KaiBlue

Hi @tweety33! Sorry to hear about your leg - that is not a good way to end a cruise. Hopefully you are healing nicely at this point? I'm sure others can weigh in as well as I'm not the best at noticing times but the tour was great! It picked up right outside the port (they queued us inside the gates then took us out to the vans - probably like 14-20 passenger vans - I didn't count). First stop was perhaps 20-25 minutes out at a small roadside stand where they demonstrated cigar rolling (we purchased some for my brother in law) and offered up samples of Mamajuana and coffee/hot chocolate. Also had a small gift area there (jewelry etc). There were restrooms there. Our guide, Logan, was fantastic and spoke to us the entire way telling us about his country - you could tell he was proud of it! Next stop was maybe 10-15 minutes later at a 'casa typica' where the matriarch Blanca welcomed us and showed us how to make coffee (we were able to have some) and Logan showed us through the typical DR homestead and explained everything we saw. At the end Blanca had DR ice cream (frozen pineapple juice) ready for us to take back on the van. I do not recall if there were bathrooms here to use. Ten more minutes and we were at at Chukka outpost (my phone pings it at Luperon) where they sat us at picnic tables and brought out the fixings to make mofongo. We were expecting this to be like a snack but once we had made our own small bowl of it, they kept bringing out more of the ingredients (my husband made two full bowls!) so it was really a meal. Excellent - best mofongo I've ever had. Then we had about 1 hour to go down to the beach. A guy got us an umbrella and we tipped him but there was no cost beyond that. It was great to be able to get into the ocean and sit and watch the beauty for a bit. There was a small gift shop there and bathrooms. Then back on the van to get to the ship - that took about 45 minutes maybe? But Logan entertained us the entire way. They dropped us back off where they picked us up. All in all an excellent tour in our opinion! Very happy we did it! Let me know if you have any specific questions that I didn't answer.

Thank you Patti and Jeff! The Vista is our next cruise in August and it will be our first time on her. Really appreciated all of the pictures so we can get 'the lay of the land'. Going to try JiJi's for the first time!

For those of you that use TA's, can I ask if you are using one of the online companies (some that seem to only do cruises?) or are you using a local agency? i've seen some good prices with the cruise ones (not sure they are enough to make me want to relinquish control mind you...). The only time I've used a TA in the past 20 years has been on a Disney trip where the TA specialized in Disney and got block hotel pricing (so I saved quite a bit) but I knew someone who had used them, so I felt comfortable. The only TA I'd trust for cruises at the moment would be my automobile club travel agency.

Could be. The excursions opened about months ago and I booked the one at that time. They might be completely overhauling them. As noted, we have plenty of time and I was surprised they had any excursions open this early.

Update: I cleared my cache and was able to open the excursion pages for the ports by right clicking and asking it to open in a new tab - but they are all blank. Perhaps there is an update or something going on for our sailing - who knows. I'll wait it out and see if the issue resolves. Thank you @PacnGoNow for the tip about printing the travel summary! That is exactly what I needed to see everything in one spot (and mostly to confirm what I have already booked). Wish it was this easy just by looking at the personalizer)....

@Cruisemeister2002 Wow - that's some crazy mix ups by Princess! We tend to book non-cruise ship excursions and I'm leaning toward doing that again on this cruise. Everyone - thank you for all of the suggestions. I am currently using the new app - but will have to uninstall and reinstall if it's not working in a few days. When we booked this cruise, it was under the old app but I have since deleted that. Sounds like the excursion issue is happening for others and not just me. I've tried both Edge and Chrome with no luck but will also have to try clearing out the cache which i haven't tried yet. Thanks for all of the suggestions. I didn't use a travel agent because frankly, I haven't felt the need to in many many years. I have an excellent current rep for Carnival and also had one for Royal but haven't cruised them in awhile. I am a hands-on planner for our land vacations and didn't see the need to use a TA and get a person in the middle of the equation.

