lstone19

We were on the Regal 10/22 cruise and it was taking her a few days to process them. I saw her at disembarkation with a huge stack that had been turned in overnight.

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Regal is doing various itineraries. Is this the 1/15/17 cruise? If so, I'd guess night 2 after leaving Princess Cays and night 5 after leaving Grand Cayman.

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Ship? Cruise length? Date?

I'm not finding a Western Caribbean with a Wednesday sea day so hard to guess but if it's a 7 day, it should have two. Formal nights are not just on sea days. As long as port departure is early enough (certainly 4pm, maybe 5pm), it can be a formal night.

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On both of our cruises on Regal this year, second seating was 8:00 and late shows were at 10:00. I don't know where you saw 9:30 for late shows as I don't recall that ever being a show time. The only show exception was the first night which on both cruises had a single "welcome aboard" show at 9:00.

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I agree that the best way to get foreign currency in Europe is at an ATM, with one caveat: it has to be a BANK ATM. Travelex has ATMs with [i am told] very poor exchange rates.

I have heard that about Travelex ATMs (and I believe all ATMs at London-Heathrow are Travelex machines) but I've also heard that so long as you take out the local currency and don't have them do the conversion (read the screens carefully), you'll get your bank's exchange rate. What you want to avoid is what's called "Dynamic Currency Conversion" where the merchant's bank converts it at time of sale or withdrawal. For the "convenience" of knowing immediately what your charge will be in your home currency, you're getting a very poor exchange rate.

Regarding Travelex, to demonstrate how bad their exchange rates are, I was looking to convert about USD100 to a couple of foreign currencies I'd need just to have a small starter amount. Comparing Travelex ("no commission" but a poor rate) to Bank of America (better rate but a $7.50 delivery charge to have the currency shipped to the local branch), even with that delivery charge (7.5% on a USD100 exchange) Bank of America was better (but you must be a BofA customer).

After reading your response, I see that what I was trying to say was very poorly worded and I what I was trying to say didn't come through at all. :( My apologies for that. What I was trying to say was that the OBC received through the ownership of the CCL stock was non-taxable income received by the cruiser from ownership of the stock. It isn't in a legal sense of course, but it is from a practical point-of-view in that it does provide the receiver with something that they can use to purchase something with. ;)

 

Anyway, again, my apologies for the misunderstanding of my poorly constructed attempt at humor.

 

Tom

Tom, thanks for the clarification. I mostly agree with you regarding the stockholder OBC or any other that's not bundled with the cruise fare.

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If they do that, they do it. Then you can still use the non-taxable income (OBC) to purchase something you might not have otherwise bought.

Non-taxable income? No, it's a reduction in price paid. If you book a $2000 cruise and get $300 OBC, you're paying a net $1,700 for the cruise assuming you are able to use all $300 on-board (of course, there's other stuff to be factored in but we can leave them out for purposes of this). But if it reaches a point where I don't think I can use all the OBC, then I stop valuing it at 100% and that makes me think of the net cost of the cruise as higher.

Of course, they'd love you to think of it as free money (non-taxable income as you put it) and spend it on things you wouldn't otherwise. But to me, it will always be a reduction in price paid when it comes to me figuring out our net cost and comparing it to other options. Ffor instance, all things equal, if a choice between $2000 fare with $300 OBC and $1800 with no OBC, I'd choose the $2000 and OBC as that's a net $1,700. But I won't value OBC at 100% so a choice between $2000 with $300 OBC and $1700 and no OBC and I choose the $1700 and no OBC (I'd even choose $1,701 and no OBC).

Thanks for that reply. That's rather unfortunate. Do you know if the regimentation is enforced strictly so we can try other included venues for dinner?

What "other included venues" do you mean? As others have replied, if you mean the buffet or specialty restaurants, yes. If you mean the other Main Dining Rooms, no but as has been posted, they all have the same menu on a given night. Wanting to try a different main dining room makes as little sense as wanting to try a different table in the same room (if it helps, think of all the MDRs combined as being one giant room separated into different large sections). There's nothing different to try.

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Peety3, use your favorite search engine to search for "united airlines impossible booking" and your will find it listed as a "prohibited practice".

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As a rule of thumb I never book a hotel a cruise line uses as I do not wish to be checking out the same morning as a hotel full of other passengers going to the same ship. I find a hotel that suits my needs and the randomness of it makes it less congested than a hotel specifically booked out for all cruise passengers.

I didn't know it was a hotel Princess used until we arrived. But it worked out well since once we booked the transfers on-site, we had bag pickup at the room and everything else. And there were no checkout issues.

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My wife and I stayed there in June pre-cruise but independently (was able to add the Princess transfers on-site which worked well for us). We were in what I believe they called a standard queen room and it was small - probably a little smaller than a Deluxe Balcony on Regal, definitely smaller than a Mini-suite.

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Thank You, for the information about the INVOLUNTARY CHANGE not being acceptable. It's good to know!!

tony

While why the change is not acceptable should not be something the airline should need to ask, it's not going to hurt to be prepared to tell them that 9:00am violates the "minimum connecting time" (MCT) for your connection from the ship to the plane. If it were a same-ticket air connection, an MCT violation would force re-accomodation. While ship to air on separate tickets has no such protection, mentioning MCT gets you further into airline jargon where the representative you're talking to will know what to do. That way you can avoid things like "how likely are you to make it by 9:00" and just say "their change has caused an MCT violation so needs to be changed".

Do you remember what movies under the stars they had showing? My wife loves

 

MUTS !

I just posted the Patters from this cruise to my website (http://www.stonejongleux.com/) so you can look them up there.

