Reina del Mar

Wasn’t ‘gone’ during our March/April 2023 cruise. Wanted to use OBC so booked it onboard..must be done on first two days to have same price as pre cruise. I did a live chat with Princess pre cruise to check..and kept a screen shot of their reply. Bar tender kept trying to have us order non alcoholic beverage package, but we insisted we wanted a Classic Soda Package and that is what we eventually bought.

Agree Adult child and GF could sort things out before sailing, or maybe has a friend he would like to invite ? They could pay some contribution if not the full cost.

Take a bottle or drinks’ cup with you and refill it using a beaker from buffet ?

Not 100% sure..but think they are now offering larger bottles of water at an increased cost. When I ordered the price was much less than they are asking now..even though there’s a discount at the moment. Tried to find it on ‘Manage My Booking’ but bottle size not showing on my booking now.

I am sure many people do this Maybe if cruiselines asked more reasonable prices less people would try this. Dozens a day or just one, it is still stealing…you must live with your conscience.

Princess would need to sort out the Medallion App before attempting to do something like this !! It crashes and has glitches so frequently that some people would miss out. Offering Dining requests, arrival times, check in, Sanctuary, drinks packages, speciality restaurants etc etc on booking might be simpler, so then it’s up to you when you book..as long as there was no opportunity to get your deposit back if you simply change your mind, want to swap cruises. ..obviously a different story for medical issues.

B2B cruisers having first choice before anyone else can board seems unfair…a bit like the library being ransacked. Maybe..just maybe..those booking early should have first choice..encouraging people to book as soon as cruise opens up. However..then you’d have the unfairness of those in USA being offered booking dates before those in UK, Australia etc..and of course Elites can book a day earlier than others. I am not really sure what the fairest way would be. As some wise person once said- ‘You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time!’

Doesn’t always work out. We had a very good travel agent. She tried hard to sort out our issues..involving her manager and the local area manager. None of them could do anything..of course they had other customers and our booking of four cabins could not take priority. However….It was our booking, and I did not have other clients to deal with. I phoned RCCL and spoke to them..with the same result as travel agent. They were prepared to talk to me even though TA had booked it. Still not sorted ! So I emailed Michael Bailey..One of his minions phoned and emailed from USA to UK and it was eventually sorted out to our satisfaction. Took me many hours but I wasn’t prepared to give up. We all enjoyed our cruise in the end. Be determined , refuse to accept what doesn’t suit , RCCL caused the issue, not you and you can get it fixed !!!!

Paid $68 plus tip from San Pedro to Lax terminal 2 earlier this month, for two adults, two large cases and two roll aboards. Took about 45 minutes. Dropped at door to international departures. Road was quite busy. Board at taxi stand showed $65 so we were a little over due to traffic.

Depends whether you really need the tablecloth and champagne…maybe we are just ‘cheap’, but..you can just order breakfast from room service and open the bottle of Champagne you carried onboard ???? If you are ‘nice’ to the delivery person, they will explain you can add additional items to those on the actual menu that is provided. Depends what you are looking for but we had omelettes, additional fruit etc. We usually have room service breakfast on all port days to avoid the scramble of the buffet. We have found it to suit our needs as they will put it on the balcony if you wish and the delivery chap we had on our last cruise was amazing. Obviously you need to tip. Our only ‘issue’ was placing the trays on the floor outside the cabin..(back issues.)

Maybe things have changed..our situation was pre Covid..D and SIL had a suite with SIL’s Dad and GD in balcony nearby.…for booking purposes only. We were in adjacent balcony to Grand suite. Fortunately we were all close enough to have the same steward…so he didn’t miss out on any tips by putting GD in with D and SIL.

I heard the Lady Future Cruise Consultant on Sapphire Princess was rude to some of our fellow cruisers. We were waiting to confirm how many FCDs we had. A gentleman consultant saw us waiting and enquired what we wanted. I explained..he checked with lady who said neither of us had any. Later that day someone phoned the cabin and said we had two each. Does not inspire confidence !

Can’t wait……2024 here we come !

Maybe I used the wrong terminology..I meant buggies are available to transport passengers to the gates. Maybe you thought I meant luggage trolleys ??? I think the cost of luggage trolleys is outrageous..but that is another story! Suppose traffic varies due to time of day..our experience was early morning and although Tom Bradley terminal was quite busy, it wasn’t at a standstill as we travelled through.

Many thanks.

Many thanks. We have a hotel with parking at the moment but I have read recently that taxis are difficult in Galveston these days. It’s booked on a fully refundable basis so we can cancel if necessary…and get a cheaper hotel !

Thank you. Any suggestions which lot for a ‘mature’ couple with far too many bags, please ??

Book adjacent cabins ? Book a cabin with sofa bed, talk nicely to steward (hopefully same one) who will make up sofa bed for daughter…tip well. Beds in many cabins are two singles zipped together so may not be comfortable for three. Have done similar with D and SIL..GD booked in Father in Law’s cabin but had sofa bed made up with parents. Steward very obliging. We were booked as a row of four cabins though..all with same steward.

Please recommend parking at RC’s cruiseport in Galveston. We will have a hire car.

Hope they have fixed the Swirls ice cream machine, iced tea machine and decaffeinated coffee machine in buffet. They were out for at least San Antonio to San Pedro if not from BA round the Horn as well !! Seemed as if they couldn’t be bothered to fix them as Dry Dock was coming up.

We had an early disembarkation spot on a Thursday…may be different on weekends, but traffic was quite heavy. Used a porter to help get us through immigration and to the taxi rank.Taxi cost $68 plus tip to International terminal. Arrived about 9.40am before our check in opened at 10 am for a 13.55 departure. Be aware some gates are a very long way from security but free carts are offered to help cover the distance.

I paid $135 for 18 days Wi-Fi on the Sapphire Princess in March/April for one device. That was with Platinum/ Elite discount. The wi fi was dreadful and kept dropping off. I have no idea how Princess can advertise it as the best Wi Fi at sea !!!!!!!!!

We had a similar problem when they changed the ship we were due to sail on, to Wonder for last May. We had four cabins booked in a row. RCCL and our travel agent kept telling us we had to wait till a particular date for our bookings to be re adjusted. I wish we hadn’t. When they eventually reassigned the cabins they weren’t together at all. I spent hours on the phone to both travel agent and RCCL. I wasn’t prepared to accept what was offered, so emailed the CEO. In very little time I was able to negotiate new, higher grade cabins together..but it took much time and dogged determination on my behalf. We were fortunate and ended up with better than we had originally booked. We only had one specific week that our whole party could travel, so were limited with our options. My advice would be to get in touch with RCCL (directly, even if booked through agent) and not accept anything you are not 100% happy with..and certainly refuse any price increase.

Oh dear..hope they manage to locate him. It’s not impossible. Many years ago a crew member jumped overboard, wanting to go for a swim..possibly on drugs or having had too much to drink. He was rescued by ship’s crew…was in the daytime though, in the Med. I have photos of him being wrapped in blankets in a lifeboat before being taken to the ‘isolation hospital’ on the ship. This was on my namesake TSS Reina del Mar

We have already been able to book our flights….and hotel rooms with other companies other than Rydges…we have found out this is because Crystalbrook which has bought Rydges has not yet decided their plans for the hotel.