Booked another princess cruise. Can anyone help with a couple of questions

[yes!yes!yes!]

Just booked a 13 night Grand Princess cruise over Christmas and New Year. I did a 32 night, 3 cruise with this ship last Christmas if anyone can remember the long post I did then. (did 3 cruises with MSC to Norway and Europe in May/June, so haven't been on here for a bit)

I have a couple of questions.

If you are elite, do you still get the chance to change the mini bar for a coffee card ? My mum wont be bothering with the princess plus, but she loves her coffee.

Any recommendations for travel insurance for an 81 year old? (The free Visa platinum insurance cuts out at 81 years of age)

Does anyone know who the cruise director is on Grand?

Thank you in advance for anyone who answers.

[bazshirl2]

Unfortunately you can no longer exchange your minibar setup for a coffee card. Not fair for non drinkers IMO.

[yes!yes!yes!]

20 minutes ago, bazshirl2 said:

Unfortunately you can no longer exchange your minibar setup for a coffee card. Not fair for non drinkers IMO.

Oh no, how will she cope. She doesn't mind the odd alcoholic drink but prefers her coffee.

I will go with the princess plus although that has gone up a fair whack. I justify the cost with needing the internet.

Thank you

[yes!yes!yes!]

I might have to bring a few coffees back to the room

[NSWP]

28 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Oh no, how will she cope. She doesn't mind the odd alcoholic drink but prefers her coffee.

I will go with the princess plus although that has gone up a fair whack. I justify the cost with needing the internet.

Thank you

Just pay for a coffee, only $4 or so. 

[yes!yes!yes!]

4 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Just pay for a coffee, only $4 or so. 

She will, but so much nicer when they were included. Princess free coffee is awful. She likes the drip filter american style.

[Cbtours]

2 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Just booked a 13 night Grand Princess cruise over Christmas and New Year. I did a 32 night, 3 cruise with this ship last Christmas if anyone can remember the long post I did then. (did 3 cruises with MSC to Norway and Europe in May/June, so haven't been on here for a bit)

I have a couple of questions.

If you are elite, do you still get the chance to change the mini bar for a coffee card ? My mum wont be bothering with the princess plus, but she loves her coffee.

Any recommendations for travel insurance for an 81 year old? (The free Visa platinum insurance cuts out at 81 years of age)

Does anyone know who the cruise director is on Grand?

Thank you in advance for anyone who answers.

You can exchange the mini bar for non alcoholic drinks (we don’t drink alcohol) so we chose what to keep and what to exchange. We chose ginger ale. We sent back all the miniatures plus beers plus coke and got 12 cans I think. We were booked right through as a cruise on a return journey out of Vancouver. But many did B2B. They treated us a B2B too and gave us a whole mini bar set up a second time. So we ended up with another 12 ginger beers. Lol. Shame they don’t do the coffee card anymore so we just bought coffees if we needed them

[arxcards]

Welcome back Ms J.

 

Yes! (yes! yes!), no longer tradeable because there is no longer a coffee card. They have a non-alcoholic drinks package which includes coffee for around $30 per day, but hard work to get value out of it.

 

No idea with the other questions.

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Just booked a 13 night Grand Princess cruise over Christmas and New Year. I did a 32 night, 3 cruise with this ship last Christmas if anyone can remember the long post I did then. (did 3 cruises with MSC to Norway and Europe in May/June, so haven't been on here for a bit)

I have a couple of questions.

If you are elite, do you still get the chance to change the mini bar for a coffee card ? My mum wont be bothering with the princess plus, but she loves her coffee.

Any recommendations for travel insurance for an 81 year old? (The free Visa platinum insurance cuts out at 81 years of age)

Does anyone know who the cruise director is on Grand?

Thank you in advance for anyone who answers.

How was MSC, and how was Norway?

[yes!yes!yes!]

Just now, arxcards said:

How was MSC, and how was Norway?

Norway was magnificent, so much nicer than the New Zealand Fiords. Loved Rotterdam,  Amsterdam and Cherbourg too.

Msc was different. The ship was beautiful, with all the bells and whistles. It was the MSC Virtuosa. The entertainment and shows were brilliant. The areas that they used for trivia, quest, gameshows etc were far too small. It was impossible to get a seat unless you got there hours before. A bit like my mother complained about on Majestic.

The themed street parties every night were fantastic. Food in the dining room was hit or miss. The food in the buffet was better than princess or Royal Caribbean. The service was no where near as friendly.

The cruise prices were good, drinks were expensive. Drinks package had to be bought by both people in the room and my son barely drinks so I just paid as I went. (unlike princess who let me buy the package and not my mum)

I would cruise with them again. The atmosphere was great on there.

[lyndarra]

9 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Norway was magnificent, so much nicer than the New Zealand Fiords. Loved Rotterdam,  Amsterdam and Cherbourg too.

Msc was different. The ship was beautiful, with all the bells and whistles. It was the MSC Virtuosa. The entertainment and shows were brilliant. The areas that they used for trivia, quest, gameshows etc were far too small. It was impossible to get a seat unless you got there hours before. A bit like my mother complained about on Majestic.

