TAW1963

That's for sure! 😀

I agree with your advice, but the $15 per day cost of Club Orange is only for cruises that are greater than 13 days in length. It is $25 per day for cruises that are 13 days or less in length.

Whenever I have used AARP gift cards and have had to cancel a cruise, they have always refunded it back to the original cards.

Princess’s went to 8% several months ago, so apparently a trend is starting.

As you know there are only four of those cabins (M105, M106, L105 and L106) on a Royal class ship. We were in cabin L105 for a 15-day roundtrip to Hawaii cruise just last month on the Discovery Princess, which is a very close sister to the Enchanted Princess. We absolutely loved the cabin. The dual TVs is awkward, but I am sure they do it because mini-suites on Princess all have dual TVs, but it is no big deal. The balconies are very large and the views were fantastic, especially coming in to, and going out of, ports. We too liked the enclosed closets and the location of the bathroom. As far as wind is concerned, we found many days that we could use the balconies while at sea, especially when the ship had a tail wind. At times there was virtually no wind. Of course there were times with an uncomfortable amount of wind. We are booked in to one of the four forward-facing Reserve Collections mini-suites for many of our upcoming cruises and are looking forward to that.

Try calling HAL directly and asking to see if it available. You don’t need to book directly unless you want to. I always book with HAL directly and always ask for them to check for CO availability before proceeding to book. They always do without question.

On our recent sailing on the Discovery last month, there were plenty of live musicians that played in Crooners Bar, Take Five, Crown Grill Bar, and Vista Lounge. There may have even been other venues as well. I think you will find that the app will be more updated closer to sailing.

Sofa was near balcony. D728, D729, and D731 are all aft-facing too along with D730.

I don’t know what you get through a TA, but I get an email from HAL that includes a pdf of my booking confirmation document. That is the document that has the information on CO and your cancellation schedule. This is not shown in your online account.

You should be able to. If it is full they will let you know.

Don’t cancel unless you are sure that you have a refundable deposit and that the cancellation schedule in your booking confirmation shows that there will be no penalties until final payment is due. If everything is refundable you can cancel but there is no guarantee that there will be CO positions available when you rebook since CO is capacity controlled.

That has been my experience too. They always contact ship inventory to get the new upgraded cabin assigned that I specify. To the OP: your booking confirmation should indicate that you have CO. However, the fare will show an increase from the original fare of the lower level cabin (VH for balcony) plus the cost of CO for each passenger. CO is only indicated in the “Special Services and Included Items” section.

First, I am assuming this if for two people and not 3 or 4 in the cabin. If you do a mock booking, and select 3 passengers, you may find some Premium Deluxe Balcony cabins available on the other decks as well. Often times they are not selectable, but can be booked as a guarantee. Decks 8, 10, and 12 have small, uncovered balconies. Decks 9 and 11 have large, partially (at least half) covered balconies. We were in D730 on the Sky last November and it was an awesome cabin. If you find that cabins on decks 9 and 11 are available, Princess can book you in those if the agent knows what they are doing. If you are using a CVP or TA, provide them with the cabin number and have them try and book it. You can also book it yourself online by booking with three people in the cabin and then calling Princess and having them drop the third passenger. I have done this quite a few times. I have also done it through an agent on the phone, but if they say they cannot do it, tell them search for three in the cabin and book it with three and drop one.

I also worry about using gift cards to pay for the cruise fare and having outside travel insurance (CC, purchased, etc) reimburse if a cancellation has to be made. Therefore, I purchase the HAL CFAR plan (or Princess CFAR plan for cruises on PCL), and then purchase my AARP gift cards as close to final payment as possible and use them to pay for the cruise fare. In effect, the 10% reduction in the gift cards, pays for the CFAR protection and I have the comfort of knowing that I can cancel, if needed, right up to embarkation day. In January, my DW and I had to cancel a cruise with Princess that was paid for with AARP gift cards. We had purchased the Princess Platinum plan, which reimburses 100% of the cruise, either as future cruise credits or cash depending on whether or not it was canceled for a certain reason (medical, etc). My father-in-law had open heart surgery with complications. We could have received our reimbursement as cash since it was a covered reason, but to simplify, I just had them reimburse as future cruise credits. We had zero loss. With HAL, we would have had a 10% loss due to their highest level CFAR protection plan only reimbursing 90%. A note here, they do not reimburse back to the gift cards at this point. BTW, it looks like we are both from Idaho! I am just in the opposite side of the state.

Have a wonderful time on your cruise!