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I'll also miss it as it was one of my favorites. My understanding was the cheese basket came only if you ordered the fettuccuine alfredo as an entrée, it wasn't include as an appetizer

Got it twice when ordered as an appetizer in June; did not when ordered as an appetizer last Saturday.

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I just finished Regal's 10/22/16 Canada cruise and have scanned the Patters and posted them at http://www.stonejongleux.com/.

If you see any bad links or other issues, please let me know.

We had it (basket included) at the BVE Lunch on Regal last Saturday [October 22, 2016] as Regal was about to head to Canada [embarking passengers were also eligible for that lunch] -- so it was certainly not discontinued at the end of the Baltics season.

And I ordered it for dinner on Regal on 10/22 and no Parmesan basket. Turned what used to be a nicely presented dish into just some fettuccine alfredo plopped in a bowl.

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Thats complete BS, ive booked the seat next to me on flight just so i could have 2 tray tables and the extra room. You can book the whole damn plane if you wanted. If you pay for 2 seats its not illegal. Ive seen people book seats for their carry on dogs too.

There is a big difference between booking a second seat on the same flight and seats on two different flights where it is physically impossible for you to use both reservations. The former is legal; the latter is not.

For the OP, call the airline and be sue to say that the INVOLUNTARY change is not acceptable. The word "involuntary" opens up a lot of options that are not possible for voluntary changes. If you are bored and read the details of the ticket rules, you'll find "involuntary" used a lot.

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Did you use the same airline for the fake info or just any legal flight? There is a virgin air flight that leaves 15 min before princess time and we would really like to do that flight. ..but the next flight on that airline is way late and i would be afraid that they would stick is on a late shuttle. ..i don't believe they use what airline to determine the shuttle cause I think I remember the driver always asking who is going where

Which airport? On our recent transfer to LGA, they asked airline but were willing to stop at all. Regardless, once you're off the ship and at the buses, I don't think they're going to care about what you told Princess. On our just concluded cruise into NYC, transfer disembarkation groups were by airport only, not airport and airline/terminal. But if you're concerned, look up what other airlines use that terminal and list the first legal flight from that terminal.

I have heard from a little bird that summer 2018 will open for sale on December 1. I won't say more other than I heard this on a very recent cruise.

I'm confused too. If it was a Princess Transfer they would have been marshaled to one of the public rooms and taken down together to the bus. When we disembarked the CB earlier this month, Princess advised that they would only accept Transfer requests from those with flights after 13:15 to JFK and 12:15 to LaGuardia.

Princess seems to be inconsistent about the times they say are OK. The Travel Summary I have from my just concluded cruise on Regal says for domestic departures, five hours (11:00) for LGA, six hours (12:00) for JFK, and is silent for EWR. But at http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/travel.jsp, they say:

"Disembarking Passengers

For voyages arriving in New York City at 5:00 and/or 7:15 am, the earliest flight departures are as follows:

LaGuardia: 1:15 pm for international flights, 12:15 pm for domestic flights

John F. Kennedy: 2:15 pm for international flights, 1:15 pm for domestic flights

Newark: 2:15 pm for international flights, 1:15 pm for domestic flights"

Those seem to be the recommended five and six hours but based on the latest arrival time of 7:15am (oops, in my previous post, I said we made a Princess "illegal" flight at LGA. I thought the time was 1:15 for LGA as well but it was legal since it was after 12:15 and certainly later than the 11:00 which was five hours after arrival).

But you have to have a flight number and I thought confirm #...not sure on the confirm but know you need the airline, date and flight #:confused:

Just off Regal yesterday. They ask for the Record Locator but you can leave it blank. Give them a legal flight and time and they won't know. As an airline employee, I just gave them the earliest legal flight; I don't create my flight listing until the day before. The last day of the cruise. I decided LGA would work better than EWR so asked if they could send us to LGA (yes but on the last of the four LGA shuttle disembarkation groups). Despite that, still there before 11:00 and departed on a Princess "illegal" flight.

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Our just concluded Regal 5-day had two Chef's Table nights (nights 3 and 4).

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my wife and i also got off the regal yesterday. i know that the staff can vary from person to person but i must say that i found the mdr staff at breakfast seemed confused and out of their depth. at dinner i think that either they gotten rid of the waiters assistant or perhaps they now support several waiter because our poor waiter had to handle everything down to refilling water. don't get me wrong. all of this is small potato in a wonderful vacation.

Dinner the first night in Allegro was also confused and slow. Our assistant waiter seemed to be supporting two waiters and was clearly not up to the task. Waiter I think had been recently promoted as his name tag said Assistant Waiter. But the later nights, a waiter from next to our section (who had just joined the ship but clearly knew what she was doing) with a lot of no-show tables helped and service was up to what we expected.

That first night we also got the assistant handles the beverages and waiter handles the food speech but after the first night, the waiter handled everything and the assistant was rarely seen.

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Was there also a Princess World Orchestra performance at the Piazza on your 5 day cruise?

Yes. But at 9pm so missed all but the last 30 seconds since we had late seating for dinner.

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I'm just off it as well but don't share the OP's opinion. While most was as expected, the big weak spot was the Concerto DR (the MDR used most days for breakfast, lunch, and tea) which was in disarray every time we were in it. Painfully slow service, forgotten orders (still waiting for yesterday's breakfast juice), and servers running around with no plan. At tea, scones would come but no creams/jam (actually, the first sea day, scones were in short supply since apparently having large numbers of guests for tea on a sea day was a surprise). On our June cruise on Regal, things were much better but since then, both Maitre'D and the Hotel Director have changed and the Maitre'D was much less visible than the one in June.

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