voyager1964

Suggest asking this question on NCL board - you will be surprised how they assess the Retreat

We typically rent a house in the north-west where you get a beach every so often (Lagun, Jeremi, Klein,..). All these beaches have good to great snorkeling. Also, it is not difficult to rent a house with snorkeling access right from your backyard in that area. You just need to be able to climb a ladder.

Very interesting, I tried o do exactly this last month and came out with nothing 😞 Unfortunately, I can no longer edit the post...

All the snorkeling was from the shore, and reasonably good. Tell me which island and I will condense for it specifically..

Some people have reported getting an invite to a pre-embarkation lounge in Fort Lauderdale. With that, the specific requirements for the invite are unclear. Hope that with this poll, we would be able to figure out who is likely to get the invite.

Just posted it on Princess board:

It is not difficult to run a survey to get the first-hand statistics, perhaps I would do that tonight

Just posted a review on Princess board:

Thanks again for this recommendation. FWIW, I just posted a review on Princess board:

I just posted it on Princess board: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3000792-enchanted-princess-17-27-march-2024-review-limited-mobility-snorkeling-suite-life-perspective-including-detailed-know-how/

Thanks for your thoughts! My problem with these particular vibrations was that the vibrations were unsteady. I mean I can easily sleep in a vibrating train, but these vibrations were totally unpredictable, with periodic strong beats that were not actually periodic. You get that beat and then your brain is preparing for the next one. It does not come so you are falling asleep. And here comes another series of strong beats. And so on.

