LewesBeach

The padded chairs were on the Promenade deck of the Caribbean Princess a month ago.The narrow promenade decks on the Grand Class ships only leave room for chairs.

The padded full loungers are on the Promenade deck of the Royal and Regal.

 

I was on the Royal, and I think those areas of Promenade deck where the full loungers are, are uncovered & open to the elements. Am I remembering correctly?

Berni

I cannot fathom why, when this is one of the favorite places to relax for so many cruisers, that Princess would choose to take this away. Relaxing, reading, sleeping on the Promenade deck is one of our main reasons to cruise, and I don't think I'm in the minority. Princess - keep our chairs!!!!

Cutbacks are a topic on every board . . .

 

I've only sailed Princess twice...my third being in a couple weeks. My question for Princess regulars is...despite the cutbacks we all complain about, in what way has Princess improved?

 

I'm a Princess "regular", & have seen lots of cutbacks over the years. But this got me thinking - what's better now? Hmmm, International Cafe and Alfredo's come to mind. And I actually think the shows are better now than 10 years ago, but that is subjective. The new ship intranet being rolled out is great, seeing the Patter and your folio on your smartphone or tablet. But, I'm struggling to find anything else that's "better" than 10-15 years ago. Just my opinion of course.

Berni

No kidding.. We're booked on the CB for a 5/2016 cruise and the only window suite left is F301. These cruises were just released last Thursday!

 

For the Sept 2016 TA on the CB, the window suites are sold out -18 months ahead of time. Always a chance someone will cancel.

thanks for all the helpful replies

 

a couple of you suggested a private car service

could someone recommend one Ill have to check out "totally driven" is that the name of a car service or is it just a name that handles a several different companies

I know though my husband would love to take the train--trains are his hobby

is it hard to get luggage we'll have 2 carry ons and 2good sized pieces

thanks again for all at the help

 

We used Smiths For Airports

http://www.smithsforairports.com/index.html

2 Couples shared the cost which was €140 total. They picked us up at Premiere Inn Waterloo and took us directly to the dock. no muss, no fuss. The car was a sparkling clean SUV, driver was friendly and professional, and plenty of room for luggage. Had a lovely relaxing drive. I will use them again on our TA next year.

Berni

We have taken 1 or 2 boxes of wine on every Princess cruise we have ever been on, embarking in various ports, Whittier, Seattle, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, New York from 2003 to 2014. We usually put it our back pack and it gets scanned. We don't make a big deal out of it, nothing has ever been said to us about it and it is not because we are avoiding a bar tab. We still have a bar tab in the clubs, at dinner and around the ship. The thing for us is enjoying a glass of wine on our balcony whenever we want. Plain and simple.[/quote

 

You certainly are avoiding a bar tab when you bring 2 boxes of wine on board. It was these kinds of posts in the first place where people told of bringing their own wine onboard that caused Princess to clamp down and institute their current policy. I'm a wine drinker & I don't like the policy, but I've signed the contract i will abide by the rules. Plain and simple.

You may have better luck here. :eek:

 

Agreed. I would see what they had to say, they are certainly good for some aspects of a cruise. But I trust the comments here from people who have actually done the trips over a travel planner who may or may not have been on this itinerary.

Thank you for the quick responses. In terms of the cost of other activities on this cruise $10 - $15 pp is close to free. Does the shuttle run 24/7 and are they scheduled for specific times or run on demand... when enough passengers are aboard waiting?

 

Fall 2013 when we were there, it was not 24 hours, it had a set schedule. They do tell you when the last one back to the ship is, approx 11pm for us. It gave you plenty of time to have dinner and still get back without rushing.

And to me, that's just it; the Cruise Search function should be first and foremost on the website, not a bunch of "fluff" and pretty pictures (that's sort of what's killing Bing compared to Google). All the accolades and other assorted information can come later down the page.

 

:D

 

Agreed!!! I use my iPad mini primarily to search - for price, intinerary, etc. why make it harder? God forbid you try to find deck plans.

It gets to the point of - who decides which shorts are considered "nice", and which are not. It's just too hard to be fashion police, so they specify no shorts.

We've done a OV on Emerald deck for some cold weather cruises to save $. It's only 1 flight of steps down to Promenade if we want to go out.

We just booked the TA Southampton/NY on CB for September 5th, which is also DH's 74th birthday. This will also be my "pre-retirement" cruise, as I will be leaving work by the end of 2016 (finally!!). We are very excited as we were able to get a Window Suite. We really enjoy the CB and have had a WS on numerous other cruises. For about the same price of a mini-suite, you get all the wonder suite benefits (my favorite being breakfast at Sabatini's).

