andyandsue

Greetings

 

I-595 is going to be busy, but you would take that route from either I-95 or the turnpike. On Sunday the Music Fest doors don't open until 11 am. Just give yourself some extra time.

 

Good Sailing

Tom

I just looked up the festival info as well. There is no parking at the actual festival, it is a shuttle from the Galleria Mall which is north of the port off of Route 838. So you are right, we can stay on 95 all the way.

The lic plate system applies when the area is ALL ELECTRONIC but that is NOT the case north of Miami (for the most part) so either pay cash or get or SunPass or my recommendation is stay on 95 ... don't complicate your life needlessly.

I was reading up on the SunPass and sounds like a cross between a metro card (NYC subway) and EZ Pass (NJ electronic toll system), and it does sound like a pain to track down and purchase unnecessarily.

We'd be happy to stay on 95- You don't think the traffic on Sunday AM will be nuts with people heading to Ft. Lauderdale Beach Park for the music festival? Around here a music festival near the "Garden State Parkway"equals a standstill so when we hear something like that we panic. :)

I live in Florida

 

Florida is NOT all electronic ONLY .... but IS electronic friendly State wide

 

BUT

 

The Miami area IS 'electronic only' and if driving around Miami in a rental you WANT the electronic option . . . . break line is the Dade County / Broward County line .....

 

OP says they arrive in FLL in the AM .... if you stay in the Ft L area you should not see a toll road.

 

Heading to Miami / South Beach (which I would NOT do) ... short answer is pay the bucks for the electron gizmo

 

We plan to drive to sawgrass or Miami, as we only have 5 hours.

 

If you go to Sawgrass you will encounter no tolls ..... if you go to "Miami" ..... it depends . . .

Capt or any Floridians- We are driving through Florida and will be taking 95 to the Palm Bay area overnight on our way to Port Everglades. We plan on moving over to the Turnpike where the two intersect in Ft Pierce, to avoid 95 traffic further south for the music festival this weekend in Ft. Lauderdale. Are we safe with the license plate system, rather than having to locate a retailer and buying a mini pass? Any tips for navigating that area? Thanks for any info!

Hi

 

The coffee is made from a liquid concentrate, you get used to.

 

yours Shogun

No. No I won't get used to it... :eek: How much do they charge for a coffee? It can't be more than $1.50-$2.00? I've never been on a cruise where the coffee wasn't free. Bummer.

I'm another one who likes the made to order omelette at the HC. Normally very little wait other than for it to cook. Had one every morning on our recent Panama cruise. Sometimes they also offer steaks to order at that station.

Coffee in HC is free, but not brewed, I can handle it. :)

Omelet at HC sounds perfect!! But wooooah--- coffee is free but not brewed? What kind of coffee is free? Instant?

The teen hot tub is fun to watch, all the posing and preening going on. :) It always make me sooooooo happy I'm not a goofy teenager any more. ;)

You couldn't pay me to be a teenager again... unless I had the looks I had back then, but with my brain now! :D

On Princess at least, the teems will go the first evening and make new friends. For the rest of the cruise they will often spend most of their time with their new friends around the ship on activities they enjoy and end up spending very little time in the teen center itself.

That's how it was on our other cruises as well. Even in the 'tween category at the time, they find friends and go off to activities. But now that both my kids are teens so they can hang out together in the same age group, and they have their own hot tub... that's a first.

NCL Teen/'tween centers were good, but the water slides and other options were better so the center was hardly used. NCL grouped the 12 year olds with the 9 year olds and my DS wanted no part of that and our DD was 2 months away from being 9 but had to play with the 5-8 year olds and wanted no part of it either. HAL teen and 'tween center was horrible, as soon as I saw it I knew nobody was spending time in there. I am hopeful this time with them together and a hot tub, foosball and air hockey they might like it more.

Interesting tips and suggestions.

The whole towel animal thing to me means they are not catering to younger children. Not an issue for us, our teenagers don't care about towel animals anymore but I admit on our first cruise with them 5 years ago the towel animals were a hit, but they were still much younger, especially our DD. I am hoping the teen club is a hit with them being that I am under the impression (no towel animal, no water slides, etc) that Princess is catering to an adult crowd. Now on the flip side, that could work in all our favors (teen section has it's own hot tub!) because if Princess IS catering to an adult crowd, on the new ships they may make the kids and teen areas really great so as to actually have the kids want to be in the kids areas... LOL

Is coffee in general free or is there a charge for just a regular cup of coffee?

As a general rule we always eat breakfast in the buffet every morning. It allows us to get up and go casually and we love to eat on an open deck if available and then walk around, no long breakfasts for us!