The themed street parties every night were fantastic. Food in the dining room was hit or miss. The food in the buffet was better than princess or Royal Caribbean. The service was no where near as friendly.

The cruise prices were good, drinks were expensive. Drinks package had to be bought by both people in the room and my son barely drinks so I just paid as I went. (unlike princess who let me buy the package and not my mum)

I would cruise with them again. The atmosphere was great on there.

Did you find the coffee was better on MSC?

On my one and only MSC cruise (Divina) I found it had the best coiffee of any cruise line I've been on (7 or 8 so far).

I agree with MDR being hit and miss and I also found the buffet food was excellent.

[Galesa]

I like a GOOD roasted drip filter coffee. With HAL I loved a morning coffee in the early morning before everyone got up.

 

But. Princess's "on tap: coffee is truly insipid and awful.

 

Their specialty coffee is not much better IMHO. My tip for a drinkable flat white is to ask for an extra shot and make sure they only put half the milk/foam in the cup.

[MicCanberra]

I drink my coffee black, no sugar, and have found the coffee on board  any line is never great but most is drinkable, Some are not worth it and the tea is a better option.

[yes!yes!yes!]

1 hour ago, lyndarra said:

Did you find the coffee was better on MSC?

On my one and only MSC cruise (Divina) I found it had the best coiffee of any cruise line I've been on (7 or 8 so far).

I agree with MDR being hit and miss and I also found the buffet food was excellent.

I gave up drinking coffee about 6 years ago on a Royal Caribbean cruise that had disgusting coffee. I only drink tea now. My son had a few of the free coffees on MSC and he thought it was okay.

[yes!yes!yes!]

57 minutes ago, Galesa said:

I like a GOOD roasted drip filter coffee. With HAL I loved a morning coffee in the early morning before everyone got up.

 

But. Princess's "on tap: coffee is truly insipid and awful.

 

Their specialty coffee is not much better IMHO. My tip for a drinkable flat white is to ask for an extra shot and make sure they only put half the milk/foam in the cup.

My mum is the same, the drip filter only.

[Jean C]

Hahaha, I'm a real pleb - if it's not a good trim flat white or latte then my coffee preference is instant granules! I can just about tolerate the Princess sludge ☕ 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Luckily I'm one of those people who is equally happy drinking short blacks or lattes because I can't stand steamed long life milk, so once I'm onboard I only drink short blacks. 

 

Luckily Princess usually has reasonable baristas, unlike HAL, so I usually don't have much trouble getting a decent espresso. Getting a decent cup of tea is a different story these days. I think I'm going to start taking my own supply of teabags as they always seem to run out of English Breakfast ones, and even those aren't quite what I prefer - at home I use Dilmah Ceylon Supreme which is stronger and "brighter" than regular Dilmah or English Breakfast.

[yes!yes!yes!]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Luckily I'm one of those people who is equally happy drinking short blacks or lattes because I can't stand steamed long life milk, so once I'm onboard I only drink short blacks. 

 

Luckily Princess usually has reasonable baristas, unlike HAL, so I usually don't have much trouble getting a decent espresso. Getting a decent cup of tea is a different story these days. I think I'm going to start taking my own supply of teabags as they always seem to run out of English Breakfast ones, and even those aren't quite what I prefer - at home I use Dilmah Ceylon Supreme which is stronger and "brighter" than regular Dilmah or English Breakfast.

You would like MSC for their tea. They have PG tips, Yorkshire tea, Twinnings, dilmah and liptons

[MicCanberra]

My wife copes by asking for decaf coffee, most of the time it is a pot of hot water and a few sachets of decaf coffee.

[yes!yes!yes!]

59 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

My wife copes by asking for decaf coffee, most of the time it is a pot of hot water and a few sachets of decaf coffee.

My mum says the coffee in the dining room is always nicer than the coffee at the buffet.

[cruisine21]

My husband cruises and travels with his Twinings extra trengtj English Breakfast tea bags. He has at least 2 and sometimes 3 bags in a cup.

[NSWP]

Always take Nescafe or Moccona cappucino or Latte sachets, or my favourite..Robert Timms coffee bags. Up to the buffet with them if no jug in cabin.

Edited July 26, 2023 by NSWP

[OzKiwiJJ]

5 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

You would like MSC for their tea. They have PG tips, Yorkshire tea, Twinnings, dilmah and liptons

Twinings English Breakfast is a reasonable tea and I'm OK if that is regularly available but the Dilmah usually found on cruise ships is just the basic Dilmah tea, not the one I like. Liptons is blah and their English Breakfast isn't as good as Twinings. The only time I had Yorkshire Tea (in Yorkshire) it tasted horrible! 

[MicCanberra]

I don't really care that much, if I dlike the drink I leave it and don't  order it again.

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

I don't really care that much, if I dlike the drink I leave it and don't  order it again.

Put it this way - if I don't get my pot of decent strong tea first thing in the morning you do not want to be on the same ship!!! 

 

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