ihermdar

On 4/13/2022 at 12:54 PM, HaveDogWillTravel said:

We have figured out that our bed is below the stairs from skywalk to lido deck. There is nothing to be done about it. I made a rookie mistake. How embarrassing. 

What was your cabin number and deck?

On 4/24/2019 at 4:25 PM, Idratherbeatsea said:

Suite breakfast is in Sabatinis

Thank you. I spoke with 3 separate Princess reps and no one knew.

On 4/24/2019 at 4:25 PM, Idratherbeatsea said:

Suite breakfast is in Sabatinis

On 4/21/2019 at 9:18 PM, ceilidh1 said:

Alfredos is BETTER than specialty dining and FREE!

Thanks, I am looking forward to it.

I don't know how to post a new question on this site.

But would love to know if anyone here has been in a Suite where usually breakfast is served just for those rooms. It use to be in the Crown Grill but Princes can't answer for me if Royal does that breakfast anywhere?

On 4/20/2019 at 5:43 PM, Cruise Raider said:

 

We still had a good time and a very enjoyable cruise.  

Valariano and Renz in the MDR were great.  Itsel was also a sweetheart and Dennis, the head waiter in the Symphony dining room also bent over backwards to make us happy.  Rosalie in Bellini’s also did a great job, as did Emily at guest services. Sebastian (Basti, up in Club 6) was another one that mad us feel so welcome!  There were others as well that made our cruise more special.  So, didn’t mean to make it sound like the entire crew was dismissive ... just some of them need a lesson in customer service.  Everyone at Alfredo’s and the IC & coffee bar were great.  One of them apologized for the delay when there really wasn’t one.  

Of note, room service as spot on and quick!  And, this morning at 4 am, our toilet decided to stop working and the plumber was there within ten minutes of our phone call.  It would have been a hassle to get dressed to find a working toilet at that time in the morning.  So grateful we didn’t have to.  

 

Is Alfredos a specialty dining room?

Good morning!

 

I'm currently sitting on one of the 4 brand new aft facing balconies on the Island sailing between Venice and Istanbul on the Grand Mediterranean itinerary. Before I left, I said I would report on the room and ship since it's drydock.

 

So far, so good. I know that there was a problem with one of the engines or something on the previous cruise (I'm typing this offline, so I can't check the specifics), but I'm happy to report that everything is fixed and we are traveling at full speed on this first of 2 sea days.

 

As far as the new balcony room, we are in B741 and are one of only 4 rear facing balconies on the whole ship (with the exception of a couple of suites). The balcony room is a tiny bit smaller (the only thing I noticed is that there is a *tiny* bit less room at the end of the bed, but it's really not very noticeable. When you first walk into the room, you need to use your cruise card to make the lights and a/c work (I put my JoAnn Fabrics teacher discount card in the slot...any flat, plastic card will work...so I could have the a/c going while out of the room cause it's hot here). When you put the card in the slot, all the lights turn on and they are VERY bright LEDs. One change is that the 2 switches by the door don't control closet area for one and the bedroom area for the other. The closest switch to the door turns on 2 small canister lights over the bed and the switch further from the door controls extremely bright lights in the closet area as well as the bedroom area. The problem I found with this was that if you want to take a shower the morning and then get dressed in the closet area, you will wake up the other person in the bedroom area if you turn on the closet area lights. Otherwise, you just have to get dressed in the dark. The closet area itself is exactly the same as other ships, along with the cabinet with the safe. There's a coat hook on the wall behind the front door, which is different.

 

The bathroom is where I saw most of the changes. There is no longer an overhead light. Instead, there are 2 lights built into the mirror. They work fine and I think they're actually better than the overhead. The shelving near the sink is more spacious (I can actually stand my electric toothbrush up in it!). The sink is awesome! It's a large rectangle. There's so much more space. I was able to wash a few clothing items in the sink without the worry of splashing water everywhere. There's also a free standing soap dish. The shower is HUGE! I haven't smacked my elbows into the side of the walls once! Instead of a square, it is a rectangle with a shelf on one end (you could put your foot up on it) and the shower at the other (it's a pull down shower head where you can adjust the height of it). There is also a soap dish shelf near the shower head like in other ships. The only thing I don't like is where the toilet paper is located. It's kind of behind the toilet, under the sink, so you have to twist around to get to it. Other than that, the bathroom is pure awesomeness.

 

OK, moving out to the bedroom area. The beds are brand new. We always ask for egg crates, but didn't need them for these beds...so much better than usual (I do realize that we are only the 3rd people to sleep in them, so that's probably why). The TV is mounted on the wall directly opposite the beds and is quite big. They have installed Samsung smart TVs and I'm sure they're for when the ship gets upgraded to the Princess@Sea and OnDemand, which hasn't happened yet. Anyway, having the TV out of the corner gives you and extra flat storage space above the mini bar fridge which is wider than before. You still have the small table next to the mini bar and the desk with chair on the opposite side if the room, along with another chair. Oh! You won't find the hair dryer on the wall near the desk. I was very confused and thought they had need eliminated. They have new hairdryers (much higher quality) in the top, left hand drawer of the desk. It is already plugged in, so just pick it up and hold down the button to use it. There are 2 US outlets and 1 European outlet on the desk and 1 US outlet and 1 European outlet in the bathroom. Our stateroom steward said that the bathroom ones were fine for charging or using with 2 pronged US cords, but 3 pronged cords needed to be used at the desk.

