Mary loves to travel

Hi Ken, we played “Where’s Waldo” and found ourselves in the lecture crowd 😄 Mary

Hi Ken, we landed in Santiago this morning about 8 am. The airport was very quiet. Long walks to baggage; breezed through passport, then walked through the “nothing to declare” customs door where they collected our Chile entry customs paper we’d filled out on the plane. We found and chatted with the Princess reps who showed us exactly where to meet the shuttle on Saturday morning. It was an easy walk to the Holiday Inn. They were able to get a room ready for us so we checked in before noon & are relaxing now - rooms are comfortable. Hope to see you at the shuttle on Saturday, if not, maybe on the ship. Safe travels, Mary (& Peter)

we'll be on the first leg with you! packing just about complete, we have lots of bug spray with 25% and also 40% DEET (just in case we need the strong one) - we'll disembark in BA. We may see you on the Princess shuttle the morning of the cruise 🙂 Truly a bucket list cruise!! Mary

We went on the following Iceland cruise, 3 weeks later, and everything was perfect.

We were on that cruise with you & agree that everything was great! Enjoyed meeting you and much thanks for the very nice Meet & Greet. Mary

I check almost daily 😂 and yesterday, there it was, a nice price drop on both. Merry Christmas to us!

I was able to reprice 2 upcoming cruises for a nice savings on each 😊

ok, perfect! Thanks @Ken the cruiser @peachykiehn 🙂

This thread has be SO VERY helpful in getting ready for our Jan Antarctica cruise (drive-by on Princess). Question: what about eyewear? Will normal sunglasses do it, or should we get snow goggles? I know we'll want to be outside as much as possible, so we don't miss anything 🙂 Thanks, Mary

Looking forward to following along! Ken, I must ask: are you and your wife ever at your home on land? 😀 best, Mary

oh, that's disappointing. We had dinner at The Catch on Sky in June and it was fantastic!

Same here -- it's been clearly marked that the service charge is part of the price for SD. also noted that none of the servers seemed to expect it.

We had the problem of the medallion showing our incorrect status for awhile. It turns out that our cruise showed the status on our confirmation -- the status we were at the time of booking. Since then, we'd moved to platinum. I asked our CVP to update our confirmation with our correct status, and the problem was fixed. Mary

We were on the cruise 3 weeks after yours - the difference was night & day. Weather was perfect, we made every port. 4 in Norway, all 4 in Iceland. @cr8tiv1 we did all independent excursions in Iceland - all excellent - and for about half the price of Princess excursions. Iceland Everywhere for 3 ports; Arctic ShorEx for Isafjordur. Trip of a lifetime. Mary

Yes, with a Princess CVP you can easily add excursions, pay gratuities, order onboard services, select EZAir flights, etc. 🙂 Mary

I understand and would be unhappy, too. May I suggest booking with Iceland Everywhere - they're outstanding! We did their tours for cruise ship passengers this past June, in Reykjavik, Grundarfjordur, and Akureyri. All 3 excellent and price quite attractive. His tours fill up quickly. Mary

@Cruise Raider try ear plugs for sleeping. You’ll be really surprised at the difference.

That’s my thinking, too 😊

What's interesting is that for an upcoming cruise, we'll change planes in DFW before taking an international flight. We selected "Premium Economy", on American Airlines. (and made sure not to get a codeshare). EZAir booked us into regular Economy for the shorter domestic flight to DFW (no PE on that plane), then into the Premium Economy (PE) cabin for the long international flight. When I checked our flights on the AA website, I was able to move our seats into Extra-legroom Economy seats on the short domestic flight (from regular economy) at no extra charge. But, that seat selection wasn't available on the EZAire site. EZAir does now show the same seats for our flights as shown on the AA website. Mary

Maybe that’s what it’s called on United? On many airlines the extra legroom seats are called Economy Plus. And the cabin with reclining seats, the level between all Economy (including extra legroom), and Business and/or First is called Premium Economy. Yes, these seats are similar to domestic first, but really better. Almost as good as the old style Business class (before most airlines went to lay-flat seats in Business). I’ve used EZAIR to buy Premium Economy seats. And have confirmed same by pulling up my rez on the airline website. And yes, by sitting in same on a flight 😉 I’ve not found an option, though, to use EZ Air for the “extra legroom” seats in Economy. Mary

@Upper Bob We've used EZair to purchase Premium Economy seats. It's part of the drop down selection. Mary

Ah, I see. Yet another reason for us to not prepay gratuities…. To your original question: Yes, given that Princess was unable to get into your original boarding port , causing you to lose a day, you should be refunded for the full day of your cruise - including gratuity. Of course, the fine print in your contract will carry more sway than my opinion 😉

hmmm. With Princess's accounting methods, doesn't the prepaid gratuities show as a credit, then the daily charge appears each day? If so, it works out that you will only be charged for the days you were onboard. Look at your account & see. Mary

I have wondered the same thing about Bay of Islands! As far as tendering, my experience in the past at other tender ports has been that if you line up as soon as tendering opens, you won't have much problem getting a spot on an early tender. Best, Mary

I know Sky & Regal take the same size tokens.