BobandLizM

I fully respect the members of cruise critic that want a choice of submission, but this really worked for us.  
Seemed simple to use, minimal information required.

And they applied credit within the 5 working days that they promised and a whopping 6 months in advance!

Being a UK shareholder the benefits team were brutally efficient at enforcing the rule of being within 90 days of sailing before accepting request.  
Terms of business on App state that Stock Perks will request benefit from Princess for sailings up to 31st July 2024 at moment.

Princess even updated the booking confirmation immediately.

1 hour ago, pedirn said:

Okay…I have some issues with this.   First as others have said my income is none of their business.   Also when submitting a copy of brokerage statement, do yo submit a whole statement or just the page showing Carnival stock?   I ask because our statement is 17-18 pages and our financial holdings and total assets are not what we want to share.   As I said our financial status is our business and no one we want to share.    I will say I did download the app but have not set up an account yet so I am just going on what has been posted here.

I just took a screenshot of one page & used edit on photos to redact anything I did not want them to see.

Received offer by E - Mail after booking direct and when balance was paid in full, we put a minimum bid to move from Balcony to Minisuite, about £500 for a 10 day cruise.

The upgrade did not happen, I can not remember if they notified us of the outcome.  We were not to worried, We had a lively time in the room we had previously selected.

Downloaded App, added a few details.  I did not fill in Address and income etc on profile.

picked Carnival and uploaded one screenshot of a share ownership.

within 5 minutes it stated that they had accepted proof of shares by E-Mail and App message.

I then applied to a booking, App said they would get back to me within 5 days.

This seemed quite a good process, I might get declined yet as my cruise is not for 6 Months, Princess UK have always declined if submitted outside of 3 month window of cruise date.

Will wait and see…

NB: if the weather is bad, put on a coat and go to Lido deck, loads of Sun beds. Good time to go for a quick dip as well, as long as they have not closed the pool.

Sailed Sky Princess, transatlantic both ways in November 2021 and March 2022.   WI-FI was really bad both ways, on one cruise they Immediately gave back a sizeable amount of credit as on board credit, can not remember if they gave us some credit on the return leg back to uk.  But good WI-FI would have been better!

can not speak for WI-FI today, it sounds like they are upgrading.

On 9/14/2023 at 2:56 PM, Snaxmuppet said:

I have sailed many times with Princess now and know that itineraries change for a multitude of reasons and so normally I would just roll with it and enjoy the cruise where ever we go (as I have done in the past) but this one is different for me.

 

This time the change has happened some 8 months prior to the cruise departure and unfortunately the port  that has been removed is the very port, of all of them on the cruise, that I really wanted to visit. As the cruise is so far away what do you think my chances are of being able to switch my booking to another cruise without significant loss? I have placed a £600 deposit and booked through a TA. I know I will have to go back to the TA for any adjustments.

 

Also, I realise that the real answer will only come from Princess and my TA (I have asked already!) but I am very interested in what others have done and been allowed to do 🙂 

 

TIA

Looks like it is pretty well covered, but we live in Uk and had a cruise booked directly with Princess With FCD 1 year in advance but needed to reschedule it out to  a later date to coincide with a family wedding.  It took 15 minutes on phone to Princess and we were charged small admin fee £75 of each(can not remember exact)

 We have also cancelled other cruises in totality and rebooked same cruise, same room, lost  FCD but saved over £1000 in price reduction.

UK, always refuses unless within 90 days.  I have tried multiple times to get shareholder credit but always refused. However it always comes through quickly when I apply within the timeline.

I just send a screenshot of Fidelity or Interactive Investor, they only once requested a clearer photo.

