moki'smommy

I'm not totally sure what you mean by "set some tables." If you are talking about saving some reservations, about half of the adult dining reservations are never available on line. They are held back to be available for booking after you board the ship. THe "Welcome Aboard" Navigator will list a location for "Dining Changes" and Palo Reservations. You can also go directly to the restaurant and make a reservation there most of the time. As above, it is also possible that an on line reservation will open prior to your cruise if someone cancels. In that case, grab it. If it isn't exactly your preferred time, it is easier to move a reservation than to make one from scratch while on board.

If you are on a short cruise, it is difficult--there are the same number of guests on a 3 night Dream cruise as on a 7 night Fantasy cruise, but the Dream has a whole lot less time to seat people in the specialty restaurants. That is just a numbers game, but there are still reservations held until after boarding.

Yes to OJ at breakfast. You can take a soda with you anywhere you'd like--get it from the beverage station unless you want a variety that isn't available there.

It is quite expensive.

Sorry.....different layout than I've had on other ships then.

You can request anything. The real question is whether the answer will be what you want to hear.

The locker room is shared by the fitness center and the spa. I'm not aware of any showers specifically dedicated to spa users.

I booked several months out on EZ Air and kept checking prices--was able to get price reductions twice on the same flights we'd already booked.

There is no down side to booking EZ Air flexible as soon as flights are available (330 days prior to the flight; prior to return if booking round trip.) That's another benefit to EZ Air--you can book each way separately so that if your departure price goes up but return goes down, you can reap the benefit of the lower fare on one way. There is no cost penalty to one way bookings!

I was also able to check rates from my home airport as well as from my daughter's, and determined that it would cost less to book Southwest to daughter's location and then travel together to the cruise on EZ Air. It made life easier for everyone to do it that way.

There are a lot of things that are not permitted by DCL that happen. I get that they won't rent you a private room on the ship for a vow renewal or wedding. It would be extremely difficult to regulate what a small group of people are doing on the beach...unless, of course, one is in a wedding gown! If someone wants to hold a small ceremony to remember a departed grandma or to worship the sun god, it is unlikely that DCL personnel would even notice unless the group interferes with other passengers.

A DCL planned wedding or vow renewal on Castaway is not "private" either--they use areas that are less used by large numbers of guests, but anyone can walk by during "your" time.

Only alcohol is limited. Anything else is permitted--water, soda, gatorade, or whatever you wish provided there is no alcoholic content. All beverages must be in your carry ons.

This is a hard one. We hit the Customs delay of all time at San Juan. We had a 3:30 flight, and while in the line after noon, I wasn't sure we were going to make it! The airport is a very short drive from the cruise terminal. DCL still sticks with the 12:30 recommendation, but I'd honestly allow more time than that. No, I don't mean that. Our San Juan experience was so bad that we will not do a cruise that uses that port any more. I've been there twice and there were issues both times; that's enough for me.

Yes....but as noted, doing it thru DCL carries a high price tag. A hint--depending on what they want, there is nothing to prevent them from doing a vow renewal "on their own." There is nothing legal about this, so they could do their own ceremony with dad officiating. Of course, they would not have the help of a DCL wedding coordinator, but the rest of the "package" they could basically duplicate on their own.

Thanks for the in depth response. I will not be switching cabins so won't have to deal with packing and moving, etc. I was just wondering if I would have to get up as early as those who are truly disembarking. Thanks.

No--again, my experience only, but when we were required to disembark or to meet as a group, our typical time was 9 or 9:30. They basically waited until all the disembarking passengers had gone thru Customs, and then took us thru (9:30 meeting) or asked us to do it on our own "no later than 9:00." In that case, when we entered the terminal with our "in transit" cards, we were ushered to a Customs desk with no waiting in line. After that, you can stay off the ship and enjoy a port day or you can re-board and enjoy an empty ship for a few hours. It is a great time to photograph areas of the ship if you wish to do so.

We have done many B2Bs on different cruise lines including Princess. The one thing that has always been consistent is that we received an instruction letter in our cabin the day before. Beyond that, it depends on the requirements of Customs, the country, and the year.

It is NOT true that you must disembark at all US ports, or at least that has not been our experience. We've been able to stay on board and receive a cruise card for the full length of the vacation on Princess! Obviously we were in the same cabin on this trip.

We've had times when we had to meet in a lounge and were escorted off (and back on) the ship as a group. We've met in a lounge and had all the processing occur in the lounge. We've had times when we were just told to disembark and clear Customs on our own. This seemed to depend on the number of cabins doing B2Bs. The problem with the "meet in Wheelhouse" is that there is typically one family who feels that this instruction did not apply to them, and we are all kept in the are until they are located. Groan.

There have been times when we went to Guest Services to pick up our new cruise card and times where we went thru a check in counter in the terminal.

As to changing cabins, the stewards will coordinate the move and do it for you. They will bring a rack that will take the hanging clothes and has a bottom shelf area for your suitcases. What you will want to do is to empty your safe and keep that stuff on your person. We've always packed up our suitcase stuff, but others have reported being told to leave the stuff in drawers and the stewards will just swap out the drawers for you--placing your full drawers in the new cabin and bringing the empty ones down to your vacated cabin.

