blloydtbird

11 hours ago, blloydtbird said:

I am still new to cruising, thus am a bit curious as to your comment.  I thought the MDR was the place that one went for anytime dining.  The difference for anytime dining being that one can show up anytime, versus having a set time for the "standard" MDR experience.  But, both anytime and standard dining were in the MDR.  

 

Is my understanding incorrect?  Thanks 

26 minutes ago, cynbar said:

The MDR is not just one room, on most ships there are several. Usually one is reserved for traditional diners, the others are for anytime diners. Therefore, you just have to show up at the right one for your assigned type of dining. Names and locations of the various MDRs will be clearly listed in the Princess Patter. Menu is the same in all of them, decor is the same or similar.

Thanks, this aligns with my understanding, I’m aware of the many MDRs. Given the post by trbarton indicating the OP would sit at the same time every night in the MDR,  I was slightly confused, as during my only Princess Cruise to date, the Anytime dining experience was in an MDR. 
 

I think the sum of if it is, both anytime and standard dining options are offered in MDRs. 

14 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Nobody answered about the MDR. That’s a good choice as you all will sit at the same time each day.

I am still new to cruising, thus am a bit curious as to your comment.  I thought the MDR was the place that one went for anytime dining.  The difference for anytime dining being that one can show up anytime, versus having a set time for the "standard" MDR experience.  But, both anytime and standard dining were in the MDR.  

Is my understanding incorrect?  Thanks 

I have a personal VPN server running on my home router and leverage OpenVPN on my mobile devices for connecting to my home securely. No issues with using VPN while at sea on Princess. But, as Princess seemingly relies on IP addresses for location purposes, my medallion class app showed “off ship” whenever I had  VPN enabled, thus I could not use all of the app functionality.  I generally toggled VPN on/off depending on what I was up to. 

12 hours ago, mosenga said:

From my experience, Princess has more people who dress formally than RC or Celebrity. When we were on CB during the holidays, there were a very large number of tuxes and gowns on formal nights. Not everyone dressed that way, but there were definitely more than on RC or Celebrity. We enjoy dressing up (we don't have many occasions at home to dress formally), so we appreciated it. Even on other nights, people dressed nicely in the dining room.

We were also on the CB during the recent holidays (lovely cruise by the way!) and noticed the same.  Quite a few tuxedos and gowns, which was nice to see.  My wife an I really do enjoy dressing formally, thus it was quite nice to see that we were not oddities.  Still, I am perfectly fine with others dressing as they wish, hoping they don't make things difficult for the crew by wearing inappropriate attire and having to be turned away.  A great mixture of formal and smart-casual attire was nice to see.  

We just returned from a 14 day winter holiday cruise with the Caribbean Princess.  This was our first cruise, thus can't really compare to others.  That said, we found the ship to have been in perfectly fine condition, perhaps with one exception.  Churchill Lounge, that place seamed a bit "filthy".  But, it is an interior cigar lounge, I imagine that is par for the course.  The ship was great, our cabin was very clean. No issues.  

What is a young adult these days :)?  My wife and I just returned from our first cruise, a 14 day holiday circle on the Caribbean Princess.  We are both in our 30's.  I found there to be a good mixture of quite young, college aged, young adult, mature adult, and senior passengers on the ship.  We are a bit concerned initially after booking the cruise as we were told by friends that "Princess is for old people".  During our time on board, it was not.  A good mixture, noting the crowd was older.  If I had to guess, the average age on the ship would have been mid-50s, median low 60s.  That being said, we enjoyed our time quite a bit with some of the folks in the "senior" group, don't count them out.  Each night, we'd visit a variety of the entertainment options onboard, spending much of our time with the band "Project 5" in the Explorers Lounge.  Then, we'd head up to the Skywalkers nightclub for after-hours entertainment.  Many of the folks in the entertainment sections don't do the "party" thing, but instead enjoy a drink while taking it all in. 

Note, we did chat with many of the staff members onboard and they advised that our cruise was "younger" than the typical cruise, given the holiday period.  I suspect a summer cruise would be similar.  Cruise outside of the general holiday periods I and can see the age demographic swimming to the upper end of the spectrum. 

