alreadypacked

We finally arrived to the middle of the Dominican jungle, and it was time for lunch.

 

 

 

We'll be back to these later.

 

 

Donde esta el bano? Aqui!

 

 

 

 

:eek::eek: Uh oh! What were those banos like? No plumbing to speak of I imagine. Odors? Bugs? Other critters?

Wow, great San Juan pictures!

 

And thanks for the info about the trolley--stop 14, duly noted! DH and I will be there at the beginning of April and want to tour El Morro also.

GAPearl, you have me on the edge of my seat--can't wait to see what happens next!:):)

 

Enjoy your day off!

 

You have certainly earned it!

I hope you and GF continue to cruise more often so you can post more cruise reviews!! I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud reading this....great job!!

 

I was just thinking the exact same thing soulsistah007!

 

Awesome job on your first review, Shyhova!!:)

 

Keep on cruising...

 

Then log on to cruise critic and tell us all about it!!!:D

 

You have a great writing style and sense of humor--keep up the great reviews.

Great review with beautiful photos! Doesn't matter that it's a little late. I'm just happy there are three great Breeze reviews on cc at the same time (yours, GAPearls's and Mike and Tracy)!!:) Keep it coming!:)

 

 

 

 

Great review GAPearl, as always!!:)

 

It seems that the price of the Cheers program has gone up to $49.95 (up from $42.95) according to the above Fun Times.

 

Did you partake and if so, what was your experience? Thanks!

If they (and you) had researched the wine policy thoroughly, they would have discovered that bringing a case of wine is permitted. Princess does not have a restriction on personal wine. First bottle per person is free. All additional bottles come on board after payment of the $15 per bottle corkage fee. The people "bragging" about wheeling on a case were not "bending" any rules, let alone getting away with murder. The alcohol restrictions (and this thread) pertain to bringing hard liquor on board.

 

From my reading of the cruise ticket contract, bringing a case of wine is not permitted. It does not say that any bottles of wine in addition to "one-per-person" are simply charged a $15 corkage fee:

 

http://www.princess.com/legal/passage_contract_OLD/index.jsp

Passengers agree not to bring alcoholic beverages of any kind on board for consumption except one bottle of wine or champagne per person of drinking age (no larger than 750 ml) per voyage only in his/her carry-on luggage. A corkage fee of $15.00 U.S.D. per bottle (which is subject to change without notice) will be applied to wine and champagne brought aboard by You and consumed in the ship’s public areas. Any wine(s) or champagne(s) supplied by the Carrier to You as a gift are not subject to a corkage fee. At embarkation, all luggage will be scanned for suspected alcohol in excess of the one bottle policy as provided herein. Your luggage will undergo a secondary inspection by a security team operating under CCTV (closed circuit surveillance) or in the event Your luggage is locked, You will be notified and are required to attend the secondary inspection where any alcohol found in violation of the one bottle policy will be removed and discarded. Carrier shall not be responsible for any loss, cost, disappointment or damage of any kind as a result of any alcoholic beverages removed in violation of the one bottle policy. You agree to surrender alcoholic beverages that are purchased duty free from the ship’s gift shop, or at ports of call, to Carrier, which will be delivered to Your stateroom on the last night of the voyage.

Great start, Grady! I always like your reviews--can't wait for the rest!:)

I wouldn't worry, melody. Unless rules have changed since March (which I doubt), you should be fine with a current driver's license and birth certificate. (Hopefully the birth certificate won't be a problem for you, but there might be some other alternatives.)

 

By the way, I definitely wouldn't say that my wife's missing driver's license wasn't a problem -- just that we somehow survived in spite of the problems (which did have significant potential to ruin everything). But a passport was definitely not required.

 

Tim

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks for the review!

 

I read a lot of it, but not every single post, so maybe I missed this but I was just curious--did you ever find out what happened to your wife's driver's license? Was it stolen or simply lost or misplaced?

