Mississippian

I'm joining the conversation late, but I'm surprised that few people are mentioning that Celebrity ships have a much greater "Wow!" factor than Princess ships. They remind me of the designs of the Hyatt Regency hotels from the 1970s. And I couldn't help but notice on my last Silhouette cruise that there were just tons of little private nooks that were by design places where one could go to read a book or just relax. Celebrity Pro: Slightly better food. Better ship design, trendier feel at bars. Lots of private spaces to read or work. Con: Simply more expensive, both for the base cruise and for the drink packages. Entertainment not as good, and ship not designed as well for entertainment. Video poker paytables seemed to be worse. Doesn't offer free European cruises to casino players (me, anyway). Princess Pro: Better entertainment, ship more designed for entertainment. More affordable, both cruise fare and drink/wifi packages. Food is still good. More generous to casino players, with a few free European cruises (I hate sand and heat). The self-service laundry is a huge plus. Con: Princess ships just aren't as elegant and impressive as Celebrity ships. I don't care for the Atrium. The food isn't quite as good. In the bigger scheme of things, these shortcomings are things I can live with most of the time. FWIW, I have 12 cruise credits with Princess and will have 14 after my solo cruise this summer. I have 130 Celebrity points after two cruises, so you can see what my cruise choices have been. If everything were exactly equal money-wise, I would probably choose Celebrity, but I don't think they deserve a huge premium.

Princess no longer provides currency exchange. Your best bet is to use a no-fee card to get euros. Even if the card has fees, it is still better than the outlandish fees charged by exchange booths. Once upon a time it was possible to use any ATM in Europe to get a rate. No more. There are now "Euronet" ATM machines everywhere, and these machines are an absolute scam, with ultra high fees and conversion fees. Do not use them. Today, the only ATM machines you should use are those actually connected to a bank, either on an outside wall or else in the little walk-in place they provide. Even these machines will offer to charge you in your own currency, which you should decline, because your credit or debit card will always give you a much, much better rate. Wells Fargo and other banks used to provide euros at fairly reasonable rates, and it can be helpful to arrive in Europe with at least a couple of hundred euros, just to pay the taxi to the hotel, etc.

I think it will almost certainly be a problem. This isn't a matter or Princess enforcing the rule. It is the foreign governments enforcing the rule. You have plenty of time and should renew now. If you have other trips planned, you can renew in person at various offices. It was a roughly four-hour drive each way for me. Fortunately, there was a casino in town where I could waste a few hours and dollars and eat lunch while waiting for my passport to be processed.

I have an upcoming cruise in July. As of now, I haven't booked either the Plus or Premier package. When the time comes, I am likely to book the Premier package, just so I can have unlimited 3,000 calorie desserts, because I want to star on My 600-pound life. Anyway, is there any reason I should book these now rather than wait to book them on ship? I think waiting would save me on insurance costs. The only downside is that I might not be able to order a drink as soon as I board.

I agree. The Fly Over Iceland thing is just beyond belief, though.

I'm not a fan of ship tours, as I don't like getting on a giant bus, and I find them overpriced. They do have the advantage that if the ship doesn't make the port call they are refunded, and they will make every effort to hold the ship for you if your tour is late (but that is by no means certain). As for cost, well, they are pretty outrageous. I just booked a Golden Circle mini-bus tour in Reykjavik for $97 which is non-refundable within 24 hours of the tour. The same tour from Princess, on a giant bus, is $295. Perhaps the most ridiculous price difference I've seen is for a Fly Over Iceland attraction that is sort of like the Soaring ride at EPCOT, maybe a little better. Princess is charging $155. I paid $36. Like the Troll tour, I have a 24-hour cancellation window, so there is some risk, but I think there is a better than 25% chance we will make the port call. Sometimes Princess does offer simple ride-there-and-get-off tours that are pretty good value, simply because they are easy to book, but I'm just not going to pay three or four times as much for an experience that isn't nearly as good as what I can get on my own. I know this is nothing new, but the Fly Over Iceland price difference just kind of knocked me down.

I really like the medallion.

I thought the same thing, because I saw the ability to filter by number of guests yesterday and every day before. It simply is not there today.

Because some cruises have no or low single supplement. Now it takes 10 or 15 hours to find them.

My muster station shows as being at Crooners on my upcoming Caribbean Princess cruise.

YES! On my last cruise it took me 15 or 20 minutes to go from my taxi to being on Deck 7 swilling a mimosa. It would have been a good bit longer if I had not been Green Line.

That is really weird. It was there yesterday, but it is not showing up for me today. I tried both Chrome and Edge browsers, same story, the Options button is missing.

This is not a filter. It is a pre-booking question after a cruise has been selected. The filter is under "options," which appears after the initial search.

They had a mass vow renewal on the Sky transatlantic last month.

You have to do an initial search, then press options, and number of guests will appear.