stevec999

I am looking for emergency evacuation/transportation coverage. I want to be able to get back home in case of a medical emergency.

Any experience or thoughts on these services?

On 12/20/2023 at 6:56 PM, OlsSalt said:

Wonder how this will work on the Antarctic cruises when the former connectivity waves bounced off the curve of the earth's pole. (That is as technical as you will get from illiterate me ,and my cartoon version of the alleged problem in this part of the globe.)

 

Do Starlink satellites avoid this alleged whole earth curvature issue?

Star link has satellites in polar orbit so it should not be and issue.

Lots of good info here. My wife ran out of things to spend money on and booked a cabana for our 35 day cruise in February 2025.

Sounds like it is a good choice for us.

I am currently on the ship sitting in San Diego.  From here we go to Ensenada then back to LA.

If you really want to see Alaska do a tour/cruise. You will see so much more. It is worth it just to go do Denali NP. We did it on Celebrity before the shutdown. The land tour part was well done. Very nice bus to haul you around and the hotels were nice. We flew into Fairbanks. We went a couple days early to look, around on out own.  From Fairbanks we took a train with awesome observation cars to Denali. It was a beautiful ride.

Denali train ride

The land tours are very  busy. Up early on a bus to your next stop. On the bus to the hotel for the evening. Repeat for how many land days you book. You will be tired by the end but it is worth it.

Best advise , start with the land tour. When you head to the ship you will have a sea day to rest and relax. 

Can't answer your questions but we have it booked for 2025. 🙂

We book the non refundable. The deposit really doesn't have any impact on how often we book. We saved enough over the years that if we have to cancel the loss is way less than total savings. For 7 day cruises the deposit is not that much.  We have a 35 day (not Celebrity) booked and that was $1350 a person deposit I think. Losing that would be annoying but not the end of the world. 

We were also on this cruise. Our first Princess. I have been cruising for 30 years and have never experienced the mess that was this cruise. 

We had all the issues that have been mentioned plus many more. I won't bother going into them beause the apologists will just refute them. This was our 7th cruise since the restart and we didn't experience  anything like this. We were on the Carnival Panorama last fall and had a far better experience. Our other recent cruises have all been on Celebrity. 

Will we go on Princess again? We have not ruled it out but it will have to be a unique itinerary or a real deal.

We had a good time and enjoyed Hawaii. 

On 1/22/2023 at 4:20 PM, catgirl411 said:

Just got off Princess and their food was pretty sad. And if you go to their forums there are lots of people complaining there and vowing to never sail Princess again.

We just got off our first Princess and it was the worse cruise in 30 years. Service was lack luster to just bad. Food was disappointing. Our last Celebrity was  much better but still not up to the past cruises.

On 1/17/2023 at 10:07 PM, cruzin4us said:

You know, I wasn’t expecting much on this cruise as far as good meals, service or anything else for that matter.   I really thought since the Diamond has been out of service since Covid (recently started up in November 2022) she wouldn’t be up and running smoothly.  
 

I didn’t expect a well oiled machine as far as everything being up to what I consider the normal Princess standards.  I expected mediocre food, poor service, long wait times for items ordered on the app, and irritable people.    
 

I am really happy to report everything has been top notch, especially the food in the dining room.  It’s arrived hot and seasoned properly and exceeded my expectations by miles.   The scale will show it when I get home.   The Buffet isn’t figured into my opinion.   The crew has been awesome.   For a full ship (almost) and many new crew, they have been superb.   I hope more of the Princess ships can get to this standard (especially the food).  
 

Sure, there have been wait times especially on the first couple of nights at the MDR.   Learn to avoid these times and pretend it’s a freeway and try to avoid rush hour.   
 

That’s my after dinner cocktail thoughts 

We are on the cruise with you but this has not been our experience at all. Dinning room has been awful. No mater when our reservations a table has not been available. Seated at tables that are not set. 15 to 20 minutes before orders are taken. Long waits between courses. Food has varied, some good and some bad. Our shortest dinner took 2.5 hours. We finally gave up on the dinning room.

The air in our cabin was out too, seems to be working now.  We were in line 2.5 hours to get on the ship. ☹️

The first week of October she was anchored at Puerto Vallarta. We were down there on the Celecrity Solstice. 

We are supposed to be on the Diamond in January. 

Wife and I both e joy them.

Carnival is not our favorite. We cruised it a lot when our daughter was young. Our favorites in order Oceania, Celebrity, Carnival and then HAL.

Carnival had some great deals that we couldn’t resist. I think my wife has 4 booked ( maybe more she hasn’t told me about). We will be on the Mardi Grau 8/7.

That’s one of the things I like on HAL. Hot breakfast even on disembarkation day.

We always book at least a veranda, when we fly it’s first class. Don’t usually do specialty dining. Don’t get a drink package unless there is a great deal.  So guessing not frugal.

We will cancel if masks are required. 

We have been looking and prices seem a good bit higher than we were used to.  As a side Carnival seems to be going after customers that have not cruised with them in a while. 7 day balcony with drink package for $650-$750pp. We have booked 3 so far. I know it’s a different experience than X but have always have a good time on Carnival.

We do have a Celebrity booked for next June. We do like aqua class. I retire June 1 and we board the 4th😁

Switching to Pepsi products is a plus for us.

I have moved to doing all my editing on my iPad when traveling. I tried several different programs and decided on LumaFusion. It is $30 but has high end features and runs really well on my iPad Pro. With iOS 13 (iPadOS)you can use external herd disks. With out a laptop my load will be lighter next trip.

First I believe you will have a good time on HAL it is a good line. But my thoughts differ with many on here. Until our daughter was a teenager we cruised on Carnival and always had a good time. We have since been on other lines including HAL.

HAL and Carnival are very different when it come to decor and ambiance. Only you can decide which you prefer. Carnival is much higher energy , HAL is a bit sedate. Both are good depending on what you want. HAL was a bit to sedate for us at times but still enjoyed ourselves.

 Food is very subjective but I wouldn’t pick either of these lines if food was what I was there for. Overall there is not a lot of difference between the two. Both have things on the menu that are great and things that are not so good. I prefer Carnivals steak house to the Pinnacle grill. HAL has the best Salad bar I  have come across on a ship. 

As far as service I really have not seen any real difference. I have had excellent service on both as well as questionable service on both.
 

I have not been on the ship you will be on and with all lines the ship can have a major impact on your cruise. I wouldn’t have any concerns and would look forward to having a great time.

Again this is my opinion and I am sure many will disagree. Not a thing wrong with HAL, as a mater of fact we have a 28 day booked on the Ossterdam in March of 2020.

Just looked at our booking for the end of March 2020 and we can buy 

premium internet  26-31 days $263.99

Unlimited laundry 28 days $196.00

They are located under the gifts and indulgences.  Then Laundry is under packages.

There is not a great deal of difference between the food on Carnival and Celebrity. Some things are better on Carnival and some are better on Celebrity. You won't go hungry. 😀

There are only five on the roll call for our next HAL cruise. Of course it isn't until 3/21/20 so that may be part of it 😀

No!