Time to arrive at pier

[windynme]

Can someone who has already sailed on Journey please tell me what time we should arrive at the pier. I like to get on the ship as early as possible to begin my vacation (every minute counts). I know the cabins may not be ready until later. That's OK. Thanks for your input.

Pat:)

[cruzadict]

On our recent Journey cruise we arrived at the pier at 11 am and they had already started the initial check in. Boarding for suites was 11.30 and the rest at 12. Most people in the terminal were on board by 12.

[corona5657]

Just returned today, we got to the ship last Saturday at 11:15 and were on board eating at 11:30. We were not the first on at that time either! And let me add, everything was great and we had a wonderful time. No worries here for anyone!! Will be posting more later.:)

[mari10]

Just returned today, we got to the ship last Saturday at 11:15 and were on board eating at 11:30. We were not the first on at that time either! And let me add, everything was great and we had a wonderful time. No worries here for anyone!! Will be posting more later.:)

Welcome Home!
Looking forward to your cruise review.
Sounds like you had a great time.
Mari:)

[windynme]

Thanks everyone for the info. I am hopeing to get to the pier about 11:00 AM on 7/7. I'm glad to hear that it won't be too early. Glad to hear you had a great time corona5657. I had every faith that they would get their act together before we sailed. We are sooooo looking forward to this cruise. It has been a few years since our last and this one is to celebrate our 25th Anniversary on 7/10.

[corona5657]

Thanks everyone for the info. I am hopeing to get to the pier about 11:00 AM on 7/7. I'm glad to hear that it won't be too early. Glad to hear you had a great time corona5657. I had every faith that they would get their act together before we sailed. We are sooooo looking forward to this cruise. It has been a few years since our last and this one is to celebrate our 25th Anniversary on 7/10.

We had a great time! The shows were good, the ventriloquist was very good! No problems with the food. The staff were very nice and attentive. The pool area had a small pool with 2 hot tubs. One of the hot tubs seemed to me to be used primarily by children. We used the pool area often and found it very nice also. Casino was a good size. Able to get drinks wherever you were on the ship. I would definitely go on this ship again. Everyone has their own expectations, and I found that mine were met. Have a great cruise!!

[windynme]

Just a couple more questions. Do you have to be members of the Captains Club to board the ship early (before 12)? We are members but the couple we are traveling with are not. We won't board until they can. And last but not least, has there been any sign of the new deck chairs yet? Can't wait, only 3 more days!!!!!!!!:D :D :D

[Melady]

Hi Windy, I'm sooooooo jealous!! We were on Journey to Bermuda 6/16-6/23 and I am soooooooo ready to jump back onboard!! We had the best cruise of all - we've been on 10 cruises throughout our 22 years of marriage! No complaints at all. We took minor inconveniences (if any) in stride and just relaxed and had a blast!! Anyway, we got to the Bayonne port (from Central NJ) at 11:30 and by 12:00 noon we were sipping mamosas outside of the shore excursion desk!! Have a wonderful cruise, and if I could put my two cents in, ask for EDWIN in the main dining room (Discoveries). He is a lovely person and his attention to detail was fantastic - please tell him "Miss Melinda and Mr. Frank" send their love!

ENJOY :)

[corona5657]

They didn't ask if you were a member of the Captains Club while boarding. One of my group wasn't and got on with us. Also as of 6/30 no teak chairs by the pool. But believe me the pool chairs were fine. As I have never had teak chairs on any other cruise, I have nothing to compare them to. But the chairs were comfortable.

[windynme]

Thanks again for the info. It is so helpful to communicate with others who have sailed prior. I am sure the pool chairs are fine. They certainly won't spoil my trip in any way, I just thought it would be nice to see what these new teak lounges looked like. At the new prices I doubt we'll be sailing on the Journey again. We originally were booked on the Zenith. Although like you Melady, two weeks from now I'll be wishing I was back on the Journey again. I am sure we are going to love the ship and that we will have a fantastic time. What's not to love, I WON'T be at work!

