I PUT PRINCESS CRUISE LINES TO THE TEST - CRUISE NEWS 

If you cruised prior to 911, you checked your bags at the airport and didn’t see them until you were on the ship. Transfers included , much easier. Glad to see Princess is starting this again

The only downfall of transfers is waiting for a long time for others to show up b/c the vehicle won't leave airport until so many are on these vans/busses

Last two cruises we took were Princess. The first one was done as a last-minute, didn't care what line or where we went, just wanted to get away type cruise. A day in, we loved it. We loved everything about it. Did the same cruise a year later. Can't wait to go again.

Just came home from my third Celebrity cruise...after being Elite status on Princess we have decided Celebrity is far superior in food and service! Have 2 more booked and can't wait! Airport security was very strict in Atlanta and Ft Lauderdale.

Yesterday, flew back to USA from London Heathrow after a fantastic transatlantic on Regal Princess. Security at Heathrow was insane! I took my shoes off 3 separate times and one time they said, "Since you're wearing socks, we have to do extra screening." Pardon...what? Wanded twice, then through the x-ray scanner doing the disco pose...followed by a pat down, and carry on bag completely emptied. Then they did it again at the gate with wand, pat down and bag search. 😵‍💫 Then got to Atlanta and had to go through the scanners and security check again with some very cranky TSA people who need to switch to decaf and get more fiber...I could still hear her yelling at people when I was leaving the secure area and headed to the new gate. Almost missed my connecting flight! And I'm a retired U.S. Naval Officer with a Global Entry card. 😬

Nobody deserved a more calm arrival and transition than this travel experience..Yeah YOU!

I’m one of those passengers that has to be scanned due to a knee replacement and several corrective metal in my leg. Please be patient as it’s truly not our faults. Glad the rest of your trip was amazing

My wife and I always do what you did this time. We love it! It makes it so enjoyable, we don't have to worry about anything. Especially when it comes to the transfer to the ship. We really enjoy it. We know it's a little more expensive, but oh so worth it in my opinion.

Awesome to hear about your experience. My wife and I are celebrating our 50th anniversary in December on the Harmony of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. We booked a large balcony theater suite located aft. We booked a suite on a smaller ship onetime and it was great, this is our first for such a grand suite on a large ship--looking forward to it. One daughter and her family booked a suite and another daughter booked a junior suite. Looks to be an awesome time--we hope so.

I am so glad to see this vid today. We leave this Wed for a Panama Canal cruise. For the first time ever we booked a full suite. (We normally book balcony, but because we are celebrating my completion of lung canter treatments, we splurged on the full suite.) Anthony sent us an email to invite us to this also. I had never heard of such a thing. Glad to see a review about it. It sounds perfect! Now I am REALLY excited! Thanks for doing this. !!!

Money and knowing people works wonders. You just make reality harder for the rest of us.

Well, much to my delight, just had the pleasure of meeting Don on the Enchanted Princess…

We used this in March. We stayed in renaissance hotel. Enchanted was delayed 2 hours. Great off we went. Loved it. Hadn’t received our medallions so they brought them to us. Had great snacks, drinks etc. great place to wait until crowds were deleted and we were walked on! Had our own section! They even got our suite and premium reservations organized for both our families that we couldn’t do online. Even got the grandkids signed up for kids club!

I'm so😊 happy you had such a great experience with having Princess handle all your travel arrangements!

Don, have never had problems with the transfer arrangements with Princess. They have always taken care of me. Just got off a cruise a few weeks ago with Princess and it was not a good experience ship wise. We arrived at port at 2:00. It started with the room steward telling us they have found bugs in the adjoining rooms. Our room was not set up as our reservation requested including bed set up to ordered items being in the room, water, etc. Dining was a disaster. We waited in line 30 minutes to be seated(had a RSVP) and Waitress explained we will eat at this table each night. She was nice. The second night we were told we were not VIPs and it took an email from corporate to sit at that table. Wow, we were seated at that table, did not request it. I have sailed on Princess for decades, but our next cruise is on Celebrity. Not going to allow Princess to treat me like that even though I am a loyalty member.

I had a great big blue bus once all by myself. - when i got off at Holland America's hotel - they thought a big music star was on board !

They should treat all customers that way.☺

Embassy last year let me check in very early and gave me a beautiful "updated" suite. In Ft Lauderdale.-- surprised

WE have used Princess services 90% of the time, they do a tremendous job !

What a wonderful experience for you Don! Very happy for you!! Enjoy your coming trips!

I am on the Enchanted Princess cruise 20 to 27 April, Eastern Caribbean. Lucky you, nice perks for booking through Princess and more especially being a VIP.

