Miami to Manaus flight

[wisc9757]

Some questions for anyone who has taken the Princess charter flight from Miami to Manaus, Brazil for the Amazon river cruise:

When and where did you eat breakfast?

How was the transfer from the airport to the dock?

When did you board?

Did you see your luggage at the airport or not till you were on board?

Thanks much!!! Doing the Manaus to FLL in January 2010.

Wiac9757

[wisc9757]

Ops, should have said January 2011 in my post above, sorry!!!!

[Flyer]

Just off the Royal on 27 February and we did take the charter flight.

 

Breakfast is served on the airplane about 0400 hrs.

 

Transfer from the airport to ship was smooth by bus. Took maybe 30 minutes and a guide was aboard narrating during the trip.

 

We boarded as soon as we arrived at the ship. and our cabin was ready.

 

You retrieve you luggage at the airport. That is not a pretty sight. 350 passengers and a small luggage carousel. They took the bags off to make room for more on the belt. Not nice but be patient it works out.

 

BTW, nice ship and nice trip. May be the friendliest crew ever. :)

[wisc9757]

Flyer, thanks for the information!!!!!

[friend of Eeyore]

I have to disagree with Flyer when he said a nice trip. But maybe he was talking about the cruise, which was nice. The plane trip STUNK. I was forced to sit in a seat that I did not fit in - I was told that I could not move. (We got the "privilege" of getting bulkhead seats with non-movable armrests, and full-sided sides - normally DH and I would have put up the armrest, which would have given 2 inches more room. Those were literally the skinniest seats I have ever seen on a flight. And it's not just overly-large me who had trouble - the slender couple next to us also had trouble.) I stood for 1/4-1/3 of the flight, and sat on one hip for the rest of the flight. I don't think I slept for more than 1/2 hour, on an overnight flight.

 

We were served breakfast around 4 in the morning. They turned on the lights and made the announcement about breakfast just after DH had finally managed to get to sleep, sitting on one hip. It wasn't much of a breakfast, really.

 

They had told us when we originally checked our bags at the airport that they were checked through to the ship (actually, when we dropped them at the hotel, though that was untrue also - we had to take them from the hotel to the bus, from the bus into the airport). However, when we arrived in Manaus, we did have to retrieve them from the carousal (or next to it, as it was terribly small, and they were quickly removing bags from it to make room for more bags). We took them through customs, and then gave them to a Princess rep/airport worker/whoever, who took them to go to the ship.

 

The bus ride was nice, and we got a little tour of the city on the way to the ship. Once on the ship, we were able to board immediately, but waited in a lounge for a little while, while our rooms were being made ready.

 

The cruise itself was wonderful. you can see my "almost live" report here, which includes my report about the horrible flight: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1107715

[Flyer]

I guess I need to clarify. To an extent I agree with Friend of Eeyore. The pitch of the seats on the DC-10 are configured too close. The widith in our row was fine and we survived the 5 hour flight.

 

Our real problem was a 24 hour delay because of winter weather in Atlanta which delayed our plane arriving in Miami. I could tell you more of that story if you are interested However, the Cruise, the Ship and crew were great.

 

BTW, Friend of Eeyore posted an absolutely great review including her troubles which will be extremely valuable information for you.