Italy52

I did a re-fare with my TA today. We originally had an inside cabin and wanted to upgrade to a balcony cabin. Told my TA about the Love Boat Sale and she was able to re-fare with no problem. I asked if I needed to cancel my original booking and then initiate a new one to get the sale price and she advised me I did not need to do that. The only glitch we encountered was my husband's military OBC was not transferred over from the original booking to the re-fare booking. Princess corrected the issue as soon as my TA brought it to the agent's attention. My advice if you re-fare your booking is to take a moment to make sure all your credits are transferred to your new booking. Saved some money and was happy that I checked with my TA.

@PG_traveller and @cruisingrob21, thank you both for your posts, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. I now have a better idea of what the Lido cabin looks like.

Hubbard Glacier: Although this excursion can be expensive, we always try to book the Hubbard Glacier excursion that is offered by the ship and operated by Allen Marine. We have been extremely lucky on our trips and have seen beautiful and exciting calving. The Allen Marine vessel gets us much closer to the glacier than the cruise ship. Here is a picture from our May cruise.

Thank you for your detailed response, I appreciate it very much.

Trying again - Are all balcony cabins on the Lido Deck covered?

Looking for information about a mini-suite cabin on the Lido Deck. Are all the cabins covered on the Lido Deck? Anyone have any experience with L210? Thanks in advance for your help.

Wow, close call for us. Our 17-day Alaska cruise begins May 6, 2025.

We took an Alaskan cruise in May and we heard 30 days prior to our sale date.

Thanks for letting me know, I really appreciate it.

The Princess tote bags seem to be a hit or miss on ships these days and not exactly sure why this has happened. We have taken 20 cruises with Princess and used to get them all the time. When we got to our cabin the bags were either on our bed or they were attached to a hanger in the closet area. Now, when we board the ships if we get one fine. If not, then no big deal. And, yes, they are a gift from Princess to the passenger. Passengers sometimes use the bags for shopping totes when they roam around town; good advertisement for Princess. Hope you are enjoying your cruise.

Really? We are Elite and paid for our wash and dry on the Royal recently. Didn't know we could request a credit back to our folio. Thanks for the information, good to know for the future.

Princess has had tote bags around for a long time. However, when there was a problem with the supply chain and I think during Covid, Princess stopped giving them out. On our coastal cruise in April, we got one but did not get one on our Royal cruise. I have seen pictures of the bags from other cruisers' posts so wasn't sure if they were making a complete comback or if it was hit or miss. Here is a picture for you.

@_rusty_shackleford, did you get a Princess tote bag in your cabin? Just wondering as we did not get one on either leg of our May back-to-back cruises. Got them earlier on other cruises -- just not the 14 day cruise.

All booking policies are explained at the time of booking. Yes, I will continue to book with them as they are a great agency.

Have you ever done this? If so, is the pricing extremely high?

UPDATE: For clarification, my TA is a big box agency that I have dealt with for many years and have never had a problem. The agents that I have dealt with have always worked very hard to get the best possible deal for me so I had no reason to question their interactions with me. However, today, after talking with the first TA at my agency, I had an after thought that perhaps something might have been missed during the rework of my refare quote as the price seemed extremely high. So, I waited a few hours and decided to call my TA agency again. I spoke with a very cordial agent and asked if she would call Princess and ask if they could refare my reservation from an inside cabin to a balcony. I was placed on hold and within 20 minutes my agent came back on the line and, as quoted by my previous agent, presented me with an extremely high number for my upgrade. I politely thanked my agent for checking and declined to purchase the upgrade. She told me she did not blame me for my decision. To address the issue of bidding to upgrade, it is part of my TA's Terms and Conditions that the company does not participate in cruise line bid-based stateroom upgrade programs. As for how we reserve our cabins, we will always go for the inside cabins. If, there is a deal and I can make the "magic" work, we will pay for a balcony cabin. Again, thank you all for your kind and funny posts, I appreciate them. Come August we will be celebrating our 34th cruise to Alaska. Whether the cabin is an inside or a balcony doesn't really matter in the long run --- at least we have a cabin and we are cruising to Alaska --- our happy place. Safe travels and memorable moments to all on your sailings.

