PacaCruiser

6 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

On one of our cruises, we saw a man turned away for wearing pajama bottoms. My husband was politely asked to change his shorts one night (he just wasn't thinking) and they seated me to wait for him to come back.

Forget the "do you" advice. It's not all about you, your behavior impacts others. Thinking otherwise is just selfish. 

Pajama pants may be a bit of a stretch. Curious as to when your husband was turned away. On my last 3 cruises I've seen numerous shorts in MDR on chic nights. And we can agree to disagree on the rest of your post. I've experienced too much in life to let what someone else is wearing affect me whatsoever. That is the province of smaller minds. 

My wife and I have sailed Celebrity a number of times. We enjoy getting a bit spiffied up. Last time we cruised we took my parents, my dad is not a "lets dress up" guy. He played along for the first chic night, but the second time he wore a Snoopy Hawaiian shirt with jeans. He got so many compliments that night and not one criticism. I imagine there are pretty a few stuffed shirts who complained under their breath, but he enjoyed himself, we enjoyed ourselves, he brought joy to numerous people who loved seeing that shirt. Ultimately if anyone had a problem that says more about them than anyone else. 

My advice - do you. Don't worry about others. I've never seen a single person turned away from MDR on Celebrity, and I've seen some interesting outfits you'd expect to see on Carnival not Celebrity. 

Just my .02. 

I was in the middle of writing my own thread and saw yours. We were on the same cruise for our first ever. I'd agree with much of what you said. Thanks for your thoughts, here are a few of my own.

We also found the Crown Grill disappointing. We went there our first night and other than the salt menu we found the steaks in the dining room to be better prepared than the Crown. Nothing against the Crown, the food was good (the lobster cake was amazing), but had we paid for it we would have felt a little cheated. (We were in a suite, so we used our embarkation speciality dining there).

Speaking of the suite, we thought the room was very nice, but if we had not had a double-wide balcony (which it sounds like you may have as well with connecting rooms) I think I would have found it very cramped. Which would have been unfortunate because I spent many hours reading there.

I didn't find the ship crowded for the most part. Except the public areas to me were extremely crowded (the pool deck, etc) during sea days. MUTS was great fun and not overly crowded for the late shows. But I got very tired of people "holding chairs" during the sunny times or for the first MUTS showing with towels and then using the chair for about 45 minutes all day.

We thought the food was good overall, except for deserts. With a few notable exceptions (lava cake, creme brule), most deserts were very bland. My wife, who generally hates crusts on pies remarked more than once that you know its bad when the pie crust is more flavorful than the pie itself.

We also felt like the entertainment options on the ship were limited, particularly for the slightly younger crowd (which were few and far between on our sailing). After 8 or 9 there wasn't much going on except for the Casino (which we killed a fair amount of time in), one or two shows and the MUTS. Not necessarily a bad thing, but just something to consider if you're looking at the Regal.

We loved the ports, except for Montego Bay. Not a single person had a good thing to say about it. Even the staff had nothing good to say about it.

Overall great cruise, and we learned a lot should we cruise again.

I can't speak to the Caribbean, but we just got off the Regal. We received our cruise from the Venetian/Palazzo, so needless to say we like to gamble and spend a few hours in the casino. On the Regal, the craps table was only open from 8pm - close (around 2/3 am). At 8 the Patter advertised they would offer lessons if anyone didn't know how to play. I never saw one, but I did play craps a few times and each time there was at least one person at the table who had no idea what was going on. It wasn't a bad thing, the dealers and other players were more than happy to help out, and on the ship the gambling stakes are pretty low so nobody should get bent all out of shape about anything. I'd encourage you to drop by and give it a go.

As for how you play, your room card is fine, the only thing we found is it is very easy to lose track of what you charge to your room if you do $20 here and $50 there. I'd recommend either using cash or simply allowing yourself to purchase one chunk of credits in order to keep track of your spending better.

These are my guidelines that I go by.

If taking Princess transfer directly from a flight, then YES, affix the tags to luggage when leaving home. It helps Princess gather the luggage to be transported to the ship.

 

Flying in and have independent transfer be ready to affix them after you retreive your luggage from the carousel.

 

If you are flying in and are visiting for a few days then NO, not necessarily do they need to be on be affixed before the flight.

 

If arriving at the port independently after a local stay or driving affix them before you are ready to depart for the port, so you won't have to be fussing around.

 

My opinion, YMMV

Disregard the below question, I re-read your reply and understand you meant if we were going from the airport directly to the ship. Thanks again!!

Thank you everyone for the replies. We do have Princess transfer from airport to hotel, does this mean we don't have to retrieve our luggage upon arrival and take to the transfer? I figured we were still responsible for getting our own luggage.

Thanks again everyone, its our first cruise, so last minute freaking out is occuring a bit. :)

Last minute question, because they all come to you as you're doing things last minute.

The Princess Luggage Tags that you print provide your ship, etc. Any reason to put these on tags for the flight (on the off chance something happens) or just wait until you board your boat.

Awesome, thank you! I've never cruised, and from pictures I've seen I can't always tell how far out the ships are and whether it would have adequate reception.

Its the last thing you want to have to worry about on the first day of your first cruise, but ironic how things often line up like this. :)

Ok, this is probably a weird question. But we depart on a cruise from FLL (Regal Princess) on Feb 12, 2017.

