5/7/24: Princess Expands Caribbean Program

[Kaikit]

8 hours ago, Princess Cruises Fann said:

https://www.travelgossip.co.uk/product-news/grand-princess-to-homeport-in-san-juan-for-winter-2025-6/
 

Wonder what Princess will do with the Grand cruises that are currently scheduled for Australia and New Zealand during that time and still show as available as booking on the Princess Cruises website?

Well, the boat can't be in two places at once ? 

[LACruiser88]

Details in the below thread...

 

 

 

 

[Kaikit]

No, I meant the boat can't be in Australia and the Caribbean at the same time... as they are still selling the Grand Caribbean in November....

[triplem67]

9 hours ago, Princess Cruises Fann said:

https://www.travelgossip.co.uk/product-news/grand-princess-to-homeport-in-san-juan-for-winter-2025-6/
 

Wonder what Princess will do with the Grand cruises that are currently scheduled for Australia and New Zealand during that time and still show as available as booking on the Princess Cruises website?

@Princess Cruises Fann  I'm booked on a Grand Princess cruise out of Brisbane on 8th December 2025, so I'll be keeping an eye on my email to see what I hear from Princess Cruises.  
I assume there will be another ship added in place of Grand Princess 🤷‍♀️

[El turista]

Pretty sure they'll use Pier 4 in Old San Juan. They're departing on Sundays and the Brilliance of the Seas and Norwegian Epic will also depart Sundays of that same season. Royal Caribbean has priority at the Pan American Pier so one terminal is for the Brilliance of the Seas and Norwegian Epic is too big for Pier 4 so they'll take the other terminal at Pan American Pier.

[cr8tiv1]

3 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

As Grand is doing Alaska prior to these cruises there could be a nice Panama Canal repositioning cruise. 

 

Shhhhhh.....

[doghog]

1 minute ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Shhhhhh.....

Too late. 

[Honolulu Blue]

Bookings look to be available for these cruises out of San Juan.  The rest of this post is probably of more use to me than anyone else:

 

The 14-day cruise that's of most interest to me has the following itinerary (December 7-21):

 

Day 1 - depart SJ at 7 pm

Day 2 - St. Croix, 8-6

Day 3 - St. Kitts, 7-5

Day 4 - St. Lucia, 9-7

Day 5 - St. Vincent, 8-6

Day 6 - Barbados, 7-7

Day 7 - at sea

Day 8 - San Juan, 6-7

Day 9 - St. Thomas, 8-6

Day 10 - Sint Maarten, 8-6

Day 11 - Antigua, 8-6

Day 12 - Dominica, 8-6

Day 13 - Barbados, 7-7

Day 14 - at sea

Day 15 - arrive SJ at 6 am

 

I've been to all these islands except St. Vincent.  One of the reasons why I highlighted this route is that it goes there.  Guadeloupe and Martinique shows up on other itineraries.  I've been to Martinique before; it's all right, but I don't want to hurry back.  I haven't been to Guadeloupe.  I'd rather go to St. Vincent.  A notable island that's skipped on this journey is Grenada.  I'm pretty sure it's picked up on other cruises from Princess.

 

As expected, only Barbados is a repeat port on this cruise - not counting San Juan.

 

The 7 PM departure time is interesting.  They could leave even later if they wanted, but perhaps they want to keep us on schedule as much as possible.  Carnival (10 PM) and Celebrity (8:30) left later on their ships out of SJ.

 

This is not a cruise for people who love sea days, nor for those who dislike the charms of the Eastern Caribbean.

 

I don't expect this group of cruises to sell to quickly, so I have lots of time to do my due diligence and figure out exactly what I want to do.

[voljeep]

yeah, could prolly justify a 'fly trip' for that itinerary.

[voljeep]

14 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

A notable island that's skipped on this journey is Grenada.  I'm pretty sure it's picked up on other cruises from Princess.

 

Bonaire ??

[Honolulu Blue]

5 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Bonaire ??

None of the round-trip sailings from San Juan go to Bonaire.

