Good Spirits

[lbfluffy]

I have never been on the Royal. We leave on March 2nd. I don’t see it on the deck plan. Am I blind? I know Majestic and Discovery had it.

 

 

Thank you.

[Thrak]

Right next to IC where it belongs. Sailed Royal in May.

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Thrak

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, lbfluffy said:

I have never been on the Royal. We leave on March 2nd. I don’t see it on the deck plan. Am I blind? I know Majestic and Discovery had it.

 

 

Thank you.

I think you are blind.  👀

I’ve only seen it on deck 5 off the Piazza.

[lbfluffy]

5 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I think you are blind.  👀

I’ve only seen it on deck 5 off the Piazza.

Ok let me check again! I love that bar. Found it. I was looking at cruise deck plans dot com. I should have checked Princess. The other site did not show it.

Edited January 23, 2023 by lbfluffy

[lbfluffy]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

Right next to IC where it belongs. Sailed Royal in May.

 

Did you like her? I loved the Majestic, especially the Hollywood Conservatory 

[startedwithamouse]

Emerald Princess doesn't currently have Good Spirits, they haven't since September. They hope to have bartenders boarding soon who know 'the show'.

[Thrak]

21 minutes ago, lbfluffy said:

Did you like her? I loved the Majestic, especially the Hollywood Conservatory 

 

It was our first experience with that class of ship. The ship was less than half full and the buffet, while huge, was mostly empty space. The Medallion App wasn't working for the staff very well so when they tried to take an order they either stood there waiting for the system to work or just gave up and asked for a cabin number. Finding our friends with the app worked great and room service worked great.

 

I was less than enamored with having loud entertainment in the middle of the atrium area as it made all of the spaces above there quite loud. I also didn't like having the casino open to the rest of the ship as the smoke circulated into other areas. I booked dining for us and our friends at the same time every night and, after the first night, we had the same table every night and just showed up and were seated immediately.

 

The crew was great and were obviously not happy about the system not working correctly. They wanted things to go smoothly for the passengers. Princess Live is a weird venue and I'm happy they have changed it in some of the newer ships but it "mostly" worked okay. It was fine for games such as Liar's Club but awkward for Trivia. Princess Live Cafe (little bar and coffee spot right outside of Princess Live) was convenient for my wife to snag coffee in the morning on her way to Knitters and Natters without having to go down to IC and the bartender there was great.

 

Overall we had a really great cruise and wouldn't hesitate to book another cruise on Royal Princess. I'm guessing the system will work better for you and you should have a great time. If you board the ship expecting to have a wonderful cruise you most likely will have that exact result.

[nini]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:08 PM, startedwithamouse said:

Emerald Princess doesn't currently have Good Spirits, they haven't since September. They hope to have bartenders boarding soon who know 'the show'.

 

Sorry, but this made me chuckle. We were on the Emerald in May 2022 and Good Spirits was open. We were on the Grand in September 2022 and Good Spirits was open. Our new favorite bartender explained that he was fairly new to the Grand and had fairly recently transferred from the Emerald to the Grand and was SO HAPPY!  He explained that the crew on the Grand wins many awards. IMHO, the crew on the Grand was much more upbeat and fun.

[startedwithamouse]

47 minutes ago, nini said:

 

Sorry, but this made me chuckle. We were on the Emerald in May 2022 and Good Spirits was open. We were on the Grand in September 2022 and Good Spirits was open. Our new favorite bartender explained that he was fairly new to the Grand and had fairly recently transferred from the Emerald to the Grand and was SO HAPPY!  He explained that the crew on the Grand wins many awards. IMHO, the crew on the Grand was much more upbeat and fun.

Exactly. Good Spirits on Emerald (not Grand) has not been open since September of 2022. They hope to have it open soon. That means, yes, it was open in May of 2022, and June and July and so on. Which aligns with my post. Good Spirits on Emerald hasn't been running with the show since September of 2022. 

[nini]

21 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Exactly. Good Spirits on Emerald (not Grand) has not been open since September of 2022. They hope to have it open soon. That means, yes, it was open in May of 2022, and June and July and so on. Which aligns with my post. Good Spirits on Emerald hasn't been running with the show since September of 2022. 

