sandsunsurf

10:15 local time, the line is moving slowly, still hundreds of people outside of the terminal. Three ambulance responses since we have been in line. 
 

I will be surprised if sail away is before midnight. Princess definitely needs to do better, as does the cruise terminal. Through the windows it appears the bottleneck is the metal detectors.

As of 7:49pm local time, Crown is not at the Pier, huge line out front for boarding. Flashbacks to Ruby trip out of SF in July.

12 minutes ago, BeachBum_or said:

Princess is running shuttles between the port and the Hyatt all day today and will have a room and food available at no cost

Thanks for the update!! Is this at the Hyatt Embarcadero? My favorite hotel in San Francisco! So should we cancel dinner reservations? Or is it just sandwich platters and fruit?

1 hour ago, rocklinmom said:

Wow that's a late embarkation! So passengers will be on their own for lunch and dinner. 

But at least they gave us $25 OBC to cover our additional costs in the city. 🙄

we are still super excited- we did most of our packing yesterday and then moved pajamas to our carry-on. We are driving from Reno tomorrow

so now we can leave a bit later..

On 11/20/2023 at 7:41 AM, no1racefan1 said:

I'm confused by some of these answers. Why would I buy wifi if I can't use my phone to communicate? I thought that was the whole point.

TL;DR- you buy wifi to access the internet, not to make phone calls. If you buy internet, you can use data messaging apps and use FaceTime or the like for communication. If you dig deep into your phone, you probably CAN make traditional cell phone calls and send texts, but it takes some knowledge and work. 

----------

There is not an easy way to explain all of this. Even the (seemingly) conflicting posts are actually correct from that person's experience.

I'll try to break this down into two parts: first being the connections the second being phone calls and texts. Unfortunately to be technically correct I will have to use some jargon. Please bear with me..

Generally, your phone connects to three "networks" in different ways using radio frequencies (not cords).

1) You have your WiFi connection, which accesses a local computer-type network (Princess MedallionNet or your home network, for instance). On Princess, if you pay for Internet, then the local network also gives you access to the internet, over the WiFi connection. If you are on the Internet, you will get data like from the web or the cloud storage using different protocols. These could be "internet protocols." Also, to picture this in your head, wifi is when your phone is acting like a computer connecting to the internet.

2) You have your cellular connection for the other two networks (which are now really just one connection)- a voice component and a data component. This is a radio connection to a tower that is then connected to the provider's "telephone" network. On the ship, the "tower" or "cellular connection" is operated by the Ship, and this is the expensive way to use your phone for calls and texts (more later). The data portion of this is now so advanced that this direct cellular connection to the internet is like using your wifi at home, but it's not using WiFi, it's using cellular. This part is simplified, but just understand that it is very different from WiFi.

For the next part of this, we have to include a little history.

Initially, a (dumb) cell phone just connected to the cellular tower which then connected to the "Plain Old Telephone System" which you know/knew as the plug in your kitchen wall with a phone attached using copper wires. In the 90's it was trivial to use a police scanner and actually listen to people's cellular phone calls, they were a two-way glorified walkie-talkie.

Over the next 20 years or so, the cell phone introduced the ability to have some simple data attached to the radio signal, and SMS messaging was introduced. Then with 2g digital and later cellular, a separate data channel existed which ultimately gave us smart phones that could access the internet and have a voice conversation simultaneously.

Now this is where the conflicting possibilities and posts come in...

With your current 5g iPhone or Android, there is still backwards compatibility with the old SMS messaging, which means that your cellular carrier AND your phone's capabilities and settings matter.

Talking on a cell phone NOW actually means you are talking on the data channel using a "voice-over-internet-protocol" or VoIP. GoogleFi as a cellular provider takes advantage of this and allows you to make a "cell phone" call over your WiFi connection to the internet or over a cellular data connection to the internet. 

Now we need to separate out the texting options. SMS is still (mostly) a cellular phone network function. iMessage is not a text message- it's a really complex data messaging app that happens to bring your SMS texts into the fold. WhatsApp or Messenger or Signal are all chat apps like that, also. The catch is that the person you want to talk to has to have the same app, vs SMS which is basically universal without regard to your cellular provider or phone make/model, because it is the old-school standard that used to share the cellular signal.