The day of departure I am required to access a website for my work and book a hotel for a conference. The conference is large, so we are assigned a day in which we can access the booking page in order to get the rooms. Although several of us are going, I'm the only one authorized to use the credit card to actually book the room.

Is there adequate cell/data reception on the boat while in port at FLL to do this? It appears the boat sails at 4pm, and my window to access the website in order to get a room guaranteed in the block is between noon and 3. I know the ship has a computer lounge as well, but I assume that might be crowded or inaccessible prior to actually setting sail (not to mention i'd rather not incur internet charges if I can use my phone at that time).

Any feedback is appreciated. Many thanks!

Chris "PacaCruiser"

Living in FLL, I've had transfers automatically added to my booking. And I've called my TA and cancelled them without issue.

 

We made use of the pre-purchased liquor bottles last week. I agree with you, the price wasn't unreasonable, and a lot cheaper than purchasing cocktails at the bar. A voucher was present in the room at checkin. You call room service and they exchange it for a bottle. We mixed most drinks in the room, but the bottle may or may not have made an appearance at a Movies Under the Stars showing. :D Not a biggie if you're reasonably discreet about it.

 

I'm sure plenty of people try to sneak additional alcohol on board. Heck, I may or may not have even done this in the past. But I found it far easier to just purchase a bottle and have it delivered to my stateroom. Less hassle, and really not much more expensive.

Thank you both for the responses, very helpful!

Regarding this, I will admit I looked into various tricks for how to get alcohol on-board. But when I figured the price of various "concealers" was almost the cost of a bottle of alcohol, plus the risk of losing it entirely anyway, I figure dropping a few extra bucks on some permitted bottles would be easier. Good to know we can have those in the room and make use of them. I don't anticipate doing a ton of drinking, although I can see myself imbibing a fair amount during the at-sea days, and like you, in the evenings under the stars. :)

Thanks again!

Greetings all! Bit of a long post here for a first one, but it seems like the more we look into this the more questions we have.

Bit of background on us. We've been going on vacations for a long time, never a cruise. Recently we've spent a lot of time travelling to Las Vegas, and we've built up enough loyalty with the Venetian/Palazzo that on our last trip we were also given a Princess cruise. We've had similar offers before, and never took them up on it, but the more we've looked into it this time we thought this looks like a great time and a lot of fun!

We've already booked our cruise, we sail out of Ft. Lauderdale on Feb 12 aboard the Regal Princess for a 7 night cruise of the Western Caribbean. And boy are we excited! We were offered a mini-suite, but when we called in we paid to upgrade to a penthouse suite. I have since learned this was likely a mistake, as an S4 isn't really worth the upgrade vs. an S3....but live and learn, right?

We spend a fair amount of time looking into cruise options in our spare time, but it seems like we read a lot of inconsistent or (possibly) outdated information, so I wanted to ask some questions just to get some answers. I'm doing this partly because I think we're already made some mistakes!! (which I'll get into)

So that being said, on to the questions!!

(1) When we booked, we kind of fell for the transfer/hotel "upgrade." Looking at it now I realize we got a really bad deal there. I assume there is no way to cancel that portion of the trip (and get it as OBC or something?). My brother lives in Florida, so now we'd like to come down a few days early to visit him, but the transfer package makes it hard.

(2) Looking at the suite "perks", one thing I see is a one-time minibar setup. But my experience with minibars is you pay for something as soon as you take it. Am I correct in thinking this means we can use everything on the minibar once without being charged?

(3) We don't drink enough to benefit from the all-inclusive package, but we both do enjoy an occasional cocktail. I see in the cruise planner that I can prepurchase small bottles of liquor, for "not outrageous" prices honestly. But I have also read that any alcohol purchased (outside the two bottles of wine you can bring) will be stored on your behalf for pickup at the end of the cruise. If I purchase these bottles are they going to be available in my cabin?

(4) Along the lines of (3), if we purchase from Princess Cellars, are we permitted to carry alcohol on the ship? Basically what I'd be wanting to do is get the soda/juice package and then be able to have some rum in a flask or something to spike drinks by the pool. Is that permitted or not? If not, what are the consequences for having it?

(5) Regarding excursions, there are some we definitely want to do, but I've read several places its a good move to find your own excursions independent of the ships...is this true? It seems a major benefit of the ship excursions is making sure you catch your ship before it leaves port!

(6) Any suggestions for excursions in the western carib? We are looking at the Appleton Rum Estate tour in Jamaica, and Mayan ruins in Cozumel (what is best - Tulum, Coba or Chichen Itza?) Anything else we should look for?

(7) As Vegas nuts, obviously we're interested in the Casino. I'm wanting to pre-purchase Casino Credits just to have that expense out of the way. But my question is can they be used for anything else? If I decide to buy a few hundred casino credits in advance, and then we decide not to play in the casino that much, can I redeem it for cash or OBC or am I essentially forced to gamble that much?

(8) Are Casino Credits required to gamble or can you buy into a machine or table game with cash?

(9) Are the schedules for disembarking, etc pretty accurate? I believe our schedule shows us arriving in Ft. Lauderdale at 6 am on the 19th...how long should I plan to get to the airport? The planner says it recommends a flight no earlier than 1030 am, but that seems awfully early to me, or am I off base?

(10) Any other pointers/tips? We've been doing the same trip for so long we're not sure how to prepare for much else! :)

I'm sure I'll have a bunch more as it gets closer, but we're just trying to figure out