Scottdalfonso

Kids IN bars on a ship is fine, and even encouraged.  Kids AT the bar on a ship (and especially on land) I am fine with limiting. I never let my kid sit at the bar for more than a minute or two while he's ordering a soda or something. MAYBE if i's a bigger bar and there are seats available he can hang... but I think, in the most part, the physical bar should be left for adults. Kids can sit at the tables, high tops and surrounding areas IN and around the bar. Especially bars like Playmakers that might only have 7-8 seats, leave those for people of age. 

5 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

Princess has been my 13 year old's son favorite cruise line since he started cruising at 3, and he doesn't even do kid's or teen's club. Now that Princess is running the 3rd and 4th person in the same cabin free promotion, it's a no brainer to take a kid with us.

We do it regardless of the promotion, of course, because we can't imagine vacationing without him. 🙂

Nice. Yeah our kid doesn't even do the kids club stuff either. He is sailing with us in July on Royal and trying out MSC with us in December, since he's already missing school for the one in December,he couldn't do the Princess in Aug\September. So we thought it was a good time to try one on our own. I know I'll be saying "oh man, he woulda loved that, oh he would want to do this..." the whole week, BUT it will be nice to enjoy the adult areas of a ship for a few days. 

13 hours ago, J13C85 said:

When I was a child, my beloved grandmother used to make me "fizzies" (99% club soda 10% OJ). Have been drinking these ever since (I'm nearly 60 now). In restaurants on board I will order a Pelligrino/Perrier and a small OJ, do the 90/10 split and have my "fizzie" BTW these are very easy to order at any ship bar as they all have soda water and OJ.

Like a mocktail mimosa, lol! 

This was great info. We are doing our first Princess after 6 RC cruises, we have a 12 yr old and actually decided to make this our first adult only cruise because we were worried he'd be super bored. We are hoping we really like the cruise (and everything we have seen about this ship has been great) and then maybe we will book it again for next year when he's 13 and would probably enjoy the teen area a little more. 

A smoke free casino is one thing, going completely smoke free might be rough.  People keep bringing up bars and casinos on land going smoke free and people still going...that's because the smokers can walk out front and still smoke. Can't do that on a ship, and smokers being stuck on a ship with no where to smoke will just lead to people sneaking smokes in bathrooms, balconies and other places. SO While I'd love a smoke free casino, I think kicking smokers off the ship all together will be a little harder. 

19 minutes ago, Sizzlechest said:

No, not at the bar. The seats surrounding the bar are fine.

Ok, well that's the same as Rising tide... there is no physical bar to sit at, it's all tables. So the same rule applies. I'm with you that kids shouldn't be hanging AT a bar, but the lounge areas around the bar should be fine on a ship, and rising tide is all lounge, no bar... I DO think since it's such limited space that maybe they shouldn't be allowed by themselves or if it's packed, but if there's a table and a dad and kid sit there and each order a drink of some kind, I don't see the problem.  I love your Jerky boys name and pic, by the way...lol. 

5 minutes ago, Sizzlechest said:

 

If all of Playmakers were a bar, that would be true.

But it has that same disclaimer...which is just in regards to alcohol service. The whole Schooner bar is a bar, as well... are kids not allowed in there?? 

I brought my kid a few times, but only if there were plenty of seats. Just like any bar, on or off a ship, I don't think kids should sit AT the bar, but the tables or areas around the bar are open game on a ship... which is why I think Rising tide is fine since there is no actual bar to sit at. 

This....

Cool, thank you! I'll check later tonight or tomorrow and see if it pops up. Yeah, I assumed once you get an upgrade, that's it for the bidding process. But I'm glad to see you got it back so quickly- I see stories on Princess and RC about some people not finding out until right up to sail date (and I'm a week into waiting for a response on a Mid-July cruise on Royal)  

33 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I am very pleased to report that we received an upgrade from a GTY deluxe balcony (cabin had not yet been assigned) to a mini-suite for our upcoming Enchanted Princess sailing in August. We put in a bid that worked out to $15 per person per day, which I think is a very reasonable price for the larger cabin, ESPECIALLY the larger shower. Had we booked the mini-suite directly at the time we booked the deluxe balcony, the price difference would have been nearly twice as much.

When did you get the initial bid email? I'm exactly 85 days out and it says that's when they can open up for bidding but mine still says not available when I check on the website- I got my room through a slightly different way than normal, so I may not get an offer, but just figured I'd see if it pops right up at 85 days or if it may take a few days

Sorry..it's actually listed under the "summary" tab on the site or app....

1 hour ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

No, it appears the system in the UK is different. My link for bidding was via email which took me to the sliders. I presume you can check cabin availability in the States. I do it via going through the booking process as if I am a new customer, it's a bit time consuming as I have to keep going back to different grade cabins. But it allows me to see availability of all grades. Whether the offers for upgrades vary per person I don't know as we booked for our cruise some time ago and the price has increased for our cabin by some £1300. Maybe that's why the jump to a higher grade is so great, I don't know. Like I say, I was expecting ,maybe £200 per person extra for an upgrade from an inside to a balcony cabin or even a sea view. But the difference was £700 per person sea view and £1300 per person for a balcony.

Sounds like the same system... they email you in the US as well, and then you have the sliders to bid, but there is ALSO a way to check if you are eligible through the website, it's in the Extras area of the website. And no, we are not able to see the availability other than the way you are doing it. But remember, the available rooms aren't always the ones being bid on- people upgrade, move or cancel at the last minute which is why it can take up until cruise day to win a bid. 

