Papa Yoda

I probably have half doz or so albums of Andrea Bocelli and a few albums of Il Volo; in addition to 30 or so albums by other assorted artists. Among my favorites are the Willie Nelson singing the Gershwin songbooks albums.

 

Yes, that duet is something else. I think any/every Princess ship should play that over the ship's PA system while preparing to depart any of the Italian ports; or departing San Francisco for that matter.��

What breaks my heart is them playing "Time to Say Goodbye" on the last night over the PA - it is such a great melody.

I booked a Mar 2018 cruise and called in to get CASINO rate,. Rep called casino dept who said it was too far out but the offer would very likely be extended - again - and we'd get the discount.

for non-prime itineraries it's 35% off insides, 30% off OV, 25% off balconies and 15% off suites. For Alaska, Europe. and Japan it's 10% less each.

I blame Steiner for this. I am elite on princess and have had the hard sell from the spa. However I work on another cruise line and Steiner also runs the spa. I became very good friends with some of the spa girls and I feel so sorry for them. They signed up for a job they thought they would enjoy and ended up having to be hard line sales reps. They have to meet a certain target in sales every week, if they don't they can lose their days off and on one ship I worked on they were brought in for 0600 "breakfast meetings" that didn't involve breakfasts. Then they work all day till 9pm. They are pushed all the time by Steiner. Some of them don't mind it but a few on my longest contract last year never went back. One hair stylist told me she was working for about 2$ an hour and thanked God for her tips. Just a peek at the other side of things

Terry

So true! We enjoy meeting the spa folks. And while services are somewhat higher than shoreside, they aren't way out of line in our view. We do know about the sales pitches and that sales are tied to days off etc and think that is whack. If we get good service we do tip extra, but we are particular. In full disclosure, our cabinet is full of Elemis.

Ditto on C752 & C753 but please keep it a secret! Ditto on Baja corners if Caribe corners are gone.

They are corners so you have more than 180 degree view with large balconies.

Dolphin deck balconies D734 & D735 are a bit deeper but you are inside of the Vista suites

I'm a first time Princess cruiser.

 

With the AIBP, can you track your purchased drink totals on the Princess phone app?

 

I'm looking for the most convenient way to track my beverage totals in order to see at any point during my cruise, if I'm ahead, or behind, on the average daily cost of the AIBP ($56 per day).

 

Thanks

There is no tracking on your folio.

Sometimes the servers will print out a receipt for you to sign and you can get a copy and sometimes not. I suppose you can ask to get a receipt.

Maybe use the spreadsheet as a diary?

Princess Beverage Package Evaluator rev2 posted 7-20-2014.xls

Our first cruise was also on Jubilee November 1991, and yes, we have Hurricane Glasses and the mason jar with handles glasses. Best memory was the dear lady who tipped the servers with a bunch of 1 dollar bills taped together into a long strip, the dining room staff had to pull it out of her bra.

So long and thanks for the addiction Jubilee!

... snip ...

Your chances are very good no matter what time you board the ship!

Agreed - with 5 sea days, chances are good they will hold more than 1 if the there is demand. Do check in with the Maitre D' at the times listed in the Patter for dining changes.

On our Grand to Hawaii there were 3 Chef's Tables, and a 4th "private" one was pending but the group didn't get enough people to attend.

Your enthusiasm is heartening, have a great cruise!

Does anyone have recent experience with bringing a case of wine onboard at embarkation?

We have no problem paying the $15/bottle but want to put the case through with our luggage as we have in the past. (No comments about how much we drink - it's a 28 day cruise :p )

Again - anyone have any experience with this lately?

Thanks!

You have to carry it on. I have a fold up hand truck (Costco). Case of wine on the hand truck, carry-on on top of that. Took a case on Grand Princess this past March. 10 of 12 were charged corkage. I forgot to mention the other 2 in carry-ons. Hand truck fit in suitcase on the way home.

Cruise Critic email snapshot below. Looks like the previous fare was $1099 pp. So the thinking is that the new fare should have been $1340 - it was a fare increase not a ridiculous 88% fare drop.

Edit: There we some other crazy price drops listed in that email in terms of 60-70%, so the 88% doesn't really seem an outlier. Maybe CC should edit their blurbs to ensure info is correct. I don't know where they get the fare info, but a check step may be advised. I pay little attention to these CC fare drop emails since they often confuse Mini-suites and Suites.

They did Chef's Table 3 times on our 15 day Hawaii cruise on the Grand. M-D said they try to schedule enough to accommodate and not on port days, Formal night or Lobster nights. Not done on cruises shorter than 7 days.

Main course was Lobster, Scallops, Filet, and Lamb chop. The Filet and Lamb Chops were cooked on a heated iron hanger-thingie and flambeed tableside.

In defense, I'd say being gone to eat for 30 minutes is well outside the chaise-porcine phylum. The scenario being: you've been sitting in the lounger all morning, get up to eat, leaving your princess bag with various goodies inside, after eating you return to the lounger by the pool (gone 29.9 minutes), remove your cover up and lay that on the lounger, kick off flip-flops, put on hat and sunglasses, check/rearrange your stuff, then go to paddle in the pool for 15 minutes.

Does not sound like in this scenario, to me, that one should "give up" the chair or be considered as "reserving" loungers or being called a chair hog.

I am a firm proponent of the notion that towel(s) by themselves laying on a lounger do not indicate that "you'll be right back". I've seen too many occurrences of folks obviously picking up their stuff, taking off and just leaving towels behind.

On our last cruise I decided to head back to our room for some relaxing time on the balcony after having several drinks at the pool bar, as I stepped on the balcony I nearly screamed!

that's it,,,THAT'S THE FINAL STRAW !!!

,,,,, I had forgotten I had left a towel on the lounger ! ;)

That lounger is probably still empty!

