Martha1974

I asked a similar question on the roll-call for this cruise - I’m not aware that there are plans to show the coverage but I was told that the TV in the cabin will have BBC channels that will be showing it. It would be nice to think that they may show it somewhere so we can watch communally.

I hate to be cynical (who am I kidding…!) but the system can tell if ‘the medallion’ is in the room - who’s to say that the passenger isn’t on the balcony, in the shower or fast asleep!

A story for the Brits on the board (apologies to everyone else who might not know about the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme) That reminds me of when my parents went to Balmoral a few years ago and did a tour of the grounds with one of the estate staff. He told a story about being out on a carriage ride with Prince Philip in the pouring rain when they came across a group of teenagers with backpacks etc.They stopped the carriage and asked what the youngsters were doing… the reply was “we’re doing the bl**dy Duke of Edinburgh’s Award” not knowing that they were talking to the Duke of Edinburgh!

Mine too!

From the T&Cs on Princess website:

Assuming the wine table is there when we board, is the corkage charged to the on-board account or separately to a credit card? I have pre-paid quite a bit of OBC thinking that I would use it to pay the up-charge for wine not included in the Plus selection, but it sounds like even the higher priced 'by the glass' selection is pretty poor and the majority of the wine I would choose is only available by the bottle. I'd rather spend the OBC on corkage for my own choice of wine than on buying bottles of something else on board (even with the 25% discount)

Thank you for the photographs from Guernsey - that’s one of the ports we will visit on Sky Princess in September. I was undecided about visiting the Underground Museum (the underground hospital was always on the itinerary) but your pictures suggest that there is a lot to see there.

Fair play to Melvin - that sounds like amazing service, but if i’m honest I’m also quite relieved… DH and I have our first Princess cruise on Sky in September and when I looked at your photos I did wonder if we were going to get carrots and mash every evening! 😁

I agree with everything that Billish has said. We did Xmas and New Year in 2018/19 on the old MV Marco Polo. Bay of Biscay travelling south on Xmas Eve was pretty bad - seasickness meds required Gibraltar (Boxing Day) - dry and pleasant weather but not very warm Tenerife / Gran Canaria / Lanzarote between Xmas and New Year - all very good weather. Pleasant for sitting and eating outside on shore / on deck. Got sunburned in Lanzarote New Years Eve (anchored off Madeira) - to choppy to actually anchor so we sailed the length of Funchal watching the fireworks at midnight in the rain New Years Day - Madeira. Very wet and windy. Didn't tender (fortunately) but wouldn't have fancied it. I believe the Columbus was there the day before and there had been horrible problems with tenders not running and people missing NYE dinner as they didn't get back to the ship in time Lisbon a couple of days after New Year was pleasant - sat and ate lunch outside and sat on the top of the HOHO bus Bay of Biscay north - no problems, much calmer than southbound. As always with personal experiences YMMV (and regarding Biscay etc she was an old small ship), but I can definitely confirm it was better than the weather in the UK

For our last cruise we were travelling with friends (on separate bookings) and the price dropped significantly (£600). Our friends contacted the cruise line and were told that they would get the difference refunded. I called 10 mins later and was told that there were no refunds after final payment. Suffice to say I pointed out the inconsistency and it was escalated to a manager who called me back the following day (very apologetic) and confirmed that I was given the right information and that there shouldn't be a refund but as a "goodwill gesture" they would refund us as well. Didn't actually get it until after the cruise had started (without us as DH tested positive so we had to cancel) but we still got the refund to the credit card and FCC for the rest.

That’s what they’ve told us. I did ask if we would need to disembark and go through security etc again but was told that we’ll be able to stay on board and use the facilities for the day… just a shame it’s Tilbury in December - not likely to be using the pool or hot tubs!!

DH and I have booked an overnight event the night before we sail to the German Xmas markets. The Ambassador agent that we spoke to was super-helpful and booked us into the same cabin for the extra night so we don’t need to move anything the following morning. We’re hoping it will be a nice way to start the cruise (and it takes a bit of pressure off the travel time to get to Tilbury - at least if we’re stuck in traffic we’ll only be late for dinner, not miss the sailing).

I totally understand your logic. We were supposed to be on a 12-night cruise so realistically we could have been out of quarantine before the end of the cruise. However, because DH and I are restricted to how much vacation time we get from work, for us staying on-shore and cancelling the vacation time to use again later in the year was a better option than sailing and not getting the cruise experience that we wanted. We’ve rebooked for September and are keeping everything crossed that we’ll make it on board this time.

