Compumom

And after your children grow up, it is time to start worrying about your parents. It is called the circle of life.

 

 

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Unfortunately I was a late in life baby, so I went through that circle already while my kids were quite young. It was a horrible time. :(

You are all cracking me up with the "adult kid" comments....I needed to laugh today - thank you! :D

The original post talked about being at the airport and getting on a flight.

I was unaware she had her passport.

Thank you all. She has talked to 2 different entities within Norwegian, the lost and found, and the ship hotel itself. There is no way she's getting this today. The good news is she has her passport and her room key. I was able to download a temporary license for her after ordering a replacement online (she doesn't live here anymore, she will be driving home tonight). She's on the phone cancelling her credit & debit cards. Ugh....does it ever end, this parenting thing? :p

My young adult daughter was on a 3 day music cruise and just got to the airport, where she discovered SHE LEFT HER WALLET IN THE ROOM. I am ready to scream! She needs her license! She called Norwegian and they told her they would have info for her *after the next sailing*. WHAT? I found the number for the lost & found and she is on hold now. She needs to go back and get this today...anyone have any advice or suggestions? This is a disaster :eek:

Fresh off the Regal (Sunday) and still walking with sea legs :D

We traveled with a large group (26 of us). I haven't spoken to everyone individually, however, the consensus of those I did (over half) did agree that either the staff was fabulous or incredibly rude. There was no in between. There is a bartender at the Outrigger Bar who managed to offend at least 4 people in our group at different times/days. Others in the area also said how rude he was. Then you have the servers in the Allegro DR (anytime dining), who are absolutely DELIGHTFUL. We wanted to take Ganna from the Ukraine home with us, she was so entertaining and wonderful! And the many, many bartenders/staff/front desk staff (Timothy at the front desk really went the extra mile to help out when we had an issue - he is A++ in my book). Our room sewards were wonderful and personable (we were spread out over 2 floors).

The bistro buffet is large and we never had a problem finding places to sit, no matter what time we were there. The food was really good with the exception (IMO) of the fish. I tried the grilled fish offerings several times and came to the conclusion that it just isn't conductive to put that type of food out on buffets under hot lights and not expect it to be rubbery. The workers in the buffet in every single instance were friendly and appeared happy and service oriented.

Anytime Dining is an annoyance IMO. You really do need to call ahead and make reservations if you don't want to wait. We didn't know this the first night and waited for about 30 minutes for a table for 4. This was our first experience with anytime dining. Our family decided we prefer assigned times and will go with that on our next cruise because we like getting to know our wait staff and their stories, and you really do get personalized service when you have assigned times (i.e. your preferred drink waiting for you). We dined in the Concerto Dining Room twice and both times had wait staff that either didn't understand what we wanted, or served us weird. The 2nd night we were with a large group and those who didn't order appetizers were served their main course when the appetizers came out. It was so strange. Half the group was finished with their entire meal way before the other half.

I heard from others in our group the Sushi Bar is not to be missed. A terrific place to eat on this ship. You pay per plate and it is very reasonable.

My daughters bought the booze package. They are 22 year old fraternal twins. One of my daughters repeatedly was asked for photo ID along with her room card when she went up for a drink. When you are 22 that is the end of the world! :rolleyes: One of the bartenders really gave them a rough time when my other daughter produced HER ID and they said they were twins. They wanted to mess with him for hassling my one daughter and he ended up being nasty to them both. Not cool. A way around this whole ID thing (Princess are you listening???) is to scan the room card for the beverage package with that hand held device used to exit the ship. That way the picture comes up and you don't have to ask repeatedly for ID, because ID has to be shown when the beverage package is purchased. She almost didn't bring her drivers license because she had her passport. I don't want passports being dragged around the ship and I'm sure nobody else does either.

The ship itself is beautiful. The Piazza - wow! It is really stunning, and a great place to sit and spend some time. Always something going on there, and it is a good meeting place on such a large ship (make sure you specify what floor - we always met our kids on the 5th floor, which is the bottom of the Piazza and has little tables and chairs all around the center). The Bellini Bar on the Piazza is wonderful and had some great drinks. Bartenders there were really friendly.

I think Princess could improve on the maps by blacking out the areas you can't cross by foot. Many times the first couple of days we ended up at dead ends where we had to go back up to go down because the theatre or the Piazza or just a wall was blocking the way through. I found the layout a bit confusing and at times frustrating. Some family members were really annoyed at the lack of a center staircase.

My big thing - and a sentiment I heard often - was the ship rocks. A LOT. Way more than any other ship I have ever been on. And it creaks! The staterooms make these strange creaking noises. It wasn't just ours. It was a topic of conversation frequently amongst others as well. Bring earplugs if you think you may need them and definitely your favorite seasickness remedy. There were days I had to take more than one Bonine. A fellow family member needed to get medical attention after a particularly rough night (the pools had to be closed due to the sloshing of the water all over the deck that night - why they didn't drain them I have no idea). The crew said the last two days sailing back to Ft. Lauderdale are always rough on this route.

The last night, sometime after midnight, my husband grabbed me and shoved me outside to see an amazing sight: Including us, there were TEN cruise ships in the area! It was like a cruise ship super highway :p We had an even numbered stateroom, so it was on that side of the ship (I am hopeless with starboard/port/forward/aft....whatever....LOL)

Embarkation/disembarkation were hands down the easiest we ever had, especially disembarkation. They really have it together there.

All in all - we were with family and making memories and had a wonderful vacation. Unfortunately we will not be sailing with Princess again, we feel some other lines have more to offer us at our varied age points.

I always bring a supply of "sleep assistance" in the form of Wild Turkey 101 :D

Love it! :D

Awful, awful, awful. I had M611 beneath the HC and the noise started every single day at 3:30am with bangs, crashes, slams and thuds loud enough to wake me up from a deep sleep. The worst was until 4:30am. From then on, I could hear the sound of the serving/clean-up carts rolling on the uncarpeted walkway. My sister was in M525, an inside, and also heard very loud noise, mostly from people walking and the sound of carts overhead. It was as though there was no insulation or sound-proofing. I would never, ever recommend a cabin that's not beneath other cabins. :(

I finally figured out what HC stands for! Our cabin is M312, which puts us forward more, under the pool area and towards the elevators. I think I'm going to mention what's above us and what goes on at night, just as an FYI. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth and I don't want to offend anyone! But I am really nervous about this one, mainly because I have trouble sleeping to begin with. :(

If you are concerned about noise, you want to continue to book on a deck with cabins above and below you.

We are the beneficiaries of a most generous gift :D (I am still speechless!!!!), and did not book the cabin. In addition, we are part of a good sized group and everyone is situated in the same area. I'm asking so I get an idea of what to expect and how much slumber assistance I should bring ;)

Hi all, we are booked on the Regal in January and so excited for our first sailing on Princess! Any information WRT noise on the Marina deck? We've always stayed much lower on all other trips we've taken, sandwiched between floors with cabins, and honestly have never taken notice of the deck just below Lido.

We are going on our first Princess Cruise in January and are unfamiliar with the drink charges. Sailing mostly on Carnival in the past, we are used to free brewed coffee and iced tea. Are there any drinks that are free on Princess? My husband's blood is half coffee ;)