Princess "9 Day" cruises from FLL

Hi, I've been looking for cruises on Princess out of Ft Lauderdale. I am curious what others think of their 9 day trips, which are essentially a 4 day and a 5 day cruise strung together, with a return to FL port on the 4th day. Personally I don't think I want to waste a day being a through passenger in FLL at that price; these cruises are mostly on Royal, which has the most expensive rooms. Have you done one of these cruises and if so would you do it again? If you've avoided them, what makes you do so? Laurie

Hi, I've been looking for cruises on Princess out of Ft Lauderdale. I am curious what others think of their 9 day trips, which are essentially a 4 day and a 5 day cruise strung together, with a return to FL port on the 4th day. Personally I don't think I want to waste a day being a through passenger in FLL at that price; these cruises are mostly on Royal, which has the most expensive rooms. Have you done one of these cruises and if so would you do it again? If you've avoided them, what makes you do so? Laurie

A lot of people take back-to-back, (b2b), cruises and love them. They give you more days of cruising with only one trip between home and the embarkation port. If cruising suits you, you will find a 4, 5, or 7 day cruise much too short. In many cases, a b2b cruise is sold as one booking number rather than two and the fare is often lower that the sum of the fares if the two cruises were booked separately.

Princess offers excursions in FLL that you can take on the turn around day. Also, it can be fun to stay aboard the ship when it has few people on board.

I have done both 14 and 20 day b2b cruises aboard the Royal Princess and enjoyed them greatly.

Hi, I've been looking for cruises on Princess out of Ft Lauderdale. I am curious what others think of their 9 day trips, which are essentially a 4 day and a 5 day cruise strung together, with a return to FL port on the 4th day. Personally I don't think I want to waste a day being a through passenger in FLL at that price; these cruises are mostly on Royal, which has the most expensive rooms. Have you done one of these cruises and if so would you do it again? If you've avoided them, what makes you do so? Laurie

Just take an air boat excursion in the everglades on that day. :)

We did one of these 4/5 day B2B last year and while the airboat excursion on turnaround day was nice, we probably wouldn't do it again.

The clientele on these shorter cruises are somewhat of a different sort than the usual longer cruises we like and it was much more of a party/drinking cruise for more guests than we were accustomed to. Not that that was a bad thing but we also found the staff were just not as personable as they are constantly turning over guests at a much faster rate so they really were not as engaging as usual.

They were OK cruises overall, but we prefer the longer cruises that are not B2B personally.

Hi, I've been looking for cruises on Princess out of Ft Lauderdale. I am curious what others think of their 9 day trips, which are essentially a 4 day and a 5 day cruise strung together, with a return to FL port on the 4th day. Personally I don't think I want to waste a day being a through passenger in FLL at that price; these cruises are mostly on Royal, which has the most expensive rooms. Have you done one of these cruises and if so would you do it again? If you've avoided them, what makes you do so? Laurie

Royal Princess is sailing true ten-day itineraries round trip from Port Everglades. Emerald Princess is the ship sailing the nine-day Grand Caribbean Samplers which are 4 day and 5 day cruises B2B.

Looking at pricing right now nine days on Emerald and ten days on Regal are very similar. But the four and five day segments are often discounted if not sold out after final payment so booking your Grand Voyage as two separate cruises may be your best deal.

One other thing to take into consideration is that certain Captains Circle benefits (and suite benefits for those who book them) are not offered on cruises shorter than seven days, especially the benefits associated with formal nights are there will be none on the four day segment. So if pricing and timing are equal just book the true ten day on Royal Princess; for me it would take a combination of strongly wanting both eastern and western Caribbean ports on the same trip plus a markedly lower fare to book the nine day instead.

We've done two trips that combined short cruises to make a longer one. The first was combining two 4-day cruises to give us eight days. The second was combining a 3-day with a 4-day to give us a full week. Taking b2b cruises worked for our budget and our schedule. They were less expensive than the week-long cruises Princess was offering.

