Holomoku

I can't speak for Canadian Car Insurance but U.S. does not cover in N.Z. I don't know why? I called my Ins. before leaving and they said to take the N.Z. insurance for sure. Also, take the wind screen addition. Out of the cities the roads are gravel on oil so rocks fly all over the place. There is even a small screen built right on the lower part of the windshield to protect from the rocks on the camper vans like we rented. We've now driven cars and vans on two trips there and will go back for a 3rd driving Holiday. The camper vans are the way to go!!

We have tried all the portions of the ship. Did Ocean View once and balconies ever since. We prefer the bow for reasons I won't mention other than the price. On our next two cruise and the previous two we were right around C227. A very nice area. The motion if there is any at all just lulls us to sleep. My DW and I have done quite a bit of small boat sailing and I have a lot of Blue water experience so we just don't feel the motion. A bow balcony for us always.

On our two cruises to Aust. I did not even think about and all was fine.:) Princess does a very good job with Visas. The only time they could not help so far has been with the Chinese Visa. I personally would not spend extra money for something they will take care of for you, but to put your mind at ease just call Princess to see if it has been taken care of for you.;)

I had seen the first link. That's the one that lead to confusion. Second link answered some of my questions. Thanks for that. On mobile device am limited on search abilities

 

To put it simply - if you like fresh brewed coffee, only available in some areas, or specialty coffees (lattes, etc.) get a coffee card. If you are doing a cruise where it might be cold on deck, they charge for hot chocolate but with the card they are free, if they have a Gelato cafe you get one Gelato for a punch. 15 punches are on the card. You get free fresh brewed coffee at the bars that serve it, free Gelatos, free hot chocolates and then you can use it on your next cruise for the Specialty Coffees only, so you always get to use it up. I compared the prices once a long time ago and have always used one since then for the savings, I like my morning Lattes.;) You can also get the special teas at the IC for free with it. I can burn through two of them easy on a 10 day cruise.:D Your name is not on the card, just the ship and cruise date, so you can give it to someone else, just don't lose yours or someone else will have nice coffees, etc.:eek:

Welcome to CC,

This is how it works, I will disagree with M4dCOW cow above and say that we did Traditional Dining on a few cruises and it was good, but Anytime Dining with new people every night is wonderful. If you are just going to do a table for two each evening then do TD, but if you want to really meet folks and make friends all over the world then do AT. When you walk up to the host in AT just say "2 to share" and you will be seated at a table of 4, 6, 8, or 10. Then they will fill it up.

 

In TD if you are at a table for 6 or 8 it will be the same folks each evening. Then on an evening some may decided to do the buffet or Specialty dining and you are all alone. That happened to us more than once, that's when we switched to AT.

 

The drawback to AT is that the waite staff do not get to know you and your desires, but for us that is ok.

I have never seen this happen on any Princess cruise my wife and I have been on and I always attend formal nights in a dress shirt, tie, slacks and a dress shoes. It is never a problem for the MD's we encounter and we tend to do long cruises.....:cool:

 

All I can say is it did happen in '08 on our Sapphire west coast cruise. I don't remember who the MD was but he brought our friend one of his yellow jackets to wear. Our friend is Elite and said this had never happened before but it did that time.;)

In the dining rooms jacket is usually required on formal nights. On one cruise our friend tried to go in without a jacket, just the normal nice slacks and shirt, so the Maitre 'd brought him one of his to wear.

We like formal nights and I always just rent the tux and shoes. The whole thing shows up in your closet sometime on the first day with everything, then disappears the last evening. Too easy and no worries about pressing or packing. If you are honest in your measurements then it always fits. I took my own tux a couple of times, but I'm on Holiday so it was too much trouble.

Have a great time on your cruise whatever you decide to do.

looking to book our first Princess Cruise. How much is the deposit?

 

Call Princess and ask them, it depends on the cruise.:)

[quote name='suzyed'][I][FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="Purple"]Do Princess ships rent snorkel equipment?
We are going on some tours that say to "bring your own" snorkel equipment and we are flying to port and can't fit something like that.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/I][/QUOTE]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]The short answer is "Nope". You might try renting from your local dive shops. We are doing the Crown Princess next year on the same trip and do have to fly to the mainland to catch the ship. Packing our two sets of mask and snorkels is not hard or too heavy. We are searching now for light weight short fins to take. If you have time you can easily find dive shops around Long Beach or San Pedro and rent from them. Hope this helps.;)[/COLOR]

We have never experienced this on Princess, but while walking the deck one late afternoon on the RCCL Liberty the 4 of us were hit with dark spots on all our clothes and then looked at the carpet and walls around us on one part of the aft upper open decks. They were covered with the stuff, the stains did not come out of our clothes.:mad: We suspected it was from the engine exhaust stacks but were not sure. This confirms the source to us. As I said, this is the first we have heard of anything like this on Princess. We'll wait to take a cruise on the new R & R ships until we hear the problem has been solved.;)

We have not told them on board ship of B-Days or Anniversary, but the info in the computer is all they have ever needed. The balloons, door plate, cake, etc. all show up on the scheduled day as if by magic.:D

We like the sound of the ocean as well but there is a grill in the door and a towel on the floor is not going to prevent the whistling. The other issue is that your cabin is part of a much larger HVAC zone and leaving a balcony door impacts other cabins in that zone.