 

The balcony is really nice. If you look at pictures of the rear if the ship, our room is right smack in the middle of the big white wall. We are the farthest square to the right. It's actually pretty great because there are actual walls on all sides instead of the partitions between balconies. The glass fence area is higher than on the sides of the ship. There are 2 chairs and a table and the balcony itself is deeper than I expected. Not as deep as a Caribe balcony, but I can sit in the chair with it all the way back to the door and not quite touch my toes to the glass.

 

Oh, we're elite, so we get a free mini bar setup. We always switch out the alcohol for pop. The choices this time were ginger ale, Aranciata (which is like Orangina), Coke, Coke Light, Sprite, and Sprite Zero. We also get free canapes and the chocolate covered strawberries have disappeared off of the list. *sniff* So sad. Those are my favorite. They've also added ChapStick with SPF to the elite bathroom pack, along with a gel eye mask that I hadn't seen before. We're storing it in the fridge.

 

Since we're in the new cabins on the back of the ship, they created a new area for our muster station drill. We went down the crew stairs at the back if the ship to the gym on deck 6.

 

There have been questions about the vibrations in the aft balconies. During our 2 days in Venice there was little to no vibrations in our room. After sailaway, the cabin did start to vibrate some, but it's not horrible at all. Currently, we're in motion and I don't hear any glasses shaking and nothing in the bathroom is falling over. While lying in bed, you can feel the vibrations, but it really just feels like a light massage. I had no problems sleeping at all. It's really not that different than any other room on a cruise ship that I've been on before.

 

If you're on this Grand Mediterranean itinerary later, you might like to know that Princess offers shuttles into town for Venice-boat to St. Mark's Square ($29), Istanbul-bus to Grand Bazaar ($10), Mykonos-bus to town ($8), Livorno-bus Piazza Grande (€5), and Toulon-boat to downtown ($20). The port talks are also happening well before the cancelation times for the tours, so we've ended up dropping some of our tours since we sort of know where we want to go and we have plenty of time to get it done with the shuttles.

 

The cruise director is Richard Joseph. The deputy is Duke. The maitre d'hotel is Giuseppe Gelmini. Captain is Andrea Poggi.

 

I think that's all for now. If you have any questions, you can ask, although I can't guarantee that I can answer them (I don't have access to other cabins, so I can't answer those questions) because of internet access and such.

 

Bonnie

So what is the actual situation on an International Café. Is there one on the Island now?

I just got off the Island and can tell you what was said about the Bayou show. It worked well in the Universal Lounge because of a revolving stage. There is no revolving stage in the Princess Theatre and the production staff and Princess are determining if it will work in the Princess Theatre without a revolving stage. No decision has been made as whether they will keep that show.

 

Yes it's one of the best Princess shows so it will be sad if they loose it.

 

In the drydock that will add more staterooms, add the IC in a 45 day drydock.

 

There was engineers on board looking at things prior to the dry dock next year.

 

Tom:)

What deck is the IC going to be on?

Hello All,

 

We are on the Jewel leaving Houston on Nov. 29th. We have reserved the 3 bedroom condo with hot tub, roof top terrace & mini bar at the Banana Beach Resort. The reservation is for Tuesday, Dec. 2nd so that we can access the condo as soon as we get in to port. Check out is at 3p. Rental for the condo is $183 divided by 3 couples - $30.50 per person. Banana Beach Resort is providing transportation to and from the ship. We will enjoy a day in a regular sized space on the beach unlike our inside cabin on the Jewel. There are 3 pools, bar and restaurant, as well. The owners are from Texas. We cannot wait!:D

Rn, how was the day at Banana Beach Resort. Were you able to snorkel? Was the condo nice & did it include the day pass for everyone or? Any info would be appreciated. We leave 12/13 early AM for the same cruise.

Thanks

ihermdar1 at yahoo dot com

StLouisCruisers (Sandi),

 

Not sure if you remember, but many years ago you were doing a "Live From the Crown Princess" and I asked you for some help with a Christmas surprise for our kids. I asked you to get in touch with my neighbors on the same sailing as you, and you delivered a note to them asking them to bring me home some Princess lanyards as part of the surprise. I am forever thankful for you taking care of that....

 

Anyway, I see you are boarding the Golden on Tuesday and just wanted to let you know you are in for a real treat with Neville as the Maitre D'. Please let him know you are "friends" with us (Chris and Brenda). In all our cruises, he stands out as the best of the best and I am sure you will agree. Have a great cruise!

is he the maître d' in the main dining room or is he present in all dining rooms?

Thanks

PS has the outbreak slowed down or still going strong?

Darlene

* more feedback from friends about the Sapphire

 

Rick Regh 'The ship is layed out very well, it doesn't feel like there are a lot of people on board, even when the ship is full' and The food is great no matter where you eat. The staff is great and are always polite and courteous. The seem like they enjoy working on the Sapphire Princess.We did an Alaskan cruise on the Sapphire, the food is great and the staff is excellent.

 

Gayle Koontz 'My husband and I were on the sapphire last September bound for Hawaii. We had super service and super food. The lobster in the Crown grill was to die for...as was almost all of the food!'

 

Brenda Ann Novicki 'we did a Mexican riviera cruise a few months back and had an awesome time. They are very organized and treated us wonderful. We liked them better than carnival'

 

Cheryl Ralston I agree with Rick, it never felt crowded.

Where was the Crown on the sapphire?