jajsmom

I did a search in the forum and could not find the answer. Even though the roundtrip railway was just released a few days ago, the slots for when we are in port are all full already.  I did see that there is availability for taking the train up and bicycling down.  I was not able to find information about this on the Norway best website.  Has anyone done this?  We would be in port on July 2, 2024.  Are the bicycles included, or do you have to make reservations on our own.  Would the weather be acceptable that time of the year for bike riding?  DH and I both ride bikes weekly, but we live in FLAT Florida and do not have the experience with the hills.  Any insights would be very helpful. Thank you!

It's great to see your review.  We did this cruise, after the Australian cruise in November. What a great experience!  and we had Santosh as our assistant server too.  Our server, George, left the ship just prior to your cruise.  Hope to get back to your part of the world someday!

Thanks!  We will probably stay overnight in Southampton, as we've spent a lot of time in London in the past.  And I like to be closer to the cruise port on embarkation day.

We're about 6 months out from a roundtrip cruise from Southampton.  I've sailed out of Dover, and found flying into Gatwick to be much easier.  So for Southampton, is it better to fly in to Heathrow or Gatwick?  I can flights available for both. We tend to use public transportation.  When I google map it, it's evening in the US, so it's showing me middle of the night options in England.  thanks for your practical experience.

19 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I guess a Disney cruise in Australia, for Australians, would be less expensive than a holiday at WDW in Orlando and return business class tickets.  

 

I can confirm that, as I live in Orlando, and my airfare R/T to Australia is more than my 23 days of cruising.

On 10/4/2023 at 7:14 PM, MMDown Under said:

Interesting comment that Disney is best value for sea days and a ship experience.  I agree Disney isn't just for children,  My girls continued to visit Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida well into adulthood for the magical Disney experience. I'd love to cruise Disney, if it wasn't so expensive in Australia. 

Disney is expensive all over.  But you get what you pay for.  If they were the same price as all other cruise lines, I would be sailing them much more frequently.

Thanks.  Do I need to shut his account down? Or will it just become nothing eventually?

My father passed away 3 years ago.  I have been monitoring his email since then.  For the first time in that time, he got a captain's club email today.  Celebrity was my parent's preferred cruise line.  He has close to 300 points in his account.  Is there anything I can do with these?  Can I "inherit" them?  Should I close his account?  Every time I think I've taken care of everything, something new pops up.  I'm pretty sure I cannot use his points, but I'm not sure if I need to do anything with his account.  Thanks for any insight.

15 hours ago, gbenjo said:

Curious as to how  many CC’s are booked on a Disney cruise, considering we seem to be an “ older” group of cruisers. We  ( the company I work for) are doing the embark/ debark for them and just by the amount of training we will be doing it would appear the whole Disney experience will be very different ( in a good way) to anything we have previously seen in Australia .Obviously their cruises are aimed more at the younger family demographic so it will be interesting how many of us oldies will cruise with them.

Well, I'm older, but Disney is my cruise line of choice. With all of the current complaints with other cruise lines, the only complaint I have with Disney is the price.  We haven't sailed with our kids (now adults) in over 10 years, but we love the adult areas of the ship.  Disney has service like no other.  We're doing a B2B on Princess in Australia/New Zealand this year (23 nights) for half the price of a Disney Cruise.  For port intensive cruises, we choose Princess.  For sea days and a ship experience, we choose Disney.

I just spent the day correcting this with Celebrity too.  We had been booked on the Reflection and the ship changed to the Beyond.  We were told everything would remain the same.  Checking our reservation this past weekend, we noticed that the price had gone up.  When contacting Celebrity, they admitted the fault was theirs and there was a glitch in their system.  Bottom line--check your cruises!

6 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

OBC can be used to purchase purchase all items in your cruise planner including shorex, dining package, drink packages, wi-fi package, spa, etc.

 

As far as your other question is concerned about the mysterious increase in your account's OBC, I have not had this happen to me nor have I heard of this.  You may want to talk to your TA to make sure the total is correct before you spend your windfall.

Thank you!

