Croooser
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Posts posted by Croooser
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I echo Hank's comments on Carnival in RIO. It is one of our top travel highlights of all of our travels. We booked a private tour with do Brazil Right except our tour was 3 days:
We also made arrangements with them for the best night of the Parade - similar to this (although the music, costumes and floats are all changed each year):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsNoHinDidU
Warnings: The parade is VERY crowded. There was a special section reserved for tourists which was not recommended to us since it lacks some of the crowd enthusiasm. However, if we have the opportunity to go again, we will opt for that. The music is VERY loud and there is some nudity.
We also toured Buenos Aires with a private one day city tour and then 2 days on our own. We enjoyed it very much and did not feel any different in terms of safety than we do in European cities.
HTH
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Thanks to Wheelhouse for posting this. The timing was perfect for us. We had a final payment due on the spring TA on Riviera and a Princess FCC that we needed to apply to a booking. So, we used our Amex Blue Preferred and received $250 on the Oceania final payment and $150 on the Princess down payment.
FWIW, our goto travel card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the insurance benefits. Interesting side note - the Chase insurance permits partial payments for a trip on the Chase card. This allows you to take advantage of other CC offers like the Amex offers.
"The Cardholder and Immediate Family Members are covered when the Cardholder’s name is embossed on an eligible Card issued in the United States, and the Cardholder charges all or a portion of a Trip to his or her Credit Card Account and/or Rewards programs associated with the Account."
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Thanks. I appreciate you both taking the time to respond.
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We cancelled the Sky Princess TA about 30 days ago. We received approximately half our $ in the form of refund in about a week. Fair enough.
But there is no sign of the approximately half due as FCC. My TA says that Princess is taking about 60 days to issue FCC. Anyone have recent relevant experience?
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Thanks Wheelhouse.
On my Blue Cash Preferred I am offerred $250 on $800 or more on Oceania. Also, $150 on $500 or more on any of the Carnival Brands.
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How does NCL's air program compare with Carnival Corp and RCL Corp programs? It should not be too difficult or expensive for Oceania and Regent to use the NCL program.
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OK. Some info.
- We booked Vista PC LA to MIA 11/23 direct with O. No ppg on the O invoice.
- Then we transferred to a well known TA and the O invoice reflected OCAPP prepaid gratuities.
- Turns out that OCAPP stands for Oceania Cruises Amenity Partnership Program. It is a consortium program. Do a search for complete details.
One more reason that booking with a TA can have a financial +.
We have one other booking in '23 with no ppg.
In '22 we have one booking with and one without - same TA.
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Once you go aft, you'll always go back😉.
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We are also Celebrity refugees. Elite on Celebrity but 3 of our next 4 are on Oceania. Our opinions are:
Celebrity has a significant edge in entertainment and activities. In addition, their airfare program is usually far superior.
In all other respects, we concur with the opinions you see here.
It is worthwhile to do a search on these boards on the O Life Choice Benefits and arranging air through O. There are a LOT of options on booking any given sailing. For example, you can book with O Life and O air or with O Life but without O air or with O air but no O Life or you can book O air with or without deviation fees or you can book O air one way only. Not all of these options are apparent on the O website but they are all possible and all affect the price.
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Ooops, I see this has already been posted.
I assume that all of you received this invite from Oceania and that it is OK to share. But just in case, here is a link. FYI, I am not a TA and have only cruised Oceania 3 times although we have 3 more booked.
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2 hours ago, aaaaa said:
What time will bookings open on the 15th?
Anyone have the answer to this question?
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13 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:
No, you are right... The need to isolate is now gone from 2nd August if fully vaccinated. It is difficult keeping up with all the changes. Apologies 🙂
No worries. You definitely need a scorecard to keep track.😧
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3 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:
I must say that I don't understand how anyone will be able to arrive in the UK to take a cruise from the USA. At the moment, anyone arriving from the USA has to self-isolate and take a PCR test on day 2. Just where will people self-isolate? I can't imagine that many hotels will allow anyone arriving from the USA to stay until they have had the result of their PCR test? Am I wrong? Also, while self-isolating you wouldn't be able to take public transport, take a taxi, shop for food, visit friend/family (nor them visit you)... it seems a high price to pay just for a cruise. You can't even use public transport or get a taxi to the hotel!
Would anyone want to do that for a cruise?Not sure where the "self-isolate" provision is coming from? Everything that I have seen this week, regarding opening the UK up to USA travelers, simply references: pre arrival negative test, proof of vaccination and post arrival test by day 2. Please supply a reference for any other info.
Thanks
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On one occasion, we came back to a different berth than we left from. Was not informed until cruise was well underway. Had to navigate a shuttle bus back to that garage that we parked at....first world problem.
BTW, IMO do NOT consider parking offsite in Miami to save $. This is not FLL where offsite is both less expensive and convenient.
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4 hours ago, nocl said:
Except they still have a meaningful loyalty program. One that still has substantial value. For those that buy excursions and use more than a limited set of minutes the changes may be even more valuable than what was removed.
Fair point, for sure. Some will still value the revised program while some will not. So it will continue to be meaningful for some and not for others - agreed?
4 hours ago, nocl said:So yes by not grandfathering it in, Princess may lose some passengers. Some may sail less with them. But when one looks at the economics from the cruise line perspective they may be just the passengers that the cruise line is willing to lose.
Otherwise, I think that you and I are in "violent agreement" - that it is highly likely that Princess calculated carefully what was the best decision for Princess and that Princess could have grandfathered and chose not to.
