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I am reading about how wonderful Coral Breeze Tour operator in Belize is to go out to the little Island or snorkel.

However, then sometime around August it appears they started having some kind of major problems with their times and the boat breaking down etc. To the point that The Wet Lizard were no longer letting them use their location for meet up's in Belize City.

Wondering IF anyone has used them in past 3-4 months and what the experience was - where did you meet them? Sometimes tour operators have some problems and get them worked out quickly. Other times they start having financial problems and just go down from there.

Would love to hear from some recent cruise critic members who have used Coral Breeze tours and what your experience was . . .

Ok, we were looking at booking a private excursion as opposed to a cruise ship excursion. I was concerned that IF the snorkel boat didn't pick us back up as we are going as observer not actually snorkeling that IF the boat broke down or they didn't come back to get us we'd be stranded.

However, IF there is a ferry that runs back and forth then we'd have the option of taking that back???

Black and Blue, Pittsburg Style, Chicago Style all the same. Charred outside, rare inside.

On my last Princess cruise, I ordered 24 oz. tomahawk cut ribeye with double lobster tails for dinner in the Crown Grill. Delicious .

Thanks for clarifying the styles the same for me. We are originally from the Midwest probably WHY I like that style of steak I guess.

For steak lovers, ask for the 24 oz. tomahawk cut ribeye cooked Black and Blue. :)

Does that ever sound DELICIOUS!!!

There is something about I read to about ordering your steak Pittsburgh Style I believe it was - Saw in on the HAL board last year.

Some great value balcony cabins on Emerald deck that aren't obstructed giving nice access to decks 5 thru 7. The balconies are adequate as well as the bathrooms giving more space to the living portion of the cabin.

 

Horizon Court/Bistro are is awesome with a great layout and a surprising amount of different cuisines.

of those Deluxe Balconies with the added room and a small sofa. Even grabbed one of the mid ship balconies for a bit more room.

Will check out Bellini's and the Veal with cream sauce YUM. Good to know we can get the special coffee's in the Pastry shop too. We have the SIP N Sail promo so unlimited drinks and coffee's etc

THANK you ALL for your tips - we only have 8 days to go before we board

so EXCITED :)

Say it isn't so!!!

Thank you IECAL CRUISER for your helpful tips - looking forward to Alfredo's for sure.

We used Princess@sea on Coral Princess during our recent Panama Canal cruise (September 24th, 2016), here's what I can say about it....

It took a little while to get the hang of it, but after we did, it was very nice. I think it's worth the time to figure out. It don't think it's an app, it's available through your internet app (Explorer, Safari, etc). There are directions that direct you to something like "login" or coral.princess.com (use your ships name), and from there you set up an account. We didn't see the directions for setting up our user name, so kept failing on that. Look for that info or ask for help at the internet lounge. Actually, that's a good way to do it. Go to the lounge area to set it up, then ask if you have trouble. Others will be there having issues also and you can over hear solutions. 🙂

We appreciated having the daily event schedule/locations and messenger info with us by carrying our phones. We were able to leave messages for others in our group as to our plans and where we were hanging out.

The down side is that the message service doesn't alert you when you have a new message. You have to check for messages in order to see what is there.

We had great connectivity every where except in out room. I had to stand in the entryway of our room to have good service. Sometimes could get it on the balcony. The wifi router wasn't that far from our room either. The rest of the ship was strong connections. Maybe that's why I felt it worked better on my iPhone than my iPad. My iPad is too big to carry around.

 

In order to get messages from other you are traveling with, you have to get their "ID" from them. It's not the user name that you create. Your ID is located in a small box under your "account" section and looks something like "kg47yd", it's a random mix of numbers and letters. Once you share that with the other party, you can connect as individuals or even create group messages from those which you've added to your contacts.

Access to the "outside" internet is also through Princess@sea, and that worked fairly good too. We bought internet minutes for checking email. Just don't use it where you might lose connection with wifi (like in your room) and then have to re establish it. You are burning minutes until you "disconnect" and log out. You physically have to do that and get the minutes "summary page" to know you aren't still burning your minutes.

While using the service on our phones, we had our phones in airplane mode and wifi turned on. There is no charge to you phone when it is done this way.

 

One more note on buying internet service. I bought the minutes and they were only available to me, unless my husband signed onto my account to use them. If you both are going want to use them, you each should buy some, for simplicity, IMHO.

 

The ship had plenty of computers available and the internet speed and use was way faster than I remember on previous cruises. I was very happy with it.

Hope this is helpful!

 

Christina

airplane mode effectively doing the same thing?

What are your favorite food items in any of the venue's?

Not to miss dishes

What are your favorite drinks? either alcohol or coffee/tea we have the SIP AND SAIL PACKAGE

I know I love the hot chocolate at the speciality coffee bar

can't wait to hear what everyone loves and is not to be missed

There are always some things that we don't know about cruise ship cabins it seems. Like where is the best place to stow your luggage?

How do you get more water pressure in the shower? Keep the Shower curtain in place?

Are there any extra electrical outlets anywhere?

How about hidden storage?

Do they still offer egg crates for the beds and how do you request them - I can no longer find it on the website.

are the walls metal? wondering about magnet's to hold things in place?

Any tips and hints would be appreciated. It's our first time on this large a ship. We have sailed the smaller ships and the Grand class several times.

Looking forward to what CC'er's have to suggest

THANKS ALL

in your area they have these great little food grade shower caps.

I use them at home to take food to neighbors for game night etc

I now take a box on or cruises too. There are 3 different sizes in a box. Love these little gems.

It's been about 3 yrs since we have cruised Princess. I remember I was able to use my tablet to access our 250 free mins with Platinum level loyalty.

However, it seems as if there was something I had to do to make sure that I was logged off and not just close down my browser.

