commie

We went on a dec sailings of the Island princess this past year, for the 11 day RT out of FLL.

I didn't book the cruise till about 4 weeks before sailing, and the prices kept going down for the Dec 5, Dec 18th and Dec 28 sailings. The only date that kept its high price was the Dec 23rd sailings.

We went with the Dec 28th sailing for $899+tax for a Balcony.

So not sure if 2015 will follow the 2015 holiday season prices, but in 2014 it was worth it to wait 'last' minute to book. The prices we saw was like 1,499 prior to Nov. for the same balcony rooms. We followed the prices about 3 months out, and noticed that the prices would increase on a Thursday to its listed price, then on Monday, it would drop to the 899 price.

I am definitely not rude, but I stand up for myself when someone violates my personal space or can't wait like everyone else. We are all people. I treat everyone the same. It is only after someone does something to me that I react. There is no snobby "Japanese-America heritage" here.

Some would say saying the national anthem of another country while they are doing their safety sessions is and can be considered rude, obnoxious, and demonstrating your 'Japanese-American' aggression.

Rightly or wrongly, I would not be surprised if you got some 'extra' treatment on the ship from the locals, if that was your attitude towards the native Chinese on board.

A simple few questions.

 

Does anyone think that there are aspects of USA, Australian, or British culture, manners etc that may not fit the accepted norms in another country?

 

Would you change your manners to suit and even if you did do you think ALL or even most of your fellow countrymen would?

 

Would it not be reasonable to expect that a cruise line would be set up to cater for the majority of it's customers on certain itineraries?

 

Is it really "pathetic" that people don't drink or tip?

 

Should the cruise line continue to serve up roast turkey and escargot even when 90% of their customers prefer other cuisine?

 

If the cruise line knows that there will be no tips because the customers drink less and have no tipping culturally should they not raise the price of the cruise so they can adequately pay the staff?

 

What I am trying to say is that behaviour of other cultures fits their social behaviours. I do not understand how people who travel in Asia for example expect that people will behave like they would in the USA. I strongly suggest that if you can't understand or have some tolerance of these things then travels in China would best be avoided.

 

Manners are slowly changing in China but remember it is only a generation or 2 ago that most of these people were starving and/or freezing and if you didn't push and shove you probably would have never made it onto the bus.

Thank you for finally pointing these out. +++1

Some of these 'complaints' are legitimate, however, others seem to be more elitist expectations.

So if someone does not drink on a trip, now they are pathetic?

There are some parts of the experiences here due to culture/manners, and as you mention, its slowly developing.

But most of these behaviors can be attributed to just being the crowd mentality. Being part of a large group on a small space.

I've travel the world all over, and in the USA pretty much most states. I could name just as many 'ungodly' behaviors shown by your favourite Americans, British, Japanese, Mexican, Australian, etc..

What about the rude crowds in Florida during spring breaks? The large families overtaking the hotel pool during a family reunion, large groups of folks blocking the buffet lines on a cruise.

The point is rude behaviour can happen anywhere and by any creed. The OP demonstrated their own rudeness plenty of times, least of which is using your almighty attitude by referring to them as 'these' people. Your nose must've been so far up by showing your Japansese-American heritage over and over again.

The tax laws in different countries are, um, different so the answer may not be as obvious as you think.

you mean the world does not revolve around the US? and not every one goes by US rules and regulations?

how shocking.

;)

You are not the first to say this. We will be on the Star tomorrow and though we would like to eat at the Crab Shack, I feel as though it will be a waste of money but even more so a disappointment. On our last cruise on the Star DH and I were looking at the menu. A passenger walked out of the Crab Shack and said "don't waste your money eating here." He said it wasn't worth it and the crab was awful, hard to get out of the shell and too salty. We'll eat at the Steakhouse one night, we've never been disappointed in the food there. I'll order lobster, last time they gave me 2 lobsters, DH ate the other one.:p

I also concur with this sentiment. Not very impressed with the Crab Shack at all on the recent Island Princess cruise.

It was all you can eat, but after finishing the first bowl, we just didn't want to have any more. And I am a big seafood fan.

