Paula_MacFan

Very nice review! We did this same itinerary 5 years ago on the Regal and reading your review really brought back the memories! 🙂 Thanks so much and glad you had a good time.

The email should have a link to the FAQs that explains the process in detail. All my emails with bid offers have had the terms and conditions attached.

The ticket type should be on your Travel Summary along with the other flight details. The luggage allowance and where to check in should all be on the airline's website or app. You should be able to manage your flights on the airline's website or app once you put in the confirmation number/identifier which is on your Travel Summary and the Personalizer. All of those details are the same regardless of whether you book yourself or it's booked through EZ Air.

They told us this very thing 3 times over the past 2 weeks on the Island. Maybe don't say 'never'. We called and spoke to a live person and asked them to please pick up our tray when they had time -- no hurry. Each time we were told to put it in the hallway which I didn't want to do.

Not to hijack this thread and back on topic -- I used crew chat once on our cruise over the last couple weeks. The reply was prompt and professional. It was a question about our disembarkation group and not scooters though 😊

We just disembarked from the Island last week. We ordered evening room service 3 times. Each time I called the dine line and spoke to a live person, requesting they pick up our tray when they had time. Every time they asked us to put it outside our door. I was very reluctant to do this based on comments like yours above. However, each time the trays were removed within probably 15 minutes -- we kept looking. I try hard not to be one of 'those people' on a cruise. We try hard to be self aware. Now if you could do something about all the people on loud speaker face time calls I'd really appreciate it 😊

I do this same thing every day. Click 'manage flights' and then 'change flights'. Nothing will be changed or finalized until the very last step where you confirm after you've selected the new flights. I think it's better to do it this way in the Personalizer vs the flight quote option, because you can make selections immediately. Why run the risk that the pricing has changed while you take time to log in to the Personalizer.

I'm not aware of any mask requirements, and we didn't see any signage or announcements regarding that while onboard or at any port. Where is this coming from? Is the information current or is it something that is outdated?

We did the math and found we spent about the same as if we'd done it on our own. Hawaii is just expensive in general for everything. Plus you're getting the entire time in the islands, no transit time from the west coast. That is worth something, or at least it was to us. I have no interest in a 2 week cruise with only 3 or 4 short port days. We spent 11 long days on 4 islands and had a great time. Different strokes for different folks 🙂

We just flew to Europe on United using EZ Air booking. We flew first class and saved $$$ over what we would have paid on our own. I was able to immediately book our seats at the time of booking, and I managed our flights from the time of booking until the time of flight on the United app. Never did I need to contact anyone at EZ Air for anything. I also received all pertinent notices directly from United regarding our flights, such as pre-ordering meals, pre-checking bags, and gate information. And of course all the other obvious benefits already mentioned by others -- the ability to price lock and refare up to 45 days under flexible fares (which I've done many times using the website, very easy), Princess insurance covers your flights, etc.

We did NCL's Pride of America to Hawaii in January and added their 4 day land package for a total 11 days. We had a fabulous time, trip of a lifetime. We love Princess but I would never sail them to Hawaii -- way too many sea days. We enjoyed our 11 port intensive days instead. That was our first NCL cruise. We have another booked out of Galveston in January, as well as the Regal. We're trying to decide which one to stick with. Been on Regal several times and the NCL ship is brand new. In our opinion both lines have strengths and weaknesses.

We also had a mini suite and it was wonderful on a longer cruise. Having that extra space with the full sized couch and extra TV was nice just to relax. We had a mini on the Caribe deck which has the larger fully covered balconies too, which we used quite a bit. Sorry I can't help with trivia and game shows -- we didn't participate in those. We primarily like the live music events, of which there were many each night and we really enjoyed these! I can say that most events are scheduled in 45 minute blocks, whether it's production shows, comedians, live music, etc. So every 45 minutes the venues turn over and we didn't have any problems finding seating. Even in Crooners which is pretty small, we always found a spot to sit. For evening music that was scheduled for more than 45 minutes, the entertainers still took breaks about those same times, so people tended to turn over then too.

Agree with this advice 100% for both luggage tags and the Travel Summary. Print or at least download your Travel Summary. This is the primary doc that has all the info on your cruise -- itinerary, OBC, purchases, packages, excursions, etc.

Did you try the Princess website? Google search: https://www.princess.com/cruise-tips-vacation-ideas/cruise-destinations/cruise-tips-advice-and-information/what-is-medallion-class.html

We just disembarked from the Island 10/4. We had no problems finding seating in any lounge during our 12 night cruise. We attended a comedian/magician and live music several evenings in Crooners, the Wheelhouse, and Explorers.

I'm sorry -- we don't drink coffee so I can't speak from personal experience, but I'd probably recommend the Good Spirits bar on deck 5 just based on what we observed. Yes, we would love to return to Paris based on our initial visit! The day we spent there was fabulous and we're so glad we took the excursion.

