jeromep

I stand corrected about Sitka. https://www.kcaw.org/2021/09/05/he-built-it-and-now-theyre-coming-sitkas-private-cruise-dock-spurs-twofold-increase-in-passengers-in-22/ However, my impression about Princess' relationship with Sitka was based upon ongoing conversations with an old friend who has more experience with Princess than I. That dock has been there a while, I suppose things may change for Princess... maybe.

I like your logic, but you originally were asking whether to do one-way (Voyage of the Glaciers) or RT Vancouver. I presume that the RT Vancouver is the 14 day itinerary, which is basically a north bound Voyage of the Glaciers combined with a southbound VoG. Both cruises will be excellent. However, if you are leaning toward a RT cruise, the 7 day RT out of Seattle are also a good value and you get some exposure to the Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca and some open ocean sailing as you transit from Seattle to SE Alaska. RT Seattle will hit either Glacier Bay or the Endicot Arm and Dawes Glacier. Both are spectacular. I suppose if this is your first time, you may want to lean toward a cruise that hits Glacier Bay. The on board interpretation presented by the National Parks staff is excellent.

Is this post a question or a statement? Sitka is not a typical Princess destination in Alaska. It isn't totally unheard of, and I think they use it as a backup port should another port become unavailable due to weather or whatever, however it is my understanding that Sitka is a tender port, and Princess seems to lean away from tendering (at least in Alaska) if they don't have to. Traditionally Sitka has always been a HAL port. I do see Icy Strait Point on the 14-day RT Vancouver itinerary. Looks like they visit that location on the southbound leg. I haven't looked at other months, but September would not be my first choice for visiting Alaska. While September is late summer and the weather tends to remain very pleasant in most places, it is quickly turning to fall, almost winter, in Alaska. Day times may be nice, but nights will probably get very chilly.

I have this feeling that they were running out of inventory. Considering that a ship is resupplied at every port in which there is passenger turn, there is no reason to meter out things like ice cream or juice as you will be restocked on turn day. You use your inventory until it is gone. In all the years I've been on Princess I've never seen things "shut down" as the cruise comes to its end. There have been recent reports of some oddities and inconsistencies in food service, say odd ingredients that cruisers aren't use to seeing on plates, or recipes for customary dishes that have varied wildly on more recent cruises, probably attributed to the ability to get specific ingredients in the home port when the ship is turned; but I don't recall anyone expressing things like total outages of high demand items.

20 is a weird age. I have fond memories of it, but I was transferring between colleges, moving out of the house for the first time, having roommates for the first time. I was pretty busy and going on vacations wasn't something I was doing a lot of. 20 is an odd age because you are an adult, but there are a few things that remain off limits to you, notably establishments that exclusively serve alcohol and renting cars. For the onboard youth clubs, both of the nieces are too old. You will want to be looking at the Patter when you get on board to see if the cruise director's staff is doing any activities for that age group between 18-20. If they are, they will list a meeting location and time. First one will be more of a meet and greet, and depending on the turn out and what the folks that show up want to do, other events will follow... or not. If they look through their passenger manifest and find enough youth in that "too young to drink, too old to be with the kids" group, they often will arrange for special events for that age group. If you don't see anything you can always find a member of the cruise director's staff and ask them if they have any plans for the 18-20 set. Of course, if that were so important to the nieces, they could do the same, directly asking somebody on the CD staff if they had any plans for that age group. Setting aside your nieces for the moment, I think Princess does a very good job on longer cruises. Any cruise they do that is 7 days or longer gives you a good taste for the cruise line and enough time to experience the ship and its venues. You may be get better responses if you let us know what ship you are sailing on. Maybe what specific itinerary you are on. And some more specific questions you want answered. You'll get a lot more detail from the group that way.

Caught that in my email today, and my YouTube notifications. Looks intriguing.

Thank you for sharing. This looks so good. I hope they keep this around through at least July, we won't have a chance to try until then. Have a great cruise. If the food is as good as that menu, I bet you are having a great time.

