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ggprincess2004

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Everything posted by ggprincess2004

  1. Serious answer, as I do take your question seriously. The Mexican vanilla tends to have more floral and richer scent than real vanilla extract we can get in grocery stores in the states. I bake, and go through a large bottle, at least, at the holidays. We also use it year round. It flavors a variety of things beyond baked goods, in particular other dessert items including puddings, and coffees, sometimes a dash in some mixed drinks, lots of possibilities. We give it as gifts too, my baking friends and family appreciate it.
  2. Be prepared, bubble wrap, zip lock freezer bags and then wrap in t shirts. Ship home in checked baggage. Simple.
  3. We were going to be away for almost 2 months....and our county jury duty office is a joke. Jury duty is worse than being in kindergarten with all their crazy restrictions, and lack of working beverage options.
  4. It is true, we have been on the Enchanted off and on this winter, and have no issue reaquesting and receiving real butter everytime we request it.
  5. We simply request real butter "salted butter" and get it the dining room. It is also on the buffet. They are rectangular or square pieces. If you manage to have the same waiter in the MDR for the length of the cruise, they will remember.
  6. No, they give you a sticker for the bottle so that when you take it to the dining room it indicates corkage has already been paid.
  7. Yes, Southwest participates, and this service is only available in Ft. Lauderdale and Seattle. Enchanted seems to be doing RT sailings from Ft, Lauderdale for the season.
  8. The math on Plus v. Premier for a wine drinker depends upon how many glasses you are going to drink a day. Are you going to make up the $20 a day difference with the up charge plus 18% tip (on the upcharge amount only) or not? There are other benefits in the premier package beyond the higher $$$ per drink limit, but they are only of value if they are something you would use anyway. Last time I checked, Caymus was $28 a glass, not including tip. Vines uses Reidel crystal to serve the wines, and they don't want the glasses taken elsewhere on the ship, so be kind and request a "to go" wine glass (not Reidel but still glass) if you are going to walk away. Both packages offer a 25% discount on wines by the bottle.
  9. Yes, was able to defer without an issue. The clerk actually asked what month would be most convenient for me. We were moving my parents into a continuing care facility the week jury duty was scheduled. But, that wasn't where you live. Hope you can defer without a hassle. I have also gotten a jury duty summons arrive in the very late afternoon the day before we left for a long trip/cruise. I had to call between flights the next day to tell them we were on the way out of town, and get that one deferred. That was quite easy too. And it was with 2 weeks notice before the scheduled date. We can now go line and enter an excuse - it finally got easier.
  10. We did not ask them to do that, we don't tend to use Sanctuary as DH cannot tolerate much sun at all. However, if you are in GO Lounge, they will have the onboard concierge do that before boarding begins (if you are there before boarding starts). The GO lounge opens about 8 am as I recall.
  11. We received a call 5 or 6 days before sailing and the email with the address about 2 days ahead.
  12. We were not able to book using the app, but the suite concierge took care of our reservation when we got on the ship - not a problem at all.
  13. The GO Lounge is only in Ft. Lauderdale, and it is not inside the port area, just outside by a couple of blocks. It is different from the Suite and Elite waiting area inside the port, after check in is complete (and it really doesn't exist anymore). There are wheelchairs at the pier for embarkation and disembarkation. If you are invited to the GO Lounge they will coordinate that for you. If you have someone in your party using a wheelchair, do not worry about green lane or blue lane, there is a separate check in lane for mobility challenged passengers and you will want to stay together in that area. BUT, if you are in the GO Lounge, they will take care of coordinating everything, including retrieving a medallion that was to be picked up at check in, and bring it back to the GO Lounge for you. They will either bring a wheelchair to the GO Lounge or have one waiting at the pier when they take you over there. The GO Lounge team completely escorts you through to the gangway to the ship.
  14. People need to be aware that concierge lounges only exist on Royal class ships. Also many of us drink at many hours of the day not just 5 to 7. The minibar is not refillable so on longer cruises it can be gone quickly. We always sail in suites and get the plus package I was responding to the OP who is sailing on the Enchanted. They have a concierge lounge, She stated they do not drink alcohol. But if you wanted sodas, they are included in the minibar. We are not heavy drinkers so the packages don't really make sense for us on the Royal Class ships most of the time. Everyone needs to do the math for themselves, but it helps to know that there are certain amenities included with the suites that have concierge lounges in making the decision.
  15. We have not found a need for the Plus or Premium packages when sailing in a full suite on the Enchanted. In addition to the suite minibar set up, you can get lattes or cappuccino 24/7 in the concierge lounge, as well as bottled water. You can get specialty coffe and champagne/mimosas with suite breakfast in the Crown Grill, and just about any drink you wish from 5 to 7 in the Concierge lounge as complimentary. I cannot help with ressies for Sanctuary, but if you do get an invitation to the GO Lounge, accept it and get there fairly early. The concierges in there will contact the shipboard concierge, who will make your reservations with the Sanctuary staff, and can also handle any specialty dining reservations you wish to make. Go Lounge will take your luggage, and they will also transport you to the pier (they will have a wheelchair waiting for you if you alert them to the need) and shepherd you very quickly through the security checkpoint and entry to the ship. If you go directly to the pier, you will still have a quick embarkation process as there are special lanes for wheelchairs, no worries regarding that. But, that doesn't guarantee that you will make it in person to the Sanctuary to book a lounger. You might not have any difficulty securing the much more expensive cabana reservations for the duration of your cruise. Hope this was of help to you.
