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6 minutes ago, EatonDoolittle said:

Also note that for Princess, it is faster and easier to enter the port from the north entrance, rather than using the main Eller St. entrance that you use for all the other terminals. 

 

I don't want to give erroneous directions, but your GPS or any maps app will get you there - Davie Blvd exit off 95, then to 17th St, as I recall, but do check.  

 

 

Thank you! I definitely didn’t know that. 

If you have to cancel and do not have insurance call celebrity to ask to move to another cruise. Many times this can be done with only a $100 per person fee. 

Any decent shopping area?  

Just now, voljeep said:

it is really convenient at T2 - drop off your luggage with the porter(s) , park, then up to level 5 to cross over to the cruise ship.  

 

Pro Tip - when disembarking, all at once, the lower levels will be able to get out of the garage first and then upper levels will merge in when they can

 

Pro Tip 2 - there will be kiosk to pay for the parking

So I guess the decision is whether to park on the 5th level so you don’t have to wait for elevators down with your luggage or park on the lower level so you don’t have to wait in the traffic!!!  

Perfect! Thank you for your responses! We always park at the terminal even though it’s more expensive.  We like the convenience. I just had no idea where the parking is for anything other than Celebrity. Thanks again! 

We are on our first Princess cruise in November on Sun. What terminal does Princess use in Port Everglades and is there a parking garage close enough to walk? Appreciate any info. 

If you booked through a TA contact them to be sure they put in the drink package. This happened to us before and that was the issue. 

5 minutes ago, Scottishclover said:

The advantage of staying overnight would be that you can get a really early start on the hike. I had looked into staying in Cinque Terre for a short stay a few years ago. Seeing the crowds that descend on the villages, I’m not sure it would have been that pleasant. I think staying on the fringes, e.g. Levanto  or Portovenere might be a better option. For an overnight though I’d definitely do it, if you can. Even if you are overnight on the ship in La Spezia you still have to rely on the shuttle out of port and I’m not sure when it starts in the morning. For us it was 7am and we docked at 6:30am. 

That was our reasoning, to be able to be in CT in the evening and following morning as I have read that is when the crowds lessen. Plus it will be nice to not rush too much. 

2 hours ago, Lastdance said:

Make sure you really check with Celebrity, or for that matter, any cruise line about doing that.  Lots of rules and regs!

Thank you! Good advice! 

57 minutes ago, Scottishclover said:

 

Day 3 - Portofino

 

Today we were up at the crack of dawn to get one of the first tenders as we wanted to start hiking early given the high temperatures. DH’s prediction that it would be fine given all the party animals on the ship was, in fact, true and we were on tender 4!! This meant when we stepped ashore in Portofino, the main harbour area was standing empty. We took advantage and had a quick look around up by Castello Brown and thanked our lucky stars we had a hike planned. While Portofino is picture postcard perfect, I’m not sure how we would have filled an hour there. It is tiny and celeb spotting or designer shopping does not float our boat.

The view from the tender.

 

The harbour area. 

 

Nice and quiet early on. 

 

Our hike today was 13 km and went into the regional park up behind the town. There are lots of different trails and we hiked up via the Mullina del  Gasseta, Gave,  and then down into Santa Margherita Liguria. We both really enjoyed this hike. The steps going up from Portofino were quite steep but after that it was easy hiking up to  an elevation of 250m. The paths were quite manicured in parts and signage was great. Every so often the views opened up. The landscape was littered with large villas and olive groves. The best thing of all was that the path was quiet. We only met a handful of people. Today I was better prepared and brought a facecloth to wipe off sweat from my brow and a change of T-shirt. We always made sure we were carrying 2 water bottles each with us  and also electrolytes. The trail dipped in and out of shade which was very helpful. 

There’s a whole network of trails to be explored.

Looking down towards Portofino.

 

Everything was very green compared to Corsica. I imagine there’s a lot of money from the fancy villas spent on irrigation.

