Therese S.

Thank you all for your help on this. I learned something today. I always thought control P was the same as print screen. When attempting to use Control P to print screen it wasn't picking up the item Crew Appreciation Pre Payment has been paid that I wanted to print. After looking my keyboard over... lo and behold there's a print screen button Duh! Oh the things we forget when we retire!

For my last 3 cruises we had enough onboard credit to cover most of the daily tips so we didn't prepay in advance. We have a 7 day cruise coming up and this time no onboard credits, so today I prepaid the gratuities through my Princess account. Shouldn't I get an email as proof of payment? I like to have all my documents in order of any prepaid items such as excursions, water, soda, alcohol etc just in case of any hiccups. I have verified the charge hit our VISA today and I'm still waiting for an email receipt that I can print as proof and take with me. I never leave anything to chance and like to be prepared. Do you normally get an email receipt from Princess when you prepay the gratuities?

Do you remember what movies were playing in Movies Under the Stars?

Thank you so much for your detailed answer, I understand how it works now. We are looking at booking a drop and Go rate for a 7day cruise and choosing the bare bottom rate this time, princess books your room, but states deposit is non-refundable. We’re taking a chance on what room we’ll end up in, but never cruise without insurance no matter how close to home we are. Once husband broke his ankle 3 weeks before cruise he needed surgery and screws to stabilize it. Had no insurance, husband says we’re going no matter what, he spent most of the trip in the cabin on pain pills.

Good to hear your refund was posted so quickly. If I book a cruise with a non-refundable deposit but have Princess Platinum insurance, then have to cancel for an approved reason, would I get all money back including deposit? OR If I use cancel using “Cancel for Any reason”. Would I get all money back including deposit as a FCC? Tried to use Live chat this morning but gave up after a while.

We are booked on this awesome 33 day Hawaii/Tahiti/Fiji itinerary and have no concerns with the Grand Princess age or condition. We sailed a similar itinerary on the Star Princess in 2019 just before it was sold. We were on the Grand in 2016 and honestly I dont really see much difference between all of the Princess ships Ive been on. Here on the West Coast we normally get the older ships so guess that's what I'm used to. Recently sailed on the Ruby and after a while they look pretty much the same. What I look for is the size, (dont want too big) a walk around promenade and a pool in the aft. That back pool becomes my balcony when booking inside cabins. The price for this 33 day itinerary is very reasonable when compared to the 32 day Hawaii/Tahiti. I would say if the ship is the only thing holding you back go ahead and book it, can always cancel if something better comes along.

I hope that’s the case, especially regarding movies under the stars. I really hope there are no changes in the works.

Yes Im referring to the 375ml bottles you can order before you board. They’re a little pricey at about $18 for a bottle of vodka, but worth it to us. We dont drink alcohol everyday and just cant get the Plus packages to work in our favor. Ive been off CC for over 6 months and disappointed to learn about more nit picking charges. A delivery fee for our medallions of $10, probably will go to $15 next year, room service fee if you dare pick up the phone, fee to use the OceanNow, etc. If we decide to keep our 2024 cruise think Ill pickup the medallion at the port. We dont purchase the packages so fine with the old cruise card that was free. I even read some people posting about only those in packages get headphone to watch Movies Under The Stars! One of our favorite things to do. Don’t understand yet what they're posting about but sure I will learn more in the months to come. Cant figure out if they mean those of us without Plus cant hear the sound? Hope all this is not true.

On our last Hawaii cruise and before boarding I ordered 3 of the little bottles of whiskey, 3 of vodka, 4 six packs of soft drinks and many packs of water bottles. They would only allow 2 of each of the alcohol and didn’t have room for all the water. Was instructed to call room service after a few days for the remaining alcohol and water. I plan to order more on my next cruise which is 33 days. Would I be charged a fee for calling room service to get items Ive already paid for?

Really no coffee package anymore? Geez...Princess is trying so hard to push people to the packages. $29.95 for a 33 day cruise is $988pp and I think both have to buy it, no thanks. We usually purchase additional soft drinks at port. I will definitely miss the coffee package that was added to your medallion.

More take aways makes me more determined than ever to stay with Princess Standard and pay as I go. We prepay our tips before we board. We order those small 375 ml bottles of alcohol to make drinks in our room with the sodas we purchased before we boarded. I have a princess tumbler that I carry mixed drinks in outside the cabin. I'm looking out for my bottom line not Princess and always have a great time with out the packages. Husband buys a few beers here and there.

Thank you so much for your research. I will look more closely at the SF itineraries. I didn’t see any excursions offered on the glacier viewing day but did see what I think you’re referring to on the Endicott Arm/Dawes glacier day.

For those of you that took a ships glacier excursion, were any of that type of excursion available for the Alaska cruises that are round trip out of San Francisco?

