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We are booked in E719 on the Star Princess for next April, does anyone know if the same smoking area exists on the Star, which would mean our room would potentially be getting smoke too?

Fog123 - Cool - I hope you enjoy it! I'm a long time Nikon photographer with D-SLR's - but the AW120 looks like a very capable point and shoot - particularly for in the water.

sdnich - the mini-suites that are aft on the Emerald Deck (Deck 8) are fully covered by the balconies of the mini-suites above them on Dolphin Deck (Deck 9). The balconies on the Dolphin Deck are considered fully open to the sky and viewers above you.

I'm seriously considering buying a Nikon Coolpix AW120 - it's waterproof to 59ft, shockproof from almost 7ft and can shoot in temps as low as 14F. 5x Optical zoom and built in flash make it a nifty little camera I can toss into the drink at any time.

Has anyone used one of these on your water-bound adventures?

That's great, now you can relax and enjoy, have a great cruise, for many they might not get what they want online pre cruise, in particular new cruisers and people booking at the last minute.

 

 

Sent from my iPad.

Yes, that's why I first posted the question. For the benefit of new cruisers :)

Our first Disney cruise was also in Concierge where we were able to get all our on-board bookings done via them. The service the Concierge team provide is just wonderful - it takes so much stress out of the cruise - particularly on a ship as large as the Disney Dream class ships!

Our Port Arrival Time was 1:00 PM, and we were a bit late.... we arrived to no crowds!!! We didn't hit any port traffic, didn't have to wait at all to go through security or check in, and were able to walk straight on the ship. Honestly, if you want to avoid crowds, I'd say arriving late is the way to go!

With arriving late, did you have any issues with reserving on-board activities that you were not able to reserve pre-boarding. Things like drink tastings or Palo/Remy bookings? I could see someone who wanted to book a lot of those activities wanting to arrive as early as possible to help their odds out.

Hello! My family and I will be taking first cruise ever on the Disney Dream n June. We are coming in a day early and will be renting a car. Can anyone recommend a good and clean hotel in the Cocoa Beach / Cape Canaveral area? The hotel doesn't need to be fancy, but cleanliness is a must. Thanks in advance!

Sorry for being late to the thread, but I wanted to correct something said above, someone mentioned Budget being near the Country Inn & Suites Hotel, we stayed there just a few weeks ago and it is a Hertz office that is off to the side of the hotel driveway. We arrived a day early to Port Canaveral to do a trip to the Kennedy Space Center, we had written to our Congress woman and gotten free tickets for the center, and it was well worth the 5 1/2 hours we spent there. After we returned from KSC, we just dropped our Hertz rental car at the office, and I took the minute walk back to the hotel. The next morning we used the free hotel shuttle service to get to the port and had the cruise of a lifetime.

Family friends who had driven in from PA, left their minivan parked at the Country Inn for the duration of the cruise and then used the same hotel shuttle to get back after debarkation.

It's not the flashiest of hotels, but we had a nice room, the breakfast was good, the pool and hot tub were good. Being able to see the Cruise terminal from the room window was also cool - we could see our ship come in the morning of our departure and it got everyone excited!

If we were cruising from Port Canaveral again, I would have no issue with staying at the Country Inn and Suites again.

Than you to everyone for your informative responses. Interesting to hear that the floor plan of the mini"s are preferred by some. As I originally stated I am sure we will have a great cruise in the room we currently hold, but I now know not to look out for suite sales.

Thanks for the info Jackie. Doubt we would get that offer then, given we are towards the rear of the ship down on Emerald deck. If I land the cash and want to splurge and a suite is open - then we'll do it there and then!

Hello,

The wife, son and I are currently booked in a Mini Suite, one of those with a covered balcony on Emerald deck, for an April 2015 cruise to the Mexican Riviera. I would like to ask a question of those of you with far more experience with Princess Cruises.

We have until Jan/Feb of 2015 to pay in full, and there is a chance I would get a bonus from work in between now and then. One thing I could see spending it on would be to pay the difference and upgrade to a full suite (if they were still available). There are a couple of ways I could do this:

1.) Immediately upgrade when funds are received.

2.) Hold funds and wait for a sale on Suite rates - do those happen?

This all assumes Suites will be staying open - but if they do and I do get a nice bonus, what would be your strategy? We don't mind so much missing out on a full suite, we will be very happy in E-719, but getting one especially at a sale price would be a great 'extra'. Do suites stay available up until near sailing? Does Princess ever discount them?

Thanks in advance for any info and/or tips! Looking forward to 10 nights of relaxation next April!

Just an FYI - the galley tour is an 18+ event, I guess as an attempt to have better hygiene. Though there was one guy in our group who had a bad habit of putting his hands all over the preparation surfaces. It was interesting to see how they serve that many meals with minimal left overs. The tour is what you make of it - ask lots of interesting questions.

Hi, we just did a 7 night on the Fantasy (Dream's sister ship). You will definitely feel the size of this ship. Those 4000 passengers are noticeable, particularly around the pools - but you can still have a great time. There are a ton of options and activities on the boat for family time.

We actually traveled out to Florida from California and did it 3 days early, we spent a night in Orlando to take in Harry Potter world at Universal, the next day we rented a car and drove out to Port Canaveral to the Country Inn & Suites Hotel. If you do this, rent a Hertz car - they have an office right next to the Country Inn, very convenient to drop the car there and take a very short walk back to the hotel. We took a day to visit Kennedy Space Center - I HIGHLY recommend this location if you have not visited it before. Also write to your local congress person and see if you can get tickets (since it's a government facility). We did that and had free tickets for our group of four, that included the bus tour. Make sure you do the bus tour - you will learn a lot and see the various launch pads they have used. We spent 5.5 hours there and could have used more.

After we drove back from KSC - we dropped the car at the neighbouring Hertz office (saves a day of car rental fee) and the next morning used the hotel shuttle to get us and our luggage to the terminal.

I would recommend doing the day trips before the cruise for the reasons mentioned above by other posters and also the end of the cruise is like the end of a dream - and it would be hard to get upbeat about doing something else IMHO.