Kinkacruiser

G'day Les.....wishing you happy times, great weather and smooth seas.:D

I am so excited for you. But beware -- life will never be the same. When you get back you will spend your time looking for your next cruise! Then it starts all over again!

Exactly. What on earth would us retired folks do with ourselves if we didn't have cruises to plan for?

On our Christmas-New year cruise our 'mailboxes' were decorated with a small festive cluster. In my opinion, this was the ideal amount of decoration. Some cabin doors were decorated in a haphazard manner with Christmas decoration and frankly, those doors looks tacky.

You should have been offered some compensation (OBCs or discounted fare) for their blunder, intentional or not. I doubt I would have cancelled if these were ports I had my heart set on.

I hope you have an opportunity to do the same cruise soon....and perhaps with a different cruise line?

They thought Ronald Reagan would be a dud and he was not, so let's give Donald a chance.

 

When we entered the US at LAX in November, we had brand new passports, we got the third degree as they were not registered in the Land of he Free.

In 2015, we had our fingerprints taken in LAX and that was a first. The DHS is certainly vigilant.

I don't think it's specifically just 3 months, that's just how it panned out with our booking. Have a chat over the phone with your provider to clarify, it helped me understand. Can we name insurance places here? We used one often associated with motoring.

Yes we can name them, Amy. Very few will cover for pre-existing conditions (heart disease) to the USA. Insure and Go is one of the few.

The phone chat with I &G wasn't as useful as the feedback I got here Amy.

We had an annual policy last year as we had a few trips planned. We purchased it in say August, and nominated our first travel date as a date in November. Our policy was for 12 months from the November date. However we were covered by the insurance from August should anything occur that would impact the November sailing.

 

Does that make sense? So the 12 months starts from the first coverable holiday event. Then anything in the 12 months following.

Perfect, Amy....thanks. That 3 month space should be fairly safe and give me enough time to buy o'seas air tickets.

Many thanks to all for your clear directions and advice. I'm now leaning more towards leaving the flight bookings to FLL later - possibly around Sept-Oct, just to cover any possibility of a health condition arising between May and October.

Airfares will most likely increase in the next few months anyway (fuel price rise) and airfare prices tend to stay constant from launch date.

Bob - we got cover for our August 2017 cruise with Insure and Go - possibly the only ones who would cover a pre-existing (heart disease) for Keith who will be 74 by then. I think 75 is the cut-off for buying annual policies, so this could be our last chance.

Hoping someone who purchases annual travel insurance can help .

With 2 cruises out of the US next year (March and October 2018) I understand that I need to buy a policy around November this year to ensure both trips are covered.

So, should I also wait until November to purchase air tickets ( for at least the March cruise), or can air tickets be purchased when they become available and hopefully at special 'earlybird' prices, say in May 2017? The deposits were covered with Princess FCDs, so I'm not worried about that.

The response from the insurance company I plan to use was that "you are covered for cancellation from the time you buy the policy", with no specifics about the flight bookings, ie. whether I should buy air tickets in say May 2017,before buying the annual policy.

Thanks for your replies in advance.

Thanks for taking the time to post your well balanced and comprehensive review. We also cruised on the Emerald recently and concur with most of your observations.

We got off the Royal Princess last month and the buffet food was not just great, it was FANTASTIC. Good selections, themed food (Bavarian night our favorite - you can't get that in the MDR), and the food was hot. We saw no reason to go to the MDR. Service was good, too.

 

We've had really good buffet food on other ships as well, especially when the evening meal is served at Café Caribe.

 

But in general we dislike the wait that often occurs when we eat in the Main Dining Room. Sure there are multiple courses (we eat too much), but the service, while excellent, is like a convoy - one eats at the speed of the slowest table in the section. Often we will forego this to be able to get to our choice of entertainment in the evening. In the buffet you can eat at your own speed, and it doesn't preclude conversation with others either.

 

We especially like spreading out our meal, often coming back later in the evening for dessert and tea.

 

But on this board, tastes differ. We could care less about lobster, while others find it the highlight of fine dining. The nice thing is Princess really does try to have really good food at all the dining venues.

