Suskies

What pre-cruise land trip did you do?

Thank you for your kind words! The ship itself was in beautiful condition...except for that irksome lack of outlets in staterooms. The big issue was with service, because of understaffing (all the staff were REALLY hustling...I almost wanted to get up and lend them a hand). Hopefully that will get better by this fall!

Sorry...I should have spelled that out...it's the Caribbean Princess.

Thank you! We also don't think we'll go on another Caribbean cruise--now that we did this cruise successfully, we'll go back to choosing by destination and view the ship as a floating hotel.

Thanks for the tip! For us, it was hard because it's a feature we just don't use often. DH has a new iPhone, but I suspect he may not have had it set for automatic time zone updates. My Android 13 can update time depending on GPS location and/or on local wifi time...but you can check more than one option, making it hard for me to figure out which box(es) to check. To complicate matters more, the ship time changed in Cartagena at 6 AM, not 2 AM as announced. But, all things considered, I'd rather travel this way than in the old days when everything on the ship was communicated by paper, and the only way to communicate with the rest of the world was super-expensive ship-to-shore phone.

Final Thoughts It was so nice to be back on a cruise! And this cruise had everything we love about cruising: a beautiful ship, very good food and service, entertainment, and interesting ports. It’s a great way to travel—you can see a lot without packing and unpacking, and there’s no stress about, say, figuring out where you’re getting dinner tonight. Where else can you get your room straightened up and towels changed twice a day, especially these days? The Princess medallions and app, while not perfect, definitely had features that added to our enjoyment of this cruise. Food and service quality weren’t quite what they were three years ago, but in this age when everyone is short-staffed, we understood, and it didn’t affect our overall enjoyment of the cruise. We’re already talking about where we’re going to cruise next!

Day 10: At sea and Day 11: Disembarkation This was a nice relaxing day. After breakfast in the Coral Dining Room, DH and I spent the morning relaxing and reading. DH and DSIL had burgers by the pool while DD and I had lunch in the Coral Dining Room. In the afternoon we played cards (Tip: very nice card table at the very back of Steamers!), then started packing. At 6:30 we all played a final music trivia game—American Anthems—which we won! Then we had our final dinner in the Island Dining Room. One of the entrees was prime rib. Day 11: Disembarkation Because our flight home didn’t leave til about 3 PM, we booked the Everglades disembarkation excursion. Disembarkation was very smooth. We had time for one last breakfast in the Island Dining Room before going to the Explorers Lounge to wait our call to disembark. We quickly disembarked, found our luggage, and walked through customs. Staff members directed us to our bus. Our stop was at Everglades Holiday Park, where we saw a 20-minute educational show about alligators, then took a 30-minute airboat ride through the Everglades, where we saw 3 more alligators. The place was very crowded (we counted at least 5 ships in port including ours), but it was fun—much better quality than a similar excursion we took about 20 years ago. Afterwards our bus dropped us off at the airport, making stops at each terminal. We were on our way home.

Day 9: Georgetown, Grand Cayman DH and I fell in love with Grand Cayman on our second cruise over 40 years ago. Back then island zoning specified that nothing could be built higher than the treetops. So Grand Cayman was not only prosperous from its banking industries but also quiet and peaceful. Over the years we’ve returned several times on short vacations as well as cruise stops. So we know the island pretty well—including that it’s far more developed and busy—and we debated quite a bit on what to do during this stop. Our first thought was to go to Seven Mile Beach—truly one of the world’s great beaches. The water in the Caymans is extraordinarily clear—you can literally stand in water up to your neck and see your toes. But Seven Mile Beach is not what it once was. The beach itself was seriously eroded by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. And while the beach itself is public, if you want to use services like beach chairs or restrooms, they’re mostly privately owned by hotels along the beach and only available to hotel guests. During past cruise stops, some of the hotels along the beach offered day passes to cruise ship passengers, but we couldn’t find any doing that now. DH learned that Public Beach—yes, that’s its name—has restrooms and offers chair rentals and some shady spots. So our plan was to go there by taxi. But as the cruise progressed, DH and I realized that we weren’t looking forward to the prospect of toting a lot of stuff to the beach. So we decided to enjoy the beautiful Cayman water by eating lunch at one of Georgetown’s waterfront restaurants. Grand Cayman now provides its own water shuttles from ships to its pier. They’re much bigger than ship tenders, so the wait to get ashore (if you’re not on a shore excursion) isn’t as long. While DH and I spent the morning relaxing in Crooners, passengers wanting to go ashore were given numbers, and periodically the number of the water shuttle being boarded was announced. Around 10:30 the ship gave up handing out numbers and passengers simply headed straight to Deck 4. We walked around Georgetown for about an hour. There were four large cruise ships in port (see photo below), so the town was busy (see 2nd photo below)! Most of the shops now seem to be jewelry shops. We then had a great lunch at Cayman Cabana right on the water. When we got back to Princess’s pier, the line to board the water shuttle looked enormous, but it moved really quickly. DD and DSIL took a shore excursion of the island’s East End. This was DSIL’s first visit to Grand Cayman and they enjoyed their tour. The evening’s menu in the Coral Dining Room featured beef wellington and lamb chops, and then we all went to Party Music Trivia. Kelly, the host, made it a lot of fun with things like bonus points for dancing.

