Sox Fan Cruiser

I got the same thing. I hope we can still book it when it comes back online! But I too am guessing it was a glitch.

How is the entertainment in Take5? Ours was phenomenal but they were all getting off with us. Just finished my survey... OUCH! The worst one I have ever given. But we still had a great cruise once we lowered our expectations. I hope you have a wonderful week.

They made our week! Tell them Chris and Derrick (and Dave) miss them already!!

I agree! I would walk by it on the way to the bathroom and the smell was just awful. Kept me out of there all week.

We were disappointed with Alfredo’s too.

I’m in 17636 starting April 8th. If no one has reported the “aft view” by then, I will let y’all know. I’ve said it before but they absolutely wasted all the aft views from cabins on this ship!

Warning! They changed the pepperoni for the pizza by the main pool. I used to love the small slices that curled up slightly. Now they are big “meatball” size slices. Still good but not the same. The horror!

Yeah, there is never anything better in the buffet (in my mind!). We went for sushi.

Thinking (hoping) the same thing!

Chef’s table is expensive. Ship’s tour is expensive. They have waiting lists. Expensive to one person is a nice experience to another. It will probably only be once per night or not even every night but I bet a lot of people will do it. I will. And the spot is way to small to be the Signature restaurant. Plus with my cabin right outside this space, I have to explore the rest of the ship somehow! 🤪

We are docked! Walk offs will start around 7am. Time to go home and get our pup. We purposely needed this as a “do nothing” cruise. Just relax and unwind. We certainly did just that and are heading home fully relaxed.

We were in the Suite Go lounge and they started bringing people over to board the ship at around 10:50am. So assume that they were letting people on around 11. @Host CJSKIDS We are getting off and going home on Saturday. And I don’t think you want us on your cruise. The last time we sailed together was the infamous Star Princess cruise! 🤪

I’m in the minority that I HATE the love boat horn! Also currently on the Sky. I agree about the Sole in Catch! We also went to Crown Grill last night and had one of the best meals we ever had there. Since I don’t eat steak I had the Sea Bass and it was SO good! Bartenders in Take5 and Crown Grill were both wonderful. Had awesome bands in Take5 all week but they are leaving the ship with us so not sure what will replace it. You will enjoy this ship!

Agreed. Took one for the Cruise Critic team and let you all know what it was like.

We didn’t have to identify our luggage or even interact with the porters. BUT, I think my suitcase was one of the last ones delivered and I was starting to get nervous. And we found my husbands suitcase just sitting in the hallway probably 40 yards from our room! Needless to say, but the first few hours of the cruise had me a little on edge. But we lowered expectations and just enjoyed ourselves. Seems to always be the theme with Princess. We have a wonderful time if we just don’t expect the best service. As we say in my line of work, “Good Enough” is sometimes better than “Great”.

I was!

