Frequently Asked Questions

1. Payments: Princess Cruises will require a deposit of $250.00 per person at the time of booking. Final payment is due by August 12, 2008 and will be automatically charged to your credit card unless you notify me to use a different form of payment. Any and all check payments should be made payable to Cruise Designs.

2. Documents: Passport is the preferred document for U.S. citizens however your original state issued birth certificate with a raised seal along with with a photo ID is perfectly acceptable. Canadian and residents of other countries will need to check with their consulates to see if in addition to a passport a visa will be required.

3. Cabin Assignments: At the time of your deposit the best located cabin available will be assigned to you. Very often however, cruise lines stop assigning specific cabin numbers but will continue to sell the cabin category. What this means is you have what is called a “guarantee”. You are guaranteed to get the cabin category that you have selected but you may not know your cabin number until a few weeks or so before we sail. Often (but not always) clients who book a guarantee, will be upgraded at no extra cost.

4. Airfare Discounts: We have set up a discount with a few airlines. In order to take advantage of these you must book directly with each airline. These airlines are as follows:

American Air

5. Pre-Cruise Hotel and Party: We have blocked 50 rooms at the Holiday Inn Express located at 1 Mariano Ramiriez Bages Street which is just off Ashford Avenue in the Condado section of San Juan. The hotel is a few short minute walk to the gay beach and very close to the gay bars. The special group rate offered to our group will be $129.00 for king or queen bed and $139 for two double beds daily plus tax. Continental breakfast is included. To make reservations, please click here and down load the reservations form and fax to Paul. For those looking for lower priced hotels you may try the Atlantic Beach which is kind of seedy, the Comfort Inn or either of the El Canario guest houses.

6. Cashless Society: When checking at the pier you will need to leave a credit card imprint. Any thing you purchase on the ship will be charged to your cabin account. Cash is not accepted anywhere. Should you not have a credit card, you will need to leave a cash deposit from which you draw.

7. Ship Board Activities: The first night of every cruise we host a welcome cocktail party exclusively for our guests. This is the first time the entire group will have a chance to meet and mingle. Chumley and I will make many useful announcements. Many private Chumley BearCruise events are also planned for the week. Full details of our daily itinerary will be made available to you upon check in on the ship.

8. Dining: We have confirmed a block of tables together at 8:00PM each evening. Since the tables are ours, you may feel free to move from table to table each evening. We encourage this so that you get the chance to meet more people. Generally on a seven night cruise there will be two formal nights meaning suits or jackets and ties for gentlemen. Dining the rest of the evenings is casual meaning slacks and shirt or polo type shirt. Breakfasts, lunches and all meals in the Lido buffet are always casual.

9. Room Mates: We offer those who are traveling alone the opportunity to be paired up with other solo travelers. We match people up based upon cabin type booked, age range and smoking preferences. We guarantee to find you a room mate and do the best we can to find compatible room mates but the truth is, it is somewhat of a gamble. You will be given the opportunity to find a room mate on your own or through our private Yahoo group up until August 10. After that we will assign roommates. If we pair you up, you will not meet your roommate until onboard the ship.

10. Mingling with ship’s guests: We are a large gay group on a ship that holds 2,800 passengers. We do plan lots of activities of our own but we do also participate in many of the ships activities. In our opinion, we get the best of both worlds. Appropriate behavior in all public areas is expected.

11. Shore Excursions: The ship will offer many excursions for purchase. We however, will offer at least two or three of our own including a chartered catamaran for swimming, snorkeling and fun. Our trips are usually lower priced and include more than what the ship will offer. Information regarding our excursions will be sent to you about 60 days prior to sailing.

12. Gratuities: A daily charge of $10.00 per person will be added to your cabin account to serve as tips to porters, waiters, cabins stewards, and pool boys.

13. Getting to the Ship: From San Juan airport you may take a taxi from the airport for about $15.00 per cab or you may purchase transfers by bus from Princess for $16.00 per person each way. If you stay at our pre-cruise hotel, bus transfer to the pier will be provided at a nominal charge.