Day 8: At sea After 3 consecutive days of getting up early, it was great to sleep in today and have nothing on the schedule. This was an R&R day for all of us, mostly sleeping, reading, and watching videos we downloaded before the trip. DH and I ate breakfast and lunch in the Coral Dining Room. This evening was the cruise’s second formal night, curiously labeled “white and gold” in the activities sheet. If they wanted us to dress in white and gold, we didn’t get that memo when we were packing, and I’m not sure what DH and DSIL would have packed anyway! Once again passengers wore everything from shorts and T-shirts to dress-up clothes, although tonight I didn’t see any tuxes. Tonight DD and DSIL treated us to dinner at the Crown Steak House, one of the specialty restaurants. It was a great wonderful four-course meal--appetizer, soup or salad, main, and dessert—with excellent service. DH said his steak was one of the best he’s ever had—and we’ve been to many fine steakhouses. DH and I hadn’t eaten in a cruise specialty restaurant for years because we enjoy the main dining rooms. But on this cruise we saw a bigger difference in food quality and service than we had in the past. After dinner we all walked to the Atrium just in time to see a party getting started. Cruise Control, a really good house band, played some classic party music. With the help of some of the ship’s dancers, staff, and confetti, the dance floor was soon packed. We didn’t join in, but it was fun to watch from the balcony—a great end to a really nice evening.

Day 7: Limon, Costa Rica This was a great day, but DH and I started off on the wrong foot. Our shore excursion met at 7:30 AM, and the night before we decided to set our alarm for 6:30. We’d gotten a notice that ship clocks would be set back one hour overnight. I always get confused about time changes. To make things even more difficult, our phones are on airplane mode, so our phone clocks wouldn’t update automatically overnight to Costa Rica time. To make a long story short, our phone alarm ended up going off at 4:30 Panama time rather than 6:30, losing us two hours sleep. Fortunately our shore excursion was only half a day, so we were able to get caught up with naps in the afternoon. And it was a great excursion! DH and I took the “Rainforest Walk, Canal Cruise & Countryside” tour. The tour description said to bring sunscreen, insect repellent, and rain gear. We applied long-lasting sunscreen and insect repellent before leaving the ship, so we didn’t pack those. With only a 20% chance of rain, we brought an umbrella instead of rain gear…and of course bottles of water. Edgar, our guide, was terrific. Our bus first went to a privately owned area, where our guide took us down a gravel path to the canal boats, pointing out various plants along the way, including a cocoa pod. The canal boat frequently paused and turned around so we could see animals along the way. We saw monkeys, sloths, an iguana, a basilisk (green iguana), and a caiman (like a small alligator). The monkeys and sloths were high up in the trees, so they were hard to see, but most of us saw them. After the canal cruise, we were given boxes of pineapple and watermelon chunks as a snack. Then the bus took us to another park, where we walked a gravel road. Here our guide pointed out huge grasshoppers, a big spider, and a poison dart frog (see photo below). He took us up a hill to views of the shoreline, which changed dramatically in an major earthquake about 30 years ago. (Coral reefs were brought to the surface, and there are no more sand beaches.) We drove through Limon on our way back to the ship. We saw and learned a lot on this shore excursion and had a great morning. We got back to the ship around lunchtime, had a really good lunch in the World Marketplace, then took those naps. We watched the magic show in the Explorers Lounge, then joined DD and DSIL for a late dinner in the Palm Dining Room before turning in.

