August 2025 brought a few more firsts for my family and I on Enchanted Princess, which is now a very familiar ship and one we’ve sailed on the most often. We extended our record of 10 days onboard to a 14-day repositioning and had a unique experience, with two bonus days at sea due to Hurricane Erin. We also had success with self-arranged shore excursions and tried to get the best value out of almost $1200US in non-refundable onboard credit.
Unfortunately, the rumoured swap of the smoking casino to non-smoking on Enchanted did not happen for our sailing; the smaller Take Five/Double Down area continued to be smoke-free with the addition of more slot machines while the main casino still allowed smoking. The Wake View pool had a new restriction prohibiting kids before 4pm, which was an unexpected inconvenience. Positives over last time included consistent, excellent main dining room service from Enrique, Celia and their manager Zorica. We also enjoyed the extended menus on the lengthier sailing, and our kids certainly got full value out of the youth program.
After this cruise I still think Princess offers a high-quality product suitable for our family, but I believe that we are in the audience who appreciate the changes on newer Sphere-class vessels. I also think the originally scheduled 14 days would have been the right amount of time for us; by day 16 we were ready to get back home to see friends, family, and pets. That said, our enthusiasm for future sailings hasn’t diminished and we are eagerly counting down the days until our next voyage on Sun Princess.
Booking and planning
About the cruise
This rather unique itinerary was a 14-day Fort Lauderdale to New York City, stopping at Southern “ABC” and Eastern Caribbean islands with 7 port days and 6 sea days. We planned it in June 2024, shortly after getting off Discovery Princess.
The repositioning nature of this cruise was also beneficial. Because NYC is much closer to Toronto than Fort Lauderdale/Miami and is a well-served market by both Canadian and American airlines, return flights can be less expensive and more frequent throughout the day, generally without requiring a connection.
Non-refundable deposit pays off
We booked during the annual/3-day Princess sale through Expedia, which has been offered in early or mid-June the last two years. Expedia Cruises generally lets you pick between non-refundable and fully-refundable deposits up until final payment, but for Princess the non-refundable versions don’t significantly reduce the total cost (at least for the cruises I’ve priced.) This is in contrast to Carnival directly, where choosing a non-refundable deposit could provide a several hundred dollar discount on the sailing.
As of October 15, 2025, Princess is moving to non-refundable deposits as the default, so it will be interesting to see how this affects the 2026 Expedia sale as well as future cruise deposits bought onboard. It sounds like refundable deposits will still be available at a higher amount, plus possibly a higher total cruise price. I’m not thrilled about this, but as with all Princess changes, time will tell how this works out in practice. Maybe we’ll go back to booking less than 90 days out when full payment is due anyway, or during the Expedia sales only.
During this sale, committing to a $270 CAD (total) non-refundable deposit in a mini-suite resulted an onboard credit worth $450 USD/adult and $20 USD/child. And because the cruise was 14 days, the shareholder credit from Carnival Corporation also went up to $250 USD. With the risk of losing $270 CAD if we didn’t go through with final payment, we received back $1190 USD to spend on the ship. I think this is the best onboard credit offer I’ve gotten.
However, this is also new territory for us. When we’ve gotten smaller amounts of onboard credit before (usually $50 or $100 from the travel agency, and maybe another $100 for holding stock), it’s never been a huge problem to extract that value through smaller onboard gift shop purchases, airport transfers, or even towards shore excursions. Nearly $1200 becomes more challenging to use effectively before the end of the cruise.
Optimally using NR-OBC
The most obvious use for non-refundable OBC was towards the daily gratuities for guests 3 and 4 that are not covered by Plus. I wish these fees were bundled with the base price and am displeased about how opaque they are for the customer, but have resigned myself to this industry practice. At $18/day/child in a mini-suite, on paper that’s $504 USD extra for us on this cruise. That seems like a lot in “crew appreciation” for children who don’t need a lot.
While Princess officially doesn’t allow the use of non-refundable credit for service charges, in practice the NROBC on our account has been deducted as gratuities are charged each day. On NCL, non-refundable onboard credit falls into a separate bucket and doesn’t work for these types of charge.
On our March sailing on Enchanted Princess, the entire service charge for the kids was reversed on disembarkation day but not at our request. If this happened again, I didn’t want to potentially leave $500 USD on the table – but also wanted to avoid spending $500 arbitrarily.
One way would be upgrading to Premier for $35 USD/person/day once onboard, totalling $980 USD and consuming a majority of that credit. But arguably the best benefit in Premier, unlimited specialty dining, is much better when restaurant reservations are booked well ahead of sailing so that you have the best choice of times. Specialty dining also doesn’t make sense when we’d still be charged half the standard cover price for each child.
The second most valuable benefit of Premier is an enhanced drink package that I’m certain I could take advantage of, but Kayla might not. Since you have to upgrade both adults, it’s less expensive for us to pay the occasional $1.20 – $6 difference per beverage for whoever wants it.
Many of the physical goods in the gift shops also don’t appeal to us. While Discovery Princess had a very nice Alaska-centric sweater for Kayla, the selection in March 2025 on Enchanted was much more tropical. I personally cannot justify paying $120US for a Tommy Bahama shirt, even if it’s “free money.” Something like a GoPro camera is slightly more interesting if I ever were to try my hand at YouTube, but the models are not necessarily the current-generation – nor priced competitively vs. Costco bundles.
Before sailing, Plan A was to try a casino transfer, where you use your Medallion at a slot machine to make a cabin charge. Then, play the slots for at least a few spins, cash out, go to the cashier, and receive US currency for the balance. Like gratuities, non-refundable OBC can’t be used for gambling according to the fine print, but the onboard accounting system deducts casino charges from available NROBC first. This is something that worked in March 2025 successfully: on a $100 room charge, I played some low-limit slots for 10-15 minutes (actually gambling) and walked away with about $90 cash. There are constant rumours that Princess will close this loophole, and theoretically the casino could ban you for doing this deliberately, so I wasn’t counting on doing it with the whole OBC amount this trip.
Flights
While you can book an “open jaw” itinerary with many airlines, it ends up being two one-way tickets behind the scenes. I tried to time flights with legitimate sales (Black Friday/Cyber Monday were promising) and ended up locking down an early Air Canada flight into Fort Lauderdale for $290 CAD per person. While morning flights do cause a period of purgatory waiting for afternoon hotel check-in, I’d rather be on the first plane of the day in case there are delays or cancellations – then there are still options to get to your destination.
The flight home out of New York wasn’t as promising price-wise, so I ended up looking into Princess EZAir with a refundable ticket, so we’d at least have a flight back, even if not the best value. Within a week of booking that, we got a targeted Aeroplan offer for 25% off base rates. I booked directly with Air Canada and cancelled the Princess-controlled booking. I am still interested in using EZAir in the future, especially if they have refundable rates (until final cruise payment) that are comparable to the non-refundable, publicly available ones.
The FLL leg of the flight changed a few times in the months before departure: Air Canada Rouge to mainline, then back again. Then an aircraft swap put one of our kids many rows away, so I had to call in to get seats reassigned on the A319-100. At least with children under 14, you can sit reasonably close together at no extra charge. Similar rearrangements happened with the flight home from LGA, and we went from a mainline A220 to an Air Canada Express Embraer E175.
