APDMOM

We only saw fresh flower arrangements on the wagon - they were celebration bouquets for sale. 🙂

Interesting…

Do you have the same itinerary? I heard a couple of days ago that the ship will be switching to Western Caribbean soon.

Day 6:

That is true… 😂

I will do that, yes. It is definitely not disappointment with Princess - just that we prefer the other 3 cruiselines. It is a personal preference. We did indeed have an overall fun cruise. I will highlight what we love about the other 3 cruiselines when I get home 🙂

Agreed. I hope it is better by your sailing! We pointed it out to one person, who apologized and walked off with the plate. It did not change and we could have continued to complain, but we just decided to let it go. Interestingly, the silverware was always squeaky clean. Only plates and bowls were problematic. PS: I did write it in my cruise feedback to Princess in 2 places, so hopefully they pay attention to the feedback.

Day 5:

Day 4:

I forgot to take screenshots in the app of day 3, so here is the PDF version for download: Freestyle Daily Day 3.pdf

Day 2

I can post day 1 and 2 now… will post as the week goes along.

Thank you for helping out,@JamieLogical. I currently on NCL Breakaway, so I have limited internet. Yes, this is only about the terminal - not the ship. 🙂

@CruisingFox27, I think this is unique to Belize. I never experienced anything like it in many other tender ports, so you should be okay. In most ports, tenders run on a schedule. There really was nothing I could have done differently, except getting one of the first 15 tender groups. After that, it was luck of the draw. Some people walked on right before we left, but they were just lucky… If anything, try to get in the tender ticket line as early as possible.

I will gladly do that when we get back. I have very limited wifi on NCL, so I will be offline much of the week. 🙂

The Verdict on Enchanted Princess: What we loved: Some of the Best public entertainment, including our favorite, Glitz Duo. Excellent selection of TV programming. Even geeky shows for us! Princess Plus - we love that only first two require it - great value to us since DS only drinks water (not even bottled) and regular coffee. DH only takes an occasional sip of alcoholic drinks and mostly enjoys water and regular coffee. Therefore, drinks packages are never worthwhile to us. Adding the gratuities, wifi, and a couple of free meals made the Plus package worthwhile for our family. Medallion - We love that you can locate people, order from the app with your location. We also like to convenience of a wearable device. That aft balcony with extended space was AMAZING! If you can snatch up B737, it is highly recommended for the outdoor space. It is also great to have the balcony by the aft elevators, as those were not used much. Rock Opera was very good! I loved the extended open hours for the pools. The sizes of the main pools were good too. At about 12 yards long, I could swim about kilometer every morning before the pool got busy. The pool deck felt much more spacious than many other ships. Although this is not a deal-breaker, and we enjoy kids, it was a breath of fresh air to have so few children on the ship. We only saw one child running on the decks, which is unusual for the kinds of cruises we normally book. We are bound to school breaks, so we usually end up with a whole school full of kids on the ships. 😆 The staff at International Cafe were amazing! They would greet us long before we even walked up to the counter to order. The food at International Cafe ended up being our favorite - I often ate breakfast and lunch there! What we did not enjoy: The App needs a bit of work - notifications for messaging do not show up, unless you turn on the app. The daily program should display in full from the start, rather than just the first two activities. Small cabin - very small for a family of 3 adults. I will post pictures later to show how crowded it gets. A walk-in closet is nice for a full-time residence, but NOT practical for a cruise. It wastes too much space. Soft serve ice cream was not ‘creamy’ - not as good as on other cruise lines Bar service was hit or miss. Three times I was sitting alone in Bellini’s at a table. Even with only 2 other passengers at the bar, I never received service from the two bartenders behind the bar. I had to walk up to the bar, which is not a deal breaker, but just poor customer service and surprising. Game shows were fun, but theater entertainment was not as good. We only had two production shows, which was surprising. However, I know not many people are that interested in shows anymore - it is just something we love. There were too many time changes - I wish the ship would just remain on EST for the Caribbean itineraries. It is exhausting to change time 4 times per cruise. I know they probably try to avoid people missing the ship due to local time differences, but I believe in “personal responsibility”, so I don’t think that is good reasoning to inconvenience passengers and exhaust the crew. We know how tiring 2 time changes per year can be, imagine this every week for up to 4 times! There were frequently dirty dishes in the buffet. I don’t mean “used” and left on the tables. I mean from the ‘clean plates’ piles. We would turn a “clean” plate over daily and find food residue. With both DH and DS working in food service, this made us wonder about the status of cleanliness in the galley. Now, it is not unusual to run into this ‘occasionally’ - maybe 1 time on a cruise. But it happened daily, and often with more than one dish. One time, DS had to put 3 dirty plates aside before he finally found a clean one. Overall thoughts: I believe we got a great deal for this cruise, considering it was a summer cruise. If we get the same kind of deal on Princess with a great itinerary again, we will cruise on Princess again. We love cruising and had an amazing week, overall. NCL, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity remain our top 3 favorites, with Princess fourth. Carnival, Costa, and MSC are tied for 5th place. Of course, it is not a final judgement, as we have only experienced one Princess cruise. There are still so many ships on our bucket list that this may change over time. 🙂 Maybe we were not quite as ‘aged out’ of the other cruise lines… LOL!

No, you are right. It is a Fort Lauderdale rule, enforced by the port, not the cruise line. 🙂

Correct. However, DH has been able to safely secure our two small carry-ons together to have a hand available to hold onto the railing. They would not allow this either. It was just one of those situations where the “letter of the law” did not follow the intent of the rule with common sense. 🙂

There was a form to fill out to state your plans. Usually, if you do self-assist on other cruise lines, you don’t need to do anything. On Princess, even self-assist get luggage tags. Nobody stopped us or asked about our luggage tags though, so it was not a problem. I think it just helps them to streamline the debarkation process to some extent.

Well, we are waiting to board NCL Breakaway, so I will complete my summary and the verdict on whether we were “Enchanted by Princess” later today… along with a few more tips. ❤️ Thanks for all the likes, positive comments, and assistance from veteran Princess cruisers! It has been such fun to share our views and cruise with all of our CC friends❣️

Fort Lauderdale 🙈😫 TIP: If you get off at this terminal, just check your luggage. Self-assist was quite a mess because you are NOT allowed to carry your bags down the stairs. EVERYONE has to either use the escalator or elevator. They will NOT let you carry more than one bag down the escalator, nor allow you to make 2 trips down the regular stairs. That means you have to wait in the long elevator line. I am sure this arrangement is to the lack of personal responsibility and prior lawsuits or fear thereof… Other than this minor irritation, debarkation was smooth. TIP: Use a park and cruise service…. My newest view of parking at the port is NOT to do it. The drop off line holds up the parking line, then the same issue ensues when you try to leave. In the future, we will return to using a park and cruise option.

Debarkation Info We missed the bus on selecting self- assist, but it was not a problem. We were able to get off the ship at our leisure. I like that Princess did not rush us off… They repeatedly announced, “If you are ready…” It was a great experience until we entered the terminal. Download PDF for info: Debarkation 2.pdf

My View: Day 8 - Debarkation in Fort Lauderdale Wondered how many people were waking up in that Hilton to board a cruise…

Good morning! I agree - those swings are fun! My 77+1-year-old mom (she refuses to be called 78) would be swinging too! The game shows are in different venues - just check the APP or Princess Patter 🙂 Enjoy planning your adventure!

Hi @ecs66! Seven days on the ship, and no soot or fumes. Enjoy your cruise planning! 🙂 I believe Baja deck is the best for aft balconies on this ship. Hopefully, you can get those.