flamomo

I was invited to the MTP luncheon on the September 2nd sailing on the Emerald. Lovely!! My DD, who was a first time ever cruiser, and my cabinmate, got invited to attend with me. Lucky her! What an intro to Princess cruising!

Captain Lewis is laid back and quite sociable. I don't recall the job title of the officer who hosted our table, but he was good company throughout the meal. Our fellow tablemates were great. Lots of chatter.

Menu: Appetizer … Potato Dumplings with Duck Ragout ….. delish!

Entrée …. Baked Sea Bass or Bacon Wrapped Beef Filet …. we both chose the seabass and it was excellent.

Dessert …. White Chocolate Cheesecake and Petit Fours Elizabeth …… both were very good

Beverages …. Red and white wines were both offered. We chose the white, and it was very enjoyable.

Perhaps she should have called someone in the Excursion Sales part of Princess as it seems they would have been involved in the change of policy.

Reverting to 90 days will restrict excursion bookings for folks with the SOBC.

:mad: SNEAKY!!!, if that is the reason.

We're on the same cruise and I'm planning to get picked up at the hotel about 10:30, so we should get to the terminal by 11. Even if we have to wait a little while, I prefer to get there early before the terminal gets crowded.

We're joining the Crown for 25 days soon, and hope Oscar will be Maitre D` then. He was a total hoot when we encountered him on the Pacific, so would love to cruise with him again.

I'd been wondering who would be the Maitre D` and who we'll have as CD and Captain. No emails from Princess to inform us for this cruise so far, which is disappointing.

Airline website

If you have difficulty getting it changed via the Dine Line, you can go talk to the Captain's Circle host. We had to do that one time, when we were arbitrarily assigned to Sabatini's, because of my travel companion's dietary limitations, and we wanted to change to the Crown Grill. She was able to facilitate getting it changed to the restaurant, date and time we wanted.

I was on the Emerald a couple of weeks ago, and have nothing negative to say about any of the food. We had Anytime dining and never failed to find something enjoyable on the menus, and never waited more than a few minutes to be seated between 6 and 6:30pm.

We dined in the Crown Grill one night, and as always, it was excellent in terms of both the food and the service. The lobster alone was well worth the charge!

We had some breakfasts and lunches in the Horizon Court buffet, and found plenty of tasty choices.

Only had something from the International Cafe a few times. but it was very good, as usual.

Some OP questioned whether there were still theme nights, and the answer is yes!

We did the previously mentioned tour with Patrick and it was one of the highlights of the entire cruise. Lunch was awesome …. some local foods, grilled chicken, as well as fresh caught lobster tails grilled to perfection and champagne …. all served buffet style on one of the most beautiful beaches one can imagine.

For Pago Pago, one of our friends who had been there before got in touch with Tisa, of Tisa's Barefoot Bar, and she picked us up, along with about 20 other cruisers, in a fancied-up school bus, and gave us a personally narrated tour of the island, followed with lunch on the beach, prepared island style (cooked in a sand pit lined with rocks (called an omu or something similar)) and served on "plates' made of leaves, along with local beer and other beverages. After lunch we had free time to enjoy the beach, which is on a quiet cove, before being returned to the ship. Another extremely memorable day!

I can honestly say that itinerary was my all-time favorite.

Maybe you're just allergic to the cruise ending and having to return to your everyday life!! LOL

I much prefer the westbound transatlantic cruises for the same reasons as navybankerteacher. Even with the potential for occasional bumpy seas and the potential for a missed port now and then. I like reaching FLL well rested!! Depending on the itinerary, sometimes a missed scheduled port can be replaced with another port if berthing there is available, such as the Azores replaced with Madeira. That has happened to me twice, but I found I really like Madeira. I imagine I would like the port in the Azores, if I ever get there! It's on the itinerary for the cruise next month, so we'll see if it works out this time.

I have done 42 cruises so far on Princess, with 2 more booked, and have never been disappointed. No, Princess is not perfect, and there are a few things I would like to see changed or improved, but I certainly would not have kept coming back all these times if the overall product was not good.

I'm sure OP will find some things a bit different from what they are accustomed to on HAL, but I expect they will find plenty to like about Princess too.

I have done that 28 day itinerary, and it was my favorite one of all I have done. I sincerely hope OP find it as enjoyable as I did.

I do think it would be a great idea for Princess to station a crew member at each bank of elevators to assure that passengers with mobility issues, especially those who require assistive devices, are not left waiting until all the able-bodied passengers who rush to cram themselves into the elevators after muster drill get where they are going. For that matter, if Princess can reserve some elevators for arriving passengers on embarkation day, why can't one elevator in each bank be reserved for mobility challenged passengers after muster drill?

I personally have, on several occasions, forced the issue and blocked the crowd from the elevator doors to allow handicapped passengers, who are waiting but can't make their way thru the traffic jam, to board the elevator, because I think it's sad that so many are so "me first" oriented.

I too will be on the Crown for 25 days in a few weeks, and will be packing for 10 days, which means my cruise friend and I will each have a carry-on with necessities for the pre-cruise hotel night in Barcelona and whatever we will be wearing for embarkation day, plus things that we must keep with us, such as prescription meds.

We will each also check one bag (25" for me, and I don't know what size she will have). I love my free laundry perk, and take advantage of it for my casual everyday clothes. Unmentionables will be washed in the sink using a few drops of the body wash in the dispenser in the shower, and I always throw in a few pinch type clothespins for hanging them on the line in the shower to dry.

Four formal nights means black dress pants and a few fancy tops and strappy sandals and some shiny jewelry, plus maybe one LBD.

Shoes are my downfall … I love having multiple choices, so bring a minimum of 6-8 pairs of footwear for various purposes. However, all of them are very lightweight, which has become one of my major criteria when buying shoes.

