rheathslc

I don't see any movies under the stars listings on the Patter. Are they showing anything on this leg?

Ohhh! That's right! I forgot this was a B2B and thought it sad that they wouldn't have one on the 16 day. In that case a very nice gesture from Princess!

A free specialty dining meal is nice but how sad to not be able to have the event. Especially as one of the top MTGs. Congrats and Enjoy your meal!

Good to know! The first time was Labor Day weekend with 3 ships in port. The border crossing was bad to start off so we were delayed even getting to the terminal. Then the line to get through customs took about 2 hours. And the line got even longer after we got in. It was horrible. I don't know how they got everyone on board in time. I know better now but I can't help that my birthday is around Labor Day. 😁 We were actually supposed to be on the Diamond for a B2B for her first two cruises back in service after the restart. They canceled those less than a month out. We had to scramble to find a replacement and I was adamant about cruising for my birthday which left us with limited options. So it was the Royal out of Vancouver to Alaska on Labor Day Saturday. We flew into Seattle on the morning of (also a mistake I won't be repeating) and took the Princess transfer to Vancouver.

I'll be in an inside on Baja deck in Nov! Looks so clean and not worn out at all. Bummer about the lack of USB ports but I have my plug with multiple outlets and ports so I'll survive. 🙂

Yay! So glad you had that experience. Our first time embarking in Vancouver was a nightmare. Mostly due to getting through the border and then again having to go through U.S. Customs before boarding which I did NOT expect and I swore never to sail out of Vancouver again. Of course I DID and the 2nd time was much better. But that was mostly because we didn't have to go through Customs that time.

I feel like a lot of those passionate complaints I read are due to people not reading the cruise documents carefully or availing themselves of the copious additional information the cruise lines provide. I read every official document I can get my hands on. And while YT videos and social media reviews can be helpful and enjoyable they are not a substitute for reading the fine print. I personally have very little patience with people who cannot be bothered to do basic research when they are spending so much money on a trip. And of course they are still entitled to their opinion. What is actually upsetting is when those people mistreat the hard-working crew over their own ignorance/laziness or misunderstanding.

I know probably very few people, if any, care that much about this but.. I have not had a chance to confirm the validity of my theory until today. Just checked at 12:39pm Mountain Time and the days had changed from the 51 that was showing this morning to 50. So I think it's safe to say that my app countdown is changing over at 12:30pm local time. What's still confusing is that 12:39 Mountain Time is 11:39 Pacific Time which is the time at Embarkation port for my cruise. So did it change at 12:30 local time or 11:30 port time? The app also showed 10:39 as the current Ship Time. I find the Ship Time especially odd given that this ship, the Ruby, is actually in port in Vancouver right now for day 1 of a new cruise and should be on Pacific Time. 🤷‍♀️ The mystery continues. I'm going to try setting my phone's time zone to Central time and see how that affects the process.

Happy embarkation day @theliterateleprechaun!

You must be on the sailing right before mine! Mine leaves Nov 16th. 7 weeks and change. 🙂 I can't wait!

They have started charging more to select a specific cabin than to reserve a guarantee cabin. And it's typically a bigger gap farther out from the sailing until at some point they remove that premium and the two prices are the same. In fact for my upcoming cruise on Nov 16th there was an extra cost to book the specific cabin I wanted at the time of booking (about 110 days out). It amounted to about $200 extra on a $1350 fare. Which is not a small markup, proportionally speaking. But a few weeks ago, just a few days after the final payment deadline the cost for both options was the same. The screenshot below is for a mock booking for a Balcony cabin on a 16 day Hawaii cruise in February 2025. Maybe the difference is not a big deal to everyone but if you're working within a strict budget every dollar can count. With that said, I would not book a guarantee cabin. Just pointing out that there is sometimes a savings in booking a guarantee cabin, sometimes it's can be several hundred dollars, and maybe some people find the savings worth the risk of letting Princess assign their cabin.

How frustrating! I'm sorry.

Try clearing your browser history. It works for me. For a single login. Then I have to do the same the next time I log in. Annoying for sure but at least it allows me to finally log in and access cruise personalizer (or whatever they said it's called now). And that is definitely not a problem on your end. It's absolutely a Princess IT problem but until they fix it hopefully this workaround helps.

Just an FYI for anyone getting this screen on either mobile device or a computer/laptop: if you clear your browsing history, that should resolve the issue. At least temporarily. I tend the get the issue again the very next time I try to login. This still needs to be fixed by Princess because it should NOT do that. But at least this will get you access again.

