Cafabi

2 hours ago, vjmatty said:

The blowback on this will only get worse in the coming weeks as more and more schools are out and sailings have more kids. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to start giving out OBC to keep people happy. 

You are absolutely right. There is a whole thread about this. What will keep me happy is for them to simply provide what they offered.

We cruise frequently, but our upcoming sailing is a special once-in-a-lifetime celebration. They have changed two ports on us and canceled our most anticipated shore excursion without even notifying us. Counting on them redeeming themselves by having this advertised amenity open.

Great review and pics.

Sailing June 1st. Chose this ship for Park 19 and paid for this amenity. 

@anthonyy7 Thanks for the tip! 12 pm Milan time I assume?

55 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

 

Not sure what the summer train loads are, but when I was there last November there was plenty of availability purchasing train tickets the day of.  Just takes a few extra minutes at the station.  Depending on the line at the kiosk or ticket agent, it could mean making or missing the next train. Make sure to purchase all tickets for your party at one time because the seats are assigned on this route (train car and seat).

More great insider tips. Thanks!

@Torfamm and @tillys mom thanks for the recommendations.

1 hour ago, Cruisekitty1977 said:

Thank you so much for this post. I had booked the same tour, and then I read on here that all Mondays they are closed. So I checked my itinary, and sure enough, we are there on a Monday. So I cancelled and used the credit for the other tour we wanted, which, even though a year out, was already down to 9 tickets left.

1 hour ago, SCX22 said:

This trip is easily done out of Genoa on your own and at much lower cost.  The ship will dock a 10 minute walk from Genoa's Piazza Principe train station.  From there, you can purchase a ticket to Milano Centrale station on an InterCity Train, which is around 20 Euros one way and 1 hour, 40 minutes train ride each way.  When you get to Milan, you take the Metro to Santa Maria della Grazie Church (15 minute walk from the Metro station), where the Last Supper is located.  You have to be on the look out for Italian train worker strikes, which will put a rut in this plan.

 

Prior, you have to reserve to reserve tickets through the website below for 16 Euro:

https://cenacolovinciano.vivaticket.it/

 

Easy Peasy.  Did it last November on the Enchanted.

 

ETA:  You only get 15 minutes in the room with Last Supper painting before you are kicked out.

 

 

Thanks for the detailed instructions. The problem right now is ticket availability during peak season. Hopefully I can score some and get to apply the rest of your info.

1 hour ago, TRLD said:

I foumd the same thing. A couple of other possibilities:

 

Do you have a credit card such as AMEX Platinum that has concierge service? I have been able to get scarce tickets that way in the past. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

 

Have you checked on the rollcall for your cruise to see if anyone might be on the other excursion and thinking about canceling?

 

I woild keep checking the museum site. They do say that additional inventory may become available and to keep checking.

 

 

I will try this. Thanks for the tip.

1 hour ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

You seem to have missed the message that customer service is mostly gone.  Tour operators have more business than they have seats.  Cruise ships are full.  It isn't just Princess.  My DW told me to be "more accepting of change or stay home."  Not happy about that, but everywhere pretty much the same.

On the contrary. Giving an example.

I forgot to mention that when I called Princess, the agent acted like she didn't see what the problem was (canceled bucket list excursion + not telling me) because they refunded me.

27 minutes ago, TRLD said:

 

Trains between genoa and milan are pretty frequent and take between 1.5 to 2 hours deprnding upon train. Seem to be a number of advance ticket sale sources/tickets to get into the last supper. Looks like it could be pretty easily done for less than the Princess excursion.

Thanks. I have been searching high and low all afternoon. The different sites start out looking promising, but once I put in the number of people (3) and date (June 6), everything evaporates. Waiting to hear back from one tour company that might be sitting on some tickets.

Yes, doing that now. No workable times so far and transportation is an issue. Can I trust the train?

I am starting to come down off my initial shock and disappointment but still not thinking rationally enough to rule out snapping up whatever overpriced tour I can find and riding the train. We do independent tours all the time, but that would be a bit outside my comfort zone. I will talk it over with the fam and weigh that against trying to charm the shore excursion people upon embarkation. Thanks to those who offered suggestions and sympathy. It helps!

15 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

I asked my CVP about it -- basically is this standard procedure? Their response was that Princess no longer has a dedicated excursion department so there's no one to complain to about it. 

This is our first time cruising since Covid and was supposed to be my son's dream vacation to celebrate graduation. They have already changed 2 ports on us and now this. First world problems for sure, but I've never had this much trouble on any of our many previous cruises, and it hasn't even left yet. I am definitely getting a "too bad, so sad" vibe from Princess.

35 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

 

If you call the phone line, there is an option for shore excursions.  See if they can help.

All they could offer was "I apologize" for the cancelation and the lack of notification. They suggested checking on board, but if the waitlist is full, I'm not optimistic about that. On hold with the TA now. If that doesn't work out, I will look for something independent. It is annoying that there are 2 excursions and the other one did not get canceled but mine did.

Wow thanks for the explanation.

It was a 10 day, and I thought I had the right amount at the time but this discovery had me second guessing that. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "The Circle savings amount stays there?" Is it like a placeholder? The fact that it had a credit ID# and expiration date made it seem otherwise.

👍Thanks. OK starting to make a little more sense. Any idea why the $50 was not applied to my onboard charges (crew appreciation, etc.) on my last cruise?

Thanks for the info. I have different OBC showing up in different places. The $50 is in Circle Savings and some more (from TA, shareholder, and current military) is in my cruise personalizer under payments. I am trying to figure out 1. how to move the $50 over with the rest and 2. why the $50 wasn't applied on my last cruise with Princess in 2019. I emailed the military benefit people 2 days ago but haven't heard back.

OK thanks.