yoyosma

Still need lots of pictures of the Royal/Regal obstructed cabins.

Please help your fellow cruisers out by posting here or sending me your pictures.

 

 

theog99@telus.net

 

Theo

Theo the website is great, I have used it a lot. It would be very helpful if you got some pictures of the Lido and Marina deck forward obstructed view cabins on Regal/Royal too. I did find some, but it took a bit of doing and searching.

Does anyone have any pictures of the balconies on Royal, Emerald 101-110?

 

Thanks in advance :)

Here they are: https://sites.google.com/site/royalregalprincess/home/8-emerald

Princess sent a e-mail. We booked M115 BZ on the Royal They upgraded us to E439 BV. Would you take this upgrade or decline

 

Ciao

lucksak

I would not do this. M115 is up high with a great view. According to cruisedeckplans although the cabin is designated as obstructed due to a solid railing, the railing is in fact a regular glass railing. This area of the ship is quiet with few passersby in the hallway. I have stayed in both an inside and a mini suite on Marina deck at the front of the ship and loved it. It is darker at night for star gazing as well. It is way forward though and you may walk a lot to get midship or aft. And if there are rough seas this won't be the best location if you have motion sickness.

According to Renmar's obstructed view website, E439 doesn't have an obstruction when looking straight out with a slight obstruction toward the aft. It is down low and you will be looking at lifeboats even if straight forward is not obstructed. Noise could also be an issue because the cabin entrance is in the elevator lobby.

Here is the link to Renmar's website:

https://sites.google.com/site/royalregalprincess/home

Someone else has posted a picture from the side of all the cabins but I don't have a quick link to it.

I think I'd go for a deluxe balcony for the unobstructed view alone. I do not like looking at life boats. We had a mini suite in the front of the Royal on Marina that I really liked despite the narrow balcony. We used the balcony a lot too. And the sofa was used a lot, but it is bigger in a mini. I have booked an obstructed view deluxe balcony on the Regal for 3 weeks next January but the obstruction is not lifeboats, it is a solid railing and the balcony faces forward. I am really looking forward to that too.

What ever you decide, have a great time.

I have had several cabins on Marina deck and have another one booked for March. But they are all forward of the forward staircase. There are cabins above them. I love the location. Quiet and great views from the balcony. I watched a group of pilot whales our first sea day from my balcony. You could see them so clearly from above.

Avoid cabins with busy public areas above them.

I can manage with the new furniture but would really like the old blue mesh back. I sit on a bed pillow and find something to raise the front legs an inch or so, this is important. Even a rolled up towel under the front legs helps. I discovered this in Alaska a year ago when we were upgraded to an accessible cabin. We pulled one inside and used the ramp. Turns out it was a much better seat angle. The foot stool can double as a side table. My husband doesn't use it so I get a foot stool and a side table.

There are numberous threads of cabin pictures, food pictures, port pictures, alcoholic beverages pictures, etc., maybe we ought to have one for flower pictures also!

 

Thanks to each and every one of you for telling about your experiences with floral arrangements on Princess. You’ve convinced me to purchase some for our Alaskan cruise. I’ll most likely pre-purchase as it would be my luck that on-board sales wouldn’t take place the week I’m on, and I don’t want to go a second cruise in a row without beautiful flowers to come “home” to each evening. I will give on-board a try someday, though.

 

It’s hard to choose just one arrangement :rolleyes:, but at the moment I’m leaning towards that retry on roses.

 

Would love to hear more experiences, please keep them coming!

 

There’s been at least one mention of bringing flowers on in port. Any one else do this? What ports have you been successful doing this? I’ve read quite a few people purchase flowers at a Seattle market and carry them on ships in that port. In Hawaii there were floral arrangements being sold in some of the areas you pass through to get back onto the ship. I don’t think they were being sold by the ship, but by a local business. In other ports I've thought about buying a bouquet and carrying on, if allowed by that ship and at that port, but hadn't seen a florist close by hotel or where we've been dropped off by taxi.

