Grego

Car is loaded and will be leaving at 7:00 to drive down. Another lovely day in south Florida.

Carolyn and I will be joining you tomorrow on the beautiful Enchanted Princess.  Our day will start with a fairly short hour and a half drive down from Port St Lucie to Einstein's Bagels for a quick sharing of a bagel and coffee and then driving across the street to GoPrincess where we got an invitation to be there again for the third time.

We are looking forward to being on the Enchanted again this year and this time celebrating my wife's birthday and our 58th Princess cruise.  Planning on touring a little more of PR and going back to our favorite animal preserve in Roatan.  We'll probably get off the ship in most of the ports to grab some street images and then enjoying the sea days aboard the ship.

18 hours ago, candy4040 said:

The 360 experience is fabulous.  A little pricey but wonderfully executed.  

I agree about the attention to detail and the production.

10 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Officer board. Will respond to questions and post photos shortly. 

Thanks for doing this.

11 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Waitress was Iryna from Ukraine. She was fantastic

You are right about Iryna.  She was our server on our March voyage and hopefully we'll have her on the upcoming April 20th voyage as well.

12 hours ago, 15 norton said:

Has Carlos Marques returned from leave yet?   Great DRO

 

I haven't seen his name yet and it seems that it's been longer than usual that he has been on holiday.

11 hours ago, muffydawg said:

Looking forward to enjoying the GO Princess pre-embarkation experience on SE 17th Street!

Glad to see you received an invitation to visit the Go Princess.  They have a limited amount that can attend and it is only available to a Princess ship is at docked at #2 terminal.  Anthony and Edwina are wonderful hosts and their attention to detail is amazing in taking care of all your needs.  We have been fortunate to be invited twice previously and have just received an invitation to be there for the April 20th voyage.

1 hour ago, charliedalrymple said:

 

I'm curious: do you mean "real" VIPs (like celebrities or politicians), or does it include passengers who have done a gazillion Princess cruises but aren't staying a suite?

1 hour ago, charliedalrymple said:

 

I'm curious: do you mean "real" VIPs (like celebrities or politicians), or does it include passengers who have done a gazillion Princess cruises but aren't staying a suite?

Could be.  Don't know what the criteria is if any.

13 hours ago, MJU said:

It is for full suite guests only - a pass key will be in the suite    It is located on the 14th floor next to the wedding chapel

Correct with the exception that if there are any VIP's aboard that aren't in suites they also have access.

31 minutes ago, mistyPA said:

Will follow, we are on the 4/21 sailing. So looking forward to it and excited to see this.

We are on the April 20th 14-day voyage on the Enchanted Princess.  Earlier this year we were on the Enchanted Princess and had a great time.  The ship is lovely and the crew is amazing.

If anyone on this voyage has a chance to take a photo of the ship's officers board, that would be great.  We usually get a notification as to who the HGM is and we know that Nikola is the Maitre' d but it nice to see who the staff members are.

11 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

If it’s like too much of her overhyping things, the announcement might not be any “MAJOR news”..
 

Unlike the previous SVP of Sales who didn’t prevent non travel agents from viewing his webinars, she has restricted her webinars to TAs only…why does she block passengers from learning about info that affects us? 🤔

 

I agree. This was a great vehicle for us non-TA's to stay informed and get involved.  Most TA's don't have the time to get the word out in a timely manner. For us loyal Princess cruisers who have enjoyed nearly 60+ voyages under the SeaWitch it would benefit Princess Cruises to keep everyone on the team with all that is going on.

13 hours ago, sandybeaches44 said:

Thank you from PSL, Tradition.

You are welcome from The Lakes at Tradition in PSL.

Thanks for posting this.  We are there at the end of April this year and are looking to spend some time walking in old town.

On 3/24/2024 at 11:08 AM, weregoingcruising said:

Can use use it for multiple cruises?

Yes.  It needs to be requested for each one and only those bookings that occur before the end of this year at this time.

22 hours ago, 2806 said:

We are driving and planning on parking in the Heron port terminal garage. What time should we arrive. We would like to board as soon as possible. We will be looking for an economical and clean hotel the night before arriving. We will be traveling south on 95. 

We drive down frequently and since we live 100 miles from the port we usually drive down the morning of embarkation and plan to arrive around 10:30.  If we plan on staying in Fort Lauderdale the night before because it's a weekday departure and the traffic sucks we stay at the Holiday Inn Express on 17th street close to the port.  It's not cheap, but then this time of year nothing is close to the port.

