lovestheH20

Good to know.  We have been to Port Limon before and have seen the canals, banana plantations, etc.  It was good but I don’t want to repeat it.  We really don’t want to be on a bus for most of the day either.  So I am thinking of contacting him to see what else is available.  Thanks for posting.

On 10/11/2019 at 4:57 PM, Go-Bucks! said:

Wow...I'm going to be on the Island for 2 months. You've all depressed me! The itinerary is fantastic and unusual so I didn't really think that the ship would be so horrible. 

 

Personally, I won't go on the Sun or Grand again, but have enjoyed the other Princess ships I've been on. Hope I won't be sorry I've spent so much money to go on a crappy ship.🥺

We just got off the island and loved her. I was fearful before we got on board her as well. Honestly I was stunned at how overly exaggerated the complaints are. I believe you will love her. Please don’t let all the complaints discourage you. We would go on her again in a minute.

We just got off the Island Princess yesterday. We loved our cruise to the Panama Canal! What a wonderful cruise. I was rather scared hearing all the negative comments prior to boarding, however that was quickly dispelled. We would cruise on the Island Princess again in a minute. Lovely ship, wonderful service. Great shows  and the food was very good. Many nice people aboard. 

28 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

According to this all Princess ships have UBD. If you look in the Personalizer under 'Onboard Reservations', and then 'Culinary Delights', it should be listed as 'Ultimate Balcony Dining for Two $100'.  It's not listed under 'Specialty Dining'. 

dining-options.pdf 1.76 MB · 0 downloads

Thank you! Found it. Have a nice day.

I have checked under specialty dining on my cruise reservation and cannot find anything about Ultimate Balcony Dining.  Does anyone know if the Island has this available? 

Thank you kindly for all your responses! Now to convince my husband that we will be just fine without the vaccine! I am not sure where our local travel medical folks got their info. but it was quite an extensive interview.

We are cruising to the Panama Canal in October 2019.  I just consulted with our local travel medicine experts and because we had scheduled an excursion to see the Embera Indian Village outside of the canal, and because of our ages, I would need to be immunized for Yellow Fever, but my husband would be unable to because of his age.  The immunization is hard to obtain, I would need to drive 4 hours to get it.  It has severe side effects listed.  Because of this, we opted not to do this excursion.  I am disappointed. However, I would really like to hear from others who have done excursions on the 10-day round trip partial transit Panama Canal Cruise.  We are interested in the locks and history.  I do not want to sit on a bus or train for long periods of time.  Thanks for your input.

Following...

Curious as to how luggage works with EZ Air with say AA?  Is carry on luggage allowed? If not what is the price for checked bags?  

Thank you for your report. So good to know.

On 6/11/2019 at 3:47 PM, pambam said:

Another death today. Can't say I'm not getting a little bit concerned now.

I am concerned also. I would rather not stop there. 

I am concerned as well. It looks like Americans are being targeted. I think I will wait to hear about all the FBI findings before making my decision about staying in Amber Cove vs. venturing out...

I admire you. I love cruising with my husband, and, would like to travel solo on a cruise.  I am enjoying your journey. Thanks for sharing!

11 hours ago, geoherb said:

I leave this afternoon for Vancouver to board the Island Princess tomorrow. I booked these cruises just 24 days ago. It's been a whirlwind. This is my first time going solo. DH is staying home to work. It's his busiest time of the year. I gave him the choice of my waiting to go to Alaska with him in late August or going with him on another cruise then. He'd rather go back to Europe than to Alaska. Fortunately, Princess had a very low single supplement for these cruises. The other ships I looked at were charging solo passengers double, whereas this cruise was only around $100 more.

 

I booked the lowest category of inside cabin as guarantees for both cruises. At the time I booked, there were not any insides available for both cruises. Luckily, the Upgrade Fairy came along and assigned me a great ocean view cabin in a very convenient location--one of Cat. OB cabins on the Plaza Deck. 

 

Thanks for your insight.

Thanks for your reply. I did not create the date format. Am I able to fix it? 