Everyone is on a roll in this thread. I can't beat any of these comments. That said, Starlink, while a modern wonder, isn't necessarily going to be the magic bullet that it seems like it will be. It has only been within the past 3 to 6 months that Starlink has opened up to mobile users, basically RVers. The various RVers I follow all report mixed results with Starlink depending on where they are set up, their surrounding environment, and Starlink equipped camper density. If you are in an RV park someplace, you might not have the quality of connect you might expect. I've heard of RV resorts that were full of campers and so many had Starlink that speeds were slow because the Starlink cell overhead was basically saturated. Then there are stories of people out boondocking amongst the trees, and while there is no population density, there are so many trees that the Starlink dish can barely read the sky to get enough satellites to talk to to make a decent connection. While being at sea you won't be dealing with Starlink unit density issues (like in the RV park), and you have a very clear view of the sky (no trees), so the on-board Starlink dish has a lot of satellites to connect to, I think the real issue is going to be density of on board use. I can't help but wonder if an on-board Starlink system can handle the Internet needs of 3000+ users all at once?

Kind of, but follow me here. You do get complimentary specialty dining on embarkation night. It is a nice way to start a cruise plus you don't have to deal with crowds that do occur on embarkation night at the MDRs. Usually crowd management and dinner demand adjust as the cruise gets into its 2nd or 3rd day and MDR crowds change and vary. As a suite passenger you also are Club Class, so if you are dining in the MDR, you will not go to the MDR entrance, you will go to the Club Class entrance, which is connected to one of the MDRs on board. There are never any lines or waits for Club Class MDR dining, plus they run a fresh sheet with a couple additional selections that aren't listed on the regular menu and a dish or two with tableside preparation, which is a nice show you don't see in many restaurants anymore. I guess you could call Club Class dining (it is being rebranded, so it has a new name now which Princess is transitioning to) an upgraded menu for suite guests. Suite guests also can get the daily MDR menus from their cabin steward and they can have room service deliver MDR meals to your cabin when the MDR is open, this is for breakfast lunch and dinner. Speaking of breakfast, one of the specialty restaurants is open each morning for suite guests breakfast. They offer free espresso drinks and mimosas in that venue for suite breakfast. No. This is a feature of the Royal class ships. The Caribbean Princess is a Grand class ship. Nice ships, well laid out, lower passenger count, but older. The Caribbean has Skywalkers, which is a rather large lounge and dance club that is in the shopping cart handle on the back of the ship. During the day it is usually unused, so it is a great observation deck. It is my favorite feature of the older Grand class ships. The evening suite reception is often held in Skywalkers, but it can move to other venues depending on what is going on, on board. If you book a suite, you'll get an invite to the suite and elite reception. They have snacks and the open the bar and have some lower cost, but good beverages available. Yes, they are well organized, they have lots of activities going on, and the staff is excellent. The programing on board is co-branded with the Discovery channel, so it leans toward something educational, not just mindless playing. Best pizza at sea. That is a bit of a marketing thing that Princess uses, but I've never had a bad slice at any of the locations that serve pizza on board. I've had more pizza up on the Lido than I have at Alfredos, but it is all excellent. Depends on the price of the drink you are buying. If the total drink cost if $15 or less, then yes. I wouldn't avoid this ship. I like the Grand class ships, but they reflect the state of the cruise industry 15-25 years ago, before RCI started to super size ships. I'm not sure when the Caribbean was last in for a dry dock, but there is a lot of refreshing of a ship's interior in dry dock. Princess never let's a ship get too shelf worn before it needs some real attention. As @malba2366 said, none of the main lines maintain older ships like Disney does. The Caribbean Princess isn't necessarily going to wow you with top deck activities like a Disney ship or the Epic, but I wouldn't call her tired. It has some unique features which have not really made their way to other ships. Notably, there is a splash pool, targeted toward kids, which no other Princess ship has. The kids clubs run late enough most evenings that you could take in the early show and then pick up the kids and get a late dinner. No need to not have any evening entertainment. Of course, having MDR dining available as room service, you can always eat in if your day has been long and you are tired and don't really want to have to "go out". Having cruised with kids, there is honestly no better way to do it than in a suite. You get some room to spread out, MDR room service, tender tickets that give you priority boarding (when you have a tender port), these things make it all just a bit easier to cruise with children.

