kevinyork

1 minute ago, Thrak said:

 

It seems idiotic not to be able to track your usage in the app. Any bartender can tell you how many you've had so the info is in the system. I agree with you that it makes sense they would allocate one drink to each person but how does that work if I'm in the cabin and my wife is in the piazza and one of us orders two drinks?  If they charge my wife twice it's no big deal. I'm a different story and don't want her snagging my drink allowance. (Yes, I have hit the magic number. No, I wasn't drunk or loud and the bar staff had no issue serving me.)

I agree, it would seem to be a sensible and easy addition to the app so you can keep track of your allowance.  

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Question:  Were both drinks charged to one 15 drink allotment or did they actually split them between the two accounts?

That’s. Good question. As you can’t see how many of your allowance you are using it’s hard to say.  However as you are only allowed to order one drink each at a time my guess is it allocates one each.  

We were on Sky last week.  Having read a lot about people being charged if you order two drinks even though your partner has the same package, it actually worked flawlessly.  Could order two drinks to be delivered anywhere on the ship including the cabin.  The two drinks are shown in the basket and the fee is shown then the full cost discounted to zero on the same screen.  They usually took about 10 mins to be delivered. You could order any of the food options on the app also to be delivered anywhere including the cabin.  We were very pleased with how this all worked.  
 

We only had one issue where we ordered one can of Grolsch and it never arrived.  When we ordered a glass of wine later in the day the server said I’ve brought your wine but there is no Grolsch left onboard.  So seemingly if they can’t supply what you order there is no way of them letting you know.  
 

We also used the crew contact facility on the app to report that the interactive TV had stopped working.  A crew member replied, said they would reboot the system and told me to turn the tv off and on and it fixed it.  Cracking service.

So my first experience of Medallion.

Had everything completed for me and my OH for a while and was Blue.  Last week registered my OH on their phone so they would be able to order stuff onboard but when I go to add the reservation to his account it doesn’t recognise his details despite them being exactly as per the booking confirmation.

strangely since doing this his details have gone from my app so where it had shown photos of both of us and both our personal details etc, his has gone. My status has gone back to green but the various sections are still completed but just for me.

don’t want to have to phone as in the U.K. I’ve had no success getting through after waiting 45 mins. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling but still no good.

any ideas folks?

On 4/29/2021 at 8:12 AM, caribill said:

 

Probably because most crew come from countries where vaccines are not yet available to them.

plus the vaccine isn’t available privately in the U.K. yet so Princess couldn’t vaccinate its crew. 

On 4/29/2021 at 2:06 AM, NSWP said:

Exactly and to the point and that would be the end of cruising for another couple of years. I find it difficult to accept why the UK Government is not insisting on 100% vaccination of ships crews, given the Covid numbers in UK, granted they are reducing from what they were, but 2000 odd positive cases a day is still a concern.

With around 1 million Covid tests a day in the U.k and the likely hood of false positives then 2000 is extremely low. The government  published data yesterday on the first two weeks of testing kids when the schools reopened. They had lateral flow tests twice a week at school and if positive had a PCR test to double check.  62% of the initial positive results were false positives.  The lateral flow tests are the free ones available to anyone in England. 

4 minutes ago, CCFC said:

They are similar to P&O but not really adhered to. The only thing I would say is that the Seacations are going to be strict at boarding times.

Thanks. So they don’t turn you away or make you wait ages then?  We are staying in Southampton the night before so will be itching to get onboard.

Ours is the first regular scheduled cruise after the Seacations so hopefully back to a bit more of a normal cruise, fingers crossed. 

We’ve cruise many times from Southampton and know that P&O (also part of Carnival) allocate arrival times at the port and pretty much enforce them, based on the deck apparently. We’ve got our first Princess cruise booked for October. Do Princess also set an arrival time for groups of passengers?  RCI and Celebrity are pretty relaxed with their Southampton departures and wondered if Princess being American might operate the same. 
 

thanks in advance.

4 minutes ago, the english lady said:

If you go somewhere on your own , you will be one person, and probably staying somewhere on your own. The cruise ship will have 1000 of you . One of the conditions of them sailing was probably that they did not just let people off the ship to wander. We don't know yet the effect of having over 1000 in confined spaces will be. You do not have to book the cruises, you do not have to get off the ship in a port, if you have. All the lines doing these summer cruises will have to abide by them. Cruising itself will not be back to normal for a while.

But it will have 1000 vaccinated and tested people. In a busy city full of visitors, how many of those will have subjected themselves to both.  Plus the destinations will still have Covid safe practices in all museums, transport, shops, pubs and cafes.

9 hours ago, dwhe said:

Me to, having been to most places a cruise ship goes to in Europe, I now like to walk around a bit, have a pint or 2 and watch what's going on. Then back on ship for afternoon tea and a quiz. I never thought I'd miss it so much.