Day 6: Panama Canal The ship’s transit through the Panama Canal locks was a lot earlier and faster than we thought it would be. Our paper schedule of the day’s activities said things would begin when a pilot boarded at 5:45 AM. I woke up at 6 AM, threw on some clothes, and headed up to the Lido deck, where I grabbed a window table in the rear of the World Marketplace. The narration had already begun, and the ship was approaching the point where the old canal branches off from the new one. I first sat on the port (left) side, but the narrator mentioned more to see on the starboard side, so I moved over there and DH joined me. It was already hot and humid outside so, even though the windows were a bit steamed up, we stayed where we were while the ship entered the first lock. There are three, and they come right after each other. When the ship reached the third lock, it was getting warm and humid in the World Marketplace. So DH and I went down to our cabin, watched a bit from our balcony (see photo below), then left for breakfast in the Coral Dining Room. The ship was anchored in Gatun Lake at 9 AM, much earlier than the published time of 10:30. That meant the shore excursions left earlier than scheduled—announcements were broadcast throughout the ship when it was time for each group to gather. After breakfast DH and I went up to Skywalker’s, our favorite quiet getaway spot on ship. It’s chillier up there than elsewhere through the ship, but I brought a sweater. The windows were a bit foggy here too, but we could still see the ships passing by on their way through the canal. I used the app to order a cappuchino delivered to me—a treat, because it’s a long walk from Skywalker’s to any morning beverages! Eventually we moved to Crooner’s, where we snagged a table with a nice view of the lake. Around 12:45, the ship began to move back to the locks. We went up to the Lido deck and got a table near Movies Under the Stars, which showed the ship’s camera view of the locks. Our table was next to the windows, so we had a nice view. In the afternoon, DH and I continued relaxing and watching the ship return through the locks. The ship docked in Colon around 4:30 to pick up passengers on shore excursions. We could go ashore and walk around a bit, but it was still really hot and humid, so we decided to stay on the ship. DH and DDIL took a shore excursion that took them through the old locks all the way to the Pacific Ocean. They were glad they took it—on a smaller boat it’s easier to see and feel the water rising or lowering in the locks. But there was a lot of waiting to enter the locks, and they didn’t get back until 8:30 PM. So DH and I went by ourselves to Original or Cover music trivia (came in 2nd!), had dinner in the Island Dining Room, and turned in early.

Day 5: Cartagena, Colombia Our Cartagena shore excursion met in the Princess Theatre at 6:50 AM, so for the first time we had to set an alarm. The earliest room service breakfast delivery time was 6:30-7, and the dining room didn’t open until 7, so we got breakfast in the World Marketplace. DH and I took the Sea Rumba & Old City tour, and it was great. We took a boat from the pier to the old city, where we were taken on a walking tour lasting about an hour. Cartegena is completely different from what we expected—part like Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and part modern highrise apartments like Miami Beach (see photo below of view from our cabin as the ship approached Cartagena). The Old City is pretty—brightly painted buildings and lovely old churches (see photo below). Walking was easier than we thought it would be—on bricks, not cobblestones. We knew there would be a lot of in-our-face street vendors, but they weren’t as bad as we’ve seen elsewhere. We just said no, and they moved on. (DD and DSIL went on a different Old City walking tour, and one person in their group was pickpocketed. Her handbag was unzipped. Keep your bags zipped and in front of you!) After the walking tour, we had about 45 minutes on our own. Unfortunately, it was 9 AM on a Sunday morning, so the cafes and many of the shops were closed. To get out of the heat, we ended up sitting in San Pedro Claver Church watching a christening. DD and DSIL’s tour was later, and their free time was much more successful—they were able to get a cup of good Colombian coffee at a café and shop for souvenirs. The last part of our tour was a boat ride around the harbor that lasted about an hour. There were two Columbian dancers, a three-piece combo playing Colombian music, and complementary drinks. Eventually the music changed to recorded American party music. It was a fun way to see Cartagena, and we were glad we chose this shore excursion. When DH and I got back to the ship we used the app to order lunch delivered to our room. Then I had a spa appointment for a massage, which was very nice. In the evening, we had an early dinner so we could play Rock Anthems music trivia at 7:30. Then we went to Club Fusion, where a combo called Cruise Control was playing dance songs. They’re good, and it was fun watching passengers who enjoy ballroom dancing.

