polmcs

On the last cruise I got to take with my late wife, the Sanctuary area was an absolute godsend. By the time we got to take that cruise, she was in so much pain, that she was pretty much confined to a wheelchair. If it took her a little while longer to get ready in the morning due to having to take breaks, then no biggie as our loungers would be waiting and available for us. It also helped that the loungers had extra padding that helped lessen the pain in her legs. Whilst there, we were very much looked after by the very attentive crew in that area. It definitely made that last cruise more enjoyable and more bearable for us. We boarded pretty early as we were both Elite, but had to queue for an elevator at San Pedro to get us up to the boarding ramp. That wasted a little time. I left her at Bellini’s (we were on the Royal) with a glass of bubbles and I hightailed it up to Sanctuary. There were a few people ahead of me, but when my turn came, there was still a pair of loungers available for the whole week, right at the front and under lots of shade, which suited us perfectly, so I grabbed those for us. Given the circumstances, it was definitely money well spent and I don’t recall ever being charged the $3 delivery fee for food and as for afternoon tea…. 😍

Right now, you can’t buy a reservation to 360, so not exactly apples to apples here. Princess is offering the Sanctuary for general sale. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience 360 by staying in a suite and some of my fellow diners at the dinner were in mini suites and in balconies, but were elite and were also invited, so it’s not exclusive to suites at the moment. That said, if I were on a 5 cruise b2b, though not in a suite and didn’t get an invite, I might be more than a little miffed about that! 😜

Airlines will do it quite often in an attempt to poach customers from competitors. Usually, it’s in the form of a challenge…. Here are the perks, but if you want to keep them, you have to fly on x flights, or fly y miles in the next 90 days.

So the poor “Schmuck” in a club class mini suite (can’t recall the new name for it) on say a b2b2b2b2b itinerary has to defer on all 5 of the cruises to those in a suite. I’ll wager the “schmuck” paid a heck of a lot more to Princess, than each of the suite passengers who may have only booked a single cruise. Yes, I’m being pedantic here! 😝

The Ernesto Burger. And yes, it was pretty good.

I was “almost in the same boat” as you (so to speak). When I saw the balcony fares for the Island WC2025, I decided to look elsewhere and was tempted by the 2025WC on Cunard as it was much more reasonably priced. I ended up booking a Princess WC for 2025, but on the Crown out of Sydney as the fares were much more reasonable and I think that the itinerary is much more interesting than the Island.

Anyone have any experience with using gift cards on a cruise that originates in Australia? Paying the cruise fare isn’t an issue as I’m paying in USD anyway, but what about trying to use as a pre payment towards OBC? I’ve been bitten before where $100 USD of OBC miraculously turns into S100 AUD of OBC when on board, which given the exchange rate, is not in my favor.

Thanks folks. I knew that I wouldn’t get an OBC for using the FCD. The 3% discount was worth way more than any OBC that might have been offered. I’ll still chase them up for the shareholders credit much closer to departure time. I just wasn’t aware that the FCD would go away entirely if I cancelled the cruise, even if there would have still been some validity on the FCD, especially as I mentioned in the base note that it was still under the old rules.

Last week I booked a cabin on the Crown 2025 WC. As I had a FCD that I wanted to use, as per the Princess website instructions, I placed my cabin on hold and called in the next morning to have the FCD applied and to receive the 3% discount for doing so, as well as having the deposit reduced to 5%. That all went well, I I saw the new discounted cruise fare, but they took a credit card deposit for the whole 5% and no allowance for the $100 FCD was given. In fact, if I added the amount of the deposit paid, to the outstanding balance, the total came to exactly the same as the discounted fare. This morning, I see two $100 credits from Princess on my credit card statements which I assume are the two $100 FCDs that I applied to the booking (1 for each passenger). Is this standard behavior for an FCD used for a WC? No biggie as I got around $1400 off the cruise fare, but I’m assuming that the FCD is gone for good should something happen and I need to cancel? I’m not out any money, but the FCDs I used were purchased under the old “book within 24 months” rule. Curious.

The old cruise card typically had a letter and a number on it and then a separate 4 digit number. The letter was typically A for adult and let the waiter/bar staff know that you were of drinking age and therefore could order alcohol and the number after the letter was the number of cruises taken. The 4 digit number was your folio number. All the charges you made were assigned to that folio number and ended up on your stateroom account. The medallion is just an extension of the folio number process. The medallion has a serial number, or unique identifier and charges made are assigned to that serial number/identifier. The ships system knows which passenger maps to that identifier and places the charge onto their account.

