snoozecrooze

I'm hoping someone with more recent experience can get back to you because I'm forgetting the details. We did take Princess to Marseille pre-COVID and they did have a shuttle but I don't believe it was free (can't remember the cost if there was one). What I do remember, however, is what grinded everybody's gears -- it was their lack of organization in the whole process. The bus drivers basically weren't really clear about where to drop the passengers off in the city and then where to pick passengers up to get them back to the ship, so people were scurrying about. This could just be Princess's fault and not the bus drivers' fault (or vice versa), but...it was a bit of a debacle, to say the least. I'm hoping that things have changed since then.

Emerald simply because of the way they redesigned their buffet setup to the World Fresh Marketplace in 2019 (only Caribbean has a similar design and they were both done pre-pandemic). The remodels were definitely supposed to be applied to the rest of the fleet, but who knows if that will ever happen now. Anyways, what's so much better about the buffet? You do have the sinks. The buffet set up is significantly more modern and open. The variety in seating is a huge plus. The Ruby still has the old-style tables and chairs and if you're just a solo cruiser looking for options, it's much harder to find a seat there, in my opinion. Examples: Emerald buffet seating Emerald buffet Ruby buffet seating Ruby buffet I can't think of anything else too different, though. If you like production shows, Emerald does have Rock Opera and that's one of the three newest shows on Princess.

Interesting comments here as well: "'Many cruise ships look like condominiums on barges. We wanted to soften the ship. Princess is a very feminine brand,' Ironically, I think the recent ships from Fincantieri all look even more like condos on barges than what they've produced before. I'm thinking of Virgin Voyages, MSC Seaside-class, Norwegian Prima-class, etc. -- all with the inset cabins, low aft terraces, vertical afts, etc. The one thing they haven't done with the Sun Princess that replicates those ships is the parabolic bow, which is the 'in' design of these "next-generation" ships being produced now. Also: "Parker said there will be a black door on Deck 8 leading to a new, immersive experience but gave no further clues." Any chance this is really just the Teppanyaki restaurant that has been placed on the deck plan already? If not, then there is that other leaked deck plan that has a space called the "Magic Hour Bar". Overall, Sun Princess isn't really groundbreaking in most aspects (many features already seen elsewhere) but as long as they execute well what they're trying to emulate, then I have high hopes.

@didesthank you for sharing with us the progress on the Sun Princess. I still remember how generous you were when you embarked on the inaugural Sky voyage in the Med (can't believe it's almost 4 years ago!) and kind of hope you can always be our ship newbuild guru in gathering intel and new pictures. For the purpose of discussion, I'll talk about a few things with the hull - The design nerd in me has been really picky about a few things that I'm glad they have applied to the Sun. For example, the stern: There is definitely space on the stern of at least their Royal-class ships for the proprietary font that Princess uses. This generic font used on the stern of the older ships is simply not pleasing to the eye. I'm glad they've finally done something about that. And another thing, with the name of the ship near the bow: One would assume that after they repainted the Royal and Regal and made the name larger, they'd do the same thing with the Majestic onwards. But alas, they did not and in my opinion, the placement of the names. don't even feel purposefully aligned (refer to below). I'm glad they're at least making the name larger on the Sun here. (See what I mean about the name being so...well, kind of just there on the hull in terms of placement? It's not in the middle of the windows, at least? I know the Majestic/Sky/Enchanted/Discovery have the physical letters applied and it's not paint. But the nerd in me hopes they do repaint it larger like they have on Royal and Regal.)

