steelhead1

Thank you for your review!

It is funny how embarkation was great for one party, and not so much for the other...

It may be an issue of timing.

I agree maybe it is timing. We arrived at the port at 12:00 and were on the ship by 12:20. On debarkation we were through customs and on our way to airport in 15 minutes. We are platinum so priority boarding and debarkation helps greatly.

Just back from this awesome holiday cruise on the Regal. Ship is beautiful! It never felt crowded in any area of the ship. Embarkation and debarkation were a breeze. We tried the EZ check luggage and felt it was worth it to not have to handle our luggage till final destination. We spent sea days at the retreat pool. Very quiet and relaxing area. Took advantage of the 3 to 4pm happy hour in Crooners. We also enjoyed Princess Live. We had an aft balcony on the Aloha deck near the stairs. We did not find the lack of a central staircase to be a problem for us. Our only real complaint would be that we love the aft pools, but on the Regal it is a designated smoking area and thus we could not enjoy it. If you have any questions, I will try to answer them.

Wondering what the enclave includes and what cost is. We will be on the Dec. 18 11 day holiday cruise. Also can it be booked just on a day by day basis

So now that we have our cabin assignment and balcony upgrade, chance of getting a mini suite upgrade? One can only hope right?

I am also on your sailing, we just booked the cruise last weekend and booked a balcony guarantee, we found an agency offering this for the same price as inside. Keep checking your cruise personalizer for cabin assignment! Now that final payment is here, I would expect to see all of us with guarantees get cabins shortly.

 

Lately Princess like other lines, has done more upselling than giving free upgrades, but you never know as this voyage appears to have a lot of availability. On our last cruise the upsell email arrived about 3 weeks prior to sailing. We had done a balcony guarantee, loved the assigned cabin location and did not do the upsell to mini-suite.

We just got our cabin assignment via email today. We were upgraded from category BF to BB cabin C250 Carib deck. We are happy with that for sure

We knew booking a guarantee would be a crap shoot of sorts as far as cabin assignment but we are gambling a bit hoping for an upgrade. Kind of adds to the overall excitement and adventure to the cruise.

We just made our final payment for our Oct. 27th Regal cruise. We booked a guarantee cabin for first time and wondering how Princess notifies of our cabin assignment

Princess' web site (as well as HAL's) seems to be optimized for Chrome. My PC defaults to Explorer, so when I had trouble with Princess' site earlier today using Explorer, I switched to Chrome and things went much more smoothly.

 

Of course, YMMV :).

I have noticed that navigating the Princess website is very slow. I was on the phone with a Princess rep booking a cruise Friday and when I mentioned this she said it works much better with chrome

well we are going to take our chances and booked a balcony guarantee for the oct 27th sailing on the Regal Princess @ $899.00PP. Will live with what they assign but hoping we get upgraded.

A question for those who have booked a guarantee cabin, if the cabin category is shown as a forward cabin for instance is that what the assignment would be or could it be in any category fwd., midship, aft etc... Would like feedback before we book. Thanks

We just received an email from Princess that they are doing a progressive check in on our Jan 24th cruise on the Carribean Princess. We are in a balcony cabin on the Baja deck and they are showing boarding for Baja deck as 2:30, Last to board. Is this something new? Has anyone experienced this? We are Platinum, so does priority boarding preclude us from this boarding schedule?

Has anyone used Johann and Sandra for the Royal Dolphin Swim tour. We would appreciate any feed back

We are considering booking the 7nt cruise from Tokyo on September 9th 2016.As we would only have 2 days pre-cruise, any recommendations for tours? Also it appears the cruise terminal is quite a distance from Tokyo so any hotel recommendations, or would a hotel through princess be best?

We are considering booking a forward facing balcony on the regal, L101,102,103 or 104. Would like to know from anyone who has stayed in these how obstructed they are, are the cabins larger and is it true the balcony is locked while at sea? Also any photos of these would be appreciated.

OK this is what I thought but just wanted to verify thanks to all for the input. Now we book it!

We are looking to book one of the 10day carribean cruises in March or April of 2016. Are the 10 day march cruises affected by the spring break crowd? Or are we better off with April?

Wow such mixed reviews about the aft balconies. Guess if we go that route we will just have to take our chances. with all the sea days on this cruise, the thought of relaxing on an aft balcony to the wake of the ship was appealing

We are currently booked in D425 midship on the Regal for the carribean islander in October. But with the current sale going on we are considering an aft cabin D729 Is the soot issue less of a problem on the lower decks? Or should we stay where we are. Just thinking an aft cabin would be nice with all the sea days

We booked this cruise about 3 months ago on a sale that gave us a $200.00 onboard credit and specialty dining. We decided to switch to an aft balcony which is $400.00 dollars more and 1 category higher than we are currently booked in. When I called to switch cabins I was told because it is a higher category we would lose the specialty dining.At the time we originally booked it did not matter what category you booked in you got an onboard credit and the specialty dining. This will be our 7th cruise with Princess and I am a little pissed. Has anyone experienced this, any suggestions?

DW and I have taken 23 cruises on Princess over the years but never on the Island. Next week we'll board her, so can anyone tell me what shape she's in right now? We'll be in B502 and I really don't want to hear she's a mess in anticipation of the refit :(

 

As an aside, I have reached an age where I can look back and see how wonderful things used to be, not only on cruise ships, but in travel in general- Florence without lines, St. Mark's Square mostly empty, etc., etc. Yes, I'm living in the past, but I am glad I could see the world mostly free of crowds. I'm glad so many can now see the world, but I can do without crowded ships, planes and sites.

We were on the Island in June in Alaska, our second cruise on her and the Island is in very good shape. You will enjoy the Island. We have made the decision to cancel our Med cruise in October though, as we are not happy with the changes being made.

A couple of threads on this already....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2127734&highlight=island+princess+dry+dock

 

We may cancel our Nov TA because of this. :(

 

The biggest for us would be the loss of 1/3 of the promenade deck and the aft viewing areas.

I looked before I posted if this had already been discussed, guess I missed it. We may well still do our med cruise only because it is so port intensive but I would have to say for any other destination we would not go on the Island given these changes

We will be on the Island 12 day med cruise in Oct. and were comparing the pre and post drydock deckplans and there are major changes being made. no more sanctuary pool, no more universe lounge, no more fitness center with views and adding many new cabins just to name a few. This will be our 3rd time on the Island and to us these changes are disappointing. Just curious what your thoughts are on this.

We are looking for input from seasoned med cruisers as to whether to go with a balcony or inside cabin. We will be on the Island Princess 12 day on Oct 13TH with 3 sea days and an overnite in Venice. Currently a balcony is about a $1000.00 more, money that could be spent elsewhere. We always book balcony cabins, but with a port intensive cruise like this is it worth it?

I see you are on Emerald out of Barcelona and the ship is not even close to being sold out. How many insides, outsides, balconies and suites do you want? Don't know what you looked at, but there are still a zillion insides available.

When I put the hold on last night the majority of insides were showing as "to be assigned". Have not looked today, maybe it has changed. Our preference is a balcony, however on this port intensive cruise it seems unnecessary and the savings could be spent on other things

We just put a hold on a 12 day med cruise for October of next year. We booked an interior cabin guarantee. Just wondering what the chances are of being upgraded at some point to a balcony. This will be our 6th cruise with Princess. Also curious if most interior cabins being on a guarantee basis means the cruise is mostly sold out?