LIVE ABOARD THE CB 8/24/08 sailing

[5Cats]

CMM - you are given a beeper, so you can go to the bar and have a drink or walk around.

DonnaK - sorry you are having such a bad time with the Anytime Dining. Though DH and I have never had a problem, I've read stories such as yours - and hope Princess will do their best to fix it in the future.

That being said, and DH loves cruising because he can eat as much as he wants, I know dining is very important to some people. But don't let it ruin the cruise and your experience. At this point, we're hearing less and less about the good stuff and more about the dining, which is terrible for you! Hopefully, once you get seated, the food is good.??

We don't do any cruise line where we don't have the Anytime dining option. DH orders alot of entrees (one after another) so if we were in traditional dining, he wouldn't feel as comfortable doing that.

Funny how some (we) wouldn't book w/o Anytime Dining, and others would prefer to only have the Traditional options, thus guaranteeing set time and wait staff!

Can't wait to read your full review - hope everything else is going well!

[DonnaK]

Thanks to everyone who commisserated with me over the dining issue. We've resolved it by being at the door when it opens - then we have our choice of tables. Since we wanted early traditional anyway, the timeframe is the same, and there is no wait, and we can get the wait team we like.


In Bar Harbor today, the news is good. No problems with immigration - we went at 7:30am, and there was no line at all. We were through in less than 3 minutes. As we exited, a crew member asked what time we wanted to go ashore, and we were handed tender tickets for that time. We were done eating breakfast early, and had no problem getting on the tender leaving before the one we had tickets for. Lines were minimal, and we were onshore at 9am, in time for the tour we reserved (not through Princess) for Acadia National Park, through the Park Service (not Oli's Trolley because we wanted cushioned seats and not wooden benches). It was gorgeous - a wonderful excursion and a very cute, quaint town. Nice shopping!

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Glad to hear you have resolved your dining issue one way or another and now you can get to enjoy Princess and your cruise even more.:D

We are fans of anytime dining but haven't been subjected to the problems you have encountered and hope we don't on the Ruby or the CB next year.
We haven't done anytime on the ships with the 'extra deck' of passengers so wonder if that has an effect as well as that we prefer to eat later.

Enjoy and looking forward to your full review and thanks for doing a 'live from' for us to enjoy.

[shancan911]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=teal]Donna,[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=#008080]I hope you are still having a wonderful time! And thank you for your live report.[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=#008080]I am anxious to find out if there is any sort of luggage service that will take your bags on the last night, and take them directly to the airport. We had this on our last RCI cruise, for a nominal fee. It would be great on our 10-5 CB cruise, so we could enjoy the city before our 7pm flight. I posted a general thread here as well, but thought if you saw something first hand it may be helpful.[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=#008080]Thanks again![/COLOR][/FONT]