Jilliebean28

2 hours ago, CruiseNYC said:

I'm just catching up on the review here.  Sounds amazing.  We'll be in a Sky Suite on Enchanted this Fall.  Can you please tell me more about the Hot Tub and Pool on Deck 17?  I don't see it on the Deck plan.  

Thanks in advance!

We were in S310 (the sky suite) on the Enchanted in March and the hot tub was right outside the  back entrance to the  back part of our balcony.  We would go out at night and had the hot tub all to ourselves....it was wonderful!

We used to be die hard Crown Grill lovers but after the newer menu in Sabatini's we would eat there every night of our cruise.  Don't get me wrong.....both are really good but we LOVE Sabatini's!

12 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

What a small world!  We were on the same cruise!  My recollection of it was a little different.  Considering they added the theme onto the cruise only two months before it sailed, I thought they did a pretty good job with the theme.  There was a fair amount of 80s music in the background, there were some extra 80s movies on the VOD (including Christmas movies from the 80s!).  We had Rich Girl, the tribute band for Hall and Oates; and Slippery When Wet, the tribute band for Bon Jovi, in the main theater on separate nights.  Both were very good, though I'm distinctly NOT a BJ fan.  We also had the comedian Carlos Oscar perform one night in the main theater.  His show wasn't particularly 80s-themed, but I thought he was quite good.  The other two nights (it was a 5 night cruise) there were regular Princess shows that appealed more to the usual Princess crowd.  There was also several sessions of 80s-themed trivia, which I happened to win twice. 😁 I saw a few people decked out in their 80s finest, which was fine with me.

 

@PRINCESS Sweet Pea, I hope you're taking notes.  Between what I described in this post, the screen capture I put in my last post, and what other people have said, that's likely what you're going to get.  I've made other plans, so I'll have to miss this one.  Have fun!  

Haha....it almost seems like we were on two different cruises!  I don't remember any 80's themed movies or background music (I don't think I drank that much 😉).  Truly just may not have been  paying that close attention though. 

On 7/23/2022 at 1:46 PM, LACruiser88 said:

We board on October 26th for 37 days and will start a "Live" if no one else does before me.

Yes, please!!  We'll be on with you beginning Nov. 6th so I'll jump into your "Live"!

We did a "80's" cruise on the Regal in November and I would say it was an 80's cruise in name only.  I think there was one night where a few people dressed in 80's style clothes. There was one night where the band in the Piazza played 80's music and they were fantastic!

My husband and I are both veterans and we both have always gotten military benefit!

I love the fettucini alfredo with chicken added to it.  

On 6/12/2022 at 2:45 PM, RRFPresident said:

Thanks Jill! I watched a video tour of the suite done by a travel agent and they mentioned the suite comes with priority embark in ports (as in skip the potentially long line of people returning to the ship from tours) and ordering from the sanctuary menu to your cabin. Their video was the only time I've seen such perks mentioned. Was that included in your experience?

We only got off the ship at Princess Cay!  I don't believe we had any priority when getting back on board.

On 6/10/2022 at 5:17 PM, RRFPresident said:

Thank you for this summary! We have S310 booked on Enchanted this fall and were wondering about whether we'd get a daily replenish or just the one time per cruise minibar contents. Glad to hear I can get my preferred drinks that are only in cans that way. Did you try out the Enclave or take advantage of the reserved theater seating?

You are going to love this suite!!  We were in S310 on the Enchanted in March for 10 days and it was incredible!  April (who was the Suite Experience manager on our cruise) was wonderful and took great care of us....she booked our specialty dinners, checked in with us to see if we were going to be using the reserved theater seating.  If you have any questions let me know.

Jill

We were on the Enchanted in March and loved our Ultimate Balcony Dinner.  So yes they were doing it.

We did a private tour through Rome in Limo to the Amalfi Coast (Positano and Sorrento) and Pompei in one day.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Rome in Limo was so easy to work with and the tour and guide were fantastic.

19 hours ago, MissP22 said:

It appears that Princess is now providing reserved seating for a small group (12) on the Enchanted. 

I suppose it's OK to save seats for your own party. I'm waiting for the announcement about not saving seats .

 

We were on the Enchanted in March.  We were offered an upgrade (for a reasonable price we thought) to a Sky Suite.  One of the perks was "reserved seating" for any of the production shows.  There were just 2 of us but I know that the people in the other Sky Suite were 4 plus another 4 in there traveling party.  If we were not planning on going to a show, we let the Suite Experience manager know before hand.

19 hours ago, pilot said:

What did you think of the production show 5-SKIES?

 

Not our cup of tea.  We left during Level 2.

 

We are in our mid 60's and loved the show!  To each their own I guess.

