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By booking guarantee, Princess will assign you a cabin when it’s convenient for them, not when it’s convenient for you. Like I said before, Princess took your money so they have to make space for you on the sailing. Not sure what the obsession with knowing so far in advance. Can’t even understand the liking to stay organized argument. I like to stay organized too, but it’s literally checking your email or your Travel Summary for an alphanumeric value. Same ship, same mini suites (unless you get assigned an accessible or get upgraded to a suite).

Not sure what the frustration is or what sensible answer you're looking for. You're guaranteed a mini-suite or better. All the mini-suites are the same. I always book guarantee and have always been given a room assignment. I've had my cabin assigned the night before embarkation and have had to use the business center or front desk of the hotel I'm staying at to print my luggage tags. Worse comes to worse, port agents will have blank luggage tags. Why do you need to know your cabin assignment now? What difference does it make if now or right before sailing? Princess took your money so they have to have space for you on the sailing.

Some of the older RCCL ships have them at the bow of the ship. Many times the area is open to passengers on scenic cruising days. On Princess this area is the crew pool.

Just get a refare when the price drops and forget the 20% extra that comes with the best price guarantee. With a refare it’s instant gratification and less work because there’s nothing to fill out.

Pre cruise, excursions have to be canceled before the Excursions tab reads closed. On board, the rule is 48 hours prior to the excursion. Not sure if shorex will make an exception for ones that are less than 48 hours from embarkation day.

The Excursions tab in the Cruise Personalizer will read “closed” about 6-7 days prior to embarkation day. It will only allow you to read the descriptions but will not allow you to purchase or cancel excursions.

Princess now slips a notice in the envelope with the excursion vouchers stating that excursions should be cancelled 48 hours prior to start. Given that the excursion is the 2nd day, they might make and exception. Just ask...the worst thing they can do is say no.

Get put on the waitlist for the Princess hotel you want and wait for a response from Princess. Cruise isn't until next year so plenty of time for a response. If you purchase a Princess transfer only, it will be from FCO to Civi, which will entail having you get back to FCO from Rome proper the morning of your cruise. A taxi from FCO to central Rome (or vice versa) is 55 to 60 Euro each way. The Leonardo Express from FCO to Termini Station is 28 Euro per person round trip. From Termini you walk to your hotel or catch a taxi out of the station, but be ware of rip off taxis that will price gouge. Lots of back and forth in the span of a few hours, so might just be better to book your own door to door transfer if you can't clear the waitlist.

Wouldn't get too excited about this because it's a half bottle of some cheap wine that's left in your cabin on embarkation day. You each get a flute of cheap champagne. Sometimes the steward chases after you. Sometimes the flutes will be left in your mini fridge. Most times the champagne is flat because they've been hanging around. IMO, you're paying for the Reserve Class Dining with Reserve Collection. All of the Reserve Collection Cabins are midship, so if you wanted that, just reserve an MA mini-suite. Priority boarding is a bit of a misnomer because the ship will start boarding shortly after they get to a zero count of disembarking passengers, so unless you get to the port super early like before 10:00 am, priority boarding is a moot point.

May be this is an attempt to attract a younger demographic and deter the old guard from cruising Princess. Based on 2021 data from the CDC used in a report from 2023, the below 45 age group is most likely to use e-cigarettes. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db475.htm

TBH, I'm not sure. When we were on board in April, the card tables were non operational, but there were dealers in training. If Princess kept the same set up then, they should be non smoking as the Double Down Bar (or previously known as the VIP Casino and Lounge) is a non smoking venue. If you look at the Majestic Deck plans now, that area has been named the Baccarat Salon.

Princess leans towards an older demographic. Most are retired and have all the time in the world to complain.

Yes. The excursion would be severely delayed if they expected participants to wait their turn to take the cable car up. In addition, a bus won't fit through the streets at the top. At the end, participants get dropped off in Fira and have to make their way back down by cable car, donkey, or foot. Be aware, because a bus won't fit the narrow streets of Fira near the cable car, you will be given directions by the guide on how to reach the cable car by foot. Wasn't on an excursion, but heard lots of people with poor sense of direction complaining about how they got lost trying to find the cable car last November on the Enchanted.

Relax. You're still over a month away. Ship Schedule will populate with the real activities once on board and connected to MedallionNet. Even if you can't get reservations once onboard, you can go to the Anytime Dining MDR and they'll be able to seat you. There might be a line at 5:00 pm, but that's the first seating so you're pretty much guaranteed a table.

