carnabombers

3% is a rip off. I would ask to see their card or visa or Amex statement to prove that they are paying 3% Anywsy, this thread should be about cruise fares.

You can convert but the costs are all relative to the local costs for everything.

But I think your wharfies actually work (lol)

yep and the reason why a lot of ships aren't coming to Melbourne or Sydney in the future are the port fees. The reason for the high costs - Unions - it's mafia style on the wharves. Wharfies earn well over $100k p.a (base pay, exclusing overtime) and they do f. all. Unions did a great job in the 70's and 80's but have lost their way. I did a project at the wharf many years ago and had a fork lift driver put a drop of paint on a converyer belt that was 1 foot long. The unions closed the port for a day because of demarcation. Just rediculous - anyway, thats why we have hi8gh port fees.

For Americans. We have it right in Oz. We have a national gst (similar but different to vat). You must show your price as inclusive of gst or price plus gst with a total. If you don't mention gst in your pricing then it is deemed inclusive. You can easily compare any price easily. So any price shown must be fully inclusive. This stops marketing people trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.

I haven't read the link but port charges are huge. Sydney in Oz has one of the world's dearest port charges. It's roughly $150k per day for a good sized ship. Reality is, if you want port fees to be free then the fare will go up. Cruise lines will always pass these costs on

It does in Oz so I don't see why not

This is standard in Australia. Always has been and it's great because like going to a store to buy something, you want to know the actual money coming out of your bank account not having to add this % and that %. I find that's so frustrating in America you see something for $2 then you have state tax and fed tax to add sometimes. It's annoying. When I use the princess app or on the pc, the price shown is the price you pay. Before finalising you can see the breakdown but that's irrelevant anyway. I mean, you can't not pay taxes etc. It works well.

They did that to me as well. You will get the 50% discount as an onboard credit when you are on the ship.

At the end of the day. We all love cruising. If you can't afford the day to day things then don't go cruising. All cruise lines have massive debts to repay due to inactivity during covid. Especially with cruise numbers up these days, prices will continue to increase because they can. Land travel through Europe for example has sky rocketed too. Reality is that prices will continue to increase as demand grows. Tgars economics 101. Basically, suck it up.

We certainly do get charged the onboard gratuity. We have to nominate to not be charged.

I find that the on board credit we get for our cruises covers us for a few drinks a day and that is fine. Like on our 21 day med trip, we had $700 on board credit. That was plentry for us so we didn't need a package. I couldn't give too hoots for fancy cocktails. A good beer or wine is fine It's horses for courses I guess. Each to their own.

Geez, anything for a dollar. Princess needs to get real and be customer centric. The server should have just given you the ice cream.

Interesting subject re gratuities. It's very much an American thing. In Australia, we actually pay hospitality workers a very good wage. The minimum wage is $23 per hour, the average wage for a hospitalitry worker is probably closer to $25/$26 however on weekends and public holidays (penalty rates) that rate can go to $65 per hour for an unskilled server. If the service is exceptional, they might get a tip. We believe that people are employed to do a joib and if they do that job well, then great. They shouldn't be paid a pittance and then forced to smile because their livelihood depends on it. We are very much a "user pay" bunch and when we get outstanding, "above and beyond" service, we will give those people a nice bonus. The fares we pay for cruises are more than what Americans pay which annoys me as well. Anyway, I would prefer that cruise lines actually pay all their staff a better base wage, include that in the actual price of the cruise and then dump the gratuity payment. But hey, Americans are the most travelled cruisers so I guess it's what works for them that will count.

OK, I apologise for my earlier post. Back on this topic. Anyone that thinks that Princess is going to give away something for free is kidding themselves. If anything, they might restructure the packages with a price increase. That is, remove things that aren't being used and replace with others so it appears to be a benefit. Reality is that Carnival is still losing money even after record pre bookings. They have massive loans to repay and the interest is huge. Anyway, dreams are free.

Yes that's because of the new ships. That size company should have debt. Somewhere between 30 and 40% of total assets. That is very normal and sustainable. Also implies growth. Providing the debt is applied to asset procurement or build. There would certainly be a large debt due to covid that needs to be paid down. That debt was not productive.

It's all a revenue raise (bleeding obvious). With competition due to increased number of ships, cruise lines look for the add ons like WiFi, excursions etc to make their money. I read that the add ons comprise around 40% of their revenue. With bookings at plus 100% of capacity, cruise lines know they can get away with increases to add ons.

If you buy it now and turn platinum just before this cruise then you will get a 50 % rebate onto your on board credit account. We did this 2 years ago we did a 3 day staycation cruise to get us to platinum before our med cruise. And yes the 50% rebate came through. That's a brilliant hack.

Best to remove the app and re load it. Sounds like your version is corrupt. I've done this before and you don't lose any info.

I will call them to try and get the credit put to my credit card

I appreciate this thread. I just pre booked the 4 device option for my next 2 cruises and we are both platinum but I got charged the full (old) price. I did this last time pre the price increase and the 50% discount came through the OBC account. That sucks really as they have use of our money until then and then we get hit with inflated prices whilst on board. The cost is even worse for us Aussies as the exchange rate atm is crap. All the cruise lines are taking advantage of cruisers suffering through 2 years of no cruising. Now they are making up for lost time and $.

Thx very much

Hey everyone that is still looking at this thread. We are thinking of this cruise for 2025 (had to cancel 2024 unfortunately), as a general rule, what was the weather like in most ports? Was it too hot around santiago and B.A? cheers

This thread is now rediculous. If you want to travel on Princess, you have to have a medallion. You can have a free lanyard or pay a few dollars for something like a wrist bankd. If you don't want to be tracked, then you don't have to be. SIMPLE.

Just read through this thread - wowo, a lot of concerned travellers worried about being tracked. Well, sorry, but "big brother" knows you are on a ship. If you are worried about getting caught going to the casino or a cabin that you shouldn't then switch that off. For me, paying a few dollars and getting the wrist band and wearing the medallian like a watch is great. You can walk around without pockets or a hottible lanyard around your neck. \ The app is ok - Princess are improving it albeit slowly but eventually, everything will be done on the app. ordering wifi for example is now on the app only. You don't need to walk around with your phone, the medallian is all you need to buy anything and get anything delivered to you. It might also help if you fall overboard?. Anyway, I think it is pretty good. It has it's flaws but it is significantly better than carrying a card around with you. As for the cheapskates who don't like the mailing costs - pick it up at the terminal. It takes about 1 minute to action.