Thank you for all the info! Didn't mean to hijack the thread from the OP...

A few drinks a day is all we'll be buying so 2/1 is a great deal and I'm a martini lover too, so that's not to hard to swallow (pun intended!)

Thank you clearing up the tender ticket issue, as I was reading the replies I realized there was some conflicting info. We did reserve a cabana to serve as home base while we are on Princess Cays. Our children are older so they can come and go as they please and we'll have a spot to put our stuff (we have our own snorkeling gear, etc) and to eat for the day.

I will do a follow up review, I always post a review after our cruises. children's facility reviews are harder to come by on ship like this so I can at least review the teen center. I do hope there are some teens on this trip other than my kids! The roll call is looking very adult because the trip immediately following is I think 16 day, transatlantic full of adults.

These are very good tips, thank you! We are also first timers to Princess.

Can someone tell me how the priority tender tickets work? Will the tickets be waiting in our room since we booked an excursion (a cabana on Princess Cays) or do we have to track the tickets down?

We are buying the soda and more card... our teens will drink their weight in mocktails and soda on a cruise-just because they can and I suppose it's fun. :D

Does Princess offer a "drink of the day" special? I've never heard of a cruise that doesn't but worth asking. My DH and I aren't big alcohol drinkers, but we will bring a bottle of our favorite wine for the cabin and enjoy a cocktail or two in the evening. The drink of the day is usually fun.

And now I just received another response from Princess...

"Hi Susan,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the Princess@Sea Messenger application. Currently the iOS app is undergoing some redevelopment and should be ready shortly. Please continue to check back before your cruise.

Regards,

Princess@Sea Team"

I agree with the OP. We also enjoy looking down at the water, and don't want to look down and see lifeboats. I too was confused by the all the categories on the Regal when it came time to pick a cabin. I searched on line for the deck plans, then narrowed it down to a few cabins, and searched on those specific cabins (and a few to the left/right) and was surprised by the feedback I was able to find.

We ended up going to the Lido deck for a mini suite. It's not really where I wanted to be and the mini suite seemed a bit much for us, but we can use the extra space, the view is good, at times it will have shade which is ok by us, and we aren't under the skywalk which has ZERO privacy -who designed that with those balconies right under it? The Princess website makes no mention of the lack of privacy at all, I feel bad for anyone who did not research only to discover it upon opening their balcony door...

This doesn't make me happy since my family has both iPhone and Android and I was planning on using it to be in contact with my teens and DH since Princess certainly advertises it on their site as a big perk and not "under testing"

And here is the answer from Princess...

"The mobile apps are still under testing and waiting for approvals. The app was brought down to fix some problems we saw in the initial tests. It will be back soon in iTunes. However you will be still able to chat on Princess@Sea web application from your phone.

Regards,

Princess@Sea Team"

just wondering

The app is gone from the iTunes store, but still on the Google Play store. Here is the response I received today from customer service which doesn't make me happy since my family has both iPhone and Android and I was hoping to be able to use it to be in contact with my teens and DH:

The mobile apps are still under testing and waiting for approvals. The app was brought down to fix some problems we saw in the initial tests. It will be back soon in iTunes. However you will be still able to chat on Princess@Sea web application from your phone.

Regards,

Princess@Sea Team

I found in on GooglePlay but not iTunes. Will send a support message now and I'll post the response.

I am searching high and low for this app on my iPhone but it's not coming up. I've searched Princess at Sea, Princess@sea, Princess Cruises, PrincessatSea, Princess Messenger, PrincessMessenger and more. Each time it brings up Princess games for little girls, other apps for cruise forums, or the blank "no results". I will check my DH/DS Android phones later.

I'm definitely computer savvy; I used to be a database admin for a Unix-based software, so iPhone app searches are not usually a problem- but I'm feeling pretty lame at the moment... :confused:

What is everyone searching on that they are so easy to find this app?

We always "gift" ourselves a little OBC to make life (and the end bill) a little easier. We do this at the same time that we purchase the soda cards for the kids. It helps to spread out the cost of a vacation and that's one way to do it.

We always use a credit card for on board charging, just to make life less stressful; we don't have to make sure money is in our checking before we go for any holds or big charges, and it's easier if there is some sort of dispute that our actual money isn't in play (what if it was a charge for more than a thousand dollars while we were away? Annoying!). But I will say we use our debit card everywhere rather than a credit card and the one time someone got a hold of our lost card before we knew it was lost they charged up a ton of stuff at Macy's in NYC. Because the debit card is a visa logo card it carried all the protection of a regular visa. Within 48 hours we had our money back in our account and the bank took care of the rest, there was no hassle or extended period.

