New Embarcation Lounge in Ft. Lauderdale

[Guardsy]

Just off the Caribbean Princess yesterday.  Princess graciously gave us a free upgrade to a suite for the cruise, and a few days before departing we were called and invited to "try out" their new VIP Lounge that is prior to your arrival at the port.  

 

We were told that this new lounge was for suite passengers who were on red-eye flights arriving that morning, or long flights the day prior so they could "decompress a bit" prior to boarding.  The lounge is at their HQ building on SE 17th Street, just 3-4 blocks from the ship. It was open from 8 AM - 2:30 PM.

 

The lounge was a nice area, but not overly large.  They took your bags at arrival and sent them on towards the pier.  Just light refreshments and water/sodas.  It would have been FABULOUS if they also allowed just one glass of champagne or something different, but it was fine.  You were able to book specialty dining while at the lounge, spa reservations, shore excursions and the Sanctuary if you wished.  There were no sales presentations of any kind.

 

When you were ready to head to the ship, you boarded a nice van and they drove you to the front of the terminal building where 2 Princess staffers were waiting to escort your group aboard.  You did have to look over the luggage racks that they had at this one spot and confirm that your luggage was there (only downside of the process happened here, and is out of Princess' control.  The port porters made a point to tell you they were there to take care of your luggage and you could "certainly tip us or show your appreciation" if you wished.  Pretty tacky.).

 

From there you were escorted as a group (8-10 people?) through the security areas and the terminal (VIP's coming through!) to the boarding area where we were merged right into the next folks boarding the ship with their medallions.  It was a quick and easy way to board the ship.

 

I am sure Princess will get good reviews of this "soft roll-out" of the VIP Lounge.  Given the space, it may stay as suite-holders only if they make it available to all suite holders on a certain booking.  Simply no way to accommodate Elites into the mix as well.  

 

Just my two-cents.

[c-boy]

SOoooo   ....  did suite guests along with vip guests go to a seperate security check point  from others boarding ?

Edited April 9, 2023 by c-boy

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, Guardsy said:

Simply no way to accommodate Elites into the mix as well. 

I don't see this as feasible, nor practical, and as an Elite who wouldn't be booking a Suite unless a Powerball/MegaMillions winner, I am fine with this and actually impressed that Princess is looking to elevate the Suite experience for guests shelling out the big bucks to sail that way.

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, Guardsy said:

You were able to book specialty dining while at the lounge, spa reservations, shore excursions and the Sanctuary if you wished.

As I inquired in the other thread, did you look into the Sanctuary booking process, or not your thing?  

 

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, Guardsy said:

only downside of the process happened here, and is out of Princess' control.  The port porters made a point to tell you they were there to take care of your luggage and you could "certainly tip us or show your appreciation" if you wished.  Pretty tacky.

No doubt the porters were informed that the lot was VIP luggage, so they were there to take advantage.  Wherever that spot is, perhaps it would be better if the porters weren't there at the time?  Hard to picture it, but does sound a bit tacky for the group.  Of course, it is the same thing outside the terminal when guest pulls up in the taxi and unloads any bags for the porters.  They are expecting something and I don't mind a small amount if they help out (which often is the case).  I'd like my bag to get onto the ship in a timely manner, so I am happy to treat them nicely and say a few words.

[Guardsy]

18 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

As I inquired in the other thread, did you look into the Sanctuary booking process, or not your thing?  

 

We have never done the Sanctuary, so no.  We did not inquire into it at all.

[Guardsy]

3 hours ago, c-boy said:

SOoooo   ....  did suite guests along with vip guests go to a seperate security check point  from others boarding ?

Not sure about any VIP's, but as suite holders who were invited, we were brought through the crowds to the front of the security line (bag xray, basically) and the front of the board lines where you first present your medallion to walk aboard.

[Steelers36]

6 minutes ago, Guardsy said:

We have never done the Sanctuary, so no.  We did not inquire into it at all.

Okay.  Hopefully, one day, someone who uses that off-site lounge will post about Sanctuary booking.

