Z0nker

When did they stop accepting eMed? Princess' website still recommends them.

This is probably not something you want to crowd source.

Sometimes on Princess we like to retire early to our cabin and watch a couple old episodes of The Love Boat.

You are not alone. We have good friends who for years would only book interior cabins because they spent almost no time in the room.

We've only been on Celebrity once - the Solstice to Alaska in 2019. We found Celebrity to be better than RC, Princess and Carnival in every way, for not much more money. I wish Celebrity did more on the West Coast.

Three things are possible. Or some combination. 1) you have outgrown RC. Try Celebrity. But only if #1 is the only problem. 2) could be that cruising has not returned to pre-pandemic levels of customer service and food. In that case, maybe take a break from cruising? Try a “staycation” or road trip. 3) maybe you are burned out on cruising. See #2.

Sounds like good times indeed. The pandemic may have put a damper on such things.

Just for fun I checked fb to see if there was a group for our fall Princess cruise. There isn’t. But the CC Roll Call for that cruise has been fairly lively.

Roll calls seem to be alive and well for Princess. Took a Carnival cruise in May: CC Roll Call existed but was dead. Found over 100 fellow passengers on a FB group. As someone else suggested, this might be rooted in the demographic.

It's on CC now, too. https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/7041/

I thought AOS meant Anthem of the Seas, too.

The last time we cruised out of Florida (in the Before Times) we flew in two days early. That alleviated the stress of possibly missing the cruise if something happened to our flight and it gave us a day and two nights to see Tampa. The next time we cruise out of the East Coast, I would do that same.

Our last three cruises have been from a port that we can easily drive to. The next one will be as well. It's a low cost, low stress way to start a cruise vacation and I highly recommend it if you live driving distance from a port. But at some point we are going to run out of places to sail to from SF. I hope air travel has gotten back to normal by then. If not, maybe we do some more road trips.

We’ve had mixed experiences sharing tables. My best memories were at larger tables, where the odds of hitting it with at least one couple are better.

And yet, here you are on a forum dedicated to cruising. May I ask why? Not judging, just curious.

We’ve been on two cruises that used the medallion. The device itself worked well during embarkation and onboard the ship. It’s a good system, better than a keycard. The OceanMedallion phone app was a little wonky both trips, but we managed. Being able to order drinks from anywhere was a treat, but hardly essential. You do need the app precruise to enter vaccination and passport data. If it doesn’t work right on your phone, try installing it on an iPad. And make sure you have the latest update (don’t be a dummy like me before our first voyage and suffer bugs that were already fixed).

Delays and cancellations are as much a concern as price right now for us. So our next booked cruise is out of a local port.

For your situation as you've described it, a newer iPhone should get the job done. I stopped travelling with my "point and shoot" a few years ago because the iPhone does as good or better job and I always have it with me. I still have a Canon Rebel DSLR for special purposes like shooting the lunar eclipse or product photography.

Depends on the price difference.

DW works in the wine industry. Big bottle shortage right now.

I agree. I know the market is much bigger in Florida and Southern California, but why not develop the Bay Area market? There are a lot of people who live driving distance from SF and who love to travel. I would really like to see Celebrity here. Their style seems like a great fit for the Bay Area.

We live 90 minutes from the San Francisco cruise terminal, so that's our perspective for this question. Choices are Ruby Princess and Carnival Miracle. Glad to have them both in SF, as we've had a great time on both ships. SF is a beautiful city to sail from. Size: the Ruby is a bigger ship with more passengers and more crew. Neither ship felt crowded. Passenger to crew ratio is a little more favorable on the Miracle but both ships had fine service. The balcony room is a little bigger on the Miracle, so you get a sofa and cocktail table. Value: as long as Princess keeps selling the Princess Plus package at $40 - $50 per day, Ruby Princess is a better value. Food: MDR food and service was fine on both ships. Carnival has the edge for pool deck food with Guy's burgers, Blue Iguana tacos & breakfast burritos and the deli. Princess wins for specialty dining with two excellent speciality restaurants, both priced under $30. The Miracle has one excellent steakhouse, overpriced at $42. Carnival's made to order pizzas at Pizza Pirate were a treat, but the 24 hours paninis and snacks at Princess' International Cafe were also a plus. Drinks: Each ship has a good coffee bar. Princess wins the wine game. Carnival is better for craft beer. Both ships have good mixed drinks, but the Miracle pool deck bars have the edge. Live music was far better on the Ruby Princess. Both have decent theater shows. The stateroom TV's are much larger on the Ruby Princess and the on demand programming just clobbers Carnival. Casinos were similar on both ships. Ruby Princess makes good use of the pool deck giant screen for movies and sports; Miracle has none. Bottom line: If you have a good attitude, there's plenty to enjoy on either ship.

We’ve done the home proctored test a couple times. Good suggestion. Cost came out to about $40 each.

You should not dismiss the possibility that one or more of you got exposed on your plane flight and then infected the others on the cruise. If you want to be objective, then in addition to no future cruises you should consider not flying anymore.

Since Princess added SF as a home port, we’ve sailed four times with a fifth coming up. Nice to cruise without the added stress and expense of a flight. We’ve enjoyed Princess. It’s a good fit for our style. As long as they keep discounting the Princess Plus package, it remains a good value. After Carnival moved the Miracle to SF for the Alaska season we decided to try a five day to Catalina and Baja. Had a nice time but prefer Princess. We cruised to Alaska from Seattle on the Celebrity Solstice just before COVId. Everything was awesome, truly a cut above. Too bad Celebrity doesn’t do more on the West Coast.