nazpaz

I carry my phone in my front pocket too - they worked for me.

We had a nice cruise earlier this month. Posted a review and video of Regal, etc. here:

I guess it would help if I added the ship: Regal Princess

It was kind of funny. We had our medallions attached to the back of our phones using a nifty holder we got on Amazon. When boarding, or at a port leaving or coming, the officials were always looking for us to have the medallions on the lanyards. When we would hold our phones up, more than once, there was a split second when I was under the impression that they were about to say, "We don't need to see your phone" - then they would see the medallions. A few of them commented that that was a great way to carry the medallions.

I can't personally verify it, but someone told me that the barista in the Pastry shop (in Horizon food court) is the best one on the ship. Your milage will vary! I just went to the coffee machine in the food court and refilled my travel mug.

Friends, no one at boarding or on the ship will ever ask you about the app. If you have a medallion you will be sent to the Green Line. If you don't you will be sent to the Blue one. While on board, no one will ever ask about what the app shows. You can use the app on board all you want, whether it shows 6/7 or 7/7.

1. You can have both old and new apps on your phone. At some point they declare it dead, but until then you can use either one. 2. The 6/7 thing doesn't mean what people think it means - it isn't related to boarding the ship. When you arrive for your cruise no one will even look at that. The only thing will be "do you have a medallion" and "may I see your passport." 3. Even at that point, if you don't have your medallion you will go through the "blue line" at be given the medallion - again, no one will ask about the 6/7 deal.

PS: I know the shuttle boats are "tenders" and not "tethers" - I got started typing it wrong and just kept doing it. Didn't realize it before it was too late to fix it.

Thanks - I edited my post to correct the balcony description.

