kobecat

I am not at all impressed with the changed itinerary. Obviously Ukraine had to be changed but to lose 3 Ukraine ports and 2 Russian ports with substitutions of 2 sea days, 2 very ordinary Greek ports and another Turkish port, is just not good enough.

The Celebrity cruise for October seems to be retaining Sochi.

There has been a change of itinerary due to Ukraine situation. We just heard from our TA today. We have some Greek ports. Very sad for us and Ukraine.

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Funny, I got the yoghurt parfaits at Aqua Spa on Solstice in February with classic alcohol package. Everyone is confused!

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We had affogatos included and all Irish coffees etc on the Solstice in February.

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"We will be alert to any changes ."

 

At least you admit you cruise to look for reasons to complain. I cruise to relax and enjoy myself.

 

I think my approach is more fun....but to each his own.

Hi Ratpack

I'm with you -- glass half full?

Beryl

This is the response I got from Princess today re duplicate bridge.

 

Mr. and Mrs xxxxxxxxx,

 

Many thanks for your message. While we know we have dedicated duplicated bridge players as loyal Princess cruisers, unfortunately we have seen the numbers decline in recent years. As we look across the full range of our operation we have determined that the bridge instructors can no longer be the priority they once were. Of course we very much hope that duplicate bridge players will continue to sail with us and we will continue to provide facilities for you to play.

Sincerely,

 

Princess Cruises

Customer Relations Specialist

customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

 

 

Hi Sandy, now where can we play bridge!

Beryl

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And remember, its not the 50-100 players, its how many of those 50-100 will make a decision to leave behind elite benefits, etc and not cruise...

Good point but we are elite on both Celebrity and Princess, so it's not about electing not to cruise, just who to go with. Overall, apart from the bridge, I think I prefer Celebrity so we now have no further reason (except itinerary) to favor P over X.

When we were on the Ruby in 2011, at day 3 of the cruise we made the 150 days required for Elite. The CC hostess immediately changed our status.

Our friends were on the Diamond Princess recently and had the same situation (for platinum) and the CC hostess told them they had to complete the cruise before their status was changed.

Obviously if you are going to reach a certain status by number of cruises you must complete the relevant cruise for a change in status, but I was surprised at the refusal of the CC hostess on the Diamond to alter status for days.

Has anybody else had this occur?

Beryl

Well goodbye Princess.

We are Elite on both Princess and Celebrity and I have always preferred Princess for longer cruises because of bridge. Celebrity does not 'do' bridge although on a cruise with lots of sea days they will allocate an area for self organised play.

With no bridge on Princess, there goes my reason for cruising with them.

Beryl

Azamara prices for the BS on 20 August are still the same; they have not dropped at this stage.

Beryl

When I booked the Solstice at the end of December last year for the NZ to Fremantle cruise leaving 3 February, I rang X after locking in the rate. The lady who took the card details did warn me there might be foreign currency conversion charges. I thought this was strange too. I Used AMEX and no charges appeared, so maybe it is the Visa card that is the culprit.

Thanks for the heads up on the Citibank Debit card. I have used the 28 Degrees card for some years and like everyone I was unhappy with the changes this year with the ATM fees so will investigate that. Anyone who uses the 28 Degrees card be aware you will also be charged ATM fees when withdrawing cash at a Westpac Bank in Australia. I withdrew "left over" cash when I got back (as I usually do) and got a rude shock. 28 Degrees were very good and refunded the charge as a "once only good will gesture" which I appreciated very much.

Beryl

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We have an Azamara BS cruise booked for August this year. We have not bothered our TA at this stage. What will be, will be and Azamara will make their decision at the appropriate time. To think I had to check to see exactly where Sevastapol was when we booked!

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Sailed once on Poesia in 2010. Just done our 6th cruise on Celebrity. Say no more! No comparison in my opinion.

Beryl

Good to know about the soda as I would like to have a can or two to take to my room

We had the basic classic package (123GO Promotion) on the Solstice 3 February - 21 February.

We certainly could get canned soda, not just tap soda and very type of cocktail I wanted I could get, including brandy Alexanders, pina coladas margaritas, etc. If you like the martinis from the Martini Bar you cannot get them on the classic package.

My partner could have Heineken or Corona as well as some other beers, not Grolsch. The wine selection was fine with me but wine buffs might like more choice. There was a more than acceptable Syrah, Cab Sav, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio plus a sparkling.

You could have anything from Cafe Bacio including all the specialty (alcoholic) coffees. Could also get fresh squeezed juice in the buffet plus specialty coffees.

I had previously said I would not bother buying a drinks package but this experience has changed my mind; I thought it was fantastic and would buy it in future if the 123Go Promo was not running.

