DivotMaker

Just now, snoozecrooze said:

Have you been to the newest production shows before? I recommend giving them a try. Hope you have a festive time onboard!

It’s been about 9 months since our last Princess cruise.  We love their shows!   Thank you.   

3 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

You should definitely plan on trying "The Catch"!

Oh yeah we already have reservations 😀

Departing 12/16 on Sky Princess.  Ports are:

Princess Cays
San Juan
Grand Turk
Amber Cove

Cabin is a mini suite on deck 12. 

If anyone would like pics of any menus, areas of the ship, or anything else, just post here and I’ll do my best.  Thanks.

We booked before the "new" Premier perks came out (as you can see below from our reservation).  From the Q&A it states:

Will I receive the new perks if I purchased Princess Plus or Premier at the old rate of $50/$75 per day?
You can absolutely upgrade to the new perks at the new price! If you do not wish to upgrade, you can enjoy the package with the original perks as you initially purchased them.

Our travel companions called Princess today and were told it would be $20/day to upgrade, which makes no sense to me since we all paid $75/day when we bought it and it's now $80/day, so just a $5/day difference.  I was going to call Princess tomorrow to see if I received a different answer since it seems there's a lot of confusion due to all the new changes.  Curious if anyone has upgraded from the "old" $75/day Premier to the "new" $80/day Premier and what their cost was.  Thanks.   

Thank you all for the replies.  I actually called back shortly after posting this and received the exact same answer from a different person, so definitely a little frustrating, but at least I know now thanks to you all.  Have a great day and thank you for your kindness.

We're traveling with another couple and we each have two specialty dining credits.  I attempted to make a reservation for 4 at Crown Grill using the app.  At the top of the app it says "You have a dining credit!  Credit will be applied automatically at reservation confirmation."  So, I added the other party to my reservation and prior to hitting Confirm Reservation it shows the total would be $0 with the $156 Dining Credit.  I clicked the Confirm button, but then receieved an error that my reservation couldn't be submitted so I called Princess.  They said specialty dining reservations aren't needed for Club Class which I haven't been able to confirm anywhere else.  Any help navigating through this is appreciated.

2 minutes ago, Bases5 said:

No  The way I understand it is the 50% cancellation fee will be your FCC and the other 50% will be returned to you in the original form of payment. 

Ok, thank you.  That makes much more sense.

Can someone help me with this section of the new policy:

"For passengers who booked before March 6, 2020, if you decide to change vacation plans, Carnival will allow those booked on sailings between now and May 31 to move their booking to a new date and receive a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) in the amount of the non-refundable cancellation fee."

Cruise is first week of April and fully paid.  Cancellation fee is 50% of fare.  

Does policy above mean we have to move our current booking to a new date and will be charged the 50% cancellation fee which we can then use for a future cruise?  So essentially we now have to take two cruises to come out even?  Very confused, thanks.

15 hours ago, Kfrech said:

We are sailing Koningsdam to Alaska on June 13th. Our final payment was due on March 1st (big box TA). We have until March 13th to purchase HAL's CFAR insurance (which we intended to do). Here are my questions:

 

If HAL extends their cancellation policy for sailings beyond May 31st, will they refund the CFAR insurance? I'm ok with a FCC (instead of only receiving 90% back through the Platinum policy.)

 

Am I correct in assuming that once we cancel our trip, anything we pre-purchased (beverage package, additional OBC), is directly credited back to our CC?

We're on the June 13th cruise too, just on Eurodam.  Hoping it gets extended as well.  We booked two tours that weren't available through HAL with a certain travel site and both have "no refund" policies so I just emailed asking if they would reconsider given the current situation and if we did end up pushing our cruise date further back if they would allow us to book new dates for the tours.  Fingers crossed.

13 minutes ago, glam mistress said:

Here is some tragic news - two DP passengers have died. 

 

 

Oh my goodness that is just horrible news. A man and woman both in their 80’s.  So sad.  

