brewcrew

I believe that this is a “new” situation.  I have no idea how they are handling it because I am not behind closed doors in their meetings but it’s a “new new”.  It’s very unfortunate but I believe that all cruise lines are watching and learning.  I personally have no problem sailing with Princess.  This was actually to be our first cruise with Princess and I have no doubt I will be using my 100% cruise credit...

Welcome home everybody!!! Safe travels home!

We have always paid our gratuities at the end of the cruise in cash but this cruise is different.  Prepaid gratuities was one of our perks.  So, I just don’t hand them a tip envelope at the end of the cruise???  Unless we want to give extra?

5 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

There is no charge for the afternoon tea. The location will be published in the daily Patter.

I am DEFINITELY going to Afternoon Tea! 😃 

Y’all are so awesome!  Thanks for the help!

15 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

Hi,

You don't say what port you are using?

In general those boarding times are merely suggestions and not actually required times.

Tea and ordinary coffee is free.

I don't know what you mean by "specialty tea"?

I have not thought of tea as "dessert"  but as a beverage.

We are leaving from Ft. Lauderdale.  Disney has flavored teas that just aren’t Lipton.  You would have them at the end of your meal if you chose along with dessert.  I’m really trying to decide if I need to buy the coffee card to have a tea or specialty coffee after dinner.  Thanks so much!

We are excited to be trying out Princess for the first time this spring on the Sky Princess.  We have done 9 Disney cruises and 2 Royal Caribbean.  I just have a couple questions..please forgive me if I just haven’t scrolled far enough back for the answers. 
 

1.  If our arrival time is at 2:00, can we get their earlier?  We really like to be on the ship closer to 11ish but don’t know how strict Princess is.

2.  On Disney, the dessert menu always had specialty teas and was included.  Does Princess have tea on their dessert menu and if so is it included or do I need to have that coffee card?  We are not getting the drink package because we don’t drink that much.

Thanks for your help!   We are looking so forward to this trip!!!

So when would you purchase this wine package?  Your first night at dinner?  Do you have to request it or will the server offer it?  And what does the gold package include?  We have only cruised on Disney/Royal Caribbean and Disney always offers a wine package...thanks!  

We have been on 8 Disney cruises (3,4,5 and 7 days).  We also travel as a family of 6 from Florida.  We have always booked early, early, early.  We also travel the first week of January (which tends to be a little less expensive) and the last week of May before  the rest of the country is on summer break.  We love baclonies but have sailed in oceanview to help save some money.  I have found their prices to be higher but  we have never had a bad Disney cruise.  Enjoy!

7 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

No, we don't always sail in inside cabins. Our preference would be for a balcony cabin. On this cruise, though, the difference in price between an inside cabin and a balcony was over $1,300 per person. We received an upsell offer after we booked. It was $1,099 to move from our inside cabin to a balcony. That amount of money is more than enough to cover our airfare, hotel in London, all of our spending on excursions, including our short stay in London before the cruise, and the onboard spending we'll do in excess of the onboard credit we received.

 

Some people who are doing the 28-day cruise (12-day British Isle cruise before our 16-day transatlantic) reported receiving a more reasonable upsell offer of $699 per person to go from an obstructed view to a balcony. That works out to $25 per person per day--a figure that would have me considering it but probably still not taking it.  By the time I booked our cruise, there were not any ocean-view cabins available.

 

Thanks geoherb!  I know some people like the dark, some people think there might be less rocking but yeah... big $$$ difference!  Enjoy the rest of the trip!

Enjoying your trip report.  We will be sailing Princess for the first time next year and someday (post-retirement) we will also sail some transatlantic cruises.  Just wondering, do you always sail inside cabins?  Do you prefer them?  Enjoy the rest of your trip!

You should watch So Tweetie’s YouTube channel.  She just recently went on Princess by herself.  It looked like she had a great time!  

Nice review!  Thanks for sharing!

We have used Disney gift cards to pay down the balance of our Disney cruises.  I just logged onto my travel agent's website and made the payment.  We were told to keep the gift cards until after sailing in case you had to cancel for any reason.

Vines 😀

We are doing our first Princess cruise in January. I’m excited about Vines. And afternoon tea. And the International Cafe.

I am loving this trip report! Definitely taking notes!!!! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

This is such a great review! We will be sailing on the Royal next year (first time on Princess). Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

What a lovely trip! The cruise and Ireland! Can’t wait to see your review of your next cruise!!!

We have done 3, 4, 5 and 7 day cruises. We loved our 5 day cruise! It is probably our favorite one except for our Alaskan cruise. 3 is too short for sure! Enjoy it!

This is such a great trip report! The pictures are great and I am now going to have add this cruise to my bucket list! :)

What a great review! Been flirting with this itinerary and Holland. Love the pics!!!

We live in Florida also. We went to Hawaii in July of 2012 with our family of 6. We absolutely loved Hawaii and did not compare it to Florida at all. You can be on the beach in the morning and in the mountains in the afternoon. The sights and smells are some of the most wonderful things I have ever witnessed. Our children ( 3 teens and a tween at the time) were literally crying in the airport when we left because they loved Hawaii so much.

We will be going to Alaska next June to see a different set of sights. We are very excited to visit and are looking forward to the cooler weather. I am really the one who wanted to go to Alaska and am glad that this dream will finally come true(God willing).

Price wise, we are paying about the same for each trip. If you fly to Hawaii, I highly recommend Hawaiian Airlines. Maybe you can go to one Hawaii one year and Alaska the next. Just remember that you are on vacation wherever you go and you will be creating wonderful memories!