shepp

Your assessment of Princess' deck plans are spot on. My biggest complaint about Princess is how crowded their ships feel. As for the views, HAL's panoramic lounge faces forward unlike Princess' Skywalkers. Plus, outside, the aft viewing area is more open on HAL, which matters when in Glacier Bay.

As a longtime Princess cruiser (though not a cheerleader) let me point out what should be obvious: Princess sails seven ships to Alaska, with varying configurations. One, the Coral Princess, has a better passenger/space ratio than any HAL ship, even the Prinsendam. Others, like the Grand and Star, have a better ratio than the Eurodam. Though of course, what the math says and how a ship feels are two different things...

Likewise, the Coral has great sheltered viewing verandahs fore and aft on Baja and Caribe decks, while its unfortunately re-modeled sister, the Island, doesn't have those aft areas anymore and is more crowded.

It looks like you posted a picture of the Grand Princess, which actually had Skywalkers removed many years ago. (Off the top of my head, it's the only ship with that exact aft configuration.) And though Skywalkers does face aft, what I'm reading is that the Crow's Nests are now being essentially ruined, while the remaining Skywalkers still are spacious, with lots of seating and lots of views. So if aft viewpoints of Glacier Bay are important to you...

I'm not suggesting the OP sail Princess instead of HAL - they are the two champs in Alaska. (One thing that Princess usually features is a personal appearance by Iditarod winner Libby Riddles, which is cool.) But if you want advice about a specific Princess ship, I'd ask on the Princess board.

Thanks, all...sounds like we should stick with what we have.

I'm booked for the 28-day Amazon in November and chose late dining. But I'm having second thoughts. How does As You Wish work on the Prinsendam in particular, since there's just one dining room? We tend to eat later, around 7:30, and often prefer a two-top. If I can still switch, should I? Is it like Princess, where I can easily switch from traditional to Anytime at any point I'm the cruise by speaking to the maitre d'? And what's two-top availability like?

While the Academy was impressed by the movie, I have found that most (me included) thought of it as “not impressive”, mind numbing schlock.

Loved it. Ninety-two percent on the Tomatometer, 73% audience approval. Don't know who "most" is. But then, opinions are like....

One thing no one has mentioned is that the Royal doesn't have a covered pool, which, on an Alaskan itinerary, may or may matter to you. And yeah, the Promenade alcoves are kinda crummy and not all that easy to access from inside. But she's a lovely ship.

I never had anyone question my strip, it has many outlets and nothing special.

As has been stated here many times before, if it's surge protected it poses a fire hazard....

Sonoma was really quite devastated by the fires. I am not sure if they have reopened the wine train. You might want to google that.

Don't want to sound grim, but right now Napa and vicinity is being devastated by uncontrolled blazes and the fire season is just getting started. Yesterday, cars parked in San Francisco were coated with ash. So by September, who knows?

There is only one cruise port in San Francisco. Pier 26.

Wrong. Pier 27, the new terminal, is generally used, though the old one at Pier 35 is an occasional alternative. Pier 26 is over a mile away.

Many of us love(d) the Coral and Island because they were smallish ships with really good passenger/space ratios (tied for best in the fleet). Now the Island has 10% more passengers and one very major public space gone. The refurbishment put additional cabins where the aft showroom, the Universe Lounge, used to be. No more full-circuit Promenade Deck and the big viewing verandah aft on Caribe deck, one of my favorite places to hang out, is no more, replaced by still more cabins. All in pursuit of revenue.

The Coral's still lovely, though.

I would assume the red eye takes a punch, while the straight brewed doesn't?

Hello!

Can anyone tell me if Regal Princess has corn hole / bean bag toss boards for passenger use? Wife and I looking at a couple of weeks duration, but really enjoy playing aboard. We only sail on ships with them.

Really? That's your make-or-break criterion for whether to book a cruise? To each their own, I guess.

Not to sound like a judgmental prat but...if you have a big problem with not being able to buy booze at 6:00 am, seems to me you have a bigger problem than not being able to buy booze at 6:00 am.

I'm not sure what you mean. The site I found with the history of CCL's stock prices showed it peaking around $41.55 at the end of 2004 and surpassing that at the end of 2014.