The quality of the crab is what you get at the supermarket with the frozen crabs. Very salty and the meat is soft.

Not sure why the Crab Shack gets all this fan fare, maybe for folks not able to eat/get the fresh seafood it may be a good option, but for anyone that has eaten or know what fresh seafood is, the Crab Shack is a big pass.

How long has the Crab Shack been on Island? You said you ate there and when I look on the Princess site, there is no Crab Shack listed as an eating venue? Would love to try it on our March cruise on the Island.

Not sure how long its been on the Island, but they had the crab shack I think 4 times on this cruise.

Again, I wasn't too impressed with the quality of the crabs, but you do get a lot of them.

Thanks for posting! We are on the Island as of 2/19, taking 2 days in the canal and disembarking in LA. I hope they'll still be giving champagne away when it's our turn [emoji41].

We are first time cruisers, and I have to say I don't see why it matters what color your card is. Is it because we're more likely to stand around gaping and thus getting in the way? I can't understand why this class-consciousness is so important.

Oh you'll love the Island, its just a perfect size ship and the staff on the ship is wonderful.

Its good that you are doing the full transit of the canal, looking back, I think I would've selected the 15 day full transit instead of the 11 day partial transit. With a full transit, I won't have to take that boat excursion to complete the transit of the canal. Instead, would be able to go into Panama City and check that out.

But for us, the timing wasn't right and we couldn't fit that may days into our vacation.

For sure, there are plenty cruisers who would look at our blue cards and turn their nose up in the air. Not sure why, but everyone had to start somewhere? and our cash is just as good as theirs.

Funny though, a lot of the seasoned cruisers are also the one's that are the rudest to the staff and generally appear grumpy.

A very thorough report. I did the complete cruise on the Coral 2 years ago, and share some of your memories. I thought the Canal day was awesome. I also found Columbia HOT, but loved it. It reminded me of Old San Juan. The harbor was incredible. My favorite cruise show ever has been "On The Bayou". I'll be back on the Coral in August on a land/sea 2 week trip. Can't wait to see her again.

'On The Bayou' really is something else. The production is amazing and could easily fit in as a broadway show.

Princess should really rethink the timing of the ports, and have more time in Columbia, it really was my favourite port of call, besides the Canal itself.

Thank you for your review. Looks like you had a wonderful time!

We had a great time. I did a lot of readings on this site prior to sailing and did a lot of research, so I knew what we were heading into, and the Island Princess exceed our expectations. The staff were wonderful, we met lots of super passengers, visited lots of great ports. The only negative was the rude behaviors of the fellow passengers, but that can happen anywhere with 2000 people all smash together. I just felt sorry for the staff to have to put up with these types.

In Costa Rica you said you walked into town, was it safe and were there any restaraunts Close by? Was hoping to have some authentic food.

At the Limon, Costa Rica port, if you walk out the gates of the Port terminal to your immediate right 1 block away is a park where you will see a bunch of sloths. If you turn left and follow the park a couple of blocks, you will reach a section of town that is filled with cafes, restaurants, stores, and even a casino. There is 1 pedestrian street that is blocked off from cars, I think if you stay on this street, it should be safe. But again, use your own judgements and street smarts.

We felt safe walking around that area, but I don't think we would have walked much further away from the main strip. Can't comment on how authentic and good the food you get from these places, as we didn't stop off to eat at any shops. But we did see a lot of locals and tourists in them.

General Observations:

- While I thought that Holland of America had better food, I thought the service level at Princess was better. Most of the staff we encountered was friendly and willing to talk and did their job well. From the waiters and head waiters at the MDR and Buffet, bartenders/waiters at the various bars, entertainment staff, casino dealers, they were all nice.

- This relates to the service level of the staff. Not sure if its because this sailings was during the holiday season, but there were a lot of relatives of the staff on this cruise and the staff would interact with the passengers a lot or at least with us. One time we shared a MDR table with one of the officers of the ship and their family. We had some good conversations during dinner. Another night, one of the entertainment staff was celebrating a birthday at the explorer lounge and we were invited to join them in their corner. Not sure if this is common, but I didn’t remember the staff from HAL interacting with us as much.

