maz48

Hi.

First time RCI cruiser here, though have cruised many times. Are we able to change or add a credit card at terminal check in? I always do the online check in, but it is my husband's second card we use for onboard accounts due to $ rates. It hasn't been a problem before to add that card at online check-in under his name, on other lines, but here it had to be a card in my name, due to me by then being the lead name as I was doing the online check-in. There was no way to change unless I guess, starting all over again through his account:rolleyes:. So we ticked 'cash' presuming we could add his card when we are checking in at the terminal. I presume we will be able to? Or do we have to re-do the online check-in under his name? Thank you.

We saw the Pullmantur Horizon in Tenerife when we were there on QE in December. We were only a few days after you were there. I looked it up when we were home and found such amazing prices and so began researching. There really isn't much info. out there so I was really glad to see your review and found it very helpful. I was worrying about language issues, but you have sorted that for me. I have a couple of questions if you can answer please.

What time was the emergency drill on the first day? I couldn't find it on the daily newspapers. Once a few years ago when we were in Gran Canaria on a cruise stop and had a late departure, there was another ship in that was embarking passengers that day, and as we left at about 10.15pm, their passengers were standing outside doing their emergency drill:o

Coffees. Do they have speciality coffees and if so can you remember costs of cappuccinos? We don't drink much alcohol so coffee is what we enjoy.

Special diets. You might not have any idea about this, but do you know if they are catered for over much?

Thank you very much. It sounded like you enjoyed your cruises.

Flew from Manchester to New York. In priority line but still took 30 minutes.

Immigration in JFK took two hours. They have machines that read your passport but the first machine we tried broke down. The second one read my wife's passport OK but my form came out with a big X on it so we had to queue for nearly two hours in a seperate line.

Joined QM2 in Brooklyn on Sept 7th. Checkin took about two hours. Cunard staff said that the problem was because everyone arrived at once, just after 12noon. We got there at that time because we were on a Cunard holiday and that was the time the coach took us there.

Disembarking at Southampton - left our room at 8.30am. Told there was a delay as due to winds the gangplank had to be re-positioned. Got on the coach to the airport at 11am.

That makes a total of seven hours queueing. Never again!

These are the things that we remember aren't they? Even if the rest of the cruise/vacation is good. They don't normally happen all on one vacation as happened to you, fortunately, but I would be fed up too if I had had to go through what you did. On entering the USA by flight, we are always sent to the machines for immigration. My husband always fails, always, so we know we will have to queue that second time. At least we haven't had to queue 2 hours for that, but even waiting a shorter time is very annoying, but you just can't let that show can you? We can't understand why he always fails that immigration machine, and of course they don't tell you why. Well one did say there must be another person with the same name who is a problem, but who knows? At least we get through eventually. We have also had the 'wind moved the gangway' in Southampton too, and were delayed disembarking. About 11am before we were out of the building. Oh and twice with Cunard we have had computer problems and delays at checkin. Must be a pretty common occurrence!

It won't all happen on one cruise again I am sure.

Stay safe Lyn, and your family too, wherever you end up.

Princess did notify customers before final payment. We are booked on the Sept 22nd voyage and the first announcement of the technical issues was before final payment. The next voyage the CB does after that, which we are on as well, was also announced before payment as were the subsequent ones.

Yes, we on the Sept.22nd cruise did get notified prior to final payment, but more recently they have been not been letting cruisers know till after final payment. More annoying for them than for us.

I just checked my personalizer and the credit is not there. The email stated it would be applied to the onboard folio, so perhaps it will be on the onboard statement as a credit.

It will be added when you get onboard.

......and when she and the family get sick, they will blame it on food poisoning they got while on the ship. It would be nice if everyone just followed instructions and obeyed the rules instead of thinking they don't apply to them......they are special.

We were on the Caribbean Princess on a Caribbean cruise, and some islands had sniffer dogs and bag checkers just outside the ship, to look for prohibited foods in those disembarking for tours etc. Our balcony overlooked that particular part of the dock and it was very interesting to watch:eek:. Cruisers trying to sneak round were caught and some had backpacks and carrier bags full of foodstuff. You should have seen the waste bags full of prohibited items by the time they had finished. It was certainly where all the bananas and apples went that day. Plenty of sandwiches also going out into the Caribbean heat too.

Thank you for your very detailed review. We will be on the Caribbean Princess TA in September, so it is great reading all about your experiences, particularly after the re-do. I also think I would like to take an around the British Isles cruise sometime too. It seems to be becoming more popular.

The OP also thought his UK visa included Ireland. Northern Ireland is in the UK and would be covered, but not southern Ireland. Again it was a lack of research and understanding on the OP's part.

The link to the suite amenities/benefits doesn't work. I can't find anything anywhere. Have they dropped any benefits for suites? I know Junior Suites have a few, but what about Grand Suites?

We were told they were not going to offer any more compensation other than the $100 OBC pp already offered on the TA. But of course, since final payment, they have been selling rooms much cheaper and/or with more OBC. Normally you just accept the selling of rooms cheaper closer to sail date, name of the game and sometimes you get the deal, but it just seems a bit more annoying this time.

