sunviking90

She’s a beauty!

In the real world (non cruise) you would be comped a specialty dinner or given “something” to make up for the hassle. Sadly on HAL (and others) it seems that getting anything resolved at all is the only compensation, and we consider it a “win”.

Will be following along! We had a wonderful time on the Emerald last month. The Uber/Lyft situation at LAX is a huge hassle. If we fly in the evening before, we now stay at an LAX area hotel with a shuttle to pick us up. Uber or a Lyft is easy (and cheaper) from the hotel down to the port in the morning. Drawback is no ship view in the morning though!

Thank you for taking the time to do this “live” thread. We are considering the Ruby Panama Canal in April so I’m really interested to hear your thoughts. We were recently on the Emerald after sailing the Royal class for many cruises and loved the size. There were also so many neat outside deck areas particularly aft. I agree about Alfredo’s though! Missed it SO much! I travel to Houston at least once a year to see family and have flown almost every route from direct to through Dallas(never again!- too many weather delays), Calgary, Denver, etc. Calgary isn’t my favorite but coming back last time I also had a tight connection and did make it only to find my yyc-Yvr flight delayed 30 min. I was sweating running down there though. They are very good getting you through connections there so you should be fine. Nexus will help if you have it. A word of advice: make sure your devices are charged! Last time there were only 2 outlets near the gate, and the outlets on the plane to Yvr also weren’t working.

I would like to hear people’s experiences too. Someone recently posted that they got accepted 28 days out and that was the earliest I had heard. We are 30 days and nothing yet. I would think there are a lot at factors such as whether your cruise is likely to sell out, etc. Ours is still showing about 65% so I’m hopeful.

Back to the original question, my understanding is that it is best to put on hold and get in touch with your PCC, or request a new PCC. That’s what I usually do, and she has found me a “better” deal every time. There are a lot of prices, codes, etc running concurrently that may not always show up online.

I wouldn’t pay for club class, unless you really want a midship mini suite.

Absolutely! We paid much more for a Mexican riviera cruise in 1998 on another cruiseline (in an outside stateroom, no balcony) than we would ever imagine paying now. Like anything, once it becomes mass market prices go down. Only the very wealthy were taking multiple cruises a year back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Many of us do that now and think nothing of it.

Congrats! This is what our aft balcony on the Majestic (Marina deck) looked like. We had foot rests too.

Thanks for the update. Congratulations and enjoy your balcony! We have a minimum bid in for mid January too, but still waiting.

That site is legit. If you are more comfortable with it, you can also access it through your cruise personalized on the princess website with your booking number. If the upgrade is for a club class mini suite your cabin will change as the club class ones are usually mid ship (Assuming you’re in a mini suite currently.)

It’s a bit of work to see the prices without the packages now. I have go through to stateroom type selection to see a standard price. -unless I’m missing something. For those of us who don’t want the packages it’s pretty annoying.

My CVP posted on her Facebook page that bookings for elites open at 8am PST. Have another cup of coffee.

Enjoying following along so far. And a Disney trip too! Yay!

I just looked at our upcoming cruise to price the princess plus and the rate is exactly what the exchange was (1.35) when we booked. You got a great deal!

I confess I’m not familiar with the packages as they don’t suit us, but I am familiar with dessert! Are there now extra costs for “premium” desserts? That’s was my question.

Removed. question answered.

Premium Desserts included? Is this new? I don’t like where that is headed 😞

Agreed. We were on the Emerald Princess for 16 days in a mini suite and they had moved the TVs to the walls, and we really enjoyed all the storage space on the round cabinet. It’s nice to have that as well as the desk, especially for a longer cruise. It is probably too large now without the TVs needing the space, but leaving some type of cabinet/counter for extra space would have been nice on the newer ships.

That’s a lot of Alaska! Sadly it misses some beautiful scenery by taking the route outside of Vancouver Island, rather than the other side.

Have you checked some of the larger online travel agencies? They may have group space held. I googled your date and a couple came up.

On our recent cruise with 5 time changes, I manually changed the time on my phone as we didn’t have wifi package. My Apple Watch always synced with whatever my watch said. As long as the blue tooth is on should be fine.

We disembarked the Emerald TA on November 23. They had salads in the IC for the first week, then they disappeared. I don’t know if it was cutbacks as much as fine tuning to what was moving and not. Maybe they were not popular? They were really good! Beet salads, etc. The Buffet was fantastic for salads too though. Service throughout the ship was wonderful. Food was good. The coffee the first few days was so watery it was like dishwater in the MDR. Possibly a bit better in the buffet. They left comment cards in our rooms around day 4 and we commented on the coffee and it seemed to improve. They were very proactive and left comment cards twice during our voyage. We did get coffee cards and as had been our experience on other ships, they often don’t “deduct” your coffee drinks, so it is virtually unlimited. Our cruise was 16 days and I asked on day 10 how many I had left and they said 11 drinks! What?! Lol. Especially when it is the same barista daily, I think they don’t really check, but just see you have some type of package. Re: the soap, we don’t like the liquid so our steward did bring us bars. I forgot to bring my own shampoo and conditioner (ugh!) and used their combo stuff which is awful. Never again.

Lol, the menu was never the same which is why we walked over to look at the actual board.

Worldwide. Viruses don’t respect borders. Just returned from a month overseas and it seemed like there were sick people everywhere. DH caught the nasty RSV and battled it for 3 weeks of our vacation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so sick.