 

There were lots of olive groves. There was even fancy lighting on the trail🤷‍♀️

 

We spent some time in Santa Margherita Liguria. I much preferred it to upmarket Portofino. After a much needed coffee and gelato, we hiked back along the road and then onto the via del baci . In hindsight, it would have been better to hike back another route through the regional park. On our return to Portofino, we were met by throngs of people all over town. Never has the saying “ the early bird catches the worm” been truer. Getting an early start was worth it. In truth, the combination of the heat and crowds was very oppressive so we caught the tender back to the ship. 
 

The iconic Vespa.

 

Santa Margherita was really colourful and vibrant and much cheaper than its more exclusive neighbour!

 

We went to Cyprus  for dinner and then to the Club for the Game Show which DH remarkably won😂 The headliner tonight was Aimee Atkinson who had starred in West End shows including “Six” and on Broadway in “Pretty Woman.” She was a fantastic performer and we enjoyed the show. We also went to see Wonder at Eden: Allure. We were finding that we could quite easily fill our time on the ship as there were so many different entertainment options.

 

Day 4- La Spezia

 

This was it, the big hiking day. We were in port for quite a while today and the majority of people went to either Cinque Terre, Pisa or Florence. Hiking from village to village in Cinque Terre was a bucket list hike for us but I was worried  about the crowds and the heat, as it seemed the temperature was creeping up each day. So we got up at 5:45 ( I know we were on holiday😩) as we had to be on the first shuttle out of port if we had any chance of beating the crowds. 

 

Mission accomplished- we weren’t quite first off the ship but not far off it! As La Spezia is an industrial port there is a free 5 min shuttle to take you to the port gates. Then we had about a 1.5 km walk to the station to get the earliest possible train to the Cinque Terre. The train was very busy and I hoped it wasn’t a sign of things to come. 

 

We planned to walk the famous Senteri Azzuro or Blue Trail from Monterosso - Vernazza- Corniglia - Manarola ( via Volastra). For the first 2 hikes you need a hiking permit/pass costing €7.50 a person. The train cost for any journey in the Cinque Terre is €10 so if you plan to hop on and off between towns, it’s cheaper to buy a day pass. We found it really advantageous to use the Trenitalia App to buy tickets for our journeys in Italy on this trip. You do have to remember to click the check in button on electronic tickets before your journey starts though or you can be fined.

 

We were on the trail in Monterosso by 8:30am, which for us coming from the ship at La Spezia was the earliest possible time. Coming out of the town there’s quite a lot of steep stairs for a while and initially it was quite busy. I thought we had made a terrible misjudgment picking this hike but after 20 mins the crowds thinned out and it was much more pleasant.  The difficult parts of the trails were the stairs up and down into the towns ( but honestly not too bad until the third hike but I will get to that). Once you were up on the ridge the path was really easy going and the views were insane. There was no way you could get lost. 

Our first glimpse of Vernazza.

 

The trail is narrow in places and annoying when people walk in the opposite direction. 

The money shot of Vernazza. You came round the corner and were faced with this. 

 

Washing day in Vernazza.

The small harbour.

Vernazza rooftops taken from the start of Vernazza to Corniglia walk. 

 

The views from up high looking down into the villages were much better than in the towns themselves and I would urge anyone with some level of fitness to try at least one walk. Probably Vernazza to Corniglia was the easiest. On that particular stage there was a little lemon grove and hut where we stopped for homemade pink lemonade. Let me tell you, this drink was made with a lot of love and was so refreshing. A little further on there was a bar/ restaurant where you could also stop. It was very hot on the trail and you could have wrung out our T-shirts but I looked around and EVERYONE was covered in sweat. We had 2 water bottles and filled up in each town from water fountains and took electrolytes twice on this hike. Hats were essential- but whipped off quickly for photos😂 

The lemon grove stop. 

A well deserved drink.

Corniglia up ahead- looked close but in reality wasn’t!

