phonejock

Hi We will be in Halifax on September first which is a Sunday and Sydney on the second which is Labour day. Anything we should know? We are planning to take the ship’s excursions, so I am not worried there. I was just wondering if the shops would be open. TIA.

Hi I love all the suggestions here. Add my vote for smoke free casino. On our last cruise, Sky over New Years, the smoke was so bad in the casino, I had to air out my dresses before putting them back in the closet. And please stop the baked Alaska parade. Most of the time, I would like to finish dinner in time to make a show, and this just delays it. I will add my own modest request. I wish the IC had some sort of small tray/ cup holder, like you get at Dunkin Donuts. On mornings that we have an early excursion, it would be nice to run down, get coffees and a bite to eat for both of us and bring it back to the room. Or bring something up to where I am sitting around the ship. Maybe, I missed them, but I have never seen any. ( very first world problem 😊)

Hi Just a suggestion There were a couple of threads on this board of the first two sailings of the Sun. The one by @CanadianBurger was especially good. As DH and I like to book Reserve Collection minis, I was interested to see different configurations between the cabana and plain RC versions. The cabana one looks very narrow with a smaller bathroom. If we ever decide to book the Sun, I will be googling like a madwoman to research the room that would work best. All the best.

Nice You have a great “eye” Thanks for sharing

@CanadianBurger Since this thread is my current addiction, I would be remiss if I did not say THANK YOU for taking the time from your vacation to give your impressions of the Sun Princess. You went above and beyond researching the various venues and answering everyone’s questions. Princess, if you are reading this, do something special for this man and his wife! Best wishes and Safe travels

Good Morning, DH &I have done Reserve Collection three or four times on different ships. On all of them, there was a row of two top tables. People were always striking up conversations. You could always ask the maitre d if anyone else is interested in sharing. Hope this helps. Best wishes and travel safe.

@niftrip First thank you for this excellent thread. Quick Question It appears that your Reserve Collection Cabana mini suite is very narrow ( or more narrow than other mini suites I have been in). It looks a little claustrophobic. How are you finding it? IMHO, from all the posts I have read about the Sun, one is going to have to thoroughly research all the various permutations of the cabins before booking. Best wishes and Travel Safe

Thanks All Safe Travels

Hi Probably the stupid question of the day…. Is the Casino on NE/ Canadian cruises open like they are on other cruises, closed while in port, then open once they set sail? Thinking of the 10 day going from Boston to Quebec on the Emerald. The last night, we are overnight in Quebec, so I would assume the Casino would be closed.

Just my opinion… I was on the Regal in March 2023 and on the Sky a month ago. DH and I ate at Sabatini's and the Crown Grill on both ships. We agreed that the service and food was better on the Sky.

@cr8tiv1 Great Question about how many inaugural cruises have been cancelled. Speaking strictly personally, I know of two. Back in the early 2000s, we were going the first cruise of the Sapphire or Diamond. (Sorry, can’t remember) it was cancelled and we were able to switch to the Coral. Fast forward to 2020, we booked the inaugural trip of the Enchanted. It was to celebrate retirement and was a great itinerary. As everyone knows that was also canceled due to the ship not being ready and, of course, Covid. Fortunately in both cases, we had much more than two weeks notice, so I really feel bad for all the disappointed cruisers.

Hi if it helps, you should know that that you are covered with a sheet most of the time. The masseuse will fold back the covering off whatever part of the body they are working on. As for the upselling, just smile and say you are not interested. Just had a great massage on the Sky, one of the highlights of the trip. As soon as I nicely said, no thanks, the masseuse stopped and just gave me a couple of suggestions, like drinking more water. I hope you pamper yourself. A good full body massage will make you feel absolutely great. (Although like cruising, once you do one, you want another😊.

