FLCruise7

I loved the poached eggs with roasted potatoes & hollandaise sauce!!

On 11/15/2018 at 2:29 AM, TravelDan99 said:

It's not so much of a problem carrying a room purchased cocktail in a glass you made yourself outside the cabin, (you're not supposed to, but....) the main issue is if you carried the liquor bottle around.

On my last cruise, I was sitting in the smoking lounge - there was a group of 4 guys with a bottle of Crown Royal that they were passing around.  I don't know who reported them (wasn't me!!  I'm guessing it was a bar steward), but a ship's officer showed up and told them that they had to return the bottle to their room.  So, the ship's personnel are on the lookout for the bottles - I'm sure they don't care if you are consuming a drink you've made in the room. 

They usually can find it quickly - even changing venues.  On our last cruise on the Royal, we had a 1/2 bottle left when we ate in the Crown Grill.  The next night we ate in Alfredo's and they were able to find it.  We just gave them our folio number and described the wine - easy peasy!!

You can only locate your own travel companions on the public kiosk. And, as I recall from my last cruise on the CB, to do that you have to log in to your account at the kiosk. Even when I used it (and my hubby was in the cabin) it just showed the deck and general location - it didn't give a cabin number. 

4 hours ago, pam32310 said:

We sail on December 29th and just got the email about parking and beverage today.  I thought that it was bottle and mixers for each person but the email only gave me a choice of one bottle and one mixer total.  Really looking forward to this cruise.  It's my first Elite but booked two more for February and April.  

4 hours ago, pam32310 said:

 

My email asked for beverage preferences for both travelers. 

On 11/22/2018 at 10:48 PM, CantWait08 said:

Just off an Elite. You will get an email about 3 weeks before the cruise outlining the excursion being offered.

They must be running behind on mine - my Elite cruise is in 2 weeks and the only mail I've gotten is to request parking/transportation & beverages.  Nothing on excursion.  Maybe next week ...

On the good side, I was told that we couldn't print boarding passes & luggage tags until the week prior (when we'll be traveling - were planning on finding a business center) - I checked the other day & was able to print those.  Looking forward to my first Elite!

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

Is this about 'Princess' gift cards on the Princess website ??? - or somewhere else ...

I've  purchased gift cards off the Princess site previously. Needed a code. I think the one at Mother's Day was buy a $1000 card and get an extra $60 card. Dads weren't treated as well - I think the Father's Day sale netted a $50 card when buying a $1000 card. 

14 hours ago, victory2020 said:

The only type of "Black Friday" sale is extra small gift card with purchase of $500 or more gift card.

Does that require a special code to use when purchasing the card?

5 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

Thanks, most helpful. I booked through a TA so I'll get them to call.

Regarding the transfer, I would hope we would not be held up too long waiting to fill a bus. We arrive 4 days before the tour starts and we will also have been travelling over 24 hours by the time we get to Anchorage. 

It seems like we got to the airport around 10 (this was last year, so I can't recall exact times). The first bus left around 11 or so.  I think they start departing when the buses arrive with passengers coming off the cruises. But, by that time, I think they had passengers lined up for several buses. They gave us boarding cards so we did not have to stand in a line waiting. We were able to find a nice spot to wait until our bus left. 

Hope that makes sense.  

On 11/20/2018 at 11:27 PM, leck57 said:

I don't even get the option to add my own flights. I have a green tab that says "Book Flights" or something similar but I can't find where I can enter my own details. I'm arriving three days earlier in Anchorage before a land tour and my transfer from the airport is still covered as long as I let them know my flight arrival time but can't find where to enter it. I assumed in Personalizer it would be under the flights tab but I only get the option above. Can anyone assist?

I ran into the same problem with arriving before the departure date in Anchorage.  It would not take my information and I was concerned because I had the transfer from the airport as well. I had booked through a TA and they had to call Princess to ensure that our transfer would still be valid even though the flight information would not take. If you e booked directly through Princess, I would suggest calling them to discuss the situation. 

One suggestion for your your arrival at Anchorage airport for transfer - get there pretty early if you want one of the first busses. We managed to snag the last couple of seats on one of the first busses to leave (had enough time to enjoy a coffee). They fill the busses as people arrive and it seems like a lot of folks get there after midnight and just sleep at the airport (not sure when the Princess reps start handing out bus assignments).   Enjoy Alaska!

4 hours ago, daka said:

Yes RARE Steak, Beef wellington, and Prime rib...(Just about .."knocked on the head" and served

I have no Idea what Pittsburg black and blue is ?? I like rare inside and crust outside...that is what I got.

Entree's were also very good...excellent dressing on Caesar, (always available) as I noted the only items I did not care for were Curtis Stone (crap), and the "everyday Chicken ...just dry, but the vegi's and baked potato were all I really needed (plus about 5 lb. at that point and we stopped ordering deserts, all were..."just have a taste"...nah, ate it all...)

Enjoy your cruise....

We were on this same cruise & all of our MDR meals were very tasty.  However, just to show that tastes are subjective, I loved the Curtis Stone Chicken & Leek pie -- I even had it twice!!

22 hours ago, AmBear said:

Just got off an ultra cruise on the Glory.

Our offer was about $100. less then regular price for an ocean view cabin, and I got $1000.in casino cash, my wife got $200.

