adam7392

We were on Emerald from Rome to Athens this summer which is one of the 3 legs of the Barcelona/Rome/Athens/Barcelona 3 week cruise.  I'm not sure if there were live lectures in the theatre but there was a 30 min or so video on the on demand TV in your room for each port.  However the guy doing them was, in my and my wife's opinion dreadful.  He literally sent us to sleep.  Found the guy to be repetitive and boring in the extreme and the videos looked amateurish in their production.  They were so bad  it was one of the things  I mentioned on the feedback form.  They could almost have been a TV mockumentary - in fact the more I think of it I reckon Ricky Gervais should get his 'The Office' team back together, have a look at those videos, and then try to 'worsen' them!  

Was on Emerald in August and Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, Dumbo and Instant Family were the ones I remember

Hi you should easily be able to take a train from Southampton rail station to London Victoria station which is centrally located and allows you to do your own tour around London using the underground and/or use a HOHO bus.  Return tickets are around £20pp and the journey is about 80 mins which is probably going to be much quicker than any tour relying on a coach from Southampton.  Trains are frequent.  Use https://www.thetrainline.com to check the details

Souda

Have only ever cruised on RC Independence ot Seas and Sapphire Princess and have to say MDR breakfast was better on RC, however for a different reason to others.  On RC even in the MDR there was a small buffet area with fruit, cereals, danish etc so while the main breakfast order was cooking it was good to be able to use the buffet area.

On RC we used the MDR most days but on Princess once was enough.

Also for UK cruisers on Princess, you can refare the same cruise for the £100 charge.  Last month my Med cruise this Summer dropped several hundred £s so I called Princess (I booked direct) and they refared to the new price and I kept my future cruise credit and shareholder credit.

As above they said it can only be done the once.

Had a port side balcony on the Sapphire thru the Fijords last Summer which was great.  What we missed on the way in we saw on the way out.  

We were on Aloha deck one cabin from the aft end so I did pop out occasionally to watch the view from the aft deck pool area which was superb

3 minutes ago, antsp said:

Don’t worry about topcashback, Princess does not track the booking through to final payment 

So you saying you never end up getting the cashback from them? - I am still wating for cashback from a Princess cruise in the Summer that I would have expected to have been paid by now.

OP here - Have just called Princess and for the benefit of any other UK residents in this situation who find this post this is what happened:

Apparently you can do one 'Move over' per booking (his terminology not mine) at a cost of £100 (not sure if that is £25 per passenger or £50 per lead passenger or just a flat £100).  The £100 is payable immediately and the fare was then reduced to the latest amount minus our £150 FCD and the £100 just paid.  My wife's and my FCC is also transferred and my shareholder credit will also be sorted out.  You end up receiving a new booking reference which may also have a negative effect as I booked via Topcashback so may now miss out on any cashback as that may now fail to track correctly.

If the price drops again then I would need to cancel and rebook.

So I've effectively got the latest price plus £100.  All in all I'm happy enough with that, though it seems like our US and Aussie cousins get a better deal than us Brits.

Thanks to everyone who replied and hopefully this post may be of use to others.

Hi All, 

Hoping someone with UK booking experience will be able to answer as I know US is totaly different. 

Just checked price of our Summer 2019 cruise which is now £444 cheaper.  I booked using a FCC for myself and wife (also have 2 children in same cabin) so we have effectively paid a £150 deposit and have a total of $50 on board credit.

Have just called Princess, as I booked direct online, but they are on holiday so I'm just wondering what are my options ?

I could go online and cancel and then book another cabin - similar cabins are available online where we want.  According to the invoice, cancellation at this point is 15% - I presume that is 15% of the deposit - i.e. £22.50 ?   If I cancel online would I lose the FCC and hence the credit or will they  let me keep this to apply to the new booking ?

Alternatively is this something that needs to be done on the phone - and if so will Princess (UK) simply drop the £444 from the bill or make me go thru cancellation and rebook and if so same questions as above - i.e. is the FCC and onboard credit lost ?

Thanks all and Happy New Year.

hi - thanks for the replies so far.

Regards the 'comings and goings' I was just wondering if having a portion of passengers disembarking complicates the process - e.g. do they contain the leavers in a seperate area to those staying?  Also is breakfast in Horizon Court available as per usual times to all passengers - I think on a normal full disembarkation HC is closed earlier ?