THANKs in advance for your help:confused:

love to read the blog. And, glean so much information and advise/suggestions from J and G. They are such a delightful couple.

Have had the opportunity to chat with them on two cruises so far.

It's so Wonderful that J takes the time to blog and share with all of us.

Thank you for posting while on your cruise Aboard the Regal Princess.

We are sailing the 6 of November for a B2B on the Regal. This will be the first time we've sailed this large a ship.

She looks beautiful

Enjoy your cruise

our onboard account after trying it a few times to see how it's been processed.

THANKS for the info

OH YES, I forgot about IC on the Regal - we've only had that one other time on the EMERALD LOVE IT there too!

The cost of the beverage package is actually $49 plus 15% gratuity which comes to $56.35 per day.

once I was able to print out what was included in the sip and sail promo it appeared to me that the tip was indeed included

THANK YOU

We are fortunate to have a large amount of OBC on our upcoming cruise.

We also have the SIP AND SAIL promo

DH was wondering IF he can use the OBC to play in the casino? We have done this on HAL when we had the awesome OBC on another cruise. We were able to gamble in the casino and charge it to our room thus using Some of OBC in this manner.

we always arrive around 11-11:30 at the port

With the BVE do you get to board any quicker I wonder?

Has anyone done this on the Regal? This will be our first time on this class of ship - might be cool to have a more personal ship tour?

would have to decide if it's worth the 78.00 for both of us being we can do lunch in the MDR anyway and have the sip and sail promo on this cruise so wine is included already.

But, maybe for a future cruise?

I was able to find it in the cruise personalizer and print it out.

I feel better having it in hand from their website.

Nice to know the tips are included - if we find a favorite bartender we will take care of them as we appreciate GOOD service. Not that all aren't good but some are just better than other's.

We have 54 days before our B2B cruise - booked it so long ago and now we are starting to get in cruise mode and very excited. Planning is a major part of the the fun

As I was just a bit nervous not having anything in hand as proof that we had booked under this program.

If anyone has used the Sip and Sail program already - can I ask If you had to pay a 15% gratuity on top of it? My TA says he thinks that they will charge our credit card prior to boarding the ship for this gratuity.

I think he my be incorrect as ours shows the promo is worth 788.90 for 14 days and if I divide that up it comes out to 56.35 per day. Meaning the tip is already included???

I to remember the days when friends and family could come aboard with us to see the ship and enjoy a few hours over lunch with us.

We even used to go and see the ships this way to see IF we would one day like to cruise that ship.

How AWESOME that they are doing this once again - if with the charge. It's not a bad deal for 39.00 per person. And, I am sure it gets people to book cruises too.

Nothing like experiencing a ship for the first time. I still get goose bumps when driving up to the ships on embarkation day. Sometimes get a bit emotional seeing the beauty of the ships as well.

I have been on almost 50 cruises - several B2B's and hope to never loose that feeling of anticipation and excitement :)

Menus and production shows will repeat. Guest entertainers may repeat or they may change, depends if they stay on board. Parties may repeat or they may alternate them. So pace yourself for the two weeks.

 

It doesn't matter how you booked the cruise, you will still be required to go through immigration on turn around day. Princess handles the process two ways depending on how many passengers are involved in the turn around. In both cases you have the choice or disembarking the ship anytime up until the final disembarkation call, and returning to the ship anytime after general boarding has begun, around noon. When the number is small, around 100 or so you meet in a venue, usually the theater. When and only when ALL passengers are present a staff member leads you off the ship, through immigration and then back onto the ship. When the number is large again you meet and when all are present Princess notifies immigration. They then come on board and clear the passengers. When you are seated in the theater you are scanned as being "off the ship."

Thank you for your detailed explanation as to how they handle it on Princess. I never knew how/why immigration made the decision to do it on the ship or off. I thought it was depending on their mood that day :-)

So the 100 of repeats is the set point - thanks.

It would be nice if Princess tried not to do the repeat. Especially when offering the cruise as a 14 day booking. However, we will be able to find enough entertainment venue's. And, certainly enough dining menu's to try.

Just being onboard a ship makes us happy.

Princess usually repeats the menus on a b2b.

 

On the Royal earlier this year, we went to the theater and immigration checked us as we left the room. We did not have to get off the ship or stand in line. You do have to wait until everyone is off the ship or in the theater before you can leave the theater. Unfortunately, we had a pair of @#$% people, who arrived over an hour late.

It's so frustrating as there is always someone in the crowd. Last November on the Eurodam there were 3 couples - two FINALLY SHOWED UP - the other couple NEVER showed. I overheard the woman saying later that they kept hearing their name over the PA system but didn't realize they needed to do anything! WHAT If I heard my name repeatedly over the PA I wouldn't just lie by the pool and not FIND OUT what was going on.

Fortunately, the custom agent in charge took pity on the rest of us. We were comfortably seated in the theater and didn't have to get off the ship. This agent was such a sweetheart of a guy - he literally walked between the rows of seat's checking both aisles on either side of him and released us. Then they went searching the entire ship to find that Other COUPLE - LOSER's.

I am pleased to hear that Princess is able to handle the procedure in a similar way when immigration allows for it.:)

It is booked as one cruise.

This is our first B2B on Princess. Have done a few on HAL - we love the turn around day in FLL.

My question is do they try to not repeat the same menu's being it is sold as one cruise. Hal does this on their Collector's voyages so that we get a wide choice on the menu's with very little repeats. Wondering if Princess does it the same way.

Also, on turn around day in FLL HAL normally has immigration come onboard to clear the ship. It's fast and easily done without having to disembark wait and then go back on the ship.

Just wondering IF Princess does the same thing in FLL?

This will be our 11th cruise on Princess but our first B2B with them.

Wondering what this is and why it's so wonderful?