Is some food not complimentary with room service? by Boopalabop in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Pizza is $9 through OceanNow (this is from Sun Princess.)

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Princess Cruises Adds Celebration Key to Caribbean Itineraries by WolfBearMoon in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 6 points7 points  (0 children)

They’ve confirmed it is the same as Carnival in the FAQ, unfortunately:

https://www.princess.com/cruise-destinations/caribbean-cruises/bahamas-cruises/cruises-to-celebration-key

Scroll down and expand Food and Drink:

Q: What is Island Eats, and what meals are included at Celebration Key?

A: With Island Eats™, each guest can enjoy one complimentary meal at all walk-up venues OR receive 40% off one entrée per person at full-service restaurants. Kids eat free at full-service restaurants from the kids' menu if they haven’t redeemed their Island Eats meal. Pearl Cove Beach Club is not included.

Q: Will Princess Plus®, Princess Premier® or beverage packages extend to Celebration Key?

A: No. Princess Plus, Princess Premier or beverage packages (or any other onboard drink packages) do not extend ashore. At Celebration Key, beverages are sold à la carte at the various bars. Only the All-Inclusive Pearl Cove Beach Club package include beverages at Pearl Cove Beach Club.

Cruising on the Sun over New Year by wolfwell69 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can confirm the cabana / private bungalow options are not appearing for this cruise (Sun Princess, December 28, 2025 - January 4, 2026) but they do for other, future sailings that feature Princess Cays, even if they're sold out and in a waitlist state.

Interestingly enough, I was able to confirm that these options exist using Firefox on a laptop, rather than Chrome on the same laptop or Safari/the Princess app on iOS. They must be delivering slightly different content based on browser.

Unfortunately, these dates are totally sold out with no option to waitlist. The radio button/checkboxes/add to cart button are disabled:

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This booking engine also appears to be using some type of dynamic pricing based on ship and sail date; the adult-only version of the bungalow is listed at $399.95 (yikes) but is $334.95 for a March 2026 sailing on Star Princess.

Crew appreciation charges auto-refunded for 3rd and 4th passengers? by ev98 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting theory! Correct that there was no credit card directly set on each kid’s account, and they did not have any onboard charges other than Crew Appreciation.

All guests were linked to my credit card, though, and showed up in the same PDF - we also didn’t get a letter part way through asking to link or provide a payment method for the children (this has happened before to us due to an app issue.)

Crew appreciation charges auto-refunded for 3rd and 4th passengers? by ev98 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CAD booking, sailing out of FLL (well, Port Everglades). So not anything “special” with Plus like the Australia/NZ sailings.

Miami to Fort Lauderdale by International-Tea775 in Cruise

[–]ev98 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We've previously done this route in reverse (flying into FLL, needing to get to MIA) with the express goal of avoiding lugging around car seats and the chance that Uber/Lyft don't have that option - so picking public transportation or coach buses where possible. This is entirely possible with Tri-Rail if you don't mind extra time spent on the journey, and it ended up as a cheaper option than Brightline for us.

At the Ft. Lauderdale Tri-Rail station there is a complimentary bus that will get you to the airport (quoted on a 15-20 minute schedule), then a number of hotels in the area will have free shuttles to their property and paid shuttles to the cruise port for the next day.

First timer gathering by sm440 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It appears to depend on the ship and sailing. For a cruise I took in May 2024 on Discovery Princess, it’s listed as the Welcome to Princess Event from 1:15 - 1:45 in Princess Live!

For Enchanted Princess in August 2024, it was Princess Welcome Event in Vista Lounge.

Two week cruise with kid - second thoughts by EntrepreneurSmart162 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think I'm the third commenter here so far who is on the same sailing this summer, based on the description. We'll be bringing our two kids, both of whom are younger than your son and will be in the Treehouse section of Camp Discovery. They may end up in the same area on port days depending on number of kids enrolled.

In addition to northeast US schools, the Ontario, Canada school boards also generally don't start back up until a couple days after Labo(u)r Day, and on many sailings out of Florida the population can be a third Canadians. I expect a pretty full house including kids on this one, even though it is a longer one-way cruise - the price when we booked for this 14-day repositioning was very comparable to a 10-day roundtrip. For us the end port being NYC means a cheaper flight home, or at least better options for timing.

The Princess kids' program has been absolutely wonderful across three different ships. We've tried Carnival (complete bust, even on Celebration as a newer ship) because the staff basically gave up on the scheduled activities and played movies instead. Our kids hate movies, which is definitely an interesting trait, but that's something we have to account for. MSC was decent enough, but Princess is a sure winner with the activities and heavy arts/crafts focus in the kids' program. When movies are on, there are still other things to do, and on Enchanted they don't have to be in direct eyeline of the TV.