Hi As the title of this thread states, this was our first cruise over New Year’s Eve. I always enjoy reading cruise reviews, so this is me paying it back. Just a little background, DH and I are in our late 60s with 15 plus cruises. PRE CRUISE The trip down from New England To Fort Lauderdale on SW went well. As we like to use the Princess transfer package, we stayed at one of the hotels they select. Here are a few thoughts on The Renaissance. (TripAdvisor has it listed as The Renaissance Fort Lauderdale West). The room was great. It was a good size, with plenty of storage space. It was very clean and the king size bed was comfortable. Our room faced the freeway, but there was very little noise. Unfortunately, it is not really near anything and the area didn’t look walkable. We got in about 8:00 pm and wanted to get a quick bite. We found the restaurant downstairs to have a very limited menu with expensive drinks. Which would have been OK, if the service hadn’t been so slow and disjointed. The kicker was they automatically added an 18% service charge to our bill. EMBARKATION The bus picked us up about 11:15 and we were at the port 25 mins later. Picking up our medallions, going through security took another 25 and we were on the Sky around 12:15. We had a little trouble finding the Reserve Collection dinning room. We kept getting conflicting information which MDR it was located in. Finally prevailing on a Manager, he had us escorted to the right place. ( It was located in the Estrella). Our luggage was delivered around 5 which was the latest we had ever seen. FOOD I thought overall the food was very good. I always enjoyed the additional meal they had in RC. We had a great meal At Alfredo’s and enjoyed the IC. We ate at Sabatini’s and the Crown Grill. We were very pleased with our meals in the specialty restaurants. We thought they were both better than the ones we had on the Regal in March. ENTERTAINMENT We had very good entertainment on this cruise. We had three production shows, Rock Opera, Spotlight Bar and Five Skys. All the dancers and singers were great. I thought the two lead female singers were outstanding. We had a comedy magician, R.J Cantù who was good, a singer Brianna Faulk who was great, a comedian AJ Jamal who was funny, and another comedian Jim McCue who was just OK. PORTS At Princess Cays, we did the glass bottom boat and then got back on the ship. We stayed on board at Puerto Rico and did a pool day. At Amber Cove, the only rainy day we had, we visited Monkeyland. It is a little touristy but a lot of fun. On Grand Turk we did the duck boat tour. Again a little touristy, but you really see the island. CREW As always, the crew was wonderful. They have really hard jobs and they handled them with grace. Our Steward, Eli was a true ninja. We never saw him, but our room was always made up when we got back from breakfast. Love the self service kiosks in the photo area. DH had a problem downloading our pictures. He went down to the photo staff and it was quickly fixed. We had a great couples massage with just a little upselling. The crew at the IC,scoops, and the juice bar were very nice. BARS ( my biggest complaint) Ok Princess, you have done a fabulous job selling the drink packages. Now PLEASE, help your bar and coffee staff by increasing the number of bartenders and baristas. There was always a 10-15 minute wait to get a drink. The bartenders are literally non stop the whole night. The IC baristas could keep up with demand fairly well as they have two machines. The poor guy up at The Pastry shop only had one and was always backed up. NEW YEARS EVE It was the first formal night NYE. There were several parties going on . The was a family one in the Vista lounge, a dance one in the Piazza, and of course the main one up on Lido. Personally, I am glad we did it once, but feel no need to repeat. A good time was had by one and all. CASINO DH enjoys the casino, so I did spend some time in there. It was busy on the days it was open and packed every night. They need more drink staff circulating. I thought the slots were expensive and very tight. And Princess, please make the casino non smoking. DH was pretty sure smokers were hanging out in there. That is pretty much it. Any questions, I will try to answer. Travel safe everyone!

Just a suggestion. Check out your local library. I have taken my Kindle on our last two cruises. i was able to borrow books for free using the Libby app. (Your area may use a different one) Just look for the check mark in the corner of each book on your Home page to make sure they are fully downloaded . I am a fast reader so I always like to have several books loaded .

