triple7tahoe

while working at embarkation in SF, I saw folks put luggage tag on cases of soda and sent it through regular backage. The wording above would suggest that might not be allowable now?

1 hour ago, KLM3164 said:

What is the price for the 360 experience?

360 is free--Looks like they have brought it out on the Discovery (we were invited) and the Enchanted. If/When they do put it out for general consumption it will be expensive IMHO

4 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If I might ask, where can I see this transfer service mentioned on the Princess website?

I have the cruise booked. In going to transportation, I saw the part about flights. In the same area there is a place asking if I wanted to book transfers. One choice was Seattle to ship $79  other choice was Vancouver airport $29..  For us this is a Casino cruise and when I booked it, I was asked by the planner if I wanted the transfer; When I asked about price I was told $59. Also got lots of information about how it worked.

5 hours ago, Bwana Tom said:

Any idea what such a transfer from Seattle to Vancouver costs?

I see $59 per person, when I look, but was told $79 per person when I tried to book. There also seems to be an offer for transfer + hotel if you want to come in early? That is information I would like to have.

On 2/22/2023 at 9:47 AM, jeromep said:

Spoken like a true northwesterner.  I'm Northwest Profile #56, Sandals and Socks Guy.  See the below video.

 

 

I also interchange into my footwear routine Crocs and jeans.

 

I deal with dress codes at my office, so on my own time, I tend to be a lot more casual.

Before moving to the GREAT Northwest (Seattle area) I worked with a person who constantly wore socks and Birkenstocks. It certainly is a NW thing 🙂

There is a bus stop up the hill to the left as you get off the pier (water shuttle landing) and that bus takes you to downtown Edinburgh (Less than 5 minute walk to place my wife likes to shop 🙂 ) It is higher than regular bus but fits your needs.

My wife has now brought two cordless waterpicks-First had a small tank, as has been mentioned. Second one much bigger tank she got on Amazon and could not be happier,

Thanks for sharing-I had not seen this before

On 2/13/2023 at 2:15 PM, memoak said:

And we didn’t sail till after 10 pm. So much for first night casino luck

Since tipping porters was original topic I wonder how much of the baggage that went into the bay was from bad or non tippers? 🙂

On 2/12/2023 at 8:29 AM, memoak said:

I was on a cruise leaving from SF during a “work slowdown” action and one crate of luggage ended up in the bay. It was raining and those who weren’t waving bills around got totally ignored. Yes we do tip

I was there that day. Not the best of days for passengers 😞

4 hours ago, arizonaperson said:

 Yes I see this about longshoreman ,but I think my question is -are the people at the curb handling your luggage for a cruise and putting it in a cart are they longshoreman or are they Porter’s? Who knows. Guess I still see longshoremans job different, but I have no idea ? I guess I thought they did more of the behind the scene things for cruise ships like working forklifts.

and the cranes for cargo ships etc. to off load and load containers?

 So a longshoreman in San Pedro making $70,000 a year -if they work all year that’s about $33 an hour ,I don’t think that’s a lot of money,but decent, sort of.But I guess we will never know if the guys and gals at the curb for a cruise ship are longshoreman or paid much less than that. Because I doubt any of us are going to  ask them how much they make  per hour, so then we can decide to give a tip or not. 

 I know the initial thread was about tipping for cruise baggage and I guess I still say totally up to you. 

I do not know about San Pedro but I assure you the folks in SF are longshoremen (Union). Two of my high school friends used to work at the pier. I would think (but don't know) that all of California is unionized.

When not cruising, I used to work at the pier in SF helping with embarkation. At that location cruise ship baggage handling is considered a prime job and I saw mostly senior UNION workers. They were at the top of the pay scale. At one time there were signs posted that stated they were union workers and no tips were needed-Were those signs highly visible ? Heck no but if you knew where to look they could be found! I found some of the workers would try and intimidate folks with comments like- "Just leave your luggage with me an I will see that it gets to your stateroom". It was fun to watch these workers jostle with each other as cars pulled up and they tried to determine which would tip the best. I can say that the longshoremen were slow to attend to cars that carried one group (racially determined) while quick to others 🙂 I turned in more than one of the longshoremen when he/she tried to intimidate foreign speaking passengers-All longshoremen wear numbers on their vest.. It is up to you if you want to tip but your luggage is only  handled by the folks on the street long enough for them to wheel it inside to go through screening and then placed in a cage for movement to the correct floor for the ship folks to handle if from there. Your room steward will handle it more as they move it to your stateroom than anybody prior to that.  FACT!

Just now, triple7tahoe said:

 

The above are from our recent cruise on the Emerald. One major one word of caution-Take a picture of the completed form before submitting it. We filled out the form and were told that they could not confirm acceptance until 24 hours before flight time (6PM in our case) We were at dinner when our confirmation, including tickets and baggage tags. We had submitted a form that stated we wanted two bags checked (and got charged for two). They only gave us one baggage tag and upon inquiry, were told that we had only asked for one. I asked to see that paperwork and was told it had been destroyed. No way to get second bag checked so we had to pick it up in the terminal, haul it to the airport where we were "too early check baggage"-ended up hauling it around the airport for three hours. Not happy!

