Cruise Raider

It is on all the Princess ships now. You automatically get the Prizes option when you purchase the Premier Package but you can purchase it daily if you do not. I believe it’s around $20 per day .. something like that. So, the prizes are based on when you enter your cabin and you can see your prize on the digital door display. It may state that you’ve been entered into the final drawing or ‘better luck next time’ or display the prize you’ve won that day, such as onboard credit added to your folio. It only works while the casino is open so it works more like buying a lottery ticket… it is gambling. I’ve won $25 on each cruise on which I’ve had the premium package but a friend won $275. The final drawing is on the final day in the piazza and they give away another few $100 prizes and a grand prize of $5000.

Shorts and tshirts are fine for breakfast and lunch in the MDR. The only restrictions would be that you need to be wearing (clothing and) footwear and there are no bathing suits (or robes) allowed. (Yes, I’ve seen people trying to get in while wearing a robe). I add clothing and robe because I’m trying to answer your question seriously but some of the smart axxxx will try to jump on that statement.

You can use the ‘excursion credit’ as you would on any thing else onboard, with the possible exception of using it in the casino.

That’s exactly what I was going to suggest. Last time we went there, we aimply took a cab there and bought the day passes up front. it won’t work during Easter time or in the middle of spring break, though.

What on earth would make you suspect that? From what we’ve seen, the crew is trained in safe hygiene practices .. I’ve not always seen that with a small, but significant, percentage of passengers.

We’ve cruised on many different lines throughout our years of cruising. We’ve even tried land based all inclusive trips .. variety is the spice of life! Plus, we are bargain travelers with some occasional splurges … I can only remember one cruise that was a total bust. Shortly after that cruise, I discovered cruise critic. Since that time, most of my posts have been positive because all the other cruises have been awesome experiences.

We were on a ship a number of years back and it kept getting hit with noro outbreaks .. I think for 3 cruises in a row. The captain got on the PA and told us “if we ever wanted to get our tong privileges back, we needed to WASH OUR HANDS!” That made me laugh … tong privileges! 😆 Thankfully, we never contracted it .. we do constantly wash and sanitize our hands.

I have not cruised on Celebrity since 2017 but have a sailing booked with them for April of this year. Several of my bookings with them had been canceled for various reasons, not only due to CoVid but also from charters and ship changes. So, I will finally be able reevaluate them after so many years away. I used to consider them my favorite line as they seemed a notch above the other lines in the same price range. We’ve cruised extensively with Princess, especially after the CoVid shutdowns and while others are complaining about the cutbacks, I’ve seen such definite overall improvements in cruising. I will finally get the chance to see if Celebrity wins me back. I definitely live the coffeehouse breakfast but understand, I will most likely miss the evening cocktail happy hour. I do like that most all the rooms have at least a small seating area within the cabin on Celebrity. While I don’t hate a shower curtain, I do appreciate the shower doors. I also love the ambient light in the bathrooms at night. Also, I like that their theaters hold an appropriate number of guests compared to the ship’s capacity. Mostly, I love that they have no smoking inside the ship anywhere, not even in the casino.

I completely agree with your assessment. Plus, when there was no smoking in the casino during CoVid, we are told that ‘everyone’ who said they would gamble more didn’t .. blatantly false! For me and the friends that I’ve cruised with actually gambled a lot more often and for longer periods of time. I didn’t have to choose from the small number and variety of machines the cruiselines placed in the non smoking section.

I agree with you on that. The Royal is the only ship where I’ve seen a distinct area that was separated by a wall for the nonsmoking area. If I remember correctly, and I can not be even 70% sure of this, the area that was formally Club 6 is now partitioned off as both the nonsmoking casino and the Double Down Bar and lounge area. Not a whiff of smoke there at all. The casino area there is very small and I do think there is another area in the main casino that doesn’t allow smoking but that area, you can definitely smell smoke from the smoking side as it is not cordoned off like the other nonsmoking area.

While that might be true, our last cruise on the Royal (ending 6 days ago), the nonsmoking area was definitely free of smoke. I am very sensitive to smoke and it was not a problem for me in the very least. There just may have been fewer smokers onboard, too??

