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I guess this was marketed as a game changer for Floridians because the only way to use the seamless bag check onto the ship is if you take the train on the day of your cruise.  

And if you go to the Brightline page you can see that there are only 4 that are marked Princess going from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale.  They are the 6:50, 7:50, 8;50 and 9:50 am trains.  Guess those are the only ones that you can use this on. 

8 hours ago, LuCruise said:

Thanks so much for the feedback. Good to hear from personal experience that you were happy with the hotel.  We typically take an uber to the port as we are 4 and like to go on our own time, but will keep it in mind in case we go with the shuttle.

Take an uber.  The port is only 3 miles away and a 15 minute.  An Uber XL will run you about $24. There are premier SUVS in the area as well and that will run about $38

2 hours ago, Retired-N-Happy said:

Hopefully you get 100.00 in OBC for the inconvenience so you get a free specialty dinner out of it.

Princess didn't do anything wrong in this instance though.  Another passenger went to the cabin before they were supposed to and left their belongings as the door was propped open.  Sounds like Princess has handled it well and cleared out the stuff and will replace the mini bar.

One example of why they say to not go to your stateroom early until they are ready. 

Bon Voyage!!  So looking forward to following along.

23 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

Today turned out to be a beautiful, warm day!  It had to be 80°!

 

We strolled and shopped thru the Saturday street market at the Rocks.

 

 

 

Debbie doing what she loves, shop!!!  (She is in the white shirt)

 

And then we walked and walked...

The Royal Princess in the background.

 

 

We walked to the Royal Botanic Gardens looking for cockatoos.  And we found them, a huge flock of Greater Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos!  It always amazes us to see parrots in the wild that we bred in our aviaries.  Over the years, we bred 8 different species of Cockatoos, the Greater Sulphur-Crested being one of them.

 

 

 

 

We also spotted a Rainbow Lorikeet, a species that we also bred.

 

We returned to the Rocks dripping in sweat for a cold refreshment!

 

 

Before returning "home," we walked to a wine shop that was recommended by the Concierge at our hotel.  The clerk was extremely helpful helping us select 6 bottles of wines that are not exported outside of Australia.  These we will carryon to the ship.

 

 

 

They are all screw caps and were in the $50 to $70 AUD.  I'll report back on how they tasted.  🤞

 

Tomorrow, we are planning on taking the ferry to Manly.

 

 

Looks like the perfect day. Love all the bird picture. Can't wait to hear how the wine was. 

Thank you @reedprincess for posting that link. 

49 minutes ago, CruisinFinsUp said:

Is it just for Florida residents or could we possibly fly into Orlando and use the train to get to Ft Lauderdale? 

We'd consider adding a couple days in Orlando to the vacation.....  

you can always take Brightline and they run specials frequently. Just Uber from the station to the port. 
 

and the tie with Princess is for anyone. They just did PR making it seem like it was a game changer for those who live here. But I would take advantage if you want to stay in Orlando before. 
 

The premium lounge in Fort Lauderdale and Miami are both nice. The trains are very nice. Haven't been to Orlando yet. 
 

below is their latest promo. 

This will be interesting to see how this plays out. . Anyone remember when Brightline was rebranded as Virgin Trains USA?  They even renamed the Miami station to Virgin Miami Central.  All was going to tie into their cruise line and the hotel they were going to build in Brickell on a friend's property.  

Thanks @LACruiser88 for the press release.  Interesting to read.  

Guess they have raised the price of the checked bags for their service.  I'm surprised to see it's only a 15% discount on the fare.  

3 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Walked down Las Olas boulevard. Very nice shops but not exactly in my price range. It’s a beautiful day - 70° and not a cloud in sight!

 

Getting some lunch at our hotel (Riverside Hotel) while we wait to check in. 
 

Fun story about the hotels - when I was booking our room for the night before, everything was so incredibly expensive. Like $700-1200 a night average price. I finally found a room at the Riverside Hotel for less than $250 on a third party site and thankfully when I checked in it was legitimate. 
 

Turns out, there’s a massive three-day music festival called Tortuga going on. The entire town is practically shut down for it and hotels are so expensive as a result. I’m glad I booked a flight and hotel early!

 

Trying to do the water taxi this afternoon but I have gotten conflicting information - they told me it’s closed and being used as a shuttle for the festival but my hotel said they told them they are operating as normal. I guess we will find out in an hour or two…

The festival is down on the beach and there are street closures. 

The water taxi is open to everyone and they do encourage people going to the festival to use it due to all the traffic and parking issues.  It will be much more crowded than normal.  I do know they were selling $35 3 days passes to encourage people to use it.

The last act today starts at 8:25 pm so expect it to get crowded about an hour after that.

Enjoy Las Olas.  There are so many places to go within waking distance a lots of great restaurants.   

Louis Bossi is a great Italian place for dinner and happy hour and within walking distance.  

Enjoy your night.

Look, it a great thing for some people and will be a nice way to travel.  As I said, I enjoy the Brightline product and know people who commute on it from Miami to Fort Lauderale for work & meetings. 

My issue is Princess marketing this as some huge game changer for the local market that is a true innovation.  That's how this was touted and it falls far short of that. 

@voljeep what say you?  Is this something you would do?

4 minutes ago, AlpacaBag said:

Too bad we can't use our Princess Plus or Premiere beverage benefits on the train....

Oh that's funny!!! LOL

2 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

I don't live in Florida so I'm not invested in this news, but I just noticed the demographic they are apparently marketing to.  Looks like a much younger crowd 🙂 

True and they are showing them all having cocktails on the train.

