Grand Turk vs Amber cove…the cruise ship owned ports of call

 I just visited amber cove and grand Turk (Turks and Caicos). Below is a quick comparison 

Amber cove is a fenced in pool and shopping area. There is no beach in the compound.

Grand Turk has an amazing beach, with both free and pay for lounges from the locals. There is also a pool. You will need water shoes as there is coral in the water and painful to step on.

Shopping and food is very expensive in both places with Grand Turk slightly more expensive.

The beach in Grand Turk not as clean as in previous years. They used to clean the seaweed off the beach daily. The marajauna smell was overwhelming on parts of the beach. The also have roaming beach vendors that won’t hassle you

In Amber Cove they don’t seem to empty the garbage bins…all were overflowing 

Shopping is tee shirts and junk in both.

It’s not safe to leave the Amber Cove compound without a tour …level 2 warning for robbery etc

It’s safe to rent golf carts or take a cab in Turks

Your choice…I prefer Grand Turk

Hope this helps

Marciia

2026 RCL versus Princess cruises on all experience aspects

 I am at platinum loyalty status on Princess and Diamond on RCL and  have sailed both in the last two months. Below is a comparison of these two lines

Pre cruise

Apps… both are easy to use, with RCL having a few advantages . Princess and only allows 2 cruises to show on the app. Rcl lets you see all booked cruises

Rcl allows you to book a future cruise, has frequent sales on shore excursions and packages. You can use your on board credits for these pre cruise purchases. Princess has fewer sales excluding the drink packages

Princess gives Elite members 50% off the internet packages pre cruise. RCL has frequent sales but is still very expensive compared to RCL. You get one day free at diamond level and 2 days at diamond plus. You can gift the free days to another passenger or use it on an additional device.

Check in is equally easy and you pick your time Embarkation 

Both supposedly have check in times but I have yet to see it enforced. Neither offers special service to its loyalty members for faster checkin

Both are equally fast for checking in at about a 20 minute wait in Florida ports. 

Internet is so easy to use on RCL, however I always have to get help on Princess to get it to work. Princess is slow to download websites and email.

Only Princess offers lunch in the dining room after embarkation. 

Rooms are ready at about 1:30 pm on both

At sea

Cabins

Both lines have nice cabins about the same size 

Rcl frequently has plumbing and air con issues. Even cleanliness issues. They will change your cabin and offer Future cruise credits of 10 to 20% if it’s really bad. I have experienced issues on my last 3 cruises thus why I am back on Princess

Showers on Princess are smaller with a curtain and fixed shower head.  RCl has shower doors, larger shower. On Quantum class no clothesline in their showers. on both getting a hot shower can be an issue, as warm or scalding are often the choices

You get free unlimited laundry on Princess at elite level and only one bag on 5 day cruise or longer at Diamond plus.

The beds are hard on RCL even with a mattress topper. I requested a double mattress topper on the last cruise. Princess has the most comfortable beds at sea.

Princess services the cabin twice per day and RCL once.

Both provide Robes on request .

Princess has free movies in the room. RCL does not

Overall Princess wins on comfort of cabin.

Dining 

Both have decent buffets and main dining rooms. I frequently have to ask for my entree to be served hot on RCL. Menus on both have not been updated in several years.  As always there will be some great dishes and some awful selections. RCL always has Indian food option on their dinner menu. Princess does not.

Both buffets repeat the same cheaper options daily for breakfast and lunch.  Since food is not my thing I don’t do the speciality restaurants.Rcl rigorously enforces hand washing. Princess does not.

Neither enforce a dress code for the restaurants 

both offer one lobster per cruise per person in the main dining room.

Activities:

Princess has enrichment talks and RCL does not

Both have several sessions of trivia. Princess has better and larger venues for trivia

Princess has more pools, but RCL has slides and larger areas for kids

Entertainment 

Both have both production shows and typical singers acrobats, comedians. Nether are great.  But you will have some excellent shows and some bad shows. Princess has repeated the same production shows for the last 5 years. Same routines just different cast.

Music around the ship similar.

RCL has much better ventilation all over their ships, Princess does not. I always get a head cold on Princess ships. This has never happened on RCL.

RCL staff are  always acknowledging your loyalty. It has not happened on Princess. 

Hope this helps

Marcia

ABC islands do not require shore excursions..do them on your own

 Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are all very safe and it’s easy to do what’re you want without a shore excursion.

Aruba tips

Once off the ship, walk across the street and the buses are now parked on the street behind the shops. If you want a beach the buses one way to the best beaches eagle and palm (my favourite) are 10 minutes away. Buses are frequent and almost all do the beach route.  I prefer Palm as if you need a toilet you can go into one of the hotels or restaurants.  Buses are 3$ usd one way.

Downtown is tiny with lots of shops with the usual t shirts and gifts. I found the shops cheaper than the stalls.  I walked to the renaissance hotel on the water (10 to 20 minutes to your right depending on how many stops to take pictures). This is where the I love Aruba sign is. The park here has great water views and benches.

Curaçao tips

You will need a taxi here to go to the beach. I love the blue beach resort, for best snorkeling and a small but pretty beach.

But this is the island to walk into town across the bridge,. A 10 minutes away walk and you are in shopping Mecca. Note if the bridge is up, there is a free ferry.  Sadly many shops didn’t survive Covid. Look for the “ everything is 6$ shop as I got a sun dress and a golf shirt each 6$. There was also a shop closing where everything was $5.   

The synagogue museum is a must see, as there is a 3 story museum and of course the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere. It has the traditional sand on the floor. Note you need a picture id, to get in. They  don’t accept cash and it’s $18 usd to get in . It has short hours from 10 to 2 pm.