New to Celebrity, but not to cruising.  My cruise is June of 2024, so this is the first time any of these sales applied to me.  My question is somewhat weird.  It looks like we can apply OBC to our purchases.  Is this only for excursions or dining and wifi packages too?  The weird part is that every time I check my account, the amount of ABC in it has increased!  As of right now, it's almost double what I originally had.  Has this happened to anyone else?  Thanks.

5 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Go here on Princess.com:   https://www.princess.com/plan/oceanready/ .  

Dine My Way℠ Reservations

/images/global/plan/oceanready/plan-oceanready-app-dinemyway-640.jpg

Choose times and preferences for the dining room and specialty restaurants.
Reserve early for the best availability!

---

Available in the Princess MedallionClass App

  

Don't have a compatible device? Try our web version

 

Use the web version link and sign into your account or use the Name/Birthdate/Booking Number option to access your voyage.  You can perform Ocean Ready steps and also access DMW.

 

Thanks, but I'm still having problems.  Will only allow me to book dining for the first night.  Have to call them again.

13 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Are you CC Platinum or Elite level?   Have you made final payment?  Have you tried the website version of the App?

We turn platinum on this cruise.  Final payment is made, and our friends were even able to book us with them.

What is the website version of the app?  I'm not familiar with that.  Thanks!

On 8/11/2023 at 5:24 PM, Steelers36 said:

I wonder if this is an issue because you are B2B and the friends do not even have a res for second voyage.  Had you added them as Travel and Dining Companions in the App?  If possible, cancel this out and delete them from your profile.  Then try and make DMW for first voyage.  You need to book it one night at a time and do not try and book entire voyage option because that encompasses the second voyage with friends.

Our friends actually just signed up for the cruise last week.  Prior to that, we were not able to sign up either.  When my friend signed up for dining, I gave her our booking number and she was able to book us together. Still cannot book us for the first cruise.

On 8/10/2023 at 12:31 PM, lssg said:

We paid for our cruise in full and I wanted to book the same time and table everyday and I keep getting an error message and it will not let me do it in the app.  Very frustrated.  We want the same table and waiter for the full cruise is that not possible????

We are having the same problem.  We have a B2B booked, and have friends joining us on the second cruise.  They were able to book us at a table with them for the second cruise.  I did try calling yesterday, and after waiting on hold and receiving a callback, I was cut off when the agent put me on hold.  She never called back.  Another thing for my to do list.

3 hours ago, 0bnxshs said:

We do as well and have already placed a deposit on her first 6 night cruise in early December 2024.  Have been waiting for HAL or Princess to start using Port Canaveral for years.  Although we have done Carnival and RCCL out of PortC we just aren't Disney or RCCL mega-ship fans.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the Iceland itinerary thread, just happy that we will now see more Princess ships in Central Florida.

OMG, I see that we are neighbors!  Just got off of Narcoossee Road!

We live less than an hour from Port Canaveral, where the Caribbean Princess is going to start homeporting next year.  I'm hoping all problems resolve before then.

18 hours ago, snoozecrooze said:

I read through your other responses and can definitely vouch for the itinerary you really want to partake in. It's a great combination. If you want to push it back by another year, the Emerald Princess will cruise several Iceland/Norway itineraries in 2025.

 

I did look through Holland America's options and noticed Rotterdam (ex: July 6, 2024) and Nieuw Statendam (ex: July 1, 2024) all hit Iceland and have more immersive itineraries than through Princess. Celebrity also has several options next year as well. 

 

Whatever you do, though, just get yourself to Iceland; you won't regret it. Wishing you all the good planning vibes!

Thank you.  I feel like you understand me.  🙂 Did a lot of research today and we may try to push out to 2025.  We've been on the Emerald before, and it was fine, but not like the Royal class ships--no Alfredo's!  We have a FCD that needs to be used by December 2024, but I think if we purchase before then, we can use it in 2025 still.  Will check out Holland and Celebrity too.  Thanks!