Day 4: At Sea I’m an early riser. My habit on cruises has been to lay out my clothes the night before, slip into them quietly in the morning so I don’t wake DH, then head to the Lido deck for coffee. I bring my laptop, take a seat near a window, catch up on email, and watch the ship and the world come to life. Today, because lattes were included in our package, I went to the International Café instead, grabbing a window seat at the Good Spirits bar next door. The bar runs a continual loop of mixology videos, which I found a bit annoying at that early hour. This morning DH and I were booked at the Sanctuary, and once again it didn’t work out. While the weather was sunny and not as windy as our first day at sea, the wind still created a hum through the overhead awnings that sounded like we were next to a train. The bigger problem for us is that we very much want to stay in the shade. The awnings in the Sanctuary filter the sun, but plenty still gets through. So once again we left early. We decided the Sanctuary isn’t a good fit for us, and we cancelled our remaining reservations. The rest of DH’s and my day was spent enjoying the quieter spots around the ship, which change as onboard activities start and end. For example, we sat in Crooners until an activity started in the Piazza. We had a really nice lunch in the Coral Dining room. We all really enjoy music trivia, and tonight there were two, so we were busy! Music Divas trivia, then dinner in the Palm Dining Room, then Music Legends trivia, which we won! I won’t give any answers away, but Princess’s definition of who are music legends is, um, interesting.

Day 3: Falmouth, Jamaica Today clocks moved ahead one hour and, with our phones on airplane mode, we had to adjust them manually. Tip: the Medallion app shows the correct ship time in the upper left corner…but the time changes at 6 AM, not 2 AM. After a very nice breakfast with great service in the Coral Dining Room, DH and I relaxed in chairs just outside the World Marketplace, overlooking the Terrace Pool and the Jamaican coastline. It was very quiet and peaceful. The port has been developed into a very nice-looking complex of shops to serve cruise ship passengers (photo below). At 10:30 DH and I left for our Jamaica shore excursion: Bamboo Beach Club. Tip: Give yourself a good 20 minutes to disembark and walk to the area where shore excursion buses load—it’s a pretty long walk. The bus ride was about 20 minutes each way, and our guide shared a lot of factoids on Jamaica. Bamboo Beach Club has cushioned chairs, in both sun and shade, overlooking a small quiet cove (no waves). The chairs are wood and not adjustable. The vinyl cushions have seen better days and were not super-clean. There are roped-off “VIP” sections for people who pay a surcharge for lounge chairs and different food. The club played recorded reggae music, which was very loud for some chairs and not as loud for others. We were served a very sweet alcoholic punch, plus water or lemonade if we wanted it, and four tapas-sized dishes of Jamaican food, which made a filling lunch. The jerk chicken and jerk sausage were great. A bar served other drinks for an extra charge. The weather was perfect and it was a very relaxing afternoon. Overall I’d give the excursion a grade of B-/C+. If the place had live reggae music, clean cushions, and a bigger beach I’d have given it an A. Photo of the view from our chairs is below. In the evening we all played 80s music trivia (came in 2nd!), then had a late dinner in the Island Dining Room.

Day 2: At sea After a very nice breakfast in the Coral Dining Room, DH and I headed to our morning in the Sanctuary. Unfortunately, it was a cool, cloudy, and windy morning with occasional showers. So we gave it up after a while and —along with all the other passengers—headed for somewhere indoors, warmer and drier. The CB is spacious enough that even on a rainy at-sea day, it’s possible to find a quiet spot. We first walked through the Lido deck—we hadn’t gotten to exploring it on embarkation day—then settled in to read in Skywalker’s, which is almost always quiet during the day and has super-comfy chairs and great views. Today there was some kind of dance rehearsal going on and the room was quite cold. We wish Princess would formally designate Skywalker’s a quiet reading space during the day—I think it would be quite popular. DH and I then had a wonderful lunch in the Coral Dining Room, then found our next (surprisingly) quiet spot—Crooner’s above the Atrium. Then it was time for a nap (we were coming off three super-busy days packing, getting here, and boarding!). Tonight was formal night. Passengers dressed in everything from tuxes to shorts and t-shirts. I should note that this cruise was not sold out—there were about 2800 passengers on a ship with a lower-berth capacity of 3140, so it was about 90% full. My guess is that a number of passengers got last-minute bargain fares and otherwise wouldn’t cruise on a Princess ship. We all felt very comfortable in what I’d call nice casual clothes. DD and DSIL treated us to dinner at Sabatini’s, one of the specialty restaurants. It was a truly wonderful four-course meal--appetizer, pasta, main, and dessert—with terrific service. Pictured below: my fish entree and the dessert sampler. The whole meal took 2 ½ hours. Afterwards DH and I wandered around the ship then headed off to bed.