Logging out of the app on my phone and then logging back in fixed the issue. I can now see my Jun 2025 cruise in the app

I received a new iPad this afternoon and was setting it up and I downloaded the Princess App. Upon logging in, I can see the 2025 WC, but still no sign of it showing up on my Android phone and trying to link the booking, still gives me a reservation not found. perhaps I should trying logging out and back in again to the Princess app on my phone

I saw that Princess released their Oz/NZ 2025 WC itineraries a few days back. Balcony fares seem much more reasonable and in line with the 2023 and 2024 rates, unlike the 2025 US departure, so I booked a balcony cabin to depart in Sydney 2025. Even in factoring in airfare (about $5K each from the West Coast to Sydney) and if I added Plus to the OZ cruise fare, it would still come out to the same price as the basic balcony fare on the 2025 US departure WC on the Island. I opted against booking the plus fare as I don’t fancy 113 days of trying to get my moneys worth at the bar! I like the itinerary of the Oz/NZ WC way better and I got to book a Caribe balcony on the Crown Princess, so despite having to traverse the new locks in the Panama Canal, I very much feel like I got a win here. I had placed the cabin on hold last night as I wanted to use a FCD and the website stated that I needed to call in for that. It took about an hour to resolve this morning, but I got my 3% discount off the cruise fare and the deposit was reduced to 5% of the new fare. I do have to pay another 10% deposit in Sep 2024 with the final balance due in Feb 2025 for a cruise that departs June 2025. Anybody know how far out the Princess App can see cruises? The cruise shows up fine on the webpage, but trying to add the booking in the app gives me a booking not found error.

Grab a cocktail napkin and put it on the table in front of you. That’s the sign to other wait staff that you’ve already ordered and are waiting on your drink, or that you don’t want a drink. They will leave you alone.

Looks like the Cunard WC2025 fares have posted and they were in line with what I saw yesterday. Cheapest balcony on Princess for the 2024 WC is $57K and their 2025 WC fare is $71K, which is a staggering increase. The cheapest Balcony on the Cunard 2025WC is $56.1K and for comparison their cheapest balcony (guaranteed) is $47.5K for the 2024 WC. To nominate a cabin and avoid NRD, the Cunard 2024WC balcony is $52.5K. Time to run some more numbers in detail.

I was in S110 on my last cruise. When asked for my cabin number (for the multiple instances when the medallion did not work) it took every synapse in my poor brain to state “Sun 110” rather than “Sierra 110” that was right on the tip of my tongue.

I was looking forward to booking the 2025WC when it was released, but the 2025 price of a balcony, compared to what the 2024 price is currently showing has definitely put me off. The interior and ocean view prices are somewhat comparable between the two cruise lines, but the balcony and mini suite prices on Princess have shot through the roof. That got me looking elsewhere. I’m not sure if what I saw today was a glitch, but the Cunard 2025WC prices appear to be much more reasonable. The glitch was that I saw fares listed, but they are not supposed to be released until March 16th. When I went back, no fare was listed and all categories showed sold out. In general, the 2024 WC fares from Cunard are less than the current Princess fares which is surprising to me and the 2025 fares (if what I saw was correct) are significantly less. Oh and on a brand new ship too (the Queen Anne) and not the red headed step child of the fleet that is the Island Princess. A few swings and roundabouts though. Cunard internet is a lot more expensive than my Elite discounted price, but grats are $5pppd cheaper on Cunard. I would loose my Elite laundry perk, which is definitely needed on a world cruise, but laundry is complimentary on Cunard on a world cruise, even for a newbie to the line. I will take another look on Thursday.

It was $9.25 on the Discovery on the Feb 20 cruise

Ouchie! A 25WC balcony costs 11.5K more than the same balcony on the 24WC for 2 passengers!

2025 WC is showing up for me this morning, but no pricing yet as it shows as unavailable just switched browsers and now see pricing

I boarded the Discovery Princess on the 20th and the bar prices were exactly the same as my TATL on the Island last November. My travel companion ordered a $14 cocktail from Bellinis a few hours after we boarded and they were charged the $2 delta from the $12 limit, plus 36c gratuity, plus LA sales tax as we were still alongside in San Pedro. I tried to order a Bellini cocktail at Bellini’s only to be told that they were out of peach purée, so couldn’t make me one! I mean, it’s only the name of the flippin bar! Did I mention that we were still docked in San Pedro! And yes, the Internet was awful the entire cruise which is why I never tried to post on CC. Upon arrival I. Cabo, I simply disconnected from the ships Wi-Fi and used the cellular connection on my phone. Good old T-mobile to the rescue. I’m just grateful that I did not upgrade from the 1 device plan included with plus, to the 4 device plan on this voyage. They wanted $12.50 a day to upgrade vs. the $5 a day on my Island TATL last November. I would have been demanding my money back if I had done so.

I was on the same cruise as the OP. The internet connectivity was absolutely horrendous. I’m guessing the large number of guests (especially the younger crowd) had something to do with that.

All 4 of my bids ended up expiring. I still think it a little strange that I initially submitted 2 bids and at the same time as one expired, the other disappeared completely from the system, rather than simply expiring and I had to resubmit that bid, along with another 2 for $#!+$ and grins. As I stated, this was on a big box booking that was made many months before the bidding process was implemented, so no mention in my T&Cs about any non participation. I do recall Princess stating in their T&Cs that some TAs did not participate, but clicking on the “see if your booking is eligible” link did bring me to the bidding page.

I was scheduled on a cruise on the Diamond Princess last September that ended up being cancelled by Princess. My options were a full refund, convert the fare paid to a FCC, with $50 pp added to the total, or switch to a comparative cruise for a later date (Princess picked the comparative cruises and gave a few choices of sail dates), again with a $50 pp goodwill OBC credit. I opted for the comparative replacement cruise in the same cabin type I was in before with the bonus that my cabin on the new cruise was selling for 33% more than what I paid for the cruise on the Diamond and the new dates suite so much better.

If you take your name off the wait list, there is no guarantee that the single space will open up again immediately afterwards. Speaking from experience.