Earthworm Jim

I figure one still needs to own a tie for the occasional wedding or funeral. But agreed you don't really need one for a Princess cruise.

As far as I know the daily planners onboard still call it a formal night as well. But it has been a while for me, so perhaps that has changed. If so, I'm wrong. We aren't really disagreeing, just talking past each other. I'm saying they still have designated formal nights, though they aren't really formal anymore. And by you saying they don't have formal nights anymore you really mean that none of the nights are particularly formal in reality anymore. You're not meaning to say they aren't designated as such.

Well, on their website they still use the term "Formal": https://www.princess.com/en-us/faq/pre-cruise#what-to-pack-for-a-cruise Though the website still says: Evening gown, cocktail dress or elegant pant suit for women Tuxedo, dark suit or dinner jacket and slacks for men So what the website says and what actually happens on the ship may not be in sync.

It's on the app. Hit "Journey", "Explore the Ship Map", then "Muster Station". It's my understanding the location of your muster station isn't accurate until you actually board. I've read it just shows a placeholder location before then.

Aren't they only available in kids size?

If you are sitting out on deck and decide you want your free bottle of water there, why would you go back to your cabin?

Yeah, we were embarking at F and debarking at D, so we parked at garage D. It wasn't a bad walk, even rolling our bags. There's a sidewalk most of the way on the garage side of the street, then you cross and go through the Terminal E unloading area to Terminal F. Nothing was happening at Terminal E (seems like a smaller terminal) so that was easy. On return, getting out of Garage D was super fast and easy since there was virtually no one there yet. Which was good because we had a long drive to make that day.

According to this list of casual dining venues by ship, Grand Princess has Vines and Alfredos. https://cruiselifestyle.co.uk/princess-cruises-casual-dining-guide/

I have no idea if this is a significant issue. It may be an easily resolved, no big deal type concern. But Carnival has to suddenly arrange for all the food and other supplies that they were going to get in Baltimore to now be supplied in Norfolk on short notice. Maybe it's just run the trucks necessary to bring the Baltimore supplies down to Norfolk, rather than arrange a local supply in Norfolk. All in all, there are going to be a bunch of people in Norfolk who thought they had Easter Sunday off working instead.

Agree to disagree there. It's not exactly the same, but it's similar in that you aren't getting the same thing as you booked.

That's absolutely correct. They don't HAVE to offer anything. That said, cruise lines have often offered compensation for events beyond their control, such as weather. For example, the MSC Meraviglia was supposed to go on a Bahamas cruise from NY last December when weather forced them to change it to a New England and Canada itinerary. They gave the option of a full refund instead. But that was clearly a bigger disruption than the Baltimore to Norfolk switch. A west coast Carnival Miracle cruise had to radically change their itinerary last October due to a hurricane (San Diego and Catalina Island instead of Cabo) and Carnival gave $200 compensation there. That may be a more comparable situation. But in the current case didn't Carnival offer some compensation for flight changes?

Yeah, but on the other hand how many of us have routinely spent 4+ hours in airports and on planes at the end of a cruise? Though here the trip to Baltimore is not the final destination for many people. They still need to get home from Baltimore.

Well, you'd be going on that 4 hour ride either way. The difference is it's someone else's problem to do it, but also someone else has control. In your case you'd also benefit from not having to pay for parking if you could get someone to drive you to the port. All hypothetical anyway it seems.

In fairness, we had a car when we got those $200-$250 hotels recently so we were able to look outside the immediate Port Everglades area. That's not likely a viable option for most people flying in.

If they did state that, I missed it. All I saw was them saying there would be buses from Norfolk to Baltimore, without any "one way, one time" definitive statement. Still, unless they say they're going to do something, they presumably aren't doing it. Regardless, the point was it may not have been worth offering the bus to Norfolk anyway because I doubt many would take it. Carnival probably came to the same conclusion.

Assuming a $200-$250 hotel room price in Florida, which is what we normally pay for a mainstream chain hotel, you're finding Baltimore hotels for one fifth that cost, $40-$50 a night? Flight costs may be the case wherever you're flying from, but randomly picking a Friday to the following Saturday round trip in May out of my airport (Albany, NY) on Southwest shows from $134 RT Baltimore and from $154 RT Ft. Lauderdale. Minimal difference. And Baltimore is a major SW hub too.

If they did offer such a bus, I wonder what the take rate would be? Assuming Baltimore cruises are mostly driven to, if you're coming from anywhere south or west of Baltimore it would be quicker to drive directly to Norfolk than to go to Baltimore first. Even drivers coming from north of Baltimore might just do the extra driving to Norfolk or switch to flying. Driving yourself has extra costs and potentially traffic aggravations, but it also gains you control over timing and stops. But if they offer a bus to Norfolk, then they have to offer a bus back from Norfolk at the end of the cruise too. And then we have the same question as to whether to offer a bus to Norfolk the next week. At some piont they'll want to get out of the busing business.

That's about a 4 hour ride. Good thing there's never any traffic on I-95 between DC and Richmond.

Your comment went over my head. I looked it up and answer is apparently China by a wide margin. (10x the US) But I'm not clear on why that is cause for optimism. Or pessimism, if the comment was intended as sarcastic.

Well, yeah. But since this is a cruising site, of course we're going to talk about the cruising angle.

I don't know the percentages, but my guess is northeast ports such as Baltimore probably have a lot higher percentage of drivers than warm weather ports. If you're going to fly to your cruise, you'll probably fly to Florida, New Orleans, etc.and spend your whole cruise in the warmth. The main advantage of Baltimore in chilly seasons is if you can avoid flights by driving there.

It can be done. I was on a cruise out of Tampa once when they couldn't return to Tampa because they were worried about a hurricane. (Katrina, which ended up hitting N.O. of course) We instead returned to Miami, and they bused us back the 4 hours to Tampa in time for us to make our afternoon flight home. It was actually impressively well organized for something done on short notice.

The Left Coast Lifter (Largest barge crane ever used on the U.S. West Coast. Used during construction of the SF-Oak Bay Bridge and NY's Tappan Zee Bridge.) is currently for sale and based in Wilmington, Delaware. (Which is close by land but would require looping around the DelMarVa peninsula by sea) I would think that would have great value both removing the wreckage and eventually building the new bridge. My guess is their phone has been ringing this morning.

A real gambler who lives close enough to Port Canaveral to take a trip on short notice and has free time could book a slot on the April 4th sailing. There are still inside and suite cabins available. If it ends up being cancelled, you'd presumably get your money back and a 100% cruise credit. But you'd have to be willing to take the cruise if it goes. Wait, that's 11 days away, not this week. Never mind.

Is it really that bad? You would know better than I do, but based on my one platinum experience a couple of weeks ago on Horizon, I'd say there was maybe 200 people in the platinum, diamond, and suites lounge waiting to board. Sure, there was no doubt more of them arriving later, but 1/2 the ship seems impossible. On a Discovery cruise I'd guess the numbers are higher of course.