MouseBerry

We were on the Regal until last Monday. They told us we could get all from Gelato menu and the IC big cakes for free (2 pp per day) with new Princess Plus package. We tried the Cake and plain Gelato. We didn‘t like either. The quality was not good. Same applies to soft ice from swirls.

Well, Le Havre actually is an industrial port, but it is allowed to walk on your own. It is 25 to 30 min. to city center, but it isn‘t a nice walk most of the time. Maybe not an option for not well walkers, but it‘s doable. 20$ roundtrip pp is a hefty price for the shuttle. 10$ should be enough or Princess should provide it for free. Last year in Bilbao and LaRochelle, where walking seems to be not allowed, Princess offered free shuttles.

We had a 2 and 1/2 hour guided walk tour (History of Terror) today in Belfast. This was quite an interessting tour, but it was grey, cloudy, wet, cold and windy. It is in prime summertime right now, but it felt like a bad November day. Believe it or not, yesterday when we were on a hiking tour in Dublin/Howth, my DW got a sunburn in the heck. It was not hot, but when the clouds give way to the sun it might burn quickly. So yes, bring all possible clothing with you😊

Everything seems to be up to business as usual. Tendering seems to start very soon.

I was actually a bit confused by who is the captain of the Regal. There is a display of all senior officers. All seems to be accurate except Captain Timothy Stringer as the actual Captain is Paolo Arrigo which presented himself yesterday at the Piazza. Strange.

Tendering started around 7:30 and the first flood of passengers was over very quick. Then there was a period when no ticket was required. One hour later, when the majority of passengers finished breakfast and wanted to leave the ship, tickets were required again. But waiting time was only 10 min. But be aware of very long lines when coming back to the ship. We showed up at the pier around 2pm and touched the ship at 4pm.

Found it. It is a small corner of the Pastry section in the buffet. But it is only open until noon and 2pm on ses days. Rest of the time not a single sign of it.

We are currently on the Regal. Does someone knew where the fresh juice bar is? The app won‘t tell. We could ask someone from service, but it seems to be a well hidden secret. Maybe to avoid flooding of this venue.

Well, boarding window from travel summary seems to be not consistent with arrival group times. For our next cruise July 19th out of Southampton travel summary indicates boarding window from 12:30pm. But our chosen arrival group in the app indicates boarding from 11:00. Good they give up the arrival groups as they never controlled anything an were not meant to control something😀

Cumbercome embarkation, not nice but no big problem. MDR quality reduced, not good but usually i find something to eat. Boring shows, no problem as talking with other passengers is entertainment for me. But this deckchair hogging is something i can not stand. The first cruise line which actively enforce pooldeck rules and takes avtively countermeasurements very likely will have two very loyal customers, DW and me. If my position isn‘t clear: annoying, absolutly annoying.

Hi, I found it in the app under OceanReady/Personal Information and Documents and then under Suggested/Arrivals. There you can select an „Arrival Group“. But this option doesn‘t work until you are close to your embarkation (within 60 days?).

On our Enchanted cruise last August there was not only no t-shirt, there were no recipe cards provided either. I wasn‘t keen about the t-shirt, but about the cards. Several time Princess was fallen behind advertised features and good traditions😕

On our last cruise on the Enchanted in MDR Strongbow and another brand called Mallet was served. The latter one was not on any menue. I strongly suggest to ask your waiter.

Be aware not only the pure value (price times conversion rate) might differ. Depending on the market/region the same cruise might include different thing. In Germany all indicated prices are final prices including tax and port fees. This might be different in other countries. Another different might be payment conditions. In US usually you pay a quite small deposit and if you cancel before the final payment date only the deposit is lost. This is totally different in Germany. Bottom line: yiu should mot just compare the cost value.

We were on the Enchanted early August in Europe and each evening shows were at 8:15pm and 10:15pm. Very likely the times are location specific.

Last week in the GoodSpirits bar we experienced waiting time depends on the drink. DW ordered a simple cocktail and me one of the more fancy specials. DW was served in 5 min. while me had to wait 20 min. Waiting time depends on the demand from people sitting directly in front of the bar tenders or the people walking directly to the bar to grap a drink. To me it seemed bar residents had low prio.