I have purchased flowers in Vancouver brought them on board for an Alaska cruise B2B, several times. I always purchase a red and pink ginger arrangement from a vendor in the cruise terminal in Barbados - I consider this a tradition. The ginger lasts for weeks, but the greenery dies in a week or so. I have purchased beautiful flowers from the Publix store in Ft. Lauderdale and taken them on with wonderful results as well. I have several collapsible vases I use. They work very well. It can be a little tricky to handle the flowers during check in and boarding, but if you are careful, no problem.

My personal experience is that it is not at all crowded. In fact I felt they could add a number of lounges and still be very comfortably spaced.

The only time I ever got the sewing kit was when I was in a suite, so it's hard for me to miss them but if I could count on getting them, I could leave my own sewing kit at home.

I do miss the linen mist when it isn't available. I always ask for more and sometimes will get an extra one. For the person asking about the linen mist, my theory is that is is sprayed on your linen for a light fresh scent, but I'm not really 100% sure.

my meal of choice on thanksgiving is anything but turkey. We cruise a lot at thanksgiving almost every year on Princess. I usually order steak or we go to the crown grill. I like some of the turkey stuff - but not the turkey.

One important note, the pumpkin pie is not at all good, IMHO.

OK, got onto personalizer and can see my cruise info, but can't try to print anything because it is more than 75 days away.

I think the cruise personalizer is down, probably for maintenance. I seem to often have problems between 11pm and 1am eastern time zone. I logged in, accessed my princess, tried to access my next cruise in the personalizer and it keeps asking me to log in. I don't think it is usually long before it is back.

Have you subscribed to the Princess site? You will be informed of sales there. We get a lot of mail from Princess too. I have mostly found the best prices by booking really early and getting a cabin we like. I can then keep checking to see for price drops. We booked a Jan 2016 on that 1 day sale. the incentives were the reason for booking. I found out it was a one agency deal. It just so happened that the TA we use most is affiliated with that agency. he kept us informed and we got the kind of cabin we need.

Yes, I am signed up for the princess emails and distress sale notifications. I get them all the time. I have booked them too on occasion. I also get emails from a few of the big online agencies, but I need to keep unsubscribing when I cruise to avoid downloading too many emails over the ships internet. So I don't get all of them. Thank you very much.

It was for cruises from summer of 2015 'til fall of 2016. It may have been, as you sy, only big box. That is where i heard about it and where I booked. CC doesn't allow us to name them.

Thanks Doris, I appreciate your help. Of course I didn't find it, but it doesn't matter, I am not quite ready to book fall 2015 yet. Not sure if my DH will be retired by then and won't need to book at Thanksgiving if he is.

The one TA sale explains why I didn't get it. I am at my summer home and thought perhaps that the it came snail mail.

I just took a look based on your post Doris and I can't find anything about a one day sale, today. I will go to some big box sites and see if it is advertised there, but what exactly is this sale. Non of my saved cruises changed price today, it wasn't on the view deals in my princess and I didn't see it on the Princess home page. Any help would be appreciated as I want to book for Jan/Feb soon.

For my money, I would pick the Pan Pacific in a harbor/mountain view room. I love to get up early and watch the ship come in under the Lions Gate Bridge. The first time I watched was the Sapphire Princess and it was dark out still. A gorgeous sight. I still regret not trying to get a photo of it. The last time it was the Diamond Princess and it was already daylight out, but still a wonderful sight. I love to watch my ships coming in. I would choose this hotel post cruise as well, I am truly hooked on it. And my husband thought it was the best too.

I paid $45 to have a shellac manicure on the Royal Princess in March. I was on board for 2 weeks and near the end one of my nails snagged, too short to cut off. It was fixed for free.

Maybe if they charged for pool chairs by the hour the almost never present chair hogs would be a thing of the past.

I love the new Alfredo's. I too was surprised they weren't charging for it. I think my DH and I ate there 3 or 4 times during our 14 days on board in March. It was nice to be able to have dinner whenever without worrying about what we were wearing, especially on port days. However, since I am already accustomed to not paying for it I am not happy I will be in the future. And I don't drink much, so free wine is not a saving grace for me.

