HaveDogWillTravel

My husband and I are fairly new to cruising with my first exploratory sailing out of my home port of San Francisco to Mexico on the Grand princess in Dec. 2015. We have since sailed Cunard, Oceania, Celebrity and Princess. Princess has gotten a lot of our business as it is the best option out of SF. We chose this itinerary as we wanted to spend time in both Istanbul and Greece. The itinerary in between changed a couple of times since we booked but we are now back on track to go thru the Corinth canal. We are going to be very happy if that actually happens but we do understand the canal is steep, narrow and can be closed due to falling rocks from the canal walls. We stayed at the Seven Hills Palace Hotel’s Hagia Sophia view room on the 3rd floor for 5 nights pre cruise. This was a great decision as the room, while not cheap, was very comfortable with a large balcony including table and chairs that had water views in addition to Hagia Sophia views. We were within an easy 5-15 walk from Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, Archeological Museum, Museum of Islamic Art, Hagia Sophia Museum, Hippodrome, Basilica Cistern and a Michelin Star restaurant that we ate at 3 times. We also went on the Tram to Galatea Tower and a winery tasting room near it. We felt 5 and a half days was the perfect amount of time here. The Star Legend docked at the cruise terminal in the historic district area. This was a 30 min walk from the hotel but with all the luggage we had the hotel arrange a taxi. Windstar is so different than any other line we’ve sailed. Maybe it was that we embarked in a very small port area. There were a few of those pop up shades with plastic chairs to sit in while we waited. The terminal was a small building. We arrived at 12:30 and after going thru customs were welcomed by the Captain and other senior officers as we boarded. We were directed to the aft lounge where we were given a glass of champagne (thank you!) and this is how we were checked. On the Galata tower side there was the Enchanted Princess, a Norwegian Ship and a Holland America one on our embarkation day. The buffet was open until 4 pm for embarking passengers and we quite enjoyed our great big salads with chicken. DH had a nice big slice of roast beef with some fingerling potatoes that were very good as well. We are in a French balcony room on deck 5. It has a great living room next to the balcony and the bedroom is separated by a curtain. The bathroom has two sinks and the shower is large & extremely nice. Rain shower head and a shower wand. While there is a walk in closet there really isn’t a lot of drawer or shelf space. I struggled finding a place for everything. Ultimately it worked. One thing that really impressed me about the room was the cabinet of quality glassware in the living room cabinet. I really like having the right glasses to drink wine, beer, cocktails and so on. The room service menus are very impressive as are the dining room menus. We ordered a chicken quesadilla, Cobb salad and a bowl of plain buttered spaghetti last night to the room. It came within a half hour and piping hot. Everything was excellent. The quesadilla was really delicious with a spicy pico de gallo. This is our first day and we are on the Greek island of Lemnos. DH hiked up to the castle while I’m sitting by the harbor typing up this review. We don’t have internet on the ship but we have cell service in all the ports. I’ll try and type up my review on the ship on notes and post while in port. Here’s hoping! My iPad and iPhone haven’t shared their photos yet so I’ll try and post photos as I can. On this post I hope my photos of the event planners and such and my screen shots of all things menu (available thru a QR code on your device or TV) load. I’m also attempting to post the deck 8 Star Bar menu. I will post this text and then try to start loading pictures. If you have any questions I’ll do my best.

I sailed 19 days on Emerald, LA to NYC Aug 21 to sept 9, 2023. None of those are required for this sailing by the ship nor the counties we visited. However, there are a lot of communicable diseases on cruise ships. The longer the sailings the more likely it becomes to catch one of them. I’ve done quite a bit of sailing since the restart and can only speak to what I’ve experienced. On our sailing we had 8 (that I knew of) that caught CoVid. One had pink eye. There were a lot more that we’re sick but just walked around unmasked anyway. The Dr may know a thing or two about the couple’s health risks so is saying in their professional opinion the couple should protect themselves as suggested. We are getting the conversation between the dr and patient third hand so we really don’t know exactly how this was phrased.

