Mississippian

I was offered a free inside stateroom on this cruise and thought it was legit. I thought about booking it, but I am taking a free 16-night cruise of Britain and Iceland in July in an inside stateroom, and this was just too soon. When I booked the Britain and Iceland cruise I had the option to book a free Britain, Iceland, and Greenland cruise, but I didn't want to lose all the UK and Irish ports for Greenland. I am sure other people had the offer of these free 16-day cruises to Iceland and Greenland out of Southampton, so there would have been no reason to think the Boston offer wasn't real.

I ate at the Crown Grill on the Enchanted and did not like it. My filet simply was not good; in fact, it was awful. On my last Sky Princess cruise I ate at Rudy's The Catch three times. I also ate at Sabatini's, fearing I would be disappointed. I ended up really liking it. My next cruise is on the Caribbean, which only has Sabatini's and the Crown Grill. The only thing I can see myself getting at Crown Grill is the lobster. I simply don't trust them on steak after my last experience. Fortunately, I'm pretty happy eating in the MDR.

I'm joining the conversation late, but I'm surprised that few people are mentioning that Celebrity ships have a much greater "Wow!" factor than Princess ships. They remind me of the designs of the Hyatt Regency hotels from the 1970s. And I couldn't help but notice on my last Silhouette cruise that there were just tons of little private nooks that were by design places where one could go to read a book or just relax. Celebrity Pro: Slightly better food. Better ship design, trendier feel at bars. Lots of private spaces to read or work. Con: Simply more expensive, both for the base cruise and for the drink packages. Entertainment not as good, and ship not designed as well for entertainment. Video poker paytables seemed to be worse. Doesn't offer free European cruises to casino players (me, anyway). Princess Pro: Better entertainment, ship more designed for entertainment. More affordable, both cruise fare and drink/wifi packages. Food is still good. More generous to casino players, with a few free European cruises (I hate sand and heat). The self-service laundry is a huge plus. Con: Princess ships just aren't as elegant and impressive as Celebrity ships. I don't care for the Atrium. The food isn't quite as good. In the bigger scheme of things, these shortcomings are things I can live with most of the time. FWIW, I have 12 cruise credits with Princess and will have 14 after my solo cruise this summer. I have 130 Celebrity points after two cruises, so you can see what my cruise choices have been. If everything were exactly equal money-wise, I would probably choose Celebrity, but I don't think they deserve a huge premium.

Princess no longer provides currency exchange. Your best bet is to use a no-fee card to get euros. Even if the card has fees, it is still better than the outlandish fees charged by exchange booths. Once upon a time it was possible to use any ATM in Europe to get a rate. No more. There are now "Euronet" ATM machines everywhere, and these machines are an absolute scam, with ultra high fees and conversion fees. Do not use them. Today, the only ATM machines you should use are those actually connected to a bank, either on an outside wall or else in the little walk-in place they provide. Even these machines will offer to charge you in your own currency, which you should decline, because your credit or debit card will always give you a much, much better rate. Wells Fargo and other banks used to provide euros at fairly reasonable rates, and it can be helpful to arrive in Europe with at least a couple of hundred euros, just to pay the taxi to the hotel, etc.

I think it will almost certainly be a problem. This isn't a matter or Princess enforcing the rule. It is the foreign governments enforcing the rule. You have plenty of time and should renew now. If you have other trips planned, you can renew in person at various offices. It was a roughly four-hour drive each way for me. Fortunately, there was a casino in town where I could waste a few hours and dollars and eat lunch while waiting for my passport to be processed.

I have an upcoming cruise in July. As of now, I haven't booked either the Plus or Premier package. When the time comes, I am likely to book the Premier package, just so I can have unlimited 3,000 calorie desserts, because I want to star on My 600-pound life. Anyway, is there any reason I should book these now rather than wait to book them on ship? I think waiting would save me on insurance costs. The only downside is that I might not be able to order a drink as soon as I board.

I agree. The Fly Over Iceland thing is just beyond belief, though.

I'm not a fan of ship tours, as I don't like getting on a giant bus, and I find them overpriced. They do have the advantage that if the ship doesn't make the port call they are refunded, and they will make every effort to hold the ship for you if your tour is late (but that is by no means certain). As for cost, well, they are pretty outrageous. I just booked a Golden Circle mini-bus tour in Reykjavik for $97 which is non-refundable within 24 hours of the tour. The same tour from Princess, on a giant bus, is $295. Perhaps the most ridiculous price difference I've seen is for a Fly Over Iceland attraction that is sort of like the Soaring ride at EPCOT, maybe a little better. Princess is charging $155. I paid $36. Like the Troll tour, I have a 24-hour cancellation window, so there is some risk, but I think there is a better than 25% chance we will make the port call. Sometimes Princess does offer simple ride-there-and-get-off tours that are pretty good value, simply because they are easy to book, but I'm just not going to pay three or four times as much for an experience that isn't nearly as good as what I can get on my own. I know this is nothing new, but the Fly Over Iceland price difference just kind of knocked me down.

I really like the medallion.

I thought the same thing, because I saw the ability to filter by number of guests yesterday and every day before. It simply is not there today.

Because some cruises have no or low single supplement. Now it takes 10 or 15 hours to find them.

My muster station shows as being at Crooners on my upcoming Caribbean Princess cruise.

YES! On my last cruise it took me 15 or 20 minutes to go from my taxi to being on Deck 7 swilling a mimosa. It would have been a good bit longer if I had not been Green Line.

That is really weird. It was there yesterday, but it is not showing up for me today. I tried both Chrome and Edge browsers, same story, the Options button is missing.

This is not a filter. It is a pre-booking question after a cruise has been selected. The filter is under "options," which appears after the initial search.

They had a mass vow renewal on the Sky transatlantic last month.

You have to do an initial search, then press options, and number of guests will appear.

Looks like we are getting the same offers. I was thinking about the 16-day Britain and Iceland cruise, but the 12-nighter looks more interesting, even though it will wear me out.

I'm looking at a 12-day British Isles cruise that looks interesting, but the ship pretty much hugs the coast of Great Britain. Do they manage to get far away enough from shore to open the casino?

I refuse to place my order until my pre-dinner drink arrives. I've had food with no wine too many times, and I prefer champagne before my meal.

Oh, I'm glad. The machines were always out of quarters. I hope they won't be out of tokens! As for quarter tips, not sure how much they would be appreciated.

I am sure that in the past Princess ships used quarters for their machines, because I was on a ship where there was a quarter shortage. My next cruise I brought a couple of rolls of quarters and I had people drooling over them. But I have seen posts where people make reference to "tokens." Have they done away with quarters?

Could someone share the coupons? I don't need a wine menu.

I've taken four transatlantic cruises over the past two years. They are my favorite way to do nothing, catch up on my reading, and see a few ports. It is very substantially cheaper to by a round-trip ticket from Europe to the USA than the other way around. In fact, the round-trip can be cheaper than a one-way ticket. Add to this the fact that most airlines now allow free ticket changes, and the best strategy is to take a USA to Europe cruise in the spring, then buy a round-trip ticket home. In July or August, search cruise fares for a cheap Europe to USA cruise, and if you find a deal, see if you can change your airline ticket dates and take advantage of the bargain. I've done this the last two years and am doing it again this year.

I think it is a sales technique. When they are priced like that, very few people will book insides and everyone will see the balconies as a great value and book them. As the ship fills up they can raise the rate on the balconies.