polmcs

New one for me on the Discovery TSE cruise….

I’m Elite and was in a suite. I got a phone call shortly after getting to my cabin. It was room service enquiring about my request to swap out items in the mini bar. I explained that I had made no such request, but as they were on the phone, I may as well give them my order.

I said for mini bar #1 make all the alcohol vodka and for mini bar #2 make the alcohol all Stella Artois. A few hours later, a steward shows up with 20 vodkas for the 1st mini bar and 20 Stella’s for the 2nd mini bar! I think something got lost in translation. 🥳

I explained that I had only requested the alcohol swaps and had expected the water/soda to be delivered as normal. I had the Premium package, so I was never going to get through all the alcohol in a normal mini bar set up. Thankfully, they fixed things next morning. The mini bar vodka is nowhere near good enough to drink neat!

8 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

If they are squeezing 6 glasses out of a 750 mil (25.36 oz) that is some serious nickel and diming.  Guess I'm a lush.  At home it only gets me 4. 

If ordering wine from the Plus menu in the MDR, it’s more likely to come from a box than a bottle. You can see the boxes lined up in the alcohol cage if you take the galley tour at the conclusion of the cooking demonstration show.

7 hours ago, DoctorTDog said:

Don't feel bad.  360 on TSE was messy to be nice.  We were in the Sky Suite which we booked the day it went on sale to Elites.  We had booked our 360 experience with the Suite Experience Manager, onboard, in January.  The reservation was confirmed 3 weeks out with the shoreside suite concierge. Upon boarding, we had no reservation.  We had to fight and show we had emails and whatsapps from multiple Princess sources to get our reservation honoroed.  Epic fail.  That said, Magdalena is awesome.  She greatly enhances the experience and we enjoyed our second visit with her much more than our first with Johanas.

I just read on the TSE roll call (way behind with CC) that a whole bunch of folks incorrectly got an email from Princess stating that they had qualified for complimentary 360 dining. Perhaps that it why there was pushback on my partner, and perhaps others, even though she never received a retraction email. It all worked out in the end for us. 

Or book online, pay for the reservation and when on board, go to the concierge/guest services and get the money put back onto your onboard as a refundable credit. That way, you ensure you get the restaurant you want at the time you want, rather than what’s left over when your board.

I was on the Discovery Princess for the TSE. I booked a full suite the day after the cruise was released for sail. I’d previously sailed on the Discovery and had previously eaten at 360. Back then, it was invitation only and you would be called about a week before the cruise to reserve a slot. This time it was different and could be booked online and was also available for anyone who wanted to pay.

i didn’t realize this until too late and all the slots were booked in the app. Well the late seating ones. I also had to change the name of the 2nd passenger for the cruise in mid Jan which would have complicated things even more. Upon boarding, I went to the concierge to see if they could find some slots. I was advised that as I had booked early enough, it was complimentary for me, but as my travel companion had only booked after the cut off date, then they would have to pay. I indicated that it was simply a name change and not a new/additional booking. In fact, I showed them an email from Princess to my new travel companion that 360 was available to her on a complementary. 
 

I had to show that we both had the same reservation number before they relented and stated that it would be complimentary for both of us. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting a slot. As I mentioned in another thread, we were fortunate that they added a new time slot at lunchtime on the penultimate day of the cruise which we gladly accepted and thoroughly enjoyed.

58 minutes ago, polmcs said:

 

I see the 2026WC out of LA is on the Coral, rather than the Island, but it’s currently not showing as available to book. I might need to look at some other cruise lines. I’ve already discounted Cunard as the itinerary did not appeal to me.

Just saw on another thread that the cruise has only just been release, so I logged into my PCA and I can see pricing. Suites are already sold out and the only pricing I can see had Premium built into the fare.

My folio showed up in my email about 10 days after the cruise. I had already reached out to customer relations as the charge on my credit card was $5 more than when I checked my balance first thing on the morning of departure, so I already had a copy, albeit the version I was sent by Princess after my request was far more detailed than what you see in the app, or in the emailed folio.

Turns out, my partner was charged $4, plus 72 cents gratuity for a coffee from the international cafe at 5:25AM despite us having a package. She bumped into Woz at the same time as he too was getting his caffeine fix. Perhaps the barista was star struck and hit the wrong button and inadvertently charged her for the coffee. I wonder if Woz had the same issue with his coffee! 😝

I requested a refund for the coffee charge, but Princess offered both of us a $25 onboard credit for our next cruise which I gratefully accepted.