Day 1: Embarkation Day We had decided to treat ourselves to half days in the Sanctuary on days at sea. We’d read here that Sanctuary spaces sell out quickly. So as soon as we boarded, we immediately went to the Sanctuary to make reservations. We were given a number…and then waited about an hour until it was our turn. The reason was that the Sanctuary reservation process is entirely on paper, so only two staffers could make reservations or there would be conflicting reservations. We couldn’t believe that, in an age when you can reserve a theater seat online, we couldn’t make a reservation including choosing our lounge chairs online. Of course by the time the staffers got to us, the chairs in full shade were already fully booked. The staffer suggested other chairs likely to get a good bit of shade. He also suggested that there would be more shade in the morning, so that’s when DH and I booked. After that we ate lunch in the Coral Dining Room, which was great. Then DH and I walked through Decks 5, 6, and 7 to refamiliarize ourselves with everything, unpacked, and I made a spa reservation. By that point we had just a little time to relax before getting ready for dinner in the Palm Dining Room. After dinner DH and I walked around a bit, got another dessert at the International Café, and turned in early. It had been a big day! Our cabin had a note that there had been a few norovirus cases lately. It reviewed the extra cleaning the crew was doing and encouraged passengers to wash their hands frequently, try to use the bathroom in their cabin rather than public restrooms, and stay in their cabins if they felt sick. There are soap-and-water sinks at the entrances to the World Marketplace Café on the Lido deck.

Staffing and Food Staffing has clearly been reduced since our last Princess cruise in 2017. We don’t know if it’s a deliberate financial decision or if Princess, like the rest of the world, just can’t find enough employees. We especially noticed short staffing in the main dining rooms at dinner. Sometimes we didn’t get everything we ordered; sometimes no one asked if we wanted coffee with dessert; sometimes I had to ask for sweetener for my coffee; and sometimes we saw the maitres d’s resetting tables. In the World Marketplace fewer staff approached us to ask for beverage orders. One evening in the Explorers Lounge, we had to use the app to order drinks. Another change: photographers weren’t as prevalent. They took photos on embarkation and portraits in the evening, but otherwise they weren’t as intrusive as in the past. Food Over the years we’ve come to enjoy breakfast and lunch in the main dining rooms—it’s quieter and more relaxed than the Lido deck buffet—so we ate most of our meals there rather than in the World Marketplace. We know that cruise food quality and portion sizes have declined over the decades, and we don’t expect a gourmet experience except in the specialty restaurants. On this cruise food quality was a mixed bag—mostly very good but sometimes just okay. We had some wonderful meals in the dining rooms, especially at lunch (when, probably not coincidentally, the staff are not as busy). There was more shellfish on the menus than on past cruises. I had scallops twice for dinner, and smoked salmon was available daily—both treats for me. We also agreed that the Lido deck food was better than on past cruises, when it was sometimes uninspired and seemed tired. And the sandwiches and desserts at the International Café are as good as ever, though I think there’s less of a selection than in the past. But we also had some unexceptional meals. “Cajun” fried chicken tasted like plain fried chicken. “Caribbean” seafood stew tasted like seafood in plain Italian pasta sauce, with no discernable Cajun or creole seasoning. At breakfast one morning, my eggs Florentine arrived lukewarm and a bit tired looking. DH and DSIL thought the pizza and burgers on the Lido deck were bland and unexceptional. Orange juice was uneven—sometimes it was great, sometimes it was watery, sometimes it tasted like Tang. And the ice cream was disappointing—to us, it tasted like ice milk. Another issue with food in the main dining rooms was uneven portion sizes. At one breakfast, for example, I ordered pancakes and bacon. I got two small pancakes and about a dozen strips of bacon! Another morning three of us ordered hash browns, which come in patties like McDonald’s. One of us got one patty, one of us got 3, and one of us got 4. Some lunch entrees were larger than some dinner entrees. The unpredictable portion sizes led us to order more dishes at dinner than we once would have. One more change we saw: steaks, which used to be part of the everyday dinner menu in the main dining rooms, now have a hefty surcharge. (There are a few nights when “striploin” steak was part of the regular menu. A very good beef wellington was served one night and a very good prime rib on the last night.) Pictured below: two very good fish entrees from dinners in the main dining rooms (sorry I forgot to note exactly what they were), plus a modest serving of papaya from breakfast in the Coral Dining Room and fish & chips (and mushy peas) from dinner in the main dining room.