Sometimes the turnaround day is a breeze. Our first time, however, was held up by a woman and her daughter who did not follow directions. We would have been fine if we had taken an excursion in Fort Lauderdale, but we elected to stay on the ship and go through Immigration. The second time doing b2b proved how easy and painless the process could be. There are a lot of posts here on Cruise Critic describing how it works.

On both our b2b cruises, we opted not to do anything in Fort Lauderdale other than a quick trip to Total Wine after lunch. It was nice not to have to attend the second muster drill. Be aware that services stop for them, though. We spent time in the pool.

I did not miss the formal nights. They give you a voucher for a free drink per person if you would have been eligible to go to the Captain's party. We also have been disappointed with the Elite hors d'oeuvres and don't bother ordering them. We did get our two Elite mini bar setups, which was great. We also did not have any problems with getting our laundry, although in one case it did take two days to come back instead of coming back the next day.

One other thing to take into consideration is that certain Captains Circle benefits (and suite benefits for those who book them) are not offered on cruises shorter than seven days, especially the benefits associated with formal nights are there will be none on the four day segment. So if pricing and timing are equal just book the true ten day on Royal Princess; for me it would take a combination of strongly wanting both eastern and western Caribbean ports on the same trip plus a markedly lower fare to book the nine day instead.

Such as?

Such as?

• No Captain's cocktail party (a single drink voucher instead);
  
• No discount on Reflections DVD (not produced on cruises shorter than seven days);
  
• No in-room canapes or other formal night offerings (no formal night on four day segment);
  
• No complimentary wine tasting (several reports here that Grapevine not held on short cruises);
  
• Free laundry benefit essentially useless (unless you are among those who purposely pack dirty clothes to send in upon embarkation).
  

Admittedly nit picky, but should I ever reach Elite I would never book a short getaway. Maybe we have found the reason the clientele is described as "different" on them.

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Admittedly nit picky, but should I ever reach Elite I would never book a short getaway. Maybe we have found the reason the clientele is described as "different" on them.

If I booked for the perks, I guess I wouldn't waste my time either, but I like a short cruise in spite of having to forego the Captain's loud, crowded and boring party with cold and soggy canapes and watered down drinks. Three days at sea is still better than three days at work, if you ask me.

"Different"? I guess I missed that post.

Look at Emerald Princess (a very nice ship) in January (2016).

We are booked on Emerald for 14 days beginning 1/23/16 (basically a 7&7) and added a 5 day (1/18/16) to make it a 19 day.

Many on our January 18th roll call are doing it as a 9 day by adding the 4 day (1/14/16) sailing.

We do lots of B2Bs and never find our turn-around days to be a problem.

If you need to have cleaning sent out the last day of your first sailing, just mark it "Elite - In Transit" or "In Transit" ... whichever applies.

LuLu

If I booked for the perks, I guess I wouldn't waste my time either, but I like a short cruise in spite of having to forego the Captain's loud, crowded and boring party with cold and soggy canapes and watered down drinks. Three days at sea is still better than three days at work, if you ask me.

 

"Different"? I guess I missed that post.

Never said I cruise solely for the benefits; was merely volunteering the information that on short getaways Princess disclaims certain features that it otherwise prominently touts, and when asked to elaborate I offered a list.

I agree wholeheartedly that three days at sea are most always better than elsewhere; benefits aside, a larger personal reason I avoid short cruises would be to not have the hassles of embarkation and disembarkation a mere 90 hours apart. Perhaps I should just be thankful to have the opportunity for longer cruises and leave it at that.

And the "different" reference was to post #4 above.

We were shocked to discover how much we enjoyed the shorter itineraries when we cruised on them last year on the Caribbean Princess. Sure, our fellow passengers were from a different demographic than on longer cruises, and sometimes (as when the University of Florida was on Spring Break) provided a bit a noise in the early morning hours as they settled in for the night...er, day. But, on the flip side, they were otherwise very polite and we found their antics slightly entertaining.

We found the entertainment staff on the Caribbean to be the hardest working I'd ever seen, simply because most of the same entertainment offerings were there, just on a compressed schedule. I really don't know how they kept going. On the other hand, we found many on the crew to be aloof at best, and surly at worst. Not all, certainly, but more than we're used to on Princess.

