shackpacker

3 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

The Lotus Spa pool is an outdoor pool.  It is surrounded by windows that look into the Lotus Spa.

Okay, thanks.

Thank. We're on Crown in Alaska next week and the outdoor pools don't sound appealing.

Can anyone use it or does it have to be included in a spa package?

5 minutes ago, shackpacker said:

First I have to say that this cruise was my favorite of all the ones we have done.  

 

Guernsey--we did the tour based on the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Even though we found out the book was not all that accurate about the experiences during WWII, the tour was terrific.  We learned a bunch of the actual history and our tour guide was excellent.

 

Cobh--We went to the Blarney Castle in the morning and did not climb up to the stone (I already talk a bunch!) but there was a ton more to see on the grounds.From there we went to the small town of Kinsale but didn't have much time to look around because we had a huge included lunch with Irish dancers which took up a bunch of time.

 

Dublin--We did a tour that included the Christ Church Cathedral (and had one of our more memorable experiences with a strange man and a backpack following our group around).  From there we went out to the monastery of Glendalough.  So beautiful and got to see a lot of the Irish countryside.

 

Belfast--we went to the northern coast which is spectacular. Again seeing the countryside and not just another big city was great. One of our stops was at the Avoca woolen mill which I didn't think I wanted to visit but this was fascinating.

 

Greenock (for Glasgow)--we went to Loch Lomond & the charming little village of Luss. Again, good to see the countryside instead of a city.

 

Orkney Islands--one of the most interesting places we visited.  We toured a Scotch distillery (at 10 in th morning!) Then a couple of stops at some standing stones which are older than Stonehenge and the best stop was the Neolithic village of Skara Brae.  Absolutely fascinating.  We also got to see the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war during WWII.  This was a great day.

 

Invergordon for Inverness.  Another really great day with a wonderful tour guide.  Inverness is a lovely city.  From there we toured the Culloden battlefield.  The presentation there is excellent.  After that it was one to Urquart Castle and then a cruise on Loch Ness.  This whole day was a really good one.

 

Edinburgh--city tour and then quite a bit of time at the Castle.  Our tour guide was horrible, got the historical facts mixed up and mostly wrong, lost our tickets at the Castle, couldn't keep count of our group, and just wanted to provide lots of time for shopping.  I would like to go back with someone who knew what they were doing or let me have the mic to actually tell the history (I know it well; ex-history teacher).

 

France-- My husband went to Honfleur and got to try lots of very potent cider.  I chose to go to Versailles which was incredibly crowded but amazing.  Parts were closed so that gives me an excuse to go back.  There really wasn't time to adequately do the palace and the gardens and Petit Trianon so this is just a taste of what is there.  Again I would like to go back.

 

We had the absolute best time!!

 

All of our tours were booked through the ship and had no real complaints especially because there were traffic and weather issues in some of the ports so we might have missed the ship if we had been on our own.  As one guide said, no one goes to Scotland for the weather!          At every stop there was some type of send off on the dock--bagpipers, drummers, dancers, etc. We really loved that. Lunch ((large ones) were included on nearly all of the tours. This provided nice breaks and aslo a chance to interact with fellow cruisers.

 

 

First I have to say that this cruise was my favorite of all the ones we have done.  

Guernsey--we did the tour based on the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Even though we found out the book was not all that accurate about the experiences during WWII, the tour was terrific.  We learned a bunch of the actual history and our tour guide was excellent.

Cobh--We went to the Blarney Castle in the morning and did not climb up to the stone (I already talk a bunch!) but there was a ton more to see on the grounds.From there we went to the small town of Kinsale but didn't have much time to look around because we had a huge included lunch with Irish dancers which took up a bunch of time.

Dublin--We did a tour that included the Christ Church Cathedral (and had one of our more memorable experiences with a strange man and a backpack following our group around).  From there we went out to the monastery of Glendalough.  So beautiful and got to see a lot of the Irish countryside.

Belfast--we went to the northern coast which is spectacular. Again seeing the countryside and not just another big city was great. One of our stops was at the Avoca woolen mill which I didn't think I wanted to visit but this was fascinating.

Greenock (for Glasgow)--we went to Loch Lomond & the charming little village of Luss. Again, good to see the countryside instead of a city.