- The lack of TV’s in the public bars. I found it strange that the Island princess did not have any ‘sports’ bar. They did show the NFL playoffs and College bowl games on the MUTS, but it would be nice to be able to sit at a bar, drink some beer, and watch sports on the TV. Not a single ‘bar’ on the Island had any tv at all. I think if the cruise ships want to encourage the ‘younger’ generation into cruising, one of the things they need to adopt is the Sports Bars theme. The next generation of cruisers are not into sitting around and listening to ballroom music.

- The rudeness of the passengers. While the service level of the staff was amazing, I can’t say the same about the behavior of US. Its almost like people think that just because we are on vacation our manners are out the window, or at least I hope that is the case, and they are not that way at home. I witness many cases where the passengers would yell or talk to the waiters in a very degrading manner, snap their fingers to get the waiter, talking or yelling very loud in a public place.

- One of my biggest pet peeves is with large groups of people standing in the middle of the hallway/sidewalk and blocking people from getting through. A classic on this cruise was large groups of folks decide to stand right by the buffet entrance and decides to have a conversation. Seriously, if you want to talk, just step to the side, and don’t block others from entering that area.

- How competitive people get when there are prizes involved. The daily trivia was the worse. Somehow the idea of winning a Princess Water bottle or pen brings out the worse in people. On the first few days, we tried to team up with some other people. One group had 3 person, and I asked them if the wife and I can join them. Their reply was: ‘we studied for the trivia, we don’t need your help’. Well thanks. Luckily not everyone was like that, and we did end up teaming up with another group of 4 to form a team of 6. The 6 of us bonded right away, and spent a lot of time together throughout the cruise, in other activities.

- For the elders and young’uns, be prepare for the Columbia excursion, the place is hot and humid. On our excursion, an elderly woman had to get taxi back to the cruise after about 30 minutes at the fort as she fainted once due to the heat.

- Luckily, we didn’t experience any Noro Virus outbreaks. But after Aruba, the captain came on and alerted us that there was an outbreak of the flu bug, and some passengers were quarantined.

- The highest cruiser on this cruise was at 27 cruises and 400+ days.

- Not sure if every Princess cruise was like this, or if its because of the holiday sailings, but they were giving out Champanges for prizes like it was water. We won 3 bottles of champagne on this trip and shared it with our new found trivia team.

So far that is all, feel free to post here if you have any specific questions on the Panama Cruise and I'll try to answer them.

Alcohol/Beverages:

We had taken advantage of the ability to bring 1 bottle of wine per person, and left it in our checked luggage with no issues. I am a fairly heavy drinker, but the wife does not drink at all, so I elected not to buy any wine packages.

However, the prices I found for wine and beer and other drinks was more than reasonable. I purchased a bottle of wine for each night of the dinner, and what I can’t finish, they had no issue with me bringing to back to my stateroom. They were also running some holiday discounts on some higher end bottles. For example, I bought a bottle of the Mount Veeder Reserve Cab for $48 instead of $80 on the menu, and a Simi Valley Cab for $45. Those are pretty good prices for a store in Ontario, let alone at a restaurant/cruiseship.

Another deal that I took advantage a lot was the happy hour special. Every day at 3pm-4pm and 10-11pm, they would have happy hour at the Wheelhouse Bar and Explorer lounge. Drinks were 2 for 1. They also would let you buy beers during this time and bring it back to your stateroom to drink. So I would buy like 10 beer for the price of 5 and bring them back to my room. Not a bad deal getting beer for $2-3 a bottle. They also had no issue with you drinking the beer all over the ship.

I am a big wine fan and was looking forward to doing the wine tasting events. But after checking out what was being served, I didn’t sign up. Instead, I elected to buy the bottles during dinner and do my own tasting. I ended up trying 4 out of the 6 bottles that was on the wine tasting roster.

Entertainment:

Overall, I was impressed with all the shows offered on board. The highlight for me was On the Bayou; many people have reported on this and what they say is true. Although it was fairly short, about 30-40 minutes, the show was very high quality. Another of my favourite was the comedian Doug Funk, he was really funny.

