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I’m writing this as we are on our transatlantic cruise. Once we get to land and have wifi I will attempt to upload it to Cruise Critic. I will try to answer any questions as I have time but be prepared for a wait and also remember by the time you read this I will no longer be on board Royal Princess. This is my first trip to Europe and I will not be on the computer very often.

PRE-TRIP

Six or so months were spent planning this trip. Our TA is being followed by 2 nights in Copenhagen, 5 nights in Paris, 4 nights in Florence, a 10 night Mediterranean cruise with Celebrity and finally, 5 nights in Rome. This makes a total of 6 weeks away; by far our longest trip. We have had to book flights, cruises, hotels, apartments, shore excursions and tours in advance of our trip and keep a written record of absolutely everything. I know of no one who could remember every detail of an upcoming trip with so many things going on. We flew to Fort Lauderdale a day ahead of boarding Royal Princess, rented a car and picked up some supplies.

ROYAL PRINCESS

Royal Princess was employing a staggered boarding process for our cruise. Luckily we happened to be in the first group. Our assigned boarding time was from 12:30 - 1:00. We checked out of our hotel at 11:00, headed to the rental car (Dollar) return and they promptly shuttled us to the port. At that time there wasn’t a huge line up of vehicles going to the ship and we got there in pretty short order. The line to get into the terminal wasn’t too long and quickly we were inside and waiting in line to begin the checkin process. After about 10-15 minutes they opened up the checkin in desks and we were onboard by right after noon. Our luggage arrived at our room within 30 minutes!!!

The Piazza! What can I say that hasn’t been said? This ship is stunningly beautiful. The piazza is decorated in golds, creams, crystal, warm wood tones and it is HUGE! We so prefer this arrangement to the long, mall like promenade on the larger Royal Caribbean ships. There is something going on in the piazza at almost all times. They have dance classes, exercise classes, and entertainment. There are a lot of seats spread around all 3 levels of the piazza and plenty of rails to stand against to watch if you don’t secure a seat. Also in the central piazza area are Alfredo’s Pizzeria, International Cafe’, Gelato’s and many bars.

Off of the central piazza area you will find the shops, the passenger service desk, the internet cafe’, etc. so they aren’t taking up any space in the central piazza area, which is nice.

A lot has been said about the lack of mid ship stairs. We haven’t found it to be too much of a problem aside from times when many passengers are all moving at the same time such as embarkation, muster, port days, etc. Our stateroom is located on Riviera deck a little forward of the mid ship elevators. At busier times we just walk to the forward or aft elevators depending on where on the ship we are trying to go. For us, it hasn’t been a big deal at all. And honestly, walking a little to burn off some calories isn’t a bad thing. I can understand though how it could be a problem for some with mobility issues. They don’t have the option of taking stairs due to their disability and those elevators are by far the busiest of them all, typically.

Not having a full promenade is kind of a bummer, I have to say. However, it is not a deal breaker for us.

We haven’t spent much time at all on the pool deck (deck 16). The weather just hasn’t been conducive to hanging out up there. We have experienced partly to mostly cloudy weather with temps in the 50’s-60’s. Not bad but not exactly pool weather. From what we’ve seen, Movies Under The Stars has not been well attended, probably because it gets pretty chilly up there at night and also possibly because once the movies are shown up there you can watch them on the TV in your room. Speaking of the room TV system, it is simply AWESOME!!! The interactive TV’s are fantastic. You can watch the shows you want, pause them and then resume watching later, right where you left off. I especially love that you can catch the shows that are recorded in Princess Live. It is a smaller venue and not always easy to get a seat in. With the interactive TV’s it’s not like being there but at least you don’t completely miss out.

We’ve yet to catch the water show on the pool deck. They do it between 6 & 7 pm which makes no sense to me. People are getting ready for, going to or are at dinner during those hours. I have seen it a couple times in the patter for a later time but we’ve just never made it up there late at night.

