californiagirl

I agree with WisCruiser2 about Secret Harbor on St Thomas. There is decent snorkeling there. Depending on the amount of time in port you may want to go over to St. John. Trunk Bay has some good snorkeling. The very best snorkeling we ever did in the Caribbean were two different times when we chartered a boat and went to Buck Island, saw and swam with lots of sea turtles; Lovongo and Congo Cays, drift snorkel with thousands of minnows and pelicans diving down to gulp them up. We watched this happen underwater…amazing

Thank you for posting (hopefully) the resolution to this saga. I hope they have an uneventful, wonderful cruise. I have not posted to this thread prior but I have been following along. As an elite Princess cruises I, like you would have been very suspicious of what this friend had gotten himself into. So glad it appears to have worked out.

If you have never been to St Thomas the circle the island tour would be worth the time and money. It is a beautiful island and enjoyable to see more than a few spots. I would arrange the tour once in port. There will be several vendors to choose from. Try to get off the ship early to avoid the crowds. All the tours go to the same stops. Magens Bay is beautiful and large but there is very little to see when snorkeling. It is a sandy bay. If you are interested in snorkeling I would go to Secret Harbor Beach. There are chairs to rent and fairly good snorkeling. I saw a small sea turtle there one time. Two members of our group did a shore dive. The last time we stopped in St Thomas we were with friends who had never been before so we did the circle the island with them. We asked our driver to drop us off at Secret Harbor beach and he was very willing to accommodate us. (We tipped him extra.) We took a taxi back to the ship. (Taxis routinely stop at this beach.) There is a small resort on the beach. Good luck and safe travels.

My three children haven’t cruised on Princess since August 2003. I booked a family cruise yesterday and all three had their CC numbers and cruise credits intact and recognized. None of my kids had the same address, phone numbers or email as in 2003. My daughter has a married name as well. Call back and ask to speak with a supervisor, you were given incorrect information. If you don’t want to deal with the outsourced call center, then call 800-901-1172 and ask for a Princess Cruise Planner. You should get immediate help. As an aside because I was booking so many people at once I asked for a new PCP. I knew there were many elements that made it more complicated to book. (My prior PCP has been useless.) I LOVE my new PCP! He was very detail oriented and made suggestions I hadn’t even thought of.

I tried chrome and had no trouble! I knew I could count on my CC friends to help me. THANK YOU!

We are going on an extended family cruise. Our son in law and daughters in law have never cruised on Princess so I would like to refer them so they and we get the $25 OBC. I tried using the following web address without success: princess.com/refer25. It takes me to the correct page (scrolling down) but no hyperlink is provided. Is this still an active program? If so does anyone have a direct link? I really don’t want to call Princess. Another issue is that I can’t access live chat. When I tap the link nothing happens. Princess can be SO aggravating!

Thank you for taking the time to post pictures, videos and narrative of your amazing journey. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you for the clarification on soft drinks. I’m still okay with it. 😊

That just it, the loyalty perks on Princess have been diminished such that they won’t be missed. The only perks we really used were the priority boarding and tendering and the one time mini-bar set up. (We changed out the alcohol for soft drinks.) But Viking provides soft drinks in every cabin…replenished daily. I would imagine the significantly lower passenger count reduces the need for priority boarding. Loved the Princess refugee comment!

Coke Zero Sugar is a different formula than Coke Zero. IMHO Coke Zero Sugar tastes like very sweet coke flavored perfume. Not a fan. 🤢

Thank you for the info Clay!

If that’s all they have we’ll be okay. I’m not sure I could drink Diet Pepsi for two weeks. 😂

As I shared on another thread we just booked Bangkok to Bali, November 2024. We are not coffee or alcohol drinkers but we are big Diet Coke drinkers. What diet cola is onboard in that region of the world?

ChrisB that’s so funny! I think we are no longer the Princess target market. That’s okay, at this point in life we can afford Viking. No so when we began cruising back in 1998. I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that there is more included than I thought.

Thank you for the suggestions and recommendations.

Very excited to have booked Bangkok to Bali, November 2024 on Venus. We are long time, experienced cruisers and we are elite on Princess. Over time - especially since the change in leadership we have become more and more dissatisfied with Princess. Also they don’t offer an itinerary in any way similar to this one. Lastly we are at the point in life where we want a more upscale experience. I read many Venus reviews prior to booking and the consistently high ratings were reassuring. Having said all this I understand there is no perfect cruise line and that some Viking cruisers feel the company has slipped. I think that is across the boards since covid. However from reading this board and the recent reviews it appears the Viking experience is heads above Princess. We don’t drink alcohol and rarely take ship excursions. Since we overnight in Bangkok at the beginning of the cruise, early cabin access doesn’t matter to us. (We will have a late checkout at our hotel.) For these reasons we chose the lowest veranda cabin category. I think someone jokingly referred to it as steerage class. We like the location of the cabin. Question: is there an extra fee for the specialty restaurants? I realize we won’t have priority reservations. Looking forward to this cruise!

