CruisinChris

I'm Elite, among the first onboard, and also one of those running. Our new competition in Fort Lauderdale are the Suite passengers who have the new embarkation lounge on 17th St. They are being offered guaranteed Sanctuary reservations. Nice perk.

Enjoy the treat of a little extra speed!

Wow this is incredibly disappointing. Sky and Discovery don't have enough bars with music in the evening. Plus this room was gorgeous. Sigh. Clearly revenue generation per sq foot is stronger with slot machines, so there you go.

My 32" rolling suitcase monster fits no problem. I nest my rollaboard inside. Also, my large 30" hardsided Away bag also fits.

I routinely stay next door at the W and Uber to the port. As others have said, if you do a Princess transfer you will not be there at 9:30-9:45 when the early boarding lineup starts. BTW, Princess packages are a rip-off; you can do much better on your own. And, the Westin FLL Beach is tired and the rooms don't have balconies. Some have lovely ocean and beach views, but I would be frustrated not have a balcony in that location. I love staying on the central beach - lots to do, great vibe for starting vacation and tons of restaurants and bars. Allow 15-20 minutes to get to the ship (barring any sort of special event traffic or the drawbridge being up).

Thanks all. I do have an agent and I am aware they are posted in OneSource (I was an agent for a time because I wanted to know how it all works). The reason I'm asking about reduce supplement is the bottom line - it makes the overall cost of the cruise more affordable. That said, I'm not shopping on price alone. I do have flexibility and broad interests, so I'm often poking around to see what's available. I have no problem taking advantage of a good deal. Thanks to the poster who mentioned Cruise Plum. I discovered that shortly after my initial post.

Does anybody here happen to have a current "hot sheet" from Princess that lists cruises for the next 6-9 months that reduced/waived solo supplements? I saw one back in April, but it would really help me with planning to see an updated version. This community is great - thanks in advance!

I think you can do it yourself through the personalizer. 🙂

I'm really disappointed with this change and how it's been marketed as "Princess adds casual dining." Princess hasn't "added" anything except fees for previously included items. I get that Carnival Corp is drowning in overwhelming debt and they are looking to maximize revenue at every turn. It's exhausting as a consumer though. I'm sick of the "bid to upgrade" and the aftermath of that. Book what you want and pay for it. "bidding" is a joke and is only fueling the revenue-generation machine by allowing them to constantly balance stateroom availability against revenue maximization. It is nearly impossible to discern availability or even book specifically what you want. The only positive lately is that food seems to be improving along with menus. I don't know. My enthusiasm is waning.

You need permission before the cruise from HQ to do this.

ASk the parents to go on the Rush my passport website. They are an expediter. They go whereever is necessary to get the passport processed. You pay more than for just the passport, but you get a passport in short order. I have used this service multiple times and highly recommend

In case you didn't realize it, it's against Federal law to drink alcohol on a plane that you have brought on board. That can land you in some serious trouble.

Tip - for a better outcome, don't wait until after you've actually missed your flight to talk to the airline. Try to be proactive, when it looks evident you're not going to make it, call the airline, explain, and get yourself on the standby list for the next flight. If needed, you might ask them to carry you over to another airline. At any rate, you're always better off doing this before you miss your flight and are recorded as a no-show, which cancels out your booking. Depending on the airline, you might need to pay to standby or change your flight, but better to do that than have to book a last minute one-way fare. Also, budget airlines aren't as easy to work with or have as many options as legacy carriers.

the most disturbing thing about this thread is the number of instances where having documentation did not help resolve the issue. The stories of room changes are really deplorable.

Just experienced the only 1 bar open situation in Canada on Discovery last week after departing Victoria and arriving Vancouver.

Same situation with wine (particularly white) on Sky in Feb and Discovery last week out of LA. Many out of stocks, nothing drinkable on Plus (Canyon Road, or unknown). On both trips trying to get a hold of a bottle of Whispering Angel (or even a glass) was next to impossible. And the bubbly selection is awful to boot. Going Premier in August. Hoping the "supply chain" problems are fixed (i don't think that's the issue). Also really want the generic list for Plus to go away. It's ridiculous and insulting to wine drinkers to assume that we don't care about the specifics of what we're drinking.

I see the ship is shifting berths from 46 to 101 April 27 at 18:00. She is also scheduled to depart Southampton on May 1st at 18:00 "destination: undeclared." This is on southampton vts ship movements.

Great to hear. Between the Grand and now issues on Queen Mary 2, seems like the older ships out there aren't weathering years of deferred maintenance very well.

Cruisemapper deck plans for Sky definitely have some innacuracies - I would take with a grain of salt. They are currently showing Bellini's on two different decks.

I questioned that and @wowzz clarified that it was a typo.

What I notice with both of these menus is that we are moving more toward "pay as you go" versus paying a surcharge and everything is available. I've also seen this on the main dining room menu. I haven't made up my mind how I feel about it yet. Part of me doesn't mind paying extra for a better experience, but part of me doesn't like all the little add-ons. We're moving "all-inclusive" on drinks but moving toward alacarte pay as you go on dining, and certain "experiences." Argh.

One of my old time favorites is the Toasted Almond. Delicious. IT's not on the menus any more but they know what it is and make it without questions.

@wowzz Did you mean to say Sun?

Better yet - most agencies have an online booking portal. I frequently book through their portal as a hold and notify my agent and she converts it to a real booking for me.

IF you booked with agent, you need your agent to change it. If you booked with Princess they need to change it. PS It needs to match your travel documents (passport, BC, DL).