beg3yrs

Not sure if this is still the case but we try to check in online ASAP because in the past on some airlines, check-in time was one criteria used to determine who might get "bumped" on oversold flights.

A big clue to how well WhatsApp works is that's the crew's go-to app.

Yes you can, absolutely. Princess is very good about supporting passengers with food allergies. DW is celiac and can't have anything with wheat, barley, rye or spelt. Cross contamination is a problem for celiacs as well. Because of this we try to have a standing reservation in one of the MDRs so we get the same wait-staff and headwaiter every time. It's not required but we believe it works better. Each night, your headwaiter will bring you the menus for the next day and you can make special selections. They will prepare your selected dishes, minus your allergens, in a special area reserved for those with allergies. It's a great service. Often we find DW's food items are better than ours because of the special attention they receive! In the buffet you can ask any of the staff behind the counters for the "Chef du Parti" (SP?). He or she will meet with you and show you which items in the buffet are safe for you. Be sure to list your allergens on the personalizer or the Medallion Class app as well. This gives them a "heads up" so your record will be flagged in the MDR as well.

I know this post is mostly in jest but ... Muster calls are for when there's a ship emergency that may put the ship and its passengers and crew in danger. Man Over Board (MOB) procedures do not require a muster call. Before the medallion, many ships had installed video surveillance covering all aspects of the ship where someone could go overboard. I don't know what the latest procedure is given there are least now two automated methods to detect MOB as well as the original method where someone actually sees someone go over. Then, there's the worst method and I've read news reports of this one. A family member or friend reports someone missing, possibly hours after the event. Sad as none of the other methods worked.

How close to the glaciers you may get can vary depending on conditions. But as others have stated, you'll most likely get into the bay itself.

I have found that the airline doesn't want to deal with you until the itinerary is actually ticketed. That will certainly be after final payment. Once payment is made you can request Princess to do early ticketing. When that's done, contact the airline for upgrades.

Not Vancouver but less than two weeks ago we disembarked in Buenos Aires and had a disembarkation tour. Unlike our previous experiences with such tours, our bags did not accompany us on the bus but went by separate truck to the airport. We did not have to claim our bags in the cruise terminal or clear Argentine customs. Like others, DW was a little nervous about not having bags on the bus but it all worked out. The claim area at the airport was supervised by Princess personnel. We understood that straight Princess transfers from the ship to the airport and Princess hotels worked the same way.

The power outlet in the bathroom does not have enough capacity for a Water Pik. We know this first-hand. Those outlets are designed for low current-draw devices like a small electric razor or a toothbrush battery charger. Your Water Pik might run for a few seconds but you won't like the sound and then it will stop. On our cruise packing list is a long light-weight extension cord for our Water Pik. Kind of a pain always taking it out and putting it back for dental hygiene time. Hey but at least we've all got healthy teeth and gums as well as fresh breath!

I'm glad this topic came up. We've done the UST on the R class, Jewel class, Dawn class and Grand class ships. Somehow we haven't done the Royal class UST yet but next year, fingers crossed, will definitely try the new Sun class UST if it's offered.

I believe the white medallions are given out during the whole inaugural season. To me signing up the the inaugural cruise is dicey as any kind of slip in delivery to Princess and someone else booked later is now on the inaugural cruise...

I've only seen pickup of anything once back in 2009 in Buenos Aires. There was an "Emergency Notification" that check-in could be done the night before at one of the local hotels. We hoofed it over there and did that. Given the pandemonium at the Buenos Aires cruise terminal, that was a good thing. We just went through the Buenos Aires cruise terminal on Jan 4 of this year and it would have been much nicer to have done all that the night before. But I've digressed ... I haven't personally seen any opportunity to pick up cruise cards or medallions since 2009.

I was initially confused by this as well. When you board you will already have a credit for all the excursions you've paid for. Then there will be a charge for all the booked excursions and then your 10% credit is on there as well. Once the cruise commences, if a port is missed or an excursion is otherwise cancelled, the excursion charge and the discount drops off your portfolio but the credit for your payments remains. All is good.

It will be just like the pre-medallion days when they were pre-printed and ready at the port.

We have the Plus package for a cruise in June. It was booked last year in August. Went to the App today to finalize the medallion order and it wanted to charge us the $10. Rather than go tilt at windmills and after having medallions delivered too late to be of use, we decided that picking them up at the port will be just fine. Ha ha! We'll just wear some old black medallions initially at check-in to make sure we get into the correct lines...

I've noticed that toward the end of longer cruises my feet disappear when I stand up.

No but you can join them in their line.

Another thing I've heard about gift cards in general is that the redemption rate tends to be between 70 and 80%. If that's true about Princess gift cards, they can be sold all day at a 10% discount and Princess still makes a profit. So, I don't think Princess / AARP would stop the discount deal unless the redemption rate rises too high.

I printed 20 pages of gift cards last month on the Sapphire Princess at no charge.

OK, my TA advised me they're usually released in January. We're now a week into February. Just disembarked the Sapphire Princess and the Future Cruise Consultant was wondering if they're going to be released at all. Anyone know more than this???

And then of course is the mess when their shipping company screws up big time. Last cruise we received notification the medallions were shipped in early December for a January 4 embarkation. Tracking the medallion shipment showed them coming from Singapore and arriving in Carson, California around the 17th of December. There they sat until December 28 when they starting moving again. They arrived at our home on December 30 around 1 PM. Our flight for South America departed at noon that day. Needless to say we had to get medallions at the port. In the case where Princess thinks you already have medallions, they won't be prepared at check-in to hand you a set. After the spend extra time searching, even though you tell them they're sitting at your home 6,000 miles away, they'll make you the old cruise card with which you can board the ship. You then have to take those to Guest Services to get new medallions made. After all that, there are two points: 1) It will cost even more time at check-in if Princess believes you should already have your medallions and 2) If they now charge you $10 and they screw up, good luck getting your money back!

As long as the ship's Internet is working, yes, you can go online to the AARP site, and purchase the cards. Then you need to receive the emails from AARP which sometimes is quick and sometimes takes up to a day. Multiple times I'd receive 4 of 5 cards in email quickly and then it was multiple hours before the remainder showed up. You will then have to get the PDF files referenced in each email and print them at the Internet Cafe. From there, Guest Services will accept them. There's been one report that you could email the files to Guest Services and they would print them but ... that wouldn't be my preference. Too much out of my control there.

I did exactly that before the cruise. It was that unplanned visit to that darn Effy store that necessitated cashing in more gift cards. Anyway, when I used the gift cards before the cruise to purchase OBC the Princess rep as well as myself discovered there is a $1500 per booking limit of pre-purchased OBC. Not sure if that was because of using gift cards or not. As I said before, once on board, there was effectively no limit.

Go to the AARP.org website and look for the AARP Rewards link at the top of the main page. Once in Rewards, keep digging, they're kind of buried but they are there.

That was my experience on the Island Princess in November too. However now on the Sapphire Princess it's different. They showed me a stack of redemptions they had processed earlier. This is pretty much a warning to be prepared to print the card's file. I had to email them to myself and then go to the Internet Cafe to read my email and print them. At least there was no charge for printing, They will no accept files on a USB drive for printing.

Nope, they wanted the hard copy for their files. It was to add a new card for OBC. Went to the Effy store ...