gcvt

Looks like she's leaving now...couple hours behind schedule.

Finally away from the anchorage at 7:10pm, just over 7 hours late. She has "pedal to the metal", as she is doing 23.8 knots!! The time at the anchorage was recalibrate all navigation instruments and to reset the back up magnetic compass-all required by law.

 

She really is moving right along. Nice clean bottom :)

You mean that's not fog? :p

 

It was working the first day or two of dry dock. Couldn't see much but it was still pretty cool. Not sure why it would still be off.

The GF has thick hair almost down to her waist. Last year on Star, the wall-mounted hair dryer was not enough for her. Not even close. She wrapped her hair up in the robe to dry it.

On RCCL there are no beach towels in your cabin.

 

To get one, you need to present your cruise card to an attendent on the pool deck. If the towel is not returned to the attendent by the last evening of the cruise, you do get charged.

 

^^^ This! RCCL is not towel friendly. Many people get charged for towels after they are off the ship even though they returned the towels. We almost got charged because their card swiping machine "needed a reboot" :rolleyes:

You can always request the "meta upgrade" option. That, apparently, will only allow upgrades to the next meta (balcony to mini-suite for example).

 

And to be fair, the majority of folks will always want an upgrade. The folks here at Cruise Critic may be a bit more meticulous about their cabin choices... but there should be an "upgrade" button on the website for those booking there and I do know that the reservations folks always (or should) ask if you'll accept the complimentary upgrade...

 

I'm not familiar with this meta option (almost typed "meat" option...I love meat LOL!) Can you do this online during the booking process? I've never seen any upgrade 'options' when booking online, so I can only assume they do not exist.

 

If that's the case, you have to call Princess either way, so you might as well call and book over the phone to get the exact experience you're looking for. I get what you're saying about the majority of people booking, but it would not be hard to make a few changes to the website to avoid these issues. Many want to hop online, book the cabin they want, and be done with it....like me :)

Am I the only one that read the subject line and thought "Geez, I'd never book one of those!" :p

Same thing happened to us. We always book Caribe for the bigger 1/2 & 1/2 balcony...and we prefer aft. They 'upgraded' us to Aloha mid-ship. I guess they figure everyone wants to be mid-ship? Had to call and get switched back. Thankfully, our Caribe cabin was still available since this was about a month ago and we don't sail until April.

 

We'd love an upgrade to a mini or something some day, but if the alternative is possibly being 'upgraded' to a cabin right in front of the central elevators with a small balcony, we have no choice but to request "no upgrades" possibly missing out on a real upgrade. That's frustrating.

 

There must be a better way.

We did the Mexican itinerary on Star last year in C723. Very little motion and the big balcony is such a huge plus! We're doing Hawaii on Grand in April and picked a cabin in the same area. Princess 'upgraded' us to a mid-ship cabin up on Aloha - we had to call them and request to be switched back to the big balcony aft Caribe cabin. I think you might just like it back there :)

 

Have a great cruise!

...do much other than get to a location and process gas.

 

Sounds like an HAL cruise :p:p

Yep, I ran in to the Head Waiter here in SF no long ago as he was leaving for vacation. He confirmed she's going to Victoria for dry dock because it's cheaper than doing it here.

She's scheduled to go in to dry dock in Victoria for a little freshening up beginning next week.

When we were on Star last year we were very impressed with everyone we encountered with the glaring exception of the MDR staff. I think we ate in the MDR eight or nine times and the service/attitude ranged from indifferent to rude every night. We certainly got the feeling that they wanted us to eat as quickly as possible and just leave.

 

I noticed that the waiters rarely spoke to the passengers at all and tended to talk amongst themselves only - joking and smiling with each other until they had to approach a table for service at which point the smiles disappeared quite rapidly. But, like I said, everyone else was wonderful...especially our room steward.

 

We also sailed on Royal Caribbean last year (also pre-paid tips) and the MDR staff were so fun and engaging, we almost didn't know what to do. The difference was enormous.

 

We're hoping for a better MDR experience on Grand in April.

That hurts to look at :(

How sad :( Prayers to her family.

We were on Star late last year to Mexico. She was in fantastic shape!...even better than the much newer RCCL Freedom that we sailed on seven months prior. We thought the MDR staff were a little rushed and unengaging but the rest of the crew were fantastic. She is one of our favorite ships - we'd sail on her again in a minute...especially when she comes back to SF.

Wow! What a nice surprise - congratulations!

 

 

Now, do you remember exactly who you talked to and have their direct number? :p

Ha! That's awesome!

What are the chances? I was at a storage facility near the airport and just happened to meet the Head Waiter fresh off of Grand this morning in San Francisco. He rented a small storage unit for his luggage while he goes on vacation.

 

He was in a hurry to catch his plane but we talked for a little while about our upcoming cruise, Grand's upcoming dry dock in Victoria, Grand's current condition, Royal, etc. What a nice guy! Unfortunately, he'll be on Coral next year so we won't see him on Grand in April.

 

Okay, that's my random story for the day :)

We love My Time! It's great to be able to have dinner on our own schedule.

We've never had to wait more than a couple on minutes. :)

 

LuLu

~~~~~

 

Couldn't agree more! On Freedom, I don't think we ever waited more than about two minutes. Most of the time we were seated immediately, and we had the same waiters every night except on the second formal night when we were seated in a little area next to our normal spot. Our regular waiters spotted us over there and served us our dinner even though we weren't in their area :)

What a horrible tragedy indeed. My co-worker was just there last week because her Father had a heart attack. She came home and reported that he was going to be fine...then this?! And the wonderful crew/staff we have met on all our cruises? It's just so hard to imagine. We're the praying type and we are doing our best.

Great info so far. Tagged for our 4/13 trip :)

What an amazing stroke of luck! I just clicked on your third link, and was able to watch the Emlerald sail out of the harbor. That will be us in 10 days!

Thank you SO much!:D

 

My pleasure :D We're addicted to all those cams in our house!

[quote name='secretcastle']How exciting! We are also on the cruise after you. It has been great to read the thoughts of those who have travelled on the Grand and have good things to say such as Bdjam :)
We , like you, are having fun planning, [b]and also can't wait to see beautiful San Francisco as well![/b]
Julia[/quote]

And, oddly, we spend most of our time thinking of ways to get [i]out[/i] of San Francisco ;)

Sometimes I wish we didn't live here so we could come here for a vacation.

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