SMOKING

I’m not wanting a debate on smoking, please! We are former smokers and have not forgotten what it was like. We still empathize and sympathize, so this information is for the smokers out there. Until it is banned, made illegal or Princess’ policy changes from what it is now, smoking is allowed on the deck 7 aft promenade, starboard side. There are some super comfy padded teak chairs out there but no ashtrays. Your only choice to smoke is to stand because the ash receptacles are mounted to the ship’s outer wall. Also, I had read that they had a smoking section on deck 16 behind the Horizon court but they must have moved it because it is no longer there. They do have a nice area set up on deck 17 aft. It’s a fairly large area with tables and chairs and is covered over where the tables are. They always have ice water, hot tea and coffee up there with an attendant watching after everyone. On the uncovered section of the deck there are plenty of lounge chairs and the small square tables, like at the pool. You can also grab an ashtray and relax in one of those chairs. Also, smoking is allowed in the casino with the exception of a few nights. For the non or ex smokers, on smoking allowed nights, it can get pretty smokey in the casino. Even being an ex smoker it has really bothered me and we had to leave a few times. It would be nice if they could find a way to ventilate it better. I thought I had read that cigar smoking was not allowed anywhere on the ship with the exception of Churchill’s but there have been cigar smokers out on deck 7 aft and up on 17 aft. Maybe they are just letting it go unless someone complains?

OUR STATEROOM R410

We love aft facing balcony rooms and try to snag one whenever we can. We did score D728 for this cruise. And then I started to do my research on Cruise Critic. Eventually after a few months, all the chatter about soot on the aft balconies scared me away. I just wasn’t willing to take the chance on not being able to enjoy our balcony. Because the aft balconies carry a premium (almost $500 per person when we booked!) we were able to move to a mini suite (R410) for a little less money. It doesn’t appear on this cruise that soot has been a problem back there. We haven’t seen any soot on the aft of the ship on either deck 16 or 17. Also, we participated in a cabin crawl and were in C729, an S2 owner’s suite and there was no soot back there. Incidentally, the day of our cabin crawl they brought out all new furniture for the suites back there. Evidently, someone in an owner’s suite threw a gigantic fit because the teak furniture and pads were so nasty from all the soot in the past. What they brought is very nice, indeed. The chairs, loungers and tables all have a silver, painted frame. The chairs and loungers have thick pads and the tables are glass topped. It looked like furniture from the Sanctuary to me but with different colored pads.

So, back to R410, our mini suite. We are located just a little forward of the mid ship elevators on the port side. We are the first cabin forward on the hump, 2 decks below the walkway for the sea view bar. I would book this cabin again in a heartbeat and actually would feel disappointed if I couldn’t get it again. Privacy is not an issue at all. Having said that, on the starboard side, in the same location, you would be totally exposed to anyone walking on the sea walk. But, being here on the port side, someone would have to be a very determined snoop to sneak a peek, LOL. We can see people walking above up there but I don’t think anyone pauses long enough to be looking down here and with this cabin, if they do, they can only see the front portion of the balcony near the rail. The balcony is the 2nd largest of the mini suites (category MA). It is sort of pie shaped with plenty of room to use the foot stools and stretch out. The standard balcony size is not big enough to use the foot stools. It’s sort of a mystery why they have even provided them on those balconies. Another advantage is with the deck swinging way out 2 floors above, it shields us somewhat from rain, what little we have had.

The mini suite has a very large sofa that is actually quite comfortable. The desk/vanity area is very big (probably 6 feet long) with plenty of room and also contains the refrigerator. There are 2 US power outlets and one european. There are 3 drawers of a nice size and 3 small shelves on the side of the desk/vanity. For additional privacy in the living area you can pull curtains all the way across to close off that end of the room if you want to. Also, in the living area, beside the sofa bed was another night table and a large coffee table in front of the couch. The coffee table is a huge obstacle in the room. We moved the extra night table into the closet and swung the coffee table around into the space where the night table had been. It works out much better that way plus it has given us drawer space in the closet. When we want to use the coffee table we just move it back in front of the couch.

The bed is VERY firm! The first few nights we didn’t think it was too bad but as the nights have worn on we are waking with more aches and pains. This morning my back hurt so bad I could barely stand it. We asked Emmanuel if he could soften it up some way so he went and got an extra pad and put on it. We’ll see how things feel tomorrow morning.

The bathroom is adequate with a full tub/shower and a decent sink counter. There are 3 shelves in the corner by the mirror. The TP holder has not been an issue for us. It’s just about parallel with your hips when sitting on the pot :) There is a long shelf under the counter area in the bathroom.

The closet is opposite the bathroom and open with a shelf above. The shelving inside the closet is behind doors and the safe is also inside the cabinet. We are traveling for 6 weeks (4 after getting off this cruise once we get to Copenhagen) and have more than enough space for all our stuff to be put away neatly.

I have to mention our room steward, Emmanuel from the Philippines. He is the BEST ever and if you get lucky enough to have him as your steward you will be very happy. He greets us several times a day with a huge smile and is always pleasant. He has a cute sense of humor too.