[cruisingdelt]

Thanks everyone for the info. I am hopeing to get to the pier about 11:00 AM on 7/7. I'm glad to hear that it won't be too early. Glad to hear you had a great time corona5657. I had every faith that they would get their act together before we sailed. We are sooooo looking forward to this cruise. It has been a few years since our last and this one is to celebrate our 25th Anniversary on 7/10.

I too was, I now must use the past tense, on the 7/7. I r=posted a review. Let me know if you agree. Family and I had a wonderful time. DW and I loved the ship. Older teens were not as impressed but it's my money!

[Romchek1]

For the 7/7 cruise we arrived at the terminal @ 10:30AM. Dropped off our bags, parked the car, checked in, and we were seated in the terminal building by 10:45. Ship started boarding @ 11:00. We were on the first bus to the ship and my wife was the first on onboard at 11:03, I was right behind her.

BYE FOR NOW

[windynme]

I too was, I now must use the past tense, on the 7/7. I r=posted a review. Let me know if you agree. Family and I had a wonderful time. DW and I loved the ship. Older teens were not as impressed but it's my money!
Hi Cruisingdelt. We probably had dinner next to each other at least once. We usually arrived between 6:15 & 6:30 and were seated immediately. We had Ahmet as our waiter twice. He was very good but one night we had Brian White wait on us and I have to say that his service as well as his assistants was the closest we came to the service we are used to receiving on Celebrity. We have never had open seating before and although I liked that we could dine at any time, we did miss that bonding experience that you have when you have the same waiter & assistant every night. To us it is part of the cruise experience. Your review was right on the money. Right from the embarkation to the disembarkation, everything quick and efficient. The shows were very good and we loved the ventriloquist. The staff was very friendly, the food was excellent (especially that Thursday night dessert) and the ship was beautiful but still very comfortable. I have only 1 major complaint about our cabin. We were in a Sky Suite which was wonderful and roomy as was the bathroom and there was ample drawer and closet space. My complaint is that all of the closets had an upper and lower bar to hang things on. After taking so much time and care to iron and pack all of our clothes as carefully as possible to avoid everything getting wrinkled all of our clothes including my dresses & tops and my husbands shirts now hung all bunched up and crumpled against this lower bar. I'd like to know who's brain storm that was. Bad idea! They should remove the lower bar at least in the bigger closet. Other than that everything was GREAT!

I see that all of your past cruises (& one future cruise) except 1 were with Celebrity. Can I ask your opinion on how Princess compared with Celebrity? We have only cruised with Celebrity in the past (Brittanis, Zenith, Millenium & Century) and always felt that when you have had the best, why change. But there seems to be fewer and fewer Celebrity ships with iteneraries that are convenient for us due to our work schedules. The Millenium was beautiful but I prefer the Century/Journey size.

[WCAB]

Hi Cruisingdelt. We probably had dinner next to each other at least once. We usually arrived between 6:15 & 6:30 and were seated immediately. We had Ahmet as our waiter twice. He was very good but one night we had Brian White wait on us and I have to say that his service as well as his assistants was the closest we came to the service we are used to receiving on Celebrity. We have never had open seating before and although I liked that we could dine at any time, we did miss that bonding experience that you have when you have the same waiter & assistant every night. To us it is part of the cruise experience. Your review was right on the money. Right from the embarkation to the disembarkation, everything quick and efficient. The shows were very good and we loved the ventriloquist. The staff was very friendly, the food was excellent (especially that Thursday night dessert) and the ship was beautiful but still very comfortable. I have only 1 major complaint about our cabin. We were in a Sky Suite which was wonderful and roomy as was the bathroom and there was ample drawer and closet space. My complaint is that all of the closets had an upper and lower bar to hang things on. After taking so much time and care to iron and pack all of our clothes as carefully as possible to avoid everything getting wrinkled all of our clothes including my dresses & tops and my husbands shirts now hung all bunched up and crumpled against this lower bar. I'd like to know who's brain storm that was. Bad idea! They should remove the lower bar at least in the bigger closet. Other than that everything was GREAT!

