The Old Fogies

I bring a roll of packing tape to close up the bag. The room steward is always appreciative as everything stays in the bag.

WOW - I never thought of that. I have ALWAYS taken photos of the laundry and the ticket. Last month, I decided for the 1st time in many cruises to send out a pair of my cotton underwear in the laundry. Guess what????? Someone else is wearing my underwear!!!!! They lost them --- AND my good pants came back about 1 1/2 inches shorter than when I sent them!!! :-(. So I am very careful about what I send. Let's face it - they have to dry everything to death in the dryers. At home, we all probably take stuff out of the dryer a little early and hang to finish drying.

We are always in a mini so we have a full tub. I always wash out my underwear every night. Plus I have a lot of blouses/shirts that can be hand washed, hung in the tub overnight to dry and never need ironing! I bring 2 small bottles of detergent with me to the ships. And I bring a long cord and clothes pins with me. If I have to do wash and don't want to dry the stuff to death, I stretch the cord across our "living room" in the mini and hang stuff to finish air drying!

You haven't been devoting enough of your time to this Board :p.

 

That was May's big brouhaha: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2353318&

 

Princess must have received the message because it changed back on the Regal but it didn't keep folks from weighing in on the topic in June: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2369597&

UH OH - you're right - I don't keep up most of the time!!!!! :-(. But maybe someone else didn't hear about that???? Sorry!

You could probably reduce the multiple trips to one per port day

by simply inquiring 'after what time will tomorrow's patters be available?'

 

Or, and I know this uses technology so it won't be acceptable, call the desk before departing on your walk, to ensure success.

Pablo222 - I agree with you! IF they decide to NOT give us Patters on Port Days, we should remind all the Cruise Critic people at the Get-together to CALL the front desk before walking down there to make sure the Patters are available!!! My husband gets back from Texas Hold'em late at night or early in the AM. He has already given Princess money at the poker table. Why can't he read his Patter - like he always does - when he gets into bed????!!!!

Oh - people are going to complain, complain about this idea just like they did with the lack of Cabin door names on the Regal! What if people only want to cruise and NOT get off the ship on Port Days????? What if people don't bring their cell phones on the cruise???? My husband doesn't have one!!!! Some people do NOT want to be bothered with technology when they're on vacation!!!! And give me back my Bridge Lessons on long cruises!!!! Now I'm mad. I REALLY REALLY miss my Bridge Lessons - but I think that Princess stopped them because they don't want more people learning Bridge - that keeps them out of the casino & shops!!!

On our April Transatlantic on the Regal, no one got name tags by their cabin doors. Princess decided to try that to see how people liked it. Everyone complained so I presume that they gave up that idea. Everyone said that if we don't want our name tag by the cabin door ----- just remove it!!!!

Princess has also cut out Bridge lessons on long cruises which many of us loved.

Now they want to cut out the Patter on port days???? How the heck will we know what is happening at night???? I also take photos of the Patter every evening. Then I know what day my photos are taken!!!! How will we know when the tour desk, etc. are open????

I'm on vacation. I don't want to carry around my phone everyday all day to keep track.

I'm with everyone else - Princess can save money by NOT printing all the junk that we don't look at anyway. I don't need another piece of art or jewelry!!!! But that is how they make money from the newer cruisers!

WOW - THANKS for all your replies!!!!! I loved the one about booking an inside cabin. We just did that for our very cheap Christmas cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale. That was our first inside cabin in over 20 cruises and I felt like I was in a dungeon!!!! Not going there again!!! But we have friends who don't mind. Luckily everyone is different so we're not all fighting for outside cabins!

I have already contacted my Travel Agent and asked her to change my cabin to the Starboard side.

I also had this thought - seeing that there are 6 of us paying a lot for cabins, we could actually hire a large van and driver, be driven all over Australia for 25 days, stay in 5 star hotels and have 3 meals a day for what the cruise would cost us AND we would see a lot more of Australia!!!!

THANKS!!! OH - Check out the Sapphire Princess cruise on April 3rd from LA to Japan - 25 days - it's much less than half the price of the Australia cruise - but you have to get a Chinese Visa for the one stop in Shanghai.

Karen

We will be on the Diamond Princess going around Australia in Feb. 2015.

Seeing that there are still cabins available on all sides of the ship, I have a question - or two! We will be sailing from Sydney to Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, Albany, Bunbury, Perth, Bali (Benoa), Darwin, Port Douglas, Airlie Beach, Brisbande to Sydney.

The Mini Suites on most Princess ships get HOT because the extra room in the cabin is over the Tenders and it's not very insulated. Sooo - we try to get a cabin on the side of the ship that sees the least afternoon sun so the cabin doesn't heat up too much.

Am I correct in assuming that in Feb. (which is YOUR summer), the sun is more northerly. Heading west, we'll be on the colder side of Australia -- and heading east, we'll be on the hotter northern side of Australia.. So - maybe we should get a cabin on the right side of the ship - the starboard side - because then we won't be on the hotter side heading east.

Do I have you all confused???

My other thought was that I prefer a cabin that overlooks the dock or town. A friend who just did the trip (on another cruise line) said that it really didn't matter on this cruise - half the time their cabin faced the port and half the time it didn't.

Any suggestions about which side of the ship I should get our cabin on????

THANK YOU for any suggestions!

Karen

Thanks so much for your reply!!!!

One of our group is in a wheel chair and unable to use his legs. That's what we were worried about on the Yangtze tour. The tour company says "No Problem" but others who have been there say it is a problem!!!

The problem with the luggage is that we are taking a 25 day cruise from the States to Japan and then flying to China. Can't imagine being away for that long with only 44 lbs.!!! :(

Someone said that they have taken that cruise before and the banks of the river were VERY steep and it was hard to get down to the boats. One of our group would have trouble if this is so.

Does anyone have any info on this????

And you're all making me nervous with the Pepto, antibiotics, no veggies, etc.!!! We're going to be there for 20 days!!! :eek:

Oh - what airlines were you on??? We are taking interior flights not connected to an international flight. One airline says that we are only allowed 1 suitcast weighing 44 lbs. and 1 carryon of 11 lbs. Did anyone encounter that??? Do they really weigh your carryon for the 11 lbs.???

Thanks!

We will be taking a bus tour from Flam up the mountain to Voss for a ride on the Bergen Railway. Then we get on The Flam Railway and ride down to sea level. What side of the railroad car should we sit on to see the best scenery???

Thanks!

Karen

Your pictures are fabulous!!!! What type of camera do you have???

We're going on the Caribbean Princess in June from Southampton up the west coast of Norway to Honningsvag and back. I need a new camera!!!

Thanks!

Karen

Hi - our friends talked us into taking a 4 week Uniworld River Duchess river cruise through Europe next Aug. 1st. (Amsterdam to Budapest to Bucharest) We LOVE the big cruise ships so we hope we will love this, too!!!

I do have a question!!!!! I know that the river boats use 220 electricity. I am going to buy a dual wattage curling iron. I do have a Converter Set BUT it says "Do not use with ........ battery rechargers"!!!! Soooo - how do I charge my camera batteries???????

Thanks for any help you can give me!!!

Karen

PS - I just hope we don't go stir-crazy on a small boat!!!! My husband will throw me overboard if he doesn't get enough exercise!!!