xDisconnections

Looking back, I'm happy I took the refunds on all my canceled Princess and Royal Caribbean cruises and did not take the respective OBC or FCC offers.

4 hours ago, Musky Ike said:

Would it be so hard for Princess to provide both? They serve many beer brands. Must be some exclusivity contract saving them money.

It would as their contracts don’t necessarily allow the products of a competitor. 

10 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Then you have nobody to blame but yourself for the fact that it took 90 minutes for you to board.  You were able to check in 16 days prior, giving you a 2 day lead.  If you checked in at midnight, YOU could have picked the 1030-1100 slot.  If you did that, it certainly would not have taken 90 minutes.

And regarding not knowing about the new protocols regarding the acquisition of the physical "perks" that go along with your status, you obviously have not been perusing the boards since this has been mentioned for months now and you must of missed the QR code scan in your cabin as well that had all of the new protocols listed.

Agreed.

2 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Prices are higher than before the pandemic.. You are not correct. Yes you can get a good deal now and them but not like 2 years ago. Your $600.00 is a good deal. That is all I am saying. 

Prices are lower now than before the pandemic. They are lucky to even be hitting 50% occupancy by giving away staterooms for free or a nominal $50 total per person for 5 nights with a drink package included.

There will be more similarities than differences but certain differences will be very noticeable. Keep an open mind and you’ll have a nice time.

I’d probably stick to Royal but that’s just me 🙂 

This shouldn’t be a surprise. Loyalty programs have taken a hit across the board, especially hotels and airlines.

At hotels, you’re lucky if the room is ready sooner than 6pm these days.

4 hours ago, Computer Nerd said:

Again, believe what you want. I choose to believe GS tells the truth instead of assuming they lie to your face as you believe. Unless you have concrete proof to the contrary, I'll believe what GS tells me, not that it really matters to me because anytime I get half of the service, I'm going to pay half of the price. I don't care who they tell of what they, or you, think.

There’s a hotel industry joke:

How can you tell if a Front Desk Agent is lying? Their lips are moving.

I’m sure it works the same at the Guest Services desk onboard.

Yes, it would be possible. It wouldn’t be returned to the credit card used for prepayment and it also wouldn’t be given as an onboard credit. How it’s refunded would be similar to an onboard credit though.

Gratuities, per Carnival’s current definition, are discretionary and prepayment does not contradict that. The onboard billing system utilizes an incidental folio similar to hotels complete with its own night audit. When the gratuities are removed, they are simply adjusted off your folio balance. When there is a prepayment, it’ll have it posted as a credit or deposit against the charges but when the charges are removed or voided off, it’ll act as if it were an onboard credit. Should the folio be in a credit balance at the end without being offset by other incidentals, a check will be processed for the refund. If the balance is below a certain amount, it may be donated to St. Jude unless requested otherwise.

7 hours ago, SmoothFlying said:

I would LOVE LOVE to see Mobile expanded enough to be able to have Sunshine/Radiance class based there. However, I wonder if demographics could support a larger class What's the old movie line, 'If you build it, they will come'. Personally, I'd like to see the Mobile port enlarged so that TWO radiance class ships could be based there but not sure how the city politicians would like it. Mobile's roads and hotel situation might be stretched to the max. Just my opinion.

 

Mac 

2 hours ago, tidecat said:

Hotel situation should be good outside the Mardi Gras season, as hotel capacity keeps inching upwards on the other side of Mobile Bay. Roads really shouldn't be an issue. If by some chance Mobile did actually have 6000+ cruise passengers each week, I'm sure the lodging industry would adapt.

 

Mobile's biggest problem is that the city has actually lost population - a lot of that moved to Baldwin County, but it will become increasingly harder for Mobile to go it alone in terms of developing cruise infrastructure. Even going from Fantasy class to a single Conquest/Sunshine class is nearly a 50% jump in the number of tickets that have to be sold. That means a larger terminal, more parking, etc.

 

What Mobile should have done was bulldoze the Civic Center Arena the moment the Mitchell Center opened. The Convention Center would have gone where the arena is, and the cruise terminal could have used the space where the Convention Center is now.

Mobile is where Carnival ships reposition to at the end of their lives.

