spersephone

I don't understand why you would send children to school with a cold? If you know they have a cold, it's best for everyone to stay home to minimise the spread. Obviously they've probably already been contagious, but let them have a rest. I love the idea of perfect attendance, but the fact is that there are times when it is appropriate for children to stay away from school. However, wherever possible, it should not be for inappropriate reasons.

I know this is now quite an old thread, but I got off the Diamond Princess a month ago, and there is still no International Cafe. The Lobby Bar makes an okay coffee. That’s it, it’s okay. I bought a coffee card, used it once, then bought another one a few days later, and ended up throwing it away. I then gave my card to my mum because I knew I wouldn’t bother using it. I loved pretty much everything about my journey on the Diamond Princess, but the coffee sucks. I have a great machine at home and usually have two good, strong flat whites each day. Luckily, I can live without it, but that enjoyable part of a day when you sit down and relax with a great cup of coffee, just didn’t happen on board. It’s 2018 now, but it hasn’t changed. Maybe Australians are far more picky about their coffees than other nationalities, but this little thing was a disappointment to me.

We got upgraded on the Diamond Princess as well - from two rooms adjoining to the family suite. It was brilliant. Not sure how much it would have cost if we'd paid full price, but I believe it was well over the cost of the two rooms for five people.

I am of the belief that if I am given a check in time, that's when I'm supposed to be there! I wouldn't dream of arriving earlier or later, because I'm following the well-planned orders - presumably to make everyone's life easier.

Thanks for your information - perhaps because we were upgraded to a Club Class dining option on our last cruise, we were only meant to go to Santa Fe? That's what it said on our cards, and I didn't really understand how it worked, so we rarely used it. My children will be with us, and I'm looking for some kind of consistency, so I don't have to stand too long in a line with them whinging and moaning about standing up and waiting to be seated. So that's why I'm wondering if we should opt for traditional dining. However, knowing that at least three nights out of the 12 we'd not get there for the traditional dining time, I wondered if it was really a good idea. Then again, we do like to have the flexibility to try other things. It definitely provides the option for 5:30pm, and I think this would be a great time for us, MOST of the time on the journey.

To continue my question, what is Anytime Dining?

So, on the cruise we finished, which was on the Diamond Princess, we ate at the Horizon Court buffet, and booked tables at Sterling Steakhouse and Sabatini's a couple of times.

We didn't truly understand the Savoy, Vivaldi, Santa Fe and Pacific Moon dining rooms. We weren't sure if you were meant to book to eat there or not. We were lucky enough to have Club Class dining so did go to Santa Fe twice, after showing our cards. Usually though, what is the actual system of eating at these? Do you pick one that you go to? They appeared to have pretty much identical menus, so we were really unclear on how it was meant to work.

I thought Anytime Dining was that you go to Horizon food court or book a specialty venue.

On our upcoming cruise next year, looking at the itinerary I see 3 nights out of 12 that we'd be likely to not get back in time for a 5:30pm sitting. We would expect to eat elsewhere at least these three nights, so that might be the nights that we choose to eat somewhere else.

Obviously, if we're on a cruise tour that is held up, we might also be a little late. I have requested a table of 4, as my party is 4, and I'd certainly rather not hold a table up if I can help it. I'd be more than happy to let our servers know the night before, when we know we'll be unable to make it. But is it appropriate to book Traditional Dining if you expect to only use it 8 or 9 nights out of the 12? And for breakfast, is it a set time, or just a period of time you can turn up - or is this not available at the dining room? Actually, are you obligated to go to breakfast there? Are you expected?

Like I said, I don't really understand the other four dining rooms either, not sure where they fit into the scheme of things.

Thank you, it’s something we’re all looking forward to. And it’s nice to have a long time to both pay it off, and anticipate it. The last one we had a full year to plan and pay for it, and that worked very well for us. This one is more like 18 months away.

Thank you, that puts my mind at ease! I just felt as though we probably shouldn’t request it if we think there will be times when we’re not wanting to eat there, or that early. But if you don’t book it, you don’t get it the other times when you really want it - so I was conflicted.

My family and I went on an awesome cruise with Princess recently, and did the Anytime Dining. We didn’t really understand Traditional Dining, so didn’t do it. We’re booked on another cruise next year, and I thought we’d try for the traditional dining, for an early sitting. However, looking at our itinerary, there are a number of days late in the cruise when we’d probably end up coming back later than the intended dining time.

What is the situation if you expect to be a no-show? By asking for traditional dining, are you committing to “being faithful” to that dining room? Do you have any say in which one it is? I’m honestly not really sure about it - there were several on the Diamond Princess, and we didn’t really understand how it worked. There was one that we were’t allowed into, and I assume that’s the traditional dining room. But does that mean that we can’t try the specialty dining venues?

I would hate to think that we are being rude by missing a number of the days that we’re expected to be there. Is this also where breakfast is served?

I have searched the forums for a recent question similar to this, and I hope that I haven’t simply asked the same question that has been asked over and over again, but it’s the one aspect of cruising that I really don’t understand. If it turns out we’re committing a faux pas by not turning up on several occasions, I’ll change it to Anytime Dining on the booking. However, I also think there will be many days, particularly at the start of the journey, when we’d really appreciate the set dining time. If we say we’ll be there at 5:30pm, and don’t arrive until 6pm, is that the height of rudeness?