Oh happy days. Reading that made me a bit teary and very much missing our cruises. 

9 minutes ago, voljeep said:

so, you would be willing to take a rapid test prior to re-boarding and if positive, your belongings would be removed from your cabin, returned to you, and you would be on your own with no compensation or refund ? 🤑

A rapid test when reboarding would be of no use as the virus doesn’t show up for 4-7 days after contact. Plus having had the vaccination along with all other passengers onboard the risk of transmission is less than in the general community. But if they disembarked us, we could be home in just a few hours anyway this being a U.k cruise. 

27 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Dont agree. I take Cruise line excursions and like them.  They are trying to prevent the spread of the virus. Making some concessions to the government allows the ship to have excursions. Yes you can travel freely but maybe 3,000 people all going on their own could be seen as more of a risk. Just a thought. We are in a time all options are not there. 

By some mid June all legal restrictions are going to end in the U.K. so if people can travel and visit freely anywhere in the U.K. why should cruise passengers have to pay for excursions if they just want to wander?    They are not making concessions to the Government as the Government are not requiring ships excursions only.  So when we cruise if there is no legal requirement for cruise ship excursions only and no restrictions on U.K. movement/visits etc then the only reason the cruise lines would require an official excursion as the only reason to disembark it would be seen as nothing but profiteering.  

4 hours ago, WeeCountyMan said:

No, I only clocked Simon Calder's recent article in the Independent and thought it might be worth flagging up these restrictions on the Princess forum, in case it had slipped under the radar of any Brits potentially interested in such a cruise.

 

If internal travel restrictions within the UK are lifted then I reckon Princess will have a problem trying to justify their "no go ashore unescorted" policy.

 

Of course, up here, north of Hadrian's Wall, the Scottish Government has separate travel rules compared to England and/or Wales.......that could muddy the waters (no pun intended) if they remain different when the around Britain cruising season kicks off !!!

 

 

If we are free to travel within the U.K. but the cruise line retain it must be on of their excursions only it’ll be seen for the money grabbing idea that it is. 

9 hours ago, dwhe said:

It smacks of Princess trying to pull in more money by making us take their excursions.

 

The cruises that demand this are for vaccinated UK cruisers only, all port calls will be in the UK.

 

The Government are talking about lifting all restrictions for UK residents in June (all being well) so why are Princess stopping us going ashore on our own in September, even on organised excursions you will mix with people on shore, they can't wrap you in a bubble.

 

By the way my Cruise starting on 5th Oct 21 Round Britain has no restrictions, you don't even have to be vaccinated.

We booked that one this week. Was a good price.  First Princess cruise.

I still think there is a chance they will bring in the need for a vaccination before then as everyone will have been offered one by then.

I will be unhappy though if they enforce their excursions only though as a way of getting off the ship.  I live in York and can get to Liverpool in two hours and wander around so why shouldn’t I be allowed to get off a ship and do the same?

When this first started, there was a great deal of support from Tui fans on social media and gradually people are starting to loose faith. There seem to be two main issues-

Instead of people waiting to be contacted about their cancelled cruise, people are bombarding the phone lines about their cruise, some not until a year away, which means the few staff that are working are busy dealing with these calls and not able to work through on a departure date basis to process refunds and changes.

Tui took full advantage of the Uk furlough scheme to get the wages of a majority of its admin team paid for so they didn’t have to.  Now they have managed to get some  staff working from home, so why haven’t they got more doing that? With the move to go back to work unless you can work from home surely they can’t keep these staff furloughed?  Furlough is for when there is no work for the person and is an alternative to redundancy. Clearly there is work for them so they should either be working from home or going to work if that’s not possible.  They should not be continuing to use the furlough scheme. Problem is that’s a double whammy for Tui, they have to pay the wages of the staff and also have more staff available to refund people. It’s a lose, lose situation for them.

4 hours ago, Bertie Doe said:

 

A condition of TUI's €1.8 billion loan was they 'furloughed 11,000 of it's 13,200 UK employees. So the staff that took your money so quickly, aren't around to to reimburse your hard-earned cash so speedily. No mention of German redundancies. https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/tui-takes-up-18-billion-loan-from-germanys-state-bank-22326

 

The three new Mein Shif cruise ships being built at the moment, must also place stress on the purse-strings. I'm sure TUI are being even-handed with their own people and us Brexiteers, I just can't find any evidence of it.

 

Most of our cruises have been with TUI/Marella but never, never again.

 

Sorry was looking on a phone, now can see the link.  I’m annoyed. They get a German bailout and get Uk government help to furlough most admin staff then leave a tiny crew to deal with refunds and amendments. That atrocious.

