greenman1168

I thought I was on that roll call and meet and greet signup, but haven’t heard anything about the meet and greet until now. Sure, we will join you on 2/12 at 10 am at one5. Thanks again!  You’re just full of helpful information 😊 Dale and Edie

Thanks for posting these patters Wubba! We’re taking the Mexico r/t San Francisco cruise Tuesday Feby11-21. You’ve been very helpful!

Thank you for remembering my question, Masterty. I will come prepared. Welcome home tomorrow! Gorgeous day on the Northern California coast today, but will probably be raining by tonight and when you arrive in San Francisco. Liquid sunshine 😊

Masterty,

Thank you again for taking the time during your cruise for daily posts of patters, menus, and sharing your voyage in this thread, as well as some others.  As first-time Princess Grand cruisers, your posts have been very helpful to us. You saved us a great deal of time orienting ourselves, as a lot of our questions were answered by reading  your posts every day. We hope you had a wonderful  voyage ( it sounds like you did. And still are!) . We look forward to ours on June 5!

Dale and Edie

Looks Great! No wonder they’re always sold out when we are ready to book one.

Hope you’re enjoying the cruise, amidst all your wonderful, and much appreciated, postings!

I see they have cross stitch at 1 pm on day 3 of this voyage. Does anyone know if kits are provided and if there is a charge for this activity ?

Masterty,

we will be taking our first Princess Cruise RT San Francisco to Alaska on June 5. We really appreciate your posts with the Patters and menus to help us know what to expect on board the Grand. Please keep it up, we’re following you on a daily basis. We’re almost afraid to read the menus, just in case they change something that we have our hearts and stomachs set on, though.

Thanks for the info on the WiFi. We had read so many negative reviews about WiFi even after refit, that we had decided not to purchase a WiFi package. Can you share which package you have? Will we be ok with the surf Package or should we upgrade to the top package?

Thanks!

Edie and Dale from the Mendocino coast.

:)This wasn’t a matter of unreasonable expectations. The room, as refitted, is simply dysfunctional.

I was not complaining of the existence of a shower curtain, but the fact that it is only about 6” from the toilet, making it awkward to do one’s business. Nor did it keep water from spreading all over the bathroom floor, which makes it slippery and dangerous to walk on, not to mention unpleasant. This is a problem I felt should have been addressed in the refit. I tried to upload a picture but the picture insertion function couldn’t access my pictures.

The layout of 828 is not suitable for the size of the new sofa and table that they issued to all category F suites during refit. Between the uneven floor and the oversized ( for the layout) furniture, the room was nearly impossible to move around in. We couldn’t use the sofa to sit in because the table was too close, by necessity of available space.

Same issue with the balcony. The new deck furniture is simply too big for it. You can’t get around the deck chairs to sit in them. This is another reason I felt that the refit forgot this cabin. It was a one size fits all approach that didn’t work for this quirky room.

Once I was able to talk to the concierge the next day, Janina was very kind, helpful, and understanding of the difficulties this handicapped room had for my disability. I don’t need to use a wheelchair, but have difficulty with uneven surfaces, and the floor was extremely uneven. She bent over backwards to put us into another suite of the same category, which had the regular category F layout.

The floor in the standard category F layout is even, the toilet has space to stand in front of it, the new sofa and table fit the space so we can get around it and sit at it. There is an attractive mirror above the sofa ( 828 didn’t have that, no place to put it.)

The balcony is slightly bigger, enough so that so we can use the balcony furniture.

It is the same layout and size as a the suite we had on our previous Mariner cruise. We were delighted with it then and we even more delighted with it now, following refit.

Housekeeping helped us move our stuff. Staff and crew couldn’t have been kinder and more helpful, once I was able to contact the concierge, which wasn’t until the second day of the cruise.

Regent has redeemed itself to us, they really do try their best to make their guests comfortable.

But I still think 828 and 829 need a refurbishment customized to their unique layout to be functional as a room for a handicapped, or even a non- mobility -challenged person.

Marc, I checked the deck plan just now. The adjacent suite I caught a glimpse of through the panel on the deck was indeed a penthouse. I would be happy with a regular deluxe balcony F, same category as the one we are in.

Thanks, Marc, Jean and JMariner, for understanding my frustration with 828.

Also, the same cabin on the other side is 829, not 827. Typo

We are on the Mariner. Sorry I forgot to clarify that. Guess I was too upset.

I went to reception right away to request another room, of course they have none, and was told the head concierge would call me ( after waiting 1/2 hour for him). Of course he did not call. I see in passages that Mr. Montague will be at coffee connection at 9:30. As I haven’t been able to talk to concierge or GM, I will definitely try to speak with him there.

Thanks for your kind sympathy and explanation, Marc. I will try to talk to GM ASAP. He was sitting near me at dinner, but I didn’t want to spoil his relaxation time.

I tried to edit this for spelling and punctuation errors, but time expired. Please try to understand my message in spite of the unedited errors. Thanks

Don’t book this cabin, because “cabin” is all it is. Refit did not reach this cabin.

It is not a suite, although it costs the same as the exquisitely refurbished suites in the same class. Like the one right next door, Boasting a bigger balcony, exquisite goldfish framed mirrors reflecting the ocean outside.a walk-in closet, and a gen- u- wine bathroom

Unless you love cramped spaces, with no hope of getting an ambulatory person, not to mention a wheelchair around the Unless you like a wavy cement floor that trips you at every step, a shower curtain around a tiny shower, that slides across your bum or your knees, depending on, you know....

