sonnenschein

M108 is a PREMIUM mini suite and looks much larger with a bigger balcony. I would fight Princess to get this cabin back. The new cruise atlas has the deck plans for the Royal and the Regal,they both look identical. Good luck getting your original booked cabin back.

Thank you Dforeigner,me foreigner too:rolleyes:, anyway thank you for your reply,I knew I could count for an answer at the CC forum. Still could swear I booked E723, right now I am just happy I have one of the COVERED mini's,getting to old to get fried on Dolphin deck:cool:

I could have sworn that I booked mini E723 which was available when I booked the Hawaiien cruise out of S.F for Nov.10. Trusting my long time great agent I did not check the invoice until today and to my surprise there it is in black and white E719. Now this is the first mini suite sticking out from the side of the ship aft. Pam from Ca. was kind enough to send me a great picture of this location but I believe when I ask her about wind on the balcony I was referring to E723. Unfortunally I can't find her answer anymore and now I am wondering all over again about the wind situation since there is no balcony in front of me to shelter us,but ther is the divider.Pam if you read this could you help me out with your knowledge one more time,or if anyone else stayed in this cabin I would appreciate some advise. Thanks for any help that is given to me. Maybe I am just confused and don't remember anymore the cabin number I booked,darn I want to be young again LOL :p Gloria:)

For the last couple of years we have ignored Sabatinis while stuffing ourselves at the Crown Grill. Now after reading all the glowing posts about Sabatinis I have to give them a try again, the artichoke souffle sounds just wonderful. We used to enjoy Sabatinis before they changed the menu,so many people posted negative reviews about the change at that time. I am very happy to read the good reviews and will have to go to both specialty restaurants on my next cruise in November :D

A bit of advice to those quarreling posters, please "play nice", just be happy you can afford to go on a cruise and enjoy!

I love, love the Crown Grill, I usually get the fillet and it melds in your mouth. You can select many different side dishes,the mushrooms are great and DH loves the creamed spinach. Don't forget the starters from soup to salad and when you think you can't at another bite they roll out the desserts.....and all that for 25.00 p.p. It is great bargain and tastes wonderful. :D

Now go to one of our local landbased Steakhouses and see how much all these selections would cost you :eek: Sebatinis is o.k. but for my dime I preferr the Crown Grill,never had a bad meal there.By the way if you are not a big beef eater they also serve fish and lamb. Enjoy, Gloria:)

We have also seen many changes in the last couple of years, and our cruise on the Grand last month left us very disappointed in Princess. The food had definitely dropped in quality, the ship was very shabby, and if this had been our first Princess cruise it probably would have been our last. In HC the bases of the tables and the floor were crusted with dust and dried "stuff", and a couple of the beverage stations had a strong mildew smell. If we encountered a restaurant like this at home we'd never go back, and yet we ate breakfast and lunch there every day. Croissants and pastries that used to be so fresh and delicious are now grocery store freezer case quality. Lots of little things that we loved so much are gone.

That being said, we've tried Celebrity, and we liked Princess better. We just hope that Princess reads some of the increasingly negative comments faithful customers are posting and makes some improvements. I'm sure we'll be booking another Princess cruise soon, but I think we'll stick to the newer ships.

We have enjoyed all of our 26 Princess cruises on many different ships,we liked the Emerald very much on our 20 day cruise and I am sure you are going to have a great time, so go and enjoy.

Now to the "renovated" Grand Princess, yes she was beautiful in her Hayday,all shiny and impressive, unfortunately not any more :( We cruised on her for 10 days in March/April, what a dissapointment this cruise was. The worst part were the balconies, they removed the rubber mats and left us with a rusted dirty floor I refused to step on even with shoes. I took pictures of the floor and still can't believe what I am seeing. Also the new balcony furniture are sooo uncomfy,you need to use pillows to sit and even that does not help much.The cabin itself looked old,nothing new was done except for a better tv. The bed was super hard,we needed 3 toppers to finally get some sleep.I have always seen the glass half full and never complained about changes I did not like to much.Live and let live was my motto, but the Grand was just to far gone to have a pleasant cruise. Not to be unfair I liked the Alfredo Pizza place in the Piazza,but that can't make up for overflowing showers and all the other shortcomings of this Ship. we love the 15 day Hawaii cruise fromS.F. (no flying to port) now that the Grand has taken over this route we are forced to fly to L.A. to do this trip on another Princess ship,I am not happy about this situation and hope we get another ship soon. This is my first "complain post" and I hope my last. :cool:

LAX to SYD was 14 hours 30 minutes for us. It should not take 7.5 more hours from San Francisco.

