LIVE from the Enchanted Princess: April 6-13, 2024 - Eastern Caribbean

[talkorpi]

Well, I'm a week away from sailaway so I think it's time to start up the live thread! This will be a MUCH-needed getaway for me. If you haven't followed along before, I'm talkorpi, a 60 year old trapped in the body of a 23 year old. I have a huge interest in ships and boats, used to run a cringy cruise-themed Instagram account, and still have dreams of working in the industry someday. Now that I have recently graduated college, I am trying to take at least one cruise a year for sanity's sake... being an adult isn't easy!!! I mainly sailed Carnival when I was in school with my family, but once I tried Princess I made the switch and never looked back (even though my first Princess cruise was kind of a disaster... check my signature for that live thread).

 

Booked this sailing because I have always wanted to do the 10-day longer Caribbean sailings, but those didn't work price-wise or time-wise. HOWEVER, I found a great deal on this week-long trip and I am very excited. I'll get around to that longer cruise eventually! I've never cruised from South Florida before so even though Princess Cays, San Juan, and St. Thomas are pretty standard ports, they're all brand new to me. Considering that our call in San Juan is 13 hours long, I am SO excited to see as much as possible!

Medallions are in hand, ducks are tagged, and boarding passes are printed out. Now if I can just motivate myself to pack, then we are 100% READY TO GO! Hope you follow along for the week!

Edited April 1 by talkorpi
Fixed the date. Whoops. It’s not 2023 anymore!

[lgonquin]

I’ll be following. We’re on this exact itinerary June 8th. 
Looking forward to learn something from your experience. 
Happy travels!

[JamieLogical]

We will be on the Enchanted for the May 4 sailing, so I am hoping to clean some valuable insights from this thread! Also hoping it will hype me up a bit, since my first experience on Princess wasn't that great.

[Retired-N-Happy]

Following.  We'll be on the August 10 14 day repo cruise from FLL to NYC. Hopefully you have the Plus package.  

[coldinerie]

Following as well, we too will be on the May 4 cruise!!

[mistyPA]

Will follow, we are on the 4/21 sailing. So looking forward to it and excited to see this.

[Grego]

31 minutes ago, mistyPA said:

Will follow, we are on the 4/21 sailing. So looking forward to it and excited to see this.

We are on the April 20th 14-day voyage on the Enchanted Princess.  Earlier this year we were on the Enchanted Princess and had a great time.  The ship is lovely and the crew is amazing.

If anyone on this voyage has a chance to take a photo of the ship's officers board, that would be great.  We usually get a notification as to who the HGM is and we know that Nikola is the Maitre' d but it nice to see who the staff members are.

Edited April 1 by Grego
Added information.

[funship freddy]

We will be on the 4/6 voyage also. First cruises (25+ years ago) were on Princess then we ventured to Royal and Celebrity and MSC. Sailed on Sky in December of 22 and decided to alternate between Celebrity and Princess.  We have a September Enchanted cruise from New York to East Coast and Canada and a 16 day Hawaii cruise on Ruby.

Looking forward to Enchanted. See you at the Wakeview Bar ⚓️

[PMGS247]

On this sailing as well, definitely following! Just need to get through a few days of work then off to FLL!

[WisCruiser2]

We were on a B2B in February (our first cruise since Feb 2020) and really enjoyed the Enchanted! Have been on the Royal and Regal, and like the change in Princess Live to more of an open lounge. We also loved listening to the jazz trio in Take 5 each night. If you splurge on The Catch (highly recommend), see if you can have Glenn as your waiter - he's awesome!

[talkorpi]

Time to start packing. Ugh… I hate packing because I never know how much to bring. I feel like I always end up overpacking in hindsight, but when I’m putting stuff in my suitcase, it never feels like I have enough stuff!

[JamieLogical]

14 minutes ago, talkorpi said:

Time to start packing. Ugh… I hate packing because I never know how much to bring. I feel like I always end up overpacking in hindsight, but when I’m putting stuff in my suitcase, it never feels like I have enough stuff!

