EdmPair

And if you get part way thru the process and seem lost, ask anybody in a Princess uniform and he or she will get you back to your group. But I want to echo what others have said, the tour number you sign up for is given on the ticket and will be the same as the buses you take. Many times there will be multiple busses to the same site but you are assigned one and it is told to you also in writing.

I feel like a grade school student on many of the tours as we all have the same fluorescent coloured sticker with one guide at the front. Have fun.

M

Gonna go out on a limb a bit and note the OP called it a postal code as we do in Canada. I do not know the Princess form, but web designers LOVE to ask your zip code or postal code and then you country. Unfortunately, these forms often default to the USA and so it tests the input against the US Postal rules and says it is wrong.

You often have to jump down to the country and change it to the correct value and only then go back to the postal code or zip code field.

It may not be this, but perhaps another time it may help somebody.

M

Good to know...why it's $31 when pre-ordered but $33.35 ($29+$4.35 tip) when purchased onboard is a mystery to me. :confused:

Princess is pre-selling you $2.35 in pure joy. Trust me, the coffee will taste better this way.

May I invite all to cast your thoughts back to the Grand Age of Ocean Liners like the Titanic. It was sold by classes and there were separate dining rooms and decks depending what ticket you bought. And not so long ago, there have been perks for the highest end cruisers on all lines.

I guess as long as I feel I am getting good value for the product I but, I am happy. People 10 years ago made their choice and people 10 years from now will make their choice. You may not want anything about the 'good old days' to change but they have and will.

Given the size of the ships and the inventory of cabins afloat, the lines all have to chase a wide demographic of age and income. Certainly they are looking forward in their plans but hardly want to 'orphan' existing clients.

Later,

M

I am the wandering type so move about the ship to find places to see any city as we sail out. Given the time it takes a ship to leave any port, you have time to find good spots to take some photos and get a beverage at the same time.

My 3 cents.

Well, after reading the thread, I just had to go look. I found the magazine link in my easy enough. I did not instantly identify the ships as other have but was shocked by the cast photo of the Love Boat. I have no clue of the young girl on the lower right. I did not watch it all the time but did see many episodes. Who is SHE?

In the bigger picture, this is not a bit of history. The Captain's Circle magazine is mostly marketing rag. It takes 2 to edit and proof but Princess would do well. Or given that I saw it come in and just ignored, it might be worth dropping the whole effort.

I might. My Geek Meter sits in the red. Friends only comment when it pins.

On a serious note, even if most people do not know the math involved, they do understand how ship speed and direction and overall wind speed and direction can come together to mess their hair.

DON wins a prize for the use of trigonometry on Cruise Critic. It takes real chutzpah to say vector arithmetic like any number of people will know it. Although I think this board has enough geeks this works.

Well played.

M

I never thought of it like this but I too go through these phases.

Phase 1

Feel the itch to travel. Look at options and find something. Lately it has been cruises.

Phase 2

Book it. Check details on boat, planes, hotels, cars, insurance, excursions and all that.

Now I research more and for a cruise dive into YouTube and CC. Find new and exciting rare things to see on my trip.

Phase 3

Tire of looking at maps and photos. Realize I have ignored my house and work a bit. Not enough to get evicted or fired, but a bit. Get back to those areas of my life.

Phase 4

Tickets arrive. Hyperventilate until departure.

Phase 5

En vacance. A comet can destroy the rest of the world and I do not want a phone call about it. I am on vacation.

Phase 6

Last day of the cruise. This is the feeling used by composers over the years to write the Blues. There is no known pharmaceutical which can cheer me up on the last night of the cruise and during the flight home.

Phase 7

First day back at work YELLING of how wonderful the trip was.

Phase 8

Second day at work. See Phase 6 followed by Phase 1.

Later,

M

I never gave my card but 'won' a free cruise on this tub. Inside cabin of 86 sq ft! Two day cruise!! Some prize.

