rj59

Princess is broadening their demographic, and I was surprised to watch several videos claiming it's popular with families. Their new Sun is furthering that, with rides for the first time. They also have deck parties and line dancing (Love Boat party) that a line like HAL wouldn't do. For solos, Princess is also the easiest line to get the highest status on, since they allow it based on number of cruises and give double credit for solos. Even 5 cruises gets you Platinum, which gives half-off wifi and an upgrade to 100% FCC vacation insurance for any cancellation reason. Elite is only 15 cruises, and gets you a minibar setup and free laundry. They also offer a dozen or so 2-4 night cruises relocating for the Alaska season, and I live in Washington state, so I was able to get to Elite status with under 40 nights of cruising, whereas on HAL I have over 100 nights and I'm still at 3-star. My Princess Elite also transfers to Virgin and MSC. Up until now, Princess has been really proactive with reduced solo prices, and I went to 14 nights earlier this month to the Med for $590, almost the same as the double price. Unfortunately, I don't see any big solo discounts going forward, but at least their website makes it easy to search for solo bargains.

That's multiple questions. If your criteria for being looked after is having a solo cabin with daylight, then there are larger ships on HAL and Royal that have balconies and oceanview single cabins, but that's not a really reliable way to find bargains, because it's overall price that matters. If you mean which is most affordable, then right now there's not much of anything that has a lot of solo deals, because demand is high, so they have no reason to, and solo cabins get taken quickly. If you want to cruise affordably and have a good time, you have to keep up on deals and do frequent searches and look on solo deals on here. I do Expedia searches almost every day for one person, and Cruiseplum has sections for Hot Deals, Last-minute deals, and Solo Deals, and you can set up saved searches by all sorts of criteria. How you are treated as a solo depends largely on you, the crew of a specific ship, and a specific sailing, so any generalization you hear on here is just prejudice or usually the result of a good or bad experience. Personally, I find that the more effort I put in as a solo to appreciating crew, the more they appreciate me. So I know the basic greetings and thanks in most crew languages, and if I meet someone I like, I make sure to look up some phrases in their language. If it's a full, large ship and crew are overworked, I'm not going to expect a lot of personal service, just as nobody would want a barista at Starbucks with a line out the door to sit and chat with someone for 5 minutes. Crews are also changing, with fewer Russians and Ukrainians and Eastern Europeans, and more from Africa, particularly Zimbabwe. I dislike crew on Royal and Celebrity begging for a good review, but I understand they must get pressured to do it, which I accept if it results in better service. For bargains, I just got off 14 nights on Island Princess for $580 solo in Europe, I'm going on Azamara for 7 nights in Spain and Virgin in the Med next year for $100/nt solo, and I just booked a Royal out of LA solo for $100/nt. Earlier I went on HAL coastal cruises for $50/nt and am going Royal in Alaska for $500 for 7 nights, none of them in solo cabins. All are inside, but when I want air and sunlight, I go out on promenade decks, which are free and give better views.

Bring a big bag and put it on the table. Anything small, and rude people will push it out of the way or pretend they didn't see it--I saw this happen on embarkation on Cunard, with a really angry person. Or drape a coat, or print out a sign saying "OCCUPIED". It's not only rude passengers, but also crew who take away my plate and drinks when I'm just going for something else, even if I'm not finished. It's not just being solo, and it's not always deliberate, because I've found myself wondering if a table is still occupied, if there's an empty plate and half-finished drink but no sign of a person. It's the same as with a deck chair with a towel on it--nobody knows if somebody is coming back or not, unless there's something clearly visible left.

This has been happening with Celebrity lately, so as a solo, I look at the double rate and then just mentally double it. I booked with my niece for a cruise a few weeks ago, and she just no-showed at embarkation and I got my taxes for her a few months ago. You can just use a relative whose birthdate and passport info you know. Sometimes Celebrity has less than 200%, like on a few Beyond sailings next summer, and on a couple of transatlantic cruises on Eclipse I booked in 2025, for $650-750. Otherwise, for searching Princess, Carnival, and NCL, you can search by single passenger. For HAL, they usually charge double the single price, but some of their new ships have solo Oceanview, and a lot of the Royal ships have solo cabins as well, so I use travel websites to search for them by number of passengers. Cruiseplum also has a section for solo deals and hot deals--I scored Azamara and Virgin in Europe for $100/day or so, deals that quickly vanished.

You'll save money and hassle if you just take an Uber or Lyft from LAX to the pier. I've just missed a full bus and had to wait half an hour or so for the next one, and they stop at every terminal, so if you're at a far terminal it will take quite a while sometimes. You also have to get everyone on and off the bus, rather than hopping in a car and getting there quicker and cheaper. It's especially true of the return trip, where they'll wait to fill a bus, with luggage, which really complicates things, and they have to stop and unload at every terminal, which can take forever. If you're not used to Uber or Lyft, practice using the apps for a few trips in your city, because it will make your life much more pleasant, especially for nights out or hospital trips and for travel. Then when you get to LAX or on the return trip, just open the apps when you get off the ship and choose the cheapest option to LAX, and the driver will meet you outside the cruise terminal or the Rideshare pickup area at LAX.