On 1/15/2022 at 10:47 PM, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Basically, they are just in one area (up on the rock), so if you stick to the town I doubt you'll even see any.  And if you take a taxi up the rock, I don't think they will bother your taxi.  And if you don't want them even getting a chance, I would tell the driver about your fears, ask if you can keep the windows closed, etc.  There is more to the rock than the monkeys.  We took a taxi up and went a couple places that had no monkeys, at least as far as I remember.  Our pictures are here: https://pbase.com/roothy123/iberian_sojourn__portugal_spain_gib&page=all  (No need to sign in or anything, just click and view - Gibraltar pics are two thirds down, with annotations of what you're looking at)  

On 1/16/2022 at 7:05 AM, John Bull said:

As the poster from Maryland has said, the monkeys are only on the upper Rock - so nowhere in town, Catalan Bay, at Europa Point, etc. 

You can very easiy explore the town on foot.

For Europa Point  and/or Catalan Bay you'd need a taxi or bus- mebbe include them in a 7-mile 25-minute sea-level cirumnavigation of the Rock by taxi, starting at the Cruise Terminal & getting dropped off in Casemates Square at the end of Main Street and a simple 20 minute walk or bus hop back to the ship .

 

But you'll miss the joys of the upper Rock. Consider taking a standard upper Rock taxi/van tour from the Cruise Terminal.

You can stay in the vehicle if you wish, although of the four stops I don't think there are monkeys at the Pillars of Hercules, there are usually only one or two at St Michael's cave & they don't go i the cave, sometimes there are one or two at the Great Siege Tunnels  but again they don't enter.

They mainly congregate at feeding stations, one of which is on the tour route. It's a single-lane road with usually a short line of vans - folk walk up the line  of vans to the feeding station. As the van at the front goes, the rest move up, so in about 10 to 15 minutes their van reaches the front, they board & continue.  You certainly won't want to get out of the vehicle there, but drivers are happy for folk such as yourself (you're not the only one) to stay in the van - you do get to see the monkeys, they climb all over the vans, but you're safe inside & they're more interested in windshield wipers and radio aerials and such 😀

At the end of the tour you have the choice of baling out at Casemates Square or being taken back to the ship.

Despite your fears I think you'd get pretty full value out of an upper Rock tour. 🙂

 

PS Yes, you' got it right - they're actually monkeys, not apes. Tail-less Barbary macaques to be precise.

 

JB 🙂

Thank you both so much!  Great information.

We are going to Gibraltar and would like to see the island. I am, however,  absolutely terrified of monkeys.  Can anyone suggest excursions that do not include seeing them?   Thanks so much.

1 hour ago, cruzmore99 said:

We also read the info that Princess has on their website about getting tested in the terminal on turnaround day so if that is the case when we do B2B in January on Emerald, we plan to take all important stuff off the ship (medications, empty the safe of cash and credit cards, and of course passports). That way, the crew will be mainly be packing up our clothes.

I was on this same cruise as Tracie and we were all tested in one of the dining rooms just a day or so before turn around day.  It was very easy....a message was left in our cabin telling us to report to the dining room at 2:30pm the next day.  It was quick and easy.

On 12/5/2021 at 7:02 AM, Tyskie said:

 

Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet but probably passed without knowing.

 

My take on CG as we had this happen on NCL at their steak house Cagney's:

 

They have not been getting the beef from their usual suppliers (as per F&B manager on NCL) therefore there have been lots of hits and misses with many cuts of steak and beef.   We were a party of 8 celebrating friendship and life on 11/30 - some steaks were good, some not so much.

 

Even the hamburgers on deck - not good (they were my favorite).

 

All in all, everything else was DELICIOUS!  Service impeccable!  It was a wonderful cruise!  So wish we could have extended like you!!!   Enjoy this leg of the trip! 💗

So agree with your review of CG.....the steak was just ok and the sides we ordered were cold.  And my hamburger on deck was inedible and I usually love them.  My husband had on the next day and said it was really good.

Overall though our meals were wonderful!  Especially our 2 dinners in Sabatini's.

On 12/3/2021 at 9:57 AM, TracieABD said:

December 2, 2021

Day 11

Sea Day!

 

 

Hi friends-

 

Every have one of those mornings when you just can’t get it moving. Yep. That’s me. Jon got up- drank coffee, went to breakfast, brought me coffee, brought me milk, read on the balcony, drank more coffee- all before I opened my eyes. What I love about being on a longer cruise is that you can wiff a day- and not feel the impact on your vacation.

 

I finally rolled out of bed at some time after 10 am... maybe closer to 11. There is no rush to do anything. It is pretty cloudy. It is a sea day. All is well.

 

I decided today was a good housekeeping day. I gathered laundry. I straightened the suite. We let our stewards know that we would not need service this morning. Hopefully, this will net them a bit more of a break today.

 

I needed to exchange a shirt which was super easy. And I spotted Patrizia- The lovely Captain’s Circle Host- without here usual long line of guests. I figured it was a good time to get a breakdown... Here it is..

• Blue 330
• Gold 150
• Ruby 80
• Platinum 235
• Elite 120
• Total 920
• Most Traveled Guests- 2229 days (we have gotten to know Patty and Ken- they are the nicest people- so glad that we met them!)
• MTG Lunch cut is 205.

 

Patty- the MTG- also stopped by Patrizia’s desk, so the three of us chatted for a bit. Because there are such a low number of passengers on this sailing- everyone has time. The pace is so relaxed. I am like others, I am not sure how I feel about returning to full capacity... I like this a lot!