 

I just use my same packing list from cruise to cruise and adjust the totals for the number of days. It helps that I have an entire cruise wardrobe that is separate from the clothes I wear in my everyday life.

[muffydawg]

Looking forward to enjoying the GO Princess pre-embarkation experience on SE 17th Street!

[talkorpi]

24 minutes ago, muffydawg said:

Looking forward to enjoying the GO Princess pre-embarkation experience on SE 17th Street!

LUCKY YOU! Dang! I turned platinum on this cruise so I’m wondering what this “priority embarkation” will end up looking like. My guess: not much…

[nhkroozer]

We'll be coming aboard on the 13th as you finish your awesome cruise. Looking forward to your reports next week.

[PMGS247]

1 hour ago, talkorpi said:

LUCKY YOU! Dang! I turned platinum on this cruise so I’m wondering what this “priority embarkation” will end up looking like. My guess: not much…

it’s just a separate lounge (elite, platinum, suites) from the general boarding groups and is the first to board after B2B. On my Halloween cruise this past year they offered pastries and coffee but I gather from some other discussion that’s not a guarantee. If you don’t arrive before boarding starts there isn’t really any “priority”. Green lane vs blue lane is just that, loyalty status doesn’t come into play at all. 
 

do be sure as you enter the waiting area that the agent sees your platinum medallion so they direct you to the priority lounge. If they don’t know they’ll just give you a general boarding group number.  

Edited April 3 by PMGS247

[Canuker]

Let 'er rip, talkorpi.

Looking forward to your posts while aboard. And should we not hear from you, we'll know you're having way too much fun!

More interested in the ship and what it offers, than the ports of call.

 

Happy sailing,

Canuker.

[pedirn]

9 hours ago, muffydawg said:

Looking forward to enjoying the GO Princess pre-embarkation experience on SE 17th Street!

You will have to review this experience.   We hope to enjoy this in December when we will again travel in a suite….a present to ourselves for our 50th

[Grego]

11 hours ago, muffydawg said:

Looking forward to enjoying the GO Princess pre-embarkation experience on SE 17th Street!

Glad to see you received an invitation to visit the Go Princess.  They have a limited amount that can attend and it is only available to a Princess ship is at docked at #2 terminal.  Anthony and Edwina are wonderful hosts and their attention to detail is amazing in taking care of all your needs.  We have been fortunate to be invited twice previously and have just received an invitation to be there for the April 20th voyage.

[muffydawg]

5 hours ago, Grego said:

Glad to see you received an invitation to visit the Go Princess.  They have a limited amount that can attend and it is only available to a Princess ship is at docked at #2 terminal.  Anthony and Edwina are wonderful hosts and their attention to detail is amazing in taking care of all your needs.  We have been fortunate to be invited twice previously and have just received an invitation to be there for the April 20th voyage.

The follow-up, personalized phone call from Anthony was a welcome and unexpected surprise.

[TravMagic1]

Look forward to your posts!

We will be on this one on 4/20.

Will be in St Thomas for my 60th birthday!

Can't imagine celebrating it any other way.

My DH and 2 besties with their hubbies will be with us also.

[kywildcatfanone]

We are on now.  Been a great week so far. Ready to go home.

[talkorpi]

36 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

We are on now.  Been a great week so far. Ready to go home.

Hope you had an excellent time! Keep the ship in good shape for us 🙂

[metairiegal]

I'll be following along with you.  (We are sailing on the Enchanted 4/27.)

[Wishing on a star]

Our upcoming cruise, after the Sun Princess will be on Enchanted.  

Even though it will be quite some time, I will be following, looking for any details!

 

Are you interested in the Sanctuary?

Of course, you probably know that Platinum/elite early boarding and heading directly to the Sanctuary would give you better odds of reserving loungers.

If you aren't doing that, I would still get to the Port and board early, if at all possible.  It is so nice to be one of the first onboard and check out the ship before it gets more crowded.

 

Do you have any plans for your day on Princess Cays?

My husband and I really enjoyed our day there, feeling like we had our own exclusive island experience booking our favorite cabana.

 

Let the count-down begin!