If it's not in your Cruise Personalizer on the Princess website, it's too early. Princess chat rarely works, so you'd be better off calling, and on future cruises using a Travel Agent, who will handle all the calls and details for you. The problem with Alaska is that there was record cruise visits last year, probably more this year, and there's sky-high cost of living in Alaska, so handling all the excursions for more and more huge ships depends on staffing and paying Americans enough to encourage them to come to Alaska during cruise season. A lot of the seasonal employees might not even be up there at the beginning of May. Ports like Juneau also have kiosks when you get off the ship offering excursions like whale watching and a bus to Mendenhall. In the meantime, look at excursions for each port on their booking page, and then google to see if a local company has a cheaper option, or a site like shoreexcursionsgroup, which will show excursions for your specific cruise--they sometimes have excursions that are the same as the ship but cheaper, or more interesting ones that aren't offered or that sell out.

I go solo most of the time. Princess is good for it, with options for being social or not, to your comfort level. Friendly crew helps, and the app lets you choose a private or shared table. Participating on things like Zumba or other group activities helps not feeling isolated, and I find that going on excursions is a good way to meet people while doing something fun.

Discovery has free laundry, a nice benefit. I try to be polite and not do laundry too early or too late, and be there when the time expires so I'm not keeping someone else waiting. After restart, my first two cruises on Majestic had bins of tokens in the laundry room, so laundry was free then too, as well as my morning Americanos in the cafe. That was a nice time, with 30% occupancy, despite the masks and tests and quarantine floors.

The couple minutes of waiting at the port outweighs the minor chance you'll forget the medallion at home, or it will get lost in the mail or misdelivered. If I remember right, they also attach your lanyard at the port, which I always have trouble with when it was shipped to home. So now I'm happy to pick up at the terminal, although it was fun watching the shipping progress from Singapore. Another way to avoid a hassle with a lanyard is to hang it on the door latch when you enter the room, since it will magnetically attach to the door and keep you from forgetting it when leaving the room.

I think you'd better off in the buffet, sampling what they have there. I was on Royal in September, and they really upped the Indian game, having dishes themed by Indian region, so I saw and tasted a lot of things I'd never had before on a ship or restaurant. You can try a little of everything and decide if you like something. Usually I either try a few things at the buffet when it opens and eat after 8, or eat in the MDR and do buffet sampling later. The same goes for other lines--NCL and Celebrity have good Indian buffet food, whereas Carnival actually includes Indian vegetarian every night as an MDR option, which I enjoy.

I'm leaving on Island Princess on Thursday--insides still on sale for $500 or so. NCL are the kings of last-minute fare drops--you can hop on several Transatlantic cruises for under $500. It would make an interesting bet to see if Princess actually sticks to its no more cruise discounts after booking promise and how they'll justify it. Otherwise they'll be sailing with a lot of empty cabins, while other lines on similar unpopular routes or times will do deep discounting.

I don't mind it being sold, but hopefully not scrapped. Some of my first cruises were on the gaudy Carnival Imagination and Inspiration out of Long Beach, and it was really disheartening to watch them being beached and dismantled in Turkey. I saw the same video, and she mentioned a new Princess app on Dec 1--I guess I'll see when I'm on Island Princess then. She also said, more interesting, that as a travel agent she's been getting calls from confused customers who see price drops for 2024-25 cruises, who rightfully wonder what about the Princess promise not to drop fares.

Another thing I really love about Celebrity ships, both in hot and cold weather, is the covered, temperature-controlled solarium, with its own cafe (I don't know about Beyond, but Apex had a secret free espresso machine in the solarium spa cafe). I hate doing Princess coastal cruises and Alaska ones with no covered pool area (except on a few older ships and Majestic), which makes it pretty miserable on the pool deck, for passengers and crew. Even in the Caribbean I valued the solarium on Apex, because it got too hot for me to bake in the sun, and the solarium was kept cool, and had a small pool that wasn't as busy as the main one.

I keep some of theirs and HALs in my trunk to use as grocery bags. Celebrity has been giving out nice ones lately, with a thick fabric and a zippered pouch attached to the inside, actually suitable for a beach tote bag. They probably wanted to cut down on waste. Instead, maybe they could do something cool and memorable for upper-level loyalty guests, like the Delft ship tiles that HAL gives out.