TO UPDATE THIS LIST: DO NOT push the "Quote" button. It creates a copy that the next person cannot properly update. DO select and copy ALL of the text (including the instructions and the list) up to COPY TO THIS LINE . . . from the most up-to-date list (the most recent reply with the list).  Go to the bottom of the latest post, to the "Reply to this Topic..." box to create a new post. Paste your copied text into that box. Make your modifications to the list. Add change notes at the bottom. Click the "Submit Reply" button just below the list you are modifying. Confirm that everything is correct! You can edit for up to 20 minutes. SHIP CAPTAIN CRUISE DIRECTOR ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR DIR, RESTAURANT OP's Caribbean Princess Ozren Marelic Daniel France Oscar Perego Coral Princess Diego Perra Kelvin Joy Joachim Rothe Crown Princess Tony Ruggero Olivia Guthrie Matt Joseph Mariusz Czemarmazowicz Diamond Princess Stefano Ravera Sophie Gideon Mikiko Ikemoto Samantha McDonough Silvio Zampieri Discovery Princess Craig Street DuVaul Gamble Neil Rose Catalin Ionel Emerald Princess Giuseppe Castellano David Frost Lauren Meyer Enache Popescue Enchanted Princess Nick Nash Gary Golding Duke Christopher Francisco Patricio Grand Princess Christopher B. Lye Jayson Douglass Callie Smit Giuseppe Francina Island Princess Paul Slight Andi Sanders Mark Gillespie Francesco Ciorfito Majestic Princess Tony Draper Kristoff Greyling Marissa Wurms Douw Steyl Regal Princess Aldo Traverso Allie Ambriano Matt Thompson Nicola Furlan Royal Princess Steve Holland Armando Merin Ruth Sandell Claudio Giuliani Ruby Princess Mario Tani Michael Reitano Tim Donovan Jacques Ghennai Sapphire Princess Todd McBain Fernando Cunha Ben Powney Francesco Ciorfito Sky Princess Heikki Laakkonen Paul Chandler-Burns Madison Adams Giuseppe Gelmini <COPY TO THIS LINE SO THERE IS SPACE TO TYPE CHANGE NOTES AFTER THE CHART> (Changes made: Majestic Captain and ED) Future moves: Caribbean - CD Jody Miles joins on April 27. Discovery - Captain Smith returns in May. Island - ED Mark Gillespie leaves in mid-March. Regal - CD Aaron Hawkins (possibly?) joining when ship is in the UK. Royal - CD Corinne Steel returns in April. Sapphire - DRO Mario Propato plans to return "in a few months". Sky - CD Matt Barnard returns in May when ship is in Europe. Captain Laakkonen leaves on March 11 and returns in July.

I wasn't aware of his new role before, but if Captain Arma doesn't come back to Discovery anytime soon (or ever again, if this leads to an established promotion), there may be a reason for that: [Source]

1. Personally, I don't recommend the marina deck (15) for aft balconies because those on the aft of lido deck (16) can look down on you. 16 is a public deck in the aft. You will find varying degrees of how extreme soot can be on the aft deck cabin balconies, but your mileage may vary. 2. Give yourself the easiest combination possible for flight times. Don't pressure yourself to make a mid-morning or noon flight from Seattle if you can help it just because... anything can happen, you know? 3. Bring layered clothing that you know you can wear time and time again. There are laundromats on each deck on the Royal Princess ($3/wash and $3/dry). Ditch most fancy things to keep it easy (e.g. just bring one pair of heels if you want instead of 3, don't bring too much jewelry, no necessity to bring suits for the men, etc.) 4. Read above in #3. To be honest, formal night dress codes are merely a suggestion in today's era of cruising on Princess. For example, a nice shirt and pants for the men - really good enough. 5. Above poster nailed it on the head as to why people bring magnets. They increase the factor of convenience in your cabin once you realize how much you wish you could just hang something where you'll see it (...or use it to hang dry clothing!). The magnetic hooks are worth their weight in gold, for me at least.

And I value your comments here, wholeheartedly. No offense taken at all regarding anything you said. I was just speaking more to the abyss out there, because I think most of the cruising fatigue out there comes from expecting more (or even the same) from a cruise line people are so familiar with, despite the reality that we know (cutbacks, setbacks, etc.). I always recommend others to try something new and to avoid sticking too closely to a routine for a vacation.

Re: the cabins I will give Celebrity credit for putting in the effort to gut Millennium's and Summit's cabins to the bones and make them like new again. I don't recall Princess ever having any plans to do that, but they should....once they have the proper funding. Otherwise, the 2004-era cabins on CB will stay that way until she's transferred out elsewhere, because the pandemic threw a wrench in what was likely to be ambitious projects of the like. I will add that there is always a "grass is greener on the other side" vibe if you're consistently a routine cruiser on one specific line. The same vibes of "I'm not coming back" persist on every forum here. I encourage anyone to try out as many lines and ships as you can; variety is genuinely the spice of life.

Yes, you should have all of those things. Some activities are sanctioned by staff and some will be unsupervised. Other more recent cruisers can speak to any updates.

You may want to direct your questions to the Holland America forum just in case.

