Happiest when cruising

How are they making it work? I’m glad they honoured it for you.

If I drank that much liquid in a day, I’d be stopping at every ladies room onboard.😏

Yes, all things seem to have gotten out of hand. I actually looked up Capilano Bridge and was surprised they have upped their price again. It used to be around 40 dollars and now it’s about 65 per person. I’m afraid of heights, so I wouldn’t do it, but it’s a popular thing for families to do. The Keg was our go to place and it’s a popular gift card to receive, so we still get to enjoy the treat once in a while. Any time I don’t have to cook is a great day. We just came off 21 days on the Crown Princess and I’m tired of cooking already. We cruised to Hawaii, and I really thought everything was expensive there, too. Unless we want to stay home, we have to just pay up.

It really depends on where you are staying. Restaurants near the port or in the hotels there are pricey, too. We live just outside Vancouver so we don’t typically need a pre cruise evening dinner down there, if we do we typically stick with the chain restaurants. If you want something where you can eat outside, head to the Yaletown district, very walkable from the popular hotels. There’s a Cactus club, Earls Kitchen and a Keg there, too. There’s also an Original Joes just off Robison St. We also like Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown for a medium priced meal. Also walkable from the port area. You could also just a walk and try one of the small local restaurants, but I don’t have any recommendations for those. if you want to do take out and visit Stanley Park for a picnic, that’s fun, too.

The Keg is getting pretty expensive now. 45.00 for a basic teriyaki steak dinner seems like a lot to me, then add on a drink and dessert for two people, plus the gratuity,and you are at almost 200.00 now. I guess if you are from the USA our Canadian prices look good. They have lots of competition here in Vancouver, too. It’s still a decent place to go but we find it pretty noisy, but I think we are just too old for it. We are definitely not the clientele they are gong for.

Sorry for the delay in thanking you for the information. We just got home from our own 21 night cruise. It will be interesting to see how this works out in the future.

Not intending to, I just wondered where that 12.00 figure came from. People do all sorts of things and since it was mentioned I thought it was a valid question. Apparently, we are not going to get an answer.

Isn’t they what was written. It’s 20.00 or 10.00 if you just buy the single day here and there.

I always pay them, and leave extra if I feel I got exceptional service. This last 21 day cruise our room steward did her job just fine. She put up those little signs outside our cabin for our celebrations. She also made towel swans… it wasn’t necessary and I actually don’t care for them, but it was nice. I also believe those are not extras, as we marked the celebrations on our booking. I also told her I had taken her little card and would give her a nice recommendation on the post survey. She was more excited about that, than the extra tip we gave her. but…those gratuities are adding up, for sure. As my travel budget is in Canadian dollars, it’s about 44.00 a day now. So, about 925.00 for 21 days, not including any extra gratuities. I never really added it into the total cost of the trip before, but now I will need to. I probably still won’t add the Plus or Premium booking fare, though.

Why do you reduce your gratuities?

What a good deal that is. I’ll watch for that promotion to show up in Canada.

You should have received 20 items.

They actually had free drinks last week on the Crown. A fun cocktail or wine, and something else. Well... one free drink as they didn’t come back to our area to see if anyone wanted another one. I do understand that many people have a drink package, but for those that don’t, it was a nice touch.

Please don’t suggest that. We mostly leave our phones locked up in the safe. I don’t want to have to carry it around with me. I usually don’t have pockets in my dinner attire.

They often bring the cup and sugar, etc. right away, but the actual coffee comes way later and I didn’t know why. Now, I do.

Oh, that’s an interesting way to look at that. I guess that’s why they do it. I’ll just be sure to ask for mine sooner, so I can get on with my evening.

The cocktails and a brief menu used to printed and delivered to the cabin. this time, we just got the one where it told you where and when it was happening, and the night of your Captains Circle party.

I’d take the E502. It’s closer to the centre for the ship and the view looks similar.

Those are all great ideas.

The rep on the Crown last week would not even look at what I had booked, and really wasn’t helpful when I asked about the 50% off on the next cruise. We were thinking about staying on and going to Alaska. He didn’t seem very interested in booking us.

There was one night they called down to the other MDR for us, and they found us a table. All in all, we had a good cruise and I try not to let the little things that go sideways ruin it. The thing that was very frustrating is every single day we kept getting charged for drinks. After the fifth time, GS “ documented “ it. After the 7 th time they emailed the bar manager, and in fact while I was standing at GS, it happened again. I asked nicely how this could be corrected, they said to just come every couple of days to have them removed, and that it happens alot. I asked if I could wait until the end of our 21 days, they said not to, as I would be waiting a long time for them to remove them all. After the 10th time in less than one week, we got a visit one morning while we were in the buffet from Helena, the Asst. Bar Manager. She apologized and said they couldn’t figure out why it kept happening, except that people in another cabin with a reversed cabin number had the drink package, and that maybe the bar staff weren’t paying close enough to the cabin number. She said the GS would be monitoring our account and removing any charges and not to worry about it anymore. I took her at her word. She also provided us with a complimentary dinner at the Crown Grill. I didn’t expect anything, nor would I have asked. I just wanted to be able to enjoy our vacation and not worry about checking our account every day and having to go and get the charges removed. We also had a great conversation with Yalcin, the Lido manger on one of the formal nights when we decided to pass on the MDR. He asked how we were enjoying our dinner. I hesitated in my answer, but he pressed me for my thoughts. We had a great conversation about the good old days that I remember when the meal there was pretty good on those nights and they actually had candles on the tables. Some tables were set nicely, as well. He told those days are gone and that he appreciated my honest comments without me being angry about it. A little later, he came back to our table with the Asst. Manager, Felix, and asked us a few more questions and then said he’d like to offer us a specialty dining evening. We did not accept it, as by that time, Helena had already given us one. I am just hoping that my comments to him meant something, and they can make some small changes. I understand cutbacks and I want the cruise line to continue, but seeing the same chips and salsa from lunch still being served when we first walked in astonished me. I told him that I understood if they needed to serve them, but at least put them at the back and not be the first thing you saw upon entering the buffet.

I would have to say they do not pay attention to that, at all. I requested these things on the app. - fast pace, table for two and close to a window. That happened only once in 21 nights. Some nights, even with our reservation they had no tables for two and asked us to share a large table, which I know only adds more time onto an already long dinner. I don’t mind waiting between courses, but at least clear the dishes away. The empty dirty dishes sat at our table for 25 minutes. Also…when they offer coffee and dessert, you can bet they bring the coffee near after the dessert is eaten. It was usually 20 minutes after the offer that it was brought. I always feel bad leaving my coffee, but 2 hours is as long as I am willing to sit for a dinner for two people.

There are 2 shows and most ships are running them at 7:30 and 9:30 pm. The first one is for those that dine between 5-6 or want to make an early trivia or game show activity.

Yes, it was a very long line up. The Crown Grill is not on the same deck as the casino…but the line up went well past Explorers lounge.

For sure it was held in the Crown Grill. They used the Michelangelo dining room for the wine tasting events during the day, as they only opened for dinner.