NownZen

The title of the thread is odd. I just talked with my TA and she said they are doing a land office business. Remember Yogi Berra said about a club that "no one goes there anymore, it is too crowded".

There are two set of requirements, those from Princess which they have control over and those from the governments of various countries which Princess does not have any control over. The vaccination requirements have been posted on the Princess website so you should have seen them.

Why did you not just look on the Princess website for the requirements? it is there for all to see. ArriveCAN is no big deal although not well done. Download on your phone or go to the website and follow the link that they list https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada

The Medallion and the Medallion app are two very different things. The Medallion is your room card and the charge card for shops and bars. The app has all kinds of marginal features that we do not use. You do not need a smartphone

You can do this in the app. Look at "Travel companions". Add their booking number.

Are you looking at arrival times or departure times? You want arrival times.

There are two sets of requirements, the internal Princess requirements and the various government requirements. Princess cannot change the government requirements so it is simple--if you refuse to get boosted, then cancel the cruise.

Up to date is spelled out in the email. It is one booster. We have had two and will be getting the new booster as soon as it is available.

First of all, I agree totally with you point about tipping. It is such a small part of the trip cost and it is important to the staff. One time on another land trip we met some people who had been cruise staff and those tips were important to them and their families. For the dining rooms, I would be surprised if Princess had not been collecting data on the relative popularity of TD and anytime dining. They are not in it for us but for them. We are not big on sitting around for hours at dinner so most of the time we head to the buffet.

Princess has to jump through a lot of hoops getting various governments to allow them to cruise there. It seems that "science" depends on where you are.

Boarding is day 0.

You can do this through your waiter or MaitreD. Be aware though that if you are at a shared table, you may not be able to easily cancel.

It would probably be smart to wait a few weeks and get the new booster which will be a lot safer against the new variants. There is no real reason to not get a booster.

This makes a lot of sense. Princess has their booking yield curve which sometimes gives sill fares such as balconies cheaper than inside. This additional data will help refine their models.

We are on a 33 day cruise. I do not like the idea of short cruises as they always have to pry my hands of the cabin door frame to get me to leave the ship at the end of the cruise.

See the excerpts from the email Princes is sending out in post #19.

We were thrilled when anytime dining came in as our desired dinner times vary up to two hours depending on naps, excursions, sunsets etc. Princess pays attention to how popular these kind of options are and do not make these kind of changes on a whim. Now the app features are another issue.

This applies to all the "Enhanced Guidelines" cruises. See the list in post #2 above.

That list seems to contain the cruises I will be on or interested in. The "Enhanced Guidelines" cruises also require up to date vaccination meaning two shots and a booster along with the testing. May also require masks and testing during the cruise.

Got an email from Princess today discussing the Enhanced Guidelines cruise we have coming up. It requires up to date vaccination (including a booster) and the precruise covid test. It also notes that masks and in cruise testing may be required. This is different from the Sept 6 guidelines allowing unvaccinated passengers. Sounds like they may be concerned with the increasing number of covid cases.

We were on the Island this summer and really enjoyed it. We saw no maintenance issues. Closing in the end of the ship has had one impact for me. There is no place to sit and watch the wake, something I enjoy a lot. The hallway that goes to the new rooms (going by the Bayou cafe) is pretty quiet and there always seems to be empty seats for a nice quiet place to sit and look out. A very nice feature of the Island is the forward facing buffet. We would always sit by the windows in front (moving if necessary when someone left). There is a covered pool in the center and two ping pong tables above. The atrium is quite nice with bars around it. In terms of maintenance, there is a continuing effort going on. At the sail away we noticed they were loading on rolls of carpeting and one day they redid the buffet carpeting. I would prefer the original layout (or the Coral which was not modified) but I would be happy to sail on the Island again. The itinerary would be the deciding factor.

I wonder if that is their intent. It is a hassle for them with no particular benefit. Covid is endemic and we have to learn to live with it. My family was hit pretty hard with the original strain before the vaccine came out. I was laid out for a month. We all had another round this summer with the Omicron variant even though we are all double vaxxed and boosted. But this time I was tired for two days, my wife had no symptoms and my son and his family were tired for 2-4 days. We are going about with our lives. Everyone has to decide on their risk tolerance.

We also got charged for drinks on our last cruise embarkation day. After a number of trips to customer service with promises to remove the charge but no action, I ran into the hotel manager who looked up the situation and told me the problem. Our drinks were at 11:54 but the Plus package was not activated until 12:22. Since there is a big flow to the bars starting at 11:00, it would seem that a rational time to activate the packages would be before that.

Before you send in your complaint, you might want to work out what your complaint is. You left the ship later than you expected but you made your flight. I see no issue there. Someone who missed their flight might have a complaint. Yours sounds more like you wanted to wait at the airport longer. Princess is very good at embarkation and disembarkation. There are circumstances outside their control. Medical emergencies, immigration, lack of buses etc. They need to empty the ship before letting people on. They do not want to have a large group of people wanting to get on and another wanting to get off. Travel is never perfect.

They should tell you the time they are scheduled for. This is arranged on board and will be probably between 7:30am and 9:30am.