DINING

We have anytime dining and have not made a reservation yet. I think the longest we have waited for a table was maybe 10 minutes. We have been going to dinner most nights between 6:30 and 7:00. We have asked for a table for 2 and we have also shared, depending on how much time we wanted to take for dinner. The larger tables take longer, obviously.

The food in the main dining room has been quite good, especially the fish dishes. The balsamic vinaigrette is out of this world, good. I’ve fallen in love with this salad dressing. As always, my favorite appetizer is the fettucini alfredo in a parmesan basket. On the appetizer portion you have to specifically request the parmesan basket though. This is the stuff dreams are made of. I’m not allowing myself to have it every night :( We have also dined in Alfredo’s 3 times and love it. We had lunch there on embarkation day and hardly anyone was there. Try the veal pasta pockets, you won’t regret it, trust me. The pizza is also excellent. I’ve had both the traditional meat antipasti as well as the vegetarian and both are excellent.

We have had breakfast in the Horizon court only twice so far. I’m not a big breakfast eater so hubby is known to go down to the dining room before I’m up and it works for us. The breakfast we had in the buffet was fine with lots of choices from continental breakfast type items to hot breakfast items. If you go up there from the mid ship elevators you first enter the bistro. If you want hot breakfast items you need to continue to walk towards the aft. That’s where the hot items are. All of the continental breakfast items are in the Bistro. We have only had lunch in the buffet one day and there were lots of choices, much better than at dinner. I was jonesing for a taco salad and found all the needed ingredients to build a very tasty one. We have had lunch in the dining room a few times and it was quite good. The burgers in there are thick, juicy and flavorful.

We aren’t doing formal nights on this cruise. We just couldn’t allow the space to pack formal wear. On the 1st formal night we went to the buffet. We were totally underwhelmed with the choices and have not been back for dinner. Honestly, it was pathetic. The Horizon Bistro and Horizon Buffet are very large but we’ve yet to see more than 1/2 of the stations open. So, what’s the point? We have had no trouble finding a place to sit though. There are lots of tables and chairs.

On 2 nights we were feeling lazy and went up to the grill by the pool on deck 16 and enjoyed wings, burgers, dogs and pizza.....not all on the same night :) Speaking of the area up there, in between the grill and the pizza place is a bar (sorry forget the name) but one of the bartenders is actually American. His name is Tyler. We asked him how he ended up here, haha! He said there are only 2 Americans fleet wide and they both know someone higher up who got them on. He said it’s the best decision he ever made. He loves it and gets to travel all around.

We have only had lunch in the International Cafe one time. It was ok. I had a cuban sandwich and some shrimp salad. Nothing to complain about, just nothing too special in my opinion.

We have had the pub lunch with fish and chips on two days, so far. It was good. We attempted another time but the line was so long we went to Alfredo’s instead. There never seems to be a big demand there. I think some people must think it is an extra charge.

We have called room service for coffee almost every morning. Every day they say it will be around 30 minutes but we’ve never waited more than 10 and most days it is more like 5 minutes. On the one port day we’ve had so far we put out the hanging card on our door the night before and requested delivery between 6:30 & 7:00. It arrived promptly at 7 and thank goodness because our alarm was set to wake us at 6 pm, not 6 am.

THE STAFF

Everyone we have come into contact with, with one exception, has been so cheerful and friendly. They are all so pleasant and full of smiles. I don’t get the impression they are being abused and overworked. They all seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs.

The one exception was the girl who answered the phone for reservations at the Crown Grille. I called down off and on all day one day to make a reservation and no one answered. Finally, at 5:15 she answered and informed me that we had to call to reserve before 5 pm. I informed her that this was the first time they had answered the phone ALL day! She hung up on me! I phoned back and she answered again, not hanging up on me this time. I requested a table for 2, on any sea day (we have 11 on this cruise) between 6 & 7:30 pm. Without a second’s hesitation she informed me in a very snotty manner that there were no tables available on any night of the cruise before 8:30. This was on the 3rd day of our 15 night journey. Incidentally, we had lunch with a group today and got into a conversation about this and another couple said she had also been very rude to them, face to face! So, she said they just walked in there one night at 7:30 and the place was deserted and they were immediately seated. We aren’t going to bother to go at all now. My attitude towards that specialty restaurant is not in a good place and besides, the dining room food has been really good!

Back to the staff........I’ve never been one to really care who the cruise director is but on this cruise we have Sam Hawker-Thomas. She is absolutely wonderful and cute as a button. The deputy CD’s name is Toby, I believe. Also, very fun.