Ports of call Antigua. Antigua is known for good snorkeling but not from the shore. You need to take a boat to get to small islands or snorkel from the boat. Which requires stair climbing and not suitable to us. My research suggested that there are very few places you can snorkel from the beach in Antigua. So we took a taxi from the port to Galleon beach, one of such places. The taxi costed ~$120 roundtrip and was about 30 minutes one way. The driver dropped us off near the gate. Right there, there is a restaurant that opens at 12 pm, and there are public restrooms (free). The beach for swimming also starts right from that restaurant, but to get to the snorkeling part you need to go to the left along the water for ~150 yards or so. There, the entrance to the water is not very easy but still doable. We left our belongings on a tree, right near an unfinished villa, and snorkeled for about an hour. The water was warm with no waves. There were some corals and fish, but not too much as compared to our usual place Curacao. After snorkeling, we changed the clothes in the public restrooms and went to the gate where our taxi driver was waiting for us. Martinique. We hired a private guide there, given that this is French overseas territory and practically no one speaks English. Our guide first took us to the snorkeling beach (Les Anses d’Arlet) located in the South of the island, approximately 50 minutes from port. We changed the clothes in a large public restroom available there. This is an automated establishment and requires 20 eurocents to enter. The beach itself was pretty crowdy, but the snorkeling was OK. There are 4-5 places for snorkeling located about 100 yards from shore and indicated by hat-looking buoys; nice corals and fish, but nothing extraordinary. After the snorkeling and changing our clothes back (another 20 eurocents pp), we had a tasty lunch in a local restaurant. Finally, we went to the best boulangerie in the island and also bought some Frenc cheese and wine in a nearby store. The picture below shows the Sleeping Woman Mountain on the Diamant beach. Can you see the woman? St. Lucia. St. Lucia is known for its scenery and windy steep roads. The snorkeling should be good in the south of the island whereas the ship docks closer to the north. Initially, I thought about Resort for a day that offered a pass to a hotel located in the North of the island with some snorkeling. However, after reading reviews about that resort, I decided not to (crowdy beach, not tasty food, bus with stairs for transportation). Following a recommendation of @reedprincess I decided to go to Soufriere Beach Park, a relatively new establishment. For the transportation, I booked with St Lu Taxi and Tours that offer a private taxi for ~$190 over 5-6 hours. The driver was waiting for us with a sign, he had a pretty large minivan just for two of us, and perfectly delivered us to the Park. We arrived at ~11 am, and the beach was almost empty. There is a small restaurants with wooden tables and benches under a canopy (free to use). Loungers and umbrellas were also available for rent. There were also huge and clean bathrooms ($1 pp) and a shower (also $1). No stairs anywhere, but the beach’ sand was not a powder. We are using snorkeling boots, so did not care. For snorkeling, we swam to the right if looking to the sea, there were spectacular corals along the cliff and surprisingly many crustaceans right on glassy beach bottom near the shore. The view of Piton was spectacular, too. So, a pretty good space if not for the windy roads to get there. Dominica. This was a difficult island. We already visited the main tourist places there back in 2013. For snorkeling, the usual recommendation is the Champaigne Reef, but after reading the recent reviews I decided to pass – too crowdy, no bubbles, difficult access, no facilities. Instead, I found a place called Bubble Beach Spa, located near the Scotts Head Beach. For transportation, I booked Master Taxi and Tours that agreed for a roundtrip for ~$100. The driver sent his photo over WhatsApp so it was easy to locate him in the port. The driving time is ~25 minutes, but the last part is a one-way road with two-way traffic, so our driver had to honk regularly to alert others. He dropped us near a local church with a clear sign to the Bubble beach and off we went. The walking to the beach is perhaps a 100 yards from there, and on the beach you get a wooden shack for a restaurant, a wooden bench under a canopy, and a room with a lockable door to change clothes. No bathroom though, but we found a bathroom later on in a nearby diver shop (again $1 pp). So we changed our clothes, and firstly attempted the “bubble spa” – a fenced by stones sea area near the beach. The water was indeed warm. Then we started swimming to the right (looking to the sea), and there was a pretty decent snorkeling, corals and fish. The water there was warmer than usual, perhaps because of the geothermal activity. All of a sudden, we encountered large fields full with raising bubbles. Much better than what was reported for the Champaigne reef. Be forewarned though about a potentially strong rip current away from the beach. Bottom line: pretty good snorkeling, uncrowded beach, but challenging road to get there. St Thomas. I thought I knew St Thomas pretty well as we rented a villa there for a week following the fiasco with Caribbean Princess in 2012. However, at that time I was not interested in snorkeling. Searching for accessible opportunities for this cruise, I ended up with the Secret Harbor beach. Following the advice of CC, I reserved two chairs and umbrella at AA divers, part of the resort. Transportation, however, was a failure I must admit. I communicated with one of taxi companies recommended on CC. They quoted $100 each way. I thought that was steep for a ~20 minutes drive and hoped to find a taxi in the port. Indeed, there were numerous shared taxis (minitracks with benches), that DW could not climb onto right near the gangway. The dispatcher suggested that a private taxi would be expensive, at ~$135 one way. At that time, I did not realize we could walk to the Havensight Mall and catch a taxi there. So agreed and the dispatcher summoned a taxi, a pretty large minivan for us. The driver insisted we use him for a roundtrip ($135 each way). “No thank you” I thought while reluctantly entering his number into the WhatsApp. On arriving, I gave him $140 and suggested I would call him later. In reality, I asked the resort’s front deck to call for a taxi, and it arrived quickly with ~$70 fare to go back to port. Back to the beach. We easily found AA office, paid for the reserved loungers/umbrella, changed clothes in a nearby bathroom (free, and accessible), and off we went. The water was spectacular, crystal clear, no waves. The sand was pretty good too. Initially, we went to the right where a good snorkeling was promised by many reviewers, but did not found anything noteworthy within 25 minutes of swimming. We turned then to the left, and this was a good decision. Large underwater gardens with live corals, fish (we saw a barracuda) and not many people. Grand Turk. This one was a major disappointment. The advice was just to go to the right from the pier where the beach becomes stony and snorkel there. There are large and free bathrooms and also a shower and a faucet to clean the sand off. But, the entrance to the water is challenging to say the least. And, we did not see any live corals. Perhaps we did not get to the proper place? With this, I am finishing my review. Did we enjoy this cruise? Yes, but there was a fly in the ointment (the vibrations). It did not spoil our vacation, but reduced the overall grade.

