skennedy25

On 11/21/2018 at 11:26 AM, beachmets said:

This morning I went into the Ocean Ready App and we were able to order our medallions and will be able to get them at embarkation.

How useful they will be in January we will see!

I was able to do the same a out 4 wks ago for my 11/18 cruise but come embarking no medallion since our cabin didn't have it

This was just pure AWESOME!!!

44 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

well, I booked under this promotion about a month ago, and since then the price for my cruise went up twice.

From $709 pp to $879 pp to $1,094 pp... So much for not raising the prices during a promotion.

Let me rephrase what i said, rcl and Celebrity raise the price before the promo starts to basically not offer it for free vs what you said is totally opposite.  At that point, princess is raising prices do to supply and demand

8 hours ago, gkthorn said:

My wife has from December 15th to January 1st off.  It would be fabulous to get some sort of group rate going out of the San Pedro California Port.  Would like to inquire if anyone knows of any groups that may be traveling during that period and wouldn't mind having two more aboard?

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

Your best bet would be taking the cruise around the 15th.  the 2nd week, the price will just about double

just keep this in mind, sometimes the group pricing isn't any better than regular pricing or a current promo going on

from what I have seen, Princess is pretty good of not raising their prices during these promos.  The ones who are notorius for raising prices, or basically making you pay for their "free" items promo are celebrity and RCL

3 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

 

Slightly different subject.....I've never used EZAir, but we have two Princess cruises booked in the next 15 months. We live near Memphis, TN. One cruise leave FLL, the other SFO. Does anyone have any recent experience using EZ air domestically (within the USA)? I have heard Princess' air prices are excellent for international travel, but not much about domestic travel.

 

Thanks.

It just depends on how far in advance you book it and which option of EZair you choose, one you pay now and one you pay at final payment.  When we did Alaska several years ago, we flew from Orlando to Seattle and used the Ezair and it was cheaper

Have to keep in mind that like someone else stated, the size of the ship makes a huge difference.  Not just the capability of the port, but the approach to the port.  Some may bridges over the approach that some of the bigger ships can't fit under, or can only fit under certain times of the day.  I know in the caribbean, there are only so many ports you can visit in 7 days and at some point, there may not be islands they can reach over the 7 days.. With us talking about accessability, St Thomas is a prime example.  All the cruise ships have to time it just right on entry and exit to coincide with the tides or they won't make it out.

and to much hand sanitizers isn't good for you.  Best is soap and water

8 hours ago, molme said:

What cabins have the Medallion?..We are sailing in Feb in M201.  Wondering if we may get a chance to try it out.

I think by Feb there should be a really good chance since they have the rest of nov, about 3 weeks in Dec and all of Jan

Dining times are going to be decided per ship and based on clientele and itinerary 

1 minute ago, jennybenny said:

We did 3 for free on our 15 day cruise and everyone got OBC!! It is the most we've ever gotten.  DH wanted to cancel the cruise and I said no way!  I wanted to enjoy the most OBC I could ever get!  lol

same here.  that is alot to spend.  I said that will be hard to spend that much since we have been to the caribbean so many times so excursions are out.  My wife said it wouldn't be hard at all.

1 minute ago, voljeep said:

same promotion? - 3 for free?

Not sure what the original one was, but the new one was just booked yesterday.  This is the first time I have ever seen a 3rd/4th get SBC.  Both my kids are getting like $200 in SBC

We had a 14 day booking on the Caribbean Princess next June and we had $1300 in SBC.  We decided to cancel it and then booked a 14 day on new Sky Princess Dec 21-Jan 4.  We thought we were going to lose the SBC and figured no big deal.  I checked, we still have $1300 in SBC

2 hours ago, Nrknits said:

We booked a Mini guarantee, we sail in 4 days, no room assignment yet. Mini's and Suites are sold out. What are they waiting for?  I only check the personalizer 5 or 6 times a day. Arrrrgh....

which ship

8 minutes ago, obnurse said:

Thank you, everyone! One more question: we booked this as a 14 day, but since it’s clearly doing western/eastern with a ft lauderdale stop in the middle, we are assuming some are leaving and some are coming aboard. Is this a fair assumption? Does that change any of the process for us?

It shouldn't. yes, there will be some that are getting off and then some getting on.  Not sure on the process if you are doing a B2B(2 separate 7 days) vs a 14day(1 booking)

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

One interesting issue with B to Bs have to do with the new coffee card.  Previously you would just keep using your card on the next cruise with no issues.  But according to a few posts, the new coffee card benefit (which is simply loaded onto one's onboard account) is only good for a "segment."  If true that means on a back to back, any unused coffee benefits would not carry over!

 

Hank

Just depends on how it is booked.  either you are booked as 2 separate voyages of 7 days a piece or you booked it as a 14 day and is considered 1 voyage

15 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I didn't mean that we were booking close to the sail time, but we usually book around July for November time frame. This year I started looking at these 2 sailings around NY, and no inside cabins have been available for 3-4 people all this time.

