Little Sister

I just got the same email for my ship, dropping my port on Christmas Day. It’s not like they didn’t realize the date. I’m guessing the rest of the ports will stay, but I wonder how many ports a cruise line could cancel before they would have to refund passengers, for example if a 12 day cruise visits one port instead of the scheduled itinerary of 10. 

25 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

At all the DR's?

Seems strange.

Sure does. 

On 6/19/2023 at 12:11 PM, MissP22 said:

That's sad. 

Did you try talking to any head waiter about the situation?

What about showing up early when the DR first opened? Surely there must have been room at that time??

 

Told to try another dining room. They were turning multiples away all evening every evening.

Open to all.

20 hours ago, suekel said:

I said I would update after this cruise.  Unfortunately, it was not a great cruise.  Besides the aforementioned room service issues...I had the Premier package.  I was able to book one specialty dining but not the second.  Seems that they should work on this for shorter cruises.  I will never get this package again as I didn't use the majority of it...Though I did like the wines provided you didn't try to order them through room service.  They neglected to bring me the information about EZ Check where they take your luggage to the airport for you.  After a few words with guest services, it worked out but they lied when they said they didn't have my flight information.  He looked it up and it was there.  

We had an engine issue that delayed our arrival into Roatan by 2.5 hours.  We had a shipwide black out which did not last long but took the A/C awhile to catch back up.  I was eating in the Crown Grill that that night and they couldn't cook for awhile.  They brought out what they could and I imagine it backed up reservations for a bit.  Food in the CG and Sabatinis was excellent.  International Cafe was good but where are the salads?  Food up on the Lido was good as usual, I did not use the Buffet.  Looked like Planks and the BBQ place have reopened. 

Various people had issues with A/C.  One couple could not get their room below 80.  I was on Dolphin and it was fine. One woman had a pipe burst in her closet soaking everything.  They did her laundry for free and then switched her to a cabin with no AC.  They had moved the previous occupants for this reason.  

The fitness center was really good.  

The staff was great.  Lunch was slow in the MDR but dinner was good.  The Caribbean Princess needs a dry dock.  Broken tiles on the hot tubs, a place in the casino where it felt that the floor was going to give way, walking down the hallways where the wear and tear were really noticable.  I have a lot of good memories on this ship (8 cruises on her) but won't book her again until they dry dock her again.  

I was on this cruise as well, and have a new “least favorite cruise” now. Crown Grill quality has declined, luckily we were on dessert when the power went out. I also had no information in my stateroom regarding EZ check, so went to guest services to have that completed. Roatan was ludicrous, in hindsight I should have canceled my excursion but really wanted to do it, so I did. 
Saggy spots in floors inside and bulging spots on floors by pools were concerning. Couple of bathroom fixture issues in the stateroom bathroom. Didn’t affect usability but just tacky. Had one evening where toilet was inop, guessing maybe that was due to the pipe breakage in the stateroom you mentioned. Minor inconvenience as it was back in order when we returned to stateroom later in the evening. 
Never ate in MDR. Couldn’t get a reservation for any night for private table until 8 or later. I don’t eat that late. Ordered pizza on the app to be delivered to stateroom, took 80 minutes, and was room temp. Not good flavor either. Mocha drinks were “off” for the entirety of the trip, just something missing and I noticed there were no more shakers of cinnamon nutmeg or chocolate powder to spruce them up. Ordering drinks through the app was hit or miss. 
I am not sure an extensive dry dock or wet dock can bring this old gal back to her former glory. Princess will not (imo) invest the time and money needed, I suspect she will leave the fleet in the next couple of years.
 

I wish they would have left the old set up alone. They removed a lot of loungers to install the higher dollar cabanas and I just do not think the money they command equals what the loungers alone did.

14 hours ago, minnesotasisu said:

It is frustrating but even more so is that many people reserve a spot and then don’t show up or have the decency to cancel the reservation. Princess doesn’t charge them if they don’t show up and we have seen many empty loungers while in the Sanctuary. It is too bad that it is done that way. Cruisers are disappointed and Princess is losing money by also not charging no shows. 

I booked a complete week on Caribbean Princess and was not feeling well one day so I stayed in my stateroom. I was charged for that day.

On the Crown, pre Covid, the four of us had an absolutely fabulous meal at Sabatinis. The wait staff were wonderful and the food was delicious! On the Caribbean last July, we had our first visit to the “Trattoria”. The Calamari were so bad, we sent them back. The breading was non existent they were overcooked and greasy. The waiter actually tried to argue about the dish, but another was made for us. It wasn’t much better, so we pushed it to the side. I had the Pappardelle alla Bolognese which was tasty, but not quite like the restaurant version. The Parmigiana di Melanzane was the best part of my meal. The experience of the Trattoria vs the Restaurant….for us….was night and day. We canceled the rest of our reservations and enjoyed the MDR or buffet. Hoping this trip in June will afford us a better experience. YMMV.