On 3/23/2024 at 9:34 AM, Lady Arwen said:

My CVP always calls back the same day and usually within a couple of hours.

Ours operates the same way.  We usually write her an email the day before we call to let her know what we are seeking to give her a heads up to research and then we get a call or return email first thing the next day.

15 hours ago, MudderBear said:

I learned a good lesson on my upcoming Barcelona to Rome cruise this year.  Book your excursions early.  I was lucky as I grabbed two in Italy months ago, and now had a hard time booking for Gibralter and Marsailles.

 

Anyway, with that in mind, we are sailing Princess in Alaska summer of 2025.  This will be a repeat cruise.  I'd like to book that special boat in Hubbards' Glacier ($299 pp YIKES!!!) now before we get locked out of that.  Its the boat that takes you as far as it can go right up close.  And yes, I've done the cruise before, but stayed on our ship and envied those that did the excursion.

 

Am I crazy to book over a year in advance?  My full payment isn't even due until next March 2025.  What do ya'll think?

 

Thanks.

 

 

It's not crazy if this excursion is one that is very important to you.  Too many times waiting to book later runs the risk of it being sold out and then you hope for success after being placed on the waitlist.

"Bird in the Hand".....

Emerald mid-aft is a great location and the ship is very stable in the majority of waters and especially in the Caribbean.

On 3/21/2024 at 6:50 PM, HairyBiker777 said:

Thanks for the many replies. Some great advice there 👍 

Listen to the answers that suggest book now for the cabin you want and then either be diligent about watching the fares going forward and re-fare when you see a lowering of the fares. For the last eight years we have booked our voyages through our Princess Vacation Planner who either catches the fare reduction or acts quickly on our input and gets it done.

On 3/8/2024 at 5:13 AM, CanadianBurger said:

Hello everyone, and welcome to another one of my "Live" reports.

This time it's the brand-new Sun Princess, sailing on a 10-day voyage from Barcelona to Rome. Our ports include Mallorca, Sicily, Athens, Kusadasi Turkey, Santorini (maybe), and Naples.

 

We just arrived in Barcelona after an overnight flight YYZ-EWR-BCN. We'll be seeing some of Barcelona including the Sagrada Familia before boarding tomorrow.

 

Stay tuned for lots of photos and videos of the new ship. Hopefully they'll have the entertainment venues open this cruise.

 

Steve.

Great.  Keep it factual and interesting.  Most of us are looking to hear about the new venues and what impact not having some of our favorite venues on this ship.

3 hours ago, niftrip said:

Good morning from a wet and windy Barcelona.

I'm sitting onboard the Windstar Star Legend eagerly awaiting embarkation on the Sun Princess this afternoon. I'll share an update each day about the experience onboard, along with some photos and videos. I was glad to see the majority of venues are to be open for this sailing. I am looking forward to some of the arena shows. 

I'm in a Reserve Collection Cabana Mini Suite (C2) on deck 9, which will be interesting to experience. 

Any questions you have about the ship include below and I'll attempt to answer during the sailing. 

We all are interested in your reporting.  Questions remain as to how the Elite/Platinum evening lounge is handled, how marriages and other ceremonies are performed without a Wedding Chapel, no Internet Cafe for those needing a place to log in or print out airline boarding passes, etc.

Good thread.  Thanks for creating it.

On 2/19/2024 at 6:49 PM, karatemom2 said:

 

Good to hear! We had our doubts about it at first as well when Princess made the switch to applying for the benefit through the app, but we had a similar experience and found it pretty user friendly and got our OBC applied promptly.

We did as well.  "Easy Peasy!"

The latest update to the Medallion App is very good.  It now shows all upcoming bookings so you don't have to log out and log in using the other booking number.

15 hours ago, beach_fever_4ever said:

We have the new Plus package, but the app is charging $10 for shipping. What is the phone number you are calling to resolve this issue?

Make sure you have completed all the necessary steps in the check in and both are marked in the "Green Lane".  If not, the app defaults to you picking up the medallion at the port.

If this is the case, then cancel the medallion orders and finish the check in process then go back and order the medallions and the shipping charges will be dropped.  I had this experience recently and this solved the problem.