I was expecting the top deck to be absolutely packed during the TSE, but was pleasantly surprised by the amount of room we all had. I had no guilt about setting up my DwarfII telescope on a tripod. Pity it threw a wobbly about 2 mins before totally and the tracking mechanism went awol. I have yet to look and see what it did actually capture.

I was lucky enough to secure an invite to the last sea day lunchtime 360 event. I had been before, but my partner had not. She absolutely adored the meal and the experience, so I’m glad we were able to attend. 
 

We also tried The Catch too as one of our two specialty meals as we upgraded from Plus to Premier. We also got the table right next to the atrium overlook and found it very noisy and despite them blocking off the walkway at one end of the restaurant, passengers would still negotiate the barrier and walk through the restaurant, or stop next to us and look over to watch what was going on down below. Right before our starters showed up, I requested to move to another table and that was granted. The rest of the meal was wonderful and definitely better than the Bistro that was there before. 
 

A charge for The Catch showed up on my folio despite have the Premium package, so I had to visit guest services to have that removed and the same thing happened with our 2nd speciality meal at Sabatini’s. I got the concierge to deal with that charge.

All in all, minor glitches on what was a wonderful cruise.

22 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

I got the email regarding the actual schedule for the re-routing.  It is ~30 sea days and 8-10 ports...many of which I have no desire to go to or have already been to.  Not even slightly recognizable as the same initial itinerary that went to Asia and Middle East and many bucket list destinations. Not even ending at the same place  Not stopping at even one single port in Asia or Middle East.  I will be cancelling. 

Yes, the WC as it stands, is not at all appealing to me. Too many places on my bucket list have been dropped. I too will in all likelihood cancel.

I did look at the 2026WC out of Sydney and although it’s currently scheduled to go through the Suez, that is subject to change. The issue with that itinerary is no Great Barrier Reef stop, no Norway stops, no Glasgow stop (I grew up a few miles from Greenock) and for some reason, they have SIX stops in Canada! 
 

I see the 2026WC out of LA is on the Coral, rather than the Island, but it’s currently not showing as available to book. I might need to look at some other cruise lines. I’ve already discounted Cunard as the itinerary did not appeal to me.

1 hour ago, PacnGoNow said:

Which is exactly what we could have done today!  Lol

 

Picture off of the Caribe deck,

 

It rained earlier, but this evening,

it’s beautiful in Papeete!  🥴

 

 

I recognize that view

With a semi covered Caribe deck, which Grand class type ship are you on? When I was there, I was on the Tahitian Princess, so a much smaller ship. 

4 hours ago, BabsinTX said:

The most fun balcony dinner we had was in St. Thomas.  While the waiters were away collecting even more food, it started raining so DH and I moved everything inside and grabbed hand towels for napkins.  The waiters came back and were horrified, but DH and I were laughing so hard, they realized we weren't going to complain.

My late wife and I did one in Honolulu on the Star one year. We were about halfway through the meal when the heavens opened up as a thunderstorm rolled through. Thankfully, we were on the Caribe deck, so it was just a case of dragging the tables and chairs under the overhang and we got to watch natures fireworks for the rest of the meal 

3 hours ago, Italy52 said:

We are on the 1/27/24 Discovery Princess sailing to Mexico.  Our Cabo port time was changed to 2 PM to 9 PM.  We had a Princess Whale Watching excursion for 2-4 PM booked and so far, that time has not changed.  Wondering how Princess plans to pull that one off (arriving at 2 PM and then the excursion taking place at 2 PM).  I guess we will find out once on board the ship.

Whale watching in Cabo around that time of year is my go to excursion every time. I would throughly recommend the sunset sail excursion. I did one last Feb and it was the most amazing experience. Whales galore and everyone aboard was game, despite the breezy conditions, to have a little bit of extreme sailing according to the captain and first mate, and they cut the engines and hoisted the sails for the return part of the journey. 😉

2 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

We are in a suite on the Discovery in February and I was able to book 360 under the Dining tab (on the App). I was not charged anything when I hit the payment section. Options for times were 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM. I question whether invites will go out now that we can book it in the App. The venue only holds 20. If you want to go I would book it when you can just to be safe.

