trinitygirl

I always book on embarkation day - they have a 10/20/30 special; 10% off first treatment, 20% off the second and 30% of subsequent treatments. I book the 100 minute Swedish massage for that afternoon - its my favourite way to start off my cruise.

The menu says starters and deserts are $5, mains are $10.

How long is a piece of string? It took over 6 months (and dozens of phone calls, emails, and eventually my asking Mastercard to open a dispute) for me to get refunds for excursions cancelled in January this year. But in other cases, refunds have shown up on my credit-card in 48 hours. So to me, its all a bit random.

Thanks for this; it had not occurred to me because I am booked on the 21 night cruise, but you are correct, technically its three 7 night cruises. I will check on embarkation day and hope for the best. It did not occur to me that this would also apply to the sanctuary. Good to have this info so I can temper my expectations.

thank you, that's really good to know. thanks again. : )

Hi, a query for those who have booked speciality dining onboard. Friends of mine are boarding a couple of weeks after me (its that European round-robin cruise) and I want to book dinner for us on my last night (the end of their first week on board). We want to use OBC to pay for the dinner, so are not booking before we board. My plan is to go see the restaurant on embarkation day to book a table for us three weeks hence. My question is: when I book, do I have to pay there and then for the three of us? Or does the charge only happen once we dine, and can the charges be spread across two different cabins/accounts? Many thanks for any advice/info. thanks Emma

If you book an Australian cruise (where the onboard accounting is in AUD) from within Australia or NZ, the gratuities are baked into the cruise fare - they are not part of Plus, they are not charged separately - they are just included in the cost of the basic cruise. My understanding from reading other pages on this website, is that if you book an Australian cruise outside Australia or NZ (eg you are coming from the US or UK) then if you add Plus to your cruise, it will include drinks, wifi, gratuities and OBC. If you don't book Plus, gratuities will be charged separately to your onboard account. That does not work in reverse for us - if we book a cruise out of the US or Europe, Plus will include drinks, wifi and OBC but does not include gratuities which are charged separately. Although some Australian cruisers have reported that once on board they have been told that Plus does in fact include gratuities - although that is news to Australian-based Princess reps. see here for more: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2887167-crew-appreciation-gratuities-and-princess-plus/

Check out an earlier thread about this. Other Australian cruisers were able, after boarding, to have the gratuities code inserted onto their portfolios. There was something about how the Australian computer coding doesn't allow it because of how they are not charged on cruises down under, but this can be fixed once on board.

Thank you - that time it took me right to the photos and yum! And it answered my next question because the menu was provided and a vegetarian would be pretty happy with the options on that menu. I hope I get the chance to partake! thanks again, Emma

are you able to pinpoint where in the post the photos are? 33 pages are a lot to scroll through!

I've never seen bubble & squeak on a full english before, but there is no denying it is delicious (its a weekend thing, using up the scraps of left over veggies (cabbage and potato) fried with eggs. When you order the full english at a restaurant/cafe, they usually add blood pudding (disgusting) so I have always assumed that was part of the deal. When you have it at B&Bs they often add fried bread which is such a wonderful reminder of my childhood but no longer (sadly) a responsible thing to eat. The veggie version will have eggs, baked beans, hashbrowns, fried tomato, and toast. its a yummy and coma-inducing breakfast - I always need a nap afterwards. : )

thanks for this, because i was just about to ask. I bought my premium wifi in AUD for my November/December cruises, last month - and these prices are lower than what I paid. So great to know there will be an OBC reflecting this.

Thank you both! That’s so helpful. A ten percent on board discount is less than the 18% pre purchase discount so that would make the decision easier. However, I did not know that it only applied to 12 night+ cruises - it doesn’t say that so there must be fine print I missed. I am onboard for 14 nights but its a back to back so likely won’t apply. I will call and check.

Following! I am on the exact same cruise Aug 5-26 and am super excited, so your post will be super interesting!

On the list of Select captains club discounts, it says that I am entitled to one bag of laundry at a discounted price, but it does not say what the price is. I can pre-pay for a bag of laundry online, for the price of AUD $78.96 (roughly $50 USD), which it says is discounted 18% down from what is roughly $60 USD. So my question is, does anyone know what the price is for the CC discount? I can see in the terms and conditions that i have to ring to have the CC discount applied but thought i might be able to save myself some time by asking here first - if the discount is the same then I may as well just buy online. many thanks if you have this information at hand, Emma

In 2019 for my Baltic cruise, I found out two days prior to boarding.

Regarding the check in point; you fill in all the data on the app as soon as you like and get in to the Green Lane. The last step is to book an arrival time at the port. There is some debate over exactly when this is, but I can report that for our Aug 5 embarkation date in Rome, check in opened last week - 59 days prior to embarkation.

