APDMOM

Sailaway Views: I love seeing our future (and past) ships in port. We will be on Reflection for a second time Spring Break 2025: The View from our Aft Balcony - we were surprised to find a lounger on the balcony! It was not in previous photos we found of our cabin.

PS: Not sure if that video posted… Will check when the internet is better.

Sailaway: We went for a quick swim in the aft pool, which was too crowded for our taste. So, we made our way to the Retreat pool, which was much less crowded. On the way out, this was our surprise ‘almost sailaway’ ship horn announcement. I had no idea…Truly “The Love Boat” 😄 IMG_2814.mov

First ✅ off the To-Do List: We found a seat in the piazza to watch the safety video on each of our devices, then walked to our muster station to scan our medallions. I recommend getting this done first so that your vacation can really begin. By about 1:30 PM there were still over 1,000 people who needed to complete these two simple steps. 🤪 Buffet Lunch: We really enjoyed the buffet lunch. It was not crowded at the time we went (11 AM), and the food options were varied. The salad bar was very impressive! The soup was not that good, but we enjoyed everything else. TIP: Walk around the whole buffet to get an idea for the layout. It is very different from any other buffet we experienced and it is a bit challenging to figure out. If you don’t walk through the whole buffet, you will miss some unique offerings. Rooms were ready around 12:45, if I remember right. I was on a WhatsApp video call with my sister and mom in Namibia, so I did not pay close attention.

@wallyj Thank you for the best tip of the day! TIP: When you line up outside the terminal, the line will divide into 2. Take the left line. It has a shorter turn and ends up moving faster than the right side.

Arrival timeline continued: We walked to the elevator, took a pic of our parking level for a reminder, then took the elevator to level 5, as instructed: Bridge to terminal: After taking another elevator back to ground level, we dropped off our checked luggage and joined the long line. Even though the doors were supposed to open at 10:15, per a posted sign, the line was already entering the building. We were inside by 10:06. 10:06 - Security 10:08 - joined the green line On the way to the ship: 10:20 - walking the gangway onto the ship Welcome Aboard!!

The green lane started after security.

Pause here… forgot CC does not allow larger pictures from iPhone. I need to resize a few before I continue with the timeline.

Boarding timeline: Port arrival- 9:49 TIP: Take a picture of your checked suitcases in case they get misplaced.

My View: Day 1 - Port Everglades

I will let you know. 🙂

Will gladly report back. We are wondering about this too.

😂 I’m adding this to our plans. The last time I watched “The Love Boat” was when it played on South African TV with Afrikaans voices dubbed over. It was called “Die Plesierboot” which actually translates as “The Pleasure Boat”. 😁 I had to throw in some “not-so-general” knowledge.

Our “least” favorite part of the cruise is over… driving down. I am already browsing the app for all the fun activities offered. 🙂 Thanks for all the tips and positive input! Looking forward to our adventure and determining whether Princess will be our new go-to cruiseline. DH already jokingly refers to Princess as his favorite 😂

Thanks to everyone for all the helpful input! I have added these tips to my list from reviews I had read. We are pretty much packed and ready to drive down tomorrow. 🙂

This Cruise Experience: Princess Plus Like typical Newbies, we did a little bit of research before booking a balcony with a couch bed, since we did not want a rollaway bed. After researching more, we discovered Princess Plus, and decided to upgrade. It was a no-brainer for us, as we planned on getting wifi and pay gratuities anyway. The other extras were therefore quite cheap, once you factor those two expenses in. We have an aft balcony, so I really look forward to those aft views, of which I am sure to post plenty here. With that, I have some packing to complete, as we leave tomorrow for our Hampton Inn in Fort Lauderdale. Thank you for cruising along! Here is one wake view to hold us over - from our December cruise on Norwegian Escape.

A bit about us: We are a quirky, left-brain family of 3. The two men in my life excel at quirkiness, such as watching Friday night documentaries about black holes and 'not so' general knowledge that cause my eyes to glaze over. 🤣 We typically LOVE cruises and don't sweat the small stuff. We are not 'glass half full' people, because the cup runs over. We are thankful for every opportunity we get to hear that 'ding' as we board the ship to enjoy the open sea views. Welcome to our adventure!

Our Medallion Timeline: Shipping Confirmation email - 6/20/2024 (There was no tracking information in our email) In our Florida Mailbox - 7/1/2024 TIP: For other newbies... The Medallion comes with a laniard. If you prefer to wear your Medallion on a wrist band rather than the laniard that is provided, I ordered some from Amazon. You can also order other wearable jewelry for the Medallion from Princess, but these were much cheaper.

Counting down 2 days until we board... We did it! We reached 'that age' where we no longer require the adventurous ship, but rather a 'new' experience with a 'just right' price. We have been on 44-45 cruises, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Costa, Norwegian, Celebrity, and MSC. The addiction started in 2004, and has been growing since! TIP: For those who are new to my style of reporting, I will post Tips in Red for the skim-readers. Many of these tips, I found right here on Cruise Critic, and I pay it forward by incorporating what we found to be helpful in my review. Most of my reviews are picture heavy and will typically include some photos of food, menus, the daily program, and lots of ship pictures. I hope to keep up daily with my review, but may get a day behind here or there. I NEED to try to stay on course, as we will be jumping from this ship over to Norwegian Breakaway, after one night's stay in Fort Lauderdale. Requests: If you have any requests, please fee free to ask here. I will do my best to find information for you while I am on the ship. If it gets to be too much (to the point that it interferes with my vacation), I will let you know. However, I love to serve people, so I will follow up on any reasonable requests. 🙂 Our Itinerary: (So far no changes) We have no excursions booked, as we have been to all the ports. We cancelled our Belize excursion last week.

Thank you for posting this live review! We board Enchanted Princess this coming Saturday - no port changes yet. Looking forward to our first experience on Princess Cruiselines - been on many others, but we decided we have "matured" enough to try Princess 🤣

UPDATES??? ...from anyone who cruised in the past 3 months? As @100cruisesorbust posted, when you call and ask you usually get a variety of answers.

Hi @Mommapadraig, Even with the year that passed, we are not reconsidering MSC. I know many of our friends still enjoy the experience, but we are not interested in returning until they improve their customer service and safety protocols. We are trying Princess for the first time in a couple of weeks - really looking forward to that. We were also very impressed with our return to Carnival on the Horizon, as they are seriously cracking down on misbehavior, smoking on balconies, and overall security, including drug sniffing dogs. 🙂

In this scenario, I would recommend Seaside, since it has the two buffet venues (also better locations in my opinion); it has the ziplines, and it would be a different ship experience. We always try to cruise on different ships if we get the opportunity/choice.

I saw a Youtube video from a year ago that said it was $49 per day if you book on the ship and their price was $139 for 7 days when purchased in advance. My booking for July shows $149 for the week, so the daily rate may also be a bit higher. Based upon my research it varies by cruise, maybe supply and demand factoring in…

So excited to follow along and virtually join your voyage, @Host CJSKIDS! We are booked for July… Our first Princess cruise, after 44 cruises on a variety of other cruiselines. 🙂❤️⛴️ Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. 🤗 We are hungry to know all the insider tips as we venture out of our “comfort cruise zones”.