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[AE_Collector]

@Jb456 

Rum and Coke was invented for these moments, 151 proof if you’ve got it!

AE_Collector

[AE_Collector]

We did one those relocation package trips 10 years ago. Vancouver to Ketchikan to Seattle. 4 day cruise. Then we were flown from Seattle to Vegas for 3 days I think and then flew home. It was our 5th Princess cruise and besides being very inexpensive and easy to do the appeal was getting cruise #5 done so our next longer cruise would come with free internet.

Terry

[ShawnC13]

@AE_Collector, ya as I said we were on the relocation trip.  Went Vancouver to LA then flew straight into Vegas for four days.  Was a lot of fun.  I won the Golfing Long drive and closest to the pin competitions on the simulator.

[AE_Collector]

@ShawnC13 

People seem to either love it or hate it. I sort of think that quite a few “hate it” just to spite themselves! Travelling any other way to see many different destinations in a relatively short period of time is exhausting for all but the young. With cruising you get on board, my wife cant wait for the suit cases to arrive in the room so she can unpack as fast as possible and THEN we are “on holidays”! We take our hotel room with us every day. We know where dinner is every night, we have a lunch and breakfast routine. We enjoy the down time and then do as much as we want to at each port. We still take out parents along with us on some of the easier to do cruises as they are at the point where they would worry themselves to death if they were doing a trip like this on their own.

We are “always” the ones seeing other passengers disembark at San Francisco or LA as we continue on for the next leg or two of the cruise. Nothing feels better than seeing everyone but us scurrying around with luggage, hoping they find the bus or taxi to the airport, standing in line to pay their bill etc while we debate soup & salad, pizza or a hamburger for lunch today. But all good things come to an end eventually and we too have to find our way home. By then we are usually willing to return to home if not eager to.

My wife is a bit of a worry-a-holic about having everything reserved etc so nothing will lead to her having to spend the night on a park bench. With our 49 day trip around South America I hadn’t even booked a flight home from LA as we departed Ft Lauderdale on Ruby Princess. I didn't book the transportation from San Pedro to LAX or the flight to Vancouver until 10-15 days before we would arrive in LA. It’s best when she just doesn’t ask any questions.

So yes, if you sort of thought a shorter one way cruise wasn’t too bad plan on doing another a bit more adventurous next. Don't need to go crazy, just step it up a bit and see how that goes. Millions of us think its the only way to go!

Terry 

[ShawnC13]

I have only been in cruise and was surprised how much I enjoyed it.  We did a short trip in the relocation trip from Alaska to Florida, we went Vancouver to LA.  We had dinner with a couple who like @AE_Collector was at the top of the rewards and they were doing the entire cruise.  Meet a lot of nice people and had a ton of fun. Can't wait to be able to go again

[AE_Collector]

We are 20 miles from Canada Place pier downtown Vancouver. Nothing beats being able to cruise at least one way to or from home (we are especially happy to get the flying done up front and then cruise how to Vancouver). Besides Alaska we can cruise to Hawaii return, California Return and one ways, or one ways to/from Asia, Australia, Tahiti, Panama Canal to Ft Lauderdale etc. Cant get all of these trips other than Alaska that often but they are available.

We try to not do the same trips over and over though, lots of world t o see and that means we have to do the dreaded flying part to accomplish that. We have been a lot of places and have many more t o get to still. And there are some we want to do again.

Our last cruise was October 22 to Nov 1, 2019, the 10 day California return from Vancouver. So we haven't been on a ship in 13 months where as we usually do several cruises a year.

Terry

[AE_Collector]

Ocean View Rooms: 

Yes Natural light and the ability to keep the body clock somewhat in the right time zone. Also to be able to check outside in the morning and see if we are actually tied up at the dock or are still heading towards port. Sometimes it is hard to tell if you are moving or not. And to see how the weather looks. Yeah one can figure all this out by turning on the TV I guess.

Loyalty Levels on Princess:

2 & 3rd cruise = Gold

4 & 5 cruise = Ruby (main perk lower cost trip insurance)

6 - 15 cruise = Platinum (main perk a free internet package)

16 cruise and up = Elite (+free laundry, +free minibar set up)

Yes we hit Elite in 2014 along with crossing the equator on a 32 day cruise between Tahiti and Vancouver and we are closing in on triple the number of cruises to make it to Elite now. I keep hoping they will create a new level with some additional little perk but no indication they are even considering it. @Jb456 yes “Black Card” and we are pretty low key travellers, card stays in my pocket or on occasion where I have it on a lanyard its inside my shirt. I have a low tolerance for arrogance amongst travellers.