We enjoyed the cruise so much, we have already booked another holiday cruise for later this year, on the Enchanted.  Again, we are in our mid/upper 30s, not sure if that counts for young adult these days, but we do fall into the millennial category.  We chose Princess in part because we wanted to avoid the party ships; we are happy with our choice.  

Hope this helps, happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the ship and entertainment.  This board was so helpful in my wife and I preparing for our cruise, I'd be delighted to return the favor.

Edited to add, the Piazza was a great place to hang out, day or night.  I spent much time during the day sitting around drinking tea and people watching.  In the evenings, a drink from Good Spirits and whatever entertainer was assigned to the Piazza was always fun.  If a more intimate atmosphere was needed, Crooners was just a few steps away.  

Cheers

1 hour ago, Boiler Cruiser said:

My DW and I are bourbon and scotch drinkers.  I was wondering if the offerings of Bourbon and Scotch varied in the several bars on board Princess ships.

 

Can someone tell me what Bourbon & Scotch are served in which bars on board?

 

Does anyone have a pic of a Scotch & Bourbon menu from a recent Princess cruise that they can share?  If you have one from the Crown Princess, which we will be on in a couple of weeks, that would be particularly helpful.

 

Your feedback is appreciated.  Thanks.

We recently returned from a cruise on the Caribbean Princess, I tend to enjoy bourbon as well.  The best option they offer in my opinion is Woodford.  No Michter's, Elijah Craig, Angels Envy, Weller, EH Taylor, Eagle Rare, Blanton's, etc. , yet alone Pappy, Stagg or the like.  Nothing remotely close. Still, I find Woodford to be suitable for a regular sip.  

Bumping this thread, I am still somewhat new here.  I do hope this is okay :).

After returning from a 14 day holiday cruise on the Caribbean Princess, my wife and I booked a 14 day Caribbean East/West cruise for the next holiday season on the Enchanted.  We figure it will be nice to see new ports this time around, although we really enjoyed our time on the "circle" cruise.

We spent a lot of our time on the Caribbean Princess in the Piazza, Explorers Lounge, Club Fusion, and Skywalkers.  The live band playing in Explorers and the DJ in Skywalkers did quite well by us, and we would hope for a somewhat similar experience this coming December.  

In looking at the deck plan of the Enchanted, Skywalkers, Club Fusion and Explorers are gone, and the only similar space I can find appears to be Take 5.  Is this truly going to be the case, no dance club on the Enchanted and limited live music offerings?  How is the overall entertainment setup on the Sky, which I believe is similar to what the Enchanted will offer?

Thanks!

2 minutes ago, fredflint said:

One thing to look at is where else you can go.  East and  Western Caribbean are OK  but the really great ports in my opinion are the Southern Caribbean cruises they ten to be 10-14 day cruises since they have a lot longer to travel .

This is a 14 day cruise would be a lot more interesting than a B2B East West Cruise.

 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details?voyageCode=B009

 

it is port intensive with 5 days at sea

 

Fully agree with you! We just got back from this very same cruise, 14 day holiday on the Caribbean princess. We left On 12/20, returned on 1/3. Enjoyed it so much, we wanted to book another for the 2020 holiday season, looking to see a few more ports. 

Thanks all!  We have booked the BSE for the December 19, 2020 East/West Caribbean Cruise on the Enchanted.  A bit more pricey as compared to our booking for December 2020, still early enough perhaps for fares to improve.  Either way, we are going.

Cheers and thanks again. 

1 hour ago, rgmacm said:

What are the movies showing at MUTS?

This was a huge point of disappointment for me, it was football every single night. During the day,  they had Avengers Endgame, The Greatest Showman and Aladdin as well. But after dusk, always football. Big letdown for me. 

Thanks for all of the excellent feedback!  

A few items for me to further clarify:  The cruse is being sold as a 14 day cruise that essentially has two itineraries within, 14-Day Caribbean East/West Adventurer.  The first set of east ports are quite different from those in the west, so while back-to-back in terms of the ship itself, all of the ports are different other than the return to Port Everglades.  Not sure if this matters in terms of the number of folks staying versus leaving, and the repeat of onboard activities.

What I enjoyed most about our recent cruise was 14 days running into wonderful people we met.  Given the feedback here thus far, most folks will only be on for 7 days on either end of the cruise.