No worries about mistaking the ships lol, it's easy to confuse them since Royal is leaving from SF right now. I don't think either of the MDRs are really better than the other. Botticelli's location being in the aft might afford you some nice-ish views...but it's not like Michelangelo or Da Vinci don't have some views of their own to the sides either. Getting a window table is hard either way. I've often thought that since Dine My Way was launched, the aft dining room on deck 6 could be the least busiest, since it's the hardest to reach, but I don't know how true that really is, given the cruises I've been on since. Your experience may vary.

The biggest question to ask yourself is how sedate are they? I've met other young adults who have been eager to be by themselves, enjoy their own company, carve out their own plans, and spend time with their family. There was no desire to really make friends of similar age groups. There was also the polar opposite -- very social and eager to form bonds. I think there is actually a good niche for either end of the spectrum. Princess is a great cruise line if you do not want to do anything and just want to chill, spend time relaxing with the family, do some trivia, play fun games with the parents, etc. etc. Or, if they're very eager to get to know people, I'd actually recommend attending everything organized by the cruise staff. The cruise director's staff are young and energetic and often enjoy the company of the peers from their own age groups who come on Princess. Just my two cents. However, Royal Caribbean/Norwegian/Carnival/MSC are frankly much easier to recommend if you know your young adults are looking to party and/or looking to be very active (i.e. ziplining, car racing, water slides, etc.)

TO UPDATE THIS LIST: DO NOT push the "Quote" button. It creates a copy that the next person cannot properly update. DO select and copy ALL of the text (including the instructions and the list) up to COPY TO THIS LINE . . . from the most up-to-date list (the most recent reply with the list).  Go to the bottom of the latest post, to the "Reply to this Topic..." box to create a new post. Paste your copied text into that box. Make your modifications to the list. Add change notes at the bottom. Click the "Submit Reply" button just below the list you are modifying. Confirm that everything is correct! You can edit for up to 20 minutes. SHIP CAPTAIN CRUISE DIRECTOR ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR DIR, RESTAURANT OP's Caribbean Princess Ozren Marelic Daniel France Oscar Perego Coral Princess Diego Perra Kelvin Joy Joachim Rothe Crown Princess Tony Ruggero Olivia Guthrie Matt Joseph Mariusz Czemarmazowicz Diamond Princess Stefano Ravera Sophie Gideon Mikiko Ikemoto Samantha McDonough Silvio Zampieri Discovery Princess Craig Street DuVaul Gamble Neil Rose Catalin Ionel Emerald Princess Giuseppe Castellano David Frost Lauren Meyer Enache Popescue Enchanted Princess Nick Nash Gary Golding Duke Christopher Francisco Patricio Grand Princess Christopher B. Lye Jayson Douglass Callie Smit Giuseppe Francina Island Princess Paul Slight Andi Sanders Mark Gillespie Francesco Ciorfito Majestic Princess Andrea Spinardi Kristoff Greyling Ron Goodman Douw Steyl Regal Princess Aldo Traverso Allie Ambriano Matt Thompson Nicola Furlan Royal Princess Steve Holland Armando Merin Ruth Sandell Claudio Giuliani Ruby Princess Mario Tani Michael Reitano Tim Donovan Jacques Ghennai Sapphire Princess Todd McBain Fernando Cunha Ben Powney Francesco Ciorfito Sky Princess Heikki Laakkonen Paul Chandler-Burns Madison Adams Giuseppe Gelmini <COPY TO THIS LINE SO THERE IS SPACE TO TYPE CHANGE NOTES AFTER THE CHART> (Changes made: Ciorfito added as DRO for Sapphire) Future moves: Caribbean - CD Jody Miles joins on April 27. Discovery - Captain Smith returns in May. Island - ED Mark Gillespie leaves in mid-March. Regal - CD Aaron Hawkins (possibly?) joining when ship is in the UK. Royal - CD Corinne Steel returns in April. Sapphire - DRO Mario Propato plans to return "in a few months". Sky - CD Matt Barnard returns in May when ship is in Europe. Captain Laakkonen leaves on March 11 and returns in July.

Gathered images from Live reports: [Source: here] [Source: here]

Surely you mean Ruby? Royal will be in Seattle this summer. As others have said, you can just pick one dining room to make your life easier. And yes, if you picked a night to visit Crown Grill reservation, then that night's dining room reservation would basically be void.

Suggestion to merge with this thread here:

Check out this video here. It's an example of what you can expect.

@Bobbiegentryyou may or may not be tickled to find out the public-facing bridge cam is inoperable on the Diamond again. Another reason to chat with Captain Ravera!

