arxcards

29 minutes ago, dizzy1948 said:

Just a quick one - does anyone know what the current price of the classic soda package is inAus on the Crown Princess?

Can't seem to find anything - only the "add on" which is in American dollars I think

Going by my personaliser, which is where you should see it listed under beverages, it is currently $27.42 per day. (US price is $14.99 plus 18% gratuity ($US17.69)).

30 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I'm not sure that was the case for full cruise bookings. I think most/all of the cancellations were for Australia/NZ to Civitavecchia, or Australia/NZ to Dover. 

Also for the full world.

1 hour ago, ceeceeDee said:

Naughty, Geoff! 😄 The same has been said about P&O's target market. 😂 Mind you, they don't actually advertise the existence of a library. I think we went on about 2 P&O cruises before I realised they even had one.

We were lucky. Our first P&O cruise was on Pacific Sun and nearly everyone knew where the library was, because at dinner time it morphed into the Steakhouse. 

26 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We put in a lowish bid to upgrade to a minisuite for the world cruise and got it. The minisuites were sold out at the time. We were over the moon when we won the bid and it certainly made that wonderful long cruise much more comfortable for us. 

Because of the circumstances, those cabins were not sold-out. After the changes to the itinerary to avoid the Red Sea, there were plenty of cancellations and there were vacant minis until very late.

6 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

It is not among my biggest criteria, but it is one of the factors I think about when booking. The library is one of the places I go to on my first day exploration of the ship. I wish I could take more books with me, but flying into a city to start the cruise makes it difficult, and I dislike e-books.

For several reasons, I have decided that Carnival is just not a good fit for me - also not happy with the choice of on board entertainment.  The basic problem is the lack of cruises in and out of Australia in our winter. Now I'm having to fly further to get to cruise ports.

 

I'm booked on a Cunard cruise next year, and looking forward to their library.

 

That is the dilemma. For years I wished P&O could be more like Princess, but there are plenty that love P&O the way it is and prefer it to Princess, so it is really about my taste and not about P&O changing.

I know this isn't true, so I am only stirring the pot - perhaps vigorously. As they say, readers are leaders. One could sarcastically think that Carnival has removed Splendor's library because not many of their target market can read.

2 hours ago, cheznandy said:

Hi Cheryle, just to add to everyone else's comments, I was on Pacific Adventure 4 weeks ago, short 4 nighter. We have also sailed on it as a Princess ship, love the design.

Not a fan of the P&O product, basic food choices, lack of inclusive items.

If you are planning on sailing in June 2025, it will be a Carnival product, no one is real sure what will change, inclusions, prices, Seaday Brunch, Guys burgers, Mexican, Indian food etc, free Pizza, I don't see how they can sail under Carnival and not be the "same" but in time we will all know!!

The aft pool is adults only as Adventure, but it was noisy with really loud music and really loud people haha! This is usually our favourite place on Princess and Carnival.

 

 

They have an issue that they lack a brand identity after March next year. It is no longer P&O, but they are saying (for the P&O customers) that it will be a P&O product. Carnival will take over but have yet to announce anything much apart from VIFP and that there will be further announcements. So it isn't really P&O and it isn't really Carnival. It could be the best of P&O retained with the best of Carnival woven in, or it could be the opposite. Carnival & P&O/Carnival itineraries are out for 26/27, but I think I will wait till next month to see what itineraries Princess is going to offer. Looks like it will still be Crown based here plus Royal from Sydney & Grand from Brisbane.

2 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

The problem wasn't lack of interest. there were people everywhere reading actual books, not e-books.  I spoke to several who were as disgruntled as me about the lack of a library.  Obviously, Carnival had not stocked up on books at all, perhaps because it was coming off three weeks in dry dock. But more likely because the company is phasing out libraries completely.  By comparison, some pics of the excellent new library on Oosterdam:

 

Also an awesome library on QM2, which I would recommend you get the opportunity to visit at least once. If a library is an important consideration, don't cruise on Carnival.

1 hour ago, Bubbeh said:

I'm bamboozled by why proof of travel insurance was insufficient to enable disembarkation and appropriate care.  While the issue of appropriate care may be a matter of perception, payment of the account is clear cut.  Provided it is not an exclusion, a pre-existing condition or contributed to by the patient, the travel insurer should be liable. The OP has not stated if there was an issue with insurance or whether a claim was disallowed.  

 

Notwithstanding, my deepest sympathies to the OP.

Proof of travel insurance is not sufficient. Claims can be denied based on pre-existing and other conditions. 

2 hours ago, harlor said:

Thank you all for this information. Our cruise is in January, so I've read that in November we should be able to apply for the credit. My question is whether I can take a screen shot of our stock account and submit the information through the app instead of having to provide our stockbroker's name and our account number. I'm concerned about personal information being leaked. When I did a trial run with the app, it wanted our stockbroker's information and I didn't proceed further. Is there a more secure way of proceeding?