23 hours ago, kazu said:

You just sign the slip and take your wine to your cabin.  They should give you a sticker and assuming they do, then it proves that the corkage has been paid and, if you want, you can take the bottle to a public venue like the MDR with no problem 🙂 

 

Thank you posting this.   We are planning to bring on several bottles of wine on our next cruise and I was wondering how they tracked the ones we paid a corkage fee for.

FWIW, there is an online URL checker that I often use and instruct my staff to use whenever in doubt about links that are sent to them.  It's hosted by Trend Micro, a very reputable security company.  Here's the link -> https://global.sitesafety.trendmicro.com/

I don't disagree, but, as shown in other posts on this board, there will always be people who will only go by what's in writing and in official policy, so if it's not there they believe they are free to have porters/crew carry their water/soda on board for them.

9 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Do you have a copy of your boarding document?  I think it might be in there.  I know they specify alcohol has to be carried on in the Know Before You Go but it doesn’t specifically mention non-alcoholic beverages.  The cruise contract alludes to it:

 

 

Thanks Miss G, we don't set sail until June, so I was really just curious.  But I still think it's prudent for guests to carry their own beverages aboard.  I just wish HAL would be more obvious about this requirement as some will continue to force porters/crew to carry it on board without explicit guidelines indicating it's not allowed.

48 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

 

If HAL say to carry on your water and soda why is it not possible for you to abide by their request?

 

Where do they say that?  I’m not saying it’s not in their policy but I genuinely want to know as I cannot find it.  And FWIW, we would always carry our own on board as I personally don’t think it’s right to risk damaging someone else’s luggage or its contents.  

Just now, purduemom1 said:

 

Thank you  for reposting from FB. I have been following David and Sally on YouTube but I don’t use FB so am glad you posted. If possible, please post any additional messages. Thanks so much.

You're welcome and I certainly will.  I've been following them from the start and when they announced they were positive it just left a hole in my heart.  I certainly realize nobody on board is more important than anyone else, but his humor and attitude have really resonated with me over time and I feel like I know him.  Just seems like someone I'd really enjoy chatting with over a glass of whiskey 🙂

2 minutes ago, fragilek said:

 The last I looked (a few days ago) there were 18 serious in hospital from on the ship 

I've been following the stats on Worldometer and it's just slightly different:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

From David Abel's FB Page:

"Sally and I waited 8 hours in the cabin to be transported to a hostel. We are still on the ship!

They do NOT send folk with the virus to a hostel!

16 minutes ago, TrulyBlonde said:

Letter was just issued today. It states the dates as "when they are allowed to leave ship". Steve Herman on Twitter has copy of new letter. Also, assumes they were exposed.

For those of you following the Princess saga, I just read that David Abel and his wife tested positive.  Heartbreaking.  

40 minutes ago, esimon said:

on an Alaskan cruise - gala night means Long sleeve camo shirts LOL  --- many get dressed up but it's optional.

LOL!  My dogs just looked at me wondering why I was laughing so hard.  Good one!

From the HAL website : Suite_info_from_HAL.pdf

I came across an interesting website with statistics on Coronavirus - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

It has quite a variety of graphs, charts, etc showing trends that some may find helpful.  

We're cruising in June on Eurodam and after planning out our daily/nightly activities with my OCD personality, we realized we only have 3 nights that would work for specialty dining so we went ahead and purchased online.  Sure, we won't save a few $$, but this way we'll not have to worry about getting our preferred times/nights.  Plus, we want to try all 3 specialty restaurants as they seem to offer some pretty good selections.

43 minutes ago, whitford said:

Bring out own wine and pay the corkage fee. Love the staff on HAL and would like similar on alternative line. Price is not the most important consideration. I do not like roving bands of kids, booze cruises, water slides/attractions and really big crowded ships. Please let me know your first hand experiences both pro and con.

We've tried RCI, NCL, Princess, Celebrity, and Carnival.  After much research here, we deciced to give HAL a shot for a June cruise to Alaska and are really looking forward to it.  If you do find something else, I'd be interested to hear how it goes as we have the same requirements as you mentioned above.