Orkney Islands--one of the most interesting places we visited.  We toured a Scotch distillery (at 10 in th morning!) Then a couple of stops at some standing stones which are older than Stonehenge and the best stop was the Neolithic village of Skara Brae.  Absolutely fascinating.  We also got to see the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war during WWII.  This was a great day.

Invergordon for Inverness.  Another really great day with a wonderful tour guide.  Inverness is a lovely city.  From there we toured the Culloden battlefield.  The presentation there is excellent.  After that it was one to Urquart Castle and then a cruise on Loch Ness.  This whole day was a really good one.

Edinburgh--city tour and then quite a bit of time at the Castle.  Our tour guide was horrible, got the historical facts mixed up and mostly wrong, lost our tickets at the Castle, couldn't keep count of our group, and just wanted to provide lots of time for shopping.  I would like to go back with someone who knew what they were doing or let me have the mic to actually tell the history (I know it well; ex-history teacher).

France-- My husband went to Honfleur and got to try lots of very potent cider.  I chose to go to Versailles which was incredibly crowded but amazing.  Parts were closed so that gives me an excuse to go back.  There really wasn't time to adequately do the palace and the gardens and Petit Trianon so this is just a taste of what is there.  Again I would like to go back.

We had the absolute best time!!

19 hours ago, Scotmay said:

We are on the Crown on 15th of September. My hubby is disabled and I “think” I read somewhere you can drive right down to P2 level to drop off passengers and luggage. Can you confirm this please. Obviously would make it much easier for us. Thank you

We are on the 9/05 cruise and would like to know the same thing.

On 8/18/2023 at 3:49 PM, TM said:

I placed a bid to go from a mini-suite to a reserve class mini-suite.  Today, a week before departure date, I got an e-mail that my bid was not accepted but I could bid $1,000 per person for a possible upgrade to a penthouse suite.  This was for an 11-night cruise on the Crown to Alaska. Not going to happen.

Got the same email only ours was for $850 per person for a penthouse suite.  We didn't take it either.

On 5/11/2023 at 12:21 PM, gottagocit said:

We found the cabin nightlights on the Emerald to be great! The ones beside were just right to see your way to the bathroom area and they turned off a few seconds after activation. Not too bright at all. The one at the bathroom door was very helpful as well. 

I agree.  I love the lights.  Just enough to see to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  We used to carry our own nightlight so we didn't stumble around in the night and the inroom lights solved that problem.

On 7/13/2023 at 7:03 PM, PurpleTraveller said:

 

What are the chances that you also had table 89! 😀 

 

Interesting to hear that it was a good table location as we never did get to see where it is. Glad that you enjoyed the table and great food.

 

Also interesting that they didn't have a hotel manager and are bringing back crew early from their vacations.

We're on the September 5 cruise.  I think we'll ask for table 89.

On 7/13/2023 at 6:47 PM, sunviking90 said:

I’m sorry you had such an experience but I’m glad they made it right for you. We also had strange experiences at Boticcelli. I had made reservations for the same time every night and requested the same table for 2. The first night it was, that’s right, table 89! The next night they seated us at table 90. I asked why as 89 was free (it is a quiet nice table by the wall) and we preferred it, and table 90 had different wait staff. She said 89 wasn’t free and was reserved for someone else. I insisted I had requested the same table nightly and she said it simply wasn’t free. We sat at 90 and decided to deal with it after dinner. 5 minutes later they bring another couple near us and they don’t like the table they’re offered and ask for table 89 instead, and they give it to them! I was a little perturbed at this and went to the front desk and asked nicely if I could have 89 every night. She said yes and gave me a “ticket” with our room, table and time on it. 
Every evening people with tickets were told to just walk in directly to their tables so we did. For the next 3 evenings at some point they walked people to our table saw us there and turned them around. This happened with some of the tables around us too. That dining room has some real management issues, but the food was great!

We were told that the ship is currently without a hotel manager so I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it. We also met one of our dining room hosts from the Royal who said he was called back early from his vacation to come and work in Da Vinci as they were short staffed.