Last March DH and I stayed at the Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, booked through Princess with a transfer to the Regal. The transfer bus picked us up at 11:15am and dropped us off at the port 15-20 minutes later. Embarkation was quick and easy and we were in our room by 12. Plenty of time for lunch in the MDR.

@PescadoAmarillo I just read your blog about your 26 glacier excursion. The pictures were absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for posting.

@captain_hug99 Thanks for your entertaining review. I also find the comforter to be too warm. When we meet our Steward on the first day, we always request a top sheet. It goes under the duvet. I point that out, because once, the steward make up the bed with the top sheet on top of comforter. ( and I am still laughing about it).

I am sending prayers and good wishes for the crew, especially the bartenders. Whatever happens it is going to be a long week for them.

Great start to your cruise review. Looking forward to your next post. God bless and travel safe.

Unfortunately, no advice here, but this is the second time in the last few days that I have read on this board where someone has called in with a cabin question, and the vacation planner books them into another room at a higher price without specific approval. Very Troubling Sending best wishes.

@mmiicc Just wondering was the magic show you did not like MAGIC TO DO? I saw it pre Covid and thought it was more of a production show than a magic show.

Sorry Guys I did not ask for any special tonics. All my drinks had tonic from a fountain gun. Perhaps someone else can chime in with more info.

@Thrak Thank you for the tip. Although it does sound like a lot of work. Trust me I more than made due with Bombay Sapphire Lol 😆 i forgot to mention ( and it should have been the first thing) THE CREW WAS FANTASTIC. I am sure the fallout from the pandemic made their lives much harder. They all were doing their best with grace and dignity.

