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On 8/10/2023 at 10:07 AM, Kiwi_cruiser said:

Found this great drone video of the Coral Princess in Greenock, Scotland - 22nd July 2023:
 

 

That's Jo on the right and Gary who are doing the blog gaznjoworld2023.blogspot.com

52 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

 Interesting that you can track your passports' progress.  

When the Passport Office advised that my Passport was on its way, they gave me a tracking number.  I had to then log on separately to Australia Post to find out further movements.  My husband's Passport was scanned at Northgate last night so hopefully it will be delivered next week.

Lodged my Passport application at local post office, Monday 12.12.22.

Advised Wednesday 14.12.22 (6.58 am) that it was approved and to expect within a week.

Tracked to Dandenong South  Vic Facility Wednesday 14.12 (2.58 pm).

                    Northgate Qld Sunday 18.12 (4.11 pm)

                    Onboard for local delivery Tuesday 20.12 (9.09 am).

Not delivered Tue, Wed, Thur so lodged a customer enquiry.  Told probably delayed due to high volume of mail this time of year.

                    Delivered to home address by usual postie (signature required) Fri 23.12 (1.05 pm).

                    TOTAL 11 DAYS!!!

However, my husband's application which was included in the joint Passport Office account and lodged at the same time, was not approved until Wednesday 23.12 and is still at the Dandenong South facility.  Perhaps the applications are processed in different  areas because his is a 5 year Passport and mine is for 10 years.

Check your emails!  P&O have sent another email saying prices incorrect but still stating Guest 2 FREE.

On 11/8/2022 at 2:36 PM, bazzaw said:

 The factors I am interested in are AGE 75+, and breast cancer first diagnosed over 2 years ago with all treatment completed by 1 year ago. Local cruise in Aussie waters. Your experience and advice please . 

We have just completed the 7 night (8 days) Nth Qld cruise from Brisbane.  This was a short cruise for us, less expensive and with the ship providing Covid coverage and both of us being covered on land by Medicare, we decided that this time we would take a risk and only take out the Bare Essentials Cruise policy offered by Insure & Go, which really only covers for evacuation and shipboard medical expenses (other than Covid).   

Our medical details are almost identical to yours. One of us aged 75+ and the other younger with the above diagnosis and treatment within the last 2 years as well as coronary artery disease.  The premium was $251.29 of which $197.09 was for Travel plus $54.20 for the additonal special medical coverage. 

Covermore cover for lots of things including cancellation costs but we thought that if we had to cancel because of Covid, we would at least get a Future Cruise Credit from the Cruiseline.

Luckily, we didn't have to claim this time, but  Insure and Go have previously reimbursed us for shipboard medical expenses and missed ports on overseas cruises.

Sometimes you get a discount online by using a promotional code.

We live in Australia and have a Future Cruise Deposit (FCD) which expires on 30 January 2022.

I had intended to contact Princess  about an extension but they sent an Email on 23 December 2021, stating "We are automatically extending the expiry date of your FCD by 24 months.........

If you wish to opt out of having your FCD extended........please select the Opt Out button below".

We want to extend them so have taken no further action.  As of today, the 30 January 2022 date is still showing in our records, and we are assuming this will be automatically amended after we reach that date. 

I am in Australia and had a booking for a January 2021 cruise using just the $100 Future Cruise Deposit (FCD). 

On 11.5.20 I rang Princess Australia to cancel the booking and as sometimes happens was switched through to a Princess representative in the USA.  I requested a refund as I don't think we'll be cruising again and we have another FCD each in the Captain's Circle Account if the situation changes.  I was told the refund would go to the original mode of payment (credit card) but he didn't know how long it would take.

After hanging up, I checked my cruise personaliser and the relevant FCD was now showing as 'Active' in lieu of 'Applied to Booking #'.  It had the original expiry date.

On 5.6.20, the FCD completely disappeared from the Captain's Circle Account (apparently being processed).

On 12.6.20, the money appeared in our Credit Card account.

During the process I kept a dated copy of what the Circle Savings Account was showing just in case there was any problems. 

On two occasions, we were told by Insure & Go, that they only cover for a period of up to 24 hours before departure for a cruise from an Australian port.  As we wanted to fly interstate for a few nights before boarding, we would have to take out a short domestic policy AND a separate 'cruise' policy.

As we hadn't pre-paid any accommodation etc., we took the risk of only losing the cost of the plane tickets and just insured for the cruise dates.  Unfortunately we missed  ports during both cruises and had to make claims which were successful.   

In May 2019, we sailed on the Diamond Princess from Kobe to other Japanese ports, South Korea and Taiwan and when I booked tours prior to sailing we had the option of paying immediately or  later onboard. (Booking was made in Australia and I opted for later when we could use OBC.)

At the time, it appeared this procedure may have only related to Japanese sailings and was therefore an exception to the Princess Policy of having to pay for tours when booked.  At the completion of our cruise we received an additional receipt (account) from Carnival Japan Inc. for all our tours and shuttles.

