nattie

So in preparation to our grand adventure next year to Australia (cant wait!!!), we need to knock out 2 trips for the coveted "Elite" status. I was thinking about doing a regular 7 day caribbean in suite, BUT came up with a better idea of B2B holiday cruises. For the price of 6 vacation days I get 2 weeks of cruising with no cooking or party hosting or presents buying!

Here comes the dilemma. There are 2 sets of cruises available on Royal and Regal Princess. Royal Princess Sat-Sat-Sat with Western first and Eastern second and Regal Sun-Sun-Sun with Eastern first and Western second. Eastern itinerary is the same, Western is superior (in my opinion) on Royal. Besides,we just did the Western on Regal in April.

I LOVED Regal, even though I though that I wouldnt being a huge fan of Grand Class ships before. Is inferior itinerary on part of the cruise worth not dealing with "deficiencies" of Royal? I am most worried about theater seating. We didnt use aft pool on Regal, but with less pools overall will main pool area be even more crowded?

Second dilemma. We need 2 cabins next door to each other. I am currently looking at obstructed balconies on Emerald. How bad are they in terms of obstructions? It looks like that the only view blocked is view down?

Please help me decide!

Bump. Anyone?

I cant see anything available for Dec - April 2019/2020

The water taxi would be a good option. It is a short walk' date=' just under the bridge. It is a hop-on-hop-off affair with lots of dining/shopping options along with great sights.[/quote']

 

Thank you for great suggestion! I think we might do just that - drop off the bags to the porters and go take a water taxi ride. We are Platinum, but our flight is arriving at 9 am to FLL, normally all said and done we would be at port at 11 am (IMHO perfect boarding time). So if we drop off the luggage and come back after 2 pm to complete boarding process, we should be all good.

We are on Regal next week with all the kids (Spring break here in MD and looks like everywhere else). I have one question, where do you sign up for pool cabanas? You mentioned a bar, but I dont know which one. Have not been on Regal before, so need to know where to run.

We have been taking our DS on Princess since he was 2 yo (he is almost 9 now). We greatly prefer Princess ourselves, tried NCL and Carnival and product is just not the same. Tried RCCL before the kid, and it was OK, havent done it with him yet.

DS enjoyed both lines we tried at first (splashier facilities) but stated that he enjoys Princess clubs more. From parent's standpoint the staff is better, more attentive to kids. From just personal experience standpoint, kids are better behaved, but might be just that its less of them?

DS always makes ton of friends with other kids and cruise director staff.

We are sailing Regal for spring break 2018.

Retreat pool is adult only, correct? Just wondering if it is worth it for us, sounds fantastic otherwise

Looking forward to 3/25 cruise, thank you for updates! Hopefully being spring break we will get some kids. We travel with one, so need company for him to be happy at camp. I have not been on Regal yet, so looking forward to trying their Enclave, sounds like much better set up than previous class ship's. Was there similar wait to book Enclave spots as Sanctuary?

Didnt work for me. I would have taken advantage of it too... bummer

I dont even try... Part of fun with cruising is that they dont limit your luggage, we fly SW, so 2 bags each plus carry on. No w next year when we are Elite, I might rethink this just to take advantage of free laundry.

We took the "move over" offer for this cruise, so THANK YOU for doing this live thread. It is almost as if we are on board with you!

I loved Corey last year on Coral, he is awesome and has fantastic team working with him. TBH, if I bothered to check who the cruise director was I might not have taken the "move over" ;)

Yes, did I forgot to say that in my excitement? We got full fare as OBCs, plus my $250 OBCs from original booking and free gratuities.

Just curious, releck97, did you guys take the offer?

So it was for 5 day 2/18 sailing on Crown, we had ME minisuite. Moved to 3/25 sailing on Regal, from forward mini to mid ship mini (MB), so better cabin category but not by much. Didnt think about asking for more, as for me it was good deal timing wise - new cruise is over school spring break here in MoCo MD. Also got airfare changes refunded (came in at $149.70 pp and Princess reimbursing up to $150)

Have never been on Crown, so I am actually super excited!

So I have just accepted first move over over we ever got - from 5 day Crown Princess to 7 day Regal Princess, with all OBCs and free gratuities...

