Cruising Cindy Lou

Thank you so much for the info. We rented a car in 2017 in Curacao and snorkeled at Playa Kalki and Playa Piskado. The turtles at Playa Piskado were amazing. We were there in April of 2017, we had Piskado to ourselves. In 2017 we rented a car in Bonaire as well, but my husband did shore diving so I only go to snorkel at Hilma Hook sight. The place we rented from no longer rents to cruisers, so we are getting a Golf Cart this time. I will add these sights to my list of must do's. We will have to go back again and take the ferry over to Klein. So much to do, and so little time, haha.

So give your secrets away, what are the best spots to snorkel in Curacao? And in Bonaire?

Y"all are the best!! I would have never found that. I was looking everywhere. I got it!!! $250 will come in real handy!!!

Quick question. I sent in the shareholders proof of ownership on June 7th. I automatically received back the "we are having high volume please allow 21 days". I have not heard anything back from them. Is there a place on the website or in the Princess app to see if OBC has been applied to your booking? If so, can you point me in the direction to locate this? We don't sail until Sept. Not sure I sent in too early? Planning to send in again this week if I can't confirm that we have the OBC applied. (First time sailing with Princess). Thanks, Cindy

We are actually doing a back to back and will be in Skagway twice. I had considered riding ferry over. Read ferry ride is very good. Was hoping something close to ferry to see or do. Maybe good hiking trail close by? I had read about Battery Point, but maybe hard to get out there? Not sure ferry would work for you with your port time.

You can buy on Fidelity. We have used Fidelity for a few years.

Can you tell me how to get to the Portage Pass Trail? Is it within walking distance of port or what is recommendation on how to best get to the trail?

Well Shucks. I can't get it to work. I get an Internal Server Error and says can not be displayed.

I have never been in concierge room before. Our next cruise we were assigned concierge. What benefits are there with this type of room booking?

We were on 7 day last week. Hubby went up on day 3. Was told he could pay $250 for whole week, wait until next day and pay $150 for last half cruise or pay $50 per day. Hope this helps.

In December on Edge they had a station open in OV that made Gyros to order one night and then another night they had these delicious India wraps made to order. Those 2 nights were the only nights I saw this station being used. I kept asking when they would have those wraps again. They could change up a station in OV that is made to order food and not have waste and make us NOT mdr people happy.

I have always used Shutterfly, but wondered about Mixbook. I have never heard of Blurb. I will have to check these out. So thank you!

I just learned about ordering off the kids menu on the last night of my last cruise. Was planning to try it out next month. Just my luck. The filet sounded perfect. I am like a kid, picky and don't care for a lot of the adult items. Haha.

You not weird. People are all different on what they like and dislike. I use to love the MDR, but they have really cut the menu way back. I noticed on our next cruise one night they have a shrimp plate, a fish plate and a lamb plate. I am not big on seafood and I don't eat cute little lambs, haha. So I am stuck with the classic menu. I noticed seafood and cuts of meat I don't eat are offered a lot thru out the cruise. Not Celebrity's fault I am so picky, so I didn't complain, I just went to OV so I could pick out things that I like. But this option is being taken away.

That is how we felt on Edge in December. The food in MDR was not that great. So we just choose to go to buffet most nights. Sounds like my cruise next month may be more disappointing if OV is cut way back.

Our last cruise ate 3 nights in MDR and 7 nights in buffet. I prefer fixing my own size portions, making my own salad and looking over the offerings. I also enjoy how fast it is. We don't like sitting for 1.5 to 2 hours to eat. I'd prefer serving myself. Guess I am not use to being waited on all the time.

I feel like this is part of their reasoning too. They must be short dining room staff. There were way too many staff working the buffet area on the Edge in December in the evenings. We were on the week before Christmas so maybe they were beefed up in the buffet getting ready for Christmas week. But they easily could have moved some out of that area.

I will say I am starting to hear other cruise lines are making last minute changes to help with their costs and people are not happy. Lots of lines going to 1 times a day room service, increase in tips, cutting room attendant pay and NCL cut one of their big production shows. A lot of big time cruisers are blowing up their UTube channels complaining about all the changes. I am happy to be back cruising. 2.5 years with no cruising made for 2.5 very depressing years. I sure hope that the industry can find a solution that works to keep them floating, but also keeps cruisers engaged and happy.

MSC has some beautiful ships. We are booked on the Seaside for May. We were on the Divina in October. I saw an improvement in their food, from our 2020 MSC cruise. And honestly after the Edge in December, I would say the food was pretty much comparable. I missed having fries on the Edge OV buffet, the Divina had the best fries all day. I missed Nachos on the buffet on the Divina. Had to laugh, when on the Edge they had Nachos twice a day every day. Guess that was my main complaint with both lines this year, the food seems to constantly be same things day in and day out. On a 7 day you get tired of same food over and over.

We have been on 6 different lines. In past when people asked what was our favorite, we always mentioned Celebrity. We love the beauty of the ships, the quality service and always had hands down the best food. After my cruise in December, I felt differently. The food overall was just not the same.

On a 10 day cruise in December I ate 7 nights in the buffet. Mainly due to I saw a difference in MDR food. It wasn't worth my time to eat in MDR each night. I rather go to buffet where I could pick from many different options and make my own salad. I do think the OV had too much food for number of people eating in there. I am fine with a few cut backs, but they seem to be taking it to the extreme. If there are so few in OV and that is the reasoning, then do away with the prepared hot food, open up fresh to order stations. If really so few eating in OV then wouldn't take much staff to run the stations.

I had thought today that ships have not been full. So they don't have full staff. They want people to go to MDR so they can move most staff there. I know on Edge last month a lot of the OV staff didn't seem to have much to do. I am fine with some cut backs in food in OV. They did have way too much for the amount of passengers. But sounds like they are cutting it to the extreme. We eat in OV more than MDR.

We did Virgin in August. I didn't like that it was only 5 days and for money we paid, could have done a 7 on most other lines. The food in dining rooms was all great. The buffet that is not a buffet, I didn't care for at all. The ship was beautiful. But the shows were definitely not geared for us. When they pass out condoms and also want you to talk to strangers about your sexual fantasies, that is little over the top for me. The one was enough for me to decide I will cruise else where, haha. I guess I am an old prude.

We were on a 10 night cruise on the Edge in December. Most nights we were woken up in middle of the night with knocking on our walls. We were on deck 7. We didn't go to Customer Service, we mentioned it to our room attendant a few times. Once we were able to have him hear it. I guess we should have asked to move, the ship was only half full. We have never had as many noise issues as we had on the Edge.

Or instead if ships not sailing full and they don't want to raise prices enormously, they try to find things they can do to help them with their expenditures. Cut back on some of the cuts of meat and cut back on food. Keep the staff down to minimum. Try to cut back as much as they can without pissing off the customer base too much. We have cruised on 3 different lines in last 5 months. You can see things are not the same for any of the lines post covid. I feel like they are trying hard, but have to come up with some cuts to help them survive. None of the ships I sailed on were any where near full. I am trying to be patient. I love to cruise and would love them to survive this mess.