We did a couple Ensenada Suite cruises. When the Golden was here in LA, Sun Deck Premium Suite and Baja deck Owners suite (an upsell with the smell).

Plus several 4 and 5 day getaways, best price was Sapphire Feb2014 - a free cruise; next best the Crown in Jan2015.

I called it research, seeing what Suites and staterooms we liked at "reasonable" cost. Cruising, cruise credits towards Elite, Research: win, win...win.

It is hard work but someone has to do it!

New to cruising this September, I would have thought the crew placed them on the chairs for anyone to use. Not sure who would have been the most surprised when they returned for their chairs, them or me. :) But now I know the difference or do I? - :D ;) :p

At the Spa pool the attendants will sometimes place rolled up towels on the loungers, start of day maybe. If there's only a rolled up towel then the chair is definitely open.

Just noticed there is also a 14 day on Pacific Princess:

22-Dec-17 Fri PACIFIC K801 14 Caribbean Caribbean Connosieur

FT. LAUDERDALE, Grand Turk, St. Barthelemy, Nevis, St Lucia, Tobago (Scarborough), Barbados, Martinique, Antigua, Virgin Gorda, FT. LAUDERDALE

We prefer the spa pool and apparently so do a lot of the chair hogs.:rolleyes:

Several times when we've gone there all or almost all of the loungers are "reserved" by a towel, even though there is no one in or around the pool!

Totally agree Princess and fellow passengers should be more assertive.

Hi J!

Exactly! And that's the reason I feel that towels don't hold chairs. I observed that since there is no bin by that pool lots of folks just leave their towel behind when they leave. Plus at the spa pool is easy to count noses and those usually have more than just a towel (shoes, a robe or bag while they're in the pool or hot tubs, etc).

I wonder if there would be much difference in the weather between the 2 sailing dates? It seems there are more coastal California storms in the spring time.

Yah - who knows - we hit a nice sized storm on the Grand to Hawaii last March. But we'll only be a day or so out and the same back in Cali coastal waters.

April 2018 will be Fall in Samoa and Tahiti.

Copied shamelessly:

AVERAGE WEATHER IN APIA, SAMOA

What's the best time to travel to Apia in Samoa? Here are some facts:

On average, the temperatures are always high.

A lot of rain (rainy season) falls in the months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December.

On average, the warmest month is January.

On average, the coolest month is August.

January is the wettest month.

July is the driest month.

We chose Spring 2018 as well.

Roll Call thread.

If you tell them there will be 4 it will be twice as much food as pictured above. More than you and 10 of your best friends can eat. The room service lead will visit/call ahead of time to ask your preferences.

We were in L301 March 4-19, 2016

We had noise from folks jogging on the Sun deck above. We met our CC friends who were in L302 at Chef's Table and mentioned the thundering hordes above and they reported they had no noise issues whatsoever.

Please see our Cabin Review in the Cabin Review thread. We got a bottle of wine and a couples massage to ameliorate our noise complaints. The deck crew roped off the Sun deck until 7AM after our first complaint, but then the jogging just started later. It would be interesting to know if you folks also experience joggers waking you up early.

I doubt you'll ever hear any noise from the youth center. I don't want to hate joggers wanting to stay healthy, but I'm tempted ...

Please enjoy one of the best Suites in the fleet, we certainly did, it's just a shame that the location can lead to these issues..

When we brought good wine, we received "real" wine glasses in the MDR on the Grand (3/4 - 3/19/2016). And I recall asking for and getting them on the Star last November. But previously, we did have to purloin Reidels from Vines as needed (shamelessly). I also seem to recall an Alan from Vines on Crown (Jan 2015) who was a pretty good host - if I recall, he assisted in the purloining. On these last couple of cruises I never had an issue having good stemware.

It's the Ruby. No Sabatini's or Alfredo's

The "worst" cruise we've been on was a 4 day leg LA - Vancouver at the tail end of a Canal cruise. Lot's of folks disembarked in LA (where we should have also got off) and a horde of Party people came on board (kids running the MDR etc type stuff), changed the whole vibe. We heard many TAs got it as a free cruise.

I think these little repo cruises are sacrificial.

Hopefully the OP can get some OBC

How many Chef's Table evenings are there on the 15 day Hawaii cruise, and do they have them only when at sea or also on a port day? We are going to try to book it this time, as this cruise celebrates our 50th anniversary!

There were 3 for sure and a private 4th possible (but they didn't get enough in their group to go for it) on our March cruise on the Grand.

Also keep the Maitre 'd informed of your interest if you don't get in as there were last minute cancels (due to persistent cough) for ours.

The M'D tries to not have them on Formal or Lobster nights.

We got off the Grand March 19, 15 days RT Hawaii, we were in the same suite L301 the "Princess Suite". We loved it! We got a slightly better deal through the casino discount, but hey it was one of those very special occasions.

There were a couple hiccups of course, check the cabin review: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=49610090&postcount=99

We asked our CC cruisemates in L302 about the joggers, they heard nothing, so maybe some soundproofing added in dry dock will help.

It has a doorbell!

We took most of our meals on the balcony - it was sheltered and private.

The tub on the balcony needed to be cleaned as it did leave a ring. Looked to me like oil from the air pump. It only left a ring when the air / bubblers were on. The crew did the aforementioned deep cleaning and it got a lot better, but not gone. It is cool that you can get into the hot tub through a separate curved glass door right from the bedroom. Given we spent every afternoon in the tub, we didn't miss the Thermal Suite as much.

The Adagio Bar that is found on the Grand class ships has a wonderful tiramisu martini (dessert in a glass!). I don't think the Diamond has an Adagios so look for it in one of the other bars.

Oh yeah -- forgot that one

+1