Coming Back to Princess...A Few Questions (Suite Related)

[Cindy]

Hi all!

 

I just got done paying the deposit on my first Princess cruise since 2007...when they pulled out of Galveston I switched to Royal Caribbean, and I've cruised mostly with them, although I've also taken cruises on Carnival, HAL, and Celebrity.

 

In the years since we were last on Princess, we've given up late dining and become fans of anytime, graduated from Mini-Suites to Suites, and decided that our #1 favorite location on a ship is aft. My questions have to do with two decisions I just made based on where we like our cabin and how we like to dine.

 

I chose E732 on the Caribbean Princess despite it being over the stage in Club Fusion. I couldn't find real complaints about the noise, and both Vista Suites on Dolphin as well as E733 were already taken for my cruise. My other choice is either of the Vista Suites on Caribe -- C750 or C751. The rep I spoke with at Princess said activities in Club Fusion end by about 11:00. If that's correct, then I don't think there will be a problem with the noise. As far as what we like, one of the most important things to me is space on the balcony.

 

My other question is about Anytime dining. I've only done traditional on Princess. I love it on Royal Caribbean where you can make reservations in advance, but I really struggled with it on HAL where they took very few reservations and the line was ridiculous. I know Princess doesn't take reservations in advance, but I was told that suites get priority reservations. What has your experience with that been? I don't mind waiting a few minutes, but I also don't want to walk around with a beeper for 30-40 minutes.

 

That's all for now. I'm just spending some time on the board after many years and trying to figure out what's changed since 2007! I'm definitely going to keep my eye on availability -- this cruise isn't until March of 2016, and I'm sure I'll change a few things before then!:o

[pathi]

I was just in this suite last week. I did not notice any noise at all from Club fusion. The balcony had plenty of room for the table\chairs and the 2 loungers. Not as big as the suite we had on Caribe deck, but very usable.

 

 

We only ate in the dining room a couple of times, but I was able to call the dine line and get reservations for 7:30 no problem.

 

This helped as we were a party of 12! :eek:

[scanditaly]

Hi T. A&M Cindy;

 

I can echo what Pathi has posted about the noise level being no problem, and about the balconies.

 

While we prefer RCI over Princess, when an itinerary/price/date combo come together, we have no problem whatsoever with princess.

 

Well......only one tiny little matter: Coffee. Since you have graduated to the suite life, this may be of some interest to you.

 

X: lattes/espresso delivered by your butler. Lattes in the suite/elite breakfast area.

 

NCL: epsresso machine in room. enough said.

 

RCI: espresso in either the Concierge club and/or the Diamond lounge.

 

Princess: unless you want to go to the cafe in the AM,or dine in Sabatini's Restaurant (lattes are wonderful there), your quality coffee availability with little or no waiting will be challenging. On the Dawn class ships, there is no Sababtini's, and I am wondering myself how one obtains that first cup of morning sunshine when staying in a suite class room.

[mmckm]

No problem for us we have stayed in that same cabin. We didn't notice any noise from below we tend to go to sleep a few nights around 10pm if we have early plans. We prefer the Dolphin or Caribe aft deck suites as the balconys are a little bigger.

[RocketMan275]

You might want to read this thread about a recent cruise experience. I would read the whole thread. There were a lot of questions about this report. It seemed a bit over the top.

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2158098

[Cindy]

Thanks everybody!

 

I was just in this suite last week. I did not notice any noise at all from Club fusion. The balcony had plenty of room for the table\chairs and the 2 loungers. Not as big as the suite we had on Caribe deck, but very usable.

 

Would you say we'd have more balcony space in C 750/751? It looks the opposite in pictures, but pictures can be deceiving.

 

 

Hi T. A&M Cindy;

 

Well......only one tiny little matter: Coffee. Since you have graduated to the suite life, this may be of some interest to you.

 

So...some things haven't changed!:D

[Cindy]

You might want to read this thread about a recent cruise experience. I would read the whole thread. There were a lot of questions about this report. It seemed a bit over the top.

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2158098

 

I saw that yesterday. I agree, it just seemed a little over the top to me as well. A lot of searching didn't turn up many complaints about noise at all, although I realize it's a possibility.

[pathi]

Thanks everybody!

 

 

 

Would you say we'd have more balcony space in C 750/751? It looks the opposite in pictures, but pictures can be deceiving.

 

 

 

 

So...some things haven't changed!:D

 

I was in c424 and it was about 50% larger.

[mmckm]

Everything is the same they are just opposites.

[Cindy]

I was in c424 and it was about 50% larger.

 

That must have been on a different ship. C424 on the Caribbean Princess is an inside cabin!:eek:

[critterchick]

Thanks everybody!

 

 

 

Would you say we'd have more balcony space in C 750/751? It looks the opposite in pictures, but pictures can be deceiving.

 

 

 

 

So...some things haven't changed!:D

 

We were just in C750 on Crown (I believe that the deck plans are the samefor the cabins we're talking about) and the balcony is noticeably smaller because of two support beams instead of one, plus the cabin itself is larger, so that takes away a couple of feet. It was plenty big enough for two of us, but I think that three or four people would find it a little too cozy. The loungers had to be angled in order to open up fully, and we stacked two of the dining chairs in the corner to have a little more space.

