Martha1974

We were on the Sky Princess last week - here are a few observations:

 - at the ‘Princess Prizes’ draw on the last day there were several $25 / $50 /$100 prizes (I wasn’t counting but maybe 10 in total) plus one $5000 prize. We were Plus not Premier so weren’t included in the Prizes scheme and I have no idea how many OBC /SD type prizes were awarded

- availability of wines included in the Plus package was variable! I usually drink Pinot Grigio or Sav Blanc (absolutely won’t touch Chardonnay - don’t judge me). Some venues had one or the other but few had both. Personally I was happy as long as I could get one or the other (and I’m happy drinking a House wine) If you are happy to drink Prosecco you will get that anywhere.
- we’re not really interested in buying photos (particularly “posed” photos with backdrops) but I was surprised that there weren’t more photographers around the ship to take more casual pictures - it seemed to be on embarkation day and after that just the backdrop photos that were available.

- this was our first Princess cruise so we wanted to try all three SD venues and were happy to pay the upcharge for all of them. When we sail on Sky Princess again we would be happy to eat at 2 of the 3 SD venues.

So the decision for us based on our first Princess cruise is that the Premier package wouldn’t be for us! DH drinks beer (easily within the Plus package) and I’m happy to drink wine that’s included in Plus as long as it’s Sav Blanc or Pinot (again, don’t judge me!). The photo

package doesn’t appeal, don’t need the WiFi for more than one device each and we’d pay for 2xSD anyway. The possibility of winning something with Princess Prizes isn’t enough to sweeten the deal for us. 

YMMV but we boarded Sky Princess last weekend at 11:30 and got notification at about 12:45 that cabins were ready. Didn’t feel like a long wait by the time we’d spent 30 mins getting our bearings before stopping to have a “welcome aboard” drink! 

3 hours ago, NorbertsNiece said:

Dear fellow guest. When standing at reception with a (really minor) grievance please don't raise your voice so even a person with reduced hearing and socially distanced can hear you. You make yourself look and sound a) like a snob and b) like a child.

 

Telling a receptionist you don't believe her, i.e calling her a liar, is abusive imo.

 

/rant over

Sorry to continue the rant… likewise please don’t yell at a very hard-working buffet server who is covering 3stations because you had to wait 90 seconds for them to come and serve you (and then continue complaining very loudly to your spouse when you get back to your table with your food that it’s “not acceptable”)… not an Ambassador experience but witnessed on A.N.Other cruise line this week - I thought I was going to have to physically restrain DH from going to tell them that they were out of order!

46 minutes ago, royallondon said:

Just home from a 7 night Sky Princess cruise.

 

We had pre booked 2 specialty restaurants (Crown & Sabatini’s) but for the other 5 nights went to one of the the 3 MDR’s without a reservation.  Despite the cruise being very busy (3250 passengers) we visited the Soleil restaurant on deck 5 at around 7.30pm and never had to wait more then a couple of mins and most times were seated straight away.  It certainly helps if your willing to share a table, but those wanting a table for 2 had a minimal wait.

Regards

 

We’re just off the same cruise and can agree - we did have MDR bookings for some nights but there were no queues of “non-reservations” people when we arrived at the restaurants (all our bookings were for 7:30). Incidentally though, for the 2 nights that we ate in the buffet instead of the MDR or SD restaurants we felt the quality was better than other ship’s buffets that we have eaten in, and a really good alternative when we wanted something quick or just a starter & main or a main & dessert rather than the full “MDR experience”. I appreciate that’s not to everyone’s taste but we enjoyed it 😁 

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.

8 hours ago, ldtr said:

Princess is the same, except that with Medallion the system can tell if you are in the room while the video is on.  You must be there for the entire video.  On the other hand with medallion you can watch the video on your phone.

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! 

On 9/7/2022 at 3:43 PM, Caullkhead said:

 

on my wish list! 

Mine too! 

11 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

I'd suggest checking further.  It was to my understanding that coffee, chocolate, tea, water, soft drinks, and alcohol, were counted against your 15 count.

 

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. 

1 hour ago, Ptroxx said:

I just asked for carrots and mashed every night. And Melvin my waiter took care of me.     I forgot a few nights to mention it and he already had them on my plate.    
mine night he went to a different dining room for mashed for me.   I didn’t know otherwise I wouldn’t have had him go.    It’s not that big a deal.   They had 2x baked potatoes.   Lol. So on discovery. Melvin and Jimmy rock. . 
 

oh an they were soo good.   I love carrots.    Just perfect for my liking.   
 

this night he gave both my favorites meat and chicken lol 

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. 

3 hours ago, paulatsea said:

That’s a great idea - so you just stay on board.

 

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). 

29 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

If I was embarking on a long voyage - such as we have upcoming in October - I'd like to have the option to quarantine for a few days on board, rather than be stuck overseas waiting to fly back home.  If it was a short Caribbean trip, well forget it I guess. 

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. 

15 minutes ago, Billish said:

Personally I was always in favour of testing at the port, but accept that logistically it caused problems,  plus the emotional impact on those that tested positive.

Testing three days prior to embarkation is really just theatre.  P&O are now using a trust system, asking people to test themselves, and declare if they are positive.  In reality it means that testing is now finished as far as P&O are concerned.

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 

1 minute ago, Adventures ahead said:

I believe you have $400US to spend and paid £288 for it at a Princess rate of £72/$100US. Hope this makes sense.

 

We're Canadian and pre-purchased excursions and OBC are sold in Cdn$. Princess made their own conversion when they set the prices for our sailing months ago. I use a Cdn credit card so pay whatever mark up my bank may charge for an international transaction from US to Cdn. 

 

For our August cruise, we're charged $125Cdn for $100US OBC. So, a Princess exchange rate of $1.25Cdn. It's charged to our credit card in Cdn$ and valued at $100US. At the moment, if I purchased US$ at my bank, I'd pay $1.323, so pre-paid OBC is better for me.

 

BTW, at the end of the cruise, any balance owed should be charged in US (preferred), allowing our bank to make the only conversion, not Princess at an inflated rate. There's been a box to tick off at check-in at the port indicating the currency you want to use to pay your balance. Not wanting to risk being charged in Cdn$ in error (because I've registered a Cdn credit card), I visit the desk on the last afternoon to ensure that I'll be charged in US$.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

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. 

3 minutes ago, azgrandmax3 said:

I have read a great deal of negative regarding Covid and problems regarding refunds.

I am hoping our experience will be the normal for everyone. Last week our bags were packed and all else in readiness for our cruise/land tour. Due to travel mates testing positive, we all needed to cancel. As of yesterday all funds have either been credited to our charge card or given as future cruise credit. We expected it to take much longer for refund yet very pleased it has not. We have only a few more ship board credits needing to show up in Personalizer. No question several phone calls were required. Filling out the insurance form per instructions seemed to get everything started.  I thought possibly we wouldn't get cost  of insurance back, since we have Platinum it is covered 100%.  As of today we are booked - same route different ship. Airfare is much higher yet ship-land portion is less. Very helpful has been using the "CHAT" feature. Saved lots of waiting for an open line on phone. Now we try using it first. 

Wishing you all good and healthy travels,

Azgrandmax3

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…? 😁