JAF1

We put our medallions in RFID key wallets so cannot be tracked around the ship.  Last time we did this pre covid our room steward asked us if we were okay to which we asked why and he said because we had been in our room all day.  So we answered truthfully and told him key goes into wallet so we can’t be tracked.

Kettle misuse is not just limited to UK hotels stayed in a villa in Florida some years back and there was rice stuck in the bottom of the kettle.  No self respecting Brit cooks rice in a kettle. 

As much as we love cruising there is absolutely no way we would board a ship whilst mask wearing is mandatory.  Also we are not interested in only being able to go on shore on a cruise line organised tour.  Not being able to serve your own food in a buffet does not overly bother us but it would if by the time we get to sit down the food is cold and there is no where to reheat it.   Therefore, it seems as though our favourite form of holiday is off limits until things return to normal.

We booked the Island before they changed her but by the time we sailed she had been dry docked and altered.  This to us is now the worst of the Princess ships and do not get me started on the lack of space in the gym which now is not much more than a cupboard so I did not use it at all throughout my cruise on her.  This year we were looking at a cruise which turned out to be on the Island and chose not to cruise rather than re-board her.  Rant over

Sad but really enjoy the pistachio pudding which they do not have every day.

We have only booked a guarantee balcony once on Britannia and were allocated a cabin right at the back of the ship so had a view of the wake as we travelled only down side was it was floor above the night club and it was a late night venue. Put up with it the first night but second night by 1 am rang down to ask if anything could be done to turn it down. After two attempts by P&O to turn down the bass and by 2 am we were extremely fed up they said they would move us to another cabin the following day. The staff were excellent and helped us move so when we reboarded the following day we had very little to unpack. We have never booked a guarantee again but do have friends who have booked several and been very lucky.

We have been due refunds from Princess twice and each time have had to get in touch to request the refund. This time we were told they are supposed to wait to refund until the paperwork comes over from the States. We returned on 1st May and queried this on 6 June and were told the paperwork had still not been sent over which, I think is very poor on Princess's part. Luckily someone in the UK took pity on us as it was a large sum and was able to check paperwork and issue us with a cheque.

We sailed on the Island just after her refit and vowed never to go back on her again. They have put additonal cabins on the promenade deck so it is not longer possible to walk all the way round but had left the sign up which said how many times right round the deck equalled 1 mile. The gym instead of looking out is now totally inside and is small (feels like being in a cupboard). Food and entertainment were fine but for us the loss of an entertainment lounge, outside space and change to the gym totally spoilt the ship. They also made some changes to the childrens areas but as we did not have children with us this did not affect us but others were complaining about it.

Don't get me started on "NY-style cheesecake"! It always has a graham-cracker crust. No cheesecake I have ever seen in NY has a graham-cracker crust -- you must use pastry crust! [but now we may get a post from Blighty asking what the bloody h*ll is an "English muffin"???]

As an English person I certainly would not want an American muffin for breakfast but will happily eat and "English" muffin toasted with jam any morning or with melted cheese for lunch

Since I spend a lot of my time on a ship in the gym and especially on the Promenade deck, I would need an incredible deal to choose the Island over the Coral. I'm hoping a Panama Canal cruise will be in my future!

Agree with your comments have never seen such an awful gym on a cruise ship - it felt as though someone had a light bulb moment 'we must have a gym, where can we put it' answer there is an old cupboard we can empty and use. It is small, internal and I really felt as though I was in a large cupboard. I will never sail on the Island again.

Have not sailed on Carnival but been on Princes and HAL and would say HAL have a slight edge over Princess

We were on the Emerald Princess and visited St Petersburg back in 2015. We used SPB Tours and were very glad we did. They are licenced to handle visas so nothing for us to do apart from exit the ship and look out for them. They had plenty of people meeting and greeting and showing us to our assigned 15 seater mini buses. Our guide was first class and as a local was a fount of knowledge but made it interesting and informative. There is so much to see in St Petersburg that it can be hard to take it all in.

Would use them again without any hesitation.

We used SPB Tours when we were in St Petersburg and would thoroughly recommend them. They were excellent throughout. We found they handled the visas as they are licenced and then when we arrived at the port they were there ready to direct us to 15 seater mini buses and a bottle of water was waiting for us along with headsets. We were on the Emerald Princess and a lot of passengers were also using SPB so they had several vehicles lined up. Our guide was local and made the two days very interesting and informative. Would use them again without hesitation.

We did a TA on Reflection late October in 2015 departed Rome and were very lucky with the weather. We spent a lot of time outside in shorts as the weather was warm. We only had one day when we were near Gibraltar when the weather was not too good which was due to an unusual weather system. Would definitely cruise this route at this time of year again given the chance.

JAF1, Alamo runs a courtesy shuttle service between FLL airport & Port Everglades piers.

Thank you for your help

Alamo is the main company our holiday operator uses and we have been happy enough with them in the past as we can choose our car from a selection in the grade range. Do Budget offer the option to choose your car or do they select which car you are given?

We are likely to have an Alamo car hire ending up at Fort Lauderdale but they do not seem to have an office at the port. What are our options for dropping at the airport and getting to the cruise port. As we are English and this is the first time we will have stayed elsewhere in Florida and are driving down to Fort Lauderdale we are not very familiar with how systems work in Florida.

Isn't VAT always supposed to be "hidden" in the price of the product?

 

Not sure about Spanish / EU law on this, but all of my EU customers at work build the VAT into the final price of the product and don't add it on like we do sales tax in North America.

In the UK VAT has to be included in all prices but when sailing from a Spanish port it is normally shown as an additional item. This is normally mentioned in the small print prior to sailing so should not really come as a surprise.

You honestly don't use the elevators to go to the Horizon from say deck 8 or when arriving back from a tour?

I give you credit- wish I had that much ambition at my age each day. ;)

We honestly don't use the elevators either not from when on deck 5 right up to the top decks. We are both retired and find for us it is just as fast to use the stairs as wait for the lifts and always disembark not weighing any more than at embarkation.

....or has done the math and are OK with the risk.;)

Not if you are a national from the UK and travelling on US registered ships - then we would be absolutely foolhardy to risk not having comprehensive insurance.

We applied for our shareholder credit on August 26th and it took to September 12th before we received our OBC. We did query it at the start of September and were told there was a back log - guess they still have not cleared it.

If cruise lines are going to carry out random checks on people leaving the ship then people should be made aware that this is a possibility. I would also be exceedingly annoyed if stopped getting off a ship which I would have (like everyone else) had to jump through several hoops just to get on board in the first place only to have to kneel down on the dock side and empty my bag on to the floor. If cruise lines want to carry out this type of check then they need to execute it in a professional manner which from the original post did not happen.

Jamaica, Bahamas, Harwich(UK), Icy Straight, and Cozumel.

 

 

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Harwich is only a small port but just down the road is Colchester which is the oldest recorded town in England and has some very fine Roman remains and interesting places to visit but as it is on a river which is not wide enough or deep enough to dock a cruise ship they dock at Harwich instead. Harwich has an excellent train link direct into London.

We use anytime dining as we fear being stuck on a table with people we really do not get on with and do not enjoy our main meal but have always been fairly lucky. We have had one or two oddball characters that we have had a laugh about later in the evening but never felt we needed to move table.

Although we do not necessarily have our passports stamped in Europe they do get logged electronically when you arrive and again when you leave which might not be until the end of your cruise. If that is more than 90 days it will depend on which airport you exit through as to how it will work and whether you are challenged as overstaying.

When we were on the Island Princess in Venice overnight and were going on and off the ship we had our passports checked each time whereas other ports have not had to show passports.