Ken the cruiser

BTW my unofficial guess as to the cause of your issue is that your booking has a different Captains Club number than the Princess Personalizer account you’re logging into. This happened to my son a few years back when he had accidentally created a second account, thus generating a second Captains Club number. Princess had to merge the two accounts into one and use the CC number that was assigned to the booking. But that’s just a guess.

The only times we’ve heard dual languages used on Princess cruises were on the Diamond when we were doing a B2B around Japan last summer where they had two CDs and provided information and comedy sketches in both English and Japanese, and on our recent Antarctica/SA cruise on the Sapphire where the CD made announcements in both English and Spanish. However, I believe the CD only spoke English on our 21-day Med cruise in July 2022.

We recently had this issue and the person on the Princess Online Chat function forwarded me to a person that was able to resolve this issue. Basically, they had to reregister both of our Princess accounts with a new userid while everything else in our accounts remained intact.

Have you tried using the Princess Online Chat function to see if they can help you resolve this issue?

Here is an updated timeline and more importantly a smaller footprint so it's easier to read on my devices. 😉 8-Day Inside Passage 14-Day Voyage of the Glaciers Date Destination Arrive Depart Date Destination Arrive Depart 4/29 Fly to Vancouver BC 10:30 PM 5/8 Port of Vancouver 7:30 AM 4:00 PM Fairmont Hotel 5/9 Inside Passage 4/30 Port of Vancouver 9:30 AM 4:00 PM 5/10 Ketchikan AK 6:00 AM 2:00 PM 5/1 Johnstone Strait 5/11 Juneau AK 8:00 AM 9:00 PM 5/2 Sitka AK 10:00 AM 6:00 PM 5/12 Skagway AK 7:00 AM 8:30 PM 5/3 Juneau AK 8:00 AM 9:00 PM 5/13 Glacier Bay NP 6:00 AM 3:00 PM 5/4 Skagway AK 7:00 AM 8:30 PM 5/14 College Fjord 6:00 PM 8:30 PM 5/5 Glacier Bay NP 6:00 AM 3:00 PM 5/15 Whittier AK 12:30 AM 8:30 PM 5/6 Ketchikan AK 9:00 AM 6:00 PM 5/16 Hubbard Glacier 3:00 PM 8:00 PM 5/7 Inside Passage 5/17 Glacier Bay NP 9:15 AM 7:30 PM 5/8 Port of Vancouver 7:30 AM 4:00 PM 5/18 Skagway AK 7:00 AM 8:30 PM 5/19 Juneau AK 6:30 AM 4:00 PM 5/20 Ketchikan AK 10:00 AM 6:00 PM 5/21 Inside Passage 5/22 Port of Vancouver 7:30 AM Fairmont Hotel 3:00 PM 5/23 Fly Home 9:15 AM

If I remember correctly on our recent Antarctica/SA B2B on the Sapphire, we got the entire 10% in refundable OBC posted to our shipboard account (visible in the PCL App) at the beginning of the applicable leg rather than once we completed the excursion. My guess is if we cancelled an excursion while on the cruise (which we did not), the full cost of the excursion minus the 10%, since it had already been previously added, would then be posted to the shipboard account.

OK, all of our preparatory work has been done and our bags are packed! All we need to do now is wakeup early tomorrow morning and head to the airport. So with that said, I think it's about time to bring on Freddie to get this party started!! 🕺💃

Yes. But I believe you get that 10% in OBC posted to your shipboard account once you board your cruise. At least that's how it worked on our recent Antarctica/SA cruise. In fact, it was in the form of refundable OBC, as we paid with a credit card for most of the excursions we prebooked.

Thanks!! We'll just be taking the train up out of Skagway this time around, so we will focus on getting seats on the left side in the back. 😀

Thanks for coming along and for your insights. We had been on the White Pass Railway before, but that was in July. Since that was one of the few stops we didn't have an excursion booked yet, the potential of seeing a frozen waterfall sounded pretty cool. One question if I might ask. Do you remember which side of the train was the better side to sit on to take pictures?

If anyone is interested, I’ve started my Live From thread and will be heading to Vancouver on Monday!

Here’s what the excursions look like on our upcoming May 8 Alaska cruise. Now I will say we have had excursions booked at each port since we booked this cruise well over a year ago, and most of them have gone up in price, some over $100 pp. But there was one excursion with the discount that saved us $10 pp. We originally booked it at $179 pp and the new price was $169 pp. So we canceled and rebooked the excursion.