I swear they must have moved our waitress from Sabatini's on Ruby to be your hostess!  After waiting a huge amount of time for our entrees (our waitress was flitting about the dining room interacting with other guests, sitting at their tables and chatting) my entree was wrong.  I had ordered the chicken and got veal, which I don't eat, at all, ever.  When I told her it was the wrong entree she insisted that I had changed it.  When I told her I don't eat veal, she said that in that case I shouldn't have changed my order.  They did offer to make me a new one but by then we had waited to so long and my husband would have either finished eating his or had a cold meal.And we paid ex extra for this experience!

We have never had a good experience with Sabatini's and have tried it on different ships.  The last time was the worst.  It took forever for our food to arrive and then my order was totally wrong.  The waitress blamed it on me for changing my order which I had not done.  We eat late so there wasn't time for the correct order to be prepared and by then my husband would have finished his meal.  We didn't think the food was all that anyway.  The dining room was virtually empty the whole time we were there so no excuse for poor servicel

Thank you so much for all the information and your stunning pictures.  Can't wait for our trip in September.

I am loving your posts!  Your pictures are amazing  We are about to make final payment for our cruise to Alaska in September and your posts have really gotten us excited.

All I can say is that we had a great time!  We have been to these ports numerous times so we had just planned to stay onboard anyway. For us, the whole point of cruising is to cruise so it was fine.  We have sailed on Princess numerous times and love it.  No, there aren't as many "activities" but that works for us.  We have cruised on Carnival, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Cunard, Oceania, and Holland and Princess is our definite choice.  The food was really good, the staff was amazing, Skywalkers is our favorite place to be besides our balcony.  Even though there were lots of kids on board, they were extremely well behaved.  We were impressed based on experiences with kids on other cruise lines. It is too bad that people were so ill behaved about missing the ports. This is not a decision that is reached lightly.  Also it is is in the cruise contract that the captain has the power to make those deisions and all who go on the cruise agree to that by signing the contract. No use fussing over weather. We are already booked on two more Princess cruises and have an additional future cruise credit.

On 4/6/2023 at 9:44 PM, FrankieJayIII said:

Thanks!  We are in C734 coming up!  I think that's literally below you by 2 decks!

We were in C738. Huge balcony.  Loved it!!

On 4/5/2023 at 9:22 AM, KKB said:

I heard SEVERAL people RAVE about Sabatini's last week (and also how FULL they were). 

Wish I had tried it!

We had a different experience, possibly due to our waitress.  She totally messed up my entree and then tried to blame it on me, saying i had changed my order which I hadn't.  They offered to fix it but we had waited so long for the original that it was getting late so, no.

On 4/4/2023 at 2:16 PM, CC Rider 69 said:

FYI, Captain Lewis is going on holiday starting the 4-9-23 sailing. His dry humor will be missed. I don't know who the relieving skipper is, so if you get a chance see if you can find out. TIA

We loved his "fun facts" each day in his noon briefing.  He is quite a character!  He said he'd be back in July so those sailing then will have a bunch to look forward to.

On 3/31/2023 at 9:27 PM, talkorpi said:

Well, hello, Princess forum!  I figured since this will be my first Princess cruise, I might as well try out my first LIVE review, too!

 

In a little under 48 hours, we will be sailing out of Galveston Bay on the Ruby Princess for Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.  I've always wanted to do a live thread and since Princess brags about having the "best wifi at sea" then I figured I would give it a try! 😉

 

A little about me - I am a recent college graduate who has always LOVED everything about the cruise industry.  My dream was to work for either Carnival or Princess in their deployment or newbuild departments, but unfortunately, I was never able to get any industry experience or internships (COVID shutdowns during my Sophomore through Senior college years = no opportunities) and so now that ship has sailed.  Oh well, I guess I will have to enjoy myself as a passenger instead of an employee!

 

It will be me and mom on this cruise.  We travel together quite a bit so I'm excited.  I've always wanted to try Princess, but unfortunately, it has always been a little outside of our price range.  However, now that I graduated and have a stable income I decided to take the plunge and try it out (the super attractive fares that Princess had to try to lure people to Galveston in their first year back helped quite a bit with that).

 

We are already off to a great start - after we booked an obstructed oceanview, I placed a minimum bid for a balcony.  Not only was it accepted - we got put in one of those angled extended balcony cabins at the very back of the ship.  Not too bad!  I've been to all of these ports before and we honestly just plan on taking it pretty easy.  I probably won't be as active as other live threads in the past as I have never really done this before but I will try to answer as many questions as I can and be thorough.

