Roatanfans

I think it was sometime in 2019 pre pandemic that Princess stopped the balloon drops.

Our kids are currently 15m and 11f twins. They are platinum level and are pushing for us to take them on enough cruises to be elite by the time they turn 18. My girls still love the kids club and my son enjoys the lectures, the pool and the food (he wants to go to the Chefs table with us). They all get soda packages and we also buy coffee cards for hot chocolates and teas, we also end up buying photo packages that we wouldn't have if they weren't with us. We would love Princess to have more room options for families, especially for the families that have more then 4. The ships that have family suites only have 2. More options like this at different price points would be lovely. When my kids were 9 and 6 we spent a few days at Disneyland then did a California Coastal on the Ruby. When we got home all three of them announced they would much rather go on a cruise then go to Disneyland!

I have to admit my first thought when I read this title involved vr headsets. Although I do think Princess should make virtual reality ships tours available, it would be great to take a virtual tour of your cabin before booking it!

We've done this cruise 3 times. We use Robert's Hawaii for excursions. They offer many of the same excursions as Princess at a discount. They are usually the company doing the Princess excursions, so quality is the same but often smaller groups. They also have a return to your ship guarantee if you are nervous about booking non ship excursions. Their tours are wonderful and we use them whenever we can. The one Princess excursion I can recommend if you want something a little more adventurous is ditch tubing in Kauai. My kids still talk about it and want to go back and do it again!

I've done the Volcanos with the stop at the macadamia factory a few times (Roberts Hawaii tours is who we used). The nut factory isn't a destination in itself but has pretty grounds to stretch your legs and have a snack/bathroom break. A bonus is that you can buy nut flavors you can't always find everywhere, and is a great place to pick up little gifts to take home, but you can just enjoy the gardens around the buildings as well. The volcano park is the best part, we loved walking through the Thurston lava tubes.

My husband and I both have individual accounts each with 100 shares. We do this as we are a family of 5 so we have to get 2 separate rooms which is 2 separate bookings. Simplist way for us to get the credit.

The most popular choices will be the aquarium (world class, one of the best). Cannery row which is mostly tourist shops and restaurants, scenic drives like 17 mile drive, whale watching during certain times of the year, golf, scuba diving (cold water, kelp, and a bit of a rough shore entry so you shouldn't try this on your own if inexperienced), wine tasting, and beaches.

On the Sapphire on Christmas day 2018 our Sony camera broke while the kids were waiting in line to take pictures with Santa. We had a ton on on board credits which is how my husband got his Leica camera! So at that time they had cannon, Nikon, go pro and Leica, not sure what they may have now.

On Princess I have learned to avoid the terrine as a rule. Also, sadly have never had good lamb on board (everything I've tried its been tough) but hope springs eternal

I do digital scrapbooking (I print out my completed books) and I was wondering if others do as well. If there are others would there be interest in sharing .PNG files or tips, tricks and discussions about digital scrapbooking for cruise vacations.

Regal Princess looked good, but I would have loved to see more of the ship and ports. The show itself was not great, but I wasn't expecting much!

Princess would probably be most likely to offer perks that cost them little to nothing, are perceived as having some value by people who use them, and encourage the users to spend more money. Things like free slot play or discounts on art auctions or a free bingo card.

I've never had a problem with my Kindle fire on a Princess ship (at least nothing that was because of the Kindle instead of the painfully slow Princess wifi). I assuming tethering would be the same as using your phone as a mobile Hotspot and connecting your Kindle to it? That's what I do while in port when I need to download more books.

We are on the cruise after you and I'm guessing day 2 and 7. Day 7 for us is a sea day and it is Christmas so it is pretty much a guarantee to be a formal night for us.

Have you looked in the Little Saigon neighborhood in San Jose? There are Vietnamese shopping malls there and you should be able to find this there. Seems like you can find almost anything there (they claim to have the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam). Anyway, a little closer to home for you!

Maybe look at Costco or Sam's Club? Costco usually sells discount gift cards, guessing Sam's Club does also.

Of the three lines you've mentioned the only one we haven't been on is Carnival. NCL is known for its entertainment and MSC has beautiful ships (we were on the Divina- that staircase!). Princess we find has better food and something we love on Princess is the educational lectures they do on sea days. These aren't the usual "buy bamboo sheets, color changing shirts or tanzanite at these stores" lectures. We've been to WW2/Pearl Harbor talks, route 66, volcanos, famous ships and naughty marine life lectures. Princess also does a lot of cultural programs in different areas.

On Princess at breakfast in the buffet, once in a while you can find biscuits and chocolate gravy. The Princess chocolate gravy is more like Hershey syrup out of a can, not at all like the chocolate gravy I grew up eating. For those of you who have never heard of such a thing it's a regional thing Oklahoma, Arkansas area?) Kind if like fried pies. It is not meat based but more like a thick chocolate custard you eat over biscuits.

The kids also can have juice, milk or chocolate milk served to them in the MDR or buffet. That said as they got a little older they enjoyed ordering from the bar (they think a viking strawberry margarita is better then a slushy, and Choco Banannas with extra cherries are also a hit)

Kids are fine in specialty restaurants and they pay half price. My daughters are not big meat eaters so Sabrina's is a better choice for them, but if the kids like meat then they will be fine at the Crown Grill! Also remember in the MDR they have a children's menu and the kids can pick from that as well as the regular one (or mix and match.) Mine like the chocolate milk, ABC soup and fruit salads from the kids menu but like to try some of the entrees from the regular one!

My kids have been cruising since they were small. Since my daughters are identical twins, we are pretty used to people paying a little more attention to them. Knowing this I always dress the kids up for dinner (and always practiced the table manners and behavior they had to have if they wanted to go on a cruise). We also always tried to take advantage of the photography specials and take lots of pictures before dinners. This worked well for us, and now my kids like dressing up for dinner and are comfortable with longer fancier dinners. Now if you have kids that wear nice shorts to the MDR I'm betting no one would say anything. Historically child formalware included dress shorts for boys until they became young men and graduated to long pants!

No, if you make the list they usually meet with you early to let you know that they do not cater to food preferences and to find out if there are any allergies. (If you have allergies they don't wish to work with, they will remove you from the list and invite someone else). The last Chefs table we were on there must not have been much demand as a last minute addition turned out to be a vegetarian who was willing to eat around the meat served. I will add that we have been to 3 Chef's tables and they are a meat heavy dinner with multiple courses and various meats and seafood being the centerpiece of each course. Not a good choice for a vegetarian!

Wish they would consider sailing in and out of Savannah!

I tried calling mine last week and had problems also. Was wondering if he was still working as he seems to always be busy.

We did a Grand Asia Christmas cruise for 2018-2019. Christmas didn't feature any special foods from Asia other than the always available items (won ton soup was a favorite for my kids). Not sure about NZ but I'm guessing it will be more English and American dishes but maybe they will do something with lamb or a local fish.