dazee8

8 minutes ago, DiRonT said:

It is inside Sabatini's.  The group of 20 guests are walked through the restaurant to a private entrance into the special room used for the 360 Experience.  I agree it is a wonderful experience.

Thanks very much for the information.  I booked it and we are looking forward to trying out the new 360 Experience. 

23 hours ago, cruiseypop said:

Princess has raised the bar

 

Tonight I went to the 360 Experience, a new experiential dining experience that is a visual and taste experience like none other.  This was a first class experience, something I would expect Walt Disney World to pull off.  It is part movie and part dinner.  Imagine watching someone prepare lemon pasta in Italy on a 360 wrap around screen around your dining area and then within a few moments they bring the very same dish to you.  It was almost emotionally overwhelming.  This is will be hard for other cruise lines to top.  And now they have the computerized projection system in place they can adapt and change the experience for the future.  Princess really needs someone to come over and promote this new feature.... John Heald are you listening?  Several perfect courses were served with impeccable timing in this 90 minute show.  Whether you are one person or a group of people, this is truly a must see.

 

 

 

 

Can you please tell me where the 360 Experience restaurant is located?  Which deck and what restaurant?  I am having a hard time finding it on the deck plan/map.  Thanks!

22 hours ago, cruiseypop said:

Princess has raised the bar

 

Tonight I went to the 360 Experience, a new experiential dining experience that is a visual and taste experience like none other.  This was a first class experience, something I would expect Walt Disney World to pull off.  It is part movie and part dinner.  Imagine watching someone prepare lemon pasta in Italy on a 360 wrap around screen around your dining area and then within a few moments they bring the very same dish to you.  It was almost emotionally overwhelming.  This is will be hard for other cruise lines to top.  And now they have the computerized projection system in place they can adapt and change the experience for the future.  Princess really needs someone to come over and promote this new feature.... John Heald are you listening?  Several perfect courses were served with impeccable timing in this 90 minute show.  Whether you are one person or a group of people, this is truly a must see.

 

 

 

 

Can you please tell me where the 360 Experience restaurant is located?  Which deck and what restaurant?  I am having a hard time finding it on the deck plan/map.  Thanks!

6 hours ago, travelwide said:

I understand the sickness numbers may be increasing. They have no salt, pepper or sugar packets on the tables at this time. Usually this is an indication that numbers are rising.

 

What has anyone who is onboard heard? My relative has only observed but has not heard anything from staff.

 

Keep those hands washed!

Have observed many passengers coughing and sneezing into hands, when it's usually better to do so into elbow of arm or "vampire" technique which we teach at school.  Yes, keep distance, hands washed, try to touch universal surfaces, and use sanitizers when available. Stay safe and healthy. 

21 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Is Silverado blending back?

I saw them setting up for it in Vines today. I was told it was $45/per person and completely booked.

We have inputted all information in the Medallion app for ourselves and our child/teen. My Medallion app says "your child is linked" but when I highlight the child by trying to touch their circle picture it does not work; no activation. At this point my child/teen is disappointed since they do not have access to anything in the Medallion app since they get a pop-up stating "you are not linked and please ask parent to complete by going to Ocean Compass and link Child." Arrgh. Please advise.  Thank you! 

Just made embarkation dining reservations at Sabatini's for our group.  I see that our embarkation complimentary specialty dining as suite passengers was not charge in the full amount.  Nice way to begin our cruise and hoping the coupon for “bottle of wine at embarkation specialty dining” will also be honored.  
 

Cheers!
😁

Do under 18 year old Captain Circle members get a colored Medallion for Ruby, Platinum, or Elite?

Thanks for the input for those who have already cruised with teenagers!

😀

On 11/25/2022 at 8:22 AM, Coral said:

The items in the shops were awful on the Emerald. Good thing I wasn't worried about this perk as there was nothing worth buying. We were told that they are trying to sell out of inventory and "new and better stuff would be coming"......

The shops on the Discovery were disappointing with little inventory during our Thanksgiving sailing.  The gift shop crew said they were getting more items in December to fill up the shelves.  Princess missed a golden opportunity with 4K cruisers and families with limited items to purchase.