@Thorncroft

7 hours ago, SmoothFlying said:

Personally, I like the smaller class ships, the Fantasy class, and can't see the EXCEL class being tied up doing the four and five day cruises. UNLESS CCL plans to cut back those too. Just MHO

 

Mac

Why not? Royal Caribbean uses some of its larger and even newer ships for the short cruises. Most short cruises nowadays are on Freedom class ships which is larger than Carnival's Vista class with more amenities. You'll also find some short cruises on Oasis class ships.

Hopefully they all avoid the one way ticket to India as Carnival's loyalty is to Aliaga -- where the rest of the Fantasy class ships belong. I'll settle for India though if it means they can be scrapped sooner.

It's time.

PS: how many of those ships are for other brands within Carnival Corporation?

If Covid and social distancing are that much of a concern for you, perhaps there are better vacation alternatives available other than a cruise.

You’ll find the cruise lines are more the same than different.

Personally, I wouldn’t choose either of those cruises but if it had to be one of those, I’d suggest the Hawaii one.

13 hours ago, klfhngr said:

I asked the same question a couple of9

 months ago, I got many replies. You might want to do a search.

Yes - a common question since 2010. A search will definitely pull the information.

1 minute ago, vwrestler171 said:

I think they already stopped OBC being used for gift cards.  As far as the casino, I doubt they will ever do that as the casino is a cheap way for them to get the OBC back.

Not at Cherry on Top.

Looks like they are starting to adhere to the terms and conditions. Only a matter of time before these onboard credits can no longer be used towards gratuities, casino and gift card purchases as per the rules.

Call Princess and request a new PVP.

@kbt cruiser I'm confident knowing you will appreciate this information as we welcome the next direction of Princess provided under John Padgett's leadership.

3 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

But the Carnival and Princess options are RT Baltimore or NYC and stop in Canada and Greenland.  The Celebrity version also stops in Iceland, but are one way trips that involve airfare 

 

 

For us, air would be involved either way and Iceland was more important than Greenland. We knew we wanted to do Iceland by land and Greenland by cruise. The Carnival Legend option just sparked greater interest and eventually helped find what we were looking for. No longer holding the Caribbean Princess but holding the Carnival Legend as a backup. Just hoping the Reykjavik Edition opens in time. It’s great that Carnival opened an additional option though.

3 minutes ago, brisalta said:

 

All that shows how low the standards are at Apple these days. Anyhow Apple is not the developer of the application.

Sure, but they test it to make sure it meets the requirements for publishing. Never did I say Apple developed the app — only that it met the performance requirements as part of the Developer Program. OP was concerned that no testing was done… which cannot happen if a developer is submitting their app.

5 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

 

Actually, both.  Legend is 14 days in August and September out of Baltimore, while Princess is 16 days out of NYC.  And price comparing a basic inside cabin, Carnival is about 2475 all in with tax and grats.  Princess is about 2700, but that is two days longer and is also their plus package that includes grats, wifi and drinks package.

There’s also a Celebrity option in August 2022 on the Summit. Pricing is about the same for refundable and includes drinks, wifi and an airfare discount. We’re booked on the KEF-BOS route and is looking to be our preferred option to combine some time in Reykjavik pre-cruise.

Cape Liberty to Reykjavik

Reykjavik to Boston 

5 minutes ago, kbt cruiser said:

For releasing untested software so that their customers cannot check-in, cannot enter their data, book excursions etc etc. As an Elite member, I thought you might find that unacceptable

Again… why should they be posting an apology on Cruise Critic? It isn’t a forum operated by Princess nor do they have any strategic alliance with it.

Why do you think someone should be terminated over this? The app was tested and met the expectations and performance requirements as part of the Apple Developer Program for iOS. Loyalty status shouldn’t make a difference with someone’s opinion over an app’s performance.

If you’re having difficulty, there will be agents available to assist you.

16 minutes ago, kbt cruiser said:

Princess should be on here apologising and telling us who is going to resign. Never, ever release software untested, and NEVER take away the manual version before the software is working properly. So basic.

Why should Princess be on Cruise Critic apologizing?

He can be contacted via email (available on Cruise Critic) or through social media.

2 minutes ago, kdr69 said:

need an extra? lol

?