Plan on a couple of shopping hours to browse slowly .  Lots of Great Wall art to take photos of.

Bonaire tips

Lots of places for snorkeling and you will need a water taxi to the island or one of the beaches. 

Downtown consists of a couple of streets of shops. There is a lot of construction and the streets are dug up. Prices surprisingly were better than Aruba for t shirts etc

You can see fish and sea turtles from the dock as the water is really clear. 

These islands are not in the hurricane zone and all were very hot and humid.

My tip for all are wear sun dresses for the women and lightweight tees and shorts for mea, sun hats and sunscreen are musts.

Hope this helps 

Marcia

Using Princess cruises upgrade bidding

 After no luck getting an upgrade with RCL via their bidding program, I thought I would try the Princess program. I was in an interior cabin for an almost fully booked enchanted Princess Caribbean cruise in January.  As per the many u tube videos on tactics, I bidded for an ocean view and an obstructed balcony cabin. I bidded the minimum amount on both types, as soon as bidding opened 85 days before the cruise. I do this as solo travellers pay double the bid.

Within a week I got the email that my bid was successful for the balcony. So for 270 usd I got a nice cabin. While it is obstructed view, it is only the top of a lifeboat below the railing. It is mid ship.  For this prime location I would have paid almost 4000 cdn. Instead I paid 1482 usd. Or about 2000cdn.

So it is ok to bid the minimum and don’t worry if the ship seems full.

Tips

Bid the minimum on various types of cabins

Just bid and forget about it, as hopefully you are happy with the current cabin.

Hope this helps 

Marcia 

Caribbean princess 2.0 - it’s still a good value cruise ship

 I am on a 12 day southern Caribbean cruise on the old but still sailing Caribbean Princess ship. It was refurbished in the last 2 years so the hull appears freshly painted, lots of furnishings and carpets replaced. It still caters to an older demographic and mostly Americans and some Canadians. 

I sailed on her 4 years ago and the things that were good still are and the bad stuff still not fixed.

The food is very good all around the ship.

Service of the cabins and in the dining room good.  I feel like I am in a 70s movie .. in the dining room as most staff have over 20 years of serving so they are losing patience especially with new cruiser’s 

The ship and public places clean. 

My outside cabin is clean, comfortable and the plumbing and air conditioning works

The tv still has movies with newer releases for free

Has an outdoor promenade on 7 to walk around out of the sun. However the chairs are hard and don’t lean back 

Now for the stuff that hasn’t gotten better

- the internet is slow to download emails 

- I still had to get help to log on  to the internet as it’s not intuitive and instructions useless

- staff are polite but only the room steward is customer focused. Most act as though it is not a place they want to be…

- entertainment is still the worst at sea of all the cruise lines. The acts are re hashes meaning a magician, production shows that are repeated on all their ships and has been vocalists . You will get one or two acts that are great. Note the theatre is always packed. Get there a half hour before the show for a seat. Production shows such as Bravo still the same just different cast. Shame on Princess for not updating these shows.

- game shows have not been updated since I last cruised with Princess 4 years ago

- to get thru dinner is at minimum 1.5 hours and the menus the same as 4years ago

So why did I come… excellent ports, cheap price for a solo.

Just lower your expectations and you can have a good time.

Hope this helps 

Marcia

Go port is still my go shuttle to cruise port when flying into Orlando airport

 While I was disappointed when they contacted me that they no longer pick up at the airport hotels. Note you have to take the hotel shuttle back to the airport gate A 3/4. They are still the best value high volume shuttle to the Cape Canaveral cruise port. They start the shuttles at 10 am to 2 pm and it takes about 45 to a hour to get parked at your cruise terminal and off load your bags. It depends on how many cruise ships are in port as they stop at all ships for each bus.

They have a well tuned approach at the airport. You check in at the desk, they give you a number and you board the buses in batches of numbers. The only put 26 numbers per bus because of all of the luggage.

It costs 29.99 usd per person one way.

Tip 

Get there between 9am and 9:15 if you want a 10 am bus. Because the ships came in late due to weather their first bus was delayed and I left at 10:25 am

I will always use them in Orlando as they are half the price of the cruise shuttle (Princess) and much more timely.

Hope this helps 

Marcia

Comfort suites Orlando international airport- pre cruise hotel was good

 I am constantly searching for a good pre cruise hotel in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale at a reasonable price with breakfast and free airport shuttle. Comfort suites Orlando airport fits the criteria. I called for the shuttle at 11:30 am and they were at the designated gate within 10 minutes. When I got to the hotel Carmen gave me my room right away even though check in is 4 pm. She also recommended the Latin restaurant across the street for lunch. It was excellent. It was crowded with mostly latinos. The staff was helpful in helping me make choices. The food is served cafeteria style. The portions are huge. I had enough for lunch and dinner it cost me 10 dollars with a pop.  Down the street within a10 minutes walk are several fast food places and 7 eleven. There are lights, crosswalks so don’t let the busy street discourage you.

At the hotel the room is huge, with a king size bed and sofa area, mini fridge and microwave. It was very clean and the bed comfortable. My only issue was how loud the air conditioner is when it starts up. If you keep it at 72 f, it is quiet.

The breakfast was ok but the eggs are inedible. The pastries, waffles and fruit and yogurt were fine as was the juice. 

They offer a shuttle to the cruise port for $35 pp, but it is $30 for Go port back at the airport.  Go port no longer picks up at hotels.

Tips

Pre book the shuttle for the next day to the airport and make sure you give yourselves plenty of time as they pick up at another hotel

I would stay at this hotel again

Hope this helps 

Marcia