CruizinSusan70

The problem with Virgin is that they have no drink package, so even though they are cutting edge with many of their aspects, that deviation compared to their competition eliminates them from possibly being considered.

But the difference is that in a standard shower, which is smaller, there is a more than 50/50 chance it will stick to your butt. The picture you posted, which I have first hand experience with, the curtain won't stick to your butt, even when my DH who's 300 lbs uses it standing up. If you sit down on the bench, it won't attack you either.

We currently have more future cruises booked on Princess than we do on Carnival and if we like the 28 days that we have booked on the Sun, then future cruises on the Sun and Star will be more prevalent for us than the Mardi Gras or Celebration.

Icy Strait Point is probably tops for whale watching, but Skagway does have multiple sled dog runs that you said the kids would be interested in. The Grand has the covered pool area that would also appeal to the kids. I would recommend that you do the land portion of your trip first and then pick up the ship in Whittier and enjoy your 7 days. We just did Alaska for 14 days on the Majestic doing North and South bounds out of Vancouver. We liked it so much we're going back in 2025 to do 7 days on the Discovery out of Seattle, disembark for a day to see my daughter and then hop on the NCL Joy for another 9 days. Below is the website to where my DH went sledding with the dogs. Ran 146 and lasted 3.25 hours https://alaskashoreexcursions.com/skagway/mushers-camp-adventure If you decide to do the sledding in Juneau, here is the link to the dog sledding. Same cost 2.25 hours https://alaskashoreexcursions.com/juneau/mushers-camp-tour

The way that Princess is going about this entire process deserves a little bit more intense verbiage.

I think that subset will be thinking of different letters, like WT*?

But on our Discovery cruise in 2022, just like our Majestic cruise in 2023, our Plus 40 package covered every drink we wanted at Good Spirits at Sea. So, things were the same.

Three more cruises and you reach your milestone cruise with the 25% OBC.

But where did you get the ridiculous assumption that it was 1600-2000 for tips for the NCL package. Like I said before, I have cruised on them 8 times with the FAS promotion and have a 9th sailing booked. The sail away rates are sometimes available early on, just like they are on my current booking, which is 21 months out. The only time you can get the perks free sail away rate is either early on or after final payment is due. On my sailing, it's the same exact rate, with zero savings. I will still stand by my assertion that Carnival has never bundled Cheers to everyone, since I have never personally seen it on the 9 times I've cruised on Carnival since Cheers came out in 2012 combined with my 5 current future bookings.

Actually there have been two increases in the price of the Plus package on Princess. It started @ 40 a day, for about a 6 month period was 50 a day and it's now up to 60 a day. The 50% wifi discount on Princess really only comes into play with the standard price cruiser that doesn't have the Plus or Premier package which includes unlimited wifi. Will agree with you that the average Carnival cruiser will consume more alcohol than the average Princess cruiser, but have to disagree with the mindset that more people on Princess remove tips than people on Carnival. I know there are a higher contingent of cruisers on Princess from non tipping cultures that remove them, but the lines at guest services on the last sea day on your typical Carnival cruise is full of people removing tips. As we both know, CCL is the gateway to cruising and with this comes the extremely frugal cruiser that keeps their expenses as low as possible such as not owning a passport, never flying to their embarkation port, dragging on 12 packs of soda and possibly removing tips.

Your response was post 81, you obviously have not read post 48 which has our revised itinerary listed, which consists of a 7 day and a 9 day sailing with an overnight stay in Seattle in between.

Fully aware of the situation when this thread was on page two a few days ago. Listed our different options on post #35 and our final decision on post #48 regarding the revised itinerary of our future vacation in May of 2025. But thanks for your input on my thread.

Then I guess the OP will struggle with the shower bench taking up 90% of the floor space in a typical cabin's shower. And the OP also stated that she walks with a walker for the most part. That makes for a very slow way of getting from point A to point B when you're on a cruise. I know this from first hand experience since I am in a scooter 100% of the time that I am outside my cabin. While in the cabin, I used a walker, but once again move slowly. I can't comprehend having to use a walker 100% of the time on a cruise, but to each their own. The purpose of a handicapped cabin is not just for people that are relegated to wheelchairs. If you are immobile enough to have to use a walker 100% of the time, you should be in a handicapped cabin and think nothing of it.