Leading up to departure, the Air Canada flight attendants’ union was in a strike position, but the first potential date of interruptions was about a week after our flight out. Our return flight was likely to fall in the strike window, but there wasn’t really much we could do – and there are still many options to get back to Toronto from New York.
Cabin, hotel, and ground transportation
We were fortunate enough to get mini-suite cabin E712, which has the same configuration as E711 from our March stay, but on the port side of the ship instead. While some drawbacks of E711 are still applicable (uncovered balcony, mild noise transfer at night from music in Vista Lounge below), the biggest benefit is that there’s no smoking area on deck 7 below so we could more fully enjoy the balcony experience.
I did grit my teeth a little paying for 15 days’ worth of parking in the Value Park Garage at Pearson, since the discount codes for the garage have been fairly weak and the weekly maximum tops out after the first 7 days. When evaluating against other options like Park N’ Fly, it still seemed worth it to be able to get right back out to the car and head directly home without waiting for a shuttle.
Because FLL had reasonably priced flights and we were sailing from Port Everglades, I did not need to engage the services of Larry or Jeff for transportation, nor dig deep into the Tri-Rail train schedule.
There was good room availability and decent pricing at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ft. Lauderdale Airport/Cruise at 1150 State Road 84 for our Friday night pre-cruise stay. This property is close to the Best Western, Hampton Inn and Candlewood Suites, and on the same side of the road as our old standby, Old Heidelberg (and of course, we planned for dinner there.) However, there is a very confusingly-named Holiday Inn Express Ft. Lauderdale Cruise-Airport located at 1500 SE 17th Street Causeway that also offers a free shuttle between the hotel and airport. I was certain that our airport pickup would be a disaster and we’d get in the incorrect van.
Transportation to Port Everglades was once again booked with All Stars. We are at the point where both our children do not legally require car seats in Florida (just seatbelts), so could consider taking a taxi, Uber, or Lyft to the cruise terminal to reduce costs. We’re not especially convinced that this is a safe option for our kids yet, but that’s personal preference. While we do have travel booster seats, they are still bulky, so a $60 ride is worth avoiding lugging them around and storing them on the ship.
In an expected downgrade from last time, cruise terminal 2 at Port Everglades was unavailable due to the bulkhead replacement slated for completion in December 2026. Enchanted Princess has been using both berths 19 and 21 over the past few weeks according to the vessel traffic tracker, but this could change up to the day of travel depending on marine traffic conditions. We did get a notice just over a week before sailing that indicated terminal 21 would be the departure point.
Planned excursions and port attractions
For a 14-day cruise, we wanted to make sure we had some definitive plans for off-ship activities, since our kids had been begging for beach time.
For Day 4 in Curaçao, we independently reserved a 60-minute tour of Landhuis Chobolobo for a taste of blue curacao (or other colours) for the adults and ice cream for the kids, first planning to walk across the Queen Emma Bridge. We then intended to travel to the Mambo Beach area for some sand and water.
Barbados was the Day 8 stop and also seemed to have sidewalks in decent shape along the Princess Alice Highway, but the beach area southeast of the cruise port would have been a lengthy walk. We ended up booking a well-reviewed rum tasting at Stade’s/Planteray Rum visitor centre, which also provided access to their beach club.
Aruba (Day 6) and St. Maarten (Day 10) looked like they’d have family-friendly options; we didn’t specifically commit to anything but decided to keep them open for an independent beach day. Bonaire (Day 5), Dominica (Day 9) and San Juan (Day 11) seemed to be less accessible with kids along, so we considered these bonus days on the ship right out of the gate.
Other pre-cruise notes
Medallion shipping time was comparable to other cruises, arriving 18 days prior to sail date in an Xpresspost bubble padded envelope. The inner package format changed slightly, with a larger envelope featuring some of the newer Princess branding and Domaine font. Each Medallion was already attached to a blue lanyard and not, as previously, inside its own snugly packed box with a separate white lanyard.
Our kids received their own carry-on luggage as presents earlier in the year, and we still took along one larger checked bag, free due to the linked TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite card. One thing we did pack that wasn’t on the list from last time were laundry detergent strips, since we intended to use the self-serve laundromat onboard to refresh some clothes after about a week and limit what needed to be packed.
The Rogers Red World Elite MasterCard continued to be the most cost-effective choice for USD onboard purchases, and I had no troubles adding it in the mobile app and applying it for all passengers on the reservation.
One more credit card added to the collection was an American Express Platinum card. While it carries a steep annual fee, this is a product we’d been considering for a few months due to its benefits. The key feature was airport lounge access, and we knew we’d have a chance to use this in both Toronto and New York. Even as a premium travel-aligned credit card, the Platinum still carries a 2.5% foreign exchange commission fee on top of the exchange rate, so I didn’t end up using it for any US or onboard purchases.
Dining reservations were once again in the Amalfi room used for flexible dining, and we repeated the approach of holding a 5:40pm slot each evening – traditional dining in Santorini was 5pm and 7:30pm.
Travel to Florida
Airport and flight
After what is now our usual trek and train over from the Value Park Garage, and quickly through security and customs, we made our way to the Plaza Premium lounge for US departures out of Terminal 1. The Amexes got us and a child in each for no added fee, and we didn’t have to wait. It was quite busy inside, though – certainly close to the 66-person capacity despite us arriving at 5:40, ten minutes after the official opening time.
The breakfast buffet had an OK selection of sausage, scrambled and hard boiled eggs, tater tots, cold turkey, cheese, and baked beans. Cereal and bread were also available, with self-serve fountain soda and coffee. Alcoholic drinks were available for purchase at the bar and priced in the $11 range.
This lounge was pretty cramped. It felt narrow and not really like a place you’d want to spend much time after enjoying amenities like breakfast and slightly upgraded washrooms, versus just sitting at the gate. The only other lounge in the T1 Transborder area is the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge, which isn’t available through the Platinum Amex card (there are Air Canada branded cards with this benefit, though) and that lounge also requires an Air Canada or Star Alliance boarding pass.
While 6:40 was the boarding start time for our 7:20 flight, we arrived at the gate at 6:53 to find no other passengers in line, with the flight almost full! This unusual efficiency was surprising, so next time we’re on a morning flight without delays I’ll aim to leave the lounge five minutes earlier. The flight, too, departed only about five minutes later than its scheduled time.
We also arrived at FLL early and made our way through the terminal to baggage claim at 10:35AM. Checked bags were out without a noticeable delay, and we called the hotel for pickup and went towards the Terminal 1 ground transportation area. Since March, the Terminal 2 and Terminal 4 areas have been under construction. The shuttle was labelled for Holiday Inn Express and Candlewood Suites, the property beside it. This was important to distinguish between the other Holiday Inns in the area – while waiting, we met a couple who’d booked a more-northerly Holiday Inn that did not offer a hotel shuttle.
Hotel and food
The specific Holiday Inn on State Road 84 was busy when we arrived, but we made our way to the front desk and had an excellent experience. Mac offered to store our bags and give us access to the pool, with the potential for early check-in after lunch. We decided to go across to Mini Pita in the Southland Shopping Center across the road, where we’d enjoyed a meal in April 2022.