OP asking about FLL, where you do need to go off of the ship, since you have left the country, regardless of booked as 2-7 day cruises or one 14 day. Difference between immigration and customs blurred to me.

 

Agree that Whittier is completely different since you are already in the United States.

If you wish to visit Fort Lauderdale on turn around day you will take your passport, in transit card, old cruise card and new cruise card with you. you may get off at any time during disembarkation. You will ring your old card out, go into the cruise terminal and get in the line for customs and immigration with your passport and in transit card. After clearing this, you can do your thing in Ft. Lauderdale. You may then reboard whenever you choose once regular embarkation has begun. You will reboard using your new card.

If you are not planning to leave, you will meet in a designated area with other intransit passengers with you old card, new card, in transit card and passport. When everyone else is off the ship you will be escorted into the cruise terminal and your passport will be looked at by an agent. Then you will be seated to wait to reboard once the ship reaches a zero count. Then you reboard with your new card for a new picture. It doesn't usually take too long, but there always seems to be at least 1 passenger who doesn't read the information or doesn't believe it applies to them, so you usually have to wait a while for the zero count. I have had it take as little as 10 minutes total or as long as an hour and a half. The more people in transit, the longer it takes.

Simply put, the customs part of customs and immigration is where you declare what you are bringing into the country and may include inspection of your luggage or collection of duty. The immigration portion determines your eligibility to enter the country, thus the need to show your passport or other paperwork. I am sure there is more to it than I am aware, but this is my basic understanding.

Whittier is completely different because you clear US customs and immigration in Canada before boarding the vessel whose first stop is in the US. If you didn't clear in Canada before you leave, you would have to clear in your first port in the US. Or perhaps customs in Whittier.

Unfortunately, the part about not having to go thru Customs on turnaround day on a 14 day is untrue. Since it is in FLL, you have to get off and go thru Customs either way.

 

And since it is a turnaround day, you will get a new mini-bar setup for Elite either way.

Actually, I am pretty sure you only go through immigration. You do not fill out the customs form. That has always been my experience in Ft. Lauderdale. In Alaska you have already cleared immigration (and customs) when you board in Vancouver so don't have to do anything at Whittier.

Correction, you do have to activate your new cruise card.

I have always gotten internet minutes for both legs of a B2B cruise booked as a logical. On my last one I had been informed by someone that I would no longer get the second week of minutes, confirmed by the internet manager's helper. so I bought the special extra minutes. Turned out that I got the minutes for the next segment as well as having the extra minutes carry over to the second leg.

Always get a second mini bar at the beginning of the second leg.

Always get a second bathroom amenities at the beginning of the second leg.

I have never gotten the special OBC that comes with having more than 20 or 31 or 41 or 51 cruise credits on the second leg, just the first one. No complaints here though, I am happy with what they give me.

Always get the free wine tasting for both weeks.

Have I forgotten anything?

I have stayed twice on Marina deck forward of the forward elevators and love the location. Cabins above you so very quiet. No motion problems and a good sea view from the balcony. You have to look way down to see something other than lifeboats. I really don't like looking down on them. 1 deck up to Lido and easy access to Horizon Ct. and Sanctuary if you use it. Not a lot of vibration from the engines. We are staying on Marina again in March.

Right. Booking a show in advance for the Displacement of the Seas just means you will get a seat (if there at least 10 minutes before the show), but not necessarily the seat you would like. Thus the lineup just as if you had never made a reservation.

 

I do not see the sense of committing to a particular show time weeks in advance of a cruise when you have no idea what else might be offered at the same time as other activities may be what you would be more interested in doing that evening.

Displacement of the Seas - perfect! I just tend to call those ships Otis.

How perfect an end to all the wake up calls.

Thank you for your review. I have sailed 3 weeks now on the Royal and enjoyed each one. It may not be perfect, but it is nice.