So, we arrived at the Go Lounge around 10:15. It is outside of Port Everglades on 17th Street two buildings before the famous Walgreens. The door is not facing the street so if traveling by foot walk down the driveway and you will see the entrance on the back. We walked in and they took our luggage and gave us a tour of the small place. There were probably 15-20 people already there with couches and chairs to sit on. A nice spread of food was in the middle including fruits, cheeses, meats, little sandwiches and desserts. I think the spread was better than Celebrity’s pre-embarkation lounge at FLL. The host came over and took our passports to process and was back within a couple of minutes. They she asked if we wanted to make any reservations for the specialty dinning, spa or Sanctuary. We said yes we would like 3 people for the Sanctuary, all day, for all three sea days. We were worried about asking for 3 of us together and she said no problem and her biggest challenge yet was a group of 10 asking to sit together. She said that our request shouldn’t be a problem. She typed our request into her handheld device and said “done, anything else?” We also asked to move one of our specialty restaurant reservations to a different day and add one more. All for seating at 8(ish). Since we didn’t want to eat Crown Grill and Sabatinis on consecutive nights we had plane B if they couldn’t move our one current reservation. She stopped us and said that we will put this in implying that it wouldn’t be a problem and consider it done. From there we enjoyed the quiet relaxing lounge away from all the hustle and bustle of the cruise terminal. We snacked on some food, had some alcohol free drinks and began a nice conversation about the coming week. Very quiet and relaxing atmosphere. About 10:50, the host approached a group of four and told them that they were ready to take them to the terminal. It was a nice black coach van that sat roughly 10 people comfortably, I think. The host then approached a second group and said they were next once the van came back. That they don’t like to crowd the van for everyone’s comfort. The turnaround time was probably 10 minutes and the next group went. The turn around time kept getting longer and longer. We were the 5th group to go and were on the shuttle at 11:45. They should have more people go at once or have two vans alternating like the tenders to Princess Cays. Note: One couple did come after us but that was it for those using the lounge. And they didn’t take our group of three and the couple at the same time. Again, just one party at a time. And it was (I assume) in the order that you arrived). When we got to terminal 2 we could see why the shuttle took longer and longer. The shuttle was in the same traffic as everyone else showing up including that big circle around the parking lot where the shuttles sit on disembarkation. So we waited. They should have allowed us to park in that shuttle lot or diverted us somewhere to avoid the traffic. Anyway, once we made the big loop we immediately pulled to the right and was parked right in front of the steps (that are roped off) in front of the entrance. (People dropping off luggage passed us and pulled farther ahead). There was someone waiting for us there and they escorted us up the steps (or ramp right there if we needed it) and right past everyone. Think of the “Disney line” roped path that makes you walk back and forth. We walked right the front of the line and they opened the rope for us to go through. (None of the lines were super long but it was still nice to skip them). That escort then handed us off to the next person always making sure that there we 3 of us and we were sticking together. Now we were in the building and time for security. While every walked straight ahead to the end of the (small) room to then turn right and get in a security line, we took an immediate right (again moving the ropes for us and us only) and went to the closest luggage scanner. There was only one person ahead of us in line. She met us on the other side and walk us to the processing area with blue lane folks to the left and green lane folks to the right. Before we got to those lines and the folks with the little check in pads, we again took and immediately right, she moved the rope and we were standing in front of the domed arch that is the way to the ship. We heard “Have a great cruise!” And walked on the ship (up the escalator and gangway) and were onboard. (Not sure what would have happened if they hadn’t started boarding yet.). We were on board by 12:10 with the longest time spent waiting in the traffic. We would totally do it again! (I think I already explained the Sanctuary debacle and trying to put that out of my head! But don’t count on getting any benefit to Sanctuary access through the Go Lounge or stress that they need to call the actual place and not just relay your desire to the Suite Concierge.)

Okay, so the lounger just came. I take that part back.

What we didn’t realize was that the Go people sent a message to the Suite Concierge. We checked in with the Suite Concierge later to see if they received a confirmation from the Sanctuary and they told me they were going to call the Sanctuary “later” to put in the reservations. By then the Sanctuary was, of course, sold out. Same with specialty dinning reservations. As of this morning they STILL hadn’t sent the reservation requests. Sorry but the Suite Concierge is useless. Still waiting for the extra lounger that they said they would put there. She just keeps asking me if the lounger is there yet. Shouldn’t you confirm your request was completed or not? We have decided to lower our expectations about what the suite concierge can do and just have a great cruise.

Do NOT count on ANY benefit to getting the Sanctuary from the Go Lounge. Or ANY reservations for that matter. I’ll explain tomorrow as we are off to Princess Cays. I’ll explain everything during our sea day tomorrow. Go lounge is still an awesome experience. VERY relaxing.

And for me, it’s mostly to get ahead of everyone else for the Sanctuary

Agreed. Celebrity also does a great job with getting suite passengers away from the crowds and a separate way to get on the ship. But notice that this lounge opens at 8am. No way would any cruise line be ready to engage with embarking passengers that early. We will still sit in the same traffic my Uber does to get to the terminal. If they had a private driveway directly to the ship, now THAT would be worth it! 🤪

The difference with this service is that we don’t even enter The Port Authority. This lounge is on 17th street. I’ll add to the experience after Saturday.

I just got my invite today for Saturday’s cruise on the Sky. And I plan to book the Sanctuary and one specialty restaurant that we couldn’t do on line (sold out?!) so I’ll let you know. So excited!!

I didn't realize they got away from the Elite/Platinum express line. Do suites have a separate line (if you aren't invited to the GO lounge)? Or is it really just green lane and blue lane now?