All of our waiters, anywhere on the ship, have been very pleasant and accommodating.

The captain is Dino Sagani. I love his accent and enjoy his daily updates at noon every day.

The Hotel General Manager is Martin Bristow. We’ve not had any interaction with him.

CRUISE CRITIC MEET & GREET AND OTHER GROUP ACTIVITIES

We had a huge and very lively roll call for this cruise. If you’ve never participated in a roll call I encourage you to do so. We now have a lot of wonderful new friends and familiar faces on board. On our 1st sea day we had a very well attended (over 200 of us) at our meet and greet. As our numbers kept growing, Princess had to keep planning it for different venues to accommodate our size. We finally ended up on the Horizon Terrace. They blocked it off for us for 1 hour and set it up with a microphone and speaker. The captain came and talked for a few minutes which was really neat. He said we shouldn’t be called Cruise Critics but Cruise Enthusiasts. I agree! It was just a lot of fun to put faces to the screen names of people we had been chatting with for months prior.

On the next day Princess was kind enough to have a luncheon for us in the Allegro dining room. We had it all to ourselves and it was very nice. I’m sure it was the same menu as in Concerto but we appreciated them letting us have our own space.

On the 4th day we did a cabin crawl and poker run. We hosted our cabin plus there were 6 others. This event was also well attended. We had so many wanting to do it that the organizers had to break them up into 3 groups and send them on different routes so that there didn’t end up being 80 people all together wanting to see each cabin, one by one. It worked out great. Once everyone had come through, we hosts all gathered at the S2 suite and then we all went out together to see each other’s cabins. It was fun to see the different categories of cabins.

The biggest was the S2 suite, an owner’s suite. Personally, if I had paid what that cabin cost I would have been extremely disappointed. This is just my opinion but for that price it’s seriously lacking space. The bathroom is really nice and big. But the living space isn’t any bigger than what we have in our mini suite and the bedroom is tiny too. I just don’t see where they can justify the cost. But, to each his/her own and hey, if ya got the dough to spend more power to ya!

This also reinforced to me that we could never cruise in an inside room. Claustrophobia anyone? There are people who are perfectly content in an inside and that’s great. We just aren’t among them.

We also saw what is considered an obstructed balcony cabin. The obstruction only comes into play if the extra bed is pulled down out of the ceiling. This is not an issue if you don’t have anyone using that bed. The lesson here is, do your homework concerning obstructed balconies. You could get a great deal and have no obstruction at all.

We saw a handicap balcony room too. It is very roomy with lots of floor space, obviously. The gal who is in that room with her mother really hated the bathroom though and I can see why. There is no place to put your bath stuff in there. There are no shelves and the sink counter is really small; barely bigger than the sink itself. There was a wheel chair ramp out to the balcony but how you could ever fit a wheel chair out there is totally beyond the capabilities of my imagination.

ENTERTAINMENT

We aren’t the types to feel compelled to see and do everything on a ship. We don’t run from venue to venue to get a seat and we don’t usually play trivia or anything like that. The daytime offerings for us are pretty weak but that’s ok because we’re happy to just relax.

We did go see the comedian, Al Katz, and he was super funny. The Princess Theatre was packed to the gills on that night at 8:30. We arrived 25 minutes early and I swear we got the last 2 seats together. It was standing room only. On another day he was in the Vista Lounge with a different show but we didn’t go.

We also saw the magician/illusionist. His last name was Cats. He was average at best. David Copperfield has no need to fear that competition. We have been to Princess Live for “Where in the World” which was fun. We divided into teams of 2 to 6 for that one.

Today we went to “Hollywould You” in Princess Live and it was a good time. Sam was there for that one.

They have had a beautiful string quartet play many times in the piazza. Those ladies are seriously good. They play classical music and are very talented.

A few times when we have passed by there has been a crooner in there singing but he’s not our style so we keep moving on.

GRIPES

I don’t have many gripes but what I do have are courtesy of the Passenger Services desk. When we originally booked back last September, Princess was running a 3 for free promotion. We were to receive a category upgrade if we booked a balcony cabin, a pair of specialty dinners and $100 each in shore excursion credits. Since we booked the highest category balcony cabin we received no upgrade. I knew we wouldn’t and so wasn’t disappointed. I did, however, look forward to the specialty dining and shore excursion credits. When we boarded, I found our 3 for free certificates and guess what? Apparently when I switched rooms they also switched promotions on me even though at the time I called to switch I verified with the Princess representative that we would keep our original incentives. Now, we were getting a bottle of wine (up to a $28 value), a framed 8x10 portrait and the shore excursion credits. So, I went down to passenger services and talked to Sarah from England. I explained the situation and she seemed to think it could all be sorted out but said she would have to contact Princess headquarters in California for a final determination and with the time difference we wouldn’t know anything until the following day or possibly the next. Well, she never got back to me so I had to go back down and wait in line, again. Sarah was not on duty so the gentleman I talked to promised to have her contact me as soon as she came on duty at 7pm. She called and said HQ made the “final” decision that we got what we qualified for. Huh? When I booked I qualified for the other one. I was not a happy camper. But whatever, it is what it is and I immediately made the decision to not let it get me down. 1st world problems, ya know? Things could be a whole lot worse! Incidentally, this all led to the call to make a reservation at the Crown Grill and the rude girl I dealt with there. End result, no specialty dinner, this cruise.

Then today after returning from our private excursion to Normandy from LeHavre I decided to get our excursion tickets out of the safe for our excursion tomorrow in Rotterdam. Problem was, I couldn’t find the tickets anywhere. I know I put them in the safe. We searched every nook and cranny, every drawer, ever folder in the room and no luck. So, I called passenger services (shore excursion desk closed as usual) to ask if our tickets could be reprinted. The gal who answered proceeded to tell me we are in LeHavre tomorrow from 7am - 7pm. Ummm, wrong! We were there today and what does my request have to do with any of that? So, she tells me shore excursions is closed (duh!) and that I need to come down to passenger services in the morning before we arrive in Rotterdam to ask them to contact shore excursions to have our tickets reprinted. Only the way she explained it was not nearly that clear and concise. I had to ask her several times whether she meant for me to go to passenger services or shore excursions and what time did this need to happen. The whole conversation was very confusing to me. And frustrating! Anyway, good news because after I hung up I checked the safe again for about the 5th time and there the envelope was, standing up against the side wall of the safe where it was nearly invisible. Hassle avoided!

THIS AND THAT....SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS

In a conversation with Tyler, the American bartender, he told us the average age on this cruise is 70 and we definitely believe it. We are 55 and 61 and feeling mighty young this trip, haha! He also said there are only 45 people under the age of 25 which we believe also to be factual. We’ve seen exactly 4 children so far and were told 2 of them are the kids of a crew member. The wife and kids evidently are staying on our deck because we’ve seen them several times in the hall on our deck.

Despite this being a ship full of older folks we’ve seen relatively few walkers, wheel chairs, scooters, etc. I have to say though, that some of them seem so crippled up I have to wonder what they will do when we finally get to Europe. There is no way some of them can go on tours, I wouldn’t think. I just find it interesting and curious. I guess they must just like to cruise and that’s cool too.

For years we have wanted to do a transatlantic cruise but couldn’t take the time from work to do it. Now, in retirement, time is not an issue. I was a little leery of so many sea days in a row (7 in the beginning, 1 port day, 3 sea days, 3 port days, 1 sea day) but I have to say it has been very enjoyable, relaxing and pleasant. Not boring at all.

The weather and the sea has been much calmer and moderate than we thought it would be. We’ve been in much rougher seas in the Caribbean and off the east coast of the U.S. Today was probably the worst weather day we’ve had. This morning it was partly sunny for awhile but then it got really overcast and sort of foggy with a drizzle in the air. It is pretty chilly but not unbearably so. Today is Tuesday and we’ll arrive in Southampton on Thursday so we’ve made it most of the way with very little in the way of bad weather. On 2 days the sea was choppy a bit but not really a problem. Royal Princess is keeping things nice and calm on board.

Edit....now that we’ve been in Ponta Delgada, Southampton and LeHavre. Ponta Delgada was a washout in the morning. Very rainy, foggy and just yuck. Finally, in the afternoon, the sun came out and the day was (mostly) saved. It’s too bad because it really is a beautiful place. For a great tour there contact Lisa Ringelberg at Ringlisa7@hotmail.com. She doesn’t have a website but gave 6 of us a fantastic tour of the island and she has a couple of neighbors who are fantastic cooks. They provided us with a huge and very tasty “farm lunch” with endless wine. What a treat! 55€ for the tour and 15€ for the lunch = a perfect day.

