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A lot may hinge on where you are in the ship when you place an order. If you're in an active bar, there should be no problems though service may take a few minutes, especially if the bar is busy. On the other hand, if you are in a "remote" location, delivery could be problematic. On the Sky last November, we liked to sit in the VERY quiet Take 5 during the day if we wanted to read. More often than not, when I ordered drinks to be delivered into Take 5, they never arrived.

To clarify, anyone with any plan (or without any plan) can order ANY drink they want regardless of cost, nobody needs "permission" to order a drink.. The level of plan you have merely determines the "deductible" you will pay over and above your $12 or $15 limit. On the Sky this coming week, we will be ordering glasses of wine around $17 and paying $5 extra for each one.

Thanks, I had seen them before, great prices. At least they have a professional website, unlike some of their direct competitors ;o) Their reviews seem so-so, but the worry I have is their mention of special conditions for Sunday departures in and out of Galveston, i.e. limited hours, higher rates etc. Of course, we would be sailing on a Sunday....

OP here, thanks for all the feedback. Unfortunately. we don't yet have the cruise booked, we're only still in the research phase. That's why I can't see the option to select transfers, it's probably only available under "Manage My Booking" once you have a cruise formally booked. Although there are cheaper options than Princess, if we're going to use transfers, I'd still rather opt for the cruise line, for the all-important "guaranteed arrival", i.e. little to no danger of the ship leaving without you on Embarkation Day. What about the return to IAH from the port? We are looking at a 12:30 flight home, though the best flights are at 7:30AM which would require an overnight stay until the next day. Do Princess also "guarantee" your safe arrival at IAH in time to connect with your flight, and if so, would a 12:30PM flight qualify or is it too early? Thanks again for all the inputs.

That's exactly what I'm looking at doing for a possible Princess trip in November, right down to staying at the Marriot. Someone on the Princess board said they had booked the shuttle from IAH to the port on cruise morning for all of $29/pp each way, which seems like a very good deal given the 70 mile one way distance.

Thanks for the data point. $58 for the two of us each way isn't bad at all given the distance. I realize Princess shuttles involve some waiting while the bus fills up, so they aren't the best possible option if one is pressed for time, but for sheer convenience, meeting the rep with the Princess sign in the baggage claim area and getting on a bus isn't that bad. And for $58 each way for two, I think it's a great deal. Any chance you know the pickup schedule, when the first buses leave IAH? How did you book the shuttle, it isn't very obvious on the Princess site.

We're looking at a trip this coming November out of Galveston on one of our favorite ships, the Regal. Ordinarily, we stay away from Princess transfers and do our own arrangements, but given the 70 mile distance between IAH and the port, we are considering Princess xfers this time. We had used them successfully on our only other trip out of Galveston many years ago. Has anyone used Princess transfers recently in Houston, how much was the per person charge, and what was the earliest available pickup at the airport? We would probably be arriving at IAH very late in the day and would rather stay at the airport Marriot and take the Princess shuttle the morning of the cruise. Thanks in advance....

That's great news, as we're looking at a November trip out of Galveston. The first (and so far, only) trip we've made from there was a few years ago, and it was the only time we have ever been denied docking due to fog. We stayed at anchor until around 2PM and had to stay at IAH overnight until we could fly out the next day.

Have a great trip. Looks like we're a week behind you, we head to FLL the following Friday. Good news on getting NEXUS, it really is worth it.The NEXUS priority security lines, TSA Precheck etc, have saved us massive amounts of time, you won't regret spending the few dollars it costs (especially if your credit card pays for it as some do ;o)

Can't help with the MPC question, but last November, having NEXUS gave us a very quick passage through the process at YUL on our way to FLL. Sorry, didn't notice whether there was an MPC line. If you have NEXUS, its the way to go. If you don't have NEXUS, you should look into it. NEXUS/Global Entry not only speeds things up here in Canada, it also helps on the return out of the US.

These days, in general, for sailings out of North American ports, the show times tend to be 7:30 and 9:30. They will show up in the App in the JourneyView section sometime before you sail. IIRC there may have been reports of different (later) show times for European sailings. For our last three sailings in 2022 and for our next one in two weeks, they are/were 7:30 and 9:30PM

We did exactly this on a recent trip out of the MCT, and we saved a LOT more than a few dollars ;o). We stayed at the Residence Inn in Weehawken which is co-located with the ferry terminal and parking garage. Parking is $22/day BTW, the $20 garage is one block north. Even factoring in the $9/pp ferry ride each way, we saved a huge amount over staying in Manhattan and parking at the MCT where hotels and parking are almost twice the price of the NJ equivalents.

There are very recent reports that Air Canada IS one of the airlines offering EZ Check, as has been reported by a few folks here on CC. No mention of which airport they flew into up here, but if a cruise does offer EZ Check into Canada, then one can assume YYZ will be it. We'll be asking about it in two weeks for our flight home to YUL from FLL.

Thanks for the heads up (and welcome to Cruise Critic ;o). I just checked all our reservations for our trip on the 11th and all are still OK. In your case, I wouldn't bother with Guest Services, just head straight to Sabatini's and ask them, they will be able to sort you out. Any chance you had printed out all your reservations so you have written proof you can show them? Maybe take a copy of the credit card statement showing the payment?