With all of that background: If you buy internet on the ship, have an iPhone, and don't change settings on your phone, you can seamlessly message people with iMessage if the other person has iMessage also because iMessages is a chat app, but you WON'T see any texts from your friends with Android. If you have an Android, you can use Google Messages, which is like iMessage and integrates SMS with a chat app but you won't see SMS texts from others. So with Internet package on a ship, you can surely use chat apps if your friends and family have that same chat app.

Where it gets more complex is that some phones and some providers have a setting that allows "WiFi calling" which means that you can use VoIP to make cellular calls and send SMS texts over a WiFi connection to the internet. Sometimes this ability is limited by your provider, not your phone. This is what the post from the user using GoogleFi is specifically talking about. So if you are able to change the setting on your phone, you may be able to send SMS texts and make phone calls using the ship's internet connection and package.

On 3/8/2023 at 4:24 AM, Pardytime said:

 

I did call again (another 2 hrs) and was promised to receive a call back (again) and did not.  Did they contact you?

 

Well and now I'm in the same boat- calling again after "Will" was supposed to call me back. The current rep keeps going with circular questioning asking what promo code I used and she says there are not any notes in my booking showing that Will was fixing the problem. 

@Pardytime you may want to call the Casino booking number again. I just had my second conversation with a supervisor who told me that there are more booking numbers that "have to be fixed" because they booked a Princess Plus fare but didn't get Plus, and that he will call me when mine is fixed. 

On 2/25/2023 at 11:26 AM, Pardytime said:

The website is truly glitchy these past few days.

Last night I spent 2 hrs on the phone with Princess, with no resolution.  I had seen a great deal and made a reservation, selecting Princess Plus, and verified that Princess Plus was on the listed 'applied promos', but when I received the booking confirmation a few minutes later, the Princess Plus benefits were not there.  I tried again with another booking this morning, and the same thing happened. Now I am locked out of my account. I think they are working on it. I am not optimistic that they will honor the original quote, but will post here again if they do.

 

I came here to post the exact scenario using casino rates available online- the reservation starts with the radio button for Princess Plus selected, then you select cabin etc. It does not show the standard, plus and promo price options again (like it would if I didn't log in), so it was a different work flow than normal booking. Because I was unsure of the outcome, I screen-recorded my booking, and sure enough the Plus package was NOT on my booking confirmation. I've talked with Princess twice and they don't seem to understand... But if you have access to casino rates, I'll bet you can duplicate this scenario. I think they HAVE to honor it because you are clearly selecting Prince Plus Fares.

We are on Riviera deck, not far from the aft lifts, and we don't notice any engine noise, there may be some wake noise, but it's kind of like the white noise one might use to sleep. Very faint and more soothing than bothersome. I hope this might help Rick...

(I didn't read above Rick's question since this is a necropost)

For those following because they are sailing soon: here’s a quick update on procedures and such for our sailing:

Sip and cover is not being enforced, though I heard the Symphony band call Explorers the “Explorers sip and cover lounge.” Walking through the corridors I have heard some people get reminded to mask, same while my family member was leaving dinner. 
 

The indoor and outdoor bar seating is closed, though some people occasionally sit at Calypso bar. The casino bar bartender told me the will open seating at the bars on the third day of sailing. This is after our first Covid tests are completed- same as previous sailing: half today, half tomorrow.

There are still no slot tournaments, but there are Texas hold-em tournaments twice a day ($50 sit-n-go).

Tonight I confirmed the secret Indian Cuisine menu with the head waiter and we will be doing that one night later this week!

We met some fellow Cruise Critics tonight, that was fun! We weren’t really on the look out for them, but we got spotted by my profile pic!

staff is very attentive and friendly on this sailing and so far we are having a blast!
 

