Tuscan

DH and I always do ATD and request a Table for Two. Although we tend to enjoy our quiet dinners together, we have met some lovely people over the years and have had many engaging conversations between tables, given the fact that some are placed rather closely together.

In fact, here's a quick story: On the CB Princess Veterans Cruise in 11/13, DH and I had a table for 2 in the MDR and, to make a long story short, the gentlemen who was then seated (with his wife) at the table for 2 next to us tried to strike up a conversation. At first, DH was polite but not quite willing to be fully engaged, but he fell right into the conversation as the gentleman persisted and subsequently revealed what turned out to be the similar location and dates of service that were shared by the two. As it turned out, the gentleman was the Anesthesiologist who attended to my husband's surgery when he was shot in the Michelin Rubber Plantation in Vietnam. They have remained in touch ever since.

So, even at tables for 2, lifelong friends can be made. :)

For this, and other similar reasons, we just love ATD for dinner. We just deal with the lines, if any, and even if we have a reservation. We're on vacation! :)

I have friends considering sailing the Royal in May to the Baltic. Can anyone please tell me about the ship? How many passengers, conditions, age, last drydock, ect. Any info wold be helpful. Thank you.

If your friends are first time cruisers, then they could try the Royal because they won't know any better.

If they have experienced the Gorgeous Grand Class on Princess, or the BEAUTIFUL Diamond (before it was destroyed), or the Island (which will be destroyed next year), they MIGHT just enjoy / be unaware of the Royal with all it's dysfunctional, nonsensical design idiocy.

Quite frankly, I feel that Princess is losing it's way and the Royal is it's show piece to get there.

I have yet to understand why Princess would take away a large, multi-purpose venue like Explorers and replace it with a small College Lecture Hall. The cheap resin chairs are uncomfortable, and the fixed stadium seating precluded us from playing trivia or other team games there.

PL also has a very small bar outside of it, but there are no tables inside PL on which to place a drink. Unlike Explorers, the little bar juts out into the hallway and is cut off from viewing inside the venue. (PL only has one little doorway)

I just don't get who thought this would be such a great addition. The whole set-up just didn't make any sense to us.

One time was enough for us, as this and several other reasons are why we plan on avoiding the Royal & the Regal.

We were on the Royal in 09/13 and suffered similar mechanical issues, and that was on a new ship!

Anyone been on the Princess Swiss Splendor Land/Cruise?

DH and I took this tour last year and enjoyed it immensely. Everything was wonderful except for the tour-correlated ship . . . the STUPID Royal.

Our tour was subcontracted to Globus. The hotels were very comfortable and the included meals were, by and large, very good. We stayed in Grindelwald as opposed to Interlaken and I do not know if Princess is going to offer that again this year. The hotel in Grindelwald was wonderful.

I would do this tour again in a heartbeat as Switzerland is so beautiful, especially if connected to the Island Princess. Lovely ship!

GREAT tour. Enjoy it if you go.

Robotic bar tender - gimmick! It won't get me to buy a drink just to watch the thing mix a drink. I can watch it make another suckers drink.......

 

Princess doesn't need gimmicks, they need solid fundamentals and class.

I agree. But, they have dropped the ball on their two new ships. :( You can't breed class if you were born from JUNK.

Will the robot listen to your troubles? :) I can see that as a one-time curiosity, but I don't know how many people would want to sit and watch a "robot" make a drink.

 

Faster Internet sounds good.

Not to mention, will RCCL include an automatic 15% tip for every drink the robots make? I love chatting with the bartenders. It adds to our experience.

Faster internet, review of my Portfolio via cabin TV and going back to larger balconies on their newer ships are up my alley.

Anyone planning on doing or have done the Princess SWISS SPLENDORS cruise tour. We are looking at the cruise tour 4A 19-night from Zurich to Barcelona. Not sure of any dates yet. Let me know if you are planning this cruisetour. Our dates are flexible.

DH and I did this tour in 09/13 and LOVED it. When we went, it was so popular that they broke it into two groups. We were in the group that stayed in Grindelwald instead of Interlaken. (Not sure if they're doing that this year)

It was fantastic. The scenery is beautiful, to say the least. The towns and cities are lovely. There were 3 boat rides that were just phenomenal. Lake Lugano, where our group went up the coast for lunch at a charming lakeside restaurant, Lake Como to Bellagio for a 2 or 3 hour visit and a Lake Lucerne cruise (optional). The views from the Jungfraujoch (11,333 feet) were amazing and you don't have to stay the whole time if your uncomfortable. The trains back run quite frequently.