We definitely enjoyed getting those double Mariner points when we would book a VS on the smaller HAL ships like the Zaandam, which definitely helped to get us to 4-star quicker. That and booking HAL excursions! But then we do like the option of having free laundry when we're on one of their longer cruises! 😉

I just checked the weather forecast for our arrival at Sitka on May 4th. Without a doubt, we're definitely glad we're bringing our cold weather clothing, as it will probably feel even chillier with the forecasted 15 mph winds from the northwest! 🥶

Thanks. On the Koningsdam, there appears to be both Vista Suites and smaller veranda cabins, with the VS being sold at the same price as the VS on the Zaandam cruise.

I realize it's been a while since we have cruised with HAL. But the last time we were on the Zaandam in 2018 in one of their Vista Suites, they were basically just regular verandas located on decks 6 or 7, other than you get double Loyalty cruise day points. Has something changed?

FWIW in most cases Princess excursion prices usually go up, sometimes quite significantly, the closer you get to cruise time. I know, who knew!! In our case 9 of the 10 PCL excursions we have booked had gone up. However, there was one that dropped $10 per person (from $279 to $269 pp) and there were seats still available. So we cancelled the existing 2 reservations and immediately rebooked them saving a whopping $20! 🕺💃 The nice part is when we initially cancelled the original reservations, the refunded funds were immediately provided in OBC which we subsequently used to rebook the same excursions moments later rather than having to pay the "new" excursion fees with our credit card. I'm also guessing since we're so close to going on the cruise, the extra $20 will be made available as refundable OBC in our shipboard account once we board the May 8th leg of our cruise where the excursion is booked. Just thought I'd pass this experience along in case someone was curious what happens when you cancel and rebook a PCL excursion to take advantage of a drop in price.

So true. Just like when someone pays $75 pp/day for Celebrity's cheaper Basic Internet and the Classic Drink packages when they book one of their cruises with the All Included package. 🙂

I seem to be missing what this thread is suggesting. When I did a mock booking today on the NCL website, it still says "Excl. taxes, fees and port expenses, they will be added at checkout." after the Subtotal entry. Where should I be looking to see the taxes/fees?

Thanks for the heads-up, as knowing the estimated times when we might pass through Johnstone Strait helps. Now, whether we see any wildlife or awesome scenery as we pass through is another story. But then for us it's all about the "hunt" for memorable photos as well as having a great time while on a cruise! On our recent Antarctica/SA cruise, I was surprised when I woke up briefly to see we were cruising through Beagle Channel's Glacier Alley around 5:30 am with no pre-notification from the ship. Another time as we were cruising from Iceland to Greenland, we went out on the balcony just before midnight where we watched some Northern Lights for about 10-15 minutes.

No problem. We will definitely be attending all of the lectures and will provide a brief summary of who was the lecturer and what was discussed.

I was just reading about Johnstone Strait. Pretty fascinating, especially with the potential of seeing so much wildlife on our first day after leaving Vancouver. Luckily, we’ll be cruising through this narrow passage 3 times! 😁 Johnstone Strait is a deep and narrow glacier-carved passage located between the east coast of Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland, extending roughly from Telegraph Cove in the north to Rock Bay in the south. Johnstone Strait serves as an important thoroughfare for marine vessels that include cargo freighters and cruise ships bound for Alaska in the summer months. Johnstone Strait is home to the largest resident pod of killer whales (orcas) in the world, with a population of approximately 200 whales. There is no better place to view these amazing marine mammals. In addition to the orcas that can be viewed around Robson Bight, Johnstone Strait offers up a wide variety of other marine life, including minke, humpback and grey whales, Pacific white sided dolphins, harbour porpoises, Dall’s porpoises, harbour seals and Steller’s sea lions. Bald eagles and an abundance of seabirds will also be encountered in the area. https://vancouverisland.com/plan-your-trip/regions-and-towns/vancouver-island-bc-islands/johnstone-strait/

I just took a sneak peek at the NOAA Northern Lights forecast for the next 2 nights and wouldn't it be awesome if there was a similar forecast while we were on the cruise! NOAA Aurora Viewline for Tonight and Tomorrow Night

We are Elite+ and my DW will be so excited when she hears hot chocolate is free at Al Bacio, as we will no longer book a cabin with the All Included package and get our bottled water and glasses of wine during Happy Hour!

That's a very good point on the theater seating, especially if you go to the early show. We usually arrive 20-30 minutes early to get the seats we want and play gin while waiting for the show to begin. However, if you happen to arrive only 5-10 minutes early, especially if it's a good show, most of the good seats are usually pretty much gone.