The only problem with this Holiday Inn’s location, versus the Best Western and Hampton Inn across the way, is that there’s not actually a safe pedestrian option to get to the plaza across the busy, multi-lane street without a 12-minute walk starting east towards SW 9th Avenue, or west towards SW 15th.
If your priority is plaza access, the Hampton Inn or Best Western are much more convenient – although the Hampton seems to have discontinued their hotel shuttle earlier this year, then might have brought it back? But of these three properties I think I like the Holiday Inn best overall for service, amenities, and general property condition.
Interestingly enough, the currently closed Winn-Dixie in the plaza has promising signs of future recovery as a grocery store; the top left segment in the shopping center’s directory sign is inverted but the Aldi logo can be seen, and construction paperwork on the door shows a $1.65M renovation project is ongoing.
When we arrived back at the hotel around 1:30 after a very filling lunch, we were thrilled to hear that our room was available, so collected our luggage and got settled. We had a 2 queen bed suite, which came with a pull-out sofa bed so technically you could sleep 6 people. I wouldn’t recommend this for 6 grown adults though.
The third bed was handy to split our children up for sleep and reduce the potential for shenanigans. One notable downside in the room was that the electric outlets and USB-A ports by both the bed and desk were in rough condition: loose and misaligned.
Since there was still time before dinner, we availed ourselves of the pool, which was quite warm but lacked adequate towel supply in the outdoor bin. I’d recommend confirming this before you enter the water.
I’ve talked about Old Heidelberg in every earlier review, so it’s not worth covering in depth other than to confirm it was still an excellent meal. After wrapping up dinner with the family and getting the kids back to the hotel to bed, I went back out and returned to the bar at the restaurant for a few beers to wrap up the day.
Embarkation
The complimentary breakfast at the Holiday Inn was quite serviceable, and we managed to rearrange our bag contents and assemble outside by 9:50am. This was a smooth experience with All Stars – the van left promptly at 10am without unnecessary driver commentary. The first dropoff was for Oasis of the Seas, and then we arrived at Terminal 21 for Enchanted Princess by 10:20am.
We entered a long, but fairly quickly moving security line, and got to the Green Lane by 10:34. I estimated there were between 150 and 200 people waiting in the Blue Lane line, and probably a quarter of that ahead of us on the Green side.
The check-in process went smoothly, and we were allowed to continue to the ship right away, stepping on board at 10:50am. We made our way to the Piazza, where our kids made a friend and each had a piece of pre-lunch chocolate cake, which did not quite match the description it was labelled with.
Around 12:30pm we figured we’d try to drop off our backpacks and other carry-on accessories and were very pleased to find that our stateroom steward Godfrey had just finished completing service – we were able to “take possession” of the cabin slightly earlier than expected. Bags and additional paperwork were delivered early afternoon, so everyone had their full complement of outfits and necessary information.
Cabin
We would certainly rank cabin E712 highly for layout and features, detailed extensively in the March 2025 sailing notes. One big improvement was better balcony usability, since the deck below did not feature a smoking section. Another, less pleasant change was an increased degree of sound transfer at night from the Vista Lounge. In particular, the live comedy shows seemed to be much more audible, and the club music also resonated in a noticeable way in this cabin.
Apart from purely cabin position, this could have been a change to the volume or sound equipment in the five months since we were last onboard – but at least in our experience, E712 was noisier than E711. There also seemed to be more creaking noises, rather than tapping, at higher propulsion speeds or in wavy conditions. There was at least one rattle I couldn’t find the source of at all. At least this time our upstairs neighbours did less deck chair dragging.
I’d rate the service from Godfrey as excellent. All expected paperwork was delivered and collected promptly, including children’s program schedules and airport transfer form. His timing also worked out better for our lunch and swimming schedule than our last steward. The top Pullman bed once again stayed down throughout the cruise, but both the sofa bed and top bunk had daily morning and evening turndown service.
Linen service was very good – not perfect – but often included delivery of pool/beach towels on evenings before port days, which was a nice touch that we haven’t had before. He was also able to locate a sewing kit for Kayla on very short notice, even though there wasn’t one readily available on his cart.
Our Medallions worked properly for cabin access the entire sailing, with no glitches locking us out or watching the safety video. We did successfully use a USB-C to HDMI adapter to play our own media on the TV once but then were unable to get it to function properly again. The LG menu sequence still let us select the HDMI input, so I’m more inclined to think the specific dongle and cable were causing problems, rather than a deliberate lock-out from the Princess side.
Ship
For better and for worse, not much had changed about Enchanted Princess overall since March 2025. The many positives, such as easy Guest Services access, decent seating availability in the Piazza and bars, and good variety of places to relax made this ship a solid choice for a two-week vacation. The improved wayfinding signs for dining rooms and port/starboard cabins outside the elevator remained in place, and they had repaired or replaced the misbehaving espresso machine in the Princess Live! café.
Things that hadn’t changed on the negative side included poor pool tile maintenance, an ongoing fly control problem, the odd smoky smell in the deck 6 restrooms outside the Amalfi dining room, loss of touchscreen games outside elevators, and the out-of-order ATM/bill breaker outside the casino.
Two more downgrades, though, were the failure of Princess to convert the main casino to non-smoking for this voyage – and the introduction of a new restriction at the Wake View pool.
Smoking/non-smoking casino areas
One could argue that in March 2025, the Princess Casino was still a smoking-permitted venue and Double Down/Take Five was the non-smoking side for degenerate slot players. Therefore, this isn’t really a change from earlier in the year and might not be worthy of special criticism in this post. However: in the weeks leading up to this sailing, a well-informed Cruise Critic poster had sailed on Enchanted Princess, and claimed that in discussions with senior staff, the venues were to swap their rules on cigarettes by our sail date. The main casino would become smoke-free, and the smaller Double Down side would get more slot machines and allow smoking.
I was thrilled and thought this made a lot of sense, since Double Down has passenger-operable doors on both sides that would contain the smoke if kept closed by default.
Unfortunately, only part of the change manifested by August 9. There were plenty of new (and some very expensive) slot machines installed on the Double Down side, but the main casino still remained smoking-permitted on our journey. The poster in question followed up and claimed the change was indefinitely delayed due to an argument at corporate about casino profitability. That seems totally believable, but it is such a negative for us, and I hated that this could have happened.
Update: As of late September 2025, JamieLogical confirmed that the Double Down/Princess Casino smoking swap has now taken place on Enchanted Princess! Better late than never, I guess.
Wake View / Infinity Pool age restriction
The other issue was the introduction of a timed age restriction at the aft Wake View pool, which was definitely not in place on our last two sailings:
I’m completely understanding of adults who want to have a calm, relaxing pool area to avoid the splashing and shrieking behaviours of children in this type of environment. In fact, we were fortunate enough to enjoy such a location ourselves on this ship while the kids were at the Tree House. It’s called the Retreat pool, it’s on deck 17 forward, and is adult-only at all times. To bring in another restriction on the shallower aft pool – more usable and accessible than the main pools – was really unfriendly. One of our favourite activities as a family onboard Princess is to do lunch/pool, or pool/lunch after the kids’ club closes at noon, and the Wake View/Infinity Pool was certainly a calmer spot at these times.