I wish they would stop calling them mini-suites, because they are not suites. They are extended length cabins with large bathrooms (they have tub/shower combos instead of just a shower). The minis also are long enough that you have a full sized sitting area with convertible couch, coffee table, a separate TV from the one that points to the bed (running both at the same time with different programs on is chaotic in a mini, but you can do it). Reserve Collection is the new branding for what we have known as Club Class, which means you have access to Club Class dining in the MDR every night. They have one or two extra menu items on a fresh sheet in Club Class dining along with a dish or two that is prepared tableside. Plus no lines or waiting at the MDR. It is a nice touch when you are staying in a "regular" class of cabin. I think with the Reserve or Club Class minis you still get two half bottles of wine, one red and one white. Not sure on that one. However, the suite perks are not part of any mini-suite. If you are not drinkers, I think you will be better off getting a full suite or "Premium Suite". Nicer accommodations, more room, access to the Concierge Lounge and the concierge, embarkation night complimentary meal in a specialty restaurant, and more. Princess Plus will pay for gratuities and give you all beverage access (up to a menu price of $15), but I'm not sure it would be a good value for you. If you are big pop drinkers then the N/A beverage package will probably be a better deal, and you then pay your gratuities on your on-board folio. Keep in mind, that all beverages and food in the Concierge Lounge are complimentary, so if you are looking for pop, or an espresso, a light snack, you can get it there instead of going someplace else on ship. We have a July '23 cruise coming up and opted for Premium with our suite, we'll see if we feel if it is worth the cost. We felt we had to try it once to see if we can make it pencil out. If not, we will do Plus in the future, or no package at all. We felt it would be a bit too difficult to try to determine our behavior on board to get a mathematical calculation on how much value it provides us. Plus we didn't want to be attached at the hip to the Concierge Lounge for free beverages when we might want to be someplace else on ship. I've learned over the years that when on vacation, when it is practical, I almost always have a mug of coffee in my hand, so I ensure that I'll be covered for that on cruises. We became c*vid campers in 2020 and purchased an older Class A to go camping in. It has one of those Spacemaker coffee makers mounted above the dinette and I find that once we are parked and set up, I put on a pot of coffee and I have coffee going pretty much from wake up until I go to bed (caffeine doesn't bother me). I'm the same way on a cruise, and specialty coffee charges do rack up pretty fast, especially if you want a decent cup of brewed coffee. So consider what beverages you do drink on a daily basis and determine if going with no package and just buying the N/A beverage package or a coffee package would be money better spent. Gelato or any desert that has a price tag attached. Many third party Airtag holders will actually accommodate the medallion. Consider that if you are thinking about purchasing a medallion accessory from Princess. It unlocks your cabin door, it provides on-board geolocation to people in your travel group when displayed on the Medallion app on your phone or tablet. It acts like a cruise card, so on-board purchases are all charged to your on-board folio through the medallion. If you have Plus or Premium the bartender or server will still scan your medallion. If you purchase something on board, they will scan your medallion and the charges will go to your folio. If you order food and beverage to be delivered to you through the app, the medallion gives the server your location to deliver to you. I think you can get a pass without a problem, but if you are absolutely convinced you will use it most days of the cruise and want a cruise-long pass, you'll want to get to the spa on embarkation day and get on their list and pay for it. However, if you are in a full suite, you won't be turned away. Well... maybe, maybe not. If you are dead set on a particular excursion sold by the cruise line, you would be better off booking it through the Cruise Personalizer ahead of the cruise than waiting until you get on board. Excursions are always capacity based, so when the provider runs out of room, that is that. You can always use the concierge in the Lounge to book excursions while on board, but I don't think that will give you priority. Both of those lines are more or totally all-inclusive, and yes the cruiser on those lines is much older, mostly because they have the money to drop on an all-inclusive cruise. I don't think there is too much comparison between Princess and a lux line, however Princess does do a good job of trying to provide a subdued luxurious cruise without being snooty.

I've done some form of specialty dining on embarkation evening on a number of cruises. I think you'll find getting a seat in a specialty venue easier and the vibe will be less chaotic than heading to the MDR. Embarkation or turn day on board a ship is the hardest day for most of the staff as it is an "all hands" type of day. Your server in the MDR has probably been up all day; might have had an early morning shift serving breakfast in the MDR, or being a utility server in the buffet. Then as they day progressed they might have been pulled from service only to be doing heavy work of unloading pallets of food into the pantry or various cold storages. Have they had meals and breaks? We can hope so, but if push comes to shove, some may not have if they got behind on restocking, or the suppliers at port were disorganized and weren't loading them up fast enough or in the proper order. So, yes, I'd opt for specialty dining on embarkation night as all the factors work in your favor, lower demand, possibly a more organized or less overworked wait staff, dedicated kitchen staff that might not have been in the middle of the turn day activities, etc. Plus, having a really nice dinner is a great way to start a cruise.