I am going to rain on this parade a bit. I know it is called Movies Under the Stars but a more accurate phrase would be old standard definition TV Under the Stars. The sound is high to compete with all the other noises up on deck including engines. It is not bad but I do feel a bit oversold. By all means give it a try. For the right show, I would try again but am content to find other activities after I snag myself some popcorn ... of course.

And now for some lock and building technology but as I know building on land it may or may not be comparable to ships. My 3 cents.

First a note about the hotel locks you see on cruise ships. Many model support a fast lockout card which is usually RED. Security could use it to keep a passenger out of their cabin. In an emergency, each steward could be given one to check a room, clear it and then use the RED card. I would be willing to bet they would also be given a grease pencil or such and would mark the door at the same time. All crew would then know the cabin was now verified empty. (If you have had any contact with the Deaf, you should know not to assume everybody hears even the load horns.)

The next note is about emergency stairs. What you see on a ship is often NOT an emergency stair, it is just a stair. On this, I am speaking just from sailing on two ships and seeing photos and plans of others. One was the Grand Princess and it had nice big wide stairs with carpet which opened into nice lobbies sometimes with elevators. If you work the trades, you know this can never be a fire stair as it is not contained and the carpet is fuel.

Fire stairs have doors which seal and are boring steel or concrete. In Canadian building codes there are numbers for width but let me explain the idea in plan. The maximum width of a stair is basically 3 people. Two hold onto either rail and an active able bodied person could move down the centre OR assist another person holding the rail. No fire stair can much wider. Every step must be the same width and depth as you MAY have to move in darkness or low light. So any circular stair is never a fire stair. You notice I said boring and sealed. I was on a HAL ship with many stairs used by the staff which were fire stairs. I know what to look for and there are many stairs never used by the guest until an emergency. This is my way of saying, don't count the stairs you see on the travel booking plans.

As a last note, I have to say the tone of some of this was not very nice. I figure information goes a long way toward good decisions BUT as other have pointed out it hardly predicts well how people will behave in a crisis. I want to get as much information as I can and hope I never need it.

Later,

M

Two more notes. I work in lock trade to give my comments some context.

Many -- but not all -- of the hotel locks on cruise ships record a key opening with a time stamp into the audit trail. As time goes by more and more will do this.

Master keying allows many different levels. Your room attendant will have a master for a portion of that floor. It is not a master for all rooms. The housekeeping manager will have a more senior master key to get into all rooms but not food service areas. The hotel manager will have a master key to get into all guest rooms AND all food service areas. And you see I can go on. (Sorry.)

In the event of a fire or other crisis, physical keys are ready as you can not rely on batteries but I would guess only security would ever move with those. if you pulled large numbers of staff together in a crisis, it is still better to pass out master key CARDS. If one is lost, it can be cancelled.

To the OP, there is no way to give a firm number for how many people have a key to open your room but I would estimate it at 30-40 at any moment. I also know this would be about the same in any big hotel or resort.

Later,

M

Many of these procedures changed about a year after the Costa Concordia sinking. I say this as a reminder to all to not cast back too far for 'how it is done.' I have not read the details of the process but it MUST have an audit trail to verify compliance later.

My memory on last Princess cruise was they scanned my ID card as I entered the muster location. A security staff was at each door and one 'beep' of the 'price gun' thingy and you were in. I could see this critical step being done and yet easy to forget.

I also see the point in requiring it every cruise as different lines will do things SLIGHTLY differently and both be compliant. Also, some subtle change in procedure could be done any time. The only way to know you know these changes are if you attend. I want to know all the details as saving my life in a crisis could very well hinge on some detail.

My 3 cents from Canada,

M

Are there any ships or cruise lines that have no specialty restaurants or if they have them there is no upcharge to eat in them?

Your signature file shows multiple cruise already so I too am puzzled. Near as I can tell, a bit of web research for the various companies could answer this. The very high end would have them included. I would guess the low end like the combined ferry boat/cruise type lines will not.

