Ken the cruiser

Sounds like a plan! I'll also be posting to a Live From thread while we're on that cruise along with the 5-day Princess pre-cruise package we booked on as well. I've been quietly following the Roll Call, but we're pretty low key and keep to ourselves while we're on a cruise.

If I were to compare an "entry level" cabin on the Regent Voyager with a Princess cabin, to be fair I would choose a Reserve Collection mini suite, which includes access to the Reserve "anytime" Dining Room. Select the "Reserve Collection" in the below link to see what you get with that category rather than a regular mini suite. BTW that's the minimum category level (M1) we would book on a Princess cruise. Sapphire Princess - Cruise Ship Information - Princess Cruises

Yes, that's why we're partial to the aft-facing cabins on the Grand class ships. However, we did just book a corner aft-facing cabin on the Majestic Princess that has a partially covered balcony and is super huge. But then it's going from Buenos Aires to Ft Lauderdale in Jan 2025 with 3 stops in Brazil to include Rio, and they were offering $2000 in OBC which really brought the net price down.

Here is an example of a suite on the Sapphire Princess. Click on "Diagram" to see the layout. If you also notice, there is a door between the bath/walk-in shower area and the toilet/sink area. Sapphire Princess - Cruise Ship Information - Princess Cruises

For us with regards to booking Princess suites, the key is the itinerary, and if at all possible fully covered aft-facing balconies if we're going to be on one of Princess' Grand Class ships. We cruised through the Panama Canal in May 2022 in an aft-facing Vista Suite (VS) and it was awesome, especially sitting out on our huge fully covered balcony with a table for 4 and two cushioned loungers going through the locks. We are currently booked on the Caribbean Princess again in about a month on a cruise from Quebec to Ft Lauderdale in an aft-facing VS, a 30-day Antarctica B2B cruise in an aft-facing VS on the Sapphire Princess this coming January, and a 22-day Alaska Voyage of the Glaciers cruise in May in an aft-facing VS on the Grand Princess. As you may notice we're partial to aft facing Vista Suites on the Princess Grand class ships. BTW all of these cruises are around $425 pp/day (+/-) with a refundable deposit and the Plus package included.😊 Yes, Celebrity has aft facing sky suites, but most are uncovered for the most part. They also have butlers and a private swimming pool in the Retreat area, both of which we don't require, while Princess doesn't. Princess offers suite guests unlimited laundry where Celebrity does not. BTW the reason a refundable deposit is so important to us is because we book cruises when they first come out so we can get the cabin we want, which is usually a couple of years prior to the sail date. A lot can change in 2 years. That's why for me the 20% penalty Celebrity charges for a refundable deposit is so annoying.

I just did a mock booking of a cruise while logged onto my account and the Military and AARP perks appeared at the bottom of the Details screen. So it would appear my account has now been updated appropriately. I just emailed our TA to see if HAL also updated the actual booking we created early last week after getting the Military and AARP certifications a few days prior to booking it.

FWIW our daughter put in an upgrade bid for $1450 pp from a Reserve Collection mini suite to a Penthouse cabin on their 17-day CB land cruise and just got notified 30 days before the land portion of the cruise starts that she won the bid. The minimum bid was $1000 in case anyone is interested.

I was just able to access the cruise pricing using my desktop computer using Edge if this is the cruise.

Looks like you'll be dealing with some serious wave action for a few days if this is your current itinerary.

I learned about it from another person on CC when we were crossing the Pacific from Sydney to Vancouver this past spring. It definitely comes in handy if you're out on the high seas and wonder what type of weather you're heading into. 😉

Wow! It's amazing how many cruise ships are near the path of Hurricane Lee, or at least close enough to feel its effects. Looks like the Zaandam is at least in a good place right now. We're going to be on the Caribbean Princess cruising from Quebec to Ft Lauderdale next month. Hopefully, this string of potential hurricanes currently lining up in the Atlantic will have cleared out by then, otherwise we're going to have a cruise to remember as well. 🤞 MS ZAANDAM Current Location (cruisemapper.com)

Sorry the weather isn't cooperating. Not sure if you have heard of this website, but it comes in very handy for me when we're on a cruise. You can also download the app, but I just use the website link. Just put the city you're curious about anywhere in the world in the upper lefthand corner box. You can of course also expand the screen outward to get a bigger picture associated with the surrounding area. I also get more options when using my iPad rather than my iPhone. In any event have a great cruise! https://www.windy.com/

Here’s what the prices were on the Diamond when we were on it in July. My Live From thread is in my below expanded signature area.