I still cant believe this :)

Please feel free to tell me how lucky I am ;p

We are looking into Australia cruisetour, so $300 sounds pretty good! also, I actually love free gratuities sales. It is one perk I'll use for sure vs free dining/drinks

Yes, if you want to eat at the earlier times of around 6PM or so, ATD can be a hassle. Just be prepared for lines and for a wait. Our first experience with ATD, thinking it was ATD, was we went up to the person and was immediately told after we responded that we did not have a reservation (thought this was ATD??!!! I was thinking to myself), that there was no more room in the specified ATD Dining Room for us and that we would have to go up one Deck to Traditional Dining Room that would open for Anytime diners after first traditional was done. But that meant we had to wait an additional 20 minutes or so to eat. Never again will I do ATD on Princess. I will put up with too early Traditional Main Dining or do CC dining. My next 4 cruises I am in either a CC mini or a Window Suite, so I will not have to put up with the hassles mentioned above and can eat anytime I want! Can you tell I think CC is worth it?:halo::halo::o

 

Pooh

Huh? 20 min wait to eat is HUGE deal?

We have done ATD since 2009 (cruise once a year at least) and never had to wait more than 5-10 min. There are 3 of us normally (2 adults, 1 kid) and we get table for 4 to ourselves or share when kiddo is in kids club.

Unless you absolutely HAVE to start eating at 5:45pm on the dot, ATD will be just fine ;)

Actually, Princess provides a free gallon jug of distilled water for cpap users. You just need to go on your cruise personalizer and request it. They also provide extension cords for your cpap machine, for that you have to call Princess to request.

My husband has cpap and we never called to request. Extension cord always appeared on first night after turndown service. Guess we are lucky.

Is there any way to redeem Princess Gift card on the Cruise Personalizer before boarding? I cant figure it out.

I called Princess and rep said I can pay for services or goods, but cant use towards cruise credits. Fair enough, but there is still no gift card payment option.

Did anyone successfully pay for lets say excursion with princess gift card?

Sea and Me, sale is not really posted. It only shows up in "available offers" box for free gratuities and when you finish booking deposit is only $1/pp

Thank you for heads up!

Just booked short getaway in Feb. Love prepaid gratuities and price is reasonable.

WE are going on Coral April 7th and will be in premium Balcony for the first time in a while. Normally we get a mini for 3 (2 adults, one kid). With 4 adults I would highly recommend a mini vs even premium balcony. I dont have experience on Coral yet, but from my experience on other ships (Ruby, Crown, etc.) the extra room you get in a mini ruffly translated to the size of extended balcony on Caribe deck, ie. base cabin size is the same, but mini suite has an extension where normal cabin's balcony is and thats where the couch is situated, plus you get a large balcony too. In my personal opinion, the couch is not very comfortable but can sleep two people. You also get a tub, vs shower stall in mini and waaay more bathroom space.

We do it all the time. I get soda packages for both DH and DS and couple bottles of booze for the room. That way DH gets drinks mixed to his satisfaction, DS gets mocktails and I get 3 bottles of wine for myself.

Thanks for all your suggestions. We are traveling 4/7 on a Panama Canal cruise.

We are on the same cruise :)

I am prone to seasickness also. I take a ginger pill daily and normally pack Bonine for the rougher days, works like a charm.

We sailed Carnival one time. Never again. But, everyone has different things that matter to them. Ice cream isn't a big deal to us. We felt the service was really lacking on Carnival, but some may not object because you do get towel animals in the cabin.

We get towel animals on Princess all the time, but we do have a kid sailing with us.

Thank you for your thoughts. We have sailed most of mass market lines and are big Princess fans due to variety of reasons, most of them small gripes against other lines and little things Princess does better. Everyone has different tastes.

As for your list:

- I always ask for tomato juice at the buffet and get it, no issues

- Depending on a staff person, I was almost always able to get real ice cream they use for smoothies as a scoop for DS instead of a smoothie. He does always have a drink card, so may be they process it as a smoothie?

- I am one of the "hard bed" people :)

- we never return to the cabin before 10 pm anyways, so cant tell you when my patters are delivered

- the interactive TV is where Princess is lacking IMHO, but I am not there to watch TV

- we are Platinum now, so different party than previous tiers. Nothing to write home about on any other line either.

- entertainment is kind of spotty on every ship, regardless of line. To me Princess, has more of upscale/intellectual/subdued offerings. I like it more than Carnival/NCL choices. Cant remember RCCL offerings much, havent done them in a while.

Thank you, Cruise Critic Community!

I had no idea this deal existed. Just purchased for upcoming Panama Canal sailing.