 

I have no problems with the conversion they did. We were one point shy of Elite after our last cruise. We are now 35 credits shy of Elite with the new system. We could have taken a short 3 day cruise in an inside and made Elite. Now we must take a 7 day cruise in CC or higher for Elite. I'm not upset. It's a program of FREE perks, and Celebrity doesn't owe them to us, but instead is giving these perks as a BONUS. I'll say that again - a BONUS!! We should all be thankful we get anything at all, instead of being all annoyed because we may have to cruise a bit more to get them. :rolleyes:

 

Besides, no one lost any perks in the level you were in before the change. If you were Select, you still have the Select perks. You will still enjoy those. You just have to make more of an effort to move up, is all. No big deal - because, after all, it's a BONUS!

I'm with you 100%. I think Celebrity has an amazing loyalty program; so much better than Princess IMO. The way things were going, almost every passenger was going to reach Elite with very little outlay. Folks, be happy with the product, book the cruise and cabin you want and are happy with and any little perks, take as a bonus as stated by Boogs.

We did 3 B2Bs last summer on the Connie and absolutely loved her. The T Pool is great and we loved the staff and everything about the ship.

If Captain Tasos is still the captain you will be in for a real treat :)

Beryl

Almost immediately; there are no immigration formalities required, just walk off.

One of the reasons I prefer Princess to X is the organised bridge, especially on repositionings.

Lots of good things about X too.

Beryl

Are you sure Tassie Cruiser? I've not been on a ship with a kettle, including RCL, Celebrity, Princess.

We were on the Constellation this year out of Amsterdam, leaving on 1 June. The weather was fantastic - the only problem is there is not enough time to get out there!

Beryl

Love 2 cruise, with all due respect mate,

 

You have no idea of when we booked the cruise. The limited window of opportunity we had time wise for us to secure the level of seating with our preferred carrier, and not just some cheap budget airline. What if any were our flight options as far as arriving any closer or not to the cruise departure date.

 

These were our choices, and we happily paid for these choices, if the cruise wasn’t cancelled we’d be happy. Please remember there would not be a problem if the ship had sailed. Our limited choice of airline and seating availability caused us to have three nights accommodation in Singapore, this was unavoidable. Believe me we would much rather of only spent the one night in Singapore.

 

We have been to Singapore on four other occasions, three of which were short transit stop overs, the forth a week in Singapore on the way home from the U.K. And yes due to having three days to kill while waiting for the cruise, we did find things to do to fill in the time, and yes one of which was to visit the Singapore Zoo, a Zoo that is based on our own Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney but a lot smaller. Taronga Park Zoo we have visited many times, so going to Singapore Zoo was no big deal, just a time filler. By the way we have not requested nor would we expect Princess to compensate us in part or whole for the cost of these activities, these were our choice and as such our responsibility.

 

As far as Princess re-embussing us for the business class airflight, this has not as yet been confirmed my friend, this may still turn out to be a battle. And are you saying one nights accommodation pre-cruise is ok and more is not, regardless of the cost of that accommodation. If a passenger had stayed in a $1200 per night hotel is that ok and it would be fair to expect Princess to pay the $1200 and not fair as in our case for Princess to pay for three nights in a $280 per night hotel, even when having to stay three nights was unavoidable.

 

Your question" “ Where does it end “ well in my humble opinion it ends when people, in this case Sun Princess passengers are fairly compensated for their financial losses due to no fault of their own. I welcome your opinion, I just don’t agree with it. Now I have a question for you, would you still think the same if you were in my shoes ??

I couldn't agree with you more Wazsal. Singapore, whilst a nice place for a visit if you haven't previously been, is not where we would be going for a holiday. It is simply a transit point or a hop on/hop off point for a cruise.

You would not have been in Singapore except for embarking on the cruise and if personal/medical or whatever reason dictates you fly in early on a business class flight, Princess needs to cop it sweet!

Beryl

Thank you so much for the review and your wonderful photos. We are doing 3 B2B on the Constellation next year taking in the Baltic, Arctic Circle and Norway. You have made sure I am now even more impatient.

Beryl

True, but it certainly appears that Princess ships predominate by a considerable margin. Perhaps they operate more ships in Alaska than other lines but is it by enough to account for the extremely large number of reported violations?:confused:

Do you think perhaps this might be because Princess is one of the few companies that thoughtfully provide passenger laundries. I have yet to find one on a RCL or Carnival ship.

Beryl

The double coated (in blue packet) are actually the only Tim Tams I like. Shock horror. But my favourite as mentioned before are the chocolate butternut snaps. They are divine.

We also went to the Cadbury Factory in Dunedin but to be honest we didn't think the chocolate was anywhere near as nice as the Australian Cadbury chocolate. Maybe it is just what you get used to. (Like vegemite, I love it).

Beryl

You might want to try an Oreo Cakester. The description of Tim Tam sounds very similar. Cakesters are a new Oreo product.

Sorry nothing Oreo is anything like a Tim Tam. We always take several packets with us when we come to the US for our friends in NY. They just love them.

There is no problem bringing anything packaged into the US - and incidentally that works both ways. Although Australia is very strict (and rightfully so) with the importation of food stuffs, there is no problem bringing in processed foods like that. Just make sure to DECLARE IT.

Beryl