I'm attaching the image directly seen in the seminar hosted by the VP of Sales. They repeatedly say "March 7 for Elites".

Wonderful report and a great takeaway. I don't deny the legitimacy of others' concerns as well, but have really appreciated and enjoyed the cruises we've been privileged to experience post-pandemic. I'm thankful for you taking precious time out of your vacation to share with us your thoughts throughout the days. And please come back to share with us how the Casino overlords treat you after your donations on this cruise! I watch a YouTube vlogger couple who started this experiment last year and have unquestionably categorized Princess's casino offers as being the most generous out of all the lines with which they've tried the casino experiment. I'm curious to see how your experience is as well. Hope you have/had a safe trip home and look forward to seeing where the seas take you next!

TO UPDATE THIS LIST: DO NOT push the "Quote" button. It creates a copy that the next person cannot properly update. DO select and copy ALL of the text (including the instructions and the list) up to COPY TO THIS LINE . . . from the most up-to-date list (the most recent reply with the list).  Go to the bottom of the latest post, to the "Reply to this Topic..." box to create a new post. Paste your copied text into that box. Make your modifications to the list. Add change notes at the bottom. Click the "Submit Reply" button just below the list you are modifying. Confirm that everything is correct! You can edit for up to 20 minutes. SHIP CAPTAIN CRUISE DIRECTOR ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR DIR, RESTAURANT OP's Caribbean Princess Ozren Marelic Daniel France Oscar Perego Coral Princess Diego Perra Kelvin Joy Joachim Rothe Crown Princess Vincenzo Lembo Olivia Guthrie Michael Kujawski Mariusz Czemarmazowicz Diamond Princess Stefano Ravera Sophie Gideon Mikiko Ikemoto Samantha McDonough Silvio Zampieri Discovery Princess Craig Street DuVaul Gamble Neil Rose Catalin Ionel Emerald Princess Giuseppe Castellano David Frost Lauren Meyer Enache Popescue Enchanted Princess Nick Nash Gary Golding Duke Christopher Francisco Patricio Grand Princess Christopher B. Lye Jayson Douglass Callie Smit Giuseppe Francina Island Princess Paul Slight Andi Sanders Mark Gillespie Francesco Ciorfito Majestic Princess Andrea Spinardi Kevin Tugwell Ron Goodman Douw Steyl Regal Princess Aldo Traverso Allie Ambriano Matt Thompson Nicola Furlan Royal Princess Steve Holland Armando Merin Ruth Sandell Claudio Giuliani Ruby Princess Mario Tani Michael Reitano Tim Donovan Jacques Ghennai Sapphire Princess Todd McBain Fernando Cunha Ben Powney Mario Propato Sky Princess Heikki Laakkonen Paul Chandler-Burns Madison Adams Giuseppe Gelmini <COPY TO THIS LINE SO THERE IS SPACE TO TYPE CHANGE NOTES AFTER THE CHART> (Changes made: Crown CD) Future moves: Caribbean - CD Jody Miles joins on April 27. Discovery - Captain Smith returns in May. Island - ED Mark Gillespie leaves in mid-March. Regal - CD Aaron Hawkins (possibly?) joining when ship is in the UK. Royal - CD Corinne Steel returns in April. Sky - CD Matt Barnard returns in May when ship is in Europe. Captain Laakkonen leaves on March 11 and returns in July.

I think the user's concerns are legitimate, but I'm thinking they likely cruised one of the 4-day/5-day jaunts, which are known to be much more packed, especially with kids and/or new cruisers. A regular 7-day shouldn't be any more different than what you'd have expected in the pre-pandemic times in terms of crowds. Hope you still have a great cruise.

They're trying their own riff on the gourmet milkshake trend that exploded all over social media several years back. I just don't think this makes any sense on a cruise line like Princess; it would sell much better on a Carnival or RCI. It's a really polarizing dessert; you'll find as many influencers shilling the product as much as there are people who cannot imagine needing to lick or chew off the edge of a glass just to enjoy part of the dessert. Mini-rant: As far as "premium desserts" go, I still personally can't believe this is a "perk" Princess is trying to sell as something special in their packages. It's so unorganically gimmicky, and I don't think the pictures on the menu make it look appetizing at all. And yet they can still manage to run out of ingredients for cookies in the buffet over the duration of a cruise. Rant over.