Princess headquarters is in Santa Clarita, CA, not Fort Lauderdale..

Very cool 😎. Since we cruise quite often on Princess, but never book a suite (and only rarely a minisuite), I guess we’ll never see that lounge. I don’t begrudge people paying for suites getting great perks - they make it possible for the rest of us to have lower fares.

One advantage of 2 beds... you can put luggage on 2nd bed and not have to bed over to get into it.

We were scheduled to be on this cruise! We could have finally met you! Enjoy!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I appreciate that you have shared your positive experiences as well as the challenging times . You deserve and have earned your perks! My husband and I are doing a 2 week on Princess in May. We have more status on Royal, but look forward to Princess.

From what you showed us. Booking everything with princess makes sense it takes the stress off and a easy vacation. From the plane to the ship. No worries.

Glad to hear the elevated service level was excellent.

I am very happy for you Dan For us we have 22 cruises done with Princess , and in march we where on the Ruby for the fifth time was a 14 days in the Caribbean and we where very désappointed with the quality of the food and the room that we were not able to control the a/c and the maintenance came but it did not change anything 14 days in a freezer we got both seek I think the next one will be with Celebrity that we did many with them

I was one of the first to use this service however when we got to the ship Caribbean princess would not let us "cut" in line the lounge people where very upset and said this will not happen again. When I got on the ship it took 3 people to convince I was on deck 6 the window suite suite the man pushing my wheelchair was on the ship for 3months never knew these rooms where their. I let him see our suite wow he was impressed 😊

Glad you were treated so well!!

That process sounds amazing! Have a wonderful trip!

This sounds like it went smoothly. Perhaps someday when we go to Florida again to cruise, we just might try this.

I always book princess air, hotel, and transfers. Only one problem out of 30 cruises - I was not on the shuttle list at the airport. Princess rep got on their iPad, made a call, and I was on a shuttle to the same hotel Don is at!!!

Looks like the Check-in for the Retreat Guests on Celebrity in Fort Lauderdale. Up the Elevator easy Check-in and Ship Private Ramp.

The service provided is very interesting, and I imagine, that i you are a group, the airport-hotel-lounge-terminal transfers are very useful. The ability to book single nights (which you had described in other video) is a perk that is worth it when inventory of single night stays is empty but Pricess still has access to it. I would be more curious to know what happens when all hell breaks loose and your inbound flight is late/cancelled , and you are stuck in traffic etc etc. How does the Pricess service between airport/hotel/terminal paliate for this? Wi,l they hold the ship for you in worse case scenario? do they refund the hotel stay because you now arrive on the morning of departure instead of night before?

Glad your hotel went well, we are very leery of booking third party hotels. We did our second Princess cruise after 22 years ( we have done forty other cruises in between) in February, we really enjoyed it.

Isn't it nice when all of your Embarkation goes so much better than you even imagined? Glad to hear it went so well.

I'm glad you didn't have any issues and I might have to give this a try.

Hey Don sound like a nice start for your trip and cruise. sound like a nice option through Princess and I love to get a suite. best cabins

We booked transfers, flights, and hotels in Rome with NCL as part of a cruise. It went swimmingly.

Thanks Don for sharing your adventures...

We stay at the same hotel, they have a great breakfast. It is nice to have Publix so close.

I always stay at Embassey Suites. Love it! Can’t beat the breakfast!

I believe I may have seen you Don on the ship, yesterday night at the Crown Grill with a group of diners, we were sitting across your group table. We had to hurry out to catch the production show at the Theatre at 9.30pm.

We’ve done two Carnival cruises in 04 and 05. They were nice. We’re sailing the Sun Princess next year in March. Can’t wait!

Your trip is off to a great start. Enjoy!

Great update, Don!

God bless you Don you should have to cruise so often for us lol. Enjoy again and thanks for the info

What a great experience. Sound like a really nice way to get on the ship

I'm glad most of your trip so has been on point Don.

Wow that’s great service. Well deserved 🎉

What a great start to your cruise.

We have had wonderful experiences the two times we booked hotel stays with Princess. In the cases where we were the only ones headed to the hotel, and airport, we were given taxi vouchers. It was not something I would have considered a few years ago, but the experiences were seamless and so worth it for us seniors! Lois

Today was my first experience with that. We were one of the LAST to board. They waited until boarding was mostly complete. And each couple was taken individually. I was NOT impressed with their "priority" boarding process. But the food offering was fun; furniture comfy; internet fast; and it was quiet. No lines- BONUS. And luggage went from the lounge to our suite. I have a photo of the food spread but apparently we can't upload here. (Bummer) Btw ... all aboard time was 1:30 and we boarded at 1:28 and we were the first couple they brought over. LOL CRAZY

We booked the princess hotel and transfer in Rome last November. Princess rep was waiting for us in baggage claim along with our driver. Took our luggage and drove us in a large sedan to the Radison. Was net at the hotel by another princess rep who got us checked in. Luggage was waiting in room. Transfer to ship was seamless and smooth. Will always princess hotels and car service when traveling over seas. Plus the price was unbelievably low.

