Pierlesscruisers

1 hour ago, trbarton said:

FYI….Any credit I’m not going to use I load it onto my Medallion App on a computer in the casino. Then I go up to the cashiers desk & cash it out. That way it’s $ in my pocket. 

 

The military & stock benefits are available on any ship that’s a part of the Carnival Corporation. Earlier this year I got Military credit on NCL. 
 

Tom😀

Thanks for that information. That said, Tom, there are a couple of things about what you said, however.

While what you said about the stock benefits is true about being the case for cruises on any of the lines that are part of the Carnival Corporation and I should have mentioned that fact. Thanks for adding that. 

The military benefits I mentioned ($50, $100, & $250 per cruise, depending on the length of the cruise) are not, however, available on any of the lines owned by the Carnival Corp. As an example, Holland America has no on-board credit plan on their ships for veterans. 

As to On Board Credit, while they do offer a wide range of discounts on purchases on the ship that I will admit that provide the same benefits as OBC, there is no way that they can be spent anywhere else but on the ship. You might consider that as being "picky". 😁 On the other hand, a discount off the price of the cruise could save you a lot of money, even way more than $250 on a cruise!  You got me there.

Tom

One thing that is "nice to know" about how Princess handles OBC is that there are 2 types of OBC, Non-refundable and Refundable. Princess always uses Non-refundable credit first and doesn't use any Refundable credit until all of the Non-refundable has been used up. Any of the Refundable that is left at the end of the cruise is returned to the cruiser by a check after the end of the cruise. 

The Carnival Corp. stock OBC is Non-refundable while the Military Veteran Benefit OBC is Refundable. My wife and I, both military retirees were on a 14 day cruise one time and received 2 checks from Princess about 4-6 weeks after the end of the cruise for a total of around $495! That was a nice surprise. The only cruise lines that offer that military benefit are Princess, Cunard, and P&O Australia. At least that was as of the last I knew.

Tom

On 6/15/2022 at 5:04 AM, reiddg said:

Thanks for the info.  Since we live in FL, we mostly cruise out of FLL but have left out of LA as well.  So far, none of the PELs have been anything more than a separate waiting room near the gangway.  Happy to have a smaller waiting room and priority boarding though.

I'm glad you brought up ArriveCan.  I've filled out everything and am waiting on the 96hr pre-cruise time to complete the app and get the receipt.  However, I've found no clear info that we require it.  We're not taking any excursions that go into Canada nor are we getting off the ship in Vancouver.  Do you know if this is something Princess will verify for everyone or does it happen once in Canada by Canadian authorities? 

It makes no difference whether you will be getting off in Canada or not The ArriveCan app must be completed before departure because you will be in Canadian waters and thus in Canada. They will help you at the pier if you're unable to complete the app prior to arrival. I'm attaching a PDF that should be of assistance to you in completing  it.

Tom

Completing the ArriveCAN app information.pdf

On 5/3/2022 at 2:03 PM, fabric_fabric said:

Does military mean active military or does it also apply to veterans? 

It also applies to British and Canadian veterans also.

Tom

On 6/16/2022 at 4:43 AM, Oakman58 said:

I was under the impression that the veterans benefit of OBC was automatically applied to your cruise.  I booked a cruise on the Diamond Princess a month ago and the OBC still doesn’t show up on my cruise summary.  And yes, my military status was verified and approved.  How long does it normally take for the OBC to show on the cruise summary?

It, the Veteran's Benefit, is linked to your Captain's Circle number. If you scheduled your cruise through a travel agent and the agent did not add your CC number to your cruise info, then that might be the reason you didn't get credited with the benefit. 

Tom

On 7/21/2022 at 6:01 PM, Eaglecw said:

That's all well and good Tom. I'll NEVER! ever take another Princess shuttle from Sea-Tac to Pier 91 again NEVER!! and I'll never recommend to anyone to take the Princess shuttle. The people who work for SES are some of the stupidest people I've ever met.

I'm sorry to read that, Eaglecw, not because you don't plan to ever take another Princess shuttle to pier 91 again, but because you obviously didn't have a good experience this time! I apologize for any problems that any of my fellow employees might have contributed to your bad experience. Personally, I try and do everything I can do to make passengers I interact with have the best possible cruise. I would like to hear what problems you had with your shuttle ride to the pier if you would care to share it/them with me. I don't know if I can provide you with an email address and stay within forum rules or not but you could try and send me the info at my name here at the g mail link if that makes sense to you. I'm not a boss of any type but I can get it to the boss. 

