MacMadame

The OP does.

I wouldn't call them travel agents per se. They are a travel company that Princess has contracted with to do this for them. I guess they decided it was cheaper that way. But once you book the cruise, it's just like you booked it online from what I've read.

This is my rule of thumb for tipping. If the bill comes with an 18% service charge, I don't tip unless the service is so good that I would have left 20%. Then I tip around 2% just to get the tip to what I want it to be. It's not automatic; it depends on the service. As for tipping cabin stewards and the like, I haven't been on a cruise since "crew appreciation" was part of the fare so I have no idea what I will do. I think it will depend on the service we get. The very first cruise I was on, I didn't drink at all. So when I went up to the bar, I'd get a can of Diet Coke which was included in my fare. I still tipped the bartender a dollar (hey, it was over 40 years ago -- that was a lot of money back then). I figured that he shouldn't suffer just because I was a teetotaler. Now that an 18% service charge is included and we have the Plus package, I will probably only tip if there is something about the service that would have normally had me tipping more than 18% just like I do on land with restaurants and other services. And, yes, I'm one of those crazy tip-happy Americans. I can't help myself. It was how I was raised. 😉

😱 Half kidding. I was so happy when SLRs went digital. The immediate feedback helped my photography greatly and not having to develop film allowed me to turn a hobby (sports photography) into a business (I could sell onsite)! That said, whether or not to have a camera or a smartphone depends on what you are going to photograph on your trip. If you are mostly going to be walking around towns and taking pictures on the ship, especially if most of your pictures are of people, the zoom and resolution of a smartphone are perfect. I don't even own what I call a "party zoom" (35-70mm) anymore because I can just use my iPhone and most of the time I am very happy with the results. OTOH, if you are going somewhere out in nature, it's going to depend on how far away things are. On my Panama Canal cruise, the zoom on my iPhone 13 Pro is not going to cut it for a lot of what I want to shoot/film. For one excursion in particular, I am going to need at least a 400mm lens to be happy. Whether or not an individual cares about this is going to vary though. Many people are quite fine taking pictures of a tiny bird/animal in a larger shot. Or using digital zoom. Not me! 😄 I even get unhappy when I'm out walking my dog and want to take a photo of something farther away. (There is this Mosque farther up the creek we walk by and near sunset the light shines on it in such a great way but it's just too far away to really get the effect I want.) YMMV and probably does. You can probably make do with a sports bra and athletic wear shorts if you do decide to use the hot tub. There are sports "bras" that are more like a tank top if you want more coverage and "biker" workout shorts that aren't baggie which works better in a hot tub because they aren't billowing around.

1% are idiots and 9% are scofflaws IME. So that's 400 breaking the rules! Another reason to stick to smaller ships. 🤣 So you don't cruise on Carnival. 😉

My college is always organizing travel trips for alumni. They don't limit them to a particular class year and I think that helps. Not that I've ever been on one. (I enjoyed my college years but don't like all the "rah, rah, our college is the best and graduates the best people" nonsense that seems to accompany any organized alumni activities.)

Except, in your scenario, we own our unit, not the HOA. We don't own our cabin. We are renting it from Princess. So they own all of it and are responsible for all of it. 🤷‍♀️

This is why we can't have nice things. 🤣 I can't find any policy on the Princess site about door decorations. Hopefully, there will be clarification on what exactly it is.

Surely sarcasm goes over some people's heads. 🤣 (especially on the internet!)

Remember when Target employees all wore the Target red shirt with khaki pants? Now they can wear jeans or dark pants and CHAOS REIGNS!!! 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

Yep. There was a pregnant woman who was turned away from a cruise for being too far along in the pregnancy recently. I don't remember the line. So someone is checking, it seems.

Agree about all but the hand-washing. That does impact all the other passengers.

Too bad you can't just tap your medallion on a reader on the machines. It would be simpler and less wasteful.

I don't they are small jpegs. Not if people can make large prints of them. The only reason I am considering the Premier package is to get the photo package. Crazy I know but I am one of those people who is always taking the photos and not in them so I see it as a way to get proof I was there. 😉

The same thing as if you wear jeans on a formal night?? 🤣

Thanks! Man, those are some worthless coupons though.

Being dining room ornaments, no. But in my industry, we have a notion called "eating your own dog food" which means everyone was expected to use our products so that we could experience what our customers experience. If I were in charge, I would want senior staff to occasionally mingle with the passengers and eat in the various venues, not as a 'treat' but as a way to keep tabs on what the customers are experiencing and to see how things work so that they can make good decisions and suggestions for improvement. It would be part of their work duties.

Depends. Disney recently announced that ducks were banned. Carnival then announced that of course, they weren't banning them. Princess was silent. LOL Though, in the "this is why we can't have nice things" department, some dude was hiding ducks with an attached card that advertised his business and that caused a stink because there is no solicitation allowed on the ship. Anyway, it's a cruising thing, not a Princess thing. Here's an article about it: https://cruiseradio.net/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cruise-ducks/

jpg compression is lossy. That means that data *is* lost. If the image is saved with a higher quality (less compression) most people won't notice. But they can be compressed too much.

We have 3 and one of them is frequently sideways. When she isn't destroying the house, eating bugs or trying to take a shower with me so she can watch the water go down the drawing. (She be crazy. 🤣) Baby, I was born this way... 🎵

I can see, re-reading that it wasn't clear. I am saying we are rich compared to the crew not in any absolute sense. (We being people who can afford to cruise, especially if we can afford to cruise regularly.)

But would they be interested in chatting with you? 😉 Seriously, if I were crew, I would avoid eating in the pax areas because I need my downtime and having to be nicey-nice to rich (compared to me) cruisers in my spare time is not my idea of a good time.

MacMadame's version of Hanlon's Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” 🤣 Anyway, sorry you are getting the runaround from HAL. If HAL has an ombudsman like some lines do, you can get their attention by posting on HAL's social media and tagging them. That often yields results from what I've seen. The United States government has an official organization to complain to about cruise line issues. You said you are Brazilian, but HAL is owned by Carnival Corp which is headquartered in the US so it's worth a shot: https://www.fmc.gov/resources-services/cruise-passenger-assistance/

I've seen videos of crew and they do get steak and even lobster in the crew dining room. Not every day but I'm not sure I'd want to have steak and lobster *every* day. On Princess Cruises, pax say the quality of the buffet is below that of the MDR. So the crew food doesn't have to match that of a specialty restaurant. Just be better than the buffet. But Princess isn't a luxury cruise line.

Better than what they feed the crew though?