I see that all of your past cruises (& one future cruise) except 1 were with Celebrity. Can I ask your opinion on how Princess compared with Celebrity? We have only cruised with Celebrity in the past (Brittanis, Zenith, Millenium & Century) and always felt that when you have had the best, why change. But there seems to be fewer and fewer Celebrity ships with iteneraries that are convenient for us due to our work schedules. The Millenium was beautiful but I prefer the Century/Journey size.

Have gone on Princess many times and think you will find it similar to Celebrity. We have always been pleased. We tend to go on all of the lines and there is something we like about each one. We will be on the Journey in September and we are looking forward to a little quieter experience this time around.

[CrabbyHarper]

Cruised on Grand Princess Sept 06. Have Cruised X - Zenith, Galaxy and Summit. There is no comparison. X is much superior. Will probably not do Princess again. What was supposed to be the vacation of a life time - to the Med - was Wal-Mart quality. (I do like Wal-Mart and do shop there, but I was expecting more)

Shore excursions and the pre-cruise land tour were wonderful.
Best part of the cruise,

Have booked two more X cruises - actually Azamara Journey - in Sept 07, and Infinity in Nov 07.

Just my humble opinion.

[windynme]

Thanks WCAB & CrabbyHarper for your opinions. As different as they are & guess one of these days we'll have to try out Princess and judge for ourselves. We are not really very hard to please so I'm sure we will enjoy our cruise no matter which line we choose.

[profzed]

we did three princess then last year did rccl on Voyager , loved princess and spent the whole time comparing the two, we would not rush back to rccl we thought princess was far superior, this is our first on celebrity and cant wait,9-8-07 wont come soon enough, hope were not disappointed

[CrabbyHarper]

Well, different strokes for different folks! Cruises are not "one size fits all" and to be perfectly honest, if the itinerary and price were right, I might consider Princess again. I'd have a better notion of what to expect!

ProfZed - I'll see you on the Sept 8 Journey cruise. Counting the days!

Crabby - as in crustacean

[profzed]

Crabby lucky i don't eat crustaceans, ha. looking forward to meeting you.

[cruisingdelt]

I see that all of your past cruises (& one future cruise) except 1 were with Celebrity. Can I ask your opinion on how Princess compared with Celebrity? We have only cruised with Celebrity in the past (Brittanis, Zenith, Millenium & Century) and always felt that when you have had the best, why change. But there seems to be fewer and fewer Celebrity ships with iteneraries that are convenient for us due to our work schedules. The Millenium was beautiful but I prefer the Century/Journey size.

The Sapphire Princess was a beautiful ship. While I prefer X I would cruise Princess again, infact I have an open booking deposit with them. X gets the edge in overall service and food with Princess winning in entertainment and itneraries. The itinerary thing may change with the influx of new X and A ships over the next few years. My advice, don't take my word for it, try it. Another excuse for a cruise.

[blambition]

I would not be afraid to try one of the newer Princess ships. I sailed on both the Golden and the Diamond in the last year and a half and loved them both. The staff was very friendly and although the Diamond's food was not as fabulous as the Golden it was still very, very good. The ships are lovely.
I think we may have been one of the few that have had a bad experience on X as we did not have good food or service last year on Zenith. We are looking forward to Journey in Oct. We love Bermuda and really enjoy being able to dock in town. I don't think it would be nearly as nice it you had to stay at the dockyards.

[windynme]

Thanks Crusingdlt for the info. I am sure one of these days we'll try Princess or one of the other cruiselines but for now I guess we'll stick with the sure thing when possible. Everything has always been great on Celebrity.
"Bye for now."