Thanks for the update everyone even if it's a disappointing one. 

😕

Has the Princess Loyalty credit been discontinued?  For example... $25 OBC for 26 cruise, etc.

Thanks!

We already have a cruise booked for next summer, but it doesn't appear on the pricing sheet. Hmmm. We shall ask our TA about this new promo and see if the refare would outweigh the significant savings we already have on the cabin of choice.

Details, details.

:rolleyes:

Astro Flyer and dazee8, thank you very much for your input.

Greatly appreciated!!

Best of luck! Like Astro Flyer stated confirmation sometimes is a few hours or a day or two. Great benefit to take advantage of for every cruise. :D

Question, I have a cruise coming up, final payment has been paid. Sent in my info for shareholder credit, but was rejected. I faxed my original statement showing the purchase of the shares, but was rejected. Princess states to resend info from my latest statement. I don't want to show all my investments to Princess. I used my original statement for previous cruise and no problem. What does everyone else send in? Thank you in advance!

Princess needs to see that you still have the stock shares from a recent dated investment statement. I usually copy the first page of my most recent statement and the page that has the CCL stock. I use a white tape marker (for re-writing over ink) and block/tape over the investment information I don't want to be seen. I circle in ink the CCL stock showing 100 shares, price, and date from first page. Both pages are then faxed with request for confirmation by email. Never a problem and print out confirmation email to take with on cruise in case it doesn't get posted to shipboard account.

It's very easy to get to the World Cruise Center (the Port of Los Angeles) from the Harbor Freeway' date=' no matter whether coming from north or south. Get off on the Harbor Blvd exit but stay in the middle lane. When the light turns green, drive across Harbor Blvd right into the entrance of the WCC (you'll see the ships from where you'll be stopped on the ramp).

 

Follow other vehicles to the guard booth and then continue on. There'll be a marquee that will list each cruise ship and which berth. Just follow the arrows to the berth for your ship, drop off passengers and luggage at the curb. Then drive down to the parking lot (you'll see it). Park, write down the location if you need to -- or take a photo of the number for the location, and then you can walk back up to the berth (I'm guessing there's still is a little shuttle that you can jump on and it'll take you back up...but it's a pretty easy walk for most people).

 

There's no reason that I know of to worry about what the different parking lots are (I think it's really just one major lot) and it's not hard to find the port. I don't have a GPS and my sense of direction can be off at times (I did go in the wrong direction from the Queen Mary -- there for a function for work -- to return to the valley...ended up in Bell or Bellflower before I realized it.:o ), but I don't have a problem driving to the port of LA if I stick with the freeway.[/quote']

 

Thanks for the info! It shall help for our arrival and departure. :)

Does someone have the exact address that they put into there GPS for the San Pedro cruise terminal? If so, can you list it here? Thanks.

No worries... found it. :)

Does someone have the exact address that they put into there GPS for the San Pedro cruise terminal? If so, can you list it here? Thanks.

Just wondering... Lots #1 & #2 are the ones that are closest to the terminal right?

Just wondering if anyone has come across this issue: we are getting a "free" bottle of sparkling wine as a amenity perk for our stateroom, so what happens if we take this to the Dining Room?

In the past, we have told the waiter that it was a "gift" which was in our room when we arrived and haven't been charged the corkage fee. However, with new rules in place we are thinking 2 options might be in place:

1) we will have to pay the corkage fee on an amenity wine, unless we drink it in the cabin.

2) take the bottle to the Front Office and ask for the credit to be put on our account.

Thoughts?

On one Christmas/NYE Hawaii cruise they didn't have the schedule breakfast in the dining room on New Year's Day, but a WONDERFUL a brunch at a later time. It was posted that this was to give staff a chance "enjoy the beginning of the New Year."

Can you please post if they have this same New Years Day brunch?