Again, I'm sorry that you had a bad experience and hope it never happens to you again on any other cruise you ever are on. Oh, the company name is SMS not SES. 🙂

Tom

7 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Westin

"Do we *have* to set luggage out in the hallway pre-cruise?  Can we not just self-carry it down in the morning to meet the bus to the ship?" 

I don't believe that the procedures at the Westin have you set your bags outside your room. I believe that they process their bags the same way we do at the DoubleTree: have then inside the room close to the door and with your Princess tags already on them & the hotel staff will pick up the tagged bags and take them down to the truck that will take them to the pier and load them onto the ship. Make sure that you read the Princess letter that the hotel should give you when you check in. It will tell you where to be and what time to be there on debarkation day at the hotel. 

Yes, you can take your bags onto the bus with you, but to what advantage?  Let the bags be collected and transported by the staff and not have to worry about them! You are on a cruise.  Relax & enjoy yourselves! All you need to do is make sure that all of your travel & medical documents stay with you because you will need them at the pier to complete your processing!!

Tom

On 7/8/2022 at 9:44 AM, Mflem1278 said:

Our experience has been you put your large luggage by your room door (inside, not out in the hall) and they come and pick it up mid-morning. The exact time is in the information packet they give you at check-in. They take it to one of the "ballroom/conference room" areas of the hotel and you later go down and identify it as yours so all luggage is accounted for and gets on the correct bus.  All the luggage (except what you choose to carry on the bus) is loaded under the bus.  You don't see your large luggage again until in your cabin.  Now if you have a carry-on that you can put on your lap (I personally have a backpack) or squeeze it into the tiny compartment above your bus seat then yes of course you can keep it with you.  I always keep my carry-on with me but again, my carry on is a backpack. 

 

I don't know why it is that way, but that is the way Princess has done it on all 14 cruises that I have been on.   So I guess I didn't really answer your question, just telling you what my experience has been.

At the hotels in Seattle, the bags are collected from inside the rooms by the hotel staff, taken down to the back of the hotel and after the Princess reps double check the bags, they are loaded onto a truck where they are taken to the pier and loaded onto the ship. They're transported separately from the passengers.

Tom

On 7/7/2022 at 7:03 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Sorry to "hijack" the thread...but our group of 6 is about to do this in Seattle.  We've booked w/Princess a hotel 1 night before and after the cruise.  Do we *have* to set luggage out in the hallway pre-cruise?  Can we not just self-carry it down in the morning to meet the bus to the ship?

What hotel are you staying at?

Tom

To be completely honest, I would highly recommend that anybody going on a cruise from Seattle is to arrive a day early and stay at a hotel that you arrange through Princess. The reason I say that is for a couple of reasons. First of all, that takes a lot of stress off of you as it reduces the possibility of having a canceled flight, missed connection, weather delay, etc. causing you to have to worry about missing your embarkation on the start of your cruise. It is not worth causing you any unnecessary stress/strain of possibly missing your cruise. Get in, get a good night's sleep and wake up refreshed, relaxed and ready to go on your cruise. By staying at a Princess hotel, you can purchase a transfer from the hotel to the pier with a minimum of effort. As an example of what happens when you do this, let me explain what happens to you when you stay at the DoubleTree hotel at SeaTac airport.

I know that the following explanation is true and accurately reflects what occurs at one specific hotel at Seattle because I am one of the 2 people who work there every Sat. & Sun. during the Alaska cruise season. The other person who does that job is my wife, Dianna. Do we promise that there will never be any problems or delays? No, of course not, but we will do everything possible to minimize and problems and their effects on Princess passengers.

