capriccio

Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire are south of the normal hurricane routes so you shouldn't have to worry about them. They go multiple decades between getting hit. Grand Turk on the other hand seems to experience them fairly frequently. Remember that cruise lines and your captain will not want to put you and their ship in any danger and will modify the itinerary if necessary.

We usually sail in Princess mini-suites or, a decade ago when we were both still working and splurging, full suites. In 2019 we decided to try MSC. When I told my long time travel agent that we were thinking of trying MSC there was a long pause on the other end of the line. When I added "in the Yacht Club" she let out an audible sigh of relief and said "That's the only level I would recommend. You'll love it!" She was right. We sailed in the YC in January 2020 and December 2021. Princess has just introduced a new ship (the Sun Princess) which is meant to have a suite area in competition with the Haven, the Retreat and the Yacht Club. We are trying it next January but based on initial feedback that remains to be seen.

Your questions are cruise line specific so you will need to post on the applicable forum. Chose your cruise line at https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/858-categories/

Pricing is the thing that everyone yearning for the good old days of cruising seems to forget.

Sorry I misinterpreted your comment as referring to Kotor. I would be very disappointed too since the sail in/sail out of the bay is beautiful as is the old town.

While it may take more time, can you drop off the person with limited mobility and the rest of your party at the entrance to your embarkation terminal and then upon return go pick up the car and return to the disembarkation terminal where they will be waiting for you?

Some ports may require use of horns, I know some restrict their usage so as not to bother nearby neighbors, and some may leave it up to each ship's captain. Leaving Port Everglades, the residents of the Point of America condos wave and blow air horns from their balconies. Some have even invested in cruise line flags and will wave the applicable flag for each ship departing port. The Love Boat theme horns began with the Royal Princess in 2013. We have been in ports with two Royal class ships when they both play the theme. Kind of cheesy but there is no mistaking whose ship is leaving. I think I've read that Disney ships also play a variety of theme songs.

In 2017 on the Royal Princess Kotor was a tender port. According to the current Princess Excrusions Listing (https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/kotor-montenegro-excursions) "Kotor is an anchorage port. Passengers transfer to shore via ship's tender."

@jkhabc - is this question a continuation of your earlier thread? You might want to post it on the Australia and New Zealand Cruisers forum. I haven't seen any other comments - other than my previous post - about embarkation issues at Sydney but you would get more responses there since the vast majority of passengers embarking in Sydney are Aussies and Kiwis. By the way and out of curiousity, what did they tell you onboard in the case of your cruise and why don't you believe it?

This weekend there was a terrible rain storm that delayed all ships arriving in Sydney and therefore the embarkation of new passengers and departure times. See this thread on the Australia and New Zealand Cruisers forum:

https://www.gobrightline.com/

If @crystalspin's answer didn't suffice, check the HAL forum recommended by @KC Gorilla: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/103-holland-america-line/

I've had this one for 5 years and recommend it. It has a light, 10X magnification and attaches with a large suction cup. https://a.co/d/hNANKOp

I would never use Brightline on the same day of a cruise when a delay could mean missing the cruise. Please be aware that Brightline has the highest accident rate in the country - not due to their operations but due to cars trying to beat the train and people intent on committing suicide on the tracks - that could strand you for hours along the route as @pedirn describes in post #112. Most recently (January) a car tried unsuccessfully to beat the train in Melbourne and 3 people in the car died. According to the AP article (https://apnews.com/article/brightline-high-speed-rail-florida-fatalities-67020b2cd33b6cbcf9d85ed029d18310) on that incident: The three deaths in Melbourne this week mark at least 108 since it began operations in July 2017. That’s one death for approximately every 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) its trains travel, the worst death rate among the nation’s more than 800 railroads, an ongoing Associated Press analysis that began in 2019 shows.

"Florida’s high-speed Brightline train has partnered with Princess Cruises for a “Rail & Sail” program that includes one of its trains made over with the iconic imagery of the brand with ties to “The Love Boat.” This picture is from the local Sun Sentinel's coverage of the announcement (picture courtesy of Princess Cruises).

According to posts on the Princess board: Discovery Princess and Emerald Princess will both be at sea.

It is and there is no shade plus, since Port Everglades is also an extremely busy cargo port, there is lots of vehicular traffic.

It is a 10 minute or less walk to terminals 2 (Princess) and 4 (Disney) which are before the Eisenhower Blvd security gate. All the other terminals (there is no terminal 3) are further, some much further, away. There is a good map on the Port Everglades website: www.porteverglades.net

This a question better asked on the RCI board since embarkation procedures vary by cruise line. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/51-royal-caribbean-international/

Go to deck plans for each deck and enter 3 guests. All the cabins for three will highlighted.

Welcome to cruise critic! There is so much information available here that it takes a little time to research the various forums. For all things Princess check out their board (all cruise lines have their own board for cruise line specific questions and discussions): https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/119-princess-cruises/ If you have general questions about cruising with kids, the Family Cruises board is useful: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/28-family-cruises/ I presume you are on an Alaska cruise. Our first Princess cruise was Alaska 2007 and since then we've gone back two more times and have sailed on Princess over 30 times. I hope you and your family enjoy it as much as we do.

The other alternative is to rent a car and drop it off at PBI but it seems that post covid the days of cheap one way car rentals between south Florida airports may be over. Is your disembarkation on a weekday or weekend? The former means you will get to experience I-95 rush hour and in that case, I would pad the expected drive time to 75 minutes (and be happy if you get there sooner).

And suite passengers' laundry gets priority and is returned within 24 hours. Elites also have a free laundry benefit but that can take 2 to 3 days or sometimes more depending upon how many elites are on board.

We (me, DH, my sister and BIL, and a brother and SIL) were on a 28 day Australian cruise last April. i had requested the same table every night and we were delighted to discover that our waiter was from India where my sister had spent a summer a decade ago traveling on a Fulbright teaching scholarship. He was even more delighted to find that out. The first night he explained that the chef was from India too and from that night on for at least half the dinners he would bring an off menu extra Indian dish to share. If he didn't have an Indian one he would bring something else. He even got ill with Covid for 5 days and the head waiter (who was not from India) for our section carried on the tradition. All this was totally unexpected and greatly appreciated. We made sure he and his assistant (from South Africa) were thanked profusely each time and deservedly tipped well at the end of the cruise.

A decade ago we did a power snorkel excursion off a beach in Grand Turk. The water was crystal clear and we saw creatures ranging from sea horses to barracuda until all of a sudden it was pitch black. We had 'gone over the edge' of the Grand Turk Wall with a 7,000 foot drop off. That was a most impressive, not to mention irrationally scary (since, as my father an avid sailor always said, if it is over your head its' over your head), experience. The best snorkeling we've done was Two Step on the Big island (Hawaii) 20 years ago and Klein Bonaire about a decade ago. Neither of those were especially deep but they were crystal clear and filled with fish and Two Step even had spinner dolphins. Unfortunately our scheduled 2020 Polynesian cruise was a victim of Covid and we are both getting too old to snorkel very much now.