If you have the cash, Princess is interested in you. If you are a basic fare cruiser, Princess wants nothing to do with you. A week before our last Princess cruise they pulled a bunch of inclusive features we'd already paid for, stuck them on Princess Plus, increased the cost of Princess Plus then claimed it was better value with all the new added features that used to be included. I've communicated with Princess who informed me they can do what they want as it's in the small print. I raised some other issues but as I'm basic fare cruiser they didn't address them beyond a generic copy and paste reply.

Wow...I was so close to meeting you DON. I was at Cruise360 in Fort Lauderdale and I did a ship inspection of the Emerald Princess

You get the Rock Star Treatment ! Way to go Don .

Sounds wonderful!

We are cruising Ruby Princess next July to Alaska. Love Princess!

We had a very good experience with the Princess hotel (LAX Marriott) and transport to the Discovery Princess for Mexican Riviera in February. The transport from the hotel, however, not smooth. Still, will do it again. Also, I haven't watched for a few weeks, and you look great!! (We are currently doubling down on very low carb diet before our May cruise 😊😊😊)

My wife and I are doing something similar in Vancouver on HAL , apparently they come escort you from your hotel room upstairs to the terminal

Glad things went very well for you with Princess options.😊

Sounds nice if you can afford it! I love Princess Cruises!

Excellent insight - thanks

Have a fabulous cruise

When we go to the Princess Lounge, we will say "Don sent me".

Wow glad traveling went smooth for you about time enjoy your cruise

Wow.... Sounds like a dream vaca... at least so far. - Much better than what I heard yesterday... when someone I know booked a flight on a discount airline. They charged them $75.00 to check in one piece of regular weighing luggage... Once they were at the gate, they cancelled the flight and lost their luggage. The person flying found it sitting in a hall unguarded alone when they were going to their replacement flight on a different airline- in a different terminal at the same airport.... much later in the day. What a mess.

Nice very informative. Have a great trip.

This should be now named “The Princess Channel”. He is just in love with everything Princess…..

Wow Princess nice job thanks for helping everyone out ❤🎉

We have been doing Princess everything for a long time. It really takes the stress out of travel. Now if they fix the terminals that’s where we’ve had the most trouble.

Have a wonderful trip

Glad your test with Princess went so smoothly.

Keep up the good work don. Happy sailing. Enjoy.

Thanks for the review and giving us the vicarious pleasure, Don. 😀 Money is certainly good for all the privileges it can buy. 😏

Norwegian did the same for us on our last cruise. We were taken to the hotel by a chauffer. We were treated wonderfully.

Nice❤let me know when sailing from SF. #loveboatcruising

Thanks Don that sounds like a nice option.

Wow, sounds like a great process.

Like I always say Princess is the best.

Thank you for the tour of the lounge and I am glad that things went smoothly with Princess meeting you and your hotel. The one problem that I have had with Princess transfer to hotel is if my flight did not arrive during prime Princess airport hours and I had a transfer to their hotel. No Princess representative was there at the airport to help me or take me to their hotel even after trying to paige them and also calling Princess in trip number..

Good service.

I had a transfer from Fort Lauderdale to the ship with Princess and all went well. However on return we waited 1.5 hours for paid transfer from ship to airport. Yes, it was our time slot. Ended up getting a taxi. Will never do cruise line transfer again.

Im glad that went well for you.

We’ve often booked hotel and transfers through Princess. It’s always worked well. Never heard of the lounge.

Sounds like a wonderful way to start your trip!

Keep up the good work!

Great way to start a cruise.

Our favourite hotel!

In a penthouse suite on 4-27 on the Enchanted. Hopefully I'll get an invite.

I love the Embassy Suite in Fort Lauderdale

Great vid!

Good to know all the Princess details, but we only sail on RCL. Is there a video on RCL?

Very Nice

Don, if you took an Uber from the airport to the hotel and booked the hotel on your own, what would the price of been? Did you save money by doing it all through Princess? Thank you very much. I always learn a lot watching your videos.

Good story

The lounge things sound great. Do other cruise lines do that? NCL for example?