I stayed at the Hotel Olympia, which is very close to the Piazzale Roma (where the buses from the airport drop off passengers and also where the People Mover from the Piazzale to the port departs from). It's situated on a small canal.To get to this hotel the only required crossing one bridge, which was very helpful, considering that we were all pulling 2 suitcases apiece. Unless one has mobility issues of some sort, the bridges are not as bad as some make them sound. The steps at each end of each bridge are shallow, so less difficult to maneuver than one might imagine.

The hotel is part of the Best Western chain, and was very pleasant. The décor was rather old fashioned European style, but the rooms were very clean, the bathrooms very modern, the beds comfortable, and the linens and towels of nice quality. The hotel staff was very helpful, and their included breakfast buffet was quite good. Another important feature is that this hotel has an elevator ….. some of the smaller and older ones do not.

I can only say that is I were going to need a hotel in Venice again, I'd happily return to the Olimpia.

I just returned from my 3rd cruise in Alaska, all with Princess, who has an excellent reputation for their AK itineraries. I traveled with family, all of whom had never been to AK before, and one member who had never even set foot on a cruise ship before. They were all very pleased with the Princess experience. (Two of them had cruised before with Carnival and said they'll never go back to Carnival.)

One of our narrators was Libby Riddles, the first female to have ever won the Iditarod. See has served as a narrator on Princess AK cruises for a number of years, and is very interesting. There was a 2nd female narrator, whose name escapes me at the moment, who had very broad knowledge of AK in general, and shared tons on information about AK in very well attended talks in the theater, as well as spending time on the bridge and alerting passengers to sighting of whales, etc.

Cruise ships are famous for booting entire parties from the ship if one person has anything more severe than a broken finger.

HUH???

That's a pretty broad generalization with no backup info. Perhaps you'd like to provide data to prove it.

In the 12 plus years that I have been following and participating in CC, I have not read anything that would indicate that statement to be true.

I am a retired RN, and cruise with Princess. I have had occasion to see the ship's physician on a few occasions and have always been very satisfied with their expertise. Most have not been from the US, but their knowledge and skills have been solid.

I have used those visits as an opportunity to chat up the RNs and EMTs who also work in the ship's medical center, and learned that, at least on Princess, all medical crew must be ACLS certified, which means they are well prepared to manage most any emergency situation. The ship's medical centers are equipped much like a land based ER would be to care for emergencies, or to at least provide medical support for serious ailments until the patient can be gotten to a hospital on land.

Instead of putting worn items in a plastic bag, I bring along a collapsible mesh laundry hamper that folds flat for packing and weighs next to nothing, because it allows air to circulate and keeps sweaty items for getting stinky until I either hand wash or send them to the laundry onboard . I set it in a corner of the closet.

I cruise with Princess and there is a pull-out line for hanging wet items in every cabin shower, and I bring several pinch-type clothespins for hanging up handwashing or swimwear. I have no idea if Celebrity provides a clothesline like this.

Another reason why the CG menu items should stay in the CG is that the quiet, relaxed atmosphere in the CG can be so much more pleasant than the MDR, which can be quite noisy. I appreciate the quiet as well as the higher quality of service in the CG … but at the same time not implying that service in the MDR is bad. It's just that the wait staff in the ATD MDR seems so much busier with so many tables to manage but with less help. I know they are doing their best, but sometimes it's obvious that they are struggling. especially when they are practically running from table to table.

It's not like we travelers have a choice, so any means one can utilize to minimize the risk is worthwhile.

The apes didn't scare me, but I saw one run up to a lady who was carrying a plastic bag (despite being warned by the guide to not bring it along because the apes will try to steal it) ), and the animal snatched it and ran off with it. Fortunately, for the lady, our guide was able to retrieve it.

In one of the other areas where we were close to the apes, all of a sudden one quickly scooted up a small tree and jumped on the back of a female tourist, moved up to her head and sat there for a few seconds, and then jumped off and ran away. She was very surprised, as she was facing away from the ape and didn't even realize it had climbed the tree behind her. Fortunately she seem unharmed. All I could think was Ewwww, as I wondered how much ape poo was on those paws.

They are definitely unpredictable!!

I understand your quandry. I have completed 42 cruises with Princess, and would have a really tough time booking one on HAL because I know exactly what to expect every time I board another Princess ship. My personal impression of Princess is that it is classy without being snobbish.

That being said, I suspect that the two lines are more alike than different. And if there was an itinerary I REALLY wanted to do that was not available from Princess, I MIGHT be willing to give HAL a try, even though it would mean I would not have my hard earned perks of being Elite on Princess.

Personally, I am underwhelmed by a minisuite. Yes there's bit more room and the bathroom is bigger, and there's 2 TVs ….. but, the tub/shower combo in the mini can be inconvenient because the outside wall of the tub is higher than one would find at home, so can be difficult getting in and out, especially if there's a lot of ocean motion. IMO, 2 TVs is no biggie, as they are, in reality, in the same room, so if each person is watching a different program, it could be difficult because of the audio, unless one wants to watch without sound.

We rarely spent time sitting in the seating area of the mini, so don't really see any big advantage there.

I'd definitely stay with the Caribe deck corner aft balcony cabin!

Princess USED to have single fares on repositioning cruises that were only around 150% of the per-person fare, but since the popularity of repos (transatlantics at the beginning and end of the Med cruising season) has grown substantially, they can easily fill the ships without offering any decent deals for solo cruisers.

So we either find someone to share a cabin with or we have to have to bite the bullet and pay the 200% fare ….. or stay home and wish we were cruising!!!

We attended the cooking demo in the Princess theater on the Emerald a few days ago, and the Executive chef made a point of telling us that they DO bring fresh seafood onboard in Alaska.