photomikey

Lord knows nothing in writing is ever different from how it actually goes on the ship.

Look in the princess app, under spa, under services -> relaxation areas. Mine was $299 aud for 13 nights. 

I'm in a mini-suite.  I am 85 days out today, and the bidding can begin (and already has, for me!).

I am interested in a Club Class Mini Suite - Forward Facing, and a Penthouse Suite Aft Facing.  (And really nothing inbetween.)

Any logic to apply on how to bid on either?  I'd probably rather be in the Penthouse if there is any strategy to be had.

I've been cruising 15 years.  I used to read these boards obsessively and steadfastly avoid rooms above/below public areas, near service areas, too close to elevators, too close to stairs, etc.

5 years ago we got stuck directly below the pool bar which is 1) open late, 2) loud, 3) they powerwash it at oh-dark-thirty in the morning.

Never heard a peep, the whole cruise.  Not the music, not talking, not with the balcony open, not in port, not at sea, not at midnight, not at 5am.

I stopped worrying about noise and in the 5 years since I book wherever, and I've had no issues.

I'll be on the Royal Princess in Nov of 2023 (in about 90 days) - I'm going to post my understanding of the covid requirements to board, could anyone confirm or clarify if this is correct?

• You need two doses of a covid vaccine, two doses from 2021 (two, almost three years ago) are perfectly acceptable
• No boosters at all are required, just the two shot sequence from 2021
• You need to show your paper vaccine record, no QR code or actual verification is required
• At boarding they will ask if you took a covid test before boarding and if it was negative and you must confirm that you took a covid test and that it was negative to board, but they won't ask to see it and they won't test you at the pier

Is this all correct?

I had sent an e-mail last night, but I thought attaching to the link Hipockets posted was a better method, so I submitted again today.

3 hours ago, mcgratru said:

so as not to trigger anyone.

I tend to agree with Rick&Jeannie that I thought the question had been answered pretty thoroughly, and I don't understand where mcgratru got their feelings hurt.

3 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

On the Aussie based ships, if they are using AUD onboard, the price you see on the menu is the price you pay.

I am an American going on an Oz cruise in November.  I understand there is no daily service charge for the ship (the $18 or whatever per day), and no tips on the drinks (the 18%).  I was led to believe the cruise line paid the gratuity on the service staff anyway, and baked it into the price (so the workers still get paid the same).  Is that the case?

On 7/27/2023 at 12:04 PM, grnidlad8 said:

Question on the Australian ETA app...

Nowhere can I find if seflies are allowed while enrolling in the ETA.  Everything I see just says take a photo, assuming someone else is taking your photo.  When I google the specific topic, it says NO SELFIES are accepted. However, the Australian official website doesn't go into whether or not selfies are actually allowed.  

Has anyone taken a selfie and already arrived in Australia by doing so?  Any problems? 

The photo you take appears to only be used to confirm that it's your passport, they don't use the photo for anything other than facial comparison.  

The alternate answer is, it makes you take the photo so tight that it's impossible to tell where your arm is, so it doesn't matter if it's a selfie or not.

I am new to Princess, I booked the day of or perhaps the day after the announcement.  We're on a 13 night cruise out of Sydney to New Zealand.  We booked a mini-suite with myself, my wife, and my daughter.  $5033, no perks.  Princess Plus would have been $6900 or so.  I told my wife, who loves a good fancy coffee, and hates keeping track of how much she's spent, that I'd order her one every few hours and just dump them out if she doesn't drink them, and I'd still save a thousand dollars over the course of a week.

I don't know what the fascination with the pizza place is, if it looks unbelievable, I guess I'll cough up $15.  

My feeling on room service has always been, well, I could run up to the Lido and get a couple sandwiches and an ice cream and be back on my balcony in 10 minutes, or I could order from room service and wait 45 minutes.

Oh, that's what I was hoping.  We were just suite class in Celebrity this spring and man we loved the experience.

For those who have done both, how does NCL compare?

Will we need reservations for the Haven restaurant, and are they difficult to get? Need i make them before we board, or can i wait until the first night? 

