feedmytummy

10 hours ago, Jase0581 said:

Pre-purchased OBC will convert from USD to AUD, unless the personalizer has changed recently you will not know what that rate is.  It will only give you the USD amount, so my guess is it converts at the going rate on the date of the cruise.  For a cruise in March of this year I pre-purchased 200USD and when I boarded it was 256AUD.

 

You can charge slot play to your folio, not sure about tables as I only play slots.

Thanks, this clears up some of my confusion. As you stated in your other reply, I was asking about cruises in Australia when traveler is based out of USA. Still trying to decide if there is much difference between charging everything to my card, prepurchasing obc, or going to an atm once in Australia and paying for everything in cash. I'm spending about a week there before the cruise and, from what I understand, most places charge a fee for paying with credit card. Even the folio would incur an additional 1.1% if paid with credit card. 

Shell43, I'll be on the same cruise! I'm also looking at the Port Douglas excursion to the Great Barrier Reef. My mom is in her 70s and definitely not into water activities but my sister and I would like to do some snorkeling without leaving her by herself, so we figured she could relax on the pontoon. Anyone have info on the boat ride out? I know conditions can change at any time, but is it generally a choppy ride? I've also heard that Nov-Mar isn't really a good time to visit and our trip would be at the tail end of this period. Any concerns?

Hello! I have searched the boards and seem to have confused myself... I'm hoping a US-based traveler who has recently cruised in Australia (where the folio was charged in AUD) can answer these questions. 1) If you pre-purchased casino or onboard credits through Cruise Personalizer in USD, did it convert to AUD at 1:1 or at the exchange rate posted on the ship? 2) Can you charge table and slot play in the casino to your folio? 3) If you can, was there an additional service charge? I have called Princess about this and get different answers. One rep even said that my folio would be in USD when my booking confirmation clearly says otherwise, so I'm hoping someone with firsthand experience can clear this up for me. I'll be sailing out of Sydney on the Sun in February. Trying to weigh options as to what I should do for ship and casino spending. Thanks in advance!!

Thanks for the tips. I did find a contact for Marseille Tourism office and they confirmed taxis would be running and shops/restaurants would be open. I should put here also in case someone is ever looking for a free guide in Marseille to google Marseille Greeters. I don’t think we’ll end up using them but they offer free walking tours tailored to your interests.

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Hi, all... We just realized it'll be Labor Day in France when we stop in Marseille this year. We had just planned to take a shuttle or taxi into town to walk around, shop a little, and try the local cuisine. Will anything even be open? And will there be taxis running? We are also considering taking an excursion that would drop us off in either Aix or Cassis but are afraid we may run into the same issues. Thanks in advance for any insight.

If you tip extra (over the 15% automatically added) when you do not have the AIBP, they you would probably want to do so if you have the AIBP.

hmmm... i've never gotten a drink package before (but just ordered my 1st for my upcoming cruise - couldn't resist milkshakes, carrot juice - fingers crossed, virgin marys, and a whole array of other choices that i'm sure will make it worth while :D). without a package i might not tip extra since it's added on to each drink, unless i go regularly to a particular bartender, but with the package i feel like i should since i'd end up ordering more drinks than "what's included". anyway, i will try not to stress and just figure it out when i get there.

thanks again, everyone, for your input! if you have any other "must-try" non-alcoholic suggestions, please continue to list!! :)

virgin marys! and now i've read that milkshakes are included? please tell me this is true!!

on a slightly different note... how do people usually handle tipping if they have a drink package? i know gratuity is tacked on to package price and i also know everyone has very differing opinions on whether or not to give more but i guess i just wanna get a general sense of what people do.

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thanks, everyone! i assume these are concentrate/from a gun? not a deal breaker... just trying to figure out how if I can get my money's worth :)

wondering what juices are available in the soda and more package. i've read on here that fresh squeezed oj is not included, so i was wondering what is. thanks in advance for any info.

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planning on taking advantage of this for our upcoming cruise in january. i'm assuming, once applied to the onboard account, it can offset any chips bought at the table and/or credits put into a slot machine? didn't notice casino as one of the restricted items. was hoping someone could confirm. thanks!

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Can I ask what the benefit of doing OBC is?

this is actually the first time i'm pre-purchasing obc. it's mostly because i wanna put as much of my expenses as possible on a particular card (to take advantage of a rebate) but don't have enough of a credit limit for everything to charge at once after the cruise. and also what the other poster said :)

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If it goes to the wrong one, trot down to the pursers desk, take your receipt for buying it, they'll fix it in no time at all.

oh, yeah... i forgot i can always talk to them. haha! i'm just too excited thinking about what i'm gonna be spending it on :D

If you have seperate accounts (with seperate cards for each account) it goes on your account. If you are like Mrs Gut and I then it all goes on one card at the end of the cruise so does the OBC, next cruise we've got about $400 ea OBC, if we used seperate credit cards, or a card and cash, whatever we'd get the $400 each, but as we just put down the one card all $800 get credited to that folio.

thanks! that's what i thought but it doesn't give me a chance to choose whose account to apply it to. i guess because i'm logged in to my own cruise personalizer, it'll automatically go toward mine? my traveling companion hasn't entered her credit card info yet. wasn't sure if that made a difference or not either. anyway, i guess we can just do some minor accounting if it went on hers by mistake but wanted to avoid that if possible.

i plan to purchase obc for myself before my upcoming cruise. i noticed for some things you buy (like drink package), they have you specify which guest it's for. for obc, it just says it'll be applied to the stateroom. how does this work? does that mean obc might be credited to my traveling companion? thanks in advance for any insight.

