Veng

3 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

We are not allowed to name TAs on this board.

Sorry.  😞  Didn't know how else to describe what I was seeing.  Wasn't trying to promote anything.

When I search royal Caribbean's website for liberty of the seas in June and July, I get nothing.  Work, home, and mobile all give the same results.  On *****, I see rooms to book, but clicking the link leads me to the default search page.  Expedia and others are still offering these booking, including with cabin assignments (not guarantees).  I was planning to wait until final payment before booking as I assume between that and CV will drive the prices down.  Any idea what's up with Royal's website and if I'll be successful booking with Expedia or my local TA?  

I'm partial to Royal, but a lot of people find Carnival suits them just fine. It really depends on what atmosphere you want.

I would suggest the following:

1) If you want to eat at a specialty restaurant, especially on a sea day, which you should they are worth the price, and you will want to do it on a sea day because it's a sea day, you need to book it before you ever get on board. I've just booked a reservation for a sea day on a sail day that's about a month out, and there were no slots open between 7 and 8:30pm. Do not expect to be able to make reservations "the day of" for specialty restaurants, it can and does happen, but is not something you should bank on.

2) ONLY book shore excursions through the ship if they are something you couldn't easily find at the dock. For example, Caribbean island tours are easily found on every island at 1/4 to 1/2 the price of what you'll pay if you book on the ship. Other things, such as snorkeling in Alaska that require more logistics and forethought, are perfectly reasonable to do. BTW, you really should go snorkeling in alaska some time, it's a blast!

3) I don't really plan anything.

I've never taken my toddlers ice skating, I have no clue if it's a good idea or not. Looking at RCL's website, they only go down to a size 2 youth, which is much too big for my 2 and 1 year olds. If I buy and bring ice skates for them in toddler sizes (which frankly would cost 1/2 of a single person on an excursion, so not that expensive at all) will they be able to skate? Beyond that, even if they are allowed to, do you think they would be able to skate?

You would both get 7 points, along with each of the kids. With regard to points, it does not matter who makes the reservations or pays, it only matters who is booked and cruises in the stateroom.

That's what I figured. Thanks!

I think myself, wife, two kids (2 & 1 year old), parents, and brother are going to cruise soon. I'm debating booking two interiors one under my wife's name one under my name, each with one kid attached. Due to the current sales, it looks like it's basically the same price to book two rooms as it is one. I can't get adjoining rooms unfortunately, but I could get neighboring rooms. Does it make sense to do this? I'm not sure I'm comfortable leaving the kids alone in that second room, even with a baby monitor. Door cracked in an adjoining room would be a completely different story of course. So the benefits of having it are limited. I'm assuming we would both get 7 days/points to our profiles, not 14 to mine even if I do the booking right?

Thanks!

In the Caribbean/Bahamas/etc area of the world are there any itineraries that look something like Depart, Port, day at sea, Port, day at sea, Port, Day at sea, Return? I understand in a lot of cases like from Galveston for example, this geographically isn't possible, but I would think there might be some cruise that isn't heavily front loaded/back loaded with days at sea, or am I crazy? If there are, please point me to them!

Let me ask....define "WOW" moments. I mean, if you looked at the rock wall and went "WOW" or saw the skating rink and went "WOW" or the zip line made you go "WOW", well, Princess is not for you in general.

 

As to couldn't find a seat....do you mean you couldn't find a seat in exactly the area you wanted one? Because I've never not found a seat at all in any venue I've been to on Princess.

 

And yes, the Crown and Caribbean are almost identical.

There were several shows that we wanted to see that were held out of the explorer lounge and basically if you didn't show up to claim a seat 30 minutes+ before the show there wasn't one. The princess theater had enough seats.

Honestly, if you weren't pleased with Crown Princess, you probably won't be with Caribbean Princess either. :o

I think this is what I needed to hear, thanks!

There is always a rotation of the staff of cruise ships. For that reason, the feel you have about the service and entertainment you witness will vary between the different times you sail on the same ship. If you are disappointed on a ship one year, you may be very pleased on the same ship another year.

