AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago)

Most times, the Crown Grill is available for game players. At other times, one of the dining rooms is available. Check around on the first sea day. Also keep in mind that the dining rooms are open for lunch on sea days. DW Pat and I will be on this cruise, and love to play card and other games. Looking forward to seeing you on board.

Stan

I emailed both of them about a refund problem, and received a phone call in response about 3 days later.

AZ Stan

1 hour ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I assume you meant a 2021 cruise?

 

John Padgett is the President...

If his email follows the same format as other execs in the company it should be:

 

jpadgett@carnival.com

 

or

 

jpadgett@princesscruises.com

Yes, Sorry, that was 2021.  Thanks for the quick responses.  I will try a couple of these names.

AZ Stan

My wife  and I were booked on a Transatlantic, Nov., 2022.  Unfortunately she tested positive for Covid 19 just 3 days before we were scheduled to fly to London.  We cancelled immediately, and received a partial refund, plus some cruise credit, which we have since used.  

We wrote to customer relations, asking about the more than $2,000 which has not been refunded to us.  What did we get? Crickets! Not even a response that they received my E mail.  If anyone knows an E Mail address for a real executive, rather than a generic department name, I would appreciate it.  While we have sailed on Princess 35 times. for 400 days , I don't want to book another until this problem has been resolved.  Right now, not very confident about Princess's Sail with Confidence.

Appreciate any help you can provide.

AZ Stan

No, I did not.  I wonder which of us would have been relegated to eating alone.

When I tried to edit my reservation at 6:40 PM, my party of 3 will be split across multiple tables in Skagway, whereas my initial reservation in Ketchikan is for a private table.  Not good!

Can anyone tell me which sodas are included as "foutain sodas"?  SIL lives on club soda, and has the Plus package.  Hopefully he does not ahve to buy by the can,

Stan

Sailing in November, got the Plus pkg for the first time.  Not many alcoholoic drinks for the two of us, but I do like the specialty coffees, a beer now and then, plus diet cokes, and bottled water.  While the math might not exactly add up, I thought just not worrying about how much any of this costs is worth the purchase of Plus.  Once on board, I will see what I think of it then.

BTW, I do like the 10% off excursions, and one excursion for the 2 of us will make up for the cruise # OBC being dropped.

AZ Stan

Thanks to all of you for your information and opinions.  I, too, do not use wifi much while cruising, but the unlimited plan does have some stated benefits, since I don't have to constantly log out and back in.  I guess I should factor in the convenience factor.  Does anyone here know how much it would cost to upgrade from the Elite minutes to unlimited for a 15 day cruise?

I am currently booked on a Sky Princess Transatlantic cruise, Sep, 2021.  When I booked, it included a drink package, Gratuities, and Internet.  With Elite status, we get some sort of internet provided, along with a mini Fridge setup.  We do not drink much, so the stated value of the drink package is seriously overstated.  My real question is this:  Is the booking promo internet, valued at $149.55 according to the travel summary, a serious step-up from the Elite status internet?

We might be willing to re-fare, and drop the 3 booking promo features, and reduce the fare.  Thanks in advance for your input.

8 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

I am posting my review here to allow for comments and questions.  I'll try to keep my paragraphs short!

We are a senior couple from US; we had done 43 cruises prior to this one, on X, RC, HAL, Cunard, Premier, and one each, years ago, on NCL, Carnival, Princess, Fred.Olsen, and MSC.

MSC is our new favorite cruiseline.

 

We chose Bella experience because we wanted set dining, and we don't use room service.  It was a good fit.

We had applied for Status Match over a year ago, and received Diamond level on MSC.

We booked two 7-night cruises/B2B, and were very glad we did.

 

The CC Meet & Mingle events were excellent.  We spoke with a number of officers, and the French, English, and German hosts.  All were very warm and welcoming, and open to hearing our impressions of the ship and the cruise.

 

We had cabin 9025, a balcony.  Very comfortable, roomier than RC cabins, with excellent service from Adrian, our cabin steward.  Yes, we did have wash cloths, tissues, toilet paper, and all the other amenities.

 

Overall, we thought the food was good to excellent.  We always say we will go to MDR for at least one breakfast and one lunch, but after a few days in the buffet, we knew we were hooked. Muesli with fresh fruit, congee, bacon, Sticky Buns!  It was nice to eat outdoors when the weather was good.  The buffet is set up in separate sections, with dishes and cutlery between, so there was never a long line at any point.

Late night pizza! 

MDR dinners were fine.  We were able to keep our excellent servers, Savnell and Merian, for our second week.  They knew our preferences after the first night, and always provided.

