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For the beach: from the ship in San Diego, you can take a ferry over to Coronado Island. The ferry docks right by the ship. It's about a 10 minute ride across San Diego Harbor. Walk off and go to the beach. It's just under $10 round-trip last I heard and there's a ticket machine you can get tickets at. They have the ferries going every hour and if you're not there on time, they leave so you'd have to wait for the next one.

 

If it's not too cool, sit on top of the boat and get some great shots of the ship where it's docked. You're dropped off at the Coronado brewery, near restaurants, shops, ice cream etc. The Hotel Del Coronado is a short walk. You can even rent a bike ($1-$2 an hour I think) and bring it with you on the ferry and then just bike to the beach once you're on Coronado. Super cheap, easy, relaxing day.

The Pacific Ocean and Hotel Del are 1.5 miles from the ferry landing, so that may or may not be a short walk for you. There are a couple of small beaches near the ferry landing, but then you are swimming in the bay, which may not be what you expect when you think of going to the beach. You can easily get an uber or taxi from the pier to the ocean. If you do go to the beach, realize that the water temps in October will be around 19 degrees C.

Also, do not bring a rental bike to Coronado on the ferry. Dockless rental bikes are not permitted in Coronado and they will be impounded by the police if you park them for longer than 2 hours, leaving you without any way to get back to the ferry and making you responsible for the fines the city will charge to the bike owner. All the bike rental apps and the signage at the ferry boarding ramp explain this with varying levels of clarity. If you want to ride a bike in Coronado, rent from one of the several vendors at the ferry landing, in town, or at the Hotel Del.

We are going to San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. We sail from LA to Vancouver and overnight in San Francisco.

I live in San Diego. Southern California coastal areas have a weather pattern known as May Gray - June Gloom. There's a pretty persistent layer of high overcast for these two months that extends inland from the coast for a mile or two. Temperatures this month have been in the upper 60s at the beaches and it's always cooler on the water, though if you go inland you can find lots of sun and temps in the mid- to upper-70s.

Once you head north out of So Cal, you'll probably see more sun, but it's also usually breezier at this time of year and overall temps are cooler. I was in Big Sur and Monterey a couple of weeks ago, and there was plenty of sun, but the air was chilly and I was wearing my fleece jacket most of the time.

San Francisco is windy and cold in the spring. Bring a warm hat.

Rain is unusual in California in May, though you could get a shower at sea and maybe a little early morning mist or drizzle on shore.

I noticed when we were on the Royal last month that the library had travel guides for ports throughout the world. I can't remember if they were Lonely Planet, Fodors, or what, but they had multiple copies of the ones that would be applicable to all different Princess itineraries.

I'd still plan in advance and bring a Rick Steves book, but if I got to the ship and realized I'd forgotten it, I now know to try the ship's library.

I am confused on how the messenger part works. I am traveling with a large group, do we all need to share phone numbers with each other before we sail? Does it work just like texting on my iphone? Recently used a similar app on MSC but didn't have messaging ability. I love the idea of being able to communicate with everyone.

You cannot set this up before you get on the ship, and you don't need each others phone numbers. Once on the ship, everyone connects to the ship's wifi network, opens a browser, and navigates to the website shipname.princess.com, which can only be reached while connected to the ship's wifi. From there, you just follow the directions to create an account.

After someone you want to message has also created an account, you use the website to send them a message. The other person does not get any notification on their phone. They have to open the website and login to their account (if their browser doesn't auto-login) to see that there's a message waiting.

Thanks for the quick response. It should work fine. Am I understanding the following correctly? Since you basically go to Airplane Mode to use P@S, if using that feature, you can't receive calls/texts via Cellular At Sea. We like to be available to receive cell calls/texts from house sitter in case of emergency. Is it a "one or the other" type of situation?

It's not "one or the other". Your cell phone can connect to the ship's WiFi network and to it's cellular network at the same time. As long as you are prepared to pay the charges, there's no problem using both networks (and the Internet) at the same time if you want to.

