Darklady

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

 

By the way, you can see how much they know what they are doing when you look at this sentence in the press release:

 

The Share Purchase Programme will run from June 28, 2021, and is currently expected to end no later than January 31, 2021.

Neat!  So my next cruise might happen last year, then.... not sure a DeLorean would be too good at sea, though....

We were actually pretty bummed on our last cruise that we couldn't get our pins (but we're also pin collectors in general... I blame Disney... and Masons... lol)... especially since the stupid reason was that the CC desk was only staffed for 2 hours per day on a massive ship (Regal), and it was combined CC & Future Cruise, so there was always a long line, since we sailed during a future cruise booking promotion.

Some of the "empty" cabins are "Guarantee" bookings... where you book a cabin category, but not a specific level within the category or a specific cabin.  We used to always do guarantee bookings because we knew we wanted a balcony, but didn't really care what level of cabin in the balcony category... several times we paid base balcony price and got upgraded to top balcony category.... but we didn't know our cabin assignment until about a week before sailing.  Lots of people like to play the upgrade game and book guarantees in the hopes of getting a better cabin.

For your original question... all else being equal, I would always book balcony over interior... but I'm also claustrophobic and we don't generally partake in group activities, so it's nice for us to have somewhere to sit and enjoy the view without having to fight for tables/chairs.  That's us.  Also, all else being equal, why not go for a "free upgrade"?

However, all else isn't equal.  These two ships are VERY different. (We have cruised both of them, although it's been a good few years since we were on Caribbean Princess, and Regal we were on last February.)  The Regal is HUGE, and can be confusing to get around sometimes with some areas only accessible from one side or the other.  We also found the "promenade" disappointing, and the theatre was nowhere near big enough for the capacity of the ship. But... the stone-baked pizzeria overlooking the Piazza is AMAZING (there's still Slices up on deck, but the pizza at Antonio's is far superior and, although it looks like an "extra", it's included in no-extra-cost dining).  Also, the buffet on Regal is enormous and several times we ended up somewhere completely different than we expected. lol  (and no, we're not elderly or generally prone to confusing directions). 

The Caribbean Princess is smaller, easier to navigate, but because it's smaller and older has less "stuff".  Fewer shops, a smaller Atrium. I understand the buffet on the Caribbean Princess has been recently re-formatted with the refurb and doesn't appeal to some, but does appeal to others... it's an unknown quantity for us.

We find cruising for us is less about the ports and more about time at sea... but that's us.  You know you and your teen best... are you looking for adventure?  Cultural exploration?  Beaches?  Ship amenities?  the Spa? (The Lotus Spa on the Carib is high up and has views... the Spa on the Regal is at water level almost, bit also has the Enclave)

2 hours ago, FloaterBoat said:

Tbh, thy don't usually because of hurricane season.  the waters can be really treacherous during the summer months.

This!  And there are always long lines of people complaining if a port gets skipped or the order of ports gets changed... a Caribbean cruise in hurricane season is almost guaranteed to need adjustments (even if a storm isn't strong enough to warrant a name, there are often enough with sufficient strength to disrupt tendering or make porting hazardous)... even early November can still be dicey in terms of rough seas and potential re-routing.

1 hour ago, PRNole47 said:

Don't know if it makes a difference, but the Nov 3rd and 5th are arrivals at Lauderdale from London. The earliest departure from Lauderdale I could find is 11/6 for the Panama Canal and 11/10 for the Southern Carib and Curacao.

You're right, I misread my search results.... still stands that Princess has been sailing from Port Everglades for decades and has several cruises scheduled to depart from there in November... so assertions that only party ships sail out of Florida and Princess doesn't are false.

17 hours ago, oskidunker said:

Most people will cruise from Florida and wont care. I doubt the cruise lines will have any trouble filling ships. I would not go from Florida but I think we are in the minority. Its the fun ships. Drinkers and partiers could care less. You don't see Cunard leaving from there nor Princess, yet, butI believe they will. Stay tuned. Cruisers could send a message by not going , though I doubt this happens. They probably wont tell us if bookings are low. 
 

princess does have a cruise from Florida on Nov 21

Princess has been cruising out of Florida for years, as has Celebrity.. not just the "fun ships" and "drinkers and partiers"??  Princess has cruises departing Port Everglades this cruise season as early as November 3rd.

I suspect the decision was made less for the cost of them, and more because the medallions are loyalty level colour coded already. (now that all the ships are "medallion class" ships)

@New Cruiser Girl 2 Whereabouts outside London?  My in-laws are in New Hamburg

3 hours ago, CruzeQueen2 said:

Good luck! Hope you have some books to read, as well. Use maps, look up the countries that are in the news. Draw, paint, listen to different styles of music, ...have fun!

 We're keeping the kids sheltered from the news as much as possible (they're not-quite-6 and barely-7 and the older one is already prone to anxiety 😞  But we've been listening to music (thankfully our in-house collection is already extensive and diverse), and reading lots (although we're going to run out of books soon... and everything at the library (ebooks online) that they'd be interested in is at least a 3 week wait.  Well... hopefully they'll learn patience and to not be picky from this.  lol

City has declared a State of Emergency.  All non-essential businesses have been ordered closed.  Unfortunately hubby is essential.  I expect the order (rather than request) to stay in our homes will come shortly.

March Break officially over, and today starts adventures in Homeschooling.  So far we've watched half a video about penguins, a third of a video about sloths, played educational online games for a half-hour each (mostly math oriented), and now the kids have abandoned ship for the story-time upstairs with Granny (we house-share with my parents... and the only one leaving the house is my husband as much as possible).  Mum isn't a very good cruise director, apparently.  So, off comes the CD hat and on goes head chef... off to take lunch orders.

Another Canadian here... in Toronto.  Our province declared a State of Emergency a few days back.  All public facilities and attractions are closed (libraries, museums, the zoo, etc.).  Bars, clubs, hair and nail salons have been asked to close.  Restaurants and coffee shops are restricted to take-out and delivery.  Social distancing is in effect and we are asked to not gather in groups of more than 10, 5 would be better.  There's 6 of us in the house, so that's that.  Grocery stores are limiting how many can enter at one time and most are restricting the first operating hour to seniors and "vulnerable" folks.  Food delivery services are booking a week or more out at this point.  And still people are being stupid and not taking this seriously.

We just finished our March Break, now we have a mandatory 2 week school closure... but I fully expect they'll cancel the rest of the year.  That bums me out because my oldest (grade 1) has struggled with school (combination of boredom and social isolation) and this year he has a really amazing teacher.  But... we do what we have to do, and as long as we have our health we're ahead of the game.  I have relatives in Ireland who aren't doing so well... and the in-laws are in another city, close enough that the kids want to go see them, but we can't and they're having a hard time understanding why. *sigh*

But we're battening down the hatches and riding it out as best we can!

You can always save a note on your phone... then you can still access it if the intranet is down as long as your phone has a charge...