Torfamm

There was no smoking at all indoors until about March of 2022. It was fantastic. Why they ever started it again is beyond me

What you describe is something I’ve seen a lot. This cruise people aren’t even at machines They are just standing around. I haven’t seen any Princess casino this bad, at least not since the restart. I can’t really remember how bad it was in the past. It’s such a shame that Princess decided to make the casino a smoking area again. The smoke-free cruises were so much better. Smoke literally poured out the casino doors into the piazza on the first night

You can see the port schedules here https://www.viport.com/schedule-cruise-ports

I honestly don’t know what the issue is. I’m not sure if they are afraid of confrontation or just don’t care.

We are currently on the Enchanted Princess and the smoking policy in the casino isn’t being enforced at all. There are people ignoring the policy that only those who are actively playing at slot machines labeled as being in the smoking area can smoke every day. It’s absolutely miserable to even walk in the door in the evenings.

I’m telling the truth. I luckily caught it and cancelled the excursions and OBC then rebooked the excursions with a credit card at an exchange rate I was willing to accept. Companies can offer whatever exchange rate they like as far as I know. It’s up to the customer to choose to exchange with them. While I don’t expect great exchange rates at the airport, hotel front desks or from a cruise line, this was unacceptable to me.

That document looks like it is for shareholder credit that is given in AUD, not converted. That is clear and fair but not true for all OBC. What isn’t made clear ahead of time is that if you purchase OBC or shore excursions with US dollar gift cards, they are exchanged 1:1 for AUD. Some OBC is exchanged at a reasonable rate. For example, the 200 USD OBC due to those on casino cruises was exchanged to about 300 AUD in the fall.

You can also get hot water at the buffet or delivered to your room with the breakfast card, room service, or Ocean Now

I love your approach to joining the family even if it doesn’t thrill you. Your attitude will be very helpful! Not sure what ports you’ll visit or but there might be some great outdoor activities available, including hiking and biking.

You have to do it by phone.

If you share a 4 device wi fi plan, the cost for that and crew appreciation would be over $38 per person per day, leaving $22 per person per day as the cost for beverages and the other Plus package inclusions. All beverages have an automatic 18% gratuity, so if you’d spend $37 per day between you on drinks, you’ll come out ahead. A glass of wine can easily eat up half of that.

I know someone who posts here regularly was on a cruise that had to leave people on ship excursions behind but I can’t remember the details. Princess got them to the next port though. I can’t remember the details, but I think roads were closed getting back to the port or something similar. We’ve never had trouble finding tour operators who will guarantee return to the ship in Europe, Asia, or South America. I did have one turn me down recently when I requested a specific excursion though because they felt we didn’t have adequate time. The last thing they want is their name plastered all over social media with a negative review

Not sure which ports you’ll be visiting but we visited Iceland in 2019 and had great luck with private tours. We were lucky with the weather and got to all three ports on our Greenland cruise in August. My experience was that tour options are extremely limited. Book early! Nanortalik was easy to explore on our own and I definitely recommend visiting the open air museum We had a great experience on this tour in Qaqortoq. Even on a rainy day, in fact perfect for a rainy day as they provide dry suits https://sagalands.com/tour-item/icebergsafari/

Many tour operators will guarantee your return to the ship. It’s an important question to ask, especially on longer tours. If for some reason you don’t return in time, they will get you to the next port. It’s not that different on a ship sponsored excursion. While they may be able to wait a short time, if an excursion is seriously delayed, they have no choice but to continue the sailing. Companies that operate tours build in time to address typical problems whether they run the tours privately or as a ship excursion. They don’t want people missing the ship. The cost to get their reputation would be enormous.

It’s possible that they may lower the starting bid. You can just check online periodically. No need to wait for an email

I noticed at the beginning of the week that an excursion we’d been considering in the Mediterranean had gone up in price from $84 to $115 and ruled it out at that cost. It’s on sale now for the old price.

The menu is in the app. There are both free food items and many additional items with an up charge, No need to purchase the access ahead of time.

For the next couple of sailings, they are on night 3 and 9. The March 17 sailing has the first one on day 2 with no listing yet for the second formal night. It will be a port day since the only sea days are day 2 and 3.

I’m seeing formal portraits listed for a March itinerary.

My kids loved them as teenagers They could sleep as late as they wanted in complete darkness

I think there is another obstacle to traditional dining, the availability of options for dinner outside the MDR. Specialty restaurants and the buffet may be more to blame than lack of social skills. When the MDR was the only game in town for an evening meal, traditional dining made sense. On today’s cruise ships, traditional dining with cruise-long assignments to large shared tables might just mean lots of empty seats in the MDR. I’d be curious to know what percentage of passengers actually eat in the MDR every night today.

There was a Royal Caribbean ship that did that in November, but I haven’t seen any reports about that happening on Princess, neither in the news nor here on Cruise Critic. https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/devastated-guests-turned-away-in-brisbane-after-royal-caribbean-oversold-cruise/news-story/9fa154d210df073801a252ff66e69d67?amp

I know the feeling! When you said it, it sounded right for a minute, then I remembered that Celebrity does that

I've had Elite mini bar items in my fridge, it's not just suites for sure.

I don't remember ever seeing anything in the fridge on a Princess ship except for included items like the Elite mini bar items or the items included in suites. Could you be thinking of another cruise line?