This cabin was entirely forgotten in the refit. It reminded me of the steerage cabin on my first “cruise” on the MS Gripsholm in March/ April1954. I remember that “cruise”....I didn’t want to relive it for $10,000 in my declining years!

Rusty metal fittings in the bathroom, plain white metal mirror frames, ( the identically priced suites in the same class boasted beautifully framed mirrors), in places never meant to reflect the lovely view outside, just the 3rd class cabin probably never meant to be used for anything more lofty than storage‰),a sofa too large to walk past. we had to ask the stewardess to move the sofa to get between it and the heavy curtain hanging intrusively, leaving only about 12 inches of space through which to squeeze a wheelchair.

Ok, I don’t use a wheelchair anymore, but I’ve had two hip replacements and can’t manage uneven surfaces. The thought of getting up in the middle of the night for a potty run, only to trip over the hilly floor, terrifies me.

To the bathroom: shower curtain wraps around a square of 30” ( I’m being generous; it’s probably closer to 24”). You can neither take a shower or a peee without it caressing your backside. No drawers or shelves for your necessaries. This square is flat against the rest of the bathroom floor, just a metal strip defines it.

This is labeled as a handicapped room. No non-handicapped person, let alone someone needing a wheelchair could ever hope to use it!

When you raise the padded bars around the toilet, the shower bench, etc,it is rusty everywhere. I

When we booked this cruise and cabin aboard our last voyage, the salesman told us this room would be bigger than others in the F class. That was a bald-faced lie. We wanted a penthouse suite, but they were already sold out. The salesman aboard Explorer assured us this room would suit our needs! Same size as a concierge suite, even larger, he promised.

There is no walk-in closet, just two tiny closets with hardly enough space to hang 3 shirts. The shelf closet’s bottom level is just a hole in the floor.

This is our 4th Regent cruise, and it will be our last.

The balcony is also smaller than the adjacent F class suite.

Just a rip-off, even with the buy on board “discounts.”

This space should not be sold to guests, at these prices. It is just a storage room with a minuscule balcony and a hopelessly substandard bathroom added as an afterthought.

Cabin 827 on the other side of the corridor is the same. Don’t book either of these steerage-class cabins, unless you have low expectations and money to burn.

:eek:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article81165492.html

you may not trust the Daily Mail, but this appeared in the Miami Herald.

https://www.originalcruises.com/

Above is the website for the company that's chartering the AZ Quest for that cruise. I/ we are thinking of cancelling our cruise 6 months after! Or bring black light!

Wow! Thank you!

Ditto! Thanks for this video. Viking should be sending us these links. Since they didn't, we immensely appreciate that you shared it with us.

Well, the way I read the info on the Turkey evisa site, if you only go on shore excursions in Turkey but don't fly back or stay on land in Turkey, no individual visa is required. Of course, many of us are staying in, or flying into or out of, Turkey, so it looks like we need them. We'll see if anyone ever asks for it in Turkey....

 

I agree on the Brazil visa. I don't remember how much ours were, but I think $175 each. I went downtown (Wash. DC) to the Brazil consulate to hand over our passports and money. Ouch. Didn't like that. Think we also had to buy a cheaper but still annoying entry or exit fee in Argentina, too. Ended up being an expensive cruise....

 

But for the U.S., anyway, I was once told that visa prices are usually based on what the U.S. charges other countries to enter our country - in other words, reciprocity fees. If that's true, I guess I shouldn't complain so much.

 

Then there's Spain and Italy, which have started trying to have the cruise lines collect and give them VAT tax on drinks and other things purchased on the ship for cruises leaving from Spanish and Italian ports. On other cruise lines, people avoid the tax by purchasing a drink package pre-cruise. Unless the cruise visits a non-EU country, Spain and Italy can collect tax for the whole trip, from what I've heard. I'll be curious to see what Viking tells us when we leave from Venice, although I think our visit to Kotor gets us off the hook for all days but when we're in Venice.

I think the actual visas for Brazil cost $175 each or so, you are right, but being unfamiliar with the process and living very far from any Brazilian Consulate, we let the cruise line (regent) handle it and that cost $399 pp.

Once the cruise commenced, a couple of days before we entered Brazilian waters, we received a note in the cabin that there would be a 25% tax (outrageous!) on any purchase made on board while in Brazilian waters...which was nearly half the cruise! Needless to say, the onboard shops, spa, etc didn't do much business during that segment.

We've sworn off booking any South America cruises ever since.

Didn't know about extra charges in Spain.and Italy. I would have thought all EU countries would have similar tax policies to other EU countries. Last time we cruised in Italy and Spain (2009) I don't remember additional costs. I remember Italy being very expensive, 9€ for a cup of coffee in Rome, for example. But I'm liking the currency exchange this year. Hope it lasts through this cruise and extended travels in Europe following.

My husband is American, his visa cost $20. I'm Canadian, my visa cost $60. At first we were told by viking that their umbrella visa would cover us since we booked our air and excursions through Viking, but then a few weeks ago we received an email from our travel agent that Turkey had changed it's mind and now wanted individual visas. Kind of annoying, but at least Turkey doesn't want your actual passport mailed to them along with $400 per person, like Brazil did on our last cruise November 2014. In future, I will never cruise to a country that requires visas.

Still haven't received ours.