dmwnc1959

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

Alfredos on each sea day lunch in Sabbatinis.

Salty Dog in an area of the buffet, not sure of frequency or hours. Will be back aboard on 26th. Will check on deck chairs then if you don't get an answer sooner.

 

Your unlimited is somewhat limited.

That’s beginning to come more and more to light.
 

And I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they’re changing during the drydock. I’ve actually sent off an email to Princess Cruises Customer Relations to see if they can please (I did a little groveling and begging) give more details (or point me in the right direction as to who can tell me) what’s going to happen during that 3-week period. I’m really hoping they add to or enhance the casual dining options.

Here’s a screenshot from a YouTube video of the promenade deck chairs @valantine80 mentioned aren’t padded.
 

@arxcards If possible next time you are on the ship can you please grab a couple pictures of the wooden slat chairs and loungers etc. that are all on the promenade deck. 

As of now I’m booked on her for 16-nights for a Panama Canal cruise and was very much looking forward to those chairs. 😁

17 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

My fear is that, as she’s the second oldest ship in the fleet after Grand and carries the least number of passengers she may be sold off soon.  Cruise lines are building bigger and bigger ships and there’s no place in the fleet for the old ones. I still miss Pacific Princess. 😩

I’m thinking that with her small size, in more-or-less a niche market of being able to transit the original Panama Canal locks and go on extended world voyages, Princess Cruises will keep her around for another 5 years. With the 3-week drydock this fall it may be a testament that they appreciate her value and size to their cruising market. They would more than likely sell off Grand Princess before they’d sell Coral Princess. 

Was hoping you could confirm the type of chairs/loungers on wider parts of the Promenade Deck, if they are just regular wooden sitting chairs or the steamer-type padded loungers? 
 

Also, there have been some reports that on sea days they are currently offering a pop-up casual dining option (Alfredo’s and Salty Dog Gastropub). Any other new casual dining choices? I have the Princess Premier package and trying to figure out if the ‘unlimited’ is worth it. 
 

Any help is greatly appreciated!!! 

1 hour ago, MacMadame said:

I completely agree!

 

My hope is that they expand casual dining. Now that they charge for it, adding more casual dining is an income generator. It would also make Premium more attractive as it has unlimited casual dining. So I see a lot of good reasons to do it. This assumes the space requirements can be worked out.

 

It looks like you have good reasons to switch to NCL besides casual dining though. For me, my FLL to SF cruise on Princess is perfect. It's not too many days off work and the itinerary includes all the stops I want to make. It also means only one flight instead of two because of where we live. Plus I don't care that much about casual dining. It's only an issue because there are 8 sea days so some variety would be helpful.

I think if the Norwegian Jade had padded steamer chairs on the promenade deck I’d have already cancelled my Coral Princess booking. But I keep visualizing myself sitting on those amazing looking chairs for days and days just staring out from the teak, sheltered, wide promenade deck at the open ocean watching the sunrises and sunsets, and using the app ordering from the Ocean Now delivery. I know that’s just a little thing, and one amenity out of the many, but it’s just a dream I keep seeing in my mind’s eye ever since I booked that cruise. 
 

These screenshots from my favorite Coral Princess ship tour on YouTube by ‘Visit With Us (Rich and Helen)’…

12 hours ago, MacMadame said:

 

Recent cruisers on the Coral report that there is a popup casual dining option on sea days and it alternates between Alfredo's and Salty Dog Gastropub (not the same thing as the Salty Dog on the Lido deck). 

 

Hopefully, that will still be the case when dh and I cruise next Jan. 😄 

It will be very interesting to see what happens during her 3-week drydock period in Sept-Oct, and then after she’s back stateside resuming Panama Canal transits mid-November. I do wish Princess Cruises would come out and tell us what they’re going to be doing other than just ‘normal maintenance and upkeep’. I have half a mind to write them and beg for information. My final payment is due early October and I’ll have to quite literally ‘jump ship’ for Norwegian Jade (which at this point is very highly likely) if there’s no new casual dining expansion on Coral Princess. 

15 minutes ago, NillaB said:

On my Panama canal cruise in December they had a little something in the front if the ship. Definitely water and tge watery juice and also the brown stuff they claim is coffee (it's not - it really can't be), and also some small munchies.

And, ehm, I went in my yoga pants and a tshirt. Noone cared 😄

Good stuff here! 🤣 

2 minutes ago, Menocchio said:

Elsewhere on this board today they are talking about how NCL eliminated visiting Antarctica from a cruise without any prior notice and it's not yet clear if those customers will receive any compensation. And some of you are asking me to care if someone misuses their drinks package? 

 

No. No I do not. 