The cruise director on this ship was Richard Joseph and his associate was Micca. We found the entire entertainment team to be wonderful and during the sea days and in the evenings we enjoyed ourselves a lot.

We took part in most of the activities at one point or other, and all the staff was friendly and nice. The big activity that we did each day was Trivia, they usually had at least 2 trivia per day, and some days they had 3 times. The turnout was pretty good as well, they were held at the explorer lounge, and most times the place was full.

Port WiFi Access:

Here I’ll highlight where I found free or almost free wifi access while on shore.

Nassau: Dunkin Donuts on Bay Street, if you buy a coffee/donut, they offer free wifi.

Limon: Free wifi at the port terminal, no purchase necessary

Cartegena: Various cafes offer free wifi when you buy a drink

Aruba: There is a Subway by the Marina Marketplace that has free wifi, no purchase necessary, and you don’t even need to go inside.

Ports:

Nassau: On Day 2 we made a quick trek to Bahamas and ported at Nassau from 7am to 2pm. We had been to Nassau many times previously, so we decided to sleep in today. A friend of ours had moved Nassau last year, so we made lunch arrangements with them to meet at 11am at the Hilton. So we leisurely walked off the ship at 10am and walked around town and met up with our friend. This was a very short Port stay and in my mind was totally unnecessary. We had 3 folks that were late in re-boarding the ship and we left Bahamas about 30 mins late. This will be a common theme on this cruise.

Limon, Costa Rica:

We had 2 sea days after Bahamas, then we arrived into Costa Rica. Our port time was from 7am to 5pm with all aboard time of 4:30pm. We had signed up for a Princess excursion to tour the canal and rainforest. We quite enjoyed this excursion, but it was mostly due to the rainforest part. If we had to do this again, I would skip the boat ride through the canal. The boat ride was for about 1 hour, but really we didn’t go that far down the canal, the boat had to circle around so each side gets to see the sites. We did see quite a few wild life, including a family of monkeys, sloths, and many types of birds.

The rainforest was the highlight of this excursion for us. Definitely a recommendation to visit, just skip the canal. We got back to the port area around 2pm and had some time to walk around the Limon area. Inside the port area there is an area with many stalls selling the usual trinkets. We walked out the gated area and into the city. There was a park right by the port exit, and we saw a few sloths up in the big old trees. That was the highlight of the city, the other areas were very sketchy to us, and we didn’t walk too much, really not much to see. 30 mins and we went back to the port. We got back to the ship and spent some time on our balcony soaking up the sun, had a glass of wine, and watch the fellow passengers walk back to the ship. At this port, 5 people were late getting back to the ship and we didn’t sail off till 5:30pm. The last 2 person was running like crazy to get back to the ship at around 5pm. This became a regular entertainment for us, as our portside balcony was just above the gangway.

Panama Canal:

The next day was the main attraction of the trip, our passage through the Panama Canal. Earlier in the trip we had made a sign for the canal crossing, and we were up bright and earlier ready to show our sign to the many photographers. The ship enter the first lock shortly after 6am, and we went to the front of the Baja deck to witness the lock openings. The next hour we just walked around the ship and our balcony to experience the canal. By 7:30 we made our way up to the LIDO deck and did the sign flip for the helicopter. We had volunteered to be one of the sign flippers, and the helicopter came by as we did the 100 YEARS of PANAMA CANAL sign flip. This was a great idea and fun to see ourselves captured in the Reflections DVD doing the sign flip.

For the Canal, we had signed up with the Princess canal transit by boat excursion, and soon after we got to the Gatun Lake, our group was one of the first to be tendered off the ship and on a bus to Gamboa to board a smaller ferry to do the full transit of the canal to the Pacific ocean.

This excursion turned out to be a very long day, as they are trying to conserve fresh water, so we had to wait for other ships to join in the crossing of the lock. Having said that, this being a partial transit cruise, I would not feel complete if we did not do this excursion. Being on a small ferry gave a totally different experience than on the Princess when we crossed the first lock. But be warn that this will be a very long day in a very confined ferry and it will be very hot and humid. Some of the older passengers and the young kids were having difficulties with the heat.