 

You have to remember to build in time to look around the villages on this hike. We got to Vernazza about half 9 and it was still relatively quiet. It was around 11:15 when we arrived in Corniglia and stopped to have some lemon and basil granita here. I think this was my favourite village. It’s on a hilltop and has no harbour but you could sense the crowds were beginning to ascend. 

Yum! 
 

We heard the church bells ring at midday and started on our last stage. Not ideal to be doing it right in the heat of the day. The first half hour up towards Volastra  was really quite hard going but luckily shady then once the trail flattened out it was absolutely stunning. One minute you were walking through fairytale forest glades, the next through terraced vineyards. In tiny Volastra there was a shop for some snacks if required before the descent down into Manarola. 
 

Looking back to Corniglia

 

The hills were covered with terraced vines.

At one point we could have reached out to pick these grapes.

The church at Volastra. All downhill from here….

 

The hike down was a nightmare. There must have been about a thousand steps that were just too wide for my stride and I struggled to keep a rhythm going. To make matters worse, there was absolutely no shade. We met people hiking up the other direction and I’m sure if they knew how steep it was, they would have turned back. It was absurd to be attempting an uphill climb at 2 in the afternoon in that heat. I was so relieved to finally reach Manarola and we rewarded ourselves with a slice of farina( local chickpea pancake) and gluten- free focaccia. But oh the humanity!!! This was the over- touristed Cinque Terre that I had read about and expected. We spent some time watching rock jumpers at the harbour  before getting the very crowded train back to La Spezia. It was standing room only and I was kicking myself that we hadn’t hopped on the ferry to get back instead. My biggest piece of advice for Cinque Terre is get there as early as possible. The difference in crowds at 9:30 in Vernazza to 14:30 in Manarola was very noticeable. I was so glad we escaped to the peace and quiet of the trails. 
 

Past the worst of the steps heading down into Manarola. 

You can see how crowded it was. 

The harbour in Manarola. 

The result of walking over 17 km today. Couldn’t wait to get the shoes off! 

 

Sore and dusty, we headed to the buffet for dinner as it was Italian night. Even though the cruise was busy there were always seats to be had at the back of the Oceanview or outside. This wasn’t always the case on our Arctic Circle Cruise. At times there were no seats at all available. 

 

Tonight was the production show “Awaken”. It has a magical element to it. Enjoyable but I liked Bridges better. We shunned the silent disco for some live music instead. The queue for headsets was just too long. It certainly is a popular activity.

 

 On our last cruise there were so few people at the silent disco that it was held in Eden. Completely different on this cruise. 
 

I make no apologies for all the photos of Cinque Terre. We have hiked all over Europe and this was probably up there as one of our best hikes ever. The views were stunning and it was a unique way to visit the villages. If you are wondering why we didn’t hike to the fifth village of Riomaggiore, well it’s a very short but extremely steep hike there and we had just run out of steam from hiking in the extreme heat. I hope I’ll be back someday to try that one and the 13 km hike from Riomaggiore to Portovenere. Incidentally the sail out from La Spezia went by Lerici and Portovenere in the Gulf of Poets and was a beautiful finish to an amazing day. 
 

Next up: Cannes 

So excited to see this part of your journey. Our cruise next year has an overnight in La Spezia and we were thinking of spending the night in CT. I think you have helped me make that decision, hopefully October will be cooler for our hiking! Enjoy the rest of your journey. It looks fabulous! 

When I did it I had already called princess and had all of our 4 cabins linked so I’m not sure if you need to do this first.
 

When making the dinner reservation you choose the date, time, location and then you will see your icon with a pencil icon next to it. Click on the pencil icon and you should be able to add people to the reservation. 

Thank you for the responses. I am sure an email can get lost or forgotten to be sent by princess so I will be a mom and monitor the situation! 🤣🤣

On 8/12/2024 at 9:46 AM, Esprit said:

What deck is this? Looks so comfortable 

Does Princess email a reminder/invoice that final payment is due? We used our TA but my son booked direct with princess. 