4 minutes ago, The Shrike said:

If you're eligible to upgrade you'll get an e-mail around 120 days prior to embarkation.

If I book today for a sailing in 89 days, can I still expect an opportunity to bid?

Sorry for what I'm sure is a repeat question, it's hard to sift through 78 pages.

Does *everyone* get a chance to bid, or do you have to be selected?  I'm looking at the Nov 14 Epic cruise, paying for a balcony (MA) and hoping to bid to a 2BR Haven Suite.  There is a ton of Haven availability right now.

On Celebrity, anyone can bid.  I gather that on NCL, you have to hope.

Any thoughts?

Celebrity Infinity, about 8 years ago.  Second night of the cruise, smooth sailing all day with progressive chop building as the day wears on.  By evening we are in pretty solid rolling waves.  It's dinner time and we keep pushing it back and pushing it back hoping for the ship to settle down, but no luck.  My wife is a lightweight (and I'm unaffected) so around 8pm I go to the lido to get her some broth and crackers.  Hop in the elevator alone.  After a few floors the doors to the elevator open to take on more passengers.  One little old lady standing there outside the MDR, wearing her little old lady best.  This lady could have passed for my grandma.  Just as the doors open the ship lurches, and the lady puts her finger over her mouth as if she's holding it in.  There are sickness bags hanging in the elevator.  I instinctively pull one out, snap it open, and hand it to the lady. The lady leans forward vomits into the bag, then pulls back and looks at me in horror.  The entire sequence lasts about ten seconds, at which point the elevator dings, the doors close, the lady stays standing outside the MDR, and I proceed on my way to the Lido to get my wife some soup... now holding a warm bag of vomit.

FIN

10 hours ago, TeeRick said:

The post Thanksgiving-Christmas peak is here to stay. 

In the old days we used to call a part of the year where cold weather helped the spread of a virus that gave you the sniffles and was dangerous to the elderly and immunocompromised "cold and flu season".

2 hours ago, BklynBorn47 said:

In addition, people who have a family member test positive (home test) just assume they will get it too.  Those positives are never recorded in any official statistics.  

Similarly, married couple, one gets it, the other never does.  So two people can sleep next to each other and share a fork in the kitchen and not cross-infect, but I have to wear a mask in the grocery store so I don't get it from someone in the next aisle?

On 2/25/2022 at 2:58 PM, bdstickks0944 said:

Ok. Well I’m not going to get into a dumb argument about COVID.  I’m a nurse, and I trust the numbers, and while cases are down, 145,000 cases in one day does not indicate that it’s over.  Let’s all just do what we need to do individually, and not turn this into nonsense.  Everyone enjoy your cruises!

145,000 out of how many?  I see you listed the numerator - what's the denominator?

The balcony is huge.  It's bigger than the room.  We met some other parents through kid's club and had several sailaway parties from our aft corner balcony, then hosted a crowd during the day we went through the panama canal locks.  At times we had 20 people out there and there was still plenty of room to move around.

The room probably couldn't be shared with two adult couples.  I'd sooner have adjacent regular sized balconies.

Our family of five, grandparents (60s) in a balcony cabin, and us (2x early 40s, 1x age 9) in a Neptune Suite Aft Corner (Port side, deck 6, 6164).  This was the grandparents first cruise - we have done several over a decade or two and achieved two-star mariner status on this cruise.  We have previously cruised HAL, Norwegian, and Celebrity - our favorite is Celebrity.  We chose this cruise because it left out of San Diego (our home) and matched up exactly with our spring break from school.  We booked after final payment (which is our MO) so only had a month or two to plan.  We have done Mexican Riviera before, several times - it is an inexpensive getaway from San Diego.

Embarcation in San Diego was smooth - we arrived around 11 - there was a monster line to enter the terminal but it moved very quickly.  Once past security, there was virtually no line for Neptune guests (this was our first Neptune cruise!) and in fact my parents who were in a regular VA also had no line.  They had just announced general boarding (around 11:30) and suites were ready as soon as we were aboard.  We dropped carry-on luggage in the room and proceeded directly to the lido.  The lido was (as expected) chaotic on the first day - we ate at the Dive In burger restaurant, poolside, and found the service speedy and efficient.  The burgers were amazing, easily 8 out of 10 as far as the best burgers I've ever had.  The burger was easily the best thing we ate all week in taste, efficiency, and presentation.  

