Lady Arwen

I agree with you. We don’t have any Princess sailings booked, just HAL and Celebrity. We’re actually docked beside a Viking ship this morning. Really nice size. Sadly, Princess will not be our first or even second choice in the near future. Only time will tell.

We spoke in length last night to a couple of our servers about the rollout on the next cruise. There is a shortage of staff in the Specialty dining restaurants and servers in the MDR have been advised they could be moved over to one of the SD restaurants. This will leave the MDR in a severe shortage of staff. We were told that as of last night crew from the buffet were being brought up to MDR to learn their new jobs by Saturday. Nobody is happy and it shows. Our server said that the SD restaurants have been understaffed for quite some time and that’s why dinner takes over two hours. They wonder how it’s possible to serve all the guests with the new Premier package when there’s not enough hours to serve that many guests. He’s thinking dining hours may have to be expanded thus longer hours for an already overworked waitstaff. He believes this will turn into an epic fail for Princess and to expect a large daily increase in price in the near future. If you’re sailing next week with the new package, please pack your patience. The crew are doing their very best to get through this.

Halifax and the sun is shining brightly this morning,

The officers took their dog and left. Could be drug related. You know us crazy Canucks and our legal cannabis. lol Still raining and cold. Feels like October. I would not want to be sailing this itinerary later in the fall! You would definitely need to bring your long underwear. The Piazza turned into the kids play area and they ran in circles chasing each other until one fell and smacked her head on a chair. It’s okay, she got up and started running around again with her parents cheering her on. Loads of fun. Not.

A lovely Filipino family just walked through through the Piazza wearing parkas! Five armed police officers are quickly walking around the shops onboard. Routine call or an issue? Stay tuned! lol

Hope your weather is good for the rest of your cruise. Here in St. John, it’s just yucky! lol

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain and zero visibility, again. 58 degrees F. and forecast for rain pretty much all day. At least those who want to get out and about don’t have to worry about tenders today. A lot of us are sitting around the Piazza having coffee and IC snacks. The buffet is probably a zoo. Our Sanctuary will probably not open today due to rain and cold. No interest in doing this itinerary again. Went to The Catch again last night. It was great! That’s all I’ve got for today. Tomorrow is Halifax and the weather looks very promising. Crossed fingers. Ingrid

I’m so happy to hear that! Much better to fly into La Guardia. Today is St. John, but weather is awful.

lol I’m not great at doing reviews or anything too structured. I lose interest very quickly. However, I do enjoy updates and sharing anecdotal stories. If you have any questions or anything you want me to find out for you, please just let me know and I’ll do my best. Full disclosure: I don’t do photos, especially food. lol

Yes, us too. We got a reservation card in our cabin stating the time and date.We called to request a change. Nope! This or nothing, take it or leave it. This was on Koningsdam.

I honestly have no idea. I would guess the latter.

I’m sure exceptions will be made for guests such as yourself. Other guests may be very disappointed.

Just spoke to one of our Sanctuary attendants about this. He said the waitstaff of every SD is concerned that there is just not enough staff to deal with over bookings. This week is bad enough with zero availability. However, I believe that next week will not be as bad because the kids will be back in school and basically the last week of summer. We shall see.

If I were you I’d get your choices booked right away, just to be safe,

You got it!

I agree that guests with the premier package, casino bookings and suite guests will be able to secure reservations. Anyone else is probably out of luck. A shame really. We have a lot of unhappy folks this sailing because no SD available. Next week will much much worse.

The Catch has had zero availability since day one. We were there on Sunday and again tonight. On Sunday, the wait staff was vastly overworked. We felt bad for them. Every single table was occupied. I have no idea how many were from suites or casino bookings. Lots of unhappy rumblings about no availability all week. We ate at Gigi’s today for lunch and it too was packed. We saw the line starting at 11:00 am.

Currently, on Enchanted. With our Premier package booked months ago we reserved our two complimentary SD and four more we paid for. People are complaining because on the first day no SD restaurants were available. Fully booked from day one. With the new package with unlimited SD I can’t imagine anyone else will be able to secure any SD.

Yes, it’s great if you can make it off the ship. Lots of disappointment today. The view is very pretty, once the fog lifted.

Just to update the tender situation. At noon all non Princess excursion ticket holders were suspended and only guests with Princess excursions were being tendered, until further notice. As I was typing, an announcement for those with higher ticket numbers with no excursions booked would be tendering soon. Sun is bright and no fog, but they are backed up because of this mornings ongoing issues. I doubt if anyone was able to get an excursion this late in the day. Ate lunch at Gigi’s and it was very good. I had a strawberry margarita (okay, fine, I had two). David had two beers to go along with his tuna bread cheese thingy. I had pizza and I couldn’t get through half. I felt so bad. Cheers, til next time!

Ha! That perfectly describes me on most days, lol!

I’m just not good at commitment, lol. If I start that, then I’d feel bad when I forgot about it. This way, if I show up, those who want to will read my post and if I forget, nobody will care. Thank you for your suggestion, Rafael. Ingrid

Woke up to 60 deg. temps and total fog coverage. You cannot see anything outside except grey. Shuttles have been suspended for most of the morning, but now one is attempting the journey. The sun is trying to break through in spots, but just barely a hint. Hopefully, those who have excursions will be able to go at some point. Announcement just now another tender is going out. Slow process this morning. We dined in the CG last night and nothing to report. Food is good and the service as lovely, as always. I don’t eat meat and I wasn’t that hungry, so I just ate the sides, and a couple double pours of Whispering Angel. My DH had the fish with sides. We’re back the last night. Had breakfast at the IC (too late for the MDR). Delicious latte with a very stale croissant. My DH had a blueberry danish that was also not fresh. What is up with that? Back at The Catch tonight. Walked through the buffet this morning. No words, except “no thanks”. Will try Gigi’s for lunch. I’m writing this from our cabana and there is nobody else here but us. Tomorrow will be in St. John, back home in Canada and going with the boys next door. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. Having a very good time, so far!

Embarkation day we didn’t arrive until almost 4pm, due to the Princess transfer fiasco. We assumed that we were hours too late to secure a spot, so we didn’t bother. The next morning after breakfast we decided to head up and see if perhaps there were some half days available. When we arrived it was empty! I asked if there were any spots available, possibly for our entire cruise. I expected him to tell us absolutely not, but he said yes, of course, let me show you around. We picked two lounges in the shade and we were very happy. At 2:00 pm we were given the cabana for the week. This is not what usually happens. Most of the time it’s a mad rush on embarkation day and most are turned away. This is Monday and it’s now booked solid for the rest of the week. For some strange reason everyone waited until today, except for us and four other people. I have zero knowledge of how it works with the concierge. in the shade

The service goes above and beyond any of our expectations. An absolutely delightful experience. Time for a little nap.