ebeluga

@Essiesmom Just curious, your mini fridge comes stocked? Is it because you have a drink package and wifi package?

@Essiesmom Thanks for the run down. Just curious if they have any 2-tops available in the dining and if so, what does one have to do to get assigned one?

Also, do you mean that if you have fantastica experience, you will be provided slippers since you are diamond?

Thx!

22 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

If I were in the Princess Legal Department I would never have allowed this ambiguity to be published. “Departs between” and “Sails during” have very different meanings. As noted in the prior post, best to call and ask. My guess is that they meant “departs” but messed things up by using different phraseology later on. 

Their call center people would not comprehend the subtle differences of the wording!

7 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

Another reason for me is the double cruise credits & days for those who book bundles.
 

To quote Padgett from the Princess news release, those are his most valued guests who might cruise infrequently with a bundle and not those who loyally cruise on Princess frequently without a bundle…we’re less valued to him.

 

"The Loyalty Accelerator Program gives our most valued guests even more reasons to sail with our industry-leading bundles."

 

He is going for high profit margin cruisers. If one is infrequent, they tend to spend more and just blow it off.

Following and learning the ropes from you, @Essiesmom 🙂

What about in general apart from bottled water? Is there a dispenser for tap water and ice abailable in the buffet?

Thanks!

That would be a deal breaker for me. So does it come down to individual ship management or cultural demographics? Booked on a TA from Miami to Barcelona on Seaside...

Welcome any insight!

5 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

That is only true if EZ Air were the exclusive means of booking your trip. It isn’t. And how far out does “mutuality” extend?  10 days? 20?  50?  At what point is Princess legitimately flying you to your cruise as opposed to becoming a discount airline?

EZ Air is a consolidator. Princess is not subsidizing my airfare. How is that for legitimacy?!

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

I think it was a good decision. EZ Air is not the only way to book a pre-cruise flight. It exists to help you with flights for your CRUISE. Not your VACATION. I don’t want to pay higher fares or get shut out of flights the day before my cruise because other people took all the flights 8 days before theirs. Princess does not owe you anything that far out. Just book flights like a regular vacationer because at that point that’s what you are—a vacationer not a cruiser. 

It is called mutual benefit. Cruise is a component of my vacation. If flexibility of my flights is being taken away, then cruise may not be part of my vacation - very simple. The ship is definitely not my destination.

This is going to have negative impact on those Transpacific or Transatlantic repositioning cruises.

39 minutes ago, geoherb said:

There had better be a world of difference when a Cruise on Crystal costs more per day than my 10-day cruise on Princess earlier this month. 

So true, I am taking the decent quality with more days over luxury in this season of life! No need to be attended to for everything, better for my body and mind!

30 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I had seen a post about a year ago where someone assumed that about 75% of passengers purchased the packages.  I’m sure the demographics and itineraries play a large part of how many passengers purchase a package, either beforehand or onboard.  But after talking to a crew member, I believe the percentage is a lot closer to 30% for the cruises we tend to take (out from the west coast).  I think his words were, we would be lucky to reach our goal of 30%.  
I am sure that for some, the packages don’t really have a huge value but for us, they do.  That may change in time.  But for now, this little perk of double the days for us is a nice touch and not really costing us anything extra than what we already would purchase.  

About the package buy-in pre-boarding, this is also what I observed in my recent Alaska sailing out from SAn Francisco - partly based on the fact that the blue lane really snaked around while the green lane is empty with half of a dozen iPad stations setup.  This is based on my assumption packaged people would take advantage of the medallion free shipping and not needing to pick up at the port.

I guess they really want to push those packages. Next thing they will do is to eliminate more Elite benefits as people are accelerated into the tier!

42 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

When you hear back from Princess I'm fairly certain they will offer you OBC.  That's what they have done for others who have reached out after experiencing similar problems recently.  As for your refund that is insanely long to wait for a response.  I really do wish that Princess would add more staff to their customer service positions so that it wouldn't take reaching out to senior management to get satisfaction.  I know they are strapped financially but there are just some things you shouldn't skimp on if you want to keep your customer base.

Hmm, if they are strapped financially, they shouldn't dole out such generous compensation packages to their senior mgmt!

6 hours ago, Torfamm said:

I requested a crib for my sailing tomorrow when I booked and the request remains noted on my Travel Summary as “Crib required, availability limited”.
 