 

[Hlitner]

On 4/9/2023 at 9:03 PM, Steelers36 said:

I don't see this as feasible, nor practical, and as an Elite who wouldn't be booking a Suite unless a Powerball/MegaMillions winner, I am fine with this and actually impressed that Princess is looking to elevate the Suite experience for guests shelling out the big bucks to sail that way.

Princess must be looking to compete with MSC :).  If you are in MSC's Yacht Club (a suite ship within a suite area) you check-in at a white tend right outside the terminal.  From there, you are escorted right through security (no lines) and to a large lounge inside the terminal (unlike Princess, MSC does provide sparkling wine/mimosas and some nice bakery snacks.  When they are ready to board, some of the Butlers escort folks right onto the ship (you walk through and past the lines) where you have reserved elevators to whisk you up to the Yacht Club's lounge.

 

Hank

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

On 4/9/2023 at 9:30 PM, Steelers36 said:

Okay.  Hopefully, one day, someone who uses that off-site lounge will post about Sanctuary booking.

 

I just got my invite today for Saturday’s cruise on the Sky. And I plan to book the Sanctuary and one specialty restaurant that we couldn’t do on line (sold out?!) so I’ll let you know. So excited!!

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Princess must be looking to compete with MSC :).  If you are in MSC's Yacht Club (a suite ship within a suite area) you check-in at a white tend right outside the terminal.  From there, you are escorted right through security (no lines) and to a large lounge inside the terminal (unlike Princess, MSC does provide sparkling wine/mimosas and some nice bakery snacks.  When they are ready to board, some of the Butlers escort folks right onto the ship (you walk through and past the lines) where you have reserved elevators to whisk you up to the Yacht Club's lounge.

 

Hank

The difference with this service is that we don’t even enter The Port Authority. This lounge is on 17th street.  I’ll add to the experience after Saturday. 

[Hlitner]

12 minutes ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

The difference with this service is that we don’t even enter The Port Authority. This lounge is on 17th street.  I’ll add to the experience after Saturday. 

We noticed that in the review. Personally, I see advantages to the MSC system (we have done it) because they expedite folks through the check-in process and have them wait in a large lounge next to the ship.  We just sit there, drink champagne, and wait for our butler to escort us aboard.  I do not see an advantage to being in a small lounge outside the port.

 

Hank

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Agreed.  Celebrity also does a great job with getting suite passengers away from the crowds and a separate way to get on the ship. 
 

But notice that this lounge opens at 8am. No way would any cruise line be ready to engage with embarking passengers that early. 
 

We will still sit in the same traffic my Uber does to get to the terminal.  If they had a private driveway directly to the ship, now THAT would be worth it!  🤪

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

And for me, it’s mostly to get ahead of everyone else for the Sanctuary 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Do NOT count on ANY benefit to getting the Sanctuary from the Go Lounge. Or ANY reservations for that matter. I’ll explain tomorrow as we are off to Princess Cays. I’ll explain everything during our sea day tomorrow. Go lounge is still an awesome experience. VERY relaxing. 

[dog]

1 hour ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

Do NOT count on ANY benefit to getting the Sanctuary from the Go Lounge. Or ANY reservations for that matter. I’ll explain tomorrow as we are off to Princess Cays. I’ll explain everything during our sea day tomorrow. Go lounge is still an awesome experience. VERY relaxing. 

Thanks.

i am Blue lane, so will probably not get an invite.

saw post on fb- great information. Thanks.