And one more question regards the above mention of having no customs, is that correct ?  We will be visiting several Greek islands so would we already be considered to be cleared for customs and passport control in Athens and just simply walk of the ship with no passport/customs checks?  (as UK passport holders we are not in the Schengen area and also Brexit might have occurred before then (or maybe not!)  to complicate matters further.

Hi,

We'll be taking a cruise (Emerald Princess) from Rome to Athens in Jul/Aug.  Once at Athens some folks will be staying aboard for the next leg, others will be leaving while others will be arriving.  I need to get a hire car from the port to continue our land based holiday in Greece.  I'd like to delay getting the car as long as possible, given all the comings and goings, how long would we be able to delay disembarkation ?

Doing this cruise on 21st july - can someone let me know if the hike to the waterfall in Gerainger is doable from the port - we dock at noon and leave at 6pm.

thanks

vietnam have now extended the visa free program for uk citizens until june 2021. following is from the gov.uk site, so you should have no fee to pay to Princess.

Until 30 June 2021 ‘British Citizen’ passport holders travelling for tourism or business can enter Vietnam for up to a maximum of 15 days (inclusive of dates of entry and exit) without a visa. If you have a different type of British nationality – for example ‘British national (overseas)’ you’ll need to get a visa before entering Vietnam.

Promotions--- What promotions ? Ah, that we in the UK ever get the same promotions !

Not true - just booked a 7 night Fjord cruise in July on Sapphire. Used offer of 3rd/4th passenger in room which for a balcony was £138 each for the whole cruise. An inside was I think around £100 per person.

I then priced it up on a US specific site plus the US Costco site which both had the anniversary offer and total price was massively more - I'm talking way over £1000 for 4 people. Yes I'd get a meal in a speciality restaraunt and a bit of OBC but nothing anywhere near the UK 3rd/4th person offer.

We too were on this cruise which was our first family cruise. Loving reading your views and looking at the pictures as it is bringing back happy memories. Seems you also have a similar ideas to us as to what to do in port - i.e. avoid the cruise tours and do it yourself (I'm also a cheapo dad !). We did the same as you in San Juan except in reverse order of forts. Looking forward to the rest of the report.

Thats disappointing regards lack of free tea/coffee in IC - we liked getting back on board the Independence of Seas and going to the Promenade cafe for a tea and cake. Does the IC offer cakes/sandwiches etc that are better than you get at Horizon or does IC just offer a reduced version of Horizon ?. I also realise there is the sit down and be served option of afternoon tea in the dining rooms - so I'm looking forward to using that so at least that is one up on RC !

Is tea free at the IC - and I mean English Breakfast tea rather than iced tea. Just off a RC cruise and their equivalent Promenade Cafe had free coffee and various tea bags and hot water/milk so was expecting similar on our upcoming cruise on Sapphire.

Hi, was at St Martin, Philipsburg on Xmas day on an Independence OT Seas cruise. We walked from the dock to the Great Bay beach - the one right at Philipsburg - and on the way noticed some shipping containers by the side ripped open. At Phillipsburg itself the front row facing the beach looked mostly fine but step back into the town and you noticed some badly damaged buildings. However if you didn't know a major hurricane had recently hit you might just put it down as something else and possibly not be too aware of it - maybe that some demolition and rebuilding was taking place here and there. Palm trees were still standing with leaves attached but some looked a bit dishrevelled. All the beach front bars seemed to be fully open and we got a great deal of 5 loungers, 2 umbrellas and a bucket of 5 drinks/beers for $40 plus $5 tip. Locals all were engaging and we had a great Xmas day on the beach. One other small ship (TUI/Thomson Celebration) was also in that day, despite a reduced excursion list (Orient beach was not available) the beach was busy but far from crowded so other more adventurous folks must have either found other areas to explore (I know the area around Maho is up and running) or stayed onboard. All in all absolutely nothing to put anyone off going to the island and putting much needed revenue into the local economy, unless you were looking forward to getting your kit off at Orient beach! I did hear the French side of the island is recovering much slower and damage is more apparent compared to the Dutch side.

hi. I realise the thread is from a while back now, but did you use cabin a747 in the end. we are booked in a738 which is the next to last on the other sid. would be good if you could answer your original questions!