress code threads on cruise critic,not difficult to find. It’s a hot button discussion. Princess.com will tell you one thing, what happens onboard is another thing, cc members will tell you one thing and then another CC member something opposite .

So do what you think is correct for you on how you dress on formal nights.

Edited July 7 by arizonaperson

[Cruising Lynne]

1 minute ago, arizonaperson said:

@Cruising Lynne Formal should be 2 nights on a 7 night cruise. Not that formal any longer. Think for woman sparkly top and skirt or pants. Of course you may dress to the 9’s too.

For the guys think dark pants/ khaki pants and dress shirt,long or short. With a tie or no tie,sport coat or none.

Smart casual should be fine.
Don’t skip the dining room for dinner if that’s where you want to dine.

Thank you for the reply. My husband will be happy to not have to bring the sport coat. He will do the shirt and tie. I will bring at least one dress. We have a table for two reserved for each night in the Botticelli dining room on Emerald Princess. I was worried that I picked the wrong dining room, but the location looked easy to get to from our room. I know they all have the same menu, but did not know if this one is as nice as the others which may be larger. I tend to over think things. We really are not that picky, and will both enjoy not cooking or cleaning for a week.

[arizonaperson]

@Cruising Lynne you can even wear the 1 dress both formal nights,saves on space in the suitcase if you are flying.

Each DR is different decor, but yes same menus. Can always do breakfast ( all mornings) or lunch on port days in a different dining room potentially ,to see what it looks like.

check the Patter aka newsletter or app when onboard for location of breakfast/ lunch DR. Hopefully it won’t be the Botticelli , but if it is, you can always go peek your head into the other dining rooms, just to look at them. I don’t find it makes a difference to me on size or decor, but…….

[Cruisemeister2002]

7 hours ago, arizonaperson said:

@Cruising Lynne Formal should be 2 nights on a 7 night cruise. Not that formal any longer. Think for woman sparkly top and skirt or pants. Of course you may dress to the 9’s too.

For the guys think dark pants/ khaki pants and dress shirt,long or short. With a tie or no tie,sport coat or none.

Smart casual should be fine.
Don’t skip the dining room for dinner if that’s where you want to dine.

There are a lot of dress code threads on cruise critic,not difficult to find. It’s a hot button discussion. Princess.com will tell you one thing, what happens onboard is another thing, cc members will tell you one thing and then another CC member something opposite .

So do what you think is correct for you on how you dress on formal nights.

Our cruise on Sky Princess is 31 nights and only 5 formals, which given the format that it's suppose to be 2 per 7 nights that would work out around 8 formals. I like formals, but not to excess. Had a P&O cruise last year and formals seemed to come around every four nights whilst not in port. Think that the older I get the less enthusiastic I become. I know many cruise lines now have areas onboard where the need for a tuxedo isn't required and even then can be replaced with smart suit and tie. I do believe dress codes should be adhered to and that staff should make sure that people aren't turning up in shorts and tee shirts.

[MsTabbyKats]

11 hours ago, Cruising Lynne said:

My first Princess cruise is next month. I was glad to see this thread, and hope Ms. TabbyKats comes back to let us know how the cruise was. Thanks to everyone for all the good info. We just did on line check in today, and I had been wondering if I needed to print out a boarding pass. Now I do not have to worry about that. I just have to go back and print luggage tags. Medallions are being delivered.  

 

I was wondering how many formal nights there may be on a 7 night cruise. I usually dress smart casual for dinner unless we have had a crazy busy day and go to the buffet. Is that good enough on formal night? 

MsTabbyKats is back (with a cough etc), and the cruise was really really good.

 

The medallions were wonderful...put it on prior to entering terminal and didn't need anything else for the entire cruise.  We had the plus package.  Between the medallion and the app...I have to say that this was better than the MSC YC.  The level of service was that good! (Needless to say....much better than NCL or CCL)

 

There were 2 formal nites.  On one were were "appropriately attired" for the MDR; on the next one we went to the buffet.  By "appropriately attired" I mean we were minimally formal.  "Smart casual" is formal enuf!

[MsTabbyKats]

17 hours ago, Thunderbird19 said:

Regarding the "specialty dessert" included in the Plus package, exactly where do you get the cake slices?  I don't recall seeing them anywhere and can't tell where your great photos were taken from.

I had one of the cake slices...black forest cake.  Never came back for a second one.  I found the regular desserts better.  The best one was the Love Boat cake in the MDR.  

[MsTabbyKats]

Just a note about my fellow passengers:  I definitely like "the Princess Cruiser".  I didn't have a problem leaving my stuff unattended while in the pool.  Talking about the pool...no chair hogging. Each chair had a towel...and attendants collected those towels if chair was unoccupied.

I also like that you didn't have to sign in/sign out extra towels by the pool.

