calliecat

I hope you're not going in August. I was narrowing in on this hotel because of its excellent reviews and proximity to Waterloo station. Just found out Waterloo is undergoing major renovation work this August and the authorities are recommending that everyone stay away.:(

 

http://www.timeout.com/london/blog/passengers-have-been-told-to-avoid-waterloo-station-for-a-whole-month-during-major-re-building-works-012617

We are going the end of August. Our plane does not arrive till 2245 so hiring a car may be the thing to do. Will need to figure our time to meet them after landing, getting luggage and going thru customs.

If there are problems with the trains I hope our hotel might give us guidance when we are ready to go to Southampton since it is the Hampton Waterloo.

If we're up to it, we may just use the underground that night...any problems with safety that late at night?

I think I understand. Problems are with using it to pay for your cruise and what % you get dependson how much the cruise costs. That is where the problem is with Barclay. No problem using it for OBC which is what I want. I hope I'm on the right track. Thank you.

I guess I wasn't very clear.. I have read the threads and was very confused. We will be spending over $4000 since it is a 15 day TA for the cruise so that will get the 2%. I know 19, 000 won't get $400 so that is why we need to spend more. I was able to cash in several years ago for $400 or maybe 500? with no problem. Just seems many are unhappy with the new changes.

We just booked a cruise for Sept, 2017. We have not used out Princess Credit card for the last 2 years but just started again to build up points for on board credit. We have approximately19,000 points and are hoping to get enough to have 400 OBC. But, I have been reading threads about changes so I went to their website.

What does this statement mean? What are the changes that has everyone so riled up?

"You may redeem Points for statement credits toward Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, The Yachts of Seabourn, P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, Ibero, and Aida or an airline purchase that is equal to or greater than $50 and that posted to the Account within the prior 180 days."

Since my points were posted well beyond 180 days, can I use them for this upcoming cruise?

Thank you in advance.

I was wondering the same thing. We are doing a TA in September and want to use points. Only thing would be getting from Heathrow to the hotel with luggage but it can be done.

My box wine made it thru in the checked-in luggage as well this past April in FLL. I, however, was concerned for a short while because my suitcase showed up 2 hours after my husbands! All was well though....well sort of...the sunscreen leaked all over his good pants and we had to pitch them...but my wine survived the flight from STL to FLL and the rough handling of the luggage by Princess!

I have the Princess Credit card and cashed in points for $600 shipboard credit each time for my last two cruises. Not too shabby. Doesn't take any effort and I have enough to pay for tips, a tour if we choose to utilize Princess, and whatever else.

We also have Carnival stock, Military and do on-board booking so we come on board with a nice little amount on our account!

When newbies ask if there is anything they need to bring on a cruise that they may not have thought about I tell them an extension cord and a night light for the bathroom, especially if you have an inside cabin.

The extension cord comes in handy when you are charging phones, camera, or other items that you might need a couple outlets.

My extension cord stays in a "cruise" bag with other items I don't want to forget such as a couple clothes pins to hang wet swim suites, a highlighter for the Patter, post-it notes so I know where my husband went (if he remembers to use them) and my lanyard for my cruise card.

We were in St.Lucia (April, 2014) on a tour with Cosol and a couple in our group said they were going with Thenford Grey when we reached St. Kitts two days later. I had my tablet with me and emailed him when I found free wifi at one of our stops. He responded immediately and said he had room. We did not regret it. It was a very enjoyable day. Most all the bus (there were only 12 or 13 of us) chose not to do the beach so he dropped the 3 wanting to go to the beach off and took the rest of us back to the ship. Very nice man and proud of his island. I wouldn't hesitate to go with him again. This photo is one of him with Anna, a very lovely young lady that was with us on the tour

Try the inside cabins. No need to worry which side of the ship and you will save a bunch of money on this crossing. The size of balconies on this ship do not warrant the extra expense. JMHO. We will be on our 5th TA this April and have yet to use a balcony and have enjoyed each cruise and each ship. Gotta love those TA's.

Love the TA's but I have to have a balcony....need air and solitude....don't want to rub elbows all the time on deck....to each his own!