@Guindalf, the reason we like Princess so much is because of their itineraries, and their funny cruise directors and entertainment team. For example, right before the shutdown we went on a 25-day Island Princess cruise from Ft Lauderdale through the Panama Canal and on to Easter Island before flying back home from Santiago, Chile. Here's a 36-day cruise that goes from New York to Sydney by way of Easter Island. It's pretty booked up right now, as it's part of a world cruise, but it gives you a taste of some of the longer cruises Princess offers. Cruise Details - 36-Day World Cruise Segment - New York to Sydney - Princess Cruises We're currently booked on a 30-day B2B RT Santiago, Chile this coming January that includes spending 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula. Cruise Details - 16-Day Antarctica & Cape Horn - Princess Cruises Cruise Details - 14-Day Cape Horn & Strait of Magellan - Princess Cruises Here's another Princess cruise that is a favorite of many Princess cruisers who have the time. Cruise Details - 32-Day South Pacific Islands & Hawaii - Princess Cruises This one is a cool cruise if you have never been to Brazil that winds up in Ft Lauderdale. Cruise Details - 18-Day Brazilian Adventure - Princess Cruises I know I keep mentioning Princess' unique longer itineraries. I just thought I'd post a few for you just in case you were unaware.

Actually, their products, especially when it comes to itineraries, really aren’t that similar if you like longer more well thought out 3-5 week cruises with more sea days included like we do. But then we’re fully retired, so longer journeys work for us. But as I’ve said in the past, adding a 20% penalty for booking a Celebrity cruise with a refundable deposit as well as charging around $120 pp/day for their AI package (with upgrades to Premium internet and beverages), which is also mandatory for AQ cabins until Oct 4, where Princess only charges $60 pp/day, is really annoying. Now if you like shorter 5-12 day port intensive cruises, especially in the Caribbean and the Med, Celebrity definitely would be a better fit, especially if you either booked the cruise onboard or with a nonrefundable deposit. As far as ship designs go, we like booking aft-facing Vista Suites on the PCL Grand Class ships with its huge fully covered balcony along with a separate bedroom area similar to a Celebrity Suite. But our PCL minimum is a Reserve Collection mini suite so we can dine in the Reserve Dining Room, which is similar to Blu but also serves lunch on sea days as well as embarkation day. With Celebrity we used to book sky suites but have recently evolved to booking Aqua cabins on our last few cruises with them on our Constellation, Summit and Eclipse B2Bs. But I will say we had a blast on the Edge B3B we did in Aug 2021, once cruising started back up, followed by a B2B on the Apex a few months later. But everyone has to find their own happy place when it comes to cruising. I know we have definitely evolved over the years. We started with HAL, then Celebrity with a few PCL and Crystal cruises mixed in to keep it interesting. Then once cruising started back up, our first 9 cruises were with Celebrity before we started mixing Princess and NCL into the mix to give our cruising experience some diversity. But now with the annoying $$$ games Celebrity is playing, we’ll probably pass booking cruises with them, except for the Galapagos cruise we have booked in Dec, for the next 3-4 years until the pent up post-pando cruising demand goes back to normal. But I’m glad Celebrity, as well as the other cruise lines, are filling their ships as they definitely went through some tough times during the pando. BTW that’s what Eddy Jenkins, an awesome Celebrity CD, calls it. 😁

I posted this on a PCL thread regarding Celebrity’s current cruise fares. But it hopefully explains why we’re looking elsewhere as well. Yes, Celebrity is a quality cruise line, and from my uninformed opinion over here in the peanut gallery, bases their price fluctuations on “supply and demand” more than any other cruise line we cruise with, and right now ever since the pandemic ended there is a huge pent up demand for people to go on a cruise, and they’re capitalizing on that demand. When the demand starts to ease back to pre-pandemic levels, I believe the prices will come back down. But so are many of the other cruise lines trying to tap into that pent up demand. NCL implemented a 10% military discount policy last November and then implemented their Free At Sea (FAS) Plus promotion a few months ago that made their original FAS much more dynamic, which BTW both of those additions personally were a huge hit for us. PCL implemented their 3 options when booking a cruise with their Cruise Only, Plus, and Premier packages, which we all know has caused quite a stir recently without including a grandfather clause. Even HAL has introduced their Have It All Early Booking Bonus package and enhanced their Club Orange package to include getting a free upgrade to a better cabin in the same Meta category. Both of which motivated us along with their unique 3-5 week itineraries to start booking cruises with HAL again.

