dockman

emerald princess sure has the two bunks that fold down from wall which drove me crazy ducking under then and/or banging your head....avoid them unless u really want to be in a small room with four people....

never even mentioned rolling stone so no idea what u are going on about....

yep every bb king room i have seen on several ships packed every show...so by all means if u are an exec for HAL eliminate one of the most popular venues on your ships.....and maybe fire whoever came up with initial idea....how dare you provide such a popular venue to liven up a HAL cruise....

a sad reflection on princess that after several years the app still has lots of problems...3 of my friends on recent princess cruised spent several hours with the app help desk on board and even they finally just gave up as the experts couldn't get the app to work properly ...a frustrating waste of time on your vacation.. if it ain't broke don't fix it...but if it is broke do fix it.. seems some princess execs don't grasp this basic philosophy of business...

Also noticed op is apparently flying from NC to MIA in Jan...all it takes is a bit of NC snow or sleet and you will miss connection....especially in winter months go a day early is a good idea. Do you really want to chance it or have to keep eye on weather etc? Pre cruise stress is not any way to start a vacation from Buenos Aires.

Being all stressed out over possible late flight or even on time flight with 45 minute connection is no way to start a cruise vacation....it is not like the ship is going to wait for you if you miss the flight....not to mention that maybe you run to make the flight but your luggage does not. Ideally can you change to day before and just spend night in a hotel so no stress? Anyone who reads the news knows that the airlines are maxed out these days so is it worth it to roll the dice or better to spend $$ on airport hotel ? I would choose hotel if that is an option. I had 3 hour connection via heathrow pre covid but got caught up in long super slow lines getting off plane then security etc and ended up running trough terminal just as door closed on United flight to NYC...3 hours and barely made it...not a lot of fun.

Ever notice how efficient insurance companies and many other big corps are to process your payments to them in a matter of hours or days but not so efficient in processing their payments to you for a claim taking months?

truly amazing

i also have an i phone 6 which works just fine for 99.9% of what i use it for....except of course the princess app...princess rep told me to buy a new phone...i said i am not going to buy a phone just to go on a cruise...i managed just fine without the app thank you...was cruising with friends who did have newer phones and they had lots of problems and spent hours at the princess on board app help station to little/no avail.... so very glad i didn't heed princess advice....these app problems have been going on for years....frankly i cannot imagine that whoever princess has hired to create an easily usable app wasn't fired/ replaced years ago....they also had a couple of years during covid to get all the bugs out and run tests but that didn't seem to happen.

Try and imagine what kind of people would curse and throw a mask at a crew member who is simply trying to encourage people to follow the rules? Not anyone that I want to be on a cruise or anywhere else with. Shame on anyone who behaves like that.

Bad idea all around...would you want a bunch of random cars parking in your peaceful neighborhood/front of your house for a week or two?

Open for me as i don't like to be assigned to a set time or table. Have had a few tablemates that after a few days of listening to what i found to be boring story after story lost my appetitive which is hard to do on a cruise. Also had some good table mates but overall just prefer not to be so set in routine or dining mates.

Never play at 6/5 blackjack unless you enjoy losing more $$. A casino "scam" that increases their edge considerably but most don't even seem to notice. If people refused to play 6/5 tables they would disappear. There are a lot of factors that determine the final expected return, but in general, the house increases their edge by roughly 400% when dealing the 6:5 variant. In the 3:2 blackjack game, the house edge, for player playing perfect basic strategy, is in the ~0.5% range. That means for every $100 wagered, they take in, on average, $0.50. With 6:5 blackjack, that edge shoots up to almost 2%! So now you can expect to contribute upwards of $2 per $100 wagered to the house coffers.

Pan pacific bell desk offers easy storage...can't remember cost it was reasonable.

Walking one mile burns about 100 calories....you would have to walk a ton of laps to burn off what most people would eat on a cruise....and of course since the new trend seems to be to do away with proper promenade wrap around walking tracks it is even harder to walk a few miles unless you want to walk on a treadmill, which i hate, or a short little 8-10 laps to a mile on a sports deck far removed from the ocean...which i also hate.

as i recall the malecon is pretty much straight behind that building with the yellowish arches u see at far end of square...u are only 5 mins from ocean so if in doubt just ask which way is the ocean...easy

if you follow the blue line to the square there are several restaurants there...if you continue on to the malecon another five minutes or so walk towards the ocean there are several bigger restaurants there that were affordable and have sea view...when u come out of the gate just ignore the touts and follow the blue line....nice feature...i wish more ports would provide such a line to help passengers find their way to central part of town...

not far...maybe 15 mins or so to the central square another 5 mins to the beach/ocean malecon...depends on your walking speed....

bb king at least on a few ships...better hurry as the execs seemed determined to eliminate it as it is probably the single most popular addition in years...why they would cut it is truly amazing...every show packed, most every comment positive, some people go multiple times...so let's cut it...

Will cruising EVER recover? Ever is a long long time. While there may well be many changes as well as restructuring all of the ships are not going to end up as scrap. As hotel prices , car rentals, airfares, continue to shoot through the roof and land based trips get more and more expensive and full of the hassles of traffic, airports, restaurants, etc cruise lines that offer more value and less hassles will always have a market potential of millions of customers. What adjustments the cruise line execs will make remains to be seen. Never say never.

yes but you seem to control it all fine and not feel like you have to squeeze every nickel out of the package...but there are many who don't or won't control it all that well and can turn into a bit of obnoxious drunks who talk way too loud etc...just as there are many who stuff themselves to the max on the buffet because it is all there and they paid for it by golly so they are bound to eat it way too much.....not so much on holland i would add as i have seen on princess and few other lines....anyway to each his own as long as they can handle it without becoming a loud drunk that nobody wants to be around.

Five star HAL and elite Princess. For a variety of reasons my last 5 cruises have been on Princess. While Princess has provided me with some good cruises I really do miss the Holland America experience. To me the smaller ships, more laid back vibe, promenade decks (at least a few) and especially the staff is just more appealing all around. Seems more and more ships are turning into floating malls/amusement parks. I for one still like a cruise to feel like a cruise and don't need a ton of bells and whistles to entertain me. The ocean to me is endlessly entertaining but it seems more and more passengers barely even notice the beauty that surrounds them.