I have experienced this on several of the Princess ships that I have sailed on multiple times.

This is just something that you cannot predict or control so you just have to decide if cruising is worth taking that chance. All you can do is to make your comments on the surveys. Praising those staff that please you and fairly criticizing those who displease you is the only thing that will let Princess improve.

That was kinda what I was afraid the response would be, lol.

We cruised this past May to Alaska with princess on the Crown. Overall, we weren't really impressed. We didn't have a bad time mind you, we just didn't sit around saying "WOW" a lot in regards to the ship. The scenery of course was beautiful and we had a lot of great adventures, but not really wowed. When we cruised with Royal last year we had a lot of those WOW moments. My initial thoughts are to go back to Royal on our next cruise. However, there are some stupid silly cheap cruises leaving out of Houston in the next month or so on the Caribbean princess.

It seems like a similar ship to the crown looking at the deck plans. While I'm sure the demographic will be largely different on an Alaskan vs Caribbean cruise, should I expect the same overall service or something different? One of the big complaints we had on the crown was for many of the shows we wanted to see, they were held in a small venue and we couldn't find a seat. We were also rather annoyed that over half the ships pools were closed at any given time for seemingly no reason on the Crown. Are we going to run into the same issues on the Caribbean Princess?

Your logic sounds find. However, the key is researching the ship you are looking at (you didn't mention a ship or cruise line). Not all cruise lines have their suites configured the way you desire. For example, on Holland America the standard suite wouldn't meet your needs. However, the Penthouse would, quite well.

Sorry, I had been looking at Royal. We'd be looking for something to sail out of Galveston/Houston this time, so the other options on cruise lines would be Disney, Carnival, Norwegian, or Princess. Our last cruise was to Alaska with Princess and while we weren't disappointed, we generally felt Royal was a better fit to our lifestyles. Haven't tried Carnival, but relatives who had who I respect have suggested it's worth it to pay a little more to cruise with one of the other lines. I really like the idea of Disney, but well, there's nothing cheap about a Disney cruise.

My wife and I have cruised a couple of times, generally ending up in an oceanview cabin. We've found this to be more than roomy for the two of us. However, we've now got 2 kids who will be about 2.5 years old and just turning 1 year old the next time we cruise. We've taken the kids on trips that don't involve ships and we've found that 1 bed room suites work really well and aren't that much more expensive than a regular hotel room. We can put the kids to sleep in the living room and still enjoy the TV (on mute) and have some time to our selves at night before turning in without disturbing the kids.

I did some looking at suites and it looks like I have to go up to grand suite perhaps to have a divided-by-curtain bedroom and much higher to have a true bedroom. Is this true or is there something I'm missing? How well do your kids sleep with you doing anything on the other side of that flimsy curtain? Or should I just stay a land-lover for a few years till they get older?

Thanks in advanced!

Is it worth it to stay loyal to a brand because of the perks? Hell no. Not even remotely close to being worth it if you feel the brand doesn't offer something special. I'd much rather take an extra cruise every X months than stay loyal to a brand. If you love the brand, and they perfectly (or at least more perfectly than other brands) fulfill your needs is it worth it? absolutely. You're getting exactly what you want (or as close to it as any line offers) from the line, so yes, paying a premium to travel that line is worth it. Of course the best, is if you're extremely flexible on ports, and then you can travel the line you want, at the rates you want, and simply enjoy the cruise.

I can tell you this, you could give me a cruise, from a line I wouldn't like (*cough* carnival *cough*) and I would rather have pair for a cruise on a line like RCL. But that's because I at most get to take a single trip a year, so I need to get the most out of it. If I was retired, I'd take as many cruises on carnival as they'd give me.

It's gambling guys. If you feel disappointed when you donate money to the casino, you shouldn't be playing in the first place. Just save your money. And as far as planing on winning, that's a foolish proposition in any game that's "you vs the house". Only "player vs player w/ house taking a percentage of he bet" can ou come out a head, legally (not counting cards.

