cruisingrob21

Just reached Elite on our last cruise so next one on Saphire we should get mini bar what does this include and do we get one each. We do not drink spirits so can we swop for 2 coffee cards:evilsmile:

Minibar includes the following. They may substitute things for something similar but generally...

2 cans coke, 2 cans Sprite

2 bottles water, 2 bottles Perrier

2 cans tonic water

2 shooters each of whiskey, courvasier, gin, vodka

2 beers like dos xs

Generally you can swap like for like with your steward ..ie swap 2 whiskeys for 2 vodkas, or 2 cokes for 2 more sprites. No guarantee, but just ask.

Anyone else notice that it lists the inaugural cruise for the Sky Princess as being after her first scheduled cruises in October of 2019. In the atlas it says December 4th, 2019 for her inagural cruise. Perhaps it's because her inaugural run in the Caribbean? It does say that December 4th 3 day voyage is her inagural voyage. I guess it's the difference between hard and soft openings?

If available, VB4156 and 4154 have absolutely massive balconies and I highly recommend...the extra you would pay to go from VH to VB is well worth it if you enjoy using your balcony which will be nearly 8x the size of a VH room.

Price wise, we book a BD category on the Caribe deck. The balcony is large, half covered, half uncovered. The premium balconies are nice but quite a bit more so the BD category seems to be our go to cabin type when we choose a balcony.

Be aware there are no midship stairs on the Grand so you either have to use the elevators, which sometimes get very crowded or even have lines or use the forward or aft stairs. So, you may want to pick your room accordingly ... depending on how much walking you want to do to and from your cabin.

I'm a big fan of the lido deck balconies as they are close to the gym, spa, sauna, spa pool, main pools, and on the same deck as the lido buffet. It depends where you spend your time onboard. If you enjoy being close to upper deck activities and Venus, you'll want to be higher up to avoid the elevators and stairs. If not, caribe deck are better. Also, the grand has no staircase adjacent to the central elevators above deck 7.

If you are a light sleeper try to get a balcony closer to the elevators on lido deck as sometimes you can hear treadmills one deck up if you are very far forward.

Seeing the old Prinsendam reminded me that I have several page article from a news magazine about her sinking as well some layout blueprints. The blueprints are probably 24x32 so I can't really scan them, but I can try taking a high-res photo and uploading if folks are interested.

thanks for posting

Just saw the second post with cabin photos - looks like the Category K cabins deck 7 aft got a bathroom refresh ... curious if ALL insides got this or only selected ones........

I'm wondering the same thing as well. Could it be that many cabins that are shower only got the update? Or perhaps those on the same decks as suites. Maybe they are updating one by one, ongoing.

Keep in mind, that rain in Alaska, for the most part, is similar to the Pacific Northwest in that there may be constant off and on showers that aren't very intense. "Rain" has a relative meaning..ive read thag some Pacific NW native american tribes have up to 40 words for different types of rain.

We are going on a longer cruise on the Amsterdam and would really to see how the renovated Vista suites look now.

I am not interested in the public areas as we will see that soon enough.

But how the Vista suite looks now is very important for a variety of reasons to prepare properly for a longer cruise. E.g. what and how many outlets and their locations; location of the TV, etc.

 

Some of these things might not be as important for shorter cruises but can became very important if the cruise is 82 days or even longer.

 

It is very unfortunate that HA does not provide this information automatically. But with so many cruise critic members having traveled recently or are going to travel in the very near future my hope is that somebody documented the new Vista suites and is willing to share it before our trip starts at the end of September ;)

For your concern about the outlets, i got one of the "monster outlets" that you can find on this page which has outlets for 2 or 3 plugs as well as USB and fits in tight spots really well.

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/home/packing-list

Halfacts’ should still be current

Link to the site with dining plan:

http://halfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/VODM.pdf

I appreciate that they charge to use the internet, that keeps people off that are just checking facebook/instagram and those of that use it to stay connected to the office while on vacation can get a decent speed.

Here here, from one Coloradan to another. If it was free, everyone would use it and make it slow - there is only so much bandwidth that can be provided on a ship.

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/home/cclstockcredit

Link to form and info.

The stock pays a nice dividend as well. So dividend + OBC = a lot of free spending money for your cruise. I think the cost of mine has been recouped thus far between cruising on Princess and HAL - but i did buy it at 35 so that helped too.

For the shareholders, just remember, when PCL is hawking the Art sales etc and other stuff, and as annoying as they are, they are paying you as well.

I listened to a bit of the last shareholder call...right now CCL is hitting about $143 per person/per day in cruise fare and the avg passenger spends $54 per day in on-board expenses. Those are good barometers for you when booking a cruise - if the cost is more than 143 per day (assuming you are in a upper tier OV or lower tier Balcony where the midpoint is) then you are paying a premium. As for onboard spending, not sure if that includes tips, but still, I dont think I've ever spent an average 54 per day. That would be 756 for 2 people on a 7 day cruise! But hey, as a shareholder, thanks for those that do and who also spend more.

Note that when far out, HAL website may show different available cabins than travel agent sites, sometimes overlapping but not always. I use both and then call my travel agent and ask for a cabin I might have seen on the HAL website.