You arrive at the airport and pick up your luggage at the airport and catch the shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel. The shuttle runs every 30 minutes, and the hotel is right across the street from the airport so you're there very soon. When you check in at the hotel, you get a letter from Princess explaining what will happen the next morning and where to go. The next morning you make sure that your bags are packed & tagged with your Princess bag tags are all packed and left inside your room and go downstairs at 8 AM to meet the Princess representatives. There, you will meet the reps. and get briefed where and when to meet them to catch their bus to Pier 91 to process onto your ship. Starting at 8 AM, the hotel personnel will begin picking up all of your tagged bags from your rooms and taking them downstairs to where they will be taken to be placed on a truck where they will later be taken to the pier where they will be transferred to the ship. The next time you will see your bags will be at your stateroom on your ship. They will not leave the hotel until the bags have been okayed by the Princess reps.

After all the Princess passengers who have purchased their transfers from Princess have been checked in by the representatives, they will be briefed as to where and when they will meet to be loaded on the buses to the pier.  At the designated time (normally 10 AM) and place the Princess cruisers will be loaded onto the buses, briefed and then transported to Pier 91 for final processing and departure on their cruise. Normally, the buses leave the hotel at around 10:30 AM, but that may vary due to traffic or other situations. Result? No muss, no fuss, no problems with luggage (they will all probably be at the pier before you will!) 

Any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to provide you an accurate answer.

Tom

On 7/19/2022 at 8:51 AM, JF - retired RRT said:

Buy 100 shares of Carnival stock...same OBC as the military benefit.

There are 2 differences between the Veterans' Benefit and the Carnival stock credit. First of all, the stock credit must be applied for every time which makes sense since it could be sold at any time, and secondly the stock OBC is non-refundable which means that it is a "spend-it-or lose-it" OBC where the balance left over from Veterans' Benefit is returned to the cruiser in a check about 6-8 weeks after the end of the cruise if its not all spent. On a similar subject, Princess uses up all of a cruiser's non-refundable OBC before using any of their refundable OBC which I believe is a nice thing!

Tom

1 hour ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Even if both in the cabin are veterans. You should only receive the OBC for one. It is per cabin.

Unless things have changed in the last year or so, that is not correct. My wife and I are both retired military and both have been getting them on every cruise we've been on. I quote from the Princess website in the restrictions portion of the Military Benefit section, "This offer is valid for a maximum of two military personnel per booking."

Tom

12 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Captain Tuvo is on Majestic now. I had the pleasure of sailing with him for the first time last week and went to his 'Coffee with the Captain ' session on the last day. He was more entertaining than some of the actual  entertainment!

Thanks for the info on Captain Tuvo, Buckeye!

Tom

On 5/10/2022 at 9:06 PM, highloyo said:

Can someone tell me why there is so much interest in who is the Captain of the ship? I find it similar to the Captain of a plane. No one asks who is flying the plane. I have to assume the captains are all very competent.

While the vast majority, if not all, ship captains are competent, some are more personable than others. Some, you seldom, if ever, see on the ship others are more personable and enjoyable to be around. As an example of the latter is Captain Tuvo who is, the last I knew, on the Sky Princess.  You will definitely know when he is the captain of the ship you are on when he makes any announcements on the ship because he always starts off with a "You-who" at the start of the announcement and ends it with a "Bye-bye." He is involved with his passengers and has been known to even sit down and call a few numbers when Bingo is being played. I would suspect that he is someone who would be a pleasure to work under also but that is a supposition on my part.  The fact that he may appear just about anywhere at anytime on his ship seems, to me at least, that he feels confident in his crew and staff and that makes me feel safe on his ship. That is why I like to know who the captain is. Others may have other reasons.

Tom

On 4/7/2022 at 9:36 AM, ljsunshine said:

Staying at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront, anyone else stayed there?  Your thoughts such as nice hotel, close to attraction such as Pike's Market, Needle, etc.

Seattle Express finally got back to me and here is what the lady said when I asked about cost of getting from your hotel to Pier 91. "Unfortunately, We do not provide service from this hotel to the pier. With this hotel so close to the pier, the most cost effective way is Uber/Taxi or Lyft."

Hope this helps you a bit. Today was a beautiful day in Seattle with not a bit of rain and lots of sunshine. Hope that it's the same for you next Sat/Sun!