 

(Im)patiently waiting until Sunday morning when we start the drive to Galveston! 🛳️

On 3/31/2023 at 9:27 PM, talkorpi said:

Well, hello, Princess forum!  I figured since this will be my first Princess cruise, I might as well try out my first LIVE review, too!

 

In a little under 48 hours, we will be sailing out of Galveston Bay on the Ruby Princess for Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.  I've always wanted to do a live thread and since Princess brags about having the "best wifi at sea" then I figured I would give it a try! 😉

 

A little about me - I am a recent college graduate who has always LOVED everything about the cruise industry.  My dream was to work for either Carnival or Princess in their deployment or newbuild departments, but unfortunately, I was never able to get any industry experience or internships (COVID shutdowns during my Sophomore through Senior college years = no opportunities) and so now that ship has sailed.  Oh well, I guess I will have to enjoy myself as a passenger instead of an employee!

 

It will be me and mom on this cruise.  We travel together quite a bit so I'm excited.  I've always wanted to try Princess, but unfortunately, it has always been a little outside of our price range.  However, now that I graduated and have a stable income I decided to take the plunge and try it out (the super attractive fares that Princess had to try to lure people to Galveston in their first year back helped quite a bit with that).

 

We are already off to a great start - after we booked an obstructed oceanview, I placed a minimum bid for a balcony.  Not only was it accepted - we got put in one of those angled extended balcony cabins at the very back of the ship.  Not too bad!  I've been to all of these ports before and we honestly just plan on taking it pretty easy.  I probably won't be as active as other live threads in the past as I have never really done this before but I will try to answer as many questions as I can and be thorough.

 

(Im)patiently waiting until Sunday morning when we start the drive to Galveston! 🛳️

On 3/31/2023 at 9:48 PM, PacnGoNow said:

 

We were also on this cruise and loved it.  I'll be reading your posts to see how you reacted to the experiences.  We love Princess and are so glad to be utilizing Galveston again.  We always stay in the NASA area since we can take the back road down to I45 and avoid the construction. We use Port Parking (indoors since spring weather can be iffy).  Very efficient and reliable. Embarkation and debarkation was the easiest we've ever done at any port.

On 4/2/2023 at 10:59 AM, roadster08 said:

Have a great cruise! I am curious how you would rate the experience of dropping off your car before boarding. Is the parking covered or open? Did they provide transportation to the ship and how was luggage handled after you parked? 

We use Port Parking. It is covered. The drop off is convenient and runs every few minutes. Upon our return there were three vans waiting for us.  Minimal time back to the car.

On 12/11/2019 at 6:31 PM, 40yearcruiser said:

Glad to hear there are outlets behind the bed because my husband uses a CPAP and was hoping he wouldn't need to extension cord it to the desk outlet. We will be in a mini-suite so don't know if the outlets are different from other cabins.

My husband uses a CPAP and we didn't need the extension cord.  His machine easily reached from the bed to the regular outlet. We were in a balcony cabin.

On 3/15/2023 at 3:54 PM, kjg46 said:

We will have a family cruise on the Enchanted Princess this summer. One of our dining options would have us making reservations for seven adults at the Crown Grill. From the reviews I have read it seems the Crown Grill food is lacking not only on the Enchanted but also on the Regal and the Royal. Would Sabatini's be a better choice?

We just got back from Ruby.  We ate at Sabatini's and it was okay. My main problem was that, after waiting for the entree for quite awhile, I got veal instead of the chicken I had ordered.  The waitress insisted I had changed my order which I hadn't. They offered to re-do it but we had already waited for so long that I wasn't interested. We did not eat in Crown Grill since it is too much food for me for one meal.  So I ordered the filet in the main diining room for $19 instead of the $39 in Crown Grill and it was superb.

I know that drinks the first night used to be charged and the drink package did not click in until the first morning.  Is that still the case?

My son had one of these suites in early January and absolutely loved it.  There were no problems with using the balcony.   There is a glass section in one portion of the balcony.

Have such a good time!  Thank you for posting.  We'll be on her for the next trip and I can't wait.

This is all too complicated!  If I am sailing on a Saturday but flying in two days early (leaving on Thursday) does my test on Wednesday work???