Snorkel Beach is a 5-10 minute pleasant walk but I don't recommend it as a primary beach to see in Bermuda. We saved the Dockyard for our last day in port which made us feel secure as far as getting back to the ship without any concerns, and that included a quick trip for some last minute snorkeling at Snorkel Park. There is plenty to do at the Dockyard, but in all honesty if you can plan to see another beach in Bermuda (I recommend Horseshoe or Tobacco Bay) I would. They do charge in season and it's not the most beautiful beach I've ever seen by far, and is just filled with cruise ship passengers (which is ok since we were too). The snorkeling there was average, it was better at Tobacco Bay which had a more beautiful setting and was free (we have our own equipment). Check the TripAdvisor reviews for the most detail.

At 16-18 years of age, my kids are certainly given freedom to be independent on a ship, as they are on land, with expectations and accountability. They can hold jobs, drive a vehicle and are nearly ready to leave the house for college! I can imagine signing my 17 yo in and out of a teen club...in a few months he can serve his country, but he needs mom to green-light a trip to the soft serve ice cream?

Thank you. Exactly.

Thank you all, that answered all my questions...

I actually have a handicapped parking permit. I don't use it unless necessary, you would never know at first glance that I need it but long story short I have major back problem resulting from a hip problem at birth. A hip replacement at 37 corrected a limp.

I get a lot of dirty looks from people who have no idea what I might look like coming out of that theme park, etc. after a day of walking. LOL So please remember not everyone has to look obviously handicapped to be "handicapped" (dislike that term).

But in this case I do not have a scooter or wheelchair so I was wondering. On our NCL cruise I saw an accessible cabin not occupied by anyone with a wheelchair or scooter and was curious. I saw on the Royal Caribbean site it said you must prove your disability.

I learned my lesson with this the hard way. I listened to the AT&T rep the first time I called, 3 years ago. I purchased the international plan because that was "All you'll need".

$400 in cell phone bills later, AT&T never explained that Wireless at Sea is some rouge roaming carrier and having my iPhone using wireless data without me knowing it really racked it up.

The next cruise I researched the heck out of it.

SO- my advice is, since AT&T doesn't cover NCL (bummer) in their cruise ship package, is to get the cheapest international plan so you have service while you are in Port. Buy a package on the cruise so you have Wi-Fi service on the ship. And tell any family/friends if they need you to send an email to your email address and also cc it to your phone so you get it in the form of a text as well. If you want to send an email to AT&T that come over as a text use this format.

1234567890@txt.att.net

I have three teen girls and we have never had an issue and have been on lots of cruises. We generally eat meals together and in the morning we show them where we are sitting by the pool. We have meet back times at the room for dinner. They do roam the ship and this has never been a problem. Usually they find a few friends and its fun to be able to go grab a ice cream together or walk around. Their curfew is when the teen club closes. I heard I concierge may not be working. Happy Cruising!

I agree. My teen isn't "roaming" the ship alone getting into trouble. They find friends and are able to do the same, hang out, go to the arcade, go bowling, or have ice cream, etc. We always have meals together, go ashore together, and are in contact throughout the day.

BTW- Raindrops, the teen clubs on Norwegian state there are times throughout the day that the teen areas are unsupervised (other than the usual security camera). Kids can come and go as they please in that age group, so I'm not sure what you are talking about. There is no sign in/sign out for the teens 13-17.

Please don't anyone bash me for asking this, because it's an honest question.

Booking our room on the Breakaway. Choosing a Large room with picure window and multiple accessible rooms came up as a cabin choice for our party (2 adults/2 teens). I happened to notice they are huge in comparison on the deck plan and in photos I saw on another site.

Should we book the accessible room? I almost feel guilty using that room since we don't need it, but admit, like everyone, feel the extra space would be nice and I know on our past cruises I saw non-handicapped passengers in an accessible room. Wouldn't the sinks be lower than normal and other touches that we may find an inconvenience given our non-wheelchair status?

What is normal cruise etiquette in this situation? Opinions please. Thanks!

I was sort of hoping for a Keurig when I saw this post. Wishful thinking I suppose!

Our first cruise was from Florida to The Bahamas. There was a storm out at sea, and although we did not get hit by the storm the seas were angry! There were barf bags everywhere, we watched the water slosh out of the pool. We watched a few waves get the deck a little wet. Since it was out first cruise we had no idea how bad it really was, until a bartender told us that he is seeing some crew members get sick that he has never seen sick before.

When we went out next cruise we were prepared for the worst, but really it wasn't that bad, not compared to our first cruise... and that was those through those rough waters to Bermuda.

So really it's all what you are used to and the luck of the draw. Or the luck of the wave. Hopefully the next cruise wont be so bad for either you or I!