runnerodb83

Yep. Ask your TA. They can look it up real quick.

Is that true? What about the old adage that a cabin is sold and resold on average 8 times?

Based on my experiences it seems like there are multiple "waves" of GTY assignments which are a better indicator of how the cruise is selling. A "wave" being a point when several low category balcony, inside, oceanview rooms being sold out, and several higher category ones being available one day, and then the next, all the upper category rooms are sold but there are lower category rooms available. But even then, you never know what "wave" you are on because it could take several waves.

I think the easiest way to get an idea is to look at the price or flash sales for bookings with less than 75 days left. Generally, if insides are going for under $100 per day I would say they are undersold.

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/home/cabin-upgrade-statistics

Info and conclusions after tracking nearly 200 upgrades. Granted the list is somewhat biased by more people reporting that they got upgrades than not, it still gives you an idea. Also worth mentioning is that the submissions received goes back to 2012 or so when complimentary upgrades were far more common than upsells which are likely to impact those upgrade numbers.

Thanks so much for that! My first cruise was on the FairSky and had a few more cruises on her as well.

I wish I could have sailed on her purely for the novelty. The sitmar 1 off ships were special...fairmajesty (star princess 1) and fairsky/sky princess were truly unique. Given that only about 5 years separated them, the difference in exterior design is stunning. Both ships were hardly cookie cutter for the time and it's interesting to see the deckplans and how venues were arranged.

Glad you enjoyed it. I know cruisingrob had a heck of a time finding the deck plans.

Here's a link to a blog post with a fun look back at the original sky princess - with some deck plans.

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/looking-back-at-original-sky-princess.html

Be advised that not all Verizon phones work so easily. If you bought a phone "off contract" not specifically branded for Verizon, it may not work. This happened to me in Vancouver...I purchased a motor x pure from Motorola...this is a open carrier phone meaning you can put in almost any SIM card and it should work. I tried using the Verizon travel pass and after talking to some people with various cell company stores in Vancouver, they thought the easiest thing to do was to buy a single card from a carrier in Vancouver much like a prepaid phone would work. I was there less than 24 hours so in the end I just found wifi and ysed it for data calling until I got on the ship and then used my platinum minutes.

They close about 11:00 from memory, not sure how/if they police it

Depending on where in the world the ship is, and where the pool is, they close between 10pm to midnight. If it's in a cold climate, the aft upper deck hottubs and spa pool and tubs close pretty sharp at 10 as deck hands cover with netting. Eventually the terrace pool(if your ship has this) is covered and then the midship pools. The netting is the only thing keeping you out,physically anyway.

“Generally, the odds are poor.” As I said above, the probability (“odds”) of hitting any given hand on Video Poker on the ship are exactly the same as the probability (“odds”) of hitting that same hand on any Video Poker machine in Vegas, Biloxi or Monte Carlo. The only thing that is different is the PAYOUT for each hand.

 

The payout for the Video Poker Deuces Wild game that Runner Odd posted a picture of is terrible – it works out to a 91.42% return, or a house edge of 8.58%. In Vegas, I normally will not play any VP with a return of under 99.5%. In Vegas, there are plenty of VP machines with 99.5% or above, so I see no reason to play poor payoff machines.

 

So, “generally the PAYOUTS are terrible” and “generally, the HOUSE EDGE is huge” are correct statements. But the odds, that is, the probabilities of any given outcome, are exactly the same. Sorry for being pedantic, but the terminology has precise definitions.

Yes, you're right, that's an important distinction - the payouts are poor which messes with the expected value so even if you play exactly by the book with optimal strategy, your dollars will go faster on a ship than on most land casinos.

The PSR (passenger space ratio) of dividing gross tons by passengers is subjective but is a good high level analysis. For instance, HAL has a higher average fleet PSR than Princess does, which makes sense since the S and R class ships are exceptionally large for so few passengers. I also think its interesting to compare other aspects that impact your experience, which may seem silly, but for those that use elevators, the number of Pax per elevator could be a big deal. Also, the number of passengers per crew - not a perfect measurement but still interesting....

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/ships/ship-stats

Photos of the craps table and VP DW pay table here:

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/pictures-of-star-post-drydock-121617.html

Generally, the odds are poor.

Anecdotally, I've done well playing slots on the first night or two, and poorer later in the cruise. I've heard a rumor that while a casino needs to keep their payout at a certain percentage on slots, ships do also, but they are done on a per voyage cycle meaning that they may pump up the payouts the first few nights to keep you coming for the rest of the cruise. That is speculation however.

Table games are what they are with roulette and craps having the least wiggle room for many payouts. Blackjack usually has some tweaks that advanced players will scoff at but the average joe won't care, 21 is still 21.

If you are a casual player, you won't care.

If you are a serious player, the odds are awful, but they will always "comp" your meal in the dining room and provide you with at least standing room access to a "vegas style" show/comedian in a lounge! :D

Cheaper flights to/from Seattle than Vancouver. Also provides the ability to make longer coastal voyages and getting to go on 2 ships rather than one, if thats something that's enjoyable.

Ive been told as long as you don't sail on the same ship, you are in the clear.

There are numerous stories of the cruiselines canceling individual reservations a few months out if someone attempts to do a Seattle to Vancouver, then Vancouver to SD on the same ship. As long as you change ships you should be in the clear.

My friend Cruisin Rob put this up to help people find west coast re-positioning voyages that start and end at different US ports and get to travel on 2 different ships within the same week by transferring in Vancouver.

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/west-coast-cruises-capitalizing-on.html

For those that may not be familiar with the term, the Vancouver shuffle is a cruise scheduling technique that allows you to leave from a US port and return to a different US port without violating the PVSA.

