SissyG

We have an assortment of partially punched cards and I think I will bring them all on our next cruise. Might as well try to use them...I agree I think it depends on who you give them to at the coffee bar or also if you give them to your waiter in the dining room for after dinner coffees.

We've done 19 cruises with Princess and my only real complaint has been the beds....even with 2 egg crates I find them to be very uncomfortable...I have had back problems for years so this just exacerbates my problem...We are doing 23 days on the Diamond later this year in December and unfortunately in all the lists of ships being fitted with new mattresses I have not seen her name come up once....I wonder why, I know that there must be a need for new mattresses and bed linens on the Diamond too.

 

Sissy

The article I read said the mattress replacement begins in February with the Ruby and will be completed on all the ships by 2018.

I was hoping you would come back and see my post :)

Glad to hear about your SE Asia cruise. Mine is also a 21 day SE Asia Grand Adventure, so likely the ports will mostly be the same.

 

Holly, my email is sissygok@gmail.com so maybe we can compare notes on ports and tours and our itinerary....

 

Sissy

Hi, How are you guys!!!! I hope all is well with you.

I saw your post here because I am getting ready for a cruise on the Sapphire Princess from Singapore Feb 14th to Mar 6th and will be going to the Batu caves. I am in a small group using Melissa from Tours By Locals. I have not been to SE Asia in years, so I am looking forward to it. I hope you have having some great cruise adventures since our Crown cruise, I have :)

 

Hi Holly, WE just booked a 21 day Grand SE Asia adventure on the Diamond for next Christmas and New Years out of Singapore...so will be in Kuala Lumpur again and looking for something else fun and interesting to do there...

 

Enjoy your cruise, we love SE Asia.

Sissy

We were in the group along with Paul and Jeannie that went to Batu Caves on our own. First we took the Princess transfer from the ship to the center city and they dropped us right in front of a large mall. Our group of about 8 people then hailed taxis and asked the driver to take us to Batu Caves, it's only a short drive to get there..he dropped us off and promised to return at a agreed on time...we did our thing, climbed the long stairways into the caves, saw the caves and the tons of little monkeys that are running about which were spectacular and checked out the well stocked gift shops then met up with our taxi driver and went back into the city, had lunch at the beautiful mall then met the Princess transfer back to the ship..it worked out well.

Sissy

We just booked a 21 day cruise, rnd trip from Singapore over Christmas and New Years 2016. We wanted a long cruise in warm weather over the holidays and we have done the Caribbean several times. After reading some of the posts we hope we will be happy with the changes made to the Diamond. We have cruised all over the world so the combining of cultures will be welcome to us. The itinerary sounds interesting and it will give us the opportunity to visit some ports we have missed in the past like Phuket, Bangkok, Bali and Nha Trang while revisiting Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh city and Koh Samui which we loved. We will stay glued to CC for more info and encouragement from those who cruise on the Diamond throughout 2016.

 

Happy New Year everyone,

 

Sissy

There are great showers there, places to put your dry clothes and mirrors to do your hair...I have gone to the spa showers before because they have benches in the shower and it's easier to shave my legs there. They have plenty of towels and toiletries there as well.

The only time I have heard it might be problematic is if you are stopped by security in Singapore either leaving or returning to the ship...Singapore has a whole different set of rules than anywhere else...like for instance, it is against the law to chew gum while walking on the streets there...so you know that if you meds are not in their very own little properly labeled bottles it is going to cause a problem if your bags are searched and there are pills in baggies...

 

Sissy

On the 2013 Ocean cruise we had 2 ports in India, Mumbai and Cochin, just happened that I was not feeling well on our Cochin port day and stayed behind while Robert went on a tour....so now I will get to see what was missed...Also in Jordan we were all set to go to Petra with Ramses and as we were getting ready to leave our cabin to meet up with our group it was announced that Petra was closed for the day...I was devastated at the time, I looked forward to that day for almost a year, quickly we scrambled and booked a desert safari day...there was a lot of controversy centered around that announcement...several people went anyway and found it was open, Ramses notified me that they had been told it was closed too...so another chance for us to see Petra on this cruise.

 

We really enjoyed meeting Paul and Jeannie on the Ocean Princess cruise and shared several tours and dinners with them....would love to see you on the Emerald....

 

Sissy

Robert and I were on the 48 day cruise on the Ocean Princess and this itinerary is similar but different, revisiting some of the ports we loved and also getting to visit some very interesting new ones...We love the idea of this cruise on the Emerald so much that we could not resist and booked it today...now I go through delicious agony waiting and planning and researching...I think the only negative is surviving the anxiety of the long wait and having to apply for the Indian visa again.

 

Having visited Melbourne before and Sydney several times we chose the 41 day and will spend a few days after the cruise in Perth.

 

Sissy

We're thinking of booking a Princess cruise out of Houston Bayport and would be driving down from Oklahoma. We want to find out about hotels close to the port that offer park and cruise options and also shuttles to and from the hotel to the ship. Any info from those in the know would be appreciated...We have cruised from Galveston many times before and there are several hotels that offer these options so figure that Houston Bayport would also have these services available.

 

thx...Sissy

Thanks everyone for your input, that is exactly the good news I was hoping to hear.

We are booked on the Crown this Oct/Nov and also Sept. 2015 and thought I read somewhere that the Crown was scheduled for some work sometime next year..anyone have any info on this?

The one and only time we booked a guarantee was in 2010 on a holy land cruise on the Pacific Princess, we booked a BE balcony guarantee or better. We didn't get our cabin assignment until a few days before boarding, I had been checking the balcony inventory and also the mini suite inventory hoping for a pleasant surprise...when we got our cabin assignment it was a front facing balcony which is considered a higher category but NOT a good balcony. We were never able to actually use the balcony because when the ship was moving it was so windy you could not even open the door to the balcony, we were so disappointed because we usually spend a lot of time on our balcony...so that was the first and last time ever for us, from now on we book the cabin we want and won't accept an upgrade.

WE cruised on the Crown 2 years ago over Christmas and New Years on B2B in the Western Caribbean and we loved it...we are in our 70's and we were alone cruising without our family. WE loved the way the ship was decorated for the holidays and the special Christmas events, Santa, carolers, snow in the atrium, Christmas stockings on our bed Xmas eve, singing Christmas carols in Crooners on Christmas eve. All that was great but there were a LOT of kids all ages on board, also large extended families with babies, small children, teens, parents and grandparents. They had special programs, activities and events planned for the kids which kept them busy, we avoided the big pools because they were filled with so many Marco Polo playing kids, instead we booked the Sanctuary and used the spa pool so did not hear MUTS which we find to be annoying...

 

I cannot imagine you would not have fun and enjoy the cruise with your family..you are on vacation and relaxed and it's Christmas, all good things.

 

The ship is large and everyone seems to find their niche, I hope you decide to book you will love it. We loved how relaxed our Christmas was, no cooking, no stress, no last minute shopping.

Because if it doesn't say "Emergency", people won't read it. Yeah, certainly some of the notifications are trivial, but they want to make sure that you read them, because some of them aren't trivial... :) "What do you mean I need a passport??!! You never sent me anything about passports!!" :p

 

I am always so excited about my next cruise that I can't imagine not reading anything that came from Princess, especially if it stated that it was concerning my next cruise....but I too get stressed when I see "Emergency Notification" especially because one time it was that Princess had cancelled the whole cruise.....it has made me fearful of any so called Princess emergencies since. I wish they could find another heading for their not so emergency notifications like, "Important Information Notification" would get my undivided attention too.

WE always check the boxes for special occasion when we will be on a cruise close to a birthday or anniversary but that does not guarantee anything special will appear either on your door or in the dining room...However if you politely tell you steward or head waiter that a special day is close and would like balloons or a special cake at dinner you will get results...These people have a lot of others who also have special requests so I think they appreciate a gentle polite reminder and it will avoid any disappointment when the day rolls around.

The pictures of the desserts and drinks are beautiful, I know the drinks will have a hefty price but I am hoping the desserts are a part of the regular dining room menu and not at an additional cost, but I would not be surprised...since they have gradually changed their dessert menu to offer fewer and much less fancy desserts than before, they probably have figured out a way to entice us with chocolate to spend more, they know how some of us can't resist chocolate.

We've been to this port 3 times in the past, in 2004, 2008 and 2011 and will be there again this fall on the Crown. Each time we were in Papeete we arrived from Moorea about 9:00 p.m. and immediately they began restocking the ship, crates of fruit, veggies and all the supplies that it takes to feed and care for a large ship was onloaded overnight and all day the next day until departure at 5:00 p.m.

 

The short evening cruise from Moorea to Papeete has always been very enjoyable and the perfect time to sit on your balcony watching the lights of Papeete as you arrive. If you haven't done this cruise before you will love it.

 

Sissy

I suppose it depends on what you plan to do out on your balcony that would determine if it made a difference if it was covered or not....but I will take a mini over a balcony any day.

 

 

Sissy

The very first thing we do when we get into our cabin is program the safe and put both of our wallets, car keys, airline tickets and all my jewelry in there safely and yes, I do bring my fine jewelry with me, if I didn't I would never get a chance to wear it anywhere...I cannot imagine leaving anything of value out in the open....I think that it would be unnerving for the steward if he saw valuables or money lying about when cleaning the room....I am not paranoid, just careful...but also like the secure feeling that our valuables are all in the safe.

We did a private flight with Island Wings inland to see the bears feeding off the salmon as they swam upstream...we landed on the water and hiked about a half mile to a stream where we entered blinds that had been set up for the bear viewing. We were no more than 20 feet or less away from watching the bears, it was right near the top of the incredible tours I have taken in the 11 years we have been cruising....Loved it, and it scratched off one of my bucket list must dos.

 

Sissy

I was just able to make reservations onboard the Crown for the October 18th 28 day sailing...that's the one from LA to Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti and back to LA for our daughter, SIL and grandson to enjoy the BVE. I am so happy that I was able to book this for them to join us for a few hours before we sail. I have followed the ups and downs of booking the BVE and all of a sudden just like an internal alarm went off yesterday I felt I needed to call Princess. I got all the necessary info written down and called them back this morning and it couldn't have been easier...I just have to have our daughter enter her info on her personalizer and it will be complete...

 

Thanks again to Pam for all the correct information she passes on to everyone on this site.

 

Sissy

Hey thanks everybody, it looks like it's Coleen Reyes for the Crown.

I am taking over the meet and greet from someone who first contacted Princess about it and and then cancelled the cruise and rebooked a different itinerary.

 

Hi to Pam and Paul and thanks for your input.

 

Sissy