We decided to take a Caribbean Cruise out of Galveston. This was our second cruise but our first in several years. Cruise Planning – picking a cruise, selecting a room After spending a lot of time researching forums and checking out prices from various sources online, we decided the Regal Princess would fit the bill! We had a few specifics in mind. We wanted: 1. a balcony room 2. mid-ship and on one of the lower decks 3. an unobstructed view 4. to visit places aside from Mexico (just for the fun of adding a couple of new countries to our “visited” list) After shopping around, I phoned Princess and spoke to a booking agent. We were slightly less than 90 days before cruising, so, in the cruising world we were booking last minute. On the Princess website I had picked a cabin slightly forward of mid-ships. When I told him what we are looking for he typed away at the computer for a while and offered us a “premier balcony” right in the middle of the ship on deck 9, which is the second lowest level with cabins. The cost was only slightly higher than the standard balcony I had found so we took it on the spot. A note on the different balcony cabins: the Deluxe cabins have a love seat couch that makes into a small bed in them that the regular cabins do not. We really liked having that love seat as it gave us a place to sit rather than on the bed. The balconies aren’t very big on these ships. While it was interesting to go out on the balcony while in port or to go out for a few minutes while at sea, we actually didn’t use our balcony nearly as much as we thought we might. Of course, your mileage will vary. On the Regal Princess there are no window rooms – it’s either balcony or interior, but for future reference, I’d be satisfied with a window cabin rather than a balcony. After all, there are places to sit and enjoy the ocean views everywhere on the ship. Ports of Call We aren’t as physical as we used to be, so our focus was on sightseeing rather than adventuring (although I kind of wish I’d gone snorkeling). At Cozumel we walked off the ship and checked out the shops in the area. We then returned to the ship and enjoyed the quieter atmosphere on board for the afternoon. I know people don’t want to miss anything, but I think everyone should experience having the ship “to yourself” somewhere along the journey. At Belize we took an excursion to the Altun Ha Mayan site followed by a wildlife spotting river tour. Just leaving the ship at Belize City is an adventure. Ships anchor about 5 miles out and passengers board tethers to the port. From there we were ushered onto a nice bus that traveled about an hour to Altrun Ha. It’s an interesting place. You can climb up on top of some of the pyramids. We learned a bit about the culture and took photos. After a short ride to a place where lunch was served, we got on a boat for the Belize River excursion. We saw lots of iguanas, a few howler monkeys, some crocodiles, and just the snouts of some manatees. We had a bit more of an adventure than we expected when one of the engines of our boat died. Another boat was sent for us and we changed boats out in the middle of the river – a bit of a challenge for several! Our trip back to the ship was an ordeal because the line to get on a tether was over an hour long! I think there were four cruise ships there and that stretched the resources of the port to the limit. We thought Belize was a neat place to visit, but because of the tether situation we’d likely pass on a shore trip there in the future. Even better, I’d pick a cruise that offered a different set of ports all together. Roatan, Honduras, though, is a Caribbean visitor’s dream. Mahogany Bay is private to Carnival and Princess ships. You walk off the ship to a nice shopping area, then can either ride a chair lift or walk a few minutes to a beautiful private beach. We strolled down to that beach, found some beach chairs and watched all the people. Then we took a nature path back to the ship. There are a lot of fun excursions available, but that beach is great and in walking distance of the ship. If you ever wanted to skip excursions and just enjoy the beach, Mahogany Bay is the place to do it. On Board Our journey had four sea days. As did most everyone else, we spent time exploring the ship – and there’s a lot to see! There are many comfortable seating areas. In the big four-story plaza area at the center of the ship there’s often someone playing, singing, or hosting a public game. There are plenty of places to get refreshments. There’s no need for me to try to describe everything as the internet is full of videos of the ship. We ate most of our meals at the Horizon food court, although we also ate in one of the main dining rooms on some evenings. We tried the hamburger place, and it was okay. We also splurged at the Gelato place for some very good ice cream. We attended a few of the big productions in the theater and heard some talented singers and musicians and saw some impressive dancers in the shows. There are also smaller productions in Princess Live. We watched an ice sculpting demonstration and checked out over activities. Depending on your tastes, during sea days you could literally go from one thing to the next all day long. We aren’t gamblers, so can’t tell you a thing about the casino. The ship, itself, is an entertaining experience. On the last day of the cruise, we were still discovering areas we’d missed. If you can’t find a thing to do you can always go to your cabin and watch movies on TV. Or follow my example and take a nice nap. Odds and Ends We had a bit of rocking the first night and second day of the cruise. Then, as we traveled back to Galveston the ship rocked a little. We never felt ill but did use Sea Bands. Not sure, but I think they did help. I took a Bonine the second evening. Slept like a log, then, the next day at Cozumel between sightseeing and exploring the ship I took not one, but two naps. In the future I’ll save taking the pills for more extreme conditions. We made reservations for evening dining but each evening they moved us to a different table, so we never experienced the “the waiter knows us” dining experience. Then, later on, we decided we liked the buffet and settled on eating there most of the time. I do suggest eating breakfast at one of the main dining rooms at least once. It’s a different sort of dining experience. Here’s a tip: you can order off menu if you want. No promises, but we were happily served. Our cabin steward took good care of us and cheerfully responded to all requests. One cabin irritation is the motion sensor light just outside the cabin bathroom. We mentioned it to our steward, and she applied some silver tape to the sensor. The tape didn’t stick very well, so we kept reapplying it. Still, it lasted most nights and that’s all we needed. The cruise offered such a variety of experiences that I’m sure you can read someone else’s cruise story and it would sound as if they were on a completely different trip! One option when disembarking the ship is “express.” That means you are taking your own luggage off rather than checking it. If you use that option, you get the earliest departure window and can basically leave whenever you are ready. However, there were hundreds of people doing the “express” walk off and we ended up waiting in line about 45 minutes to get off the ship. Once across the gangway, things went much faster with no issues. Overall We had a good time on the cruise. The food was abundant and good. It was nice having people taking such good care of us and the mixture of being on a luxurious ship and then doing port excursions is a nice combination. I know some people basically go from one cruise to the next. That’s probably not my cup of tea. No doubt, that is due in part to our years of independent travel in the RV and then in Europe. Still, a cruise is a lot of fun. I think it would be even more fun to travel with a group of friends and family. Who knows? That might be in our future.

We have silicone covers on our phones and the deals really stick to them. Once you get a fingernail under a corner, though, they lift right off, not leaving a mark. I kept the peel off backing and I think I will be able to put it back and save them for future cruises.

Yeah, it's definitely a personal preference. Most of the time our door unlocks for us while we are way down the hallway, so the phones just stay in our pockets. The only time we actually have to put the medallion right up close to the scanner is when leaving or arriving at the ship itself - and you have to hold it up close no matter how you are carrying it.

Got these on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BSXT8J3V

Certainly makes sense to check your ship account after a day or two to see if anything unexpected is being charged.

