remydiva

22 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

Yes, you tell them that you are elite, always print your travel summary. 
It should show your elite level on the upper right side. Good to have this with you anyway.  Shows details on your cruise, booking no, pre purchased items, etc. 

 

You will be asked outside if you’re an Elite. You’ll go through the Elite line from the outside to inside the terminal, 

pick up your medallion and be directed upstairs to the Elite lounge waiting area.  Boarding starts with Suites/Elites first.

 

Last month out of Ft Lauderdale, Terminal 2, went very smoothly.

 

 

Thank you this is exactly what I needed to hear. Yes I always print up everything! But I’ll go and highlight the teeny tiny ELITE!

1 minute ago, sirclean said:

I have not traveled FLL since COVID, but with my other trips, there was a lounge. 

Yes I recall that as we are flying in, using their transfer so seem to arrive early needing to wait.

maybe the so called staggered boarding times that no one abides with will help:)

First cruise post CoVid. Do they still have Elite check in line and pre boarding lounges? We leave from FLL.

We need to pick up medallion at check in so won’t have any ‘ID’ to show our ‘loyality’ level like in paper boarding pass days.

On 3/30/2023 at 2:11 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Patter is now "Princess Event Listing"...(yawn)

sounds yawn like for sure

On 4/2/2023 at 11:41 PM, teecee60 said:

 

I would suggest, that since you booked through a PVP exclusively for many years, you really have absolutely no idea if "they took good care of you."

 

There are many long time cruisers who mistakenly believe, that a travel agency is FORBIDDEN to sell cruises at prices below those offered by the cruise line. You should know that there are MANY travel agencies that offer lower prices AND added OBC/perks than what the cruise lines offer. In reality, booking directly with the cruise line (or your PVP) almost always guarantees that you will pay a HIGHER price and get FEWER perks.

 

Your habit of booking AFTER the final payment date is one of the two very BEST ways to get the lowest prices AND the most OBC/perks. (as the cruise line is absolutely desperate to fill every cabin that they possibly can) This strategy does come at the cost of losing out on "more desirable" cabins.

 

Booking through reputable online travel sites is the "other best" way of getting fantastic deals. A perfect example of this, is the 14 night Regal Princess transatlantic on 16 April. Just yesterday, that cruise was being offered for $518 for an inside cabin, and $701pp for a balcony cabin, with $300 OBC that was NOT offered by Princess. ($140pp in taxes and port charges are extra)

 

Princess STILL DOES have some outstanding perks. If you use Princess Future Cruise Deposits that adds another $150 OBC... if you own Carnival stock, that adds ANOTHER $250 OBC, and if you are a military vet, that adds ANOTHER $250 OBC.

 

A combined $950 OBC on a 14 night cruise that only cost $658pp for an inside, or $841pp for a balcony... makes cruising with Princess a REALLY good deal! 

 

 

funny you should pick that particular cruise as it is our next one...first one post Covid.

I checked just now and all categories show sold out except for interior. Now perhaps the online site you refer to has a block of cabins on hold but for Joe Blow, no can do.

We got a balcony during a 'sale' and I'm happy with what we paid $1200 with $100 OBC pp and I got the cabin where I wanted. I like a good deal like everyone but if I can cruise for less than $100/day CDN for a prime balcony, I'm not going to drive myself crazy by chasing other deals and sales. Just my two cents.

16 hours ago, chubbypiggy said:

Currently on Majestic and traded my mini bar for 20 large bottles of Voss sparkling water. 

do you have to swap your entire mini bar to get the sparkling water? or can you just swap say 6 pop for some water?

On 3/30/2023 at 1:32 PM, Milashka said:

Remydiva, I think they do as I was told by a Princess agent. I will certainly remember to bring a highlighter to mark off where I want to be! 

exactly what I do!

20 hours ago, Princessfan20 said:

 

Can you imagine if they take away free laundry for Elites how crowded and in demand the laundry rooms will be.  At least we will have a new topic for a thread on CC - Washing Machine/Dryer Hogs!

I've never used the Elite free laundry as it seems there are so many that we always get notices that turnaround time will be 3 days. I travel with carryon only so don't have enough inventory to make 3 day turnaround convenient. I just hand wash and dry on balcony with clips on the chairs while we are in the room.

On 3/26/2023 at 2:35 PM, Sea Hag said:

A few weeks back, we swapped out everything for sparkling water. We got 20 or 24 of those. Hubby thought 20; I thought 24. He's probably right. That was a nice option, but not as nice as the two coffee packages.

ooohh sparkling water...great choice. I always swab it out for other sodas and liquors and beers but now I'll add sparkling water too.

Are they still printing Princess patters to leave on your bed each nite? I do not plan to turn my phone on as I like to use the Patter to figure out what times, what events might interest me and I carry THAT with me.

29 minutes ago, Tug10 said:

Thank you for your response and we have tried the website version but suffer the same issue. It’s strange we can get into the app and can book our dining but cannot do anything else.

I will try your suggestion of clearing the history & cache etc and if no joy I will send the email.

Isnt it a pain when an app that was supposed to make things easier for you and Princess instead becomes a royal pain. After looking at ‘circle wheel’ go around and around, I uninstalled then reinstalled app which at least got it to recognize my cruise was in 52 days not 9 as it said before.

I still needed to phone to have them order the free ‘complimentary’ medallions.

then and only then did I go from Blue line to green line.

what a stupid system! Bring back the old check in on line !

13 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

Buying a block of data rather than minutes would seem like a better method for those who need nowhere near unlimited internet. I always got by with my free minutes using it based on the average number of minutes I had per day. So if we could buy 1 GB or 5 GB to use over the cruise I would presumably be happier (depends on cost per GB) than I am having had free internet minutes from our 6th through 41st cruise, then having to pay $5/day for our 42nd and 43rd cruise and now trying to justify $7.50/day on our next cruise. And of course multiply all these numbers by 1.35 to get it to Canadian $.