 

I was fortunate to buy in the low 30s. Those who bought below $15 a share in 2009 are really doing well. I've received over $1,500 in shareholder credit plus the dividends over the years.

Since you asked...I went to https://www.google.com/search?q=NYSE:CCL&e=4112296&tbm=fin&biw=1255&bih=693#scso=uid_3KoxW_igF8SJ0gLW0bLwDg_5:0

and clicked on "max." The chart shows CCL closing at $57.95 on 12/23/04. Same with the chart on Yahoo Finance. And even your example shows it took a decade to recover from late 2004. Took till March 2017 to reach that level again. However, I'm admittedly not an expert on CCL prices.

You can "just show up" but you risk having to wait 30-45 minutes if you show up at a popular time and want a table for 2 or 4. If you're willing to sit at a table with 6 or 8 others, you have a better chance of seating right away "anytime".

 

If you want a 2 or 4 top and don't want to risk having to wait, you can call and make a reservation.

The hitch in this plan being that reservations aren't taken for the most "popular times."

In terms of boycotting; that is a difficult issue, does a boycott really hurt the bigots or the population facing the bigotry.

Simple solution: take the money you would have spent in port and send it to the Jamaican group J-FLAG. Just saw a documentary about them at the San Francisco queer film festival: they do brave, amazing work, when they're not being raped and murdered.

Might be a good time to buy even if you have 100 already, it seems to recover quickly and is quite a volatile stock

Yeah, whatever. If you'd bought CCL at the end of 2004, it would have taken till March of 2017 for the share price to fully recover from its "quick" slump. Sure, there's dividends and OBCs, but it seems that not all random online investment advice is all that useful.

(BTW, I do own 100 shares.)

Although couples of the same sex are accepted on board (staff was delightful), HAL's corporate policy is less open and welcoming by denying any support to arrange any extra gatherings! When we commented on the bad location during our cruise, we were told by the Cruise Director in person that this bar needed the revenue!!! :eek::eek:

We have no more comment to add!

I'm a long-time Princess cruiser, and while I find the line very LGBT-friendly, let's face it: Gay gatherings are just another revenue-producing gambit for the lines. "We support gay rights so much that we're giving you a place to sit around and buy drinks." (That being said, I'm surprised at HAL's new policy.)

Out of a couple dozen Princess cruises, there were a few where the first meeting was hosted and a bottle or two of inexpensive champagne was uncorked. Usually we're left to our own devices to figure out who's there for the meet-up, move chairs around as necessary, and the only staff that shows up is the bar waiter. At worst, the meetings have been scheduled at a crowded bar jammed with non-queer folks and no place to sit.

I'm currently going to the San Francisco LGBTQI Film Festival, where for several years Celebrity has sponsored a major evening screening, with reps hawking their cruises, even giving away a gift basket to a lucky winner. This may be looked at as support for queer rights, or as pursuing a lucrative gay market. Or both. Your choice.

Does a Shareholder need to hold the stock XX days before the OBC can be applied to a cruise booking? Also, do I have to own the stock “First” before booking a cruise that would qualify for the shareholders benefit?

 

Thank you for your replies. :)

No to both. You should send proof of ownership at least 3 weeks before sail date, though.

http://www.carnivalcorp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=140690&p=irol-sharebenefit

Touche!

You could also add, of course, that my nickname (пароходик) means a "little steamboat" in Russian, and my avatar is a photo of Avrora, a Russian battle cruiser whose blank volley started the Russian revolution of 1917, — and yet another PutinTroll, with his intricate cover blown and his efforts to covertly subvert another Western democracy totally defeated, will slither back into the festering depths of Olgino troll factory near St.Petersburg, Russia.

! simply pointed out that your posts on the LGBT board have been utterly non-existent except where Russia is concerned, where they're persistent and finely detailed, and that the sum total of your posts on Cruise Critic - the world's most-visited cruise site - have to do with Russian tourism. Like I said, this all could be a coincidence and you may well be a pro-gay cruise enthusiast from Maryland seeking to correct the anti-Putin misrepresentations of Western media.

And in (speaking of) Saint Petersburg last year, a hundred LGBT activists held a permitted march, weren't pepper-sprayed by skinheads until the very end of the event, and only one marcher was arrested, for holding a sign that said, "I love my wife" and wearing a rainbow flag. Like I said, Happy Pride!