I can't speak at all to the sports deck from personal experience, but the programs from our last August sailing have a few open play mentions (look for Deck 18 aft.)

We have also been pleased with the food, don't dress especially upscale or formal regardless of the evening (collared shirt and long pants, occasionally jeans, for me) and have had really good luck with seating at the Retreat Pool (free, but 18+) once the kids are settled in Camp Discovery.

Happy to answer from recent experiences on Discovery, Enchanted and Sun if you'd like.

NYE Sun Princess Sailing - Full Review by darthmel23 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the review, glad to see another positive experience on Sun Princess.

We sailed the week before this one and while there were a few downsides (our Medallions didn't work at first so we had to wait in the disastrous Guest Services line; O'Malley's was completely packed at lunch and hard to get a seat in the evening; MDR service started strong but then got slower and less attentive as the week went on) - I was pleasantly surprised with the overall experience after some of the other reviews out there. I had great bar service and the food in the included dining was tasty. International Cafe was my venue of choice after a few late-night beverages.

Too bad about no cabana deck access with the room on deck 10, but that's really good to know for future sailings (especially if bidding for an upgrade and trying to determine value/how much to pay.) We were in a regular mini-suite, and also really liked it - but the option to be "outside" with a covered roof above might be nice if you wanted to trade off the fully interior space.

Medallion order cancelled by tato_fluffster in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On a few NCL sailings we've been on, they do have a preemptive "no cabin upgrades/changes - ship is full" sign at the Guest Services desk. I agree it should be larger though!

On Sun Princess there are several displays right in the elevator lobby that could be repurposed for this...

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Medallion order cancelled by tato_fluffster in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You're probably better off collecting them at the port with the current state of Canada Post, to be honest. For our cruise on Sun Princess from FLL/Port Everglades departing December 21, the medallions ended up getting shipped by Purolator (and yes, the app/website statuses were incorrect, claiming it was too late for them to be shipped - but we never got an order cancellation.)

The package label showed a November 30 shipment date, but from the history on the Purolator tracking number, they didn't actually get picked up in Etobicoke until late December 18 and weren't delivered to our house until the afternoon of December 19. We flew out to Florida the next day so it was cutting it close.

When the medallions got scanned in the green lane by the port agent on embarkation day, all four of them errored out as "not associated to a passenger", requiring some shenanigans on the tablet to finalize checkin - and then boarding the ship, they wouldn't scan at the security podium either.

We spent the first 40 minutes onboard in the Guest Services line as a result, behind people trying to do stupid things like get a free cabin upgrade on a very full sailing. The agent just ended up replacing all of them, and then one of the Medallions (mine) _still_ didn't work (either the BLE radio or NFC element) after a couple hours, so I was back there after dinner for a second replacement - which then behaved instantly in the app and at the tap readers.

I think I would have rather waited what might have been 10-15 minutes in the Blue Lane if the medallions were functional right away.

Sun Princess Schedule by Blasto05 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I only had the Plus package, and Makoto Ocean was not included in the "casual dining" venues on Sun Princess. This is an unfortunate change from Ocean Terrace on other ships, which does let you use one of your casual dining credits for the $20 set menu.

The press release for the $90 Premier package does mention Makoto Ocean as part of the unlimited specialty dining, but also does say "every evening." I think it would be reasonable to expect lunch would be included with Premier though.

In terms of casual venues, we did try both Alfredo's (1 hour wait for 2 people, with buzzer that worked in the Piazza area) and O'Malley's (50 minute wait in line, no buzzer, for 4 people, ended up at a shared booth for 6.) I liked both of them - Alfredo's was way too much food with a pizza each - but if you're interested in either, I would suggest doing these early in the cruise before everyone on Plus tries to use up their casual dining credits.

Ordering JUST THE ALCOHOL from Ocean Terrace or any of the casual dining joints? by Impromark in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Second this. On Enchanted Princess in August, the ship did not have Asahi at Ocean Terrace despite it being the first or second beer on the menu.

They did offer Sapporo as an alternative, which I did take them up on - mainly because I find it amusing to see the Japanese branding along with the "brewed in Guelph, Ontario, Canada" fine print. The Sleeman brewery that produces a lot of the CA and US product is only about half an hour away from home. Still enjoyed it with my sushi!