In March, it will be our 11th cruise. I think back to our 1st when I thought I had to have a different outfit for every night:eek: at dinner. Now I pack two pair of slacks and several different blouses. I don't care whether it's formal night or not....I am dressed appropriately. My husband does the same thing. A couple pair of dockers and he will bring his sport jacket, not a suit. I will wear the same thing on "formal" night both times or however many there are, depending on the length of our cruise. I utilize the laundry room. I bring quarters and purex 2 in 1 sheets.

Our last cruise was a 16 day TA and I packed the same as if it were a 7 day. As long as I have a good pair of shoes and a jacket, not a bulky, heavy coat if we are headed to a place I may need one, I am good.

We just got back yesterday from the Caribbean Princess 2/15 cruise. We put a wine box (equivalent to 4 bottles) in checked luggage and 2 bottles in carry on. No issues. Didn't search or say anything. Have the porters take your luggage when you get to port.

 

 

 

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Good to know....I plan on doing the same thing...so what if they confiscate the box in my luggage? I don't care if they make me pay a corkage fee either. It is just handier to have a box of wine in my room so I can sit on the balcony and have a glass. And....since I am not a wine connoisseur, as many "profess" to be, I will be just as happy with my box....as long as I get a wine glass, not a plastic one!

Saw that.....will take my chances. I am going to pack a boxed wine. Bota weighs approximately 6lb and I will pack accordingly. If they confiscate it the confiscate it.....but I don't want to root around in my luggage prior to the cruise just to pull out a box of wine.

I am choosing Bota over Black Box because there are 3 liters in the Bota box rather than 4 liters in Black Box and I need to put it in my checked in luggage at the airport. I like both.

FYI. Bota (3 liters) weighs approximately 6.1 lbs. Just weighed it this morning :D.

Unfortunately, boxed wine gets a bad rap! I think I will "smuggle" a box of Bota in my checked luggage since we are flying in the day we leave this next cruise in March.

I evidently am not a wine connoisseur as many profess to be and if I like it, that's all that matters.

I will purchase a bottle or two when we get to port and pay the corkage fee if necessary. I bet I like my boxed wine better though!

For most of our cruises (11 so far) on Princess, we had a dedicated "beer" suitcase and was able to carry it on board without any problems. Now, with the evident change in policy, we will adhere to the rules:eek: I will bring 2 bottles of wine onboard at embarkation so I can have wine in the room and my husband will buy buckets of beer. Fortunately we have shipboard credit again for our next cruise (military, stock, booking on board, travel agent gift, and a nice sum from our Princess Visa). No need to sneak any longer. We will play by the rules!

Since we are flying in the day we leave, I plan on packing the wine in my checked luggage. Have you had your luggage opened because of this before it was delivered to the room? I plan on Chardonnay only! Don't want to risk a Cabernet breaking.

We got "taken" in Mazatlan several years ago. Our fault for being stupid and not buying from one of the ship sponsored stores. That said, it left a terrible taste in our mouth and we will never, ever go on a cruise that stops at any Mexican ports. I realize that is harsh and someone can disagree with me (hey I said it was our fault), but in a country so impoverished that tourism is important to their livelihood, my few dollars that I might have spent can go somewhere else.

I don't necessarily agree that travelers are stupid....naive maybe . I consider myself fairly intelligent and sometimes mistakes or poor judgement can happen. We have cruised a fair amount(11 cruises and another one booked soon) and I see so many newbies get off at a port with the "deer in the headlight" look. They can be readily spotted by someone wanting to take advantage of them.

The day we were headed to Chaccohben ruins out of Costa Maya and saw "soldiers" standing by a run down shack with machine guns in the middle of the road made me reconsider my travels in Mexico. Several of these "soldiers" looked like they were 15 yrs old and I could just see them stopping the bus from the cruise line and taking all our possessions....No more Mexico for me!

Yes, it can happen anywhere, not disputing that.....I don't actively seek out bad parts of US cities either but why risk it in another country if there are/have been problems?

We had the tour driven by Baptiste last week. One of the best tours we have ever done. About 10 of us in his van although there was another van traveling with us (they had the rum punch!) $65 each plus tip. The tour was close to 7 hours but they know what they are doing and we were back with plenty of time to wander around the duty free stores at the pier before boarding.