Southampton was absolutely pouring rain in the morning so the plan for our private tour was somewhat altered but it turned out to be a nice day nonetheless. If you ever go there and want a personalized and/or flexible tour, contact Steve Perry with New Forest Platinum Tours. He was great! His rate is 50 british pounds per person for the first 4 hours and 20 per person for each additional hour. Well worth it!

Today we arrived in LeHavre. Early it was very windy, cold and overcast. I thought I was going to freeze to death standing up on the cliffs at Normandy. Eventually the sun came out and while it stayed very windy it felt a little better. The feeling at the American Cemetery was overwhelmingly sad and I couldn’t help but think of my dad who would have been so honored to have been able to visit there. He was a very proud WWII veteran. We toured with 6 others through Normandy Sightseeing Tours. The rate was 97.50€ per person and we were gone about 9 hours in all. It was an almost 90 minute drive from the port to the beaches on Normandy. Our guide was Phillipe and he was really great. He knows his stuff!

Happy cruising everyone! I hope I haven’t bored you to death but I wanted to share some of my thoughts and observations. I’ve been helped tremendously by reading the experiences of others here on Cruise Critic.

Thanks for the information, tips and ideas :D

We have a 123 GO obc of $300 for our 10 night med cruise. We have prepaid gratuities (Celebrity Select dining so it was mandatory) and since it's so port intensive I don't see a lot of time sitting around in the bars. Can you use the OBC in the casino and if yes, how do you do that?

Thanks in advance!

My husband and I are in our 50s--no children. This is how I pay for ALL vacations--not only cruises:

 

In 2001 I opened a regular savings account with $300.00 and called it "Vacation Account". Then I started nickel and diming it to death. I grocery shop with coupons. At the bottom of the receipt, it will say, e.g., "you saved $22.50". The next day, I will transfer $23.00 (rounding up) from my regular checking account to the vacation account. I save my change and when I get a few dollars in rolled coins, that goes into the vacation account. I get a Christmas bonus every year at work which also goes in. If I buy something that offers a rebate, I mail it in. If friends want to go to a sporting event or a play, I volunteer to buy the tickets. When I'm paid back, that goes into the account. Any time there's any kind of windfall (like a tax refund) that too goes in.

 

Another thing I do is I use my AMEX card as if it were my debit card. For the Delta Skymiles. Unlike most people these days, I still keep a check register. So I pay for everything I can (groceries, gasoline, etc.) with my AMEX card. Then I enter the amount charged into my check register as if I used my debit card. I also pay a couple of monthly bills with AMEX. When the AMEX bill comes, I match the charges on the bill with the entries in my register. It always evens out and I pay AMEX in full. When on vacation, I pay for everything with AMEX and those charges are paid from the vacation account. Those Skymiles add up and free flights are a good thing. I try also to throw $100.00 per month into the account, but that doesn't happen all the time.

 

It's a relatively painless way to save money for a vacation. Sure, it's a little bit of extra work, but for me it's well worth it. We take a yearly cruise with premium drink package and book Concierge Class. We still manage to take two or three long weekend type trips too.

 

 

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This is exactly what I do too! Only I use a Chase Southwest Visa card. I can't even remember the last time I actually paid for a flight on Southwest. I keep a vacation account and also dump in any tax refunds, etc. I don't go so far as the coupon thing though. I do "deposit" money every month into it though. I make it a priority and treat it like a recurring monthly bill :) Then I pay my credit card bill in full every month after I check off all the charges in my check register ;)

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. One week from now we'll be about to board her and see all the loveliness in person :D

I am very thankful to you for having posted this question! First of all, I have often wondered about this myself, but felt it was none of my business how people afforded their cruises, so I was embarrassed to ask. It turns out, some folks at least don't mind telling, so that's good!

 

Secondly, I always assumed that folks with tremendously long cruise "resumes" must be in the travel business (which I am not, nor likely ever to be) and cruising either for free or nearly for free. This thread suggests that may not be the case.

 

Thirdly, it hadn't occurred to me that many cruises might have been accomplished simply by sailing in inside cabins! Although we are not among the cruisers who "use their cabin only for changing clothes and sleeping," and thus would not consider booking an inside or even an ocean view cabin, more power to those who do, and thus cruise more than we do!

 

Fourthly, and most importantly for me, reading this thread -- particularly reading the many posts which discuss what cruisers "sacrifice" in order to cruise -- has gotten me thinking differently about my own behavior. Case in point: just the other day I was "hanging out" at Target because I had a little free time, and in the end, my hanging out and browsing resulted in my heading to the cash register with about 6 accessory items that I thought were a good price and were attractive. They had caught my eye, and I wanted them, but I certainly didn't need them. Nor had I truly paid attention to the totality of what I had picked up (just individual prices), so I experienced a shock when the cashier told me, "That will be $63!"

