Cruise Raider

It showed a charge of $0 .. I double checked my credit card bill too, just to be sure.

👋 sfpd3000

I’m booked on the Majestic for August and booked the premier package. I’ve been pretty successful in the past for booking my specialty dinners with no charge ahead of time on the app. This time, my reservation just wouldn’t go through to the end. I am happy to report that today I was able to make my reservations on the app and got the dates and times I wanted. Yahoo! In addition, no charge was sent to my credit card as they zeroed out the charge due to the premier package. Nice job Princess!

Wow.. that’s great! We’ve been skunked out of dinner there before because it was just too crowded. So nice to know we can get a reservation.

If you have two people in one cabin, both are required to purchase the plus or premier fare package whether at the time of booking or once they are onboard. Only if you purchase the beverage package alone (not combined as a portion of the fare package), can you apply it to only one person in a double occupancy cabin. When they had decent solo cabin fares, my DH would get a cheap inside cabin and book the plus fare and I would get the premier. He doesn’t care about the photos or more expensive wines like I do. They have never had any trouble allowing him to use one of my included specialty dinners for him so, we could go once together. Plus, we had a second cabin in case one of us got sick and didn’t want to spread it to each other or anyone else.

If your flight lands around noon and is not delayed for more than an hour, you should be fine, as I think the latest flights allowed through EZAir are by 1:00 PM. I always use that as my guide.

Nice review .. thank you for taking the time to post. I do have a question for you .. you can now make reservations at the Salty Dog?

We’ve recently received some weird final folios after the fact, too. We always save a screen print on the last night or morning of disembarkation. Then, after one of our recent cruises, we didn’t get one. I made note of that in the post cruise comments on the Princess website and did receive one a couple of weeks later. All looked fine, but then they sent another one and it was riddled with erroneous charges. we had a lot of refundable OBC coming back to us and even though our accounts were combined, I received only half of the expected amount. So, I asked my CVP to look into this as it was a significant amount. A few weeks later, I did receive a check for the second half of what was owed to us. Something seems off with the finance office lately.

Our last few cruises in and out of San Francisco, it’s been stormy so we asked to go directly to the terminal. Next time, if the weather is decent, we will give our Uber driver a break and ask to be dropped off there. Many know the back roads to get to that point without a lot of traffic like we’ve seen on the Embarcadero.

I love the themed cruises and always try to book them when I notice them pop up onto the schedule. Last year, we did a side by side sailing where we started off the the Celebrity Solstice and on disembarkation day, we walked across the lot there in San Pedro and embarked onto the 80’s cruise on the Discovery, as did a small group of fellow passengers. Lo and behold, we found Celebrity to be just pretty boring overall. We also had terrible (I would call it nonexistent) WiFi and their processes for embarkation in LA and immigration in San Diego were just awful! There were highlights to the cruise but not enough to get me to go back again and we are nearly at the elite plus status on them. Perhaps if they cruised in and out of San Francisco, I may consider it. As we embarked on the Discovery and sat down at Bellini’s for a welcome onboard cocktail, we both commented on how we felt like we were at home!

It still has the OAK airport code but I know what you mean. I am sure there will be more than once that this happens. I guess they want more business there in Oakland but I love the smaller airports but because they aren’t usually quite so crazy. Just as LGB in the Los Angeles area is so much better than LAX, Oakland is usually so much nicer than SFO. And I agree, sailing back into your home port is always better than leaving from there if you have a repo cruise.

Yay! That sounds amazing .. glad you got it!

#1) the crew and staff!!! #2) they cruise from our home port #3) nonstop activities, events or entertainment or places for you can go for nothing but quiet and relaxation #4) the medallion and app with deliveries throughout the ship #5) their food and drink #6) their all inclusive fare options #7) their beds I could probably go on and on .. The one thing I don’t like is that there is smoking in the casino! Yuk!

Our friends always have their ride pick them up down at the bottom of Lombard Street, pretty much right across the street from the pier. They probably save a half an hour of their ride waiting in traffic into and out of the terminal drive through that way.

I understand that the name change was because people from outside the area didn’t know how close it was to San Francisco .. really only about the same distance as it is to SFO, which isn’t in San Francisco either. I’m sure you know that being from Fremont. Anyway, SFO is suing OAK for the name change. That is really dumb, IMO! What’s nice is just living in the Bay Area so we don’t have to fly to the nearest port. It does limit where we can go on cruises, though.