The wind is trying to take me away lol. I look like the girl from "The Ring"

 

 

And look who was in my room when I got back.......

 

Dash, he's a bear right?!?

 

I liked him so much that I let him wear my beads

 

That concludes Day 2. The drink of the day was "Mango Margarita" and the frozen drink special was "Hurricane Wave". I tried neither though.

 

*Random thoughts*

 

*Are we the only cruisers that never seem to catch "The Morning Show"? I think I did wake up too early one day and caught it by mistake lol

 

*Those Sail & Sign Kiosks are great! There should be one on every floor.

 

*Now that I'm platinum, there never seemed to be a person at the designated spot at the guest services desk! What is that about?!?:p

 

*We still hadn't met our room steward. Dh had left some shirts to be pressed out, but the mystery steward never took them.:confused:

 

I know what you mean, but I have found that even if there's no one manning the platinum desk, if you just stand in the platinum line anyway, when one of the other guest services reps finishes waiting on a non-platinum guest, they will take you next (before other non-platinum guests in line).

Yep, Half Moon Cay is awesome!!

 

You guys clearly had a great time there. Love your pictures on the swings--pure, no doubt about it, fun!!

 

Can't wait to read the rest of your review!:)

Yay another Mike & Tracy family review!! You haven't even gotten on the ship yet and already it looks like you all are having a great time! Love the pictures! Can't wait to read the rest--keep it coming!!:):)

Great review!! I remember reading your other reviews and they were very good also. Can't wait to read the rest of this one! I did this itinerary on the Liberty 2 years ago (before 2.0 upgrades) and had a great time too.:)

[quote name='CruisinSinceIwasBorn']Thanks for the kind words. Believe me, the decision to purchase Cheers! was a HUGE struggle. I did the math many many times and constantly changed my stance all the way up until we arrived at the port. $690 charge as soon as you get on board for two people is a lot of money, but having sailed so many times before, I knew that it's very easy to get to that amount.

I know some people are really opposed to the Cheers program because they think it fills the ship up with drunk people. I would say for us, it did the opposite. When we would pay for drinks, we often tried to get them all at once so we could keep a great buzz going. With the Cheers, we would have a few beers at the pool, then not drink for awhile, have a drink with dinner, a beer at pub quiz, and a couple at the club/piano bar. Never were we "wasted" or falling over like some people think Cheers people do. People think 15 drinks is a ton, and it is a lot, but I hit the cap twice. Oh my gosh! 15 drinks! It was over 12 hours as I explained before. I didn't drink 15 all at once!

Would I purchase Cheers again? Possibly. I loved that DW and I could try so many different drinks and all of the different bars. The Breeze has a huge assortment of branded bars that offer all different drinks and beers. By far the best selection of any cruise I have been on. What I enjoyed most is that I knew exactly what my Sail and Sign account would be. I didn't have to nervously check every morning to see what the previous night's damage was.[/quote]

Great review!! Thanks for posting.

My experience with the all-inclusive beverage package on another line was pretty much the same as yours. No rowdy drunks and personally I didn't drink any more than I normally would--perhaps even less. I did consume more bottled water, though, as that was also included. Wish Carnival would include bottled water in their package!

OP, could you post a picture of the cabin please?

Great start!! Looking forward to the rest!:)

You've got me hooked--can't wait to read the rest of the review! Congrats to Amanda!:)

Great review Jamman!

 

I've been following for a while but am only just commenting now.

 

Thanks for the nice commentary and photos! Seems like you and your wife and son had a great cruise!

You can have plenty of money and be low class, character makes the man not the size of his bank account.

 

So true. Look at the way some of these rich celebrities behave. Money doesn't buy class.

There are also four Breakfast Grill stations where you can get all those other breakfast items, including those infamous scrambled eggs that almost everybody hates. Stick to the Omelette Station. They will fry or scramble REAL eggs for you, in addition to the omelettes…

 

 

 

 

 

There is a Continental Breakfast Station…

 

 

Of course, many beverage stations, including the one upstairs by the Rotisserie on Deck 10…

 

 

Patti and I enjoying our first breakfast at sea. (On this cruise)…

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…

 

Really wonderful review!!