Again, the ONLY consistency is that we got an instruction letter the day before on each B2B.

One hint--keep watch on cabin availability and if you see it available, ask if you can change your reservation so that you are in the same cabin for both legs. It doesn't always work, but it is great when it does.

I have used them on the Crown after using the sauna. They are very nice, larger than standard cabin showers. Lots of room for leg shaving[emoji6]. The ones on the CB should be similar

 

 

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I've never been on the Crown, but they are definitely bigger than the standard cabin showers on the Caribbean Princess. The only problem we encountered was on the Diamond where a bunch of unsupervised 10-12 year olds were giggling and occupying the facility. When I spoke with the woman at the desk, I was informed that only the pool was "adult only" and children were welcome to use the locker room.

First, Princess reserves the right to cancel the programs if there are fewer than 20 kids on board.

Some of the ships have remodeled their kid areas, some have not. But they have the same programming--it is just a matter of whether the spaces have been re-done. The teens we've talked with loved the programming, and the area always seemed to be busy. It gets much better comments on board than the DCL programming for teens. Sorry, mine has aged out, so no personal recent experience.

They ARE strict about age requirements. They will not move a kid up to an older group; if two kids "need" to be together, the older one can move down. That usually eliminates the "need."

It doesn't answer OP's question, but we found the service at Club Class dining to be far superior than our previous experiences with traditional dining. Traditional wasn't bad, but CC was exceptional.

The showers in the locker rooms are free. Those in the thermal suite come with the fee paid to use the thermal suite.

When mine was little, her car seat was airline approved. The best way to fly was to install the car seat in the plane seat, then the child sits in the car seat. The child is comfortable in a seat that they are used to and fully secured in the event of turbulence, etc. Alternatively, you can have the child sit in the plane seat using a seat belt that is not appropriate to his/her size, but is totally acceptable by airline standards. The airline will fly your car seat at no charge.

Buses in Florida are not required to have car seats and most will not fit car seats appropriately. So if you take DCL transportation, you will not need a car seat and your child will travel at no charge (under age 3). IF the bus is full, which can happen on the early morning buses, you will have a "lap child." If there is an extra seat, you'll be allowed to use that seat for your child. Any car-like vehicle will require a car seat. Some limo companies charge for these, some provide them free. You can also use your own if you choose to bring it. If you get one thru a car rental or limo company, there is no guarantee that it will be clean or that it will be the correct size for your chld.

So the real question is whether your interest is complying with the law (in which case any sort of bus transportation will allow your child to travel without a car seat) or whether you believe that the safest form of transportation is to transport the child in a car seat, in which case you are probably best off providing your own.

As above, the $9 per day is built into the cost of the drink package. You can, of course, decline to purchase the drink package, but you'll still pay 15% on any bar item. You will also be charged 18% on any spa items you purchase.

Yes, we had $460 in room gratuities on our April cruise. It sure was nice to have comped grats in August.

You simply apply the criteria from Shmoo's post based on port of departure and length of cruise. That clearly defines whether you will have Disney, Jr. or VIP characters.

ALL character appearances are subject to change,

We did a partial transit in April. The only options are a Princess excursion that departed fairly early in the morning or remaining on the ship and going thru the locks then sitting in the lake. We were allowed off in the terminal area for about 45 minutes (it was supposed to be 2 hours, but stuff happens). This was at the end of the day.

It totally depends on the fine print in the policy that you purchased. Call the insurance company or your travel agent (who will put you in touch with the insurance company.)

OK, totally different theory. We often come in a day ahead, All we want is to sleep and recover from jet lag. The Tryp Aeropuerto is perfect. They have a complimentary shuttle from the airport. Pizza can be delivered to your hotel room (for when we wake up hungry after a few hours). They offer a paid shuttle to the cruise terminal in the morning. If you decide to explore the city, 4 bus lines are within a block of the hotel. The internet is spotty.

I have also heard that the aft elevator is out of commission. I sure hope it is fixed by the time we embark on our cruise, as my hubby has a knee problem which means that he can't walk too far. I picked the back of the ship for the access to all the aft services which also includes Skywalker's Lounge. Princess needs to get on this!

 

Scotchick :o:o:o

There are multiple aft elevators, only one of which is out of order. Unfortunately, it is one of the two that go up the highest when going to Skywalkers.

It isn't as if you don't have elevators. You just have one of the 4 out of order and sometimes have to wait longer than you otherwise might.

I already have the Sip & Sail package so don't need the mini bar - can I get onboard credit or should I just trade the mini bar for the appropriate number of canned sodas?

You cannot trade the minibar for OBC. You can trade for cans of any soda they carry on board. As noted, the Sip and Sail does not include room service, so you might appreciate having some cans in your cabin.

The suite benefits say that you get water every night. In April on the Caribbean Princess, we got it replenished up to the 3 bottles (for 3 people in the suite) each night except the first. I didn't fuss, but if we had an excursion, we'd just put our 3 bottles out of sight and the steward would leave 3 more. In August on the Golden, he left 2 bottles each night, no matter how many were already sitting on the counter. We were in "water city" by the end of the 14 nights.