j0el

20 hours ago, swdke said:

You will need to download the Navica app.  Each person must have their own Navica account.  Go to YouTube and search for Covid test and there will be plenty of videos on how to do.  Also, Abbott BinaxNOW has a video too.  Again, each person must have a Navica account.

Yes, passport or license.  Had it yesterday.  Was easy, the test people have done so many they have it all figured out.

We bring a battery pack for our cell phone and camera.

Remember that battery packs and power cells are not allowed in checked baggage, only allowed in carry on. 9google FAA spare batteries e-car to see the regulation.

I believe that there may have been a virus alert. I believe that when a ship is under virus alert they either have to serve individual butter packets or have the waiters serve the butter. Obviously they will not explain by saying they are under a virus alert. This is part of the CDC Vessel Sanitation Program and has to do with the number of gastro-intestinal problems reported by passengers during a cruise.

Waiting a minute for butter is better than getting norovirus. And outbreaks of norovirus can happen because some passengers are not as diligent about hygiene as others.

Reading these boards for a while I have seen people very pleased and very upset at TA's, booking direct, using a Personal Princess person, calling in and hoping, .....

Many people say that they got n% off form their TA, or from their credit card company or whatever.

Like everything there are highly competent people and some that are not so much. And there are demanding customers and very easy going customers. There are people who stress over every dime (no matter how much they have) and there are people who don't seem to care about a few bucks.

One thing I did notice in common though are that some people are reluctant to ask. It shows up on the boards as someone saying, "I didn't know you coudl do that."

Always ask. Can you give me a better price? Can you give me a free or heavily discounted upgrade? Can you give me OBC? Can you send me a nice travel bag or buy me some flowers or wine? And not just for bookings.

Can I have two entrees? Can I have extra tomatoes? Can I get a bowl of blueberries? Can I come back later for desert?

I have found that if you ask nicely you often get what you asked for. If you don't know what to ask for, you can even ask "Is there anything else I should ask you for?" or "What kind of special things can I ask for?"

Personally I am pretty laid back and do not want to ruin a cruise by feeling I got taken for $50 when I have spent so much already. So I rather not know. But my wife asks for everything and it is amazing at how much she has gotten for us. She is not rude or mean and always very thankful. But she asks a lot of questions. Maybe they give her stuff to get rid of her, but in any case, please ask for anything you want. At worst you will hear a no. At best, you will get what you want. Mostly you will get a nice response with no need to be embarrassed.

TL;DR Use FaceTime or Skype or WhatsApp.

I have a fair amount of experience with international calling and texting, both on cruises and on land travel. But will limit this note to your specific question.

As mentioned before, using the cell provided on the ship is expensive and you should limit that to emergencies. It does not matter what Verizon charges, it is what the ship charges that matters. And if you accidentally have your phone set up for international data roaming you could wind up getting huge bills. An unintentional backup of all your photos or a download of a major update could ruin your day when the bill came in. Just listening to a few voicemails can use up a lot of minutes.

Some people mentioned WiFi calling and that is the best solution. If you and your other party have iPhones and/or iPads and/or Macs, you can use Facetime over WiFi. That works great although it may not work well on the ship because of the number of people trying to use a spotty satellite link. And unless you get free internet minutes on the ship, that can run up a bill too. But you certainly can use Apple iMessage to text from the ship. And in port you can use Facetime just fine from a free WiFi hotspot or an internet cafe. Facetime will allow video, or if there is not enough capacity you can default to only voice. If you do not both have Apple gear, there are a lot of free alternatives. Skype, WhatsApp and WeChat are very popular and easy to set up for voice calls over WiFi. I prefer WhatsApp, but have used them all. Facebook also allows voice calls and it is one of the most efficient systems using a megabyte every 3 minutes. So even a 100MB data plan will give you at least 250 minutes of talk.

