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ORIGINAL PRODUCTION SHOWS

British Invasion. A musical journey of the greatest songs and artists who emerged from the UK and travelled 'across the pond' to the US.

Do You Wanna Dance. A musical journey highlighting the many styles and forms of the art of dance.

ONBOARD MEDIA

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega. Director: J.J. Abrams. Rated PG-13, 135 min.

Bridge of Spies (2015). Starring Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance. Directed by Stephen Spielberg. Rated PG-13, 142 mins

GUEST ENTERTAINERS

Steve Caouette. Hilarious stand-up comedy and sound effects from a finalist for Princess Cruises 4th Annual "Entertainer of the Year"

Jay Alexander. Jay Alexander?s Mind Tricks Live! is a unique blend of human lie detection, mind reading, memory stunts, and illusions that is funny, fast paced and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

ACTIVITIES

Gloeta Massie. Naturalist

Hoonah Tribal Representative. Tlingit Culture

KLONDIKE DAYS

Feel the glory days of the Gold Rush as it come to life and learn the language of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian clans. Discover the history of this great land, as real Alaskans regale you with tales of early settlers and the native tribes.

Ignore snarky remarks....it's hard to contain the excitement and the Chef's Table is clearly something you really want to do!

Once you board the ship just call the dine line, they will add your name to the list and send a notification if you make it within 1-2 days after boarding. They often add an extra table depending on the length of the cruise and the interest!

Your chances are very good no matter what time you board the ship!

If you prepaid, you will receive a refund by check .

You should receive a refund to your original form of payment in 7 to 10 business days, but this is not always the case.

Check your account, once you log in, under the section "On Board Reservations", scroll to the bottom of the page to see if you have a credit. If so then Princess has not processed a refund. Your TA if you have one, or you will have to make the request for a refund from Princess.

Robin

Important Notice: VISION OF THE SEAS 15-SEP-17

June 2, 2016

Dear *******,

We recently announced the sale of Legend of the Seas, which has subsequently made it necessary for us to adjust some of our related itineraries in 2017. Please know that we fully recognize that this is not a matter of simply moving dates and ships. We realize your vacation is precious and we want to do everything we can to ensure it is exceptional.

To that end, we are sorry to inform you that your upcoming sailing onboard Vision of the Seas, sailing September 15, 2017, has been cancelled. We understand the disappointment this may cause, and will have one of our associates reach out to you to discuss possible options for you.

Guests currently booked with names and money in house on Vision of the Seas September 15, 2017:

Re-book on the select sailing below, in like accommodations, at the protected/lowest available cruise fare or any other Royal Caribbean sailing at prevailing rate. Price protection is limited to the cruise fare only. Taxes, fees, gratuities and other non-cruise fare items are subject to prevailing rates regardless of the sailing chosen.

Select Sailing:

Vision of the Seas, Apr 19, 2017

Receive $200 onboard credit per standard stateroom, $400 onboard credit for suites when you rebook any Royal Caribbean sailing.

Guests who incur a fee due to the change in their airline reservations will be reimbursed up to $200 per person, for Domestic Flights and $300 per person, for International Flights. A copy of air fees assessed must be provided for reimbursement. Guests who cancel their sailing or air are not eligible for air change fee reimbursement.

A full refund for amounts paid will be processed to the original form of payment if guests choose to cancel; however, they will not receive any of the above compensation, including air change fee reimbursement.

A special help desk has been established to assist you with******* The desk is available now, and will remain open until June 22, 2016. All reservations that are not changed by the specified close date will be cancelled and ineligible for the compensation offered.

I chose to cancel my cruise, I didn't care for the options they offered. I think the itinerary change has more to do with safety than anything else.

It's a disappointment but I'll get over it. There are way too many options out there to choose from!:D

I included a portion of the email from NCL:

This cruise itinerary has been cancelled by the cruise line. This morning I received the following message from NCL:

Dear Valued Guests and Travel Partners,

Norwegian Cruise Line has important information for you regarding Norwegian Spirit's 11-Day Grand Mediterranean sailing from Venice, Italy from May 28,

2017 to November 12, 2017. All guests booked on this sailing need to be aware of this change and travel professionals are asked to forward this

information to their clients.

As a result of scheduling changes, the Norwegian Spirit's 11-day Grand Mediterranean sailings, departing from May 28, 2017 to November 12, 2017 from

Venice on these dates are no longer available.

The Bon Voyage Experience is an innovative new program harkening back to the nostalgic tradition from the early days of cruising, allowing guests the opportunity to invite family and friends aboard your ship on embarkation day. The program's new twist also allows cruisers new to Princess to see the inside of a Princess ship and experience the excitement of cruising first-hand -- even if they're not affiliated with booked guests.

Guests will spend up to four hours onboard before the ship sets sail, where they'll enjoy a four-course dining room lunch (including wine), a guided ship tour, and a souvenir photo! Plus, the $39 per person cost of the program can be applied toward a future cruise with Princess. Only 50 guests are able to participate in the Bon Voyage Experience on any given embarkation day, so make sure you make your reservations soon!

