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ccastner

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Posts posted by ccastner

    How do you organize your cruise memories?

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    As a retired family/wedding/portraiture photographer, I love picture albums. I make a photo album of all of our cruises as well as vacations. They sit on top of my desk hutch; don't know what to do for our next cruise, (2018) as I've run out of room on my hutch. In each album are all the photos, dailies, menus, room keys, letters from the cruise line, etc. Yeah, you may agree with my wife, I'm a nut. But, I love going back 14 - 15 years and look at all the memories.

     

     

     

    I try to do this too. But for every trip

     

     

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    snacks onboard

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    Very few ports in the Caribbean don't let you take food off the ship.

     

    It always pays to bring zip lock bags.;)

     

     

     

    For Australia and New Zealand, only original packaging that is unopened gets you a pass upon declaration. Somebody, on a different non-cruise site, reported that on their return from Germany to their home in New Zealand, they forgot to dispose and to also declare an opened bag of Haribo gummy bears bought at the airport in Germany, and the x-ray or dogs alerted the inspectors and they were fined on the spot and subjected to a complete and thorough search of all their bags.

     

    As we arrived at each port, the ship made announcements about no food could leave the ship.

     

    It's just really important to read, pay attention and do your research ahead of time before you go, so you don't get into trouble.

     

    On my South American cruise, I took sunflower seeds as some of the excursions were quite lengthy. No problems there.

     

     

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    snacks onboard

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    If you are flying into and sailing from Australia or New Zealand, they have very strict rules on bringing food from out of their countries. You can do it to an extent; however, you must declare as you go thru customs/immigration at every stop. I know this from my most recent cruise.

     

     

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    Women Traveling Solo

    in Ask a Cruise Question

    Posted

    As a solo female traveler, I've had extra swabs and bag checks before and after I got Global Entry. I, too, have half my family in the U.K. And have made, on average, one trip per year, except for the years that my mom and stepdad died, then multiple trips were made. I have also been to South America on a cruise and around the Baltics as well as a lot of non-cruise travel.

     

    I don't receive extra questioning, even though my passport has all the stamps.

     

    FYI, some hand sanitizer will show up positive for glycerin too. As the other poster mentioned, be sure to apply any lotions or hand sanitizer or perfumes after you go thru security.

     

    I remove all jewelry, except for two very small hoops in my ears, everything goes in carry on properly stored and zipped. My bag of cords and chargers got dinged and they had to go thru everything because the battery was unusual via the X-ray. My x-stitch sometimes also gets dinged.

     

    And, for the U.K. and the USA, security will be enhanced without advanced notification based on what is learned by GCHQ and NSA and CIA and any other spy agency.

     

     

     

     

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    NYNASHAMN to Stockholm

    in Northern Europe & Baltic Sea

    Posted

    You will only dock in Stockholm if the weather and sea conditions thru the archipelago are safe for a ship. I was on Star Princess Baltic in May/June 2010 and our captain did not feel it was safe to go thru the archipelago, so we anchored at Nynäshamn and tendered ashore. All shore excursions were shortened a lot. But I went back to Stockholm on my own in Nov 2013 for 4 nights and had a fabulous time. Abba museum and Vasa museum are worth the visit and costs

     

     

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    Delayed flight with Ez air?

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    Snow storm in the south this past December prevented my plane arriving at my home airport to take me to LAX to go to Auckland. I called the trip interruption # and it took 1.5 hours but they figured out how to get me to Auckland before the ship arrived. I did have to ask for longer time between two of my flights as I knew I needed more time for DFW. This convinced me going forward to always try EZ AIR first

     

     

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    Dealing with Political Discussions On Board?

    in Ask a Cruise Question

    Posted · Edited by ccastner

    On the Golden Princess at Christmas, I felt like the only American in a sea of Aussies and Kiwis. I wasn't, but there were very few Americans. Most wanted to know what was going on in America and what I thought about what will happen at Inauguration Day. I thought the questions were thoughtful and genuine and nobody made me regret any of my thoughts. I'm pretty sure that was because I was talking with non-Americans.

     

     

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    Golden Princess Baja vs Caribe balcony

    in Princess Cruises

    Posted

    I was in c251 (2 doors down) just this past Christmas and New Years. It was quiet. My steward, Eugene, was awesome. If he is still the steward for those cabins, will you please I said, hi.

     

    We had 21 ft seas on Christmas Eve and other than rolling to/fro in my bed, I was fine.

     

    In my previous 3 cruises 2015, 2012, 2010, I was middle: 533 or thereabouts on both Baja and caribe. I prefer caribe balconies. And am not bothered either way whether forward or mid-ships

     

    You will love Golden. Even though I had a balcony, I would sometimes just go sit on a bench on the promenade to people watch and scenery watch,

     

     

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    Connection time at Sydney is 1.5 hrs enough?

    in Cruise Air

    Posted

    The flight from Dallas to Sydney was late and I had 15 minutes from the time plane door opened to the start of boarding of my flight to Auckland. I made it with 6 minutes to spare. Thank you all for your informative help

     

    Also for anyone arriving to depart from Princes Wharf, hang out in the Hilton. Food, drink, bathrooms, they'll hold your luggage and the bellhop a helped me get my luggage a hop-skip-and-a-jump down to bag drop off

     

    Wonderful cruise so far. The Agrodome was the best part of yesterday!

     

     

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    Connection time at Sydney is 1.5 hrs enough?

    in Cruise Air

    Posted

    My original flights to Auckland from Nashville were canceled awhile I was at the Airport. Princess EZAir has me rebooked to leave tomorrow.

     

    I arrive at 6:05 am in Sydney on American on an Airbus double-decker. I have to get on to Qantas for a 7:30 am flight to Auckland When I asked if that was adequate they said yes.

     

    For those of you who travel through Sydney is there a connecting passenger process or do I have to collect my luggage and go thru customs and immigration and then back thru security?

     

    Thank you for info you can share

     

     

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    What do you use for a toiletry travel organizer?

    in Ask a Cruise Question

    Posted

    I travel a lot (mostly business, sadly), and I've got through a bunch of toiletry bags, but I think I've found my favourite: It's from LLBean - very roomy, lots of different pockets, very sturdy construction, and it wasn't expensive. I have the medium sized one, and it's big enough for one person traveling for 2 weeks: http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/73882?feat=203-GN1&page=personal-organizer-medium

     

     

    Agree. Love my LL Bean I have large

     

     

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