I’ve worked with my CVP for several years. It is true that he doesn’t earn commission on bookings if I make a deposit or apply an FCD online. He only earns commission on the Plus or Premier package if I book that within the first 30 days. Now I always add it and then remove it if I decide at final not to keep it. That said I booked a Dec 1, 2023 sailing on a Sunday and was able to choose an Emerald deck mini suite. This is quite unusual. However, there was no Hold without a deposit option available so I had to put an FCD on it to secure the cabin. This was not after final payment. It was weird. My CVP will not get the commission but he can and has helped me with it. Your thread title asks if CVPs are useful. Mine is enormously helpful. Just this month I suffered from the AARP gift card problem others have had where the card showed a zero balance when it in fact had not been used. I contacted him and called the Princess GC number he gave me. When I reported back that their answer was they couldn’t help me he forwarded my information to his supervisor and the issue was resolved in less than 24 hours. Last month he quickly resolved an EZ air issue for me. I never have to call the general princess line and wait on hold for long periods. I email him and he gets back to me in 24 hours. If my issue is urgent I use “Your immediate attention is appreciated “ as my email subject line and he immediately gets back to me. Ask around at your next meet and greet on board for recommendations for a great princess CVP. You do not need to use the random one assigned you.

@auldlassieThank you for posting that picture. I have 2 Vista sailings one in 7116 and another in 7127. I have been hoping to find confirmation of the deck furniture.

Here’s photos of my room service breakfasts on the Emerald 19 day sailing august 21 to sept 9th 2023. I was in a basic mini suite with the same basic door hanging card as all cabins that are not full suites. Every meal came hot and delicious & on time. I asked my steward for a kettle day 2 and he quickly provided one.

I sailed Riviera (first time on Oceania) in March of this year. DH and I thought the food was outstanding. There were a couple of misses but the overwhelming majority of our meals were incredibly good. We enjoyed the company of more seasoned O cruisers at meals a few times and found they didn’t find the food to be as good as we did. We were eating identical dishes. Maybe O’s food was better before I wouldn’t know. What I do know is, at least for us, the food was over the top good and in the rare instance it wasn’t we quickly got something else. We were in 7119 with the big balcony and newly remodeled bathroom. I found the storage to be awkward and limited. The space between the closet and bed was tight and I had to use the bathroom storage for things I wouldn’t normally store there. We thought the ship was beautiful and we loved the big thick padded chairs and loungers everywhere and especially the ones on our balcony. The filtered water refill stations were wonderful as was the included specialty coffees. We also loved that the Captain bought drinks for the whole ship one night. There was also a 2 for 1 happy hour every night. The bourbon and white wine choices were a little lacking on our cruise but things like that change from sailing to sailing based on what gets delivered. We absolutely loved that we could bring on board the higher quality bourbon and vermouth we needed to make our own cocktails once we realized they weren’t on board. We also had no problem bringing multiple bottles of wine on board. We were given a mid cruise comment card. In addition to my positive comments, I wrote that the balcony would be nicer if I had a blanket and I mentioned the lack of quality vermouth and bourbon. The next day a blanket appeared in my room and the F&B manager called to discuss the alcohol. I was impressed. We booked 2 more sailings while on board.

@NavyVeteranCans of soda were included in the package on the Emerald last week. @Boiler Cruiserif there’s a particular can of soda or bottled beer you like bring it with you. That’s what I did. I was glad as they did not have Blue Moon on Princess cays last week. I also brought my beer bucket ( I always get one from the outdoor bar first day). They filled it with ice for me.

It only cost $20 and we got 4 cocktails. All great!

I need to correct my previous response. They do have $8 drink specials. I loved the Tito’s mint martini.

Sabatini’s on deck 16 is where your suite breakfast will be.

Lol this last one was all Leo Rossi’s fault! Don’t shoot the messenger.

Just to give you an idea of what it might cost to send in laundry I am on day 18 of a 19 day sailing. I am elite so my laundry is free but they do show the charges and then credit my account. I send in my laundry almost daily (always take pictures). On this sailing I’ve sent in laundry 13 days. I gave it to my steward in the early evening and I got it back the next evening. Until the last few days when I think everyone on the ship decided to send in laundry and now it’s taking 2 days. The ship is at 3100 passengers and for the Emerald that is a full ship. The charges for one person so far is $207 (I’m sailing solo) the last two batches will come back today & they will probably add another $20. I’ll walk off with only one set of dirty clothes and pjs needing to get washed. Many times I don’t bother having all clean clothes when I disembark but I’m still traveling for several days when we get to NY. I do this every cruise. (36 on princess) I never send anything I would be heartbroken if it got damaged or lost. But I routinely send linen, Cotten, silk & rayon clothing without issue. They lost one bra once and nothing has ever been damaged. The laundry rooms have irons and ironing boards as well.

I’m currently on a Panamá canal sailing on Emerald. We left Columbia 2 days ago. No vaccine records needed to board or to visit Columbia.

