SiliconCruiser

Princess cancelled our August cruise in Alaska in April. The only deposit was from our future cruise credits. We didn't want to bother with the hassle of trying to go through Princess's evasive phone system, so we just let the matter sit to see how long they might take. They finally put the credit back into our cruise credit accounts in early July.

Got off of the Regal a couple of days ago. I don't know if it is something new option or not, but I found that if you press the Home button on the remote, it will take the viewer to the regular TV menu. I didn't experience anything locked the viewer into watching the entire clip. The annoying thing about that video was the use of an actor that had a similar appearance resembling a younger Gavin McLeod; pretty cheeky.

Thanks. We're getting on the Regal tomorrow. But it doesn't look much different than when we boarded the Island earlier this year at FLL (except that we know that the experience on the Regal will be more pleasant.)

A lot of people also aren't aware screeners at airports may not be TSA employees. They're more easily fooled, because the private contractors wear TSA uniforms with the initials of their companies on the epaulets. At some airports the screeners are all employees of private companies (probably due to some political influences that were in place before TSA was formed.) In others, it just may be a tough labor market, when TSA employees are compensated at a much lower rated that other Federal employees.

Platinum, Elite, and Suite have shared embarkation and disembarkation lounges for a while now. It is at most if not all of the embarkation ports now.

I was wondering about all those references to TSA. I've never encountered TSA at any U.S. port, just contracted private security companies using outdated equipment for screening (probably more like alcohol control and detection.) The only time we've encountered governmental officials has been on disembarkation, and that is usually a cursory passport check (not entry/re-entry.)

Quite honestly, I think i depends upon the ship. Our most recent cruise was on the Regal, our first experience on a Royal class ship. It was the first and only time that I felt that the buffet measured up to the level of the dining rooms for dinner. For breakfast, they're all decent and it would appear that the dining rooms are serving the same menu as the buffet, except in smaller quantities. For lunch, it is kind of a toss-up and you should decide by reviewing the posted menus for the dining room to see if anything appeals to you that might not be served in the buffet. In the Grand (or sub-Grand) class ships, there is seldom anything palatable in the buffet for dinner, and it is even worse in the Panamax ships, and I would highly recommend the dining rooms, based upon my experience.

Not to worry, it takes 4 days to get to Hawaii. I'm pretty sure they'll be able to crank it up after the first two days and get back on schedule.😉 The first couple of days can be a little rough though.

We are currently Platinum, but we have been boarding at 11AM and dropping off our carry-on, when possible, since our very first cruise with Princess (before we even had Gold status.) We've also always gone to the MDR for lunch every time, even when the crew lied to us and told us that only the buffet was open.

This is another one of lines that I have seen posted frequently, but don't really know if it is factual. The way the tipped employees slip it into their pockets so quickly, would lead me to believe that none of it is shared with anyone else.

I've seen this posted a few times, but is there any factual documentation to this or is it a supposition?

I was on the Island earlier this year. While it was probably my worse experience on a Princess ship to date, with leaking sewage and ill-mannered service crew, the TVs in the cabins had remotes and you could switch the input; either from the remote or from the TV itself. And as noted, access to the inputs could awkward depending upon it's mounted position.

Yes, all the TVs have HDMI input ports. Pretty hard to find a TY these days that doesn't have them, no matter how cheap they might be.

If there is a grave concern and your provider does not provide low cost service in some of the countries, and you are situated in the U.S., get a Google voice number and make your wi-fi calls from/to the Google voice number. It is solely on VoIP, just like many business lines these days, and does not rely on your cell carrier nor does it entail any roaming charges.

We were on the Diamond for an Asia cruise (Singapore to someplace near Beijing) a couple of years ago and all of the entertainment was in English. The comedians didn't always get much attendance; some weren't very good, and there was the language barrier. You would think that it may language have been may have been an issue with the Asian demographic , but I happen to catch a glimpse at several pages of the passenger roster and it looked like many of those Asian names were actually traveling on U.S. passports, and their nationality was listed as such.