 

Is the extra price reduction for purchasing before boarding a thing of the past now? I know that $7.50 is the rock bottom price, so I should say does the price increase to purchase on board? Or is this one of the before boarding or embarkation day and after that it goes up further in price? I believe I noticed that there is an option through the cruise to purchase it for all remaining days and of course it drops in price each additional day of the cruise. But not sure how that compares to the $7.50 per day rate. It won’t be less per day but will be less in total if you can get by for part of the cruise without it.

My ‘50% off’ price as Elite was $140 for 14 days so that’s $10 US a day.

I like your idea of either a daily rate when you need it or a gb option. There are no freebies anymore as I don’t consider upgrading to Plus a freebie.

8 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Really don't care about the internet.  If it's included in a package like on Princess or Celebrity, we'll use it, otherwise we turn off for the week.  Either way, 44.00 per day for the drinks package is a bargain compared to the competition.

Since both passengers in cabin must purchase same plan, when one is a non drinker and a non internet user, it doesn’t make good fiscal Sense.

standard package  is what we will get.

On 2/27/2023 at 1:48 PM, Roberto256 said:

 

This is a dilemma for many posters here.

Outrage over the price.

vs.

Disappointment over the speed.

Actually not vs

….it’s more outrage over price AND disappointment over the speed!

On 2/24/2023 at 10:19 PM, Times Prince said:

 

However, as we need to access internet at least a couple of times, I've talked with my Princess travel advisor who verified we can buy a day of access at a time, and her feedback is that the 50% discount applies.  We'll see if that's true.

Thanks for asking this as it's probably what I will do as well. Do you know what the daily rate is?

3 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

Exactly!  And that is the first thing on the update you are told to do by Princess.

The first hyperlink is “Cruise Health Tool.”

 

My PVP knows we are Canadian yet never mentioned as a BTW.

when you phone 1-800 princess it says press 9 for important info on documents you need. Only mentions passports.

Today I talked to my Canadian cousins who flew down to AZ last week and she said  leaving Edmonton they went thru check in, security, customs and no one asked. BUT at the boarding gate they started to call up people to see vaccination passport. She said many were turned away! Either not vaccinated or didnt have proof.

you’d think there would be a big red alert when you check in either online or in person.

3 hours ago, lx200gps said:

We've flown down to FLL a number of times in the past year, most recently last week. Each time, we were asked by the Air Canada agent in Montreal to show our proof of vaccination, even though we had made the declaration when checking in online that we were vaxed. The AC online check in did not require actually uploading the vax documents so we had to show them before boarding. IIRC, a few folks here on CC have reported that they did not have to show their vax documents in similar circumstances, but we sure did. To be safe, carry a paper copy with you, or have a copy on your phone just in vase.

Thank you for reply.

I was shocked to read it was still required when the cruise ships and Canada both dropped the requirement.

I have reprinted our federal QR one which actually shows the dates of all 5 shots and have both it and BC ones on phone.

So searching on princess with this announcement it says cruises leaving from the US and Europe do NOT require proof of vaccination nor testing.

but the announcement further says that for non US citizens you DO need proof to enter US by air.

I have not flown to US since CoVid… for those Canadians who have… is this still true?

To enter canada you no longer require proof of vaccination or testing unless from Far East countries temporarily… but to enter the US you still do?

thanks in advance for your expertise 

1 minute ago, memoak said:

10 drinks a day or so is really easy to do without getting hammered

guess i'm a light weight :)...2 glasses wine my max...a cheap date as my hubby says.

1 minute ago, memoak said:

Actually if you drank your drinks and his you would probably lose the package since you can’t share

to clarify...i don't mean literally sharing; I mean drinking 2 x as much on my 'unlimited up to $15' to justify paying for his package.

50 minutes ago, Yowman said:

 

I just looked at a new dummy booking for my cruise (Med in Sep/Oct) and the price for Plus is indeed $60 CAD per day per person (Mini Suite)

 

When I booked my cruise last year (August) the cost of Plus was $50 CAD per day as far as I remember

Canadian here as well $60 CAD diff per day per person for same catergory.

Tips are $16 /day after end of Feb

          Wifi $10/day when 50% 'discount' applied

total $26 /day

Means I'd have to drink $34 per day EVERY day.

Hubby would share my one device yet still have to pay the Wifi, so would only use the tip portion.

and doesn't drink so I'd have to drink HIS $34 every day = $68 per day??? talk about shipwrecked!

 Think we will just stay with the STD and do ala carte. The mini bar gives us a few freebie drinks.

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

In our case, a single device Internet package is all we need, so for us the math is slightly different since we would not need the Internet that is included in the second package.

Same with us plus hubby doesn't drink yet both parties in the cabin need to be on the same PLUS catagory.

44 minutes ago, Barry H said:

On the Regal last November there were brewed coffee machines in the buffet (no more liquid concentrate). As a result there was no brewed coffee available at the International Cafe, only specialty coffees.

really?? BREWED in the buffet? We always enjoyed our morning brewed coffee at International Cafe so thanks for this info.

28 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

So, what you're saying is that for $7.50 per day I'm able to spend three hours on the internet doing something compared to being able to access it for only about 20 minutes most other places?

yup...now can anyone refresh my panicy memory...is there a way to check in for flights from the Internet cafe? I've always done it on my chromebook, emailed boarding pass to myself (yes I'm old school) then printed up at Internet cafe.

Any thoughts how to do check in without using WiFi?

32 minutes ago, Thrak said:

On a TA the Internet speed will likely be extremely slow or non-existent.

exactly right...not our first TA so I know that to be true.