Kmkub

18 hours ago, SouKnoMe said:

You have to realize the infrastructure, maintenance and salaries of the people working there are not free. The fees while expensive have to be paid. I  just see it as an added expense to my vacation budget. If I don’t want to pay I’ll just stay on the ship or go to a different part of the beach. It’s not mandatory. Go to the water park where it’s cheaper. 

I know how a business works, LOL, but thank you.

If Disney and Universal can charge less to get into one of their parks, than clearly something is amiss. Labor isn’t more expensive in The Bahamas.

8 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

Why isn’t this included with the private island port stop?

 

That cost is ridiculous and should be free

Not much on these private islands in The Bahamas is free. Food, swimming and sitting on the beach are free. Everything else comes with a cost.

11 minutes ago, prmssk said:

As fun as the waterpark sounds (and I grew up going to Noah's Ark in the Wisconsin Dells, America's Largest Waterpark), we have never been able to swallow the price when we have visited CocoCay.

6 minutes ago, lv2cruisgrl said:

The issue isn't the price, the issue is people are paying it!  Same with RC new ship Icon. The cost for an Inside cabin is crazy!  However for now they are selling. So if they can get the $$ they will.  To answer your question no it's not worth the price IMO!

Agreed. It’s just too much

4 minutes ago, SouKnoMe said:

Are food, beverages, or seating with umbrellas included? I once paid $80 to lay in a hammock on that beach where Corona commercials are filmed. It included lunch and drinks... slept through all of it. But it was a perfect day. 

Yes, burgers and dogs are included, but food has always been included on any line’s private island I’ve been to. It shouldn’t factor into the price. 

I’ve been to a lot of water parks in my life, and have never paid the insane price that you have to pay to get into the private island’s waterpark. It’s “on sale,” for $152 pp right now. That’s about double what the expensive water parks in Orlando charge.

Has anyone done this park? Is it so over-the-top amazing that we should suck it up and pay the cost? I’m a roller coaster enthusiast who loves the water, so water parks and I are BFFs. I’m just not sure we’re $300 for one day BFFs

10 hours ago, Frenchkona said:

I understand there is a new specialty restaurant inside the fourth lifeboat on the port side.  

Any word on the cost? Might prove to be cozy! 

47 minutes ago, voyager1964 said:

Look here:

 

That list of features didn’t include anything about Sabatini’s. Is there no more breakfast?

We have our first Celebrity cruise coming up, soon. We always love to try the specialty restaurants on any line, but the cost on this line is excessive, IMO. We’re debating on Murano, but it’s about $65/pp.

Thank you everyone for the helpful information!

After over a dozen cruises, we are finally getting a chance to experience Celebrity (Reflection.)  We are so excited! It’s been on our bucket list since we started cruising, but the price/itinerary combo has never been right. For reference, most of our sailings have been on Princess.

A few questions I have

1. Can someone describe the process for getting drinks with the package? Do we have to sign? Can we get a couple at a time and put some beer in our fridge for when we want quiet time in our room, or is it strictly one at a time? Can I use room service to get drinks?

2. Is there a live dealer for Hold ‘Em or is it the electronic table?

3. What is the lowest bet available for BJ?

4. I know it’s subjective, but how are the pillows? We are in a position to bring our own. I’m curious if people generally find them too hard and/or too squishy. I haven’t spent much time in this forum, so I’ve no idea.

5. Is there a 24/7 place to get food, drinks and/or coffee?

6. Are the cabin walls magnetic?

7. What are the room service charges?

8. Is there a wrap-around promenade? I couldn’t determine based on the deck plans. 

Also, any subjective information you’d like to add would be appreciated.  One never knows what one doesn’t know. If there’s a thread on “wish I knew it ahead of time,” stuff, please point me to it. On the Princess forum it’s called Princess Secrets. 

THANK YOU! 

Wow is that helpful! Thank you for creating that!

29 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Check out this thread.   Some clever person built a spreadsheet tool that allows you to build a link to the cruise planner section for a particular sailing without having booked.  It was pretty straight forward.

 

 

Wow is that a helpful spreadsheet! Yeah, we come out wayyyy ahead booking the package deal. TYTY!!

