LeeW

My original Princess password did not have special characters in it and I couldn't get it to work with the Ocean Ready account - that requires a password with special characters. Fix was to change the password on the normal site to add special characters. Then it worked on both sites.

Refundable/Non-refundable only applies prior to the final payment date. Once you have paid in full on that date you hit cancellation fees of 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% depending on how close to sailing you decide to cancel. Insurance can reimburse you for that, if you bought it.

We've never had a problem getting the same table and wait staff each night in normal Anytime dining. Tried what is now call Reserve once and the extra menu item never appealed to us and still got the same table each night. At one point they used half the single Anytime dining room for fixed first seating and then also cut out another quarter for Club (Reserve) Class. With only 1/4 of the dining room left for Anytime it was slower to get in. Now it doesn't make much difference since Princess no longer has fixed seating dining.

BabySarge mentioned the obvious thing for us. I have cheap rental car rates from the employer I retired from. For any trip over 3 days it is cheaper to rent one way twice (in our case to and from airport) than it is to park at the terminal. Helps that I am within 10 minutes walking distance from the local rental outfit, but it isn't a big deal to pick up the car the day before and only pay for one day rental. Check the price of rentals and figure out if it pays to park or not. There is an inconvenience factor picking up after a cruise, but we've also done that quite a few times and it isn't that bad.

You won't know before you sail when the earliest flight is allowed for booking the ship shuttle. Normally 11:30 flight for the nearer airport and 1/2 hour later for the farther for Miami and Fort Lauderdale. So Royal isn't going to allow you to take their shuttle. I would suggest a transfer company like SAS: https://www.ridesas.com/html/returningcustomers.php They will pick up a group of people from your ship and take them to the airport. Of course if one couple in the group is running late it could mess you up, but it took us around an hour from getting off the ship to arriving at FLL. We had 8 people in the van. They may recommend you walk off the ship yourself - earliest bag service will likely be 8 AM. You can ask onboard for the earliest group. The ship will schedule you for a departure group based on your flight times but it is easy to take the tags to Guest Services and get earlier tags. Your steward will also likely have earlier tags. The transfer companies also will sell you a transfer for only your group, but this costs more. Not sure the transfer companies have child seats, but the Royal bus doesn't either.

Cruise more - we don't even get motion on land after cruising these days. Of course it can get a bit expensive....

Calendar typically doesn't show your reservations until you connect to the ship wifi. We go by what shows in the Orders page online.

Every time we go there the waves are breaking over the snorkeling pier end. Ride from the other port where Carnival docks can be really rough. The spot you picked can be really quiet and peaceful.

Didn't realize you can do a room charge without putting your card in the machine. Do you enter your room number and then PIN (MMDD)? Normally it gets room number from the card.

That tour goes by various names on various cruise lines but we have done it twice. Assuming you are on a partial transit from Atlantic side you tender off the ship in Gatun Lake and are bussed to the pilot landing at the far end of the lake. Then you proceed through the rest of the canal in the old locks and get back on a bus on the Pacific side. Bus trip back these days is much faster (nice expressway most of the way). Fairly long tour and one time we had to wait for our ship to get tied up in Colon before we could reboard. Good food/snacks on the boat. While there could be a delay, we haven't seen one. You can touch the lock walls as you proceed and view closeup the operation of the mules, which are not used in the new locks. Not sure if we will do it again on our next trip, but if you like traveling through locks this is more interesting than staying on the cruise ship. And you get to see a closeup of the Cut and areas you would only see on a full transit cruise.

Cruise Express works well. Take pier bus to terminal and look left. They are on the far corner of the street. Note that even if you buy online you still need to stand in line to get your return ticket and then they escort everyone onto the next street where the bus loads. Bus parking area is around 15 minute walk from the downtown area through a park. Return bus was on the half hour when we went in August. Note that most restrooms in town are inside sitdown restaurants. There is a public facility next to the bus park area. The bus that meets the ship goes to the railroad station and you would then still need to take the train to Bruges. Every third store there seems to be either waffles or chocolate!

Leonardo (and all other hotels) does NOT have shuttles to pier. Ask at either the desk or the Concierge to arrange a cab for the next morning for you. We asked for 1000 and they recommended 915 for an 1100 port time. That said, the cab was 45 minutes late and people walking along the pier road to the QEII pier were walking faster than he could drive. Next time we might just walk the mile. The people using Uber were having as much problem as we were getting picked up. We did like this hotel for access to the mall - lots of food options. No soda machines. Around a 20 minute walk to the train station if you want to take the train to Salisbury and Stonehenge. Nice indoor swimming pool.

Royal and Celebrity Planners don't let you put more than one "Mytime" dining reservation in the shopping cart at a time. Try going back and selecting a different day, book that and check out, then do it again for the other days.

Probably. Could cost $100 for that ride, though. A very long ride. Cruise lines recommend Miami flights no earlier than around 12:30 in Port Everglades. You might want to look into the various shuttle companies.

Radiance in Alaska had kids time 5-6 in Solarium. I think a couple of times when it was really cold outside they also had a morning time, but it wasn't every day.

Typically earliest is 11 or 11:30. Have had a few in Miami with 10:30. Latest time offered will be around 2 hours before sailing.

Marketing. Think of selling an inkjet printer for a low price and then forcing the user to spend hundreds on cartridges. This is a very old concept.

I can imagine an airport trying to handle 4000 bags on one carousel. Of course at an airport they are used many times in one day. Makes zero sense except as a way to get more Federal money.

Yup, Royal costs more than Princess for both beverage packages (except soft drink). As Biker says, watch for sales because prices may change several times a week. You can cancel and rebook any package. Lately internet has been stuck at either 20.99 or 21.99 per day depending on ship and sailing and you get a slight discount if you buy more than one login. Soda package is either 8.99 or 9.99 plus gratuity depending on ship.

Just to be clear - drop one of the two reservations you have.

Did you try the kid's menu filet? Not sure it is back yet on all ships but DW often will get it instead of the main dining steak. We buy 4 oz filets at home since that is the perfect size for us.

Probably depends on whether UK flights are "international" or domestic EU in Paris. With Brexit do you have to claim and recheck bags in Paris? If not, then you be fine. Check which gates your flights use in Paris. And info on connecting flights might help: https://www.parisaeroport.fr/en/passengers/flights/connecting-flights Some Brexit info available here: https://www.douane.gouv.fr/french-customs-information-available-english#Brexit

Should transfer automatically. Sign on to Celebrity website with your C&A email/password and it should indicate your status even if you haven't booked a cruise.

We've never been fond of Ice Games, but have seen cases where scheduled shows have been redone as "unscripted" when skaters are injured or sick. Lots of times it is the same show with an act substituted. Not much plot on any of these but we are always impressed how they can do what they do on such soft ice.

Good point. Not sure I have ever seen a sales tax on bookings here. Just port taxes. Do you have to pay VAT in Europe on cruise sales?