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Thanks for the update. I am still waiting to hear back.

So does this mean you need to pay to get medallions shipped even if Plus? I am getting so confused with the changes in charges every time you blink. They better add more customer service if everyone will be picking up medallions at port because the last cruise we went on, the line was really long. We shipped them to port even though we had Plus because we were traveling prior to the cruise and I was afraid they wouldn’t show up before we left. I’m not sure I want to wait in that line again. This is getting really frustrating trying to keep up on extra charges.

Thanks so much for letting us know. I’ll email customer relations. Appreciate the post.

I always book travel directly with the airline instead of through Princess. Prices are always cheaper because I follow them until the price is what I want pay and then I book. For the airline I use most frequently (pickings are slim out of the regional airport by our house), if they change the flight time, you can change your flight either 24 hours before or after your original flight at no charge. It’s easy to do online and if I booked through Princess, I don’t believe I’d have that option. Also if I want to upgrade to have more legroom or first class, it’s easy to do. Booking direct gives me more flexibility and control over my reservation (and I get points sine I have a credit card with the airline).

Honestly I doubt I’ll get a response on What’s App. I did mention my cruise is in March and I’m in a suite and my travel summary shows no charge for 360 but my credit card was charged. I’ll definitely post if I get a response.

Thanks. I just texted on What’s App. I’ll post if I get a response.

Can you post after February 2nd if you were able to get your money back? Our cruise is in late March so I’d be curious. Once on Discovery, I made reservations for specialty dining and paid because on the previous cruise on Discovery when I tried to make reservations the first afternoon, they said everything was sold out. I did finally get credited but got the run around for that to happen. Also if you wait until onboard to book excursions, often on Discovery, the good ones are sold out. I haven’t had this experience on other Princess ships and assume it because of the higher passenger capacity. We don’t need extra OBC because our cruise is short but if we got FCC, I’d be OK with that. I’m just curious to see what they tell you.

So just so I’m clear, if we booked a suite before December 1st and our travel summary says 360 for $0, we should book the reservation and pay for it and once onboard show our travel summary saying it should be free and request a refund. Is that right? I certainly don’t want to get onboard and have them tell me it’s sold out. 360 is one of the reasons why I booked this cruise. The only day available was embarkation (3 day cruise) so I can’t cancel once onboard because it will be within the non-cancellation period.

In the past, I always bought travel insurance through the affiliate of our car/home owner insurance but during the pandemic, I had a bad experience of actually needing the insurance when Princess cancelled our cruise 2 days before departure and the cruise was actually the transport to the second part of our vacation and the insurance company tried to tell me my claim wasn’t covered because a cruise line isn’t a “common carrier”. So after the pandemic, I purchased insurance through Princess because they can’t tell me their services aren’t covered. When I read through the policy, the medical evacuation coverage was way low, which concerned me, especially for international travel. Since you have supplemental coverage for med evac, that is not a concern for you. The other coverage seemed good from my evaluation and the price was reasonable so my next two cruises are covered by Princess, but beyond that, I’ve gone back to my previous insurer since they did eventually pay out my entire claim and they have much better med evac coverage for a reasonable price.

I just Googled because I was curious. Stardust (which I had no idea was the name of a song) was from 1957. I’m 64 so I was born in 1959. If your production show is named after a song from before I was born, how the heck are you going to attract the next generation of cruisers to keep your business going? Is your target audience 80 year olds? I personally like when they add Bruno Mars songs into shows with songs from the 70’s and 80’s but if your show has songs 60 and 70 year olds don’t recognize, in my opinion, you need to refresh your offering. I’m not saying the performers weren’t top notch. I just had to question what audience Princess was targeting, especially when I saw it a second time several years after I wondered who they were trying to target. I cruise almost exclusively with Princess so I’m not trying to nit pick. As someone who loves live theater, I’m saying consider your audience.

When exactly were the songs from? I’m pretty good on 70’s songs and even late 60’s (like I watched Where the action is, American Bandstand, and Soul Train). My husband is older than I am and knows more songs from the 60’s. The songs to me sounded like they were out of my parents era but since I don’t know them, I can’t be sure. If I knew any of them, I could look them up but I’d be interested in what year they were popular.