I for one would rather see higher fares and no daily gratuity charge. As long as people are permitted to remove the daily gratuity charge, I can't help but feel that my higher daily charges (that keep going up and up!) are subsidizing those who remove the daily charges.

I would also like gratuities completely included in the cruise fare. No more tipping problems, worries, inferior feelings when someone says they tip excessive amounts. If they can do so for Australia and NZ, why not for the rest of the world? I can't understand that. But, if they did include them, some people would still tip, particularly Americans, and then crew could begin to expect it, and then it would all start all over again. Back to added gratuities but no reduction in fares to compensate, and more tipping threads.

I do hate that auto gratuity amounts have increased so much, and those of us who do keep them on our accounts(we have never removed them or cut the amount) have to pay more to cover those who don't.

You might be happier with a cruise line which has Anytime Dining, or whatever each line names it. When we were on Celebrity and chose anytime dining, you could choose what size table you wanted to sit at each night. Also you could pre book times before the cruise. We just pre-booked a couple as we didn't know what time we would want to eat. Princess has Anytime dining too, and both Celebrity and Princess you don't have to pay extra for it. Also now on some Princess ships, suites and a more expensive class of Mini Suites, called Club Class, have a separate dining area in the main anytime dining room, with a couple more dining perks like extra menu items. You can choose table size there too, different each night if you wish as set tables aren't yours for the cruise duration.

Going on this ship in 2 days have received nothing.

 

 

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I don't think there would be any problems for shorter distances where speed is not an issue. I hope you have a great cruise and enjoy the ship.

It will be interesting to follow this as we are boarding for a "Round Britain" in 7 days.

I don't think this 'technical' issue will affect your kind of cruise as you shouldn't need to go at higher speed. I think that is why no other cruises till the TA are have heard anything.

Edited to say just seen the post about another cruise that has had itinerary changes which may or may not be due to the problem. Maybe depends on distances the ship had to cover between ports.

We are booked on the September 22nd westbound TA and have had an email this morning making fairly big changes to our itinerary due to 'technical issues' that will cause the ship not to be able to travel at full speed. Has anyone who has been on the ship recently heard anything about it? I imagine it doesn't affect other cruises too much till then, but going over the Atlantic at that time of year on a ship with problems doesn't thrill me.

I too am disappointed. We have a TA booked for September and were really looking forward to seeing the re-done ship, having spent 9 nights on her a few years ago. The photos etc. on the website look great so I was pretty excited, but reading the reviews here and elsewhere is worrying. One thing we enjoyed then was the buffet, though even then it was hard to find a table at times, and now it seems it will be even harder. And how many cruisers really want PB&J sandwiches? Dining room food was also great back then, so why change things for the worse? I really hope Princess is taking note and changing things for the better as the weeks go by. Off to try and find some encouraging reviews:rolleyes:

Seems like many of the 'worst Cunard experiences' have been nothing or not much to do with Cunard. Embarkation, immigration staff, customs, terminal issues etc. Seems like Cunard have been doing pretty good then.

Those disembarking in SF, was disembarkation today, or tomorrow prior to our boarding?

How is the weather out on the ocean? It has been gorgeous here in SF.

How many boats were floating(or not;p) in the competition?

Oh and oops, I said in my last post that we don't dress up. What I meant was for theme nights, for the different balls. We do indeed dress up for formal nights and actually aren't too casual on casual nights either!

It is amazing how all your World Cruisers manage to pack all the clothes needed, or at least that the ladies want for the theme nights. We don't normally dress up and I still struggled with packing for the basic side of things.

Been in San Francisco for a few days now awaiting your arrival. Well the day after as you have an overnight before we board.

Enjoy your crossing from Hawaii.

I have been enjoying your review. It does sound like you have visited some amazing places.

We leave tomorrow for the airport hotel before flying Tues

day to San Francisco for a week before joining you on the 4th April. I guess it could be a big turnover day, though some will be disembarking in LA.

Don't eat all the food:p

Thank you for the blog. It sounds like you are experiencing an amazing trip.

We join in San Francisco and onboard till Southampton. 31 nights, our longest time cruising in one go. I was going to ask about how formal is formal onboard, but I have just read here, high formal:D Struggling with packing to be honest with having a week in cool windy SF prior, and then after 3 nights onboard reaching very high temperatures(hopefully). Then back to cooler wear in the Atlantic. Apart from the more formal dress in the evenings, what is the day wear onboard?

I was very disappointed in the selection on QE and QV after having sailed on QM2 beforehand. Yes, a few Lancome makeup items, packs of Revlon lipsticks and maybe a couple of other of those makeup kits you see in duty free stores, but really a poor selection, especially if you have some OBC. I wanted to buy another Estee Lauder foundation that I had bought on QM2, but no. Actually the shops looked pretty empty in general.

The passenger may have also experienced a medical condition and lost their way and still onboard.

It would be lovely if this were the case. Unless the cameras have shown she went overboard. I guess they have searched just about every inch of the ship by now though, but there is always hope.