We are a party of 8 which is the max for the cabana. I’m not sure if it would be too crowded, the cabana looks small. Also some reviews state the water isn’t very nice.  If anyone has done this I’d appreciate any insight. 

40 minutes ago, Justafigment27 said:

I've never sailed on Celebrity. I'm looking at a sailing on the Beyond, but the only dining available this late in the game is at 8:30pm. But I'm reading that dining times don't really matter on Beyond? Is this true? Can I really just walk up and get a table for two at, say 5:30pm, in one of the main dining rooms? 

 

Thanks.

 

Beyond dining is anytime so you can walk up but there may be a short wait. We were on in January and did have reservations but the only time we saw anyone wait was the first night. We didn’t dine that early, ours was 7:30 but I don’t think it will be any issue for 2 people. 

2 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Are you Platinum or Elite?  Just wondering because DMW used to work right away for us as soon as deposit down and the rest of the folks were supposed to have to wait until FP made (but that was never 100% working either because ineligible cruisers reported here being able to make res).

Neither. It’s my first cruise with princess. That’s why we had to wait until final payment to book. 

I have been one of the passengers complaining about dining reservations so I wanted to report back.
 

We just paid our cruise in full through our TA on Thursday. Friday the TA told us it was sent to princess but I still was unable to make reservations. I chatted with princess today and they told me it can take time to be processed and to keep checking.  I just now was able to make reservations for all 8 of us on our Sun cruise in November. One cabin has not paid in full but I had no issue including them. 

16 minutes ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Hello, first I have to thank you all that helped me with my "suite" questions the past few days but now wondering whether I made the right choice.  

Our October 2023 and March 2024 were 8 night cruises to the ABC islands which is our favorite.  Our upcoming September 1st sailing is a 6 night cruise sailing to ports we will just stay on the ship which is totally fine with us.  

We chose the 6 night cruise an Aqua Sky Suite.

Which would you chose?  The 6 night Aqua Sky Suite or the 8 night Aqua Class verandah cruise?  Just like to hear your suggestions, thank you.

It depends on the ship. 6 night cruise if it’s an E class ship, 8 night cruise if it’s an S class ship. We personally want a balcony so we wouldn’t do AQ on an E class.

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. Your descriptions and photos were wonderful. It looked like an amazing trip. 

21 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

Thursday June 27 - Portofino Continued

 

We got the 12.15pm ferry to Portofino and thoroughly enjoyed the ride sitting on the top deck. We had lovely views of Santa Margherita as we departed.

 

 

 

 

The views of the coastline as we made our way to Portofino were beautiful and we passed Celebrity Infinity on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entry into Portofino was gorgeous.

 

 

 

We could see from the ferry that it was a lot busier in Portofino than when we had left.

 

 

Do you think it’s worth spending the day in Portofino? 

We are also new to Princess from Celebrity, sailing this November on Sun. One difference to be aware of, which I absolutely hate, is that you can’t book dinner reservations unless you have status or are paid in full. I didn’t know that before we booked and normally I wouldn’t be concerned but we are a party of 8 celebrating a big birthday. So hoping it works out! Just something to know. 

5 minutes ago, Oceangoer2 said:

The two largest S class SV balonies are the 2 in the middle.

It looks like this is the cabin I booked. We are in 1676 SV on Silhouette on our first b2b over NYE. Very excited! 

53 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

Mine was huge it was an SV on deck 10 in the middle which had the largest balcony of all the sunset verandahs. Spent a lot of time out there views are phenomenal even better than the views from the sailaway from the helipad on deck six as there is no obstruction. I think it was on Equinox.  Slight overhang so people above could see down if you are standing near the railing but views so worth slight inconvenience. 

Wonderful! Thank you! We are in the same location on deck 11. The only other SV we had was Beyond which was huge! Very much looking forward to it. 

Are the SV on S class bigger than the regular verandas?