woohooTOO

I called about a similar situation a few days ago. They offered me a complimentary upgrade. Better than nothing.

Which cruise?

We booked a Drop and Go Deal with a sailing date of May 13 yesterday. I faxed the Shareholder Benefit information to Princess this morning. The benefit was posted to my booking within two hours. Outstanding job, Princess.:)

Most American Express cards do not charge a foreign transaction fee either.

Mike:)

Just an FYI: From the AmEx web site "What are the foreign transaction fees that appear on my statement?

Previously this fee was included in the conversion formula for foreign transactions and was not separated from the charge itself. We haven't changed the rate, but we now list the transaction(s) separately from the fee(s) so they will no longer appear as one amount.

This fee is for the service we provide converting the transaction into US currency. By using your Card when travelling abroad, you can take advantage of rewards programs and insurance benefits that you would not receive if paying in cash."

Of course, I may have a different version of an AmEx card than you. I am not trying to start an argument.

Interesting Thread. One advantage of Discover is that there is no foreign transaction fee. We will use Discover when on board charges are made in a foreign currency, e.g. Australian Dollars.

 

My ONLY other complaint at all for the cruise was the disembarkation.....OMG, you would think this was their 1st EVER!!!!! We were down at the sofas outside the Explores lounge at 0600 for the 0715 walkoff. Fog delayed our arrival by about 1 1/2 hour....No biggee, brought the cards, knew to have our luggage out of the path for fire safety issues, not our first rodeo....but you would have thought theirs!!!! 1st we are good, then someone comes and tells us to ENTER the Explorer lounge....then the same person comes and says OK...go to this hallway (where the stairs and porter elevators are)...that is where things became an absolute goat rope. They had us jockeying for position one direction, then the other. OMG were people getting peeved (and rightfully so!)....long story short we were on the ship that sailed from Galveston and then Hurricane Ike washed away our car at the port and caused us to stay out to sea an additional 2 days before we finally ported in New Orleans to figure out our own way home....and THAT was more organized than the Emerald was for debarkation. Sad, SAD, SAD!!!! I can ONLY tell you that either, DO NOT depend on "walk off", or DO plan your flight for later in the day (lots of folks were concerned of missing flights/connections which I do NOT blame the cruise lines for, this is personal stupidity) OR be willing to sit, wait, be in no rush, and experience NONE of the a$$ pain this unorganized departure created.

 

So there you have it, the good, the bad and the UGLY! Would I sail from Houston again....in a NY minute!!!!! Just wanted to give you an honest review to base your travel on!!!! ;)

Our experience with disembarkation this morning was a bit different. When the ship was cleared to disembark passengers, we walked to the gangway, walked down the hallways and moving stairs (I couldn't spell eskelators) and right up to immigration. We were greeted warmly by Princess staff in the terminal. Bottom line, from the time we were given the OK to get off the ship to the time we got to our car in the lot was about 15 minutes. Then home in another hour or so. We were aboard for two weeks and had a great time.

Along side in Houston. http://www.portofhouston.com/cruise-information/live-cruise-terminal-cam/

Bummer. You'll just have to book another cruise.:)

"But really the best part of the Port of Houston, and Emerald Princess was getting on a flight out of Texas and knowing you will never be on the ship from hell or at that port ever again."

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

We cruise on the Emerald this Friday. Looking forward to two weeks of pure cruising bliss. Haven't been on the Emerald for a couple of years. Looking forward to it. Weather happens. Rude people with disgusting personal habits happen. Get over it!

I think massive compensation is in order. This outrage absolutely MUST be addressed before my cruise in January! Thanks for the information. Glad you had a great trip.

often, cruise critic roll calls make up 10% or more of the ship. Should others be warned of us?

yes!!!

How was the disembarkation in Houston?

There is a off line mode in Gmail. Go to settings in Gmail and it is one of the last tabs on the top right of the screen. It will down load a Chrome extension from the Play store (free). It will allow you to read and reply to emails offline.

 

I hope that helps.

Found it. Thanks.

We will be traveling in January and just recently bought an Acer 720 Chromebook. Very interested in how this worked for you. Were you able to log off the Princess WiFi without any problem?

 

Any information you could supply would be extremely helpful. Thank you in advance.

I have traveled several times since the original post. The Cbook worked well both off and on the ship. You may have to "browse as a guest" if you don't want to change your wifi set up. I downloaded and sent to my google mail account the bookmarks I want to use on the trip. They are easily used to access important sites, like Cruise Critic. Play with the thing for a while and you will learn how to use it as a pro Cbooker. This is currently being typed on Cbook right now.