We are willing to try the shorter cruises again this upcoming winter, simply because they are on a ship we know we love (the Emerald Princess). If we run into the same crew issues there, I'll more strongly suspect that the shorter cruises with many more turnarounds take a toll on the crew. Not that it matters, really. Princess seems to be getting away from them as standard fare during the Winter of 2016/17. Perhaps they weren't as profitable as it was hoped they'd be.

As for perks...we really noticed no big difference other than, on the 4 night cruises, if one was among the top 10 (not 20) couples on the ship, a complimentary specialty restaurant dinner was given in lieu of an MTP party. To me, along with the Captains Circle OBCs we received every 4 or 5 days, that was the icing on the cake.

We were shocked to discover how much we enjoyed the shorter itineraries when we cruised on them last year on the Caribbean Princess. Sure, our fellow passengers were from a different demographic than on longer cruises, and sometimes (as when the University of Florida was on Spring Break) provided a bit a noise in the early morning hours as they settled in for the night...er, day. But, on the flip side, they were otherwise very polite and we found their antics slightly entertaining.

 

We found the entertainment staff on the Caribbean to be the hardest working I'd ever seen, simply because most of the same entertainment offerings were there, just on a compressed schedule. I really don't know how they kept going. On the other hand, we found many on the crew to be aloof at best, and surly at worst. Not all, certainly, but more than we're used to on Princess.

 

We are willing to try the shorter cruises again this upcoming winter, simply because they are on a ship we know we love (the Emerald Princess). If we run into the same crew issues there, I'll more strongly suspect that the shorter cruises with many more turnarounds take a toll on the crew. Not that it matters, really. Princess seems to be getting away from them as standard fare during the Winter of 2016/17. Perhaps they weren't as profitable as it was hoped they'd be.

 

As for perks...we really noticed no big difference other than, on the 4 night cruises, if one was among the top 10 (not 20) couples on the ship, a complimentary specialty restaurant dinner was given in lieu of an MTP party. To me, along with the Captains Circle OBCs we received every 4 or 5 days, that was the icing on the cake.

Hi Jeanne, Can't wait to see your blog up and rolling for the winter; one of the things I look forward to until we cruise! We are currently booked on the Caribbean Princess, one of my favorite ships, on the 3/20 trip out of Houston. My search was motivated by some of the "problems" with a Houston departure, including a relatively high flight cost compared to FLL, a somewhat inconvenient port to travel from in terms of flying in same day versus day before and long distances between hotels/airport/cruise port. That said I chose this trip to be on the CP and for the itinerary, so I sure won't allow these things to get in the way of a great vacation once a decision is made. B2B's make sense to me if 7+7 or 10+10 and from your blog I am very familiar with how they work, but somehow a return to port after such a short time makes no sense to me as an "advantage." I'm Platinum so those elite perks aren't a factor for me yet :p I have also heard about the booze cruise/party factor of these short cruises before and while that would not ruin a trip, it wouldn't interest me to participate. In price comparison, which was my intent when I looked to FLL, it was more expensive to book a comparative cabin (aft balcony) and cruise length (10 days) on the Royal even with the lower flight cost, and since I didn't consider the 4+5, I've left my Houston booking for the time being, and feel as though it is settling in on me. Laurie

Great to hear from you Laurie. Happy cruising!! :)

Disadvantages of the 4 day + 5 day cruise vs. a 10 day cruise.

a) Menus on the four day will likely be repeated on the 5 day. There will be 10 different menus on the 10 day cruise.

b) Entertainment is likely to repeat on the 4+5 days. It will not repeat on the 10 day.

c) More ports on the 10 day

d) Turnaround day is really not a cruise day.

We did a 9 day on the Ruby and discovered we didn't really care for it.

We took a disembarkation tour on turnaround day. That wasn't really a negative, it was actually one of the best tours we've done. But getting back on the ship, we had to re-sign up for our drink packages and I couldn't access my spa appointments for the other half of the cruise until after turnaround, among other little issues. Personally, I found it irritating. And, of course, we had great table mates for the first half and then one couple left and was replaced by another, less enjoyable couple who treated the four day leg as a booze cruise, so they were never anywhere near sober for dinner.

