PMGS247

Good question. 99% sure that's Dolphin, Deck 9 though. With my statement being applicable to Dolphin deck 9 - my inclination would be to say yes, as I have stayed in a similar cabin all the way aft on other grand class ships where the additional cut-out was indeed additional balcony space (almost 2x), but I can't confirm 100% that the space is accessible on those forward cabins, but if I had to bet, I'd go with yes. Edit: Having looked at deck plans I believe that's D105, a family suite, and it does indeed have a larger balcony.

lol this makes sense..I've never had a problem with the air on the CB but I've only ever stayed in forward dolphin deck cabins.

Same thing in my eyes. It's a double tip, but there's good reason.

I can answer for me since I have a similar outlook to miagirl on the room service tipping; I will also tip my cabin steward at the end of the week on top of the auto-grats.

Yes. It's the same auto-gratuity that occurs at the bar or restaurant where I don't tip extra, but this time someone's bringing it all the way to my room. I give a little extra. I don't do it too often either. Maybe I'd find a way to justify not doing it if I was a room service regular but it's once or twice a cruise, no big deal.

At $60/day there's no way the full tips of 15 drinks/day are part of that. I assume I'm under-tipping when I drink anything near the 15 limit. At an average tip of $1.50-$2.00/drink that's $23-30/day in gratuities for 15 drinks. Not a chance that much of your $60 goes to gratuities. The old drink packages it was like $11-$12 of gratuities part of the package price. The water is a little muddier with the new plus package and all the other things included, but probably safe to bet it's a similar amount that goes to the crew as drink gratuities, and I think that's all they get regardless of how much you actually consume, for better or worse. If I get a lot of use out of my drink package I start tipping out of pocket based on this.

Room service is one of the few events where I tip every time I use it.

@JohninDC The resortpass site is a great idea! Thanks! Also, I grew up in Herndon, VA! Lived in Reston, Ashburn, Alexandria, Gaithersburg over the years as well.

yep I’ve spent enough time at Fort Lauderdale airport to know I want to find something else to do before I show up lol

Good to know! I was aware of dropping bags at hotels that we're staying at, we do it all the time coming in a couple days ahead of the cruise, but I wasn't aware there were options for hotels we're NOT staying at. DW doesn't want to stay an entire extra day, so we'll be going home that evening come hell or high water, just trying to make the most of the day and not drag the bags around. I'll make a note of Embassy suites as an option for that. Any hotel in the area there gets the job done. Perhaps even the hotel we're staying at before the cruise would be willing to babysit our bags the day after. Good food for thought. Thanks for the reply.

Flight options are dictating that my wife and I will need to wait until 6:40pm to fly home after a cruise in November. This is later than we'd like, but it is what it is....options to Pittsburgh are often limited. The cruise line (Princess) offers their typical post cruise excursions, either to the everglades or Fort Lauderdale mansion tour via boat & las olas. This is probably the direction we'll go if we don't come up with any better ideas, but both are designed for "flights 3pm or later", and appear to make their way to the airport by 12:45pm or so. The post cruise excursions are better than nothing, but if I could find a way to kill a little more time and get to the airport closer to the 3-5pm timeframe, I'd take it. The toughest part is finding things to do without dragging the bags around all day...this is why the cruise line excursions are attractive...I just wish they had longer ones LOL

I've stayed in 4-5 different hotels pre-cruise and they're all the same - farm out shuttle service or they use their own shuttles, but even when they use their own they charge for it....either way it costs 10-15/pp. I'd be willing to bet IF there's a free shuttle somewhere it's probably at a higher end hotel so you're paying for it one way or the other. Just have to decide if the shuttle or uber are more convenient. I typically find the shuttle convenient, they've always been available at the time I've wanted to head over, and it's usually easier to have a big shuttle to put our big bags in, but I can see the argument for an uber.

I've sailed out of FLL 8 times, and every single time would have easily made it to the airport in time for a 10am flight. Having said that, even an 11am flight makes me nervous. Murphy's law just seems like it's waiting to pounce.

This is going to be the next bucket chair.

I mean we can start the discussion all over again over how some people 3-4 is enough because they realize benefit from the other inclusions of the package, but yes, for someone in your situation, where the only thing applicable to the $60/day is drinks, then 3-4 falls just short.

Right..which is fine. No one’s trying to convince you otherwise. But people don’t need to drink all 15 to save money on a package as is commonly implied….not by a long shot.

lol agreed....I'm trying my best to make the package look as bad as possible, but the math just isn't there.