 

I see you started this review in the last couple weeks but I haven't been on cruise critic a whole lot recently, so I seemed to have missed it.

 

Glad I found it now! Really enjoying your photos and personality.

 

I'm originally from NJ but have never sailed out of the Northeast. I think that is something DH and I must do at least once! Nothing beats the NY skyline!

Hi GA PEARL, Your reviews have more lives than a cat. lol, they are always popping up to the top. Love it !

 

Have to share my excitement with you as well as letting you know I will be rereading your reviews again and again.

 

You may recall my husband did not feel well on our last cruise in March on the Breeze. It had nothing to do with the ship, but his fatigue and mobility challenges. He decided and continued to say he was through with cruising, didn't want to do any more, that was his last. I was of course broken hearted since I love cruising. I do land trips without him, but would not feel comfortable cruising and leaving him here. WELL, DRUM ROLL PLEASE.

 

As I was on CC the other day reading a review of the Pride, he asked where I was this time. I suggested to him that we try the Pride since we are barely an hour and a half from Baltimore and the Pride is a Spirit class ship which we find easy to navigate.

 

He said, "IF you'll go to Puerto Rico, I'll go on a cruise !" I emailed our TA who found the perfect cruise for us. The Pride is repositioning to San Juan Nov. 30, 2014. After our cruise, it will be based in Tampa. WE are booked on the 8 day from Baltimore to Grand Turk, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Maarten and San Juan ! We'll spend a few days post cruise in San Juan then fly back non-stop on Southwest to BWI. YES !

 

I'll be reading all of your San Juan adventures with new interest. Although with the mobility issues we will do more van tours vs walking around, I know we will have a wonderful time.

 

Have a great time on the Breeze. I know you will love it. Can't wait for that review.

 

I was thinking the same thing recently!

 

GAPearl's reviews go the distance! And rightfully so--she provides lots of detailed info, photos, and personality!

 

Way to go--looking forward to more!:)

Taking my freshman out of school net week. She will only miss 3 days of school for our short cruise. I tell the school the truth...........they have never called it an unexcused absence.

 

 

Good luck! :)

 

Interesting discussion. My experience as a kid in school was similar.

 

I may be out of the loop today since I'm not a parent, but I was a kid once and (back then) an unexcused absence was pretty much one not notified to the school by your parents. In other words, you'd cut class.

 

If your parent notified the school of a family vacation or other situation, the child wasn't penalized in any way.

 

My school didn't even have a problem with my early dismissal one day per week so I could attend additional (out-of-state) practice for my non-school-affiliated sport.

 

I went to a parochial school, though.

 

Is this a public school thing (due to government regulations and all)?

While I have been around CC long enough to become accustomed to some gratuitous snarkiness, I was a bit shocked to be accused of exaggerating the delay we experienced (which was completely unrelated to issue of the missing ID). This isn't a matter of fuzzy memory four months later. On the contrary, just 2 days after it happened I posted the essence of this same story on the other long thread I had been writing on CC. In addition, my report here mentions specific times, which I found through photo time stamps and phone call records.

 

I also didn't post this to "whine" about Princess. I have said all along that we are fans of Princess and we don't expect that to change.

 

I didn't post this for my own benefit, but I wanted those who book BVEs to be aware that they may need to be prepared to assert their right to priority boarding, that they can't assume that the port reps will handle this correctly, and that if all else fails a call to 1-800-PRINCESS may cut through the blockade.

 

Regarding the question of whether or not my wife should have been allowed to board, I think the suggestion of any real homeland security risk in our case is ridiculous. I don't know exactly why they eventually allowed her to board (and I wasn't inclined to question), but I have a theory. Less than two months earlier, my wife had presented her driver's license for our February 16 BVE. They probably had a copy of it in their computer. (I know for a fact that other places that needed her ID before it was replaced were able to satisfy their requirements from their own computer copies of her ID.). In any case, we had several official documents which clearly showed that she was who she said she was.