If you are booked on a similar cruise, go to the tour reservation section in your Cruise Personaliser and make a 'dummy' booking to see if this option is still available. It was clearly stated at the bottom of the page earlier this year when we booked!

Check EZAIR.  Looks like flights start from $715 AUD pp, SYD-LAX. 

7 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

When does cabin allocation typically happen?

It's now 11 days until we sail and our cabin still hasn’t been assigned and that mean we can’t print our tickets yet. 

This will be our 17th cruise but our first time with P&O. 

We also sail in 11 days on Pacific Eden.  Our cabin was allocated this morning.  No email received, just appeared in Cruise Control.

We are  booked on the Diamond Princess for a cruise in Japan in May 2019.  When looking at the shore tours I was given the option of Pay before you sail or Pay later onboard.

On 4 February, after submitting a number of tours, my Cruise Personaliser shows my Confirmed Reservations and at the bottom it also states:

NEW - "You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise.  If you want, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise."

Is this a new (resurrected) policy by Princess???   I have posted this information on the Australian and New Zealand Cruisers Section of Cruise Critic but as no-one has raised this topic on the general Princess site, I am wondering if the two options for paying for shore excursions is available for all cruises and all passengers.

We are from Australia and this cruise was booked directly with Princess in Australia and will be Japan to Japan in USD.  Just for interest sake P&O Australia have also just reverted to this previous arrangement.  Perhaps they weren't getting enough early tour bookings - understandably when some passengers would be paying out hundreds/thousands of dollars for tours, sometimes months before paying final monies for the cruise. 

On 2/11/2019 at 7:21 PM, Porky55 said:

Interesting, we are booked on Diamond Princess to Japan in May and HAD to pay for our excursions up front and personally, seeing there are only a limited number of English speaking catered tours - I would much prefer to book and pay for an excursion once we choose it. 

Leaving it reserved in your basket leaves the the option for it to “disappear” when you have boarded the ship (oops, so sorry 🙁 from Guest Services).

Even if it says it is confirmed - paid is so much more definite.

Just sayin 😏

Weeks ago when I first looked at the excursions for our 11 May 2019 Japan cruise, there were a number of tours offerred in both Japanese and English and yes you did have to pre-pay.   When I was reviewing the tours (4th February??), I noticed the tours in Japanese have now been deleted and we have the NEW option of the cost being added  to our onboard account.  Previously we were reluctant to pay upfront prior to final monies being paid to confirm the cruise.

We have over 700 days cruising in various parts of the world with Princess and have had no problems regarding confirmed reserved tours which were charged to our account.  

It appears Princess has reverted to their old system but may be it is only for certain cruises or for Aussie passengers.  I haven't seen any comment on the main Princess Cruise Critic site so will post there to see what is happening elsewhere.

2 hours ago, victravellers said:

Interesting, was this a Princess Australia cruise? Where did you see the option to pre pay or pay onboard, was it after you selected your shore tours?

Our cruise is on the Diamond Princess in Japan (May 2019) - Onboard account in $USD,  booked directly on the Australian Princess site.

I went into Manage Booking, Excursions Reservations, and it displays confirmed reservations for the tours I have already chosen.  There are also boxes with the option to Edit or Cancel these selections.

At the bottom of this page it states:

NEW - Pay before you sail, or Pay Later Onboard, then further quote 'You have the option to pay for shore excursions in advance of your cruise.  If you want, we will add the charges to your onboard account which is settled at the end of the cruise.'

When initially selecting a tour from the Browse and Reserve Excursions Section, and submitting the reservation, a message comes up advising if the tour is confirmed and at that point there is also the option of paying before you sail.

Our other cruise is on P&O Australia (account in $AUD) and they now have the two options for when you pay for tours.  Unfortunately, when I booked some tours a few weeks ago I had no choice but to pay upfront. For some reason, they cancelled the bookings when the new system came into place and refunded the credit card.  I had to resubmit the reservations and added some others but my cruise personaliser is still showing incorrect information - another call to P&O required!!!

We have just returned from a cruise so I'm not sure if this topic has been covered. 

When I was checking our bookings for a future P&O and Princess cruise, it states in the shore excursions booking area for both Cruise Lines that I have the choice of pre-paying or can reserve the tour and pay onboard.  May be they weren't getting enough advance bookings and have decided to revert to the previous arrangement.  

Anyway I went ahead and reserved a number of tours and the details have been included in my cruise personaliser.

The reciprocal agreement between P&O and Princess has now ended. P&O stopped recognising Princess cruises a few years ago and Princess stopped recognising P&O cruises this year. I am not sure but I think that the cut off date was that any cruises on Princess that were booked before January 1st are counted, I know that the P&O cruise that we took in April has been counted in our Captains Circle loyalty but the one that we have booked in February for later this year is not showing as a future cruise.

It may be different here in Australia, but the 3 P&O cruises we have recently booked for September, October and next March are showing in our Captains Circle record as future cruises. Originally the March booking did not appear as it was booked by a Travel Agent, whereas I booked the others directly with P&O over the phone and I quoted our Cruiseling Numbers (which are identical to the Captains Circle membership numbers). When the Travel Agent finally advised P&O of the numbers, our Captains Circle record was immediately updated.