The hotels were very good and we had a GREAT Tour Guide.

Not to mention, what more can be said for sailing out of Venice?

We've taken several Princess pre-cruise tours and have enjoyed all of them. They use Globus as the Tour Operator, so that will give you a good idea / guide as to the quality of the hotels and food.

I don't know what happened in your case, but I am surprised you could get a 7:00pm reservation for AT dining. We haven't been able to make a reservation between 6:30pm and 7:30pm in AT dining even on two cruises when were sailing in full suites.

 

 

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I guess it just depends upon what time you call the Dining Line. Most times, I try to call the Dining Line as soon as it opens, or shortly thereafter, but I don't want to be sitting by the phone EVERY morning. That’s stress to me. I'm on vacation.

I think it is fairly simple. If you book "anytime" dining, you must expect to wait. Maybe you won't wait,...but sometimes you will. And we know that in advance.

 

With "traditional" dining, you only wait if you arrive too early, before the dining room opens its doors. Generally, you are free to choose either option, unless you make a last minute booking.

It's not the waiting that bothered us. As you said, it's to be periodically expected in ATD and we have never had a problem with that. (We've been doing ATD since it was offered)

Our concern was with what amounted to a compromised / lost ATD reservation due to TD "party crashers".

But, in the grand scheme of things, it's up to Princess to institute a fleetwide policy to address these issues.

We always do anytime dining and we have been asked for our card probably on half of our cruises. We consistently eat late so we usually don't experience any long lines. I do however think that Princess needs to set clear regulations for anytime dining on all of its ships. Either you can switch from TD to AD or you can't. Also it appears that making reservations for AD may create wait time so maybe that practice needs to be rethought. I really like AD but Princess might need to tweak a few things.

I agree.

DH and I were on the Royal in 09/13. We had a 7:00pm reservation for the ATD MDR midship (the name escapes me). We arrived 5 minutes early and were kept waiting for over a 1/2 hour past our reservation time. Then, we were summoned to the Maitre D, who then had us, and two other "table for two" couples, escorted to the aft MDR, which I believe was for TD. (All of the other tables were full and all were well into their meals) We never understood why this happened until we read this thread.

As such, I really don't think that people pre-registered for ATD, and especially with a reservation in the ADT Dining Room, should be moved to accommodate TD diners that decide to change from their assigned dining for the evening.

Had I known of this practice at the time, I would have politely said something to the Maitre' D. ADT in general & reservations really need to be tweaked.

DH and I have been to Alaska 3 times. Pre-Cruise Land Tours in Alaska are hard to beat, especially if you are going to stay at the Princess properties. As Pam in CA said, "Memories for a Lifetime".

I don't think she'd admit publicly that the ships aren't successful. She'd be out of a job pretty quick. And while one would think that if the ships were not successful, they would not continue to build them, but we don't know what agreement has been made between Carnival Corp and the shipyard.

 

I would be happy to see these ships go to the Australian/Asian market if we can have Diamond, Sapphire and the Sun Class back.

Maybe Jan Swartz needs to go to bed at night and think about this. Saving face for bad decisions will not save her career. Ditch the bad ships (Royal Class) and bring the good ones back. The people will come!

Hi Brian!

 

You are indeed correct. :D

 

So maybe we can then expect Royal-3 to be based at a new overseas location and bring the Sapphire Princess back with no problems. Fingers crossed.

One can only hope!

There have been other reviews on the forums. People are enjoying the Royal and the Regal. I know it doesn't make any sense to you, but if you actually cruised on either one, you might see why.

 

 

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I took a cruise on the Royal in 09/13 and I am one who would agree with the 66% Approval Rating on CC. I did not care for the layout and design of the ship and how it directly affected my cruise experience. Except for the HC improvements (which were GREAT), we found the remainder of the experience to be disappointing in many ways.

As such, I truly do not understand why Princess would continue to build ships within this class without substantive changes. For whatever the Princess reasoning may be to continue these new-builds, we won't be on them. That's just our opinion . . . and based upon experience.