 

We attended all eight shows (7 evenings, plus one matinee) the first week, and most of them the second week.  For the most part, very entertaining, and a refreshing change from the usual Rock and Broadway-themed shows on so many other ships.  I would have liked to know more about the cast!

 

The ship:  Beautiful!  Nice flow from one public venue to another, lots of big windows with views of the sea and sky.  Deck 8 outdoor walkway is fabulous!  The only downside is that it is not open all the way around, as spa uses part of it.

The ship design makes it very stable.  We missed two ports due to high winds, but never felt more than an occasional shudder; no rocking and rolling whatsoever.

 

Fellow passengers:  Of 4500 or so passengers, fewer than 700 were Americans.  With Canadians and UK, English-speaking are still a minority.  We really enjoyed that.  It felt like a real travel experience, not just another hometown.  We didn't experience any of the rudeness that some have commented on; in fact, quite the opposite.  It was humbling to be able to talk with Europeans and South Americans and hear their very competent English.

 

Ocean Cay:  Paradise.  We hope they don't ruin it by building a theme park.

 

Music:  Good variety, all around the ship.  It was nice to not be bombarded with "Margaritavile" and "Sweet Caroline". 

 

In short, we enjoyed it so much that we came home and booked two more weeks on MSC for April/May, relinquishing a RC future cruise credit.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your very nice review.  We (DW Pat and I), with our daughter and son-in-law, April 25 and May 2.  Daughter and s-i-l will only do the first week, but DW Pat refused to pack suitcases for anything lesws than 2 weeks.  Are these the same dates you'll be sailing?

We were on the Seaside in Feb 2018, and found some real shortcomings.  I think they were mostly teething-pains, and MSC has learned the American market since then.

Hoping to get together onboard.

Stan

If we book 2 balcony cabins which are not interior connecting cabins on the Seaside, can the balcony dividers be opened allowing passage from one balcony to the next?

Stan

On 10/7/2019 at 6:28 AM, suzyed said:

Not worried, Bill, just wondering. 😉   If Chuck is working on the laptop and I want to do something on my phone, it would be nice to be able to using my minutes since I hear you can only use one device at a time even on the 4 devices plan.

Susan,

You can be logged in at up to 4 devices simultaneously.  You only log in once at each device, and you do not need to log out.  Pat and I both had our cell phones logged in, and one of our travel companions had a problem printing their boarding passes on the last day, so I went to the Internet Cafe with them, logged in to one of the terminals there.  That was our third device logged in.

The speed was also fantastic for us, on a Ft Laud to Quebec City cruise.

Stan

7 hours ago, RestonCruiser said:

We have used EZ Air many times but never for business class. Can anyone tell me about the process and any good results?

 

Business (or First) Class fares through EZ Air are almost always much better than pricing through the airlines.  I can honestly say that I cannot remember any time when that was not the case when talking international flights.

For example, we are booked on a December cruise out of Rome.  The price from Alitalia from JFK is $2496 for Premium Economy, or $7641 for Business, both one way.  

Our deal through EZ Air, Delta from Phoenix to JFK, then Alitalia JFK to Rome, is $1276 for the entire one way routing.  When we originally booked, the fare was $1551 pp, but subsequently we found lower prices on the Princess site.

My advice is to book as early as you can (330 days from the end of your cruise), then keep checking prices.  I would never pay 7, 8, or 9 thousand for a flight to Europe, but at the EZ air pricing it's a no-brainer

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

Kroger ? ... sometimes they offer double or even 4 times fuel points with gift card purchases

 

we don't have a local one, but our son does and we just send him money to get ours so he can get the discount

 

never a problem using them ... and he gets a nice discount when he fills up "the beast" (Excursion)

Yes, we also have used multiple Princess gift cards for cruise payment.  When Krogers is giving 4X gas points, we usually get a $500 card.  With 2 cars, it is a no-brainer.  Never a problem with our TA applying the cards to our booking.

Stan

18 hours ago, sidari said:

We did this on Divina, speak to guest services towards the end of the first week, they will issue the room cards for the second week. Your cabin steward will help you move.

2 hours ago, cruzlover said:

We did this last year on the Divina and were told to leave everything in the cabin and the stewards would look after moving it. We did empty the drawers and countertops into our suitcases but left the clothes on the hangers in the closet as instructed.  We ended up having to go back to our original cabin to collect our belongings ourselves so be aware that may happen. 

 

We received a letter in our cabin (I think the day before) outlining the process for returning guests. We were escorted as a group off the ship and went right back on. We were also allowed to go back to our cabins instead of hanging around waiting. There was a special luncheon for us in the dining room as well

Thanks to both of you.