Just got off the crown. Only one night did we have to wait to get a table and that was about 5-10 minutes and only because we decided to not share a table that night right after about 5 other groups of 2 decided the same as well.

That being said, I wasn't overly impressed with the service. As someone at one of my tables said "Its seems like there's a lot of people running around, but nothing seems to get done". Couldn't be more true. There were always a lot of people running around everywhere, dinning room, buffet, didn't matter. However, they never got anything done and a lot of them just stood around.

I don't know if the length of dining service varies with anytime vs traditional, but it was anything but fast. We went in expecting 2 hours for dinner, and it was about that nearly every night.

I was on board, and it was pretty much as stated. The captains announcement made it clear that while it was a serious situation, it was under control but procedures still needed to be followed.

As for the OP posting about it, once you're back in the room, you're dressed appropriately and have any must-take-withs gathered (like life critical medication), which takes all of about 5 minutes there's not much else to do. Given the OP's timing of the post vs my recollection of the times, I think they actually posted after the captain had announced the fire was under control but before all clears had been given. I didn't buy internet on this cruise or I likely would have posted in the thread that night.

I'll be honest, I've got a few complaints about this cruise, but I've got no complaints about the way the crew handled that situation.

So we're planning a cruise this fall and looking at airfare + cruise, a princess 10 day out of SF is the same price as a 7 day RCL out of Vancouverish area. We're in our early 30s, will bring no kids, and while we enjoy having a good time, are not party animals by any stretch. We've only been on one cruise together, an RCL in the eastern Caribbean. I hear a lot about princess being an older crowd and RCL being a lot more fun. Am I silly to consider a 7 day RCL over a 10 day princess or will the 10 day princess have plenty of options for the under 60 crowd and I should be taking the much longer vacation (mostly sea days)? Thoughts?

No, the grainy appearance is from using a high ISO (3200) and would not disappear in raw, you could probably get a little bit better from shooting in raw and "developing" it your self in lightroom (or other digital darkroom product), however at iso 3200 don't expect too much with your camera. At some point we all have to choose if we're going to be photographers or travelers first in how much we inconvenience out selves in our travels to get the perfect shot. I know full well how to take that shot without any of the grain, however you're not going to catch me on deck with a tripod and a 30 second exposure at iso100 because I'll be way to busy enjoying my vacation and perhaps a couple of drinks.

Nice shot btw!

This thread, though, is about how do people save/pay for their cruises. Not how you got a good deal. Whether you go a good deal or not is irrelevant.

Paying less is one of the ways I pay for my cruise, so getting a good deal is part of it.

This is a great thread. I have a couple of lenses but was considering buying a prime lens for low light/night shots. Have looked at canon EF 24mm f2.8 pancake lens and canon EF f1.4 USM lens.Would appreciate your views on these lens or other recommendations.

If you want night landscape type shots, buy a tripod. If you want action photos buy a f/1.4 lens. If you want land scapes but don't want the bulk of a tripod, buy the 35 F/2 IS, it's about 3 stops faster than a f/1.4 if you don't need to freeze motion and it's incredible IQ.

only show the "good ones" to make people believe you are a smart and skilled photographer.

This, this, this. Take 5,000 pictures on your vacation, trim it down to 100, post process them, trim it down to 25 and then take the top 10 to show off.

Also, shoot in raw and post process in something like lightroom. It makes a world of difference.

Reading this thread has educated me on one thing, I need to work harder to be able to enjoy a concierge on retirement!

I like booking late and despite really loving the idea of a 9 day Galveston, western Caribbean itinerary will probably wait to book. I guess we'll see if this turns out to be a foolish move or not. Really, I just like exploring cruise options almost as much as I like sailing, only because I am limited to roughly a trip a year.

Casinos on cruise ships have no competition to keep their pay tables "honest" or reasonable, so if you're looking for more than entertainment stay away. That being said, blackjack can be a lot of entertainment and as long as you're looking for entertainment, even at 1.6% house edge at 6:5 blackjack payouts, long term you'll get a lot of entertainment for your money if you can stick to basic strat.