We’ve met some incredible people over the years, both passengers and crew. One couple I will never forget was a black couple on a Quebec City to New York cruise, they were from NYC. He a somewhat retired trumpet player in Big Bands and she a retired Federal Government employee. As they told us more about themselves she got to the part of having bid on a posting and got the job starting Sept 1, 2001 which was in a different building in NYC. She had transferred out of the World Trade Centre 11 days before 9-11. I have never had that feeling before of being in the presence of someone enjoying retirement after having been so lucky to have avoided such a tragedy.

Terry

[Jb456]

@mimmo  natural light, that makes sense.

Are you (drive time) near a border to fly out of USA or just fly directly from your hometown airport when taking Carribean cruises?

Here I'm 50 minutes from a small airport in state of New York. They have two cheapy airlines with direct flights to Florida. Sometime you get tickets for $30 USD each way. So I maximize the savings looking for cruises that fit those cheapy flights instead of flying out of Montreal for hundreds more. Big savings if a group of people are going. 

I also either plan an entire trip and wait for last minute cruise deals (if it's a Carribean cruise) as there is always a ship to jump on. 

Or, if I do book in advance I'll continue to watch for price drops and then call them asking if I can get the discount to. Sometimes have to be persistent but usually I'll get applied an onboard credit lol.

When I took my son on his first cruise when he was little.  There was a stop at NCl private island great stirrup cay. At that time on the website they had videos of this huge massive slide for kids to play on. (My son didn't see the slide as the whole trip was a surprise for him) ..but I found out NCL removed the slide completely. So I called them, not to necessary complain but to see if I could persuade them in giving a credit or something for the inconvenience. Said to guy "look I have an issue and it's partially NCLs fault. I'm here sitting with my son showing him videos of this super awesome slide that you guys are advertising on your website. Now I find out that the slide is long gone so when we get to the island my son is going to be awfully disappointed and cry because he is expecting to jump down this awesome slide that he keeps watching videos about. What you guys going to about this? "" 🤣

Long story short they gave a $300 onboard credit for the inconvenience and an arcade package. Lol.

Hey no harm in asking right? Worst they could say is no. 

Do you (ae as well) wheel and deal with the cruise line? Or more of pay the price it costs and that's it that's all?

[mimmo]

@Jb456  it's just about having some natural light in the room. But yeah other than that it's the same as an interior room.  I typically base decisions on price and then number of days at sea.

[Jb456]

@mimmo  🙂 see isn't it easy to just direct it the person? Lol. I appreciate your chillaxed attitude. (Good or bad). 👍

Apologize to you when I used "some" on this part ""(Similar to how some wrote on here to justify the drink package)""....I knew you would get it that I was referring to you. My phone was being silly and wouldn't let me tag your name and on my keyboard on the phone the predicted words show "some" when I type "when" I just clicked that and knew you'd understand. Lol. Probably would have typed your name if it was a negative comment directed to you but it wasn't.

Anywho back to cruising topic!.

Do both of you (AE/mimmo) care to share what you like about an ocean view or obstructed rather than interior room?

I look it as pretty much the same room just that one has a window. If I want to see outside I'll just go top deck.

I believe ocean/obstructed views have a better area than inside? As in what you said mimmo. Under the theater, club or  near engine room? 

Is that the reason you guys pick ocean views over an interior? 

Or ( I'm not sure about other lines) but with NCL for instance. Interior you get one perk, ocean you get 2 perks. So is it something like that? Or a combination of both?

Typically (not all the time) there is generally quite the few hundreds of dollars difference between inside/ocean. I have trouble justifying that extra cost for simply a window to look out of. 

Unless I'm missing something?......

[mimmo]

@AE_Collector yup obstructed ocean view is what we typically get as well deck 7 or ,8 iirc midship 🙂  personally Don't mind the interior either and  as some people mentioned the room is only for sleeping and changing, as long as it's not above the theatre or the the engine room.  The free laundry and internet credits are nice with princess once you get to the top level.

 @Jb456 yes was referring to you as some people. 🙂  It's not hard to deduce as there are only 3 of us here. Lol. In future not offended if you mention me by name good or bad.

[AE_Collector]

Yeah we won’t be first back onboard either. Going to have to give them some time to fine tune all the new processes to keep people safe.

Actually we rarely do balconies. Only if it is very little extra $$ to upgrade from ocean view cabins which we frequently do book. And sometimes we find that “obstructed ocean view” is much less $$ than full ocean view. I Have occasionally even seen obstructed OV at same price as interior. 

We still occasionally get an inside if it is significantly less than anything else. But obstructed OV is where we start looking. And we used to have great luck at receiving upgrades but that seems to have run out for us the last few years.

AE_Collector

[Jb456]

@AE_Collector  WOW that is truly amazing!! All those cruises. You must have seen some beautiful destination's 🙂

40 or 45 on Princess that means you have an Elite card? I hope you're not one of those Elite holder's that like to go around bragging and flashing their card all day everyday 😝 (Please don't take offense to that comment I am just joking around)

I also presume you cruise in balconies all the time? I do sometimes and also times just an inside. I can't justify the cost on some cruises for a balcony as I'm never in the room other then sleep,shower, change. I'm sure as I start cruising more in the years to come and I get older it will probably be 💯 balconies but for now I go by the price. (Similar to how some wrote on here to justify the drink package) I do it for rooms.

