JimmyVWine

I don't know what Icruise is, but I can tell you that the block quote is a word for word republication of what is on the Princess site under FAQ --> Onboard Experience --> Smoking Policy. In my Cruise Personalizer, under Notifications section, the following appears, which in turn directs the reader to the same FAQ that was quoted: ONBOARD SMOKING POLICY Princess Cruises is committed to providing our guests with a relaxed, rejuvenating retreat at sea. In keeping with this goal, we have increased the scope of non-smoking areas onboard all Princess vessels. Smoking is not permitted in most areas of the ship, including all staterooms and balconies. Violations to this non-smoking policy will result in a $250 fine for each occurrence, which will be charged to the guest's stateroom account. For guests who wish to smoke, a cigar/smoking lounge* and a limited number of designated smoking areas will be reserved for this purpose. As a safety precaution, guests are reminded to properly dispose of cigarettes, cigars, and pipe tobacco, which are never to be thrown overboard as these may be sucked back into the ship and cause fires. For additional information, please visit the Cruise Answer Place at: http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/experience.jsp and click on the "Smoking Policy" link.

This is exactly what they should do. Instead of filling up public space with screens for people to view and order photos, they should link the photo system to the cabin TVs and let people view and order their photos through that pathway. After ordering, the photos can either be delivered to the cabin or picked up at a small kiosk. The current photo space could then be converted into a lounge/bar and generate real revenue. It is likely that many (most?) people who are ordering photos have already pre-paid for them through the Premier Package, so the square footage allocated to the photo screens is not generating any new revenue. It's just servicing people who have already put down their money. I suppose that the same could be said about a bar, but if I had to guess, I would say that more money will be spent by people on board without a Package who order drinks than there will be spent by people who do not have Premier who purchase photos. All of this raises the frightening prospect that the bean counters have figured out that the old cruise ship model of creating as many ways as possible to get people to buy drinks to drive up revenue is over, and if enough people pre-pay for alcohol through the purchase of a package, then it benefits the cruise line to develop ways to get people to order as few drinks as possible. In the past, the interior architects would look at a blueprint and say: "Put a bar there." Now, they will look at a blueprint and say: "Remove that bar."

Thanks. I wasn't sure since the walk would be through heavily trafficked commercial areas. And no, there is no way that I would want to! 😫

If you are certain that you are going to Berths 46/47 (which is the Ocean Cruise Terminal) then yes, it is an easy walk. Princess also uses the Mayflower Terminal (105/106) and there is no way that you would want to walk there, especially with luggage. Not even sure you would be allowed to.

Princess is Beta Testing a new evacuation procedure. Each cabin is being retrofitted to be its own lifeboat, and this is the ejection button causing the cabin to detach and shoot out into the ocean.

There is no discount provided by adding Plus during the initial booking process. If you sense a glitch, just go back and book the basic fare to lock in your price and cabin. Then just call or email your CVP later to add Plus. You will be charged $60 pp/pd. You can add it up to a week before departure, and it has been reported that you can buy it on the first day of the cruise as well. Don’t let a glitch frustrate you. There is an easy workaround.

I hope he was served BOTH pieces!

I've never understood this phrase since the size of vessels has increased over time. A vessel large enough to be a "ship" in 1940 might be small enough to be a "boat" now, given the size of the USS Gerald Ford. Surely there must be some empirical distinction, no?

While this only applies to cruises we have taken out of Port Everglades, our typical routine is to fly in the afternoon before and rent a car for a day. Rental Cars in Florida are cheap. (At least they were.) And you pick up your car right in the parking garage so no need to take a shuttle. The car saves time in getting to our hotel, and allows us to save quite a bit of packing for the plane ride, as we make a shopping trip to various stores. CVS for sunscreen or other liquids and gels that might explode on the plane, wine shop, Home Goods store. We return the car the next day and when it was available, took the free shuttle to the port offered by National. I think that is gone, and if so, a taxi to the port is cheap. The whole adventure takes little time, saves on airplane packing, and saves hundreds of dollars on wine not to mention the ability to bring on really nice bottles. Typical one-day car rental with corporate discount was usually around $44. Probably more now, but still.

Seems a bit odd since ships that already have a SDGP in the area where Vines would have been are seeing those swapped over to the Irish Pub. So why put in a SDGP in that location if other ships are ripping it out?

Enjoy your voyage and keep us updated. I board in Southampton after the TA concludes.

Swap medallions?

