CruisingFox27

I'd just add that to my reasons for having a low opinion of BC. The worst dining experience I've ever had on a ship was BC on Meraviglia. Ive been to a couple of other BC on other ships, there's just nothing special about it for me.

We were forced to eat in BC one evening on our last sailing due to the YC restaurant being closed, the second worst dining experience I've had on a ship. People singing would just exacerbate the experience. 

18 hours ago, memoak said:

On the Ruby now showed up at 8:15 in Reserve dining was given a menu and pushed to order right away. Dining staff running all over the dining room frantically. Pushed out in 30 minutes will never eat there again will forgo reserve class and just eat in Botticelli

Gosh, I hope this is an anomaly rather than the standard. I'm going to dinner in a restaurant, I don't expect it to be a 30 minute rushed affair. It's meant to be a relaxed, enjoyable experience.

On 4/15/2024 at 12:02 AM, mscdivina2016 said:

Doubtful as bidding is not implemented especially for YC.

On 4/15/2024 at 12:42 AM, cellfree said:

We had a Yacht Club Interior booked and several times received an email offering to bid for an upgrade to various balcony types. 

I have two YIN bookings and have also been receiving emails offering upgrades.

I'm expecting our Euribia repositioning in April '25 to be cancelled but haven't had any notification yet. 

11 minutes ago, 555 said:

Typical early seating is usually around 5:30 PM and late seating around 7:30 PM. 

7 minutes ago, 555 said:

Yea I know what you mean but there are still many who like it so they still give them a choice. 

We sometimes return to the DR after the early show for coffee & desert and I'm surprised at the number of people just getting their main course at 8:45 PM. 

Gosh, those times are too early for me. I would be the opposite and struggle to go to dinner anything before 8pm.

6 minutes ago, negn said:

Exactly.  Specific dining rooms depending on which option you choose.  You can not make reservations until June 17. 

So, unless I'm being quite dim, it's not really a significant change. Instead of reservation and anytime dining in each restaurant they've separated each format to different restaurants. We like the freedom to choose our dining time on the day and just go whenever we're ready, that will still be available but only in one MDR.

We're new to Princess so I was only just beginning to understand the options, we sail in September. I thought that currently you could reserve a time on the app or attend at anytime and just wait to be seated? Do the changes mean this is still the case but depending on your preference, that will determine which restaurant to dine in?

Yes, you'll need to get off to zero count the ship and clear immigration.

You can disembark early and go on a trip or you're asked to wait in a lounge, do the off/on after every one else has disembarked. 

On 4/11/2024 at 12:04 AM, bruce85 said:

We sail Sunday on Seashore. We are aurea, which is anytime dining. My question is, since we like a two top, should we still go to the dining reservation table when we board and request a table for two.Or should this not be an issue if we are aurea.

Not an issue for Aurea dining. Just arrive at your restaurant whenever you wish to dine and you'll have a two top. Very occasionally, I can think twice in 100 nights, we were offered a shared table or to wait a few minutes before we could be seated. 

We had excursions on our last cruise which were well over 20% more expensive when purchased onboard. So, yes some are only up to 20% lower but it may be that they are far more onboard. 

21 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

No slippers. But yours shouldn’t take up much room in your luggage. 

Gosh, well I am confused not not now as the poster above said yes but ill fitting 😂

I'll just take my MSC ones, they're handy on the plane for long haul flights and I've a box full to use up 😂

3 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Slippers?  Also one size fits some!  DW could put both feet in one slipper and my much larger feet would need a slipper extender.  LOL 

We bring a pair of beach sandals 

So you do get them?

Usually, on our other cruises or in hotels, they aren't large enough for DH but are just fine (ish) for me. DH will just wear flip-flops but as I much prefer soft slippers, it's ideal when relaxing in the cabin.

Do you receive slippers along with a robe? Our cabin description states robe but no mention of slippers. We are booked on our first Princess cruise and our normal cruise line provides slippers and a robe, if you are eligible. I'll take a pair of thoses, if not.

Our TA has confirmed that our FCC has been applied to our Euribia summer 2024 cruise 🙂   It hasn't resulted in any issues with the booking. 

It eradicates any issues with needing to rebook or worrying about any expiry of the FCC. The chances of our Grandiosa repo actually sailing in April 2025 are rapidly diminishing by the day. 