Well maybe I "fibbed" about the flight time S.F. to Sidney, BUT the trip from our home in Sacramento to Sidney did take 22 hours. We had to fly to S.F. than sit around till midnight to board the flight to Sidney. From the time we left home until getting to the hotel in Australia 22 hours had passed and our brain was feeling like mush and it took us 3 days in Sidney to recuperate. So if you choose to fly there make sure you give your self 3 days in the city before starting your cruise. Unless you are still very young you will need the down time to enjoy your vacation,and visiting lovely Sidney for a couple of days is a must.

My kind of cruise.

 

By the way - I don't understand why people will jump through hoops to avoid flying. True - the airplane is uncomfortable and crowded. True they treat you like a criminal at the airport. True the food on the plane is either non-existent or lousy. However, most flights are only a few hours long and the longest to Asian countries or to Australia are only maybe 13 hours long. Certainly better than multiple boring days at sea with no place to go or nothing to look at. Just my opinion.

 

DON

13 hours to Australia?? I don't know what kind of rocket plane you were on :eek: We were on Quantas out of San Francisco,left at midnight and arrived 22 hours later in Sidney..our brain was feeling like "mush" upon arrival. As we get older we just can't put our body's through this kind of stress anymore. I take sea days on a cruise any day over long flights.:p

Living on the west coast I feel slightly neglected by Princess :confused: when compared to the cruises leaving from the east coast. Flying has become a pain in the a..s and we avoid it as much as possible. Here on the west coast we are "greatfull" to get the older ships to take us on longer cruises to Hawaii or shorter ones to Alaska and Mexico. Why can't we get one of the newer ships which cruise the caribbean waters i.e. Ruby,Emerald,or Crown?? There a ton of people living along the west coast who would love longer trips to Alaska and also newer ships. As an elite princess cruiser who has traveled to Hawaii 6 times during my 25 cruises with Princess I am starting to feel like the not very loved stepchild of the cruise industry. Not all of us want to fly overseas for the priveledge of cruising on one of the newer ships (have been there and done every port in Europe and far east) It is time the industry pays more respect to the west coast and offering more options. I am sure we would fill up their ships and coffers.:D

Hi Dave, DARN, we will miss you again. We enjoyed our Hawaii cruise on the Golden this April12, but missed you. Going again on the Golden this October, while you are on vacation. We are also booked on the Star out of S.F. next April,are you by any chance switching from the Golden to the Star:p??

We done 24 Princess cruises and I hope one of these days we be on one with you.

Just got of the phone with Princess, dry dock is scheduled for November 14-2011, must be happening in Italy after her stop in Venice. They could not tell me what will be done, I will find out next April. Thanks for all your replies, Gloria:)

I read that the Star is going into dry dock April 2012, but when looking at her schedule I can't find a break for dry dock time. Does anyone have information on her dry dock dates. I am scheduled to to be on her April28/12 out of San Francisco to Hawaii.

Hi, Pam! We're going through the Canal from LA to FLL on the Coral for the 2011-2012 holidays -- but I've found that half the posters here say portside is best for this direction and the other half say starboard! On canal day, we'll be aft and forward -- but we also like to relax on our mini balcony as much as possible (Caribe deck near stern, with half covering).

 

Can you tell me the specific reasons you prefer SB for West to East -- views, less hot sun in afternoon, etc.?

 

THANKS,

Mary-Lou

Done the Panama canal several times and are booked to do it again September 2011. Listen to Pam she is correct, going west to east book the starboard side if you want to see what is going on during the transit,the portside is o.k if all you want to see is the water and land at the edge of the canal.:rolleyes: