geoherb

Two of my friends won on my August cruise. They both won small amounts ($25 at a time several times). One won additional photo prints. The other won dinner for two at the Crown Grill.

It wouldn't make sense to trade it for water since bottled water, including sparkling, is included with the drink package. When I had the Plus package, I gave away my canned sodas, drank the two beers (for convenience sake), and brought home the mini bottles of liquor.

Probably the best idea is to book the transatlantic cruise now to lock in the price if it looks good. Then after you have purchased an FCD in December, check out the prices and offers for the transatlantic. If they're better, including the amount of OBC you'll receive, then cancel the original booking and book the cruise again. I always try to have a few FCDs available on my account. We learned our lesson about that several years ago when booking back-to-back cruises and having just one FCD available apiece at the time.

I'm glad I don't want a chair by the pool or in the sun. I have seen people carefully plotting their chair hogging strategies, placing various items in chairs before 8 a.m. Princess would do everyone a favor if they simply had crew members make a sweep of the area around that time and remove any left items. At that time of day, it would be easy to ascertain if anyone was in the pool or a hot tub and ask them if any of the items were theirs before removing them.

Make reservations for either of the two midship dining rooms. They will be more convenient.

Before my cruise in August, people on our roll call noticed that the journey tab of activities started listing informal portraits on some nights and formal portraits on others.

I never said the shareholder credit is refundable. I said that the OP had $8.54 that was nonrefundable. The OP failed to spend all of the nonrefundable OBC. The OP had some other credits that were refundable. The OP did not state what the source of those was. On my cruise in August, I had refundable OBC from a refund for port fees for missing Nuuk, from a refund for the shuttle bus from the airport to the port, and from a refund for the lousy internet. (The ship automatically gave everyone credit for 10 days of lousy internet out of 16 days.)

The $8.54 is nonrefundable credit you did not spend. The referred to corporate finance amount is the amount you'll receive as a check.

If you booked a guarantee, you could end up in any cabin that category or higher. You could be on any deck.

It was $55 plus 18% gratuity back in February. I don't know if the price changed since the introduction of the Premier package.

If you're on a weeklong cruise or shorter, expect lots of families with children.

About as close as he can get to collards would be kale. They'll have plenty of that on the ship. Ask a headwaiter the night before about having some of it cooked for your table the next night. I'd rather have cooked fresh kale than canned collards.

You're the one who compared taking a cruise to a baseball game.

But you can bring your own wine, water, soda, and liquor when you stay at the Marriott or Hilton.

Anyone new to Princess is a new cruiser, no matter how many other cruises they've taken. When we took back-to-back cruises and did not have to attend the second muster drill, we did not have any problems enjoying ourselves at the pool while everyone else was mustering. On my last cruise, there were 351 new cruisers. They could have held an in-person demonstration for them in one location.

You can request the same table and waiters, but some people have reported not being able to get them. I'm going to miss traditional dining when DH sails with me again. For the past few cruises, though, I've been going solo because he doesn't want to leave the country because of his mother's advanced age.

I wish I could have eaten lunch in the dining room after embarking in Brooklyn in August. But I was stuck at LaGuardia waiting for a shuttle bus for more than five hours. When I did make it to the terminal, there wasn't a discernible line for priority boarding. After I asked, a representative let me get in a shorter line. She was directing everyone else to a longer one. They did not have a table set up to declare wine--or at least I did not see one and no one mentioned that I had an extra bottle in my backpack at security. I was willing to pay the corkage fee if asked. I did not have a drinks package on this cruise. I did not pay attention to the availability of wines. I have noticed that the revised bar menus have dumbed down the wine list for people with Plus. They now just list varietals for the Plus list. The Premier list includes the winemaker.

The only dish I sent back because of taste was pheasant on the Star Princess several years ago. It sounded elegant. I'm not sure if they still have it on the menu. If it is, I won't try it again. The fried chicken on the Caribbean Princess this summer was strange. Whoever butchered it did not cut it up into recognizable pieces.

I think it would be beneficial for new cruisers to do the muster drill in person.

I sailed on the Caribbean in August and am booked to go again after Thanksgiving. I love that it has a walkable outdoor Promenade Deck. That said, I do miss Alfredo's. It's too bad they don't offer it as an option at Sabatini's for lunch at least once like they did on the Island.

I would suggest booking the suite and downgrading the Premier package to Plus. Being in the suite will get you dinner in a specialty restaurant the first night. (The Premier package comes with two dinners per person in a specialty restaurant.) You'll be giving up the option of ordering alcoholic drinks priced between $12 and $18 without an additional charge. You'll also be giving up the opportunity to win Princess prizes and getting three printed photos and digital copies of all your photos. The suite will come with an initial minibar setup--10 alcoholic beverages and 10 nonalcoholic ones. When we had a suite, they delivered two bottles of water each day. The Concierge Lounge back then did not serve any alcoholic drinks. Perhaps that's changed. Our favorite perk of being in a suite, other than the size of the rooms, was eating breakfast in Sabatini's each morning. We did not have any problems being in the front of the ship.

Are they just doing one special dish now? When we were in Club Class on the Royal, they would have an appetizer or dessert special too.

I did not get Plus on my 16-day cruise to Greenland. One consideration, though, was that the price for me was going to be $56.25 per day instead of the usual $50 a day because of the last-minute deal I booked as a solo. I ended up spending around $80 for drinks. I did have my minibar and brought on two bottles of wine. I was prepared to pay the corkage for the second bottle, but no one mentioned it. I also took advantage of free drink events: martini demo, Captain's Circle party, and champagne waterfall. I'll have Plus on my partial Panama Canal cruise after Thanksgiving. I drink a little bit more on warm weather cruises.

For the inside cabins, you can change the number of guests to 3 or 4 when looking at the deck plans on Princess.com. It's one of the first things I check out after getting a cabin assignment.

In August, I called room service to let them know what I wanted delivered. They did not have the minibar already in my cabin the first day due to the number of Elites on that cruise (more than 800). The next day, a room service steward tried to bring me the regular assortment and not what I wanted. She made a note of my request and came back around an hour later with what I wanted. Then a second room service steward tried to bring more beers. I told him the other room service steward had already delivered them.