Jump to content

capriccio

Members
  • Posts

    12,276
  • Joined

Everything posted by capriccio

  1. Check itinerary (Glacier Bay would be a must for us), times in port (the longer the better), and the quality of enrichment programs. I can vouch for Princess enrichment programs. They have a full time naturalist on their Alaskan cruises and bring on locals (Libby Riddles is a favorite) at various ports. I can also vouch for the Sapphire Princess. She's our favorite Princess ship for this type of itinerary (we cruised her on a Norwegian Fjord cruise) because it has a covered pool (only a handful of Princess ships do).
  2. Which posts are saying that? Cabin 16621 is a Penthouse Suite and on all Princess ships that is a full suite. Here is the description of that specific cabin on the Sun Princess: Enjoy your cruise!
  3. This is exactly what we did on our December Seascape cruise. Lunch at Butcher's Cut was delicious and there were very few other diners.
  4. We always spend Thanksgiving week with family but if you wait until the following week to cruise you can score good deals and share the ship with many fewer fellow passengers. We've gotten great prices on cruises departing between the week after Thanksgiving and mid-December.
  5. We've done 3 Alaska cruises, all included Glacier Bay and 2 included College Fjord. National Park rangers will be broadcasting over the PA system in Glacier Bay (which, IIRC is about a 6 hour trip up and back). You can also hear their narratives on the television should you decide to sit on your balcony (although I agree with others that it is best to get up and about). They seemed to me to be concentrating the announcements more on the first half of the trip. I think they have lectures for adults and a presentation for the kids on the return trip. On our visits to College Fjord the on board naturalists did the narration. We've been fortunate to have some first rate naturalists on Princess Alaska cruises. Watch the Patter for their presentations and those of other experts brought on in port. If Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Itidarod, comes on board (usually with at least one of her dogs), don't miss her presentation.
  6. What cabin number? Off the top of my head elevators are usually in lobbies and don't share a wall with cabins.
  7. Not recently (2016) and not at FRA but we had no issue arranging to meet the Uniworld transfer at Charles de Gaulle. I think my TA handled the contact with Uniworld. They told us the name and contact number of the driver, where (a specific area outside of customs) to meet, and the time. It worked like a charm, There were even chairs to sit on while waiting for the small group (less than a dozen including us) arrived on a few different flights.
  8. Are you disembarking in Fort Lauderdale? If so, you will not be allowed to use the escalator in the terminal since you must have one hand free and the port has personnel standing at the top of the escalator checking. For years there was quite a quite loud and emphatic gentleman who took his job very seriously. I haven't seen him on my last disembarkation (July). His replacements have been emphatic but much quieter. Be prepared that you may have a wait for an elevator.
  9. Too small for lounges and the chairs don't recline! In my opinion that makes the ability to get a lounge on the Signature Sun Deck whenever you want one even more important.
  10. You were absolutely clear to anyone who has sailed on the other Princess ships and had to rush to the Sanctuary, regardless of the cabin category, immediately upon embarking. If you wanted lounges for the entire week in the Caribbean, you needed to be among the first to arrive. In fact I think one of the most common questions about the Sanctuary here on Cruise Critic is how come you can't reserve lounges in advance? My reaction to the new Signature Sun Deck amenity was, finally a way to at least know you will have a lounge at any time of the day, any day of the cruise. That was definitely appealing to us and we are willing to pay for it included in our fare. And since we are paying for it, we expect to receive it.
  11. Thank you @CatMom72 for so eloquently expressing our concerns too. We don't need to make final payment until the fall for our January 2025 cruise so I'm hoping Princess can work things out. Otherwise we will switch to an MSC Yacht Club cruise. While Princess is our favorite cruise line when cruising with friends and family a couple of times a year, when we sail alone and want to be pampered we stopped booking Princess suites and switched to MSC. We are hoping that the suite experience on the Sun class of ships would more closely resemble that on MSC.
  12. Elites and suites get priority disembarkation (to the tenders). No one gets priority embarkation to return to the ship. Non tender ports everyone is treated the same.
  13. I haven't seen any concerning articles in the local paper so that's a good thing. We avoid the Fort Lauderdale Beach strip (route A1A) at all costs in March. We made that mistake once - it looked like the beach was standing room only - and never again because beach goers have to cross A1A (a four lane road) to get to the beach and most visitors must come from places that don't have cross walks because they are crossing the street where ever they want and without even looking. So other than the usual traffic, so far so good.