I hope one day I can do a month and half cruise. So jealous lol.

Before all this covid started I was looking at an 18 day NCL cruise free drink package. Athens to Dubai: Egypt, Jordan, Israel & Oman.

The drink package gratuities (all you pay) was like $480 Canadian for 18 days. To me that's a steal considering if I were to go downtown Montreal or to the old port and have a beer its like $10 plus tip. 

All this cruise talking is making me want to go book one lol. Unfortunately won't be doing that for awhile now until covid is contained.

[AE_Collector]

Ah the drinking R&C in the lounge continues!

We have done a LOT of cruising. I think we are at cruise #45 or #46 now. That said we do a lot of back to back or even 3 consecutive cruises and I am counting those as 2 or 3 cruises in my number above even though it all became 1 cruise for us.

40 of the 45 have been on Princess, 4 on Celebrity and 1 on Norwegian. Haven’t been on a bad cruise yet. We are amazed at how you and a few thousand others can be on a floating all inclusive hotel visiting multiple countries and have so little go wrong! Our 3rd and 4th cruises (first back to back cruises) were our first time on Princess and we just sort of settled in with them and stayed. 

Our longest cruise so far (3 back to back cruises) was 49 days Ft Lauderdale to LA around Cape Horn. Australia to Vancouver 32 days, Mediterranean and Norway coast 30 days etc etc.

Have never had a drink package. Princess stated offering them awhile ago as mentioned $50 something US per person per day. But some cruises include them, just not the ones we have done. We are a little afraid that we might “try to hard to get our money’s worth” if we had a drinks package and neither of us are good for more than 2-3 a day at best.

AE_Collector (in the lounge so... Terry)

[Jb456]

@mimmo  well that's a great bonus 😁 totally free and in Hawaii to. Right on!

[mimmo]

@Jb456 done princess, NCL and RC, yes the free drink package is nice, done it myself a couple times.  I was just saying you need to make the 2-3 drink threshold  to make it worthwhile.  For some I guess it's easier than other ( or maybe i just need to be 20 again lol) .for at sea days it pretty easy to meet threshold, not so much when you get off the ship for the whole day, which requires dedication to catch up the missing drinks. 

Bought the package on our SEA-Hawaii trip 10 days, .made good use of it, and thanks to a clerical error, was not charged for the package nor the gratuities. 

[Jb456]

@mimmo  

NCL for a few years now have been offering free drink packages. All you pay is the gratuity. A 7 day Caribbean cruise you get the drink package free and just pay like $185 Canadian Total on the gratuities for an entire 7 day trip.

Where as most other cruise lines due offer a drink package (like $59 per day) plus gratuities. 

I think it's well worth it when it's a completely free package + gratuities. When you have to pay the actual drink package + gratuities then that's were you have to weigh the pros and cons if you'll get the money back. When the package is free (well like $185 Canadian for 7 days for the gratuity part) that's a no brainer.

My last cruise (free drink package) the bill was over $1400 USD. It was nice to see Zero at the bottom thanks to the free drink package haha. All for under $200 Canadian. Actually after calculating everything up my cruise basically came out to be free. As the booze bill was much higher than the total cost of the cruise. Win win!

Yes I know I'm likely younger than you and on a cruise indulge in more alcoholic drinks than you would. But when it's free and all you pay is $185 CAD in gratuities. I'm sure for an entire week you'd pay much more than that if you paid per drink.

Can't wait to cruise again if only covid word go away.

[mimmo]

@AE_Collector would like to know answer too 🙂 but it's anything from free.  They charge gratuity on-top of the cost of the package.  Iirc it turned out I needed 3 drinks/day to make it worthwhile 

Mimosa at breakfast, G+T at lunch , glass of red at dinner, to make my R+C at the show free 🙂

[Jb456]

@AE_Collector  would it be wrong to assume you cruise NCL for the free drink package? 😅

[Jb456]

@AE_Collector  I miss crusing too. Can't wait till Covid is either gone or slows down with a vaccine. Had 1 cruise, 2 all inclusives cancelled because of this 😭. Hopefully soon things will change.

[AE_Collector]

@Jb456 

It may have been discontinued. I always liked Lambs Navy 151 but have t had any for a long time. Graduated into Ambers like Myers and Mount Gay etc though I believe that one or both of them make a 151 version available in some places, just not in Canada. I miss cruising!

AE_Collector

[Jb456]

@AE_Collector  have my Havana club sitting right next to me 😄 unfortunately no 151 but Havana club will do. Thought 151 Bacardi (if that's what you're talking about) was discontinued a few years ago.