nbsjcruiser

I ran into similar issues. We've got 7 or 8 Princess cruises amongst our 30+ cruises so we're not rookies at this. A few weeks ago I got an email from a Princess cruise planner detailing all these great options and a booking bonus if I booked with her. My wife and I were looking at booking something for the fall of 2023 so I figured, what the hell, give her a call and see what these deals are. I called, left a vmail with my cell number. Nothing. Called back the next day and left another vmail. This time she returned my call to my home number but we weren't home. I called back and explicitly left my cell number again, instructing her to call my cell because I'm not always home. Next day, she calls our home number again. Not to be undeterred, I called back again and this time I got through. The price she gave me was exactly the same price and deal I could get from the website. When I asked about the casino discount, she had no idea what I was talking about but if I didn't book right away I'd lose the $100 deposit sale they had on. I declined, told her I'd keep looking. The very next day, while on the Princess site, what do I see? $50 deposit sale. My wife calls in to the 800 number, gets the first agent available and gets the casino discount.

I wont be trying to use a planner again. I'll stick to the tried and true method of calling in on the 800 number and taking the first person who answers the phone.

There's a few small casinos on Front Street, right behind the beach at the port.

I emailed him from another account and got a reply. Gmail is rather funky lately I find.

19 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

 

When I said: "Just about as covid free as that airplane, train, bus, taxi, airport terminal, grocery store, concert, sporting event, and everywhere else."  I was pointing out that covid is everywhere and here to stay. 

 

If anyone is concerned about catching covid and thinks that pre-cruise testing protects them, they should be wearing an N95 in all of the situations I mentioned above for protection as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agree 100%. I have a good friend who basically hasn't left the house in 2 years. No travel, restaurants, meeting people outside his family, no gym etc. While I think he's nuts, he's decided this is the best thing to do at this point. I reached the "time to get on with life" point when despite all my precautions, I got Covid anyway. I wore an N95 everywhere, stopped going to the gym, didn't eat out - all the stuff I was supposed to do. When I got it anyway I decided, it was time to move on and get back to normal. For me it was a really bad cold for about 3-4 days. Nothing I haven't dealt with a hundred times in my life.

Like many, I too was quite happy to see this. We have 2 cruises planned this fall and on both cruises we'll be travelling with one of our children. While we'll be Florida for the month anyway, I was a bit nervous for my kids who will be flying down to meet us for the cruises. 

It takes a big pile of uncertainty off my shoulders and in truth, its time. People are going to ball games, hockey games, movies, restaurants, hotels, all-inclusives and so on. There's little point in singling out the cruise industry at this point.

We always head to Miguel's hot beach spot for chair and umbrella rentals when in St. Maarten at Great Bay. Does anyone know if he's still there? I sent a note to his email address to reserve but no response. Its been almost 3 years since we've been there. Maybe his contact info has changed? Hopefully he's still there.

14 minutes ago, dides said:

Tried to buy a day pass on embarkation day on Enchanted Princess earlier this summer and they could only offer one a couple of days into the cruise as it depends on how the full week sales have gone. It's a shame as I wanted to try it out first and that could have led to more sales!

I suppose the at sea days will be the busiest too. I just don't want to waste an entire week on the Enclave when I wont be in there at least 5 of those days. 

Thanks for the response.

Don't want to spend the money for an entire week when I know I wont use it unless we're at sea. Is it possible to get a day pass?

Meh. We always book inside cabins. I suppose I might throw out a hail Mary bid but understand that I'll never get it. Guess I'm ok with this. We book early (already booked through to the Fall of 2023) so we can usually get a price we're quite happy with. If this program means they'll be able to keep prices down, I'm fine with it. 

On 8/13/2022 at 8:14 PM, caribill said:

 

Some very interesting points at the start of that link:

 

COVID-19 continues to circulate in Canada and internationally. The virus can spread easily between people in close quarters, such as on cruise ships. The chance of being infected with COVID-19 on cruise ships is very high, even if you’re fully vaccinated.