I've seen nothing on OV cabins except 80% of cabins have balconies which is exactly what R&R have so unless they plan on changing some inside cabins to OV, it looks like they're missing :(

 

I'd like to know what Jan is smoking in thinking they're successful. Her bar must be set pretty damn low

AMEN!!!

The Royal has never achieved over a 66% Approval Rate on CC and that's "exceptionally successful"? In fact, after having sailed on the Royal, I never even bothered to check the reviews for the Regal.

If it is true that the older ships will be leaving the Princess fleet, then DH and I will have no problem joining them. We were disappointed to hear that there would be yet a third Princess ship to put at the bottom of our list, regardless of itinerary. :(

My hubby just read these reviews and he also says THANK YOU!

 

 

What type of clothing did people wear on the land portion? Is it dressy or casual like jeans? What about in the evening for dinners?

It's casual. There were no formal dinners on the tour, so jeans / khakis are fine. I brought one "nicer" pair of pants / shoes / blouse to wear and I think I wore it twice. But that's just me.

Also, you can only carry one suitcase that cannot weigh more than 40 lbs, due to the airline regulations from Cork to Heathrow. You're other suitcase(s) will be "Meet me at the Ship" that will go by ferry to Southampton and will be at your cabin when you board the ship.

In fact, I think it was quite a hefty charge for every pound over 40 lbs.

I hope this, too, helps. :)

Surely someone must have done this cruisetour???

QUOTE=whatcruiseisnext;43449829]Has anyone done the Princess Ring of Kerry Tour before a British isles cruise? We are interested in opinions of it. Also what hotels does Princess use in Shannon, Killarney and Cork. Do you have any free time in these cities? What time of day do you arrive in Cork for your last night prior to embarking ship? We are booked on the British Isles cruise in June 2015 but are thinking of adding the Cruisetour portion. Thanks for your help.

Has anyone done the Princess Ring of Kerry Tour before a British isles cruise? We are interested in opinions of it. Also what hotels does Princess use in Shannon, Killarney and Cork. Do you have any free time in these cities? What time of day do you arrive in Cork for your last night prior to embarking ship? We are booked on the British Isles cruise in June 2015 but are thinking of adding the Cruisetour portion. Thanks for your help.

DH and I took this tour last year (June) in conjunction with a BI Cruise on the Caribbean Princess. We had a smaller group of about 18 people and the tour itself was great! Not a lot of bus time, despite how the narrow, twisty roads in Ireland can make a short distance seem like a quest. The scenery is beautiful and there were also several stops each day, which broke things up quite nicely.

As for the hotels:

We stayed at the Bunratty Castle Hotel after arriving in Shannon. It was OK, although the room we had could have used a little sprucing up. But, the hotel was pretty much the only game in town. It's right by the castle, which you can tour and is just steps away from the "Folk Park" where the first group dinner is held. The Bunratty Castle had a REALLY good breakfast, too. If you go a night or 2 in advance, there are two restaurants just down the road that are within walking distance. You can use the path behind the hotel or the street. Gallegher's is for seafood and the other restaurant (can't remember the name) is right next door to it. The hotel also has it's own little pub with music each evening.

In Killarney (nice city), we stayed at the Killarney Plaza, which was very, very nice. On the last night of the 2 night stay, there was another group dinner held around the corner at a local pub. The hotel's location made for an easy walk around the city and it was right near a large park (Killarney National Park). The food at the hotel was very good, too.

In Cork, we stayed at the River Lee Hotel, which had the most "modern" décor of the three. It, too, was very nice. The last group dinner was held in their restaurant and it was good. It had a busy Happy Hour scene in it's upscale bar area. Enroute to the hotel, we had a brief city tour and the guide told us what section of the city to avoid (kind of run down and spotlights everywhere). The hotel was located NOWHERE near that. We got there late afternoon and the group dinner ended fairly late, so we did not go exploring as we had to be up early for the flight to Heathrow.

As for the Tour:

Princess contracts out to Globus to be the tour operator . . . and that, to us, provides peace of mind for the level of comfort (hotels & food).

We pretty much had an afternoon free in each location, as well as time after dinner. Lunch is on your own and it seemed that all but one of the dinners was as a group. Also, there is an Irish Breakfast offered daily.

We really enjoyed seeing the Cliffs of Moher (Beautiful - and several vantage points from which to view it). The actual Ring of Kerry (Dingle Peninsula) drive out of Killarney was really, really beautiful. (Sit on the right side of the bus). There were some stops in a couple of small towns included, as well. There also was the "shopping stop" in one of the small towns, but our guide timed it so that we got there before all the other tour buses and they really had some quality products.