Depends on the excursion and how many people sign up for it. Sometimes they will split up a larger group into multiple vehicles or boats, but sometimes every seat will be filled. As with any packaged tour, there's an itinerary and a schedule that everybody has to stick to without a lot of room for wandering or individual exploration. Even if you do an adventure tour like kayaking, diving or off-roading, you'll have to stay with a group of 15 to 20 people. If that's not your cup of tea, you should probably book private tours.

On the other hand, we did only ship's tours on our April cruise, and they were great. By far the most "packed in" experience we had was on the tenders to and from Princess Cays.

I just used the BOGO at the Bayou Cafe on embarkation day on January 20. No restrictions that we encountered. I didn’t pay attention to the bottled water coupon or would have used it at that time. We made a reservation by going to the Bayou when we boarded.

The fine print on the coupons prevents the bottled water coupon and the embarkation day BOGO coupon from being used together. This may or may not be enforced in any given restaurant on any given ship.

Glad you got it fixed!

And I don’t know if it’s significant that we’re only 20 days out. They said something because it’s less than 45 days.

Yes, EZ Air has change penalties if it's less than 45 days out. It is going to cost you something to change an air reservation that's already been ticketed. I don't know why it would affect more than one person's air ticket or the cruise portion though. I think that's some kind of miscommunication between the TA and Princess and you, or else the TA is charging you an extra service fee.

I agree with others that are telling you to call Princess directly and get as much help as you can from them. I don't agree that the entire thing can be fixed for free if the air portion has been ticketed in the wrong name though. The airline will definitely charge a fee and Princess is not going to eat that cost since this was your error.

Whoever you speak to next, I recommend having some paper and a pen handy and taking notes and asking questions until you understand exactly what they are charging you for and what alternatives you have. You have a right to know how much of the change fee is related to the airfare, how much is the TA's service charge, why there's a cost related to the two people who were ticketed correctly, etc.

If there is an issue with the EZ Air' date=' can she use the green card for the flight? Honestly, I've never had a problem with flights when the flight ticket has a slightly different version of the name. Somehow EZ Air doesn't always match cruise reservation![/quote']

 

She can't use a green card for the flight ID because they're flying from the U.S. to Vancouver. Canada requires her to have a passport to enter the country (and possibly a visa depending on her citizenship), and the airline will need to see the passport and verify that the name on it matches her ticket before they will let her on the plane. I agree a mismatch is not a problem for minor typos or in my case where my first+middle name is too long to fit on some tickets; but in this case, the last name on the ticket doesn't match the last name on the passport so that's an issue.

 

Bottom line, they need to get both the air and cruise tickets fixed to match the passport.

We’re flying into Vancouver from the US and sailing out of Vancouver on a Alaska cruise...

How was her plane ticket booked and what name is on it? EZ Air, or ticketed separately by the TA? Either way, the $489 sounds like it could be the airline change fee plus fare differential. It's going to be hard to get that waived since it was your error.

If it was EZ Air, then somebody at Princess is confused and needs to separate the name correction on the cruise from the reticketing of the flight so you don't lose your perks. If it was not EZ Air, then the TA should get Princess to do a regular name correction on the cruise and handle the reticketing of the air herself.

Hello Poohunderstands, or any folks who just returned from Royal Princess recently. We are sailing with her to the British Isles in May. Just wondering if you could tell me how was the live bands on the ship. We like to do a bit of ballroom or social dancing in the evening. Are there more than one particular lounge with a live band or DJ playing at the time, or there is only one live band playing at a certain time in a certain lounge, and therefore you can not pick and choose where you can go if you want live music and dancing. I understand the Royal Princess is a big ship, and we usually prefer big ships that have different musical venues going on at the same time so at least you can pick which one you want to participate in. What type of music does the main band play, if you can recall? Thanks in advance.