My point is - I totally respect your decision not to go to Russia (and, to a lesser extent, to advise others against doing so), but I also regret that said decision is largely based on incomplete, erroneous, and/or distorted picture painted by the media.

OK, have it your way. It's all fake news. The Russian government does not engage in anti-gay propaganda. Contra Tatchell's protest, Putin vigorously opposes his pal Kadyrov's torture and imprisonment of gay Chechens, and did not threaten Canada for accepting gay Chechen refugees. The government did not prosecute someone for a facebook posting that referred to a group promoting sexual rights for 18-29-year-olds, and did not just shut down an HIV education website for being insufficiently antigay. The Moscow Pride Parade is a ringing success. Russian queers enjoy the full protection of the law. And ILGA-Europe, a network of LGBT groups, did not name Russia the fourth most gay-unfriendly country in Europe, just ahead of Turkey and Azerbajian (though up from 2nd most homophobic the year before).

And, of course, Russia does not employ people to go online and covertly subvert Western democracies or post pro-Russian propaganda. So the fact that not one of your Cruise Critic posts has to do with LGBT people except as relating to Russia, the fact that all your 100 other CC posts read like they could be written by the Russian Tourist Bureau, and your intimate knowledge of Russian law and politics despite your living in Baltimore mean nothing. I'm sure you're just another cruiser on the side of gay rights, but sorry, товарищ, our little conversation is done.

Happy Pride!

Well, I may be missing it, but I don’t see it on the schedule

On the Princess site, it's oddly classified as a Hawai'i cruise. Four available dates, two in 2020. I'm booked on the 3/19 and still have trouble navigating to it.

On second thoughs, both t-shirts would likely be in violation of Russian codes, the first one on the grounds of infamous KOAP 6.21 (propaganda to minors), and the second one under art.282 of criminal code (inciting hatred to ethnic, ... or social groups). Given that, your second layer of variables (gay vs straight and Russian vs foreign) seems redundant, as it should be.

On third thought, you're technically quite right and I stand corrected. (On third-and-a-half, I'm kinda amazed that someone in Baltimore has such granular knowledge of Russian law.)

On the fourth thought, though, what you said seems like sheer sophistry. I just meant that both queer and straight people are, without discrimination, banned from promulgating "Pro-gay propaganda."

Anyhow, here's an example of how that art.282 works in practice:

Russian Lawmaker Milonov Gets Slap on the Wrist for Anti-LGBT Rhetoric

The State Duma ethics committee will reprimand ultra-conservative St. Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov for inciting hatred against the LGBT community.

While on the Ekho Moskvy radio station’s morning program, he advocated for the public execution of organizers of the LGBT charityDeti-404 ("Children-404"), saying they should be “publicly hanged” and “mercilessly shot."

The ethics committee sent a formal notification to Timoshenko on Oct. 12 and said that Milonov would be told of “the inadmissibility in violating the rules of parliamentary ethics." - The Moscow Times 10/13/17

while on the other hand:

British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell was arrested on Thursday in Russia for holding a one-man protest against the country's record on LGBT rights, hours before the kick-off of the World Cup.

The veteran campaigner was led away by police shortly after unfolding a poster that said President Vladimir "Putin fails to act against Chechnya torture of gay people" near Red Square in central Moscow.

Russian campaigners have previously been charged for sharing information about LGBT rights on social media and detained for carrying rainbow flags at demonstrations. - france24.com 6/14/18

So yeah, being a Russian or a foreigner leaves you equally "protected."

I've never sailed on ships of Coral class, so cannot comment.

Many of us love the Coral and loved the Island until they replaced the aft showroom with cabins.

Had you specified either "no upgrade" or "meta-upgrade only?" If not, it's not the Fairy's fault.

Well, the law offers protection to people, period, - regardless of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, or skin color. Or are we looking for an extra layer of protection?

I suppose if you squint your eyes and contort yourself, that's true. For instance: If I, a gay man, were to visit Moscow wearing a "Gay Is Bad" T-shirt, I would be protected by the law. On the other hand, a straight Russian wearing a "Gay Is Good" shirt would be subject to the same legal sanctions as I would be. Is that cause for celebration?

The only people who've learned to paint in three days are the artists whose work you can buy at the ship's auction.