trabeler

M class also has free dry saunas in the men's and women's changing rooms. They are quite nice on the M class... about twice the size of the S class and have a nice ocean view window.

Persian gardens on the M class has a steam room, but as said earlier, that is extra cost unless you're in Aqua class.

We leave next week for a Panama Canal cruise on the Century and are in the middle of packing.

Does anyone know if the Century provides umbrellas for regular cabins (we'll be in an inside)? I can't remember whether or not I've seen them on the last several sailings and the only time I really remember them was when we needed them on a Baltic sailing on Connie back in 2009 (it rained in every port!).

Since we're flying, anything we can do to cut down on the baggage would be helpful.

Thanks!

Life jackets are still brought to muster as of two weeks ago. You have to practice putting them on once at the muster station.

Have friends who sailed on the Nov 9 cruise out of Houston.

She says it was very warm throughout the ship and her cabin the entire trip. They were on Plaza deck (no balcony).

Anyone have a problem with the ship being hot on your sailing? I know there can be a bit of a problem when ship is in a Caribbean port as the heat and humidity can increase when the doors are open but generally once we sail things cool down.

Also, no mention about the mattresses on the CB. Are they still hard?

I was on the 23 Nov sailing and didn't find the ship hot at all. Our cabin was on the plaza deck and we were comfortable with the thermostat set mid-way between neutral and full cold.

I'd say the mattress was firm... which is what I like anyways. Some might call it hard.

Was just at Paradise Beach last week. It was too windy to use the water toys, however.

To answer a few of the OP's initial questions on Paradise that I haven't seen addressed:

Wifi - Free signal available, strongest around pool but works at the beach too.

Dock - You can walk to the end. It was too windy when we were there to have kayaks or anything else, however.

Wristbands - This has gotten more confusing since we were there a few years ago. They really wanted you to get a $10 credit in addition to the $2 entry. I was just polite but firm that I'd be ordering drinks and food and would rather pay as I go. I didn't want the hassle of tracking down the same server each time.

Also, sometimes there is a theme at the buffet with dishes you can't get in the MDR. One that we always like is Bavarian night. Lots of interesting sausages, pretzels, and different German dishes.

I usually just call and order them in advance. No form is required, although it helps to know the item number from the form to help the agent find it in their system. There will be a voucher waiting in your cabin that you exchange for the card.

The card is $31 in advance but onboard it is a couple of dollars more.

This can happen and the only way to avoid it is to be sure that your booking is noted as 'no upgrades'.

I just made a booking today for two nearby rooms for a family trip and the Princess agent mentioned this before I even brought it up. According to the agent, they do not have the ability to flag multiple cabins to allow upgrades but still keep them together.

We just did a Segway tour through Princess last week. Costa Maya was an unplanned itinerary change for us so we didn't get a chance to properly review this excursion in advance.

Overall, it was just ok. Not something I'd repeat. You get a little over an hour of Segway riding time.

You start in a parking lot near the terminal where you watch a video and practice riding the Segway. They make you wear a lot of safety gear. I'm used to a helmet for Segway tours (we've done several in other cities) but they add on knee pads, elbow pads, and a high vis vest.

There is no real "tour" with this excursion, however. You just follow them down some city streets, to the lighthouse at the end of the beach road, and then along the beach road. They stop and take photos of you at the lighthouse which they try to sell to you later for $15. There is also a rest stop about 2/3 of the way through. There is no narration or description of anything along the way.

The tour ends back near the lighthouse at a restaurant / beach club... I think it was called the "Blue Sky" or something similar. They had free wifi and $2 beers.

The guides leave you at the beach club with instructions that when you want to go back to the cruise terminal, just ask the bartender at the club to call a cab and it will all be prepaid.

We left after staying at the beach about an hour or two and had the bartender call a cab after explaining we were on the Segway tour. However there was a lack of communication with the cab driver since he wanted to charge us for the trip. There was another couple that was in another cab at the same time who had the same problem. We argued with the drivers at the port for awhile until they let us go.

On our final bill we got a refund of 7,12 US, ref. RTB&BZEGVT, on 27. Nov.. Seems that this are the refunds for the missed ports.

We also received a refund of $23.88 on 25 Nov, listed as "government", so our total refund per person was $31. The original taxes/fees per person was $75 for this booking.

Just got off the CB last week. I saw the egg muffin sandwich at the IC. Can't swear it was there every day since I wasn't interested in it, however.

There was also smoking indoors in the Churchill cigar lounge before departure.

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Just got off the CB today. Brett joined the ship last Saturday directly from the Coral Princess... he even accidentally referred to the CB as the Coral a few times the first day by accident!

He is very personable and appears to be a hands-on cruise director. I was surprised that he ran all the line dancing classes in addition to the things the CD normally does, such as the marriage game. He also ran the majority rules game plus several trivia contests.

I like his style of introducing/closing out the nightly theater shows since he is short and to the point. Some CD's like to talk way too much about everything else you can do that is already written in the Patter.

However, the entertainment programming was a bit disjointed on this trip, which was probably a combination of our constantly changing itinerary plus him being new to the activities staff. I got the feeling that he was coming up to speed on the activities that his staff knew how to do, etc. I'm sure that things will line out quickly.

Overall, he is probably one of the better CD's we've come across.

We have never tendered into a destination. Is tendering, into a port, an issue?

Tendering is only a problem if you are mobility impaired since you are transferring from a moving cruise ship into a relatively small tender boat that could be bobbing up and down. Passengers confined to wheelchairs cannot usually use the tenders.

