pablo222

Sounds good to me. Which is why we added two January cruises and I get to live in a suite on one of them. :D

 

This is cruise critic -- there is someone here who would be

distressed about being in a suite, because the auto-tip

is more.

It's so stupid, yet so simple. I hate it, but it works! The days of receiving a nice package in the mail with your travel documents and luggage tags are gone....

 

I think those days ended along with dressing up to fly...

I like the Princess ship better than the Vision, but I like Vision's itin/times (getting to GC earlier at 7am vs Ruby at 11am). Both have the rooms available that I want. What to do?

 

Grand Cayman is a tender port. Arriving at 11:00, everyone on

the ship will be ready to go ashore as soon as the tenders are ready.

 

If you are not suite/elite (or buy a princess tour), you could be

in for quite a wait...

 

Princess Cays is a tender port as well, while in Costa Maya,

you would be alongside. (at a pier)

So when does this actually start?

 

What else can princess do? They have a sale every other week

-- balcony bonanza, red white and blue, etc.

 

They even gave away (essentially) free cruise.

 

What's left -- paying people to go?

The gas station comes to the ship rather than the other way around.

 

Usually not in Ft. Lauderdale. There is underground piping

from the tank farm right to the berths.

 

All they do is drag around a trailer mounted pump.

The second issue was with the hot water in the rooms, or I should say, LACK of hot water on many occasions.

 

I was on coral a few weeks ago. One morning, I was just about

to step into the shower, when the water stopped completely.

 

I felt I was lucky, as I wasn't yet soapy.

 

After a few minutes, the water returned.

 

Not having a lot of confidence, I filled the sink with

"emergency rinse" water, and continued.

Guess we will be bringing our own shampoo and conditioner. You just never know what some people (not the cabin steward) will put in a bottle before they leave.

 

I had a single-serving bottle in a hotel that had been

tampered with.

 

(I think/hope some thrifty individual had added water to

use up the last bit in the bottle)

 

But I noticed because one little bottle was a different color

that the others.

 

BTW, these are the same people that are sneezing into your

pillow.

Will absolutely bring ID - all this info is VERY helpful, thanks so much!

 

You need a government issued picture id to enter port everglades. ...like a drivers license. That is sufficient for a bve as well.

What a wonderful post! Our son is a musician on Princess-works with lots of the dancers (but not on the Royal)-so I'll be sure he'll try to pass along your comments to Lauren and Elenor.

 

I sent Eleanor a link to the post.

We were on the Royal last week and we were the first group to board want up to Sancturay and they were sold out of weekly . They were selling daily's but you had to be first in line in the morning at 7:00 A.M. It looks like that they are pre selling to Elite pre -cruise even thou they tell you they are not. They could not sell out in the first 30 min. of boarding.

 

Sounds like lost revenue to Princess. They need to raise the price to match the demand. If it sells out in the first hour, it isn't priced high enough.

The Ruby rep had the audacity to say she works 13 hours a day. Doing what? This cruise had 88% first timers, most with little kids. She had nothing to do and never had anybody waiting at her door. Do buy your FCC's on the Emerald.

 

 

I know that on the short cruises on the west coast that the FCC and Captains Circle host were totally overwhelmed --- primarily by people who wanted to verify that they were getting their 'free cruise' credit and/or book something with it. For a month or so, they were bringing extra people on from Santa Clarita to help out.

Good morning!

 

My TA was able to book my MIL & FIL for the Bon Voyage Experience on our upcoming Royal Princess cruise - and they had 2 questions. Rather than wait for a response from my TA, thought I'd ask here:

 

1. Is there day parking, or a parking area close to the ship?
   
2. Do they have to register online as if they were going on the cruise?
   

 

And one question from us - do they board differently than us? We're in a full suite, so I know we have preferred boarding, but just not sure if they come with us, or we go with them.

 

Thank you!! :D

Nikki

 

I have done several BVEs, including royal. It is 99% likely that Royal will be at berth 2 in Port Everglades. You in-laws need to park in the north port parking garage which is adjacent to both berth 2, and the broward county convention center. In the garage, park at the southeast corner, as that elevator is closest to where you enter for BVE. Garage is like $3 for first hour, up to $15/day. Don't wait in any line outside the building, announce yourself as BVE to the shore staff at the door, and you should go right in. Keep asking for BVE one inside, as those folks are grouped together and board early. Don't mix in with the masses. I don't usually take the ship tour offered, but on Royal, it was worthwhile. It included going through the sanctuary, and seeing the cabanas and treatment rooms. I don't know if ordinarily a regular guest will be allowed to tour that area without signing up for the sanctuary.