 

I never called you a liar. Yes, it confirms your post. I just thought it was funny (in a bad way), that Good Spirits was closed- maybe due to horrible management and low morale on that ship?

[startedwithamouse]

48 minutes ago, nini said:

 

I never called you a liar. Yes, it confirms your post. I just thought it was funny (in a bad way), that Good Spirits was closed- maybe due to horrible management and low morale on that ship?

Horrible management? We were on Emerald for a couple weeks, and no one complained about being there. Sorry you had that experience.  Ships management can change from one month to the next. And yes, the Grand is the best. 

[nini]

3 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Horrible management? We were on Emerald for a couple weeks, and no one complained about being there. Sorry you had that experience.  Ships management can change from one month to the next. And yes, the Grand is the best. 

We were so very shocked at the difference in the energy between the two ships. When on the Emerald, we actually had a waiter in the buffet snap at us and was quite derogatory.This had never happened before.

[jaycruising]

7 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Exactly. Good Spirits on Emerald (not Grand) has not been open since September of 2022. They hope to have it open soon. That means, yes, it was open in May of 2022, and June and July and so on. Which aligns with my post. Good Spirits on Emerald hasn't been running with the show since September of 2022. 

Are they not open at all?  Can I still get the drinks and not have the show?  Love good spirits and this just made me sad. 

[Thrak]

We must be weirdos. We watched one of the presentations and found it boring. I guess I will have to try one of the special drinks since so many people rave about it but it just seems to me that a watermelon based drink sounds kind of insipid. On our May cruise it seemed that the Good Spirits drinks were listed as more expensive than the Plus package covered. I've since read that apparently isn't the case. We'll have 32 days on Grand Princess this fall so I could likely manage to find some time to try some of these unusual drinks. I have looked at the menu (I have one saved on my laptop) and just haven't been excited by the offerings. I also find the "story" about the drinks to be lame. Perhaps I'm just a crabby old man.

[startedwithamouse]

2 hours ago, jaycruising said:

Are they not open at all?  Can I still get the drinks and not have the show?  Love good spirits and this just made me sad. 

We were able to get a couple of the drinks the bartender knew how to make. 

[justafem]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

We must be weirdos. We watched one of the presentations and found it boring. I guess I will have to try one of the special drinks since so many people rave about it but it just seems to me that a watermelon based drink sounds kind of insipid. On our May cruise it seemed that the Good Spirits drinks were listed as more expensive than the Plus package covered. I've since read that apparently isn't the case. We'll have 32 days on Grand Princess this fall so I could likely manage to find some time to try some of these unusual drinks. I have looked at the menu (I have one saved on my laptop) and just haven't been excited by the offerings. I also find the "story" about the drinks to be lame. Perhaps I'm just a crabby old man.

The watermelon on fire is my favorite cocktail on princess.  Before they opened good spirits, I'd order a strawberries on fire with a shot of dark rum.  So good!

 

Drinks are priced well within package limits. 

 

We didn't like the blue one, it tasted just like I'd blended a pine tree into booze.  Not pleasant!  UUKKK! 

[nini]

4 hours ago, Thrak said:

We must be weirdos. We watched one of the presentations and found it boring. I guess I will have to try one of the special drinks since so many people rave about it but it just seems to me that a watermelon based drink sounds kind of insipid. On our May cruise it seemed that the Good Spirits drinks were listed as more expensive than the Plus package covered. I've since read that apparently isn't the case. We'll have 32 days on Grand Princess this fall so I could likely manage to find some time to try some of these unusual drinks. I have looked at the menu (I have one saved on my laptop) and just haven't been excited by the offerings. I also find the "story" about the drinks to be lame. Perhaps I'm just a crabby old man.

I think you will like the Grand. We really enjoyed our time there in September 2022.

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, nini said:

I think you will like the Grand. We really enjoyed our time there in September 2022.

 

We sailed on Grand in 2014. It's been a long time. We had C752 and my wife absolutely loved that cabin. Aft facing port side corner balcony. Probably her favorite cabin to date. We're not in that cabin but are in a Caribe Deck balcony. B2B2B 14 days, 4 days, 14 days in C714. Sailing with Princess Plus. The first segment is the "old" Princess Plus and the other two are the "new" Princess Plus. (Don't really care about the "new" stuff with PP but saved over $1,100 and got an extra $600 OBC by cancelling and re-booking those two segments the other day.)