If the WiFi calling confuses you, there is another reasonable option. Buy an unlocked GSM phone on Amazon (under $20). Make sure it supports these 4 frequencies - 850/900/1800/1900 MHz - it will be called a quadband or a WorldPhone. Then buy a monthly plan with international capabilities from T-Mobile. You can cancel it when you return and you will have a number that only will be known to the few people you give it to. If you cruise more than a few times, buying the phone is well worth it. If it is just for one cruise you may find that the phone plus the TMOBILE plan for a month is still cheaper than the Verizon plan. You could also buy a tourist SIM card at any port and put that into the phone, they are sold everywhere and since they are prepaid, you cannot spend more than what you paid. They start at around $5 usually.

Never had any trouble even when our children were 11 and 14. But, we are not helicopter parents at all, very free range. We had a suite and put the kids in an inside. Same deck, but not super close. Had one incident on the first cruise with them. They had met a few other teenagers and ours were the only ones with their own cabin.

The last night I did a good check of their room to make sure they did not leave any clothes behind and found a few bottles of rum. They swore that they belonged to others and were just storing them. I made it clear that they better be gone in a few hours. My youngest wound up drinking a bunch of it. He threw up in the passageway and had a horrific hangover the next morning. I off course kept speaking very loudly and shaking him by the shoulder. He was miserable. But he doesn't drink at all now and he is 39, so there is that.

et me start by saying that my wife and I have lived and traveled in a number of 3rd world countries, so are used to haggling, going to places that seem a bit dodgy to most Americans, and dealing with people whose English is less than perfect.

When we first started cruising we took a number of tours, but eventually realized that if we just get off the ship and look for a taxi, we can usually hire the taxi to take us to the best places to see. And if we do not like a place, we can leave right away, and if we like it a lot, we can stay longer. It also works out to be cheaper, especially if you bargain. The taxi drivers rather take some money than just wait for passengers. I'd say we have done this at least a dozen times, and while some experiences were better than others, none were bad. The worst is when the taxi drives is a bit maniacal on the road and you have to slow him down. Or the suspension on the cab wore out years ago.

The only place we have taken a tour recently was in St. Petersburg because getting off the ship by yourself requires a relatively expensive tourist visa, while the excursion do not. That excursion had all the flaws of every other one. We would have loved to spend more time at the Hermitage, and less time at the mediocre lunch. It was ok, but I'm glad we do not do tours anymore.

Actually, we have probably been to every diamonds international and Del Sols in the world, so now we just stay on the ship and enjoy the quiet.

I use ""The ship left port" to remind me that port is left. And port wine is red, so the red running lights are on the port side. And also the accent on the rugs in the hallways are red on the port side.

One last one is red, right, returning. The channel leading to the docks are marked by red and green buoys. When the ship is heading to the docks, the pilot keeps the red buoys on the right side of the ship.

Hi all,

 

We are currently on the Island Princess at the end of our cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed our Sabatini Breakfast each morning. I also casually asked the first morning if they had a mixed berry pancake. They had the batter and mix ready every morning in case I wanted it. It was so wonderful! enjoy

I am always pleased by how any and all requests are handled. One thing I have learned is even if you have high expectations, they will often be exceeded. I don't cruise just to eat, but the breakfast at Sabatini's, as others have said, is a great reason to book a suite.

Why do you use the sanctuary? Is it the quiet? The amenities? The service? Do you stay for hours? Or go in and out? Just wondering.

Just flew out of LAX on AA but the flight departed from the Bradley international terminal (AA has 4 gates ther, perhaps overflow). Anyway, there is no pre-check line at that terminal but TSA said if pre-check is on your BP you don't have to take your shoes off and you can leave your liquids in your carry on. A little nice anyway.

I found the dining room staff to be wonderful in trying to meet any request. Just ask for anything you want and you will be surprised at how often they can make you happy.

If you cannot decide between two dishes, order both. If you have something you want again, just ask if you can have it again. Of course they cannot do everything, but it doesn't hurt to ask and the staff is there to help in any way that they can.

I think for her first baby you should let her call you and answer the phone. It is not that expensive compared to what you will spend on baby clothes for your grandkid.

There is space to write in your address. Good if it gets lost. I suggest using pencil.

I think it is highly likely that you will make it. I prefer to arrive around 10:00 that morning, but have landed as 12:30 and made it easily. In fact, there is a huge rush at check-in as many people arrive way before they start, so it is easier to check-in a few hours later than the start time.

Of course I do not stress. Worst case you go on to the next port.

As mentioned, be sure to have a passport with you. And carry some clothing to change into, you may not get your luggage until the early evening.

I am sure you will have a great cruise and the chances of delay, while real, are not as frequent as it seems. Most of the 20,000,000 people who cruise every year don't write to this board and say they were on time.

If you can afford a cruise, you can afford to give someone who really goes out of their way to make your vacation perfect a little extra. I am sure all of the stewards or waiters or kitchen staff greatly appreciate it.

People who cannot walk by without grabbing the back of my chair or lounger. It wakes me up or kills my concentration.

I have cruised a lot and on various lines. Years ago I went for the best deal I could fine, then I went for interesting ports, and now I just look for stressless cruising. I have enjoyed every cruise, although some more than others. I loved the Baltic and Istanbul -> Athens for the sights and was too tired form touring to notice much about the ship. But in the Caribbean I never leave the ship and most enjoy port days. I tend to not use the buffet anymore as I am never in a hurry and I like the service. I enjoy perks like free internet and free laundry, but they are not game changers. I like trivia contests, but do not need any more keychains, luggage tags, water bottles, etc. I have pretty much settled on Princess as my favorite line, but would use another line if there was a good reason.

My wife has had different experience. Her cabins were too hot or too noisy and the food was not always great, and sometimes the service was slow. The bed was hard or soft and the pillows were thick or thin. Sometimes too many people are on the ship. Or the waiter is not perfect. Or there are too many waves in the ocean. So she likes cruising, but never enjoys it as much as I do.

Oh, we cruise together.

I think that no matter how often you wash or use sanitizer you can become contaminated immediately after. Wash, and then as soon as you touch the door handle you can have dirty hands again. And norovirus is not so easily removed. Just as one has to drive defensively, one must defend against those unsanitary shipmates.

When I see someone being unsanitary I call them out. I may not have any friends anymore, but I have not been sick very often either.

Of course I am sorry for your loss.

I am not sure how you can best handle it now, but I thank you for sharing.

I am going to make sure that the people who may have to call me for an emergency realize that there may be problems in getting a message through. I will ask them to call every hour until they hear back from me. That way there is a way for them to be sure I got the message.

Many years ago I was in the NAVY and got a message that my dad was in a serious car accident. I do not remember much about the time from when I got the message until I was in the hospital visiting.

I just saw a statistic that there are 14M cruise passengers in North America each year, so unfortunately there must e many emergency calls. I hope that no matter what, the cruise line ensures that their procedures are appropriate for the urgency and seriousness of the situation.

Again, so sorry for your loss and your having to go through this.

For special occasions we may book a year ahead, and we watch and if last minute deals come up we may drop everything to cruise, but for me six months still gives a good selection and decent air fares, and we look for drops or upgrades. I have no complaints over prices or cabin choice.

I was in the NAVY so it wasn't my first cruise, but it was my first pleasure cruise. Fran and I were on our honeymoon (Feb '71) and we had little money, but wanted to cruise. We went from Miami to Nassau to Freeport and back to Miami. We had the cheapest cabin available and believe me, it was nothing like todays ships.

We had a minuscule cabin with a small porthole so I guess it was an outside cabin (could not really see through the porthole). Two bunk beds, but every night we put the mattresses on the floor :). The bathroom was so small that you could be on the pot and open the door. The food was good, the entertainment was ok and we had a blast.

Now we usually have a suite on Princess but have taken some luxury cruises too. The difference is day and night in terms of accommodations, entertainment and everything else I can think of except the crew back then was as friendly and helpful as the crews are today. We just book a Panama Canal cruise for our anniversary this year and every time we board we reminisce about our honeymoon and laugh and are so thankful that we still are married to each other and still enjoy cruising!