[Crown Cruiser]

We’re on SKY princess now. We were invited to the Princess Go lounge. We mostly book suites but this time we had a reserve class mini. So did at least one other couple in the lounge. We are elite. The other couple ruby. Very nice but, we wanted to book the sanctuary for all week (afternoons). We were told it was taken care of but when we boarded the ship we went to the sanctuary just to make sure everything was in order and to see where our chairs were. Well, the manager knew nothing of our reservations and said the go lounge people didn’t call him. Lucky for us, the manager took care of use and I’m typing this from the sanctuary. I would ask for a receipt if the person in the lounge makes a res for you in the future.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

What we didn’t realize was that the Go people sent a message to the Suite Concierge. We checked in with the Suite Concierge later to see if they received a confirmation from the Sanctuary and they told me they were going to call the Sanctuary “later” to put in the reservations. By then the Sanctuary was, of course, sold out. Same with specialty dinning reservations. As of this morning they STILL hadn’t sent the reservation requests. Sorry but the Suite Concierge is useless. Still waiting for the extra lounger that they said they would put there. She just keeps asking me if the lounger is there yet. Shouldn’t you confirm your request was completed or not? We have decided to lower our expectations about what the suite concierge can do and just have a great cruise. 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Okay, so the lounger just came. I take that part back. 

[jwattle]

30 minutes ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

What we didn’t realize was that the Go people sent a message to the Suite Concierge. We checked in with the Suite Concierge later to see if they received a confirmation from the Sanctuary and they told me they were going to call the Sanctuary “later” to put in the reservations. By then the Sanctuary was, of course, sold out. Same with specialty dinning reservations. As of this morning they STILL hadn’t sent the reservation requests. Sorry but the Suite Concierge is useless. Still waiting for the extra lounger that they said they would put there. She just keeps asking me if the lounger is there yet. Shouldn’t you confirm your request was completed or not? We have decided to lower our expectations about what the suite concierge can do and just have a great cruise. 

Not defending it,  but I think it depends on which suite Concierge you have... some will rock your sticks with their work! 😀

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

So, we arrived at the Go Lounge around 10:15. It is outside of Port Everglades on 17th Street two buildings before the famous Walgreens. The door is not facing the street so if traveling by foot walk down the driveway and you will see the entrance on the back. 

 

We walked in and they took our luggage and gave us a tour of the small place. There were probably 15-20 people already there with couches and chairs to sit on. A nice spread of food was in the middle including fruits, cheeses, meats, little sandwiches and desserts. I think the spread was better than Celebrity’s pre-embarkation lounge at FLL. 

 

The host came over and took our passports to process and was back within a couple of minutes. They she asked if we wanted to make any reservations for the specialty dinning, spa or Sanctuary.  We said yes we would like 3 people for the Sanctuary, all day, for all three sea days. We were worried about asking for 3 of us together and she said no problem and her biggest challenge yet was a group of 10 asking to sit together. She said that our request shouldn’t be a problem. She typed our request into her handheld device and said “done, anything else?”  We also asked to move one of our specialty restaurant reservations to a different day and add one more. All for seating at 8(ish). Since we didn’t want to eat Crown Grill and Sabatinis on consecutive nights we had plane B if they couldn’t move our one current reservation.  She stopped us and said that we will put this in implying that it wouldn’t be a problem and consider it done. 

 

From there we enjoyed the quiet relaxing lounge away from all the hustle and bustle of the cruise terminal. We snacked on some food, had some alcohol free drinks and began a nice conversation about the coming week. Very quiet and relaxing atmosphere. 

 

About 10:50, the host approached a group of four and told them that they were ready to take them to the terminal. It was a nice black coach van that sat roughly 10 people comfortably, I think. The host then approached a second group and said they were next once the van came back. That they don’t like to crowd the van for everyone’s comfort. The turnaround time was probably 10 minutes and the next group went. The turn around time kept getting longer and longer. We were the 5th group to go and were on the shuttle at 11:45. They should have more people go at once or have two vans alternating like the tenders to Princess Cays. Note:  One couple did come after us but that was it for those using the lounge. And they didn’t take our group of three and the couple at the same time. Again, just one party at a time. And it was (I assume) in the order that you arrived).

