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Pretty disappointed in this change. Hopefully to lessen the impact they will let the veteran have the military discount and a spouse have the shareholder credit, as each would be eligible if traveling alone. As clients use to say to me when we made unpopular corporate changes. Make whatever changes your client survey can handle. I hope John Padgett's survey can handle the backlash from this loyal cruising segment.

Has anyone been using Yahoo email with the StarLink internet service. My last experience on the Discovery was it seemed to be blocking Yahoo email.

This should be interesting since the Events and Loyalty Manager (Formerly called Princess Captains Circle Loyalty Person) is now an officer of the ships company.

On the Diamond Princess 2/2023 the Future Cruise Consultant was a 16 year Princess employee. We sat with her at a MTP luncheon.

Not sure why I would change email clients just to use a different email client for 75 days a year on Princess Cruises. Hopefully Princess IT will eventually (soon) figure it out and support at minimum the major email clients. Princess IT has never been know to be very good. The medallion roll-out only took several more years than planned to implement. Starlink may be the same.

Coral, thanks for your response. There is no reason not to believe them, but with the lack of communication of many changes today, who knows what the future holds. I will keep buying them and keep using them. Worst case they get refunded to the credit card.

With the changes to the FCDs only being good for one year, is this an indication the Future Cruise Deposit program is likely to end? Why would they change the time frame from the original 4 years to two years and now one year.

We got off the Discovery Princess on April 26th. Many folks said that starlink was turned on. I am not certain. If it was, then there is an issue using Yahoo mail with starlink. Yahoo mail would begin to load and then stop, rendering it useless. I could only connect to Yahoo mail via cellphone as a hotspot in port. The Internet Manager said it was not a Medallion.net issue. He said gmail 'generally' would load and to use gmail. I am not sure if he didn't understand you can't just switch which email service you use. Overall speed was generally acceptable, other than not being able to access Yahoo Mail..

Outerdog is absolutely correct that this is the PSVA. Sorry "cr8tiv1", this is a huge miss by Princess. They know the laws/ Both I and the travel agent asked them if this was a legal itinerary. We were told this itinerary was good to go. As I have said before, in the past, their booking system wouldn't allow an illegal itinerary booking. I booked the flights, hotels, made the onboard services purchases, which all had to be cancelled and changed to a new itinerary. I don't think Princess is as well run with John Padgett as it was directly with Jan Swartz. Outsourcing has it's issues.

Has anyone ever been on a series of Princess cruises that were in fact a violation of the Jones Act? If so, were you pulled from the ship in the port where the violation occurred? Who payed the fine, Princess Cruise's or you? Previously I have been not allowed to booked back-to-back itineraries that were Jones Act violations, but Princess's booking systems always caught the issue when the travel agent tried to book the itinerary. I booked a B-B-B last December that when the travel agent went to re-fare two of the cruises last week, was informed this was an "illegal" itinerary and violated the Jones Act. My wife and I would have been eventually pulled off the shipped and incurred significant fines. Both I and the travel agent asked about the itinerary when it was booked in December and were informed it was good to go. This was a huge miss by Princess!

Alcairns, no apologies necessary ....... and I agree that "currently" it appears the requirement may change to proctored testing for transocean / trans-Atlantic / trans-Pacific etc. voyages after 9/6. Although since Southampton has been a "one-off" for some time on the testing rules, who knows what the future holds. Or, as I use to tell employees to strap in because this could be worse than Dinsey's Mr. Toads wild ride. I look at my crystal ball every morning, but the poor thing is so foggy and cracked, it really is no longer reliable. Regardless of the testing ... enjoy your cruise life!

Alcairns, Unfortunately what you are referencing here does not pertain to sailings from Southampton, UK prior to 9/6. I did receive a followup call today from Princess correcting their phonemail message from yesterday. They confirmed the information as written on the website for Southampton, UK sailings prior to 9/6 is correct.

High C, I received another call today from the Princess Rep as a followup to her phonemail from yesterday. She stated her answer yesterday was incorrect and the requirement is exactly as you experienced for your Emerald Princess sailing on 8/13 ... So all we have to do is attest that we had taken a test within the past 3 days and that it was negative, as well as show proof of vaccination. All our booked cruises after 9/6 are 14 or 15 days non-trans-Atlantic or trans-Ocean until end of next year. Hopefully the testing gets dropped by then. Enjoy your cruise.

Alcairns, can you direct me to where it states a a proctored covid test is required for a trans-Atlantic cruise from Southampton on 9/2/ 2022 when it is stated on the Princess "Health Protocols" section CruiseHealth FAQ: Sailings from the United Kingdom - Updated 13 August 2022, under the "Vaccination and Testing Requirements FAQ #2 - It states "..... Guests no longer need to provide a test certificate, however they will be asked to confirm that the test has been taken, with a negative result, as part of the pre-boarding health declaration at the cruise terminal/airport. ....".? Also is a Hawaii RT cruise from the west coast considered a TransPacific cruise?

High C's, thanks for your reply. Since you have first hand experience at Southampton, I think I am going to go with your input. Pending my wife agreeing of course. We will take the home test we have from the gov't and attest that we had taken it within the past 3 days and that it was negative, as well as show proof of vaccination and boosters. Should work ........ I hope. Was boarding in Southampton pretty straight forward?

Thanks for the suggestion ...... There is plenty of "opinions" and confusion on this on the roll call page. That is why I emailed Jan Swartz's office. Princess could simply email everyone on that specific cruise and state in plain terms the requirements.

Does it have to be this difficult? Do you need to be a Harvard lawyer to understand the Princess Covid testing requirements? We are booked on the 9/2/2022 Enchanted Princess trans-Atlantic cruise for which there are specific Covid testing requirements for sailing from Southampton, UK. The Princess "Health Protocols" page states for fully vaccinated 18 and above, "Self-administered Antigen OR medically assisted PCR within 3 days". Also it is stated on the same "Health Protocols" section CruiseHealth FAQ: Sailings from the United Kingdom - Updated 13 August 2022, under the "Vaccination and Testing Requirements FAQ #2 - It states "..... Guests no longer need to provide a test certificate, however they will be asked to confirm that the test has been taken, with a negative result, as part of the pre-boarding health declaration at the cruise terminal/airport. ....". So just for confirmation I sent Jan Swartz's office an email and received a phonemail response that stated the new changes don't take effect until 9/6, so for our sailing we absolutely WILL HAVE to show a negative Covid test. This contradicts everything on the Princess "Health Protocols" page. In fact, it would be after 9/6 they could make the argument the rules change you need the Covid test proof for a "trans-Ocean" cruise. Also why are we now using "trans-Ocean" versus "trans-Atlantic". I have never seen a cruse sold as "trans-Ocean". This is our 40th Princess cruise and I have never been as frustrated with trying to prepare for a cruise. You shouldn't need a flow chart and a law degree to determine what the testing requirements are. This is our 5th post Covid cruise and previously it was easy to just go to Walgreens two days before, get tested and be done with it. I thought with the self test and "Guests no longer need to provide a test certificate," again it would be easy. Not so when the Princess representative doesn't read their own rules. Confusion at it's best! Shame on Princess .... It doesn't need to be this difficult. Never mind you can get Covid on your travels to the port after your negative test.