The Preziosa YC is identical to the YC on all of the Divina class ships. Cabins, TSL and pool at the front and the restaurant at the aft. Preziosa is a lovely ship. 

5 hours ago, Beamafar said:

We’ve done several MSC cruises which had many sea days included (one had 7 in a row - so funny to see passengers almost killing themselves to get off at the first port after that! 🙈), so that wouldn’t be an issue for us.

 

As for the casino being closed - that would be a Plus for me (I can resist anything but temptation 🙄😆). 
 

 

That's funny and reminds me of our last repo. We had 8 straight sea days when our 2 stops in Egypt and 1 in Jordan were cancelled. I'd settled nicely into a relaxed sea day routine and was actually a little put out that i had to disembark and undertake an excursion on arrival in Oman 😂

Fortunately, after that 'interruption' there were then another 5 sea days before Mauritius. Sun, pool, book and a butler with drinks and snacks. Perfect 😁

9 hours ago, Beamafar said:

Wish MSC would do a regular itinerary to the ABCs.  Had to book Celebrity to re-visit (something we’ve been longing to do since we visited Curaçao and Aruba on Meraviglia’s repositioning from New York to Miami).  
 

Also, would love to see them do cruises to Hawaii (another bucket list destination).  Again, had to book another cruise line to sail there (one from LA on Princess Cruises). 

We have our first Princess cruise booked for that reason. Hawaii and New Zealand are both on the list so, we're sailing from San Francisco to Sydney and including both.

Sometimes the ship will dock in Trieste instead, which is a good 2 hours from Venice. 

We embarked in Trieste but passengers embarking prior to us had Venice (Trieste) listed on their itinerary. 

I would like to redo our China, Japan and Asia repositioning cruise which missed China, Japan, Hong Kong, India and Sri Lanka due to us setting sail in Feb 2020. 

We're booked to redo the Suez Canal, Dubai to Le Harve, with stops in Cairo and Jordan next year, after missing those ports on our Trieste to Durban repositioning last year, but I suspect that'll be canceled and readded to the wish list. It was also supposed to be our 3rd attempt to visit Abu Dhabi, missed it on the covid Asia sailing and we missed it due to a snow storm delaying our flight for a Persian Gulf sailing a few years before. So, that's still on the list. 

I have South America on my wish list but have recently found a cruise/ land tour which would cover more places, so MSC may not be our cruise line of choice for that one. 

A massage is no longer included in the Aurea experience booking, you get a discount on booking one. If you look in your booking there's an option to add the massage. 

18 hours ago, trivia addict said:

Check out Tours By Locals. 
Our family of 6 did a private excursion with them a few years ago in Oahu. We did a complete circle of the entire Island, stopping at places that our guide thought we would like and yet flexible enough to stop whenever we saw something interesting.

We have also used that company in Austria and Budapest. Always very satisfied.

In fact  we had a tour booked with them for Italy for June 2020. Obviously didn’t go and had no problem getting our deposit back. 

That's great, thank you, and may be very useful for our other ports 🙂

18 hours ago, KeepCalmBearOn said:

 

Look at Robert's Circle Tour.

 

https://www.robertshawaii.com/oahu-tours/grand-circle-island-tour/

 

 

Looks great, I'll get in touch and see if they do this tour from the port.

We have a day in Honolulu in October, our first visit to Hawaii. We would therefore very much like to do an Island tour, could anyone recommend the best way to do this? We are in port 7am - 11pm, there is only on scenic tour available through Princess, which is only 3 hours, I don't feel we'd see very much and would then have wasted hours. Any recommendations appreciated.

The following day we are in Maui, understandably there are limited options. But the ship is only offering a hike and a very badly rated 5 hour part scenic part shopping tour. So again, any recommendations would be appreciated.

5 hours ago, peder said:

And an Alaska route probably depends on Russia sanctions?

The ones I initially saw like these, didn't involve any ports in Russia so you'd hope not. 

10 hours ago, peder said:

So a repositioning cruise from Japan to LA with a stop in Hawaii? That'll be a popular one.

1 hour ago, CruisingFox27 said:

Yes please 🙂

The Asia repositioning cruises had some great itineraries pre-pandemic. I would love these back.

I've had a rethink, if they could do Shanghai, Japan, Alaska and onto LA, that would be grand. Might drop them an email 😂