ksm77

Your review is spot on as far as we are concerned. We used to cruise Carnival a lot we are platinum with them. We are elite on Princess. We now only cruise Princess & HAL. We stopped cruising Carnival when the food quality & service took a nose dive. We enjoyed our earlier cruises on Carnival but the last few we could really tell the difference. Our last was in 2012 and we have not gone back. The MDR is a big enjoyment for us. The MDR experience is so reduced on Carnival, just not what we want. We prefer the way Princess and HAL's attention to detail is so much better. Our last Princess cruise (Coral 3/16) the MDR food & service was the best we have experienced out of 35 cruises. We will be on the Regal over New Years this year. Looking forward to another great cruise.

Our last Princess cruise was on the Coral (March 2016). Our table became friendly with one of the Maitre D's. We asked him why it seems that some ships hold to the dress code and some don't. He told us it is up to the head Maitre D to decide if they will let someone in who is dressed in less than the suggested dress code for the MDR. On that cruise on the Coral, he told us they were told by their boss that if men were dressed in long sleeve shirt and dress pants they could be allowed in, but nothing less than that on formal night. No polo or T-shirts or jeans would be allowed. The suggested dress for men on formal night is jacket with tie. He also said he has been told on other ships to say nothing. He said there is one Maitre D, he had worked under that will not let men in the MDR on formal night without a jacket. We asked why the difference between ships? He said most just don't want to deal with it but there are a few holdouts who will enforce what Princess prefers that you wear on formal night. He went on to say if the dining room staff had their way the dress code would be enforced, but many times if passengers complain to the management they will not back them up. I for one wish they would just give it up. I love to dress up, but it takes something away from it if I am dressed to the 9's with the people beside me in jeans & a polo shirt.

We have been on 36 cruises 4 - 27 days. Very lucky never been sick. We do not ride in the elevators, touch the hand rails on the stairs. We also do not eat in the Lido very much, wash our hands alot. If you watch people especially in the lido their habits around food are awful. That being said never say never because when you are traveling with that many people anything can happen.

Does the smoke from the smoking area by the Regal Terrace pool permeate the whole area, or can you sit away from the smoking area and not breathe the smoke?

If you are not smoking you will not want to sit in the area. It would be a nice place to sit in the morning and enjoy coffee. We tried one morning but the smoke is just to bad for a non-smoker like myself to enjoy this area. Lots of other areas that are smoke free.

Far be it for me to poo-poo a cruise (and on CC of all places) but with 15 days available I'd plump for a week each on a couple of islands, or in the case of the wonderfully diverse Big Island split half and half(ish)...

A 15 day land vacation would cost much more than the 15 day cruise. We priced this out several years ago. The airfare alone was more than the cruise. Hotels were also expensive. Hawaii is a very pricey place to visit. Back to the question. We did this cruise 2 years ago in Feb. on the Grand Princess out of SF. Great cruise weather was very good. It will be cool the first couple of days going out and last couple of days back. They offered lots of activities on board that put you in the mood for the Islands. We stayed busy the whole cruise. We saw lots of mama whales with their calves so neat. One of our best out of 36 cruises. I would do it again. Someday maybe a land vacation but we really enjoyed the cruise.

We did this tour about 6 years ago. Great tour you will enjoy it. We were to tired after to go to the beach. We had at least an hour of beach snorkel time on the tour. It is all day we only had about an hour before sail when we returned. We are going on this tour again with friends on our New Years cruise, Cosol tour is that good.

The only time I was able to get the washing machines was very early in the morning. The laundry stays packed all the time. Each laundry room only has 3 or 4 washers same amount of dryers, one or more will usually be out of order. I hate doing laundry on a cruise. To much to see and do in Alaska plan to get in and out early in the morning so you don't miss anything.

Why can't you buy tequila by the bottle from Princess. It is not an option. I spoke with a Princess rep. They told they did not know why but is not one of the options.

Why can't you buy Tequila by the bottle from Princess for you cabin? I just spoke with customer services they told me it is not an option.