Ah, memories. Our first cruise was on the Ryndam back in 2012. Do they still have the small set of bleachers for the band to sit on while they play? 🤣

Yes, Celebrity is a quality cruise line, and from my uninformed opinion over here in the peanut gallery, bases their price fluctuations on “supply and demand” more than any other cruise line we cruise with, and right now ever since the pandemic ended there is a huge pent up demand for people to go on a cruise, and they’re capitalizing on that demand. When the demand starts to ease back to pre-pandemic levels, I believe the prices will come back down. But so are many of the other cruise lines trying to tap into that pent up demand. NCL implemented a 10% military discount policy last November and then implemented their Free At Sea (FAS) Plus promotion a few months ago that made their original FAS much more dynamic, which BTW both of those additions personally were a huge hit for us. PCL implemented their 3 options when booking a cruise with their Cruise Only, Plus, and Premier packages, which we all know has caused quite a stir recently without including a grandfather clause. Even HAL has introduced their Have It All Early Booking Bonus package and enhanced their Club Orange package to include getting a free upgrade to a better cabin in the same Meta category. Both of which motivated us along with their unique 3-5 week itineraries to start booking cruises with HAL again. OK, I’ll stop. Sorry OP for sidetracking your thread. 😁

That’s a good question that has been and continues to be discussed at length over on the Celebrity forum. All I know is their 7-12 day cruises around the Caribbean and the Med no longer interest us, especially when the fares for their Aqua and Sky Suite cabins are running at ridiculous prices when you consider the following. Applying a 20% increase to the cruise fare to secure a refundable deposit is simply annoying. Charging around $85 pp/day for their All Include promotion, which only includes their Basic Internet package, Classic Beverage package, and daily gratuities. On top of that in order to get similar Internet service and beverage package that Princess provides in their Plus package for $60 pp/day, you have to upgrade to Celebrity’s Premium internet and beverage packages bumping the AI cost to around $120 pp/day. But then we’re in our 70s now and enjoy looking “behind the curtain”, especially when we can get a much better deal and have access to awesome 3-5 week itineraries when we book our with PCL, NCL, and HAL.

Sorry you didn't enjoy your Day 1 on your first Princess cruise as much as you would have hoped. Hopefully, once you got settled in, the rest of your cruise became a lot more fun. It appears you found the Princess Live! where I would imagine a lot of the trivia games were conducted at. Did you go to the evening game shows usually held around 8 pm? The entertainment staff to include the CD on occasion always seem to work extra hard to keep us laughing at those! We used to enjoy going on Celebrity cruises until their prices for Aqua and above got stupid, especially with the 20% penalty they now tack on if you want to book a cruise with a refundable deposit. But with Princess' diverse 3-5 week itineraries, the awesome treatment we get every day when dining in the Reserve Dining Room, whether we're in a suite or a Reserve Collection mini suite, as well as going to the theater and game shows every night, we'll probably pass on Celebrity cruises for at least the next 3-4 years. But then we're in our 70s and no longer in Celebrity's target demographic.

Sounds pretty cool!

It was hot (with temps in the low 90s) and humid (with the dew point in the low 80s) in most of the ports in Japan and Korea, except for Akita, Japan in the northern part where it was in the 70s and raining until the afternoon about the time we got back to the ship.

Both ships are fine with us, especially if you can get an aft-facing balcony. You’re cruising in February, so kids shouldn’t be a big issue on either. If you decide to go with NCL, check out their new Free At Sea Plus package for an additional $49 pp/day. It’s well worth the upcharge if you use many of those additional items, to include unlimited internet, bottled water, NCL excursions, and like to eat in specialty restaurants. https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/Free_at_Sea_Plus_ver011823.pdf

We have a TA handling our affairs with HAL as well as the other cruise lines we deal with so we don’t run into these types of issues.

Thanks for posting this as we’re also still learning the new rules as we have been gone from HAL for a while. I just looked and some of the July 2024 cruises still have the HIA Early Booking bonus that includes gratuities, which by the way ends Sep 30. So I guess the Early Booking Bonus perk does not necessarily end at the 1 year out mark. Good to know. 👍