Our Neptune suite was very nice, spacious, and worth the cost upgrade.  The corner aft balcony is our favorite.  This corner aft is much smaller than those we've experienced in the past.  We later noted that the corner aft on decks 5 and 4 is notably larger (though 4 has the window washing equipment, which I'm not sure is that much of a problem).  Still though, plenty of room on the balcony for 5 people to hang out, sit, stretch, chat, eat, and never have to "squeeze past" each other - just walk around effortlessly.  Inside, the room is spacious and the living room gives room for 5 to sit, though more than 5 would be a little cramped.  The Bose speaker provided in the room was surprisingly useful.  It delivered great sound and we used it a lot.  The TV also had great sound and was a good size for the room.  The bathroom was huge by cruise ship standards and with the tub/shower combo we often utilized the dual-shower combo to get two people ready at once.  The stand up shower is just the least bit cramped and tends to get water everywhere, though if you mind it, you can control it pretty well.  The makeup room between the bathroom and the livingroom served well as an office for a few conference calls I had to take but went largely unused otherwise.  The couch was comfy and the room steward switched it back and forth from bed to couch daily.  The room was serviced twice daily although we seemed to be at the end of the list for morning service, often it didn't occur until past noon. The suite comes with fruit delivered daily and we partook in this regularly.  Our steward must have noticed that we were eating a lot of grapes, as each day the pile of grapes atop the fruit basket would be larger, until 3 or 4 days into the cruise a separate fruit basket appeared that contained nothing but grapes, piled so high they nearly wouldn't fit.  We laughed, and of course, gorged ourselves on grapes.  This was the only noticeable sign of our room steward (other than, of course, the twice daily bed making and the fresh towels) - we've noticed over the years that some stewards you don't see much of, and some, by the end of a week or two, you're lifelong friends.  This particular team would always greet us in the hallway but was overall pretty invisible and unassuming.  

Neptune Lounge, we didn't expect to use much, but we did - a lot.  The coffee machine in there is really great, the teas are better than those offered elsewhere, the snacks are a little more refined than lido food, and the concierge - which I wasn't sure what on Earth I would use them for - we used them a lot.  Re-make a lost key card, make a dinner reservation, find something out, etc - they would do just about anything you asked.  We really enjoyed this amenity and we'd have a hard time going without it in the future.

I got the unlimited internet package for the cruise and it worked as expected - slowly, but without issue.

We paid for the 7-day pass in the thermal suite for two - generally didn't have a problem finding a hot chair and used them daily.

The lido food was good - service is mostly handled by the lido attendants - there is not a lot of serving yourself.  This really seemed to help our perception of hygiene (so many fewer dirty hands everywhere) but generally slowed down service and made lines longer.  My standard breakfast is a DIY breakfast sandwich - get two pieces of bread toasted, put a piece or two of cheese on them, get two eggs over medium, slide them onto the bread, then bacon or sausage on top.  I don't really know how to say this, but I feel like my *perception* is that lines were longer (because of the full-service handling), but in reality I don't feel like it took me any longer to get my regular breakfast than usual.  The lido seemed more crowded than past experiences but even though it was generally packed, I didn't have a single instance of not being able to find a table - it was full, but turnover was quick and cleanup was efficient and even when you'd look up to see every table taken, by the time you got your food you could always find a place to sit.  Similarly, it seemed like every station had a line but you never seemed to wait for more than 3-4 people to clear and it never took more than a minute or two.

We had pinnacle for breakfast once, and were turned away on a second attempt later in the week because we'd taken my parents and it's suite guests only.  We retreated to the regular restaurant to find the identical breakfast menu there.  I feel like I try sit-down breakfast once or twice each cruise and always find I like the lido better.  We returned to the lido after that.