Just now, triple7tahoe said:

On 1/23/2022 at 4:29 PM, coco2/27 said:

I haven’t used EZ check, and am interested in how it works, as have some upcoming trips that it definitely could be helpful.

is it from ship to home airport?

8 hours ago, Visaman666 said:

I was on The Alaskan cruise last July on The Royal, from Vancouver. Our planned stop to Skagway was cancelled after the dock was demolished by a landslide. I don't know if it will be repaired in time for your cruise, so, take that into consideration.

We were aboard the ship when the landslide occurred. It was directly outside our balcony around 0630. We got to watch as a couple of pier crew hustled back aboard with one minor injury, Not a real fun experience

When we fly into Heathrow (three times last year) we take National Express bus to Southhampton. It can be very convenient and you can purchase tickets on line. We took Uber/Lyft to our hotel but it turned out to be very close so could have taken a taxi. Only slightly further to the pier(s). Speaking of which-Be sure which terminal your ship is leaving from as they are some distance from each other.

Enjoy and Take good care of the ship--We will be waiting in LA when you arrive 🙂  Please keep us updated. Thanks.

Not sure which kind of OBC you are referring to but there is a difference depending on length of cruise. I have gotten $100 for 7day cruises from military and Carnival stock. It goes to $250 around 14 days but that might be 15 days. I booked 3- 7 day cruises as at the time they were offering an extra $100 OBC for excursion without saying how many days. For me it was in the math. The OBC should carry over in either case as long as the cruises are linked. As for getting off, most B2B require some form of customs check but it is normally fairly simple.

There is some discussion on FaceBook Princess site. One TA said that it was for new booking only that sail after March 2023-  Making me think about rebooking some cruises after that date but will look and see what "real" cost would be?

Around the first of December, I received a casino offer (email) for a free balcony and $1100 casino free play on upcoming Australian cruises. There appeared to be four choices and offer did say I could use up to three-I was surprised in that there seemed to be no limit to the number of those cruises I would be allowed the $1100AUD? We were on our way to Australia on a transpacific cruise that would fit in with one of the cruises being offered so I booked it (VIP cruise). We then realized that we would have 14 days between cruises. I started looking to see if we could extend first cruise for B2B and/or start our second cruise early and make it B2B. Neither of those cruises were listed as a choice on the original offer but I did have an offer for a free inside + $250AUD that would work. I called the Casino phone and found a person that was willing to book the second offer. I could not find the offer code that I had used to book the balcony so I booked the inside offer and I asked  if I could upgrade to balcony offer if I found it. I was told yes; found the offer number and called back within an hour. System was down and they could not make changes since their system was down-"We will call you when it is back up" 🙂  I waited until noon today and called back. I got a young lady that was willing to work with me and within an hour, I had moved from an Inside GTY (IC) on both to Balcony BA on both. I now hold confirmed bookings for both an inside and a balcony but have been told the interior will fall off soon. Fantastic!!

I now have another concern-I am fully aware that the Casino credit will be in AUD$ but do wonder what will happen with the $200 per person, non refundable deposit? The deposit is in US$ and is supposed to be credited back as OBC. One would think that it would be returned as $US OBC but I am guessing that it will show as $AUD, which will mean that I will lose the "totally refundable_ part of the offer.  Time will tell 🙂 

We recently did it in San Francisco. We did not care if we had time to sightsee so stayed at a hotel near the airport which included shuttle. On the day of the cruise, shuttle took us back to airport and correct terminal. Your booking will give you instructions as to how to meet Princess Rep at the airport. It was quite easy and I can send instructions if needed. Other times we have stayed at same airport hotel and taken LYFT to ship from hotel-Also easy.

55 minutes ago, Mud_Shark said:

I believe it is still the same way as it was before COVID.  Just about all OBC is 1 for 1 transfer to AUD.  I could be wrong, as we don't sail there until 2023, but looking at how OBC is applied to excursion reservations, it certainly looks like all OBC is 1 for 1 AUD.

 

Don

I remember that there were some major hassles when we tried to convince the folks on the ship that, when converted at 1 to 1, we were losing money. Drinks certainly were more expensive. I also remember that while staying on the same ship as it sailed on to the Orient, items went back to US $. I guess the good news is that the transpacific will be in US and the Australia cruise is a "Casino free(?) cruise" 🙂 

Prior to the shutdown, we found that when we sailed on a ship from Australia any OBC from things like stock ownership, military service, etc. was given in AUD. I am now seeing on our booking new cruises (2023) that credit is listed in US$; Has anyone been on cruises out of Australia that can tell me what they are really doing? i.e. If I show having $200USD as OBC, will that get converted in AUD$ at going rate or will they just make it one for one? One booking I have, shows $700 US for OBC (military and stock) and $1100AUD for casino credit.

I am guessing there are two types of Casino cruises- One is booking with casino discount, around 30% and the other is "Casino cruise" offering some level of stateroom (inside to balcony are the ones I have gotten). The Casino cruise is not a free cruise as the difference is paid by Princess Players Club. The other is just a discount given to you by Princess-I have used both and gotten full CCL benefits and military on each.