 

With the little magnets we take along there is no problem covering the vent also, and talking with the Engineering Officer he said that the impact is minor, no more than setting the thermostat to off which we also do.:) Then too I am not an HVAC Engineer, but I will always have the sliding door open until they install automatic closing doors that cannot remain open. On some of the ships we have been on the A/C shuts off as soon as the door is opened. If we wanted to be sealed in we would book and interior room without even a window and save a bundle.;) On our last cruise we discovered that a louder noise was from air going through the bath door latch area into the hollow walls of the fiberglass bathroom. We got used to that noise.:rolleyes:

Why not just call Princess and ask them?

Just leave the sliding door open and if necessary put a towel under the passage door to stop the whistling. We love the sound of the ocean and the fresh air!:D

When we were on the CB out of Puerto Rico with a 2200 hrs. departure we went to the Dining room about 2000 hrs. They said we might not have time for the entire meal due to the Muster Drill. We got in Appetizers & Salads, then about 10 min. after the Main course arrived we were asked to eat quickly as they would be closing the room in 10 more minutes. They had stopped letting folks in by then. We had been warned so it was all fine with us. Everything on board will shut down during the Muster Drill.

So, eat early in the dining room, grab a burger or pizza, or something from the I/C.

I have been looking for sapphire reviews for weeks we sail in January. Is the current cruising solely for the Asian market and when does this charter end?

 

The first two cruises after arrival at the end of April were charters, both the Diamond & Sapphire permanently in the Asian market now, China, Japan and Korea in the summer Indonesia, SE Asia, Malaysia in the winter.:mad: We were on the Sapphire in April for the TP and changes were being made as we sailed along, signage was changing, as were the Casino games, no more craps but lots of Pai Gow. The crew was changing to English speaking Chinese nationals and one needed lots of patience at the Concierge because quite a bit was lost in translations on both sides. I don't know what the CD will do if they can't fluently speak Chinese to do jokes, but then the whole gist of the shows will have probably changed by now.:rolleyes: The idea for this was that they projected that 70K+ could by cycled through on short cruises from the end of May to the end of Sept. I don't think we will be going on our two favorite ships again any time soon.:mad:

I don't think you are being prudish at all, but did she finally get wanded? I would have called for the head of Security to explain the policy on that ship. I can't imagine them allowing opposite sex hand frisking. A badge does not give them all powers, maybe meglomania, but I am sure the Chief of Security would have sided with you and made them use the wand.

We always request a table of 8, because if one passenger turns out to be a dud, there are always 5 other people to enjoy. Usually at least half the table are fun or interesting to be with. One of the best parts of cruising is, for us, meeting and talking to new people.

 

Us too, meeting new folks every evening for an hour and a half is great!:D Some of the folks have become friends that have come to visit us here in the Islands and we keep in touch with others regularly about cruising plans. It is just another plus to cruising. We have done the set time dining and had several bad experiences with that, so never again, and my DW and I eat together every day to the year, so it is more fun to be able to go to dinner and meet new people everyday.:) Then if you see someone at the table you are heading for, you can always ask for a different table.:eek:

One other thing we do is to purchase maybe $100 worth of the local currencies that we might need from our bank ahead of time.;) For the Oct. 2015 cruise we will have the French XPF and for West Samoa we will have the WST for any cabs and food on shore. Am. Samoa is on our $ so no problems there. Cab drivers or any small business locals appreciate their own currency:). For any larger purchases we use a credit card that has no foreign exchange fees, the card makes theconversion when it is the best rate. Right now the XPF is at $1 = 89 XPF or 100 XPF = $1.13. This has come in very handy when out on our own and finding all the restrooms in the area pay to use and only in the local coinage.:eek: When you first go ashore get a coffee or tea somewhere and change paper into some coinage, it can really come in handy!;)

 

See you our Roll Call!

We got ours on the Ultimate Tour on a T/A, but have not experienced washing them as we never have worn them. They are just too heavy to wear here in Hawaii.:mad: They will probably out last us, wrapped in their original plastic bags up in the closet.:o They are too heavy to pack for flying to each cruise. Maybe we should send them to friends on the mainland for their B-day, just kidding.;)

We did notice on the Sapphire Princess last Spring that a Go Pro camera was the same price as at Best Buy in FL. prior to the cruise. Exactly the same price, but no tax and you got two attachments with the camera. While we did not look at the Binos at the time, you could not beat the price on the GoPro on the ship vs. the shore. We spent one morning in FL. with our friends while they looked at Go Pros in several stores so we knew the prices. If that were indicative then the ships prices without the tax were cheaper to start with.

Perhaps address someone on the ship right now and have them check the models and priceing?

We always do Balconies, had an OV just once. If for no other reason, just because of the fresh air, you can't really air out an inside cabin. Plus you can have great views and the fresh air while the DW completes dressing. Morning coffee is really my DW's favorite time. Her time alone with just the ocean, sea creatures and birds and the breeze.

Go for the balcony!

I have ordered them in the MDR for dessert, but you do have to explain it very well as most of the crew have never heard of them.;) If you have a great Waiter he will bring it out with the ice cream in a tall thin glass, 2 scoops, and a can of soda and watch you make it at the table. Usually they will say they don't have anything like that, but if you are friendly with them they will get you the makings. On one cruise we had AT dining and when I asked for it(with explanation) he said he did not understand, so I pointed at our favorite waiter and said "please ask him". I soon had a nice Rootbeer Float.:D

But there are Dolphin 111 on many current Princess ships.

 

I just looked at the Deck Plans of every Princess ship and there is no 111 on any Dolphin deck or deck 9 depending on the ship. So, much for that item.;)

Crown goes in for a 12 day maintenance in the Spring of '15.