We finally returned to the Colon port to meet up with the ship at around 6pm. Boarding time was at 6:30pm, so we had a few minutes to walk around the Colon 2000 port. There was nothing really special about the port, there was a supermarket, that you can stock up on snacks, water, or soda. This was the only port where everyone got back onboard on time and we sailed off promptly at 7pm.

Cartegena, Columbia:

The next day we sailed into Cartegena right on time at 12 noon. This is another short port call, the all aboard time was at 6:30pm and sailaway was at 7pm. We signed up for the Princess tour of the highlights of city. It consisted of a 4 hour tour through the fort, walking tour of the old city, then the new city. This turned out to be one of my favourite ports, we enjoyed walking around the old city. Would’ve enjoyed more time here. This was also our 3rd straight day of port, and we had a full excursions on each day. We were dead tired at the end of this day.

Again, we had late passengers running back to the gangway and the ship was late in sailing off.

Aruba:

After 2 much needed sea days to relax and recover, we sailed into Aruba at 8am and all aboard would be at 4:30pm. We had signed up with the Princess 4x4 offroad excursion. This was an amazing excursion, each jeep would have 6 passengers and we drove around Aruba for about 3.5 hours visiting most of the key sights and briefly stopped at a beach at the end. We got back to the ship around 1pm and had a quick lunch onboard then went back to shore to go shopping along the main strip.

Not sure why, but this port had the most people late to board. Maybe because we were so close to all the bars onshore. There were over 10 person that were late in boarding at 4:30. The last passenger to board was around 5:15ish. I am still shocked that the captain waited for them for so long. They weren’t on a Princess tour as I saw them walk back from the terminal gate. Maybe because it was the last port that the ship didn’t have to reach another port. We finally set sail at around 6pm.

Sailaway:

After checking out our cabin a bit, we walked around the ship and was very impressed with how everything was layed out. The wife took part in the first day scavenger hunt, and that gave us the opportunity to see where everything was on the boat. We really liked our BA cabin category, it was directly from the midship elevators, very convenient, and not nosy at all. There were still some Christmas decorations in a few areas of the ship including the Atrium. After walking around for a bit, we went to the Horizon Court and had their lunch buffet. Decent but nothing to write home about.

Our Muster drill was at 3:30 and out station was at the Art Gallery in Station C. We had to carry out life jackets to the Muster, but didn’t have to wear it. This was a very bad place to hold the Muster drill, there were so many people in the room and very few chairs available that the room become very hot and uncomfortable. When we were on Holland of America, the muster drill was outside by the lifeboats, which at least gave us some fresh air. In the Art Gallery it was not comfortable at all.

After the muster drill, it was back up to the Lido deck for the sailaway party with the Fusion band and DJ Nino. Our first of many encounters with the terrific entertainment team. There weren’t too many people dancing to the sailaway party, most folks were just walking around and checking out the scenery. We were definitely one of the younger couples on the cruise, but since it was a holidays sailing, I think the demographics of the ship was much younger than your typical Princess sailings. We did see quite a few families and under 21 teens throughout the trip, but very few in the 21-40 crowd. The ship sailed off on our 11 day journey pretty much on time around 4pm.

Dining:

We had the anytime dining option and on this journey we found this to be perfect for our needs. Before the cruise, I was a bit hesitant on the uncertainty of ATD with the holiday sailings and especially on New Year’s Eve. As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about. Not a single night we had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table. Even on NYE night, there was no wait for when we wanted to dine. We typically went down to the Bordeaux Dining room around 7:15 to 8:00pm for dinner.

As for the quality of the food at the main dining room, there were lots of choices, but I have to only give it a passing grade, lots of food but nothing to write home about. I am a self-confessed ‘foody’ and will try almost anything, but I found the main courses in the MDR to be lacking in flavor. Especially the way they did their seafood and steak. Their lobster was dry and overcooked, same for a medium rare steak. What they did well was the appetizers. Most nights I ordered more appetizers than entrees. The ‘star’ standout of the menu must be the Fettuccine alfredo, the wife and I must’ve had this every night, it was that good.