Monkey Bread, yes, saw it in IC

@jdacombe: Good description that reflects next to 100% our experience. A few remarkable observations: The embarkation was the most smooth and swift one we ever had. DW is a big lover of fresh pressed orange juice at breakfast. We didn‘t see this on any menu, but we asked the first morning in MDR and a good one was delivered every morning. We think it comes with an extra cost, but the PrincessDeal covered it. MedallionApp didn‘t work all the time on ordering drinks/food. We made a visit to the guest service to ask about just to ensure we didn‘t something wrong. It was no complaint, but desk officer had the impression that we are unhappy, which wasn‘t the case. He granted an inappropriate credit to our account. Service in general was understaffed and/or occupancy was to high. I‘m sure Princess will improve this soon. For disembarkation Princess asked to pack the luggage until 8pm, which is the most early time we ever had on any cruiseline/ship. We decided to take the luggage on our own. This worked out pretty well in Southampton.

Used National Express both ways. London Victoria Coach Station to Southampton Coach Station and Southampton Coach Station to London Heathrow Terminal 2/3. Both was quite cheap around 17£ per person per ride (incl seat reservation) booked online 4 weeks ahead. Worked pretty well and was on scheduled time. Cannot say how reliable they are in general, but they were in our case.

Sorry, had Dinner from 6:20 to 7:30.

Just disembarked the Enchanted today. The mentioned problems exist, but to our experience the situation was not that bad. We had dinner at 6:20 all night and had never to wait a minute. We saw queues when we left MDR at around 9:30. We found free seats in the bars most of the time. Sometimes waiting for drinks was up to 30 min. but most of the time quicker. Ship was nevertheless to packed or understaffed. MedallionApp has to be improved.

Yes, 5 Skies was performed on the current Enchanted cruise and it was spectacular. Even they had to interrupt the show for a few minutes due to technology problems.

Hi, we are currently on the Enchanted Princess. We are experienced cruisers, but first time with Princess. We had no bad experience with Princess and not with the Enchanted Princess in general on our cruise. But nothing is perfect. What impressed us? - the food is quit good for a mass-market cruise line. I know Princess is sometimes considered a premium segment line. - the entertainment is quite good. 5 Skies show was spectacular - the ship is brand new and modern and functionsl design - the cabin, a standard balcony in our case, has good design and enough space for 2 - the Medallion/App is a very sophisticated new approach and offers very much comfort, if and only if it works (which leads to the disappointing section) - Embarcation was very quick. From arrival at the port to set step on the ship less than 20 min. What was disappointing? - the new Medallion/App technology was functional, lets say 80%. If you order combined drink/drink it works most of the time. Combined drink/food worked less than 50%. Some orders were never delivered. And they were never delivered by accident but rather by design. If you are located at a bar which is active and order something THIS bar can not provide it is very likely you never get it. And you will never get an info that it cannot be provided. Sometimes we had connection/response problems with Android/ios mobile/tablet. Bottomline is, the technology had to be refined and improved. - The service crew is not able to handle the ship at 100% or above occupancy. On our cruise we were on 100%+ (3700 passengers). Either not enough service people or not well enough trained. Or a combination. Sometimes it took 20 min. not to got a drink, no, just to place an order. - Princess rule is, that deck-chairs should not be reserved for later usage. And that Princess would set reserved and unused chairs free after 30 min. This never happend. Sometimes it was impossible to get a free chair for hours, while actually not many people were visible on the pool-deck. Summary for the time being: If the ship has less than 80% occupancy you will have an overall good experience. If occupancy is 90% or more you will feel some performance limitations.

If you visit GoodSpirit bar at a good time, e.g. around 17:30, just when their demonstration session has finished, the bar is quite empty. This was our experience. During this times drinks are served much quicker. But we were a bit disappointed by the Good Spirits bar becaus the recipe-cards habe not been provided as advertised. And the quality of some drinks, the ones with foam on it, was very inconsistent. Sometimes the foam was just not existent. But don‘t get fooled by this problems. The special drinks here are a real adventure and very unusual. Once i tried a „Watermelon on Fire“ followed by an „Apple Delight“. It is like two different worlds😊

So far all GoodSpirit special cocktails are covered by the PrincessPlus package. So it seems that all are 12$ or less. And we already tried most of them.