 

When we got to terminal 2 we could see why the shuttle took longer and longer. The shuttle was in the same traffic as everyone else showing up including that big circle around the parking lot where the shuttles sit on disembarkation. So we waited. They should have allowed us to park in that shuttle lot or diverted us somewhere to avoid the traffic. Anyway, once we made the big loop we immediately pulled to the right and was parked right in front of the steps (that are roped off) in front of the entrance. (People dropping off luggage passed us and pulled farther ahead). 

 

There was someone waiting for us there and they escorted us up the steps (or ramp right there if we needed it) and right past everyone. Think of the “Disney line” roped path that makes you walk back and forth. We walked right the front of the line and they opened the rope for us to go through. (None of the lines were super long but it was still nice to skip them). That escort then handed us off to the next person always making sure that there we 3 of us and we were sticking together. 

 

Now we were in the building and time for security. While every walked straight ahead to the end of the (small) room to then turn right and get in a security line, we took an immediate right (again moving the ropes for us and us only) and went to the closest luggage scanner. There was only one person ahead of us in line.  She met us on the other side and walk us to the processing area with blue lane folks to the left and green lane folks to the right. Before we got to those lines and the folks with the little check in pads, we again took and immediately right, she moved the rope and we were standing in front of the domed arch that is the way to the ship.  We heard “Have a great cruise!” And walked on the ship (up the escalator and gangway) and were onboard. (Not sure what would have happened if they hadn’t started boarding yet.). We were on board by 12:10 with the longest time spent waiting in the traffic. 

We would totally do it again!

 

(I think I already explained the Sanctuary debacle and trying to put that out of my head!  But don’t count on getting any benefit to Sanctuary access through the Go Lounge or stress that they need to call the actual place and not just relay your desire to the Suite Concierge.)

[Steelers36]

11 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

So, we arrived at the Go Lounge around 10:15. It is outside of Port Everglades on 17th Street two buildings before the famous Walgreens. The door is not facing the street so if traveling by foot walk down the driveway and you will see the entrance on the back. 

 

We walked in and they took our luggage and gave us a tour of the small place. There were probably 15-20 people already there with couches and chairs to sit on. A nice spread of food was in the middle including fruits, cheeses, meats, little sandwiches and desserts. I think the spread was better than Celebrity’s pre-embarkation lounge at FLL. 

 

The host came over and took our passports to process and was back within a couple of minutes. They she asked if we wanted to make any reservations for the specialty dinning, spa or Sanctuary.  We said yes we would like 3 people for the Sanctuary, all day, for all three sea days. We were worried about asking for 3 of us together and she said no problem and her biggest challenge yet was a group of 10 asking to sit together. She said that our request shouldn’t be a problem. She typed our request into her handheld device and said “done, anything else?”  We also asked to move one of our specialty restaurant reservations to a different day and add one more. All for seating at 8(ish). Since we didn’t want to eat Crown Grill and Sabatinis on consecutive nights we had plane B if they couldn’t move our one current reservation.  She stopped us and said that we will put this in implying that it wouldn’t be a problem and consider it done. 

 

From there we enjoyed the quiet relaxing lounge away from all the hustle and bustle of the cruise terminal. We snacked on some food, had some alcohol free drinks and began a nice conversation about the coming week. Very quiet and relaxing atmosphere. 

 

About 10:50, the host approached a group of four and told them that they were ready to take them to the terminal. It was a nice black coach van that sat roughly 10 people comfortably, I think. The host then approached a second group and said they were next once the van came back. That they don’t like to crowd the van for everyone’s comfort. The turnaround time was probably 10 minutes and the next group went. The turn around time kept getting longer and longer. We were the 5th group to go and were on the shuttle at 11:45. They should have more people go at once or have two vans alternating like the tenders to Princess Cays. Note:  One couple did come after us but that was it for those using the lounge. And they didn’t take our group of three and the couple at the same time. Again, just one party at a time. And it was (I assume) in the order that you arrived).

 

When we got to terminal 2 we could see why the shuttle took longer and longer. The shuttle was in the same traffic as everyone else showing up including that big circle around the parking lot where the shuttles sit on disembarkation. So we waited. They should have allowed us to park in that shuttle lot or diverted us somewhere to avoid the traffic. Anyway, once we made the big loop we immediately pulled to the right and was parked right in front of the steps (that are roped off) in front of the entrance. (People dropping off luggage passed us and pulled farther ahead). 

