Itchy&Scratchy

I confirm. On our latest cruise, on a tightly packed elevator, a lady stuck her face directly into my plate (stupidly uncovered) and said something like: "it's mine now!" Even in pre-pandemic times it would have been gross.... During the pandemic it is downright awful. I learned my lesson and covered up the food from then on.

thanks. My booking was made directly with Princess, but through a vacation planner, rather than online as usual. I understand that Princess website has been experiencing some major glitches lately. Maybe, it's one of them.

I am trying to add Princess Vacation Protection plan to our sailing and I keep getting the following message: 7511: Error Code was not found in the Error Message Table. An invalid promotion has been applied to this booking. Please call your travel agent or 1-800-774-6237 for more information. Any guesses? Left a message for our Princess Vacation Planner. It is still before final payment (but I only have 2 days to add it), and this Princess insurance has not been added to our sailing yet.

We liked Eagle Beach in Aruba and Blue Bay in Curacao this June. See my review with some photos below. Next time we'll go to the beach in front of Divi Phoenix hotel in Aruba. We were there in 2016 and loved it.

no need to be dramatic. Just book private excursions - it'll be cheaper and more personable anyway.

We've been on Regal twice. Compared to RCI and newer NCL ships, it offers nothing for active kids, aside from the kid's club. Pre-pandemic there was a lovely kid's party in the piazza, but the last time we were on Regal the party was very lame. Our kid doesn't do kid's club, so he just tags along with us around the ship. DS is low maintenance, thank goodness. He also loves the extensive free movie and cartoon on-demand TV programming on Regal. When he was younger (DS is 11 now), he also loved to lounge in the hot tubs. The pool water is way too cold usually. DS loves cruising and doesn't complain about a lack of activities on Princess ships. For him, cruising is more about going to the beach in the ports of call (we only sail in the Caribbean) and just vegging out. And if we get him a beverage package, he'll just be the happiest kid on earth. Which we did for our Enchanted cruise in 3 months. Of course, we'll probably get covid on the next cruise (like we got it on the last cruise) and have to quarantine in the cabin, which makes the beverage package kind of useless since the room service is not up to par lately...

a cabin for 3 may have a single sofa, without the trundle part, imho. I'd use a chair to prop up the bed. Also, the type of a sofa depends on the ship. On Harmony we were in 9546, and it had a single sofa bed (see pic with a moose above) which was wide enough for an adult to sleep on. It's a 4 person occupancy cabin, so it could have had a trundle bed inside the sofa, but we never found out. On the Allure, we were able to book a cabin with occupancy 4 for just the three of us (cabin 8546), and the sofa bed was a double (not a trundle). Takes up too much space.

nope. Worked from home, kid did online school, we only went to parks. Believe me, when we got it last June, it was VERY obvious. And, you know, the loss of smell also gave it away.

we had very successfully avoided it on land for 2.5 years.

doesn't really help if you test before you get infected. Everyone tested (allegedly) before our May RCI cruise, yet so many were sick and we got Covid on that cruise.

I am reconsidering. I have 8 days till final payment. Covid and Princess' staff shortage problems are to be considered... And it's a 10 day cruise, which means that we will not get to be sick at home, in full comfort... But in isolation cabin, with 2+ hour wait for room service.

it wasn't all that mild in June for us. Vaxxed and boosted.

That means we will all getting be covid again on our Princess cruise. [quote] eliminating the exemption request process for unvaccinated guests, who will only need to show a negative test result at embarkation. [/quote] I think we may want to cancel it. [quote]"Our ships have been sailing very full all summer, but there is still room for more of our loyal guests [/quote] yet Princess ships are experiencing horrible staffing problems, and the "loyal guests" are less and less willing to sail with them.

if it's over, why is my MIl, BIL, friend and her family, DH's coworkers and their families are down with covid right this moment?

Our Nov Enchanted Princess cruise price has been climbing steadily. I booked several months ago at $2,500 for 3 of us in an inside, and now it's $3,350. It may drop a little after the final payment. All the inside cabins were sold out, but now they are back on the market.

that's not what he drinks at home. These two are what he considers a more or less suitable "bang for my buck" on a cruise.

We've been on the Allure and Harmony recently, and Fosters comes in a huge can, while Heineken is in a bottle. These are the only ones my DH will usually drink on a cruise, so they are the only ones I can comment on.

since we fly to the port, we always pack these into the carry-on luggage (aka, a backpack per person) and then carry it on: 1) passports, money, electronics 2) all the meds 3) One swim suit or trunks, one pair of shorts, one pair of flip flops per person. Toothbrushes. 4) lysol wipes - we use them on the plane and to wipe down everything in the cabin before suitcases arrive

we didn't bother until we started cruising with a kid. Nothing ruins the vacation faster than a kid or a whole family with diarrhea.* We now use Lysol/Clorox/generic brand wipes to wipe down all the wipe-able surfaces. * I personally ruined a few family vacations as a child. 🙂

probably not on a TA sailing.

do you remember the cabin numbers? Sounds like our upcoming Enchanted cruise is going to be far removed from what we have become accustomed to on Princess cruises. Ours isn't cheap by any means, and we are in an inside cabin... But we still have about 10 days to back out before final payment.

We love newer RCI ships and the Caribbean. Food is ok, activities and entertainment are great. We love Princess for food. Royal Princess and newer. Entertainment is ok. Nothing to do for kid, other than kid's club. NCL had horrible food (save the crepes) and top notch entertainment (Getaway). Newer ships have some family activities. Getaway and Jade had horrible smoke smell. Jade broke down on day 3 and we had to go home.

my kid does well on children's dramamine, but he has no problem with either chewables or regular pills.

I know. That's exactly what I said - why did he expect to have any trouble while BOOKING a cruise?

my parents aren't like that. They go to the senior center, the swimming pool, do the senior aerobics and yoga classes, go shopping, go on field trips with the senior center, join festivities at their senior living apartments, etc. They are not cooped up at all, but they are careful. It's hard to be this careful on a cruise, though. We were and still got covid. Being on a cruise in very close proximity to 5K strangers who aren't even covering when they are sneezing and coughing - yeap, not the same as doing laps in a swimming pool.