We booked our first Princess cruise last December for the far-off date of June 2025. So far, using the old and now new app and website has been clunky/glitchy at best. Very difficult to see what you have already paid for (you have to go all over the place to find the information). Yesterday, we noticed that the one excursion that we had already booked through Princess had the time changed when looking at it in the app. I used the chat function today and was told that they didn't see the original time we had booked. They obviously canceled the time we had booked but we got no notice of this change. And to boot, none of the 'view excursion' buttons are working to check it for myself (I used 2 different browsers over the course of the last 24 hours and still not working). Representative told me it was because too many people are using the function at the same time. That doesn't sound like a reasonable excuse but perhaps it is given how terrible the app/website is. Anyone else not able to access the 'view excursions' pages? I have to cancel this excursion now and hoping it goes back to my credit card and doesn't become an issue.....

A lot of good suggestions here. I would add that as a mom of 3 daughters who are now all grown, I would agree with @silvercrikhix that preparing your daughter about the potential for her to be approached by an older person is helpful. That way she will feel a little more armed in how to handle the situation. If she stays with a group, I'd say most people would leave them alone (and not think she is older) but my daughters have been approached by older men while standing practically next to me and I saw their confusion on how to handle the situation. I think discussing it with them helped them feel a little more in control during a situation that can seem odd/frightening to a young teenager.

We ask for robes from our stewards and have never had a problem getting them (and we aren't in suites or spa cabins).

Thank you for the responses. I looked it up and we are in port with 2 other large ships (they both get in at 8am and one leaves same time as us while the other leaves just 1 hour before us so that doesn't help our situation at all). Sounds like we should just head to Palm Beach and hope to find a spot to sit on the sand- I don't care about getting a lounger for such a short period of time.

I tried this recently on the Venezia due to all of the people saying how good it was on this site. Unfortunately I didn't care for it at all - perhaps mine was the off one - but it didn't have much flavor at all and what it did have was kind of 'off'. Is it supposed to be a sweet/smokey kind of BBQ? That was what I was expecting.

They had several sales, particularly as the cruise went on (last day they were selling hats/coverups supposedly for around $5 but I didn't inquire as to the specifics - was a huge line up of people wanting to shop past the table they set up). They have the chocolate extravaganza on the last sea day at lunch in the lido. Line was too long for us to bother with it (discovered of the same cakes were at the Sweet Spot section of the other side of the lido buffet line). Two formal nights (was the 2nd and 2nd to last for our 11 night sailing). Deck 5 goes all the way around but the aft section is reserved for the Terrazza cabins - however even if you aren't in one of those cabins you can access that area after 7pm each night.

Ship -Venezia Deck - 7 Stateroom # - 7278 Stateroom Category – Standard Balcony Starboard or Port Side - Port Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Had some banging due to windy conditions (balcony dividers aren't tight and move in the wind) but otherwise the room location was quiet. Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No Balcony View - Overlooks the exposed deck on Deck 5 Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Normal Was wind a problem? - No If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - NA Any specific problems with this cabin? No. Refrigerator was extremely cold which is a good thing! Any other comments? Every cruise deck plan site I looked at showed this as a cabin with a pulldown however there was none.

Perhaps if I had danced as much as that one gentlemen did on the cruise (he seemed to be dancing every time there was music anywhere!!), I wouldn't have come home feeling like I had overindulged as much:) Next cruise goal I guess.......our next cruise is with our 22yo youngest daughter who does like to dance so I suspect she will get me out there more. Plus it's a shorter cruise so how much caloric damage can truly be done in 8 days? 😄

We had a great time on this cruise! Happy to have met some of you @delacruz @FineArtsMama @ETski and your significant others! The DR excursion was wonderful. Now to do the unpacking and weaning off the 'cruise diet'😉. Thankful to have a few days to recover before going back to work. Hope everyone's travels home went smooth.

Thanks for the info @Sarahg0915! I think we get there around 1 (so was thinking maybe 2 would be the earliest we could get to the beach) and leave around 10 or 11pm. Good to know that going back and forth is doable. Maybe we will just go and know that we have the flexibility to return to the ship if we want. Where did you ask for the taxi to drop you off in Palm Beach? Per the OP's question, did there seem to be anything to do near the port in the evening?