All indoor areas on a ship should be nonsmoking and have designated areas outside for smokers. They figured out how to do that when banning smoking on the balconies. With that being said, the Royal has a nonsmoking area that is actually partitioned off from the rest of the casino. It's rather small but still very nice to have some space without smoke. People can use it to get to the casino and there is a cozy bar area there as well.

I was hoping to meet up .... we were at the meet and greet. Was asking around to see if you were there but it was kind of cut short. My DH was the guy with the long white beard.

I forgot to mention that we went through customs with facial recognition ... nobody even asked us for our passports. It was so quick and easy.

We just disembarked yesterday with somewhere in between 2700 - 2800 passengers onboard. Granted, everything went well and we were right on schedule, we had our luggage, picked up our parked car, which took about the same time as getting an Uber, were about equal distance to the airport and we were home about 9:45 AM. It was a holiday so there was light traffic on the roads but we also weren't rushing to get off the ship. We could have chosen walk off at 7:30 if we chose to do so. Anything can hold up disembarkation but we usually would be comfortable saying we could be to the airport (if we were going that direction) by 10:30 AM with all things considered. Having said that, I wouldn't book a flight any earlier than 12:30 PM from SFO or OAK and 1:00 PM for SJC.

We are on the Royal right now and yes, they have the same lights in the hallway. Fortunately, they are not as bright as the ones on the Ruby. Unfortunately, the painters tape is not working. But, we tape an opaque paper bag over the entire light and it does the trick! We just take it down during the day and resecure it at night.

And, we are on the Royal Princess and it certainly looks like we are to dock there tomorrow.

Wow .. I just read about that. Even the airport is closed so, I would also expect them to cancel calls from cruiseships until the violence is under control. We are scheduled to stop there early next week … let’s see what happens.

We recently booked a S2S sailing because we wanted to extend our 7 night cruise on Celebrity with a 4 night cruise on the Discovery. While a B2B might be easier, we get to experience completely different menus, entertainment, ports of call, etc this way. We’ve done it before and loved it. To us, the variety makes it well worth the change over day.

Depending on when you cruised in December, you may want to check your spam email.

I cruise quite frequently with my DH but found myself wanting to cruise while he was away on his annual buddies trip. Princess sometimes offers solo fares so took advantage of that. I had so much fun. I don’t know if I’d do a 10 day alone again but I would certainly do a 5 or 7 day solo cruise now that I’ve tried it. I met so many nice people and took advantage of doing all the craft activities. People I met onboard actually saved me a chair for these. I wasn’t ever lonely, watched how much drank, took many walks, went to the shows, scheduled dinner, went to the parties, watched movies, etc. it was very relaxing and so much fun! I’m glad it did it. I really loved meeting so many kind people onboard. There are singles and solo cruiser meetings set up on Princess. I never went to one but some people make a point of going. I am pretty outgoing so met all sorts of nice couples and singles in the piazza, at Vines and in Crooners.

No groups are available yet. So strange as our group for our cruise in late February had groups available to choose from a few weeks ago.

You may just live it. We were on deck 6 a couple of times and that location was so convenient.

We’ve taken Uber, BART (if we have less luggage and walk the remainder of the way), family rides, limo services, parked in the city, etc. Uber is usually about $70 with tip for an Uber X, whereas it is more like $100 with tip for an XL, that will carry 4 passengers or 3 with lots of luggage. We’ve booked Major Limo, that services the East Bay, their Suburban SUV carries 6 or 5 with a lot of luggage. That is a bit over $200 with tip. Their stretch limo is $250 with tip. Some of the luggage might need to go in the passenger area so I think it would hold 5-6 passengers. Lastly, the parking is about $20 - $25 per night. We parked at Pier 19.5 which is a covered garage that is locked at night and does have a security guard. It is about 10-15 minute walk to the pier along the Embarcadero. There is a parking structure pretty close to the pier on the other side of the Embarcadero that can also be booked. I think it’s about the same rate.

I already have nearly $1000 in OBC .. long story! I may look into another cruise but their pricing is high for what I’m interested in.