Final thoughts and random misc: As stated in my prior comments we found the ship to be in good overall condition. Is it an older ship? Yes Is she ready for the scrap heap? No We saw ongoing maintenance every day around the ship as well as furniture replacement. Sure there are some dings and bumps, but nothing that impacted our trip or enjoyment. We loved the bed! Slept great and no complaints there. Also loved the app for onboard features. So nice to monitor the account and look at photos without schlepping down to the purser desk or searching through hundreds of printed photos in person. Also like the ease of ordering room service and the crew chat function. I only used crew chat once but the response was professional and prompt. We saw one example of the dreaded table in the hall outside a cabin door. Not sure if it was a quarantine situation but we didn't observe any enhanced protocols during the 13 day cruise. All our excursions matched the description exactly for locales visited, time at each location, activity level, and meals. Yet we heard some complaints from others and also some bewilderment about where we were going or what meals were provided. It's not Princess' fault if people can't bother to read the descriptions or know what they are buying. This was just a SMH observation. Every bus we were on, from the initial transfer with International Friends, to every ship-sponsored excursion, was on modern buses with restroom facilities. All buses had 2 entry doors, with one door at the mid-entry point by the restroom. I mention this because during our planning process I read some comments from people who said excursion buses never had restroom facilities. I also read some negative comments about bus group sizes and the loading/unloading process. Having 2 doors greatly improves this process. Also every Princess excursion we took was 'sold out' yet our buses were never full to capacity. Foreign currency -- we took about $200 each in GBP and Euros. I read some conflicting advice on this prior to the cruise but wanted to be prepared so I ordered the currency in advance. We used our credit card with no problem in all countries visited, but we also had no problem spending all the currency we brought. I was glad to have it for tips and other incidentals. I also like having some currency just in case the credit card wouldn't work for any reason. I work in the financial/banking industry and know how often this happens 🙂 Public restrooms -- this dovetails with the foreign currency point above, but public washrooms in Europe often charge a fee so it's a good idea to have some coins at least. For most of our ship-sponsored excursions we had stops at free facilities, but not all. It was common to see .50 charges and we observed both a turnstile operation where you insert coins and also manned doors with a person collecting the fee. We didn't see any children on the cruise. That doesn't mean there weren't any, but we didn't see them 🙂 The youngest people we encountered were a few 20-somethings who were on multi-generational family trips. This cruise is port-intensive. It's 12 nights, with 8 ports in 7 countries. All the port days were long. We had a wonderful trip and used our time to the fullest. Now we are glad to be home and a bit worn out 🙂 If anyone has any questions I'm happy to try and answer.

We ordered every port day. We used the breakfast card by hanging it out the night before and didn't ask for any extras. Everyday it came 10 minutes prior to the earliest time selected, like clockwork. So when we selected the 7 - 7:30 window it came at 6:50, etc. We just used that time as a guide and selected accordingly.

I just disembarked yesterday and agree with you. The only thing that seemed odd to us was the buffet in the front (which we knew prior to boarding). Other than that, everything seemed pretty much in the same places we experienced before on other ships.

I just left the Island yesterday and can confirm the 10:30 pm closing time. We struggled with late evening food a few times as we were in port very late. We ordered room service 3X (not counting breakfast card every day for port days) and there was very little that was free. I remember the days of lots of free options, but now it's pretty much a chicken sandwich, burger, turkey club, FF, cheesecake, chocolate cake, chef salads, and 4 choices from the kid's menu. The options mentioned above now cost $$ -- chips, dip, quac, veggie plate, etc. One nice thing was the ability to order on the app - we really liked that and the orders came promptly with the appropriate condiments.

We are in transit now in between flights -- the worst part of the trip is the long day++ getting home and losing those 7 hours. I will have some wrap up thoughts on the whole cruise after we get home.

I'm not sure where the Reserve Dining was off the top of my head but I posted all the daily patters so you could probably find it there 😊 I'm glad you asked about internet connection! I was going to comment on this as it was superb all over the ship. In fact that's the reason I decided to start posting here daily as the connection was so good I didn't mind doing it. In the past we've had to use our free Platinum minutes and now with the package of unlimited access and the improved speeds, it wasn't a hassle. Most days when we returned to the ship my phone was reconnected to the ship's wifi before we even boarded.

Correction: the tower was The Befry of Bruges. We went too many places & I got them confused. It was too late to edit my post. Apologies 😊

Today we visited our last port of Bruges. We took the Princess excursion Best of Bruges with canal cruise & time on your own. We left the ship around 8am and returned around 4:30 for 5pm sail away. We had a nice gentleman guide who walked us through the old city center and explained the area and history. We had a nice canal cruise around the medieval buildings, followed by 4 hours on our own. The guide provided maps & an emergency contact number just in case. We spent our free time having a nice lunch, touring the torture museum, and climbing the 366 spiral steps at The Church of Our Lady. What a view from the top of the tower. Also did some shopping -- Belgium is known for beer, lace, chocolate, & waffles. All plenty to be found. It was a nice end to the cruise. We've had good weather overall and calm seas. I'll have some final thoughts on the cruise later.

Day 12 patter