Sounds like we are all on the same cruise! The crew have been great, not just nice, but good service, too. I had trouble with Medallion App trying to get our group of 8 some regular dinner reservations, and noticed once we boarded that many of the reservations had been changed (times and locations)- once we showed up at Boticelli's the waiter let us know we had our table, same time and same location, for the whole trip, just like the old fixed dining time. Some human must have seen what I had done (including attempting to set a standing reservation in the app) and that it had all been deleted by the app at least two times. 

We watched part of the comedian's 9pm show, but left early for famous faces trivia.  The comedian is funny, but kind of stuck on depressing subjects like covid and his divorce, lol. 

It's nice being able to have beverages delivered to the stateroom for free. I guess that's one covid change we can be thankful for. Oh and of course the fully smoke-free casino! 

Quick question for anybody on board that may be able to answer this (though it changes nothing- we are boarding tomorrow regardless of the answer!!!)

Does Vines Wine Bar still serve sushi?

Thank you in advance! Sushi may be our first lunch on board!

On 2/10/2022 at 5:44 AM, HogTide said:

Our family of 13 is scheduled on board the Crown in June for another trip to Alaska. In December 2020 I never considered the possibility that we would still be under this virus threat 18 months later.  My concern is the possibility that a grandchild might require isolation (DGDs age 19, 18, 17 and DGS age 14). It is inconceivable to me that a ship’s captain would require a youngster to be confined without a guardian/chaperon with them.  Has anyone experienced a situation where an uninfected companion/parent was allowed to accompany their companion/family member into isolation?  Or does anyone have an e-mail contact on the Princess staff that would address the issue?

I don't think this is something to even worry about one bit at this time. COVID is changing weekly, and this is months from now. There are a dozen variables here, and procedures and policies will undoubtedly be different in June, so nobody can even guess. The cruise lines have been under intense (even unfair) scrutiny for the last 18 months, so you can rest assured that the oversight will make sure that any possible quarantine will be done with guests and families in mind. Check again before final payment, or if you're not worried about final payment and FCCs then check in May. Enjoy your time with your family!!!

On 2/6/2022 at 9:58 PM, LBBLovestoCruise said:

Curious what the nightlife has been like on your journey thus far.  Is Skywalkers or any other bars open late? I figure with so many sea days coming up on my Feb 12th journey I can stay up later.  Thanks!

I would LOVE to know the answer to this, too..  We were super disappointed with the "nightlife" on Majestic (which consisted of a DJ at the indoor pool and was super lame). We are SOOO excited to board Emerald  on Saturday!

On a side note, if anybody has met Dave K. from Nevada, tell him his pal from Reno can't wait to compare trips!

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

what kind of 'artwork medallions' are there ? - is it just a sticker you buy and attach to your 'normal medallion?

There are a ton of art choices. In the medallion class app when you go to order the medallions there are some general choices like "pets" or "astrological sign" or "ship crest"  with a single picture representing it. The first time I though that was the only option, but actually if you select it, then there are a bunch more options. The medallions that we ordered don't feel a sticker, there is some texture and it seems to have some laser engraving, like our name and cruise details.

I wish I would have known about this option on our first Medallion cruise. For this one we both chose the Emerald's ship crest. It looks fantastic!

4 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

It looks like they have fixed the App so you can order drinks for 2 people in the same cabin that have a drink package without logging in separately ( to avoid being charged for the second drink). I will let you know if they end up charging us for one of the drinks but for now the cart says zero.  Happy to continue the research for you all on this important topic 😂

Thanks for the research! This is a good update to the app- we had mixed results ordering drinks for two in Nov.

we are booked on the return cruise LA-FLL so we will be following this thread closely. Thanks to all who post!!

Majestic in November didn't have any "sip and cover" policy that I recall at all- even the term is new (though obvious) to me. Most people wore a mask most times while inside and many would "sip and cover" in Princess Live! during game shows. Not as much during trivia, but there was usually plenty of social distancing for trivia. Dining and at bars people would remove masks when seated with a drink. This is how it is in most casinos in Nevada right now (shows = sip and cover, seated at bar/restaurant = take off mask until finished), so I'm pretty used to the drill. 

17 hours ago, caribill said:

 

So, were they worth the price?