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

None of the round-trip sailings from San Juan go to Bonaire.

bummer - my wife learned how to snorkel in our pool.  Bonaire was her first open water snorkel - after the first minute, she loved it ... but sorry, no sea turtle sighting

[spethstation]

15 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Bookings look to be available for these cruises out of San Juan.  The rest of this post is probably of more use to me than anyone else:

 

The 14-day cruise that's of most interest to me has the following itinerary (December 7-21):

 

Day 1 - depart SJ at 7 pm

Day 2 - St. Croix, 8-6

Day 3 - St. Kitts, 7-5

Day 4 - St. Lucia, 9-7

Day 5 - St. Vincent, 8-6

Day 6 - Barbados, 7-7

Day 7 - at sea

Day 8 - San Juan, 6-7

Day 9 - St. Thomas, 8-6

Day 10 - Sint Maarten, 8-6

Day 11 - Antigua, 8-6

Day 12 - Dominica, 8-6

Day 13 - Barbados, 7-7

Day 14 - at sea

Day 15 - arrive SJ at 6 am

 

I've been to all these islands except St. Vincent.  One of the reasons why I highlighted this route is that it goes there.  Guadeloupe and Martinique shows up on other itineraries.  I've been to Martinique before; it's all right, but I don't want to hurry back.  I haven't been to Guadeloupe.  I'd rather go to St. Vincent.  A notable island that's skipped on this journey is Grenada.  I'm pretty sure it's picked up on other cruises from Princess.

 

As expected, only Barbados is a repeat port on this cruise - not counting San Juan.

 

The 7 PM departure time is interesting.  They could leave even later if they wanted, but perhaps they want to keep us on schedule as much as possible.  Carnival (10 PM) and Celebrity (8:30) left later on their ships out of SJ.

 

This is not a cruise for people who love sea days, nor for those who dislike the charms of the Eastern Caribbean.

 

I don't expect this group of cruises to sell to quickly, so I have lots of time to do my due diligence and figure out exactly what I want to do.

I'm eyeing this sailing too, I've only been to SJ/St Maarten! The price is really good.

[Honolulu Blue]

On 5/16/2024 at 6:28 PM, Honolulu Blue said:

The 14-day cruise that's of most interest to me has the following itinerary (December 7-21):

 

Day 1 - depart SJ at 7 pm

Day 2 - St. Croix, 8-6

Day 3 - St. Kitts, 7-5

Day 4 - St. Lucia, 9-7

Day 5 - St. Vincent, 8-6

Day 6 - Barbados, 7-7

Day 7 - at sea

Day 8 - San Juan, 6-7

Day 9 - St. Thomas, 8-6

Day 10 - Sint Maarten, 8-6

Day 11 - Antigua, 8-6

Day 12 - Dominica, 8-6

Day 13 - Barbados, 7-7

Day 14 - at sea

Day 15 - arrive SJ at 6 am

I booked this exact B2B yesterday as separate cruises.  Again, this is of more use to me than anyone else, but I didn't want to establish a new thread here or in the roll call.  I'll do the roll call thing later, if I have to.

 

• I looked through a few different cabin classes on a few different decks.  Hardly any were booked.  This apparently is far different than that solar eclipse cruise that went on sale at about the same time.
• No one had booked any of the obstructed OVs I decided to favor for this trip.  So, I booked a couple - the same one for both cruises.
• This is another solo trip for me, so I paid the full single tax
• For some reason, I didn't get the $99 deposit.  My deposit was $250 for each cruise.  Not a big deal.  They're fully refundable and I figure I'll have to pay up eventually anyway if things go well.
• I didn't buy any add-ons at this time.  I'll evaluate them later.  Don't expect me to add a full package.
• So far I'm not seeing any of these cruises it in the two online agencies that I know about

[rodndonna]

Happy to see Princess offer cruises from San Juan. Like others we love sailing form San Juan when we can, but options are limited.

 

We've only been on the Discovery but purchased FCD's and looking to try a smaller/older Princess ship to compare with - so it's a win/win for us 😄

[spethstation]

I ended up biting the bullet and booking the Oct 12 sailing that visits Tortola, St Kitts, Dominica, Grenada, and Barbados. $919 CAD with refundable deposit (Princess Standard in interior room.) Eeeek! 🤩 Can't remember the last time I spent under $1k for a 7-day cruise...