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nho9504

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Everything posted by nho9504

  1. I just checked the waiter style opener in the kitchen drawer - unfortunately it has a less than 1" tiny toothed blade - that means a no go? We drive to the port so no need to pass airport security, just the ship security... If it is a sure thing the room attendant can lend us one to open the bottle, I would be fine. He does not need to lend it for the whole cruise, just enough time for me to open the bottle.
  2. When I bought the tickets from Southampton coach to LHR T5 the website did not offer me any seat selection option. Where did you find the seat selection function? Edit - I see it now after I logged in my account - Seat Reservation is one of the extra service at 2 GBP each person. All 5 front rows are available. I guess there is no need to pay the extra given the tickets are bought and 5 rows seats not reserved, yet... We dont really care about sitting together either. On top of that I bought the 2 out of the last 3 seats available for sale on the time schedule we wanted. Should have bought it much earlier, i.e. 2 to 3 months out when it was 17.80 GBP (on all schedules that day) but when I remembered this thing, it was 1 month 3 weeks out from departure time, only 3 seats were still available! I promptly bought our 2 seats. Else it would be the next bus that leaves at 11am...
  3. Sky Princess transatlantic arriving on Mar 25 at 7am. We plan to take the walk off option to leave the ship as soon as possible. If by 8:30am we can walk off and taxi is available outside, we can make it to Nat'l Express coach station around 9:15am? I bought the 2 out of the last 3 available 9:45am Nat'l Express coach to LHR. Our flight is at 4pm to BER. Purposely get such a late flight in business class for fear we might miss the 9:45am coach to LHR T5. If we arrive LHR T5 before 12 noon, we would just head to the BA lounge to kill time. But the 4pm flight would give us a wee bit of room should we not make the 9:45am coach... The 2nd bus would arrive at 13:30...
  4. In other words we probably need to use Uber App for the very first time. Duh. I have been successful in avoiding using Uber so far so good, due it’s unfair treatments to the drivers and other unethical issues.
  5. We have done the National Express coach from Southampton to LHR before. Took a taxi from pier to National Express coach station, then their scheduled coach to LHR. This would get us to LHR earlier than Princess transfer and of course almost 50% cheaper. My question is, do the taxis at Southampton take credit card? Our last trip in this mode was several years ago before Pandemic. At that time I still had some GBPs left from previous trip so I could paid with cash which was less than 20 FBP. Alas the remaining GBP bills that I still have are replaced by new type several years ago. I only found that out on the last night at Renaissance LHR when I told the Front Desk if the Marriott Gift Card balance was a few pounds short to cover the stay, they could take the cash from this pike. The night manager went over them and told me only a 1 pound and a 2 pounds coins were still good. Lol. I later know the old bills can be exchanged to new bills at Bank of London or post office. Too bad I did not know this during our 4 days in London before flying to Rome. Thanks to the fact that contactless payment system is everywhere including in all transportation modes, we did not use any cash, plastic all the way. Now we are taking Sky Princess transatlantic disembarking at Southampton on March 25th at 7am. We need a taxi ride from the pier (no idea which one) to National Express coach station for our 9:45am coach to LHR. I hope the taxis would take plastic, and hope no one would pull the scam saying his CC machine not working…. I suspect many drivers would not like to take a short 20 GBP fare versus getting some ignorant passengers for a several hundreds FBP fare to London, so they may pull such scam. Anyone who took taxi at Southampton last year, please chime in. Your data points are much appreciated. 🙂
  6. It depends on how the sailings is shown in Princess system. Very often for a 14 days Europe cruise they are 2 voyages despite you book it as a single reservation. In those cases you will get 2 minibar set up. In those Caribbean cruises that return to Ft Lauderdale before starts the 2nd 7 days, it will be 2 voyages and 2 minibars. Transatlantic then continues to Europe for another 7 days, despite you book it as one 23 to 25 days sailing, again you will get 2 minibar set up. In the long past when elite internet benefit was free minutes, if you hadn’t logged in in the first portion of your trip, the system would eliminate your entitlement and only gave you the 2nd voyage entitlement. The Internet cafe manager would fix that.
