Cruise Raider

What a great review .. balanced and very informative. So sorry you got CoVid. I hope your symptoms aren’t severe. I have to confess, I have definitely been one of those passengers that haven’t gone to dinner even though I have reservations. I used to go to tell them if I won’t be making it. I am going to go in my app and cancel these reservations for my future cruises now. Thank you for the reminder on how it impacts others.

We also have had many great cruise on the Ruby! Of note, we’ve sometimes found future menus available on the app over the last couple of years and then sometimes not. We’ve also seen menus but then when we go, the selections are sometimes different. It may have to do a with supply and demand and what is on hand. We’ve also experienced where a lecturer hasn’t shown up on the talks later in the cruise but found they’ve been filled in with some other great event. There was a great naturalist on one of our cruises on the Ruby and was looking forward to her next lecture but found out she was traveling with her mother, who got sick and they had to disembark. The new lecture was scheduled and given by the entertainment director about life in England in the 1800’s. It was really quite fascinating, even though we only went because there was nothing else on our schedule. Anyway, entertainers do get sick and are asked to be confined to their cabins or have emergencies at home. It happens. I’ve noticed the paper napkins disappear over the last couple of year and Princess is definitely working on reusables and recyclables only. They are really making an effort in getting rid of the single use products. I still see the paper napkins available for cocktails and I always tell them, you can reuse my same napkin, as I don’t need a new one. I know that when in Glacier Bay, nothing that is not reusable is given out. Not even paper cups for coffee. I actually wish the coffee was only served in porcelain cups. I know they can break but I much prefer it than drinking my coffee out of a paper cup. Of note, we know they have to separate the trash and found it interesting that those little straw picks (for olive spears in your cocktail) have clogged up the machines that grind the food so are being eliminated. We always try to separate our recyclables from non recyclables for our room steward ahead of time. I’ve seen trash bins up at the pool area that are separated into bottles and cans and trash. I honestly can’t remember if I’ve seen them recently. Same goes for the drop boxes .. I just can’t remember if I’ve seen them lately. It made me laugh at myself when I mentioned there were no longer kiosks where I could print out my folio. As my dad used to say, “good thing that wasn’t a rattlesnake” as it was right behind me. 😆 I fully support the reduced waste, though as I can just look it up in my app and save on paper waste. Yea, the Crown Grill always seems to be booked more fully than Sabatini’s. If you cruise on a Royal class ship, it will probably be The Catch that is the restaurant that is booked up! I prefer it over the Crown Grill. I used to love Sabatini’s but since they’ve changed their menu about a year ago, I no longer have a favorite dish there. Oh well!

I’ve seen those disappear about a year ago.

They do not.

Bravo! 👏 so happy that worked out for you and now, bon voyage!

Not sure if you are talking about this year or not but think it’s all sold out until late April of this year. So, the ship is excellent and Princess does have all sorts of activities for the kiddos. Besides having a kids club, an arcade, basketball, swimming, etc, they also have games and contests in the piazza, up by the pool, on demand movies, a great kids menu, etc. It is very crowded on spring break .. don’t know any other way to put it. The starboard side of the casino has smoking but you can enter the casino from deck 7 or on the port side of the ship to avoid it. There are various areas on the ship where the smoke from the casino is really bad but, I’ve never smelled it once in the theater. I’d pick a deluxe balcony or mini suite if there are 3 or 4 of you in the room. There are some decent deals if you pick an obstructed one midship on deck 8. Some even have balconies with enough room for 4 people, the rest of the balconies are super tiny. The premium desserts are a big old sugar bomb .. my DH gets one every so often, I’ve never tried one as they are just too much sugar. I’m not sure if you could get extras for those without a package but start with two and see how it goes. Maybe ask for an extra dish so you can share.

We recently went on a 5 night sailing and were invited to a cocktail party .. it was quite elegant and the top officers were there to visit with the guests. So, I think they may be switching it up a bit.

From the official US passport agency site .. Urgent travel applies under the emergency passport rule.

Good job and bon voyage!

I took a hike through a national forest last year and was told it was illegal to take an eagle feather from the park. I didn’t know if it was folklore but I think you’ve confirmed it is true.

It is actually for life or death emergencies or immediate travel.

Now, I do, too! 😂

His is not a closed loop cruise.

