winifred

Agree with poster above , if you have time could you post and say how you found Princess for gluten free? Be helpful for others Thank you

Hi I have cruised most of the major lines including Marellla/Tui and recently back from Celebrity, just to say they seem to have all reduced costs in various areas post covid, whether that be having to pay for shuttle buses or smaller range of choices in the dining room you can see the cruise lines having to claw some money back from their huge lockdown losses. The bullying, discussing staff and poor training is a different issue and not pleasant and I hope you reported it to senior staff. One of of my friends only cruises with Tui and she wasn’t keen on Explorer either, she thought the entertainment was poor and like you thought there was serious room for improvement. However we have enjoyed Discovery and would choose this ship again, we may have to accept that it may not be quite as it was pre pandemic.

Just Back from Apex and didn't wait at all, just walked up and got taken straight away in all the MDR’s however our cruise wasn’t full but can’t imagine you would wait a long time .

We have done most of the major lines Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian cruise lines and P and O on different ships, and we thoroughly enjoyed them all We also have been on Discovery and Discovery 2 and enjoyed these ships too! What we liked about Discovery was the fact you can go to Cuba none of the other American based lines will visit and for us Cuba was amazing! As we left the port we could see people in a park nearby waving at the ship and two Cuban dancers on the ship told us that Tui/ Marella lines coming into port is so welcomed by locals as they feel the world has not forgotten them . We also liked that when we did the Caribbean islands we had lots of port stops which meant that we saw many islands on our 2 weeks on board. Excursions were reasonably priced which isn’t the case for some other cruise lines, so we were able to go through the Panama Canal and on one of the other islands swim with sting rays! Also there is a drinks package included, which saves bar bills at the end! We haven't yet tried explorer or their other ships but we would definitely go back on Discovery .

So glad to see you are back to good health and as always good humour! Thank you for your detailed Apex report, we will be on her very soon around the Baltic. We enjoyed Amsterdam too, it was a land holiday for us ( just as covid was being talked about on the news as an emerging new virus and we all know how that unravelled…) agree it’s the bikes you have to watch out for the locals are so fast and the tourists after some Dutch “ cakes” are wild! Istanbul is on our radar for a future cruise too. Going now to read your past trip reports and look forward to seeing your future ones, thanks again.

Forgot to say a thank you to Carol too for letting us all know, hope recovery is quick!

So sorry to hear your unwell, I have enjoyed every bit of your trip reports, your Norn Irish humour shines through! We are on the Apex in August and thank you for all the details and work you put into all the info which is great to read! Hope your recovering, taking it easy and get well soon!

Favourite so far for an overnight was Cuba, it was amazing! The people were so lovely and we hailed a taxi a pink Cadillac to take us to the famous Hotel National de Cuba where we had a mojito sitting after dinner in the beautiful gardens with no rush to go back to the ship!

I have been on both Discovery and Dicovery 2 and I am gluten free too, I let them know in the dining room and I pre ordered from a menu the night in the dining room, I was brought gf bread to have with my dinnner and the gf meals were all lovely., this was pre covid. For breakfast there was lots of fruits,cheeses, and an omlette station and I usually asked a member of staff to have the gf bread toasted and they took it away and brought it back. One day we had breakfast in the main dining room and I asked if they had gf pancakes they said it would take a bit longer but we waited (it was a sea day we were'nt going anywhere! ) and they made some and they were really nice! They had a station in the buffet marked gluten free and they even had a gf afternoon tea, with tiny gf scones and desserts, your wife will be well looked after hope you go ahead and book!

I agree we are spoiled and/or fortunate whatever you take from those words, I remember doing a short course of teaching English to students who came from many varied parts of the world and our teaching instructor said avoid a lot ( not all) of holiday vocabulary as the majority of people from these huge continents will never go on a holiday.This stuck with me and I realise I am spoiled, fortunate but also very very lucky that myself and my family have had wonderful cruises and land holidays, Has the quality changed? yes the world has changed, especially post pandemic. My husband fondly remembers the free sushi bar on Celebrity Equinox which is yes, you guessed it, now a pay for sushi bar, but that’s life. I am grateful every time I step on a cruise ship, but it doesn’t stop me shopping for value for money or complaining if something goes majorly wrong, but I know I am so much luckier (spoiled) than the majority of people on this planet.

Thank you for all this interesting information, we are on a Baltic cruise very soon and I need a gluten free diet. There are times on past cruises that I just don’t eat when I am off the ship as eating out can be “tricky” but this has helped a lot! With the high rates of coeliac in Sweden this confirms a suspicion that my family may have Viking ancestry! There are high coeliac rates in Italy too which means its great for eating out if you are gluten free, but with my height and fair Celtic skin I doubt I’m in any way Italian! Anyway thanks again!

Thanks for replies I’ll just have to keep checking I just thought the ship looked amazing and thought there might be a chance we could go on it without the hassle of a flight to Miami!

Hi I wondered if anyone might have information on this new ship? I see it is going to homeport out of Miami but sometimes they do a cruise out of Europe first to sort out any issues, but I can’t seem to be able to find out when that is, I can only find bookings for the cruises out of Miami. Any information or thoughts on this ship would be appreciated. .