HALCruiserChris

You say "dollars". Is there any advantage to having Mexican money? Also, are credit cards a good or bad idea?

On our recent cruise to Alaska we got the "sip and sail" package free as we booked in advance. Was great. Not just for drinks and wine but also for specialty coffee's, etc.

That would be awesome!

As stated you are too late for January 2019 Sip & Sail promo. You can purchase the package for US$68.99/pp/day. Details are in your cruise personlizer under Onboard Reservations.

Is it worth it? It takes approximately 5 to 7 cocktails per day to break even assuming you also drink some espresso drinks and other soft drinks. If you max out alcoholic beverages, 15, each day you basically wind up getting them at half the menu price.

Got it. Thanks. That's a lot of booze.

All you need to know about using Princess@Sea to send text messages for no charge via the ship's intranet network:

 

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/activities/princess-at-sea/index.html

 

As for "getting that ironed out" way back in the ancient times of 2012 people still did fine with post-it notes and leaving messages on the cabin phone. Plus that quaint old notion of actually talking face to face when making plans--and honoring them rather than using an electronic device for the purpose of changing or cancelling them on the fly.

 

So for God's sake leave the walkies talkies at home.

Thanks for the advice. I'll consider myself admonished.

I read a little about a "Sip and Sail" package on Princess. What is it? Is it worth it? And who can book it? We've booked a balcony room for the Grand heading for Mexico in January, 1019.

It's been a while since we cruised (2012). The biggest challenge was on-board.person-to-person communication when away from your room. Have they got that ironed out? Do cell phones work (Mexican Riviera)? Do they rent walkie-talkies or pagers? What's the story today? We sail in January.

These are all great ideas. For better or worse our friends selected rooms on Deck 11 and my wife worries about sea sickness so we chose a room closer to mid-ship. Thanks so much. I hope your feedback will also help others.

I am wondering if I could please hijack this thread just a slight bit since you mentioned the lido deck. I’ve booked one of the premium ocean view rooms on the lido just forward of the trident grill. Do you think these might have any noise issues? Thanks and sorry for diverting from the question ever so slightly.

Hi jack away!:D:D

I'm a big fan of the lido deck balconies as they are close to the gym, spa, sauna, spa pool, main pools, and on the same deck as the lido buffet. It depends where you spend your time onboard. If you enjoy being close to upper deck activities and Venus, you'll want to be higher up to avoid the elevators and stairs. If not, caribe deck are better. Also, the grand has no staircase adjacent to the central elevators above deck 7.

 

If you are a light sleeper try to get a balcony closer to the elevators on lido deck as sometimes you can hear treadmills one deck up if you are very far forward.

Thanks for the tip.!

Heading for Mexico from SF. Plan to book soon. Any room number tips on Grand Princess? Entry level balcony preferred but balcony for sure. Good or Bad?

Thank you for clarifying Boytjie and Roz. Sorry for the confusion Geriatric. I hope you all got the point. When we first signed on and were "assigned" open seating I was a little apprehensive. But as it turned out I really enjoyed the "As You Wish" dining option. I will most definitely sign up for it on our next cruise.

First time with "as you wish" dining and it worked out great BUT it's not for everyone. We got to meet new people that we stayed friends with the entire cruise. A couple nights we ate with some fairly grumpy people but better a couple nights than seven. And we never had a meal where we didn't like at least a couple of folks at the table.

The only problem we had was most of our servers were fairly new and had a bit of a language problem. I like an occasional gin martini with dinner and I'm pretty specific and they couldn't get it right. I like mine up and dirty with three olives. The first time it came without olives and not dirty. The second time it came on the rocks. They never did understand the "dirty" part of it. (BTW - HAL does not have real cocktail olives. They are simply pitted green olives. And not very tasty at that.) I doubt I would have had this problem more than once in fixed seating.

We never waited more than a couple of minutes for seating even the one time we asked for a table for two. Food was exactly the same as fixed. We could usually pick our location. Loved being able to eat with new friends and not having to rush to a seating.