njhorseman

Any hotel shuttle that picks you up at one of the airline terminals rather than at the P4 AirTrain station is violating airport rules so don't expect to find a hotel that will do that.

For answers about how the Princess transfers between EWR and Brooklyn work you should also ask that question on the Princess board since the procedures are specific to that cruise line. Also either you or your travel agent can call Princess customer service and ask them, although admittedly most cruise line customer service operations are less than helpful at times. Typically cruise lines have transfer agents located at airport baggage claim areas. You can certainly take an Uber from wherever you'll be located (no need to go back to EWR) to the cruise terminal. Don't even think about taking a taxi. Taxis in NJ are generally pretty horrible and taking a taxi from NJ to NY will be expensive since it will have to return to NJ empty.

Someone posted on the Princess board that passengers have now advised the ship will be docking in Brooklyn as originally planned. Obviously the announced change to Manhattan was a nothing but a giant mistake on someone's part as it never made any sense. I hope everyone who has changed their ground transportation plans can redo them again with a minimum of trouble.

Please go back and read post #7, written by our retired ship's chief engineer @chengkp75. The valve is not in the cabin and not intended to be accessible by a passenger . It's located in a locker in the hall.

There are no cars parked in Brooklyn waiting for this ship to return. It's on a repositioning cruise that began in Fort Lauderdale. There certainly are Enchanted Princess cruises listed on the official port website as departing Brooklyn in September: https://cruise.nyc/BCT-Schedule 9/7/2024 Enchanted Princess Princess Cruise Line 9/14/2024 Enchanted Princess Princess Cruise Line 9/21/2024 Enchanted Princess Princess Cruise Line

First, some housekeeping. Oceania's slogan has never been "The Best Cuisine at Sea", it's "The Finest Cuisine at Sea". While "best" and "finest" may be synonyms in general, I think in this case there is a subtle difference in connotation, with "finest" being a bit softer assertion...but you may not agree. Regardless, it's a registered trademark used for the purposes of advertising, and puffery in advertising is quite legal and extremely common. It doesn't have to be "factual" because "finest" is a statement of opinion. You may think it's the "finest" and I may not . There's no objective measure of "finest". Lots of posters here have raved for years about the miso coated sea bass in Red Ginger. I disliked it. To me Oceania took a potentially good piece of fish and ruined it with a cloying, oppressively sweet sauce. BMW has used the trademarked slogan "The Ultimate Driving Machine" for decades. Are BMWs factually the ultimate driving machine ? Have they ever been? The real issue isn't whether Oceania has "The Finest Cuisine at Sea" , if it ever did. The issue is whether Oceania's food is overall the same quality as it was, of higher quality than it was, or of lesser quality than it was. The answer will vary by individual. If Oceania eliminates or modifies a dish that you really like you'll say the quality has declined. I may not have cared for the dish and to my taste it either doesn't matter or perhaps I even like a replacement dish better.

Important lesson you've learned...you can't rely on what NCL's shoreside customer service tells you. They're the last to be told of changes, if they're told at all. Enjoy your cruise.

The Pacific Cruise Terminal does exist. It's in Fuerte Amador a few miles from Panama City and it's where you'll be docked. I don't see NCL being intentionally deceptive here...it's just bad wording on their part. Sort of like the nonsense about disembarkation/embarkation times they had (maybe still do ) on their website giving a two hour time frame when that was intended to apply only to embarkation at the start of the cruise and final disembarkation at the end. The wording made it sound like it also applied to port calls.

Wow...that is odd since Island Princess has four cruises listed as embarking and disembarking in Brooklyn starting June 4, the day you arrive, followed by June 14, June 25 and July 5. I wonder if they're all going to be using Manhattan instead. If not some passengers may be faced with split embarkation and disembarkation locations. There was a recent NCL cruise making a port call in San Juan where the passengers were told the ship was docking at Pan American cruise terminal when it actually docked in Old San Juan as it normally would on a port call. As that was just a port call it was not as much of an issue, but it's an example of the cruise line giving out misinformation. A lot of passengers on your cruise are facing the same problem you are. I hope everything works out with a minimum of hassle. The passengers scheduled to board the ship on June 4 obviously are faced with the same issue of rearranging their ground transportation.

Here's a different thread where I had provided an answer to a similar question just yesterday: I'm not sure why you think NCL is being coy. It's no different than their describing Port Canaveral as Orlando or Civitavecchia as Rome. It's a common practice in the cruise industry to use the nearest recognizable city's name in conjunction with the name of the actual cruise port where the ship will be docking.

Yes, the UK is not an EU country but that's irrelevant as the UK and Ireland have a Common Travel Area arrangement that has been in place in one form or another for over 100 years, long before the creation of the EU. Please read this for an explanation: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government-in-ireland/ireland-and-the-uk/common-travel-area-between-ireland-and-the-uk/ Among the relevant facts you'll find on the above site are: "What is the Common Travel Area? The Common Travel Area (CTA) is an arrangement between the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland that gives a variety of rights to citizens of those countries. It includes more than the basic right to travel freely between both countries." And: "Border control and the Common Travel Area There are no routine passport controls in operation for Irish and UK citizens travelling between the 2 countries. However, you must show identification to board a ferry or an airplane, and some airlines and sea carriers only accept a passport as valid identification. " And: "Brexit and the Common Travel Area The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) has not affected the rights of Irish citizens and UK citizens within the Common Travel Area. The right to live, work and access public services in the Common Travel Area is protected."

May I ask which cruise ship you're on ? Per the official port schedule (which is rarely wrong) the only ship listed to be docked in Manhattan that day is the Japanese ship Asuka 2, on the second day of a 2 day port call https://cruise.nyc/MCT-schedule 6/3/2024 Asuka 2 NYK Cruises Japan 6/4/2024 Asuka 2 NYK Cruises Japan If you're on Island Princess that ship is scheduled to dock in Brooklyn. https://cruise.nyc/BCT-Schedule 6/4/2024 Island Princess Princess Cruise Line

My objection was to your statement "So nothing stopping me from filling a labelled container with anything I choose, especially if it happens to look like what's supposed to be in there" . The fact that medications are coded is precisely what prevents you from getting away with violating a country's prescription medication laws simply by filling the container with anything you choose. Your saying that you know about medication codes contradicts your contention that you can get away with filling a container, whether labeled or not, with whatever you want.

There's actually a lot preventing you from filling the container with something other than what belongs in it. If the authorities are suspicious about your medications they can identify them in an instant. At least in the USA, and I suspect elsewhere, all prescription pills, tablets, capsules, etc. are physically labelled with a unique code that identifies the medication . That code can be entered in any internet search engine and the name and dose of the medication plus the shape and color of the medication will be instantaneously identified. Years ago this information had to be obtained from a massive reference book called the Physician's Desk Reference but the internet has eliminated the need for that. Also the prescription bottle's label itself identifies the color, shape and identifying code of the medication so there's a way to check the medication in the bottle against the label to see if they match without even going on line. When I pick up my prescriptions at the pharmacy I always compare the label information with the medication in the bottle because once or twice a pharmacist made a mistake and filled the bottle with the wrong medication.

The OP isn't cruising from San Pedro. They're on the (Carnival) Firenze so the ship will be docked in Long Beach.

The former Sheraton Old San Juan has just been remodeled and is now the Hotel Rumbao, still under the Marriott umbrella . A great location to access all the conveniences of Old San Juan and just a short taxi ride to the Pan American cruise terminal where your ship will be docked. It wouldn't be the quietest location but it's hard to find someplace quiet that's close to conveniences such as Walgreens and CVS. Stores like that are usually going to be found in busy areas. You may have to trade off one preference to satisfy another. Either of the hotels you mentioned would be OK too.

Which is over 20 miles from San Juan and very, very expensive so probably requires a boatload (no pun intended) of points .

The cruise terminal isn't in Panama City, it's in Fuerte Amador on Perico island, about 8 or 9 miles from Panama City itself. You can see it in this photo from Google Maps. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Perico+Island/@8.9147146,-79.524513,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipM4h_HPP1FQ-P5dvEf-mZnRfbhesV0jwIQDspg0!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM4h_HPP1FQ-P5dvEf-mZnRfbhesV0jwIQDspg0%3Dw153-h86-k-no!7i5272!8i2962!4m7!3m6!1s0x8facaf05c3d2c61f:0xa2c79a3d5adcc04d!8m2!3d8.9147146!4d-79.524513!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1ym_k2xpj?entry=ttu

I can't help you with a schedule website for Panama Canal transits, but I have made a full transit on the Oceania Marina with an overnight at Fuerte Amador, but before the docking facilities were built...we had to tender in . You can assume your transit will begin in the early morning...5 or 6 am. There's 99.99% certainty of using the original locks, with the new locks only being used if there's some type of problem in the original locks or if they're somehow overbooked and Marina draws the short straw and has to move to the new locks. The docking facilities at Fuerte Amador have been in use for quite some time but exactly when the cruise terminal will be completed is anyone's guess. Construction has dragged on and on.

The poster you're responding to sailed last year. The poster is European, not a US citizen. Perhaps unlike in the USA the issuance of a new passport doesn't invalidate the old one. I don't know, but perhaps the old passport is still valid until its expiration date. I'll resist the urge to make another zombie thread comment...🙄

I don't doubt that the maiden voyage events will take place after Athens...again so as to not anger those who booked what was expected to be the maiden voyage.

The press release I cited calls it the inaugural sailing. Unless you spoke to a senior executive at Oceania since it's an official press release I suspect that wording comes with the approval of someone higher on the Oceania food chain than the person you spoke to. I think what you were told is just a thinly veiled attempt to not anger those who had booked the original inaugural sailing and now will not be on the inaugural.

Based on the analogy used by the author perhaps it's not as unlikely as you think. The article was written in 2013 and says "...we feel confident in saying this happens at a rate roughly equivalent to the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series." Well...three years later the Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908... Maybe, just maybe, those cows and ships aren't as hard to tip as was thought...😁 We'll now return to your regular programming.

No, it's not the "port's own website". There is no official site for the port of San Juan. It doesn't show up because this is some private website masquerading as something official. There are numerous cruises that don't show up on this site. it's basically a worthless junk site. Of the three sites you cited this is the last one I would rely on. Why you would think that any third party site should be used over the cruise line's own published itinerary that is listed on your cruise confirmation and boarding documents is beyond me. Yes, times can and sometimes do change with little or no notice, but unofficial sites won't have access to this information. In fact even official sites may not have it in advance because changes can be made right up until docking time.

Coral Princess has a 36 day world cruise segment departing from Manhattan in July.