CruizinSusan70

I was on that same cruise. He sang "Kiss Like a Rose" to win.

Robin Williams always won.

Really?💩💩💩

There are 3 Royal's in Alaska (Royal, Majestic, Discovery) and 4 non Royals (Crown, Grand, Ruby, Sapphire). No reason to hold out since you have 4 choices. I assume they all have the Promenade deck that you and many other long time Princess cruises ache for. We on the other hand, like the options that the Royal Class provides. Have sailed on the Discovery, will be on the Majestic next week and have future bookings on the Enchanted and Sun. Since you like the older ships, I will assume you'll not be cruising on the Sun or the Star? Or is the Promenade deck just an Alaskan requirement for you?

It seems like the folks that like the Excel Class ships on Carnival have previously cruised on the larger vessels from RCI, NCL & MSC and they know what to expect. Those that don't like it are usually accustomed to the smaller ships in the Carnival fleet and may be overwhelmed by an 180 tons ship. If 180 is overwhelming, what would their reaction be to RCI's Icon Class at 250 K?

If you're lazy and don't wish to get your coffee at the IC or get an alcoholic drink at a bar, yes, you can order it on your cell phone and your app will kick in with your location as to where you're at so your drink of choice can be delivered to you. We always go to the IC for espressos or to our bar of choice to get a drink instead of having it delivered.

With us, the ship is the destination after sailing 40+ times to the Caribbean. No right or wrong choices though. It just all depends upon how experienced of a cruiser you are and whether you prefer the destination or the vehicle.

Have cruised out of Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Tampa, Boston, Manhattan, Bayonne, Galveston, & San Pedro. Since we can drive to Bayonne and Manhattan we flew in the day before to the other six embarkation ports. We would rank Galveston at the bottom and no desire to go back there. We use private shuttles or UberXL/LyftXL if reasonably priced.

You stick to Galveston and we'll stick to MCO. MCO is slightly closer to PC than Bush is to Galveston and has substantially more private shuttles at a much cheaper price. Plus there are more flights into MCO than Bush.

The only decision for us to cruise with alcohol or as a teetotaler is on Royal Caribbean because of the Dynamic Pricing policy of their drinks package and how expensive it is compared to the competition. Since the drinks packages can be included as a "package" on Princess, Celebrity, NCL and MSC, we always choose to book it that way. We also always get Cheers on Carnival since we like their bars and have the 10% discount with gift cards. As usual, it always comes down to the bottom line. We've paid it for 28 days at 40.00, will have it for at least 42 days at 60. Hopefully it doesn't increase to 70 before Caribbean sailings open up for fall/winter 2025-2026 on the Sun & the Star.

Maxing out those 15 alcoholic drinks per day. 🍺🍷🍹🍸🥃☕

Celebrity, RCI and MSC all offer this option in case you didn't know.

No hostility, just wanted a link if you had one. So, your 75% is your personal hypothesis, nothing more, nothing less.

What did you not like about it and have you ever sailed on one of the comparably sized ships from RCI, NCL or MSC?

May 3, 2023 was the first day that Real ID's were available in the state of NJ. But since my DH and I have passports as well as global pass, we have zero need for them.

You can't be stating that it's easier to get to the Galveston port from either Bush or Hobby compared to MIA, FLL or MCO? Time wise it's longer to Galveston and number of private shuttles can be counted on fingers versus a plethora of options in Florida.

You have 99.5 K ton ships that are port oriented versus 230-250 K ton ships that are ship oriented. You also can't compare HA with RCI. HA should be compared to Princess and Celebrity. RCI compares to Carnival, MSC and NCL.

What ports would be interesting to you that an Excel Class ship could visit that A) doesn't have to use a tender B) has access to LNG? A ship with 6000 cruisers can't use a tender port.

There are only a handful of transfer opportunities from either of the airports to Galveston versus a plethora of choices from MCO to Port Canaveral. Plus Uber/Lyft are cheaper in MCO.

The little tweaks that were done with Emeril's as well as the adjacent bars we thought were just a notch better. Plus it's easier to fly into MIA or FLL instead of MCO.

We book it initially through Princess and then transfer to a TA. On a Princess booking, since we pay for the Plus package and possibly buy excursions with a 10% discounted gift card, I want my TA to discount my total to save me money on the front end instead of giving me OBC that I won't use. I call around to the small number of TA's I use and hopefully one of them has "group" space and can provide a good discount.

Would be nice to know when the OP is cruising. Is it a last minute deal for this year? Is it next summer at the height of the season in July or either of the shoulder seasons? Is it a 7 day or 14 day journey?

Thanks for clearing it up. It was a number based upon a conversation that your TA had with his or her CSR at Princess using that CSR's personal numbers. Certainly not anything concrete based upon nationwide numbers on average, so basically a worthless hypothesis since it was based on the findings of a single rep from a conversation that took place a year ago.

Even if you don't know how much profit they are making on the two different packages, where did the 75% number that you quoted come from? Was it out of thin air or a report that you stumbled across somewhere that you could possibly provide a link to?

Gonna be a cluster in that area if 146 cabins have access to those two strips of deck.