trekie69

FYI, $29 price + 15% tip ($4.35) = $33.35. Price posted to stateroom bill should equal the $33.35.

FYI

:) See? A nice discussion about Formal/Gala/Dinner/Main Dining Room/Wear and almost everyone had fun!:D

Next discussion: how to smuggle booze on board!:cool:

And big thank you's to those that took the time to add thoughtful comments about the changing customs of our favorite pastime: CRUISING! :o

I'm surprised that I haven't seen a discussion regarding the change in Holland America's Formal Night to Gala Night dress code and whether Princess is contemplating a change (relaxation of the rules?) as well. Yes, yes, I know - dress codes have been done to death :mad::mad:, but gosh, we do seem to love getting mad about it, don't we?? :confused:

I'll be sailing on both lines in the coming months so I thought that this might be a suitable time to raise the red flag and throw the gauntlet out and see what everyone's thoughts are. As usual, everyone's opinion is a GREAT opinion, it's just different from mine or yours :p....

Oh - and I prefer open neck long sleeve (or short sleeve, kinda depends on the weather) dress shirts and a navy or white (weather thing again) jacket for every night in the MDR. I said "prefer", that doesn't mean I haven't worn shorts and short sleeves to the MDR at one point or another. :eek: :) NO ripped jeans or flip flop thingy's though....

OP asked about the International Café... If this is in reference to the Explorations Café coffee bar which also serves a few sweets and savories.... they will usually serve food requests even without purchase of a coffee/tea. I don't think that with a beverage package there would be an issue for obtaining snacks. Sharing the snack foods served from there shouldn't be an issue either.

 

But it is my understanding that obtaining coffees on a beverage package and then handing them to passengers without a beverage package is not allowed.

RMLincoln, you're absolutely correct, I meant Explorations but I was mentally comparing that to the IC on Princess ships.

And I should have made clear that I did not intend to hand bev package drinks to my guests, they would be buying their own drinks. But in the course of moving about the ship, they may not buy their current drink in Explorations, I want to make sure that no one would mind if my spouse or I (we both have the bev package) get drinks and snacks and then share the SNACKS with our friends.

Thanks to all for the responses.

We were hoping that more experienced HAL cruisers would be able to answer several questions we have for an upcoming 7 day cruise to Alaska on board the Amsterdam. We've sailed HAL before, but only on repositioning cruises.

1)The International Cafe, in order to get food there, you must buy drinks/coffee, etc. But, with the Signature Beverage Package (SBP), I'm assuming that restriction goes away? And once we get nibbles for our table, can we share them with our guests who do NOT have the SBP package? I would guess yes, but just imagining the food police roaming about....

2)The aft pool and bar, during the late season are they open and are the hours restricted based on the weather (late season weather)?

3)Questions for the Pinnacle Grill and MDR: Can a suite passenger host non-suite passengers in the PG for breakfast? Also, can Mariner Society members host a new cruiser to the MDR for embarkation lunch?

Thanks to everyone for any helpful comments and/or hints!

We're looking forward to our first "real" HAL cruise!

Two Dining Questions:

1) May suite guests bring non-suite guests to the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast?

2) May Mariner members bring first time cruisers (who are suite guests) with them to the MDR on embarkation day?

I fear the answer to both is "no" but.....hope springs eternal!

Thank you!

:) For those wondering what finally happened, we decided to stay in Buffalo the extra night and then flew direct to LAX and transferred via Carnival transfer (really effortless and almost fun!:D).

The weather gods smiled upon us and no delays or problems occurred during the entire trip. So everything worked out in the end!

Thanks everyone!

PS: I have to say, it really was pleasant to see the Carnival representative at the baggage pickup area waiting for us. It was funny to have this huge tour bus taking us to the port for three couples - six people plus driver!

Would we do this again? Absolutely! We're already booked for transfers for our upcoming Holland America Alaska cruise in September!

And we are now figuring out which insurance package to purchase for this upcoming cruise...

Well, basically everyone is correct, the answer is "No can do, Charlie!" The insurance companies determine the end of and/or beginning of vacations by leaving/arriving at home. This makes sense for the most part BUT an event like a snow storm taking place during the first part of our vacation directly affects the cruise in the second part of the vacation. According to Steve (I assume that everyone knows who "Steve" is), the only alternative is to skip going home and go direct to LA from Buffalo. That means no break in the vacation and you're still covered. The problem is the expense! This was supposed to be a cheap three day cruise, but if you have to add airport to hotel ($50), then hotel to port($50), hotel $100, food $30, port to Amtrak $50, Amtrak to San Diego $120, cab home from Amtrak to home $25, (AND the insurance!$200??) all of sudden the cheap cruise for a lark ain't so cheap!!!!! Now I'm thinkin' maybe wait til the day of sailing, fly from Buffalo to LAX, and if a weather related problem arises, insurance at least will cover some portion of our loss....I think... :)

And thank you for everyone's suggestions!

Whew!

Ok, here's the situation:

We are planning on attending father-in-laws 90th birthday.

We fly from San Diego to Buffalo NY on Jan 12th.

Celebrate birthday on 13th and then return home to San Diego on the 14th.

Then, we drive on the 15th to Long Beach to board the Carnival Imagination for a three day cruise.

Should we insure this as a inclusive vacation start to finish? Or will the insurance companies treat it as two separate vacations (because we returned home)?

Our concern is what happens if bad weather hits while in Buffalo and we can't get out of town in time for the second vacation - the cruise?

Any thoughts or has anyone else had back to back vacations that were taken care of?

Thanks for anyone's help/suggestions..

Why the thumbs down?

:o I originally thought that it was a question mark! :mad:

Hello folks, this is for those that have more Princess experience than I. We've only sailed on the Golden Princess and had a great deal of fun.

We're currently booked on a Dec 2014 7 day Crown Princess to Mexico. We've started looking at the 10 day sailing for the Grand Princess in Nov 2014 also for Mexico.

Does anyone who've sailed both of these ships have any strong feelings one way or the other? Price per day is comparable so that's not really part of the equation...and yes, I know - 10 days cruising beats 7 days all the time...:D but still?

I've read various reviews of both ships and they both seem to have strong and weak points...

Thank you for your input!

My spouse and I have cruised Carnival, Holland America, and Princess. We've done the Chefs Table only on Carnival (and it was fantastic!). Are the differences between cruise lines substantial enough to justify the expense? We're on the Crown this December, looking forward to it!

Thanks for your opinions.