  7. All 3 dining rooms have extremely similar set up from decors to table arrangements. As for the wait staff, there is no telling until you are at your table. The poster’s questions are very strange as if there will be any discernible differences in the MDRs when they are no surcharge to all passengers…. The only meaningful difference is the location. We do not like the Aft dining room that you need to get down from one level above. When there are events the corridor getting to the stair case can be awfully crowded.
  8. They fixed it. It wasn't there yesterday when I searched everywhere. At the end I bought it from the old Medallion App. Now it shows the "upgrade" bubble (to the 4 devices).
  9. Let me put it this way, Princess wants you to buy the Plus / Premium regardless it makes sense to you. If you dont buy it, then Princess STILL wants to gauge you by making you pay $10 for the Medallion sent to you. However, this option is not even available to those who live outside US and Canada, nor useful to those who left home long before the cruise, like we did last Fall when they only sent the Medallion 2 weeks before sailing. We left home a full month before because we had a private land tour in Jordan and Egypt. Yeah, when we returned home from the long trip, the Medallions were in the pile of mails that were held by the post office (I actually had to do some trick to extend the hold longer than the mandatory 30 days limitation). Based on several comments here on the recent Caribbean winter cruises that whether you were in the Green lane or the Blue lane, the difference was less than 15 min before you walked to the ship... In fact if over 60% of the passengers already had the Medallions and only 40% who didn't, 40% of passengers would go thru the formality than 60%, even they had to pick up their Medallions! So basically this yet another trick on your psychology to justify giving them extra money...
  10. So once you enable the WiFi hotspot, any device nearby can use the Hotspot "network" with the password, incl an iPad?
  11. It did not work earlier in the afternoon. All it showed were the Plus and Premium packages, no internet package. I KNEW I had seen it in the New App somewhere just a few days ago. Then I found it in the Old Medallion App and purchased there. Immediately after purchase, it still not shows in the New App, like urging you to upgrade to multiple devices, but it shows in the Old App. Now it finally shows up in the New App as 1-Device Plan. At least both Apps recognize our Elite statuses, despite we NEVER are able to log in with our Princess website credentials on either app, can only log in with Booking Number. It serves the purpose so I have not spent much time in trying to fix this glitch as long as it still recognizes our statuses. Princess should not make things so hard for the passengers. If it weren't due to RCCL not sending any newer ship except Odyssey of the Sea for Transatlantic, we would not be on Sky to cross the ocean. Oh, HAL is worse. We did the Rome to Ft. Lauderdale on Statendam last Fall. The quality of almost everything was SO Poor. As an example, their Dutch Cafe mimic the Princess International Cafe has only 1/2 or less the size and may be only 1/5 the choices of foods...
  12. It disappeared from my account. It was there a few days ago. Today when I tried to purchase the internet package, all being shown are the Plus and Premium Upgrade Packages! No any other package whatsoever! I later found the Medallion Net package on the Old Medallion App. Thank goodness I haven't uninstalled the old app after downloading the new app.
  13. I too, was able to purchase it thru the Old Medallion App. The option WAS in the web version of the New App as well as in the New App, IS NOT THERE today when I tried to purchase the internet package. I did not even know about this news, just it was a thing on my To Do List that I decided to cross it today, i.e. get it done today. I wasn't able to find the Internet Package at all on both website and New App. I KNEW the Internet Package WAS on both the Web Version and the New App just a few days ago when I checked. Now the option was taken away from my account both the web version and the new App. Thankfully I still have the old Medallion App on my phone, that I almost uninstall it after downloading the New App a week or more ago. Also thankfully there was an active link "to continue use the old App" or something like that, at the bottom of the screen, right below it told you to download the New App. The Medallion Net option was still in the Old Medallion App, and allowed me to proceed to purchase an Internet Package.