Most breakfast and lunch we ate at the Horizon Court buffet, again there were lots of choices and food, but the quality if just so-so. I found the food on Holland of America to be of much higher standard. Nothing really to complain about; certainly I wasn’t hungry; but it was nothing to write home about.

Like a lot of posters have already reported, the Pizza offered by the Lido Pool area was excellent. I had this for lunch on many days.

During some of the port days when we had to leave early, we would order room service for breakfast. This was a great option for us, as we are not morning person, and this gave us an option to eat a quick breakfast while getting ready for the excursions.

A couple times during the cruise, they had a british pub style lunch at the Bayou Café. We went there once for the fish and chips. The Cod they used was excellent, but the batter they used were disappointing.

The only specialty dining option we opted for was the Crab Shack, since we are both seafood fanatics. We both ordered the bucket of Alaskan Crabs, and it was all you can eat. Definitely a good deal. However, the quality of the crabs and shrimps was not the best. We are used to eating live Alaskan king crabs, and the meat is way better than the frozen variety. I don’t think I would do the crab shack again, just because eating previously frozen shellfish is not my cup of tea. I like my shellfish like crabs and lobsters to be alive just prior to cooking.

There was 2 formal nights on this cruise, one of them being the New Year’s Eve party which also had the Captain’s reception with the champagne waterfall. Overall I thought the crew did a great job with hosting the NYE party, the entire boat was in a festive mood. They had 2 main party areas for the countdown. Most people were at the Atrium area and they handed out streamers for folks to toss around, at midnight, they released a bunch of balloons from the ceiling. Then shortly after that, most folks moved the party to the LIDO deck where the Fusion band and DJ Nino danced the night away. Shortly after, it started to rain a bit, and the party moved to the Explorer Lounge.

In terms what passengers were wearing, on formal nights there were a few men in Tuxes, but the majority were in suits. Other than the formal nights, it seems that the ship was very relaxed with the dress code in the Main Dining Room. I saw many folks in jeans, sweats, and t-shirts dining there. Not that it affected in my enjoyment of my meal, I was not impressed with the way folks were dressed at the MDR.

I just got back from a fabulous partial Panama Canal cruise on the Island Princess. I received a lot of great hints, information on this board prior to sailing. So over the next few posts I'll highlight some observations I had, hopefully it'll help future Canal cruisers.

Background:

The wife and I booked a very last minute(first week of December) cruise on the Island Princess for the Panama partial transit for Dec 29th through January 9th. Both of us just turned 40 and was looking forward to seeing the canal and soaking in some sun and relaxation. We like to consider ourselves to be fairly active and out coming personality so we had no worries of not fitting into any of the activities/events/shows on the boat. And we like to think we are the type to just go with the flow and are mostly positive individuals.

This will be our 2nd time on a cruise, but first time on the Princess. The first time we cruised was with Holland of America and that was to Alaska.

Embarkation:

The last minute booking didn’t give us much options for flights from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale airport, so instead we flew the day before to Miami. The Air Canada Flight from YYZ to MIA was fairly smooth with no delays. I had made a car reservation with Hertz, and this turn out to be straight out of Seinfeld episode. I am a top tier member of Hertz’s club and went straight to the Gold Desk, and it was a zoo of travelers waiting for their rental cars. I had to wait 1 hour for an available car.

Having picked up the rental car, we drove up to the Marriott Courtyard by Dania Beach, which is fairly close to the Everglades Port. The hotel was more than adequate for the overnight stay and the location is close to most everything. Bonus was that it was next to the Fishing Hall of Fame and a Bass Pro Shop. We also drove to the Sawgrass Mills for some shopping.

On Embarkation day, it was straight forward to drive to the Hertz rental office near the Everglades Port, and take their shuttle bus to the port. Pretty smooth and happy with this end of the car rental. Total cost of the 1 day rental was $40 all in, much cheaper than taking the shuttle/taxi, plus having a car to drive to places for the day was a bonus.

We got to the port around 1:30pm, and there was no line-ups what so ever waiting to board. After filling the health forms, we were walking up to the gangway and to our cabin which was also ready. We had a midship balcony cabin on the portside of the Baja Deck(11). The luggage came to our room before sailaway. All in all, I was very impressed with this embarkation process.