I have been having trouble with finding and getting the roll call going for October 7, 2019 Island Princess Panama Canal cruise.  It’s like it is hidden and you have to go thru multiple steps to find it.  It is discouraging.  I have never had these problems before.  I wonder when Cruise Critic will fix this problem.  I notice there are advisories all over about the Roll Call portion having trouble.  Frustrating!

We (sadly) finished our cruise on the Miracle last week! We had on previous cruises always had traditional dining. We are early eaters. Our dilemma was that our friends who invited us to cruise with them were late diners. We chose YTD as a compromise. I was worried about it in advance, however, it worked out great. We usually ended up eating early, at 5:45, and never waitied. But if our late dining friends wanted to have wine and a food tasting before their dinner, we joined them and then went to a later dinner at YTD. We did have to wait a short time then , but no biggie. We were able to request our same waitstaff which we loved, and, it was no big deal when we did not eat at the dining room on Port days (to full from big lunch). It was just the two of us. We could have joined others, but instead enjoyed our romantic dinners. One time we did visit with the table next to us. That was nice. I loved choosing our waitstaff. Our previous cruise we had very rushed, short-staffed service with traditional dining. We were so disappointed. The dining experience for us is a big part of the cruise. With ATD if that happens you can easily request something different. We lucked out and met our great servers on the first night with YTD.

We just got off the Miracle on Saturday. We had a wonderful time. It was our third time cruising on her. We love this ship and will miss her when she relocates. We really enjoyed hanging out at the Serenity deck. The staff all over the ship were wonderful. We had our first dinner at the Chef's Table and loved it! Fantastic!! We also tried Anytime Dining for the first time. We really enjoyed it. We were usually there for dinner around 5:45, with no wait. If we were here after 7:00 there was a bit of a wait, but not much.

I had the Indian Vegetarian dinner 3 times. Just wonderful. If you like indian food it is a must!

The shows were quite enjoyable. You will have a great time. Just love having two days in PV.

Boarding was a bit cool outside, but I figured it would be so wore my coat, jeans, etc. and was toasty warm. Bring your jacket as well as your shorts and sandals for Mexico. Enjoy!!

You cannot reasonably do this on a bus, unless you want to take long uphill (steep) climb. Our advice would be to get a taxi from Tony's to Casa Isabel.

 

Hank

Thank you for your advice. We really want to experience riding the local bus as well. Could you advise how to take a bus from Tony's to the depot near the hospital in PV? We have been to PV a few times prior. Thanks!

We will be eating lunch at Tony's in Mismaloya in two weeks and will arrive by cab from our cruise terminal, but need specific directions on how to get from Tony's to Casa Isabel in PV by bus. Thanks...

Those of you who have done ATD without a group along with you, say there were just the two of you, did you find it easy to meet and visit with new people vs. how you would visit with the same people at your table with Traditional Dining? We are trying ATD this time. We hope to meet new friends at ATD as well.

We like any time dining. We see whats going on that day either at sea or on land, then you reserve a time you want. This way if you have early dinner your not rushed and the late seating may be too late to see the shows. We never wait long at all. In fact last year we just walked right up and was seated because we reserved the time while others were waiting to be seated Carnival Glory -4-4-15.

Good luck and have fun!

Where and how do you reserve your dining time?

Thank you to SadieN and MszKitty for your thoughtful responses. Truly appreciate them.

Johann & Sandra are third party tour brokers. They don't actually operate any excursions/tours. I believe the City & Tropical tour is run by Tani tours and they typically make a series of stops at resorts to pick up passengers. They may have you meet at the port entrance or a resort very near the port.

 

This tour is designed to give you a windshield view of Vallarta and the countryside south of the city. You will have a few stops for photos and to shop. Bathrooms will be available at the various shopping opportunities.

 

We took this tour on our first visit to Vallarta and it gave us a great overview of the area. Do not expect that this to be an in depth cultural experience.

 

Enjoy!

Do you have any suggestions for a PV tour that would encompass an in-depth cultural experience?