  14. When I called earlier I opted for the "Call Back" option, when the chat function said there were 64 persons ahead of me... I seriously doubt that 64 number because chats usually have a cut off after a number of persons waiting to get connected ... An overseas (probably from Philippines judging by the accent) rep called back. By that time I already made the purchase on the old Medallion App, but the package is a no show. She verified the package was in my booking now. If I wanted to see it (Yes, I do), go to the Booking on the website, and go to the function labeled as Document which let you print luggage tags (never use that as we always only take carryons), then find Print Travel Summary - the package should be listed in the Travel Summary. She had to guide me step by step to find that Print Travel Summary function - then at the very bottom of the Summary before the fine prints, there it is, the 1 device internet package for the full itinerary. Whew! Princess website itself is always buggy to me. It almost always gives me log in failure saying the credentials are not recognized, but if I keep trying, after the 4th try I am able to log in... I dont know what is wrong with its server. To this day we still are NOT able to log in normally on both the old app and the new app, have to use Booking Number to log in. Since it serves the purpose I quit trying to have this "fixed". The stark difference in the performances of RCL and CCL is very tell tale on which company is better run.
  15. @jean-lynd Thanks you so much for the heads up. Also thank my luck that I decided to take care of this item from the To Do list this week end, as DH's remaining balance to spend to earn the sign up bonus is down to just over $400. So I figure I would take care of this before the next statement date. I am glad I still have the Old Medallion App on the phone. The internet package purchase is still on the Old Medallion App as Medallion Net package. This option is removed from both the website version of the app and the new Princess App - to prevent people buy the package BEFORE THEY RAISE THE PRICE... What a low class act!
  16. The internet package WAS available under Package in the new App, also in the web version of the Medellion App, just a few days ago. Now disappears from both places! Terrible!
  17. I did not know that but was just trying to buy it today. But I CANNOT find the area to buy. I definitely saw it a few days ago, both on the web and in the App. On the app you add all info from name to credit card anew. In the App you either use the existing card or can add a new card. THIS FUNCTION DISAPPEARS from both Web and App! Can somebody tell me WHERE on the Web version of the Medallion or in the new Princess App the purchase internet package is found? Because I cannot find the function, I came over here to find answer. It is not even in the new Princess App. I guess they deliberately took it out so we cannot buy it at last minute.. The only option might be to buy it over the phone?
  18. Grapefruit has reaction to many prescriptions. In particular, those who take Warfarin as a "blood thinner" to reduce stroke risk, grapefruit is an absolute NO NO. Though I suppose many patients would know about this. Given Princess passengers profiles, a very high % of the passengers would be AF patients. If they take Eliquis, a different type of "blood thinner" drug with a complete different mechanism, grapefruit is not that harmful.
  19. Thank you. A few years ago, pre Pandemic time, Celebrity briefly tried to sell their cruises ONLY with packages. The experiment did not go well. At the end it quietly changed back to also offer the "standard" fares. They were pioneer in generating revenues. Princess is just a copycat, as it always does. Celebrity and Royal Caribbean the parent company, also pioneered the nonrefundable deposit years ago. Not sure if Princess has this or not because we usually booked only 2 to 3 months before sailing. It is quite unusual that we booked the current Mar sailing in Dec, but because obstructed deluxe balcony cabins are tricky to book - good locations go fast. Hence when we saw a sudden flash sale, we decided to book it (payment in full was due within 24 hours after booking), while cancel our Seaborne Middle East to Europe via Suez Canal booking. Our goal is to go to Europe by a Transatlantic cruise, whatever ports do not matter as we have been at those ports many times. We often do not even get off the ship. Sky while sails earlier than we prefer, it goes to Southampton, better than other ships (only the relatively new ships among all lines) we look at. It is much easier to fly to other parts of Europe from LHR, than say, from FCO or BCN. Flying British Airways business class to Europe is relatively cheap while gives us lounge access, so we can book a late afternoon flight, not to worry about too much on the disembarkation time at Southampton.
  20. It depends on the equipment. Some are not bad. The expensive one that can beat stuff skin et al into puree, could make truly nutritional drinks that are easy to absorb by human body, especially by patients who have special needs.
  21. Just a friendly reminder - A friend who is a Diabetic Specialist Doc. She said "Fruits are Candies growing on the trees. Fruit juice is much worse than eating a whole fruit, which some of them are really in very high sugar contents, such as the popular oranges." Besides we do not like to add any extract into our black coffee. I personally dont like Vanilla at all. The best coffee from Italy is not offered on Princess, period. The only flavored coffee drink I sometimes would take is a White Russian or just have some Irish Cream liqueur added to very dark coffee that I occasionally take after dinner on a long haul business class flight cross the oceans. Now, when you add this and that, you might as well go a step or 2 higher to cruise on Seaborne. We originally had a Seaborne from Doha to Europe crossing the Suez Canal... In light of the middle east conflicts we cancel it. Though surprisingly to see the ship is still going, at least for now. Sailing date pushed out a little bit. Again, YMMV.