I’m on the Emerald right now and looked on my TV. I can’t find anyway to order food on the TV. Maybe I’m just lame and can’t see it. On previous sailings I’ve done it so I know I used to have the ability. I use the ap on my phone and iPad. I don’t have any package so I paid the $15 for ON (19 day sailing). It’s been more limited but I’ve had good food and service. I wanted to order a 375ml bottle of gin but the card we used to get in the cabin was not here. In fact I haven’t seen those in a long, long time. It was during my stewards break so I called room service. 15 minute hold got hung up on. Called back but someone came on in 5 min. They can sell me my Bombay ($20) but said they had to add $5 for calling them. When I asked how I was supposed to order it they said I could order from my steward. (Just what he needs…. More to do!). I just ordered it from RS and paid the $28.60. At least they didn’t charge 18% gratuity on the $5 service charge! And if anyone is wondering where that 18% goes …… here’s a clue: It doesn’t go to the crew. When I talked to my steward about this he was really surprised. He said it made no sense as he would have to do exactly what I did. Call room service and order it.

It’s from 5-7 on the Emerald now.

Hi back at you! That would be great if they did give more dining credits for longer sailings. On the first 18 day leg of my December SA/Antarctica sailing I plan on buying Plus with OBC. If I like the wines and feel it’s worth it I’ll also get on the second 16 day leg. and yes having a great cruise!

I’m on the Emerald now and have gone to the lounge most nights. There has been someone at the door every night I presume checking your status as they have their reader thingy. The food has been, in my opinion, quite nice. It is in skywalkers so lovely venue. Well attended but easy to socially distance. We are experiencing an uptick in CoVid on board (stewards have busted out the bleach in large quantities). Not surprising on day 10 of a 19 day sailing. I took a picture of the drink specials. They have been the same every night.

I ate at Salty Dog pub on Emerald tonight. I asked the supervisor about sharing and he double checked with the bar manager before telling me sharing would be allowed. This ship has no Alfredo’s. I am going to go to Planks and will ask about sharing there too. I sail on Sapphire in Dec for 34 days. That ship has Alfredo’s. I definitely can not eat a whole pie and will want to share. My thought is once I have paid for food it belongs to me fair and square and I should be able to do whatever I want to with it. The gentle and polite conversation will start with the restaurant manager and move up the chain of command from there. I really can not believe (figuratively speaking of course …..I think everyone is telling the truth) people are being told they can’t share a pizza they either paid for a la carte or that they paid for in a package.

Thank you!

Thank you for the kind words @cr8tiv1 I do try to tell all sides of it. I do want to clarify that after 6 days on board this morning was my first food experience that was not the ship’s best performance. I am now sitting in adagio at a cocktail demonstration of the drinks the bartenders entered in the fleet wide competition. I think it’s going to cost $35 and there’s 3 or 4 drinks. Thus is the first one called Sink or Swim. And it is exceptionally good!

I went to breakfast in DaVinci this morning and asked 2 different restaurant managers. The first one, who is at the door when you arrive (sorry his name starts with a P idk his full name) said Mauris was a waiter not a rest manager. The second RM I asked, Claudia, said that there were several crew by that name from Romania. I am sorry I can’t answer your question. On a different note, I first went the buffet, the part of it in the way back, for breakfast. The scrambled eggs were cold and the pancake was hard. I couldn’t eat it. I told them the eggs were cold and it seeems the warming plate was not on. Then I headed to DaVinci to try my luck there. It was still only7:30 am and there was no line. I immediately got a private table away from others which was quite nice. My waiter, Romano, seemed mostly asleep. Weird. He did his job but there wasn’t even a pretense of trying to be engaged in it. Two over easy eggs, one English muffin and one blueberry pancake. The eggs and English muffin were cooked properly but I could taste the oil used on the eggs & it was a bit off putting. The pancake was also cooked properly, however most of the blueberries were hard or chewy. No bueno. My eggs Florentine first day were quite good so I was surprised by my overall lackluster experience. The room service salads have been very nice. I do not recommend the vegetarian sandwich however. Leo Rossi, Knights of Rock enrichment lecturer, will be giving 9 talks this cruise. He’s doing 2 shows just on the Divas. I’m excited for all the new material he is finally going to have time to use!

There really isn’t a happy hour. There’s the platinum elite suite lounge from 5-7 every night in skywalkers. I don’t know if they have drink specials. My glass of wine wasn’t discounted. Last night they had 4 kinds of sushi, chicken Waldorf salad, cheeses, fruited, meatballs and some dessert thing. I ate everything but the dessert thing and it was really really good. That was dinner for me.

I am not sure but will ask for you.