To learn more about Bon Voyage Experience reservations and availability near you, please contact your Travel Consultant or call 1-800-PRINCESS (1-800-774-6237) as long as it is not within 7 days of sailing.

It is my understanding that the Must Prepay for shore excursions in Alaska was a test and people are once again allowed to Reserve rather than Prepay.

Does anyone know for sure? :confused:

LuLu

We are departing on the Grand for Alaska in June. All excursions are pre-paid as of this post.

There is currently 5% discount for reserving in advance vs after boarding the ship.

One of the disadvantages of not pre-booking excursions is that they could sell out, times slots could become limited and obviously price increase.

We are a young 50 something couple that have been to Rome twice and are looking to do something off the beaten path. Looking for 6 other Adults to book a tour through Viator at a cost of $116.87 each. It would be a full day tour and would explore the gems of Umbria together with a great food experience in the middle of the Tuscia Countryside, not forgetting the charm of two of the most representative and charming Etruscan towns of Italy. Orvieto, Civita di Bagnoregio, Tarquinia or Tuscania. If you want to review the information for yourself, I've included the IP address:

http://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Umbria-and-the-Etruscans/d511-20217P6?aid=vcps

You might have more success posting this in the ports of call section.

Hello, I was hoping someone would be able to help me. We really much prefer the bed next to the balcony as opposed to next to the bathroom. There are a few rooms left in the location we are looking for but I wanted to make sure the bed was next to the balcony. Is there anyway to figure it out? I very much appreciate your help. Thank you!:)

Hi...simply log on to Princess.com, click on the ship your planning to cruise on and click on the link, deck plans. From there you can access the decks and the location of the cabins, click on the cabin and a layout of that cabin will pop up!

Click on the link below

http://www.princess.com/images/global/book/ships/cb/category/BE/cb_be_balcony_diagram_lrg.jpg

On every one of my Princess cruises in the last decade or so, you can use your sign and sail card for gambling. I am not sure if it used my OBC or not as I have always spent more than my allotted OBC so whatever amount that I transferred onto my card, it was just added onto my folio as a charge. If what they told you is true, they may not allow this to be taken against your OBC but you can still charge it to your onboard account by transferring it onto your card.

I don't play the tables but for slots and video poker, just insert your card into the machine and set it up using your birthday and a secret pass code. Charge a specific amount to your card and play. Transfer any remaining balance (including any winnings) back to your card before leaving the machine. You can move to another machine and access the money in your bank (from the card) or if you are done playing, you can go to the cashier cage and tell them you want to cash out and they will give you the balance in cash.

Thanks!

I was told by Princess that you can't use your OBC in the Casino which is fine by me.

So my question is if you want to gamble do you use cash, because obviously you can't use your sign and sail card?

This brings me to the next question: we have a slot pull planned for our group, if you insert your S & S card for the points and any winnings are automatically loaded onto your card how does the casino know the difference between your winnings and your OBC when you cash out your winnings? I am assuming it will say on the card, is this right?

When we cruised on another line we could go to the casino, use our OBC to gamble a few $$ and then take out cash in increments up to $300 a day.

Initially you can set up the account with your CC for check in purposes. Once you get to embarkation simply have him put cash on his account, no CC needed.

Don't worry about that booking, there is no deposit and it should drop off within the next 24 hours. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. Just an overzealous agent hoping to get a call back for the sale. This cruise is somewhat limited and he probably thought he was doing you a favor by putting a hold on the cabin.

Definitely don't loose any sleep over it!

Hey you should join the roll call. My daughter just got her teaching degree and did a lot of after school tutoring in Hilmar.

Sadly our friends decided not to on this cruise after all. Their medical insurance is going up significantly so they need to save for that now. So just my husband and I this time around.

 

 

We are trying to figure out the parking situation for us still.

If you take the Ferry you can park for the month of June at a cost of $20, the Ferry is around $13 per person one way and drops you at either the Ferry Building or Pier 41. Both are approximately 1 mile from pier 27, you can either walk or grab a taxi for the short ride.

I have a group of about 14 which also, includes 3 educators, 1 who attended Hilmar way back when.

We have a balcony booked for our Alaska cruise. Our friends are wanting to go with us. They are debating between OV. and balcony. I notice the difference in size is 168 square feet to 232. Are the cabins the same size? Also the difference is about $800. Just asking what fellow cruisers suggest I should advise her? They want to see out, they have no interest in an interior. It is a 10 day on the Grand out of San Francisco.

 

Thanks

We are booked on the same cruise, my husband I both graduated from Hilmar, what a small world!

We plan to take the ferry from Vallejo which has reasonable parking, about 1/2 the cost of the parking Garages in S.F.

We booked a balcony because I wanted the option to view the scenery just in case we want to avoid the crowds on deck and if it's to cold we can duck inside or wrap up in a blanket.

To simplify the tipping process for our guests, a discretionary gratuity of $13.95 per person for mini-suites and suites, and $12.95 per guest in all other staterooms per day (including children) will be automatically added to your shipboard account on a daily basis. This gratuity will be shared amongst those staff who help provide and support your cruise experience, including all waitstaff, stateroom stewards, buffet stewards, and housekeeping staff across the fleet.

