paddingtonbear

Not in all cabins. Only storage in my Royal shower was in that small space above the handles.

 

Was your cabin on the Royal a standard balcony? That is what we had, as I said in my post.

I just assumed all similar categories of cabin would have the same facilities but I could be wrong.

The hairdryer on the royal was a step up from the usual hotel hairdryer. It actually worked quite well.

Also make sure you check the storage in the cabin on the ship you are cruising on.

The Royal standard balcony cabins has huge hanging and shelving areas. Lots of drawers too. Multiple power outlets.

The royal has great shelves in the shower for toiletries and lots of space around the basin for toiletries and make up. Also a shelf below the basin/counter top.

Out longest cruise so far has been 51 days. We are doing the 2016 World cruise so we are already working on the necessary items. The first port is Honolulu, so we may hit Walmart there and stock up rather than flying with it all.

 

a big calendar, world map, to keep track of what day it is and where we are.

 

I am planning on journaling as I go, so the supplies I want to use for that, including a small blue tooth printer with supplies for it.

 

Have you thought of starting a blog? On blog spot you can type in your daily itinerary or whatever and upload photos and everyone you want to see it can.

It cuts down on the need for individual emails and letters.

If you take a mini laptop or tablet you can download photos which saves on the need for extra SD cards. You could also use this as a photo slideshow to cut the need for photos of grandchildren on the wall.

You can also use your laptop to see your calendar or itinerary although I do like a hard spy of these for quick access.

Everyone is different but some of these ideas might appeal to others.

IIRC, the laundry room has double doors. One going into the entry of the laundry and another going into the actual laundry where the washers and dryers are. We've been close to the laundry room and never hear anything. Same with the elevators, people get anxious booking near them.

The royal doesn't have double laundry doors.

Most people walking on the skywalk are concentrating on their feet or the sea below. Having done it once I wasn't tempted again. I really don't think it's a problem, even for those cabins directly belie it but definitely not below caribe.

We were in B234 on the Royal it is nowhere near the bump out.

When you stand at the rail the people on the bridge can see you and your neighbours can see you if they are also standing at the rail.

Many/ most of the aft facing balconies can be seen from above.

It's a drawing, not a photograph and if you look at the first drawing, the open windows on the side show the sea so it IS supposed to be a representation of what they plan to build. Plus the circular entrance DOES look a little like Sabatinis on the Emerald.

 

 

 

Count me in the NOT impressed group.

 

We also go to Specialty restaurants for romantic meals NOT for communal dining.

 

I certainly hope corporate will rethink this one before implementation.

 

 

 

And to those that said EVERYTHING is greeted with negativity on CC - I can't remember reading a single negative comment on the rollout of the Norman Love chocoalte desserts, etc.

 

(Which have lived up to all the hype. :D )

There have been many negative reviews that the desserts are "samey". They tasted pretty good to me.

Hello, my husband was wondering if there are any 220 outlets in the cabin on the Regal Princess. We will have a mini suite. We have purchased some products in Europe that require 220 to run.

 

Thanks,

 

Andrea

Yes they had the 2 round pin plug on the Royal in a standard balcony cabin so I guess the Regal is the same.

thanks everyone for the answers. Regarding the water, I know it sounds weird, but I am a very picky water drinker. There are only 3 kinds of water I "can't taste". EX: I can't stand Aquafina. To me it tastes like aspirin. Same for some resorts and cruise ships.[/ QUOTE]

 

 

I do understand what you mean. We have a water filter at home. I don't drink fizzy drinks or tea or coffee so if I am out and need a drink I'll buy bottled water but generally take a refillable stainless steel bottle with me.

 

The water on the Royal was beautiful. Very nice, no chlorine taste, no bad taste at all. I hope you are pleasantly surprised. I don't know about the other princess ships

Joe, based on this statement that may not be an option: "A signature feature of SHARE is a communal table designed to encourage the sharing of a freshly prepared meal in the company of friends and family".

To me it sounds more like the Chinese meal concept where you order various meals and share them. You can be a party of two or six or ten.

I am amazed at so much negativity before anyone even understands the concept!

When looking at cabins in the bump out areas (where the larger balconies are on each level) on each deck remember that on the starboard side the skywalk above means that people can look into your balcony and into your cabin on certain levels below the skywalk.