8 hours ago, 34TigerLily said:

Caribbean Princess is our favorite ship. We have been on her numerous times.  There have been isolated issues which Princess always compensated us for and which we laughed off as a good story to tell when we got home (toilet not working overnight, cabin flooded and had to move to another cabin). You have to not sweat the small stuff, laugh it off, and enjoy your cruise.

I'm fairly low maintenance, but that is much more than I'm willing to deal with on an expensive cruise!

10 hours ago, Princess Cruises Fann said:

I have been on the Caribbean Princess three times and love the ship. I have booked the Caribbean Princess for the 16 day Iceland and Greenland in July 2024. With all the sea days, I personally wish a different Princess ship was doing that itinerary since the Caribbean Princess does not have a covered pool so I'm sure it will be quite chilly on the Lido deck. We will probably use the hot tubs, but I'm guessing the pools will be pretty cold. 

That is the specific cruise we are looking at, and I also wish it was on a different ship.  Especially with so many sea days.

19 hours ago, Torfamm said:

Roundtrip from Southampton to Norway and Iceland was one of my favorite itineraries. Our ports were Bergen, Alesund, Flam, and Geiranger in Norway and Isafjordur, Akureyri, Grundarfjordur, and Reykjavik in Iceland. It was absolutely fantastic.

 

As for the Caribbean Princess, we were on that ship in the spring and had a great cruise. I wouldn’t ever let that keep me from an appealing itinerary. 

That is the cruise I would like to do, but we're going on a group cruise at the time it is offered next year, so the dates don't work for us.  Glad to hear you had a positive experience on the Caribbean Princess.  My friend's cruise had norovirus problems, air conditioning problems as well as problems with the thrusters.  We actually choose Princess cruises when we are looking for a good itinerary.

20 hours ago, thehowlingroad said:

 

We went last year on the Enchanted Princess. 3 ports in Norway, 4 in Iceland (no overnight in Reykjavik). It was a good mix for us, and I had looked at multiple other cruise lines during the planning process; Princess regularly does 4 stops in Iceland, instead of 2 or 3 with an overnight in Reykjavik like some of the other cruise lines.

 

Whether or not that's a trade-off that's worth it to you is a personal preference; all our port stops were 10+ hours, so we felt it was still plenty of time to do the tours we wanted to do and walk around town. With the exceptions of Reykjavik and Akureyri, the other "typical" Icelandic port towns (Isafjordur, Grundarfjordur, Seydisfjordur) are really small.

That is our ideal cruise, except we will be on another cruise during the dates of that particular cruise next year.

22 hours ago, snoozecrooze said:

I'm not quite sure what this turn of phrase means regarding "flavors". But Iceland is a wonderful destination and the Caribbean's itineraries next year are very good, IMO. Sky is also offering almost identical ones if you are weary of the older vessel. Next time, I might actually pursue an itinerary that has an overnight in Reykjavik and/or has more stops in Iceland (I believe Holland America is an example).

 

CB has been the unfortunate stepchild, I feel, in terms of norovirus and engine issues, but I really think the itinerary can dictate the vibe you have and encounter on a cruise, so what your friend may have experienced on a cruise in the Caribbean won't be what you get in Iceland (and we'd hope those pesky engine issues are long behind us by then).

 

FYI, there's another thread here on the forum about the ship and 'positive reviews' and that might give you more insight you're looking for.

  Yes, by flavors I meant different ports of call.  I wish there was more time spent in Iceland, so also considering a land trip.  We were most recently on the SKY and have sailed mostly in that class of ship.  Unfortunately, the Sky had less time in port than the Caribbean Princess itinerary.  Will check out the other positive reviews.

We are considering booking a cruise to Iceland next year on the Caribbean Princess.  A trusted friend just came back from a cruise on the Caribbean Princess, and said it was the only ship she would never sail on again.  I've read some other negative reviews about this ship.  Please tell me your thoughts.  Also, if you've been to Iceland, please tell me which of the various flavors of cruises you did and liked or not.  It's very hard to tell the differences between these cruises.  Should we stay away from the Caribbean Princess?  Thanks for all input.