3 hours ago, Bertie Doe said:

 

A condition of TUI's €1.8 billion loan was they 'furloughed 11,000 of it's 13,200 UK employees. So the staff that took your money so quickly, aren't around to to reimburse your hard-earned cash so speedily. No mention of German redundancies. https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/tui-takes-up-18-billion-loan-from-germanys-state-bank-22326

 

The three new Mein Shif cruise ships being built at the moment, must also place stress on the purse-strings. I'm sure TUI are being even-handed with their own people and us Brexiteers, I just can't find any evidence of it.

 

Most of our cruises have been with TUI/Marella but never, never again.

 

I had a feeling this might be the case, did you source this from somewhere?

4 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

Quite frankly I don't trust a word Simon Calder says after he suggest in February that now was a great time to book a holiday to Venice. That was when Northern Italy was locking down areas and it was clear to everyone (except Simon) Italy was not a great place to be booking a last minute holiday to.

I have sine heard other misinformation from Simon regarding refunds etc. It seems the media in general think he is a travel god but I feel he has lost touch with reality recently.

 

Simon's advice on Venice can be found here https://www.msn.com/en-ph/travel/tips/coronavirus-means-travel-deals-galore-but-would-you-snap-them-up/ar-BB10v6xW?li=BBr91nr

I agree.  I get a bit fed up that if ever there is a travel story every news outlet defaults to him, surely there are other (better) travel correspondents?  At the very least share the work around. 

12 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

But they are not paying refunds, they are not answering their phones, they are not communicating with customers. 
You can defend them as much as you want but You must know that what they are doing isn’t right. 

On another social media site, you are chastised for suggesting Tui are anything other than a saintly organisation and anyone wanting a refund for a cancelled cruise is being mercenary.    They are clearly holding off on refunds till they have money from new bookings or final payments, a bit like a Ponzi scheme. We know how they all end. 

55 minutes ago, nancyneptune said:

 

 

Glad to hear you got your refund.  My brother would have been happy to have the refund back to his credit card and was surprised when the staff asked for his bank details. He is elderly and vulnerable and is very wary of giving his bank details to any one so always uses his credit card for purchases.  He is now very concerned that Tui have his bank account details. He put his trust in Tui and they have let him down.  He hasn't contacted his credit card company in case it causes problems with Tui.  He is so upset as he feels due to his age and health problems he would not be able to re-book for next year if he was now only offered the option to re-book or accept a voucher. 

Very strange they would want bank details as they would get a refund of the credit card charges they would have paid when accepting a credit card payment. 
 

Just been reading in Which that STA travel and loveholidays have been refusing refunds and offering credit notes “on ABTAs advice” but that is still just advice at the moment with ABTA lobbying the government in the meantime. 
 

I think I would be contacting my credit card and initiating a chargeback against Tui, if they refund in the meantime then you can cancel the chargeback.

3 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

I also have a P&O cruise booked but that is in November, as that is some way off I have not worried about that too much. I have however received numerous emails keeping me up to date on what is going on but in contrast the only email I have received from Marella is one saying everything is going ahead when a blind person can see it is not.   

Tui have never recognised loyalty.  It’s extremely important in cruising and the US lines in particular want to ensure they get their loyal passengers back on board when this is over.  

34 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

I feel for you.

I believe Marella have handled this very badly indeed, I have had cruises booked with Celebrity and Cunard and I can't fault their communication but Marella is dreadful and this will be last time I book with them. Yes the virus is beyond their control but communication is not. 

I think one of the main problems Tui have is that the cruises are being dealt with as part of the overall Tui call centres who are dealing with hundreds of thousands of cancelled package holidays.  It’s not an excuse though.  Their communications have been poor from the start of this crisis and they are not helping themselves with people desperate to get info on their booking/refunds but the lack of clear info leads to even more pressure on their teams. 

6 minutes ago, Brummijam said:

There is talk of them being able to hold your payment and give you a voucher for another holiday, if you don’t use the voucher for two years you can then claim your refund. Perhaps they are holding out for that scenario to come into force. At the moment I am waiting for a refund on a cruise that they cancelled but apart from the email notification of cancellation we have heard nothing.

I don’t think they could change to a voucher system for existing bookings as it’s not in the terms and conditions. Maybe for new bookings?

The dates cruise lines have given as their “no cruises till” dates are just the intial cancellation periods.  This isn’t going to take many months to run its course before cruising restarts.  

5 minutes ago, Vitalsign said:

I know Discovery is now off Singapore and she was off Laem Chabang for a few days It updated this afternoon I've been watching at least twice a day on Marine Traffic for all TUI ships which I've used for years

The propulsion problems were fixed weeks ago

I’m guessing as they have no guests onboard they are waiting to see where to go next. India and the UAE are closed to them so their route back to the Med might be troublesome.