 

Follow individual public health measures such as wearing a mask and physical distancing, even if it’s not required.

 

If you aren’t fully vaccinated, or if you’re at higher risk for developing severe disease from COVID-19, you should avoid cruise ship travel.

 

 

Canadian here. Many orgs and people in Canada are pushing the government to get rid of many of the rules they have in place that are now obviously useless or causing more grief. ArriveCan is one of the targets. As far as travel on a cruise ship is concerned, Covid is EVERYWHERE not just on a cruise ship that, fwiw, might be one of the cleanest places you could possibly be at this time.

It was not so long ago that Canadians in major cities were sitting with 18,000+ of their fellow hockey fans watching NHL games, maskless. Our provinces have moved on but our Federal government has not. Insisting that someone have 2 vaccines that were administered over a year ago before entering Canada is now a laughable joke. It makes no sense whatsoever to warn about travelling with 2-3K people while doing a massive shoulder shrug as thousands of people gather, maskless, to watch hockey games, baseball games, NBA, Football, gather at concerts, go to the movies and so on. I don't want to get political, but the rules our leader at the Federal level still insists on, are purely based on political science and he's single handedly destroying the tourism industry in our country. US visitors to Canada are down near 50% from 2019 while people like me have decided its easier to drive to the US to fly to my port of embarkation rather than put my dollars into Canadian airlines. 

I live in a city that relies on cruise ship travel for millions in travel dollars every year and the Federal government has invested tens of millions of dollars in harbour infrastructure and improvements and the waterfront is going to be a beautiful place and something to be proud of in the coming years but if they continue to get in the way of tourism, it will all be for naught.

In truth, I find it embarrassing that this country can't get it together at rhe Federal level. 

Just booked a fall 2023 cruise on the Caribbean Princess. For our last few cruises we've added the drinks/tips and wifi to our cruise because the difference in price really was worth it. For this cruise the difference was $900 CAD or $450pp CAD. Once I did the math it was far cheaper for us to pay the cheapest price + tips + pay for our own drinks. Tips for the 7 days is $225. No way we'd drink anywhere near $675 for the week but our previous cruises the difference was close enough to what we'd normally drink that it was worth doing it, if only for the wifi. Has it gone up or is it just me?

Been to Amber Cove a few times and we're thinking about going on the Caribbean Princess in 2023 to there but instead of hanging around the pool area for the day we're considering a cab to Puerto Plata and spending the day there on our own.

Anyone know what a cab ride would be for 4 down town from Amber Cove and how would a day in Puerto Plata sound like walking around on our own? Safe? Lots to see?

Think we can walk off on a Saturday morning and make a Southwest flight for 9:30?

On 6/10/2022 at 3:00 PM, dog said:

The reason I won’t be cruising in that region this year. Thanks for update.

Covid is EVERYWHERE and not limited to that region. For the next few years we're all going to be taking that chance anytime we step on a plane, cruise ship or go to a resort or hotel. Its not specific to any one region.

2 minutes ago, Toast357 said:

What was the answer from Princess?

I didn't call. The helpful users here on CC put me on the straight and narrow. I'm good.

Thanks for the responses everyone

1 hour ago, cruzin4us said:

Here's the fine print which does say Specialty coffees (and not just coffee).

 

My bad. Should have read the fine print. I wonder if this included soda by the can as well? I think it did previously didn't it? We used to order ginger ale to the room. 

So got this email from Princess the other day announcing Princess Premier. With it you get the Premier drinking package, crew appreciation and 2 specialty dinners plus a bunch of other stuff I would never use. Looking at our two fully paid upcoming cruises we purchased the package that included the Premier drink package plus crew appreciation so I went and checked my reservation this morning and what do I see? They downgraded my drink package to Princess Plus which does not include specialty coffees or premier soda package. Anyone else see this?

Guess who is getting a phone call this morning when they open?

4 hours ago, VibeGuy said:

Corporation *did* change the CEO.  Princess has replaced most of the top management since the early days of COVID. 

