2happywanderers

That's the bridge. The viewing deck on top of the bridge is reached from Lido 15. It is often closed while underway.

Thanks for this information. Are there any other outside viewing areas forward on the Emerald other than this area on top of the bridge from Lido 15? Would this viewing area on top of the bridge be open during sail aways and sail ins? We too love the forward viewing areas on Princess ships like the Sea, Sun and Dawn, etc.

2happywanderers :):)

Many, many thanks for all your helpful advice....much appreciated.

2happywanderers :):)

Has anyone used Princess Cruises transfer from Hong Kong cruise terminal to the international airport? Is it easy to get a taxi to the airport after disembarking in Hong Kong or is it better to use the ship's transfer?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

2happywanderers :):)

The Cruise Director we had was Stuart Mac. He stated that a new CD was joining the ship on Sunday (16/11), he was staying on board in a handover mode until Melbourne then flying to Sydney to await his new ship Sun Princess.

 

 

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Thank you Captain90. Unfortunately we are joining the Sun Princess for their Christmas cruise on 16th December! Looks like we are stuck with Stuart Mac....great!

Anyway, we'll give him a chance and make sure he doesn't spoil our cruising experience. Thank you for forewarning us though.

2happywanderers :):)

Yes I have raised most of my concerns in the survey but have no faith that anything will change.

 

My wife and I are almost at retiring age and hope to do a lot more cruises. Have only ever cruised with Princess (2 cruises) but this experience has made me rethink about Princess. Perhaps we will try another line next year but really wanted to build loyalty points with one line to get the benefits later on. If we decide to cruise Princess again it will definitely not be on the Diamond and with the Cruise Director we just had. Oh I forgot to mention he is leaving the Diamond and moving to the Sun later this week. This could be why he showed little interest in this cruise.

 

 

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Very interested in your comments because we are considering a Diamond cruise shortly so will take your comments on board.

Would you mind telling us who the Cruise Director was on your Diamond cruise please? The Diamond is presently on a 28 day around Australia cruise. Will the Cruise Director be changed mid cruise, or would a new Cruise Director have come on board before the start of this current cruise?

Thank you for posting your impressions of your Diamond cruise.

2happywanderers :):)

Last year we booked a guaranteed inside cabin on the Dawn Princess for a seven week cruise and paid extra to have the highest category of inside cabin. We were expecting to be allocated this or better, and for six months we checked online daily, morning and night, for our allocation to be confirmed. A week before flying out to join the ship, we rang Princess to make inquiries about our booking, and they advised we may not be allocated a cabin until check in, but they reassured us it would be in the category we booked or better as per their terms and conditions.

However......we were VERY disappointed to find, at check in, that we had been DOWNGRADED three categories and found ourselves in a most undesirable section of the ship, right at the front and above the Princess Theatre. The noise from the theatre prevented us from resting quietly during the day and left us unable to sleep until the early hours of the morning when the noise finally stopped. And it was not what we had paid for!

Complaints to the front desk were unsuccessful as we were told the ship was full and there were no other cabins available. Basically the just wanted us to go away and forget about it, and insisted there was nothing they could do about it. After sixteen cruises with Princess we were very disillusioned to say the least. This is how they treat their loyal passengers?

Many emails and phone calls and later, and holiday time wasted trying to persuade Princess to provide us with what we had paid for, we finally had some success by appealing to the Customer Relations person on board. It took two weeks of sleepless days and nights and angst, but they eventually found us another cabin that was more suitable but still not in the highest category we had paid for.

Be warned....we will NEVER book a guaranteed cabin again after this experience....it really left a sour taste in our mouths.

2happywanderers (usually!)

Do you mean connecting cabins? There are a few of them them, but IMO there aren't that many of them and most are not well located.

 

How many days is your cruise? If you have four to a cabin, then IMO location is important so folks can get out of the cabin and hang out close by, which is why the library area is so attractive. If you book 6 cabins, then it's ok to put the kids in their own cabin if the cabins are adjoining.

 

The Voyager will have a men's and ladies' locker room in the fitness center on deck 11 forward. These locker rooms have showers, a steam room, a sauna, and lots of towels - the perfect place for some of your group to shower and change to take the pressure off the cabin bathroom.