  14. If you decide to book with Princess, ask for a cruise vacation planner (CVP) that functions like an in-house agent and that will work with you not only making the reservations but also if you have questions and problems leading up to the cruise. I personally have used a travel agent for more than a decade. Princess allows travel agents to offer reduced fares (that come out of their commissions) but they are not allowed to publicize them. Making some phone calls or emails to local and on-line agents could save you a considerable amount of money. My TA's fare reductions run between 7 and 12% and frequently she adds some on board credit (OBC) to that. One other recommendation whether you cruise with Princess or another line: read The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough before you go. Welcome to Cruise Critic!
  15. But almost half the year (early October to late March) the Sun will be in Caribbean. I'm sure Princess realized they needed to take that into consideration.
  16. We had a similar experience as you on our 2020 Meraviglia YC cruise. On the Seascape cruise our butler and his assistant couldn't do enough for us without us even asking. So maybe it is just luck.
  17. If you post on or even just take a look at the Florida Departures forum, you will get recommendations for shuttles. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/
  18. I found the email we received 6 days before our December YC cruise on the Seascape encouraging us to customize our categories. The newspaper is delivered daily; the minibar allows one choice (although you can make a second selection in case the first isn't available) and that is what was waiting for us in our cabin upon embarkation. Customize your experience by choosing your daily newspaper. Here are the categories: Newspaper (offered by country; this is the choice of US papers): Washington Post New York Times New York Post LA Times Wall Street Journal MiniBar: I think there were a few more that got cut off in my print screen. Pillows:
  19. That would make sense but is still a long time away. The next Brightline station was announced ta few weeks ago. It will be located in Stuart (Martin County) and must, as the result of a lawsuit, open by 2028 but the company is saying it will open in the second half of 2026.
  20. You left off the fine print at the bottom. Notice the footnote (up arrow) next to Galveston: Caribbean roundtrip from Ft. Lauderdale^, Galveston^ or New York (voyages that do not call to Martinque or Guadeloupe only) ^Voyages that call to Central or South America are excluded and only passports are accepted.
  21. That was going to be my next recommendation! I'm so glad you were able to get an appointment. You all deserve a great cruise after this.
  22. Seeing this picture I immediately thought of the aft viewing areas on the Coral Princess. How far across the stern of the ship does that deck extend and how deep is the deck? If all the way to the corner of the ship it looks like chairs might fit. What a great relatively secluded and shady space to sit and watch the wake.
  23. If the last sentence is true it isn't updated on the US Embassy Tecugigalpa website as @cre8tiv1 ctied above and that doesn't mean a cruise line has to follow it especially if they think it may be a temporary waiver that could change at any time. There is nothing restricting cruise lines from imposing stricter (i.e, passports for all passengers for all ports) identification requirements. There have been posts here on CC describing just that.
  24. I wrote post #22 in the thread noted above. Here is a comparison of the requirements to enter those countries in the WHTI where a drivers license and birth certificate is valid versus those in Central America like Honduras (Roatan) where a passport is necessary according to the US State Department: The US State Department has a search engine for each country that includes entry and exit requirements (plus lots of other useful information). For those countries that belong to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) (I chose the French West Indies: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/FrenchWestIndies.html.html?wcmmode=disabled) they include the following note under Passports and Visas: NOTE: Caribbean cruises that begin and end in the United States (closed loop cruises) do not require that you travel with a valid passport. However, should you need to disembark due to an emergency and you do not have a valid passport, you may encounter difficulties entering or remaining in a foreign country. You may also have difficulty attempting to re-enter the United States by air because many airlines will require a valid passport before allowing you to board the aircraft. Always travel abroad with your valid passport. Honduras (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Honduras.html) does not belong to the Initiative and has no such note. Instead their section states: To enter Honduras, you need: A U.S. passport with at least three months validity...
×
×
  • Create New...