Thank you

Loretta

This thread mostly relates to Australian passengers. Our law doesn't allow Stockperks to connect directly with our broker, so it allows us to upload a copy of a shareholding statement. I don't know if that option is available to US passengers.

2 hours ago, Muffinz said:

Thanks - I got advice on CC and some posters said they have put in the minimum bid and got an upgrade several times, so we have chanced our luck.... but as above all the mini-suites were showing as 'sold out', so I'm not sure how / why we were able to big on a room category that's showing as 'sold out'.... But we're not too fussed if our bid isn't accepted 

Personally, I believe something must be available before you can auction it, but you can bid on any higher cabin on all cruises, whether sold or not. For Princess in Oz, the suites and minis tend to sell out first, which differs on the other side of the world. I would be keen to hear of anyone scoring a winning upgrade bid in a mini-suite or higher on an Aussie based cruise.

I do agree though, you have to be in it to win it. I will be putting in bids for our upcoming Princess cruises too.

54 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

2 weeks today we fly to Sydney for our 26 day cruise.🤸‍♂️🤸‍♀️🥂

Yes you might say We're Getting Excited.😁

It is that time of year.

1 hour ago, Muffinz said:

2 months tomorrow we fly to Sydney for our cruise (starting 14 Dec)

I'm starting to get a tad excited  🙂 

We received an e-mail from Princess last week about bidding to 'upgrade' our stateroom, so we put in a low bid to be upgraded to a reserve minisuite

Princess actually phoned my wife the other day and a lady introduced herself as the new PVC... she asked my wife if she had any questions and wife said "yes - we've put in a bid for an upgrade for a reserve mini suite - can you put in a good word for us"! 😁

 

 

Let the excitement roll.

Winning upgrade bids on minis and above are like hen's teeth, as they offer you to bid for an upgrade on cabin categories that have long been sold out. It is also conducted mostly by bots from an external company. Good luck all the same.

On 9/27/2024 at 8:33 AM, JJK2008 said:

You should be fine travel wise by tomorrow.🤞 There certainly could be a domino effect with flights backed up etc. But weatherwise you should be fine. We live in Ft. Myers which is on the west coast of South Florida. We are about 3 hours south/west of Orlando. In our area, we have not had a severe effect from the storm. Some heavy rain this morning and very windy all day. But for at least half the day the sun was out with blue sky. It is 6:30 pm as I write this, and we are watching the news coverage. North of us is getting some intense weather with rain, wind and tornado warnings. The storm is still out to sea in the Gulf and hugging the coast and moving VERY fast. So, by tomorrow morning the storm will be well past. Orlando should not have much if any affect from the storm, same as Port Canaveral on the east coast. Hopefully if there are any delays, they are short-lived. Safe Travel to you both, enjoy the cruise. 

I trust you are high and dry for Milton? That is quite a 1 - 2 punch.

54 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

I'm disappointed that the Sky 2026 Summer Solstice cruise does not visit Flam. I love those sort of rail trips.

 

I don't have any actual facts, but I'm blaming the Norwegian government anyway due to its stuffing around the cruise lines over ship emissions in the fjords. 😒

They have around 20 visits a month over the summer - P&O UK, Celebrity, Norwegian. No Princess or others.

Here is ours. I had an inkling it may have had Flam changed to Olden at some stage.

1 hour ago, resordanis said:

The deposit on the P&O site was 50%! I can understand it going up slightly but $600 in a few minutes! Anyway Geoff, I won’t know if it is the same as Golden because I’m not paying an extra $600! I guess it is still a reasonable price, but not proceeding. Currently waiting for a live person to call me after ‘chatting’ with someone else!

That's funny. Every other cruise on Adventure in June 2025 is offering $49, but not that one which is showing a flash sale instead. It is like they are trying to see what bait works best. I do wonder if someone made a mistake with the pricing.

Anyway, minis are currently showing as sold out. Byron mini showing as available, but $2K pp.

3 hours ago, colourbird said:

 

That price would have bothered me before, but now, when I'm on holiday, it doesn't. That's why I book ship tours instead of private ones now.

That's cool. Money isn't everything, although some do like to know what the most economical option is. In my plans, I am not tossing up whether to pay $19 or $47 each for our tickets. Two prices for the same seats, I will do the extra 5 minutes work to keep $50+ in my pocket.

However, I am tossing-up between paying $19 each for train tickets or paying extras to book a town car for door to door service. I will sometimes pay extra for a treat or white glove service, but I also have an eye on setting a retirement date too.

When I looked this morning, they also had Byron minis available for only $20 per night extra. They disappeared 10 mins later.

