kitkat343

11 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

Curious what the "Native Choice" is -- an excursion offered by the ship?  In Costa Maya? Thanks

name of private tour company in Costa Maya:

https://www.thenativechoice.com

Native choice does a very good job taking people to minor Mayan ruins, and then having lunch cooked by Mayan grandmothers.

If you like animals, Victor Bodden will let you see monkeys and sloths in Roatan.  Roatan has excellent snorkling if you don't like animals (you can do both though)

Hi,

Unfortunately, the hurricane brewing has stolen all the wind and our planned landsailing excursion had to be cancelled.  What else would you recommend for a family with kids age 5, 9 and 13?

I've put 5-6 of the larger plastic bottles through and it's been fine.  Maybe split them among your suitcases so if some get confiscated others go through?  

37 minutes ago, DorothyB said:

I really ONLY like Dr Pepper - I'd be happy to pay for it, but NCL doesn't offer it.  MSC does offer it, so Nov 2025 when MSC starts sailing from Galveston . . . 

Well if you are willing to see it get confiscated, it's worth a shot.  I've brought a few sodas on all of my cruises (10 so far - I'm at sea now) and so far I've been lucky.  I'm sure someday it'll be caught and confiscated, but that's totally fine.

What would you recommend for a hotel for a day pass for families?

59 minutes ago, DorothyB said:

At embarkation?  In checked or carry on luggage?

checked luggage.  If they confiscate it, I'd totally understand.  I just prefer the bottle cokes to the cans that are usually available for purchase.  

Can anyone recommend hotels with day passes that are good for families?

4 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

Juice is free. Aside from the fact that NCL doesn't have to follow ADA laws, they typically do.  But demanding free soda when they already offer free juice that meets the need, would not be a "reasonable accommodation"

Totally fair.  It wasn't clear from the OP if they were demanding free soda (which I agree shouldn't be accommodated) or asking for the ability to bring soda aboard (which honestly I usually bring 5-6 sodas aboard anyway and they haven't been confiscated yet).

Good luck!

We made it!  After fight delays, we arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 1:30 in the morning.  Unfortunately, I booked my hotel room during the internet outage in July, and the hotel told me corporate cancelled four days worth of reservations, and they had no record of ours (I received an email confirmation but they couldn't find any record of the confirmation number, and since we arrived at the hotel at 1:30 am we needed to get the kids to sleep and not argue with them).  The hotel was completely sold out so they put us in the only room available which isn't in circulation due to a strong mold smell (there's a dehumidifier in here that they're working on the room to clean it).  The room only has one king bed, and tiny couch that was too small for my 5 year old to lie flat on.  Thankfully they had one rollaway bed and extra pillows.  I always bring one of those floor pillow sleeping bag things that takes up very little space in your suitcase that you put pillows in to make a sleeping bag for a child so one of my kids has a sleeping bag, one is in a rollaway and the third is on the world's smallest couch.  But it's only one night and I'm grateful we made it here!  Looking forward to a return to Princess after an 11 year absence (travelled to Alaska with Princess on our baby moon, and took our 2 year old to the Panama Canal) both on the Coral Princess.

Our flight is delayed, but hopefully we will get there.

For others in this situation here is the message I got from the Princess chat:  

JetBlue waived all change/cancellation fees.  There are issues form Debbie and rain and thunderstorms here in ny.  I’m not sure how likely it is I’ll be affected.  

29 minutes ago, wallyj said:

@kitkat343, did you purchase you flights via EZAir on Princess? If so, your travel summary has a 24/7 en route delay number to call that may be able to assist and give you information. Part of the reason passengers purchase thru EZAir is they will try to reroute you or fly you to next port of embarkation is possible. Depends on if that port allows embarkation.

 

If you purchased your flights independently, then any flight delays/cancellations you have to deal directly with the airline. If you have travel insurance, this is what hopefully will help protect your financial interests. Your coverage is dependent on your particular policy.

 

My experience a few years ago, I had a Transatlantic cruise from FLL to Southampton. Booked EZAir flight redeye on DL from LAX to FLL via ATL. It was not till I arrived LAX that I saw because of weather(storm) all flights thru ATL were cancelled. I immediately called the enroute delay number and was connected to an agent in Australia. Was told they see United has a flight thru Houston I should try and get rerouted on. 2 minutes Iater was at DL counter and agent said sorry, those seats are gone. DL said nothing they can do and only flights to rebook would get me to FLL after ship has left FLL. When home and was on hold for over 4 hours with DL trying to get rebooked flights. Called EZAir and at first they said they would try to get me to FLL. I explained that will not help as ship will be gone, next port of call is Bermuda, 3 days later.

 

EZAir said ok, you have choice of flying to Bermuda and waiting for ship requiring 2 nights hotel, or we will fly you to arrive Bermuda day ship to arrive, but if you miss ship, you are in your own. I decided to fly to Bermuda early and wait for ship.

 

Because I did not have travel insurance, the 2 nights of hotel in Bermuda(quite expensive) is out of my pocket, EZAir only covers transportation/flight to next port. EZAir booked me on Air Canada from LAX to Toronto then to Bermuda at their expense.

 

Hope this helps explain what might happen if your flights are cancelled.

 

If you did not purchase flights from Princess EZAir, then you will be responsible for flight to first port (Bonaire?) Travel insurance might cover costs, or your Airline may be able to rebook you on other flights to get you to Florida on 8/10 to catch ship?

 

What ship/sailing are you on? Enchanted FLL to NY, 8/10 sailing?

Yes, that's my ship.

