Cruise Raider

We had lobster tail on the Royal recently on formal night in the MDR. It was outstanding and larger than on the last few cruises we’ve taken. They didn’t even serve it with the risotto but another kind of rice that was really good. It was a welcomed change following some not so great lobster on the risotto. However, the lobster tail in the Crown Grill was even better than that that. I believe the beef dish was not prime rib but beef Wellington, which my DH thought was really very good.

Yes, they are casino rates. You must have gotten the casino offer via the email offer and they were sent out randomly.

I booked a couple of the ones you have listed! The fares, along with that $200 OBC, are so inexpensive. BTW, my CVP mentioned the Love Boat sale is extended through November 2nd. And she also mentioned to me that the excursion credit is like regular onboard credit. Yay!

I think they do. We just booked on for April 2023 that is super cheap!

Combined with great solo or casino fares, I love find great value with it.

An extra $200 in obc is always a good thing. I have cruised many times with only the shareholders or the shareholders and the FCD obc. Add another $200 per cabin, that’s a great deal for me.

Last year on Thanksgiving, the turkey was incredible! It’s probably the best Turkey I’ve ever had anywhere, at any time.

You will have to bid on both separately. If you want the same cabin on both legs of the cruise, I would suggest booking a specific stateroom for both cruises now instead of banking on a guarantee to do that for you. Then, mark them as no upgrade. Now, if you get different cabins in your assignment, you may as well go ahead and bid on both legs of the cruise .. since you’d have to move anyway.

BTW, I just read that it has been extended for bookings through November 2nd. It’s a great promo .. so glad they had it. I booked 3 additional cruises under this promo and had 3 other cruises refared, as well.

I hadn’t seen it on any menu either. I just asked for something covered under the premier package and this is what they offered me. It must have been under $18 a glass as I wasn’t charged anything extra. So, I was on a B2B and upgraded to the premium package on the 2nd leg as I wasn’t thrilled with the offerings on the plus package. That opened up a whole different set of wines for me that didn’t seem to be on any menu. Even when I was up in the buffet, they offered me a Hartford Chardonnay when they noticed I had the premier package.

Isn’t she sailing from San Diego and not Long Beach or San Pedro? Princess, all well as other cruise lines, are having trouble getting suffice it crew members. I hope that is resolve rather quickly.

I believe you are correct. My CVP that works for Princess says you can use it on anything onboard. As a matter of fact, it just shows up as OBC on our invoices where we’ve used that promotion.

We’ve only cruised on Princess since the restart and have been extremely happy with the wine selections until this most recent cruise. We were always able to get some decent wines within the plus package and even upgraded to the premier package for the second leg of our B2B cruise. All was fine until they ran out of my favorite Chardonnay, Rombauer. They were serving me a Hartford Chardonnay instead. It isn’t my favorite but very drinkable. I would have preferred the Mer Soleil, though, which I could easily find onboard in the past and it was offered by the glass within the plus package. I was also served Nicolas Feuillatte sparkling wine in Crooners, which is decent. As far as red wine, I found a nice Chianti in Sabatini’s. I’ve once again upgraded to the premier package and hope they have some nice white wines, especially Chardonnays that I like. I know that Princess is really trying to keep their overhead low while still making a profit and I do support those efforts. I couldn’t care less if they remove the little gold goodie bags or even the laundry. But, if I am paying for the premier package, I would certainly hope I could get a drinkable wine at most of the bars I visit. Now, on a very positive note, I have noticed a great improvement in their dining .. nearly everything was excellent on our most recent sailing.

Its supposed to be $20 a bottle but sometimes, you are still charged $15. The first bottle pp, if consumed in your cabin, won’t be charged corkage.

I’m sure it was a good deal bought through bulk. Gallo has some low end wines but also some really good wines .. or at least they used to.

We actually found very nice wines at the Crown Grill Bar on the Discovery .. both of which were in the premium package. That was back in April so not sure if they still have such a great selection but did find some wines we were happy with on the Royal recently as well. And, I say ‘ick’ to the Canyon Road wine. There are much better wines within that price point to be found … but, Princess must have gotten a great deal through a distributor for that wine. I have upgraded to the premium package on my last and my next cruise .. hopefully, the upcoming one won’t be a disappointment. I really only drink wine when it comes to alcoholic beverages.

You can reserve the sanctuary but in actuality, they only charge you after at the time you use it. We had terrible weather on the day we reserved it and we let them know we wouldn't be showing up as the weather was horrible. They never charged us.

I take a small motion censor light for the bathroom, just as I do at home. It runs on batteries and are approx $5 each at Amazon or Home Depot and the battery lasts approx one year. No need to reinvent the wheel.

I am also a fan of quick shuttle. I've used it many times and have been happy with the service and prices. However, I've only taken it to or from Bellingham to or from Vancouver. The busses are timely, clean and even have a clean restroom onboard.

OmBud .. I think you would probaly be fine taking it onboard with you. Although, as much as I’ve been a little disappointed with their wine options recently, if you have the package, they had a nice tawny port available not only in the MDR and specialty dining rooms but in several of the bars as well.

We cruised last year on Thanksgiving and will be doing so again this year as well. Since Thanksgiving is an American Holiday, I didn't see much at all about it being a holiday, although they did have the most delicious turkey dinner in the MDR.

There are so many decent wines at the price point in the grocery store ... why not one of those?? I know it has everything to do with getting it in bulk through a distributer. I understand why they go with the deal. But really, that wine is just not good at all, IMO.

We just disembarked from the Royal a few days ago. All that was available in terms of white wines under the plus package was Canyon Road and a Santa Helena. The Canyon Road Chardonnay is just not good at all. I upgraded to the premier package for the 2nd leg of our B2B and was able to get a glass of Rombauer at Vines and the Crown Grill Bar but by the last couple days of the cruise, they said they had no more. They did offer me a Hartford Chardonnay but that comes nowhere near Rombauer, IMO. There is also a Beringer Premium at the same price point ... seriously?? Once in a great while, they found some Decoy for me, but only the chardonnay. They no longer had Mer Soliel Chardonnay, Decoy Merlot or the Meomi (sp?) Pinot Noir, which were all such decent choices on the Plus Package just a few weeks prior. So, my DH found that he liked Substance Cabernet. Others were Chocolate Block and Spellbound, that could be found in Vines. I'm thinking all of these wines incurred a small charge over the Plus package price (like a dollar or two over). He also liked the Seghesio Old Vine Zin but that was more along the lines of the Premier Package pricing. So, the answer to your question is most venues, at least on the Royal, only served that Canyon Road wine. I understood the pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc were better than the chardonnay in the plus package. I didn't try either of them. So, funny story, I asked the waiter from Good Spirits what kind of wine they had. He brought me a menu. I asked which of the wines were actually available as I saw a few that I liked. He came back and said, 'none of them, ma'am'. Oh boy .. they did find a Decoy Chardonnay for me after all that. It's not my favorite but was at least drinkable.

We love the Michelangelo on deck 5, for the same reason that Thrak mentioned, or even the DaVinci on deck 6. We do not like Botticelli in the aft of Deck 6 .. as you referred to as the Hokey Pokey MDR.

We are currently on the Royal and it was the second formal night last night. The escargot and lobster were absolutely wonderful in the MDR. This is the first cruise since the return to service that the lobster tail has been this good but I can say that the escargot has been consistently good! We’ve not been even slightly disappointed disappointed with any of the food on this entire cruise. All of it has been fabulous! We’ve been so very impressed with every single meal we’ve had on this 12 night sailing!