I didn’t get the chance onboard to ask someone in authority about this change – most of the staff commonly in this area are bar servers, laundry attendants for towels, and the occasional F&B supervisor who wandered in from the buffet. My concern is that this might be a fleet-wide update for aft pools, which will be a loss for our future sailings on Sun and Star Princess as it’s a pool where our kids feel more comfortable.
While I don’t know how practical it is, I’d even be OK with a “kids under 16 must be closely supervised” condition. Or, on Royal-class ships, Kayla suggested the Retreat pool could be swapped: it’s the shallowest one onboard, so making it the family option and having Wake View become exclusively adult seems like a reasonable idea.
Guest services
We had several Guest Services visits this sailing:
- On day 1 and 2 I was unable to see everyone’s balance on the onboard charges section of the app, and on day 3 I received a notice that the credit card for one of my children’s accounts had been declined. This was a similar issue to the one we had on Sun Princess. It was a quick visit to get this addressed, although I did have to physically insert the credit card and type the PIN in a terminal as somehow they didn’t have the MasterCard on file. Once this was fixed, I was able to see everyone’s charges again.
- As we tried to make casino charges to our room, we received an error at any slot machine that either Kayla or I tried. Talking to the cashier, they redirected us to Guest Services. Apparently when my credit card was re-applied it was done so in a mode that prevented it being used at the casino. We were able to lift this restriction and then immediately make room charges at slot machines.
- On Day 5 I noticed a charge of $40.71 to my account, listed generically as Bar. I went to Guest Services, and they were able to say that it was a bottle of prosecco from Crooners – but we had been at Bellini’s that evening and only drinking by the glass, whatever was included in the Plus package. There was no argument once I confirmed we hadn’t ordered a bottle, and the charge was removed speedily.
- Later in the cruise I went to the desk to ask for two feedback forms (labelled as “First Impressions”) with the intention of writing about the Wake View pool restriction. I was told that they were out of them but would have the forms delivered to our cabin. They never showed up. I realize after the fact I probably could have used any paper, signed my name and cabin number, and put it in the mailbox at Guest Services… oh well, for next time.
Other ship thoughts
There was also quite a bit of visible maintenance work onboard. An external crew was inspecting and adjusting lifeboat davit systems every day, and the HVAC system clearly needed some love. One day we were in the buffet and the crew opened a panel in the wall – underneath the air conditioner, there was a significant amount of water on the floor that was clearly unexpected. A series of individuals came by to inspect, point at it, and then find the next higher ranking person to do the same thing.
It’s somewhat expected after a few sailings on the same ship to notice changes over time, and it’s human nature to provide negative feedback at a higher rate and intensity than positive. With the above in mind, I think it’s worth it to say in the middle of this write-up: I would absolutely sail Enchanted Princess again, over and above some other ships we’ve been on in the past.
Food
Main dining
This cruise gave me more appreciation for some of the benefits of traditional dining, with the same waitstaff every evening. Normally, we reserve flexible dining at a consistent time every evening to make sure the kids can enjoy dinner before it’s too late. With flexible dining, on arrival the maitre’d will assign you to a free table with a waiter team assigned to that section, so you often have different folks both serving you and at the tables beside you every night. And while there have been several wonderful evenings throughout our cruise history where we’ve really appreciated the service from a specific team, it really never occurred to us to try and keep that arrangement.
After our first dinner, we were quite pleased with both the service and company from the adjacent tables, and so on our way out we asked the maitre’d Tristan if we could continue to be seated in the same section going forward. This was confirmed without issue, and we were just asked to arrive for 5:30 rather than 5:40pm each evening. There were several advantages to delaying this decision until after the first dinner onboard, rather than booking fixed/traditional dining ahead of time:
- we didn’t have to scramble for a 5pm arrival time, or get stuck with 7:30pm which is too late for the kids
- we already knew we liked our waiter and assistant waiter, so this wasn’t signing up for two weeks of potentially less attentive service
- the people around us were friendly and actually seemed to enjoy our kids’ company; I know sitting near kids can be less than ideal for certain cruisers
Enrique and Celia also got to know our preferences quickly, with Celia remembering our preferred drink orders (merlot for me, prosecco for Kayla, and San Benedetto sparkling water for each of us), only asking for quick confirmation on our way in before they appeared. She also helped our kids select non-alcoholic drinks each night based on flavour suggestions. Enrique made sure that the children’s orders were expedited and made solid recommendations for food choices, especially for menus that we hadn’t seen before. And because Celia was so prompt and attentive on drink refills (Enrique covered it well on evenings where she was assigned to the buffet for part of the service), I didn’t need to order a double wine pour to bridge a gap in service – a new glass always showed up when I wanted it.
Everything I had to eat was flavourful and at a good temperature, and I never left the dining room hungry. The Spaghetti and Giant Meatball from last cruise did re-appear on the Day 5 menu, and the Land and Sea (steak and lobster) showed up on Day 13 – so at least for this Caribbean sailing, complimentary lobster continued to be an option one night. Kayla enjoyed the crab cake appetizer on the first formal night from the Captain’s Welcome menu, as well as the gnocci (truffled cream, parmesan, arugula, basil oil). Not being an arugula fan myself, I skipped the pasta that night but did like the beef tenderloin. And the tasty lemon cheesecake was back on Italian night!
We did lunch in the main dining room only a couple times on this sailing; it was hard to keep our kids engaged and service seemed slow. I liked the fish tacos and my usual standby of spaghetti aglio olio with shrimp, but the bread on the club sandwich quickly became soggy and did not hold up well; I recommend the Monte Cristo instead if you’re in the mood for a lunch sandwich.
Main dining room breakfast was also not a regular event for us. After a few late nights out at the kids’ club, the entire family would get to sleep in until 8 or 8:30am (rather than the conventional “as close to 7am as possible” that the children prefer), and it was hard to get everyone moving and completely ready to go before breakfast closed at 9am. When we did have breakfast there it was fine… but of course the closer to 9 you get, the more the waitstaff rush around trying to clear tables and it starts to feel like an imposition. My kingdom for breakfast service until 10!
World Fresh Marketplace / Buffet
I found quite a few good options at the buffet and really enjoyed the special rotating options available throughout the sailing. It was busy for breakfast and lunch regardless of sea or port day, and I think even just a few more staff helping clear and clean tables may have helped. The staff we did see, though, were unfailingly polite and helpful, and in particular Tami made a special effort to find us and make sure our bar orders were brought over promptly.
There was a lunch seafood buffet close to the end of the sailing, and while lobster tails were not on offer, the shrimp were remarkably good – larger size and higher quality than in the cocktail from the nightly Princess Favourites menu.
We also recognized several of the wait staff from dinner service ensuring things ran smoothly. Enrique was staffing a beer and sparkling water table, so we made sure to have a few and help him cycle through the stock.
Kayla notes that the large salad bowls that used to be by the Caesar salad station had been removed, which made the construction of a Big Salad more difficult. Apparently, these bowls are used for other purposes around the buffet, but aren’t just out for passengers to use anymore.