We are considering our first Celebrity cruise. We have two prices, with/without drink and WiFi packages. It’s a huge difference. In trying to do the math, I am struggling to find what the cost PP/PD is.

The best I found was on The Points Guy who says it’s $42-$106.80. Is there anywhere to see what my cost would be for the specific cruise we are considering?

7 hours ago, mtnesterz said:

I tried to edit the shoe part from my post as I thought I'd have to explain it. Which by your post, I do. We've all heard glass and dishes breaking in the MDR. Not a comment on style. Protect your feet.

Flip flops are fine for every dining venue, including MDR for breakfast and lunch. Women wear sandals all the time, regardless of meal. There are reasons to not wear flip flops in the MDR at night, but safety isn’t one of them, or they wouldn’t be allowed anywhere. I’ve heard far more frequent crashes in the buffet. 

7 minutes ago, Mary Ellen1 said:

They were literally holding exercise classes in the atrium though...  That was my experience on the Majestic back in September. Loud morning exercise classes down on the lower level, with people joining in from the railings on all the upper levels, and spilling over into the elevator lobbies on several of the decks. Very crowded and irritating if you were just trying to get to an elevator. 

The people exercising and line dancing from decks 6 & 7 was probably my biggest annoyance. We really didn’t spend much time in the Piazza on our last cruise. The Lido deck used to be the noisiest place on the ship, but not anymore.

3 hours ago, chill6x6 said:

Wow....All these comments certainly does give one pause for up coming cruises.It's not JUST the OP but the post after post in pretty much full agreement with the assessment.  I have my longest cruise ever, a 10 day on Enchanted booked for 2024 which is my first Princess cruise since 2012.  Princess had the itinerary and the price so I booked an S3. I know exactly what I'm getting with Royal, Celebrity, and HA.  The "Carnival of the Premium Cruise Lines" comment above kinda hits home! LOL.  

My review of Enchanted earlier this month wasn’t overly negative. While there were certainly negative points, like the noisy Piazza and bad buffet food, overall, it was a fantastic cruise and we’ve already booked another cruise with Princess for a few months from now.

I predict you will have a fabulous time. Where we find challenges, we seek workarounds. Nothing was insurmountable.

Have fun! Please come back and tell us about your cruise.

4 hours ago, hllwdcruiser said:

I read your excellent review and was on the next sailing on the Enchanted. Our experience was very similar to yours and I also wrote a review. We aren't giving up on Princess yet, but we aren't quite the cheerleaders we once were.

I just read your excellent review. Balanced reviews are the most trustworthy, IMO, and yours was balanced. Thank you. PS. I also had the seafood tower and it was delicious.

Thank you for your review! I  think between your cruise and ours, which disembarked the day you got one, we are mostly in agreement about the experience.

This is a shame; I was hoping ours was a one-off. 

We don’t sail again until August, so we shall see.

I enjoyed your thorough review, thank you. We got off Enchanted on 12/8/23 and I agree with some of your points. This was our 9th or 10th Princess cruise.

The Piazza has become a joke, IMO. It used to be someplace very special, and all around it were also unique.  Now it’s just a loud noise fest that spills over to every other surrounding venue from decks 5-7.  People were exercising outside Sabatini’s because there’s not enough room for everyone who wants to exercise on the Piazza floor.  There were people surrounding the piazza on all decks, trying to exercise or line dance. It’s truly bizarre. 

We, too, had difficulty getting the attention of bar staff. The trick seemed to be going to the bar ourselves, and then, BAM, a server was instantly available. The worst were Crooners and Crown Grill Bar.

The Buffet food on our journey was intolerable, but the rest of the food was mostly very good to excellent. We found The Catch to be world class.

Princess is not kind to Hold ‘Em players.  The rake is 15%, and largely unbeatable. We tried a few hands and got up within an hour, never to return. If you want a ridiculous 15% rake, you’d better provide a live dealer. The table was so bad, some of us were folded by the game, because the table top wouldn’t take our commands.

On our cruise, the entertainment was mostly bad, but there were some very notable exceptions. It wasn’t enough to bump the overall rating. Some of the entertainers were awful.