"2) there seem to be a ton of private tour/driver options in bali from what i've read here and on tripadvisor. i've narrowed down to mr. bedu and safe bali drivers. curious if anyone has had personal experience with either?"

 

No, I have not had any experience with either of those two. However, I do have an excellent tour guide recommendation for you - Dewa Marco.

 

Read this: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51209991&postcount=6

thanks! will check it out...

I would bet by last dollar that steps means stairs.:)

say it ain't so! 1900 of them? and that doesn't qualify as a 'strenuous' excursion??

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I think it is better to confirm with the Shore Excursion desk once onboard what that 1,900 steps information really is. Princess might have different tour operators in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Phuket. While it is yards and steps for KL, Phuket's 1900 steps may also be a distance, or close to a mile. Mine is only a guess. The Shorex desk can clarify that.

i was thinking about waiting til we got on the ship to ask but there aren't really any other tours we'd be interested in. so, if this one doesn't work out for us, i'd probably want to book a private tour ahead of time. do you by chance know of an email or 800 number for princess i could call? i've looked on the website but, since i'm currently out of the country, it doesn't list any and instead just tells me to find an international travel agent.

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and who had to count those steps? or are they stairs? i understand your confusion! hopefully someone who has taken these tours can aid in your decision-making! those are new ports to me, unfortunately i am no help. good luck!

hahaha... i just pictured some poor soul getting halfway up, losing count, and having to start back at the bottom again! anyway, thanks for trying to help. hopefully, someone on here will be able to decipher the princess code.

yup, confusing for sure!

maybe if you can be more specific about where you are going and which excursions someone who has been on the excursion can help you?

sorry for the vagueness... we're looking at the following:

1) best of kuala lumpur. first stop shows walking distance 500 yards; total number of steps = 30. next stop shows walking distance 500 yards; total number of steps = 20. third stop shows walking distance 50 yards; no steps listed. etc...

2) best of phuket. none of the stops show walking distance in yards, only number of steps. the stop at a thai village for a cultural performance is the one that lists 1900 steps!!!

i just looked at them on the princess site again. there is a pop-up next to the number of steps on the kuala lumpur tour that states "elevator available" but no such pop-up on the phuket one. i just can't wrap my head around actually having to walk up 1900 steps?!?

hi, all! considering some ship excursions and will be traveling with my 74 year-old mother. the ports we're stopping at don't have "easy" options, so i've been reading the details on the "medium" ones to make sure they aren't too strenuous. kind of confused because some list walking distance (in yards), some list number of steps, and some list them both separately. i assumed steps = stairs but there is one excursion where number of steps = 1900!! any insight/experience would be appreciated... thanks!!

Was on Sea Princess in Bali just over a week ago. The ship was on local time.

 

I imagine if you arrived at the gathering place (usually one of the dining rooms) for tender tickets early enough you may be lucky and get off on one of the first tenders. We got to the dining room at 7:30 am and had number 280 something!! One of the problems with Bali is that the ship anchors a long way from the tender disembarkation wharf - approx 25-30 min. So for each tender, it is nearly an hours round trip to collect the next lot. Each of the ships tenders (x 4) can only carry 80 people, so you can see it can take a while to disembark some 1,800 passengers. Sometimes Princess may engage a local ferry that can carry a few hundred to speed things up. At Lombok & Ko Samui that did occur and waiting times were reduced significantly. Did not see that in Bali in the morning (but may have been running), but there was definitely a private ferry operating in the afternoon/evening. I say evening, as last tender was meant to be 4:30pm, but we did not weigh anchor and get underway to nearly 7:00pm due to the backlog of passengers waiting to get back to the ship.

 

The other thing that slowed down progress in the morning was the Indonesian Immigration officials taking seemingly forever to grant clearance (as opposed to Lombok a couple of weeks earlier which was rather quick) after the ship anchored.

 

Others may have had differing experiences.

thanks for all the info! now i'm definitely thinking twice about booking a private tour. decisions, decisions...

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Mark that provision every cruise and still have to ask the room steward for a robe. Another check box that does little to nothing.

bummer to hear... thanks for the heads up. now i won't be disappointed when it doesn't show up. guess i have a lot to learn about princess. (still excited to cruise though!)

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It is ages since I have cruised with Princess but will shortly be embarking from Sydney on Emerald Princess. Very excited and sorting clothes.Can anyone tell me whether or not bath robes are provided please? I have tried searching the threads but can't find an answer.

i'll be on my first princess cruise this coming jan. was playing around with the cruise personalizer today and saw a section where you can request a robe... so i did :) you may want to check out this option and save yourself some time on embarkation day :)

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I nearly fell off my chair when I read the 30 minutes comment hahaha. We have been on several cruises where it has been well after midday before open tenders are called. Specific ports that come to mind in more recent years are Bali (Benoa) on Diamond Princess and Pt Denarau on Sun Princess.

full disclosure that i'm about to hijack this thread... sailing with princess for the first time this coming january. one of the stops is bali and i can't seem to find the info i need or get replies to my posts. anyway, i was considering booking a private tour in bali but now it sounds like it might be a bad idea because i may not get off the ship until several hours after the scheduled arrival time?? and did princess adjust ship time so it was the same as local? any input would be much appreciated. yes, yes, i know everything will be fine and i should just enjoy my vacation but i tend to be a nervous nellie in the planning process :(

you are correct in your understanding.

thank you!!