The standard balconies are small but not unbearably so when doing the British isles cruise where it is cold but beautiful. We still sat out there but not for long periods. It was fantastic having the constant view, though and the balcony was worth it.

Some people experience soot on the larger Balconies looking aft.

The ship's Internet speed is usually no better than old-fashioned dial-up was and is sometimes slower. It is usually better when there are less users on at the same time which is very late evening or possibly at dinner time.

 

In any case, it is not really fast enough to upload or download regular size documents and photos.

 

If the signal is not strong in your cabin, it will work better if the door to the hallway is propped open a little. This is not unique to Princess. I remember one RCCL cruise where I saw one passenger in his bathrobe sitting on the floor outside of his cabin using the Internet.

Caribill,

Being a newby it took me ages to realise I could send my dh off to a movie, take my laptop down to level 5, get food at the international cafe, a drink at the piazza bar and sit there close to the internet cafe and do my work in luxury.

LOL, it's just for an hour or two, not the whole day.;) I'm very picky about public toilets, and the ones at Hard Rock are the best.

 

We spend a lot of time walking around outside and visiting museums too.:) My DH is a big history buff.

I agree about the european public toilets. It used to be called "spend a penny" but now at 1 or 2 Euro to use public toilets why not get a coffee as well in nice surroundings? Mind you an hour later you have to find another toilet... :)

Hi paddingtonbear,

 

So how was your cruise, sorry about the weather,

 

I have to do work things when on a cruise so due to time zones, being up early 5.00am etc works great, internet is quite to works well, do everything off line then just go on line to send.

 

yours Shogun

We were pretty lucky with the weather.

Yes it was cold for June/July but not too much rain on days that we were out and about. Even on the days it poured in the morning it generally cleared by the afternoon.

I found that the people you met and tour guides made a difference to the weather. If you had a bad tour guide the weather suddenly became an issue. If the tour guide was great it wasn't a problem : )

Hi paddingtonbear,

 

So how was your cruise, sorry about the weather,

 

I have to do work things when on a cruise so due to time zones, being up early 5.00am etc works great, internet is quite to works well, do everything off line then just go on line to send.

 

yours Shogun

Our cruise was great Shogun.

I have been busy making up for 2 months away! I am about to write a report. : )

We had B234 and the reception from the ships internet was pretty good most of the time once you had connected but I used a lot of time just connecting. I was uploading and downloading documents and photos and they really eat up the time when the internet is slow. I found it better to use the ship internet near the internet cafe. But that could have just been our cabin. Yes I did everything offline.

I really, really appreciated having the unlimited 3G internet from Three to supplement the ship's internet. If you weren't relying on the internet for work the ships internet would be fine stand alone. I guess it depends on how much you have to use it and what price you are prepared to pay for that use.

We are just back from a British Isles cruise on the Royal. It was our first cruise so I wasn't very savvy about how the ship worked.

I bought 240 mins of the ships internet time. This is equivalent to about 30 mins of internet time that you are used to at home. It is slow downloading and uploading documents and photos but the real problem is that it is also slow connecting and disconnecting and it drops out regularly and all of that time is taken out of your internet minutes.

You really need to go to the internet cafe when you arrive and get the crew there to put a connect and a disconnect button on your phone so you can easily and quickly connect and disconnect from the internet.

It didn't work reliably in our cabin (kept dropping out) so I found it worked better to sit in one of the cafes on the internet cafe level and work from there.

I tried to make my work (and uploading photos to my blog : )) as undisruptive to my dh's holiday as possible so I bought a Three UK mobile phone package with Unlimited internet (!!!) and free UK calls and sms (pretty useless) for 30 GBP for 30 days. It worked in every port (including ireland) and sometimes along the coast. I found it great when we got into port early I could do my work before dh woke up and before we went ashore. Then in the evenings before we departed I could use it again for a hour or so while he was relaxing or watching a show or getting a coffee. Initially it took 15 mins to set up and I went to a Three store.

The free wifi on buses etc is generally only for 15 mins and by the time you do a search all the time is gone. I didn't want to spend our limited time ashore looking for wifi and then spending an hour or two working in a cafe. Starbucks in London had free wifi and it was really unreliable. It's also not very private or conducive to work to be doing stuff in a cafe (no paperwork etc).

In Italy (a few years ago when we were travelling and not on board ship) I used TIM which had a good mobile broadband package for 30 days. Although TIM was in greece the same sim didn't work in greece so I had to get another sim and broadband package for greece. WIND in greece is also good.