I think the whole idea of Take 5 was to work toward phasing out Crooners (agree or disagree is fine with me), and have a dedicated bar/venue that could work for the piano vocalist vibe of Crooners and to support a jazz trio, quartet or otherwise. The thing about Crooners that didn't really attract me to it was its structure. While I like the piano club vibe and the songs and vocals, it always felt like you were having drinks in the lobby of a Nordstrom a week before Christmas; with the constant traffic of the atrium walking by, and the general hum of people's conversations from all levels of the Piazza echoing off all the surfaces. I guess if your goal is to get your drink on and sit, then the music is really just environmental. If you are serous about listening to a piano crooner, really taking in the whole performance, listening to that in a busy lobby is probably not the best place. But credit where it is due, Princess reversed course on elimination of Crooners on the Enchanted and Discovery, and looks like they are including it on Sun, I suspect that when Sky goes in for a drydock, you'll see Crooners show up again. A lot of what I see in this thread is just a lot of very early prognostication surrounding what appear to be deck plans in flux. There are some new things here which are likely not to change much between now and when Sun is put to sea trials, but it sure seems to me that there are a lot of indoor spaces that have yet to be fleshed out or named. About the location of bars and dining venues, including the buffet. I have this feeling that Princess is doubling down on the Medallion and passengers ordering food and beverage from the app and having it brought to them. You don't need to have a lot of permanently established bars or venues near the pool if people are going to order what they want from their lounger. However, as I more closely look at the deck plans for decks 17 and 18, I'm seeing white voids in the plans which could easily be a Salty Dog, Slices, or Swirls. I'm not sure how far they are into the new build, maybe the hull is complete, maybe they are craning on upper deck superstructure, I have no clue, but the internal contents of this ship do seem to be heavily in flux.

RDP is a pretty heavy desktop virtualization protocol. I think it is more chatty and requires more data than say VNC, which has a number of mitigations built into it to allow for practical remote desktop usage on lower bandwidth connections, and connections with a lot of latency. We use both RDP and VNC in the office, but we only use VNC for remote desktop connections which come in from outside our network. We only use RDP when on the LAN, mostly as a way to avoid having to walk to the server room, code in to gain access and then sit in a very noisy and often very cold environment to do work on a server console. That said, the two things working against using RDP is going to be both overall connection speed through ship's WiFi, along with a great deal of latency. I suspect you'll have some pretty long ping times on ship WiFi, along with low speeds. This is a recipe for terrible RDP performance, so bad that you might not be able to get any work done. Oh, and if you are trying to do this through a VPN, forget it. There are varying reports of VPN capability on ship's WiFi, most are not very good. If your shop had VNC available, or was willing to deploy it, you may get better performance because VNC is lighter weight in terms of how it handles data and how much data it asks for, but, in the end, this is your vacation, I would hope your employer could give you unencumbered time off, because, if they don't, what is the point of vacation time?