We used Cosol a couple years ago. One of the best tours (other than Mandoo on Grenada) we have ever done. We are doing another cruise in March, 2014 and I am going to book with Cosol again.

I want to put my 2 cents in on Butler Buses.....we used them last year at our stop in Cobh on Emerald Princess.

I can't say enough nice things about them. We had three buses, all to max capacity. It was a very nice day (my only complaint is that there are no restrooms in the buses but it isn't Butler's fault!). Kinsale was our last stop and I don't know that I would have been able to find enough to stay there all day.

We loved our day in Ireland so much, that I contacted them about a self-drive tour. They do not offer a self drive but they were able to guide me as who to contact and then they followed up. We wanted to use someone local, not an agency from the States. I believe I will be very pleased.

I will use them in a heartbeat if we stop again for the day!

Mine's not as good as some but I still think we did a great job!

16 day TA FLL to Copenhagen the past April....$1600/person for a balcony at the back of the ship. Complained because of the bass coming thru the floor from Club Fusion below....got $360 back when all I wanted was for them to turn the bass down and even told them I didn't want the money (but took it anyway).

$1350 OBC, $89pp one way STL to FLL and $300 for the both of us from Copenhagen to STL because I used airline points.

Hotel in FLL Embassy Suites free on points. Hilton (upgraded to Executive Floor) in Copenhagen free on points.

We had a great time and still had money left in our OBC which they refunded us!

We recently did a 16 day TA from FLL to Copenhagen and had 5 sea days in a row. We were on the Emerald Princess in E734. The "wake" noise is loud but tolerable. We did not have a neighbor on the left due to the make-up of the ship and there was a suite on the right of us. The deck is larger than other balconies which was nice and it is totally covered. We had 4 chairs and a table with plenty of room.

However....we were directly above Club Fusion. I had read before booking this cabin that there wasn't much noise. That was correct for many of the nights but on three nights when the band "Evolution" was playing, the bass came thru the floor because they were set up just under our room and all we heard was "boom boom boom".

I don't believe I will book this room again just because of the possibility of a band playing in the lounge. It was only for 4 or 5 hours those three nights, so if you're one to go to the casino, shows, etc....it wouldn't affect you. The rest of the day, it was a wonderful room.

I did complain about the noise several times. I just wanted them to turn the bass down a notch since it was annoying. To be fair to Princess, they ended up compensating me for 3 nights. I didn't ask for it and was totally surprised. I felt that this room should have had a disclaimer as do the partially obstructed rooms saying that there might be noise from the lounge below at times.

That said, I still won't book this room again.

My husband is looking at our "Bar Fly" MG as I type for cracks.

Let me tell you a story about Princess Fine Arts though....several years ago we "won" some prints. All but one came several weeks after our cruise. We were told that we would not be getting one of them because the art auctioneer had given it away to more than they had prints for so we would get our framing fee refunded. Then, out of the blue, a print arrived. I figured they found another and didn't bother to unpack it for several months. We were moving and I didn't really have room for it. Ok.....I finally unpack it and it's a Michael Godard "Shooting the Wad". I call Princess...."Oh...that's expensive (well relatively speaking it was more than our free one) we'll send UPS/FedEx to pick it up. I repack it, wait one Friday night and no one shows up. I call.... I call again....I call again....there is no concern what-so-ever that I have this framed print. Finally after letting it sit in the packaging over a year later, we put the darn thing on EBAY and sold it for $1000! The guy buying it (framed) was glad to get it and we put the money toward another cruise. So thanks to Michael Godard and Princess we got a big discount on our next cruise!

There are so many pages to read so I apologize if you've answered this question previously. We will be arriving in Vancouver on Amtrak from Seattle.

How far is the port? I am assuming that that a taxi is how we will need to get to the boat. Would you have any idea (or would anyone else) on what the cost might be from the train station to the boat?

We went with a driver named Jordan. He said he was a policeman on the island as well. Very pleasant and everyone we passed along the way waved to him. We would go with him again.

His van had his name across the front windshield and a red basketball player (Michael Jordan??) on the back window.