Arizona Wildcat

Princess does not operate the casinos.

Was told they stopped/slowed booking on Summit in August and September. Ship was over 90% booked. Were short some 250 crew. Not sure it did much good as TAs were slow to pull availability . They managed to add staff as the weeks went on. No idea if new hires or returning crew.

Agree accommodation of a large group or a VIP likely. Also could have staffing issues

It will vary by the length of the cruise and itinerary. Longer the cruise the more in formal dress. Caribbean less formal.than Europe. I have a top hat and tails. No way in heck will I pack them on a cruise. On a Christmas/NYE cruise this year. Will pack very nice sports coat/2pr of dress slacks/dress shirts and my tacky Christmas tie. Guessing about 1/3 will be in formal dress - suit and tie or better.

We made ours about 6 months out. Krooznut - you get the typo of the day award. Happens to everyone. I have often wished we were able to cancel our meal after our cruise or book an extra night if the meal was excellent.

Not sure what usual is today, but I would send an email and call. Seems 3 months is adequate.

Sorry for all the problems with flight changes. At least they have slowed from over 15000 changes a day to the 4000 area. We booked through Princess arriving the day of our cruise - something we have never done before but multiple flights from Arizona to LAX and my cruise could delay departure a few hours as it begins with 2 sea days. Thus worth the risk. We interestingly were immediately ticketed on Delta last May. Have now gotten 5 changes that include slight time adjustments, a new flight, and route change (Arizona to LAX via Las Vegas that took time as I had to call Princess who then had to call Delta) Princess is basically a consolidator. They are ticketing later as so many changes, but they do not control cancellations etc. While I did find Princess easy to contact; it would have been simpler to have booked directly with Delta as everything could have been done on line. PS when the price of my flight was reduced (really!) I had to call Princess to get the reduction. 4 calls in total. And yes, Princess and other consolidators often have great prices for international travel that are worth a bit of hassle if things go sideways.

Good comments and questions. We have 3 upcoming cruises - all 14-15 nights. Just got off a 12 night cruise. We booked all of these for the itinerary- not only the on board experience. In one case as a way to get across the ocean in comfort. We have adjusted our expectations. It will be interesting. The cruises vary greatly as to cabin - everything from veranda to suite - and are on Princess and HAL as well as X. Will report next June how things work out. FWIW we paid between $2700 and $4000 per passenger. Feel very reasonable with AI or equivalent on Princess and HAL . . . if service is at least very good. The first over Christmas. Fingers crossed.

You cannot even know what pier a ship will use. Much less which side of each pier. Some ports like Victoria BC have 4 berths where ships bow in to the shore. When full the ship furthest north (on port side) will have view the city and a huge concrete military landing field. Furthest south will have an ocean view. In between you look at the side of a other ship. Similar in SFO. One berth will provide a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge on the starboard side. The rest more city and pier views.

Absolutely. I was able to do nothing so called Princess. Took 20 minutes to completely check in. Medallion ordered to pickup up at port. Since I usually misplace 4 or 5 Seapass cards, wonder if this will be better or worse.

I can. A combination of being quarantined for covid, a shortage of staff, and a really terrible HUGE storm. Guess I would ask Jim his comment in 25 words or less about his B2B2B on Summit in Augustcand September. Mine would be very short staff who improved during the cruise as many were new. Food a general decline in quality. Weather thankfully except for missing a port (wind) was calm seas.

I was able to do nothing on the app. Simply called. A wait of only a couple minutes. They entered everything and ordered our medallions. Even helped with uploading photos.

You also have no idea of the current staffing levels. They are not fully booking on some ships because of not enough staff on board

Suggest you post on the roll call for your cruise. Overlord is a good tour company for Normandy WWII tours

Truly sad to have such awful weather. Just received an email from a crew member we met years ago. He said he was seasick and vomiting. Lots of others nearby sick as well. That certainly adversely effects service. Best wishes to all on board that weather and service improves

Correct. Travel agent rates and several others including Blue Chip which are considered comped are not eligible. The list is shown on Celebrity or RCCL shareholer credit.. By a Google search. Sorry cannot post the list using my phone.

Great discussion on semantics. Loved it. As for balancing the number of passengers with crew. . . Cunard recently did exactly that. They cancelled reservations of passengers shortly before their cruise. Lots of camcellations. Some were told their trip was cancelled at the pier. The result was very angry customers. Lawsuits and a bit of chaos. A cruiseline can certainly close the cruise to New bookings, but cancelling existing bookings was awful. No idea how cruiselines can accurately staff as visas seem to come thru very slowly then for no reason several hundred are approved in one day. Just think how confusing the covid rules were to passengers. Cruiselines have that plus crazy visa rules.

Agree. Have a TA in April and shore excursions have been added recently. Finding a local company to coordinate the tour for you would be easy. Then discuss it on your roll call.

Told my parents my minors were statistics (poker) and chemistry (studied metabolism of alcohol).

The menus used to be the same fleet wide. Today seems to vary by region as supply is different in Australia from the US or Europe. Saw a couple interesting last minute changes on Summit Iceland TA in August. Once you are on board the menus will populate. Great posts above!

I had the Phyllis wrapped lamb in August. Normally a dish I love. The lamb tasted actually spoiled. It was greasy and . . . Nicest thing I can saw was they took it away. Others in our group made similar comments. Hopefully just a bad night.

If your flight is cancelled HAL will provide its best effort to get you yo the ship. Going in a day early - you should do that any way. Two days better so you can enjoy SA.

Glad all was OK. We had transfers and flights booked to San Juan. The cruiseline simply put messed up and when bad weather cancelled our flight we missed the ship. Arrived in San Juan alone. Booked a hotel and got a cruiseline rep 8am next morning. They arranged a flight to Barbados and 2 nights hotel there along with meal and taxi vouchers. Was interesting. On the tour involved in this mess the rains blocked the road to the port. OK going the other direction so drove to a Marriot safely. Not in danger. Indeed on a private tour always think about how far to venture on your own and always take a copy of your passport- DW carries 3 day supply of meds in a baggie in her purse too. You never know what can happen

It is actually wonderful having the pools and other areas almost to yourself. Usually a special lunch In the MDR or other venue.too

No deal for me.