One last note, what are the early thoughts on what the Enchanted will offer?  Worth doing this cruise just to sample her?  I did really enjoy the Caribbean princess.

Cheers!

Hi folks - Thanks to the wonderful discussions on this board, my wife and I just returned from our first cruise and had a blast.  We were on the Caribbean Princess over the holidays and returned on 1/3.  We had such a great time, we are looking at cruises for the 2020 holiday period.

I've come across a few different options on a few different ships.  One option that has drawn my attention is the Enchanted Princess, leaving out of Port Everglades on 12/19.  In reviewing the itinerary, the ship returns to Port Everglades only to depart the same day.  I assume this is what is referred to as a "back-to-back" cruise.  Are there any downsides a beginning cruiser should be aware of?  Would half of the passengers likely disembark with new folks joining?  We really enjoyed getting to know quite a few folks onboard during our two weeks at sea.  

Ports of Call: Fort Lauderdale | At Sea | Grand Cayman | Roatan | Belize City | Cozumel | At Sea | Fort Lauderdale | Princess Cays | At Sea | St Thomas | St Maarten | At Sea | At Sea | Fort Lauderdale

Thanks!

On 1/2/2020 at 2:56 PM, danak13 said:

I don't think you are still on the ship but I was wondering about drink prices of scotches/bourbons/gins/etc.  What was available on the rocks and how much? 

I was on the ship during the same time, had an absolute blast.  I also happen to be a bourbon guy.  They had Makers, Woodford and Buffalo Trace (on display at least).  In terms of pricing, if I recall correctly, in the neighborhood of $8 - $10, close to the price of their cocktails.  

Folks, I'd be hesitant to be too critical of the OP.  Let's not pretend as though every place in the world is Singapore or Tokyo (both incredibly safe places and my favorites to visit).  I've been to some of the safest places in the world and some of the seediest.  I do search around a bit to ensure I have a general understanding of safety in any country / city I visit.  I would agree that some do potentially overthink safety concerns, but I cannot wrong them. I've "escaped" a sticky situation or two both at home and on the road.  Some places are indeed more dangerous than others.  Can't fault folks for checking.  

4 minutes ago, evandbob said:

 

 

MOST areas of Panama City are safe for tourists using normal awareness and street smarts.  Just like some cities in our USA have some sketchy neighborhoods, Panama City has a few of its own where drugs and gangs seem to rule.

 

We stayed in Panama City for a few days, as well as visiting the ex pat area of Rio Hata and Playa Farallon up the Pacific Coast for longer stays of a week and then 10 days.  Drove all over, went to local restaurants and were certainly off the tourist grid in some areas but never had a safety issue come up.

 

Does everyone realize that Panama City has one of the most striking skylines in North America?  The skyscrapers there make some wonderful backdrops for picture taking, rivaling some of our larger cities...

Fair assessment, and agreed. Panama City looks remarkably similar to Hong Kong in some ways given all of the development on the coast 

Trunk Bay is a gem I'd say, arguably one of the best US beaches.  Really beautiful, hard to describe in words.  My wife and I visited Trunk Bay during a stay on St. John a few years go.  While there, the beach was more populated one day in particular (not crowded, just more people).  Turns out some folks came over to visit on a cruise excursion.  Not something I suggest you consider passing up.  I can't opine on the others.  Enjoy your trip!

I suspect you mean Colombia 🙂 rather than Columbia (the latter is specific to the University and cities in the US for the most part).  

In terms of Jamaica, I've seen quite a few folks comment negatively concerning the island, which saddens me.  I am biased as both of my parents were born in the country and I spent a significant portion of my upbringing on the island. I agree that some of the vendors can be a bit pushy; unfortunately, many are competing with others to put food on their tables.  Certainly does not excuse the behavior, but something perhaps to consider.  I promise you (and others), if you were to venture away from the cruise ports (hard to do while on a cruise, I know), the island becomes quite a bit more special.  The general Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, etc. runs don't do the country much justice.  There are far nicer and pleasant places on both the north and south coasts of the island.

I fully understand where you are coming from though.  Your comments remind me of some of the general tourism sites in Cambodia.  Far too pushy for me. 

Cheers

As others have mentioned, Panama City is quite safe.  You should not be concerned at all in terms of general safety in the City.