One very minor complaint I have is that around 1:30pm (maybe this was closer to 2pm, but it felt early) some of the action stations and aisles would start to close. There was a day where I went to go get the kids some food, noted something interesting at the carvery down one aisle on my way back, returned after less than two minutes and the entire row had been roped off.
For next time, I think I’ll employ the Costco strategy: if you see something you like at the buffet, get it then and there, or it might be gone when you get back. The kids’ food section with chicken nuggets, spaghetti, fries, and other favourites for little ones was on the end of an aisle and looked like it was always available, so definitely pick up the featured steak, roast beef, or ramen first.
Other dining
Somewhat disappointingly, the 2025-generation Plus package includes two casual dining meals per sailing, so a 14-day cruise that’s not booked as two 7-day segments still only gets you those two meals. (The shareholder onboard credit for a 14-day is still a slight bonus at $250 USD, rather than 2x $100 with back-to-back 7-day cruises.) For the third time, one of these meals was an early lunch at Ocean Terrace for just the adults, and the other was at Gigi’s Pizzeria with the whole family. Ocean Terrace did have Asahi available this time, but much like how the purportedly Japanese Sapporo is often sourced from Guelph, Ontario, Canada – this bottle of Asahi was a product of Italy.
Gigi’s menu has shrunk slightly since March (the date code in the bottom right is 2025-4-3, so I’m assuming an April 2025 change) and sadly no longer includes the antipasto platter, one of my favourites from earlier sailings. One nice change was that the Tony Gemignani specialty pizzas were included in the Plus meal, when on Sun Princess these were definitely excluded.
The International Cafe was in heavy rotation for Dinner II at late o’clock, and I did find that certain items like the cheese and nut bowl were generally available upon request, even if they weren’t out on display. It’s worth asking the server if you don’t see your favourite! And while I’m not really one for toasted or heated sandwiches on land, the mortadella and cheese is improved by a cycle in the toaster oven. Not that it wasn’t already good, though.
I did check out the Salty Dog Cafe for a specialty hot dog once this cruise, but again I don’t know if the wait justifies the taste when the World Fresh Marketplace is steps away. Alfredo’s Slice was a solid mid-day choice for thin-crust pizza, when our extended lunch-hour pool visit resulted in a sudden need for sustenance. And the popcorn and soft serve continued at Swirls, which is always a nice choice.
Drinks
Between our last sailing on Enchanted and this one, Princess made some drink package policy changes as well as adjusting Plus/Premier inclusions and increasing the price on bundles for 2026 and later sailings. Many people have conflated the two changes, but the operational move that occurred in late April/early May 2025 (original source from CrewCenter) was the one that took effect immediately:
- Canned sodas explicitly not included as part of Plus/Premier packages – only fountain soda
- No double pours for spirits, but double wine pours still permitted
- One drink per transaction; least clear of the changes
As part of the galley tour, I was able to find a memo sent May 17, 2025, that details these changes somewhat officially; it was behind a gate but you should be able to glean all the relevant information by squinting at both of these photos.
Of these three changes, the one I was personally least concerned about was around the canned sodas, yet it seemed to be the topic that received the most attention online and discussion on the ship. I don’t tend to drink a lot of pop on cruises unless it’s going in a mixed drink, and at that point whatever comes out of the soda gun is perfectly fine. This has also been the case on NCL with the Ultimate Beverage Package, where cans always cost extra.
The chief complaints about canned sodas were availability of flavours/variants, including from Coke Zero fans (Diet Coke is available in fountain format but Coke Zero is not); preference for different taste or carbonation level; and inability to store and save a few cans in the stateroom fridge. Our kids have enjoyed the occasional root beer, which is one of the sodas only available in canned format, but we also don’t buy them the Plus package so have expected to be charged anyway. In practice, well-behaved kids with their parents are extended some latitude as to whether that charge actually shows up.
Princess partially rolled that particular change back in late July 2025, so those on the Plus/Premier plans are supposed to be able to get a single can of pop on request at no charge, but this directive has not made its way back to the ships consistently. On Enchanted Princess, the bartenders at Good Spirits were fully informed and would give out single cans when asked, but at least one bar on the upper decks was still informing people of the extra charge.
I’m also generally not in need of a double pour on drinks when the service is as good as it usually is on Princess. Double pours also count as two drinks against the Plus plan limit of 15 daily, so the real advantage is in busy bar or restaurant situations where it might take a while to get a second round. I never tested this restriction out as a result, but certainly there were cocktails included in Plus that had multiple types of full-proof liquor, and none of those seemed to cause a problem.
As for the “one drink per transaction” rule, I figured this would add some inconvenience if ordering a beverage for Kayla and she wasn’t in the vicinity, but this didn’t come up. In fact, when bar servers came around, drinks were allocated to each specific adult more consistently than in the past.
With no cruise-ruining changes in this set, I fully exercised the drink package component of the Plus package, trying a variety of cocktails, wine, cider, and beer balanced out with multiple cases worth of sparkling water over the week. While there was never a lengthy wait anywhere to actually order and receive a drink, sometimes the seating in the vicinity of the bar was oversubscribed. Good Spirits was the busiest interior bar at all times, even when others attached to the Piazza (O’Malley’s, Crooners, Bellini’s) had very little traffic. The main pool bars (The Mix/Seaview Bar) were also busy but not onerously so.
Entertainment
Production shows
Enchanted Princess still offers the same set of production shows (5-SKIES, Spotlight Bar, Rock Opera) as our last two sailings. Each of these shows were only offered twice during the sailing (on the same night, 7:30 and 9:30pm showings), despite the extended voyage, so most of the evenings in the main theatre had guest performers.
Kayla and I saw Rock Opera together, and she insisted that we had seen the show on a previous cruise while the first song was being performed. I was certain this was the last remaining production show we hadn’t seen on Enchanted Princess but agreed that she may have seen it on Discovery Princess without me. It turns out that “The Greatest Show” is actually a popular track on the seas – while Rock Opera uses it as the opening song, MSC Seascape employs it as a finale for the performance of Premiere, so that’s another place we heard it performed in a ship theatre.
I also went to 5-SKIES on my own and made good on my plan to sit further back in the theatre and more centrally than in March. The central location does make a difference since there are images and text shown on both sides of the active stage. There’s also a particular scene in which the lead actor gets on a sort of perch-like apparatus and “flies” in front of a video that dodges and swoops between rocks. This effect is impressive when you have both the left and right projections in your field of vision, but much cheesier when you’re on an angle – then it just looks like a guy flapping around to music.
While I don’t expect to be back on Enchanted or book a new sailing on Sky Princess any time soon, which are the two ships currently showing 5-SKIES, one slight correction to the spot I picked this time would be to try and sit further forward in the exact centre of the theatre. As long as you can see the top of the displays, I think this would be the best possible experience.
Other entertainment
For other entertainment, I did catch a fairly generic comedy show in Vista Lounge (high level themes were age differences and marital status.) The pianist in Crooners, Chance Devlin, was more personable with the crowd and arguably a better musician than I’ve seen in this venue in the past. And while Pint of Plain was no longer onboard, having moved on to Discovery Princess for the Alaska season, I enjoyed the Eilish Hassett Trio’s version of The Unicorn. It’s also never really a complete cruise without the Irish band playing Rattlin’ Bog.