Thanks :)

When we took wine on our last cruise, I had 2 bottles I paid corkage on. No stickers on them, which made me uncomfortable.... how could they tell the corkage-paid vs the non-paid, right? When I asked, I was told "oh we know". To me, that didn't sound like any kind of reasonable answer ;)

Yes, we have encountered this too on previous cruises. They just count up how many bottles you have and have you sign the corkage slip, but no stamp or sticker. Sometimes there wasn't a corkage slip at all or stamps, they just took your name and cabin number on a long list.

On our last cruise this summer to the Caribbean on Princess they used a blue sea witch Princess logo stamp for each corkage paid bottle. They also had you sign a bar slip which they remind you to keep handy to show corkage has been paid.

Interesting how there is no set protocol yet for this policy, but they certainly have the payment procedure in place. :).

The concierge told us that we had to use the $50 Explore 4 Beverage Card (Single use card from the Caribbean, not the 15 drinks a day version) or we would lose the credit. That differs from a card you would buy yourself, where you get the full amount no matter what.

 

I agree that it would make sense if they had a different color sticker for the free allowance bottle(s). In fact, I sort of recall someone saying that they did, but that was in Sydney. Perhaps the Australians are flush with stickers? If they stickered the "free" bottles when you checked them in, it might help to encourage accountability.

I appreciate your input on the $50 Explore 4 Beverage Card that it must be used for drinks and not just added to bill for a credit. We also have the Explore 4 promo attached to our upcoming cruise to Alaska, but if there is a refare the promo might be lost.

I like your idea about the different colored stickers for the free allowance bottles. Perhaps that might be added to keep better accounting.

We are also looking at adding the Suite Amenities Package to our cabin as we had on our last cruise. We enjoyed many parts of the package: VIP disembarkation, $50 beverage card, free laundry/pressing, Pinnacle dinner, and we brought both bottles of wine to dinner (no corkage). The one thing we couldn't take advantage of were the lovely HAL robes which were they had none onboard. The ship didn't even get a supply on turn-around day in Seattle. Long story short, the price of two robes were added as onboard credit to our bill. Keeping our fingers crossed they have robes this time.

Cheers! :)

Since we knew that all our wine was earmarked for dinner, we arranged for corkage on all of it before boarding. The beverage stewards doing wine check in told us that we got one bottle per person at no charge, but once we explained what we were doing, they stickered the whole lot.

 

You just need to make sure that you want to drink everything outside your stateroom. You can uncork your wine, but you can't unpay your corkage. :)

I wish they would also place stickers on the free allowance bottles, making them what they truly are ”free.” But I understand the policy and shall adjust our budget to account for this.

I also read your delightful commentary and scientific research about the SBP and $50 beverage cards from your recent cruise on the Noordam. Just wondering, did anyone pose the question about turning in the $50 beverage card to be a $50 credit on their bill?

Thanks :)

Yes. That's what we did. However, if there is an off chance that you might drink something in your room, like Champagne for a toast, or a bottle for wine and cheese, use that wine as your "free allowance." Once it's stickered, you can't get a refund on the corkage.

 

It's easy to pay the corkage in a dining venue if you need to. Your wine steward will simply present you with a check at the end of the meal.

Yes, I was asking if even the "free allowance" bottles could be stickered along with other bottles, but you only pay the corkage for bottles #3- whatever. This would give you the option using any bottle at any dining venue. This has been helpful for us and wondered if others asked for this to be done.

Thanks. :)

After you enter the terminal and go through security, there is a table set up for those bringing on wine.

The first 2 bottles they do not put a sticker on them -- at least they didn't for people in Ft Lauderdale. But any extra bottles, they do put stickers on them. They will take you cabin number and name and charge the corkage fee to your shipboard account.

Once that is done, you proceed to the check-in area.

Has anyone ever asked for all bottles be "stickered" at the corkage desk so they have the option of bringing any bottle to any dining area? Although it is great to have cocktails in your own cabin, sometimes a bottle is better with an entire meal. Thoughts?

Thanks. :)

Yes, HAL marks the bottles on which a corkage fee has been paid.

Thanks for your quick reply. Good to know the same policy applies so we are prepared for our cruise.

:D