We purchased independent flights and independent insurance.  I wrote to the insurance company a few days ago, and they told me they'd compensate me up to 5,000 to meet the ship (5 people so depending on how much the airfare is it could be an issue.  If the airline just lets us switch tickets to the second port (Aruba, no flights to Bonaire)  then we'd be fine with our costs.).  

Do you know if my flight gets cancelled tonight before Princess' offices open tomorrow  will I be able to try to fly into the first or second port to join my cruise?  The first port is Bonaire, which seems to have limited flight options.

We were scheduled to fly out Friday (a day early), but the flights tomorrow are all full (someone mentioned on another forum they paid a lot of money to change their flight from Saturday the day of boarding to Friday the day before based on the weather reports and now Saturday is expected to have  better weather, but all Saturday flights are already full and they can't switch back).  The airlines are anticipating delays and cancellations for Friday's flights.

We have 5 people, so we can't get any other flights to Florida.  The cruise is a transpositioning one, so driving would be problematic.  We do have insurance but our kids would be really disappointed if this had to be cancelled completely.  

How old are your kids and what were their favorite excursions?

6 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

You are probably looking at the line for coffee. It's never much of a wait to get food.

I really hope so!  Thank you everyone for all the wonderful suggestions!

It's been 11 years since we've sailed with Princess, and our first time with an international cafe.  What would you recommend? 

Also, any favorite MDR dishes

The food on Cunard in the less expensive cabins is really good (we have three kids so we sailed in two interior cabins both times on Cunard) .  

Please note that if you have to board later or if you are delayed, the Manhattan terminal is very close to Gotham West Market and the Intrepid.  Sorry, I can't help you if you are sailing out of Brooklyn in terms of recommendations where to go nearby, but hope you will have a wonderful time.   

54 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

 

Interesting. The cynic in me thinks that's just corporate speak for a money grab, but another part of me wonders whether this isn't just a nod to environmental groups who have complained for years about cruising's adverse impact on the ocean, sea life, etc.

Ships can sail faster if they burn more fuel.  On  my cruise  NCL cancelled the final port for the environmental reasons cited a few posts earlier and turned it into a sea day.   Technically, cancelling the final port did  help the environment by allowing us to sail more slowly and burning less fuel on the return trip to NY from the Caribbean.  

At the time, the most unethical part of the whole situation was that NCL continued to advertise the original itinerary with the dropped port until sailing (they dropped the port shortly after final payment).  People who booked directly with NCL after the itinerary change weren't told of the dropped port, and they weren't allowed to cancel.  However, I've never seen any other reports of NCL inaccurately listing their itineraries after dropping ports, so it's possible that was just a one time mistake.  It created some issues since only about half the passengers got the port cancellation email, and some passengers who didn't receive the notification called NCL and were told the port was still on the schedule so there was more confusion than necessary.  

1 hour ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Princess added a new ship to their fleet this year, the Sun Princess.

It's recreation area on deck 19 was not finished at first sailing.

Now 5 or 6 months later, it is still not finished, and Princess has announced that they do know when, if at all it will be finished.

People and families have been taking cruises based on the promotion of that area, only to find it a construction zone.

Princess has not provided any OBC or future cruise credit for any of these sailings. I'm not certain if they have changed their promotions on the Sun.

 

Check it out on the Princess board, where people seem nonchalant about it compared to NCL board.

 

A missed port can happen for numerous reasons, an incomplete ship months later is a different matter.

The broken items are :

The RollGlider was to have been a first of its kind glider-style zipline experience, while the Coastal Climb included an open-air 360-degree observation deck.  Also broken is the ropes course.

Princess has announced that none of these amenities will open. https://www.travelgossip.co.uk/latestnews/key-top-deck-attractions-on-sun-princess-to-remain-permanently-closed/#:~:text=Princess Cruises has confirmed that,area%2C will remain permanently closed..  

Thankfully, the splash zone is open, which as a parent would have been my priority out of all of the Park 19 amenities.  

I'm sailing a different Princess ship but wouldn't have felt too upset if I was on the Sun.  I book primarily for itinerary, but travelers who book primarily for the ship might be more upset.    

9 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

But these links are clearly marked as 'sponsored' on top of the search engines results. Never click on them.

Absolutely correct.   They were labeled as princess cruise but were marked as sponsored.   I was on my phone and forgot to scroll down to get to the real number.  Thankfully, I realized it was probably a. scam and didn't pay them anything.  

18 minutes ago, MustangGT said:

😬. Glad you realized what happened!

yes, because I've cruised before the fee sounded like a scam.  It's really too bad google lets people pay to come up first in searches for corporations so they can scam people.

sorry - just realized it was my fault.  When I googled princess on my phone, I clicked on the first (sponsored) result and it wasn't actually princess I was calling.

Just now, dog said:

Did you book online?

Why did you phone?

I have never heard of this fee.

 

more information is needed to help you

I booked over the phone.  My princess account is showing no balance, except for the gratuities.  I phoned because I wanted to ask what the price for kids is at the specialty restaurants.  Before I had a chance to ask, the consultant told me I owed 270 per person, but that there was a sale and I could pay less if I paid it in advance.  I told him I'd been told I only owed gratuities at the time of booking, but he insisted this was an embarkation fee I'd need to pay when we embarked unless I paid it in advance.  Since he was offering me 50 per person off, which would bring it close to gratuities I can only assume he was trying to get me to prepay the gratuities. 

And if anyone knows the price of the kids dining in specialty restaurants I'd appreciate that information, since I was a little rattled from my call with princess.