One show that wasn’t on the schedule was the experience I had at bar close time. O’Malleys and Bellini’s were locked down, and Good Spirits had started the evening closing routine. They’d moved DJ Sabina, who was usually in Vista Lounge for the late-night session, into the Piazza for a couple hours. There was still a decent audience of 20 or so people at this time of night, with a few of them up and dancing. The most noticeable people on the floor were two tall gentlemen who looked like plants from the onboard entertainment department. I would later find out that these folks were passengers!
As the DJ played a variety of pop music spanning decades, these guys energetically matched each track with a well-choreographed dance. But the best part was when another gentleman, who had been sitting there for a while, decided to jump up and try his absolute best to follow along. For someone who follows Formula 1, his full attire of vintage Ferrari team gear – but without shoes or socks – provided a poignant commentary on their current season.
Ports and extended journey
Curaçao
Our Deluxe Guided Tour (pre-booked online through Landhuis Chobolobo: $30US/adult, $2 booking fee, kids under 13 free) was scheduled for 11:00am, based on an expected ship arrival time of 9am. This was expected to give us enough time to eat breakfast and disembark by 10am, walk over to the Queen Emma Bridge (10 minutes) and then pick up a taxi for another 10-to-15-minute drive to the distillery.
However, by day 4, both the kids and adults were starting to sleep in slightly more than the usual 7am wakeup – after a few nights pushing the limits of the Treehouse evening camp, we didn’t start getting ready until 9am. With the busy buffet and time spent encouraging children to eat a substantial breakfast, we didn’t exit the ship until 10:25.
Enchanted Princess was also docked at terminal 2, which added another 7 or 8 minutes to the expected walking time, even if you didn’t slow down to take in the scenery from the bridge. At that point, we decided to get a shared taxi from the port directly to Chobolobo to avoid missing our tour slot.
After a short stop to drop off some passengers in the “downtown” area, we took the freeway and arrived at the liqueur distillery for 10:45am. It was quite warm outside with direct sun and no shade in the parking lot, so we milled around the gift shop and bar area for a little while before joining the tour.
The tour lasted about 45 minutes and described various aspects of the curaçao production and bottling process, as well as another product called Alcolado Glacial purported to be a cure-all, revitalizing lotion. Interestingly enough the four standard colours of curaçao (blue, green, red, orange) all taste the same – it’s just food colouring added to the clear liquor. There are also additional flavours available: coffee, chocolate, rum raisin, and tamarind. We then were directed back over to the main area to try some samples, with the tamarind version being top of the list for both Kayla and I.
We then sat in a covered area reserved for private tours and workshops, and ordered drinks and the scoops of ice cream included with the deluxe tour. I chose the frozen Chobolobo Mudslide (containing both the chocolate and coffee curaçao variants, as well as vanilla, cappucino, and chocolate sauce) and Kayla picked the Tamarèin Sunset (lime juice, mango, white rum, grenadine, and tamarind curaçao.) There were mocktails available for the children, too. There’s also a food truck on site, and we put in an order for chicken fingers and fries to keep everyone in a decent mood for the next part of our day.
After buying some sample-sized bottles from the gift shop, we headed out to the greeter’s stand in the parking lot and asked them to call a taxi to Mambo Beach. The vehicle arrived in about 10 minutes and took another 7 to get there. Once on-site, we headed through the plaza and down to the sandy area. We were able to rent a beach chair (although with some confusion about the actual cost) and get some time in the water, which had shallow enough areas for the kids. Prices at the nearby restaurant seemed reasonable for beer and fries.
I think on a future trip we would try to walk a little more of the beach area and see what other options for seating and refreshments are around. Mambo is definitely a tourist-forward spot and quite busy, but a good time was had by all.
Barbados
Once again, we picked up a taxi at the port and were whisked over to Stade’s Rum Visitor’s Centre by Anthony Clarke of “On the House Taxi Service”. After arriving at Stade’s Anthony gave us his card so that we could call him for a pickup when done, and I promised I’d drop his information in this review. I would recommend him!
The Rum Tasting and Beach Experience delivered what it promised, and we stuck around for a couple hours. We got a welcome drink of rum punch and then tasted four varieties of rum before being cut loose to the beach. It was quite wavy that day, so it wasn’t so much swimming in the ocean as being thrown around by the waves.
We called Anthony as we were getting ready to leave, and he arrived within a few minutes to take us back to the port. It was a quick ride back to the ship as well. I don’t know if I’d repeat the Stade’s experience – it was certainly worth doing at least once and I’d recommend it if you haven’t been before. I think next time we’d try one of the beach areas around Carisle Bay to the south of the cruise port such as Browne’s, Bayshore or Pebbles just to get a different experience.
Port changes
On the Barbados port day (8), there was an announcement followed by a letter informing us that due to the path of Hurricane Erin, we would no longer be stopping at the next two ports of call in Dominica and St. Maarten. We didn’t have any firm plans for either port, although St. Maarten was the most likely one where an exit from the ship was in the cards for us.
To my surprise, alternate ports for both days had been arranged rather than just converting to sea days. Martinique and St. Kitts, in that order, were the replacements. I think this was a decent approach that would appeal to the large segment of cruisers who have activities or intentions to get off in every port. We did not exit the ship either of these days regardless.
Schedule alteration
The next change, though, was announced around 5:30pm on day 11 as we were leaving St. Kitts. Due to the continued wake of Erin, the cruise would no longer be able to port in New York on Saturday morning. There were two options available: the ship would return to Fort Lauderdale on Friday (Day 13) and those who needed to disembark could do so. Then, the ship would continue sailing and arrive in New York two days after originally scheduled on Monday, August 25 rather than Saturday, August 23.
There was a small amount of commotion in the dining room as people digested the news, and I went into action trying to find the best flight replacements. Our return flight was not booked as refundable or flexible, and would incur $138 CAD/person change fees, plus any price difference between our original rates and the replacement ticket cost. And while we had travel insurance from a couple different sources, I’d never had to put it to use before, so I wanted to mitigate any potential losses in case our claim was rejected and we had to pay out of pocket.
I spent the beginning of the evening waiting on the official letter from the ship. When it arrived it made no mention of compensation from the cruise line for independent flight changes, but another page did give no-charge options for those who had booked flights through Princess EZAir. I guess this makes sense – Princess can’t control the weather and was allowing us to continue to the original end port of the voyage – but with previous cancellations or adjustments they have often reimbursed $200 USD/person for change fees. This might be an upside to choosing EZAir in hurricane season, where delays or schedule changes might be forced based on the ocean conditions.
Knowing that we were unlikely to receive anything from Princess at this point, I evaluated our options. Air Canada was not providing any valid change options on our existing tickets for Friday or Saturday flights out of Fort Lauderdale, and a completely new booking out of the three possible Florida airports (FLL/MIA/PBI) that accounted for ship arrival time on Friday would have been $4700 CAD or involve an overnight layover in New York anyway! However, adjusting the flight to leave NYC on the Monday afternoon was originally going to cost about $1000 at the time the change was announced; by the time I actually booked the change a couple hours later it had gone up to $1344 CAD with fees included.