I just went into my total solar eclipse cruise for April 2024 and tried to reserve 360 for an evening after a port visit (high chance not a formal night) and despite being in a full suite, it shows that it will charge my credit card for the reservation 

3 hours ago, Seaspartan said:

They are pending charges but for weird amounts -

 

11/11 57.96

11/12 44.98

11/13 32.00

11/14 73.89

11/14 23.60

 

They look more like items being purchased than holds.  We’re elite on Princess and I’ve never seen this before. Our folio was paid in full 11/16 but the charges remain.

 

I’ll provide an update as to what happens.

The middle one looks like 1 days gratuities for 2 (I haven’t sailed since Feb, so no idea on the current daily rates). The other days could be grats, plus say a drink at the bar, or grats and a purchase from a store onboard, etc.

If they continue to show pending and not actually charged, then they should drop off after a few days. As your room charge balance increases during the cruise, Princess will place a temporary authorization/ hold on your card, just to make sure that you are “good” to pay the final bill when it becomes due.

6 hours ago, minnesotasisu said:

We want to use our OBC and in fact may purchase additional gift cards to put in our OBC account to help pay for them. However, yesterday when I tried to book an excursion it did not recognize that I had $250 of OBC from being a stockholder and wanted my credit card info to help pay for the additional charges that were not covered by OBC. I guess I am going to have to call Princess directly and book my excursions to make sure it is done how I want.

I’ve found that when booking excursions in advance of a cruise, the SHOBC can only be applied to the passenger who has the credit against their name. If I have say $100 SHOBC and I book a $50 excursion for both passengers in the reservation, it will take $50 of my OBC and apply it to my reservation and then ask me to pay the $50 for the other passenger, even though technically, I still have the other $50 of OBC in my account. 
 

No such issues if I wait until I board to use the OBC for both passengers assuming both onboard folios are paid by the same credit card.

Thank you both.

2 hours ago, polmcs said:

I got an email a few hours ago to say that my stock holding verification was complete and to go ahead and submit a claim for OBC. I did that and got the stock “please wait for up to 5 days for the credit to show up on your account”

OBC showed up in my account less than 2hrs later. About 12 hrs in total from signing up for an account to having the credit show up on my booking and no need to share broker login details. 

I’m looking to change an existing booking. One of my options is to add a 3rd person to the booking and buy a plus package for them as passengers #1 and #2 were booked with a plus fare and we’d all like to have a drink, or three. Does the first night speciality dining for suite passengers apply to all passengers in the cabin and given that I’ve booked a cruise on the Discovery Princess and therefore it offers 360 dinning, does the 360 invitation also extend to all 3 passengers?
 

TIA

9 hours ago, polmcs said:

When it came to the brokerage info, I simply typed etrade and was promoted to upload a copy of my brokerage statement. I just sent a single page showing my CCL stock holding.

 

I got a confirmation shortly after to say that they had received it and would review it within the next 2 days

I got an email a few hours ago to say that my stock holding verification was complete and to go ahead and submit a claim for OBC. I did that and got the stock “please wait for up to 5 days for the credit to show up on your account”

When it came to the brokerage info, I simply typed etrade and was promoted to upload a copy of my brokerage statement. I just sent a single page showing my CCL stock holding.

I got a confirmation shortly after to say that they had received it and would review it within the next 2 days

1 hour ago, PurpleTraveller said:

Saturday June 3 - Sea Day, Inside Passage Part 2

 

At 6.00pm we went to have dinner at Botticelli Dining Room. We had made a reservation for each night of the cruise for a table for two at 6.00pm. It was formal night and we were seated at table ten. We had a nice meal and as I have a food allergy arrangements were made to preorder my meal for the following evening. We asked if we could be seated at table ten for the remainder of the cruise so that I wouldn't have to explain my food allergy every night and was told to talk to the hostess at the front desk.

 

On our way out we went to the front desk and made our request to be seated at table ten for the rest of the cruise. To our surprise the hostess asked us why we had been seated at table ten as we had been allocated to table 89. We replied that we had been taken to table ten when we had arrived at the Dining Room. She then said that we should have been at table 89 as we had been seated at table 89 the previous night. When we said that we had never been to the Botticelli Dining Room before she then told us that we had been seated at table 89 the previous night. Very confused I told her that I had cancelled our reservation in person the previous night at 5.00pm and had eaten pizza on the Sun Deck. Her reply that we had not eaten pizza on the Sun Deck but had definitely been at table 89 in Botticelli the previous night astonished us. We asked her if she thought we didn't know where and what we eaten the previous night. She stated again that we had sat at table 89 in Botticelli the previous night. She went on to say that she remembered us, our cabin number and name from the previous night. My husband and I looked at each other totally bewildered. All we could say was that we definitely had not been there the previous night. The hostess was getting quite abrupt with us and was adamant that we had sat at table 89 the previous night. Trying to lighten the tense atmosphere my husband joked that he hoped that whoever had sat at table 89 last night hadn't charged any drinks to our account. She replied that no-one else could have charged drinks to our account as we were the ones sitting at table 89 the previous night. By now she was speaking to us in a very terse and quite unpleasant manner and refused to accept that we knew where we had eaten dinner the previous night. It was all quite bizarre. My husband asked her where table 89 was in the Dining Room and she very rudely replied that it was the table where we had sat last night and where we would be sitting for dinner for the remainder of the cruise. 

