jajsmom

9 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Yes. 2/10/26 Diamond Princess Southeast Asia. Vietnam will be new for me. I was supposed to be there September 2020 but we all know how that went. 

 

Roll call has just 19 members but it's early. (See signature)

 

Maybe we'll be joining you then.  Waiting to see the rest of 2026 schedule released first.

2 hours ago, Ombud said:

I sailed around Japan on Diamond Princess pre-shutdown and Sydney to Yokohama on Royal Princess April 2024. I'm also booked on Diamond Princess February 2026. Been from Singapore to Indonesia a few times too. So far cruises in April, May, October, and November. Haven't had a bad time

Are you doing the Singapore to Tokyo on Diamond Princess?  We are considering that, followed by whatever Japan tours eventually get added on.  That way, we can do land tours in both Singapore and Tokyo.

2 hours ago, Ombud said:

 

 

You are all awesome!  Thank you so much for all of your insights--I'm very excited to go now, so let Princess bring on the itineraries!!! I just spent an hour looking through all of the links provided. I'm glad we will be ok with whatever we pick, and we will definitely add some land time before and after the cruise.  We will avoid the summer--we live in Florida and know heat and humidity. From looking at the 2024 and 2025 itineraries, it looks like they vary from cruise to cruise, making for a good B2B itinerary.

I'm a huge fan of Rick Steves when planning for Europe, but I haven't seen anything like that for Asia. But thank you all for giving me a place to start!

We're considering a trip to Japan, and possibly southeast Asia in 2026.  I'm asking questions on the Princess board rather than the Asia board as I'm specifically interested in sailing on Princess.  I have not seen much discussion about this here.

Have you done this trip?  What ports did you sail to?  Any that you wished you did or didn't do? And did you do a first or last of the season to combine with a southeast Asia to/from Singapore? What is it like to be an American on a ship designed for the Asian market?

I have done some preliminary research on Japan cruises and ports, but there are so many, and some of the ports mentioned Princess does not sail to, although they have a very extensive list of itineraries, which is making me more confused. I just got off the Sky Princess a few weeks ago, and the future cruise team did not seem to know when Japan cruises would be released for 2026. There is a cruise repositioning from Singapore to Tokyo in February 2026, but nothing after that time. Does anyone know when Japan cruises have traditionally been released in the past? Also, do you have a preference in time of travel? I know the season is February to November, but every month seems to have a different festival or flower or fall color, and I'd like to hear peoples opinions.

Thank you.  I know I have a lot of questions, but the answers will help me to narrow my research.

1 hour ago, JGmf said:

 

From another poster @YVRteacher: yes, a world record was achieved.  Congrats.  That's pretty cool.

 

Um, regarding your assessment of the pizza, it's obviously unfair to judge Princess for their pies based on this one effort to mass produce so many slices in such limited time.

Very exciting that we were part of a world record! And yes, the pizza was mass produced and barely warm. But good pizza is great cold for breakfast, and this was not it.

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

I think you missed the point of this event. To generate publicity for a new partnership with a famous pizza chef, and the pizza will be better with this partnership. Hopefully the subpar slices you received will be on the way out. Multiple social media posts confirmed the record was set.  

As I said, I think the event itself was very cool. Pizza tastiness is very personal.  As I said, I did not like it, but my husband did.

We were on the Sky Princess and participated in the world's largest pizza party across all ships in the Princess fleet on July 12, 2024. It was an interesting, well-regulated event. Each person had to sign in with their medallion to the event, held in the World Fresh Marketplace. We were given a sticker and assigned to a specific section and a table.  We were all given two squares of pizza. We received one square of cheese and one square of pepperoni. At a precisely determined moment, we were allowed to start eating and were required to finish everything on our plate for it to count.  We were required to stay for 15 minutes to finish but could have as long as 30 minutes.

The pizza was just ok in my opinion--the cheese had way too much cheese on it, and the pepperoni was way too oily. But the experience of participating in the event was pretty cool. This was the night before debarkation, so I never found out if we were part of the record-breaking world's largest pizza party. My husband thought the pizza was pretty good, but I am a pizza snob from NYC.

6 hours ago, billc23 said:

There is no difference in the number of persons on the tours as Ken has stated. I am surprised that Celebrity has the capacity to accommodate their Xpedition guests on the Flora because I thought that the Flora would be booked out long in advance. I'm not sure if this is common, but when I was on the Flora last September, there were very few passengers who were regular Celebrity passengers. Not sure why??

When we booked the Xpedition last December, we only had a choice of a few cabins available.  When we transferred to the Flora yesterday, we had a wide selection of available cabins.  And there is more space than usual on the Galapagos cruises for 2024.

2 minutes ago, abbydancer2003 said:

Just curious, would you now get the 8 points a night for the Sky Suite?  I'm in an Expedition suite for our cruise, and the points are critical for my 2025 plans.