We are in Aruba late on an upcoming cruise and had read that many of the restaurants and shops by the port close down early and that Palm Beach is the place to go. Anyone experience this recently? We get to the island late to begin with so was thinking of just going directly to Palm Beach to get in a few hours of actual beach time, then grab dinner/shop there before heading back to the port (was looking at the Arubus for transportation).

@delacruz I think we are also on the 7th floor (haven't committed this to memory yet!) in a balcony but not the terrazza area (couldn't justify the extra expense so you will have to let us know if it was worth it or not!). We are Trina & Steve and we booked this cruise about 1.5 years ago and can't believe it is finally here! Not celebrating anything other than our daughter is getting married this summer so this will be a nice break from all of the wedding planning and of course getting away from our jobs for 2 weeks. I think this will be our 19th cruise overall (with Carnival now being the most, followed by RC). Carnival has been having some good deals since the restart and we really enjoy the fun vibe on their ships. But we've never had a bad cruise so we kind of just pick the cruise typically based upon ports/time of year with the exception of a few that we went on just to experience a line's mega ship. Very much looking forward to seeing this ship as it looks so different than anything we've ever been on. We also like to dance (we aren't good at it but we do it anyway!) but might be skipping the sailaway this time because I want to experience the NYC skyline/statue of liberty. This weekend I have got to finish packing!! A job that I love:)

We got the 10am slot as we could check in 2 days prior, but there is no way we will be on board anytime remotely close to that if recent embarkation stories are to be believed. I read of one person with a 10am arrival but they didn't get on board until 1pm (note to self - eat a decent breakfast!).

@tweety33We have decided to stay with the tour. From all that I have read, the DR has long had a strong border due to the troubles in Haiti and the need to control the flow of people wanting to come across. They have stepped up their border patrols since all of this recent violence has erupted. I have a friend who recently attended a wedding in the DR and she said you would have never known anything was amiss. We have traveled to parts of Mexico where we have had to pass through check points manned with people with assault rifles. While unnerving to see, I was glad they were there. We will have a local guide on this tour which also gives me comfort. It is a very personal decision - if I was too anxious to enjoy the excursion then I wouldn't be going because what would be the point? I've made that call on several occasions when my kids were little - fearful of trying to watch them in what seemed like a less-than-safe area so we just didn't leave the port area. We still had fun so I'm sure you will make the most of whatever you decide!!

We hope to be able to walk to the port as well. It's about .8 of a mile so doable as long as it doesn't downpour! We get free laundry as well and I'm going to take full advantage of it and hope to pack in just 2 carry-ons and 2 backpacks. We shall see. Shoes and toiletries are always the issue:( I started laying out clothes last weekend so need to start the squishing process to see how much I can fit in! We will see you at the Atrium bar on Tuesday!

@FineArtsMama We toyed with the idea of going to see a broadway show but decided we just wanted a few days of 'roaming' and no deadlines. We fly in early Saturday morning so will have 2 full days to just do as we please. The last few weeks have been pretty brutal with work/family stuff so this cruise can't come fast enough for me! Started to look at some videos of the ship and getting super excited! We had seen a few early on before we booked this cruise (which was like 18 months ago). Crazy that it's almost here.

My husband doesn't drink and I want to say most were $8 on our cruises last year - more if you have one done at Alchemy with the Lyre's nonalcoholic spirits (think those were $10?). Those are quite good actually in my opinion. Give you more of the liquor essence as most of the other mocktails (daiquiris etc) are so sweet. If you google it I'm sure some drink menus will come up immediately and you can take a look at some of the offerings. And if you aren't sure a drink can be made without alcohol, just ask. Most of the bartenders are willing to come up with something for you!

We had dinner in the Pride steakhouse late August '23 (before you) and it was wonderful. Wondering if you just caught them on a bad night? We both had the filet and it was just as good as other Carnival steakhouse experiences for us.

In my very limited knowledge of how Princess does things (working up to our first Princess cruise next year and starting to do some early planning), you can't use their cards for extras (no option to use them for excursions, wifi, gratuities that I wanted to pay now to lock in the rate). Seems like you can only pay the cruise portion itself with gift cards. But I do find the entire Princess online/app experience to be completely nonintuitive so perhaps I'm missing something.