 

I don’t understand why Princess is to blame for the (Australian) Ruby and Diamond incidents - they were operating to the fullest extent of CDC and WHO guidance at the time in the context of a rapidly spreading novel pathogen.  While the outcomes sucked, they played the hand they were dealt - you want to blame someone, blame the country where the virus originated for not being open and transparent with the global public health community until the problem was spilling beyond their borders.   

Well said. Hell, we were on the Adventure of the Seas a couple weeks before the global lockdown and I can tell you that 3 of our party came home with a "mystery illness" that we later identified as likely Covid once the lockdowns started. People cruising after us reported people getting sick as well off the same ship. Nobody knew what was going on anywhere so I find it hard to blame anyone for Covid other than the country where it started. So the Ruby and Diamond were far from lone incidents in the cruise industry.

The crew on our Emerald cruise was over-the-top happy to see us as cruising was just picking up again. I didn't get the feeling it was for show. They seemed genuinely happy to be back. Was nice to see.

We brought our own N95's in the fall when they were still relatively difficult to find. At that time they were handing out only the paper masks on that cruise. Now N95's are almost a dime a dozen. In fact they were handing out N95's at Walmart the other day. I'd bring my own N95's if I was you.

On 4/23/2022 at 9:32 PM, sunsetme said:

Wait--no Arrivecan to drive up to Whitehorse for the day?

Even for a day trip you need Arrivecan. We recently travelled from our home in Canada to Maine for a day trip and had to have it filled out for our return to Canada. Its not a huge deal but I do wish they'd do away with it. 

12 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

I wish phones and tablets were banned but they are not. It’s a place of relaxation and not sure photo taking is appropriate. Maybe take the pics on Embarkation day when it’s open to tours. But you could ask the others in there if it’s okay.
 

My beef is that people bring their devices in to watch videos while on the beds!  And sometimes without ear buds!  I’m not sure I will visit the enclave anymore as peoples behavior gets me so mad and that’s the opposite effect of the spa!  

On our Regal cruise in 2019, there was a group who insisted on sitting around the back of the ship near the pool with bluetooth speakers blaring country music loud enough that you couldn't carry on a conversation without yelling. As the week wore on, it got to the point where I thought a fight was going to break out between this bunch and a group of 4 or 5 guys who were travelling together as part of a small gay contingent that were on board. I eventually went to the front desk and warned them that they better get up there and put a stop to the bluetooth speakers before they have a real problem. They did send someone but all he did was ask them to keep it down, which they did for about 10 minutes. AFAIC, bluetooth speakers or playing music on your phone without headphones should be banned on ships unless you're in your room. 

On 4/13/2022 at 7:45 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Some folks have asked what our strategy has been to avoid getting sick while on one of the 9 cruises we’ve been on since cruising started back up (see below). Which got me thinking as well as to possibly help others who are thinking about cruising again, what strategic steps do you take while you’re on a cruise that has successfully kept you from getting sick?

 

Here’s what we do. In essence we treat moving around the ship like a game. Hey, what can I say, we're on a cruise and having fun is what it's all about, right? 😎

Good pointers. We were on the Emerald Princess in November. We wore only N95's unless eating or up on deck. Didn't get on elevators unless empty, if in the buffet we sat far from others, MDR - DW has allergies anyway so we asked to be in a place not near others. Now, the ship was only running at 33% capacity so it was easy. Now? Not so sure it would be as simple as it was for us in November.

On 4/14/2022 at 6:35 PM, minnesotasisu said:

Actually you may have a better cruise with less people onboard. We sailed on the Enchanted Princess in early March with less than 50% capacity and it was great!

We sailed the Emerald Princess in November at about 33% capacity. It was great to be able to get a chair on deck anywhere I wanted with no hassles and we certainly got great service in the MDR - easily the staff to customer ratio was 4 or 5 to 1 in there. Having said that, I did miss the excitement and buzz that a crowded ship has. I'd think 70% would be perfect but I'm looking forward to "normal" times ahead on our next two cruises.