KSH120

We have been there in 2017, 2019, and just went in late March 2024. It was no different than we remembered - quiet, uncrowded, and great service (maybe we aren't picky, though?), which are our primary reasons for going. The food was the same as we remember and very good. Drinks may have been weaker and aren't high quality, but since they are included you can just drink more of them and stay hydrated!

We have been on several princess cruises, and signing up for slots was never needed, even on sailings with a relatively high number of kids.

My son has autism that was undiagnosed at the time he was in kids club (ages 8-9, pre-covid), so we don't know what it looks like when you can give them a heads up, but I can say he did quite well in Princess kids club but did not do well in the club on another line during that timeframe. Both my kids prefer the princess club to other lines. The club has fun, structured activities. According to my kids, they are expected to participate in the scheduled activity but sometimes an alternative is offered. My son also struggles with being "forced" to do the activity, and he managed ok with having the alternative. I suspect you could also ask for specific alternatives for your son.

We were in E711 last summer, and the balcony was completely uncovered. It was only in the shade if the sun was on the other side of the ship.

I checked the balance on the princess webpage. If you scroll down to the bottom of their main page, there's a "gift cards" link under "ships and experiences". When you get there, there's a "balance inquiry" section.

As an update, we did also get our credit card refund a few days after I noticed the gift cards were refunded, so we're happy with the outcome and will hopefully be able to use our cards and fcc next summer.

Just checked gift card balances and they are refunded! Cruise was 4/4/20. Picked option 1 on 3/12 but changed to option 2 on 3/19 (did not call - submitted another form and an email requesting the change). Got 50% FCC in April. This morning I had 2 $500 gift cards reloaded. A third one, which had been applied to a July cruise, is still at zero. Nothing yet on credit card account for the remaining balance we paid, but this is hopeful.

22 minutes ago, TNhome said:

We just got off the phone with Princess.  We were told you may use your cruise credit as a bank of money to use for cruise fare or expenses. You can split it up to use on 2 cruises or you may use it as a cruise with onboard credit whichever you choose.  We are choosing option 1 getting 175% of what we paid on future cruises.

Does this also mean you can use it for things like prepaid gratuities or excursions?

And if that next cruise gets cancelled, it just goes back in the "bank"? (our next cruise is the Diamond Princess in July, and I'd like to pay these things with my FCC I get, but I'm not too confident that the cruise will happen)

I'd also say Princess Eastern. We've done both eastern and western (western on NCL Spirit and eastern on RCI and Celebrity), and the Greek Islands are great - we think better than the western med ports. The itinerary for the Enchanted looks great, and the Epic has several ports where the sights are not close to the port, which makes a difference for us. Also, the time in Rome beforehand would be a factor, although Barcelona is also nice.

Regarding cruise lines, we did the western med on NCL last summer, and we've been on Princess caribbean cruises the past 2 Aprils, and we definitely like Princess better and were not impressed with NCL - we did that trip for the itinerary (10 night cruise with a port every day!). We have school aged kids who do like the clubs, but they otherwise are happy with a pool and the shows, and they are happy with Princess. For differences in lines, we felt service was better on Princess, more relaxing environment, felt less crowded even on a full ship, and less of a constant sales pitch. Drinks were also better and cheaper, so that might help you give up the drink package.

Not sure if this happens at the same time each year, but 3rd and 4th passenger for a dollar came up for Caribbean cruises only sometime in January of this year (a week or so after final payment for our April 1st cruise - we cancelled and rebooked, took a penalty, and still saved money) and again in early March (when we booked a spring break cruise for next year). Haven't seen it since. I'd love to know if this ever comes up for non-Caribbean. I'm thinking we were getting deals based on last year's hurricanes.

If you're up for exploring on your own, Santorini is actually a fun port for young kids.We went when our kids were 6 and 3, and we got on the first tender, took the cable car up, which the kids loved, and took a bus to Oia. If you don't want to deal with the bus, the town at the top of the cable car is a nice place to walk around and explore. It's compact enough that even the 3 year old walked without complaining.

Just went on Regal the first week of April with kids ages 5 and 8. Since it was Easter week, we were a little concerned, but it was much better than Carnival was the past 2 years when Easter was NOT the first week of April (and that was a low number of kids for them). There were around 100 3-7 year olds and around 250 8-12 year olds. Other than the first night at kids club and sea days in (as in swimming in) the main pool, we did not feel like there were a ton of kids. No large groups roaming the ship or hanging out in the stairwells as we have experienced on other cruises.

Does anyone know if this "limit for the age range" is different (hopefully lower) on princess than on other lines? We are a bit concerned when we saw that the limit for 4-8 year olds on our April 1st cruise was reached. That is our kids' age range, but we'd picked princess hoping for a less crowded kids club, knowing that it is Easter week. We WANT there to be other kids - just a sane number so our kids are not overwhelmed or turned away from the club.

Our daughter was 3 on her first cruise last year (and our son was 6), and I have to echo what everyone says about kids club - that is the reason we keep booking cruises. A nice mixture of family time and adult/alone time.

My best advice is to break all the rules - ice cream often, stay up late, and down time using electronics. Some new toys would also be useful to keep her occupied in the cabin.

We also found that with dining, the "family time" dining works well enough if you have the early dinner, but if you have late or flexible dinner it is even better. Our kids prefer the buffet anyway, so we feed them there when it opens, bring them to kids club at 7, and then have an adult dinner while they are having fun at a princess or pirate party.

If you plan to eventually do both, I'd pick Europe now because of the low fares and potential political changes. We did an 11 night med cruise last year for less than we would have paid for a 7 night alaska one. As of now, the glaciers are SLOWLY melting, so if you wait a couple years they won't look that much different.