Isn't it actually in the NCL written contract where we can do this. They don’t need to explain themselves. Just like it’s NCL policy that sharing drink packages is not allowed. 

10 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

And counting... And something tells me OP doesn't really plan to change what he does based on the responses. Neither would I. No one's opinions (mind included) are official NCL policy, nor do they have the force of law. All just conjecture. But entertaining, nonetheless!

You may have missed this from the OP:

“Sure the 3rd person can buy and pay for those drinks à la carte. And most probably for everybody's peace of mind (including mine) and for preventing NCL going bankrupt because of my sharing (or stealing as many want to call it) that 3rd will end up doing so.”

That’s not to say that once they get on board they’ll just wheely-dealy all they want and do whatever they want. Which is most likely the case. 

PAGE 7 

1 minute ago, AlmiranteChurruca said:

 

Well, I guess nobody ever forced you to read all six of them! 🤪 I tell you, I will be mesmerized if that next poster/potential future thief/whatever is from Spain too! Speak about reputation! 😆😆😆

Didn’t say I actually READ all six pages  - I’m not that desperate, I skipped a crap load of this drivel.

It doesn’t matter where the next poster is from, it’s still against NCL’s rules, and that’s the one fact that’s indisputable. 

And how can you go away if we keep replying.
 

“And now I officially call this a dead horse from my side.”

🤣 

Just now, AlmiranteChurruca said:

 

Indeed! Bless you too! Happy? 😅

After SIX pages, yes. Maybe we can all put this behind us until the next time someone asks the same question. I give it a week.

😎

Just now, AlmiranteChurruca said:

 

Sure the 3rd person can buy and pay for those drinks à la carte. And most probably for everybody's peace of mind (including mine) and for preventing NCL going bankrupt becuse of my sharing (or stealing as many want to call it) that 3rd will end up doing so. So, thank you fellow CC members (at least some of you). I was a horrible criminal just for even imagining a future crime scenario, but so many well meant comments have made me see the light. Forever grateful. And now I officially call this a dead horse from my side. Happy sailings. At least nobody will put the blame on me if and when NCL decides to raise the prices for their packages one more time.

Oh, bless your little heart. A confession, silly and ridiculous as it may be. It’s still a confession. 

3 minutes ago, Asawi said:

As you point out, if thousands of passengers across the whole fleet did this it would probably have the effect of raised prices. But maybe that's not such a plausible scenario with the majority of passengers sailing with US rules and therefor all (or non) of the adults in the room having the drinks package.

Let’s look at a scenario where two cabins of people are traveling together: ‘Cabin A’ gets the drink package and ‘Cabin B’ doesn’t, but the first cabin ‘shares’ their drink package with their friends or family members in the other cabin. That was the point I was trying to make. It’s still feasible, even in the US, where when everyone in the same cabin has to have the package it can be abused. It’s still stealing regardless of how others twist their words, and it’s still against the NCL’s rules. 

3 minutes ago, Asawi said:

Of course the person could do that! But they may not  want to because of the cost. Sharing would be less expensive/free. 

Maybe I’m misunderstanding, and really don’t want to get into semantics: sharing is letting someone have a drink from your own beverage; letting someone obtain an entire beverage they aren’t really entitled to isn’t really sharing, it’s stealing. Yes, stealing is free, sharing your beverage is also free.

For the sake of argument let’s say this happens thousands of times a day across the 19 ships in NCL’s fleet. Regardless if any 3rd person wants to or not, or can afford it or not, it doesn’t justify what’s being suggested. 

I still don’t understand why the third person can’t buy their own single drinks à la carte. I’d like to hear that reason from the OP. 

This thread has basically turned into five pages of trying to show cause for and justify stealing. 

On 2/11/2024 at 2:43 AM, AlmiranteChurruca said:

On the Norwegian Dawn next summer for a 10 days British Isles/Ireland itinerary. Three adults in one cabin. Adults 1 and 2 have Free At Sea package. Adult 3 does not drink much alcohol, so just purchased a soda package separately. However, this third adult likes to have just a mocktail or a glass of wine from time to time which, to the best of my knowledge, are NOT included in the soda package. 

This may have been asked and answered - reading through five pages of really long posts is tedious at best - but why can’t your friend buy their own drinks on a single glass by glass charge? Aren’t drinks on NCL available for a charge without having the package? Buy one glass of wine this time, a cocktail the next time. Buying their own?

8 hours ago, DominicAUS said:

On our recent Panama cruise and had to be up and in the theatre by 0515 they open the buffet early for those doing the early tour, there would have been 7-8 bus loads for that tour. 
 