We've cruised to Hawaii in April & October.

April...rough seas first 2 days out, bags taped to the handrails, a lot of passengers stayed in their cabins. It's still considered the rainy season and we did experience quit a few showers, slightly cooler than we expected.

October.....calmer seas, fantastic weather, very humid in Oahu, water was perfect! This would be my choice if we were to go back.

The coffee cards listed on eBay with 15 punches will definitely get you 15 specialty coffee drinks. Scanning the current listings, most of the sellers stated nothing more than that. One seller advertising old cards without a voyage marked stated that they are good for unlimited fresh brewed coffee and that will probably not be the case on ships that are now selling the new cards. We are Elite and have sailed in suites several times over the past few years and we exchanged one of our mini-bars for coffee cards. DW enjoys the specialty coffees so we just keep using the punches on later cruises. It is their right but I don't like the fact that people sell coffee cards on eBay. Maybe Princess will look at the cards for sale and decide to delete the fresh brewed coffee as a benefit. If they roll out the coffee brewers on the Royal class ships there probably isn't a need to offer fresh brewed. I'm not a coffee drinker but that is DW's opinion. She also found the regular coffee on the Pacific in December to be better and only used a few punches of an old card for an occasional specialty coffee during out 14 day cruise.

Thank you for your response, well said and informative.

IMHOP I don't feel that it's working the system, if you have obtained Elite status, at a high cost I might add, the cards are yours to do with as you please.

They can not be used for more than 15 specialty beverages, the cards are not being physically altered in such a way as to get more than the allotted 15 beverages. So what's the difference if you or someone who has purchased the card receives the 15 specialty coffees?

I do realize that they are intended for the current sailing, but if Princess is so worried about this issue then I'm sure they would have figured out a way to curb the cards being sold on ebay. A disclaimer that says non-transferable, a start and end date perhaps, I don't know.

The end result is they are only being used 1 time by the purchaser who ever that may be.

I really don't think Princess is loosing too much sleep over this issue. For those that want to buy the cards elsewhere I certainly wouldn't judge them.

I for one have decided it's not worth the extra effort to buy the card on ebay but choose to purchase it once I board the ship.

Problem solved!

One last thought, when someone post's a question it would be nice for once just to to have it answered in a non-judgmental way. I don't understand why some people feel like they have to be everyone's moral compass, can't we just have a nice logical discussion about a topic, I mean this in the nicest way possible:D:D

You're really not saving as you won't be able to get the unlimited coffee. Just the leftover punches for any coffee or tea.

They are listed as new, "Cafe Selects" no ship and sail date on them and come with ebay's 100% guarantee or money back policy if misrepresented. If I understood right the cards are not used, in most cases, and that's why they are offered for sale on ebay.

Do you have knowledge otherwise, I would be interested to know.

People who are Elite and don't drink alcohol turn in their complimentary mini bar setup for two coffee cards. Even if they do enjoy drinking the specialty coffee they can end up with an excess of coffee cards so they sell them on eBay. As long as there is no voyage information written on the card and there are no punches taken from it then it works as a brand new coffee card when you sail.

 

There has been no information regarding plans to stop accepting the older cards and I would guess Princess may still have some of them in stock on some ships. They have no reason not to continue to issue and accept them as long as they have some in stock. They may eventually stop taking them but one would hope that, if that should occur, they would be willing to trade an unused and unmarked old style card for a new card.

Thank you for the nice answer! I did notice that ebay had the new version for sale already.

Buy your coffee cards on ebay if you want to save some money. The coupons are really not worth the paper they're printed on.

I did check out the cards for sale on ebay and you can save $10 or more by doing this.

Is this a common practice?

I notice quit a few people(another coffee thread) were not thrilled with people buying their coffee cards on ebay.

I did notice there were 2 versions for sale....I believe one is being phased out by Princess.

Has anyone had an issue with using the cards bought on ebay?

Does anyone have input with re: to the current coupon book? We cruise in June and I am debating on whether I should wait till we board the ship to buy the coffee card, it used to have BOGO but not sure if they did away with that particular coupon or not. If I remember right they don't charge the tax if you wait until you are out to sea.

It's been awhile since we cruised Princess.

Thanks in advance!

Princess does not require prepayment for your pre cruise booked excursions. They actually fairly recently added the option to prepay via your cruise personilizer. In the past it was on board through your on board account. They also have a cancel once on board policy, but you have to pay attention to the deadline. I very much like Princess's policy when it comes to shore excursions.

Actually that's not all together accurate. Princess is rolling out a new policy which requires excursions to be pre-paid. Once selected they will hold for 24 hours, if no payment is received it will automatically drop off.

We are sailing on the Grand in June and all excursions must be paid within 24 hours.

We are planning to hop the Ferry from Vallejo. Also, curious how difficult it was to maneuver on and off the Ferry with luggage in tow. We will have 2 large rolling suitcases, possible carry-on and backpack.

If I am understanding this thread correctly the advice is to get off at pier 41 vs getting off at the Ferry BLDG for pier 27?

I have tried to sort thru the 100's of pictures and there are just too many. Anyone ever stay in one of these cabins?