It would be great if you could pre-purchase these sims/dongles because it takes time finding the stores and having them set it up for you. But if you need it you just have to spend the time setting these things up.

On our British isles cruise we waited till after final payment. I was going to wait till 45 days out from sailing but as I watched daily I saw cabins that I wanted (I am very fussy and wasn't prepared to take anything) disappearing I booked 60 days out. That was the cheapest price we saw. I have to admit we went away 3 weeks later so might have missed some price drops from 39 days out.

Y

Well this has certainly been an interesting 3 page read! Up to booking our up-coming cruise, I had only participated in PCL Excursions.

When we started the RC for our cruise (April of 2014), I thought that we needed a Shutterfly site to collect and dispense all of the pertinent info. So I started one, then I quickly found out that I would need a lot of help. (called coordinators) :D

 

Right now we are trying to decide what to do about cruisers that posted over 12 months ago to go on an excursion. Now we don't know how to contact them or IF they are even still going on this cruise. Well, guess what! We are setting a notification day and if we haven't had an updated confirmation by that date, well I guess it is Bye Bye! If there are cruisers on those waitlists congratulations you will be moved up!

 

Sorry but this was just the forum that I need! If anyone has had to drop posters because they dropped off the face of the boards, well let me know. Constructive input is always accepted, but gripe and complaints are disregarded! :rolleyes:

 

Just Mike [/color][/size][/font]

Your excursions are a lot larger than the ones I organised. We had 4 couples and the first thing I did when they requested a place on a tour was to get their email and communicated the details directly.

I guess all you can do now is give people a deadline to confirm. Seems tough though if someone still assumes they are on the tour but doesn't return to your website.

Have some people paid? If so you would have to assume they are coming even if you can't contact them again.

I'd try and meet everyone onboard the ship before the tours.

Pick up an extra copy when you board. Then scan it on your computer. Print it out when you are ready to cruise again. ;) No stopping to fill anything out. Easy peasy.

I think the form ladies (and they were all ladies on the Royal in Southampton in June) would require you to bring back the spoilt form before they reissued a new one.

Yes it works in when phone in airplane mode. We were on the royal in June.

Go to the Internet cafe and they will put buttons on your phone to log on, log off and access messenger. They also show you how to use it and your internet if you have it. You have to log off your internet after every session, the buttons make this very easy and you can delete them at the end of the cruise.

They were really nice in the Internet cafe. For the first few days they had extra people to help. Go when the staff are there in the evening as it seemed quieter-most people at dinner I guess.

On a British isles cruise in June it was very cold but lots of people bundled up in blankets and beanies and watched the movie at night, my DH included. I sensibly watched a movie on TV in the cabin : )

I know how to handle myself when confronted by rude people. I feel sorry for the crew members who are defenseless and have to remain mute or risk their jobs.

We saw an American (I only mention this as it wasn't a cultural difference issue) of over 6 foot yelling at the young female crew member. Towering over her he said " I'll tell you how it's going to be..." And continued his rant. This was in a public area not at the passenger services desk.

This happened a few times on our cruise. I am amazed that anyone can find it acceptable to yell at the crew when they go to so much trouble to cater to passengers every wish to make people happy.

People constantly queue jumping is annoying but not as upsetting as seeing and hearing "entitled" people treating others who can't fight back with contempt.

Sometimes, with passenger services especially, you don't get the result you want. It's easy to come back another time and get a different crew member who might understand and be able to solve your problem.

Fair question. First, I like true, two-story dining rooms. Next, the ropes course and waterpark are the only things I really find amusement park-ish on the BREEZE. And while it might not make sense, I simply don't like the way the QUANTUM class ships look.

Anthem of the Seas is really huge we saw it at Southampton. I was worried that the Royal Princess was too large but it never seemed crowded except on the first night when everyone wanted to dine at the same time.

http://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/london-heathrow-to-southampton-via-stonehenge.html

This one takes you to Stonehenge then right to the cruise terminal with commentary. We did it on disembarkation day and it was great.

The national express bus at 7 GBP each is a lot cheaper. You can walk from the bus station to the cruise terminal but a taxi is easier and ours was 5 GBP. We used it prior to embarkation day.

This is for android, someone else will have to provide the

link for the iTunes store

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gcm.princess.messenger

I have it on my iphone but can't find it again. I will be brave and go and ask someone