Sox Fan Cruiser

Sorry. Typo. Deck 8 is different from deck 6 and 7. It’s so weird @alyssamma to hear that deck 8 is “sometimes” American dinner. I thought that was the whole point of it. The consistency so people can come in without reservations. What you experienced is not at all what the three levels were supposed to be. I can’t help because I ate in the Signature restaurant all week.

Exactly the same as what? We have all been told that deck six is a different menu from deck 7 and deck 6. It’s a fixed menu that is the exact same every night of the cruise with different options including some breakfast items. Deck 6 and deck 7 are regular MDR menus that are different every night.

The other thing that I was surprised about what how many things were broken on the ship. The very aft port side glass elevator did not operate the entire cruise (April 8-17). There were many sinks in the public bathrooms not working. The main sliding glass door to the main pool was broken for many days. I realize that new ships have defects but it seemed excessive to me.

Deck 6 is the old traditional dining setup. They have one seating at 5:30 and one at 7:30. You are booked for either early or late seating and you are at the same table every night with the same people (if you want to sit at a larger table.) You can not just walk up and get seated. You have to sign up for this type of dining before the cruise. Deck 7 is for walk ups. It is not a problem if you want to go to a specialty restaurant any night but it is common curtesy to tell the wait staff know the night before so they aren't waiting for you. It just means that you have a standing reservation every night but the time is locked in. There are crowds outside deck 7 between 7 and 7:30 because the line is right outside the elevators and stairs. And people were confused about where to go the first few days. Folks were trying to get to deck 6 and were in the line for deck 7 dinning. After a few days they learned not to wait in the line but go to the stairs and walk down. The first few days the line stretched down the corridor past the Wheelhouse bar. But like I said, it went fast and the line was gone by 7:30 or 7:45.

We went for our pre-dinner cocktail at 7 and there was a long line and much congestion outside the MDR on deck 7 at that time. But that was only the first couple of days. It’s because the only way to deck 6 is that elevator bank/stairs and so people were lost. After a couple of days the line seemed to evaporate. And even when there was a line, it was gone within 15 minutes.

That’s what makes cruising great! There’s something for everyone!! 😝

I would choose Celebrity over Princess every time. With that said I have 4 cruises booked and I have 2 with each.

Exactly what I have been saying. It’s not a tendering issue. We were trying to leave at prime time and there was congestion and tension was rising. I would not get off the ship if there were multiple ships in port. They can only handle so many people. There was absolutely no waiting for a tender. Once we got to the bottom (walking down) we went right on a tender and we left two minutes later.

We were never able to book ahead of time but did so when we got on the ship. It wasn’t a problem. It’s not advertised too much so if you know about it, just book when you get on the ship.

And yes, Spellbound is open. Search these threads. I did an extensive walk through of the experience without giving anything away.

We didn’t eat at either on the Sun but the ambiance in Crown Grill is much better. On this ship they stuck Catch at the back of the buffet and people were saying that it felt like eating at a cafeteria. The Crown is more of a real restaurant. Catch was wonderful on the Sky but not interested in it on the Sun.

It doesn’t happen very often. The one time they moved our cabin was on my 50th and they upgraded us to a suite. You can mark “do not upgrade”. We’ve sailed 35 times with Princess and never moved other than the above.

If you have a tour they tender you to the old port and you take a bus up the caldera. But then they drop you in Fira and you have to take the cable car down. Because of the line problem they ended up taking the late tours back to the old port and tendering them back to the ship. And I will say this again… We were the only ship in port!!

Also I think the other Santorini stops on future cruises were cancelled before we even went there. I’m not 100% sure but I think so. I truly think that the cable car experience with a lot of ships in port is so bad that Princess wants to avoid it. Things started to get really tense up in the line that we just walked down. Not an option for older folks but we talked to people who waited 90 minutes in line, in the heat and with tempers boiling over. We heard a fight almost broke out. We walked down in 25 minutes. And we were the only ship in port.

Kotor was canceled before we even flew to Rome. We were notified about a week before we were scheduled to get on the ship. And the port in the itinerary was before Santorini.