We did the 5 night land tour our last Alaskan cruise 6/15. We have done 3 cruises with one including the land tour. We started our land tour in Fairbanks with cruise after. We really enjoyed Fairbanks. I felt it was the best stop on the land tour. We had a great tour on the riverboat with lunch & gold rush tour included. Also enjoyed Denali, seeing Mt McKinley. We did the full day tour inside Denali National Park. We were lucky to see lots of wild life that day. It is an amazing place. My least favorite of the land tour was the train trip from Talkeenta to Anchorage. The train itself was fine, the scenery just was not what I was expecting. Lots of trees going through some small towns. I was really looking forward to the train trip, but it did not meet my expectations. I am glad we did the land tour, but the cruise is the best part. It is breath taking. I could do the cruise over & over.

You may not have enjoyed Princess for all the reasons I love Princess. That being said, a Panama Canal is always going to be an older crowd. If you want to give it another try I would pick a 7 day on one of the new ships. We did the transatlantic on the Regal in 2014. Great ship! Many activities, entertainment some of the best we have ever seen at sea. Many different food options. On a 7 day you will have younger people more families. They have a (free) soft serve ice cream stand out on the pool deck. I know it is open all day, I don't think it is open at night. If your BF's cruise experience depends on him being able to get all you can eat ice cream 24/7 Princess might not be a good fit for him.

We used to cruise inside cabins but since the first time of cruising in a balcony, we have never had anything less. The balcony is a big deal to us. We don't gamble, do the spa or many extras. We love sitting on our balcony enjoying a glass of wine or room service lunch. It just wouldn't be the same for us. Hope it works out for you. Princess inside cabins are so small, but maybe if it is just 7 days you will be ok. We used to not spend too much time in our cabin but now we find ourselves spending more and more time on our balcony.

We were on the Star this pass June (2015). On the formal nights we saw men turned away from the MDR without a jacket. On our cruise at least on the formal nights most people tried to follow the dress code. The other nights were pretty casual. The only clothing I saw not allowed in the MDR on non formal nights was shorts.

There is no comparison to seeing whales from the ship and doing a whale watching tour. On our last whale watching tour we saw whales, sea otters, seals, walrus, bald eagles. best tour ever. We are leaving for our 3rd cruise to Alaska on Monday. We will be doing the land tour first. We have not taken the land tour before. We have always done the whale watching tour out of Juneau. This cruise we are doing the whale watching tour with salmon bake. If you want to see whales you will need to take a tour. Seeing whales from the ship is good but not the same as on a tour you can get so much closer.

My DH & I did the train trip in 2006. We did it round trip. I enjoyed the trip up but coming back was kind of boring to me as it is the same. We did the bike trip in 2009. We loved the bike trip. We were taken up by bus then rode back down. I don't remember the traffic being that bad. In fact I only remember a few cars going by. The guides were great they made safety a priority. One guide stayed in front of the group one behind the group. In our group we had about 12 people. We are casual bike riders it was not difficult for us at all. Don't let people scare you away from this tour. I think you will love it. We stopped all along the way for picture taking. We are leaving in 2 weeks for another trip to Alaska. We thought about doing this tour again but decided to do a float trip instead.

We will be leaving for our Alaska cruise tour on June 1. I have looked everywhere and can not fine this info. This is a question for people who have stayed in the lodges. Do they have hair dryers in the rooms and do they provide shampoo & conditioner that type of thing? I have gone to the web site for the lodges, that info is not listed. I do not want to take a hair dryer if I don't have too. We will be at the Fairbanks lodge, Denali lodge, & Mt. McKinley lodge. If someone has personal experience please let me know. Also if you have any recommendations for places to have dinner other than the lodge restaurants I would love to hear about them. Thanks for your help.

We were on the Regal transatlantic 17 days. We loved the Regal. Great ship. We rarely use the elevators on any ship no problems using the stairs on Regal. As others have said there is no central stairway on the Regal. We had a deluxe balcony cabin in the very back of the ship. It was a short walk to the stairway. I think you will enjoy the Regal so many features that the other ships do not have. I was not looking forward to cruising on the Regal as we had heard so many negative things about it. None of what we heard proved to be true for us.

We like both lines. We were on the Regal Transatlantic in October. We will be on the N. Amsterdam in March. I would have to say I would give Princess a little higher rating than HAL. We are going to Alaska in June on a 12 day cruise tour. We have cruised to Alaska twice in the past once on HAL & once on Princess. We choose Princess because we felt it was the better of the two.