Exactly - in Galveston everyone wanted to see our medallions - also we showed our passports twice. No need for anything else. We had our medallions attached to our phones (nice way to carry them BTW) and everyone kept looking for them to be on lanyards. We'd wave the back of our phones and they'd laugh and say that was a neat way to carry them.

Just a very side note - our T-Mobile includes Mexico. Upon arrival at Cozumel, I got a text message from T-Mobile welcoming me to Mexico and confirming I had my regular 5G coverage.

We didn't need to find parking - had a ride to the port. The only seating was outside - there's a line for people who need assistance boarding and there are benches there. You can check your own bags if you want - there's a place marked baggage, near where passanger drop off is. There are also people with trollies working that area who will handle it for tips.

Boarding in Galveston, Sunday afternoon: Our boarding time was 11:00-2:00. We arrived just before 1:00 and was surprised at the length of the line. Out the doors and down the sidewalk. I heard one greeter say that earlier the line was much longer - he complained that Princess had assigned everyone the same boarding times so everyone showed up at 11:00. Clearly, that wasn't the case because we were in a pretty long line too! All in all, it took about an hour for us to get aboard. Some people seemed to feel that was really long. I don't think it was too bad although I do get tired just standing. Once we got into the building, the lines for Security were divided between Blue and Green. The Green line was shorter - I'd say we waited about 15 minutes to show our passports and then go through the X-ray deal. After that we landed in another Green Line, this time to show our passports and, for the first time, actually scan our medallions. That line was only 3-5 minutes. However, this is where the difference between the Blue Lane and the Green Lane was obvious. All the Blue Lane was divided into several lines, where agents were processing them in. It looked like a rather long wait For us, though, it was up an escalator, and onto the ship where we scanned our medallions and set out to find our cabin. All in all, it was just an exercise in patience - it felt like it took longer, but from arrival to cabin was just over an hour. New app/old app - I described our experience it in the thread about the new app - I'll just say that no one cared about the app and the Shoreside payment stuff. All they wanted to know was whether or not we had medallions and to see our passports.

For what it's worth - Galveston boarding today: I never filled in the Shoreside payment information. Yesterday (Saturday) both the old and new apps showed us in the Green Lane. This morning the new app switched to showing us in the blue lane, the old app still showed Green. At boarding, no one asked to see anything about any of that. The only question was, do you have a medallion - if so, go to the Green Lane. Government security wanted to see our passports - although I imagine other ID would have worked. Once past that, Princess asked if we had medallions and then sent us to another Green Lane. Passports/Medallions again and then to the ship. Once aboard, after an hour or so, my new app stopped telling me to go to the Blue Lane and showed us aboard.

Now this is interesting. We sail tomorrow. Tonight, the new app no longer shows the Check In tab at all. The first thing is "Boarding Pass" and it says "Green Lane." And I have never added the Shoreside payment method.

On the new app, swipe left on "Check In" (not tap, swipe). Other items are there, depending on where you are on the calendar. On mine, there's Packages, Boarding Pass, and Luggage Tags (cruising tomorrow). It took me forever to figure out the swipe left thing.

I didn't fill in the Shoreside payment method on the new app, but it still has me in the Green lane when I sail tomorrow. Images here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2980992-new-princess-app-available/?do=findComment&comment=66690085

That issue was supposedly fixed right off. It did work for me. At first it was only booking number, but after they announced the "fix" I was able to log in as usual. I did see something about using upper/lower case + special characters being enforced. I already do that, so I can't speak to it being required or not.

As is always the case, the people doing the technical work are not the ones doing customer service. The customer service people deal with the problems, the angry customers, and the people who are just lost in the entire process. They keep sending notes to the tech team who is either diligently working on the known problems or is just straggling back to work after taking extra vacation time following the holidays. I had an exchange with one on X and then a follow up phone call. They were anxious that I was ready to cruise and also collecting information on the issues I had found with the new app. I noticed, though, that after a few days on X, Facebook, and Instagram that the reps stopped engaging people about the new app. By then they had heard it all again and again, they had passed the word on to the tech team, and couldn't do or say anything else. That's where it all stands right now.

Anti-gravity emitters. In an emergency they can be powered on to lift the ship out of the water. They use a great deal of power, so they aren't used except in extreme circumstances. Although at night, when everyone is asleep, the captain will take her up just for the fun of it.