I’ve received conflicting information about when I will know if there is going to be a crib available in my cabin. I’ve been told by guest services that an email is sent with that information 24 to 48 hours before sailing but have not gotten notification. Can anyone share recent experience with requesting a crib and whether you received notification by email before sailing.

I recently requested one shortly after booking and received confirmation that the request was made on my May sailing. However when I got on board and saw no crib set up, I just asked the cabin steward and he promptly found one and set it up.

And by the way, he had no record of our request.

Hello! Will be first time on MSC and on Seaside.

Where might I get coffee? Just in the buffet? Is the coffee from syrup or brewed? How about speciality coffee?

Thanks!

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just curious, but why don't you just put in a bid to upgrade your cabin?

 

Princess Upgrade – Cruise Room Upgrades - Princess Cruises

 

BTW I'm not a travel agent. 

 

I tested that when I had a balcony but wanted to upgrade to a mini suite for a recent transpacific cruise because the "new booking" price had come down a lot after final payment. After my CVP said she was not able to do the upgrade even with my paying the new booking fare difference, I went to the bidding page and the minimum bid for a mini was as if I was bidding against the original higher minimum suite fare.

6 hours ago, jennybenny said:

We are doing medallion pick up in Barcelona. Anyone have experience with that wait time?

 

We breezed through last November but we checked in after 2:30 pm ish. I was not in a hurry to board.

Haha, the few times I had to deal with AARP customer support, they all sound like volunteers, reading off a script, absolutely no ability to solve a gift card problem!!

My recent 5/26 boarding in San Francisco Pier 27 took probably additional 45 min to pick up the medallion. And I went 2 hrs after the boarding window started.

I think it depends on percentage of pax who have the packages which come with free shipping of the medallion. That would be same % + a few others who choose to pay in the green lane and out of the blue lane. The higher % with packages, the faster for the blue lane.

So weird. My CVP booked the two segments for me 2 weeks ago with confirmation emails. Checked yesterday and the bookings disappeared with the FCD back to our accounts. Unfortunately she is out on family emergency so I have to rebook them again myself and will ask her when she returns.

On 4/29/2024 at 12:12 AM, Reina del Mar said:

Yes I appreciate that- but there certainly is for Darwin!  Maybe extended port hours to allow for transfers although that would obviously cost more to sail faster and better organisation for port disembarkation - so many people complained at having to wait till 1 pm for a shuttle when docked at 9 am- we were fortunate to have priority disembarkation but not everyone did!  Also poor information from port information talks for Adelaide and Melbourne where Port of Adelaide and Port of Melbourne were recommended was not helpful!. Free shuttles were helpful but when their air con doesn’t work it is not comfortable.-  Having said all that, we did enjoy our cruise.

Hello, this is very helpful for my planning as I have the Top Half booked for this August which covers Darwin. Just wondering what priority disembarkation that you spoke of. Is it the Elite priority or Princess excursion priority?

Also is there taxi or other forms of shared ride available?

Thank you!

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Regular. We never sail in suites on any line. That's how we are able to cruise so often!

Is there good coffee, biscotti and good bakery on MSC? Hoping Italian ship has good coffee.  I am v easy on food but coffee is a different story. Thx!

11 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I have recently learned the lesson of not judging an entire cruise line by one bad experience on one ship. I had sailed the Emerald Princess through the Panama Canal over Christmas and New Year's of 2022/2023 and it was by far the worst cruise I have ever been on. I finally decided to give Princess another try last month on the Enchanted and while it wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst either, so the day we returned we made final payment on another Enchanted sailing this August.

 

I have been on five MSC cruises and it is currently my favorite cruise line. We have two more booked (October and January) and will likely do many more after that. What I have learned about sailing on several lines now is that is is good to learn to work with, not against, the idiosyncracies of each. And while I might still never sail on the Emerald Princess again, I am glad I gave Princess another shot. I would encourage you to do the same with MSC.

Were you in MSC YC or regular? I have one non-YC booked next April TA, first time MSC. I guess I wanted to practise my Italian that I have been learning on Duolingo...🙂

3 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Try sending Princess a message through Instagram requesting someone contact you ASAP.  Also calls to Princess  are recorded so depending on who you get they may listen to it to determine what happened.

 

I fought to have a booking corrected was told constantly my issue was escalated to a manager, one message through Instagram and it was fixed in a matter of days.  

That is a very good suggestion. I am sure they have someone from the corporate to monitor and post on the social media site to promote their image, at least until they use a chatbot for the job.I too won't trust their 800 number people and avoid them as much as possible.