charliedalrymple

One thing that didn't occur to me when I posted: many people probably booked this specifically it was the inaugural cruise, and they will now be denied that unique experience. It's not an opportunity that comes up very often!

This is incredibly disappointing for passengers, but perhaps not devastating for retirees or others for whom timing is not an issue. However, many passengers (like us) plan cruises well in advance and make arrangements for time off of work, which makes this particularly hard to swallow. I wonder what Princess will do when it comes to non-refundable airline tickets, hotels, and other sunk costs. (Actually, I don't wonder--I'm pretty sure their attitude is "tough luck.")

I could have written this myself--it's exactly how we approach tipping on cruises. I love the part about the "home bar," and I understand exactly what you mean. For us, that's usually Crooners, and we tend to bond with one or two servers there who know our preferences and anticipate our needs. (On Majestic it was the Crown Grill Bar because there is no Crooners. 🙁)

I realise that it's un-Australian to tip, but I've adapted to international norms when it comes to doing so on cruise ships. Invariably, the crew members to whom I have given cash in person have been absolutely delighted and it was not uncomfortable at all. I will admit that I have occasionally tipped in the middle of a longer cruise to guarantee continued good service. 😉

That's how we do it, for the steward, bar servers, MDR servers that have provided exceptional service, and anyone else who has gone above and beyond. You don't generally get the same server in the MDR under the new dining system, but we found that there were still a couple who were so good that that they deserved a tip.

Viking does not allow children either (along with being very expensive). I think we will try Virgin and HAL for our next couple of cruises. Geriatric sounds fine to me when compared with the alternative.

Thanks for that link! I had no idea there were different regional expressions for soft drinks in the U.S.

Umm--huh?? 🙂. I've never heard the term "pop" to refer to soft drinks.

I didn't know either and had to look it up. It sounds kind of cool. https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/articles/music-walk-on-holland-america?stay=1&posfrom=1

I'm assuming from the responses that "pop" means soft drinks. 🙂

Great perspective, Raider. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks, Pescado. Yet another post that makes me think HAL is for us. (By the way, thanks for reading my "Live From" post on Majestic this Christmas!)

I'm sure that's true, and it's unavoidable on any cruise line (aside from those that are truly adults only). However, I would hope that it's far fewer than the 600 we encountered on Princess this Christmas.

Thanks, Sea Hag! I like the idea that these perks are available to all passengers (not just suite/elite passengers like on Princess). That's a pretty reasonable price and we would definitely be inclined to try it.

Thanks for flagging that, Elaine. I've read through the entire thread, and I'd say we would still choose HAL over Celebrity--although Celebrity sounds like an improvement over Princess (at least for us).

Unfortunately, we have to travel during school holidays, as DH is a teacher. Yes, I definitely know what you mean. We observed this several times on our recent cruise as well.

Thanks so much for that link--it's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. And based on that, I think that HAL is exactly the kind of cruise we are looking for. What many people cite as cons on HAL would actually be pros for us. Very helpful!

On our recent Majestic cruise, barista coffee was available in the Princess Live Cafe, at The Catch by Rudi in the morning (we often sat just outside and had a cuppa) and via the Medallion app in the buffet (and delivery was surprisingly fast).

Some of you may know from my "Live From" our NZ cruise on Majestic that we are fed up with the noise levels and shrieking children on Princess (although many pointed out that the latter was because that cruise was during school holidays). We are considering dumping Princess as our preferred cruise line, but I'm not sure that we're ready to pay the hefty fares on Viking, Virgin and the premium lines. It seems that Holland America is the most sedate of the mass market cruise lines, and we are thinking of giving them a try. Can any Princess loyalists comment on the differences between the two?

We went on a very similar cruise, although ours also included Cork. And we agree, it was wonderful! I would say it was our second favourite (after Alaska), but we've only done eight cruises. The only disappointment was that we couldn't dock at Invergordon due to rough seas. I'd say Edinburgh was the highlight--it's a breathtaking city. It was closely followed by Cork, where we hired a very entertaining private guide. (He recommended that we skip the Blarney Stone because we would fight crowds of tourists, and we didn't feel deprived.). The only missable stop was Le Havre. Not much to see or do there. This will sound strange, but there were almost too many ports. We stopped in a different port every day, and it got to be a little exhausting. Of course, we didn't want to miss any of the destinations, but we are accustomed to have sea days throughout a cruise to relax and recharge.

Does anyone know whether the paper forms on board and the post-cruise survey go to the same place? Is the former just for the ship, while the latter for corporate? Which is more valuable for the crew members?

This happened on our Christmas cruise on Majestic. I submitted a form praising our wonderful cruise director, and she called me in the cabin to personally thank me.

I also found that the narrative portion at the beginning of the survey did not have enough space to write everything I wanted to. (Oh, I had a LOT to say!). So, I did the survey and put N/A on most items as someone else suggested. I then wrote a very long email to customerrelations@princesscruises.com. I can't say for sure that it will be read and taken seriously, but I hope so!

We booked in advance with a specific date. However, once we are on board they contacted us to ask which date we preferred. (We went with the original date, but it would have been easy to change.). Our waiter also visited our stateroom a few days in advance to discuss our preferences for the meal to make sure it was exactly what we wanted. I strongly recommend the balcony dinner. It was one of the highlights of our cruise! (Fortunately the weather was perfect.)

That sounds really fun!