Rancher Dave

likely they will add a different "safer" port.

I had pretty much, while on Emerald for Spring Break last week, decided to sail one of the routes visiting Tunis this Summer, until Wednesday morning when I saw the news. Guess I will look for a different Summer daddy - daughter cruise instead.

You don't say what type of cabin you want?

As far as a mini suite the few aft on Emerald deck are the best for quiet. imo

For a reg balcony Riviera deck in the 600-700 range. Close to the aft doors to the pool and 1 deck up to the buffet.

I agree on Riviera 600 series as we were just in 628/630 and no excess noise to complain about.

Copenhagen airport and port not too far apart. Berlin airport to port a couple of hours.

Happy to hear the Sun stayed in port in NZ. Cyclone Pam (hurricane to those of us in the northern hemisphere) slammed Vanuatu as Category 5 later dropping to 4 as it made its way across the islands. Pam is now ranked as the second worse cyclone on record in the southern hemisphere. Pam has now cleared the islands and is out to sea. Australia is sending aid now and UK has promised help as well. I hope the Sun is able to stay out of its path. You may have your itinerary altered until Pam starts to dissipate.

Hadn't heard the stats on it being second worst recorded, that's pretty powerful. Saw pictures on our local station last night showing a storm hitting NZ but showing pics of Port Vila (sp?) and discussing the devastation there. Wish the folks at the TV station understood geography a bit better since NZ is a bit further south from Vanuatu.

Couple hours and it's our turn on EP.

If you dine too often the diet patrol will wake you up in the middle of the night for a workout! :eek::D

Every night every cruise I've been asked, but then again it was to match up rezzies...and I saw every other diner asked as well.

If they have enough money to go on a cruise during a school year they probably have enough money to buy as much alcohol as they want, UBP or no UBP. I would suspect that rule is to save NCL money and nothing else. :D

Seems a lot of college kids these days manage to get a lot of things paid by their parents, including nice Spring Break trips.

Thanks Rancher Dave...you are a wealth of knowledge! I will be looking for you in your leisure suit :-)!

Tomorrow is agriculture day for me...unless weather messes it up and I wait to Saturday...swing by Fayette County and say Howdy...

See you Monday at the M&G for sure...probably will have my Aussie cowboy hat on, or perhaps the dress code colors for all shipboard events Burnt Orange and White...:D

Why is it different on each ship?

To an extent each ship is it's own business. Thus, the incentives for each senior management team to manage the ship for profit so it can lead to some rules being more or less stringently enforced. Of course Corporate oversees the profits from each ship as well...so there is pressures to hit targets and be the most profitable ship etc...

Pam, are you sure about this? I believe you were pretty high up in management in your past life. Would you have tolerated behavior of that sort? Perhaps Princess figures a bit of shrinkage is inevitable but, if I had a policy such as they have with their alcohol package, I would really expect my employees to (politely) follow the rules.

Agree they should remind folks nicely to not break the rules...

Not sure how they can measure real shrinkage vs. wastage. If rules were strictly enforced at least drinks in one bar after the other or should I say one for buyer and one to put on the counter that is consumed by someone else back in the cabin...not right but even harder to enforce than the more blatant shrinkage in the MDR allowed by servers, who of course are mostly compensated by tips thus are economically incentivized to allow rule breaking.

As long as the economics of the rule breaking and overindulgence still is profitable for Princess, likely nothing will happen. If profits slip either strict enforcement comes about or the price of the package edges up slightly.

For events such as disco night, 70's night, western night, etc., it is the Cruise Director's staff that dresses to the theme, not the passengers (although you could it you wanted to).

 

For the deck party, it is very casual. If weather allows, most people will be in a tropical shirt and shorts.

I've seen some pax get dressed up...of course it was those same people doing the sexy legs contest and others that brought attention to themselves.

found and downloaded it...app store was open late tonight :D will see this weekend how it works on EP.

We've never sailed on Princess...what is the ultimate deck party? attire for this deck party? I thought I also read about a Disco night. Do people dress in 80's attire? Man, this is going to be a packed, huge piece of luggage!

You can dress up if you wish...people go dressed up and in their normal street clothes. If you dress up you will likely catch the eye of the Cruise Director and his/her (our cruise I believe his) staff as they dress up for these events. Seen some funny clothes on the staff for these parties.

White night on some cruises gets interesting in the hotter weather and humid environments of some cruises.

Having flown out of domestic terminal early in the morning at ANC several times I will add that the lines for security were fairly long for those without PreCheck or First class tickets. So it depends if you want to be at the gate ahead of boarding or just in time for the gate to close behind you.

I'd probably take a taxi a bit earlier to be safe.

Thankfully these days unless flying around within Alaska, our non-stop home leaves late in the evening so it's less hassle.