  22. No. We are elites. Several years ago we exchanged the minibar for 2 coffee cards. We could not even use up 1 card. Both of us only drink black coffee, so none of the specialty coffee would interest us. Specialty teas are not our tea. Pun not intended. His primary beverage needs is really plain water, not even bottled water. I occasionally drink a bit of wine, and beers. I would exchange all soda cans to Perrier, and all alcohols to beer. Still, fairly often at the end of a Transatlantic, there often still a bottle or 2 beer left. When you subtracts the internet and the gratuities, the remaining balance is still WAY TOO HIGH to pay for most things we do not use. That is how I do my math - because internet is $7.50 a day, gratuity is $16 a day. So less than $25 a day are items we do need to pay. What is the cost for a Plus package? $60. That means $35 pays for things we do not use. My math does not give a conclusion that paying $35 extra a day per person for items we do not use is worth it. Your math of course is different.
  23. @Thrak Thanks a lot for your candid reply. I too, have read about people's disappointment of the Casablanca / Marrakesh.
  24. I am feeling embarrassing to ask these questions, being a Princess elite with 25 cruises I should know better how things work. Alas, after having not cruised with Princess for a long time, I am no longer certain on how things work! So here are things I want to clarify. My recollection is, if only ONE passenger responsible the whole group's shipboard accounts, all passengers balances whether they are charges or OBCs would be combined to calculate, at EACH nightly processing. At the end of the cruise, it all nets to the responsible person's CC if there is a balance to pay. Do I remember it correctly? Here are the background : 1) In our upcoming cruise, I use my account as the account responsible for both myself and DH shipboard charges. i.e. only linked one CC that is mine. We also have a small amount of OBC, made up of CCL shareholder $250 and $30 each from our agent who gave $30 group discount to each passenger. The CCL OBC is in my account so I have $280 total and DH has $30. 2) We only booked Princess Standard due to DH does not drink at all while I only drink very moderately. Hence even the Plus does not make sense to us. That also means we need to buy internet, in this case it is $120 on a 16 days cruise. 3) I want to prepay one person's crew appreciation of $256, and may also buy the $120 internet before sail because we need to put some spend on a certain CC by Feb in order to earn a bonus. Right now we are short of $700 to meet the spend of $6000. So I am looking for ways to fill the $700. This brings confusion - WHICH passenger's crew appreciation should I prepay? If I prepay DH's, he would have $30 OBC left - would that combine with my account for the final settlement? If I pay my crew appreciation, my full $280 OBC would go to offset DH's remaining balance of crew appreciation of $226 after the $30 OBC, Is this correct? 4) Some of you may say, book some excursions. Well, we have done more than a doz Transatlantic cruises, all the ports except Casablanca we have been many times. We really are using the cruise as a comfortable and cheap way to cross the pond leisurely. The post cruise land trip is where our focus is. (Or pre-cruise, if doing the opposite direction). I did look at the excursion offers. Those on Morocco look interesting but upon doing some research, the reviews are not good. A good number of people said it did not worth the price tags. I also am not sure how booking Excursions before sailing work - Can you use OBC to book, i.e. without charging to a CC for payment? Someone said you get 10% rebate on the OBC after the excursion is completed. Anyone has experiences can chime in? If using a CC for payment then if you cancel the excursion bookings before deadline, do you get the refund back to the original form of payment? Or it becomes a refundable OBC ? (Very annoying and is another way the cruiseline companies want you to still eventually spend that $) Sorry for the seemingly very basic questions for the Princess board. I do appreciate comments and suggestions.
  25. No email confirmation from Zac the person or Zac the robot. But the App robot sent an email on OBC successfully applied at 12:51pm, but did not arrive until after 2:30pm US EST. Just went on Princess site, the OBC posted. Glad to learn about the 10% rebate on Excursion as an elite benefit. Where can we find such benefit's description on Princess site?
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