We sailed the Grand Turk variant of the internary on the K-dam in 2017, excellent itinerary with kids and lots of beach times. There is a good playground on Half Moon Cay but gets hot in the afternon. We had a late arrival and departure from San Juan which was very nice and walked around El Moro with the kids. They have a free shuttle bus that goes around old town. We hadn't been to St Thomas in 10 years and found its improved a lot, however, we went before the hurrican so I hope they have had a chance to recover.

We were going to do the itinerary with Amber Cove next year on the Caribbean Princess but something came up and had to cancel. I don't think you can go wrong either place. In my opinon, from what I've seen, Grand Turk gets a bit of an edge in that it has an actual beach very near the pier so there is no tender wait - and they also have a pool close too. The beach on the south side of the pier is less crowded but doesnt have any loungers. If I recall, most of the loungers on the main beach require payment.

Still a great itinerary. We wanted to do it in 2020 but chose a brand new ship that only goes to St Thomas, St Kitts, and Princess Cays instead.

The Victoria water taxis are fun and offer transportation or tours. You can get tickets in the main harbor...near the empress hotel.

In other ports, a little research will show you there are a plethora of short hikes that can be done right off the pier. I did a great, bit hard, hike out of skagway.

In my past cruises...I've always found the Amsterdam to be a special ship. Decor and entertainment aside, the staff seems to be some of the best in the fleet. The ship always cozy, but roomy with relatively few passengers and a great passenger space ratio. I recall the first feeling I had going into a cabin, it just felt so comfortable...and I hadnt even laid on the bed yet. The Amsterdam is truly special but I can't pinpoint what makes her that way, there's just something about the whole experience that makes her a wonderful ship.

We initially booked Air Canada thru EZ Air because it had the cheapest direct flight. Twice' date=' I was able to reduce the price thru EA Air and keep the same flights. The prices have since gone up considerably.

I suspect I got the sale announcement because we have a booking with them...but the sale price is still $25 more each way than we paid with EZ Air.

 

I've never flown with them before; trusting it is essentially like any other airline.[/quote']

 

I remember reading something a while back that AC, as well as some other airlines evaluate the number of times someone looks at a flight into the price of the flight - so if everyone is looking it may be inflating the prices.

 

One other note, if your desired flight is on Air Canada Express - formerly Jazz, it may not be included. Also looks like flights for the sale are in the fall and winter.

I recall seeing several workers wearing blue jumpsuits with "Ocean Medallion" patches or other swag on the Star last December after her drydock. There were even a few "techy" looking chaps on the Ruby this last march walking around with laptops with similar swag, but not in jumpsuits. If anything, it seems like the group is still around and has a different working group than most other PCL staff. One of the guys on the Star was sitting in Shooters late one night watching football really going through the scotches and cigars with what sounded like coworkers, either ***** or not. He seemed a bit frustrated with the program, but didn't say anything memorable.

Repo from where to where? (I don't want to try finding it on the website ;) since I'm avoiding trying to deal with the new website)

Sorry, SF to Vancouver. Part of the longer Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver voyage

I don't even think you can find it on their website now.

I would imagine most people won't even open this thread because, honestly, not many people jump on these re-positioning cruises (but I seem to keep coming back). But after calling HAL, I find out that this voyage has sold out nearly a year before it sails. I understand that its a continuation of a canal voyage, but still. I'm wondering if it has a large group going or partial charter? Any other thoughts?

Have a look at my blog, we went in March from LA to SF to Monterrey to San Diego to Ensenada. Plenty to see and do - you really need multiple days in each place, however its a good sample regardless. The one thing I would change if we went again was to go when you are going, in the fall as the weather is usually very good. We had a lot of rain which I didn't mind, but it made being outside a bit more of a challenge.

Here's the first part:

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/live-blogging-from-ruby-princess-day-2.html

We cruise on Princess and HAL mostly but just got back from a Disney ship. I'm writing a review in multiple parts and should finish it later this week.

You can take a look here:

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2018/05/disney-wonder-coastal-post-trip-reivew.html

All in all a good experience, but I had very high expectations for Disney and it wasn't really any better than what I experience on Princess. The biggest thing for me is I found the service on DCL to be almost the same as Princess - maybe just a smidge better.

We have booked for the Oct 18 SHanghai to LA and paid for a balcony room. My agent says we have been upgraded to BA free. What is the difference of the 4 different codes for the balcony rooms?

 

Thank you

BA is the top balcony cabin category and are mostly based on location in the ship. BA's are typically on decks 9, 10, and 11 near the bump out, midship. Not all BA's are the same however as the few on deck 9 have larger balconies. It's far enough out that you could get another upgrade which would be to a B1 or B2 balcony cabin which have large balcony areas - beyond that would be a minisuite.

There are a few photos of some of the tables and machines on the Star Casino here: http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/pictures-of-star-post-drydock-121617.html

Ironically, princess is reducing capacity in Seattle and moving that to Vancouver in 2019. The blog post discusses it a bit and looks at the weekly capacity from SEA, SFO, and VAN. Princesses biggest gear ever from VAN combined with the lowest SEA capacity since 2014. Much can be related to the Royal coming to VAN and the Star replacing one of the Crown class ships in SEA.

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/princess-alaska-deployment-for-2019.html?m=1