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greenumbrella

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About Me

  • Location
    DeLand, FL
  • Interests
    travel!
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Princess, Cunard so far
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    new places

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. Just to followup. I did get a full refund less $100 from Luggage Forward. This took about 2 months and a couple of phone calls. We won’t be contacting them again.
  2. I agree with the first post. I will never use Luggage Forward again. We had a cruise out of the UK this past summer and I kept seeing reports of luggage nightmares at Heathrow. I booked Luggage Forward about 2 months in advance. They sent my tags in plenty of time but without much detail. I called to find out any packing specifics and was told just pack like for an airline. I had 3 bags and they were all on the same shipping number. FedEx came and picked them up on time - and brought them all back the next morning! At the last minute, my husband had slipped in a small wipe of an insect repellent for Scotland. It must have been a very detailed inspection to find it - and reject the entire shipment for having a flammable! (So easy to throw away and keep going.). So we agree with the driver that we will repack and have it ready for his pickup that afternoon. When he arrived, we found out we needed new luggage tags but when I called Luggage Forward at 3 pm on a weekday, their office was closed! The next morning, they told me there was not enough time to get my bags to the ship (it’s still over 10 days ahead!). So I asked for a refund which did get processed in about 3 months with several followup calls. Then I called ShipGo. They agreed that it was too late for the ship because bags have to be with the port agent well ahead of time but it was NOT too late to ship to our London hotel! They emailed our tags and very specific instructions including no liquids whatsoever! We also got excellent help with questions at 9 pm. This meant packing for 3 weeks with only what we could put in carryon. The very same FedEx driver returned to take 3 bags (an individual tag on each) and we next saw them in London when they arrived at our hotel before we did! Excellent service and highly recommend (also $200 less than LF) Glad to know some people have had better success with Luggage Forward but my advice is to shop around. Just because Princess recommends them, I don’t think Princess will accept liability for any problems!
  3. Be glad the Caribbean schedule is not out yet! They just released the Mediterranean for 2024 and Sun Princess booking was NOT ready for prime time! On Elite day, almost all cabins in any category were guarantee only. Each day after, a few more cabins would show as available so that we were finally able to book 2 cabins about 4 days into the process, but not exactly the cabins or the way we would have liked to book. We wanted to do 3 B2B 7 day cruises and settled for a 14 day and a 7 day and will have to move cabins. We wanted to be across the hall from our daughters interior but it never showed availability. We are down the hall in one direction and then the other. If they were not ready with the booking data, they should have just delayed the release date. Princess booking people said that only Sun Princess was such a mess. Hopefully they will learn and make it easier when it’s time for you to book!
  4. Glad HAL is on board - at least for SOME of their cruises!
  5. Yes, we now mostly sail on Princess. Military OBC for 2, shareholder OBC, plus Future Cruise Credit OBC plus Elite benefits make us wish we could get away from home more!
  6. Allegiant Airlines in the US has an Allegiant Honors program. Free services offered to active duty, reserve duty, and veteran members of the US Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force. Coast Guard, Public Health Commissioned, NOAA Officers, with ID. Up to 2 checked bags, no charge for oversized, one carryon, one personal item. Spouses and dependent May qualify only if traveling on the same itinerary as the eligible military traveler. Since Allegiant usually charges extra for everything above the personal item, this could be a big savings. If you already paid when making reservations, you can get a credit. We find it easier to not pay ahead, then show ID when checking in at the airport.
  7. Our very first cruise was on the Queen Mary 2. I had no idea to even ask for a military benefit. We are both retired Army! We have since been loyal Princess cruisers but I keep looking at Cunard. So far the timing has just not worked. Nice to know they also have military OBC so we’ll keep looking! I know Carnival offers actual military discounts on some of their cruises but at age 80, my husband thinks he’s just too old to enjoy the Carnival life!
  8. They honored getting us into the priority security queue. We were also flying Premium but the sign on the priority queue listed both as ways to qualify for that queue (we were in Terminal 3).
  9. No better seat but beat the queue totally. Had time to get bags in overhead, get settled, and start enjoying a softer seat than the airport! My goal is less stress!
  10. We are usually in a balcony or mini suite. Have never seen a Princess supplied umbrella. Always carry my own but the winds in the Orkney Islands made an umbrella unusable. Take a rain jacket with hood! And some warm layers underneath! Just returned from British Isles.