Medallions and App The Medallions and app are, of course, the biggest changes since our last Princess cruise. Some features are terrific, and some are not yet ready for prime time. Once Princess fixes the ill-designed parts, the Medallions and app have the potential to truly transform the cruise experience. Medallion Tip #1: Princess advises you to put your phone in airplane mode before connecting to the ship’s wifi (MedallionNet). You don’t need to put the phone in airplane mode to connect to MedallionNet…but, if you don’t, once you leave the US your phone company may bill any calls or texts at international rates. Medallion Tip #2: If your phone is in airplane mode, its clock won’t change automatically when the ship changes time zones—you’ll have to do it manually. You can use the current “ship time” in the upper left corner of the Medallion app to make sure you and your phone are on the correct time. Medallion Tip #3: Three of the four of us (with two Androids and two iPhones) had no problem texting each other while on board with our phones in airplane mode. But one of us occasionally couldn’t text—he got messages that his outgoing texts failed. We never did figure out why. What’s Good About the Medallions and App The boarding experience was much nicer. It was great getting everything ready at home, then breezing through port. We completed everything early enough that we received our medallions in the mail two weeks before departure. The medallion unlocks your cabin door just by you standing near it. You don’t have to hold or insert the medallion anywhere. This is great if you’re bringing, say, food or drink back to the cabin. The online map of the ship beats carrying a paper map. It shows you where you are, which makes it easier to figure out how to get where you want to go. You can ask the app to give you directions, but I didn’t use that feature. Making and changing dinner reservations is super-easy, and you can book them well in advance. You can reserve a table for everyone you’re traveling with, even if they have different cruise confirmation numbers. Dinner reservation tip #1: If you’re planning on going to a show after dinner, we found that dinner took up to 2 hours in the main dining rooms and up to 2 ½ hours in the specialty restaurants. Dinner reservation tip #2: If you want to go to Sabatini’s, book it as early as possible. We tried to change our reservation on the first day on board, but it was already fully booked for the entire week. Dinner reservation tip #3: If your plans change at the last minute, no problem (except maybe on formal night). We sometimes showed up half an hour early and were seated immediately. You can plan dinner reservations—days ahead—around shows and events. We love music trivia, and on this cruise most music trivia was scheduled around 6:30. We reserved dinner on those nights around 7:30, and we could do this days beforehand. You can order a limited selection of food and beverages delivered either to your cabin or wherever you’re sitting. We used this mostly to order some cold beverages for our cabin. The food choices are mostly sandwiches and snacks. (Room service breakfast is still ordered through a card.) There is a surcharge for all beverages unless you have a beverage package—you can’t order a free glass of tap water or iced tea. Some of the food also has a surcharge. Some of the food items can be customized—I could choose the bread for my chicken salad, and DH could ask for extra tomato for his burger—but you can’t order decaf coffees or sweeteners for coffee or tea. You can see where your shipmates are on the ship if they agree to make their location available to you. This is great if, for example, they’re holding a table or seats somewhere for you. The app has a texting feature, but our regular texts generally worked fine. Contacting the front desk is easy. You can message them through the app. We sent a message one evening that we had no handwash in our bathroom (we hadn’t seen our room steward to ask him), and it appeared the next day. You can check your bill at any time. Onboard wifi is much better than before the program was added. You can’t stream or download videos, but we could check email, news, etc., with no problems. What Needs Improvement The app loads slowly and can freeze. Before we embarked, we found the app slow to load, and it sometimes froze. Once we were on board, it was much better, although the Journeys button (schedule of activities) still loaded slowly. The scheduled activities—the Journey button on the app—are cumbersome to view. They’re arranged like a giant spreadsheet. Imagine trying to scroll through a huge spreadsheet on your phone. Note: Toward the end of our cruise, my phone (an Android) started showing the daily activities as a long list rather than spreadsheet. That’s much easier to navigate. Everyone else’s phones showed the giant spreadsheet through the entire cruise. The scheduled activities (the Journey button) has no search function, so it’s hard to find out, say, what movies are being shown each day and when and plan your day accordingly. The scheduled activities (the Journey button) doesn’t show when restaurants or bars are open. You have to click on Dine My Way, then look up each restaurant individually to see when it’s open. This all makes it harder than it should be to decide, say, where to get lunch. It was easier to carry the paper sheet of daily activities The scheduled activities (the Journey button) isn’t integrated with other bookings (shore excursions, dinner reservations, spa appointments). We ended up using the family calendar app on our phones to record our schedule. The messaging feature doesn’t seem to have a notification function. If nothing alerts the recipient that they’ve gotten a message, a messaging feature can be pretty useless. Ordering stateroom amenities didn’t work as well as ordering food. We tried twice to order an ice bucket but never got one. But DD and DSIL ordered extra pillows, and they arrived promptly. The dinner reservations we made before embarking somehow changed by the time we boarded. The times were the same, but the dining rooms shifted. It was easy to change them back. Because of all the shortcomings in the app’s Journeys feature, we ordered daily paper schedules, and we were glad we did! They were much easier to use .