I couldn't agree more . On our most recent cruise, we often left after the main course, as we were waiting far too long between courses. When tables for 2 are mixed with tables for 8 in a section, the slow service become quite annoying.

It's easy to see why the MDRs might see more clients after reading this.

What a nice surprise. I received an email from Princess and the shore excursions for our Alaska Cruise. for August 2017. are now available. I didn't expect anything until 180 days prior to our sailing. Time to start picking out our adventures!

That is early - good for you :) I'm hoping excursions for our August Hawaii + Tahiti cruise will be posted early as well.

Thanks for a great review, Mrs and Mrs - very entertaining, humorous and spot-on.

Write to the "man" about creating a Sub-Forum.

I already have :)

The remodeled Horizon Court / buffet is great. There's a sushi bar, Curtis Stone restaurant and the Crown Grill/Sterling Steakhouse which are all worth a try. We enjoyed our meals at CS and CG very much.

A wide promenade deck is a big plus in my opinion.

MDR dress ? Smart casual for men would be a collared shirt (polo or other) with long pants. On Formal nights we like to dress up ( suits for men and elegant dresses, pants and tops for the ladies). One sees fewer 'glitzy' outfits compared to 10 years ago.

Sanctuary? very few Aussies use the Sanctuary on the Sun.

Hope you enjoy your Sun Princess cruise :)

Who would like to see a special thread for Princess Cruisetours (that land + cruise tour)? You see many references to the Alaskan cruisetours, but rarely anything about Canada/New England, China, etc.

As other cruise lines also have these cruisetours, then perhaps a section in Special Interest Area or add a roll call thread to the Princess roll calls would help. What are your thoughts?

Are there theme nights on Sun Princess cruises Australia?

Island Night has been replaced with the Ultimate Deck Party, Country Western focused on line dancing classes (if included in the program) but I haven't heard of Rock n Roll night for ages. Like all trendy things, they fade into oblivion:o

True. On our recent 21 day cruise, I only saw the 'real' cheese platter only twice....there are so many varieties! There's always trays of processed cheese at the buffet. Sometimes the crackers are stale.

Hi Anna is that USD or AUD ?

That's AUD Les - for a shampoo, cut and styling products.

Lots of good suggestions here. I concur with the USB wall outlet and add a wallphone, a better hair dryer and shelves on both sides of the bathroom mirror - 'his and her' sides ;)

The cost of a gent's haircut on the Emerald 2 weeks ago was $42 incl. gratuity - ladies stylecut was $86 incl gratuity. Ask for Shushied - he's a top-notch styler.

I am sorry, but your description of the promenade deck on the Sun Princess isn't correct. The deck is quite wide and just narrows for the last 7 or 8 metres near the bow of the ship where the Princess Theatre widens out. This is before the narrow passageway that goes around to the deck on the other side (all on one level). The promenade deck is also narrower beside the Vista Lounge at the aft of the ship. There are a few sections where there are bay windows that extend probably two-thirds of a meter into the deck space. I have only seen lay-down sun lounges on the Sun Princess plus some timber seats that have storage for life vests. I did see sit-up deck chairs on the Emerald Princess, but have never seen them on the Sun, Sea or Dawn P.

I'll second that Aus Traveller. I've walked around the promenade deck more times than I care to remember ;)

Morning,

you can check with the excursion desk when you get on board and they may know where you will be asked to wait. Otherwise get up bright and early and be ready to go as soon as they drop anchor. In my experience they usually start giving out tender tickets shortly after arriving and you are usually asked to wait in one of the main dining rooms. They will not give out tender tickets until all of your group are there and ready to go. Buy water the night before so that you don't need to waste time doing that in the morning.

Trish

Tender tickets are issued in the Michelangelo restaurant. Be there 10 mins before they open the doors to ensure your family get the first 5 tickets and therefore on the first tender. The tenders hold up to 150 but the first tender may have as few as 50. It doesn't matter if you are elite or to get on the first tender. BTW, rush hour starts around 9-10 am. Enjoy the snorkelling.

My bet is still Captain Kent. He was captain of the Emerald for a few months earlier in the year after he was moved from the Sea Princess.

Yes, It's definitely Capt Kent. We received the welcome email from him around 75 days precruise.