Depends on your transit time, our captain advised they don’t get that info until closer to Panama due to canal having reduced transits. We were at the first locks at 8.30am. Of course earlier if you want to see under the bridge of Americas. Pretty sure they will have something open for the early risers that day. 
 

Enjoy 

Which type of ship were you on? Maybe one of the larger Norwegian Breakaway or Breakaway-Plus, or one of the smaller Gem-class ships?
 

The transit time for ships of different sizes from the bridge up the two different channels to each respective set of locks (old vs new) is different, as is the time to fill the locks and then transit between the locks. Of course each transit is different based on traffic, but you can determine actual transit time averages.  
 

😁

8 hours ago, IAcruising said:

 

That doesn't sound even remotely correct. I haven't researched it thoroughly yet (for the Encore in April), but that sounds more like the time on Gatun Lake between the 2 sets of locks.

 

That must be the difference between going through the new locks (Norwegian Bliss) and the old locks (Norwegian Gem). I’ve been monitoring detailed movements (using Marine Traffic and the Panama Canal live cams) and noting the times of cruise ships going through the Panama Canal (both SB and NB) for about the last six months. And I’ve actually been watching them on the live cams going to the Panama Canal for at least the last 15 years.
 

Of course transit times do very depending on traffic, especially now since they are cross-flooding the old locks to save on water. I just watched the Norwegian Gem go through on Feb. 10th and took screen shots every time it reloaded. From 6:03am when it first showed people on the bow until 8:29am when it stopped and settled into the second lock (before it started filling). It then begin to exit into the third lock at 8:48am:

35 minutes ago, Coral said:

I think you will get a view - it maybe 9 miles away. I don't think they will substitute any other glacier for it. This was my view May 15th (with and with out a zoom):

 

Those are some really amazing pictures, absolutely gorgeous, and exactly what I want (whether it’s 9 miles away or closer). Alaska is so amazing and diverse, can’t wait to get back. 🥰

@wolfie11 @Coral that sucks not starting until later, but I completely understand the precautions that need to be taken. Nonetheless, it’ll be interesting to see how close Norwegian Jade gets, if at all. I wonder if they skip Hubbard Glacier would they make for College Fjord? I’m sure they don’t have advanced scouting to see which glacier areas are impassible. 

46 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

Our first was on Meridian, second was Zenith.  I loved that magazine.

This magazine is like an amazing time capsule with the Cruise Calendar in the back, a who’s who of the cruise industry’s most modern, largest, and loved ships from that era. And most are all gone now. 

3 hours ago, keesar said:

I loved the ships designed by the Chandris Group.  Stylish and classy in a traditional sense.  The woodworking was so special.  My favorite was the Century.

I’d have to say my favorite was Galaxy. There was just a something about her. Spent 12-nights cruising from LA-Alaska ending in Vancouver,  got upgraded to a SkySuite. My last two were on Mercury from Baltimore and Millennium from Miami. These ships were the perfect size. 

12 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

Coral Princess is one of my favorite ships, but I would be all over the Jade in this case because, well Alaska!  Late April is not too early if you aren’t into a lot of excursions.  The weather is usually fairly nice if somewhat cold, and there is snow on all the mountains.  It’s a beautiful time of year.  I am going up on May 2nd this year.

The combination of the Panama Canal, two really great stops on Mexico’s Pacific coast, three more on the US west coast, and ALASKA really does check off a LOT of boxes! 
 

The SF-FLL itinerary on Coral Princess has three stops where I’d never even get off the ship, not that that’s a bad thing. But I am worried that spending 12 days out of 15 on the ship would be monotonous.  

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

It looks like the Jade is a better fit for you (anytime dining).  I was on the Coral from LA to Alaska (rt/Vancouver) and also through the canal.  I am not a buffet person.  I love sea days and MDR.  Princess does a fantastic job with Panama Canal.  Guest speakers are phenomenal.  "On the Bayou" production show is one of a kind.

 

Granted, IC is very very small.  No extra dining.  The did offer a pop up Alfredo's in Sabatinis (not sure this is still happening).  Plus all the other mentions for the Coral advantages.  But you have to love smaller ships.  

 

I am not a fan of NCL (one and done).  I have not been on the Jade.  

My last Princess cruise was 14-nights on Royal Princess, so needless to say I’m spoiled for options when comparing that to Coral Princess.
 

I’m hoping against hope that the upcoming dry dock does something - ANYTHING - to improve the IC or add/expand the casual dining options. 

17 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

It’s a catamaran that holds around 150 pax run by Allen Marine.  Costs vary by cruise line from around $250 to $450.  

Google searched and found them on a FB video. It would be interesting to see if they offer this in late April, and if so how close they can get. 
 

https://www.facebook.com/AllenMarineTours/videos/471535963701163/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

😁