The one sports channel in the room is a "big events sports" channel, and will very likely show the NBA finals

1 minute ago, Old lady cruiser said:

I am not seeing a lot of reviews on the infinite balconies on Icon.  Are they wonderful or just ok?

We are in a the process of booking and always love our balcony so need feedback.

Thanks

Most reviews seem to be more negative... I think I would be fine with them, but I guess the main issue is that once you open the big window to get the fresh air and to look out, your AC cuts off, so the room gets very hot very quickly depending on where you are sailing. Otherwise, they seem to be almost like having a porch with a big window. 

42 minutes ago, Mark C. said:

I think it's Boho House and from what I've seen it has been on the maps prior. 🤷‍♂️

Ok..but WHAT is it? I thought the buffet and the YC restaurant were the only places to eat besides the food trucks. So what is Boho house?

What is the Baha House right below Seakers, listed as a restaurant,...I haven't seen that name in any posts before. 

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

The main factor that has prevented us from sailing Royal in the past is not being able to bundle a drink package in the cruise fare and not knowing exactly how much the drink package would cost us, because they don't seem to have a consistent price per person per day across all sailings. We started sailing with NCL for our first cruises and they had the drink package included in the free at sea prices. Then after COVID, I started sailing with Celebrity's Always Included rates. With our one Princess sailing, we booked Princess Plus. And all of our MSC sailings have included wifi and drinks in the booking price. RC's base prices seem soooo high when you factor in having to pay an unknown amount for drinks and wifi.

Fair enough! That's exactly what got us to try MSC, The drinks\wifi package included... that, and the fact that we booked a 7 night, Fantastica balcony with drink packages for all three of us (and wifi for two) to a few ports we haven't been to yet for over a thousand dollars LESS than our upcoming 5 night, Oceanview interior room with NO wifi\drinks included on Royal. We love them, but the pricing has definitely gotten us to start trying other lines, which 2-3 years ago we would've sworn we were "loyal to Royal" 

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I have recently learned the lesson of not judging an entire cruise line by one bad experience on one ship. I had sailed the Emerald Princess through the Panama Canal over Christmas and New Year's of 2022/2023 and it was by far the worst cruise I have ever been on. I finally decided to give Princess another try last month on the Enchanted and while it wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst either, so the day we returned we made final payment on another Enchanted sailing this August.

 

I have been on five MSC cruises and it is currently my favorite cruise line. We have two more booked (October and January) and will likely do many more after that. What I have learned about sailing on several lines now is that is is good to learn to work with, not against, the idiosyncracies of each. And while I might still never sail on the Emerald Princess again, I am glad I gave Princess another shot. I would encourage you to do the same with MSC.

looking through your signature and notice you haven't done RC at all...is there a reason you haven't tried them? As of now, they are the only line I've sailed, with another coming up in 6 weeks.BUT we are trying Princess (Enchanted) in late August and MSC Seascape in December to finally broaden our horizons a little. I LOVE Royal, have had zero issues in quite a few cruises, but REALLY interested in these other two and hoping we like them just as much. We have a pre-teen, which is why RC has been our main go to, we decided to try the Princess sans kid because it just didn't seem to have much for him, but we are bringing him to MSC and any future cruises we try.

That's awesome- just shocked that they offered you a suite, usually it only goes up a few levels from your booked room. Like right now I'm booked for an Ocean view room and only offered a royal up for a Spacious ocean view, a spacious panoramic ocean view, an ultra spacious OV, and an ocean view balcony.  Being offered a suite is awesome, and it's great that you won!! Glad you enjoyed!!! 

9 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

That IS the Royal Caribbean reservations number.

I call 866-562-7625, but yes 762-7626 is also a legit RC#

Thanks! Doing our first cruise with Princess in late August on Enchanted and all of these great reviews are really getting me excited. 

21 minutes ago, BeasleysMom66 said:

 

I don't sail on Princess until January but my experience on Celebrity is that when it comes to NFL/NBA/NHL games especially nationally televised ones the casino bar is usually the guaranteed "go to" option to watch.  I will be keeping an eye on this thread since I will be sailing during NFL playoffs.  

That's what I would've said as well. I haven't sailed Princess yet, BUT something I did learn is that this ship removed the Casino bar recently, which is really odd since alcohol tends to loosen the pockets, but whatever. There are a lot of bars on the ship, hoping maybe the Irish pub or something will have them. 

I know they show some events outside and in your room, we are sailing the week of the first two NFL games. They are prime time Thursday and Friday night games, so they will be nationally televised, not just local games. Will there be an actual bar that shows games inside? I mean, watching it outside will be cool if that's what they do, but just looking for a backup plan that doesn't consist of sitting in my stateroom...I'll just watch the highlights later if that's the case. 

27 minutes ago, ecs66 said:

You're right about that.  People are becoming more uncivilized all the time.  Lowered standards and elevated tackiness is a great achievement.

 

(There are official rules on hats?)

People aren't stuck in the past anymore. They're not uncivilized.  you don't need to wear a suit or dress up to enjoy dinner OR Church. Lucky people even go to church these days, let alone dress up!  There are no hat rules, just people who wear a hat as part of an outfit. Maybe someone is just more comfortable with a hat on.  Most cruises are family vacations meant to be relaxing- if I sail on Cunard, then I'll bring a suit