Kamloops50

The reason I don’t use my name is a holdover from I was working. I was employed in a high stress and high security environment . We weren’t allowed to put our names on emails just numbers.

23 minutes ago, rabin1 said:

I was not confused. No your not the only member that does not sign their posts and I always wonder what those that don;t have to hide.............enlighten me please

Kathy

When you post your Cruise Critic ID is added automatically.

On 5/20/2021 at 6:18 PM, claudia814 said:

Thinking of February 10, 2023 10 day cruise to Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale on Caribbean Princess for 55th anniversary. Any tips on choosing port or starboard side? Any excursions you can recommend and or any other information would be much appreciated. This cruise goes through The New Locks, what does that mean? Thanks in advance for your expertise. 

The Caribbean Princess does the new locks only. Its to big for the old locks. Only the Island and Coral can do the old locks. They were designed for the old locks.

3 hours ago, LawDog61 said:

Hi Barbara.  I have not been on Majestic so rather than answer your question may I pick your brain on cruising on Princess with Celiac?During the year of the COVID I was diagnosed with Celiac disease.  My “come back “ cruise is in January on the Grand.  It will be my first time cruising with Celiac.  How do you find that Princess accommodates us?  We usually cruise Club Class, and I think there may be less change of mistakes having the dedicated wait staff.  Any tips or advice to a fellow celiac?   Thanks so much for and assistance. Cheers.

Princess does great in handling food allergies. Let your server know that your Celiac or gluten free. One of the maitre Des will come over help with selecting what can be made gluten free . They will also give you the menus for next days lunch and supper. You'll be able to order thru the Maitre De what you want . If it can't be made gluten free he will tell you. if he doesn't know , he'll go and ask the head chief about it . They also make different gluten free , sugar free and lactose free for supper .

If your eating in the Lido they have gluten free bread on request. Also ask the head chief ( big white hat) what is gluten free and he will show them to you. He can also order something gluten free to be made specially for you.

This how my wife handles gluten free eating.

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Celebrity says they could be ready to sail in 30 days after being given permissiono sail. They are already lining up vaccinated crew members to be ready when the call comes.

They currently don’t have any ships on the west coast. The Millie is in the Caribbean for summer cruises. The Solstice and Eclipse are both in the Far East. It takes more than crew to start cruising. There was an interview with Captain Kate. She said in practice it takes 60 to 90 days s to get a ship in shape for passengers. 

3 hours ago, Laurab23 said:

When do you think they will be cancelled? I have one booked for Sept 2021 and am waiting to be notified.

 

Laura

Canada is closed until Feb 2022.

On 5/13/2021 at 5:58 PM, sherryf said:

But how soon would they sail?  They've cancelled everything else until August 21.  If they only start AK cruises after August 21, that only leaves a few weeks in the AK cruise season.  

The cruise lines say they need about 90 days to fully staff and prep the ships.  If the CDC and the billed is passed and signed by June 1st. Sometime in August would the ships sail. That only leaves 30 to maybe 60 days left. The BIG question is whether the tour operators will gear up and hirer staff for 30 to 60 days . Most of the staff live in the lower 48 states .

9 hours ago, Kentucky816 said:

This morning just doing a cursory check on our Antarctica cruise Jan 4th, 22 and there were No Club Class available where there had been 8.  
Great I thought we are filling up, but then at looking at others cruises there are none, not even out to March of 2023 for a Mexico cruise.   Any thoughts on 

why this might be ?  

Still booked in Club Class for four cruises in 2023. Plenty of them available. Not all ships have club class mini suites and deluxe balconies.

Princess normally docks at a pier. They actually paid the port authority in Juneau to build a special wharf.You might have six ships in port but not at the same time. Quite often a ship leaves at 1PM and another ship is waiting to take its place.

On 4/20/2021 at 10:06 AM, Dunk said:

Does anyone know how early on the morning of the 27th that you can book online? I'm guessing like 8am eastern time, but I really don't know for sure. 

Sometime between 7AM and 9AM PDT . 

9 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

That's not always the case, so much so that it's worth it to do the calculations. Saved thousands per person by breaking up the last voyage of the Ocean Princess into five separate segments and kept the same aft cabin for all 65 days. Saved a couple of thousand on separating an upcoming Island Princess voyage from Rome to FLL into two 14 day segments.

 

Even if it's only a couple of hundred of dollars, that can be offset by extra OBC from FCDs, additional military OBC as well as loyalty credit (assuming one is eligible for these perks).

I was assuming that people didn't qualify for the extra OBC. On a B2B versus a 14 Day Alaska cruise in 2022. The difference was almost $700 a person.

3 hours ago, milhouse0506 said:

After exclusively sailing on Royal Caribbean for years,  I will be sailing with Princess to Alaska in July 2022.

 

For shore excursions with Royal Caribbean it seems every other week they are always running sales for the shore excursions making them 10-25% off. Out of curiosity does princess ever run sales for their excursions? Or is the price always the same. Just curious if I should buy something now or wait for a possible sale down the road.

Princess normally doesn't put excursions on sale. In over 25+ cruises , never have been offered reduced prices on excursions.

Its actually cheaper to book a 20 day versus two 10day B2B. The 20 day is usually a couple of hundred dollars cheaper per person. I book a B2B , then I can book EzAir separately for each segment.