 

Lunch is one of my favorite menus. We are learning to cruise longer... which means pacing ourselves with food. It is so easy to just eat and eat and eat... and then feel miserable and bloated. In order to prevent this... more veggies... less courses. We ate in the CC MDR. I had gazpacho and the tortellini in veal broth. And that is it. Even though they had my fav blueberry roulade for dessert... I took a pass. It will be here next cruise. Also, they have mini panna cottas in the Concierge Lounge... and if you know me- panna cotta is my fav. So I had one of those.

 

We finally got it together to schlep up to the Sanctuary. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. Blue skies. Blue waters. We also love the Afternoon Tea up there. Our collective favorite is egg salad, which sadly did not make it onto the trays today. Unfortunately, we are next to two couples who have zero concept of volume control. And they talk and talk and talk. Netflix. Cable. Princess Cays. Status. Crown Grill. Cancer. Death. Politics. You name it... It is open season. And one is constant stretcher. Seriously, he used the linen napkin to wrap around his foot to stretch his calf.  I know. I know. I need to be more tolerant. Maybe they are just so happy to have someone new to talk with after the long lockdown. I am really hoping they disembark on Saturday... the lot of them. I finally had to leave. I am not one to engage in conflict with others... I just run away. Jon learned that neither couple is on the next leg- fingers crossed.

 

Dinner was a simple affair of carrot soup, salad, and TBGCS as my main. We skipped dessert. We worked our way through dinner quickly as tonight is...

 

...Yes/No Game! I signed Jon up- and like the good sport he is, he was all in... for 1:22 when he used “yeah” as a filler word. The lowest time was :08 seconds and there were 2 winners. It was so much fun!

 

This is an ‘80’s theme cruise. We are not participating. I pretty much dressed the same in every decade. Plain. Really plain. I am most a vision in Navy blue. Plain old Navy blue. My closet looks like the laundry locker for US Navy. There was a concert tonight by a Bon Jovi cover band called “Slippery When Wet”. Folks were really into it and it was as fun to watch the crowd as it was to watch the band. Bon Jovi has never been our thing... my tastes in music vary as do Jon’s. We both love John Prine and Cracker. I love opera...

 

And speaking of opera—- the trivia question was solve by Clare, Entertainment Assistant Director Extroidinaire! It is the major aria- Sempre Libre from La Traviata. Go, Verdi!!! She actually texted the mezzo for the answer. Now, that is some going the extra mile!

 

We drank tea and played cards in the Piazza and headed to bed. That is the end of our sea day!

 

Anyone what to “bang your head”?

 

Thank you for following along!

More later-

TL

Tracie-Lynn....we were on this cruise as well and were the couple in the opposite corner from you in Sanctuary.  I know exactly who you are referring to with the lack of volume control.  Part of what we love about Sanctuary is that it is quiet and relaxing....unfortunately not so much with these couples there.

On 12/2/2021 at 12:17 PM, SOCACRUISEGUY said:

If anyone onboard has the pleasure of Zsa Zsa taking care of them in the MDR’s, they are certainly lucky individuals. She is fabulous!!! We miss her.  “Mi familia”  

Totally agree with you!  ZsaZsa was in charge of Sanctuary on our last Regal cruise and she was wonderful.  We saw her again this cruise as we made reservations for the CG and she remembered us.

We just got off of Regal last week.  We were in an aft suite and yes, the Enclave is included as an amenity.

We were on the Crown right before COVID shut everything down and found it very tired and, for us, too small.  We like the larger piazza and buffet area.

On 9/13/2021 at 4:50 PM, manunia said:

yes, there are 2 types of of BinaxNow test: one with supervision and one that is without it. the one with supervision from emed has name BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag test; the second one is sold with name COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test at Home Kit, it has OTC letters on the box

Thank you so much for this info!  We were so confused but this has cleared it up for our upcoming cruises!

The best tour we took on our Med cruise was one recommended by Rick Steves.  It was with Alessandro Schezzini .  It was a afternoon tour called the Back Street Tour and then an evening "pub crawl" or Bar Tour.  Both tours were fantastic!

1 hour ago, Denmal said:

We are booked on the regal in 2022 for 26 days starting in Barcelona and ending I FLA.  Never traveled in the Med.before so looking for advice on good tours and a.good.guide book that would cover.all the ports....I REALLY want a good Vatican tour in Rome and will to pay top $$ if need be.  

We are going in November so hopefully crowds will be low.  Would love info about that from someone who has visited.that time of year, crowded ?  Weather ? Etc.

 

I love plan so yes I know it it over a year away but looking forward is fun for me

Thanks for any advice or info

 

We have done the Med (but not a T/A) and I would highly recommend Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports guide book.  Lots of great information.  We used RomeinLimo.com for our Rome and Vatican excursion and they were phenomenal....highly recommend!

We love spending time in Sanctuary with their wonderful crew.  Afternoon tea is also so good!

Great decision Princess!  As disappointed as we are about our April Baltic cruise being canceled we believe Princess did the right thing!