Our tour of Muckross House only went inside the manor and did not venture into the gardens or the farm. Also, the gardens on Garinish weren't as lavish as I thought they would be, although the boat ride to and from the island was such a beautiful setting. They have a pretty decent café there, too, where it seemed everyone went after what turned out to be the 10 - 20 minute tour of the gardens.

We took the 6 passenger horse and carriage (Jaunting Car) ride to and from the Killarney Plaza Hotel to a small castle (Ross?) in the heart of Killarney National Park which was really, really nice. After that we walked around Killarney that afternoon and evening. It's fairly, if not very, lively at night.

The stay in Cork was really to visit Cobh and the Titanic display at the port.

It really was a great tour and we would recommend it. In short, the people were friendly, the guide was good, the scenery was beautiful, the towns were lovely, it's only 4 nights and not covering vast expanses, it had a good balance between the bus and free time and the hotels were very good. It's just a very enjoyable tour to combine with the British Isles cruise.

I hope this helps. Sorry so long.

Not quite accurate. There are times when the ship must sail whether a ship's excursion is back or not. Princess will make arrangements, including hotel, meals and transportation, to get you to the next port. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. I've been on a couple of cruises when this happened although I wasn't on the delayed tours.

Sorry to get back so late. But, as you describe, they MUST have been passengers on Princess Shore Excursions. If I leave the ship on my own, Princess has NO responsibility to contact me regardless of what's on my Passenger Immigration info. That's the chance you take with 3rd party contractors or sightseeing on your own.

Also, please be advised that if you take a Ship-Sponsored Excursion and there are delays that cause you to arrive after the ship's scheduled departure time, the ship HAS to wait for you. :)

If you tour independently, and you are delayed in your return time, the ship DOES NOT have to wait for you . . . and they won't. :eek:

Enjoy your first cruise. We were instantly addicted. In fact. we were planning our second cruise before our first one ended!

Home Lines - Oceanic & Homeric. Beautiful ships back in the day.

Five cents here, ten cents there...

 

Now Princess is charging $10.00 for the Pizzeria, $3.00 for Room Service and $3.00 for a fruit bowl in your stateroom on the Regal, I predict it won't be long before literally everything on board during a cruise (except your stateroom) will be 'chargeable'.

 

This will be 'spun' as -

"In response to passenger demands we are introducing Pay Only For Usage Cruising (POFUC) Passengers pay only for the goods and services actually used/consumed on their cruise. This will allow us to keep costs down, reduce waste and lessen the carbon footprint of each passenger."

 

How long until the average 'folio' will be twice the cost of the booking?

Geez, don't give them any ideas!

Unfortunately, it seems that it will be the same dysfunctional ship design.

If it helps, our upcoming cruise on the Diamond will be for 28 days in Feb, 2015, and that will be our 4th time. That's how much we LOVE this ship. :)

We have sail almost 50 cruises on almost every cruiseline. We have heard of many different types of bad incidents but it always the other guy.

We have gotten very sloppy with our own security. Every cruiseline, as with hotels , tell you to lock up your things and provide you with safes.

We are guilty of things like leaving our phones on the counter charging when we leave the cabin. Also things in the nightstand.

 

WELL THEY GOT US THIS CRUISE AND IT WAS NOT A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE....

The 3rd day out, we returned to our cabin in the late afternoon to find my Ipad and my husbands dress watch missing. They were in the nightstands.

Our fault for not locking them up...

here is a real kicker.... I immediately called security and demanded to see the security video of our hallway.....THERE ARE NO CAMERAS IN THE HALLWAYS, ONLY PUBLIC AREAS.

I was really shocked, I thought there were cameras everywhere. They immediately shearched our room and our poor cabin stewardess who was hesterical.

 

Chalk it off to a learning experience..

This happened last week on the Grand

So sorry this happened, but didn't they check the activity / cabin entry records? Anytime someone enters (unlocks) a cabin door, there is a computerized record made of the card used, along with Date and Time. From there they can tell who it was (Cabin Steward, Passenger or whoever is coded to that card).

It's just like in hotels. They can supply you with the entire activity history during your stay, should you (unfortunately) need it. :eek: