azbirdmom

It's by the retailers. We saw signs up at some places we shopped but this was on on the reservation confirmation from the Sydney Harbour Marriott (although the Credit Card Surcharge shown on the final bill was a bit higher):

Still the same in December. We paid a fee to use a credit card everywhere in Australia.

I would have been unhappy if it wasn't converted as it was cash that we paid out of pocket. Sure enough the $200 casino deposit converted to $312.60 AUD. The rest of our OBC (Shareholder, from FCD, and Goodwill) wasn't converted. Basically anything that comes from cash and is refundable is converted, everything else is 1:1.

If anyone can get it done the Suite Concierge should be able to handle it for you provided the service(s) you want aren't 100% booked (and I doubt that would be the case).

This is exactly what everyone needs to do, in addition to trying to make them aware of the situation on the ship as the OP did. If Princess keeps hearing it then there will be no excuses if they lose customers because they didn't do anything to improve staffing and service on the ships.

Thanks for taking the time to write up such a detailed review. We are finding that we need to reserve as much time after the cruise for quarantining as we do cruising after coming back from our last two cruises ill (Covid in July and upper respiratory infection last week). Lots of different illnesses out there and it's a miracle if you can manage to avoid them, especially with clueless people around who don't care who they infect. I hope you feel better soon!

Not necessarily. The CVP that books my casino cruises is in London and I haven't had one hard sell for Princess Promotions. If I did I would just say no and move along.

Agree with this. I also received a call from a CVP out of the blue that I now use for casino offers. This name appears on my casino offer emails too. He does have a Princess phone number and email address although it says "contractor" after his name when he sends me an email. He's a ONE employee located in London and seems to know what he's doing unlike some of the other offshore folks I've dealt with for casino offers. ONE headquarters is located very near me in Scottsdale Arizona. They started taking over the casino reservations function last year (our of the Philippines) and then continued with customer service and now some CVP type functions. It's still a work in progress.

Your offer seems like it was much better than what we were recently offered which I've copied below - the non-refundable part was the deal killer for us: Regarding your request, we are pleased to propose you our “Day Use room” offer for the first category available as follow: On February 29th 2024. For 2 adults From 06:00 AM until 07:00 PM 75 705 XPF all taxes included* or From 12:00 PM (noon) until 10:00 PM 51 022 XPF all taxes included* Reservation conditions: In order to proceed with the reservation, a secure payment link will be sent. Kindly note that the reservation tentative will be maintained only during the link validity. Cancellation policy: As soon as the reservation confirmed it will not be amendable or refundable. The Intercontinental doesn't offer day use rooms but they do have a package that allows you to use the pool and includes lunch. This is the offer we have booked (via email to Restauration.Tahiti@ihg.com ) The Lotus Pool Day Pass – Available everyday Includes access to the pool area from 10.00am to 5.00pm with a lunch at the gourmet restaurant Le Lotus from 12.00 to 2.00pm : main course + dessert a la carte. The rate is at 8 990 XPF per person (from Monday to Thursday). The rate is at 10 700 XPF per person (from Friday to Sunday). The Tiare Pool Day Pass + Lunch – Available everyday [the most popular] Includes access to the pool area from 10.00am to 5.00pm with a lunch at the main restaurant Te Tiare: main course + dessert a la carte. The rate is 7 950 XPF per person. The Tiare Pool Day Pass + American Breakfast – Available from Monday to Saturday Includes access to the pool area from 10.00am to 5.00pm with an American Breakfast at Te Tiare restaurant available from 6.30 to 10.30am. The rate is 7 950 XPF per person. The Tiare Pool Day Pass + Tahitian Brunch - Available only on Sunday Includes access to the pool area from 10.00am to 5.00pm with our Tahitian Brunch at Te Tiare restaurant, available from 7.00 to 10.30am with a traditional dance show at 8.30am. The rate is 10 000 XPF per person. Beverage and transfer are not included Payment can be made directly on site, upon arrival -50% off for children from 4 to 11 years old As we have a limited number of day passes, reservations are mandatory. Please kindly note that our rate may be subject to change by 2024. Regarding your request for the luggage, we have the possibility to store it. To do so, please find enclosed a discharge form to be filled.

Does this apply even to those who booked an old standard plan? Our documents clearly state one Wifi logon per cabin and was planning on purchasing a second once onboard. Was searching for something about pricing and came across your post.

If you really want to bug her you can shoot emails to all three of her published email addresses too. Here's the other ones 😉 jswartz@hollandamerica.com jgswartz@yahoo.com

Here are the most recent contacts per Elliottdotorg: Address 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 https://www.princess.com/ Phone Contacts Main: (661) 753-0000 Customer Service: (800) 774-6237 Call center hours: Monday – Friday 6am – 7pm Pacific Time (9am-10pm ET) Saturday and Sunday 6am – 6pm Pacific Time (9am-9pm ET) Email Contacts customerrelations@princesscruises.com Executive Contacts Primary Contact Collin Steinke Director, Customer Relations 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 csteinke@princesscruises.com Secondary Contact Lorna Warren Vice President Guest Services 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 lwarren@princesscruises.com Chief Executive John Padgett President 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 jpadgett@princesscruises.com Also, try padgett@HAGroup.com

Doesn't sound like he's that interested in making sure that all is well. Your husband has tried to talk to him about it and there's not much else to be done if the friend doesn't want to follow that advice so unfortunately the friend may soon be learning a very expensive lesson.

Sounds like something is missing here, maybe in translation? Is it a reputable agency? Is the agent also an owner or is there someone else he can escalate to? Is the cruise shown in the Personalizer? Did your DH's friend get a Princess booking confirmation and an invoice from the TA? The first definitely shows when the payment is due and any good TA should show this on their own invoice as well. If he doesn't have those he should ask. Armed with this information the friend should approach the TA about the discrepancy. If the TA still insists that payment is due 2 days before the cruise leaves I would definitely contact Princess to move the cruise to them - after ensuring that any funds that he prepaid had been applied to the cruise balance.

It's not only the number of excursions but the numbers allowed on each excursion. I know for some of the ones offered in Guadeloupe there is limited space, in some cases one bus. The more popular excursions on many other islands have a lot more spaces to sell. Hard to quantify that before Princess tends to show 20 spaces available until an excursion is close to being fully subscribed.

Hope to see again too, and wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

That you can do!

Loved that after the Christmas decorations started that it seemed every day something new appeared. On the last day of the cruise a kangaroo with a Joey appeared in front of the sleigh. Hope you don’t mind this addition to your wonderful review, you had the picture but I just thought it was such a nice touch by those who decorated the ship!

Hope you told them about this in your survey. We were in a full suite and one of the perks was that we could be escorted off the ship by the Suite Concierge at our leisure. We definitely liked that perk but I did feel bad after hearing how long folks had to wait.

There is a place at Circular Quay for luggage storage. I believe it is called Bounce but someone can correct me if I'm wrong about that. I saw it on the Quay side of the station but we didn't use it so I'm not sure about what they charge. ETA: It is Bounce, here's their website https://usebounce.com/city/sydney/sydney-circular-quay?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=pmax&utm_campaign={campaignname}&hsa_grp=&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAvoqsBhB9EiwA9XTWGTPG_mGg3hNP-598ZJPhHwuqK5Derdio9kD2Bk_f6PGQr9DfJd3B3xoC3eAQAvD_BwE

Sorry about that. The price I quoted was what my credit card was charged for the trip from SYD to Circular Quay and I assumed it was the same for the return. It took a couple of days for the charge for the Circular Quay to SYD trip to hit my credit card and I see that it is a little more than $13 USD. Still a bargain based on the cost of a taxi which at peak times can be insanely high (we paid around $140 AUD for a taxi from SYD to the Sydney Harbour Marriot in 2019 during rush hour and learned our lesson).

I walked off the ship last week with water bottles from the ship in New Zealand ports. They announced that water taken off the ship had to be sealed commercially processed water. They also had strict rules on what you could take off the ship and there were announcements at every port as well as notices in the rooms about it. Thinking it was an honor system situation as we weren't checked once nor did we notice anyone else being searched.

You would guess wrong. This topic includes itineraries from there on the Sky that start in 2025 and the Caribbean Princess has some starting in 2024. And I didn't say that we had to embark from Cape Canaveral. It's just a very nice change from FLL for a variety of reasons.

Which ship were you on? There were a lot of books in the library of the Royal and my DH enjoyed at least one of them. We disembarked last Friday. Have been dealing with upper respiratory infections since the end of the cruise and yeah, our embarkation had been delayed due to deep cleaning but it seemed like respiratory and gastro grunge continued to rip through the ship on our cruise. Tis the season...

I know of 19 people (5 personally) who wish it was a tall tale. Here are some links to articles about the accident that foiled their excursion: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/state-highway-1-closed-after-serious-crash-near-kekerengu-serious-injuries/E7DQKB3TTJHUVFFJZP5L7KIHGY/ https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/301023888/person-dies-after-headon-car-crash-in-marlborough