Was on the Ruby a few weeks ago, when I checked out the library on the 4th sea day and there were no books, I mean nothing. It was sad. It was so empty of books that I felt maybe Princess has other plans for the space. Bring your own, paperback are light. Check out your local library, most sell used books fairly cheap. You can then donate them when done.

Please delete title and post can’t figure out how thank you

We just got off the Ruby and we pre-ordered 7 12 packs of water, 4 six packs of soft drinks (brought 2 twelve packs onboard), 3 bottles of whiskey and 3 of vodka. Previous cruises we would find cards on the desk for each item purchased. Not this time. When we boarded 4 of the 7 packs of water had been delivered with a card for each one we received, but no cards for items still not received. Thankfully I had printed out in advance a list of items purchased prior to boarding. when I called room service I was told we could only have two bottles of the liquor at a time due to “safety reasons”. Had to laugh at that as the plus package allows you 15 alcohol drinks a day, Lol. So I had to keep track of what I received and what I had not. One of the bottles of whiskey I pre-ordered was crown Royal, was told onboard they were out. Was given the option of a refund or replace with Jim Beam. When I asked would my onboard account be refunded or my credit card directly room service didn’t seem to know how the refund would work. For the sake of my stress level I went with the Jim Beam instead of trying to track down a refund. I was glad I pre-ordered as I never could find a way to order the small 375 bottles once on board. With the two bottles of wine we brought onboard, the bottle gifted to us from our TA we ended up bringing two of the liquor bottles home.

Thank you for your thoughts and opinions. I was thinking how can they cook food for so many people at once and have it be fresh. I’ve read here many recommendation for House Without a Key. We’re leaning in that direction. Is Orchids the indoor restaurant and House without a key the outdoor restaurant within the same hotel? can you see the hula and hear the music from Orchids?

Has anyone experienced the nighttime dinner cruise on the Star of Honolulu. We’re looking for something different from the traditional luau. Thoughts, likes, dislikes.

So after accepting our bid, I got to wonder why would anyone ever book a balcony (unless of course they have a particular cabin in mind) if you can place bids in the future? In our case, the new bid system really worked out, but feel for those that paid much more. We always try to cruise as cheap as possible and save our money for other things. We also dont book the Princess Plus fares. Ive already ordered our wi-fi, water, sodas and bottles of vodka and whiskey. On board credit will be used to pay tips. I love a good deal 🙂

Bid Just Accepted!!! and we are so excited to sail in a balcony again! We usually book inside cabins for the cost savings and haven't been in a balcony since our first Hawaii cruise on the Island Princess back in 2006. Details: We originally booked our obstructed ocean view cabin for our upcoming cruise to Hawaii on the Ruby using a California Resident Only rate that came with great rates and awesome on board credit. Here's the details: Original cabin - Obstructed ocean view cabin E625 $1100 pp Upgraded to Balcony cabin BD Aloha deck A734 additional cost $475 pp, plus additional cost of Princess Platinum insurance of $38 pp. Original email bid offer for a balcony was $450, so we bid $475 thinking we might have a better chance over those that bid the absolute lowest amount. So we went from an $1100 obstructed ocean view to a $1575 Balcony. We are pleased at how it all turned out and I verified that all our on board credits are still there. Luggage tags have already been updated in Princess website. We received our medallions yesterday, hope they are also updated to reflect the new cabin number.

We got our upgrade bid offer today for our 15 day cruise on the Ruby. We already got a great deal when we booked our obstructed oceanview cabin. Heres the Upgrade bid offers: Oceanview $105 pp Balcony $470 pp Premium balcony $545 We’re debating placing a bid on the regular balcony. Still a great deal when added to what we paid for our oceanview Since the cost of Princess insurance is based upon the cabin price, if a bid is accepted, does the price of your Princess insurance go up? What about the tax portion of the cost? Is the sq feet of living space (not including the balcony) the same as an obstructed ocean view cabin?

I'm not familiar with renting via Turo. Is it pretty much like renting through say Budget? Does your private car insurance cover any damages or does Turo sell their own policy?

Is the bid price of $1025 per person or the total cost?

Does anyone know if there are vendors selling tours at the Kona Pier? We plan to be ready to disembark as soon as the scheduled dock time of 7am before any of the Princess excursion tours. We are hoping to get tickets on the Body Glove snorkel excursion that leaves directly from the pier with a check time of 7:30 could push out to 7:45 leaves at 8am. If things don’t the way I hope, we need a backup plan and hoping there’s snorkel tours being sold right at the Pier

Thank you so much for compiling the list, haven’t seen any them. We enjoy MUTS, also wrapped in a blanket eating pizza. Im happy to hear your new cabin is working out better for you. We’re in E625 next month, a few cabins away and other side of ship. Hope its quiet.