PescadoAmarillo

We’ve cruised for up to 150 days in a row, during our winter season, and we own a house in an area with fairly harsh winters. I’ve just copied this from my blog. It was kind a tongue-in-cheek list of the things we’d do before we left, but it’s a good starting point. A partial list of cruise prep to do's: Notify credit card companies and bank (for ATM card) that we’ll be out of the country. Verify all credit card and ATM card PIN numbers. Change auto insurance to comprehensive coverage only. Calculate and mail estimated tax payment for Q4 (despite my accounting background, I abhor doing taxes and hate this one with a passion!). Kiss and make up after arguing while doing taxes. Vacuum and wipe out all furnace ducts and vent covers. Start up furnace and pray. Shut off gas fireplace. Turn gas fireplace on again, because it got damn cold outside. Shut off gas fireplace again. Print Christmas card mailing labels for us and Mom. Put Christmas card in envelopes and give to Martha to mail in December. Print hard copies of all reservations- flights, hotels, excursions and cruise (including cruise invoices showing On Board Credits)- because I don’t quite trust the electronic confirmations and tickets on our iDevices. Change all online financial passwords. Backup laptops onto hard drives and take hard drives to safe deposit box. Take valuable and sentimental jewelry to safe deposit box and promise myself that next summer I really will wear it (I do this every. single. year. but never follow through). Get passports and Australian currency left over from 2006 Transpacific cruise from safe deposit box. Dig out scuba certification cards just in case we decide to scuba dive Clean up perennial beds in yard. Saw down tree in yard that looks like it might fall down while we are away. Honor every Garbage Day Eve by purging yard and basement and garage trash. Clean house completely about a week before leaving and do a light touch up after the suitcases are packed. Scrub garbage disposal well to eliminate odors while away. Really well. Dispose of vacuum cleaner bags in upstairs and downstairs canister vacs. Clean their filters. Replace with new bags. Clean out bag-less rechargeable vacuum. Lubricate and empty shredder. Fill up cars and put gas stabilizer in tanks. Clean the deck. Bring suitcases up from basement and open them on deck to air out. Vacuum still more sand out of them, leftover from beautiful beaches of cruise seasons past. Reminisce together about all those beautiful beaches of cruise seasons past. Purchase and mail all Q4 birthday cards early, because of course I did. Tweak security system. Test iPhone apps that control furnace, security webcams and lights. Update all apps and operating system on iDevices. Foster house plants out to friends. Leave laptops and household keys with friends. Give mail key and storage tub to friends. Distribute cruise calendar to friends and family. Promise neighbors they will be the first to know if we unexpectedly return home early. Apologize again for stirring up the neighborhood when we did just that last year. Really promise. Finally, work on cruise beautification efforts, including hair cut, hair color, give self a mani/pedi and apply Sally Hansen Nail Strips in Frock Star (because it is nice to know that some things just never, ever change!). Unplug all unneccessary lights and appliances. Watch as much football as time allows, trying to get our fix before we leave. And, of course, shutting off the water goes without saying. I also lifted the toilet seat and covered the bowl with plastic wrap keep sewer gases from backing up into the house, closed all bathtub and sink stoppers and covered shower drains for the same reason. We’d leave all cabinet doors open with plumbing on the outside walls of the house, and leave the heat set on 50°, though we had a WiFi thermostat and could bump it up remotely if the weather looked especially frigid or like we might lose power. We pay bills entirely online, so receiving mail was the least of our issues. The biggest issue we ever had was that a credit card we used for automatic payments (that stayed in our safe deposit box) was hacked at the credit card company. They emailed us that they were mailing us a new one. We were at the beginning of a several month season in French Polynesia with really poor internet. A friend had to go through our mail, find that envelope, call us with the information and we had to activate that card from outside the country (the hardest part) and change over the payment info for all of those vendors. But even that was able to be done, just not easily.

There was another post about a similar situation this morning. The advice given was that you could wait for a couple of days to see if the app populates correctly but I have had this same thing happen at least three times, and I had to call Princess for Medallion assistance to get it fixed. It’s been known issue for over two years, but hopefully the new app that gets released in early December (insert heavy sarcasm here) will fix it. I’m afraid your dining reservations are likely going to be lost, but take heart. They could have been lost for a number of other reasons, too.

I first reported this issue two years and a Medallion support person said they were aware of it and actively working on it. But personal intervention is still the only way I know get it fixed if it doesn’t self-resolve in a day or two. B2B cruise changes and cancelled cruises are still the apps biggest issues, I think.

I have enjoyed reading every word of your live from, and your beautiful pics have brought back many amazing memories, now four years old. Thank you for taking the time to bring us along.

I agree with what the others have said. The Sapphire is a wonderful ship for any itinerary but especially for Alaska. We just did B2B Alaska cruises in late July-August and I blogged about it starting here: http://pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com/2023/07/an-anniversary-cruise-to-alaska.html

Yes.

It was served in the dining rooms and buffet on Christmas Day, pre-COVID.

We were assigned one once on RC. It was heaven. We had all our dive gear with us, and that large bathroom and shower were perfect for rinsing everything out and hanging it to dry. We still fondly remember what we called our “scuba suite”.

That’s rather specific. Bad steak? Here, have a pedicure.

The passenger laundries.

Thanks for starting this thread! We just received the summary of charges from our July 26 cruise, and, knowing Princess, I checked our credit card to verify that the charges matched.

Every time I think that I can no longer be surprised by anything Princess says or does…I am. This makes absolutely no sense, and any Princess customer service employee with an iota of knowledge would understand that. I agree, send their response via snail mail to the contacts @Thrak kindly provided. They need to see what is being sent/said to their guests.

That is breathtaking.

That will be amazing. I’m a little jealous about that. I saw some great pricing for that cruise just yesterday, but our flowers are not going to buy and plant themselves. I hope you’ll bring us along via live from on that one also!

We received an email about that from Princess in the past day or two.

Were you successful? I’ve had to do this numerous times over the years, but always pre-COVID, when customer support was better (IMO). There was a department called Load Management that controlled that, and they were generally will to work with me to change. Cabin not normally bookable for a B2B to one that could be. I had to go through the usual Princess support but they would get Load Management on the call and it got taken care of.

I agree with the comment about motion. In a balcony cabin at the very front, I actually got seasick on an Alaska cruise out of Seattle. The cruise before (this was a B2B) we were just a few cabins back on Lido and it made a huge difference. But we love that location, and, yes, the noodle bar might have a little something to do with it.

????

If you lose your dining reservations (and you may well), I’m think it’s independent of the new app.

If it’s an entirely new app, that won’t happen.

Agree, and I hope they’ve also tested it for B2B cruisers, and have enabled one or more of the B2B cruises to be cancelled without throwing the whole reservation into chaos and requiring an hours long phone call to fix. There are a lot of cruisers doing B2B Caribbean cruises after the first of the year, and most of the problems we had with the existing app related to making changes to reservations. Actually, they should have given the beta to @Steelers36 to try to break. If it passed his scrutiny, I’d be 100% convinced it works.

When it comes to Christmas movies, I’d consider that a plus.

Gosh, that went too fast!

At least Fox Sports is giving it its props…two hours of pre game hype, and I’m here for it.

It’s not on MUTS? Sacrilege.