Cruise Raider

I really think it may have more to do with the ages of the passengers onboard and where they come from. When we were younger, we couldn’t understand how people wanted to eat dinner at 6:00 PM, much less at 4:30 PM. Our preferred time to start dinner was at 8:00 or even 8:30 PM. Now that we are older, we prefer the earliest dining time available. At home, we’re known to be done with dinner by 4:00 PM and wish the specialty restaurants would offer the same menu at lunchtime, even if it’s at the same cost. Perhaps that is why the cruisleines are trying to attract more and more younger crowds, as their key demographic is aging. Anyway, it may be all anecdotal but we tend to see more people that are our age (seniors) seated for the earlier dining times than we used to when we ate later in the evening. Lately, we’ve skipped out of even going to the MDR for dinner and just get little snacks at either the PES lounge, food delivery, the buffet or at Alfredo’s for a bowl of soup. We have larger lunches and smaller dinners with each passing year.

All the way around .. never have we had a better time on a cruise!

I feel the same about your posts. You may have seen us .. my DH is the one with the Santa beard and pony tail .. a remnant of not being able to get his hair cut during CoVid. He just kept it so he can play Santa for the kids at Christmastime.

AstroFlyer, our cabin was located very near yours, yet we never met you! 😞 We were able to meet Thrak and both of you are long term posters here on this forum. Anyway, was your room steward Nerwin. He was wonderful but never intrusive! It was an outstanding cruise, to be sure .. the one to beat!

I know a couple of people that have won a free cruise .. one was my DH!

Thank you … Best cruise ever!

He was going home today, as a matter of fact.

The best red wine that is sold by the glass is Caymus and I believe it’s about $10 over the premier package limit. I could be a bit off on that estimate. The Seghesio Zinfandel, Grgich Hills Merlot and Silverado Cab are the best reads falling within the premier package. The Rombauer Chardonnay is no longer sold be the glass but believe you may be able to find it by the bottle for about $75 with a 25% discount if you have a package. Better reds are definitely easier to find than good whites, IMO, but I am a fan of a good Chardonnay, which is rather hard to find by the glass onboard.

I know you already know the answer to this! Unless there are some dramatic (very dramatic changes) in negotiations between Israel, Iran and Palestine in the very near future, you can count on stops in Israel being canceled.

We have run into her daily and thank you for the reminder to say hi for you! I’m sure we will be able to do that today. The whole trip has been absolutely incredible! It’s going to be ‘the one to beat’! when we are home, I will try to write up an entire review.

We’ve gotten and have accepted move over offers in the past. It’s one of the best offers ever and they go very quickly! We are usually very flexible with our travel plans and rarely fly any distance to our embarkation port and that’s usually on Southwest Airlines when we do. Basically, they give you a cruise with the same perks and move you to a cruise with a similar itinerary in a similar category and when you cruise again, they provide you with refundable OBC of your original cruise fare. If you are flexible and don’t have your heart set on a specific date, jump on it quickly! Others will do that if you don’t.

Again, we agree that Captain Tony and Cole are both exceptional! Before the CoVid shutdown, I never realized the captains played such a big part of our overall experience onboard but they really do. Captain Tony worked tirelessly to make this total solar eclipse cruise so incredible for everyone, the crew included. He worked tirelessly with the Navigation team, both onboard and shoreside to get the best positioning in the path of totality where the clouds did not interrupt our views. Job so well done! The whole team made it such a memorable day. There were even officers and crew on deck handing out water and sunscreen during the morning hours. BTW, there does seem to be a respiratory bug going around onboard as a few of the crew members have contracted it. I always am stunned that they are not sick more often with so many passengers bring new infections onboard every cruise and they live with no real downtime for months on end in such close quarters. Knock on wood, we seemed to be able to avoid it.

In my experience, there would be no reason you’d notice any difference on your cruise.

We are currently on the Discovery and while I sure your complaints are valid, we could say the same things as the OP has noted except for the dishes in the hallways. I can’t stand that so, very happy we haven’t seen that even once so far on this cruise. I am also pretty amazed that people bring their pets onboard. Perhaps it was a dog that could sense blood sugar levels but I highly doubt it .. just my assumption but it probably doesn’t stray too far from reality! And as much as I love everything about this ship, the smoke from this casino is the worst I’ve experienced. I can’t even sit in Crooners and enjoy a cocktail and the music with that smoke pouring out of the casino. It’s just awful. The beds on the Discovery are definitely not the ones we’ve found on other Princess ships but we ask for an extra duvet and that does the trick for us.

We’ve met a few that really know their wines but they are still very limited to what they can recommend onboard as the stock is so limited. When the only Chardonnays they have onboard by the glass are Canyon Road (total swill) or Flowers (no depth or uniqueness), how can they really make a decent recommendation? They are pretty good about recommending some reds they have by the glass .. maybe not all of them but for the most part, we’ve had pretty good luck when trying their recommendations. Most of the good California reds, we already know from drinking them at home but their recommendations have been spot on.

I believe they wear a black suit now, at least in the specialty restaurants. We have not gone to the MDR for dinner in quite some time. Their limitations are subject to the wines they have available onboard. But, they do take courses to meet the requirements to be considered a sommelier.

If you ar3 directly under a carpeted area of the Horizon Court, you should be fine. If you are under the pool deck, you may regret it.

Tom, it was actually on my invoices so, I got the perks on two cruise I booked but I just don’t feel as though it is right to penalize patrons due to too many bookings with said line. I realize it is marketing 101 but it just feels wrong!

Just buy it while onboard if you don’t receive the half off price beforehand. Problem solved .. very simple.

We have found them on the Royal, Majestic, Discovery, Ruby and the Crown.

There has been a significant change in the last two years. Yes, they now know their wines. The only thing holding them back might be the selections onboard.

They now have sommeliers and they are quite good

Of note, w are currently on the Discovery and that nonsense has been disabled.

Spot on! I love having the package!

Right! I keep hearing from other passengers that they feel as though the package isn5 worth it for them because they can’t drink 15 drinks a day but feel entitled to those 15 drinks if they did purchase the package. It is not the point and has never been the point.