Thanks for your post, I appreciate it. Option No. 3: I tried this one and it was a "no go" -- see my original post. Option No. 5: The company we book with does not allow us to participate in bidding for upgrades Oh well. I am happy I have a cabin for our 14-day cruise to Alaska. Would it be nice if we could have upgraded -- sure. Thanks again for everyone's post, I appreciate them.

Ken, with regard to your question, my travel agency does not allow us to participate in the Princess Upgrade Program.

I am not soliciting names of travel agents, I am just seeking answers to a Princess related question. Hopefully, someone who is a TA can help. My cruise sails in August, I am fully paid. We currently have an inside cabin and I saw on the Princess website that a few balcony cabins are available for my cruise. When I called my TA and asked if it was possible to upgrade, she told me she would have to check my existing reservation in the system. According to her, since I originally booked during a certain promotion, my balcony cabin upgrade fare would be based on my original fare and not what is posted on the current sale fare Princess is showing on their website. I am perfectly willing to pay an upgrade to my original fare but not $6,000. The present sale upgrade would only be about $3,800 for our 14-day cruise. Does my TAs explanation sound right? I am thinking it might have something to do with the "new bookings only" comment from Princess. On our last cruise I was able to upgrade with no problem so I thought I would throw the question out to the TAs. Thanks in advance for any guidance you might be able to provide.

Just got back from our May 18-June 1 Princess cruise to Alaska. Weather was on the cooler side: 50s with sprinkles off and on for a couple of days and only one day in Ketchikan where the weather was very wet during our visit. 1. Calving at Hubbard Glacier, Marjorie Glacier and Beloit Glacier was beautiful. 2. For wildlife we saw Orcas, humpback whales, harbor seals, eagles, sea otters, and a mountain goat. 3. Because we were doing a back-to-back cruise we had two opportunities to see Glacier Bay. First trip through GB was a little on the overcast side. However, the following week, the view was spectacular: lots of blue sky, lots of snow, lots of cascades. We enjoyed our cruise and are looking forward to returning in August.

We enjoy the Royal class buffet as well.

@_rusty_shacklefordThanks for the quick response, I appreciate it. With regard to the shortage of a few buffet items, we think the fruit and cereal were due to the ship using up supplies from the prior cruise and ours was not fully stocked for our cruise. We had Rice Krispies that were shaped like little pellets, Ginger Ale from China, minimal fruit offerings at times and lots of dedicated Asian dishes. We are very light eaters so we tend to gravitate towards the buffet; glad to hear things are looking up in the buffet.

Got that. Have sailed out of Vancouver many times and usually some sort of explanation is provided; we were all wondering what was going on. Lots of people were scrambling to change flights, long lines for walk off, tempers were short. Fortunately, we had a 1:30pm flight. We did walk-off and caught a cab so we were OK.

@_rusty_shackleford, thank you for your post, I appreciate you answering questions. We just got off the Royal May 18-June1st cruise. We will be returning on the Royal August 10-24th, same itinerary. If you don't mind, can you post if you got an Immigration/Customs form PRIOR to debarkation in Vancouver. We were handed ours after debarking the ship and in line for our clearance. It was quite hectic for all trying to move along luggage, fill out a form and then present it to the authorities. Also, our disembarkation time was delayed to 9:30 AM from 6:30AM like our original itinerary showed -- no word as to why. So, if you could, please verify when you will be getting off the ship when you have the final notification time shown on the disembarkation form. If you have eaten in the buffet, did you notice that fresh cut fruit was scarce and that American cold cereal options were very minimal? Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

We just did the Hubbard Glacier tour that was offloaded from our Princess ship. The weather was in the 50s and we wore a water proof jacket with hood, a vest, and a thin base layer underneath. We also wore our wind/rain pants and were very comfortable. Because we were outside during our entire time at Hubbard, we dressed a little warmer. We also wore gloves and a hat. Our Hubbard experience was wonderful with lots of calving. Enjoy your time at Hubbard.