If you find nothing else, I would bet on database issues with the pricing system. The web page interface can not get the numbers so has this as a default to keep you looking and interacting.

My 3 cents.

M

No advise or help. However, congrats!!! All the best in years to come.

This reads like something driven by privacy legislation. It is not written that they need to know but rather ONCE they do have those types of information on file, they have a responsibility to keep it secure. I guess if you are out in the rest of your life and then as a couple ask the twin beds be set up as a queen, you can reasonable assume they know you are gay.

If it works for you, build a routine to visit the same locations each day. On Princess, the servers will ask you once and when you say 'no thank' they will drop a napkin on the table to signal to other staff who may walk by that you have been asked. In my case, I often have Earl Grey tea even as others drink alcohol. After 2-3 days in the same place, the server will learn that just as well as if I had ordered some alcoholic drink.

While we did anytime dining, fixed dining would help you out too as you will see same staff in the MDR each night.

Hope this little bit helps too.

And if you can cope day to day landside, you can do the same on your vacation. Have fun!

Interesting that it's almost the same time as an Atlantis cruise out of Ft. L (2/1-2/8/15) on the Celebrity Silhouette. Rather than competing, would have been nice to have one or the other cruise in, say, March. Hope RSVP sells out. Happy cruising, guys. :)

Interesting? I would say planned. Atlantis owns RSVP now and so they did this to connect the two. There will be a few who bounce from one ship to the other. Heck, if I had the vacation time and money, I might. One air fare for both cruises.

I see others have found out why I spend time here. That next cruise is just too far in the future! Filling the time with learning about my ship and ports keeps me from addictive things which might harm me more. (cleaning, laundry, gardens)

I take my iPad on trips to act as photo sponge each night for my camera. That way, it says in the safe the next day and loss of the camera will only be the photos from that day. To carry it would be to defeat that function.

I print out on paper various maps which I can then write on, highlight and otherwise abuse. It is $1 in paper compared to $1000 for the iPad. Plus, paper has no battery. However, to each their own.

You get a neat little map which if you drop it, is replaced for free. I would never carry my phone for this job since the phone is mostly paperweight otherwise. I found I quickly learned the ship. And, how lost can you get exploring the ship! I try to find all halls and corners and decks and views. Enjoy.

I did find tendering a useful educational experience - if tedious. You have to wait your turn, and then, in my case, board a little boat that would be a lifeboat if the worst happened.

 

The boat was just getting us ashore in my case, but I did spend some time looking around while I was in it, just in case it was ever put to its primary purpose. Pretty sobering. No view outdoors at all, and not much ventilation. I think it could become pretty grim pretty fast, if the boat was heaving around and people were getting sick. Also noticed the print indicators about collection of rainwater from the boat's roof - right - drinking water. As for the molded slippery plastic seats where we were wedged together bum-to-bum - yeah, not meant for comfort, at all.

 

All in all, my conclusion was that the lifeboats were okay for a shuttle to the dock. But God help us if we have to abandon ship and eke out life in one of them for a few hours.

Few hours could be a full day or two. They would not be pleasant but may just be the best option...

First, this is a question which needs be asked to Princess for the definitive answer. Also, if you really want to open the balcony partition, you should have asked before booking. [stepping off the soap box.]

Regardless, I ran to the deck plans to see how those two rooms would be beside each other and see them both. The hall directly ahead of the doors shows a door. IF I have read the boards correctly, this means it is a fire separation door and as part of that, the balcony will not have a panel to open as the fire separation needs to extend as far as possible.

Our local authority on this is Pam and I am guessing she will arrive soon.

Life boat and life raft space may be one limit but it has some considerable cushion. Likewise the life vests. Seems to me, they have close to double the number needed as one is in the cabin but also more stored in the lockers near the life boats.

I have never heard of a ship refusing to take on people from another stricken ship but only after counting the life boat spaces. The private islands may be slightly different, but for the size of these ships it would not be that many more people. My guess.