walkingsoon

I prefer to wear a budgie smuggler to the buffet. Can't really see it though as my belly hangs over and covers it.

Take an Uber, especially with four people. Last August I had a ninety minute wait on the pier for a bus. Whoever they contracted with did an extremely poor job.

Emerald will be closer to Caribbean than the Enchanted or Regal. I'm lukewarm on it. It's better than the Royal Class (my opinion, apparently not yours), but it still has a Riviera deck.

Call Fred at Exploration Journeys 1-888-321-3975 (argentinaexplorationjourneys.com) and tell him of your mobility challenge issues. Ask for a quote. He can put together a completely curated package with transfers, hotels, private tours, even a side trip up to Iguazu (or elsewhere) if you've got time. Expensive - a bit, but still cheaper than the Princess offering. I'm looking for an excuse to return to BA, largely to use his services again. Walkingsoon

You stand a chance. Lots of people buy multiple FCC's onboard and use them to hold several cruises, fully intending to cancel the majority of them. But "89"? Wow! I don't know how solid your dates are nor your desire for that specific departure port, but rather than hope to get on an apparently full ship (and understand that, despite liking Princess I have an anti-Royal Class bias) I would be considering one of these... Diamond Princess, 11/12/25, as Teechur suggested. Smaller ship but just 1 day in Hong Kong. Celebrity Millenium, 10/29/25, also Tokyo to Singapore with 2 days in Hong Kong HAL Westerdam, 11/9/25, Hong Kong to Singapore. Oceania Riviera (my top pick), 11/6/25, Bangkok to Singapore or 10/22/25, Hong Kong to Bangkok. Good luck!

"Has anyone gone through Princess for their pre/post cruise? If so, how was your experience?" I have, though not for LAX or FLL. I doubt I will again. Shortly after the Covid restart and concerned about the the state of travel, I used the Princess offered pre-cruise hotel and transfer package to sail out of Civitavecchia. The hotel provided was adequate, not great, and the transfer from the airport to the hotel was very smooth - we were met by a Princess representative in baggage claim and directed to a private driver, all very relaxing after a long series of flights. (that was the one big plus) The morning transfer was a bit less impressive with long waits, a crowded bus and multiple stops that got us to the ship a few hours later than I would have preferred. You pay a premium price for the Princess service (I think we paid >$700 for Rome, probably twice the necessary) and lose control over transfers. You're essentially paying a lot for a guaranteed experience, which doesn't always work out as planned, as you discovered previously. I hope you hopped in a cab and applied for compensation with that other cruise line. For going LAX to FLL I would, and in fact am in three weeks, use Hotwire or Priceline for hotels and Uber for transfers. LAX is a bit of a pita and I prefer hopping in a car immediately and getting down to San Pedro, Long Beach or Torrance the night before for a short transfer in the morning. I'd still do the same if I wanted to hang downtown a few nights and play tourist. Fort Lauderdale is easy, everything close and cheap. Walkingsoon

Welcome to MedallionClass cruising </sarc> Not exactly sure what you mean by a "dedicated desk", but you might try calling Princess and ask, as a seasoned cruiser considering shifting allegiance, for your own personal CVP (cruise vacation planner). That person should be able to see (and assign) a specific room that might not be available to you if you are booking by yourself online. Before you call, perhaps do some room availability research by doing a mock booking in which you plug in "3" or "4" as the "number of guests". If you can't (or you've simply maxed out the time you're willing to try to) get the dining reservations you want, realize that you can simply show up at the ship and wander to one of the MDRs on your own schedule. You don't need reservations, you don't need the app. You might even find life more relaxing ignoring both. Enjoy your cruise! Walkingsoon

"It’s hard to know if our issues are due to the new ship, due to Princess or just what cruisers are used to" The issues are, imo, largely a result of the number of passengers (there are lots on the Sun) and the passenger to staff ratio. I've got 500+ days with Princess, might not hit 600. At this point I regret putting my time in on Princess, which is evolving in a direction I don't like, and not with Holland America, which is maintaining a service similar to what Princess used to offer twenty years ago and doesn't seem in a hurry to replace their older smaller ships with newer noisier ones. If you can afford it, check out the more luxurious lines. If not, stick to the smaller ship end of the mass market offerings. Regarding the medallions, they're pretty horrible. So is the phone app. Princess has a lot invested in them, however, so I guess they're not going away. As for "what cruisers are used to", I'm starting to suspect that lots of people actually enjoy getting in long lines and hanging out in the midst of large crowds. Can't relate. Fwiw, the previous Sun Princess was a wonderful ship. Walkingsoon

Onward Travel Solutions available at airporttaxis-uk.co.uk I was impressed by their website and communication. This time they far underbid their competitors. I'd start there and then compare them to blackberrycars.com, who have also done well by me in the past.

The Grand is fine. For me, it's really simple. There are two categories of ships in the Princess fleet. You can classify them three different ways, each reaching (nearly) the same result: 1- is there a Riviera deck? 2- was it built since 2004? 3- do they sail with >3000 passengers? Here's the simple part: each ship in category one (no,no,no) is superior (my opinion) to any one of the ships in category two (yes,yes,yes). Will a spot of rust on the edge of your balcony ruin your cruise experience? If so, perhaps you'd prefer one of the ships in category two. I just hope you don't mind long lines, constant noise in public areas and an atrium you can barely walk through. Princess has made a business decision to become a megaship brand, no different than RCI, NCL or MSC. Once that transformation is complete, I see HAL, Cunard and Seabourn providing for my future travel plans. Different people have different opinions. I've provided mine for the benefit of the original poster. Walkingsoon

Thanks for the advice, Thrak and PacNGo. I'll keep trying. Waiting until I debark will possibly work too.

