SargassoPirate

Thanks for your info, but I booked Luggage Forward separately from anything offered by Princess. I just wanted to know the process for my bag getting picked up at disembarkation.

I've decided not to schlep my second bag for a roundtrip cruise on Princess out of Fort Lauderdale. I've used Luggage Forward to get an extra bag to the ship with success in the past, so I'm familiar with that process of having the bag picked up at home and the next time I see it is outside my cabin. How does the disembarkation routine work? Do I just leave the bag outside my cabin on the final night or do I retrieve it onshore and take it somewhere there? Just curious how it's worked for others here.

When that happens, we say good evening and then ignore them the rest of the meal. If we wanted to share, we'd request a bigger table. We request a table for two because after many decades we still enjoy each other's company and still have things to talk about. I don't want the pace of my meal interrupted by folks at the next table who may be low talkers, loud talkers, pontificators, zealots, or otherwise annoying.

When I cruise solo in a Luxury Inside Suite I have never had an issue with balcony smokers. 😜 And when I step outside the Suite, I'm cruising on the same ship with you fine people.

I'm the guy who sees the sheeple lining up and all going though one door of a row of four doors or more and walks right over and enters through the unused door.

Suits me just fine. 😂

I use the guest laundry when cruising on Princess, but when I'm on lines without guest laundromats - most all nowadays - I travel with a lot of quick dry clothes that I can wash out in my cabin. Also wear a day, air a day works for outer garments. I take the ship laundry charges and apply them to a wee dram in the evening.

Please, keep us posted. I remember one cruise pre-Covid and when we entered the port building the lines for the upper loyalty tiers were longer than steerage. I think it was Princess but it might've been RCI. Even though we were in the top tier, SWMBO and I went over to the shorter steerage line and were processed right on board past the the Elite/Diamond Plus. Sheeple.

I just received an email from Princess regarding an upcoming cruise from Fort Lauderdale. I'm an Elite but standard cruiser - soon to be renamed steerage. Princess tells me that if I don't order the Medallion and pay to have it shipped, there is no way I'll be in the green lane. So what? I'll be on the ship 111 days. What's the worst that can happen?

Thanks. That's what I'll have to do. It will be interesting to see what they ask for at embarkation in order to board. I'm ornery enough to make them show me what I'm supposed to have when 1. I'm not going ashore and 2. Sri Lanka doesn't require a Transit visa. Why can't some intern come up with some clear language for the travel summary to explain what one will need if you are going ashore or not?

Sure. The port causing me the problems is Sri Lanka. Not sure why Princess is even porting there with the civil unrest, but maybe they got a deal on fuel. I have my ETAs for OZ and NZ, no problem, all very clear. Been there before. The issue is, boiled down, Sri Lanka does not require a Transit visa for cruises, but Princess can't decide if I'll need one before I embark or if they'll issue it onboard. Then how will they determine if I'm going ashore or not, and thus require an ETA. Frustrated because I can't get a definitive answer.

Yes, I did check with immigration of the country. The language in my booking travel summary is unclear. The country does not require Transit visa if one arrives and leaves on the same vessel. Princess says a Transit visa is required, but then can't decide if they will issue it onboard or if I need to show it in order to board. Then Princess states that an ETA is required if one plans to go ashore - which I don't - but they cannot assure me that I will be allowed to board without the ETA even if I won't be going ashore. Without clear guidance from Princess, I will probably bear the expense of an ETA that I won't need just to keep some zealous check in agent telling me that I can't board unless I have it even if I don't need it.

I'm Elite and was able to get free laundry tokens on the Caribbean and the Regal this year. I had to be persistent on the Regal, but they finally gave me some. Seems to be inconsistent across the fleet though.

I'm also on a cruise leaving Jan 4, but I'm not sure what I'll do regarding the app. I'm a low key cruiser and when I cruise solo I don't use the app at all. Most recently, SWMBO cruised with me, so I used the app to make dinner reservations and also the crew chat a couple of times to save time going down to guest services. Maybe I'll download the new app mid-December and see if it adds any value for me. I have little patience for wonky technology.

For years we have wiped down certain surfaces on airplanes, hotels, and cruise ships. Mostly to remove bad juju and the yuck factor. Commercial establishments wiping down every surface in sight nowadays is just theater.

Yeah, I finally got connected first thing Sunday morning after two days of trying. I wanted chat so that I could have a transcript of the call because of the ambiguous language in the travel summary for that port. After that hour I'll never get back, I sent an email to customer service at Princess and requested an email reply - no phone call - so that would again have a written record. I refuse to call unless the call center is staffed with people for whom English is their first language.

I feel your pain. I recently spent an hour with a agent on chat, trying to get a straight answer about a visa issue and which visa the shoreside staff would be checking at embarkation. Two visas are required, an ETA if you go ashore and the other is a Transit visa if you arrive and leave on the same vessel. Amongst the answers were. The ETA would be available on the ship and charged to my account. I would need to show the ETA at check in. I need a Transit visa (the country does not even require a Transit visa if you are just passing through by ship) The Transit visa would be purchased on the ship and charged to my account. I would need to show my Transit visa at check-in. I still have no idea what documents I'll need to show at check in for this country.

Still wiping down every surface in sight?

Fire danger on ships? You mean like this?

And...... it's possible to cruise without the app. We have done so since the app and the "ships for free" Medallions started. Now that they want to charge for shipping the Medallion, we just show up at the pier with our booking confirmation and get a Medallion there. After that, we use the Medallion to open our cabin door and get in and off the ship. That's it. It's like the old key card. Dinner reservations? See the maitre d who can look at their seating chart and work with you. Want a drink? Grab a seat at the bar and order from a human being. SWMBO and I don't need to track each other with the app. She always turns up eventually and/or we make a plan to meet up somewhere for lunch.

Command hooks take the guesswork out of whether a magnetic hook will stick or not.

That's how they fill those known to be less desirable cabins. Then they can "upgrade" an unsuspecting passenger into one of those cabins and then sell the newly vacant one.

For what it's worth, I wondered about the new activation fee for Ocean Now with regards to a world cruise booked with a single voyage number. Online chat, if they are to be believed, reported that the activation fee is per voyage so there would be one fee for the entire 111 days. I don't do Plus, but I was wondering about the mini bar setup for the WC. On my most recent cruise, two cruises booked as a single voyage, I received a fresh mini bar setup at the start of the new segment. With the prevalent inconsistency with Princess, it remains to be seen what will happen.

My world cruise on Princess, solo in a Luxury Inside Suite, is just under $37K . Roundtrip first class airfare is around $800 (I refuse to fly steerage with the crying babies and seat kickers) I'm going a la carte for tips, 1/2 price wifi, and for my wee dram in the evening and will end up around 1/2 of what the Plus would've cost me.. I've used some TA OBC to book excursions in ports where I haven't been before and will probably add a few viator excursions soon. I'm projecting that all told I will have spent under $45K by the time I get back home. That's about 1/2 of what a new truck would cost if I were to replace my 20 year old one now with a similarly equipped diesel model. The icing on the cake is a $2800 gift card from the warehouse TA. Knowing my cruising style, this will suit me just fine.

No way chat is AI. I spent an hour trying to get a clear answer to a question and the agent's answers were unclear and changed 180 degrees when I pressed for a definitive answer.