I find that I am more comfortable with a cheap device than an expensive item when I travel. One less thing to worry about. I only use it when I travel. In fact, we are bound for Paris next week for a few days before we board the Ruby in Venice for a TA to Ft. Lauderdale. I broke out the device to charge it up and make sure I still remembered how to use it.

Edited from my "real" computer. No problem logging off of the Princess wifi.

Thanks for all the great information. We join the cruise in Venice on November 17 for the trip to Ft. Lauderdale. Looking forward to a fantastic cruise.

 

After checking in, going through Security was a mess. Very slow and crew members pushed ahead of passengers because they were late getting back to the ship and their duties.

 

Once we boarded, everything changed... for the better.

We had the same negative experience with embarkation back in May. Guess it hasn't changed. We return to Venice on November 17 for a TA from Venice to Ft. Lauderdale. I really hope they get their act together by then.

We are planning to spend a week in Paris (next May) after a cruise and are looking for an apartment in the 5th or 6th. Does anyone have any specific recommendations.

 

Hank

For what it's worth, we are using www.vacationinparis.com They have a large number of apartments. We will be in #241 soon. The company was recommended by a friend who has used them extensively. So far, they have been very good at answering questions and providing information.

We just booked a B2B for 2014. Embarkation, Debarkation and turnaround are all in Southampton. I've read here that when turnaround is in a US port, you are required to leave the ship (though only for a short time).

 

What's the situation or the UK? Can we stay aboard while the crew does its thing? We have the same cabin for both legs.

 

Also, since the total length of the B2B is 28 (11+17) days, are there any unusual entry/exit considerations? We travel on US passports.

 

TIA and shalom from Tel Aviv.

I believe that we booked the same two cruises yesterday. Good information to have.

There is a work around for the auto refresh. Look at the settings tab.

Just curious, how are you accessing gmail offline? Is there a client app built into the OS?

1. log in to gmail.

2. click compose to open a new blank email.

3. disconnect from the network.

4. type your document.

5. Reconnect to the network manually. I assume this will work the same way while on board the Crown in two weeks and counting.

There are probably other (better) ways to do this, but it works for me.

According to the specs, most of the chromebooks have very limited onboard storage - the newest one has 16GB, some of which taken up by the OS. If you shoot high resolution photos you can fill that up quick. Also, as far as I know there IS no onboard email or word program, it uses google drive for documents and gmail for mail and both require a connection to operate (there may be something downloadable).

 

Test the unit offline before you go to make sure you know what it can do without a net connection.

Excellent advice on the off line testing. I have been doing that for the last couple of days as I try to get used to this thing. This is being typed off line right now using Gmail. It will be saved in the drafts folder and then be copied to another location (this post on Cruise Critic) when I log back on. The Acer CB has 320 GB storage. More than enough for pictures. I have uploaded from my camera(s) and saved back to a flash drive for backup. I am an old DBA so I must backup everything!!! Also, I am able to check my personal email (not Gmail) from the CB.

I am used to the slow internet speeds while cruising. I don't suspect that there will be a perceptible speed difference between IE and Chrome browsers while cruising.

One drawback, so far, is that device will re-connect to my home network on its own. It will be interesting to see how that works with the ship's wifi. It might be annoying when the log on screen pops on every few minutes.

So far, this device is doing exactly what I wanted: I can check and respond to email, save pictures and check the Princess website for price drops. I can even check the news if I am so inclined.

I don't need to use Word, XL, Outlook, etc when cruising. I have found that I can read PDFs on the CB as well.

I suggest copying your favorites from your IE to the CB. A simple click and you have the website loaded. The .htm document works very well so you don't need to clog your CB favorites.

The CB definitely will not replace a good laptop but it looks like it will do what I want it to do while I am cruising.

My only negative so far is that the power supply cord and attachment is almost as heavy as the CB.

Cruising in two weeks. If there is any further feedback, I will report.

So much for today's geek report.

I haven't used one, but if you can connect to other Wifi networks, the ship one should not be a problem

That is my expectation. I am just wondering if anyone else has used one aboard Princess.

I just purchased a Google Chromebook to take on cruises as I got tired of lugging my very old 250 pound laptop around. Can I expect any difficulties connecting to the ship's wifi system from my Chromebook? It looks like it will be just like connecting with a Windows based OS and Internet Explorer. Has anyone used a Chromebook onboard Princess? Any problems/hints?