silverwillow

Oh no that doesn't sound good at all. I will look at the Coral as we love walking around deck 7.

Thanks, yeah I did think it was one of them. What is the problem with the Island?

I vaguely recall some discussion on the boards about one of the Princess ships being spoiled by a dry dock and I'm not sure if it was the Island or Coral?

We are considering a Panama Canal for our next cruise and have had to cancel two cruisers due to my husband changing jobs. Apparently it's not kosher to run off on holidays straight away! :rolleyes::p

We live down under so it will be a big flight so we will try and tack on a Caribbean cruise and/or a stay in Florida.

Which ship should we choose? Any tips for when the best time to go is? We won't be able to leave the country until at least September but I am eager to get something booked to stave off the cruise blues. I disembarked from the Sun Princess this morning and for the first time since I started cruising I haven't got another booked. :eek:

We disembarked from the Sun Princess this morning and will be mentioning in the survey that the kids club programs need an overhaul. I am sure for first time cruisers kids it is super fun and fantastic but my daughter went twice and only with some encouragement on the second visit. She said she didn't want to go anymore because she knows exactly what they do and has done everything.

I really hope they make some changes as she did not enjoy this cruise as much as our others.

Received not relieved :o

Just relieved information that the Sun Princess is being sanitised and boarding will now start at three pm. Has anyone experienced this and should we wait till three to arrive or come a little earlier and hope to be in front of a large cue. We have preferential boarding but Fremantle Port is not the best set up so I'm not sure it won't be chaos.

Great Pics :)

I hope Princess does monitor this because I want them to read this. We were going to book a cruise that visited Papua New Guinea as well as a few South Pacific Islands. I looked at the itineraries available and thought excellent Princess are thinking outside the box what a great itinerary. They have a number of these cruises and sailing dates but after the first few sailings Princess have substituted the best Vanuatuan port (Champagne Bay, a port coveted by a lot of cruises) with Luganville...OMG it's like going to a see a shack when around the corner sits the Colosseum. :confused: I'm not booking it for that reason and I know it's my choice but Princess what the heck are you thinking?

Thank you WeiMin I have had so much trouble trying to find information about this port. I think we will shuttle into town and try and engage a driver for the day.

I think you can also use your coffee card at the main dining room.

I don't want a new flag. I think this politician has it right. :D

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72087969/act-leader-david-seymour-french-love-the-coq

The Sushi place was never used when we sailed on Sun.

The Dawn has an updated Horizon Court but no International Cafe yet.

The International Cafe is wonderful and the Sun definitely had better food, as for public spaces they are almost identical. There is a bar on Dawn call Magnums with seating that is not on the Sun as the Sun has a Sushi Restaurant there but it is rumoured to be going at the next refit so it depends when your sailing.

Thanks Ozkiwi :)

Thanks, I will pass this information on and let her choose. :)

Does anyone know if there are larger inside cabins on Sun, Dawn, or Sea Princess? A friend has been told that the vertical cabins are larger than the horizontal ones in the aft and forward insides.

For example B710, B711 and B709 are apparently larger than B724, B718 and so on.

http://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=SP

Above is the link to the deck plan if you want to check it out. To me it looks like they would just be longer not necessarily larger but my friend was told they are bigger. She is currently booked into a mid ship position and she asked me if I thought she should move to one of these bigger cabins. I don't want to tell her to move if they are not really any bigger due to the extra movement they will feel being aft or forward.

Some good points.

Cruise lines actively encourage this by sending invites to join fb pages for particular cruises.

Princess stopped this, I believe due to the fact that people were getting together and organising their own tours together instead of buying ships excursions but someone more optimistic thought it was due to peoples privacy and security of passengers homes while away. :p

The last three roll calls I have been in sailing from Australia have had very low numbers and are very slow. Is this just in the Princess roll calls or are others such as celebrity and royal as slow? The roll call I had for the Emerald sailing in Europe was amazing and in nearly every port there were private shared tours organised.

There are a lot of Facebook users now so I guess that could account for it but it's making it difficult to organise private tours not only because there is a lack of people to share them but also because the knowledge about tour operators is lacking.

Which ship did you choose? :)

Years ago after my first cruise a family member told me it is a complete waste of money and that a friend of hers would have been financially better off but they went on too many cruises.

I pointed out to this family member that they have been smoking for over 40 years :rolleyes: 'Now that's a waste of money'. Fast forward five years and this person is slowly changing her mind after a few friends have suddenly died and a close friend is struggling with a brain tumour. She said to me recently you are doing the right thing living life while you can. She is even considering a cruise. :)

Another person we know who is fond of 'one-upmanship' and has travelled a fair bit always insinuates that cruisers are old fat boring people and that crusing isn't real travel.

Thank you for the info. What company were you cruising with? We are heading to this port in June with Princess and it would be good to know that there is at least a shuttle port side. Is this a tender port or does the ship dock?

Were there any taxi's and tour companies waiting when you got of the ship? I would really like to visit Madakaripura Waterfalls.

Thanks so much I'll go and check them out and do a costing for her. The Solstice cruise is going to Hawaii. :)

Hi all. I have travel insurance on my credit card but my good friend is leaving on a cruise in April on the Solstice. I am helping her with her planning and itinerary and she needs to get travel insurance. What is a good cruise travel insurance company?

Should she buy a multi trip as she has another cruise to Indonesia in December?

Or would it be better to buy a one trip policy?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks, what a great deal. :)

I tried to google but can't find that price for QM2.

You may want to prebook a massage or other spa services as you will find the best times on sea days go very quickly. You can do this through your cruise personalizer on the princess website. All things onboard like trivia, destination talks ect are free and you just turn up. If you like gym classes I think some of them are sign up events but you can do that when you get onboard. Also if you want to have a night in a specialty restaurant (Sabatinis is awesome) then you may want to book as soon as you get onboard.

Diamond is my favourite ship and my daughter loves the kids club.