First night and problems with the stateroom When we returned to our stateroom, we noticed significant vibrations. For a background, we often sailed in aft cabins on other lines (RCCL Serenade of the Seas, Celebrity Summit and Infinity, and recently Azamara Pursuit). The only problems we experienced back then was somewhat enhanced movement on the aft, and sometimes presence of soot. Never ever has our stateroom vibrated so badly that literally the glassware were dancing on the shelf. The bed was badly shaking with periodic metal bumping. Long story short, we could not sleep the first night and called for help the next morning. Our room attendant John acknowledged the vibrations and promised to talk to his supervisor. I also called Kevin the concierge who promised to talk to his supervisor as well. As a side note, I heard about the vibration problem and initiated a discussion on Azamara board (https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2800011-structural-vibrations-on-the-aft/) so I knew there was no solution other than the speed reduction; nonetheless I was surprised that apparently nobody reported this problem for D726 on Enchanted before. Perhaps they did not move at full speed? Anyways, the suite experience manager Anna appeared in our stateroom later on and acknowledged the shear scale of the problem. One solution they offered was to move us to another suite that would become available two nights later (someone would disembark in Antigua). I asked if they could find us a stateroom just to sleep at night. Two hours later Anna called and offered us a balcony cabin on Aloha deck, which we gladly accepted for overnight accommodation. Interestingly, John’s call resulted in the appearance of a ship carpenter who offered to fix our problem. “How can you fix the vibration problem?” “Hmm, I do not know” so unsurprisingly he had to retreat. Sea days and ship impressions On the first morning, after the sleepless night we went to the retreat pool. Indeed, there was a power lift chair installed. Whether it was installed because of my earlier request or not, I do not know. But we could see several such lifts throughout the ship. I summoned the pool attendant, and he quickly brought the battery to power the lift. A couple of minutes later and DW was swimming laps as the pool was practically empty at 8 am. I tried to swim as well but quickly gave up – the pool is unreasonable shallow at one end and you can hurt your knees.. So the pool arrangement worked pretty well. After the pool, we went to the spa where I had pre-purchased the Enclave passes for both of us. The Enclave T-pool on Princess is somewhat smaller than a similar spa pool on NCL Epic where we spent significant time back in 2019. Yet, the Enclave has a significant advantage over NCL’s spa – the graduated stairs to the pool vs. NCL’s ladder. The steam rooms in Enclave are co-ed, which could be inconvenience to some people (we observed a naked male passenger there that was later on escorted by the staff). Unlike on NCL, the Enclave has never been crowdy and certainly served our purpose. Win for Princess. For “casual” food, we tried several options - The Buffet - The reserve collection restaurant (Capri) - The Concierge Lounge - International Café and the ice-cream parlor (Swirl?) The food in all of them was pretty good, much better than what we experienced on Celebrity pre-Luminae (2011-2013) and also better than MDR on Azamara. This was surprising, given the very reasonable fare that Princess charges. So again, win for Princess. Piazza. We spent a lot of time sitting on 6th or 7th deck watching people dancing in Piazza. Very entertaining and nice. The only problem was the smoke smell coming from Casino. Princess Theater. We visited all the production shows and some individual performers. All of them were pretty good, especially as compared to entertainment on other cruise lines we observed. The only exception was the RCCL’s Oasis that offers the Aquatic show, Cats the musical and the ice arena show – those are difficult to beat. Elevators. We were happy with the three banks of elevators, but the elevators were on the smaller size. If not for the courtesy of the fellow passengers, riding in elevators could be stressful. Fellow passengers. Very polite, cheerful and, how to say that – not very young. We felt on the younger half of the spectrum. There were very few children and we did not observe any outrageous behavior. Bottom line, we were positively surprised. 360°, UBD and Bridge tour I selected the third night for the 360° experience as the App suggested the formal night would be the second. Unfortunately, the formal night was the third, so we lost our surf-h-turf. Back to 360° - it was interesting and tasty. Prior to it, I relayed our dietary restriction to Kevin, the concierge. They were accommodated for us and apparently for several other guests as well. Which is a positive change from what was described by other people. Would I pay $149 pp for this experience? Probably no. The balcony dinner was planned for my birthday, and I paid the fee about two months prior to sailing. However, a letter waited for me in the stateroom, and that letter indicated that I had to call “to coordinate time and other specifics”. To save effort and to take advantage of our relationship with the suite experience manager, Anna, I just called her. Anna has perfectly organized everything, timing, menu, special birthday cake and singing (not embarrassing as it would in the MDR). Our stateroom attendant made a composition from the towels. So, I liked this unique to Princess experience very much. The French Champaigne was pretty good too, much better than what was offered to us in other ship venues. On the last day, we were invited to the Bridge. It was a nice event and I took a few pictures including the one with a Captain (not shown here).