15 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

So my opinion  - look at the HUGE drive market in Orlando, The Villages/Ocala and Tampa/St Pete/Clearwater.  For many the convenience of driving/ubering to Orlando airport, parking and taking the train vs battling the turnpike/I-95 and dealing with port traffic/parking (on port or off) will be beneficial.  There is also the savings of fuel/tolls to consider.

 

Once the shuttle to/from Port Canaveral starts this will be beneficial to the South Florida consumer who wishes to cruise from there as an alternate to Port Everglades especially as many will be able to uber to/from the So FL stations rather than paying for parking.

 

This this an earth shattering "game changer"?  Not really, but there will be many who will find the partnership beneficial

As someone who did the drive often between Miami and Orlando, it's not that much of a battle and parking at the ports has never been that much of a battle either.

And it would still have the hassle of parking in Orlando along with the $10 per day parking fee there. Coming into Orlando from any area besides Orlando still has you driving there, using gas and possibly paying tolls.  The train fare would eat up any savings of fuels/tolls from Orlando since even with 50% off if you are 3 or more, you are still looking at $100 roundtrip minimum for regular class per person. I you are only 2 then it can be  $200 per person round trip.

@AtlantaCruiser72 thank you for the information.

What an absolute joke Princess!!  Seriously, they put out that it's game changing and an innovation.  It's being able to take Brightline and check your bags  (a cost) and have a free shuttle?  I realize that they are giving OBC through May 5 but I still don't see how this is revolutionary.  And it's been done before!  

Yes, you can check your bag but unless you are in premium, to check your bag is $25 per bag from Orlando!

The $10 per day parking fee (if paid in advance) isn't even waived? 

I realize they are doing a limited promotion for some OBC but that only goes until May 5.

So the only difference is that you can get a discount on doing Brightline if you are a party of 3 or more(which is always readily available) but can now pay to have your bags checked and sent to the ship and have a free shuttle to the port.  

On 3/28/2024 at 6:57 PM, PescadoAmarillo said:

Hopefully it’s a good thing!  Details will be released publicly next week, but usually someone here gets some early information. 

I stil go back to this with the MAJOR news to share about Florida cruises that will delight clients living in that region - and help grow your bookings.  

Hopefully someone who watches will post the info on here. 

We've been in a suite on this deck on The Regal  and didn't have any issues with noise that was too bothersome. 

@talkorpi have a great cruise.  We are doing this on April 20th so I will be looking forward to following you on your sailing. 

On 4/2/2024 at 9:08 PM, PMGS247 said:

it’s just a separate lounge (elite, platinum, suites) from the general boarding groups and is the first to board after B2B. On my Halloween cruise this past year they offered pastries and coffee but I gather from some other discussion that’s not a guarantee. If you don’t arrive before boarding starts there isn’t really any “priority”. Green lane vs blue lane is just that, loyalty status doesn’t come into play at all. 
 

do be sure as you enter the waiting area that the agent sees your platinum medallion so they direct you to the priority lounge. If they don’t know they’ll just give you a general boarding group number.  

Isn't the lounge itself just for elite and suites?  Or has this changed?

22 hours ago, SCX22 said:

Are you really this gullible?  Princess doesn't make cold calls for specials and promos.  You'll get an email or sometimes something in the mail, but there won't be any cold calls.

Guess many of us are this gullible because Princess is cold calling, or at least the group they are partnered with for the Princess Future Cruise Package. Been reported on here numerous times. It's from a 661 area code and says Santa Clarita.  And it's extremely annoying how they make it seem like they are calling from Princess and know all about your Princess cruise history.  Heck, last time they called it was right after my Sky sailing and they discussed that before going into the sales talk. 

13 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

I still stick to it being a Brightline partnership that includes parking at Brightline stations and allows for “seamless” addition of Brightline train fare (with connecting port shuttles) included as part of the booking process (much like adding ezair or hotel/transfers are today). This would be a “game changer” for many Florida drive market consumers as it would alleviate port parking hassles. 

You may very well be right but as a Floridian, I will still say that this is so far from a game changer for the local market as they are stating.  

There are so few stations and all on the East coast, parking at many of the stations aren't that great (especially Miami) and the only stop close to one of their port is the Fort Lauderdale stop.  (There isn't that much parking near that station either.)Having a shuttle would work there.  The Orlando stop is an hour plus ride to Port Canaveral depending on time of day and traffic.  

How this is going to be game changing or innovating is clearly overstating what it is. And Brightline had already partnered with a cruise line when it became the virgin trains for a short time and it could be tied with the virgin voyages out of Port Miami, so again it's nothing revolutionary.

Brightline is great and there are great deals on it already.  Just this week it was a BOGO deal but even when I lived on Brickell Ave in Miami, I still didn't use it to go to the port.  It involved uber drives to the station and then uber drives to the Port.  Parking at the port or nearby was considerably much easier and faster. I took the train quite a bit but never once for cruise.

2 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Yes, we have indoor plans for tomorrow.  All the forecasts show lots of rain.  A good day for R&R!

Well the rain just means that Debbie has plenty of time for shopping!!!

That's great that the vacation got off to such a great start!  Enjoy.

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

Well this new post knocks new ports out of speculation.

 

Game changing innovation?!!  So now it's an innovation and from a secret location?!!  

This better be some big announcement!  LOL

39 minutes ago, TRLD said:

I wonder if it has something to do with that building that has been under construction next to terminal 2. 

 That building is a new  part of the convention center so that can't be it.