lone_stranger

There are now many new Platinums and Elite after the big push of short cruises at give-away prices.

 

It no longer feels "special".

You still get the same perks you got before. How much more special do you need to feel? :confused:

Its no secret, but one couple should have learned about it. To save space perso a put the life jackets in the cases, while person b acked that the cases be taken away.

Problem was this was BEFORE life boat drill. :D john

Thanks for the responses everyone. John, your story was too funny. People are the funniest animals on the planet. :D

I don't know whether this is a secret or not, but can you stow your empty suitcases under the bed?

Assuming that CCL maintains the current dividend schedule.

 

Mike:)

And we don't get hit by a bus tomorrow, and the earth doesn't fall into the sun, etc. :rolleyes: Gotta operate on the information you have and think positive. You hope for the best and plan for the worst.

I have already book my cruise. If I buy stock now, will I be able to On Board Credits for this already booked cruise in May 2015? How much do you get for your investment?

Mike, You also get $100/year in dividends and you can use the OBC more than once a year.

Love lobster tail. Never dealt with a whole lobster so no experience with the claws. Detest crab. (Yeah, I'm the guy who doesn't like crab. There had to be one somewhere...)

Originally from the Northeast where lobster is common in season. Learned to eat the whole thing at age 6. The claws have more meat than crab. A Northern Californian who doesn't like crab. More for the rest of us and thank you. :D

Some tips on food for newbies, some previously mentioned, but all in one place:

 

10. Some of the ships, on sail away, will have a seafood extravaganza - including crab legs and lobster claws - the first night. Check the patter or ask.

 

HTH (Hope this helps)

Thank you for your posting. It really does help this newbie to Princess. One question: where is the seafood extravaganza usually held, MDR, buffet or ???

You have the option of buying a bottle of wine at 40% off (if under $100) but you pay nothing if you order it by the glass. My DH and I ended up drinking an entire bottle during a few dinners on Celebrity and we just ordered it by the glass. The wine steward just kept refilling our glasses and voila! the bottle was finished.

Let me see if I understand you correctly. You can either pay for a bottle of wine at a 40% discount with the Beverage Package or get the same wine by the glass without cost, if you have the Beverage Package. Is that correct? If that is the case, why on earth would anyone with the Beverage Package buy a bottle of wine?

I'm wondering if I should leave my Nikon D3300 home and buy the water proof for the Caribbean. I just got the D3300, and don't know about the humidity. Any suggestions?

IMHO it is more a question of how much weight you are willing to carry rather than the humidity. I just take my point and shoot in a small sealed plastic bag from the air conditioned ship to the humid air. Once the camera has warmed up I take it out of the bag and do my shooting without having to worry about fogging. This will work for wet environments too as long as you keep the camera in the sealed bag and are not shooting where there is water being splashed about. Take a waterproof, if you are going to shoot in wet environments or while snorkeling.

You should be fine, though it depends on your shooting habits and subjects. (Video? Reviewing photos and/or showing others? Editing and deleting photos? Long shooting sessions, such as animal watching?)

 

Woody

Thank you for your response. I rarely take videos, review is usually done after downloading unless it was some kind of unusual circumstance, editing and deleting photos is done after downloading to my netbook and finally, I don't do extensive animal watching. That being the case, I conclude that I should be okay.

Considering your wife's comment about a lack of a configuration guide for a rule of thirds grid, either of the crossed lines configuration guides provide the rule of thirds grid within them. The crossed lines may be a confusion factor, but it should be possible to overcome that with practice.

Thanks for the response Woody. How fast does it go through batteries? I am planning on one spare, so I will have two batteries/day. I usually take 100-200 pictures/day. Should I plan on more than two batteries/day?

Nothing wrong with the Lumix save not great quality in low light and I can't use my external flash.

With respect to the external flash: are you referring to the power (lumens) of the built-in flash relative to your external flash, foregoing the various orientations available with an external flash or the use of it off camera or all of the preceding that is disappointing?

Just to reassure all of the Nikon, Canon, etc. fans, I am not putting down your camera choices. The Lumix is a new camera for me. I am taking it on a Panama Canal cruise because I don't want to have to drag my Canon SLR or my Nikon D5100 DSLR with its lenses through trials of tendering ashore and the heat and humidity and all the other adventures one goes through when on a cruise. My Olympus while compact did not have all of the capabilities that I wanted for this trip. It did quite well at the Alhambra in Spain and the medina in Tangiers, but I wanted a camera that would do most of what my DSLR would do without the weight. When I found that some pro photographers have found the camera to be a good choice for the same application, I decided to go for it. So take pot shots and whatever. If I remember and the thread is still active, I will let you know how it all worked out when I get back in October.

Could be a useful website, if they would at least consult the manufacturers' spec sheets before listing the specifications of the cameras. A lot of the Lumix specifications are incorrect. The Lumix FZ40 has GPS, is much smaller than they say (actual depth is 1.35" not 3.6", weight is 240g not 499g), panorama mode, burst shooting up to 60fps, 3D photos and HDR are part of the camera's abilities. There are just too many errors to continue. They offer the user the option of offering corrections and I did so. I don't know whether they will pay any attention, but I would gauge their comparisons with a grain of salt in future, if I were you. At least look at the manufacturer's spec sheet before making a decision based on their information.