I asked about that.  The Xpdedition suite on the Xpedition was 12 points per day. Changing to the Flora, the Sky Suite with Veranda is 8 points per day, but the Sky Suite with Infinity Veranda is 12 points.  Celebrity considers the Xpedition suite and the Sky Suite with infinity veranda to be identical. But to me one has a veranda and one doesn't. We also needed the 12 points per day to bump up to the next level.

2 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Thank you for posting this information. In the end, I hope you’ll enjoy your time on Flora. 

Thanks!  I loved your live report, and we had picked the Xpedition southern loop based on it.  But no matter what...we're going to the Galapagos!

Well, after several hours on the phone today, just wanted to share the information we received. You are given three choices: 1) cancel for full refund, 2) move to any cruise on same ship in 2024, or 3) change to the Flora in 2025.  With this option, you must sail the week you were currently scheduled to sail or the week immediately preceding it to keep your current rate. Also, we had been in an Xpedition Suite with Veranda, but could only change to a Sky Suite with an Infinity Veranda.  I had wanted to "downgrade" to the Sky Suite with Veranda, but I was not allowed. Sailing with Lindblad was not an option. If there are no Infinity Verandas available on your specific sailing, they can bump you up, but not down. Also, you must make the change by October 5, 2024.

Thanks for all the input.  After hours on the phone today, we did not really get to choose a new sailing. We had to pick the same week we were currently going.

Just now, prmssk said:

Northern is similar to Inner

Southern is similar to Outer

 

Although, it isn’t a perfect match so double check any ports that mattered the most to you. 

Thank you.  I actually just found some good information on Celebrity's Galapagos website.

Well, we were supposed to be on the Xpedition, southern route to the Galapagos in September 2025.  We were just on the Beyond last week, and no mention was made of this, even at the Galapagos talk.  We would have listened differently now that we know we will not be going on our booked cruise.  I plan to call the Galapagos desk a little later.  We spent a long time deciding that we wanted the Southern route.

So my questions are, now that we will need to change to the Flora (and hopefully not an IV!), would you recommend the Inner or Outer Loop?  And I'm not sure if we can change the time of the year, but is there a month that is better than others?  I am a wimp in cold water, so warmer water would be better.  The talk on board last week had all of that information, but we didn't pay attention to it knowing we had already booked our cruise.  Thanks!

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I've been fortunate to sail many cruise lines in the past several years, so I'm confused what is on Celebrity.  Getting ready to pack for a cruise.  Can you please tell me what toiletries are in a stateroom on Beyond.  Specifically, is there separate shampoo and conditioner, bar soap, and body lotion?

Also, we are traveling with a large group (~50) and since there is no reserved seating in the main dining rooms, can you please tell me how large the largest tables are?  Thanks!

What about with Ultimate Balcony Dining?  We always tipped extra, but will there be an 18% gratuity added on to that too?  I haven't seen that anywhere yet.  We are not on a package.

We sail this past October, the first cruise of the season. There were pay shuttles into town, which you could prepurchase or buy on the shuttle. Unfortunately, they did not start running until 8 AM on the dot, and we had a privately booked excursion that left at 845. First and last time I ever saw my husband run, but we just made it. We were off the ship and on the shuttle bus shortly after 7 AM, but it would not leave until the published time of 8 AM, even though it had filled up.

17 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

If you don't already know the jogging track spans decks 15 and 16, meaning two sections of it are on an incline and decline. It's probably the most inventive cruiseship running track and it traverses different parts of the ship. 

 

OMG, I love it!  Thanks for the video.  I've been on almost 30 cruises, and this looks like the most fun place to run!

Thank you so much! 5 laps is much less than the 7 laps per mile I need to do on princess.  so only 35 laps will get me my 7 miles!😜

We just brought some Manuka Honey back from New Zealand.  Fortunately, we started and ended our cruise in Sydney.  We declared and had no problems. But New Zealand was VERY strict.  We were unsure if we could even take our refillable water bottles off the ship, because they were not factory sealed--we did take them off without incident.

OK, so I'm addicted to running, and I love running on cruise ships. It looks like there is a jogging track that spans two decks on the Beyond. Can you do continuous loops on this track, or do you need to go back and forth? Do you know how long it is?  Thanks!

2 hours ago, Nitemare said:

It's a tiny town, there aren't any tour companies there and I don't think any taxi companies.  The cruiselines will probably be using any drivers/guides within 100 miles that day.  It's annoying but you probably have to book thru the ship to get anything other than a walking tour

Thanks!  I just asked this over on trip advisor and got the same response.  Looks like we will be walking!

Last night was my registration.  Got the app working, after reloading, and picked our arrival time. Will fill our the rest of the info over the next few days.  Thanks for your help.

Thank you all.  Some cruise lines make you fill in all the information before you can pick a check in time.  Last time I sailed RCCL, there was no app. Now I just have to get the app to work.  It just keeps spinning...