I wouldn't book a 9 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale. I don't appreciate flying to port and losing a cruise day on turnaround in Ft Lauderdale. Now if I lived in Florida I would book it as a 4 day and 5 day cruise in order to get 2 cruise credits. On the turnaround day I would go home throw in a load of wash, feed the cat and go through the mail. IMO the only 9 day cruise worth taking is the reposition cruise from NYC in October other wise I would book a 10day cruise with no turnaround day

Royal Princess is sailing true ten-day itineraries round trip from Port Everglades. Emerald Princess is the ship sailing the nine-day Grand Caribbean Samplers which are 4 day and 5 day cruises B2B.

I find the description "Grand Caribbean Sampler" to be a joke. 3 ports of call and technically 3 days in Fort Lauderdale on a 9 day cruise is more of a "Glimpse". I have made 5 ports of call on a 7 day in the past when they had those great southern itineraries out of San Juan. I wish they would bring those back.

I find the description "Grand Caribbean Sampler" to be a joke. 3 ports of call and technically 3 days in Fort Lauderdale on a 9 day cruise is more of a "Glimpse". I have made 5 ports of call on a 7 day in the past when they had those great southern itineraries out of San Juan. I wish they would bring those back.[/QUOte

 

I agree the 4-5 day b2b is only a glimpse of the Caribbean. If cruising the Caribbean for the first or second time I would go for a 10 day. (Would love it out Puerto Rico again). That said..If all you want is to get out of the cold for a few days, have someone else cook and clean, combined with great sale prices on air and cruise..go for it.

I agree the 4-5 day b2b is only a glimpse of the Caribbean. If cruising the Caribbean for the first or second time I would go for a 10 day. (Would love it out Puerto Rico again). That said..If all you want is to get out of the cold for a few days, have someone else cook and clean, combined with great sale prices on air and cruise..go for it.

 

Hi Chris! Looking forward to cruising with you and Emery on the 2nd leg of your 9 day sailing -- Emerald Princess January 18th!

It'll be a FUN five days! :D

 

LuLu

I would kill to be on a cruise right now rather than at work. Enjoy whatever cruise you are able to be on. It will be better than any day at work. Always.

I would kill to be on a cruise right now rather than at work. Enjoy whatever cruise you are able to be on. It will be better than any day at work. Always.

Amen! :D

• No complimentary wine tasting (several reports here that Grapevine not held on short cruises);
  
• Free laundry benefit essentially useless (unless you are among those who purposely pack dirty clothes to send in upon embarkation).
  

We had the complimentary wine tastings on our 3- and 4-day cruises last year. We went to the first one and stayed for it, but went to pick up our glasses for the second one without staying for it since it was the same guy leading it ("shwirl the wine in your glass"). I guess after a few more cruises as Elite, we wouldn't bother to do that again. We'll have enough of the little souvenir glasses.

As for the laundry, I probably would not have bothered sending out anything on the first leg of our cruise if I had not spilled something on a pair of white shorts. But since I did, I went ahead and sent everything I had already worn. DH sent out a few things on the second leg of our cruise.

I really appreciate everyone's thoughts on this topic. I am not new to cruising (platinum on Princess + 2 other cruises) and I have cruised 10 day Caribbean itineraries for 9 years now. I am more annoyed that Princess seems to think this 5+4 combo "equals" any other itinerary. I had the opportunity to cruise on Royal last December and it was a lovely trip/ship, but if I could sail on a smaller Princess ship (like Emerald or Caribbean Princess) on a great 10 day itinerary or a 7-10 day that originated in San Juan I would be a VERY happy camper. These smaller ships are fine for the things I enjoy and they don't command a premium price for the cabins the way the new ships do. It was the smaller ship and lower cost plus the itinerary that drew me to the currently booked cruise from Houston, and I don't think anything about the FLL options will attract me to change plans. Does anyone know why San Juan is no longer an originating port? I sure miss it! Are you listening Princess? Laurie