I am aware that the days sailed on P&O no longer count towards certain rewards, but we are already Elite with Princess and sometimes get to enjoy the functions for the most travelled passengers on some of our short cruises because of the actual days sailed with Princess.

Here are some of the T&C's

 

Valid for all departures excluding main event cruises

Offer is applicable to value and value plus fares only

 

Cannot be combined with with P&O past passenger offer

Must book by: voucher must be redeemed within 7 days of purchase or by 20 Aug 2018 (which ever is first)

Valid for new booking only, made between 23 Jul 2018 to 20 Aug 2018 (cannot be applied to existing bookings)

Thanks for the above information. Unfortunately, we don't qualify for our existing bookings.

Just reading today's Gold Coast groupon email and see that you can pay $5 and get $50 of OBC on P and O Australia for cruises 6 nights or less, or pay $10 and get $100 of OBC on cruises 7 nights or longer. One voucher per cabin.

Can the coupons be applied to cruises which have been booked directly with P&O and which are fully paid?

Would like to know how the process works.

Don't know what happens in New Zealand, but we did back to back cruises from Brisbane in May/June this year on P&O's Pacific Aria. Unfortunately we had to change rooms, so during the first cruise we let the relevant cabin stewards know what we were planning to do so our new cabin would be ready early.

We received a letter from Passenger Services advising what was required for our B2B cruises and that the stewards would assist with our move. However, as they are so busy on turnaround day and we wanted to spend the day in Brisbane CBD, we moved all our belongings ourselves before departing the ship. We were able to leave some things in the new cabin's safe but needed to take our PASSPORTS withus. We were told to say we were "in transit", but still had to line up until the next group were called to disembark.

We had to finalise our account for the first cruise and check in again in the terminal for the second, later in the day.

Our letter also included Priority Tender Tickets for the second cruise with a statement they were because we were doing B2B cruises and it gave us a Contact Officer (I think her position is similar to the Captain's Circle Host on Princess), if we needed additional information or service.

A couple of days later, we contacted her and said was there anything else available and she gave us Free Internet vouchers.

We were also invited to the Private Event - Cocktails etc, to meet the Captain and Officers, along with about 50 other passengers.

I don't know if these extra perks were given to us because of the B2B cruise or our 'loyalty' to P&O (over a 100 days) and 500 plus with Princess where we have attended the Captain's lunches etc. They obviously have access to our cruising history as the same member number is used on P&O and for the Captain's Circle on Princess. Then again, it probably depends on how active the staff member is in organising these events and services.

ok in checked luggage usually. has that changed?

Just did a check for what Virgin allow in checked baggage.

Comments under Dangerous Goods state that some aerosols may be permitted if declared at the Check-In counter. It then categorises a number of dangerous goods which may be considered and includes 'Aerosols - NON FLAMMABLE GAS - for sporting and home use only.

As my can of Glen 20 has a red square/diamond on it which says FLAMMABLE GAS 2, it is my understanding that it does not fall into that category and therefore cannot be taken on a plane as checked or carry on baggage.

Tin of Glen 20 packed to spray the room and air con vents. A tip I received from fellow passenger on QM2.

We also take Glen 20 for that purpose, but remember you can't take spray cans on a plane!!!

We currently have 3 cruises booked - one with Princess and two (B2B) with P&O.

I have already had next year's Princess cruise refared twice. We lost the original perks but are still $200 per person better off and kept the same booking number and cabin. The current price has risen again and is approximately $200 pp more than our refared cost.

P&O reduced one of the cruises considerably a few weeks ago. They would not refare and I had to lose the $500 deposit and rebook (new number). Even after doing this, we are still $275 pp better off regarding cost and are booked in an oceanview room instead of an inside.

P&O have again reduced prices on both cruises (after final payment) but I would have to completely cancel and rebook and as we are close to sailing may not be able to get on these cruises.

Our general observation is that it is better to book early with Princess where you can pick your cabin number and refare if you see a better deal. For P&O, (unless it is a specific cruise/date that you require), booking last minute may be more beneficial.

 

However, your two messages are encouraging me to do some further thinking about my 2019 travel plans. I am going to put the Pacific Eden's cruise back on my radar.

 

I appreciate you taking the time to post to my concern!

Check out the info under Pacific Eden leaving P&O Australia Fleet in this section of Cruisecritic. It appears her final voyage will be 16 March 2019. The Pacific Aria is identical in design.

Check on Google or Youtube for "The day Harri the stowaway Galah came home on sea Princess". This happened on the New Zealand cruise from Australia in January/February 2018. There is video of Commodore Romano returning the Galah to her owners.

But which cruise lines accept PayPal?

Just checked our Princess booking online and we can pay final money by using PayPal.

It says there will be 1.% charge. I assume they mean 1.1%, which is the usual charge for paying by credit card.