 

I paid for the items, but I was determined to go home and reassess whether I really wanted to spend $63 on these baubles. All the while, I was thinking about this thread on CC, and I had already calculated in my head that if I "hung out" at Target like that 10 times in a year (an easy thing for me to do, as Target is 5 minutes from my home), I could easily spend $630, and that could be a cruise!!!

 

It was a shock to me, but a very good shock, and it was all because you posted the question you did.

 

So thanks! I will be returning most if not all of my baubles to Target soon.

 

In a way, you have changed my life! That is the power of Cruise Critic.

I can only speak for myself of course, but as I've aged (55 this year, ugh!) material things don't have nearly as much meaning to me as experiences and making memories do. We've never been what I would consider to be well off but we've been responsible with our money and saved when we could, as much as we could. As a result we are debt free, kids grown and we're on our own to spend their inheritance as we see fit, LOL. Nearly every thing I have my eye on in a store I ask myself, do I want it or need it? 99.9% of the time the answer is I want it and don't need it so I put it back. We have a vacation fund that we pay into every month just like a bill that is due. It all adds up. We're about to leave on our trip of a lifetime as a result of living our lives this way. You can even think of a cruise on a day to day basis. The next time you pick up something that costs $100 think of that as a day on a cruise ship. Which would you rather have? You'll realize the answer pretty quick. I'm betting you'll take those baubles back to Target!!!

There is a online site called send outcards. Com I believe that you order and design online and they send a card in the regular mail.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

What a cool idea! When I went to check it out I got this.......

Seems like a "going out of business soon" strategy to me. Why in the world would you need to know someone already using the service to be able to use it yourself? But, thanks anyway. I'll just mail them before we leave.

Ok, thanks everyone! Message heard loud and clear. I'll have someone from home mail them out.

We'll be on the Royal TA coming up in only 10 days! Yay!!! Anyway, we have 2 birthdays and mother's day happening during our trip. Can I take greeting cards to passenger services and will they send them out at our first port? I realize there will be a charge for this but don't even know really, if it's even possible. Does anyone know what the process is? We're on a full day tour and won't really have time to hunt down a local (Ponta Delgada) post office. Thanks for any help or insight.

yes!

Eureka! Sorry about that. The confusion was on my part :confused:

I guess I would just check my credit card and see what shows up. Usually on ours, things show up as a pending charge very quickly. Good luck! I hope you get it sorted out.

/IMG]

 

Muddied waters,,,it was NOT the OBC I was worried about...that shows just fine.

 

It is the $100 "deposit/ credit""that the FCC was purchased for that I want to see, and have previously seen, on the itemized invoice. That does NOT show anywhere...see photo

 

Ahhh, sorry about that. Here's what my original booking confirmation looked like. It shows payment received is $200 (from the applied FCC). Is that what you're talking about?

Ok, here's your answer. it depends on the length of the cruise.

No, balcony on a 5 day = $25 pp OBC with the $100 FCC

 

Does your FCC show up as $100 pp under " amount received" in the Billings Details of your Booking Confirmation? That is how my Sept 2013 invoice itemized it. ( which i happened to have kept)

No, here is a screen shot. The onboard credit is listed separately from the billing information.

The FCC allows for a $100 deposit to book and hold the cruise. I'm past final payment date now but the way it originally looked was we owed all but $200 of the total amount for the cruise. The $200 was our FCC deposit.

We have $100 each in onboard credit. We both used a FCC. We're on a 15 night in a balcony cabin. And a promotion they were having at the time gives us $200 (total for both of us) excursion credit.

We booked with a FCC last fall and our onboard credit shows under "onboard credits for this booking" when I go to the payments and credit page of our booking. It is listed as an onboard sales promotion.

The amount of your onboard credit is dependent on the category of room you book. Are you in an inside by chance?

Thanks for the review, love your pictures. T-16 days and counting. We'll definitely be taste testing the crab margaritas :)

Willybear you just have to continuously monitor for price drops. We booked the Emerald 10 night eastern in 2010 for 2011 sailing. We like the minisuites and at the time the price for both of us was at about $4,000. I knew that was high and I also knew it would come down which it did. I booked to get the cabin we wanted then transferred the booking later to a TA to get additional discounts and OBC. Eventually we ended up paying around $2,700 if I remember right. The first price drop was $1,000 and then a couple more smaller ones later on. I would have never parted with 4k so if the drops hadn't happened we would have canceled before final payment date. So far that's never happened.