The inventory on each ship and on any given cruise is so inconsistent that it makes it darn near impossible to make recommendations in advance. It’s not as if Princess has a monolithic, consistently available wine list. You’d do better by posting this question after you board and confirm what is available to you.

Aside from what one thinks of the quality, the prices are extreme given that most of these wines are "by the glass" selections available within the Packages, perhaps with a couple of bucks extra per glass if one has Plus. The retail value of the 7 wines in the largest package is $160. Princess lists it as being $427 and you get it for the bargain price of $235. To be fair, if you went to Total and carried these wines on, you would pay $160 at the store plus 5 corkage fees which would be either $75 or $100. So your all in cost would be between $235-$260. So in that respect the cost isn't terrible. But I don't know why anyone would buy these wines to bring on board and incur a corkage charge given that they are readily available within the scope of the Packages. One cost comparison might look like this: (Many variables here, including coffee consumption, soft drink consumption and mocktail consumption) A person who pays out of pocket for gratuities ($17), undiscounted Wi-Fi ($15), coffee and soft drinks ($8) is paying $40 per day for all of these. The decision to purchase Plus or Premium will depend on their estimation of how much alcohol they will consume. $20 per day and Plus makes sense. Around $30 per day and Premium makes sense (after pro rating the value of the Specialty Dinners). But if, as a couple, two people are going to drink no more than the equivalent one bottle of wine per day, they could make the 7 bottle package last a whole 7 day cruise. Assuming that there isn't an 18% charge added to the purchase price, (a big "if"), then each person is paying just under $17 per day for the wine. ($235 divided by 7 days, divided again by two people). To me, this comes very close to the $20 per day that Plus costs, and if you buy Plus, you can treat yourself to more drinks each day at no extra cost, and still order the same wines that are in the Package by the glass. Perhaps there might be a couple of bucks of overage cost for some of them. So it would appear that the 7 bottle package is only a value for people who are extremely disciplined and are not going to drink a drop more than the wine in the package. Any additional alcohol consumed would make Plus the better buy.

It's really not that difficult to wrap a couple of wine glasses in a small towel or sweatshirt and place them in a shoulder bag that you walk off the ship with. We have glasses that have logged tens of thousands of miles on various vacations and we haven't broken a single one.

They definitely have ginger beer because my daughter favors Moscow Mules and has had them on board.

I'd be shocked!! 😁

Taxi or Uber. If you are going on a weekend, figure 30-40 minutes and around $40 before tip, using Columbus Circle as a starting point. 25-30 minutes and around the same price if starting from the Upper East Side (70th and Park for example).

I would say: "So many more fun Cocktails." The vast majority of these drinks share no DNA with a Martini.

If you are particular about wine glasses, just bring your own. If it isn't possible to take some from home, we stop by at a home goods store at our departure city and pick some up. Very nice glasses can be found for around $5-$9 per stem. We bought three of these in Athens (Zara Home) for $5 per stem and take them with us on our cruises. If we break one (or three), who cares. And we bought these in Fort Lauderdale at Home Goods for about the same price. These we gifted to Vines when we left the ship.

Would be nice. But at $40, they probably weren't making much money off of those dinners and my guess is that they have been sunsetted. Not sure that they will run in tandem, just as the New Grounds Coffee Package isn't being run in tandem with the new Beverage Packages and Plus/Premium Fare Pricing.

If they can’t make that specific Martini, you could always ask for a Dark and Stormy! 😎

Image credit: CNN FLL Airport today.

To put this into perspective, the rain total over a 24 hour period was over 25 inches. In the past 25 years, there has not been a single MONTH that has seen 20 inches of rain, and that includes every hurricane that has hit southern FL. So take the rainiest MONTH in the past 25 years, compress all the rain into a single day, and you would still be 20% shy of what happened in a single 24 hour period.

The title of the dinner is (intentionally) misleading. It should be called "The Wagner Family Wine Dinner". All of the wines being served have ties to the Wagner family, but are not from Caymus Winery. For example, Chuck Wagner started the Mer Soleil label, but is now run by his son, Charlie. Mer Soleil is an entirely separate entity in the Santa Lucia Highlands whereas Caymus is in the heart of Napa. But both are rooted in the Wagner Family. Same goes for all of the other wines. Think of it in the same way as if a cruise package were being sold called the "Seabourn Cruise Sampler" that offered 4 cruises for one price. One cruise was on a Seabourn ship, one on a Cunard ship, one on Princess and one on Carnival. All part of the same family, but using the Seabourn name as the title of the package instead of "Carnival Brands" would be misleading.