The other concern with tenders is only a factor if you are doing an independent (not through the cruiseline) excursion that has a very early start. There are limited quantities of tender boats so a "ticket" system is used where you have to get your entire group together and get a numbered ticket, then wait for your turn to board a tender. If you're in no hurry, typically after the first two hours there is very little waiting (referred to as "open tender" time).

There can also be a bit of a backup for the return trip if you want to come back close to the time of the last tender.

Hope this helps! We just got off the Caribbean Princess today and had a great time even though we ended up leaving late due to high winds and went to Costa Maya and Cozumel instead of our original itinerary of Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel.

Ton of questions - anything you can tell me. We will be new to Princess (not cruising) and our booking is linked to theirs and we were told to go to the Priority Line with them to get checked in quicker as they wait on the BVE people. Will we have a hard time with this? What time would you recommend arriving? THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

We had 8 people sailing plus one person (grandma) doing the BVE. Our only issue was boarding priority. Initially, everyone we talked to said that we couldn't board with the BVE person and if we all wanted to board together, they suggested having the BVE person wait until the folks who are sailing board.

After asking a few supervisors and then being polite with the lady who was coordinating the actual boarding, she let us all board together. This way we got a group photo with grandma that she got complimentary as part of the BVE package. BVE people need to be first to board so that the photos are ready before they leave... if someone who is BVE ends up boarding late, I'd expect that their photo would be mixed in with the folks who are sailing.

Other tidbits.. arrive around 10:45. On 23 Nov they didn't open up security until around 10:45 or so. Go through check in and then sit together at the BVE chairs (nearest to the entry doors that look like rolled-down garage doors before boarding begins). The BVE people need to be wearing a sticker that says "Bon Voyage" that they should get during check-in. This sticker is key to the early boarding, free photo, and free wine during lunch.

We probably boarded around 11:30 or thereabouts. We didn't do the organized tour and just self explored after lunch. Lunch opened at noon and we were one of the first groups seated. Sit-down lunch should be in the Coral dining room. Staff members kept wanting to send us to the buffet and two even said that the dining room wasn't open for lunch.

We picked up the photo at the photo gallery around 2 pm or so. They had a few envelopes of BVE photos waiting by then.

The announcement for all visitors to depart came around 3 pm and they wanted everyone off by 3:30 pm or so. Finding how to exit was a bit tricky since they were running three incoming gangways and had nothing properly setup for departure. Just walk up to security and explain they need to get off and they'll take care of things.

Hopefully they'll have more of the bugs worked out of the procedures by the time you sail. Ours was probably only the second BVE that was done from Bayport.

We did the BVE for my mother in law last week. We were sailing that day and parked in the long term lot. However, when you approach the port, if you're not sailing, security should direct you to the employee lot which is adjacent to the pay lot.

Let me know if you have any other BVE questions for Houston.

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In Houston the last few weeks the ship has docked with the port side against the dock.

Just came through the Bayport terminal today. There is no shopping of any kind in the terminal or within a few miles of it. Didn't even see a vending machine for snacks.

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Just got off the Caribbean Princess today. Have to say that disembarkation was probably the fastest I've ever experienced. Our departure time was 9 am... got called around 9:10 am from the waiting area (Island dining room) and walked straight through to the luggage area without stopping.

Picked up luggage and then through customs/immigration... there had to be 10+ agents available and absolutely no waiting.

Was in the car and leaving the parking lot by 9:30.

Forgot one thing... There was one couple that missed departure in Costa Maya. Saw them drive up to the pier in a golf cart just as we pulled away.

I feel bad for them if they traveled to Belize hoping to join us there.

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I'm on this sailing as well.

Brett joined for this cruise straight from the Coral. Not sure how long he'll be aboard, however. Not sure if this was a planned transition since he seems to be coming up to speed on the programming. Plus it hadn't been helped by our constant itinerary changes.

We've been reimbursed for about $32 in port fees per person.

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We're moving very slowly. Two tugs are tied fast and holding us in position as we come off the dock.

Highly doubt we were grounded since we came off quickly when the lines were dropped.

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Shops opened at 9 am today even though we haven't left yet. Cruise director said they got special permission somehow.

Interesting theories about being stuck or grounded here. Will be easy to tell based on how the ship behaves when they loosen the lines. Seems hard to believe that we're grounded.

Captain has said that we'll have two tugs tied to us to navigate through the 1.5 mile long Bayport channel. Channel is 90 m wide and were almost 40 m wide which he claims is the primary concern.

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8:30 am and captain just announced that we still can't leave. Problem is 35 knot winds and the narrow Bayport channel. He says that even with thrusters and two tugs, Princess and the port pilots do not think this safe to transit the narrow canal.

We will stay in place until the winds subside. No word on any itinerary changes, but at this point it is obvious we'll end up skipping at least one port.

Casino and shops are still closed and some bars can't open due to Texas liquor laws. You also can't order bottles of wine in the dining rooms, just by the glass.

All other shipboard activities continue as normal, but it's still too chilly for most on deck activities (it's about 45F this morning).

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7 am now and it still looks quiet on the pier.

People asking at guest services about when we'll leave are being told "the captain will make an announcement soon"....

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I'm also onboard now waiting for departure.

Hopefully these types of delays don't become a trend. If every time it is foggy or windy they have trouble with the Bayport terminal, I'd think cruise lines would reconsider using this port.

It would sure be a shame since Bayport is close to home and it is a pretty nice terminal with super close parking.

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