Most insurance plans require that you inform them promptly of your situation if you intend to claim, so I spent some more time that evening on the phone with TD Visa’s travel insurance carrier. Wi-Fi calling was working so I could call as usual from my cell phone, although there were several periods where the remote end had trouble hearing me.
I learned that with TD, at least 75% of the trip must be paid on a single card to activate the insurance benefits. While the cruise and flight to Florida were on the First Class Travel card, the hotel stay was on the Rogers MasterCard (for USD conversion) and return flight was on the TD Aeroplan card. I did get a case number and reference link sent to my email to start the claim. It ended up the mix would have been 85%+ charged to the First Class Travel card, so I suspect this option may have worked out if I’d pursued it.
We also have an annual travel insurance plan through Blue Cross, but when I called the number on the policy, I was presented only with options for emergency medical or to call back during business hours. I went back down to the Piazza to join up with Kayla and inform her of our progress, deciding to resume the notification process the next day. When I restarted calling in the morning, it took a few transfers through the phone tree. I did get redirected to someone who confirmed that this situation would likely be covered and sent a claim file number and submission instructions by email. My stress level went down significantly at that point.
Two extra days onboard
As part of our early return to the continental United States, our stop back in Port Everglades on what was Day 14 required immigration attendance. We were sent a letter that advised we were in Group 3 and would be expected to disembark the ship for US Customs around 8:00am on Friday. We could then return to the ship immediately if continuing on to New York.
Off the ship, the facial recognition process before the customs booths also didn’t seem to be working properly for children, so we were sent over to a separate line. Then, one of our kids’ profiles also wasn’t quite in the expected state – we were asked if we had an ESTA, but citizens of Canada don’t need this type of visa waiver. The customs agent was able to clear the issue, and we continued back to the ship. I’d say total time was less than half an hour to complete the process and get back to the Piazza for morning drinks.
Days 15 and 16 at sea were certainly quieter from a passenger standpoint, with senior staff quoting that while the voyage had started with 3973 guests, only 2700 remained on the segment from Florida to New York. There was some added rockiness especially on Day 15 in the evening, but certainly nothing worse than what we’ve experienced on prior sailings, and nothing at all like some of the more intense videos of ships in bad weather. Day 16 was very rainy, with closures of some outdoor venues. All the indoor venues were running as expected, with no outages of product that I noticed. That said, the schedule/crew notices for Day 13 did indicate that “some bar products not available” so perhaps some other passengers did experience shortages.
I think this change of schedule was handled very well by Princess, the captain and the crew (who definitely are amazing people!) People had the possibility to exit early and potentially make their commitments in New York, even if that wasn’t necessarily the best financial choice, and that chance to disembark ahead of schedule doesn’t and can’t always happen on a ship. Princess Plus, including the all-important drink package, was continued through the two added days at no charge, and passengers without WiFi were granted free access for the rest of the voyage to make alternate arrangements. Events and shows also continued, including the galley tour which I finally was able to attend and really enjoyed. Crew appreciation charges were also not triggered for August 23 and 24.
That being said, WiFi Internet access was cut off for everyone, even people with packages, at midnight as we sailed toward New York on Day 17. That could have been a problem for some with time-sensitive travel plans, since you wouldn’t get signal until back in cell tower range on land and manually turned airplane mode off, and you might not even notice the issue until actually disembarking.
Kids club
I think we’ve made very good use of the Princess children’s programming on earlier sailings, but went over and above that this time. Our kids wanted to go to every session possible in the Tree House, and went to nearly every 7-10pm block, pleading to stay to the very end and being the last ones to be picked up. This often meant we were quite late to the morning programming after a couple days of this schedule!
We did like the flexibility of the 1pm afternoon restart on port days, rather than the sessions resuming at 2pm on sea days. The children were more amenable to going to the Lodge area than in March, and this allowed us to slightly adjust the schedule: pickup and lunch at noon, go back to kids’ club for 1pm, with an early pickup at 4pm to have some time in the Wake View pool (where they were now allowed at that point in the day) before dinner.
Our deal for this trip was that on port days when we stayed on the ship, the kids only had to go to one session in the Lodge, either morning or afternoon, if it wasn’t as fun for them. But one of their favourite staff from last time, Dani, was in the Lodge area primarily, and she made it a great experience.
In terms of parent-required events, there was a Family Fun Fair in the morning on Day 3, but in a stroke of luck our children made a new friend on the first day and we were able to send the three of them into the Piazza to stand in the lines for face painting, button-making, and other activities – while we sat comfortably nearby and chatting with the other kid’s mom. Still supervised!
There was also a family dance party on the Martinique evening, but it was from 7 to 8pm and we had an extended dinner and dessert that overlapped. We ended up just sending them up to the supervised Tree House area for 8-10pm. Then, the afternoon Family Bingo was moved from the last sea day to the second-last sea day, but the kids could go right over to the Tree House area for the rest of the afternoon when bingo wrapped up (3-5pm).
Other happenings
CruiseCritic meet and mingle
In something I haven’t done since a Norwegian sailing, poster @lrkinkead on CruiseCritic was able to organize a Meet and Mingle held on Day 2 in Princess Live. While it was well-attended by guests, I didn’t see any senior staff presence, so this wasn’t like NCL where you’d get officer contact information and maybe some face time with them. The bingo activity was well put together; some prizes were donated by CruiseCritic themselves to celebrate the site’s 30th anniversary, and a handmade table runner was the grand prize, donated by a passenger.
Platinum and Elite lounge
This was our first cruise on Princess in the Platinum Captain’s Club tier system (5 cruises or 50 cruise days). While this was our 5th cruise on Princess and therefore Platinum status normally wouldn’t apply until our next sailing, our 2024 Enchanted Princess cruise counted for double credit.
Platinum doesn’t necessarily mark a huge change in terms of tangible benefits for us. The 50% off Internet packages is negated by our Plus purchases, and we don’t often do spa or photo purchases. Early dining access is nice for future reservations, but I’ve had to call the Dine Line (1-833-805-DINE) as the app doesn’t always recognize this benefit. The key inclusion in Platinum is that now we have access to the Platinum and Elite Lounge, which is not a dedicated space like the Signature Suite/Concierge Lounge, but a sectioned-off area for a designated amount of time.
On this sailing, it was the entire Vista Lounge from 4:30 – 6pm every night, except for August 20 and 21 when the Captain’s Circle parties were being held. We didn’t go to the Captain’s Circle party slot we were invited to. It overlapped our dinner reservation, and there was a huge line to get let in when we walked by. Perhaps something to try on a future sailing.
In the lounge area, there’s very prompt waiter service for drinks, or you can sidle up to the bar and order your own. There’s also a small serve-yourself buffet of snacks and appetizers set up, with several choices making regular appearances (breadsticks, meats and cheeses, giardiniera, fruit and vegetables with dip, salmon/shrimp, pastries) and typically whatever the cold soup in the MDR was. There was also a rotational offering that changed every night, with chicken wings and fried coconut shrimp as two examples.
