DCThunder

Sorry. Oosterdam departing BA on Mar. 10 vs. Sapphire Princess departing BA Mar. 5. Essentially same itinerary until Santiago and same Peru port calls for each. From there Oosterdam heads to Panama, Aruba and FLL and Sapphire heads towards Nicaragua and up the west coast of Central America/Mexico to LA.

I am a relatively new cruiser and so far have sailed exclusively on Princess both in the Caribbean and a TA/Northern Europe/Canary Islands sailing. I've booked a Princess cruise from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles as well as a separate Panama Canal sailing from LA to FLL. However, I'm considering cancelling the Princess cruises and booking a 31 day BA to FLL cruise (including a Canal transit) on HAL instead. I must say that I have had zero issues with Princess but I am considering if I get more "bang for my buck" with a different itinerary on HAL. Can anyone who's sailed on both Princess and HAL give me any advice as to which cruises to do? The cost of the BA-LA on Princess and the BA-FLL on HAL is essentially the same, but I'd save on not doing the LA-FLL Princess cruise. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA

It looks like the CDC announcement of late yesterday is sparking all the cruise line stocks today. CCL is up so far today and back over $10/share. Dead cat bounce? 🤷‍♂️

Back to your original question, the times of the boarding groups don't really seem to matter, or at least they didn't the two times I've boarded a ship in Port Everglades (January and April 2022). No one ever asked or checked what time my "check in slot" was. So my advice is not to sweat that part of boarding.

I had a Rivera (Deck 14) aft facing cabin on the Enchanted for a TA/Northern Europe cruise. That's two decks below the Wake View Bar/pool. I never heard a sound from above, day or night. I realize I had a cabin buffer between me and the bar, but I had absolutely no issues with noise. In my experience, the Wake View bar isn't a real rowdy location at night, but on cruises that had cooler weather, there wasn't as much outside sitting/drinking in the evening as there might be in the Caribbean.

There's really only one outlet which is located above the desk. It has US/British/Euro style outlets. The bedside lamps have USB ports in them, but not electrical ports. Depending on what you'd need to plug in, you'll need to bring a non-surge protected outlet expander. If it has USB ports in it, you wouldn't need the charging ports, most likely. There's also an outlet in the bathroom to plug in an electric shaver. It's a US style plug.

Exactly. You are free to tip individual crew members (bartenders/room stewards, etc.) if you wish.

If he's still on-board (IIRC, he said his contract was up in July and he was going back to Peru for a while), he'll make you what ever you want.

This was absolutely my experience in both Copenhagen and Southampton on a B2B2B. You get a "Passenger in Transit" card from the steward and exit the ship when you want and return before departure. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy as the Brits say.

Everyone who has taken the tour has had so swear on a stack of Bibles to not tell what goes on "behind the scenes". The Knights Templar and the Illuminati have their tentacles in everything, donchaknow...

Go to Bellini Bar and have Christian serve you a drink. He's a great bartender!

I have watched a Princess desk clock move one hour ahead at 1200 hours (noon) as we sailed east on the TA. It suddenly became 1300 and the hands of the clock moved forward automatically. And yes, Millennials, since we know you can't tell time on a clock with hands, they weren't digital... 😄

He's a trusting soul, I guess...😀

Well, I got the confirmations last night that had $1.00 deposits for 3 2024 Australia voyages, so I guess he was not wrong.

Well said. Bravo!

From what I've seen, the 5:30 pm dinner arrival time in the MDRs is PRIME TIME for a certain age demographic on the other end of the spectrum from children as well. 😄

From FLL to the Azores, the internet wasn't too bad, but went downhill rapidly the further east we got. Once we got into the English Channel and up towards Denmark, it went to hell in a handbasket, and didn't get much better. A crew member told me that the crew also has to pay for internet and since the passengers got it free on the TA, so did the crew. That really clogged up the upload/download capacity and caused no one to have decent service. Sounds like Princess needs to talk to Elon Musk and use Starlink...

I've booked six, two for summer 2023 (Northern Lights and Iceland/Greenand) and 4 in March-April 2024 for Australia/NZ. Trying to decide if I go Sydney to Hong Kong and fly home or do a trans-pac from Sydney to SF as the concluding cruise. I booked both and have over a year to decide which to do. However, unless the website's been u[dated, the 2024 cruises are not showing as $1.00 deposits, although my PVP assures me that this is not the case.

Since you have to list the booking number on the form, you might have an issue with getting the SH OBC for each leg of the B2B. You might try to put an explanatory note on the form or the cover email you send. Good luck.

I sent an email on June 14 for a Sept. 2 sailing. Got the credit yesterday (6/25).

Given the Crown has had propulsion issues, perhaps Coleridge is more appropriate: Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as a painted shipUpon a painted ocean.Water, water, every where,And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink.

When I attempted to sell life insurance over 40 years ago, I remember being told that New York had laws/regulations on all insurance that were different from almost every other state and that the big life insurance or property and casualty insurance companies had to set up a New York only subsidiaries to sell to customers in New York State. I'd guess that the cruise insurance is similar.

OK. Good luck.

Perhaps...

I'm not understanding your problem. Wouldn't your sister and her husband book their own cabin? How would that impact a cabin you'd already booked for yourself, unless you're wanting to get adjoining cabins?