Things I love about Princess - better entertainment, better activities during the day. They have more choices at night of things to do after dinner. Love the international café on Princess open 24 hrs., also enjoy Vines the wine bar, I am big wine drinker.

Things I love about HAL being able to order hot breakfast to have on our balcony. Happy Hour, the personal service they are known for. The specialty restaurants on HAL are better in our opinion.

Both line's have things they do well. If we just want to have a relaxing cruise in the Caribbean we will usually choose HAL. If we are going for adventure we will choose Princess. I have never had a bad cruise on either line.

On our next cruise in March we will have the drink card, it came as part of a promotion with our booking. We would not get the card if it is not part of the promotion. We are not big drinkers. It would not be cost affective for us. My DH likes a few beers per day, I am a wine drinker.

HAL and other cruise lines have designed these packages as money makers for them. I have no problem with this. If you accept the package you need to follow the rules that have been set forth by the cruise line.

I fine these type of posts disturbing. We as a society can not seem to identify what is right and wrong anymore. What is right and wrong now is based on what you can get away with. The OP asked the question as if they wanted to share with other adults. She does not ask anything about a child. It really doesn't matter either way it would be wrong. You don't go into the ships shops and say I am going to buy this t-shirt, can I get one for my friend for free. I am not trying to beat up on the OP, I think this is the way our society has come to decide what is right and wrong.

We will be on this cruise with 2 other couples. They do not have the cards. I don't think they will expect us to share our drinks. It doesn't matter we will not. We also will not come close on most days to getting the 15 drinks each, again it doesn't matter we will follow the rules.

We did the transatlantic on this ship. I really thought we would miss walking on the promenade but we didn't. We liked walking on the track better. There are 2 lanes 1 for walkers 1 for joggers. As someone else said you are not having to watch out for chairs and people walking the wrong way. The Regal is a beautiful ship my personal favorite don't let this issue keep you from booking this ship.

My DH & I did this excursion in Seville on HAL. It is a long day. We enjoyed it but many people had problems with the walking. Our guide kept a very brisk pace. Many of the group could not keep up. The guide called the group together and told the ones who could not keep up he would be leaving them in one of the city squares. He told them he would phone the bus driver and have him pick them up and we would meet up with them at lunch. Many people didn't like this. He said it was not fair to the rest of the group who were not having problems to keep them from missing many of the sites. The next day they made an announcement on ship to everyone to please not book excursions that were beyond their level of comfort. A another problem on this tour they did not have any bathroom breaks built in the tour until lunch time. The guide told some people they would need to go into a coffee shop buy something to eat or drink in order to use their restroom. It was an interesting day.

We did the transatlantic on the Regal this past fall. The passages were not open. We went to check it out. It is so narrow I would not have wanted to walk though them anyway. We did walk on the walking track. It was not bad at all. It could be a little windy at times but after a few times we started to like walking there better than down on the deck. Everyone is walking in the same direction and the runners have their own lane so you don't have to worry about running into them or them into you. Give it a try you might like it better than you think.

On the Grand 2014 (Hawaii) they had a fun Oscar Party. It was in the lounge that is in the back of the ship. They did a red carpet walk for pictures. It was a formal night. They had special snacks, drinks etc. They showed the Oscars all the way through. Some people came in and out some stayed for the whole thing. We came in and out. It was well attended.

Some people are trying to compare Explorations Café on HAL and

the International Café on Princess. They are two completely different venues.

We love the International Café on Princess. I never buy the coffee but do sometimes get treats there. They have items for sale and items that are free. On their two new ships the Café has been separated from the coffee and ice cream. Two different lines.

The Explorations Café on HAL is a COFFEE BAR it is a pay extra venue. I have never thought about asking for a treat for free there. The funny thing about this is, I was telling my DH about this discussion on this board. He told me if he is walking by the Explorations café he will sometime ask for a treat without buying the coffee. Who knew LOL.

You CANNOT be "overdressed" on formal night!

I just wish this was still true. Sadly on our last few cruises I would say only about 2/3 of the people were dressed in the basic requirements. That was in the MDR late seating.