 

Just an FYI, we booked through Costco travel and received a very generous OBC.

 

And less than 18 months to go!!!!

 

Congrats!! What a nice way to celebrate. We too r booked in a window suite as well as our neighbors who r traveling with us. Looking forward to this great itinerary.

As long as they don't tear out the Window Suites, I'm good with anything. Thx for the replies.

Our fee was a flat $15pp charged to your account which gave u a ticket, & u could go as many times as you wanted. (We were there overnite)

When looking at deck plans for the Caribbean Princess, it asks if u r sailing before or after April 17, 2016. Does anyone know what they are doing that will change the deck plans? I'm sailing in Sept 2016, & I looked but couldn't see any major changes, but I obviously missed something?

Berni

Booked my first Princess cruise today British Iles in June.

 

Can't wait

 

kim

 

I think you will be very pleased.

Well good news, the WS became available, so I I booked our favorite F11 and cancelled our Pacific Princess Transatlantic

 

Congrats! Is this on the CB Sept 2016 TA London to NY? If so, we r neighbors, I have WS 307.

WOOO HOOO! only 475 days till we board. DW wasted no time today. Booked on the Regal for next July. If anyone can shed some light on the aft cabin's on the Regal it would be much appreciated. We have done aft's on Carnival but never on Princess.

 

Regarding aft cabins on the Royal and Regal, You may want to do a search on CC. I'm sorry to say there have have been numerous reports of soot problems for aft cabins, some so bad that they could not use the balconies. A design flaw which Im not sure has been rectified. Maybe it has gotten better but a search or query would give you more recent feedback.

Finally snagged a Window Suite on the CP in Sept 2016, Southampton to NY. 8 hours after the bookings opened, 5 of the 7 window suites were sold. I won't be giving that up anytime soon!

[quote name='CU64']I could be wrong; but I would doubt if sanctuary would be used much on this itinerary unless the weather is unusually terrible![/QUOTE]

Not sure of your reasoning. If the weather was terrible, why would you want to book a lounger in the Sanctuary? It is MORE likely to fill up on a warm weather cruise like this one. We were literally the first ones on board one time on the Island Princess to Panama and all 4 Cabanas were full with B2B people. But it doesn't appear this itinerary would have many B2B cruisers so, go as soon as you can and good luck!

Does anyone know if cabanas can be booked for 1/2 days. I am sailing on the Island Princess Panama Canal transit east to west.

Thx!!!

Berni

Anyone docked in LA recently on the Island Princess that could tell me if they offered EZ check? Some posters say it is port specific, other say ship specific. Just wondering what kind of post cruise transportation to book to the airport depending on if I am shlepping luggage or not. Thanks!!

Berni

wondering if someone can answer this question?

All of the walking tours start at a central city location. I've emailed one of the tour companies about how to get to that location from the ship as I am looking at organizing a group for the tour and they told me by taxi or public transportation....wondering if the cruise ships offer shuttles to city center? We'll be on Equinox and I know that in some ports this is available?

 

Suggestions???;)

 

Princess didn't, I don't know about Celebrity. Maybe try posting the question on Celebrity boards? There were tons of taxis waiting at the cruise terminal in Lisbon. Maybe just grab the first few to get your group to town. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies. I was trying to buy a round trip ticket from Wilmington to Newark and back. But maybe the way to go is buy a 1 way Wilm to Newark to the ship, then 1 way home, NY Penn Station back to Wilm. Thx again for the help.

I have just spent 2 hours doing "searches" & gave up. We are arriving by rail into the Newark Intl Airport Amtrak station, then flying from EWR to Copenhagen to do a Trans Atlantic back into New York, Brooklyn Cruise terminal. I would like to book a private car service from the terminal back to the train station. However, according to their website, the Newark Airport Amtrak station is not accessible by car - only monorail. Has anyone actually done this? And if so, can you recommend a private car service? And where do they drop you off? I have done online searches but very few show one-way quotes, and if they do - they want an airline name. I just need to get from ship to train. I know I could take Princess transfers if I had to, or a taxi (expensive due to tolls and crossing state lines). But if I'm going to spend $100 for a taxi, I'd rather book a private car service in advance and avoid the hassle of negotiating fares. Can anyone who has actually done this help me? Thank you!