Thank you in anticipation of your assistance. :)

I took the family on their first cruise this school holidays just gone. We’re hooked, so I’ve booked another one next year, far more ambitious. We’re travelling from Melbourne, Australia, to London to do a British Isles cruise that will travel to a number of places that are significant to our family heritage (both mine and my husband’s). Unfortunately, to make it work, I’ve selected the cruise that will take them away from school for the last two weeks of term two. The other option was to take the one that would take the whole of the term two holidays. The problem with this is that they would still need to take quite a few days prior to the end of term to get to London, and then a few at the start of term three when we travelled back. My decision has been made to minimise the disruption by taking the end of term two. I am a teacher myself, and I hate the thought of this. However, as a family, if we don’t do this now, we’ll never do it. I’m a casual relief teacher, and can set my days and availability. If we don’t pursue this amazing opportunity to build memories, it just won’t happen, and will be one of those regrets that stays with you. There is no way I would make this a regular occurrence, and my eldest daughter will be in grade six next year. Once she starts high school, I believe it is well and truly too disruptive. I will accept that I am taking my children out on a non-approved break, and wear that. But as a one-off, I think it will be amazing for us.

I just returned from a cruise and this was listed in the day time events, but I never understood what it was. What was it? Was it open to passengers to join in? I'm going on another cruise in 18 months, and this time would like to be more prepared.

P.S. The package is charged at a rate per day, for the entirety of the cruise, there are no part-packages available.

So, I just got off a brilliant cruise with Princess. I bought the soft drink package for myself and my two children. It was totally worth it, as we drank easily 3 drinks per day, including soft drinks and mocktails. However, I chose not to buy the premium drinks package for my husband, who is a beer drinker. It was priced at around $1100 AUD. In the end, with him purchasing beer as often as he liked, he spent around $300 AUD. Drinks were between $6.50 and $8.00 on average each. We did buy two bottles of champagne as well, but we got nowhere near the amount of money that the package would have cost.

My husband likes craft beers. The cruise we're about to head off on has a $90 AUD per day charge for the premium drinks package. That suggests that he'd need to drink about 10 beers per day just to break even. I can see him happily enjoying 5-6 many days, and occasionally more than 10 (over say 3-4 hours). But I think buying the package at that steep price would encourage him to drink as many as possible to "get his money's worth". All that would do is irritate me (a virtual non-drinker). So I have purchased the soft drink packages for myself and our children, as it appears to break even around 3 drinks per day. I think there is no doubt that we will easily have that (it includes hot chocolates/juice as well).

If the cost for the alcoholic package was around $50 AUD per day, I'd probably think it was okay. Above that, and you're asking for people to drink, drink, drink to ensure they're not wasting their money. We're not cruising so we can get drunk, we want to get out and about and see the sights.

I think my main problem is as already stated, missing out on things I could have, thinking I couldn't. I'd really like to enjoy everything I can on our cruise, but I tend to have an inferiority complex and stop myself. I'm going to try very hard to take advantage of everything I can. But not in a nasty, entitled way.

I have my two girls (9 & 10 years old) booked into the kids club for our cruise. But they're not to be going in and out by themselves. So how will I know how they're going, if they choose to hang out there for ages? Do I need to continually check in to see what's happening? Or are they able to call your room or somehow otherwise let you know when they want to come out? I don't anticipate them spending a huge amount of time there, but if they really enjoy it, I'm not sure how best to manage this without checking up on them all the time, or worse, neglecting them when they want to come out.

I have all my documents saved in Dropbox, and every one of them set to be available offline. This is my backup plan in case things go wrong. But I have also got paper copies of everything.

I would love to have booked that train ride, but we couldn't fit it in, and couldn't justify the cost for all of us. It sounded wonderful though.

Is there any benefit to booking an unknown cabin as opposed to selecting your cabin at booking? I'm travelling with my Mum, husband and children. We scoured the ship when booking (in January this year) and found two cabins next to each other, so snapped them up. They're not connected, but we thought that it would be great to be next door.

We have now been upgraded to one of the family suites which will be absolutely amazing, I'm sure. I believe they wanted our cabins to give to others who hadn't been allocated rooms yet. But I don't really know.

They also said there were additional benefits attached to being upgraded.

As more or less cruise virgins (I've had a two night mini cruise a few years ago only), will we even realise what we are entitled to enjoy? How will we know what special little benefits we can use that we wouldn't otherwise have had?

However, apart from that - why would you choose to not know where you'll be in advance? Is it just because there is more chance of you being offered an upgrade? I know our situation was a little different. We had contacted Princess and advised them that we were travelling together, and the rooms were chosen to be next to each other because of that reason. I guess that means they knew we'd jump at the suite upgrade. I was told that I had to decide, or else it was going to be offered to another group.

5 days till boarding!

I have booked Princess tours in advance just to have them cancelled by the cruise line because they didn’t get enough people to sign up. There were 18 signed up for that tour. Last minute cancellation meant no tour for that port that day. We also try to do more private tours but many of them want payment up front too. So I don’t book with them.

 

When we were in New Zealand we had some wonderful private tours. My favorite was in Dunedin where we went to the Cadbury factory. Kids would love that tour.

We're heading to do a private version of that tour next week. I think it will be awesome. I have personally been putting onboard credit aside for months, as I don't want to have find money later. I've prepaid almost everything I possibly can, and kept aside more onboard credit to cover anything I hadn't thought of. I don't want to finish the trip with debt, so I've spread out my payments since I booked the trip in January this year.