Tom

First of all, I don't have any info on hotels in Seattle as I live south of Seattle and never have any reason to stay at a hotel there.  When you check in to your hotel, unless you particularly want to use an Uber or a cab or some other means of transportation, I would suggest that you contact Seattle Express to take you from your hotel to Pier 91. My wife and I check-in passengers at the DoubleTree Hotel right at the SeaTac airport and get them transported to Pier 91 for Princess so I'm not very knowledgeable about the location of downtown hotels and their proximity to sightseeing places in that area. I'm checking on what the actual cost is for Seattle Express is from your hotel to the pier so I may have to leave you another message with that info if they don't get back to me before I finish.

One suggestion I will make however is that if when you get back from your cruise, you are leaving that same day for home on a flight that when you get onboard the Discovery you stop by the Passenger Services desk (I believe it's on Deck 5 or 6) and tell them that you would like some information on the Port Valet program. They will explain it to you and provide you with a form to fill out. I'll give you a brief description here. First of all, it is a completely free (yes, there are some truly free things around!) program that is provided by the Port of Seattle. What they will do is, the porters on the ship will pick up your bags on the ship the night before you arrive back in Seattle and separate them from the non-Port Valet bags. They will then upon arrival back at Pier 91 on Sunday, the bags will be loaded on a truck and transported to SeaTac Airport and loaded onto your flight. After the bags are picked up from your stateroom on the ship, the next time you will see your bags will be at your destination airport!  This is really nice because when you debark the ship you will not have to go down into the luggage hall, hunt down your bags and then take them to the airport and check them in. All of that will have already been done for you. This is especially nice if you have a long wait before your flight takes off as you will only have your carry-ons to handle. Any bag fees that will be charged by your airline will have already been charged to your on-ship account and you will have been provided with the final statement and will have seen that the night before. 

If either of you have military service of 2 years or more (or 6 mos. in a combat zone) and an honorable discharge, you will, hopefully, been told of Princess' Veterans' Benefit and received the refundable On Board Credit. If there is anything left of that credit you will receive a check for the remaining balance about 6-8 weeks after the cruise.  It will also be linked to your Captains' Circle number and will be automatically be given on all future cruises. So, if you go through a travel agent in the future, make sure that he/she includes your CC number in your reservation! You can see more information on this on the Princess website at the bottom left-hand corner of the page where it says:

Cruise Deals

•  
• Cruise Deals & Promotions
• Sign Up For Special Offers
• Refer-a-Friend
• Military Benefit Program

Okay, there's more info than you ever expected and none of which you asked for! <G>  Seattle Express hasn't gotten back to me yet, so I'll send that info when I get it.

Any questions, let me know.

Tom

I enjoy all the ships on Princess and haven't run into any real problems on any of them so I'd have to say that my favorite one is whichever one I'm on at the time! I realize that probably doesn't help you much but, it's the truth.

Tom

14 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

I, for one would like to thank the hosts here at cruise critic for all they do and don’t do. They put up with all types of snarky and inappropriate behavior and generally understand the levity of others. 

The Unofficial Board of Cruise Critic voted and approved a doubling salaries and vacation pay for all hosts. They decided to return to the generous raise strategy after this year’s “as many free cruises as you want from April to August” didn’t pan out so well. 
I wish you all the best, especially this wonderful C.J. Skids that hosts the Princess board. 

 

Enjoy your cruises, when you can. 

Well said!  And the nice thing about the doubled salaries here is that they're all non-taxable! 🙂

Tom

On 8/19/2020 at 6:49 AM, abqmommyof4 said:

I know this is wishful thinking, but I think it  would go  a long  way   in customer service for Princess and other companies  to  go ahead and give  cruise  credits  for those  cruises paid in  full and then  cancelled by them.

 

Just my Opinion 

Hmm, you want to pay for something, get your money back in full and then when the company has to cancel the item you paid for through something that is absolutely no fault of either the company or the customer to get one of the benefits of the item that was under contract?  That makes absolutely no sense at all to me.

Unbelievable.

Tom

On 8/19/2020 at 12:28 PM, Cruise Raider said:

BTW, I used to work in a department in which each incident opened generated a new number.  It started with the year and then an incident number.  If we found the incident didn't need to be reported, we could delete it, but that number wouldn't be reused as they went in sequential order, which made perfect sense.  This woman I worked with would get so mad if you created and then deleted an incident.  I asked her what the problem was and, no lie, this is what she answered:  'You're using up all the numbers".  OMG ... I just about fell on the floor laughing.  They were digital!!  