Lounge entertainers last week were:

- James Guilmartin - sings pop songs with a guitar

- Romantica - string trio, plays mostly classical pieces with some contemporary mixed in

- Sunset Quartet - mostly 50s and 60s music, good for ballroom dancing

- Evolution - contemporary dance music

- Tyrone Babb - steel drums and Caribbean sounds

- Perry Grant - piano and vocals, he was playing extremely old stuff (like from before the era of recorded music) the only night I listened to him and I didn't stay long, but he seems to have a big fan club

- DJ ReRe - night club DJ

- house band - mostly does the production shows, but they did do a concert one day

In the evenings, two or three of these acts were usually performing simultaneously in different venues.

Any updated information on Global Entry for cruiseports? Arriving at port of Seattle and wondering if it has GE. Don't see it on website, might call port. Thanks for any info.

Don't know about Seattle, but as of April 9th, the Global Entry procedures at Port Everglades are the same as described above. You must have your card in hand in order to get into the short line, but once there you go through the normal procedure with an agent; there's no kiosk. It was a Princess shore agent asking to see the GE card, not a US Customs agent.

At least at Port Everglades, they don't want you to fill out the customs forms any more unless you're bringing back more than your allowance.

Hawaii and Tahiti are both in the tropics, and you'll have comfortable temperatures in any of those months since it'll be Spring/Fall with the seasons switching between the southern and northern hemispheres. I think Sept would most likely be the least rainy and March the wettest of your three choices, but neither of those is the really wet season, so you should have good weather most of the time.

We were in Tahiti in their "dead of winter" and I don't think it ever got below 72F at night, with the days well into the 80s.

Just got off the Royal on Monday. We had an old "King of Cups" card from the Coral in 2009 and it worked fine in the International Cafe. It started lots of conversations with the baristas about how long we'd had it and where we got it, but they all knew what it was and punched it correctly.

Did you contact Princess and ask them about it? Did they actually notify you of the change, or is this something you discovered on your own?

Most will be. It's a slow rotation.

A new movie every cruise or two and an older one taken down. We were on royal in November and about half were available back then. I'm looking forward to seeing murder on the orient express next week on the royal again:) and maybe something brand new not listed.

I got an email about entertainment on the Royal for the March 30th cruise. It listed:

March Madness Basketball

Justice League

The Greatest Showman

I assume there will be various other selections, but this what was listed in the email.

You need to address this from both the cruise line side and from the side of the country(ies) you'll be visiting. If Princess has told you that they don't require any specific documentation, that's half the answer. Now you need to figure out what are the entry and exit requirements for each country you will be visiting and make sure that everyone in your party meets those requirements. You can get the info at the State Department's website, travel.state.gov, clicking on International Travel, selecting the country and then expanding the section on Entry and Exit requirements.

I.e. if you are going to Mexico, you will find: "INM requires at least one parent complete a SAM (Formato de Salida de Menores) for all minors departing Mexico with a third party. Travelers should contact the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., the nearest Mexican consulate, or INM for more information." (The original passage has a link to the form you will need.)

The most likely outcome is that you'll collect a ton of documentation and nobody will ever look at it. But the consequences of not having it if you need it are severe.

Their cruise tour is only 3 nights, so (assuming a 1-week cruise) they really just need to pack for a 10 night trip. If they can fit everything they need for 10 nights in one regular airline carry-on sized bag per person, then there's no need for them to pack a separate "ship only" bag. Having a second bag is a convenience that Princess offers so that you can send the things that you don't need on your land tour (e.g. formal wear) ahead to meet you on the ship. For a short land tour like this, we would just bring everything along, but we pack pretty light.

If they are not light packers, then what they should do is first pile up everything they need for the entire trip. Then take out of the pile the things that they will need access to for the first 3 nights. The 3-night pile gets packed into the "land tour" bag(s) and everything else goes in the "ship only" bag(s). When they're on the ship, they'll have all their bags, so they don't need to separate medicine and toiletries into two parts.

