MacMadame

Yeah, Mr Mac and I don't drink a lot but we do drink some on vacation and he likes his sodas and I like my bottled water when off-ship. Plus, unlike a lot of people, I do plan to use the 2 fitness classes. 🙂 So I made a spreadsheet and the packages make sense if we drink a certain amount but don't if we don't. So how do we predict? My best guess is that the packages will save us a couple of bucks especially since we have a lot of sea days. But we'll see... I agree! I thought the Sun Princess would be too big for me but there are a lot of things about it that have me thinking maybe we should schedule a cruise on her. 😄

I'm booked on the Coral Princess for Jan '25 and it is scheduled for drydock/refurbishment during Oct '24. So taking bookings doesn't mean the ship isn't scheduled for a drydock/refurbishment. If you have a ship you want to book in '25 and you want to check when it's next scheduled for drydock, that information is generally known. Search this site or use Google and you should be able to figure it out. Here's a CC article but it was published last year and doesn't include all the cruise lines: https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/upcoming-cruise-ship-refurbishments

it's not included in the standard *fare*. It *is* included in the Plus and Premier fares. It is also billed to you daily if you have the standard fare. Saying it's not included in US fares is splitting hairs IMO. It's not in the initial fare but it's still in the money that leaves your bank account.

I am confused. Isn't parmesan a type of cheese and isn't cheese made from milk? Which would make it vegetarian but not vegan. No need to start an entire line. Just bring a bag of chocolate with you. 😉

I prefer not to know. 😉 Margine is worse for cholesterol because it has trans fats though.

This isn't really true. Princess is a US company and they include tips in the fare for cruises that originate outside the US. For cruises that originate in the US, they may not be included in the main fare, but they are part of the Plus and Premier packages and you can't remove them. For standard fare, they get added to your folio automatically but you can remove them. Most people don't. So in all those cases except the person with standard fare who removes tips, the tips are included in the amount you pay Princess and there is no need to pay extra unless you want to.

I've actually been thinking about bringing some because I do love a small chocolate when I go to bed. 🤣 It would mostly be a surprise for my husband.

You can ask for a van when you uber. You may have to wait longer but I've done it and it was pretty easy.

But not from smelling it. They'd have to eat it.

Some of the CVPs are located in the UK. But their US headquarters is in Santa Clarita. 🤷‍♂️

I didn't. I called the CVP line and got a random CVP who did my refare. She seemed nice and had a faint British accent which I enjoyed. Very helpful. I stupidly didn't write down her name.

My bread motto is: if a piece of bread is only edible if you slather butter on it, then it's not worth eating. That doesn't mean I won't add butter to good-tasting bread because good bread with a bit of butter is even better.

I got that call last week. The guy said he'd send me an email and he did and he was a real CVP. He wasn't from that ONE company that does Princess Promotions and didn't try to sell me anything.

Probably. 😄

FYI: The Yellow Fever vaccine is not recommended for people 60+. I would ask your tour company. We're doing a tour in Columbia and it is *required* to use US dollars to pay for it. No CC, no local currency. Different tours have different requirements so it pays to check. Is this an upgrade offer? I read here that someone put in multiple upgrade offers and all but one were canceled and then a day later they got the notice that the uncanceled offer was accepted. If it's not an upgrade offer, ignore me. 😄 Close enough. 🤣 Seriously, Miami and FFL are right next to each other and you can fly into either airport if you want.

They were talking about the Plus Beverage Package, not the Plus Fare. I had to read it a few times to make sure I was reading it correctly. Confusing names.

I do agree that tipping culture in the US is out of control. Part of me rejects all these new places to tip and these new base amounts. But I don't want to be one of those "when I was a kid....!" people who complain about tipping the counter person at McDonalds (I never had to do that before!) and how can the basic tip be 18% and not 10% like it used to be when I was a kid? Things change. Bread is no longer 25¢ a loaf either. 🤷‍♂️

Yes and it's not like by not giving them to you, they can make more money. Once you are off the ship, is there a way to order prints? I haven't seen any. I bet they delete the files to make room for future sailings at a certain point if not right away.

That's what we did! We saved almost $1000 and got a better location. I called the CVP line and got some random person whose name I forgot to write down. It was very easy.

Why didn't they take her somewhere and have her print the document? Or did it need to come from China with some sort of seal on it?

Coral Princess, full-transit, east to west. It's a pretty typical Princess itinerary with Cartegena, full transit with the next day stopped in Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and PV in Mexico before heading home to SF. Going east-to-west we have a port-side cabin because not only is that recommended for the locks but it should give us some really good sunsets for the 2nd half of the trip. When deciding on a balcony vs. inside, at the time we booked, the price differential wasn't *that* much. I have looked at downgrading to an inside but there are so few left and they are all in bad locations like butting up to the laundromat.

Could be. Also, just because they have most in the 18-34 range, doesn't mean they don't have a good amount in their 40s, enough to be worth it. Plus, now that I think about it, when they came back after a few years of a format change during the pandemic, they came back as "we're back!" but they play a LOT more classic alternative and stuff popular a few years ago than they used to. So maybe they are changing to match their aging listeners rather than keeping after that younger demographic? I'm not in their target demographics either way. I just thought it was interesting especially since all these ships are sailing at 100% capacity. Why advertise at all? I guess Princess knows something we don't know.

Then what's the point? I guess they figure they are only going to be used to post to the web? I've had good luck res-ing stuff up in Photoshop but I'm not sure you could do that with 16-20kb. That's obscenely small.

And now I'm boosting mine correcting yours. 🤣

For pool exercise, I use something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Flotation-Equipment-Resistance-Adjustable-Accessory/dp/B07PVPRJ4S/ref=asc_df_B07PVPRJ4S/