  11. Just got off Island Princess. The Wheelhouse Bar had Crimson Duo, a woman with a very nice voice backed by a guy playing electronic music. Many couples enjoyed dancing to their music and the floor was never crowded. We enjoyed just listening to them. Explorers had the faster music and more crowds. Hope the Duo is still there for you!
  12. We just flew LHR to MCO on Aug 13. We disembarked Island Princess on Aug 12 but did not want the stress of rushing to the airport. We booked a private driver to pick us up at ship, do a 2 hour tour stop, then drop us at a Heathrow hotel. Next morning took a taxi to Terminal 3 to arrive 4 hours before 12:45 flight. We were almost first to check bags for our flight. Used our Global Entry cards to get priority boarding passes through security. A very thorough look at all our toiletries and electronics - glad we had so much time! Then into the great hall to wait. They don’t post gate numbers until 1 hour prior to the flight! Fortunately a flight app I had showed our number a few minutes before it showed on the big board so we were early in line for actual boarding. We thought the extra hotel night was well worth the lack of stress and ability to take an earlier flight in the day. Four hours at Heathrow is not too much!
  13. We did ship our luggage. Since Princess recommended Luggage Forward, we booked with them. They scheduled pickup for July 18 in Florida in order to get to Southampton by July 29. We didn’t get much guidance even after calling for more information. “just pack as if you were flying”. We paid $1,107 for 3 check in bags. After seeing all the Heathrow problems, this started to sound cheap. DHL is the carrier they use. Our bags were picked up promptly on July 18 - and returned promptly on July 19!! Apparently they do a thorough inspection, more than any airline experience. They found 2 foil packages of individual use insect wipes which do say flammable in small print. Instead of trashing them and sending the shipment on, they returned all 3 bags because they were on one waybill. Now they said there was no longer enough time (still 10 days!) to get the bags to the ship!! We repacked and called to talk to them about changing the destination to our London hotel but their office was closed for the day at 3:55 pm, Boston time where they are located. We have not received a refund after a full month and we may not if DHL doesn’t reimburse Luggage Forward. Crazy us, we still wanted to avoid Heathrow! We contacted ShipGo. They said they didn’t have time to get our bags to the ship because the port agent requires them at least 3 days before sailing. How about our hotel in London where we were spending 5 nights prior to sailing? Yes, that would work. We paid $814.87 for the very same 3 bags. They emailed the shipping documents and gave us very specific instructions on how to attach the waybills, this time a different number for each bag. They also gave us strict guidelines for packing - no liquids, no toiletries, no vitamins, no medication even over the counter, no electronics, no tobacco, no perfume, no jewelry. Our bags were picked up by the same DHL worker on July 20 with a plan to deliver by July 27. They actually arrived on July 25 in great shape. ShipGo has real people who answer phones from 8-8 on weekdays and all day on weekends from West Palm Beach, FL. On return, we checked our bags at Heathrow 4 hours ahead of our flight and they arrived on the plane with us. Hope this information will help others make decisions.
  14. So sorry for all the people who don’t like the Princess mattresses! My husband and I have disagreed on what we want every time we have to replace a mattress but one thing we can agree on is we sleep great on Princess ships. So we decided to buy the Princess Luxury Bed for home. I ordered March 7, 2022 and finally got delivery on May 6. The mattress is made by Sherwood Bedding in Orlando, Fl. Since I live one hour away, I thought I would get quick delivery. Not to be. No response to anything on the Princess Luxury Bed website or phone. Since I ordered the mattress topper as well (and received it within a week of order!)., I contacted that company retail at SobelWestex dot com and actually had a person answer and try to help. Apparently the mattress and box were picked up by the delivery company early on, it just took them over 6 weeks to find time to deliver it! Now that I have slept on it for a while, we are fairly happy with the mattress. We are disappointed with the topper. It should be about 6 inches bigger in both directions and is not as soft as our ship experience. Since we just spent 2 weeks on the Island Princess, we were able to compare. The topper on the ship is thicker and as a side sleeper, I was glad to sink down into it. When I replace the topper, I will look for something thicker. Also the ship just has the mattress on a frame but we were advised to get the box spring as well. The too soft mattress problems could also be the frame being worn out but the first thing to make the bed firmer is to have your steward remove the topper as another writer suggested. Mattress and topper are totally separate items. Good luck!
  15. My husband and I are both veterans. We applied for military benefit once and have had it automatically applied to the next 20 cruises with no problem. Be aware it is per veteran so we both get OBC. Also this is almost the only OBC that is actually refundable. For instance, if you do a Transatlantic with few ports, you might not spend it all onboard. We have had Princess send us checks for the balance. This benefit has encouraged us to choose Princess over other cruise lines so that now we are Elite and shareholders plus purchase Future Cruises. We think we are close to getting maximum OBC on each Princess cruise! Thank you, Princess!
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