In the end, they get to decide what they offer, and we all get to decide if we are going to sail on them.
YMMV
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JMO and FYI, we don't really have a dog in this hunt as we are only Platinum and booked our two upcoming Princess cruises with the Princess Plus offering...
It is easy to understand that, in a post pandemic world, businesses that have been hit especially hard need to reevaluate their offerings and their pricing and their loyalty programs and benefits.
However, there is plenty of precedent in the business world for how to do this in a way that lowers the future costs of benefits without alienating good customers.
Princess had a choice to make and they chose to unilaterally across the board reduce loyalty benefits for everyone.
The option which they did not choose was to grandfather members of their loyalty programs in at the existing benefit structure for their respective level, while instituting a revised structure for everyone going forward. In many large corporations, changes in employee benefits have been handled very well this way, without alienating longer term employees. It would require a little bit of IT work to keep things straight, but it is not particularly difficult since they already track individual benefits (think OBC, comp specialty restaurant, wifi, etc.).
As one of the many self-appointed armchair experts on CC, I believe that Princess has some rationale that tells them that they no longer need to have a meaningful Loyalty Benefit program. The calculation probably includes:
- Some people won't notice or won't care
- Some loyal customers will be motivated to consider other lines but will, in the end, still prefer Princess sans the old benefits
- Some high level customers will stick with Princess and will now book with Princess Plus
- The most loyal passengers are mostly a decidedly older demographic that will be going away in the short to mid term anyway
- For the next couple of years (and perhaps longer) pent up demand is larger than ever, so filling the ships won't be a problem. Therefore, why not with a reduced loyalty benefit cost?
I can't see any way that they did not deliberately consider this and decide that irritating some long term passengers was in their best interest.
YMMV
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Well....
Some will be disappointed and deservedly so. Probably not the first cancellation for most.
But then...
There are those of us who were looking at a very desirable itinerary on Nautica shortly before she was scheduled for drydock - not the best time to sail any ship in our experience. And now we are looking at sailing her on that very desirable itinerary with the "better than new" Nautica.
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Radiqal Gaming
If I go into the app to reserve specialty dining, it wants payment - fair enough. In the past I entered CC info into the Personalizer but that's no longer an optio I believe. The authorization disclosure in the MC app is for Radiqal Gaming. A little online research shows that this appears to be a small SW development shop that has worked on Carnival Corp's Casino Management and Accounting System.
It would appear that Princess is using this as the payment system tied to the MC app?
Anyone know if this is the case? Is this a recent change?
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Radiqal Gaming
If I go into the app to reserve specialty dining, it wants payment - fair enough. In the past I entered CC info into the Personalizer but that's no longer an optio I believe. The authorization disclosure in the MC app is for Radiqal Gaming. A little online research shows that this appears to be a small SW development shop that has worked on Carnival Corp's Casino Management and Accounting System.
It would appear that Princess is using this as the payment system tied to the MC app?
Anyone know if this is the case? Is this a recent change?
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49 minutes ago, Ombud said:
@Croooserthe flight is on American. That's the only airline where I cannot select a seat on a flexible booking. For Alaska & UA I just go to their website, for Air NZ / Canada / Nippon I have to call. But it isn't until December so not that urgent. Maybe I'll switch to UA.
OK. I am out of ideas. Our flights are on AA on Nov 1st. I can change seats on Princess but not on AA. I did have to add our AA FF #s to the Princess EZ Air booking on the Princess website. Once I did that, I can see the flights in our upcoming trips on our AA FF account info. AA site shows our flights as "ticket pending".
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On 6/10/2021 at 4:22 PM, Croooser said:
This.
7 hours ago, Mary Ann 2 said:At this point, I am hoping since the flight was just changed, and they changed the type of plane that maybe it will get loaded into the Princess system soon.
Maybe this. Our flights are on American in November '21 and we can see and request seat changes. Hope it sorts out for you.
Ombud:
Are you on another airline or AA?
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Geo Blue + Chase Sapphire. Self Insured for any risk above covered amounts - e.g. a pricey 3 week trip.
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OK. Try this:
Log on to Princess and Select Manage This Booking
Click on Travel - Your Flight Info should appear
Click on Add or Modify Flights
Click on Request Seats - You should have the ability to see available seats and request change(s)
This works for us on a November EZ flight
HTH
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31 minutes ago, marden1970 said:
We're one of those who do not have a smart phone. I have a Consumer Cellular flip phone in my purse for emergencies (turned off unless I need it) We have a cruise scheduled for next March and was planning on buying an inexpensive smartphone. Would I need to buy 2 (one for each of us) or would we be able to do all the medallion stuff for both on one? Will one where you buy the minutes you need up front be ok or would you need one with a plan? Does it use minutes while on the ship, say ordering a drink? How would you know how many minutes you would need? I know these are very basic questions but since I haven't needed one I haven't paid much attention to them. Thanks for any insight you can give me.
I think that you only need one but others will correct me if I am mistaken on that.
You should be able to use wifi only on the ship for all Princess functions but in the terminal it may be necessary to have minutes.
If you would like to, I believe that buying a Consumer Cellular smartphone would allow you to use the Princes app with your current cell phone plan. Maybe one of these:
https://www.consumercellular.com/shopping/details/avid_579/details
https://www.consumercellular.com/shopping/details/moto_g_play/details
HTH
AMEX - spend $800 get $250 credit back on Oceania
in Oceania Cruises
Posted
Yes. As long as the card is billed directly to AMEX, you should be OK. We paid part of our final Payment to Oceania via our TA and received the AMEX benefit.