I think there are significant negative issues with all mass market cruise lines at the moment. We are doing a SE Asia land trip January 2025. We thought it might add another element of interest to combine it with a cruise. Wow, what an eye opener! I looked at Princess first…not doing the region we wanted in 2025. Then Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. I read many current reviews of the ships that were pertinent. So many unhappy cruisers, so many cuts in food quality and variety, such an increase in cost. The overall repeated theme is that the cruiser is spending much more for much less. Then I checked the luxury lines. There was some grumbling there as well but not to the extreme of the mass market lines. Holy cow the price! We would willingly spend double but when it’s exponentially more money for visiting the same ports it’s not worth it to us. (This is a cheap region of the world too.) We could spend the money but the product would never match our expectations of paying so much more. We have decided to upgrade our land accommodations to luxury hotels and add one more country by land. We will have a much more immersive experience by staying 3-4 days in each city than 10-12 hours. Even with the increase in hotels, budget for food, private drivers and small group or private tours we are money ahead by thousands verses going with a luxury line.

The “new” free room service offerings look very similar to the old room serve menu prior to the medallion and the app, The offerings were listed in a book in each stateroom. The main difference being that there was no $5 charge when ordering by phone.

Thank you Host Jazzbeau for cleaning up my post. There was a question that asked are you working with a travel agent. I answered no. Perhaps that was the trigger. I have found an agent I think will be good to work with. Thank you for your replies.

I totally forgot about not mentioning travel agencies by name!! It didn’t occur to me because I wasn’t recommending the agency. Moderators please delete the agency name. The edit window has closed for me so I can’t delete it myself. So initially contact with AMA was via inquiry on the website. I didn’t hear anything so I called the number on the official AMAWaterways website a few days later. The woman asked my name, said I see you contacted us online and said please hold. The next thing I knew I was speaking with the man I referenced earlier. I may try calling again and state that I would like to book directly with AMA, not through a third party.

We are about to book a cruise on the Mekong River with AMA. I tried to book directly with AMA but was transferred to a travel agent. Are they the booking arm of AMA? I was less than pleased with the attitude of the agent. Although I did a lot of research both here (thank you everyone!) and on other sites including YouTube we have only done ocean cruises, so I still had a few questions. The man I spoke with was very condescending. It really caught me off guard. When I asked if the price quoted included taxes and fees he said, “well you still have to pay gratuities.” The way he said it was very rude. I already knew from my research that some river cruise lines include gratuities, but AMA does not, which is fine. It’s not that he clarified what it covers but the way he did it. All this explanation is to say that I will not be booking with that agency! If that is the only option for booking directly then I’ll find a different travel agent that specializes in River cruising.

I’m following your blog. I enjoy your posts and blogs. I’m sorry you were so ill and happy you are much better. Our neighbors are on this cruise with you along with their six children and a few grandchildren. They are celebrating his 90th birthday! They are going ziplining on his actual birthday. 😳 Bon voyage!

To the OP I’m sorry for your bad experience. I hope you end up having a great time. I understand completely how issues like you experienced can leave a bad taste in your mouth so to speak. Sometimes it’s the smaller amounts of money at issue that can be more aggravating and feel petty. As a nearly 22 year member of cruise critic I have learned that I don’t hold much weight in the opinions of contributors who defend a cruise line at all costs. Most companies (and people) make mistakes at some point along the way. It’s how they respond and manage those mistakes that determine whether or not I frequent or use them again. That is why having so many options is wonderful! I appreciate hearing your experience.

Mamamusings I understand completely where you are coming from. In 2013 I talked my sisters in law to a girls cruise out of San Pedro. It was a four day California coastal on Golden Princess (no longer in the Princess fleet). It felt like, as you said, a second class cruise from the food to the entertainment to the condition of the ship etc. I regretted not taking them on a seven day cruise on a newer ship. One of them refuses to cruise to this day because of the poor experience. My husband and I have been on other shorter Princess cruises that have been wonderful. I hope you give Princess another try on a longer cruise and a newer Royal Class ship.