Glad your DH is recovering and that ultimately all turned out well. Prayers for a continued good recovery and lots of fun filled cruises for you both again soon!

Only been on one RCI cruise, but we went to the M&M. Partially, I was hoping to put some names to faces, but I was also hoping that my kids would meet a kid or two around their age (there were a number of kids on the cruise - Thanksgiving week). Unfortunately, no other kids came to the M&M, just adults, so that part was a bust. :(

Have seen lots of families sign up in the past and only one adult showed up...very seldom have I seen kids show up. My DD usually goes with me. I set one up on an upcoming Princess cruise and have several kids signed up, so we will see if history repeats.

I am pretty sure if just one parent is taking a child, and you are still married, there needs to a notarized form by the spouse that is not going , that it is okay to leave the country.

That is correct. Many parents do leave with their children and then file divorce from foreign countries where the child custody laws vary...thus the cruise lines are supposed to make sure kids leaving with one or no parents have permission to do so. Doesn't always happen...I've always had the letter and never been asked leaving either US or even when sailing out of Copenhagen...worse Russia didn't ask where the other parent was when we went into their country to tour around.

There really IS only one legal way to immigrate to the US from Cuba (if you live in Cuba) -- get or make a boat and take the dangerous 90 mile risk to get here. Not sure how much you actually know about Cuba but leaving at all let alone "immigrating" is somewhat difficult if you are Cuban.

 

"Disregard of costs to an American" ??? Are you nuts?? Escaping dictatorship and your personal concern is what it costs us???

 

Perhaps you should change your screen name from kruzerci to "Narcissus"

Sorry, but there are other legal ways to get here from there. A friend when in grad school sponsored his parents to come and stay. People from Cuba marry US citizens and move over. The most visible way is to "sail" between the two countries. That said getting a boat in Cuba is very difficult which is why the rafts we see are not looking so good in most cases.

Each airline has their own different fees. You could probably call the airline and ask/pay them directly to upgrade the seats.

When you're on the ship for a long cruise, this must be done so you can fit through the doors when you finally disembark.

LOL...totally agree. Also found that as I cruise more, I don't bother stuffing myself with food at every meal. That said the available junk food all day is a trouble spot for me.

I may try the free group classes followed by some cycle time and perhaps stairs and laps. On my last cruise I was new with the FitBit, which ultimately bit the dust during one recharge, I walked laps around the decks and used the stairs to go between each deck. Every morning and often in the evenings I would walk every deck at least once, some decks I did several times. Got to greet just about every room steward at one point on the cruise. I've been known to just do stairs, which can begin to get funny looks from crew members working cleaning the stairs until about the third of fourth lap then they get what's up.

when were those parking lot pics taken? Would expect it to be fuller with two ships using the terminal now.

Yes

Zumba, in my experience, has been no charge and is usually offered by a member of the Cruise Staff.

 

Yoga classes have required a fee.

 

Free classes I've personally enjoyed are the "Wake and Stretch" (harder than you think) along with the "Abs Workshop" (well, as far as enjoyment goes, my favorite part of the Abs Workshop is finishing).

So did the two free classes make you feel better as the day kicked off? May have to give it a try myself...guess the worst would be get worn out and have to go nap on the balcony.

All sodas are available with soda sticker!

Only those that come from the soda gun, unless you found a generous bar tender.

As another said if you want caf free Ginger Ale is a possibility...that's my game plan along with the virgin cocktail on the plus package. Maybe a milkshake every day as well...guess I will need to go work out each morning. :eek:

The CC host IS a one stripe officer but the photo manager and casino hosts aren't and on longer cruises they make the front page. I agree with you about the repetitive narratives. It's particularly funny when one cruises in one part of the world, moves to another and the narrative is the same except for the location name.

Agree. Would be smart for all cruise lines basically using templates to have a professional writer come up with the templates that allow for easy customization that makes it look a bit less repetitive. Better than what I agree looks more like a cut and paste where things get missed and come out kind of odd at times.

I guess the ship will Spring forward and hour on the way in tomorrow...or did y'all spring forward at the start of the cruise saving that change tomorrow? Only a week plus a sleep until we are getting on board.

Most TAs don't discount. It's a misconception that you get the best pricing from the large online agencies. That's not necessarily true and you need to weigh discount vs. service. To me, the most important things to take into consideration when using a TA is your comfort level and trust.

Very well stated Pam.

I saw one online big cruise agency that was actually charging $500 +/- more for a cruise recently than the cruise line was offering, but all the freebies were included...oh wait add it all up and paying the agency would have been more than the cruise line directly. Crazy to see that but it does happen.

The big discounts are only when the agency has group space at lower rates than the line is currently selling the cabins directly.

Princess has a sliding scale for commission as do other lines and the 15% quoted is only for the busiest agencies.