Hi Just got back from the March 19-26 sailing of the Regal Princess. Just so you know our point of view, DH and I are in our 60s and have several cruises under our belts. Going to be thinking long and hard about booking with Southwest Air in the future. I will not bore you with the details, but there were problems both going there and coming home. We fly out of Hartford, CT to Baltimore, MD and then on to Fort Lauderdale. On the trip down, two baggage handling issues caused us to be delayed 2-3 hours. We did not reach our hotel till 10pm. Not how I like to start a cruise. On the way back our 1:35pm flight did not take off till almost 4. We thought we would miss our connection and had seats on a 10:30pm flight to Hartford. When we reached Baltimore, we were able to switch back to our original flight. Our bags did not make it and had to be picked up the following day. ( To be fair, this one was our decision). We were able to get home at 9pm rather than 1 in the morning. Before I leave the “transportation” section, a BIG shout out to the Princess rep at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Peggy. She is a gem. She helped us out as much as she could with our bag mess. Then once we got everything together, she got us out of the airport and on our way as quickly as possible. Apparently, there was gridlock right outside the baggage claim area, so she took us out another way so we could avoid another delay. A few words about the Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. (FYI there is another Westin location in town) This one is located right across from the beach. It is one of the hotels that Princess uses, but I have not seen any comments on this board or Facebook. I was only there 13 hours, so I may not be the best person and would love to hear other opinions. I thought it was an OK place to spend the night before a cruise. The room was clean and the beds were comfortable. For some reason, they put DH and I in a handicap room. Showering was a little awkward as there was only a hand held device, but it was only one time. The plus was that the room was ocean view and it was fun watching everyone out and about. The best thing was the breakfast place TINTA. The food and service were fantastic. After getting our bags ready for 8am,( pick up inside the room) we went down and were able to have breakfast on patio. Now that is how I like to start a cruise. The Princess rep who manned the desk was very helpful. She explained exactly how the medallion check in would happen. A heads up about this hotel, we did not hear any noise at night, but you are right in the middle of the Spring break celebration. There are lots of party people around. I joked to DH that at least we made it to Spring break in Fort Lauderdale, 50 years too late, but we made it. Embarkation could not have been smoother. We got on the transfer bus around 11:15am. We had an absolutely adorable driver, who had us laughing from the start. We entered the terminal at 11:35 and were on the ship at 11:55. Our luggage was delivered a little later than we expected, but it happens. The safely video was painless. My medallion was a little wonky at first. When I checked in at the lifeboat station, it said I was off the ship. They made a note of it and all was well. This was our first cruise in four years and so our first Medallion cruise. It seemed to work well. We did not have anything delivered. It was nice to have the door unlocked for you. We had booked a Club Class Mini suite. It was B410. I loved the location. If I went to the right and down the elevators, I was in the middle of the Piazza. If I went left and down, the Princess theater. It did have a smaller angled balcony, really only room for two. I did notice when I stood by the railing and looked to the right, I could see into the next balcony because of the angle. ( B408). A pair of cabins like that might be fun to book together if you were traveling with family or friends. Charlene, our steward, took great care of us. Our room was always clean and made up. And now what everyone really wants to know… how was the food? The answer was very good to great. DH and I adore Club Class. We feel it is worth every penny. While we do not want to be rushed, we don’t want to spend two hours over dinner. We always were done in time to do whatever. The service was excellent. Gerald and his partner Jithin were the best part of the cruise. They had great recommendations and were so funny. I think we took advantage of the “special dishes “ about three times. We ate in the Crown Grill one night and Sabatinis another. The Crown Grill was very busy on formal night. My husband enjoyed his Porterhouse and I liked the Sea Bass, although I thought the portion was a little small. Now one of the special dishes in CC was Ossobuco. When we went to Sabatinis, the waiter recommended the Ossobuco, so I got it. Folks the one served in Club Class was better. Entertainment was pretty good to very good. There was a Billy Joel tribute trio, a couple of comedians as well as two production shows.( Sweet soul and Encore) The best show was an illusionist, Octtavio Belli. He did some amazing things. Now, I may have missed it , but I did not see any seats reserved the Premier package. Speaking of entertainment, we had a bit of magic on this cruise. The Edina Concert Band, from Edina, MN were on board. This was a big group trip. Arrangements were made and the band gave two concerts at 4pm on the formal nights. They were fantastic. Ports: We missed Princess Cays due to the swells in the harbor area. So we had two sea days, two port days and then another two sea days. We stopped in St Thomas where we did a trip to Mountaintop and the skyride in the morning. In the evening around 5pm we took a sunset catamaran cruise around the island. It was a lot of fun. As always the Castaway Cats crews were both very professional and very fun. The next day we did the Best of St Kitts. First they took us to a Batik store. We thought they were going to give us a demonstration, but it was just a store to shop in. So I shopped. Then they took us to Brimstone Hill Fortress. The tour tickets said 50 steps. Well it was 50 steps, but the steps were at least 5 feet across each. And it was straight uphill. The trek was worth it beautiful views. Debarkation was sad, but fairly painless. Only the buffet and one of the dining rooms was open for breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised to find they had a Club class section even though it was in a different dining room then we had used all week. We used the service to have our bags shipped to the airport and put on the plane. Worth the small charge. I will close with some random Observations…not in any particular order…. The Casino was hopping. Very busy every night. I found the drink delivery on the slow side so I would get a drink before walking in. For Gin lovers, there was NO Hendricks on board. I enjoyed all the entertainment in the Piazza. The only problem is that they have areas like photography right off of there. If the acts are really loud it is hard to hear what is being said. People were generally very nice to the crew. I only saw one time where a women practically yelled that she was waiting at a bar. The poor bar tender was going flat out nonstop. I did not do any Movies under the stars or Trivia, or any of the game shows, but people were enjoying them. I think that is it. Safe Travels everyone

I know…. I know…Silly question of the day We will be on the Regal next month and are planning to put our names in for the Chef’s Table. I seem to remember reading that closed toe shoes are required as they take you for a galley tour, but I did not think they were going “behind the scenes “ post Covid. (And things can vary ship to ship) Has anyone been chosen recently for the Regal’s chef table? Did they take you down to the kitchen? I just want to have the the right shoes in case we get lucky enough to attend. Thanks in Advance