There is a whole crew cleaning, not just your room steward.

If we had a laptop, would have taken it with us.

On one cruise, my steward these folks the bathroom boys.

 

He was responsible for making up the cabin -- but there was

a separate group responsible for all the bathrooms. And, as

you said during turn-around, all the doors are propped

open.

 

I wouldn't leave anything valuable in the cabin.

Remember, also, that Disabled American Veterans get free parking upon showing the proper documentaion. I know Houston (Bayport) does this, hopefully they all do!

 

You park for free in Ft. Lauderdale if you have handicapped

placard AND you have special equipment installed in your

vehical. (hand controls, etc.)

Can I bring a glass of wine into the main dining room? Thinking of pouring my own to save some $. Thanx.

 

I think people should brag about doing this much more here. That will ensure that the first-bottle-comes-onboard-free exception will be revoked. Carry on.

Aren't there enough lectures here?

 

Just suggest that you're not planning on wearing formal

attire, and you won't have to wait for your cruise to get

a lecture.

The main reason why they use cans is that they simply cannot produce enough potable water onboard to supply the demand that would result from using exclusively soda fountains. They have relatively limited capacities to produce and store drinking water. Capacity will just do for the number of passengers purchasing beverage cards.

 

Is this an over-the-top attempt at humor?

Guess Princess thinks guests are going to take their shampoo

 

Have you read these 'boards'? I'm sure there is an ongoing discussion

on what size allen wrench to bring to remove the pump bottles from

the holder in the shower.

 

(It looked like 5/16 to me, but it might have been metric

-- so 'one' should bring both to be sure)

In my case my credit card was charged when I booked the so called "Free Cruise". So if I paid for it right then it is hard for me to call it a "Free Cruise".

 

I'm sure the regulars will give you more Kool-Aid.

You are not missing anything. Very few people attend. We tried it on the last cruise in Nov and there was no ONE there. This is a very poor perk if it can be called a perk.

 

I agree with you. And yet, there are people who post

here that they lie about being in a suite to gain entrance.

 

You meet the nicest people on ships...

Stop being Platinum/Elite/Suite snobs. We have been in the Skywalkers many times when there were very few people. If we started a good conversation with someone that wasn't "eligible" we had them stay as our guests (which you can do). I get tired of the Elites that can't wait to tell everyone how great they are for their Princess "status".

 

Get a life. You didn't earn anything, you bought your status. Nobody really cares how many cruise days you have, the fact that you get free laundry, and on and on. Just thank God you have had the opportunity to cruise as much as you have and strive to have conversations about something worthwhile.

 

Why do you go to a venue where you will be subjected to these people?

Sorry -- bottom line -- when you get the error page from https://print.princess.com Click 'continue to website' anyway.

I was unable to print my boarding passes etc as well. I spent 30 minutes with someone at princess who tried to be very helpful but wasn't listening. He was nice and had me do a bunch of stuff.

Don't adjust your set. The problem is in princess' host setup: "print.princess.com uses an invalid security certificate. The certificate is only valid for answers.princess.com (Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)" They need to get a few of their IT guys back from working on the obama-care website, and have them fix the princess web site. To create a secure connection (when you type https://) your browser asks the host for the security certificate. You browser didn't like with print.princess.com presented -- because it is wrong. If you use a browser like Firefox, you can tell it to continue anyway, and ignore the certificate error. Here is more info for IE:

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/certificate-errors-faq#ie=ie-11

Not always....We had a woman (who was formally dressed) in the elevator make snide comments to us (casually dressed) as we made our way to the buffet.

 

"I only care about the opinion of people I respect"

...is always a nice reply in a situation like this.

Requiring all passengers in a cabin to book a package when only one may desire it is flawed financial thinking. Those who do book it will be the type who tend to drink substantially anyways, so they will tend to get thier money's worth off of Princess.

 

I am absolutely certain that Princess will set the price-point

to ensure that the program is profitable.