beg3yrs

Is that primarily the work being done in Palermo? I'm very curious.

You're definitely showing your age because strippers don't take one dollar bills any more ... a friend told me this. 😉

Would love to see some higher resolution shots of the stern. So far the only one we've seen is kind of fuzzy. Also would love to know if she's fully fitted out during the sea trials or if there's more work to be done at least externally. And finally (for now), she's been sitting in Palermo for three days now. Looks like on the satellite images she might be getting more work done because the location looks like a dry dock. Anybody know for sure?

Need a clarification here. I assumed by prepaid gratuities you were referring to the Plus or Premier packages which include gratuities. If you're speaking of paying them yourself ahead of time, I have no first-hand knowledge of how they do that accounting. Personally I would not pay gratuities ahead of time if I didn't have a package regardless of the accounting. I try to hold onto my money until it must be paid out. I do understand that there are some folks that for various personal reasons would like to pay in advance.

And there are some indications that WhatsApp works even if one is not connected to the ship's Internet. Same for iMessages on the iPhones. The crew almost exclusively uses WhatsApp messaging.

I just looked at a recent folio and with prepaid gratuities there are zero entries regarding gratuities. No credit and no debit.

Premium desserts are not served in Club Class (now called Reserve I think). They are available at different venues on different ships. I've seen a list here on CC but can't recall the particular thread. Casual dining isn't specialty dining. It's Alfredo's / Gigi's (which used to be free) and a few other venues. The on-deck pizza and grills are still free.

Sabatini's breakfast is for full suites only. Mini-suites is a poorly chosen name and causes this confusion all the time.

I've heard that MTP lunch becomes a cocktail party on very short cruises. We were recently (June 2023) on a B2B (two seven day cruises) on the Caribbean Princess and attended both MTP luncheons.

Ad blockers are embedded in your browser and host computer (your tablet, laptop, desktop or whatever) and should be independent of your Internet source. Password managers are also embedded in you browser. If you're using a different computer on the ship than you are at home, the encrypted databases are not in sync and you won't get the same results you do at home. Also, some sites remember your login name using cookies which may be different on the computer you're using on the ship.

Yes the website, princessluxurybed.com is still live but they've been sold out for quite some time now. We bought a full king set for our place in Florida and a year later decided it was time to replace our king in Arizona. No such luck. 🤔

Just heard back from our TA. We have four cruises already booked in that time period and none of them have lower prices than when we first booked. He said all the drops were for lower category cabins than ours (balconies) and were non-refundable deposits as well. What a clown show over at Princess.

We have four cruises booked in this time period. Sent my TA a note asking him to check. We'll see...

There are comments above some of the pics. Thrusters are only annoying when docking and leaving. Even then they're usually not used very long.

There have been many complaints about excessive vibrations in the Island's aft cabins since the refit. We were on her last November in Caribe 726, one deck above you and we did notice vibrations although I wouldn't call them excessive. I did look up your cabin though and the obstruction does see pretty bad. If this is your cabin and you really want a view, I'd think twice. If the price is amazing well ...

How about a link? I tried and don't see it.

Ha ha! We were on the Sapphire in January of this year with both Captain McBain and Mario. Mario said at that time he was retiring after one more cruise on the Sapphire. I guess plans change ... I did hear that Mario is the longest serving employee of Princess and I believe it.

As bad as they are, I sincerely doubt agents handle multiple clients with zero knowledge. Please provide the source of your information.

Princess is excellent at serving passengers who require no gluten. There have been threads about this if you do a search. DW has celiac so we know. Use the Cruise Personalizer to let Princess know in advance about the dietary restriction. For the MDR, we find it's best to reserve the same table every night so we can have the same staff who will become familiar with dietary needs. The people at the desk will make exceptions for those with medical needs and take care of you. Go there as soon as you can during embarkation and make your needs be known. Each night one of the Restaurant Managers (used to be call Head Waiters) will come by with the next day's menus. Your partner can choose meals in advance and the RM will arrange for the choice to me made gluten-free if possible, and usually it is. It works great! Even French Onion Soup will be made with a piece of gluten-free bread. For the buffet, often items are labelled as gluten-free but not always. Ask for the Chef de Partie (or something like that) and he or she will take you through the buffet and let you know what you can and can't have. Always look carefully though. For instance, the bacon at breakfast sits on a layer of bread to soak up the drippings. Cross-contamination is a problem there. However, you can ask and they have bacon "down below" that hasn't been contaminated. By asking, problem solved! You can often even partake of the Chef's Table and the specialty restaurants by asking in advance. The Lido Deck grill's fries are done in a dedicated fryer - there's no cross-contamination issues so DW gets her fill of fries when cruising. They will clean the grill for you if you let them know so there's not cross-contamination from toasting regular buns. Sometimes gluten-free buns are available too. Gluten-free pizza is also available both on deck and at Alfredo's. Just ask!

Latency issues are especially true for geosynchronous satellite Internet systems with the birds sitting out at 22,500.001 (approximately 😉) miles up. Starlink uses low earth orbit (LEO) satellites at roughly 342 miles. While they do cross-link with each other to get data to and from the nearest ground stations, the distance traveled (and thus the latency) is almost two orders of magnitude reduced.

Regarding the "ambience" of Spellbound not being compatible with the rest of the Sun Princess, I'd like to point out that one does not just walk by and have their day spoiled by seeing a Victorian venue. Spellbound is accessible to passengers via a single door. Unless one intentionally goes inside, you don't see a thing.

Spellbound is now showing up in the Sun Princess deck plans next to the casino.

Yes but according to your previous post, you're pleased!

Sorry but those photos aren't from inside the Magic Castle mansion. They're computer renderings of what the venue will look like in the Sun Princess - provided courtesy of Princess itself. I had to reduce the resolution so CC would accept them. If you want the originals at full size, go HERE.

Most devices will not automatically connect to WiFi hotspots unless they've been previously approved for automatic connection by the device user. It's a security feature as not all hotspots are legit.