The Ship and Our Cabin We still think Princess ships are among the most beautiful afloat. We love approaching them, seeing all the blue glass on the balconies and the blue-and-white paint, although the CB now has some rust stains. Inside the ships are quietly elegant. The CB was one of the first Princess ships to have an atrium. It’s smaller than on newer ships but still a wonderful place. The CB is immaculate as always. With the 2019 refurbishment, it looks even nicer than we remembered. Many of the public areas have been beautifully refreshed, with new furniture upholstery and carpet. The World Marketplace on the Lido deck now has lots of whites and pale grays, making it look brighter. The photos of Princess ports in the hallways outside cabins are also new and beautiful. Oddly, Club Fusion still has its outdated cowboy décor. On the Lido deck, Planks BBQ and Steamers Seafood, which used to be specialty restaurants for dinner with surcharges, are now closed and the areas used as overflow for the World Marketplace Cafe, although the signs remain. They’re quieter than the midship seating for the World Marketplace Café. I brought my laptop with me to do some writing, and the Planks and Steamers spaces were my favorite spots for that. Cabins were not updated in 2019 except for new carpet and the addition of Medallion-compatible screens outside each cabin door. We found the motion-detecting lights under each nightstand and in the dressing area annoying—when one person gets up before the other, the lights will awaken the other one. We ended up placing pillows in front of the nightstand lights to block the sensors. Our main disappointment with our cabin was that it still has only two electrical outlets, placed together too closely to plug in two adapters. (There’s another outlet behind the TV, but it’s almost impossible to reach, and one in the bathroom is designed only for electric razors.) With the Medallion technology expecting most passengers to use their smartphones on ship, we can’t believe additional outlets weren’t added in the 2019 refurbishment. As DD pointed out, hotels have added power strips and/or new bedside lamps with outlets in the base. It wouldn’t have been hard for Princess to do the same. So we strongly recommend bringing your own power strip! We brought tablets and my laptop as well as our phones, and the power strip we brought made all the difference. Tip: There are quite a few outlets in the World Marketplace area—used for vacuuming—that you can use to power a device if you’re there a while.