Ops-messed up my previous reply above. Sorry. How long has Stardust been running? I’m 64 and my husband is 70 and we don’t know the songs in that show. I’d much rather see On the Bayou than Stardust. The last time we saw Stardust, I heard there was an elderly couple in the front row singing along with all the songs so I guess that means we are not elderly yet 😀.

Yes, HAL has military OBC until 2024. I believe it's for veterans, not just retired military. Here's the link: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/deals/military-appreciation-offer.html We have not cruised with HAL yet but I really like their Asian itinerary so I'm considering booking. Princess has veterans get togethers. It's seems like it's usually on a seaday but my memory could be wrong on that.

Princess just changed the benefit as of June 2023 I believe. It's effective mid-September of this year. The form you reference is from 2020. We used to get military OBC for both myself (veteran) and my husband (retired). So we both got military OBC. Then I would get stockholders credit on top of that. But now, my husband can get military and I have to choose between military or stockholders. I can no longer get both. My understanding is the CEO of Princess 3 CEOs ago was ex-military and implemented the military OBC but since the current CEO is not as military friendly (certainly not a veteran), the benefit has eroded. I appreciate what I received in the past but now am looking at other cruise lines since Princess no longer has an advantage in military benefits. We will be trying out HAL in the future since their benefits now match Princess. Thanks for pointing out NCL has military benefits as well. I'll check it out. Appreciate the tip.

I have a 98 year old father so I always purchase travel insurance. After cruising restart, we had a 3 day San Francisco to Vancouver cruise, then a week in the Pacific Northwest in a timeshare and flight home from Seattle. The cruise was cancelled one day before it was set to sail so I called Travel Insured to find out if I had coverage to buy airline tickets and change my car rental and was told yes. So that’s what I did and everything was expensive because it was last minute. When I get home I file my claim and it was denied because a common carrier (the first part of our trip to get to the Pacific Northwest) has to be an airline, not a cruise line. I’m like what? Why was I told it would be covered? They did go back and listen to my phone conversation with their representative and verified I discussed what new expenses there would be and was told it was all covered. We eventually got our money except the $100 bus tickets Vancouver to Bellingham, which I didn’t mention in the conversation but I can live with that. But now I’m very weary that when I need it, the insurance I paid for will be worthless because of a technicality. I’d like to restore my confidence in travel insurance. I still have a couple trips covered with Travel Insured that I used from cancelled cruises during COVID but my next 3 cruises I paid for insurance through the cruise line (it would be hard for them to say the cruise isn’t covered) and airline but I’d like to find a better alternative.

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear your experiences are recent. I looked at the annual insurance and it’s certainly reasonable. Do you purchase any of the optional coverage? If so, how much extra is it? It looks like you need to pay extra for cancellation. I don’t need cancel for any reason but my dad is 98 so I would need to be able to cancel if he were ever hospitalized during a cruise. The annual plan also is extra for trip interruption, which to me is the most likely scenario. Please post if you ever need to use the insurance in the future because I’d like to restore my faith in this company since I’m a huge USAA fan. I’m still on the fence if I want to use them in the future even though I have a couple upcoming trips covered with them (purchased before my bad experience or transferred from a cancelled trip from COVID times-which btw, I thought was great of them to let you “save” coverage from a cancelled trip.)

Thanks for everyone’s input. We booked a suite on Discovery (first time and maybe last simply because of the cost but part of the reason we booked was 360 but mainly to get 2 credits for Elite since we are so close.) It sounds like handle 360 the way you would a specialty restaurant as far as tipping. We always tip but we understand it’s absolutely optional. That’s our personal preference and I appreciate everyone’s input on how much they feel is appropriate. This is helpful since it’s a new experience for us.

We have mainly sailed with Princess because of their generous military OBC. My husband and I are both veterans and we purchased stock when it was really expensive (but who knew COVID would hit and cause stock prices to tank) so we can’t sell it. Now that we can’t stack OBC, I have incentive to book with other cruise lines I always wanted to try. I know HAL now has a military benefit. Does anyone know of other military/shareholders offers that are attractive? We own 100 shares with both CCL and RCCL, which we bought specifically to get OBC.