While Long Beach is a nice area, Princess sails from San Pedro, a few miles away. If you need to stay in Long Beach, the Hyatt, Westin and Hilton are good bets. In San Pedro, the Crowne Plaza and the Doubletree are about the only decent options. The Crowne Plaza is within walking distance of the pier. There are lots of discussion about these hotels on the West Coast Departures board

Note that it's also possible that some cruises sailing out of the US may sail to destinations that DO require a negative test, so it's best to confirm with your cruise line whether or not a test is required for your particular trip. But as stated above, no test is required to simply enter the US, only proof of vaccination.

A few cruises still require testing. They're called "Enhanced Guideline Voyages"

In addition to calling Princess, it is (or at least used to be) possible to Email the Medallion App folks directly. I did this a number of times, in late 2021 and into the spring of 2022, and they were surprisingly responsive. They often answered quickly, even on weekends, and eventually sorted out my problems, though they admitted they sometimes prioritized their support/fixes by your sailing date. I can't say if this Email address is still in effect as I haven't had to use it for a long time, but perhaps someone here can chime in and say whether it's still in operation: AskOceanMedallion@carnival.com or A360ad7@carnival.com

We've stayed on 17th St pre-cruise at least a dozen times in the last few years (as well as in Dania Beach and Plantation). While we wouldn't stay there if we had a few days to kill pre- or post-cruise, there's no beating it for convenient access to PE for a short pre-cruise hotel stay. Nothing "seedy" about the area though it's hardly a touristy, "vacation" area. As to the OP's question about the ES or the Renaissance, we've stayed at the Renaissance a number of times, most recently last November, and have two more bookings for next month and May. Excellent, large, full service hotel so close to PE we can literally walk to Terminal 2. If you can get a high room, depending on the side of the hotel you are on, you can have a beautiful view of PE and all the big ships at their piers. We have also stayed at the very popular Hyatt Place, and it's a good little hotel, but we find it far too small and cramped, particularly on cruise departure mornings when the lobby is SRO. We have never stayed at the ES, and many folks love it, but there are far too many dodgy reviews here on CC about its current state and condition for us to consider it. Another good hotel choice would be the Hilton Marina, not far from the Renaissance, also with tremendous views of PE.

Hadn't heard that, but I'm not averse to it, providing it's done right. We like the Bistro, and usually eat there once or twice each trip (We were on the Sky in November 2021 and November 2022 and are back on her in three weeks) That being said, as much as we like the Bistro, we love Crooners much more and would be happy to have it back n its "usual" location on the Piazza. My concern would be that Princess would make the Sky's new Crooners exactly the same as on the Enchanted, which would be a show stopper for us. We hated the layout on the Enchanted, too many sofas, interior partitions and strange, uncomfortable large high back chairs, with little provision for seating for couples. We disliked the format so much we went to Take 5 instead. Just our opinion of course, let's hope Princess lay out a new Crooners as on the older ships.

Excellent, thanks, good to know Princess is working so closely with the airlines. We do have spare orange Star Alliance priority tags so we can always apply them ourselves when we tag the bags.

Great news, thanks for confirming. Hopefully it will be available for our flight back to Montreal, and not just for flights to Pearson. General question re EZ Check: We have free bags and priority baggage handling with AC, so orange tags are attached to our bags at check-in to expedite our claiming the bags at the airport on arrival. Does Princess and the EZ Check system on the ship have the ability to attach the priority tags? Also, for those who get free bags with their airline, how do Princess know that so as not to charge us the airline baggage fees on top of the $25/pp EZ Check charge. Thanks in advance

That seems to be a common problem these days, the CG is very popular and sells out online very quickly. There MAY be available slots held back for bookings during the cruise, so head there immediately after boarding and try your luck. Also, re the Sanctuary, it is also bookable for the entire week. It's $40/pp for a single day, $20/pp for a half day, but is discounted to $30/pp/day if booked for the entire week (so $210/pp total)

In our case, we were driving all the way to Brooklyn anyway, and we had about 140 lbs of luggage (my wife does not travel light ;o). The only public transport we could have possibly used was the ferry from Weehawken which, as you know, is incredibly conveniently located next to a cheap parking garage. We did that for a trip out of the MCT, but for our trip from Brooklyn, we drove. Buses are not an option for us, though they are obviously are for those who can cruise "light".

We stayed at the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe before our last trip out of Brooklyn on Princess last September. It's a large, business-oriented hotel near the end of the GW bridge, relatively inexpensive when we stayed, free parking for the night and well reviewed. There's nothing right at the hotel but we drove a short distance to the Riverside Mall on Route 4, and there were PLENTY of good restaurants. From the hotel, it's about 10 miles/30 minutes to the Weehawken ferry. From the Marriott, head towards the GW, get off just before the bridge and enjoy a nice drive southwards down the Hudson on River Road to the ferry terminal. If you decide to drive to the MCT, cross the GW then head south on the Hudson Parkway/9A until you hit your ship. The MCT is right on the 9A, so there's no way you would miss finding your ship ;o) Travel time for both routes is about the same.