Stan

HI,

We are contemplating doing a B2B in April-May, 2020, but would have to book separate rooms for each cruise.  Does MSC offer any assistance in moving all the stuff?  This would be on the Seaside if that makes any difference.  Any experience you might have had is appreciated.

Stan

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We also love EZAIR (HAL uses the same travel organization) when we book International First/Business class.  Domestic has generally not been particularly good, but those international fares are sometimes amazing.  Our air strategy is quite simple.  Soon after we are within 330 days of the disembarkation day we will check the Princess online site and snag our preferred air flights.  We then continue to watch the Princess EZAIR site (usually about once a week) for changes, additions and/or fare changes.  If we later find better flights, better airlines, or better prices we simply change our flex air booking.  

 

For folks that do not understand airline booking systems, the cruise line's software will not let you book any flights until your returning flight (on disembarkation day) is within the 330 day airline booking window.   

 

Hank

I have a spreadsheet which calculates 330 days from the end of my cruise booking, so it will remind me when to check EZ Air.  My November 2021 Enchanted Princess cruise will open for air booking on Christmas Day 2020.

Stan

25 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

October 2021...booked it now to get our cabin of choice, will re-fare later.

Booked Enchanted Princess November 2021 Transatlantic.  Book early, get the cabin location you want, then reprice when the right sale comes along...win, win!

Stan

10 hours ago, Go-Bucks! said:

Back in April, 2019, when I booked my next cruise, Ezair was having a sale. I got r/t airfare on Delta from Ohio to FLL for $69!!! Sweet!

Just curious, is the $200 off airfare sale $200 off per person, or per cabin?

2 hours ago, fluffybunny22 said:

He actually is the one who picked this cruise. I think because there were no pictures of the Sky for him to see he didn't realize how big it was. I know he's looked at the deck plan but just didn't realize the size until he saw pictures and looked into how many people it holds. He has the exact cabin  he wanted and a drink package and I'm willing to do the drink runs so he can hang out on the balcony.

No need to do a "drink run".  Order your drink on your smart phone, the Medallion will know where you are, and it will be delivered to you.  Yes, it really works.

Stan

6 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

I have been burned three times by different TA and have little trust in them.  The perks they offered were not worth the agony I had with them.  

Satxdiver, could you please elaborate on how you were "burned" by a TA?  I have fortunately never had a problem with a TA, and have used 3 of them over the years.  Always a lower price, plus extra OBC, no problems.

Stan

On 8/18/2019 at 4:57 PM, Camelia- said:

Enjoyed reading this review very much! Interesting to see your comment about some people being miserable....was this just generally a negative attitude overall or about specific instances? I remember reading that there was a problem with the tendering in one of the ports..I imagine that there must have been a lot of unhappy people then!!

Camelia,

We were also on this cruise, and we felt there was very little to criticize.  Food was excellent, as was the service for the most part (a couple of waiters in Anytime dining were less than stellar), but overall, most were top notch.

About the tenders...one morning, we were scheduled on a Princess tour, and there was a long wait for tenders.  We were told that the ship had to be re-positioned due to either winds or currents, can't remember which.  When we actually got into the tender, and it was about to leave the tender dock, it sideswiped the tender dock, and then ended up ramming into the next dock forward. Then, about 10 minutes later, a ship's officer came down, and said there was a "technical" problem with that tender, and we had to move to another tender.  Our tour ended up being an hour late.  Inconvenient? Yes, but not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

A cruise is what you make of it.  Keep a positive attitude, and overlook the little things that don't go as well as you would like.  Remember that the crew who are working for you, for the most part are working 11 hours a day, 7 days a week, so be nice to them, and remember to say "thank you".

Stan

1 hour ago, tntornadox said:

So I am sailing on Regal the beginning of December and OR is now available. I have completed all the bubbles except for Cruise Personalizer. I click on it and log in but once I go back the bubble never turns green? Is that an issue at all? I presume as long as everything else is complete all should be well?

Go back into cruise personalizer on your phone, scroll down, and check to see if all of the check boxes referring to your credit card for onboard purchsers are checked.  That worked for me.

Stan

1 hour ago, lstone19 said:

I have a medallion cruise in late October. I was surprised to find the OceanReady app already let me enter it and start entering information (passports, photos). I've already entered everything in the Cruise Personalizer but the Personalizer bubble is showing not ready with the orange exclamation point. Is there something else that needs to be done in the Personalizer or is just because it's too far out even though it let me do everything else.

If Ocean Ready shows your personalizer is not complete, even though it appears that way on your PC, scroll down for the personalizer on your phone, and make sure all the required check boxes are indeed checked.  That should do the trick.

Stan