Essiesmom

I am considering a cruise on VV and would like to know generally how people dress onboard…other than theme parties? I’m a casual, coordinated person but I do like to dress up on occasion. EM

Are you trying to book solo? On many attempts it is suddenly sold out when you reduce it to one guest. EM

Not any more. There used to be 1-2 day cruises to nowhere, booze cruises…but CBP ruled that on that type of voyage the crew were actually working in/from the US and would need a different (harder to get) visa. So the CTN went away. I think at least ten years ago. That said, you can find long cruises without intermediate ports. Not on the mass market lines, and not closed loop. The Cunard crossings are such. We were booked on one on Windstar from Costa Rica to Tahiti, 15 days. But Covid cancelled it. I have seen cruises on other smaller lines from Colon, Panama to the US East coast with no stops. They are out there, but not for the budget cruiser. EM

And both would have to have passports. Carnival (and other lines) used to allow this, but they stopped routinely approving it because is make the cruise no longer a closed loop for everyone onboard, extra paperwork, longer CBP clearance for everyone on return. EM

I need a very soft bed and the first time I asked my steward for an egg crate all she did was put an extra mattress pad on the bed. Not a solution. Next cruise I explained to the steward that I needed a foam egg crate pad. He put one on, though I think he put it on upside down, with the flat side up. But it was certainly better, but not perfect. EM

This is true, but the longer cruises can go further afield, whereas the very short cruises stay close to home. You will get tired of Nassau, Freeport, Princess Cays, Bimini… EM

The peacocks have always been there…. EM

Short cruises are notable for being party cruises. The shorter one will be more frantic, people trying to cram as much ‘fun’ into three days as possible. The 5 day is still short, a party cruise, but not as frantic. If the 3 day is over a weekend, it may be a booze cruise. People have to take more time off to do a five day…EM

Unless the menu is every bar is the same, that would be hard to do. EM

So final payment has not yet been made. How are you doing it? Can you do it online, or do you have to do it through the TA? Or is the TA going to do it automatically when it is due? If so, then the TA has the credit card number and could access it to charge the cancellation fee. Do you have more than one credit card? If so, and you can make the payment online, or even on the phone with Princess, I would do so with a card different from the one you used for the deposits. Then I would temporarily lock the card that you used for the deposit so the TA can’t charge you the fee. I think the TA should have noticed when you booked that you had double booked two cabins and straightened it out then. EM

Probably not noisy at all. Being above a venue is not usually a problem unless it is a musical venue. EM

There is a modest roll call for this cruise. First one on the Pride roll call page. EM

Absolutely. But someone reported a somewhat convoluted method to beat the system. They rescheduled the cruise forward for the time required, but in a non-YC cabin. They then cancelled that cruise for a refund. EM

I thought you left the eavesdropping to your DW…. EM

You need to go to cruisedeckplans.com and use the drag deck feature to get an idea of what is above that cabin. It appears to be under the serving area of the aft section of the buffet, no scraping of chairs. Are there more than two of you in that cabin? It’s a quad cabin with bunks on the side walls. EM