Is Seattle walkable? Yes and no. You'll want to look at the tourist attractions you want to take in and then decide if there is lodging nearby. There is some public transit, but for a metro, Seattle relies mostly on buses. There is light rail, but it is a mostly north-south route. And there is the streetcar, but that system is also limited in where it goes and what neighborhoods it travels through. Google maps will be your friend here in determining where to stay relative to what you want to see. Nobody here has mentioned the attractions at the Seattle Center. For anyone coming from as far away as you are, you must visit the Space Needle. It has just gone through a major remodel and has some glass bottomed floors and the views are spectacular. They don't have full restaurant that is on the rotating floor, but they do have a lounge in the restaurant space and the floor still rotates. My wife and I had our 1st anniversary dinner at the former restaurant at the Space Needle, many years ago now. It was a great experience. I had a great aunt that used to have a house on Ward St. just north of the Seattle Center in a neighborhood called Queen Ann. You could stand on her porch, looking south, and stare directly at the Space Needle, and it was huge in the living room window. Visiting the Space Needle is expensive, but it is probably one of the best observation platforms for viewing all of Seattle, and the surrounding Puget Sound. Argosy runs fine tours. I've done both of them at some point in the past 25 years or so. They do live narration as others have stated. There's also beverages and snacks for sale on board. Very touristy. If you had to choose one, I'd do the Chittendon Locks cruise over the bay. If you want to see more of the bay or get out of Seattle then the recommendations to take the ferry to Bainbridge is a better use of your money, plus you get to see how real residents of the Puget Sound live. For some people a daily commute on the ferry from Bainbridge Island or from Bremerton, amongst other places across the Sound, to Seattle is just part of life. Pike Place Market is worth visiting, but it is highly touristy, has huge crowds most weekends and you can only catch the fish vendors throwing fish to each other occasionally. Just like the "first" Starbucks, it is overrated. However near the market is Beecher's Cheese. Great cheese and dishes made with their product. You may want to check that out, or at least visit for lunch.

Oh my! Well I do feel for them. I'm a little surprised that they didn't work to pre-book excursions that had mobility services before the cruise rather than rolling the dice on if those excursions would be available once they arrived on board.

To clarify, we didn't pre-book our specialty dining. We reserved the Crown Grill upon embarkation just after we got to our cabin. Different cruises with different mixes of pax will do different things, but on embarkation night the Crown Grill was only lightly used, most tables were empty. On other cruises, the story may be different. I'm not a huge fan of having to pay up front shore side to book specialty dining weeks or months in advance of the cruise, especially when the pre-pay ends up just being a generic OBC on my folio when I get on board.

Laundry, well... We did MDR or Club Class dining most nights. We used our complimentary specialty dining on embarkation night in the Crown Grill. We had cute dresses for her to wear most nights. We also did both formal nights. Our daughter wasn't a messy eater at 22 months, but she would almost always wear something she was eating home from dinner. So, yes, we had a lot of laundry to do. And if we are sending out her clothing to get cleaned up, might as well send ours, too.

Is the cruise Wednesday January 17, 2024? Looks like a great cruise. I wish I had that kind of free time to take that long of a cruise. As others have said, the Caribbean can be challenging for persons with mobility issues as historical sites are typically rather rustic, and a lot of the other tourist locations are basically equally rustic. Island tours are typically your only options when you must have an assistance device. Unlike in Europe or the States or in Alaska or Canada where a lot of tours are on large motor coaches, or modern shuttle buses, most of the island tours are conducted in mini-busses, some are equipped for wheelchairs, but most are not. If you have a travel agent I'd get to talking with them about tours that you schedule outside of the cruise line. A good TA can find operators in the countries you will be visiting that advertise and have accessible tour options available. Don't feel limited to booking your shore excursions through the cruise line. A good TA is going to only suggest tours that operate inside your scheduled port day, with plenty of time margin to help ensure that you get back to the ship on time. A good TA is also going to make sure that you have sufficient travel insurance or protections in place to deal with canceled ports or missed excursions due to unforeseen circumstances. If you don't have a good TA, this is the time to fine one.

That is a big and broad question. Did you book through a travel agent? Do you have one you like? Not like a corporate TA, but an independent or one that works independently that has support of a franchise? One real human you can call to work through things, ask questions, etc. I recommend a TA right now because the telephone support at Princess has been heavily off-shored and isn't all that good. The call centers can handle very straight forward things, but anything that may get complex or is outside of their script will tie them up in knots and you won't actually get any answers. If you did book direct, you can still transfer the cruise to a TA once you find one. Plus, you are helping put food on somebody's table. TAs get a commission. When you transfer a booking to a TA, Princess has to pay a commission to them out of your agreed upon cruise fare. Otherwise, Princess just takes the value of what would be paid as a commission and pockets it for themselves. After the mess we have been through the past few years, TAs could really use the work. I think the Medallion is a great technological change. It is a bit too big brother for me, notably the location tracking, however when it works, especially for ordering food and beverage and having it delivered, it works well. The Princess app that works in conjunction with the Medallion is kind of flaky. But it is gradually getting better. Internet on board was supposed to be excellent, they made a lot of marketing hay about fast Internet back in 2019, but that all seems to have passed or been an opportunity lost, so Internet on board is just marginal. Take a serious look at Princess Plus. It might pencil out for you considering that it includes gratuities and a great number of beverages that you would otherwise have to pay per drink for, along with Internet access. That is about all I can offer right now without knowing more about your cruise or your specific interests.

