jonesbk

Nevermind

Dunno about transferring holds to a TA, but…..

When doing courtesy holds, make sure you don’t have any FCC (leftover from cancelled “pause” cruises, not FCDs) as if you put a courtesy hold on a cruise, if you have any FCCs, Princess’ system automatically uses them and books the cruise versus just placing a hold on the cabin for you.

I just put a hold on a cruise this past weekend and emailed my PVP and, to my surprise, she emailed me back the next business day saying she saw that I was able to book it and everything looked right. A few emails later and a follow up phone call and I was made aware of Princess’ system apparently having the “power” to automatically book the cruise if you have any FCCs still in the system even if you’re just trying to place a hold on it. Very annoying, and my PVP loses out on the booking credit, an issue that they’ve made their management aware of.

I honestly don’t understand how Princess can “force” you to book a cruise that you are just placing a hold on, especially when the deposit is non-refundable. So if you decide not to book it, after they’ve forced you to book it, you lose your FCC. If I decided to cancel the booking, I am hopeful, but not overly so, that I could have the FCC reinstated.

If this has been mentioned on the boards previously, my apologies. We haven’t cruised (with Princess) since before the pause and haven’t been following Cruise Critic much. We did however try HAL recently and while it was “nice”, HAL is no substitute for Princess IMO.

On Princess, the tap water is distilled (as we were told/shown on the ship tour), hence Princess providing bottles of distilled water for free is likely them just providing ship’s water that hasn’t been piped to your cabin. However I am not sure if the water they provide is ship water or store bought, I didn’t have a CPAP when we sailed on Princess.

I’ve heard HAL’s water is desalinated, which isn’t the same as distilled.

Most CPAP manufacturers recommend using distilled water to avoid buildup, etc.

I personally don’t have a problem paying for distilled water on the ship as I have to pay for it when I am at home, not sure why I should or would expect HAL to provide it for free.

I also don’t have an issue using bottled water, or even tap water, in my CPAP. I just clean it more often when doing so to avoid mineral buildup. However I don’t use my tap water as home as our county water is drawn from wells and is very mineral heavy, as witnessed by the buildup in our humidifiers we use during the winter.

And I just thought the thread title was a typo for decks as a lot of the boards have threads on “hidden decks” LOL

Very interesting that the ducks have made their way into cruise ships. I just thought it was a Jeep thing (I’m not a Jeep guy). 
 

I’ve seen similar things with painted rocks here locally. My wife found one that was painted like Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. Too cute!

You can also request one on Holland’s website (I did, our first cruise with HAL will be in March). It’s probably the luck of the draw, but I guess I got lucky and was assigned one who is very responsive and knowledgeable. Sorry we can’t mention names, etc…

I’d like to see if they give the internet 50% OBC to those that book PrincessPlus. Otherwise I’m not getting the benefits I earned. Princess won my loyalty, but as they continue to go the way of Carnival, I may be moving on to other lines, again (we used to LOVE Carnival cruises).

I really can’t wait for cruises to resume so we can hear back as to what “really” happens onboard because you know it always varies ship to ship…

10 minutes ago, cruzincat50 said:

If you look around on tracking sites, the Caribbean Princess and Coral Princess have been steaming around the ABC islands for a little while now, too.  Probably waiting their turns.

Their turn to offload equipment? No. They've been there for weeks. 

We have our first cruise on the Pacific scheduled for later this year. Will be interested in reading the OP’s thoughts once they return.

20 hours ago, Schonert said:

No limit but you are supposed to carry it on

I've never carried water or soda onto a Princess ship. The cases of soda get taped up fairly well and a luggage tag taped to the side, same with a case or 2 of water.

I've had 1 porter say no, then his buddy said yeah, its ok, its Princess and they allow it. All have safely made it to my cabin.

As to why one needs/desires to bring water/soda onboard, it is nice to have a cold beverage in your cabin, without paying bar + prices for them, and to have mixers for alcohol either prepurchased or from the first leg of a B2B(2B2Betc).

We get the soda package and the tumbler that comes with it, but I definitely won't carry around a tumbler, much less a refillable water bottle. I did it once (several years ago on Carnival), and I spent more time trying to remember where I left the refillable bottle/tumblr and finding it than I actually spent drinking from it......

Seems several replies in this thread state they carry it on or had to carry it on.....where and why?

Once you are booked in a specific cabin, unless you booked a guarantee, I don’t think they can bump you unless you approve it (I think the sole exception to this are Accessible cabins).

Just off the Fantasy.

They showed a Marvel Avengers movie in the Comedy lounge, I think, on the last sea day. That was it.

The inroom movies were on a daily cycle, and were on 2 channels (6-8 movies a day, 3-4 each channel) and were all several years old.

The inroom movies and tv selections left a LOT to be desired.

Just back from sailing out of Mobile.

They started boarding at 11:15 on the dot for weddings, Diamond/Platinum, and FTTF. Seems that’s the normal start time for boarding as long as the ship isn’t delayed coming in. Our checkin time wasn’t until 12:30, and we walked onto the ship literally right after the wedding party at 11:15 (think it’s a perk of staying in an Owner’s Suite though).

Even at 11:00 though, there was no line to checkin and, as there is nowhere to wait outside, I can’t see Carnival strictly enforcing checkin times and making them wait outside. They may be given a later boarding number, but they’ll be seated inside, in the AC.