 

Nevertheless, the suggestion of photocopies is a good one (though I don't think such copies could assure anyone that they could board).

 

Certainly I am not in any way opposed to homeland security requirements and agree that a government-issued ID should be required to board a cruise ship. Had Princess denied my wife boarding, the fault would have certainly been our own.

 

Nevertheless, the two others who accompanied us for the BVE (and who had all of the required documents) should not have been subjected to delayed boarding.

 

Your son was present with his ID and birth certificate (which indicates that Terri is his mother). This may have been a factor in allowing your wife to board. This article on Fodor's states that there are other ways authorities can verify someone's identity.

 

http://www.fodors.com/news/story_5647.html

 

Article excerpt:

Show any unofficial ID. If you're traveling with family who share your last name, their presence is a form of proof, along with credit cards, business cards, family photos. The Transportation Security Administration website states that passengers are required to show a U.S. federal or state-issued photo ID in order to pass through the checkpoint and onto their flight.

 

As does this page from the TSA website:

 

http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/acceptable-ids

Great review!! Keep it coming & thanks!:):)

We sat getting used to the water for a bit.

 

 

 

We were slowly starting to get tired of the taste of alcohol, so we got virgin daiquiris and water.

 

I got a steak fajita and Malcolm got a burger.

 

I know I know, how do you come all the way to Mexico and get the most American thing on the menu?! WOMP WOMP.

 

Anyways, we sat just talking, laughing and enjoying the scenery, not wanting to leave. Soon, we were ready to start heading back towards the ship, but we stopped downtown to do a little shopping.

 

I went to the bathroom to change out my wet swim suit. Very clean bathrooms. So clean, there is a lady in there with a mop, moping out the bathroom each time someone comes out the stall.

 

We headed towards the taxis and Malcolm told the lady we wanted to head downtown and we sped off.

 

We passed the ship, passed what I thought was much of downtown and kept going. At this point I was getting scared like, “Where is this lady taking us?!”

But soon enough, she stopped, ever so conveniently in front of the Diamond Center. Surprise, surprise. We were so far away from the ship, that even if we walked a few miles, we would STILL need to take a taxi. But we had a few hours to spare, so we went with it.

 

Malcolm paid the lady for the taxi and I politely, but firmly told the ladies we didn’t want to go into the Diamond Center. I told Malcolm to let me do the talking when it came to situations like this, because he’s too nice and we might end up in an ally somewhere buying something we don’t need to buy! (MY EXACT WORDS. FORESHADOWING)

 

We came across these ladies who sewed names into bracelets, so we had one made for his little sister. We picked out the colors and wrote her name down and they told us it would be ready in about 15 mins, so we wondered around the shops. One of the shops had a free tequila tasting (wait, didn’t we say we were tired of alcohol?). One was really sweet tasting, and one had this minty taste to it that was really good. So Malcolm got a bottle of that to share with his roommates.

 

I’m not into tee shirts and all that other SWAG (Stuff We All Get) crap, but I do like to collect miniature flags where ever I go. But no one seemed to know where I could find any, so I got the prettiest bracelet for me and my coworkers and a bottle of tequila with a little sombrero for my cousin/roommate/coworker.

 

We went back to pick up the bracelet we had made Malcolm’s little sister and it looked really good! We were happy. We just kind of walked the area, slowly making our way back to the ship.

 

That is one nice thing about some public restrooms in Mexico and other areas of the Caribbean. With an attendant--they're clean!

 

I've been in bathrooms that look like a hole in the wall on the outside, but were clean inside! I don't mind tipping for that service either. In St. Maarten, we paid $1.00 fee to use the attended public facilities. Well worth it!!

 

I wish our public restrooms at the beaches and malls here in South Florida had attendants! I will gladly pay for cleanliness over the current status quo.