If I'd known we wouldn't get charged I'd probably have eaten one a day.  At $15/ea I'd say it's worth trying once, maybe twice.

On 11/11/2021 at 4:04 PM, LACruiser88 said:

 

We wouldn't do it again.  If it was $5, we would.  I didn't think about taking a photo until after it was gone!  😄

We got our account printout and we actually didn't get charged for any of the four lobster rolls we bought. 🤷‍♂️

13 minutes ago, RDC1 said:

This is exactly what I was trying to explain.  The data at the top, which matches the dining info on your summary page is YOUR dining status  Requested and Confirmed 7:15. That is where the information specific to your reservation is.

 

The data near the bottom in the white boxes is not related to your reservation. When it shows a wait list in those white boxes it is what your position would be if you selected it at that moment (same with the other time options if you look at the drop down in the box).  It will always show 2 persons for table size because that is the first option for selection. It gets confusing because the system does retain the dining time and the traditional vs anytime part of your selection, but not confirmed vs waitlist and not table size. If it showed something other than 2 persons in the white box that is rather unique, have not seen that in over 30 cruises.  Might be an artifact of them changing the time. 

 

The only way to find out what they show to be your requested table size is to actually call Princess.

That's not correct.  And I just did it again to make 100% sure.  The drop down menus default to WHAT YOU CURRENTLY HAVE SELECTED.  So to be sure, I changed my dining to 4 person table. Logged out. Logged back in (not just a new screen like last time) and went to the dining options. The drop down menus showed 4 person table. I changed it back and now when I go to that page it loads with 2 person table.  Try it yourself. I'm pretty tech savvy, so I can try and make more screen shots or a screen recording if you want.

@RDC1 I'm not sure if we're arguing or just repeating each other.  What I said still stands true- when you go to the page to change dining options, your currently selected options are what populate the drop down menus. Princess changed me from 6pm (which I know I selected as a table for 2, but that info  isn't on a summary page) to 5pm table for 6.   That would have been quite a shock to me upon embarkation, if I hadn't luckily been informed of this thread from my roll call thread.  There are going to be quite a few cruisers that are going to get a rude surprise.

I have attached a screen snip from exactly what that screen looks like now, with any clicks, just when I go to that screen, showing you what I mean that the drop downs are populated with your current selection.

With all of this said, I actually find the 7:15 time to be perfect dining time.  6 was a bit early but better than 8:30. So this has worked out, I just wish there would have been a notification from Princess themselves letting us all know.

This is sure a poor decision by Princess

47 minutes ago, RDC1 said:

 

If by checking you went into the personalizer and clicked on the 5pm dining option then it has nothing to do with your reservation.  That is telling you want your position would be if you selected that option at that time. So you 5pm was confirmed and at the time you clicked on it had 51 people on the waitlist.  Might be lower now since your 6 slots at 5 have been opened for those on the wait list.

I checked by going to the personalizes but I didn’t click anything. It appears that the drop down menus default to your current selection- my menus were 5pm and table for six. After fixing and applying changes my menus now go to 7:15 and 2. I even went to another website and came back to check because I really wanted to check the part about my table for six, since there’s nowhere else to see that information.  Regardless of whether or not my 5pm time was confirmed or not or for 6 vs 2, it’s a change everybody needs to check on their own reservations. 

7 hours ago, minniem said:

I booked a Feb cruise almost 2 years ago with a confirmed 5:30 seating which of course was changed this week to 4:45.  But the odd part is I am now on the waitlist #27 for the 4:45 seating.  I find it hard to believe people are rushing for this time slot.  And how did I go from confirmed to #27?  Something very odd is going on at Princess headquarters.

Same thing just occurred to my reservation. Thanks to cruisecritic users in the roll call, I checked my dining time from a recent email and it had been changed from 6:00PM confirmed to 5PM confirmed. So I looked online and the website had us #51 on waitlist for 5pm, with a Table for 6!  I switched it to 7:15.  Confirmed now.  But weird changes and a bad idea for Princess to change this on the fly.  

Thanks for the replies- I found a recent post that a cruise ship had to cancel Astoria due to the bar conditions.