Definitely set your expectations. Many of the Japanese cruise ports aren't the usual major cities, but country like seaside towns. The sights aren't what you will typically see in the occidental part of the world. It's not the West. As far as seeing Buddhas and temples, I think you also have to be culturally sensitive; one could say the same thing about European churches. I preferred Japan by land and taking high speed trains because this method takes you to the major cities.

Not trying to be rude...I don't understand what people mean when they say they want less crowded on mass market cruise lines. It's counterintuitive to pick a mass market ship that can hold 2000, 3000, 4000, and up passengers and expect a not so crowded ship. Not so crowded on these types of ships happened during the restart when cruises were purposefully sailing at below capacity. Better to pick a luxury line if you want less crowded. When fares decrease, it means that a sailing is not selling well at that interval in time. When the fares decrease, sailings have potential to increase actual cabin sales. It's really dependent on the length and itinerary. The 21 Day World Cruise Segment Sydney to Cape Town on the Island Princess departing 02/16/25 is down to $1406 for Interior because it only has 3 ports.

I get the decision is yours to make, but you choice isn't what I would choose. It's overpriced. Taxis are plentiful as you exit Terminal 2. And you don't have to go on a wild goose chase to find the driver. Taxis are come and go; the lines are never long because there is a conductor guiding. If you have a taxi van, you can split the cab ride with some one else in line and pay even less. I'd still take ride share, but sometimes the ride share waiting area at Terminal 2 is chaotic.

Once in the App, select Profile, then Medallion Net WiFi. If your loyalty level isn't correct in the App, the discount won't apply. In that case, you can go to GS and ask for them to apply the discount as OBC. Some people have reported that calling yielded to getting the discount. YMMV. Connecting to MedallionNet onboard usually corrects and loyalty level discrepancies on the App and the discount applies correctly when purchased onboard in the same fashion. Bite the bullet, though, if any price increases become imminent.

I would argue otherwise. Princess is still looking for penny-pinchers. They keep adding and adding to their packages and only minimally raising the prices. As of recent, they add unlimited SD to their Premier package. They have to keep draw attention to how much value is in their packages. IMO, they are trying to lure others from competitor cruise lines to Princess through their cheaper value package pricing.

The point of my comment in is that, yes other places and other cruise lines charge more for bottled water, but it's designer bottled water. Princess is doling out Crystal Geyer in the States and wants people to pay a premium. On Celebrity, equivalent sized water is $3.50 per bottle but it is Evian. On Holland America, 1 liter glass bottles of Acqua Panna is $5 per bottle. At Disney, Dasani is served. All of which have higher base costs. Yeah, water is water, but the same can be said for designer handbags.

Except, that's the price of a martini/mojito on land, probably cheaper. At a bar in a major city, a martini will run you around $15. Bottled water on land is cents. In Northern California Costcos, you can buy a Crystal Geyer, the brand that I've seen most often carried on Princess ships sailing from the US, 35 pack for $4.99 which is right around $0.14 per bottle ($0.19 with CRV). Would be less of a blow if Princess didn't start pricing at $7.08. At $24, that's close to a 400% increase to what they were charging. Gift shops and spas are a little different because it's the trickle down vendor model where too many parties have to take a cut of the sale which causes the price to increase.

It's a waiting game where Princess will assign a cabin when it's convenient for them. It can yield to some pretty sweet upgrades. You also can't be particular about location. You win some; you lose some. We pretty much always book guarantee and are pretty happy with the process. We always get assigned the category we booked or better. All the cabins are pretty much the same unless you go up in meta category. Lucky for us we're deep sleepers and aren't bothered by much. Much more concerned about AC that works and toilets that flush.

Bring shelf stable oat milk and store it the mini fridge once opened. This will ensure you have oat milk. I saw a lady every morning that I ate breakfast in the buffet with a bottle of French Vanilla Coffeemate.

My point is cruise lines will do what they want until they are caught. If they get rid of plastic, how do we know the cartons or aluminum containers are being recycled in what ever country they are disposed in? The ship could be incinerating them in open waters. We don't know. As far as bringing cases in port, I've brought cases of plastic water bottes on board. Sams is right across the street in Puerto Vallarta and I went to Costco in Juneau. Took them out of the film and put them in tote bags. In Hawaii, I buy iced tea only that can only be brought on the islands on plastic bottles by the case and bring them on board. Never been stopped on a Princess cruise. Also have brought a case of plastic water bottles from in a rolling carry and have never been stopped on embarkation day in FLL or SFO. San Pedro security is sometimes weird, but they usually let them through after having inspected that the seals haven't been tampered with. I've yet to see Princess ban single use plastic or attempt to switch to other packaging. Heck the drink mixers they use are in plastic bottles.

Rules are fine, but it the lax enforcement that allows people to break them.