azbirdmom

Oh I think you would find enough to eat like us and what we did have was delicious. And the experience was very cool. But yeah at that price we probably won't be back. Everyone is different and it's sure nice that Princess is providing experiences that appeal to everyone - from foodies to us plain eaters!

You're welcome! It was a wonderful week and to have this experience to end our time onboard was fantastic.

We did it last night on the Discovery. We were asked about 45 minutes before it started if we would like to try it and we said why not. They chose people at random as far as we could tell and it was free as it was a trial. There were a total of 20 diners - including Lauren Tewes aka Julie McCoy from the original Love Boat - well maybe not entirely random selection? We all met near the Salty Dog bar where they took our pictures and gave us a special cocktail. They told us our seat numbers and then two violinists appeared. We followed them into Sabatinis through the kitchen and into the 360 dining area. We were immediately told that we could not take pictures (darn). It's a circular area with images projected - practically everywhere. The seating areas are around a circle and the maitre d would come to the middle to explain each course. I won't ruin it with too much detail but it's a culinary trip through the Mediterranean with sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the different areas we "visited". We were served seven courses and managed to at least taste all but one. We are fussy eaters with simple tastes so maybe not their target audience for this sort of thing. We were also served cocktails and wine from the different regions. Presentation was impeccable and there were 10 waiters who delivered each course to every diner at exactly the same time. The whole experience lasted 2 hours and it was definitely fun. Those who enjoy the Chef's Table will probably be wowed by this as will others looking for a different kind of dining experience. From what we heard they will officially "open" on the Discovery November 5th and it's supposed to be $150 each if the info we heard was accurate. Glad we got to do it for free!

Wonder how long it will take before the shops onboard start discounting all of those Real Love Boat on CBS tshirts? They are $32 now, didn't even check to see how much the hats were. Seriously. I was looking for an original Love Boat shirt given the theme last week but nope, it was all Real Love Boat.

With many airlines you should be able to do that as long as it is ticketed / paid by Princess. Which they don't seem to be doing until around the 30 day point.

Thanks for the warning. Will look for the shuttle 🙂

Thanks for the info. I just checked the website and it looks like it is an 8 minute walk from where we will land (in terminal 7/8).

Does this mean that you didn't use your CPAP on the final night? We always have an extension cord and plug them into a non-surge protected power strip at the desk. If the desk is across from the bed we have the steward use masking tape to secure the extension cord to the carpet. Debarkation day is just too hectic without having to crawl under the bed to remove the plugs and we won't go a night without using our CPAPs. Those must be leftover. Now that they are using Medallions instead of cruise cards those things are kind of useless.

If it's a 7 day cruise the difference in the two fares is exactly the price of Princess Plus ($50 X 7 X 2). Maybe the glitch is that under some searches the giving you the fare with Princess Plus?

Sounds like his final days were spent doing what he loved. In my earlier post I forgot to mention that some credit cards have travel insurance benefits as well. You may want to check that to see if you can get reimbursement for what your medical insurance didn't cover. Continuing to send good healing thoughts to you.

Did you do that at the time of the original booking or shortly before the cruise? I've asked for quotes for upgrading from the free cabin offered to a full suite and alternately to Club Class when initially booking and have been told they don't have those in their casino upgrade inventory. They have quoted prices for suite but they are pretty much always more than what I would pay if I went through my TA using the casino discount. Maybe it's different if you've already booked and later call about an upgrade? Or maybe I don't play enough to warrant special treatment LOL - my offers are usually free insides, sometimes the Princess Plus is comped but lately it hasn't been.

Very sorry for your loss. And I agree with voljeep. I am sure the financial aspects are the last thing on your mind but it's worth submitting to Medicare. In some cases they will pay for care on a ship (see page 53 of the Medicare handbook under "Travel"). Sending good wishes to you and your family.

You would think that they would have a list of the cruises that inadvertently canceled and would be proactive about restoring them. Well, I can dream I guess. Hope they do fix your reservations without you having to call multiple times.

I Googled it too and several sites indicated that he has Crohn's disease and it flared up. However, I have never heard of any of the sites posting that "news" and it is likely that it's just gossip.

We are Uber newbies too but have decided to give it a try from LAX to San Pedro given the issues folks have had with the Princess transfers recently. We don’t need curbside service. Other than following the signs to the pickup location are there any tips anyone can share?

There were a few people who reported late last week that cruises that they had just booked with the casino were unexpectedly cancelled. And this wasn't related to the periodic issue of cancellation shortly before the cruise because the casino didn't pay their share - it's supposedly a new problem that they are trying to get to the bottom of. Would suggest that you contact the casino reservation area as they should be able to restore your bookings. Good luck!

We found another excursion that we wanted to book and when we went to check out the rest of the $$ was there to use. Very odd but all is well now. The missing amount did not appear in payments nor anywhere else in the CP. But it was magically available to use when we purchased another excursion.

I just noticed your comment about Ian and saw that you live in Babcock Ranch. There was a segment on 60 Minutes last Sunday that included footage of Babcock Ranch with an interview indicating that the way it was built meant very little damage there. Sad to hear that is not the case. Wishing you and everyone in the area affected by Ian well.

I cancelled an excursion two days ago for an excursion booked for our cruise that is leaving 11 days later. The email that I got when I paid the $99.90 balance indicated that excursions cancelled more than 5 days prior to embarkation would be refunded to the credit card used for payment. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the credit appeared today and it's not just a pending credit. The bad news is that it was for $44.95 - exactly half of the amount I expected. There are two of us traveling but the amount due was for just one of us as shareholder obc covered the other balance entirely. Will see what our folio shows once onboard but I won't be happy if I need to chase this down after the cruise.

When I watched that I thought what must their parents / grandparents / employers etc. think? Maybe it isn't as big of a deal for the younger generation but I just think TMI!

Glad they didn't clear the area. I was wondering how intrusive and disruptive it was to have a reality show filmed during your cruise. And is that Nicole? Hard to be sure from the side since the show seems to be bringing on new contestants at random (although the addition of the new guy last night wasn't that random).

Very interesting. It's a different cast than the show we saw here in the USA. Only the captain is the same, the host and cast are a different crew. I didn't realize that they filmed two different shows for the US and Australia.

The latter is true. However, you no longer need a boarding pass. If you haven't been able to complete the process on the app you can do so at the terminal. Sorry this wasn't explained to you but I hope you have a nice cruise on HAL.

I watched but it was clear from both the show and the Princess commercials that they are aiming to get younger cruisers onboard. Which they need to do to stay relevant when the rest of us old(er) folks stop cruising. I didn't see it mentioned but Ezra has been a bartender on Princess for a couple of years. Her proud mom posts on at least one FB and possibly here - hard to tell since no one uses their real names on CC. I will continue to watch even though it's cheesy. So was the original Love Boat but I always watched that one too. Looking forward to seeing if the dates ashore are more interesting. The coming attractions made it look kind of like an Amazing Race format. And also to see if they move beyond the Sanctuary and Retreat Pool - or if any gray hair makes it into the camera shots which if it happened was too quick for me to tell!

Yep! They are classified as M6 and there are two like this - M107 and M108. These have the massive balconies that span out over the bridge. L107 and L108 are also M6 and are slightly larger inside with a smaller but still decent size balcony that is larger than most of the balconies on the ship (except for M107/M108 and of course the aft full suites). The layout is identical on all of the Royal class ships.