Thanks all for giving the insights to the car rental situation at the Port Everglades.

Looks like its not too hard to drive to the rental desks at the Port and return there.

Or maybe I will switch my rental to National and return at the FLL airport and take their shuttle to the Port. I have pretty good corp rates with either National or Hertz, and are top tier with their frequent renters club, so I don't mind renting with either company.

I am just worry about trying to drive around the port area during the busy loading times and how busy the shuttle bus may be.

How is the area around the Courtyard Dania Beach? Its on 400 Gulf Stream Way?

Looking to stay there for the night before our cruise out of FLL.

Has anyone ever return their rental cars at the Port Everglades? How crazy is the traffic going into the Port area?

Also, do I still have to take a shuttle bus/taxi from the Hertz or National rental return desk to the Port?

Would it be better to just return the rental car at FLL and take the taxi to the Port Everglades?

Has anyone ever return their rental cars at the Port Everglades? How crazy is the traffic going into the Port area?

Also, do I still have to take a shuttle bus/taxi from the Hertz or National rental return desk to the Port?

Would it be better to just return the rental car at FLL and take the taxi to the Port Everglades?

Oblivious?

 

If the cruise uses any US port(s), then the ship is likely to go by the US drinking age; 21. Most other ports in Europe and the Caribbean (including US territories) have a drinking age of 18.

 

You should probably find out what the ship's (or cruise line's) on-board drinking age is, if you plan on enforcing it. If the ship does not use US ports, it may choose not to enforce the unusually high US drinking age, and use the more common limit of 18 years instead. When at sea, it's the ship's rules that matter.

I think that poster meant Obvious reasons? ;)

So if we go with atd and like to have dinner after 8pm . Any issues with long lines during a busy cruise like the New Years.

I'm a fan of Traditional and late dining. That said, it's been my observation (as well as my personal experience on my Canal cruise) that late seating on the Canal girls was not 8 or 8.15, but 7.45. I know it's only 15 minutes, but I could have really used those extra 15 minutes!; every night felt like a bit of a rush to me. So if you really prefer 8.15/8.30 and 8 is your compromise given usual traditional cruise dining times, then you probably will much prefer Anytime. But expect lines . . . and look at it as an opportunity to relax with a martini at the bar until your pager goes off.

The wife and I are similar. We like to go do activities during the days and then need some time to relax, shower, and get ready for dinner. Well the wife needs extra time to get ready. ;)

And the late dinner, also matches when we would eat when we are at home. There is just no way we can have dinner at 6pm, let alone 5:15pm. Heck we are still at work most days at 6pm. 8pm dinner is perfectly fine with us.

I was just worry that since its the holidays and NYE, the wait for ATD would be extra long.

So the wife and I are on the island for the dec 29 Panama partial transit.

We typically like to eat late, around 8pm is fine.

Would we be better off going witht the traditional late dining option?

Or do the anytime dining giving us the flexibility of dining when we feel like it?

My worry is that since the cruise is over nye and the holidays, the anytime dining will be a long wait.

Also how does the formal nights work for atd? Same as usual.

With traditional dining will we be able to get a table for 2?

Did you do any tours in the canal or did you stay on the ship while it headed back through the locks?

What kind of dining option did you pick? Any time dining or traditional? if it was ATD, was there any wait for any of the nights?

My wine sources are showing Caymus at 165-210 depending on vintage When I bought 1998 SS in 2000 it was running $200 a btl from the winery.

 

I have friends who were shipping brokers for the industry ( wine)... this was back in 2002, and good old Christian and dominus used to ship 3/4 of the entire crush in refer slu tanks on ships out of Oakland.... destination....La Harve... and that's not in LA county

Dominus and Pertrus are the same boys...

Gee I wonder what or why they took all that trouble and $hipped all that crush when they could have bought grapes in france cheaper...Hmmm?

. But that would have meant everyone in France would know something was up.... That's my take and the take of the boys in the business at that time...