It looks like you will need to get an expedited passport renewal or be denied boarding and possibly no refund. A birth certificate will be useless for this itinerary. Some countries only require 3 months of validity left of your US passport by the end of the cruise but, you won’t even be make that. I’d get an appointment asap for that expedited renewal. Sorry to say, it will be pricey but cheaper than losing your money for what you’ve paid for that cruise.

Interesting. I will have to make note of that in case I book a cruise on the Discovery up in Alaska.

For the embarkation lunch?

In the last year, we’ve had four incidences of wheels being broken off our luggage when we’ve checked it (both at the airport and on the cruiseship). We now try to minimize that however we can, which means packing lighter so we just carry it onboard. It may seem like a hassle, and it is, but it’s also a hassle to try to wheel around luggage once a wheel or two goes missing.

While I usually do most things over email with my CVP, she asks for 48 hours for a return call. However, I also put urgent or non urgent in the subject line and if it sates urgent (I never abuse that), she will get back to me that day.

So, this is a weird little quirk but I swear that I sleep better when my head faces forward. I really think there is something to it even though a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me. Anyway, we booked late once and got a room where my feet faced forward. After 2 sleepless nights, I asked for an extra twin duvet. I placed my pillow on top of the queen duvet and slept like a baby with my head facing forward. Great news is, I think both of us slept better because there was no covers being pulled and we never even felt any movement when the other one of us got up in the middle of the night! We found a solution!

I can’t speak for every port but lately, I’ve seen people in San Francisco bringing their pieces of luggage onboard with them. I’ve not really seen that in the past before CoVid but I always see it now.

@XBGuy .. that is phenomenal! My DH is almost always the ones to spot whales but when we were traveling down to Mexico a couple of months ago, I saw one breach and he missed it. It was so exciting!

One time, we went with my twin adult nephews on a cruise to celebrate their graduation. We got the room right next to ours and had the balcony divider opened so they could easily come over to our room if they needed something. Anyway, later down the road, my sister told me that they were kind of irked they didn’t have a big bed like ours was, as theirs were set up as twin beds. To this day, I still don’t think they believed me that it is exactly the same beds, just pushed together. We had twin beds that could not be pushed together on the old Sky Princess on our first Princess cruise. I didn’t mind it at all. but, then I’ve had a twin bed on cruises when I traveled with girlfriends .. dang, they are so small, I was thinking I would fall right out of bed several times during the night. I’m sure I was smaller back in the 1990’s than I am now.

That is exactly what we did, as well, even in our home port, as it was just so convenient. Plus, I could get the bottles I wanted vs what was included in the package, like one Princess ship offered recently. The only caveat to those packages is that they were only made available on a cruise of 10 days or more but, we ended up getting it on some 7 day cruises, too. I think now, they are really more interesting in selling the plus or premier packages. Generally, they work for us but not if they don’t have any decent wine to available by the glass board. It really is sometimes just like a game of chance. To complicate our decision even more, the premier package has more value on the ships with a few casual dining options. It’s worth a lot more to us on the Royal Class than on the Crown class ships.

Exactly my thoughts on it, too. We love good wine and so mostly book the premier package but even with that, on the Diamond Princess, even with the premier package, it was hard to get a great wine, unless we bought it by the borrow. It kind of defeats the purpose of getting the beverage package. The wine bottle packages were a welcome benefit but, if they aren’t consistently available, then it doesn’t do us much good. Anyway, we bought two one case wine carriers on wheels so may consider taking our own wine when traveling out of our home port and just paying the corkage instead of getting the package.

The northern lights would be absolutely amazing. I have a funny story about Alaska. One year, we went with friends in mid to late Sept out of Seattle. It was one of my favorite cruises of all time but the weather was atrocious. We were out there in the worst conditions but there were just certain things that couldn’t be done. The Captain disallowed going out on any and all open decks one day with the winds being 100 MPH and in the inside passage, no less. So many of the passengers and even some of the crew were sick. On the day we went to the glacier, we tried to tough it out on deck as we had an inside cabin and there was sleet hitting our faces with such force, it just stung any area of skin that was uncovered, which wasn’t much. Fast forward to the following year, albeit two weeks earlier in September and we took pictures and sent them to our friends that were with us the previous year. The photos were of us in our bathing suits the day we were at the glacier. 😆 Their only response was, ‘No way!’.