This missed the point though...and you highlighted the phrase "Many look at the 15 drink maximum as a goal" in your response as if you were addressing that, but you weren't. What you said is accurate...it is too expensive for 4 drinks, so you shouldn't get it...no one's trying to convince you that you should...but the point was you don't need 15. Worst case - $60 factoring nothing else that is included and only purchasing the cheapest beer @ $7/beer. Takes 8.6 beers to break even. This is an insane way to calculate it and isn't even realistic to the most uneducated consumer, but even so, it's not even 2/3 of the maximum.

Yeah it seems OBC is just a positive balance to your on board account....the same account everything gets charged to. I haven't really experienced Princess try to restrict that it any way. On the flipside, there doesn't seem to be a way to use it for anything you book ahead of time. To be honest, I've never tried that hard to allocate my OBC one way or another since I always spend much more on board than I have in OBC anyway, so I may be corrected, but this has been my observation.

Yeah I've found it fairly common cruising around the Caribbean that in the heat of the day the A/C struggles to keep up, regardless of what ship I've been on. It catches up in the evening/overnight then wash/rinse/repeat the next day. It's a problem when it is still hot overnight. I've managed to dodge cabins that have this issue on the CB but people have written about it for many many years so clearly it's an issue.

LOL I know! I'm booked on this cruise at a lower rate for a mini-suite than what's shown in my screen shot for current regular balcony price. I was hoping as a 5 day short cruise it might be less popular (crowded) but clearly not. Going to be sold out soon.

I generally agree here, if a guarantee was secured in a specific cabin category and they have that in writing then it's very simple & straight forward. Unlike CATEGORY, I didn't originally think ship location (midship vs mid-aft, mid-forward, etc.) could be a valid thing to have guaranteed, but now I'm wondering... I've been on the Princess site and I can't seem to replicate a guarantee for a category myself. If I choose Midship Balcony and I'm forced to "Reserve a Guaranteed Stateroom" (i.e. the little map with clickable cabins isn't avaialble), no where from there on out in the booking process does it say a specific category. I haven't gone so far as to actually lock down a hold or put down a deposit, I don't want to bother with cancelling or getting a call from my PVP, but based on this experience it does say under the heading of 'Midship' that 'Selecting this option will guarantee a stateroom assignment in this location or a comparable location prior to sailing." Obviously the word comparable is a little loose and there'd be some room for debate in any other ship location, but the way they break up your location choice, midship would seem to be midship without an equivalent alternative. I can totally understand how someone would go through this process and assume they were guaranteed a midship location, even if they weren't told a specific cabin category. Real life example if anyone wants to try, also includes screen shot. Sailing: 10/31/23 out of FLL, Caribbean Princess 5 day sailing to Princess Cays/Grand Turk. Balcony/2 guests. Midship/Deck 12. You can't pick a room and are forced to a Guarantee. It tells you you'll get something in this location or comparable. If something here or beyond this point in the process actually mentions a stateroom category, I can't find it. I could swear that's how it worked, but at this exact moment I can't seem to replicate it.

Should be able to. This is definitely something to verify at the time of adding it, but given your base fare and promotions aren’t tied to the package and it would be a stand-alone add-on, I would think that would be fine. Now, if at the time of adding it they decide they can restructure your entire fare to something where the base fare and the package inclusions are melded together, then you could have a problem down the road. Their intentions may be 100% good in doing this, the total price and OBC may be better thus way, but you’d want to avoid locking yourself in. It absolutely should be do-able, but you raise a good point that additional care should be given to ensure they don’t do it such a way that you’re locked in.

On the CB covered balconies on mini suites are prime real estate. I think they only exist on emerald deck and tend to sell fast. All dolphin deck (90% of minis on CB) are open air. As for handheld shower heads I don’t think they are hand held but I could be mistaken.

The AC is definitely a common thread complaint on the CB, even dating back to pre-covid. Personally I've managed to dodge rooms with AC issues but I know you're far from alone on that. Entertainment's a roll of the dice. Surprised at the comment about the production shows being dated. I'm wondering which ones were running. Your experience on Crown grill, especially being two completely different ones, falls in line with a lot of comments about Crown grill in recent days...not CB specific. As for the small showers, I think that's pretty standard for princess balcony cabins. I've only ever stayed in mini-suites on Princess so I find the showers to be extremely roomy compared to other cruise lines where I've not had the tub combo. Still, while a fair complaint, not a CB issue but Princess in general.