I had an egoistic desire to spend my jubilee birthday onboard. Why egoistic? Well, the first reason is obvious, it costs money, much more than we typically spend on a birthday. But there was another and more significant reason – my wife does not like cruises. In the past, I was able to lure her by either interesting ports (e.g., Madeira, Bordeaux, Flam, Marmaris), wildlife (Galapagos) or bringing our adult kids onboard. This situation is challenged by the fact that DW has a bad back which severely limits her ability to climb stairs yet she is a vivid snorkeler. Typically, we spend a couple of weeks in Winter in Curacao, but the connecting flights through MIA have been more and more challenging recently, so I suggested to her that we would explore other Caribbean islands with snorkeling to find a potential replacement for Curacao (spoiler – we did not find a comparable replacement among the islands on this cruise). Booking Originally, I booked a 7-day cruise out of San Juan on Brilliant Lady. It was relatively inexpensive for an aft corner suite (~$4K), but later on I started to get concerned. One problem with the Virgin was the lack of a normal pool where DW could swim laps, while the other was that the suite I booked had an enormous balcony but no separate bedroom. Also, I hated the thought of a group of waiters singing “happy birthday” in a restaurant. So, I welcomed the news that Brilliant Lady cruises were cancelled in early Fall 2023. At that time, I found the 10-night Enchanted Princess sailing (March 17-27, 2024) on which several suites (S4 and S0) were still available. Given that S4 had a separate bedroom and the cost was reasonable (as compared, e.g., to Celebrity), I decided to go ahead and booked the cruise using my TA who offers cruises quick. Originally, I booked R611, but later on R608 became available and my TA moved us to that room (R611 is near the laundromat, whereas R608 is right near the wedding chapel with a public bathroom which would alleviate the single bathroom problem of the suite). Finally, in early December the best aft suite, D726 became available, and I grabbed that one immediately. The price increase was small. Pre-departure arrangements I contacted the accessibility department of Princess over email and inquired about the pool lift availability for DW. They replied surprisingly quickly and suggested either Retreat or Lido pool to get equipped with the lift. They also indicated that the guests would be permitted to operate the lift themselves, a nice change from NCL where only special crew can operate the lift. So I filled and sent them a special form, and they later on acknowledged my requests via email and also in cruise summary in my online account, again a nice departure from my previous experience with Azamara (no correspondence whatsoever). For the medallions, I decided to order a bracelet for DW and pay the $10 for delivery as I did not do any package. Closer to cruise, I feverishly watched for emails/phone calls from Princess – I wanted to get invited to the pre-embarkation Lounge. Not to book the Sanctuary but merely to have a smooth boarding with the DW needing a wheelchair. Nobody called, and my TA later on suggested that according to his knowledge, Princess only invites those guests that booked red-eye flights on Princess Air. Which we did not. Finally, I followed the advice on CC and emailed customerrelations@princesscruises.com to request the complimentary 360° reservation at a specific date and time. I sent the email on February 1 and got a reply with confirmation a week later. I also tried to book a special restaurant for the embarkation day, but the app wanted to charge my credit card while the availability of time slots became worse and worse. Ultimately, I gave up and decided to book on board. Flights and embarkation For the first time in our cruise history, we flew on the day of embarkation. The reason was that our favorite FLL hotel, the Atlantic, was unreasonably expensive on these dates, and that too many hurdles and moves with lots of luggage were expected with a pre-departure hotel stay. Originally, I booked a B6 nonstop flight departing at 5:50 am from BOS and arriving at 9:30 am in FLL. Later on, B6 moved this daily flight to 7:10 am departure. It was still the first flight in the