I have heard that the parking garage does fill rather quickly though (when we sailed, I didn’t see any available slots on the roof), so if they’re driving in, best to be early, in my opinion.

I did the Ultimate Ship Tour in April. No one mentioned the propulsion issues, but just looking at the monitors and displays in the engine control room (part of the tour) you could easily tell something was wrong as one of the shafts was in red versus green and there were notes and instructions everywhere not to exceed X power to that shaft. So no, the issue has not been resolved, but I doubt most of the crew would have any idea that there is a problem.

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It’s my understanding it is an honorary plaque and not a star on the actual walk of fame. Still very awesome though!

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The violinists were the Sunshine Duo. I thought they were pretty good, but not 2 Cellos good. Almost bought their CD in the shop, but it was $25 and was all classical, nothing like what they played in the piazza. There was also a guitar/singer duo. Passed by their performances a few times and didn’t hear anything to make me pause...... oh and DJ Brickhouse. Ran into her waiting for an elevator one night while she was trying to find out how to get to Skywalkers. Xcite was indeed pretty good, until they tried to cram them into the piazza, which I never saw them successfully perform there. Too many mic feedback issues.

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That would have been a smart move. No one would have been using terminal 2 parking when you returned and you could have avoided the shuttle with your luggage.

Shuttle? There was no shuttle. Luckily one of the Sheriff’s offered me a ride, else it would have been a taxi. Apparently the port doesn’t operate the shuttle if that specific cruise departed and returned to the same terminal. The don’t take into account B2Bs.

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What terminal does Princess use in Fort Lauderdale. The OP mentioned Princess terminal being organized; but did not mention what the terminal number is. Thanks

It is typically terminal 2 or 19. We were on the two cruises prior to this one. The first left out of Terminal 19 (on a Sunday, the Regal I’m guessing it was, was docked at terminal 2) but returned to terminal 2 at the end of both of the cruises. Made it hectic getting our car as it was at the Midport garage (we didn’t move it between the B2B legs, thinking we would be disembarking at terminal 19 on a Saturday so the port would be busy - it wasn’t).

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I sure hope the Pacific Princess isn’t going anywhere soon, we just booked the 2019 TA.

To my knowledge, there are several cruise lines that have their older/oldest ships listed for sale, some of them have been listed repeatedly, for years. I think if Princess were to sell the Pacific, they would be making a huge mistake, however with most cruise lines shifting to larger and larger new builds, Princess included, it wouldn’t surprise me.

I’d think Azamara would have an interest in obtaining the Pacific as they already own several of the R class ships and coincidentally, we looked at pretty much all of the “next level” cruise lines, Azamara, Regents, Seabourn, etc, and only Azamara appealed to us as consumers due to their much more relaxed dress codes versus the other “all inclusive” or “luxury” lines. But, Azamara’s itenaries leave a lot to be desired in my opinion, which basically means the only “luxury” line we would be seriously interested in has lost our interest before it even began.

But about the video, amazing job. We watched it several times before we decided we just had to try the Pacific Princess. I’m hoping we will like sailing on her and if we do, I think it may be hard to go back to the larger ships, hence the above interest in checking out other lines that have smaller ships.

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Glad they were able to take care of the issues to your satisfaction.

We were on the Caribbean Princess from April 1st-21st, late seating in the Palm Dining Room. Jeffrey and Mark had us in and out just about every night (table for 2) in 45 minutes or less! We’ve never had such speedy service in a MDR, on any cruise line!

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Re-fared our Dec ‘19 TA on the Pacific....same price for a Mini. Up to $1550 in OBC now (FCD, Vet and Landmark $500 pp).

Yup, I’m happy.

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We just got the notification that our cruise on the Caribbean Princess on the 11th will have an inspection as well.

Big difference for us though is the cruise starting on the 11th is the 2nd half of a B2B.

Anyone know how the delay will affect intransit passengers? This is our first time doing a B2B and have read how relaxed turnaround day is. Just wondering how this will change that day for us?

Thanks!

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So, sounds normal for the policy to be inconsistent. We are doing a B2B (booked as different segments) in 2 weeks and have bought the package for both cruises. It sounds like the package should cover both cruises and worst case scenario we end up paying $50 to have it extended for the 2nd leg. Still better than $199.

Thoughts?

We are booked on a B2B (different booking numbers, booked as 2 separate cruises) in 2 weeks, but we aren't Elite, so we have to pay for our minutes.

I initially bought minutes for each cruise, but am now wondering if I should cancel those and just buy minutes for the first cruise (possibly more minutes, and save a few bucks) and see if they roll over to the 2nd leg?

Decisions, decisions. Sounds like a gamble, I am also facing the same issue with the Photo Package as well (the package is the same price for up to 24 days I think?).

Thoughts? I won't be saving a significant amount of money on the potential internet savings, but the photo package would DEFINITELY save enough for a night out at a bar ;)

Another question regarding the Captain’s Circle levels:

If you meet the requirements for a higher level, it doesn’t take effect until your next cruise, correct?

I’ve seen other cruise lines move up your loyalty level for that cruise, if you will move up levels while on that cruise.

Just want to make sure I’ve got it right, we are working on adding some days and our first cruise was an 8 day, which throws off the number of days as all of our future cruises are 10 day multiples.....

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We thought the same thing with Carnival. Same activities, same shows, etc etc. so we tried Princess last year and love what Princess offers. Maybe it’s time to try another line?

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