5 minutes ago, voljeep said:

the problem is the people who get  up at 6am, and stake out five or six 'prime pool side' loungers, get back around 8 or so - a couple or so.  then around 10 or so, another couple show up, the finallly around 2 or so, the remaining couple show up for the first time that day

We tend to get at up at 06.00 and spend time by the pool from about 08.00 to 11.00 when it is quiet, not too worried about catching the Sun.   I watch these rude people ‘staging’ their chairs.  They put out towels, ruffle them up to look used, add a pair of sunglasses, open up book.  I saw a couple once set up six beds, stand back and the husband said to the wife ‘perfect, I think we licked it’.  If it would not have been so sad, I think I would have laughed out loud, it was like they had just set up an art exhibition.  They took a photograph before they disappeared so that another of their group who came by about an hour later would know what to look for, the couple returned about another 45 minutes later.   By that time people were struggling to find beds, we were happy to give up ours.

NB: I did not openly challenge them, but they must have felt the unhappy eyes that were laid upon them, or perhaps not, as they were in their own little selfish world, that actually took a lot of effort and planning.

Lovincruisin1321, sailed on Carribbean end of last year.

I used the gym or run on deck most days.

I use a lot of the cardio equipment but not recumbent cross trainer or bike.

I can definitely tell you that they have multiple types of bikes as well as spin bikes and cross trainers.

I found a picture from my cruise, I am pretty sure that there is a recumbent bike in the picture behind static upright bike.  Working on basis that My favourite concept 2 rower would not suit your needs.

Referring back to original thread question

The price of a World cruise per person per day seems to us to look like an expensive trip, however it is something that we would truly like to tick off our bucket list as a very different chapter in our lives.

As many cruise critic members have stated, it is possible to pay for something if you make choices.

We are a few years away from retirement (2027) but do cruise and holiday, but would love to treat ourselves to

a world cruise as a retirement present to ourselves the year after.  However, we think it would not be sensible to risk spending money from pension savings to facilitate this desire.

I do not think my wife would mind me saying that she is not very good at saving but we hit upon in my opinion a good motivation tactic.  We quite liked the look of Princess World cruise, so we priced up a cruise by selecting cabin added a plus package for simplicity.  Then we knew total price, and £ per day.

Once we knew the price, I converted to the itinerary and could electronically mark our progress by the amount saved, versus itinerary day achieved.

After saving for 2 1/2 years and some good fortune we are currently ‘Sailing towards Croatia on day 74 of a 116 day cruise, all Virtually of course.

Each Friday night in our local pub, we have a look to see how far we have got.

We had a bad spell last year when stock markets went down and we floated around on day 54 for weeks, and even went backwards for a long time.

Obviously Price of cruise goes up each year, we just go back a few days, sometimes the voyage itinerary or voyage length changes. We just reset once a year… but I think it is possible we will now be able to afford this present yourselves. 

It is our little bit of fun, but hopefully we will be on the real thing in 2028 if our commitment to saving and our little game continues.

(Might not be Princess, might not be Island, might not be 116 days, but we think it will be a World cruise)

Bob & Liz

Thanks for the reply and feedback.

sorry about font size, bit of a newbie.

We have completed over 11 cruises with Princess and three more planned over next 2 years.  We still work so tend to plan ahead.

We always book direct.

In January 2003 we booked a cruise for March 2024 with FCC believing I would get a good deal planning that far ahead.  It was for cruise only with Princess plus package.

After checking this week I could get the same cruise on the same date booking with Princess with the Princess plus benefits with the same cabin category (next cabin along corridor). For a whopping 28% cheaper.

I cancelled original, only a five minute phone call, was charged £50 per person and immediately rebooked online.

One part of me is happy we saved a lot of money, other part of me thinks have we been missing out on lots of savings in the past.

Main saving seemed to be the special offer of Princess plus for £25 a day instead £50 for this cruise.

I read a lot on this forum about the US members seemingly getting a lot of ‘refares’ but maybe we have been a bit naive of what that was.

We will still plan ahead though, I personally could not handle stress of waiting for last minute deals, but we keep an eye on the fare from now on.

Hi HBcruiser

We are on the same cruise, we read the Patter and your thread each day in order to know what is going on.

Thanks for taking the time out for posts, 

20 hours ago, LTC said:

Hi BobandLizM,

I think you'll really enjoy the river cruise experience. Are you on the March 25th cruise?