After I found out that gamblers who gambled about the same as me, and got the cruise for free with $500 casino cash, my offer didn't feel so good!

Our ultra prizes were,,,My wife won a apple mini ipad, I won $500.in casino cash. All our casino cash disappeared quckly😂, They also had at least 3-4 drawings per day for about $300. in casino cash which my my won one, but overall we weren't leaving the cruise with the 'can't wait til our next ultra cruise feeling'!

The ultras are ok, but this cruise with an estmated 450 ultra invitees, (the casino was always packed), so I'm thinking maybe its elite cruises if we get an offer, or head to another cruise line.

We were on that same cruise - didn't make it to the CC meet/mingle, so didn't get to meet up.  I thought there were way too many Ultras as well - we never got a drink or snack at the party.  I got the IPad mini & my DH was pulled in 1 drawing ($200 chips) and I did one of the drawings for $300 chips.  We did get a comped Steakhouse dinner, but the BB offer was truly bad -- $100 for an OV room with $100 OBC (short cruises) or $200 with $200 OBC for a longer cruise - no casino cash.  I was definitely not impressed.

We have an Elite booked for December - hopefully it will be calmer than the Ultra!!

I have the new site also (in Florida) -- hate it!  I liked the old format better - so much easier to navigate!!

47 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

No you can’t single out a specific crew member by stiffing auto tips. 

True.  I removed auto-tips several years ago due to some issues (I only wanted to take off the dining room portion - had multiple issues which I reported several times - nothing was done to correct problems).  When I went to Guest Services, I asked about removing a portion of the tips - was told that the tips are done as a percentage (I'm thinking it was something like 20% for cabin steward and 80% for dining -- or something close to that).  They said if I reduced the daily gratuity, the percentages stayed in effect.  I ended up removing ALL the gratuities and tipped the steward in cash.

6 hours ago, big aft said:

I was offered a Window Suite for $329 per person from an OIVfor 10 days on the Caribbean Princess and took it.

I got this same offer on my last sailing on the Caribbean Princess -- I also took it.  Love the location and size (and perks) of the window suites!!

The times are a suggestion & they don't make you wait to enter until your "time."  You may have a wait outside the terminal until they are ready to start check-ins, but we've usually just been able to enter, check-in and then wait for the boarding in the terminal waiting area.  We generally arrive at the pier around 1030.  I think they do the general boarding based on when you checked in & don't hold you to the deck boarding times.

Not sure what they were talking about with the "penalty box."  Have never heard that term & we've done quite a few Princess cruises out of FLL.

Enjoy your cruise!!

And one more note - you'll need to change the passport information on each individual booking. Even though Princess "remembers" your passport number, it will still show the old one until you book a new cruise after you've put in new numbers. We had to do the same thing with cruises when we got new passports (even if we hadn't completed the information online yet). After we'd made the change, any new bookings brought in the new numbers. Hopefully I've explained this well.

You expressed that so well - happy travels!!

When we've done laundry on previous cruises, we throw the stuff into our rolling carry-on bag & head down the hall. Easier than carrying a bag. We generally like forward cabins & most of the laundry rooms are aft.

Funny story - we were just on a cruise to Alaska & had been in Las Vegas for a week before the cruise. When we left Vegas, we packed all the dirty clothes into our bag that we carried on to the ship so we could hit the laundry right after boarding. (The hotel we stayed at in Vegas didn't have laundry room). We had seen our cabin & met our steward. We then headed down to the laundry room (1 floor down & forward -- great location for us). Ran into our steward down there & he sure looked surprised to see us. I guess he thought we were lost!

My experience - if you book using a FCD & then have to cancel, the FCD is now considered as part of the cruise fare paid. It does not go back to the Circle Account to be used on a future cruise. We had to cancel a cruise 2 days prior to sailing & the FCD portion was included in the insurance payment I got.

Anyone sailing on the Caribbean Princess will get one. All passengers on all decks are receiving them at check in now. We got our first ones when we boarded on Aug 18 and our boarding passes did NOT indicate we were *****. We are still on the ship so I can confirm all decks are *****.

 

Regal is a bit different because not all cabins and not even all decks have them. They also mailed them out ahead of time. They will eventually mail them for Caribbean Princess passengers but they aren't at that point yet.

Thanks for the info!

All decks are now Medallion decks.

I'm wondering if we will get them when we board at the end of the month - our boarding passes do not indicate ***** (which they should/would if we were getting the *****) -- we got the medallions when we were sailing the Regal earlier this year and our boarding passes showed that information. Unfortunately, we had to cancel that cruise a couple of days before sailing so did not experience the ***** then. Still have the medallions in the box!! :cool::cool:

Enjoyed your review & pictures. We just did Alaska earlier in August & it was mostly "cool" rather than cold (except in Glacier Bay) -- and we're from Florida, so anything under 70 feels cool to us!!

I believe on the Regal the coffee is all brewed - MDR, Horizon, and the International Cafe.

It's a small world Dickinson!! That was such a great cruise - even with the delay at Belfast. I was really tired when it was done since the BI portion was so port-intensive & we had long excursions everywhere. And then we stayed in London for 5 days after. I needed a long rest when we got home!! Good thing we had retired a few months before this cruise (this was actually our retirement present to ourselves)!

I'm not sure how much researching the Louvre ahead of time would have helped. We had a map, but it was too confusing!!