capriccio

1 minute ago, Coral said:

If you are on Oct 31st of Emerald Princess - both Embassy Suites and Renaissance are listed as hotels and they are both closed (full). My guess is your agent doesn't know how to look to see if they are full/closed. Sometimes these hotels book up months in advance.

Especially for the International Boat Show weekend!

43 minutes ago, CroozeNoob said:

Ok, thank you for the info. We are leaving 3 hours to get to our hotel parking (which shouldn't hit traffic on the way in), which leaves at the top of the hour. Worst case, if we arrive a few minutes after 3, we can just uber over the 6 minute drive. That will leave us just under 3 hours prior to boarding to arrive at the airport.

That should work!  Have an easy drive and a great cruise.

When going to Dulles from our home off exit 291 on I-81 we always give ourselves at least 2 hours to get into the airport.  While construction is finally done on I-66 east of Gainesville, until that point I-66 is only 2 lanes in each direction (as is I-81) and an accident will tie things up.  Once you get to the hotel where you are leaving the car, do you know how often the shuttle to the airport runs?  That obviously needs to be taken into consideration.  Getting into the airport by 3:30 should be fine especially if you have priority luggage check-in and TSA pre-check.  If not, realize that you will be hitting the Dulles rush hours for outbound European flights and the crowds just get bigger after 3:30.

We didn't but the rain was also accompanied by high winds and winds alone have been known to force cancellation of the stop at Ocean Cay.

24 minutes ago, chamima said:

When we saw there was a new suite dining room (like Luminae on Celebrity) we were excited. But now that we see it’s basically the same menu as the MDR with the same upcharges and not more upscale menus it’s not so exciting. 

I have limited experience in suites on other cruise lines, just 2 cruises in the Yacht Club on MSC ships.  The YC dining room has its own menus and its own kitchen and chef to prepare the food.  Is that how Luminae functions on Celebrity? 

I probably foolishly thought that since the Sun would have a dedicated suite dining room it would also have a dedicated kitchen.  I just looked at the deck plan (deck 7) and the Signature Dining Room and the Reserve Dining Room are separated by a large white area that seems to be the shared kitchen.  So much for having special menus since, in my mind, one or two extra dishes doesn't make it special not to mention that the kitchen will be feeding a much larger group of passengers than just those in suites. 

2 minutes ago, Likes2cruise said:

And that may be the problem.  Need hotel for October 30th.  TA says lots of availability at other hotels.  The problem seems to be with Princess packages.

 

I would book yourself in the hotel of your choosing and book it soon.  Rates in all hotels will increase - some dramatically - between now and then. 

I don't know if you've sailed out of Port Everglades before but if not I recommend looking in the 17th Street area for convenience and lots of dining options.  Dania Beach is a bit further away so a little more in transportation costs but there are lots of relatively new hotels and dining options in that area.  The latter is further away from the boat show so prices might be relatively less.

What are the dates you are looking for?  The International Boat Show is October 30 - November 3.  Hotels may already be booked for those days (if not, they will sell out at the much higher rates charged then) and possibly a day or two ahead and after.  That's the only thing I can think of going on then.  Have you checked hotels on your own to see availability?

If you haven't already, I would post this on the Celebrity board where it will be seen by many more people who can compare the two ships.

As for itineraries, more time on a cruise is better to me.  I also lived in Italy for 5 years and have visited the ports except Split either by ship or land.  I like the Constellation's itinerary better. I would start with at least 4 days in Rome if you've never been there before. When disembarking in Ravenna and not wanting to go to Venice post cruise, I would think about Bologna and the surrounding region for great food (Reggio Emilia, Parma, Modena, etc.)

As @hrhdhdnotes the port only offers one very limited shuttle.  Maybe you were lucky last time since you were traveling between ships both part of Royal Caribbean Group.  I've heard that offering a large tip to a taxi driver helps.

Duffey's Sports Grill is located in the Harbor Shops right next to Hyatt Place.  It's a local south Florida sports bar chain. 

It sounds like it would be best to drop of your passengers, luggage, and wheelchairs at the terminal first before parking the RV. 

From the Port Miami website https://www.miamidade.gov/portmiami/parking-information.asp:

Do you know if most of the other people on the tour are from your ship?  In that case, the tour is highly unlikely to leave anyone behind if everyone is disembarking at approximately the same time.

Confirm with your tour vendor if the ship's arrival is late or the port is bypassed entirely, how are refunds handled. We use non-ship tours almost exclusively and one of my requirements for any advance payment is that cancellations due to late or no arrival be refundable. 

How did you make the booking?  If you used a travel agent, you must cancel through the agent.  If you used a Princess Cruise Vacation Planner (CVP) reach out to her/him.  If you just called the main number do so again and it should only take a few minutes as others have reported.

5 hours ago, geejay said:

We are booked in 16621, category S4. I have read posts that say S4 do not have suite benefits. Has anyone stayed in this cabin or is anyone aware of whether or not there are suite benefits? If not I am thinking of cancelling and booking something else.

 

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!

On 3/15/2024 at 2:02 PM, Eglesbrech said:

You can however do lunch instead which is a nice way to try one of the speciality restaurants. Your butler can arrange this for you once onboard.

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.

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. 

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.

What cabin number?  Off the top of my head elevators are usually in lobbies and don't share a wall with cabins.

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.

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 minutes ago, dides said:

It was FB. Grabbed this of the Sky Suite balcony (had to do an edit to remove her standing at the rail)

 

 

And the balcony is shown at the end of this reel being promoted by a videographer.   

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.

21 minutes ago, CatMom72 said:

I never made a single false statement.  You simply misunderstood or misconstrued what I wrote.  But I made my meaning extremely clear in my most recent post, just to make sure there was ZERO doubt. Good luck!

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.

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.

33 minutes ago, cr2000 said:

Don't Reserve and Signature members get priority embarkation and de-embarkations at all ports?

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.

12 hours ago, philv said:

For those recently returned or there now, how is spring break looking in Ft Lauderdale? We are flying in tomorrow for a cruise on Sunday. Staying at the Marriott on Hollywood Beach. The Hollywood Beach webcam shows lots of people, looks like lots of fun. Would love to hear from anybody there now or recently returned. 😎

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.