We were treated like law abiding adults......

[Cruising Lynne]

13 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

MsTabbyKats is back (with a cough etc), and the cruise was really really good.

 

The medallions were wonderful...put it on prior to entering terminal and didn't need anything else for the entire cruise.  We had the plus package.  Between the medallion and the app...I have to say that this was better than the MSC YC.  The level of service was that good! (Needless to say....much better than NCL or CCL)

 

There were 2 formal nites.  On one were were "appropriately attired" for the MDR; on the next one we went to the buffet.  By "appropriately attired" I mean we were minimally formal.  "Smart casual" is formal enuf!

Sorry you came back with a cough. Hope it gets better soon. 

 

I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the cruise. It is great to hear about the level of service. I am starting to get excited to experience it my self. I will really be excited when the Medallions arrive. 

 

We are doing almost the same exact itinerary on a similarly sized NCL ship a month after this one, which will make for an interesting comparison. We enjoyed MSC Meraviglia, but the smaller ships are more relaxing for me. I like not having a long walk to get places on board.

 

[Cruising Lynne]

13 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Just a note about my fellow passengers:  I definitely like "the Princess Cruiser".  I didn't have a problem leaving my stuff unattended while in the pool.  Talking about the pool...no chair hogging. Each chair had a towel...and attendants collected those towels if chair was unoccupied.

I also like that you didn't have to sign in/sign out extra towels by the pool.

We were treated like law abiding adults......

The not having to sign out pool towels is so nice. It was like that on our HAL cruise. And none of them accidently came home with us! LOL We like being treated like law abiding adults.

[JamieLogical]

21 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Just a note about my fellow passengers:  I definitely like "the Princess Cruiser".  I didn't have a problem leaving my stuff unattended while in the pool.  Talking about the pool...no chair hogging. Each chair had a towel...and attendants collected those towels if chair was unoccupied.

I also like that you didn't have to sign in/sign out extra towels by the pool.

We were treated like law abiding adults......

 

Glad you had great experiences with the medallion and service. Maybe the third time will be the charm for us in August. I still haven't had the medallion work the way it is advertised on either of my two Princess sailings so far. Across my two sailings, ordering through the Ocean Now app has resulted in about 1/3 of my orders being fulfilled and the rest getting lost in the ether and me having to live chat with crew to get the previous order cleared out so I can order something new.

[MsTabbyKats]

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Glad you had great experiences with the medallion and service. Maybe the third time will be the charm for us in August. I still haven't had the medallion work the way it is advertised on either of my two Princess sailings so far. Across my two sailings, ordering through the Ocean Now app has resulted in about 1/3 of my orders being fulfilled and the rest getting lost in the ether and me having to live chat with crew to get the previous order cleared out so I can order something new.

I know you didn't like the medallion for "casino purposes".  I actually loved it; simplified everything...no need to insert or remember to take the card out.  You can always cash out at the end of the day.

[JamieLogical]

40 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

I know you didn't like the medallion for "casino purposes".  I actually loved it; simplified everything...no need to insert or remember to take the card out.  You can always cash out at the end of the day.

 

I don't mind the medallion in place of the cruise card for slots... just have to remember to cash out from the machine, but I do prefer the paper tickets when cashing out for the very specific way that I budget. I admit that I have a very specific system that makes the paper tickets preferable and not everyone would care about that.

[Cruising Lynne]

On 7/8/2024 at 10:19 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

I don't mind the medallion in place of the cruise card for slots... just have to remember to cash out from the machine, but I do prefer the paper tickets when cashing out for the very specific way that I budget. I admit that I have a very specific system that makes the paper tickets preferable and not everyone would care about that.

I also prefer paper tickets for cashing out and budgeting my casino cash, and I prefer being on ships that have a ticket cashing machine so you can cash out without having to go to the window. My husband likes to use the machines to cash out his smaller tickets to quickly get cash to use to tip the drink servers. 

 

On a side note: There may be more cruises in my future. In June my husband had an accident that destroyed our utility trailer which he had turned into a camper, so no more camping for us.  Luckily he did not get hurt. Besides, I always tell him that my idea of roughing it is getting an inside cabin instead of a balcony. 

[JamieLogical]

27 minutes ago, Cruising Lynne said:

I also prefer paper tickets for cashing out and budgeting my casino cash, and I prefer being on ships that have a ticket cashing machine so you can cash out without having to go to the window. My husband likes to use the machines to cash out his smaller tickets to quickly get cash to use to tip the drink servers. 

 

On a side note: There may be more cruises in my future. In June my husband had an accident that destroyed our utility trailer which he had turned into a camper, so no more camping for us.  Luckily he did not get hurt. Besides, I always tell him that my idea of roughing it is getting an inside cabin instead of a balcony. 

 

I used to think I liked camping until I started cruising...