Yep, you don't want to use up all the numbers. That means that the supply section has to put in another "Numbers Purchase Request (NPR)" and those higher numbers cost more because you have to buy more digits, you know.

Ah, ya gotta keep those expenses down.

Tom

9 hours ago, resistk said:

There was a reason why Princess was hit hardest by COVID of any cruise line.  I don't trust them to keep my family safe. 

Is that an opinion of yours or something that you have read somewhere or something you have heard from someone who got it from a reliable source or what? I'm referring to your "Princess was the hardest hit by COVID" comment.

Tom

17 minutes ago, iamaqt2 said:

Hahaha Tom, no sadly that was not me.  I wish I had that much free time.  Perhaps when I retire. 

It's something to aim for in the future!  At least you can build your cruise numbers quickly by living in Seattle!  You ought to join us working at the pier, it's an enjoyable job, of course this year was a heck of a change from the normal season!

The Alaska trips are very popular. I've had many people going on their 10th cruise and even had one gentleman who was going on his 20th Alaskan cruise. I told him he either really like going to Alaska or he had formed a habit!

Tom

15 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

My observations living in Seattle and having HAL and Princess cruises readily available.  I've cruised both multiple times.  I am an under 50, really got into cruising about 14 years ago, and will get on a ship any chance I have.  I've also cruised NCL, Celebrity and MSC. I'm Platinum on Princess, and low status on HAL for a very simple reason.  HAL does not appeal to my age demographic.  I consider the food on both lines to be similar,  but after that they're very different products.  HAL is marketed and caters to a much older demographic.  The entertainment is lacking in the evening, and the ship is tucked in for the night by 10 pm.
Princess has a robust nightly entertainment schedule, a fun disco, late night dining options, and in general provides a much better evening experience than HAL.  Those are all huge factors for me when choosing a cruise.  
I will say that HAL does a very nice job on thier Alaskan itineraries though, and with the extremely port heavy days, early to bed was the norm, and so I would be happy to do HAL for an Alaska itinerary.

You sound like you might have been the lady I checked in a year or 2 ago at Pier 91 in Seattle. I tried to give her a map of the ship and she said "No, I don't need one of those, this is my 4th Alaska cruise this season!"  Ah, a nice benefit of living in the Seattle

area!   🙂

Tom

😄

34 minutes ago, trbarton said:

Sorry I have not been on the Regal but if I were on that ship, some of my experiences I would still use. I have been on the Majestic & if the Regal layout is similar, the walk from the dinning room to the Princess Theatre, was a long walk so I would suggest that one of you go first to get a seat Incase one of you stops to use the facilities before going into the theatre. 
 

Enjoy your cruise & Princess. 
 

if one of you is a veteran you can get OBC + if you have at least 100 shares on Carnival Corporation stock you will also get some stock OBC. For a cruise 15 days or longer that’s $250 each for $500 of OBC. 
 

I prefer to enter on deck 6 which is just past the casino as I like to sit in the lower level. 
 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Tom😀

Just to clear up something you wrote here," if one of you is a veteran you can get OBC + if you have at least 100 shares on Carnival Corporation stock you will also get some stock OBC. For a cruise 15 days or longer that’s $250 each for $500 of OBC. "

The Carnival Stock OBC is on a per cabin basis, not a per person basis. So if Mr & Mrs Barton both own stock, you will get one OBC regardless of whether you own it individually or jointly.  At least that it was before the covid problem. However, the Veteran's OBC is on an individual basis, so if the Mr & Mrs are both former military with honorable discharges and are on a 15 day cruise, they would have a total of $750 in OBC for those 2 benefits Mr would have $250 veterans, Mrs would have $250 veterans and one of them would have $250 stockholders for a total of $750. (That may only become a problem if each person pays their own charges otherwise everything is combined on the last day before payment.) 

I'm attaching two text files that provide more info on both benefits

Tom

Shareholder form 2017.pdf Veterans OBC Info.txt

When I first saw the title of this thread I was wondering "There is a suite on a Princess ship named the Law Suite?  Is it only for those in the legal profession or for someone who has been sued?" Then I finally figured out it was just a typo.  Got my attention though!

Tom

😁