  In cruise standards, booking in July for November is close to sail time.  We are in the same boat, but we always book our cruises a year out for thanksgiving and guess roughly for springbreak and book a year out.

14 hours ago, zry900402 said:

Thank you guys so much for all the feedback and ideas. I think the conclusion is that the Island Princess probably does have somewhat more limited capacity for 3/4 passengers compared to other ships.  But the inside rooms with the capability to house 3/4 people are definitely not all sold out for the entire summer next year. Princess probably started to restrict people from booking 3/4 people in the cheaper rooms earlier to steer families of 3/4 to book the balconys in order to make more money based on the current demand. It is not convinent for us,  but I do understand that princess is a for profit business and they will do what make the most money. 

Based on the one reply here, I’m still really interested in going to ISP. I might just need to choose another line. 

 

as far as I saw, the ability to book 3/4 insides were sold out and it isn't Princess holding them back, they just are gone.  Even though a cabin maybe designated as a 3/4, doesn't mean it will have the capability to hold 3/4 at this time in the year for alaska bookings.  Alot of it has to do with the other cabins around it and the overall capacity in muster stations or a travel agency has group space taken out for the cruise and they take out so many spots, not specific cabins, for the cruises.  Alaska is one of those cruises you have to book 12-18 mos out or cabins will disappear.  Alot of people maybe taking insides to save money since there is a big difference in price between a inside and balcony

Just now, Coral said:

 

They just spent $$$$$ on dry dock this past spring.

then I guess that job wasn't done correctly

They may not be putting alot of "extra" money into it since Golden is leaving the fleet in 2020

I think that they are just booked.  All the insides are waitlisted and a good amount of the balcony cabins are closed.  It sounds like that the ship is booked pretty good

On 10/23/2018 at 2:48 PM, h20vacations said:

I purchased OBC, Princess put it all under my name instead of splitting it 50/50 with my spouse - called to get it corrected & they said I would have to wait & speak to the Purser to get it corrected.   

When I went to purchase excursions on the website it made me pay with a credit card.  Called Princess to ask why they did not pay for the excursions with my pre paid OBC & they stated the pre paid OBC does not go into effect until you are on board.

I purchased enough OBC to cover all my approximate on board expenses.  Now I am worried I won't be refunded my unused OBC if I don't use it all.

Does anymore if the will refund the unused OBC or do I lose it

Thanks

As long as the OBC is refundable, it will get refunded.  It might take a couple pf weeks after the cruise since they will do it via check.

On 10/22/2018 at 11:28 AM, NavyVeteran said:

A Princess agent can book an excursion for one passenger using another passenger's OBC with no problem. If the agent knows what he or she is doing, it can be done very quickly. Call Princess directly even if you booked through a travel agent - they still handle the excursions directly. If I speak to an agent that doesn't know how to do this, I usually just hang up and call back until I get an agent who understands the process.

 

I have veterans and shareholder OBC and DW does not. I cannot move the stock to her name because I own it in an IRA. I have booked her excursions with my OBC several times.

 

If you book using OBC, they don't actually charge the OBC until you are onboard. When you are onboard, the excursion charges and the OBC are both listed on your onboard account. This is good because the excursion charges use non-refundable OBC first - even if the nonrefundable OBC was not available when you booked them.

 

If you prepay for excursions using your credit card and then cancel onboard, then you receive refundable OBC. My brother and I were on a cruise together recently. I pre-booked my excursions using OBC and he pre-booked using his credit card. My onboard folio showed all my excursion charges and OBC separately. His onboard folio did not show his excursion charges. He then cancelled one of his pre-paid excursions. After cancelling one pre-paid excursion, the charges for all of his excursions appeared on his folio along with a refundable OBC for his prepayment. Since I had listed him on my onboard credit card, his excursion then applied to my nonrefundable OBC first and we received refunds for the remaining (refundable) OBC.

 

I'm not sure if Princess accounting will continue to work the way it worked for us. If so, and if you have to prepay for some excursions because some OBC is not yet visible when you book them, you may be better off booking an additional low-cost excursion to cancel as soon as you are onboard. Our experience was that by cancelling one prepaid excursion, all prepaid excursions were added to our folio along with the refundable OBC for the prepayment, so that they were applied first to the nonrefundable OBC.

Within the past year Princess has done away with pre booking excursions that you don't pay for upfront.  I believe they have done this to do away with people grabbing up excursions and then cancelling once onboard to give more people a chance for excursions

18 hours ago, voljeep said:

my wife pre-writes a little card to Stewart, requesting the robes, wine glasses and fresh ice with each room check,

and throws a fiver in the envelope...hands it to him/her when we first meet

 

sidenote: we've only had one female steward and she was by far the worstest

Out of the 17 princess cruises we have taken, i have only had 1 female room attendant and that was back around 2001/2002