Getting to Port and Boarding We always fly to departure ports the day before embarking, just so we don’t have to stress missing the ship because of a late flight. We stayed overnight at the Residence Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport & Cruise Port because they offered a free shuttle from the airport. They recommended using Tourism in Motion to get from the hotel to the pier, and I made a reservation for that (hotelshuttle.com). The confirmation was a little disconcerting—it showed I paid for the reservation, but it didn’t show the date or time of pickup. When we checked in at the Residence Inn, I asked about this, and I was assured that the shuttle comes every hour, and I just had to show them my paid receipt. It worked out exactly that way. I’m the kind of person who wants to get every possible minute out of my cruise! So, although my Medallion app said we were boarding in Group B at 11:30, we were picked up and 10 AM and we arrived at 10:30. We were immediately checked in. DH and I are Platinum members and could use a special check-in lane. DD and DSIL are Sapphire and Ruby (this was DSIL’s first Princess cruise), but the staff let them come with us. Because we had done all our documents in advance, we were in the green lane and check-in was super-fast. We were asked to show only our medallions and passports. We were then directed to a small part of the terminal designated the Platinum lounge. DH and I were each allowed to bring just one non-Platinum guest with us (seating in the Platinum lounge is limited), which worked out perfectly. Boarding began around 11:15 with the Elite passengers, then the Platinum members around 11:30. We were invited to board by row, not in the order in which we arrived as in the past. We thought that was odd, but we were on the ship in a few minutes.

Background and Getting Ready My husband and I have been cruising about once a year since our honeymoon over 40 years ago. Princess is one of our favorite cruise lines. We’d been on six Princess cruises before this one, including two on the CB (Southern Caribbean in 2013 and British Isles in 2017). We obviously love cruising, and our mindset is to enjoy the many positive aspects of cruising and not let the glitches ruin things for us. This was our first cruise in three years. Our age and underlying health conditions were big factors in choosing this particular cruise. We chose Princess because the medallions and the relatively spacious ships would make it easy to distance ourselves if there would be an outbreak of anything on board. If needed, we could use the app to order meals to eat in a location away from crowds, wear facemasks when we needed to be somewhere crowded like disembarking, and otherwise find quiet spots to enjoy ourselves. One of the things we love about Princess is, while the ships are big, they don’t feel big. The public spaces are well designed to spread everyone out, with relatively few crowds. We chose this itinerary partly because it’s so interesting (we’d never been to Costa Rica, Colombia, or Panama) and partly because, with our age and health issues, we wanted to stick fairly close to home—it wouldn’t take long to fly home from a Caribbean cruise if one of us got really sick. We normally book cruises over a year in advance so we can get exactly the cabins we want, which are those with balconies with as much shade as possible. We booked this cruise less than 5 months in advance, so the cabin selection was limited. Our top choice would have been the aft cabins with enormous balconies in shade, but of course they were all booked. So we got our second choice for ourselves and DD and DSIL, who were coming with us: on the Rivera deck, where about half the cabins have some extra overhang from the Lido deck above. We splurged on the Princess Plus package. We wanted a package that prepays wifi and gratuities; the splurge was the beverage package. We don’t normally drink much alcohol, but the package also included soft drinks, bottled water, and specialty coffee drinks…and we love all of those! We really liked the convenience of ordering whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, without worrying about the tab.

We are on the 3/22 CB Panama Canal cruise, leaving from Fort Lauderdale. We've been on Princess several times, but this is our first cruise in 3 years and things are different!!! I have done all our pre-board stuff and the Medallion app says we are in Boarding Group B, Green Lane. 1. When does Boarding Group B start boarding? 2. We like to get on the ship as early as we can. What's the earliest we should arrive at the pier? In the past (pre-Medallion app) boarding often started ahead of the announced times. 3. We are traveling with another couple who are in Boarding Group C. Our reservations are linked. Will they be able to board with us? Thank you all!!!

The problem is that the shore excursion we want to go on is on disembarkation day. We are disembarking in FLL and want to take the Everglades tour with FLL airport dropoff. Since our luggage is involved, I'm worried that we'll be assigned to two different busses.

We are going on a Princess cruise with our daughter and son-in-law. They decided to go after we booked, so the cabins were booked separately and have different Princess booking numbers. The four of us now want to go on the same shore excursion. I see no way to book all 4 of us at one time (to make sure we stay in the same group). How can I do this, short of calling Princess? Thank you!!!

We are on the 3/22 CB Panama Canal cruise. What is your experience using the OceanNow feature of the app, especially to order food? What is the menu like--limited or pretty extensive? What can we order beyond food & beverages? Thank you!