MacMadame

How do they do that? 😕 And I hope they change it for my cruise as I look bad in white. (Whenever I wear it, people ask me if I'm feeling well.)

So I booked a cruise on the Coral Princess for Jan 2025 for myself and dh (aka Mr. Mac) after doing a ton of research and looking at PC cruises on many lines. Even after doing all the research and reading many, many threads on Cruise Critic, I still have questions. They are: When I booked, no excursions were available. Now they're available for every port but Puerto Vallarta. Any guess as to when PV excursions will show up or does this mean there won't be any? If there typically are excursions there, what kinds are they usually? Are there any adult-only areas on the Coral? Where are the smoking areas (besides the casino, I know about that one) and how easy are they to avoid? When will the formal nights most likely be? From what I've read there will probably be some sort of Captain's welcome party probably on the 2nd day (sea day). But what about the other two? Is the 2nd one always "White & Gold" or do they change up the themes periodically? How will time changes be handled? I keep reading and watching (on YouTube) warnings to "make sure you stay on ship time when in port" but why would the ship be on a different time than the ports? That's just asking for trouble. (We're going East to West so will go from Eastern Time to Pacific Time over the course of the cruise.) I read that we can bring a bottle of wine or champagne on embarkation day. Mr. Mac and I are not big drinkers and would rather have Sparkling Cider. Since it costs many times more on the ship than it does at home, could we bring a bottle of Martinellis on embarkation or will it be confiscated? I have other questions but I am hopeful they can be answered by searching the convoluted Princess.com site. 😄 TIA!

I thought that was something all the bigger, newer ships were doing? That was my impression anyway.

I thought you were saying that the $15 per drink limit for Plus didn't include the gratuities.

Thanks!

So if I order an ice tea in the MDR, it costs money but not if I get it at the buffet?

This is something that threw me for a loop when I first started pricing things out. The last times I cruised, everything but alcoholic drinks were included so this is a bit of a change for me. It seems like almost no drinks are included with Standard except at Breakfast.

😢

I think they are some kind of fad. I've noticed more and more places opening up that serve stuff like that often in touristy contexts. But most people who aren't young kids think they are gross IME. What I don't get is why is Princess pushing them so much such as offering two of them PER DAY for free. Even if you thought they were awesome, would you be eating two a day? And they look expensive!

So what if Premier works for me but Plus works for my husband? I know that if one gets Plus, the other has to get Plus but can one have Plus and one have Premier?

Definitely!

I like to swim in open water (aka wild swimming) and I have met a lot of wildlife that way. I had a sea lion follow me around the Santa Cruz pier and say "goodbye" by swimming under me! (I was a bit freaked out, to be honest, LOL). I was doing a triathlon in Hawaii and had a sea turtle swim under me. And of course lots of fish in the water and birds flying overhead including a Blue Heron (which my swim partner said is rare). So of course I want to swim with a dolphin or two someday. Has anyone done an excursion where you swim with wild dolphins (not ones in a pool)? There is one in Puerto Vallarta and it says the dolphins are totally free to swim with us or not. I know that there are places in Captain Cook (near Kona, HI) where you can go swimming and sometimes dolphins come up to check you out but it's not an official event, you are just walking down to the beach attached to an AirBnB and going for a swim. This excursion does sound similar but I'm dubious because it is organized and I can see entitled tourists demanding they find dolphins no matter what. https://www.viator.com/tours/Puerto-Vallarta/Dolphins-in-the-Wild/d630-161887P1