 

But I LOVED the layout of the cabin - it was just as noticeably larger than D-737, which we had in December, so I would pick that cabin over any of the Emerald or Dolphin decks ones. There's a desk in the entryway and another by the bed, plus more drawers - D-737 only had the vanity desk, and everything seemed just a wee bit crammed in there.

[JimAOk1945]

We enjoy cruising in full suites. Last month we were on the Island Princess in a full suite. While we enjoyed the ship and the itinerary (11 days Partial Panama Canal Transit), we really missed the RC suite life and perks that go with it.

 

As you can see, we are back on RC this December. Looking forward to the suite life and being "wowed" again.

 

Happy cruising. It's a great way to travel regardless of the cruise line!

[Cindy]

Thanks again, everybody! I really appreciate you taking time to answer my questions.

 

 

We enjoy cruising in full suites. Last month we were on the Island Princess in a full suite. While we enjoyed the ship and the itinerary (11 days Partial Panama Canal Transit), we really missed the RC suite life and perks that go with it.

 

As you can see, we are back on RC this December. Looking forward to the suite life and being "wowed" again.

 

Happy cruising. It's a great way to travel regardless of the cruise line!

 

Interesting...while we love the suites themselves, we don't think Royal Caribbean's perks are that great. The CL just isn't that big a deal to me. Probably my favorite suite perk on all lines is the ability to avoid the buffet and eat breakfast in a specialty restaurant.

 

I have to admit, Coastal Kitchen on the Oasis was awesome. That's a perk that was definitely worth the cost of a suite to me! I'm also looking forward to trying the suite perks on Norwegian.

[skrodle]

we found being a suite passenger that we could get anytime dining reservations for anytime without a problem. We had a friend in an inside cabin and were able to make the reservations for 3 with no problem.

 

Also as a suite passenger you can order the main dinning room food to be delivered to your room if for some reason they cant get you a reservation

[Nightowl11]

We were on the Star last June to Alaska in a suite and we did have a difficult time getting reservations at the Crab Shack. There were two Crab Shack days left in the cruise and they wouldn't give us reservations because once they announce the times, it fills up quickly. It wasn't until I told them that I was in a suite and explained that my son who has autism really, really wanted to eat there, did they give us a time at the end of the night so we were almost the last ones seated. It all worked out in the end but I didn't like to have to explain everything. This year, I'm calling on the first day to reserve instead of waiting until they announce it in the Patters.

[JimAOk1945]

Thanks again, everybody! I really appreciate you taking time to answer my questions.

 

 

 

 

I'm also looking forward to trying the suite perks on Norwegian.

 

The suite perks on NCL sound very appealing. I hope you will do a comparison when you return from your NCL cruise. It would be very helpful to those of us who cruise in suites to read a comparison between Princess, RC, and NCL.

[Husky61]

We always do a suite and ATD. We have NEVER had a problem eating at the time we want.:)

[chloe45]

Hi all!

 

I just got done paying the deposit on my first Princess cruise since 2007...when they pulled out of Galveston I switched to Royal Caribbean, and I've cruised mostly with them, although I've also taken cruises on Carnival, HAL, and Celebrity.

 

In the years since we were last on Princess, we've given up late dining and become fans of anytime, graduated from Mini-Suites to Suites, and decided that our #1 favorite location on a ship is aft. My questions have to do with two decisions I just made based on where we like our cabin and how we like to dine.

 

I chose E732 on the Caribbean Princess despite it being over the stage in Club Fusion. I couldn't find real complaints about the noise, and both Vista Suites on Dolphin as well as E733 were already taken for my cruise. My other choice is either of the Vista Suites on Caribe -- C750 or C751. The rep I spoke with at Princess said activities in Club Fusion end by about 11:00. If that's correct, then I don't think there will be a problem with the noise. As far as what we like, one of the most important things to me is space on the balcony.

 

My other question is about Anytime dining. I've only done traditional on Princess. I love it on Royal Caribbean where you can make reservations in advance, but I really struggled with it on HAL where they took very few reservations and the line was ridiculous. I know Princess doesn't take reservations in advance, but I was told that suites get priority reservations. What has your experience with that been? I don't mind waiting a few minutes, but I also don't want to walk around with a beeper for 30-40 minutes.

 

That's all for now. I'm just spending some time on the board after many years and trying to figure out what's changed since 2007! I'm definitely going to keep my eye on availability -- this cruise isn't until March of 2016, and I'm sure I'll change a few things before then!:o

 

We had this cabin on our last cruise in Dec. We been on 13 previous Princess cruises and by far it was by far our favorite cabin. You will love it.

[Cindy]

Thanks again everyone! I'm excited to hear so many positive comments about the suite. I'm looking forward to planning this cruise!

[Cindy]

I'm kind of laughing at myself! Last night we decided on a different cruise for Panama...we were able to save a bucket of money and get an all-inclusive deal by moving a Celebrity booking, so I have us on the Equinox with an almost identical itinerary to the Princess one. The big difference is that we will need to fly to Florida, but for what's included it seemed like a no-brainer.

 

I'm still going on the Caribbean Princess, but we moved the cruise up to December. I also changed my cabin to D736, because it was available and I'm a balcony snob!:rolleyes::o:rolleyes: Boy, those go fast! Last night both D736 and D737 were available, but by the time I called this morning about 9:30 one was gone!:eek: