triple7tahoe

We sail on the Diamond on March 2-Tips and onboard in AUD, March 16 continue to Tassie and back still in AUD, then Sydney to Perth will be in USD. Will not leave Australia until flight home from Perth--Any idea why last leg is not in AUD?

The same shore side company has the contract for both SF and LA with Princess. If you have a problem at either location ask if "Johnny O. is there". He is the person at the top of the ladder for the company and almost all of the blue jacket, red tie and white hat folks will know who you mean. If they don't know---They are really new to the operation-He gets around!

My wife and I have a difference of around 400 days of Princess cruises. On many cruises we will qualify as # 1 & #2; We always make it point to tell the Hostess that we should be counted as one couple for these functions. My MIL joined us on one cruise and she took my place at the luncheon-I am not sure the Captain will ever get over her. Another cruise, daughter accompanied my wife. Never would even think about asking for two separate invites.

Done it a few times and there is often a overhead bed involved. The pre cruise discussion includes "who is going to sleep in the pull out?" Lots of ideas but as seas get rough "Good, old dad" ends up there-"But just for tonight"-Yeah right!:D

On most of the earlier Princess ships, Caribe was the deck of choice for balconies-Is this also true on the Royal/Regal? Thank you.

Thanks for the quick replies. The travel agent handling the group made it sound like it was very difficult to get "approved" to book one of these cabins and I couldn't find anything on the Princess website that described what requirements there will be. I thought they might require something from a doctor stating that he was confined to a wheelchair. Glad to hear that he will probably qualify!

I don't think it is a problem getting approved. From reading other posts, it looks like the biggest problem is booking far enough ahead while these cabins are still available. I have heard folks, on here, say they often had to book a year ahead to get one of these cabins.

No, any water in the mini-fridge or on the counters in the cabin are not part of the package, they are extra charge.

If you want some bottled water, got to pick it up at any bar or in any restaurant along the way. We always get two bottles any time we go to the cabin to have on hand while we're there.

I had to check with my wife and can now say that there are two bottles of water included in the mini-bar set up that we get for being elite. I assume they are the same in suites?

Okay, so we go to the casino every night after dinner. And usually go for an hour or two on sea days. Have done this on every cruise (we are elite)....so how much do you think you have to lose (lol) before you get an offer??? Just wondering.

There does not seem to be an answer for this. We spend (and lose) a fair amount in the casino and did not get the most recent offer. Our friend only gambles a dollar or two on any given cruise and has gotten many offers. She was such a cruise on the Royal the week before we were this spring. I asked about it in the casino (they did not have an answer) and through Princess Player Club (no answer there either). I did find out that if you had the magic code; which was a three letter code, and mentioned it you could become eligible for the casino discount. It seemed that once you knew the code and mentioned it, they (Players Club) could go back and see if you had been in the casino on recent cruises. They did so for me and now it shows up on any booking I start to make through Princess website. If I make a trial booking by the time I get to pick your cabin the lower price (about 25% discount) starts to come into play. I asked my TA and he confirmed that it is now part of my booking history?:confused:

I guess it's probably something like this http://www.cappuccinosupreme.com/cappuccino/

 

Have a look at the list of ingredients for one! :eek:

 

 

 

It is but some people insist on an instant alternative because they don't want to pay for the real thing :rolleyes:

Thanks for the link-In looking at it they are really talking about flavored lattes, as in pumpkin spice, etc.

My wife and I will be in and around Sydney many times in March 2016-Shall we meet for coffee or any other Starbucks drinks:)-I know exactly where most of the stores are in that area-Love to meet you.

OK, You got me-What is powdered cappuccino? I always thought that a cappuccino is espresso shots topped with foamy steamed milk?

By the way, I work for Starbucks (don't drink coffee) and the system that it sounds like the IC is trying to use is similar to the one we have in place. Ideally, one person takes the coffee and/or food order. Food order is passed off to the expeditor while drink order is passed on to the Barista. Yes there does seem to be some demand for a line for plain coffee but from my experience, when this rotation is done correctly, it is certainly more efficient. Of course how many people go to Starbucks for plain coffee-It is high priced:p But my grandchildren will enjoy it if SBUX stock continues to keep pace with CCL.:D

Hmm, if that's true, that may be an adequate-enough buffer to allow us to retain our 6pm time. Thanks!

Showing up late to SET time dining is not the right thing to do. Especially if it is 30 minutes. The rest of your table mates will normally have to sit and wait for you; even if they don't it makes it extremely hard on the serving folks as they would like to serve each course to the whole table at the same time. I would say the same is true for those folks that decided, for some reason, not to come to the dining room on a given evening. The courteous thing to do, if you decided to eat in an alternate area, is let the servers know, or at least some of your tablemates.

We were the Most Traveled (first time) on the 3 Jan Coral Princess. Received the regular crystal for Panama and the champagne - nothing had anything about the 50th anniversary.

On our last trip (Royal) earlier this year, CC Hostess had just gotten the 50th anniversary crystal and we were fortunate enough to receive one. Very pretty.

I had my ICD implanted 23 days before we were to leave from SFO to FLL and a following TA on the Royal. Two weeks before we were to leave my cardiologist cleared me to fly (and even gave me a note to get early boarding):) 14 day TA+ a week in the UK then an extremely long, non stop flight back to SFO. Biggest problem???My worry that something was going to happen. OH and the fact that our cruise included the All You can drink package. Survived that also.

Just returned from TA on the Royal (spent time in the UK afterwards). Sound of Music was shown on MUTS; available in stateroom. Pop choir did a great job on music-I heard sing along was well attended but do not know for sure. There was a trivia and some very obscure questions. I had to wonder if the team that got all correct might have heard them on previous cruise?

I saved them for our next cruise as I think they are a "canned" set of questions. What am I offered for the answers:p

...

I agree.

Having read posts #2 & 5, I will concede that he reason I would not have noticed foreign exchange ATM's on recent cruises, is because I stopped using them long ago. I found that they displayed a fairly low rate of exchange (I was getting less for my dollars) and then the charge to make the exchange (very fine print :) ) was extremely high. Sorry if I added to the confusion.

On recent cruises I have not seen the money exchanging machines. They seem to have given that task to the Front Desk. I just ordered Pounds from my local bank for my upcoming trip as I faced a similar problem of needing them. I do not remember ATM's at Southampton port and will need pounds for local transport. Arriving on a Saturday also cuts down on my options.

I sailed in a suite on the Ocean Princess last fall, and the service in Sabatini's for breakfast was the best I have had only any Princess ship. One of the main reasons was that there were only a small number of people eating there and the waiters gave us the kind of personal service that we used to get in traditional dining in the old days.

 

I believe there were two or three couples who were allowed breakfast in Sabatini's in addition to the ten suites. One of them was someone who was celebrating his 75th cruise credit on Princess. Note that it was only for the 75th cruise credit itself - not for anyone with over 75 cruise credits.

 

I don't know how the others qualified.

guilty as charged, your honor :-); Actually, the first leg was my wife's 75th and the second leg was my 100th cruise. It is true that this happens only on "milestone" cruises, not from then on, as we found out on our last couple of cruises-darn :-(

Yes-May be two but one in the casino for sure. If I remember correctly it is on the port side forward, just before you leave the casino.

IN the US, porters are not Princess employees. Most, if not all, are union workers who get a very nice wage for the job. In their defense, getting the job for cruise ships can be hard as it is done by seniority (Union rules) and some areas (think SF) do not have an abundance of cruise traffic. I worked, shore side, in San Francisco with passenger boarding and saw porters that almost demanded a tip while others went about their job-I did not see any turn down a tip:). I observed the porters as they sized up the boarding passengers and could see a "hurry-up" or "slow down" in their hurry (or not) to be the first to reach certain passengers. The rush was on for folks arriving in limos, while there did not seem to be any hurry to help those getting off the street cars (trams). I did turn in a couple of these porters who I felt were trying to "bully" some into tips.

Porters take your luggage, put it on a cart, push the cart to the screening area. That is the last they see of it. From the screening area it is put into large cages which are sorted by area of the ship (Big letters on tag ;PF; SA; etc tell the sorters which cage to put luggage in. Fork lift takes that cage to that part of the ship and it is hoisted aboard. From there it is sorted by the room stewards; sent to correct deck and then taken to your stateroom. Room Stewards probably handle your luggage far more than the shore side porters. Same story for disembarkation with the you deciding if you need shore side help from the porters or want to take your luggage from baggage claim to the pickup point yourself.

Last I heard the porters were being paid in excess of $35 per hour.

I understand all that Colo Cruiser, but I still pose my question - has anyone first-hand experience of Princess taking any notice of what you have expressed in your survey?:)

Let me be among the first to say YES. I was on my 100th cruise and the ship got it mainly wrong. Card in cabin should have been a hint. It congratulated me on my 50th cruise. Pretty much went down hill rom there. I talked with CC hostess on board and got a fairly weak response. I wrote about it on the survey and within a week I had a phone call from Princess. After speaking with them, I was offered a "do-over". This lady even knew which cruise I was scheduled for next. I can tell you that my 101st cruise was the best and both my DW and I said it was over far too soon. We could not have asked for better service.

It is important to remember that if when leaving a slot machine the machine has some money for you, you must upload it to your cruise card.

 

If you do not, the next person to use that slot machine will play with the money you left on it.

Within the last year, at least, this has been fixed. It is true that there is button to push to download any winnings, but on the ships (more than one) I have sailed the past year; when I removed my card the balance did transfer without pushing the button. I suggest trying it and watching-if the does not transfer renter the card and do push the button.

Yes, I do have a life besides the casino, but my wife may not believe it ;)

Please let us know how this turns out. They have managed to scare me enough including stateroom phone calls, that I always cash out. I do not want to start making a habit of leaving money on my casino account and hope that this works for you.

There is a format that is to be followed by the cc host. Most of the time it includes chocolate strawberries and champagne in the room on arrival. I am not sure if the breakfast at Sabatini's (daily) starts with 50 but we got it for 75 & 100. Depending on the ship there could be flowers. On the smaller ships (Ocean & Pacific) there is no florist so would not expect flowers-On the Ocean, the Captain promised flowers at MTP luncheon and then realized there was no florist-He had flowers purchased in Istanbul. Also received an invitation for a bridge tour. A couple of times we received a bottle of wine at dinner but not others. We managed to work this out, much by accident, to have these "milestone' cruises on different cruise for each of us. We each have a different cruise total (24 cruises apart) so we get the above twice on a b2b:) Last cruises were 75/76 for her and 99/100 for me. We were treated like royalty for almost 30 days.

I read this thread last night after putting together our next cruise and had just gotten trip insurance. With all of the folks on here that use military OBC, I would like to remind those that also use USAA for insurance, that USAA offers trip insurance with excellent coverage at a very good price. You might want to check it out?