saint_em

The weather is awful. I was surprised that some of the other ships left, but maybe it's something to do with where Sky is docked? The wind would make turning out to the channel very difficult.

We left the ship today and are staying in Ft Lauderdale - I have never been in wind so strong as it has been this evening.

59 minutes ago, mnocket said:

I've found the Pina Colada and Margarita mixes to be terrible.  For me, undrinkable.  If they're going to use mixes, they should at least spend a bit more for decent ones.  

I totally agree. I love a Pina Colada but the Princess ones are pretty grim - and also really hit and miss. I found some bars used pre-mixed stuff while others added the coconut 'cream' and pineapple juice etc. separately. The availability of fresh pineapple garnish was also very unreliable.

Just now, Lady Arwen said:

Easy!  If you have concerns about others seeing your purchase, bring your own bag.  We’ve been doing it for a very long time.

Oh I agree, I will next time - now I know they don't provide them!

I had to buy some emergency tampons on the last Princess cruise I did. No bag. I wasn't embarrassed (as a 40 year old woman I've bought plenty of tampons in my time) but I can imagine some people might not want to share that sort of purchase with everyone! Likewise something you're buying as a gift/surprise for someone you're travelling with.

Thanks all. Will investigate these further.

Wow, some of these dishes sound great! I'm not a vegan (and not even veggie) but I often prefer vegetarian food so I'll definitely be checking out some of these dishes.

Hi all,

We are visiting Belize with Princess in December. I'm really keen to do a tour that includes the best opportunities for wildlife watching - I would love to see a toucan!

There are a couple of tours offered by Princess that look plausible, there's a river tour only, plus trips to Altun Ha and Lamanai that also include boat rides. 

If wildlife is the priority, would any of these tours be better than the others?

Alternatively is there a non-cruise tour that would be worth considering?

Any advice would be appreciated!

I'm in the UK and both on my phone and my computer "princess.com" gets me the British version of the website. I booked a cruise a couple of days ago, all priced in GBP (even though it doesn't start in the UK).

There is something wrong/weird about the cruise the OP is looking at. I get this error message when I search for it:

Mon, Aug 21, 2023 on Emerald Princess

Pricing is currently not available for this date or the selected cabin type. Please try a different departure date, cabin type or check back later

12 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Not sure I follow your logic. On your last day your luggage is taken from you and you have to vacate your cabin. You do not see your luggage again until  you land back in the UK. 

Sorry, I meant if you have the chance of an evening in Tenerife you might not want to get back on board early enough to pack and leave your case outside your cabin etc. (I recently sailed with MSC and cases had to be ready by 11pm). Whereas if you're just sailing from the previous destination it's not quite such a big deal.

Maybe I'm overthinking it!

20 hours ago, rumbalizw said:

Well, you arrive into Tenerife. Some people go home , but you stay on , come and go as you please. Some new passengers will embark that day . The next day , you go home . 

Ok, so you arrive first thing, get a whole day in Tenerife, then get off the ship at 8am or whatever the next day? Seems like doing the overnight at the beginning would be better unless you're carrying your own luggage off, otherwise you couldn't be out late because you'd need to pack your stuff.

Thanks both!

Hi all,

I'm looking at booking one of the 7-day Azura round trips from Tenerife in Jan/Feb. Some of them have an overnight in Tenerife at the start and some at the end depending whether you join the ship on Friday or Saturday.

I'm assuming if you do it at the start you board on the afternoon of day 1 (Friday), overnight, have day 2 in Tenerife and then depart in the evening. How does it work if you do this at the end? Do you simply get to disembark later on your last day? 

Any views on which is the better option?

I booked via a travel agent under a different promotion and have the same experience - my ticket/boarding pass says I've got it but it isn't on the app or my online account. I get the impression that MSC's IT is a bit flakey so as I've literally got it in black and white on documents they've sent me I'm going to trust that it's in their system somewhere!

What was with the song the Scottish couple made up?! 

Lovely, thanks both. Will try that but won't hold my breath! 

We just got our refund for an excursion we cancelled back in early April.

However... We missed the date for requesting a refund of our deposit so I think it gets turned in to a future deposit credit or something. Anyway, this might be a silly question, but where do we see that credit? Is it visible on the website somewhere? 

We cancelled a pre-paid excursion a few weeks ago. No confirmation that we cancelled and no sign of the money yet (I have to say, I thought a refund of a basic CC transaction would almost be automated - Princess seem to do things in quite a long-winded way!). 

We've had the same email and a request for a second deposit is showing on our cruise. I assume from this thread that we can ignore it, but we had an email this morning chasing up the extra money and saying they'll cancel the cruise and we'll lose our deposit if we don't stump up the cash. 

Our final payment date doesn't seem to have changed, and we obviously paid a deposit when we booked. 

We will try to phone them but wanted to check in here too. 

It's so hard to say. In theory we're a few weeks behind other European countries in the progress of the virus, so it is encouraging to see Spain starting to relax the rules on certain businesses (I understand that they have said that some factories and construction sites can re-open). 

I think, like everywhere, it really depends on a better understanding of the virus - can you catch it twice, is there a reliable test to show you've had it, etc., plus obviously the holy grail of a vaccine. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think the UK is much different from anywhere else, and the other big thing is restrictions on travel imposed by foreign governments. It's all very well the UK being open for business, but if the USA puts restrictions on travel or insists on returning people going in to quarantine then it may be a moot point for some. 

The UK hasn't extended its lockdown. When it was brought in we were told it would be reviewed "in 3 weeks". Three weeks will be Easter Monday. With Boris in hospital and the Easter break it'll be later in the week before anything official is said, but even then it will probably just be an extension for a few weeks. 

Things like the Edinburgh Festival have been cancelled more to help people planning to go not have any uncertainty etc. rather than because they think the lockdown will still be in place by then. 

We've also just had an upgrade for our Alaska cruise in September on Emerald. Obstructed ocean view to balcony. 

Carnival's southern Caribbean itinerary that starts in Puerto Rico also takes on passengers in Barbados (or it did 3 years ago - though we got on in PR), and P&O definitely still have itineraries that start and end there. I think British Airways are also still running flights at the moment, not sure about Virgin. 

4 hours ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

If you end up in Seattle on or before Sept. 13, the Victoria Clipper has an afternoon sailing. It leaves at 3:15 pm.

Unfortunately that's the day we start our cruise! 

Thank you so much everyone. We'll contact Princess in the next few days. I did just have a thought that as we've only paid a deposit we may not be able to confirm anything yet but hopefully they'll explain what we need to do. 

Thanks everyone, "route deviation request" is just the sort of jargon I was after. 

4 minutes ago, R**T said:

 

 

There is a ferry from Seattle to Victoria.  We did it as a day trip, but there were with passengers with luggage.

Unfortunately the ferry leaves at 0800, we wouldn't be able to get to it in time from the cruise port.