I am trying to figure out what to bring for our 2025 Panama Canal Cruise. I plan to take stills but also video possibly for upload to social media. I may print some of the stills (8x10 to 11x16 size) Background: I used to be a serious amateur photographer and even did sports photography (and later videography) professionally for a while. That experience really burned me out on photography though (16,000 shots in a day while standing on your feet on a concrete floor will do that. LOL) and I ended up selling all my (Canon) bodies and most of my lenses when I closed my business in 2008. I've recently wanted to get back into it but when I priced a new mirror-less DSLR to go with my Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS USM (and a possibly broken Sigma 120-300mm F2.8 APO DG) lens, I realized I could buy an iPhone 13 Pro for about the same price and the camera is just as good. Also, I admit it, camera technology has really progressed since 2008 (when I closed my business) and I was a bit overwhelmed with all the choices. So I got the iPhone as I needed a new phone anyway. It works pretty well for a lot of touristy things but I admit I do get frustrated at times to only have a 3x zoom or to not be able to control the depth of field the way I want. Plus I went birding with friends and it was rubbish for that. So anyway, for this cruise, we are going to: Cartegena City Tour Full Transit of the Panama Canal Panama Canal Train trip with a visit to the new locks observation center An eco-park in the Rainforest with a tram ride, a butterfly sanctuary, and a botanical garden and another trip to an animal conservative with Scarlet Macaws & Sloths Mayan Ruins Snorkeling in Puerto Vallarta (TBD) So serious photographers, what do you think my best options would be and why? I am pretty sure I'll be frustrated with the iPhone in the rainforest and I would love to do some underwater photography in Puerto Vallarta and maybe a time-lapse video of the canal transit from my balcony. But there are so many choices and I do hate lugging around a ton of photography equipment like I used to. I am having big-time analysis paralysis.

We have keyless locks to avoid that worry!

Yikes. It's only $3.50 at the Supermarket. So could we bring a bottle on board instead of a bottle of wine?

IME freezing fish impacts the quality a lot more than freezing meat. If you've ever had fish caught earlier that day, the difference in texture and taste compared to a fish that has been frozen and then thawed before cooking. It also seems to go bad faster so if the fish you eat is loaded on the ship on embarkation day, it won't last the entire cruise.

It does seem weird to have two Italian restaurants especially since there is free pizza on the pool deck on most ships.

I haven't cruised in a while but I remember being told that you never eat seafood on a cruise as it's frozen and of questionable sourcing. Is that no longer true?

I'm doing that one in 2025! It's my first vacation of any sort that is longer than 7-9 days so I am trying to figure out how much to bring knowing that no matter what, I will have to do laundry. Also, there are a LOT of sea days. I'm not sure what that means in terms of packing but it seems like more activities means more clothes.

Eh, as a software engineer, it seems to me that it's mostly the software. There are a lot of ways to do things and that makes their system complex which leads to bugs. You can log in with username/password or booking # so that's two ways to log in. That could lead to data integrity problems but those problems happen because of problems with the software. I doubt the app and the website share a lot of code either which means double the chance for bugs.

But she upgraded her cabin. If she went from an Inside/Ocean View/Balcony to some sort of suite, that's an extra $1 or $2 a day in Crew Appreciation depending on whether it's a mini-suite or bigger. That said, CA is included in Plus & Premier and my understanding is that you don't pay it for Standard fare until the cruise is over (since you can remove it during the cruise).

It depends on their contract but having different tiers means having extra software and possibly extra hardware to do the throttling. For accounts that you can't charge as much for. Why bother unless you think you'll get tons of people signing up for the slower account that wouldn't sign up with the current rates -- which I don't think you will because ships only have thousands of potential customers. It makes sense for internet providers who have millions of potential customers but not a cruise line. If a cruise line has tiers, it makes sense with the contract they have with the provider.

I doubt it is cheaper for Princess though.

If I can't get a re-faring, I would have to cancel and rebook. I emailed my CVP and will see what he says.

Yes, I'm in the US and my deposit is refundable (I think!) and I can cancel any time up until Oct 2024. I will email the CVP (whose initials are not PO 🤣) and see what happens. If I cancel, can I get my cabin back? It's not a big deal right now because the one next to it is open but I'm curious how the process works in case this comes up again. As it probably will because our cruise is in 2025!! I expect there will be another price reduction at some point. That's a long way away.