geoherb

I noticed that our Emerald cruise in five weeks has shown up as sold out for a couple of weeks now. We're still waiting for our cabin assignment since I booked us a guarantee. I know we'll get one eventually.

That's sad that you let your interpretation of what was happening keep you from eating lunch in the dining room. They were probably just relaying that you were not willing to share so that the head waiter would know to look at available tables for two for you.

There was a priest on my Island Princess cruise last month. I wonder if it's the same one. He wore a cassock on formal nights with a little hat (zucchetto). He smoked in Churchill's a lot.

I had to book my b2b cruises to Alaska separately because Princess did not have a cabin in my category that I could have for both cruises. Fortunately, they ended up upgrading me from an inside guarantee to an ocean view in the same cabin for both cruises. I ended up with $200 in shareholder OBC because I had to book it as separate cruises, but it was worth it considering the upgrade.

There were plenty of door decorations on my cruise last month on the Island Princess.

They take reservations on the ship.

Planks and Steamers are at dinner time only. They close off a section of the buffet for them. They alternate nights. I cruised solo on my cruise last month. I made a standing reservation in the app. If I knew I wanted a different time due to activities going on, I would change it for that night. If it was going to be after 7:45, I wouldn't bother to make a new reservation because there wasn't a wait at that time. I ate alone a few nights and joined shared tables most nights. The singles and solos group had a large table (for 10) reserved every night. I ate with them one night. A table that size is a lot slower.

Yes, I had priority tendering. They had instructions on an info sheet in my cabin. The first time, they had published the wrong info--telling us to meet at the Crown Grill instead of the Explorers Lounge. But I asked someone and made it to Nanortalik on the first tender. The line getting back on the ship there was not bad for me because I came back early. In Qaqortoq, I also made it over on one of the first tenders. I walked halfway around the Great Lake. The line to get back to the ship was about an hour long when I joined it. I did it on my own. There's an outdoor museum of several buildings. It wasn't open yet, but I was able to see some of the display signs. I also hiked up the hill to get a better view. I did not hike alone but with a man from the singles and solos group. I was amazed that some people had been waiting three hours for a tender when I got back on the ship. So get your tender ticket whenever you get up, then eat breakfast. Perhaps they'll be better with the Island since it has fewer passengers than the Caribbean Princess that I was on.

Try the violet cloud for an experience. It's $16--so they charge you the difference plus gratuity (for a total of $1.18). Be prepared for long tender lines in Greenland. My advice would be to get up early and get a tender ticket at 7 a.m. In Nanortalik two years ago, there were people who had been waiting more than three hours for a tender when I got back to the ship.

I was on the Island last month in one of the five cabins that flooded the fourth morning. Fortunately, they had available cabins to move all of us to. I hope they'll be able to fix the plumbing problems when they do the drydock in September. I had the Plus package and took advantage of the two included casual dining meals: once at the Salty Dog Gastropub popup at the Bayou Cafe and once at Alfredo's Pizzeria at Sabatini's. Both were very good. My cruise was only about 80% of capacity and never felt crowded. There wasn't a wait for either one. I'm not sure why the previous commenter said that he liked the dining room meals but moved to the buffet because he did not like eating with other people. I never had a problem getting a table for one or two when I wanted one.

I've taken several solo cruises. I usually book them after the final payment date. That's when I've seen the best deals. But I haven't had my heart set on a specific cruise. I look at a travel agency's website that has a page of low single supplements. Currently, there are not any bargains for Princess listed.

Our travel agent handled this for us, but it was 12 years ago. We paid just the difference in price. I'm so glad we did after talking to friends who went on the Natural History Tour.

A Princess rep canceled one of my bookings and rebooked me without explaining the consequences (future cruise credit and a partial refund to my credit card). I ended up with a new booking number. I still have not heard back from Princess regarding that booking fiasco. I was on the phone with Princess for more than nine hours, talking to nine different reps that day. The second rep was able to modify the existing booking under the original booking number, but Plus did not show up. I was switching from an inside cabin to a balcony to take advantage of a price drop that made them cost the same.

I'm glad you still had a great time in spite of the inconvenience.

It was up to that number. I don't know how many people were in three of the affected cabins. It would be 14 if all three of them had four people each. It's probably more likely they had two people and the total was eight. But even at 14, that's fewer than 1 percent of the passengers. For a comparison, cruise lines have to report a norovirus outbreak to the CDC when it affects 2 percent or more of passengers.

Right. My experience was just one out of a handful of cabins that got flooded by a burst water pipe--up to 14 people affected out of around 1,700 passengers.

Great. I'm looking forward to reading about your day in Sydney so that I can plan for when we're there in September. I did not do much there when I was there two years ago--just walked around the town and the park, went to a local crafts show, toured the Anglican church, and enjoyed a flight of ciders at the Island Folk Cider House.

The limit that Princess shows on the website is 20 tickets per excursion, but they often have many times that amount. Just looking at the "transport capacity" on the excursion details will let you know that. For instance, for my upcoming cruise to New England and Canada, the transport capacity for one of the excursions to Peggy's Cove is 40. They'll have two or three buses going there--giving a total capacity of 80 or 120.

The top half of the news release doesn't match the terms and conditions at the bottom or those on the Princess website. I wonder if Princess will eventually send out another news release to correct the error. It won't affect us most likely because I'll still wait until after the final payment date to book my cruises.

I had previously dealt with Aon when canceling another cruise in 2022 when we found out DH has cancer. That claim was a little bit more difficult because of having to get some forms filled out by his oncologist. Nevertheless, Aon came through and paid that claim within a week of my sending in the final forms.

I purchased the Aon insurance through Princess when booking my cruise. I also purchased my airline tickets through Princess. After my cruise, I had an early evening flight from LaGuardia, connecting in Philadelphia for my flight home. Well, thunderstorms shut down LaGuardia for about an hour. My flight took off an hour late, but we were nearly two hours late getting to Philadelphia because of the backed up number of planes leaving LaGuardia. I missed my flight home. Because the delay was caused by weather, American Airlines did not have to offer anything--and didn't--other than rebooking me on a flight the next afternoon. It was late, I was tired, so I decided to stay at the Marriott connected to the airport. It was expensive. I ate an inexpensive breakfast the next morning and a good lunch while waiting for my rescheduled flight. After getting home, I started the insurance claim with Aon for the delay. I heard back the next day, saying that my claim was being processed. By the end of the week, the money to reimburse me for my hotel and my two meals was in my bank account. It was very easy to deal with Aon.

I did not have any problems getting the shareholder credit for my cruise earlier this month. And when I went to claim it for a cruise this fall, I did not have to resubmit my redacted brokerage statement. The one on file was recent enough.

I sailed on the Island Princess from June 4 to 14. They did not have any specific Pride events planned on the ship, but several staff members mentioned that Boston was having its celebration the Saturday we were there. I went and enjoyed it.

The bartenders at Vines did this for my friends on the Caribbean. It made sense to me as well.

This is great news. I'm sailing from Boston to Quebec beginning August 28. I've been looking forward to being on the Emerald again. We last sailed on it 15 years ago, but we've been on the Crown and the Ruby more recently.