The sit-down restaurant food seems to have taken a significant decline in recent years - the china they used to use is now relegated to the Neptune Lounge, and they just use regular dishes in the dining room.  The food was good (though uninspired).  They did seem to be enforcing the "2nd entree $10" rule, but I am not a two entree guy, so it didn't bother me.  I did order an appetizer, a soup, a salad, an entree, and a desert every night without issue.  I did turn away a main dish one night (wasn't to my liking) and had it replaced with something else without question or charge.  The lighting in the dining room (I'm sorry to nitpick something so basic, but it really is a core thing) was downright bad.  The fluorescent lighting makes it look like the inside of a k-mart and only accentuates the declining food presentation.  Our stewards were pretty good and quite friendly.  "Smart casual" is now basically "don't wear flip flops", there are lots of jeans, t-shirts, etc.  "Gala night" is now "anything with a collar" and cargo pants and a polo shirt was not uncommon... for *gala* night.  Those of you who've followed my reviews for a decade (I assume you're a small crowd) will now have witnessed my full transit from "why do I have to bring a tuxedo" in my 20s, to "seriously, cargo pants and a polo shirt on gala night?" in my 40s.  

It's a spring break cruise and there were 300+ kids on board.  There are a LOT of kids and a LOT of families and it showed.  Kids club sometimes feels like it has a lot of individual attention, but this cruise it felt like they were trying to just keep it all under control.  There were regularly 20-40 kids in the tween club - three sessions per day.  Again, sometimes it feels like the kids club staff and I become family by the end of a cruise, but generally speaking this time around, I hardly knew their names, they hardly knew mine.  My daughter seemed to enjoy it and kept going back, so there's that!

There was room to spare at the string quintet performances but the magic show was standing room only.  The America's Test Kitchen was packed every performance (and I really enjoyed it).  BB King's Lounge was hopping - there was a male lead vocalist who ROCKED the house. The dueling piano bar seemed to satisfy the older crowd with standards but had a hard time getting a vibe going.  Trivia was offered a couple times a day but you grade your own paper and it just didn't feel very competitive.  None of the bars were really very full and they didn't develop that "regular crowd" feeling that some cruises have.  

Mexican Riviera hasn't changed in 20 years.  Cabo still has the glass bottom boats and they're still $10/head.  We got a good one and had a great tour.  Mazatlan we took a taxi into the historic district and walked around.  Puerto Vallarta we took a taxi to the Malecon and walked around.  It was nice being in Puerto Vallarta until late (11pm).  

HAL was my first cruise line and for many years was my favorite, until we found X.  We still enjoy HAL but as an upper-crust line it seems to be slipping.  We would happily cruise HAL again if our dates lines up, but we wouldn't seek them out.  7/10 overall.

I believe the coffee is made from grounds on HAL.  I separate coffee into two categories, "good" and "almost drinkable", and HAL coffee is definitely in the good category.

There are two terminals, but unless there are three ships in port (a rarity) they only use B-Street.  In Downtown SD the streets go in alphabetical order, so B Street Pier is unsurprisingly at the foot of B Street.  🙂 

https://goo.gl/maps/CjQojhKdEXE2

I happen to know for a fact that your cruise leaves from B Street.  See you in 19 days!

Also, if you're hearty, know that it is entirely possible to walk from the airport to the cruise terminal (and back).  It's all on the waterfront and there are sidewalks the whole way.

The true irony is that there is at least the possibility that the topper would get washed once in a while, while the possibility the mattress would get washed is approximately 0%.  

Also, the last I checked, you put a clean sheet atop either the mattress or the topper.

6 hours ago, Fouremco said:

True, but you're missing the subtext.

Please explain what subtext means in the context of HAL dining.

I don't find the adjoining door to make a difference in noise level.  If there are loud people over there, you will hear them regardless.  Generally you hear very little or nothing.

The elevator will be able to see on your balcony.  I like to parade around on my balcony nude, so that'd be a deal breaker for me.  If you wear clothes and do normal balcony stuff, you don't have much to worry about.