I should note that I also show up to the port VERY early. I have sometimes been first in line to enter the building to clear security and check-in and always within the first 15 or so folks in line. I know other people think that's unnecessary but for me it's all part of the excitement and I enjoy it. Even if it's cold and/or rainy.

I think it definitely varies by port and even berth and possibly also by ship. In March when we boarded Discovery in San Pedro we were at Berth 93 (which I actually prefer to 92.) There was a whole separate room for Elite passengers, guarded by a port employee who was screening people trying to enter. It had coffee, water, juice, and pastries. And it was staffed by Princess waitstaff who made rounds serving folks and cleaning up discarded cups and plates. We were allowed to board after the in-transit and then Sky Suite guests were escorted on. It was by far the best embarkation lounge that we have experienced. To be fair it was my first cruise at Elite. On other cruises the lounge was Elite and Platinum together. Seattle (Pier 91) had a separate space cordoned off by curtains. It had drinks and pastries but no servers and very little in the way of monitoring. It was a tiny space and was packed very quickly. The port staff seemed confused about how that space was supposed to work. Fortunately boarding started pretty early. I was on board before 10:45am. Vancouver just had a separate seating area, not even any curtains like in other ports. The snacks were delivered only a few minutes before we were allowed to board, which was before other groups. Shortly after 10:30 San Francisco had a small separate seating area and was Platinum and Elite combined. It had the the curtains to delineate the space but no snacks. We were almost the first on board around 10:30. To be fair that was November 2021 and we still had to wear masks so snacks would have been weird. 🙂

My last cruise was in March of this year maybe someone has more recent info. With that said on every cruise I've been on since the restart they did have an Elite lounge. Sometimes it was a combined Platinum and Elite, sometimes they were separate. And on almost every cruise the Elite guests were called to board immediately after suite passengers and the folks herding the masses have done a pretty good job of making sure people don't board before their group is called.

I'll be on the Ruby for a B2B in November so I'm very excited and grateful for your thread. It will satisfy my curiosity since I've not been on the ship since before the recent refurbishment and I've exhausted all the other sources of recent info about Ruby that I can find online. 🙂 I am the one to take the lead on finding, planning, and booking cruises. To the point that when I find a cruise I want to go on, I ask my partner if he wants to join me or not (he gets far fewer days of PTO than I do) and then usually book anyway even if he can't/doesn't want to come. I even planned and mostly paid for the cruise we took for my own 40th bday in 2022. I have sailed solo on about half of the cruises I've taken since we got together. He probably thinks I book too many cruises but as we don't have children and we have our own separate finances for these types of things he doesn't object. 😁 I DO ask his opinion on if I should book a certain cruise. His answer is almost always enthusiastic support even if he can't join.

I assume this is for the new "Sanctuary Collection" on the Sun. Is that correct? If so it sounds like you will be on one of the first few cruises with this new category so we may not know for sure until October. With that said, based on the upgrade bid FAQs on the Princess website your upgrade comes with all the perks of the upgraded class so I think you SHOULD get the package included and be able to get a refund of the prepaid package. But who knows. Princess may change the rules for this new category. 🤷‍♀️ You may have to ask at Passenger Service desk to get it if they do honor these terms and you'll likely get it back as OBC. But also ask your TA or CVP if you used one. They may know more. Let us know what you find out.

I plan on doing a "live from" for this one. And I'm staying on for the 5-day Thanksgiving California coastal after as well. You're certainly welcome to follow. 😀

Another update: I checked at 1:03pm mountain time and the app showed 59 days. So sometime between 12:15 and 1:03 it rolled over. And I found something that I think may be a clue. This shows that the "Arrival Time" on day one is 12:30pm. So maybe 12:30 Pacific Time is when it will change each day. I will test this theory tomorrow.

Fair. I apologize. Your post felt dismissive but I acknowledge that may just have been my interpretation and not your intent. Either way I shouldn't have commented.

It's not an issue or problem. It's just a feature that someone had a question about. And this thread is the discussion that followed. It has mostly been of a positive nature. We're sharing opinions, observations and ideas about how we think this feature works. Not sure why it matters to anyone what someone else is or is not interested in/annoyed about. If you're not interested personally you certainly don't have to engage.

Update: It is now 12:15pm local time (mountain) and the app still shows 60 days. 🤷‍♀️ Perhaps it's 1pm my time which would be 12pm Pacific, ie "Ship Time" where the cruise departs from. I know most folks probably couldn't care less about this but I find it entertaining to try to figure it out.

For me it depends on what time of day I check. These are both from just now. Showing the same number of days. After about 12 noon the app will change to be 59 but the website will continue to show 60 until after midnight tonight. I have tested this. Because I'm odd and like to do that kind of thing. 😁