Princess doesn’t offer free/hosted drinks at the Lounge. The ones on the menu below are a slight discount from similar cocktails offered at the other bars, so if you didn’t have Plus or Premier this might be a $2-$3/drink savings if you like the choices.
The Lounge always had one or two officers walking around, and we chatted with a couple of them during the trip (resulting in a delivery of towel animals to our cabin one night, which isn’t something Princess does by default anymore.) And while our kids were still Ruby status for this cruise, nobody gave us any trouble taking them in along with us (once again, being respectful of other passengers.) They’ll both be Platinum next sailing so will be eligible on their own merit.
Onboard shopping and casino
Due to the excess of onboard credit, we did spend some time thoroughly perusing the shops to see what sundries caught our interest. For the most part, this was a bust. The photo gallery, doing double-duty selling Medallion accessories, has stopped selling GoPro cameras and is down to SD cards, binoculars and Bluetooth speakers (banned on Carnival!) as their premium items. The watches on Deck 6 included a Longines one that Kayla liked but would have cost twice the total value of our OBC.
On Deck 7, the clothing was expensive and in fairly limited supply. Kayla did get a pair of sunglasses, but the staff were pretty clear that what was on display was all they had available. Towards the end of the cruise, they were changing out the Caribbean gear for Canada and New England-themed merchandise for the next round of sailings. Kayla noted that the Indigenous art on the textiles was Haida or Coast Salish, which are decidedly West Coast peoples and not the Eastern First Nations. We both seem to recall that the shopping selection on Sun Princess was more varied, but we’ll have to check that out later this year.
Disembarkation and post-cruise
We did end up at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal (rather than Manhattan), and it was busy with disembarkation groups being called about 30 minutes behind scheduled times. Having said that, we exited, collected luggage, and were fairly easily able to find where the buses for LGA were loading. The trip to the airport took about 45 minutes once we got started.
We were fortunate enough to be in terminal B, which is also the location of the American Express Centurion Lounge for LGA, so this was another opportunity to use our new cards. We did have to wait until three hours before our flight to enter, but the experience saved us the cost of an airport meal and snacks: there was a full lunch buffet with soup, salad, chicken, grains, vegetables, and desserts – as well as a bar with complimentary beer, wine and cocktail selections, and a couple snacks like corn nuts.
While the gate agent had kindly put us on standby for an earlier flight back to Toronto, our party of four did not make the list and so we ended up on our originally scheduled 3:50pm flight, which then got pushed back to 4:35pm. We arrived back in Toronto, and checked out of the Viscount parking garage at 7:18pm, incurring a $60 charge for the extra two days.
The kids were charged (and not refunded) for gratuities, but we were able to fully use our onboard credit – we played in the casino more than I thought we would, and our bus transfers from Brooklyn to the airport ate into the amount at $54/person.
Travel insurance claim
The submission portal from CanAssistance, used by our particular Blue Cross policy, was fairly straightforward to use once I got back to a full computer after returning home. There is a good amount of information needed, including specific documentation as to the cause of the trip interruption. The letter Princess sent to our cabin, plus a notice of itinerary change that was sent to our travel agent (and then forwarded along to us) were sufficient.
Then, original credit card statements and receipts for each segment of the travel are needed, and so I ended up having to dig back for the original cruise deposit made over a year ago, final payment for the cruise, as well as flight receipts and transactions.
This might be a larger problem for cruises paid in part with future cruise deposits, where the original FCD purchase might be multiple years before booking or sailing. Maybe it’s time to look into how to automatically download statement PDFs from the banks each month.
When submitting, I did redact sections of the credit card statements, because frankly it isn’t their business to know my statement balance and full purchase history. I also opted to have the reimbursement sent by cheque rather than try to dig up bank transfer information. After completing the online form on August 27, I received full payment on September 8 for the flight expenses, with no other evidence needed. The cheque statement also showed that it was processed on August 29, so a bank deposit might have even been quicker!
The only downside to the insurance claim was that parking was considered an ineligible expense. Ignoring the extra day off work for both of us and a missed day of summer camp for the kids, we ended up paying $60 CAD out of pocket for two extra full days on the ship. Since both our employers were accommodating with the arrangement, this was a great deal.
Retrospective
This 14 (16) day sailing was a good length of cruise. While I certainly won’t turn down a 7-day sailing on its own, and have at least two booked in the future, flight and hotel prices have gone up significantly since we started cruising. Extending our vacations to 10+ day cruises, avoiding one more hotel night and pair of flights, starts to make sense financially and really allows for a relaxing experience.
On both this sailing and the March one, we were so relieved to not have to start packing the afternoon of day 7 and disembarking day 8. The extra few days to try new venues, eat different things, and get further into our books are really lovely. When I go to have a hot dog or pizza for lunch on a longer cruise, I don’t feel like I’m wasting the experience of lunch when there are so many other days to try the rest of the premium food options.
Like I said at the beginning, by day 16, packing and getting ready to disembark wasn’t with a sense of dread or regret, but more that it seemed like time to get back to our real lives. I think we may have felt differently if the two extra days were already expected from the beginning of the sailing, and we hadn’t had to make different return travel plans while onboard. Now that I’ve been through the insurance reimbursement process, and have started booking flights with more flexible arrangements, I’m more confident that things will go better next time in case of a delay returning to port.
It is with a small amount of regret that this sailing on Enchanted Princess may be our last cruise on a Royal-class ship, unless we can find a killer deal in a mini-suite or above. The sleeping arrangements for our family of four, which I’ve written about at length, best align to a mini-suite on Royal-class but we can downgrade to an Oceanview or Balcony cabin on Sphere-class ships. For the next two years, picking the “worse” room on the newer ships seems to be the most economical and practical option for our constraints. Sun Princess certainly has many differences from the earlier generations of ships, but to us, quite a few of the differences are positives.
While our next two sailings on Princess are still under the current Plus plan, and all our existing bookings except one were made before the July 22, 2025 cutoff date, we have a few 2026 and 2027 voyages queued up that I am wary about when it comes to the Plus drink package changes. There’s no guarantee that Princess will actually grandfather or be able to effectively differentiate the “legacy” 15 alcoholic drinks/day (unlimited non-alcoholic drinks) version from the 15 total drinks/day (coffee and bottled water separate) version. I expect the first few weeks of cruises after January 14, 2026 to be confusing for staff and passengers alike, and might look into bringing our two permitted bottles of wine and a 12-pack of pop for the kids next year.
Next up
As previously mentioned, we have another Sun Princess sailing coming up in the next few months, which will actually be a back-to-back Western/Eastern Caribbean journey totalling 14 days. I am interested to see how the B2B procedure works in practice on that ship, especially since we will be changing cabins from a mini-suite to an oceanview between segments. I also hope it doesn’t take too long to get off the ship and get back on the morning of Day 8. Usually Princess starts boarding fairly early, at least.
The other future intended cruises from the last post haven’t changed, but we did put a deposit on a whopper of one in Summer 2027: a 14-day Europe/Mediterranean on Sun Princess, which I’m hoping is a good experience for the family. We’re going to go into it looking to be as flexible as possible to both enjoy the ship and the ports.