Daisyloo

Glad that you will be reunited with your bag! We bought suitcase covers that are super colourful and there is no way anyone could mistake them for their bags. They are really easy to spot in the sea of luggage in airports and cruise-ports. They were relatively cheap - about $25 each on Amazon. We also bought Air tags and they gave us peace of mind being able to see where our luggage was at all times.

We were on the Regal this November and December for her TA and then her first Caribbean sailing of the season. Over all we thought the food was good. We were in Club Class and the food is the same as the MDR. Service was exceptional. The food in the buffet was good too. The meal we did not enjoy was in the Crown grill. I had the lamb that was very tough. My husband had the porterhouse and he enjoyed it. We both thought everything was very salty (and we like salt). Service was slow and all the waiters seemed very rushed. Maybe understaffed? And it was so noisy in there - seemed more cafeteria like than a nice restaurant.

Thanks for the quick responses. One less thing to worry about taking.

We are Canadian so we won't get our medallions mailed to us. We will pick the up at the pier in Italy. Will Princess include a lanyard with our medallions, or should I buy my own before we leave for Italy? TIA for any answers.

The hair dryers on the ships we have been on lately have been okay. Not salon quality but acceptable. On the Pinnacle class ships they were in a drawer at the desk and they were attached so they couldn't be used elsewhere. I have short fine hair and for me they were fine.

We just did 14 days on the Noordam to Alaska. It was our first cruise post pandemic and we quite enjoyed it. We felt the service was excellent. The crew were great and seemed very happy to be back at work. The food and service in the MDR was very good and seemed the same as pre pandemic cruises, except that there seemed to be fewer choices. We found the food in the Lido to be lower in quality and with fewer choices than pre pandemic. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. But we always found something we liked. Overall, it was a great cruise and I am glad we did it.

I know it seems counterintuitive to have to do it as you are Canadian, leaving from Canada. But you have to do it because the government says so.

We are in that cruise. We were notified several months ago about the changes. I was glad we hadn't booked our flights yet.

We have been in a cabin in that area a few times. We really liked it. If you want to be unseen while sitting, just pull your chair back towards the cabin. If you want to be out in the sun, pull it forward. We never had any issues with noise.

We couldn't upload our vaccination proof until we were about 3 weeks to travel time, which was last weekend. It took us a few times before we could get mine accepted. My husbands was a bit easier. The health questionnaire and the covid test results can't be uploaded until right before the cruise.

Look on your boarding pass. I'm pretty sure you will see it there.

HAL does read these pages, at least some of the time. A few years ago I made a comment on these forums regarding HAL's Flight Ease. A while later I got an email from CC asking if they could give HAL my email as they would like to talk to me about my comment. I agreed and HAL contacted me. I had a nice conversation with the HAL person. So, they do read these boards.

If you don't get seasick it probably doesn't matter whether you are fore or aft, or high or low. My only recommendation would be to pick a cabin on a deck that has cabins above and below, instead of being under the Lido or above the main theatre.

I am pretty sure you can. I used mine and my husbands FCC to buy the Princess protection plan for me.

Beautiful. Do you make anything with the elderberries?

You will see lots of different things on formal night (gala night). Some tuxes, some suits but not that many. Maybe a sports coat or blazer with nice slacks. Lots of men will be in nice slacks, a long sleeve shirt and very possibly a tie. That is what my husband wears and he seems to be in the majority. Mind you, we have not sailed since the start of the pandemic so things could be a bit different now, but I doubt it. We will be sailing in September so we will see. You will likely have 2 gala nights. Enjoy your cruise!

We did this a few years ago. Got off a Princess ship, got into a taxi, and had the driver take us to a HAL ship. We made sure to give the taxi driver a good tip. Also, we had opted for the latest disembarkation from Princess so that we would have less time to wait before we could embark on HAL.

We used the last bit of our FCC to buy the Princess insurance. Our travel agent said we could use it for anything that gets added to your invoice. If you booked air through Princess you can use it to help pay for that.

We always put our HAL luggage tags on after our flight. Less chance of them getting ripped off during their trip through the airport. If you stay at a hotel after your flight, most hotels will give you a stapler to attach your tags. Or you could take a small stapler or a roll of tape to attach them to your luggage yourself.

Tamarind is our favourite restaurant. We always dine there at least 2 nights on any HAL ship that has it. The setting is lovely and the service is wonderful. Everything we have eaten there has been delicious. They are very careful about allergies and always ask if we have any dietary concerns. Our next cruise is on a HAL ship that doesn't have a Tamarind and it makes us sad!

I buy Bonine (or the generic meclizine) and it works great for us. It isn't available in Canada, but we live close to the border so we can go across and get it in any US pharmacy. Very reasonably priced. We also have ordered it online for Amazon.com. (not .ca) The other option is to buy it on the ship - we have seen it many times in the on board shop. We used the patches once and hated them. Awful dry mouth and just a funny feeling overall.

If you can change cabins I think you should do it. BB Kings and the Rock Room are LOUD.

We just booked our covid tests for our September cruise to Alaska at the Shopper's Drug Mart near our home. Anyone coming to Canada and needing a test to cruise - try Shopper's Drug Mart. They are a Canada wide chain and many of them do offer testing. They charge $40 per test for the antigen tests, more for the PCR. You can book it all online.

You could use the leftover credit to upgrade to a higher cabin category. You can use it to pay for flights if you booked air through Princess. You can use it to buy the Princess protection plan - that's what we did with our unused portion. Our TA said anything that is added to the invoice can be paid using the credits. So probably Princess transfers would count too.

I would vote to go ashore on HMC. We love it there. They do a bbq lunch that is good. They have the big shoreside tenders there so it goes faster than if you had to use the ships tenders. The beach is gorgeous and very clean. Grand Turk is nice too, but in our opinion not nearly as nice as HMC.