skynight

No pre-cruise. Yes, if you wait until you board. If you wait until you board the charge will go to your on board account and automatically net against any OBC. Generally if you like to dine later on a U.S. based cruise you should be able to wait until you board. On cruises based in South America for example, it would be the reverse. Later is busier. I believe Europe is also a later crowd.

Post #2 quotes the legal text. The 18 yr old and 16 year old can be in the same cabin. It's important if you and the husband wish to have the plus or premier fares. When you are both booked into the same cabin then you will meet the requirement of passengers 1 & 2 required to both have the same fare package. If you split the two of you into different cabins then you would have to purchase packages for the first two booked into that cabin, means 4 packages. Go back to the TA and explain the passage contract.

Yes, correct. I forgot about platinum.

Basically there are 3 main components and a few minor components. Crew Appreciation - Worth between US$16 & US$18 depending on cabin category Unlimited wifi internet connection - Worth US$25/day/pp, or US$12.50 if you are elite loyalty status Beverage Package - 15 alcoholic beverages/day US$15 or less for plus fare and US$20 or less for Premier fare. Looking at the plus fare, if you are not elite, if you leave the Crew Appreciation in place and if you require unlimited internet then the daily value is US$16 + US$25 = $36/pp/day. That leaves a value of US$24/pp/day for all beverages which is equal to around 3 cocktails or a few more if you drink beer to break even. If you are a serious wine drinker then many of the better wines are prices between $15 and $20. If you have the plus fare and order one of these wines you will be charged the excess over $15 + 18%. Hope this helps.

Blue Lane at the terminal. Short detour.

You do not pay for Princess insurance until final payment date. Therefore, nothing to be refunded and nothing lost if cancelled before final payment date. Refundable deposit will be refunded if cancelled before final payment date, non refundable deposit would be lost. You can add Princess insurance when booked or any time up to final payment date. No difference.

Sounds like Princess charged what you believe is an incorrect amount. I would challenge this through the credit card. If you wish to contact John Padgett I would use a USPS letter, not email. Email will be in a super large group that may get looked at in CA or maybe in the Philippines. You may receive some sort of reply months from now. A letter will go to his office staff assigned to review thousands of complaints. You probably will get a quicker response.

You can charge table or slot play to your on board account. You must play. You can then cash out your remaining chips for table play or your casino account if playing slots. You can not just use a slot machine as an ATM. Play is required. Remember to cash out, latest, on the last evening the casino is open.

Busses arrive from the port to the airport probably starting around 9/9:30am for the fist bus arrival. Then those busses wait to fill with passengers going to the port. When the bus is full or almost full it leaves. Some of the timing depends on how many passengers are arriving and the timing of the arrivals. There are group shuttles, such as Prime Time, that will go to San Pedro. Depending on the number of stops the trip could take 1 1/2 hours or so. Uber is a good choice, private ride, reasonable cost. Taxis are also readily available.

Yes, this is how it is done in Ft. Lauderdale. You should have noticed that there were a few immigration agents hanging around. When I did the turn around in Ft. Lauderdale this past March I saw one person in our group be directed to go see the agent.

To me tip jars on a cruise ship is low class. No matter, I never carry cash around on board. Everything now and in the past is either medallion or cruise card.

Interesting, plus the cruise line was actually breaking WHTI rules. Note that not all RT Ft. Lauderdale Caribbean cruises qualify under WHTI rules. Cruises that have port stops in Martinique and/or Guadalupe are two examples where passports are required.

Princess no longer has golf pros on board. The program was discontinued, as you mentioned, years ago. If it would have been profitable Princess would have retained it. I don't foresee Princess restarting this program. If you wish to play golf in the Caribbean try a land vacation to a golf resort.

Two 50 ml bottles of Scotch, Gin, Vodka, Brandy. 2 beers. 2 Perrier. 2 Diet Coke. 2 Coke. 2 waters. You do not order. It is in your cabin when you board. You can call room service and trade alcoholic for alcoholic or non alcoholic. You can trade non alcoholic for non alcoholic.

The only way to get Princess to change or eliminate the juice bars is little or no demand.

Wine Drinker? Take a look at this post

Princess.com Onboard Our Ships Deck Plans Sky Princess Deck Plans

I don't know the exact answer. I do know that in Ft. Lauderdale passports were checked before security, plus the blue lane was a very brief detour, less than 5 minutes. I think it could depend on where you are boarding. Don't forget you have to have an original birth certificate with seal along with a government issued ID and the itinerary has to be a WHITI one to travel without a passport.

This past March on the Ruby I always received a can when asking for Coke. Never received fountain.

Slots. Place your medallion on the circle. Set up a casino account. Use cash or charge to your on board account. Cash outs go to your casino account. Go to the cashier to get your payout from your casino account. Make certain you close your casino account on the last evening. Tables. To charge to your on board account provide your medallion to the dealer and mention how much you want. The pit boss will process the charge. The dealer will give you the chips. Cash. Drop it on the table and the dealer will give you the chips. The dealer may ask for your medallion to track play. When done take your chips to the cashier to get paid.

From what you describe it appears that you are on the Sept. 25th sailing of the Island Princess RT Civitavecchia. My guess would be that the formal nights would be the two sea days, Sunday the 29th and Thursday the 3rd. The first formal night could be one of the early port days where the ship sails at 5pm, but I think the two sea days are the best guess at this time. On formal nights there is usually some sort of event in the Piazza area around 5pm.

On the Ruby in March they had Lara juice in milk cartons. Not a juice bar and no value. Princess needs to remove juice bar from false advertising.

What I noticed is that many of the passengers hang the lanyard around their neck when initially entering the terminal. Once on board they switch to their preferred way to carry. I remove the medallion from the lanyard and carry it in a pocket. Some use clip on devices. I have one of those but choose not to use it.

Wallyj has it correct. Here is some additional information. -Wifi really means internet connection. Everyone has wifi connection to the on board intranet to be able to see activities and such. Your daughter could use one of your internet sign ons and you two could share with one or the other being on line at a time. -When you have the plus fare you automatically receive the ability to use the Ocean Now App. This allows you to order food and drink on line, some food items are no charge, some have a charge. Without the plus fare you will be charged $14.99 the first time you use this feature. You can avoid the charge by just going to the bar or a waiter. -No charge beverages include coffee & tea in the buffet & DRs, morning juices, lemonade and ice tea in the buffet & DRs. Specialty coffees such as lattes have a charge, around $4/$5. -Without the plus fare your daughter's account will be charged the daily housekeeping/food service gratuity of $16/day for most cabins, $17 for mini suites, $18 for full suites. -Since you have the plus fare you can request unopened bottled water and cans of soda at any bar. Over time you can stock the cabin fridge. As an opinion I don't think your T.A. did you wrong. I believe what they did was cost effective. If you wish to include your daughter in the plus fare, $60/day, to purchase a stand alone non alcoholic beverage package, approx $42/day, or the stand alone classic soda package, approx $21/day you can do this when you board on boarding day. There will be crew around the ship selling these packages. If you do the math you will find that the stand alone packages don't make sense. The non alcoholic beverage package + the daily gratuity charge will be $58/day vs a plus fare of $60/day. For $2 extra $ you get unlimited internet.

For what is worth, I have never had any issues with the ship's laundry. No shrinkage, no damage, nothing. I have been elite and using this service since 2010.