SiliconCruiser

HRM Elizabeth II has been the monarch of the British Commonwealth for most of my life as well. Today, the world mourns with the British Commonwealth, as her passing is a loss to the entire world.

British Commonwealth. Which does indeed include Canada.

If you are in North American waters and have a phone that is capable of wifi calling, they you can receive calls on your regular number (be sure it is in Airplane mode to avoid shockingly high charges.) If you're outside of North America and have purchased the WiFi package, get one of the many web based calling apps (I like Google Voice because it also enables me to make international calls from both my regular cell number as well as Google Voice for pennies per minute.) You can receive calls on your Google Voice number anywhere in the world as a domestic call from North America.

This has pretty much been the case on every of the cruises that we have been on, Panamax, Grand, Crown, and Royal. In most cases I'm sure the crew are told to direct everyone to the buffet. I think it was on our second or third cruise when I asked if the 6th Fl MDR was open for lunch as was specifically told, "It is not, you have to go to the buffet." So we went to the 6th fl MDR for lunch. I stopped asking after that cruise. I think it was on the Regal out of Copenhagen that we were just told that we were too early and that the MDR would not be open until Noon.

I wouldn't worry about the battery dying. They can make a new one for you in a minute or two. I went through 3 of them on a b2b a couple of years ago. Lost the first one on a port call (someone met me at the pier with a replacement,) and then the second one died at some point during the cruise; the third one carried me through the rest of the cruise.

Northland

Then, shame on Princess for their lack of coordination on information. The CD is a ship's officer! Is there something wrong with this picture? Perhaps the Captain of the Crown isn't aware of the problems with his ship because the Chief Engineer hasn't told him? I'm really not sure I can grasp this picture clearly.

There are does who work very hard (exploited) like cabin stewards and the wait staff in the dining rooms, and then there are those who have a little better mastery of the English language like those who are working in Guest Services or at the retail booths (other than the retail outlets on board). If you don't like the answer that you get from Guest Services, just go to the next counter to get a different answer. And if you still don't like it, go back an hour later to get another answer, none of which will be accurate or correct. You may also encounter a similar situation at the excursions desk, though some of those folks may have been trained and exposed to some excursions and may actually give you an honest response.

I've just taken it to the stateroom when I got back on the ship.

I haven't asked them in years since I know they're just trained parrots. But just to be clear, there is a lot of willful misinformation that is transmitted on Princess cruises, just go to the Guest Services desk.

We are usually advised as to when the MDR would open for lunch, but only by MDR staff or staff on the 6th floor. Crew members "welcoming" you on board would never tell you that. I started ignoring them entirely beginning with my 2nd Princess cruise, especially when they insisted on packing us in one set of elevators (I had already figured out that all of the ships had elevators forward, mid-ship, and aft.

Don't be that forgiving ... if they are challenged (when you know there is an MDR open) they will lie overtly and may even become argumentative. Bear in mind that English is not their native language so they may not understand everything.

No they're given a script of answers to give to passengers, just like the answers that you'll get when you call a company and your call gets routed to an off-shore call center. Most of the people that you'll encounter when you board are probably people that work behind the scenes and may not normally have customer contact. Also probably because some people may try to go to the MDR after 1:00.

Try to arrive around 10:00. You might have to wait a little but things will start moving pretty quick, once they get the last passengers off. But you'll also have the allow time for them to escort the Covid quarantines off. Sailaway seems to be delayed until around 5:30 lately with many later arrivals have to wait for very long periods of time to get checked in.

You cannot carry liquids over 100ml in carry-on luggage on a plane (including wine.) If you are planning on bringing liquids over 100ml, it has to be in checked luggage. It is best to check with the country of you departure, as well as countries that you might be traveling through rather than relying on information on social media. What is considered liquid varies from country to country as well. We had some moisturizing cream in our carry-on, which was fine in the U.S., but leaving Iceland to the EU, we found that this was considered a liquid and we had to check it as baggage.

We didn't know, but on our very first Princess cruise, my SIL told us to get on board as early as possible (disregard any time they told us to board) and then go to the MDR for a leisurely lunch (and then head for the buffet if I was still hungry. Now that I'm a few years older and can barely finish the food in the MDR, we still get on early. We board before PES.

That's been my experience as well. Generally they don't really seem to care when passengers are returning from port calls. But people who have been caught with alcohol at embarkation normally gets it tagged and it is returned to them on the last day of the cruise.

Specify Gluden-Free in diet choices in your profile as well.

Spirits will be tagged and stored for the passenger and delivered to the passenger's stateroom on the last evening before disembarkation. Same applies to any liquor purchased from the gift shop or from port calls.

The crew will tell you that you have to go to the buffet. They will not tell you that there is a MDR open. As mentioned, the MDR on the 6th floor is generally used for lunch on embarkation day. It seems that the hours that have been listed vary a bit, but the window for lunch is somewhat limited. Our experience has bee 11:30-1:00 but I'm sure that may vary depending on the ship and available staffing.

Well it wasn't exactly in those words verbatim, but that was the opinion of the captain of one of the Royal class ships when he announced the plans for the Sphere class ships.

I did.

It is usually a regular in the buffet, they probably had some sent down.

In April, the Ruby Princess left San Francisco on a closed loop cruise to Hawaii. Both the crew and the passengers were 100% vaccinated. Hawaii has some of the strictest regulations regarding visitors with regard to visitors (and residents) being quarantined on arrival or return (obviously not required of cruise ship passengers.) The Ruby came back to San Francisco with 143 cases of infection.

By the time they actually get off the ship and clear CBP, it will probably be after 9:30. If they go out to the curb, ask them to let you know which post they are near. One side is odd numbered, the other is even.