NownZen

The Crown is not in the same class as the Royal. The easiest way to tell is that the Crown has a promenade deck like the Grand, Sapphire, Emerald etc. The Royal class has no outside promenade, just two short sections.

We are on the same cruise in December. We were on the Sapphire a number of years ago doing Antarctica and loved the ship. We were also on the Grand earlier this year. They are very similar. We enjoy the older ships more than the newer ones since newer ships are more inward oriented. No promenade deck, limited views of the wake and the front of the ship. I suspect Princess (and other cruise lines which are doing the same thing) realized that you do not spend as much money when you are watching the ocean.

What are you planning on doing with the fish? They will probably show up on the xray getting back on the ship.

I have a favor to ask. Ms Zen wants a point and shoot camera. On our last cruise a couple of months ago there were two cameras for sale. I do not remember the models. One was a Canon. Could someone on this cruise post which models are for sale? Thank you.

Unhappy people are the most active in posting so it is expected that it appears that there are a lot of problems. We have cruised twice this year and have had a wonderful time on each cruise. We will be on a longer cruise (on the Sapphire) in December. Sapphire has not cruised since the shutdown and its first cruise starts this saturday. We clearly have no issues with Princess.

In September 2019 we were on the Diamond Princess when we saw a weather map in a bar on an excursion. There was a lot of talk and pointing at a cyclone (a cyclone is a hurricane in the Pacific). When we got back on the ship, we got an announcement that we would skip the next port and head directly to Yokohama a day early. Some people got off, most stayed on. We then went out into Tokyo bay and anchored. The cyclone came directly over us and we got a chance to see the eye. It was fabulous and they did not charge any extra for it. They kept the ship pointed into the wind so there was not a lot of extra motion. When we cracked the balcony door open, the wind effect was very impressive. Everything on the decks was tied down pretty well and it seemed like we did not lose much if anything. Many years ago crossing the Drake passage into Antarctica, we had hurricane force winds coming from the side along with 30 foot or so swells. You had to hold onto the bed to not fall out and all the shelves in the shops and kitchens were emptied. We had a lot fewer cushions on the deck chairs and the sliding glass doors did not work anymore. No extra charge for that experience either.

Rent a car?

The issue is the location. The open minisuites are all aft and starboard side and lower levels. The minisuites are nice but I am not sure about the location. I will probably bid the minimum and see what happens as we have a very nice balcony location now. The extra room is nice but the walk is not so much. We last did this cruise in 2009 and the minisuite fare was not much more than the upgrade now..

You could emigrate?

I have a very nice picture of Leonardo di Vinci for my public picture. I may look like him or not but it is distinctive.

Five year old is new. I regularly run 20 year old software on my pc. There is no reason to artificially cripple software because kids do not understand that the hardware is fine for many years. I have a tablet that is only used on cruises. It supports firefox and chrome just fine. But the kids decided that it should not run the mc app. That was stupid. All they had to do was to check the box for an earlier version of android and it would have been fine. The software can support older versions with no problem, it is just that the kids are not experienced in the real world. The Carnival programmers made the correct choice to support the older versions. Are they stupid or are the Princess programmers being stupid? I am a software developer and you need to decide what special features you need that require a newer version of the software. There are none in the app so the artificial choice to eliminate much of the Android universe is very stupid. I have no sympathy for incompetence.

You might also consider that February is winter in California and sometimes it gets down to 50 degrees and there has been rain at times. In any case, you will have a hard time being unhappy on either ship.

I got this upgrade offer as well. For the 33 day cruise an upgrade from a BB to a minisuite has a range of $440-1350. Current price difference is about $2000.

The tracking is done through the cell towers at a minimum. Some apps use location data (Google maps for example). For Google maps, they also get much more information from you like speed. This is how they do the traffic overlays. So no, a VPN will not stop them.

And you are right that it is a conscious choice that was made. Just check a different box in the development system and it will work with older phones and tablets. The Carnival developers did just that.

It is a contactless card read. Just put the card near the RFID sign on the door lock. This is no different than the old locks.

The package was put on the account approximately a year earlier. The restaurant person said there were many complaints of this from other passengers. No excuse for them not starting the package at 11:00am.

You will not be tracked with the traditional cruise card. The circuitry in that has a maximum range of a couple of inches. The medallion has that circuitry and a battery powered bluetooth circuit for the longer range functions.

At the end of our first day we had a drink charge even though we had the drink package. After several trips to the CS desk it was not resolved. Finally found someone from the food service who looked it up and said that the charge was at 11:54am and they did not enter the drink package until 12:22pm. The proper time would be the instant people are allowed on the ship. The reason our drinks were so late was that the service was slow.

There are two functions in the medallion. There is a bluetooth unit which is used for the long range detection for location and for opening the door at a distance. This requires a battery. There is also a 13.56MHz RFID reader. This is activated on occasions where you have to put the medallion up to the blue reader circle (such as leaving or returning to the ship). This does not have a battery.

The main problem is that software developers are given the latest, fastest computers and write to that specification. In the Android development system, you choose which minimum level to support. The highly rated Carnival app runs on older phones. The poorly rated Princess one does not. It is clear that the kids who wrote the app have never been on a cruise and are used to new phones. They also could use lessons in screen layout as most of the space is wasted. Some debugging experience would have been useful as well.

This is the best feature of the medallion. I wear it on a wrist band and never have to think about it (well, almost never as sometimes the bar needs a local beep as does the leaving and returning to the ship). The card always had to be fished out from somewhere to get it close enough to trigger the sensors.

The medallion just gives the ship computer a number which is used to decide what functions you are allowed to use (which room, beverage package, etc). That number can just as easily come from a traditional cruise card. On our last cruise customer services was giving them out. The function that you lose is the longer range function which is used for tracking and opening the room door at a distance. The tracking is intended also to allow delivery of drinks and food where ever you are on the ship. Sometimes works, sometimes not. There are various wrist straps available if she would tolerate that. For me it was convenient and comfortable.

Your waiter can take care of this for you on the first night. If the others at your table agree, they can be assigned with your reservation.

The testing is for the Enhanced Guidelines Voyages which are those going to Tahiti and South America. There is a list if you click on the heading. Majestic and Sapphire mostly. Strange that Santiago to Buenos Ares is covered but not the return trip.