I agree that testing at the port seems to be a better option (additional disruption not withstanding). We have been on the wrong end of it - we were supposed to sail from Southampton in March, home-tested on the Sunday before we left Yorkshire (both negative), stayed overnight near Southampton and tested again on Monday morning with Princess. Joined the queue for check-in then got a message for DH to contact a Princess rep. DH taken away to arrivals hall to get the bad news that he had tested positive (leaving me in the queue) and then wasn't allowed out again to come and let me know what had happened. Luggage was already on board, car already taken away by CPS and it took 5 hours for them to locate the luggage for us to be able to head home. Despite all that I still think it was better than the alternative - if we'd taken observed tests in Yorkshire we'd have boarded and probably spent most of the cruise in quarantine.

I called Princess (about something else) but thought I’d ask the question and they confirmed that once on board the credit will show in dollars in units of either $25, $50 or $100 depending on what has been purchased. Currently looking like a good deal, but obviously based on the exchange rate YMMV

Thank you, that makes sense 😁 I’m not expecting to have much left at the end. We’ve been waiting for this cruise since 2019 and like so many other people we’ve had 3 cancelled (including a Princess cruise in March when we got to embarkation in Southampton and DH tested positive!) so I’m going all out to enjoy it as much as possible, but I’ll remember your advice if we’re due anything refunding.

@Reina del MarThanks for the information - to be honest I'm not in the market for a new credit card (I rarely use the one I've got). I think maybe my question wasn't clear - I just wanted to check if anyone could tell me how much I will have to spend on board. The way I see it, if it's $400 then I'm better off, as the GBP value at the moment would only buy $350, so I'm getting $50 more than the current conversion rate... that's why I suspect it will be £288 at the conversion rate at the time

DH and I are sailing on Sky Princess in September and when we pre-booked specialty dining and an excursion we paid in USD and were charged by our credit card for the privilege. Because prepaid OBC bought through the Princess UK website is charged in GBP we have decided to take that option to remove the additional charges, but now I'm confused about what we actually get. The travel summary shows that we have bought 4 x $100 of OBC, but my account shows OBC of £288 Does this mean I have $400, or do I have £288 and the dollar value will depend on the exchange rate at the time? If that's the case it would currently be in the region of $350 available to spend. I guess that whatever the answer we'll still use the OBC, but it would be good to have a rough idea so we don't get too carried away! TIA for any information.

I have to say our experience in March was the same - my husband tested positive at embarkation in Southampton on 28 March. We were due to travel with friends for their first cruise so I’d ordered canapés etc for our cabin as well as booking excursions. We had all on-board pre-spend refunded to the credit card and the FCC on our account by Weds 30 March. The only issue was that they couldn’t find one of our cases to “disembark” it, but when the ship returned to Southampton it was found and couriered to our front door within 2-3 days. I’m sorry that unfortunately it sounds like we are in the minority!

Sorry… me again! Does the same apply if you buy wine at one of the port stops? We’re sailing France & Spain in Sept so thinking it might be easier to buy a bottle of local wine in each port and pay the corkage when we re-board the ship.

Sorry, I don’t think my question was very clear. I understand we can bring one bottle per person FOC and that those bottles have to be consumed in the cabin, but if we then bring additional bottles we would pay corkage on them and can consume them in the MDR. My (unclear) question was will it be clear that corkage had been paid on the extra bottles? I have visions of being asked to pay again if someone thinks we’re trying to drink the FOC bottle outside the cabin. Or am I just overthinking it…? 😁

So if HD and I bring 6 bottles (3each) we would pay $60 corkage? This might be a dumb question (am new to Princess) but do the bottles get labelled to show which were the “free” ones and which had corkage applied? What’s to stop us taking all of them to drink in public areas?

Still showing on FAQs on UK site as $15, but I bet it won’t be for much longer!

I’d definitely be tempted to take more wine on board and pay the corkage - we’re on Plus and I was happy to pay the $3 uplift (+18%) for Cloudy Bay, but a $7 uplift would stick in my throat. I was tempted to upgrade to Premium but (a) there’s so much other stuff included that I wouldn’t be interested in (photos? No thanks) and (b) DH only drinks beer so wouldn’t get anywhere close to the extra cost. Anyone willing to hazard a guess when the corkage fee will start going up….(again)?

We're UK-based and were thinking about a Med cruise for next year out of Barcelona or Rome, but I think it will be another Southampton route for us now - at least that way I know we can drive there (and just allow plenty of time to allow for roadworks / gridlock!)