Good idea, Thrak. Tried from both Chrome and Edge and got an error message "this site can't be reached" when I try the "Try our website version" link on the check-in page.

Not much chance, no. You do know, however, that you can switch back and forth as often as you want, a fairly easy process, right? So unless you really need two devices online at the same time, it might not be worth upgrading. I surely don't.

Well, at least they know it. Booked a new cruise, just a few weeks out, and thought I'd nail down some pre-cruise requirements and see if they have any MDR reservation slots still open, but I get this message: "Managing upcoming cruises is not available while onboard" So my question is --- Why? Fix it! Or at least stop sending me e-mails telling me to complete my check in. I still enjoy cruising on some (a steadily disappearing portion) of the Princess ships but this app is crap. Dump it, dump the medallions, dump those responsible. Consider this to be constructive criticism, Walkingsoon

Regarding Muse... I sailed last Sep/Oct, six months ago and I am but a lowbrow oaf, but I thought the food was great. I never tried La Dame or Kaiseki. Silver Note was interesting but didn't click for me. Atlantide was fine, The Grill and Indochine were fun and La Terazza, my favorite, was consistently excellent. I'm experimenting with different lines, but Silversea and the Muse are high on my list for a repeat. Walkingsoon (one small complaint: some of the artwork! What were they thinking? I used to avoid the midship Port ladder just because it hurt my eyes.)

Sure. I got a one way flight LAX-SEA for $20.12 on my preferred airline using EZAir. In my book, that qualifies as a "good" experience. EZAir is just one more option to consider. Sometimes the best (occasionally by a lot), sometimes not.

"I saw this exact message posted yesterday on FB, but I was at a traffic light and missed the group that it was posted in." 🙄

Just to show that not all agree, I'd prefer Grand out of San Pedro to Ruby out of San Francisco. But the Ruby out of Vancouver might top both those choices. Hope this helps, but know it doesn't 😉 Walkingsoon

This is a really easy choice, dmwnc1959. You can't go wrong - pick either and enjoy your choice with no regrets. They're both great ships. "My fear is that, as she’s the second oldest ship in the fleet after Grand and carries the least number of passengers she may be sold off soon. Cruise lines are building bigger and bigger ships and there’s no place in the fleet for the old ones. I still miss Pacific Princess. 😩" Wolfie11 - Not all cruise lines are going bigger and bigger, just the mass market lines. Higher fares, but some lines have been recently putting really nice small ships on the water and others are keeping the older ones alive. Perhaps it's time to check out Azamara Onward. Sadly, when NCL and Princess finish aging out all their ships with <3k passengers, I'll probably be done with them. Too bad, but life goes on. I'm curious to see what HAL will do. Walkingsoon

"you have to pay double" Not always. You might want to check out *****.com or cruiseplum.com. They both have specific pages for solo travelers seeking a cheaper solo supplement. On the Princess website's own cruise search page you can plug in "1 guest", sort according to price, and find deals that have reduced or even nonexistent supplements, though ***** might point you in the right direction more efficiently. NCL has single cabins but I've found them to be no less expensive (though obviously smaller) than their corresponding full size inside cabins. I found the attached lounges for the singles area to be disappointing, so I usually just booked a regular cabin. If you are indeed finding that Princess is insisting on 100% solo supplements, you might check some of the luxury lines, such as Seabourn or Silversea which seem to do better than the mass market lines when it comes to solo travelers. I believe you can interact with as many or as few other passengers as you choose. I wish you well on your planning and future cruises. 🙂 Walkingsoon

Regarding the gym, the windowless lower deck location has the one small benefit that the only people in there are actually using the gym to exercise. This is a nice change from the sun and lido deck locations with large groups of loud lookie-loos barging through, people sitting on the machines eating pizza while looking at the view, etc. I actually kind of liked the Island gym.

"If the original delay was due to water contamination, they would have debarked all crew living on board. Can't have people staying on board with bad water." I recall JP-5 contamination in the water while on a 'cruise' on the Enterprise. They didn't let us debark.

"hotel pick-ups" No. But as Jadn13 said, if you want to make your own way to Victoria Coach Station then you can use that transfer. I wasn't impressed by the Princess offering (crowded, delays) and found reserving a car service to be more convenient and not much more expensive for two or more passengers. To Upwarduk's recommendation of Eavesway Coaches, let me add Blackberry Cars and Onward Travel Solutions. How are you getting from the airport to downtown? Walkingsoon

Good. There are some (well, me anyway) who believe that all of the ships built 2004 and earlier are superior to all the ships built after 2004. It's just that simple. Island gets a bad rap because they removed some public spaces to add extra staterooms. This makes it pretty easy to compare it unfavorably to its sister ship, Coral. But it still rates better imo for 'crowdedness' than any of the larger ships. As Paula M notes, it deserves some extra credit for going places the others don't.

They're more alike than different. I sailed both this year and would happily do either again, but... For Alaska, I'd sail out of Vancouver on a smaller ship with a promenade deck, Sapphire or Grand, 14 days roundtrip to Whittier if you've got the time. If you can only do 7 days, do Ruby roundtrip or one of the others one way. Better ships for that destination (my opinion) and better itineraries. Don't regret your final choice, whatever it is. It'll be a fine cruise. Walkingsoon