My friend Cruisin Rob has put together a list of *eligible* voyages for 2018 on HAL and Princess ships.

Check it out.

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/west-coast-cruises-capitalizing-on.html

I got 2x when my wife canceled because our daughter was sick. It was a 1 night cruise and I called the night before when it became obvious that our daughter was too sick to go..(we were first time parents, she was teething). Anyway, didn't want to lose out completely. Also got all the port taxes and fees back. Just call them before and after if it isn't correct.

Wife got to go on her own vacation a few weeks later for those that are curious.

Has anyone snail mailed it?

The Silver line bus (route 950, 910 won't get you all the way there)works remarkably well for $2.50 each - and while your luggage might be a bit in the way, travelling outside rush hour shouldn't be a problem. From union station is about 75 minutes. Note that you will travel in the express busway most of the way meaning that traffic is of minimal concern on this route. It will drop you about 2 blocks from the entrance to the cruise terminal property - all in all, maybe a 10 minute walk. Whichever way you go, bungee cables are a great way to move multiple suitcases when you only have 4 hands.

https://www.metro.net/projects/silverline/

The pilot in port angeles will get off around 10-11pm...while you may be out of puget sound proper at that point, there is about a 2-3 hour transit through the straight of jaun de fuca before you get to the pacific ocean proper.

This seems to be the norm with several cruise lines. As one of our cruise agents once explained, the "loyal" long time customers are already loyal and do not need upgrades. But newbies need inducements to make them loyal customers :(.

 

Hank

Yep, it's how it's done. Three main factors in upgrades...past cruiser status, particular sailing popularity, and category capacity. If you are really flexible, you can book during non popular times and in categories that have few cabins for the best chance of an upgrade. If you cant and you are a loyal cruiser, it's best to book guarantee into categories with few cabins. Sometimes its possible to score the coveted "meta" upgrade from one cabin type to another. I've been trying to add the cabin category breakdown here for each ship here...so far have the Royal/Regal as well as crown class category counts broken down here: https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/home/cabin-upgrade-statistics/upgrade-tips

For future reference, here's a video review highlighting the changes and some nice shots while sailing.

http://cruisingrobsblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/star-princess-voyage-video-for-post-dry.html

do you know what category deluxe balcony they were booked in?

Many credit cards include travel insurance for medical issues that would require cancelling a trip or treatment during a trip. If I'm reading their documents correctly, it would cover treatments like these but does anyone have any experience? I personally have the United mp explorer card.

Was that in a bottle or gun?

Bottle, I believe, it had a brand name to it.

To add context...here's a map of Port everglades

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/ports

they also have Ginger Beer which i believe is part of the ultimate beverage plan. Note that ginger beer is non-alcoholic and can be used to mix to make moscow mules or gin and gins...

Is there any benefit to booking an unknown cabin as opposed to selecting your cabin at booking? I'm travelling with my Mum, husband and children. We scoured the ship when booking (in January this year) and found two cabins next to each other, so snapped them up. They're not connected, but we thought that it would be great to be next door.

 

We have now been upgraded to one of the family suites which will be absolutely amazing, I'm sure. I believe they wanted our cabins to give to others who hadn't been allocated rooms yet. But I don't really know.

 

They also said there were additional benefits attached to being upgraded.

 

As more or less cruise virgins (I've had a two night mini cruise a few years ago only), will we even realise what we are entitled to enjoy? How will we know what special little benefits we can use that we wouldn't otherwise have had?

 

However, apart from that - why would you choose to not know where you'll be in advance? Is it just because there is more chance of you being offered an upgrade? I know our situation was a little different. We had contacted Princess and advised them that we were travelling together, and the rooms were chosen to be next to each other because of that reason. I guess that means they knew we'd jump at the suite upgrade. I was told that I had to decide, or else it was going to be offered to another group.

Most cabins are the same with the only difference in location among cabin categories. I think that the most people that let princess choose are either unaware that they can choose or don't care (newer cruisers) or folks wishing for a 'meta' upgrade to a different type (balcony to mini-suite, etc). While an upgrade of that caliber (or the one you got) is impossible to guarantee, its possible to tilt the odds in your favor. Generally, cruise lines like to upgrade new cruisers such as yourself. If the ship isn't selling well, upgrades occasionally will happen. Finally, if a cabin category is oversold, you may be bumped up. Suites and the lowest insides typically sell the quickest since they are the odd match of low supply and high demand, either for the nicest rooms on the ship, or the least expensive. Princess will usually sell more IF category cabins (inside) than are available, by people directly booking a cabin and then by guarantee assignments. People rarely book IB and IA cabins as they are typically around the same price as oceanview obstructed cabins so that provides room for the cruise line to upgrade people from IF to IA or IB, which are just in more "desirable" locations compared to the relative motion of the ship. Then folks get the "complimentary" upgrade email and get all excited like its christmas morning only to find out that an IA cabin is nearly identical to an IF cabin, but a bit further from things. Princess will do these "upgrade" waves as many times as needed where the IF cabins will be oversold, and then the next day, the IA and IB cabins are sold out and there are more IF cabin guarantees available.

However, if its a popular voyage, the algorithm that determines cabin prices and "upgrade waves" may

Moral of the story, if you want to play the guarantee game, book guarantee in categories with only a few cabins. We've begun the tedious task of counting cabins in each category on each ship to help folks. See more info here:

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/home/cabin-upgrade-statistics/upgrade-tips

https://sites.google.com/site/princesscruisesfaq/home/cabin-upgrade-statistics