[nini]

13 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

We sailed on Grand in 2014. It's been a long time. We had C752 and my wife absolutely loved that cabin. Aft facing port side corner balcony. Probably her favorite cabin to date. We're not in that cabin but are in a Caribe Deck balcony. B2B2B 14 days, 4 days, 14 days in C714. Sailing with Princess Plus. The first segment is the "old" Princess Plus and the other two are the "new" Princess Plus. (Don't really care about the "new" stuff with PP but saved over $1,100 and got an extra $600 OBC by cancelling and re-booking those two segments the other day.)

Great! We love our corner aft cabins - even without the loveseat- so what.... The aft corner balconies are wonderful.. Shhh... do not say anything.

[lbfluffy]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:20 PM, Thrak said:

 

It was our first experience with that class of ship. The ship was less than half full and the buffet, while huge, was mostly empty space. The Medallion App wasn't working for the staff very well so when they tried to take an order they either stood there waiting for the system to work or just gave up and asked for a cabin number. Finding our friends with the app worked great and room service worked great.

 

I was less than enamored with having loud entertainment in the middle of the atrium area as it made all of the spaces above there quite loud. I also didn't like having the casino open to the rest of the ship as the smoke circulated into other areas. I booked dining for us and our friends at the same time every night and, after the first night, we had the same table every night and just showed up and were seated immediately.

 

The crew was great and were obviously not happy about the system not working correctly. They wanted things to go smoothly for the passengers. Princess Live is a weird venue and I'm happy they have changed it in some of the newer ships but it "mostly" worked okay. It was fine for games such as Liar's Club but awkward for Trivia. Princess Live Cafe (little bar and coffee spot right outside of Princess Live) was convenient for my wife to snag coffee in the morning on her way to Knitters and Natters without having to go down to IC and the bartender there was great.

 

Overall we had a really great cruise and wouldn't hesitate to book another cruise on Royal Princess. I'm guessing the system will work better for you and you should have a great time. If you board the ship expecting to have a wonderful cruise you most likely will have that exact result.

Thank you. We love Princess. We have one of the guys in our group that has never been on a cruise ship. This will be fun introducing him to the world of cruising so he keeps going. 

[Thrak]

10 hours ago, lbfluffy said:

Thank you. We love Princess. We have one of the guys in our group that has never been on a cruise ship. This will be fun introducing him to the world of cruising so he keeps going. 

 

It took my wife years to get me to cruise. Finally our oldest son ganged up with her and they badgered me until I agreed to a one time cruise. We sailed on a 10 day round trip to Alaska out of San Francisco. I get motion sickness but my wife said there was "no way" I would feel motion on a ship that size. Good thing I didn't trust her on that. I got patches from our doctor. We sailed in an inside cabin almost all the way forward up on Aloha deck. We sailed on the old Sea Princess and the cabin was tiny. Most Princess inside cabins are something like 160 sq. ft. or so. This one was A323 and was only 135 sq. ft. I had to go out of the cabin just to have room to change my mind! Of course we didn't know it was extra small as we had never cruised. The first night I woke up to the ship really rocking and rolling. For the first two days people were bouncing off the walls trying to walk. Very glad I had the patch. It wasn't only motion sickness that made me "absolutely certain" I would hate cruising. I "knew" I would hate the "snooty people", I wouldn't have the proper wardrobe, I would be bored out of my mind, etc. That wasn't quite how things turned out...

 

We had a great cruise and when we disembarked in SF after 10 days I wanted to get right back on the ship. My wife made a pretty costly "mistake" getting me to cruise "one time". We made Elite on days at sea after 13 cruises (including 2 very short trips due to work). Due to C19 cancellations we only have 16 Princess cruises (quite a few cruises and days at sea were cancelled) but we do have 4 more booked at the moment. We currently have 196 days at sea with Princess and another 48 days booked.

 

Hopefully your friend will have the same kind of experience I had on my first cruise. Who knew I would find that I loved it.