toberman

Have never sailed to Alaska before. We are sailing out of Vancouver on a Wednesday the 2nd of September. What kind of send off can we expect on the Coral Princess.

Hopefully you will spend a couple of days pre-cruise to visit one of our most spectacular cities. Very ethnic and scenic (also expensive :o). Have a great cruise!

The OP specifically stated that they wanted to go to the Caribbean, so any other ports don't matter.

Tendering can get complicated, especially if you have mobility problems. If the seas are calm it's like walking onto an escalator or an elevator.. easy. If the seas are unruly - even people no mobility problems can be subject to compilations. I've seen perfectly agile people have trouble on tenders.

Only suggestion I can make is pick a cruise that indicates they don't have tenders to any port (although that can change) - and then if you do have to tender... make a ship (or sea) day and enjoy not having the masses on board.

Just - note that many ships have private islands that require tendering.

There was a 12:30pm flight at a very good price that I was looking at...still not sure if I will take it.

 

one thing I remember from my last cruise was differing lines for Americans and everyone else.

Anyway, do they still do the separate line thing?

Hi Jim - I've never had a seperate line at FLL for customs. Other ports yes, but not there. For a 12:30 flight you should not need to do self disembarking. But FLL has cut down on the # of customs agents and lines can get long. Don't use cruise line transportation, they will wait for everyone else that has booked. Taxis are cheap and fast. If?? the next flight was only an hour later and a good price I might take it just to be sure and have a nice no-stress lunch at the airport. Hell.... who wants to get back to Canada that fast !! :)

According to the Pearson airport guide Air Lingus arrives at terminal 3 and Air Canada departs from terminal 1 - so there is a terminal change as well. Here's a link to the guide....

http://torontopearson.com/Connecting.aspx#

Fill in the boxes to get the guide.

Great. I really wanted it to be a surprise. Guess I will have to tell them. Thanks for the heads up!

 

Does anyone know if the gift is wine, they deliver the actual bottle of wine or if they leave a card?

It will be a gift card left in their room. They can either call room service for delivery or take to the dining room.

BTW - you don't have to tell them what it is - just a gift. Could be flowers, candy, wine, or champaign or whatever. Or, if you're really generous - dinner in one one of the speciality dining rooms!

With so much paperwork in the cabin when you arrive it can be easy to miss a voucher for a dinner at Sabatini's or Crown Grill or something else. While a surprise is nice, finding out later that you didn't get the gift someone paid for is not nice at all.

Agree Thrak - that's why I mentioned to tell the recipient to expect something.. they should look thru all the paperwork.

Thanks everyone! Y'all have been a big help! :)

But.. some of us are not Y'alls - were EHs !! :)

Thrak has a good point. We purchased a gift for friends on their last cruise, but made sure to tell them that there shud be something special in their room (or a card to indicate same) for them when they arrived. That way they could check up it if it didn't arrive (or tell us so we could get a refund).

Do do you just phone up give your credit card and your done. Any idea on the number to call

Try this... if they can't do it they will be able to direct you to the proper # -

"As the Consummate Host®, Princess Cruises is committed to making your celebrations memorable. Simply contact our Celebrations Customer Support team at 1-855-500-7690 to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff and we’ll handle the rest!"

This might help... Cruises I found leaving Apr 25 -

Crown out of LA

Caribbean out of FLL (TA to UK)

Royal out of FLL (TA to UK)

If you have their name, ship, possibly home address and phone # Princess can find them.

I guess I'm another one of the 'minorities' here. Recently retired (Freedom55 is soo nice) from a stressful job, I find the boredom around the pools is depressing.

I can find a nice place in the sun - or out - many places around the ship to read and find solitude - even my room or balcony. What I'm looking for is entertainment. Used to love the concerts on MUTS, along with live music and a DJ at the pool. People watching during the pool games was also entertaining.

Now, it's so boring during sea days - I hate them! I used to go on vacations to come home depleted and wanting to go back to my 'stressful' job just to recuperate and relax!

Went back to Guest Services to find the girl who had been helping us and thank her for all her help. She almost cried and every time she saw us was always willing to help us in any way we needed for those two weeks.

What I've experienced is.. if you're nice and polite to Guest Services (or any other employee of any company) you will always receive 'above and beyond' service from them. Many people don't understand the concept. But, I'm not "Entitled".

 

BUT - theres always a butt!!

Yep - there's always a butt.. we all like looking at them. :eek:

It's the "but" that's always a problem. :D

OK, you're on vacation. You've taken a cruise to relax. How badly do you really want to communicate with your teens?:p ...................................REALLY WANT TO?;)

That was my initial reflex as well. :D

But I'm not sure whether the 'teens' are on the ship or back home. I'm assuming on the ship.

Don't be afraid to ask your Princess co-ordinator if there is an alternate area available to the chapel. Friends got married on the Ruby and they were given an outside area at the rear of the ship for the ceremony. Beautiful setting. Mind you weather has to cooperate for this. All the chapels I've seen are rather small and somewhat boring.

I can't imagine that you would ever get a better price on a cruise ship for a camera than you could at home. Even though your exchange rate may seem to be good - consider things like warranty, returns etc which is much harder to get thru a contract company on the ship than it is from your home town dealer.

Possibly? You could get a good deal on one of the Islands though. Same problem arises with warranty and returns. You really have to know the market at home and compare. Have had friends from the US say they've gotten a great deal... but really knew their pricing.

what the time difference is now.

 

You may only have 1 time zone in the UK but there are 4 in the US and 6 in Canada, so it depends on where in the US you want. The east coast is 4 hours behind London (GMT) time now. As you go west it gets greater.

Yes it would except, the Regal has a dipping pool on the aft of the ship.:D

Thanks

Hi Jennifer,

 

Since your cruise was paid in CDN dollars you are able to call Princess and purchase OBC credits at the present 1.10 rate. Great deal but I read on one post that after September 2015 it will go up to 1.20....

 

We are on the Regal tomorrow and can't wait to check her out.

For cruises before Sept 2015 it's 10%. For cruises after that it's 20%. Has nothing to do with when you call.

Here are some ideas, suggestions, and thoughts...

 

Great info... can I presume this would be the same on the Regal??

Anyone know of a workaround so that when accessing the Princess website I can see fares in US$. It appears that Canadian I.P. addresses cause Cdn$ prices to be shown with no option to change to an alternate currency.

I haven't been able to find a 'work around' for the Cdn pricing on Princess. Same thing with eZair - will only allow me to get pricing from a Cdn airport, even though my closest (and cheapest) airport is in the US. I usually compare Princess's prices with a large Cdn TA, and check US pricing on several US TA's and add 25% exchange to get an idea. Plus.. I've never found Princess to offer prices lower than a TA.

There's a 'sticky' at the top of the page re cruise air.. you should read thru it.

I did a quick check on Matrix for your flights, but not knowing the exact dates could not determine if you're getting a good quote. I came up with prices nearing the $600 mark for late Jan. This a link to Matrix... just fill in your dates and see what comes up. Airport codes for Calgary and San Juan are YYC and SJU.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

Good Luck

I will downsize the photos and repost. Thanks for the input.

 

Jack

No need to repost those pics since it won't change the layout of this page.

Once we change to a new page everything will be back to normal.

I just looked at my last post, and had to scroll across the screen to see the ending.... Is it just me??

Hi Jack - Appears as though you've gone back to flickr for your pics. Ok, but seems to be you haven't resized them to fit into the CC criteria?? I'm finding that I have to scroll across the page to see the whole pic. Just me?? Not complaining.. just saying...