I'm definitely enjoying your live review. We board her in 17 days for the transatlantic. Can't wait!

I'm finding this thread very interesting. We are about to sail X for the first time the end of May. We board only 11 days after disembarking Royal Princess so the experiences will be very close to each other in time. We have sailed Princess 4 times prior and also Royal Caribbean 3 times, NCL twice and Carnival once. They all have their differences. Some are better at some things than others are. We have felt our experiences on Royal Caribbean were quite comparable to those on Princess. I don't care for NCL at all and Carnival to me was ......meh....... Our son and daughter in law love Carnival though.

The new Royal Princess and soon to be Regal Princess have deluxe balconies and premium deluxe balconies that have a 2 seater sofa like a loveseat.

We are going on a cruise out of Rome. I've read that the ship will have US electric plugs. For our nights before the cruise, what do you think of this converter? I want to use for MacBook and iphone in Rome. Do you recommend others?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Portable-universal-converter-charging-MRJ201GU/dp/B00F877VES/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1396043755&sr=1-1&keywords=power+converter+110+to+220+travel+strip

 

Thanks!! :-)

This is exactly what we just got for our upcoming trip. It's not big at all....think 2 sticks of butter laying side by side. I liked the multiple plug ins and the usb plug ins also as we have a few things that charge with usb cords. It has a little fan that runs but it's pretty quiet. I also liked that it automatically converts voltage. We will just take the adapters we need, not all of them.

You'd be amazed at how many people don't even know the name of the ship they're going to be boarding for a week. I get it all the time, "I have no idea what the name of our ship is", "whatever that ship is that we're going on", "I don't know what ship we're on - whatever one is in port!". Unbelievable. :rolleyes:

 

People are an endless source of amusement. :cool:

 

OP, tip whomever you want in cash anytime. If it's over & above the autotip, they get it. Pretty simple and yet, people (like the reviewer) get it wrong. :cool:

Have you been talking to my husband? LOL!!! He can never remember the name of the ship, even while we are on it! We're about to go on the Royal Princess and I kid you not, I bet he's asked me 50 times what the name of the ship is. Once we sailed on Golden Princess and when he posted photos on a photo sharing site he named it Diamond Princess ;)

This is why I do all the trip planning :D

I had to use an old email address to get in also. I haven't used that email with Princess for a very long time. Weird! Then, when I went to my profile to change it back to my current email I got the message they were having technical difficulties so I couldn't change it.

The fact that you are tipping $5 bills is not the reason you get your coffee fast. An order of coffee does not have to come all the way from the kitchen.

But for people new to Princess and their room service, they should know that tipping will not get you faster or better service. And most often you will have a different server come to your door everyday. Don't mislead them.

This is one of the very few things I hate about cruise critic. So many people make so many assumptions and judgements of others. I wasn't aware you were cruising along with us as if you were a fly on our stateroom wall. Did I ever say I only ordered coffee? I don't think I mislead anyone at all. The extra tip is totally optional. We choose to tip $5. Others may not tip a dime and that's fine too.

I KNOW FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCES that when I would call room service to order whether it be breakfast, lunch or anything else, after the 2nd day our orders would start to come much quicker. Many times we've been quoted a wait time of 30-40 minutes and our order would show up in 10 or sometimes even sooner than that. Do you think that the room service staff don't talk amongst themselves about who is tipping extra?

Whatever it is, this is my experience. No, I don't feel I'm special in any way and I don't feel I'm being treated better than anyone else. Just because my experience and thoughts are different than your own doesn't mean they aren't valid.

I will continue to tip $5 for the service. You do whatever you wish. Have a great day!

I have found my coffee comes at the exact time I put on my little order form I put out the night before without double tipping so you would get that lightning fast service either way. They don't turn down tips so go ahead and tip all you want but don't think you're getting better service then anyone else. Princess has always been been great when it comes to service IMHO.

Hmmmm, well, I never believed I was getting better service than anyone else. We typically don't put the order card out on our door but call as soon as we wake up. In any case, I believe they work so hard and it's very well worth it to me to tip them an extra $5 for the great service they provide to us and everyone else.

We get a strap of $5 bills before we leave home for room service tips. We have found that after the 2nd day those room service orders come lightning fast! It's especially important when I need coffee in the mornings :D It's worth it to us and they are very appreciative of the extra tip.