They have definitely changed the refaring policy. Some new promotions only apply to new bookings. For instance, I booked my November transatlantic in June 2022. I had it refared it three times in 2022 with no issues, saving over $2000. Then in January an amazing new promo came out and the cabin dropped another $1500 but I couldn’t refare - new bookings only. I had to cancel and rebook. Then in April another repricing occurred, and I was able to switch from balcony to mini-suite and save $20 in the doing (balcony prices didn’t change, mini suites dropped in price). Then just last week, another huge price drop - mini suite guarantees dropped $1800 but I could not do anything at all because they have now stopped taking solo cabin bookings in any cabin category. The new price only applies to new bookings, but I can’t cancel and rebook because of the block on solo bookings. I am trying not to be annoyed (I have saved over $3500 on the price of cabin over the past year) but why do they show this amazing solo price and let you get all the way to the final booking page before showing an error message? Just be careful if you decide to cancel and rebook. When I cancelled in January they transferred my deposit to the new booking, and the gratuities and wifi i prepaid to beat the price rises, were refunded. However shore excursions and Enclave bookings were not refunded. I spent the next five months trying to get that $1000 back. In the end I had to go to my credit card company. They got Princess to refund the shore excursions (i had the itemised receipt) but Princess have not refunded the Enclave booking (mastercard has finally reversed the transaction so I assume they will get it back from Princess themselves) - you do not get an itemised email receipt for spa bookings and spa payments do not show up on Princess’ accounts in the same place which apparently makes it hard for them to track when problems occur. I had my credit card statement but of course all it says is Princess, not what the charge is for. So make sure you print out your cruise documents with all of your payments itemised, and take screenshots of your personaliser showing all your bookings, before you cancel and keep them safe until all your refunds are back. In total it took six months and a significant amount of time and effort to get that $1000 back and means that in future I will be reluctant to book extras for my cruises until right before final payment date.

So far I have only been on one Caribbean cruise, but it was a beauty. The day we spent in Grenada was absolutely wonderful - the smell of spices wafting over the island was incredible. I went on an all day tour with Mandoo Tours. I also loved Dominica - I went on a great tour with Levi Baron and at the end of the day he took us snorkling at Champagne Reef which was a definite highlight. I am looking forward to visiting Tobago in November!

Berries were not on the menu, so did you just ask if they could get you some? That's my favourite breakfast, so if you can just ask for them, I am delighted!

My understanding is that this close to sailing, they won't be able to confirm payment to your folio - so you could pay for your spa service and get on board and find there was no proof you had paid. They apply the same cut off date for most things, I believe - prepaid gratuities, shore excursions and so on. It doesn't mean that they are all booked out for the duration of the cruise, it's just a bookkeeping thing.

just an update - after a stressful 46 hours, my booking has been returned to its original state! Yesterday afternoon I wrote to Customer Relations with a detailed but concise summary, including screen shots etc, and when I woke up this morning everything was back where it should be. So I am now going to pay that cruise in full and then forget about it until November. No more attempts to make any changes and no more phone calls to the 'help line'. What a relief.

I followed those helpful instructions, but for me (in Australia) it just creates more confusion. It says that drinks up to $22 are included - but that is in Australia, so I have no idea what it translates to in USD for my Mediterranean cruise. It also says that the cost of the package is $65 per day (again, not sure what that is in USD). I assume the package is the low end that people are talking about above - $12 drinks.

Oh boy, you are not going to believe what just happened. About an hour ago I got an email with a new cruise contract. I had been moved to a suite, with a cruise price more than twice the price of my mini suite, and more than $4000 than the price I had rung to query. So I rang to find out the heck was up with that. After 45 minutes, of this poor woman going backwards and forwards, I had to hang up without anything resolved. They could not just reinstate my original contract because 'that fare category is no longer available' - to move to a mini suite would have cost $1000 more. AND to cap it all off, when they moved me to the suite I never agreed to, they lost my Enclave booking - it's just gone (the reason that stresses me out is that it happened in January and they STILL have not reimbursed me - my credit card company finally reversed the charge last month). Apparently my issue has been referred to another team and I can call back on Wednesday to find out if they have been able to reinstate my original contract. Can you believe this crap? I am seriously contemplating never sailing with this company again - the stress of dealing with them is just too much to deal with.

I went into the website again and played around with booking for two people and the price was $4K more than the price I was quoted for one person, so there is clearly a solo-supplement waiver happening for this cruise - but one that they obviously don't want anyone to take up! So for now I will just be grateful I have a cabin at all, and hope that they sort out whatever their glitch is, before I pay in full in August.