They usually start disembarkation around 7:30 - 8:00 AM, the latter time being due to late arrivals into port. There is oftentimes a huge line up early in the morning going as far back as past the vista lounge, especially for walk off on shorter cruises. They are filling the ships lately and those out of SF are no exception. Unless there is a bigger delay, you should be able to be out on the curb by 8:30 at the latest. The port of SF uses facial recognition software for disembarkation, so it is pretty quick once you are on that gangway.

We live nearby OAK (now renamed Oakland San Francisco Bay Area airport) and would always be my first choice of airports in the Bay Area. It’s so much smaller and just a more user friendly airport than SFO. However, I feel your pain with respect to flights that have one or more stops, so at times, I do also book out of SFO. We are lucky to have a third choice here in the Bay Area, SJC in San Jose but, it’s quite a bit further out from Pier 27 in San Francisco. It’s larger than OAK, smaller than SFO, but still has some nonstops flights that OAK may not offer. It also strikes me as being a very clean airport.

While Princess has no special section of the MDR for those not wishing to dress formally, the specialty restaurants are always smart casual, as are the casual dining venues. But, I can honestly say that formal wear is never required in the MDR. I’ve seen jeans or khakis, collared short sleeved shirts without a tie for men and capri pants and a nice top for women. One teenager always dressed as a pirate, even on formal night. While we used to do the whole tux and ball gown nights on cruises, the dress code has really been relaxed quite a bit. You can use elegant or casual sheik, as on Celebrity, as your guide and you will fit right in.

Just be sure to check to see what’s going on along the Embarcadero that day. While it’s doable, that is cutting it really close for SFO. I would also suggest checking the SF cruise ship port schedule. If there is another cruise ship in town that day, I would definitely opt for a later flight. Also, you might consider looking at flights out of OAK, right across the bay bridge if you can find a decent flight home.

I believe it is by 7:00 AM.

RCCL and Celebrity have had reciprocal benefits as long as I can remember. I think what is new is bringing Silver Seas into the status match group, where it used to be Azamara. So, I think it’s doubtful that CCL will do the same since they haven’t done it as of yet.

I have a back up plan just in case so, not to worry!

@So_Tweetie, we generally use them if we fly in and out of our destination on the same day as the cruise. It is usually better pricing if you fly internationally. I am paying more for my trip up to Seattle than listed on the Alaska airline site but I really like the guarantee they will get us on the ship or at the next port and get us back home if disembarkation is delayed. The flexible fare is really nice, though. Still deciding if I’m just going to go through Alaksa or Southwest.

I tell you, the best cruise is a free cruise! 🤣 Our first experience with a move over was back in January 2020. We had a 5 night in a premium oceanview and they said we could have a balcony cabin on any 7 night cruise we wanted. So, of course, we moved it to Alaska later that same year but that wasn’t to be. I almost kicked myself for giving up what may have been our last cruise ever. But … never fear, we were able to switch it and go on the first cruise back out after the restart on the Majestic. What a majestic cruise it turned out to be. I had just recently had knee surgery so it was still not able to do the stairs but we had the most amazing time ever! Plus, we got to book a premier deluxe balcony aft facing .. happy, happy! Our third and last move over was for the 10 day Mexico cruise, which we were able to exchange for a very special 10 night Mexico cruise. I still can’t believe we got it!

Yes, we’ve never turned down a move over offer, even though they used to be more generous with what they offer but it’s still the best deal on earth. The move over offer does give you all the perks and cabin type from your original cruise. We did have the plus on each cruise which we’ve accepted the move over and they transferred it over and to our replacement cruise as well. They now offer you a set of replacement cruises from which to pick that is similar to the one you give up. We got a choice of any 10 day Mexico cruise for the 10 day Mexico cruise we gave back. Then, we got all our original cruise fare back as refundable OBC while on the replacement cruise .. so, basically, a free cruise. If you have flights (our was out of our home port so not needed), they will pay a certain amount in change fees for you, as well. Your insurance, if you bought it through Princess, follows you onto your new cruise, as well. Just of note, we have noticed a lot of the first offers go to those without one the packages, those in inside cabins and those that booked on a deeply discounted sailing, like when they had solo fares. After all, they are looking to give away the least amount of money. If enough in these levels don’t bite, they move up to the next level, maybe those with an oceanview or balcony without the plus or premier packages. Still no bites? You get the idea .. lately, you’re lucky to get back to them in time to snag the offer. We are booked on an Alaska cruise for July and it’s completely sold out. I will be watching my email carefully the two weeks leading up that sailing. I will go any time of year!