I was going to ask what cruise are you looking at? I'm happy to do a little legwork online if I knew the embarkation date and the ship. Our upcoming Alaska cruise has lots of ADA friendly excursions. Most of them are bus related excursions and sight seeing, there are at least a couple of excursions in each port. If your cruise is more warm weather or active, then you might find the selection of excursions for those that need mobility devices more limited or less exciting. So, yes, it is possible for a port or series of ports on a cruise to no have a lot of excursions that are geared toward people with limited mobility, but it would be pretty rare for there to be none at all. Also note, a tender or water taxi port may not be suitable for people who are wheelchair bound or unable to easily get in and out of a mobility scooter. I've definitely been on tenders where scooters and walkers were stowed on the center platform while in transit, but their users had to have the ability to get up and down a couple of stairs and sit on a bench in the tender during transit to get into port. If they didn't have the ability to do that, they wouldn't have been allowed to tender due to safety concerns.

Yes. A few years ago we were in a suite, so had the embarkation night complimentary specialty dinner. Dined in the Crown Grill. When they came by with the bill for the other guests (pre-medallion times) I had them apply the bill to my cabin and it came out of my OBC/folio. Not a problem.

Many years ago now we were on some ships where you could just swipe your cruise card at a kiosk, see your folio on screen and it would spit out a folio from either a laser printer or a thermal receipt printer. It took no time at all and was helpful. Medallion and the app have made tracking your folio super simple and very accessible. As others have said, the Princess app really does a good job of displaying folio transactions. It may be flaky at other things, but showing you what you have spent, it does that really well. The example I used of a missing laundry credit was about as bad as I've experienced in terms of incorrect folio charges. But if I hadn't been checking my folio, I wouldn't have discovered it until it was inconvenient, like on disembarkation morning, or not until after we were off the ship. I don't think the need to review a folio, if not every day, then a few times during a cruise and definitely the day before disembarkation, isn't unreasonable. Mistakes happen. Mistakes are not an indication of outright fraud, they are human error or technical error. Sure, we'd like to think that human error can be eliminated through training and technology, but years in financial services has proven to me that you can train until you are blue in the face, and you can automate even the most minuscule task, and mistakes and errors will still occur. And when they occur you sometimes are left scratching your head and asking, "how did that happen, it shouldn't have". Yes. And yes, again I couldn't agree more.

What's the difference between a tender and a lifeboat? The photos in this thread show this pretty well. Tenders on Princess ships have the "sky deck". Both the tenders on the older Grand class ships, and the new design of tender (larger overall size, different shape) on the Royal class ships. You'll also find different pilothouse configuration and location on tenders vs. lifeboats. Tenders also tend to have more windows than a lifeboat, and different side access ports than a lifeboat. When tendering, the ship will only drop and use the tenders for service. The survival craft will remain on their davits, unless the ship is also doing scheduled lifeboat drills or lifeboat exercises while in port. It is pretty rare for a ship to conduct lifeboat functionality drills and tests while also trying to tender thousands of people to and from shore. However it is not uncommon for a ship to run lifeboat drills and to exercise the survival craft on the side of the ship not tied up at port when a ship is in port. @PTMary's photo is very much a tender, with the sky deck seating and the large windows on the craft. @Rick&Jeannie's photo is of a lifeboat. Note the lack of skydeck, lack of windows, the white vinyl flaps on the access ports, and the hump at the rear that is likely the pilothouse. Tenders also are typically nicely powered. I distinctly recall that the old Grand class ship tenders are twin engine diesels with ducted propellers. I watched an able seamen use just the throttles and bow thruster to bring the craft into port with just the slightest bump, not even touching the wheel the whole time. And another time they left the dock and spun around inside their own length, again only using opposing throttles on the engines, one forward and one reverse and the bow thruster. They are remarkably maneuverable. The lifeboats on the Grand class ships are all single engine, so not as fast and not as maneuverable as their tender cousins. I have a video I got when I was the lone passenger on a tender on the Star Princess in Santa Barbara. Oh, and I did lean against those cables on the sky deck. https://youtu.be/RgBACqK2Yiw