 

There was someone waiting for us there and they escorted us up the steps (or ramp right there if we needed it) and right past everyone. Think of the “Disney line” roped path that makes you walk back and forth. We walked right the front of the line and they opened the rope for us to go through. (None of the lines were super long but it was still nice to skip them). That escort then handed us off to the next person always making sure that there we 3 of us and we were sticking together. 

 

Now we were in the building and time for security. While every walked straight ahead to the end of the (small) room to then turn right and get in a security line, we took an immediate right (again moving the ropes for us and us only) and went to the closest luggage scanner. There was only one person ahead of us in line.  She met us on the other side and walk us to the processing area with blue lane folks to the left and green lane folks to the right. Before we got to those lines and the folks with the little check in pads, we again took and immediately right, she moved the rope and we were standing in front of the domed arch that is the way to the ship.  We heard “Have a great cruise!” And walked on the ship (up the escalator and gangway) and were onboard. (Not sure what would have happened if they hadn’t started boarding yet.). We were on board by 12:10 with the longest time spent waiting in the traffic. 

We would totally do it again!

 

(I think I already explained the Sanctuary debacle and trying to put that out of my head!  But don’t count on getting any benefit to Sanctuary access through the Go Lounge or stress that they need to call the actual place and not just relay your desire to the Suite Concierge.)

Thanks for your detailed report.  I hope we get more of these because your experience sounds much worse than the earlier reports from last Winter/Spring when it started.

 

I think it is stupid of them to shuttle over small groups when they have space for more.  All they do is hold you back from getting onto the ship.  If I were there, I'd want to be shuttled over before boarding began.  I'd wait in the lounge upstairs at that point.  I think it is very poor to have this "special" service and location and then be very inefficient with getting the folks onto the ship. 

 

Also, why can't they let the GO Lounge group onto the ship ahead of others, like they used to do with wedding parties and the old BVE group?  (I know, why would I advocate to let people onto the ship ahead of me...LOL?).  Doesn't matter if they get on ahead if they have had a jump at Sanctuary at the GO.

 

It is also terribly inefficient to have the lounge host contact the Suite Concierge who in turn is supposed to communicate with the Sanctuary or Dine Line.  Sure, many of these hosts are top service employees, but to put these requests aside shows a complete lack of understanding of product demand.  Also, the more people involved in the chain, means the details may not even get to the Sanctuary properly as to chair type and location request.  IMO, it should be interactive so that the lounge host is speaking with the Sanctuary rep who has the map and can advise availability.  I'd be mad as a hatter if that happened to me.

 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

I was!

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We didn’t have to identify our luggage or even interact with the porters. BUT, I think my suitcase was one of the last ones delivered and I was starting to get nervous. And we found my husbands suitcase just sitting in the hallway probably 40 yards from our room!  
 

Needless to say, but the first few hours of the cruise had me a little on edge. But we lowered expectations and just enjoyed ourselves. Seems to always be the theme with Princess. We have a wonderful time if we just don’t expect the best service. As we say in my line of work, “Good Enough” is sometimes better than “Great”. 

[CalTexCruiser]

@Sox Fan Cruiser Too bad they could not honor your Sanctuary reservation request. 

 

Our experience with the Sanctuary reservation back in October at the GO lounge was much better.  The GO lounge concierge texted our request to the Suite Concierge, who was tasked with contacting the sanctuary to request the reservation.  After maybe 30 minutes our GO lounge concierge came back and confirmed with us that our reservation was made.  

 

We got prime lounge locations, as did others in the GO lounge that also requested Sanctuary reservations.  

 

Sounds like whether or not the Sanctuary reservations are made depends on the Suite Concierge...our Suite Concierge, Vladimir, was fantastic...one of the best on any cruise line we've encountered.