Thanks Carol

Yes, I did mean connecting cabins, not adjoining.......

It's an 8 day cruise we're looking at, and I like your idea of using the locker rooms to take the pressure off the bathrooms if we need to. This makes cabins on Deck 10 very desirable.

Many thanks for your suggestions....much appreciated.

2happywanderers :):)

Are you looking at inside or balcony cabins? IMO on a voyager class ship the OV cabins are the least desirable for the price point.

 

If you put 4 people in a cabin, then try to book deck 7 close to the aft elevators. For insides try to get the inside corridor. That will give you easy access directly into the library area through the emergency doors and you can treat that whole area as your "living room".

Many thanks for this advice cb at sea and 138east.

We are trying to plan a family celebration cruise for six adults, and six children aged 16, 16, 15, 14, 12, and 10. Sounds like four of us in an inside cabin would be very crowded with the "almost adult" children. May have to book 6 double cabins with one adult and one "child" (under 18) in each. If we do this, is it allowable and acceptable to switch around occupants of cabins once on board? I guess adjoining cabins, if available, may be another option? Haven't heard of adjoining inside cabins though..... are they available on VoS?

Which deck would you recommend on VoS for inside twin share cabins?

Really appreciating your advice.

Many thanks,

2happywanderers :):)

We are thinking of booking a cruise on the Voyager of the Seas for a family group of twelve to celebrate a special birthday. Would anyone be kind enough to advise us re cabin selection on the Voyager?

We will be needing three four berth (quad) cabins and are wondering if anyone has cruised in one of these quad cabins on the Voyager and what they thought of it?

Any advice or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,

2happywanderers :):)

Hi...would like your thoughts on this please.

 

We booked a last minute ND inside guaranteed cabin and we were allocated an upgrade to a NA grade cabin.

When on board maintenance work started and they were unsure how long the work would go on so they moved us to a "downgraded" NC cabin.

I thought once you had been allocated a cabin grade that they couldn't downgrade. When I pointed this out the on board staff said it wasn't a downgrade...that we were in the same category..mmm...I thought that you paid more for each upgrade within the same category.

They didn't accept what I said and that I would have to take it up with P&O when I came home.

 

So..am I "fussing" about nothing...am I wrong and they are right..can they "downgrade" you once they have allocated a grade...your thoughts and what I should do...like complain...would be appreciated.

We too were downgraded by THREE grades after booking a guaranteed cabin. These cruise companies do not honour their guaranteed promise even though their terms and conditions state a guaranteed category cabin means an allocation of a cabin in that guaranteed category or HIGHER!

We were so disappointed and angry for being treated like this after being loyal cruisers for many years.

After two weeks on board in this down graded cabin, we were able to rectify the situation somewhat by stating our case, in writing, to the Customer Services Manager on board. We were moved up two categories but still were not allocated the cabin category we had paid extra for.

After this experience, we would never book a guaranteed cabin again as they just don't honour this guarantee and we wouldn't trust them to allocate us the guaranteed category cabin we book and pay for.

I would quote their terms and conditions to them re guaranteed cabins in a strongly worded letter to the Customer Services Department and see how you go. We wish you the best of luck in getting your correct cabin allocation, or better.

2happywanderers

:) Thanks for that. Actually I think we have closer to 8 hours there. We have been to Phang Nha Bay previously, so we were looking to trying something a bit different. We have always done the ship's tours so this time we wanted to try it on our own. How far is old Phuket Town from where the ships dock? Were there any highlights you remember? Thanks for your help.

Hi there

We will be visiting Phuket beginning of October this year and would love to visit Phang Nha Bay. The ship doesn't offer tours to this area and as you have been there, we were wondering if you did this from Phuket?

If you did, how did you organise this tour? How far is it from Phuket wharf? Would it be feasible to go there and back in our ten hour port stay? Is Phang Nha Bay anywhere near Phi Phi Island? Both of these island areas are very attractive to us and we would love to visit them if at all possible during our short ten hour stay in Phuket.

Any suggestions how we can acheive this?

Many thanks in advance.

2happywanderers :):)