We are scheduled next August on the Grand for Alaska. We haven’t been on a grand class ship in awhile. I’m hoping to see a different environment. 

1 hour ago, Crystaltipps67 said:

I get your point and agree that probably unable in the West to get that quality food for the price of the upcharge. But $250 - wow! In the UK three courses in Rick Stein's flagship seafood restaurant (one of our best known seafood chefs) would be around £110 (about $140) pre tip (which in the UK would normally be 12.5%) based on the most expensive seafood choices on the current menu. So the differential isn't quite so great for us. 

I dunno; the closest single option I could find on his menu was: THE “FRUITS DE MER” half a lobster, crab, scallops, razor clams, oysters, clams, cockles, mussels, winkles, whelks and langoustines. 55 per person.

This was very close to one of our two appetizers; lobster, crab, clams, oysters, langoustines, scallops, mussels…. 

Plus the other two appetizers, plus the main, plus dessert. 

So, yes, your comparable appetizer at his restaurant = 110 for two, but we had three other courses to go with it.

I stand corrected. Island Princess goes all over the world, all the time. It gets to Ft Lauderdale in April and immediately goes to California and then to New York and right back to Europe by July.  I imagine that’s fun for the captain and crew; not the same ole same ole ports all the time.

I learn something new everyday. I guess I can take a nap now; I’ve learned my one thing. 🙂

First thing to tackle - are you sure about the dates ? Princess doesn’t send ships to Ft Lauderdale from Europe in the Spring. That happens in late Fall. In Spring, ships will be going to Europe from Florida.

4 hours ago, mk-ultra said:

So there's this little old lady who has been the bane of my existence since arriving at the cruise terminal.  She's an expert-level line cutter.  Totally without shame.  As luck would have it, my first two excursions included her.  She just shuffles herself right in front of you.  Lines are for the weak.

 

I finally had enough after the 4th or 5th time.  She shoved into line right in front of me (again).  I tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to the 15 or so other people waiting their turn.  She played dumb and ignored me.

 

So, very unusually for me, I just stepped around her and pushed myself back into place.  Look lady, I've spent about 6 months of my life living in China.  I can do the this as well as you can.

 

 

 

 

I usually go a more passive-aggressive route. “Wow! You must be very important.” Though, those that can feel public shame don’t cut in lines in the first place.”

4 minutes ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

 

Thank you, I've just done the dining reservations and you basically answered most of my questions 🙂 

 

I noticed private tables are not available until 7pm or later - am I just too late? We like to have dinner early, but all dining rooms only show shared tables 5pm-7pm. 

 

Good to know reservations are not needed for the shows, I always stress out about that with RCCL 🙂 I prefer first come first serve (I'm there 45 minutes before the show starts anyway).

That may change, and you can always wait in line. We are just off the Enchanted and while we had reservations most days for 6:40, several times we wanted to go earlier and just got in line at 5:00, when the dining rooms open. When we were in line, we asked them to cancel our 6:40. We didn’t wait more than a few minutes.

On 12/15/2023 at 10:58 AM, Roberto256 said:

I am afraid they will be disappointed.

As it's usually the maitre d', not 'an officer' at the champagne waterfall.

 

Also, the waterfall has been really down-sized over the years.

It used to start from the floor, and go up ... like a christmas tree.

Now, just disappointing.

More like champagne rapids...

 

Hi waste; low reward. It’s the low-hanging fruit of cutback land. 

On 12/12/2023 at 1:09 PM, Crystaltipps67 said:

For me it's about the value for money. I've already paid for (decent quality) dining, so to pay a further $46 per person for a meal on board is something that I struggle with as I'd be paying twice for a single meal. What other lines are doing is not really relevant to me, although I get why you're saying it. It's what the ship/line I'm on is charging that matters. If I've got some free OBC that needs to be spent then I'll look forward to trying The Catch, but otherwise I'll eat what I've already paid for! 

I’d offer back that there is nowhere on earth you can get the quality seafood meal, as in from The Catch, for the price of the upcharge. I look at it that way. Our meal at The Catch was easily a $250 meal at home, before tip.