morning, and I nervously followed the status of this flight a good couple of weeks prior to ours. Imagine my emotions when I found that this flight was cancelled for March 16 with no apparent reason. I thought, nevertheless, that if B6 cancels ours as well, I would book AA flight to MIA or DL to FLL, where some seats were still available. Fortunately, our flight was not cancelled and arrived on time, at about 10:30 am, and our luggage made it, too. We took a taxi from the airport and made a quick stop at Publix. DW wanted some cleaning supplies to ensure our suite gets properly sanitized, and I thought the later we arrive, the better. With our luggage and the cleaning supplies at hand, we arrived at the port (Terminal 2) at about 12 pm. The baggage handler happily took my $10 (and two large bags) and waved for wheelchair assistance (not sure to whom exactly as I was busy with the remaining two carry-ons and another three smaller bags). This is where it did not go as smoothly as with other lines. I could see two wheelchair attendants, but on my attempt to summon them, an older gentleman in a uniform appeared and advised they both were booked for Princess’s shuttle that just arrived. I asked him if he could please call another one as no Princess representatives or other officials could be seen, and also attempted to tip him for that request. He refused the tip outright but promised to call for help. Ten minutes later when nobody came, I found the previous wheelchair attendant with no customer and apparently leaning to leave. So I asked her for help, and in this way we arrived in the center of the terminal. After some formalities (in particular, I suggested them to use my uploaded photos rather than taking the new ones), our wheelchair attendant was released and another one from the ship was summoned. With his help, we finally made it to the ship and arrived at our suite at ~1 pm. First day onboard The first thing I did was calling the special restaurants line and reserving a spot in Catch. This was easy, and I got the 6:30 pm time that BTW was not available when I attempted to make a reservation earlier. Then, rather than heading to the buffet, I decided to get to the Concierge Lounge for a quick bit as DW wanted to have a haircut. We took tuna- and chicken sandwiches (good not great), coffees and some fruit right in the lounge and then I escorted DW to Lotus Spa. It was at this time that I started appreciating the medallion technology – I could locate where DW was in real time. Back to the stateroom – it looked very good, exactly like on the videos that I watched earlier. I did not make pictures but just the balcony. So far so good. The ship is on the move, and we are heading to Catch for our complimentary dining. We were impressed with both the ambiance and food at this restaurant. I took a few pictures of the meals. One observation is that I took the Dover Sole for the main as I wanted to compare it to Dover Sole I was served recently at L'Atelier De Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas. The main difference is that the deboning process was more spectacular in Las Vegas (performed by two waiters). I would say the Las Vegas meal tasted a tad better than the Catch’s but not significantly better. Other Catch’s dishes were surprisingly good as well. Also, Catch is pretty good as compared to other lines special restaurants we experienced in the past, like Celebrity’s (2011-2013), NCL’s (2019), RCCL’s (2015) and Azamara’s (2023).

Apparently some people do not understand jokes. OK, more seriously: I have difficulties understanding how you tip a person who just handled you their business card. Moreover, when a person in a similar position on another line organized a taxi for us to disembark early (last pot of call) and I attempted to tip that person, she outright refused and looked at me as if I tried to demean her. Now, that was eleven years ago, before the massive change of the tipping culture in the US, but still... There is a better way to show your appreciation. Mention that this person has provided an outstanding service on the post cruise survey. In this way, the concierge/suite experience manager would have a better chance for a promotion. What do you think is more valuable, a ~20% increase in their salary or a meager $20?