Cold fruit soups on Princess. 

I’m a very picky eater, so my most memorable have to be the chilled fruit soups on Princess. I’ve tried to replicate them to no avail. I’m sailing in June, and will be putting in a request for some advice on how they are made. 

Keep in mind--unless you have the beverage package, you will pay sales tax on all drinks until in international waters.

I booked the July 3rd cruise out of FLL yesterday and paid in full. Lord, PLEASE let this ship sail. This is my only shot at getting back to my happy place this year as medical and TA conflicts have me land locked for the rest of the year.

Wonder how Princess Protection Plan will cover this. Changing my 10 day to a 7 day, it seems that could be a “breach of contract” on the part of PCL, but I’m sure there is extra fine print that covers them in this situation too.

24 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

They did try setting this up as separate forums for each river cruise line, but there was too little volume for it to work.  Also there are so many commonalities among river cruises that it's helpful for people to get answers from fans of other cruise lines.  They did break off the Viking River Roll Calls into a separate forum not long ago (for reasons that were never explained to me – but they did take my suggestion to rename the original forum All Other River Cruise Roll Calls).

Thank you for the quick reply!

I’m curious, when you look at ocean cruise lines, every one is listed. When I found this forum, that was it; River Cruises. Why aren’t the lines listed by name? Not picking a fight, actually just wanting to find information on Viking River Cruise Lines, but find myself wading through a plethora of information that doesn’t pertain to my search. 

14 hours ago, stive1 said:

We have always enjoyed the balcony’s on Caribe deck on the Crown since they are larger and partially covered.  We were hoping to cruise on the Sky or Enchanted next year and would like to find a similar type of balcony.  Looking at the Sky it appears that the Cat D4 on both the port and starboard side of Dolphin deck have sections where the balcony is similar to those that we like on Caribe deck on the Crown.  Is this correct and also assume the Enchanted will have the same layout.  Thanks for the help.

I have a friend sailing the Sky right now. This is a premium balcony, cat D4, specifically D412.

On 11/18/2019 at 10:15 AM, Arzeena said:

Was the cost of transportation $60?

This was our text exchange in regards to fees and payments.

We agreed on a specific time for him to pick us back up. Rico checked in periodically through the day, and arrived about 20 minutes early to take us back to the ship. Just a great experience all around.

For a quiet day, choose Ricos at the Beach! I found him on social media and he was very very prompt with information and replies. He told us where to meet him when we arrived, drove us to Alleynes Bay and made sure we were settled in before leaving. The beach was lovely and the water was crystal clear! A nice bar within steps served drinks and food, which were delicious! Ricos will be our “go to” for our future stops in beautiful Barbados!

42 minutes ago, geoherb said:

 

If I have a chance, I'll ask the captain or someone else at the Captain's Circle Party tonight how long he is staying. The entire list of current officers is back in my first post on this thread in the photo of the front page of the Patter from embarkation day. The pages are not in order, unfortunately.

That would be fantastic geoherb--thanks!

5 minutes ago, loge23 said:

I'll pinch-hit for geoherb whom has done a yoeman's job chronicling this fine voyage despite abysmal wifi "speeds"; the Captain is Vincenzo Lubrano.

Thanks---was hoping Captain Lawes was going to be at the helm for my cruise on the 18th....there is still a chance though...LOL!

2 minutes ago, geoherb said:

Finally a trivia win. I played with the Canadians and a couple of American women. I was able to contribute several answers that my teammates did not know. I'm not sure the professionals were there. The host did mention that some of the questions were new. Of course I'd like them all to be new and not repeats from the previous two or three cruises since so many people are doing back-to-back cruises. 

 

Afterward I played the champagne ring toss. By the time I had a turn, four out of the six bottles were gone. I did not win and did not bother to stand at the end of the line for another go. The two remaining bottles were won before I would have had a shot. That's OK. We have two bottles in the fridge to share with someone. We're heading down to lunch in the dining room now. 

 

I am sure my post got missed in the blitz of messages.....who is the Captain on the ship?

Has there been a change in Captains? I am really hoping to have Justin Lawes at the helm for my October 18 sailing. I know it is possible that he flies into Fort Lauderdale and boards there, just curious if he happened to take over mid-cruise for you.

Pro's or cons for each? Looking for less crowds, close to a bar, clean and nice water. Thanks in advance!

I was on the last sailing before dry dock...never heard or saw a thing. Riviera mid ship.