  16. Before purchasing the Premiere plan on our cruise, booked as a 20 day, although it could also be booked as 2 10 day cruises, I asked the person signing me up, if we got 2 Specialty dinners or 4 Specialty dinners, His answer was 4, since it was for two cruise segments. Segment seemed to be the key word. So maybe they have wised up and applied the limited items on a per segment basis, I can only tell you what the answer we received was, not what will happen on your cruise. There are inconsistencies which are real head-scratchers between the ships in the fleet.
  17. The casual dining venues are $14.99 per person, plus an automatically added 18% gratuity for their 3 course menu. The items on the menu can also be purchased a la carte, in most cases, and are also subject to the gratuity add on. The wifi increased in price recently. Others can double check me on this, but I believe for those not platinum and elite, the cost is $24.99 per day for a single device plan. The lattes etc are about $4 per drink, and then also add the 18%. We are not serious drinkers, maybe two alcoholic beverages a day, but we are serious espresso based beverage drinkers, and also like having bottled water on demand. My math for value depends upon the ship, the itinerary, the class of cabin we book. For instance, it we have a suite on a Royal Class, we have no reason for any package, as we can get unlimited bottled water and lattes in the Concierge Lounge, and they have a happy hour for two hours every evening, and the alcohol is "free". We do not need any adult beverages beyond that. On the other hand, if we are spending a lot of time on the ship, and have a balcony cabin, we might find the plus or premiere becomes a good deal, as we will indulge in "non comped Lattes" and a few adult beverages a day, and can then also take advantage of the included casual dining venues at no additional charge. I "math" it out for every cruise.
  18. Probably not. We stayed in it for 20 days, loved the location, but the layout just doesn't lend itself to a 3rd person.
  19. All my suite bookings through 2026 still include the phrase Complimentary Specialty Dining Mimosa Breakfast, except for the Sun, where we will have the Signature Dining Room. So, I am not inclined to believe the "news" is accurate. I think it could have been a matter of yup, not in a Specialty dining room on the Sphere Class since the Signature Dining Room is already the Suite dining room, there is a separate dining room for Reserve Class as well. Each class of ships has it's nuances, and this could have quite easily been a nuanced answer to a question that was not completely understood. I don't think anyone would intentionally misrepresent info, but could have easily misinterpreted the answer.
  20. It apparently will be on the new Sun and Star.
  21. We did get the invitation, and we did give it a try for our embarkation on the Enchanted. First, it was pouring rain that day, and we were able to stay under cover completely. We arrived about 9:15 and were the second couple there. The two concierges on duty were wonderful and welcoming. They tagged our luggage, which was already fully tagged, but perhaps it had something to do with the priority of delivery? No idea for sure. Also, we do not have our medallions shipped, we always plan to pick them up at the pier, as we tend to fly in a number of days ahead. Anyway, they completed our check in for us, and had the shore side staff retrieve our medallions for us - we were handed them in the lounge. No booze, but plenty of non alcoholic beverages and a nice little brunchy spread of food from which to choose. It was quite relaxing, actually. Our luggage was taken over to the port in a Meredes van, we did not see it again until it got to our room. We did not have to verify that it was in the hands of the porters or anything like that. It was simply whisked away at the entry to the lounge and appeared in our suite. There were apparently very long embarkation lines at the pier and the traffic line was long as well, so the concierges decided to wait a bit after embarkation began to shuttle the first group over. They took 4 of us at about 11:30, and yes, those lines were absolutely the longest i have ever, ever seen in over 90 cruises on Princess, and the traffic back up was to the entry to the port. The ship was apparently sailing with over 3700 passengers, lots of kids since a holiday sailing. The stated capacity is around 3600. Anyway, once we got inside the port area, they even had a way to jump the traffic line by moving some traffic cones, Two Princess reps escorted us through security, jumping the rope lines, and then a "back way" to the boarding line, putting us immediately at the Medallion reader entrance to the ship. All in all, quite a nice little experience. I will gladly accept future invitations to the GO lounge, much more enjoyable than standing in line for security and then in line to board. I did not observe any dirty looks from people standing in line, when we were officially "gypped in". It was only 4 people, maybe they deliberately do small groups at a time to avoid such issues. We were on board before noon. The concierge in the GO lounge handled our restaurant and 360 booking, by communicating with the on board concierge. Our reservations were confirmed to us about 10 minutes after our request. And the on board concierge greeted us when we dropped by for a latte after lunch, telling us he remembered making our dining reservations. So, the reservations you want to make early, are at the mercy of the on board concierge doing his or her job, but they really did it for us. The whole experience was very positive.
  22. We were not able to book the 360 in advance, and are in a suite. No one from Princess contacted us, and the app would not let us make a reservation, let alone have any of the specialty dining options available. We will speak to the concierge as soon as we get on board.
  23. In a suite you should have 24 hour turn around on clothes you send out. I never trust them with my delicates - things i would wash on the delicate or hand wash cycles and dry on the lowest setting or air dry. Those I do in the passenger laundry. Everything is washed and dried together in the ship's laundry, so you have hot water and high dryer settings, so it can be hard on clothes. I take detergent pods and dryer sheets, some stain/spot treatment and plan on doing a few loads of delicates over the space of a 14 day or longer cruise. Enjoy your cruise and suite, don't miss the suite breakfast in the specialty dining room, go the first morning and you will likely go every morning.
  24. Yes, have not sailed yet but we have the invitation for our upcoming cruise.
  25. I use a CVP because the wait times on the phone can be long, and I can handle some things with him through email (while we are on a cruise.). He knows the answer to the simple things - bed configuration, insurance, the usual way I book, and he will also knows which itineraries I am looking for, so if one is coming up in the new releases he will alert me to that. It's not a matter of pricing, but of convenience.
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