 

The napa soils were typed like the blue clay, Ph etc, vines imported and Christian was the master... why? At that time Dominus was $35 a pop last I checked it was $ 65 and Pertus $400 in futures.

 

Admitted some of these prices are old... thanks for up date...

 

Personaly I drink L'evangeline... just down the street from Petrus and being run by the Rothchilds... yo ought to switch... the 09 is only $330

You are so full of it.

Again, what you are suggesting, people go to JAIL for. They can't even use grapes from a different appellation in Bordeaux in their bottling, let alone a different country.

Why do you think Christian Mouiex and Petrus would even risk doing what you are suggesting they do?

- Cost? Availability?

Cost, how much do you think it will cost to ship the crush on freighters from LA to France? If cost is the thing, why not use some other local merlot grapes, instead of Cabernet Sav. grapes from Cali.

Availability, each year there are standards that go into Petrus, if the winemaster doesn't think the grapes meet the Petrus standard, then they make less bottlings, and the remaining grapes go into their 2nd label wine. So why would they need more grapes from Cali?

Also, even back in 2002, the price of Dominus was well above $35, and Petrus futures was wayyyyyyyyy more than $400. Do you not remember the crazy pricing of the 2000 Petrus futures? it was well in excess of $1000 a bottle. Even the crappy 1997 Petrus on futures was more than 400 bucks.

Again, before you slander Petrus more, you better have more proof than just a friend of a friend in the shipping industry.

BTW - I have forwarded this thread's link to my friends in the industry and they will be passing along your slander to Petrus. I do really hope you have solid evidence to back your statements.

Caymus Special Select Cab goes for around $200 a bottle// That's land based retail... Restraunt prices aroun d$500

Their Napa Cab goes for $30-$50 and Condrum about $40 These are land prices. I have seen Condrum on many ships and over seas

 

I would suggest visiting Napa next time if you like Caymus In the local markets and liquor stores in Napa and Sonoma Caymus sells off its surplus wines in bulk Gallon Jugs... for about $35 a gallon... Look for the label "Liberity School" Its the second label for Caymus

 

You might also find it interesting that Petrus, the premier cru Bordeaux that sells for $300-400 a bottle, actually has a secret California vineyard called Chateau Dominus that sell the same stuff for about $65 !! Same celler master and same grapes, They ship 3/4 of the crush to Farnce and re label it as Petrus........

Smoke and mirrors....I used to live and work in the Napa/Sonoma region and had friends in the business......There is a lot of shall we say creative marketing

 

 

Finally for all you scotch whiskey lovers....Johnny Walker red and be bought in 1.75 ltr bottles for $15 under the name "Scorsby"

 

Funny how that happens....

That is some strong words you have used there and I hope you have solid proof of what you just posted. Someone from Dominus Estate or Petrus see's that statement and you are very likely sued for libel and slander.

As the other posters stated, there is nothing secret about Dominus estate. They have been making semi-cult Cali wines for a very long time. In fact they sit on a vineyard that is probably the oldest in California called Napanook.

In fact, the 1989, 1994, 1997 and 2002 Dominus estate is some of the finest and long living California wine ever made and sell well above $65.

And no, they do not ship excess grapes to France and bottle it as Petrus.

If you have solid proof of this is happening, I suggest you share it with the Wine governing body in Bordeaux, because what you are accusing Dominus and Petrus of doing is a serious offence in France. People will go to jail for what you say they are doing.

And for you to slander them, well for your sake, the folks at Petrus and Dominus better not be cruisers or member of this board.

Would actually be fitting if someone forward a link to this thread to their winemakers. Will teach you not to be so much of an Internet warrior.

A few more questions,

- Besides wine, can i bring any alcohol onboard, like rum or vodka for mixing?

- My wife doesn't drink, but I do. If i order a bottle of wine during dinner, and I don't finish the bottle, can I bring it back to my room to enjoy?

- How much are the soda-pass and how does it work

- I am worry about having to wait long for the any time dining, since I will be sailing on the busy december/nye season. Would it be better idea to get a designated dining time instead? We usually prefer to eat late dinners, at least after 7-8pm.

are there any FAQ on Princess Island available online that i can research more on? getting excited with the little details of this trip.