Thanks for the input all. It sounds like we'll be able to use the card. Worst case we'll ask the barista what it covers. I just wanted to make sure they wouldn't see it as some strange ancient thing they couldn't figure out.

Neither of us drinks brewed coffee, so that is not a concern. I like good quality loose leaf tea every morning if I can get it, or at least something better than a generic tea bag if not. Back when we bought the card on the Coral Princess, you needed to show it to get good tea at the pastry shop, but they didn't punch it. DH has developed a liking for espresso since then, so I expect he'll be looking for that on this trip and can use up the punches even if it's now possible to get tea elsewhere without the card.

Just booked a cruise on the Royal Princess leaving March 30. Our last Princess cruise was years ago, and I have a "King of Cups" Premium Coffee card with 3 punches on it from that trip. I think we mainly got hot chocolate and tea, and you needed a card for those but they didn't punch it. I see from the Princess website that they now have a different coffee card. Will my old card still be honored? It has no ship name or expiration date on it.

I wonder if that's changed or is different between different cruise lines. I was reading through either Carnival's or Royal Caribbean's contract today and was surprised to see that the cruise line could change embarkation or debarkation port with the passenger having no basis for claim.

I guess I should have said that they did give refunds, not that they "had to". In general, I think if a cruise line wants to have a decent reputation and keep their repeat customers coming back, they will let people cancel in this kind of situation, but of course there's no guarantee.

I expect that if they move a ship from say, Miami to Fort Lauderdale, that's close enough that passengers are probably not getting a refund. Maybe the ship just leaves an hour or two later to give extra time for people to arrive from the Miami airport. But if they move it so far from Miami that people would have to change their non-refundable flights and hotels, then I think they'll do something to keep the goodwill of their customers, whether it's allowing late cancellations or compensating people for the financial loss.

...That being said, next thing I'm wondering about is what could happen if our embarkation port (Miami in our case - 9/16), is heavily damaged? Cruise usually cancelled? Possibility of having passengers embark in another city that wasn't as hard-hit, i.e., Fort Lauderdale, Tampa??

 

I know there are no firm answers as of now, but wonder if anyone has ever experienced embarkation port damage and what occurred as a result of it.

 

Thanks.

Yes, this happened in 2005 after Katrina destroyed the port facilities in New Orleans. Norwegian moved a ship that was supposed to do weekly trips from there over to Houston/Galveston. We booked after the move was announced and got a very good deal because they had to refund everyone who didn't want to switch departure ports and they were trying to fill the empty cabins. Even after we booked, the itinerary was changed multiple times due to subsequent hurricanes. We were one of the first ships into Cozumel after Wilma hit it, and there was a lot of damage and complete defoliation. While we were on board they were still tracking hurricanes that used Greek letter names because they had run out of the regular names.

So most are saying that their pre existing condition is covered because their treatment has not changed and it's stable. But say it's not stable, then you can't get coverage for that condition?

There are insurance policies that will waive the pre-existing conditions exclusion if you purchase them within x days of making the initial deposit (x varies by insurer, but is usually 3 weeks or less). If you have an unstable condition, then you need to buy insurance shortly after paying the deposit on your cruise.

Also, policies require the insured to be capable of traveling on the date that the policy is purchased, so do not purchase trip insurance for someone who would be too ill to go if the cruise left today, even though you expect them to be well by the actual sailing date.

This was in our local news a couple of weeks ago: http://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2017/02/20/woman-with-stomach-pains-evacuated-from-cruise-ship-off-san-diego-coast/

I was surprised that the Star Princess didn't just make for a port. They were 400 miles away, and it took them just over 14 hours to get to US waters and arrange the evacuation of the ill woman from the ship by Coast Guard helicopter. That's about the same amount of time it would have taken them to reach San Diego at full speed, and I would think they were even closer to Ensenada.