Lone, I did a "snapsort dot com" compare of the Lumix vs the Canon. The lumix is short in some areas I think are important, (i.e., ISO range, zoom, and burst). Plus I guess I am a bit of a snob but I went away from the "name" cameras about 10 years ago and learned a valuable lesson. I have since then only looked at the major camera companies, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus. You pay a little more but I found it to be worth it. I actually had a Canon 2IS camera for 7.5 years before I upgraded 18 months ago when my niece wanted (and still uses) my 2IS.

 

snapsort is a great website that allows for quick/easy camera comparisons for specifications.

I tried to do a comparison of the Lumix vs the Canon Powershot SX50 IS on snapsort, but it wasn't one of the Canon cameras listed. I then tried the SX50 HS and there was a major difference. For the IP's criteria, the Canon would be the one of choice.

I want to thank you for pointing out the snapsort website. I purchased the Lumix because it had features I wanted that were lacking in many of the compact cameras: light weight (half that of the Canon), size (small enough to fit in my pocket), Leica lens, and panorama capability.

Whether you are a snob or just careful is a matter of opinion. Over the years I have used many cameras from Kodaks to Olympus, Canon and Nikon. I have found that more often than not it is the photographer not the equipment that is responsible for great pictures.

I am not familiar with the two cameras that you mention. Perhaps you could compare them with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ40 which seems to have the same features you mention plus video, but minus fisheye and only 30x optical zoom.

My wife has a Panasonic Lumix point and shoot that has a 20x zoom. She wanted something with more reach, so we just got her a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 with a 30x zoom. We looked at bridge cameras, but she wanted something that would fit in a pocket or purse.

 

Woody

I am curious as to how your wife liked the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 and how well it performed under adverse :rolleyes: conditions.

All mainline cruise lines (HAL, Princess, Carnival, Cunard, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity to name a few) have some form of FCC/FCD.

I have heard that on this thread, but I don't recall ever hearing about it when I was sailing on other Carnival lines. How do you learn about it apart from this thread? :o

Early breakfast. Elevenses in IC with speciality coffee and pastry. Lunch at 1PM. Tea at 3:30. Cocktail and Canapes in Elite Lounge at 5:45. Dinner at 7:30 and snacks before midnight. Then at least 4 or 5 Tums at bedtime.

Now that is a diet I could wrap myself around. Is that the Princess secret diet? ;) I used to do the Tums thing too, but I found that good old Alka Seltzer worked better for me.

Does that mean that you also pass up those libations served in the various watering holes on the ship? No pre-dinner martini or glass of wine, no afternoon Mai Tai, Pina Colada, etc.? No glass of wine with dinner? If you are on a diet, more power to you. On the other hand if you really like the food that Princess serves that much, please tell me which dishes are particularly outstanding. Personally, I like to indulge in those items that I would not normally eat or drink, so don't hold back. As I always say, if it's not moving too fast I will eat it. The only exceptions to that are some of the bizarre foods that Andrew Zimmern eats.

Wow.

 

Princess does not use reverse-osmosis, they use flash-evaporation.

While that is essentially distillation, most shops add minerals back

to the water to save the plumbing.

Which is a life saver because the minerals leached from the plumbing are not particularly good for your health. :eek:

Since you are new to Princess you might also consider purchasing 100 shares of Carnival Corporation stock (CCL). Because I own 100 shares of stock I will also be getting another $250 OBC on the 17 day cruise (again, the amount depends on the length of cruise with $250 per stateroom being the max). The stock isn't expensive and it does also pay $25 dividends regularly but the OBC is really the reason I hold the stock.

Thanks for the information. Although I am new to Princess, I am not new to CCL having sailed with both Carnival and HAL. I have obtained the OBC for my upcoming Panama Canal transit cruise. That is the only thing that makes the stock worth owning IMHO. The Future Cruise Credit is something that only Princess has though. It is a great deal. Sort of like giving Princess a loan and getting it back with fun instead of interest.

Once we did the BVE specifically to buy more FCC as we had (less than cleverly) run out.

Okay, we are new to Princess. What is an FCC and why would you want one? :confused: I am assuming we are not talking about the Federal Communication Commission. :D

Here it is - the updated version with all of the additional & updated prices my parents found on their cruise last week! They took a ton of menu pics for me - the list has almost doubled in size. There are a few repeats on the list - for example, if a drink is offered on multiple wine lists, I did show it multiple times on the list. Hopefully that's helpful for folks as they think about what they like to drink at specific venues.

 

The only 2 sections that aren't updated are the iced coffees from the International Cafe and the Flavors of Mexico. I have indicated the update date for each item, so it will be obvious how current each price is.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions, and as always feedback and correction suggestions are appreciated! :D

Thank you so much Kelly. You are a Princess. :D

Hello, "lone_stranger."

If you go up to post #117, above, you can see that Kelly responded to us with the following words on July 7:

 

I do not have a more recent revision, but my parents are going on a cruise next week and I have them all set up to do some recon work for me (aka taking pictures of all of the price lists they see!) I will also add in everything from your links you included! I expect to have a new revision out in 2 to 3 weeks!

 

Two weeks would be around July 21 ... three weeks, July 28.

We are being patient on July 19!

Thanks, missed that post.