On Princess, the Plus 60 package only requires you to have a 29.00 bar tab after factoring out the cost of tips (16) and wifi (15) per day. The offerings on Princess are similar to the offerings with Cheers since you get unlimited non alcoholic beverages such as soda, water, coffee, mocktails, etc. And just like Carnival, the alcoholic drinks cap out at 15 per day. The two areas where Princess excels though is that Princess still has Coke products and they also include a new juice bar, where the fresh squeezed OJ on Carnival is not included with Cheers. And the tips are included in the package on Princess, where it costs extra on Carnival. For what you get with the Plus package for 60 on Princess it would cost you over 100 on Carnival.

NCL's inflated drink packages cost $109.00 pppd. If you get the FAS package you pay 20% in gratuities or 21.80 pppd to have the drinks package as one of your included perks. If you times this by 2 adults and 7 days for a week's cruise, the total is $305.20, which is no where near 1600-2000. I know this by first hand experience cruising on them 8 times, with a 9th booking which is 9 days in length and we're paying $392.40 for the gratuities on the drinks package for the two of us for the 9 day cruise.

No, Carnival has NEVER packaged Cheers with it's fares for everyone. If YOU received this offer, it was target marketed to you and other cruisers that the algorithm deemed worthy of receiving it. A few years ago, Carnival had RU1, RU2, RU3 and RU9 promo codes that were combining Cheers with future bookings. The RU9 code was a joke and you could have gotten Cheers on your own cheaper. The other three saved money of varying degrees with the RU1 providing the cheapest fare. Never assume that any promotional codes that you receive are available to every Carnival cruiser because in reality, they are not. Just like there are a plethora of different promotions available to the gambler, not everyone gets the opportunity to partake in a great promotion.

Yep, so many people that cruise for the first time decide to cruise on Carnival and if not possibly MSC. It's not a coincidence that the guest services line on these two cruise lines have the line weaving all over the place since there are so many people trying to remove the "optional" gratuities. I too wish it were just baked into the cruise fare and eliminate the possibility of having cruisers remove them. I can remember many times overhearing disgruntled parents upset over the fact that it was over 400.00 between the parents and their two kids for gratuities for the week and they were absolutely clueless about it and wanted the GSR to remove them immediately. Their opinion was that kids should not have to pay gratuities at all.

The easiest solution to this would just be to transfer into a HC cabin. This way you get the wide opening into the bath with no lip, the hand rails for the toilet and the shower and the hand held shower. Also no shower curtain to stick to your butt.

I believe Cartegena qualifies as the distant port on Panama canal cruises

Good afternoon Teresa. I'm the OP on this thread. We wanted to go on a B2B2B starting in LA, going to the Mexican Riviera for 7 days, then Vancouver for 4 days and finally to Seattle for another 4 days. Even though all three individual cruises are OK, combining the three wasn't. We could have even done the first two, starting in LA and ending in Vancouver legally, but the three would have started in LA and ended in Seattle, so it starts and ends in a US port, so no go. Your B2B would have started in FLL and ended in LA, so no go.

We had Plus 40 last May/June on the Majestic and got drinks covered up to 15.00, so you should receive the same, but as usual YMMV.

Can't agree more, we've gotten the Plus package @ 40 on each of our past 4 Princess cruises and our 7 future bookings over the next 2 years we have the Plus package @ 60 reserved. The only way we see value in paying for Premier would be if we were on a 4-5 day cruise since the 2 specialty dinners are worth 156.

From your mouth to the teetotalers ears. Many cruisers on the other side of the line in the sand have typed that the packages are only good for those that like to imbibe. The fact that the two of you see value buying the package on board to use up refundable credit even though you'll average 3 drinks a day between the two of you gives me hope that other non drinkers will see your point of view. I hope for this since I'm a stockholder that bought before Covid and we're a bit in the red. But combining past and future cruises, we've gotten or will get about 2500 in OBC.

The response email will be in conjunction with the email explaining all of the new changes. Don't hold your breath waiting for it.

Thanks for the correction. Mistakenly assumed that the cruise line would not wish to pay OT wages.