 

At this point we said goodbye and left the Dining Room. We have never been spoken to by any crew member on any ship, Princess or any other, in this manner. By the end of the conservation she was being positively rude and was adamant that we did not know what or where we had had dinner the previous night because she was correct. What the....... !!! 

 

We have never made a complaint on a Princess ship before but we went straight to Guest Services to make a complaint about her completely unacceptable behaviour. 

 

The following day I received a phone call from a manager who apologised profusely and said that we could be seated at table ten for the rest of the cruise. I told her that I no longer wished to eat in the Botticelli Dining Room as I was so upset at the experience we had had and could we please eat at a different dining room. She put me on hold for a short time and returned to say that she had arranged for us to eat in the Michaelangelo Dining Room at 6.00pm for the remainder of the cruise and gave me the name of who to ask for when we arrived that evening for dinner so that they could look after us. She also apologised profusely again and said that the hostess would be spoken to.

 

I feel that the matter was handled quickly and appropriately and I was satisfied with the result.

 

When we returned to our cabin the Disembarkation Form was on our bed to be completed and left on our desk for our steward to collect. 

 

 

Clocks were turned back one hour that night.

 

I would have been tempted to ask guest services to check the medallion logs to show where you were and where you were not that evening! I’m sure they track those 24x7. Princess would be rather shocked to find my late wife always used the gents public loos when we cruised as I would always have her medallion in my pocket during the evening! 🤭

On 5/31/2023 at 6:54 AM, skynight said:Decks 11 to 15 are all 9ft x 5ft covered balconies. Deck 10 has 9ft x 9ft balconies that are not covered. Deck 9 has almost all of the mini suites with 9ft x 6 ft uncovered balconies. The Royal has Hobbit sized balconies. 

 

I have not been on the Crown yet (roll on the 2025 WC), but if the Crown is like other Grand class ships, the balconies on deck 10 (Caribe) will be semi covered. The first 4 feet or so of the balcony is covered by the Baja deck and the last 5 feet of the expansive deck are exposed.

I was on the Star back in 2013 and that semi covered balcony came in handy when we had our ultimate balcony dinner when docked in Honolulu. During the meal it began to rain, along with a spectacular thunderstorm, so we simply pulled the table and chairs under the overhang from Baja deck and enjoyed natures fireworks whilst enjoying the rest of our food and drinkies. 
 

and yes, even a hobbit will feel claustrophobic on the majority of the balconies on the Royal. Even in an S6 suite!

I’ve done the HI circle cruise over the holidays twice, though out of LA and not SF. The day of departure was not too bad, but it turned chillier the next day. It warmed up slowly as we got closer to the islands. It wasn’t really sunbathing weather until 2 days out from the islands and the same on the return.

Can you submit multiple passports to Princess when on a WC to get round some of the visa/electronic travel requirements? If I travel to Europe on my US passport, in the coming months, I will require (and therefore pay for) an  ETA, but if I travel on my EU passport, then no ETA required which works right up until the cruise arrives in the US. On a EU passport, then I need an ESTA (and need to cough up for that) but with a US passport, it’s  “welcome home”. The same will apply to arrivals in the UK at some point.

55 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

When I made the DMW reservations six months ahead of an upcoming cruise, the only available option was tables for two.

 

I suspect many people are going to be disappointed when they find the tables for two will really be tables for four, six, or eight. There just are not enough tables for two available.

I have a WC booked in 2025. My partner and I like to eat late, but if I wanted to select a shared table, I had to pick a slot before 6:20PM. As I had 113 nights to select a table, I opted for the whole cruise dining plan option and had to select a private table for 2 for 7:40PM. I would be delighted if those turn into tables for 6, or 8 as I’m definitely a fan of a large TD table when cruising.