Thanks for your input. I’m not sure other travel insurance companies have as many complaints on BBB as Travel Insured. And it wasn’t fun waiting on hold 45 minutes to 1.5 hours when I wanted to talk to someone. Can I ask when your experience happened? I’m curious to hear others’ experience as well. P.S. I see you are from Clarksville. We almost moved there. Beautiful area! We checked out real estate in the area and looked at a lot of houses but ended up finding the perfect house close to Rapid City. This winter will be our first winter in SD so we’ll see if we made a mistake not moving to TN. 😊

I’m curious to hear anyone’s experience during/post COVID with the USAA affiliate for travel insurance. I always bought travel insurance through them, but when Princess cancelled a repositioning cruise to Vancouver during COVID, which was the start of our vacation and transportation to the Pacific Northwest where we had a timeshare booked and flight home from Seattle, I called to see if trip interruption coverage would be in effect. I was told yes and booked airfare and changed my car rental, which was last minute at a higher amount. When I got home, I filed my claim and to my surprise, it was rejected because the transportation for the first cancelled leg was a cruise ship and not an airplane. Of course, I pleaded my case that I only purchased the airline tickets because they told me it was covered and they went through their notes and verified I was telling the truth. They eventually paid out 95% of the claim. Now they have lost my trust that when I need the travel insurance I purchased, they will find some lame reason why it’s not cover (e.g. a common transport carrier must be an airplane, not a cruise ship). I now purchase directly through the cruise line and airline (because it would be difficult for them to claim no coverage if they cancel). However, I’m looking for a better solution. Any insight?

FYI, we find that staying at Ft. MacArthur is no longer affordable. They raised their rates a few years ago and you can find something newer and cheaper off base. The exception would be if you have a pet you will be putting in boarding before your cruise and you are a big group. We can get a unit for six people that is dog friendly and it’s cheaper than getting three hotel rooms elsewhere (since we cruise with or kids and their significant others sometimes).

It’s such a small amount of our portfolio, we’ll just keep it at this point for whatever benefit we can get for OBC. I’m not going to tell you how much we paid for Yahoo stock and my husband still has Nokia stock, I think for the novelty of owning a once popular stock that is now worthless. In the long run, we are way ahead and I can live with that.

Well I guess our kids will get to benefit from our RCCL stock when we die if it’s difficult to use because it’s lost at least 1/2 of the value since we bought it so we won’t be selling it. On top of that we bought our 2 kids 100 shares of CCL stock when it was $25 per share because we paid so much for ours and it seemed like a good deal until it kept dropping. So I told them don’t plan on selling it. I thought it might come in handy if we all cruise together but our daughter was thinking about booking a girls cruise in December and I didn’t even have to remind her of the stockholder benefit so hopefully it will be a good investment for their lifetime (they are in their 20’s and grew up cruising and love it). Doesn’t appear a good invest for us because of when we bought to get OBC but I’m not going to complain because in the long run, we are ahead on stock investments (just not with cruise lines!)

It’s a love hate scenario. Don’t order at lunch on the Lido deck because you will need to wait for a runner to bring it to your table and you’ll be done with lunch before that happens. On the other hand if you are watching a football game on MUTS, order from the app. Way better than going to the bar and missing a big play and you’ll be watching the game so you don’t mind the wait. If you are guarding a table for the sushi venue and don’t want to lose your table, order your drinks in advance from the app so you don’t lose your table and quite frankly, you’ll get it quicker than from your waiter. You will learn when it’s good to order from the app and when it’s best to go to the bar. And it’s way convenient when you can order from the app and it works for your situation. Like if you are getting ready for dinner and want a cocktail in your cabin while you are getting ready, that’s way better than walking to a bar and we normally book a cabin on the Lido deck so we can make a short walk. Just depends on the situation, which you will learn trial and error. Have fun on your cruise! Fun, fun, fun.