This speaks to a big issue with the pre-booking of items and the logic that Princess is using right now. It is one thing to charge somebody up front to pre-book dining or spa if their cruise doesn't have a Plus/Premier package attached. But once somebody selects a package that includes some perk, like specialty dining, then the programming logic should allow booking the time without insisting on charging their card. This situation feels very much like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Marketing came up with Plus and Premier and launched it, but they didn't bother to loop in the programmers who are dealing with the booking engine on the web site. The packages work on board because that is separate and independent from the booking system, and where it counts is on board. The way pre-books seem to work is that they are collected in the on-shore system and then transmitted to the ship's system on or about embarkation of the new group of passengers. I suspect that they have some large IT project to try to harmonize on-board passenger management with shore-side, but that has to be a huge project and many disparate systems.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. I see this is your first post. I hope you are able to get your issue resolved, but I do feel compelled to provide some feedback. Were these charges conducted on separate occasions? Sounds like that is the case. When did you first notice the on-board charges? One of the things I'm in the habit of doing while on board is checking my folio regularly, at least daily, to ensure that my OBC is being used appropriately and when my OBC is used up that the charges that are showing up make sense. A few cruises ago I had comped laundry and that is normally a fairly straight forward process. Your laundry bill shows up on your folio, and if the laundry is to be comped it is credited back almost immediately. Well, one day the laundry wasn't comped, so I had to talk with Passenger Services to get that taken care of. This is all hindsight is 20/20, but if you have errors on your folio when you disembark, it is very difficult to get it resolved after you have left the ship. On the other hand, getting those errors taken care of on board should be relatively painless... relatively. When it comes to disputing charges and the card issuer being able to actually follow through with making your provisional credit permanent, you have to claim that you did not receive the services rendered or that you did not authorize the transaction. So, with the pre-pay, you did authorize the transaction. Were services rendered? Yes, but then it becomes an issue of linking up the pre-pay to the services rendered. For the charge that occurred on board, that was authorized, both by the pre-authorization you give when you link a card to your cruise, and also when you swipe your medallion on their reader at the spa. Going through your card issuer, the best charge to be challenging is the pre-pay, however you only have 60 days from the statement date the charge was on to make a claim against a charge. The on-board charge from the spa goes on the folio and becomes a lump sum charge to your card when you disembark. The card processor has to do a charge back on the whole charge, not a portion of it. So, you aren't really going to be able to do a charge back on the whole folio charge from when you were on board. I recall that you used to have to sign spa receipts, are they still doing that? If you did sign a receipt at the spa, that also negates any claim that you didn't receive services. However, it is likely that use of your medallion in the spa is also viewed as a signature authorizing the services charged. It is my recollection that your card issuing bank has somewhere between 30 and 60 days to complete the dispute process. If you just opened up the process there is a lot more time they have to work through the card processing network to resolve the issue. You say you have been working on this for 2 months, so that is 2 months ago that your card issuer got involved or 2 months ago you started your complaint with Princess? Do you have your whole folio printed out or in an electronic statement form? Did your folio start out at 0, or did you have an OBC balance when your folio was opened? Did you have any OBC in addition to the value of the pre-booked spa packages? For example, if you didn't have any promo OBC, or loyalty OBC or otherwise, your pre-paid spa item may have ended up on your folio as an OBC credit. From there if you had on-board gratuities, bar charges, laundry, specialty dining, etc., that would eat away at your pre-paid spa visit. Then when you went to the spa they would have charged you for services at an equal rate of what you prepaid. So, this would have been a wash, but you still would have had a bill at the end of the cruise due to the other expenses. If I were in the same room as you and working through this with you, I'd be looking over your whole folio and doing some basic arithmetic to see where your pre-pay came into your folio and where it left. I don't agree with this statement. My wife and I have always been able to get couples massages or other treatments without pre-booking. In fact we look for spa ads and call the spa and talk about pricing on port days. We almost always get good appointments and better pricing for spa visits that occur on port days, even on port days after we have left port. I do wish you the best on getting this resolved. It would be nice to go over your folio and see where the pre-booking credit went, as it should have showed up on your folio at the beginning of the cruise.