2 hours ago, CHK said:

Other than the obvious--that the restricted fares seem to be so much higher than flexible--what are the benefits/risks of using the flexible option? After selecting a flight time, class and airline, can those be changed without our knowledge/approval prior to the cruise or at ticketing 45 days prior to the cruise? Was planning on booking business class for a long flight to Europe. Any positive or negative experiences using EZ Air will be welcome.  Thanks

The big advantage is that you can cancel or Flexible EzAir up to 45 days before the cruise. After that you are subject to airline rules and fees.

13 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

 

2022-23WestCoastSailingSchedulewithFaresAmenities.pdf 207.58 kB · 31 downloads

Do you have the actual spread sheet or Excell files for Caribbean , Panama Canal and West Coast Cruises?

On 4/1/2021 at 3:29 PM, skynight said:

They are back in less than 24 hours. The additional amount remains $40/pp

"We know it's April Fools' Day, but we're not kidding when we say Princess Plus features:

• Premier Beverage Package, which you can enjoy anywhere on board with OceanNow^®
• MedallionNet^®, the best Wi-Fi at sea
• gratuities paid on your behalf

Available for all guests. All destinations. All staterooms. It really is “for all.” It sounds too good to be true, but trust us. We wouldn’t fool you, not even today."

Its been an option since last year. You has two options. One with all of the above and one without the three add ons.

I ended up a small CPAP machine for travelling. My normal one is to big and heavy. I got the Res Med Mini for travelling. You can even buy an airline approved battery to run it if on a plane .

On 3/30/2021 at 11:20 AM, seaworthy1 said:

To those who have cruised on both, which would you do if the cost was about the same. Grand Princess 15 nt r/t LA to Hawaii in a mini-suite or Celebrity Eclipse 11 nt Vancouver to Hawaii in Aqua class.  We have sailed Celebrity quite a bit and pretty much know the ins and outs and have never sailed Princess and know next to nothing.

 

Living in Phoenix, the air fare would be cheaper on the LA r/t.  I know this is one of those "what's your personal preferences" questions, but I'm just looking for experienced opinions. Thanks in advance.

I would Celebrity . Starting in Hawaii it ends in Vancouver BC. Vancouver is our home port.

20 hours ago, triple7tahoe said:

I had not noticed it until we rebooked a canceled Alaska cruise from June this year for a similar cruise in 2022-- The stop in Victoria for both the canceled cruise and the replacement cruise seems short -7Pm-11:59PM-  Yet there are excursions shown for things like whale watching, which I would think would happen earlier in the day. On our past cruises I remember a full day there and we walked into the City. Any of you that might have experienced these short days?? Your comments would be highly welcome.

Alaska cruises normally only have a short stop in Victoria .

You can book the Four seasons Hotel yourself for less than what Princess charges per person .

I found a price at the Four Seasons Hotel of about $800 CDN for two of us for two nights. The airport transfer was about $30 CDN per person. I'm quoting i Canadian Dollar  because me the dollar is at par with Australian Dollar.

If you goto Priceline or Booking.com and select the hotel. Then goto the hotel website for pricing direct . If you book direct your more likely to get an upgrade than booking thru a consolidator like Priceline. Then if you have issues you talk directly with the  hotel not a third party.

On 3/9/2021 at 3:33 PM, memoak said:

South America opened today and we we able to get a full suite on a 18 day Santiago to LA cruise for just over $5,000 per person with all the perks. I thought that was an excellent price also got some casino free play

Just booked the same cruise for about $6000 CDN for balcony for two people.

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

But the replacements are larger, so the total number of berths may be about the same. (I have not run the actual numbers.)

The 30% is from HAL.  It doesn’t really matter how many berths. They still don’t have enough ships to do all their normal cruise areas.

16 hours ago, KruzPrincess said:

 

Thank you for responding. HAL is possible, but I would love to do it on Princess. I understand the reduced fleet will affect things. 

Actually HAL has a greatly reduced fleet (30%) with only one new ship coming out. They sold four ships last year with only two replacements.

57 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

In my post that you quoted I said "On Australian cruises, the auto-gratuity is included in the price of drinks making them look much more expensive than on other ships, but when I have done the calculation, it evens out." I did not refer to the drinks package but to the cost of drinks bought singly. Because there is no auto-gratuity on Australian-based cruises, of course the gratuity is included even in the drinks package.

That’s only for cruises sold in Australia and New Zealand. If I buy in the US , Canada  and Mexico , gratuities are separate from the drink package. If you look at the both of the US Dollar spreadsheet. It says Gratuities , premier drink package and Wi-Fi are included. We can also buy without them.

On 2/19/2021 at 4:27 PM, Aus Traveller said:

Sorry, I cannot answer that question. Does the pricing have a note that says fees and taxes are extra? If the cruise is a trans-Pacific, the on-board currency is usually USD and the US protocol on gratuities applies.

 

On Australian cruises, the auto-gratuity is included in the price of drinks making them look much more expensive than on other ships, but when I have done the calculation, it evens out.

On Princess the gratuity for the drink package is always included in the price. The spreadsheet for USD fares includes gratuities , drink package with gratuities , specialty dining , location upgrade and wifi .