That being said, it also depends on the type of things you find interesting. In Alaska, the draw is the scenery and wildlife. My experience on a land trip there was you looked at scenery, did sporting activities related to looking at the scenery, did touristy things like panning for gold in a trough (which WAS fun), and ate a lot of salmon. The European cruises I've been on (Mediterranean) had a lot more diverse activities, with some nature but more museum/ancient ruins/cultural experiences. We like both types of trips, but our current plan is to ride out the cheaper trips to Europe while they last.

I have to comment in favor of having a backpack in Venice, assuming you are fit enough to carry them comfortably. Definitely BRING the stroller (and use it in all the other ports - maybe even for shorter evening walks in Venice), but I think the backpack would be worth it. Ideally, 2 backpacks - A sturdy one with a frame that could fit the 3 year old if he/she gets tired of walking (but the 1 year old the rest of the time), and a frameless one that can just be used to carry your stuff if the 1 year old is in the other one. We used this strategy in several hiking settings when our kids were those ages.

We were in Venice last summer with our 6 and 3 (almost 4) year olds. We brought no backpack or stroller, and the youngest did ask to be carried some, but she managed fairly well. We did see many people using strollers, and the streets did not destroy them, but the hassle of carrying them up and down stairs in crowds every block made us feel bad for the parents. We commented that we definitely would have wanted a backpack.

Congratulations on your pregnancy! My pregnant cruise (at 11 weeks pregnant) was before the major zika concern, so I don't have any advice on ports, but I can tell you that my biggest issue was morning sickness. I recommend bringing bland, pre-packaged snacks to keep in your room, and maybe some ziplocs to stock up on buffet items that you can tolerate if you need to eat at times they are not available (like the middle of the night, in my case). I was still able to have a great time, though - just relaxed and slept more than I otherwise would have. Now, I enjoy telling my son that his first cruise was when he was inside me. :)

Are you on the waitlist yet for the seating you want? For our cruise last April, we got our chosen time well beforehand - probably more than a month out. I got an email saying the waitlist had cleared and the dining time we wanted switched to "confirmed" in the cruise details. I had to call to get on the waitlist. It didn't work to try to switch online.

I'm not sure if some states have an age cut-off, but I just got my 3 and 6 year olds Michigan state IDs for this purpose, and it only cost $10 each. I was shocked at how easy and cheap it was! That being said, they were not asked for IDs in the Bahamas this April, even though the adults needed them.

We had MFT dining on our first family Royal cruise, which was DS's first ever Royal cruise. So you don't have to be signed up for it to get it.

 

That said, it was useless. We had NO idea how to get DS to the AO people. Finally figured it out this year in March, because the other 11 year old at the table wanted to use it and she was a pro. The only reason to dine that early (IMO) is to send the kids off to AO with the counselors, so if you aren't doing that, there's no reason for MFT in my opinion.

Can you let me know the secret of getting the kids to the AO people? We are planning to use it on our upcoming cruise. We plan to sign up on board (we do have early dining), but we had assumed it would be obvious how to use it!

Thanks.

Thanks for the review and practical tips! We'll be on the Rhapsody July 4, and your comments have been helpful.

I'm curious about your experience with finding taxis in Santorini. We're currently booked on a ship excursion for the sole purpose of getting off the ship first and to Oia before it gets crowded. But, if we can get off the ship on an early tender anyway, have a short cable car line, and find a taxi quickly, it wouldn't matter how much they ripped us off - it would be much less than the $160 total we are paying for the excursion! Was it a long wait to get a tender/cable car/taxi? Were taxis readily available in Oia (I had read somewhere else they weren't)?

Thank you! I just looked at another one of the excursions and yes, it does say that but the initial one I was looking at has the banner but nothing in the details, typical lol!!

I'd also advise checking the ones you are interested in that don't show the banner. I found one that only mentioned it in the description of the excursion.

Thanks for your input. That puts my mind at ease a bit. Do you remember if you got a physical ticket for your 2.5 year old? (or maybe nobody gets them at all?) My only cruise-related experience with shore excursions was on Carnival, and they didn't even have a record her going - they just sold us tickets for the 3 of us that required them. Then, they made a big deal about counting people on the bus and telling me she had to be on my lap. It seemed more similar to a plane trip. On other land-based tours we've had free toddlers/babies with tickets and without, and it really seems to vary whether they consider them an actual participant. So, I was wondering if Royal Caribbean has an official policy or not.

Does anyone have experience with whether or not a 3 year old (or younger) is considered a "lap child" on shore excursions? Or, do they get a seat even though they're charged an "infant" price of zero?

I booked 2 excursions for our July cruise yesterday, and the online system did not charge for my 3 year old, but it does list her as going on the excursions. The reason I care so much is that these were under a "kids tour free" promotion, where we get the price of the child tickets back as OBC, so I want to make sure she has an actual seat on the bus, just like our 6 year old who will also be free. (I also don't want to sit for hours on a bus with her on my lap and seated next to some poor, unlucky soul who gets the last available seat next to the lady with her 3 year old squirming in her lap!)

I guess another way to ask the question is that if "infants" are considered "lap children", has anyone had experience buying a toddler a ticket anyway? How would this be done? - Online it only lets you pick the people and it assigns a price according to their age.

I attempted to call and ask about this, but I'm not confident at all that the representative knew the answer he gave. I'm starting to see the value of asking questions here rather than calling!

According to the lady at the future cruise desk on the Pride, Easter IS considered a holiday. We had been looking at the first week of April in 2018 also. So, we went with a 5 day on the Triumph for the first week of April 2017 instead. We haven't tried to apply for the 50% off yet, so I'm not sure how that will work.