Hi LTC, thank you.

We are on the earlier cruise, starting 04/05th Mar.

Hi 

On 11/8/2022 at 6:23 PM, LTC said:

Hi TriMomma,

Thanks so much for your great review. We are doing the 17 day cruise in March from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh with Emerald. We have cruised with them before so are familiar with their ships and great food and service. Thanks for the clothing advice, that's great to know about shorts and sleeveless tops.

I have a few questions for you if you don't mind.

How did you find the 3 hotels? Easy to go out on your own during free time?

How far in advance did you apply for visas and how quickly did you get them? 

Dinner in the Rice Fields...can you give a bit more info on that? We had been looking at that one and the Champagne Sunset Sail . We had decided on the Champagne Sail but now the Rice Fields Dinner sounds very nice too.

How was the mosquito situation? it's probably different in Oct/Nov than March/April but just wondering if it was bad.

Thanks again for posting your excellent review, I'm getting very excited about going on this cruise.

 

Hi LTC and TriMomma, also doing this trip in March.  Never tried a River Cruise before, so your review is most useful to us.

Stumbled across this thread, happy to hear these larger balconies are good.  I received a free upgrade notification from a standard balcony BB to Caribe deck B1 category out of the blue. I thought they were just moving people around.

We will have to try and put it to good use.

On 10/26/2022 at 12:01 PM, CT-Edin said:

My friends are doing their Cambodian visa's on the boat, so we'll do the same! We are all UK citizens, and going in the direction of Ho Chi Minh city to Siem Reap.  We will take USDs and 2 passport photos each with us in this case.

 

I'll be seeing one of my pals before we head off so if there's any useful hints/tips to report from their trip, I'll post here!

Thanks guys, this info is much appreciated.  We are In UK, going on same trip in March.  Have just wrestled our through the Vietnam visa.

Good luck, I have tried at least 3 times to send in early.  Up until now always returned stating ‘Please supply no earlier than 90 days’.   On a positive side when I have resent a5 a letter date, they always process within about 7 days.

We will cruise on Emerald Harmony on the Mekong in March 23, as previously posted ‘booked since 2019’

Yesterday they confirmed final payment and booking confirmation for all flights, including upgrade.

Good to at last have flight confirmation.  

We have been fully paid up for a couple of years now, apart from a charge that will be due to flight upgrade if possible.  I was very nervous about paying remainder, but they suggested that I would be in breach of contract and would lose my deposit if I did not.

To be honest, they were going through a difficult time, so I paid.  
 

As long as I eventually go on this holiday I will be happy.

We have 13 ocean cruises under our belt, but not a river cruise yet.
 

On 7/19/2022 at 12:14 PM, isnowman said:

We usually book our own air and, like you, add days before or after the cruise. However this time we chose to just do the cruise so am happy to have their air package, I'm just used to knowing or picking our flights up to 8 months before the cruise. 

We are booked for March 04 2023 19 day cruise with Scenic, booked originally in 2019 for my 50th birthday in 2020.  Then Covid came, moved a few times since. Looking forward to it, but Scenic are so quiet, I phone them about everyone 6 months or so, no flights booked for us yet.

I requested shareholder benefit in May for two December cruises.   I was politely told by E-Mail to wait until 31st July.

I waited patiently as requested until last night.  On the 03rd August I applied again,  within minutes I had received the automated reply stating high levels of demands etc.

but within 3 hours I had received another E-Mail stating it had been applied! 
I did log in to to check it was real before ticking off my things to do list.

Just need to patiently wait until December for the cruise now.
 

Very small point, but the Princess news release 11th May shows Package on sale from 25th May, the UK flyer states on sale from 01st June.
 

UK:  Princess Premier on sale starting 1st June for cruises departing 25 June 2022 onwards.

US: Princess Premier goes on sale May 25, for voyages starting June 25 and beyond.

Thanks, great history.

Never considered from this perspective and the especially day trading situation.