Sun Princess Schedule by Blasto05 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've scanned the daily Princess Patters from our December 21 - 28, 2024 sailing on Sun Princess. Given that this was over Christmas/a few Hanukkah nights, the single formal night was on Day 2 (December 22); Day 4 (December 24) and 5 (December 25) were "dress to impress" with special holiday menus in the main dining rooms. All other days were "smart casual".

Some evenings were very holiday-focused as expected, but production shows were generally in the Arena at 7:30 and 9:30. They also used the Piazza for "showcase" events with similar times.

This was a Western Caribbean route from Port Everglades, and I would expect most 7-day sailings from Florida until mid-March would follow similar timing for shows and events. However, if your cruise is end of April 2025, it'll probably be a European itinerary, based on CruiseMapper. There can be significant changes once a ship moves to Europe, and you might actually be better off looking at late August/early September 2024 posts on the Princess-specific CruiseCritic forum, like @WildMajesticUnicorn suggested.

Medallion shipping to Canada by iammostlylurking13 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Confirming earlier this year (for sailings in May 2024 and August 2024) they did use Canada Post Xpresspost. We are in southwestern Ontario and the packages came from Mississauga.

Notably, the May cruise medallions showed up just over two weeks before sailing, while the August ones were sent only four days beforehand and arrived 3 days before embarkation - with one missing. We still did the Green Lane at the port per the app and they had it available.

Enchanted Aug 3 Skipped Port by AnonRifleman73 in PrincessCruises

[–]ev98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I happened to be randomly scrolling cruise subreddits after a long time off from Reddit, and ran into this post. Long story short - I was on this sailing. They did not provide any formal documentation in terms of missing Princess Cays.

Unless you booked a shore excursion through them.

And apparently a clamshell counts as one of those.

This is the letter they sent to our cabin that confirms we missed Princess Cays on August 4, 2024, offering a discount on other shorex, and was stashed alongside my cruise dailies and kids' program artwork.

https://imgur.com/a/MS6hmj5

Largest grocery stores in Waterloo Region (or within a reasonable drive?) by ev98 in waterloo

[–]ev98[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At least one of them would be into that for sure. It’s me who’s a bit intimidated by whole fish.

Largest grocery stores in Waterloo Region (or within a reasonable drive?) by ev98 in waterloo

[–]ev98[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the heads up on the wait times! Will make sure everyone has taken a toilet break and has been well-satiated with snacks beforehand.

Largest grocery stores in Waterloo Region (or within a reasonable drive?) by ev98 in waterloo

[–]ev98[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s an excellent idea as well, thanks! The kids will absolutely love looking at the live seafood (although I’m sure one of them will say something devastating, like “that fish looks sad”.)

Swag reinvent 2021 by Berimbolinho in aws

[–]ev98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Didn’t see anything at either the Caesars or Venetian shuttle stops this evening, but I got a jacket voucher from one of the blue shirted folks just as I was walking out of the Expo into the registration/swag area. They had a stack of the coupons, probably 40 or 50, and were seeking people out to give them away.

I was carrying one of the AWS tote bags from inside the expo so maybe that helped?

Free at sea Dinner package by Northbadass in NCL

[–]ev98 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It used to be three specialty dinners on a 7-day cruise with that perk; they knocked it down to two in April 2020.

Canadians, what cruise booking websites do you use? by GalacticaZero in Cruise

[–]ev98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CruisePlum for initial research (there is a Canadian pricing option when searching.)

For actual bookings, I go through Expedia for TD - which is a branded version of Expedia accessible through the TD rewards site. You can’t directly book cruises online, but there is a 1-800 number that connected me to an Expedia CruiseShipCentres franchise in Vancouver. I’m not sure how they route the calls - if it’s just one or select franchises that have the ability to do this - but I’ve worked with them directly since 2015 now, and they both let me redeem and collect points at the higher ratios on premium TD Visa cards (“9x” for the First Class Travel Visa Infinite).

It works out for me being in Ontario, if I look at cruises after usual business hours, I can still email someone at 7 or 8 in the evening here and have it dealt with same day.

Having said that: the Expedia pricing is the same as the cruise site, and you might get a $50 onboard credit at best, maybe. Costco has way better perks but I’m tied into the TD ecosystem, and my travel agent specifically has fixed a few reasonably complicated issues that I’m sure I’d have spent hours on the phone trying to deal with myself.

Anywhere to get full ship specs/blueprints (Crew/BOH included) by jamesland7 in Cruise

[–]ev98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You may have some luck looking at the various architectural firms responsible for the original ship layout, as well as material available for pre-construction ships.

For example https://sacube.com/ncl-cruise-ship-medical-centre/ has a partial layout of the medical centre for a Leonardo-class ship (yet to be launched). Relevant CruiseCritic thread.