Cabins are identical furniture, fresher looking carpet & linen. You could get the same cabin as Golden, minis are nice, although the cheap version of the fares gives you no choice of which one (guarantee, non-refundable deposit. However, I did see them promoting a $49 deposit, but I wasn't curious enough to look further.

I wonder will it be like Golden, will it feel like P&O, or will it feel like Carnival?

I don't believe this is a question about insurance. There is no mention of being un/underinsured for the medical coast of her husband's stroke.

If these were covid cancellation cruises, as in no ships allowed in Australian ports cancellations, by default these were credited as FCC by most cruise lines unless you requested a refund by a certain date. These government covid border cruise cancellations were not covered by travel insurance, hence refunds from the cruise lines were available at the time. I am presuming covid credits were issued and that was fine at the time, but any credits for a future cruise would be a bitter pill after these events.

I am also surprised that the bill appeared to be more important to them than getting someone urgently conveyed to a hospital, but I do get that it will be much harder for them to recover their $27K after you have departed the ship. Surely there is a smarter way for them to expedite payment and patient care together.

Duty of care means proving negligence, and without knowing specifics, that would be difficult. Medevacs also come with risks.

1 minute ago, Womble99 said:

Did you have any luck or is it still wait and see?

The info earlier in the year was to come back in November to claim OBC for 2025 cruises. If my uploaded statement was still valid, I would have clicked through to check if I could claim yet, but now I will wait till November to upload a current statement.

Currently, the Carnival Corp website lists shareholder OBC as available on cruises up till 31st December 2024, and they could always choose to modify or withdraw the benefit. Fingers crossed they will extend that policy for another year in November.

Note also, in checking the Carnival Australia corporate website is no longer, referring everyone over to the US Carnival Corp page. Shareholder OBC is detailed at https://www.carnivalcorp.com/shareholder-information/shareholder-benefit

Princess cancelled the cruises because of covid, or you cancelled your cruises because you tested positive with covid? A very different response for either scenario.

The former - I recall Princess had specific systems for covid cancelled cruises. You could opt for a refund or a comparable replacement cruise, but that had to be specified within a certain time frame. After that date, they defaulted to only issuing a future cruise credit.

The latter - only credits were offered, as it was way beyond the generosity of the cancellation policy.

I am sad for your experience and for your loss. I would gather you have received legal advice about getting a resolution. While there is any risk of them being seen as "at fault", I think it is unlikely that Princess will offer any discretionary refund. Anyone of a senior position also has a secretary, who will usually triage down into their customer service or legal department. Their senior people are there to guide policies and to manage their junior people.

Good luck, and sorry I can't offer any shortcut to solve your runaround.

1 minute ago, colourbird said:

 

It was very cheap in 2018. If there had been any benefit to buying tickets in advance, I would have done so, as I had prepurchased everything else except for that and the taxis.

 

50 pounds return today is not a bad price for that distance.

That is 4 times the price of Newcastle to Sydney return, which is a longer trip on a similar level of intercity service. As long as you are committed to the time and date, 20 pounds is a much better price and a comparable value to NSW intercity services.

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

Well that was the theory on Carnival Splendor last month. The reality was different. The book trolleys would hold a couple of hundred books when fully stocked. The reality was that the first day i went there were maybe 10 books, of which four were in languages other than English.  The only books I found on the ship, later in the voyage were ones placed on the trolley by other passengers, not ship's books.

Yes, I would reaffirm that if there is interest, there will be stocked trolleys. If there is not much interest, they will be predominantly loaded with board games.

14 minutes ago, colourbird said:

 

When we were there in 2018 our return tickets were around half the price when purchased at the ticket window than if we had prepurchased them online.

All advice I have been given by Londoners and my wife's English relos is to purchase advance tickets online and to avoid peak hour travel, for both price and comfort. They have a limited number of advance discount tickets for each off-peak train, usually available for purchase around 12 weeks in advance. Peak advance tickets can be more expensive than ticket window off peak pricing.

Apples with apples:

Today's price for the direct train service to Southampton, bought at Waterloo station is $AU47pp

Train for the same time on Thursday 28th Nov, advance purchase online is $AU19pp

So many are reluctant to try the P&O/Carnival blend and sitting back waiting for others to try it out first. Seems about the right price to guess what your ports will end up being and what the hybrid experience will be like.

To note, that pricing is "GO fare" which is for guarantee cabin & non-refundable deposits. Value fare is a bit more expensive but is largely offset with OBC and gives you cabin choice. For the daily price of an inside though, you would struggle to get 3 meals at Maccas.

1 hour ago, colourbird said:

I bought the train tickets at Waterloo Station just minutes before our train left.

Much cheaper to pre-purchase.