I'm Elite on Princess and have been on 30 cruises. That said, Celebrity Apex, a previous itineration of the Beyond, was the most wonderful ship I've ever been on. There's so much more to do on Beyond, especially entertainment, with two production casts and incredible shows both in the main theater and later shows in Eden. You get the multiple dining rooms with themed decor and menus, the Eden cafe for lunch and breakfast, and the magic carpet, which is incredible for tender ports (and their debarkation area is very roomy and quick). The rooftop garden is wonderful, with the two-level walking track going through it. The only thing you don't get on Beyond is the big movie screen dominating the pool deck, but I get sick on Princess of concerts and sports and movies blaring all day and evening on a screen--it's kind of sad for people to go on vacation and stare at screens, even a big one. And the pizza is better on Princess, although the Celebrity buffet one on Beyond will be better, especially if you catch it right out of the oven. But all the people here have their own biases, such as those who love bingo and game shows (big on Princess) or a central piazza where they can sit and watch ballroom dancers or music (the Beyond atrium area is a lively martini bar, with coffee shop and other bars on higher levels). So I'd watch some YouTube tours and reviews of each ship. I'd particularly recommend "Which Premium cruise line is on top of their game right now" by Gary Bembridge on Tips for Travelers, the top-rated cruise review channel, with in-depth comparison of Princess, HAL, and Celebrity and who each is right for. Like me, he's a little burned out on the sameness of Princess ships and finds the Edge-class on Celebrity more innovative. That might change with Sun Princess, but then one of his criticisms is that Princess ships are getting too big for comfort, which I have found to be true on Royal-class ships, now that ships are full again (Beyond is about 500 fewer passengers at full occupancy).

If your bid isn't accepted, you can always try the front desk when you board, and then maybe after the ship leaves, in case they have a no-show or someone else moves cabins. That way you can ask to see a cabin and evaluate location. If you have some noise or other issue with a cabin, that might also be an option. The bid process will probably be more difficult now, with fuller ships, though. Last-minute bids might also be a good option, since you can see with a pretend booking which cabins have the most availability, if at all. So for Island Princess next week, balconies are sold out but there a number of obstructed Oceanview cabins that people probably don't want for a Mediterranean cruise, and the $20-80 bid range reflects it, so that's what I'm aiming for. How much you paid might also give you some preference--my sister was upgraded on our cruise from inside to the obstructed balcony for free, but she paid for Plus, whereas I'm Elite but didn't spring for Plus and wasn't upgraded.

You get the discounted rate now either way. The other advantage of waiting. until on board is that you don't need to buy for the entire cruise, and can either do 24 hours or rest of voyage, which I do so I don't spend all my cruise staring at screens. I'll be on Island for 14 days next week, and instead of buying wifi onboard, I bought a $13 3GB eSIM Europe plan for the 10 or so port days, since it's more valuable in foreign countries to have data in ports, for things like maps and train schedules.

Just be sure not to get tempted by cheaper fares in summer, because the crowds and temperatures will be unbearable, with long waits to get on the cable car in Santorini and a possibility of not being allowed into the Parthenon because of new crowd limits. If you're not tied to the RCL brands, Princess and HAL have long Greek Islands cruises--I'm leaving on Tuesday for 14 nights on Island Princess, which I got for $590 for an inside. Celebrity Infinity is doing Greek cruises throughout this winter too, rerouted from Israel cruises, and I remember seeing some good itineraries in Spring that go to Greek islands and include Istanbul.

Celebrity has very good-size interiors on their ships, with usually a loveseat or big chair. I've been on many on deck 7-8 and that's my favorite spot, since on Decks 2-3 you get noise from atrium music (you can also get it if an upper-level cabin is near the atrium). Eclipse going from Barcelona-FLL on Oct 30 2025 is actually $400 or so, $30/nt for an inside, so I booked that last night, as well as going from FLL-London in March 2025 for $35/nt. I'm going solo, and they actually were giving a rare reduced single supplement, so it ended up $650-750 for the cruises. What I like about Celebrity transatlantic cruises, apart from the Sky lounge and protected Solarium, is the shorter itineraries with fewer consecutive sea days, usually 4-5 max between stops.

Yeah, nothing that I see, and if they refuse to lower fares going forward or drop the single supplement to fill ships, it's going to be bleak, after so many great solo deals since restart. I'm leaving on Island for 14 nights in the Mediterranean for $560 for a solo inside, and I'm afraid I might not see such deals again on Princess.

The $175 back goes until 2/15, so plenty of time for a new booking. And since they're committed to never reducing cruise prices, you could book any 2024-2025 cruise now and get the best price, absolutely guaranteed (for 72 hours after booking that is). I've also added $300 off $1000 for HAL and $200 off $1000 for NCL, both good until the end of 2023. If you don't see the Princess one on your card, I find that adding and sometimes redeeming travel offers will get them to aim more travel ones my way, even on my no-fee Blue Cash Everyday card.

What I would advise is flying into SeaTac and taking a cheap, quick Alaska or Delta flight to Vancouver. Then get a hotel anywhere you like. A budget option would be to fly Southwest into Bellingham, my town, and take a bus or train to the cruise terminal.

I"m booked in June 2025 going from Florida to Montreal.

No, not like Princess, who give a $50/$250 OBC for veterans. Royal/Celebrity just give an initial small discount. HAL currently gives a $100 OBC for veterans for all cruises also. You're better off just waiting for one of the many sales that give standard OBC for booking, which I've used to get the same OBC I'd get from shareholder/military on Princess.

I'd ask and say it's for religious reasons, and they'll do their best to satisfy you. I know most lines are happy to do Indian meals, so I imagine Filipino chefs would be handy with Chinese food also. A cinema in Seattle has a Christmas Day tradition of showing "Fiddler on the Roof" with catered Chinese food.