eagletwo

We have only sailed on two Princess cruises, 2005 in a full suite to Alaska and 2008 in a mini suite to the Caribbean. Not sure if either cruise was full. On our trip on the Caribbean Princess in 2008, the evening before docking at one of our ports, an Officer from ships maintenance came to our cabin to ask if we minded having the tile replaced in our bathroom while in port. We agreed since we would be in port most of the day. The Officer gave us a cabin room card for an empty mini suite two doors down from our cabin (E731) so we could shower after a long day in port. Guess the ship was not full.

What was really impressive was we had maybe 7-8 pieces of tile missing in the bathroom floor that had been covered by the floor matt. We left our cabin around 8:30 am and returned at 5:00 pm. The entire bathroom floor had been removed and replaced! Since the tile grout had not had time to set, we had to use the extra room to shower for diner.

There may be a few extra cabins on a "full" cruise just for this type of maintenance or we were just lucky that the ship was not full.

A few years ago, our flight department was asked to pick up a famous Football player in Brazil on short notice. We were to pick up the passenger at a major airport in Brazil and fly him to Miami. Our flight crew did not have a current Visa to operate in or out of Brazil. After three days of telephone calls with our Embassy, the Brazilian authorities and anyone we could think of, it was a no go. The passenger ended up taking a flight from Brazil to Miami and we picked him up and took him to his scheduled meeting in New York. By the way, the passengers name was Pele, the most revered "Soccer" player in Brazil.

As long as the increase goes to the staff, I don't have a problem. On our two cruises, every employ we came in contact with was awesome.

We had this cabin on the CB last June. Loved the large balcony. Wind was not a factor. Very quiet and a great place to relax. I agree with some other folks, really don't want to talk about this cabin too much. It is so hard to book. :)

Diamond Princess C415. Just tried to attach photo for the first time. Thanks for the info.

We used a well known agency for our cruise to Alaska last July. We had a PH for my DW and me, inside cabin for our two kids and a balcony cabin for my parents. The price we had for our cruise was the same as all the discount web sites. Our travel agent took care of everything and even called us about changes in airline flights. We were listed as VIPs on the Diamond Princess and were treated as such. We had a bottle of champagne in our room and my parents room, spa treatment for two and a gift certificate for $100 to use on board. We even got to tour the bridge. My in-laws used their AmX agent for the same cruise and got nothing. Paid the same rate as my parents.

Did we pay for these extras? Yes, in a way. But the travel agent used the money from their commission to pay for these gifts. Don't begrudge your travel agent making a profit. Just wait until you really need some help and have used an on-line broker. You will be on your own, trust me, I have been there, done that.:)