Funkat

Hi we are booked to sail in 15 days. Still waiting for cabin assignment. Its our first time doing it this way and my husband is driving me nuts. He’s adamant that Princess can cancel your booking and just refund your money if they have overbooked the trip. He keeps saying we will turn up at the port to be told there’s no room at the inn.

Is that possible? Will we end up flying to Sydney all dressed up and no where to go??

 

 

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Would you happen to be on the 3/30 sailing of the Sun Princess? We are booked on it and noticed that it's been sold out for a while. In fact, I've hesitated booking a hotel in Sydney that is non-refundable just in case we receive a move over offer. We are booked in a suite, so I don't know if that makes it less of a chance of an offer.

If you did a search for the Princess Fleet you would have found that the Sun Princess is the oldest of the 17 ships currently sailing. You can't expect her to be in the shape of a ship launched last year. In general, Princess dumps the old ships on the Australian market.

I've sailed on her several times and I have 2 more booked because I'm on the west coast of Australia and prefer sailing out of Fremantle so I don't have the hassle of flying over to the east. The crew do a great job trying to maintain this ship.

We did realize that the Sun Princess was the oldest but she was refurbished in April 2016, so didn't think she would be showing that much signs of age. The itinerary is what we were looking for and we got a penthouse suite at a great deal, so we will deal with whatever we find. A good crew can make the difference!

DH and I took a 4-day cruise on the Sun in January. I think we both thought she was slightly better than the Diamond Princess.

 

Although food is subjective, we thought the food was really good. I liked that the Sun had a luncheon for the Most Traveled Passenger Party, while the Diamond had the cocktail party in Skywalker's.

 

There's no Skywalker's on the Sun, but we liked Disco on the Promenade deck and we also liked the Kai Sushi.

 

The Sun is an older ship, but then we are used to the Grand Princess ,and she isn't new either.

 

Our cabin was fine, and the toilet and shower both worked.

 

I would go with an open mind. Hopefully your cabin will be fine and you won't encounter any problems.

Thanks partybarbie! We realize the Sun is an older ship but she was refurbished 2 years ago, so we are hoping age won't be a real problem. We got a great deal on a penthouse suite on a wonderful itinerary. We do not dwell on things that we cannot change and we don't sweat the small stuff. Our itinerary is very port intensive, so much of our time will be onshore anyway.

Please come back after your cruise and post what you found.

Will definitely post an update with our experience.

Hi just read the whole thread to see if someone asked this question...I booked with EZ Air for a cruise from Barcelona to Rome and added London before cruise. How exactly do I check my flight to see if the prices have changed without changing the original booking? I am afraid to hit the wrong button and loose my current flights and prices?

 

 

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I also wanted to double check prices and possible better flight schedules but was concerned I may accidentally cancel our existing flights. I was able to find the available flights by not logging in and then selecting "Plan a Cruise", then "Cruise Details" and then "Flight Quotes" on the black bar. This allows you to put in your flight options and get the quotes. This way there is no chance that you will accidentally cancel your existing flights.

We were in a suite on Caribbean Princess in December and we were brought 2 bottles of water everyday.

 

 

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Used to be we could pre-order a case of 24 and then later order again. Not anymore I guess. Along with some spirits and wine I pre-ordered a case (24 bottles, (16.9 oz bottles) for around .50 a bottle) for our mini-suite on our Jan. 22 sailing, Pacific Princess.

 

Upon embarkation I found everything in order except the water was only half a case. I asked why. They said the water was complimentary. Room Stewart pointed out that our free mini-bar setup also included two free bottles as well. Thank you very much.

 

Then, later in the voyage I ordered more water, a case of 24, they said no can do, you have to buy it now by the bottle, $2.00 per. Reason--they said, was that I had to pre-order water to get a case. I said, I did, but you gave me half a case for free instead. They said, we are all out of half cases?---Nevermind.

Great that Princess still gives you complimentary bottled water for suite guests but seems they would have still honored your order. For all they know, you may have wanted more than the complimentary allowance.

To be on the safe side, I just pre-ordered 12 bottles of water for our upcoming March 23rd Hawaii cruise. $6.90

If that option was available to us, I would have had no problem ordering extra water. Unfortunately, sailing out of Sydney that is not an option.

The bottled water package is not available in Australia.

 

 

To confirm what was noted above: the suite perk of bottled water was removed from the suite amenities flyer last fall:

 

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships/PrincessSuite_eFlyer.pdf

 

...but if you go to the Sun Princess ship-specific page on the website, scroll to Accommodations, select Suite and click on 'Show Stateroom Features' there it is:

 

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/sp-sun-princess/

 

• Approx. 460 to 932 sq. ft., including balcony
  
• Luxury balcony furniture including 2 loungers, 4 chairs, table and ottoman
  
• 2 floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors
  
• Separate sitting area with sofa bed, chair and 2 tables
  
• One complimentary mini-bar setup and free daily bottled water~
  
• Spacious walk-in closet
  

(excerpt from column one)

 

So perhaps you should take a screenshot of the page just before boarding to state your case.

Thank you so much. I thought I had seen it on the website before but could not find where. With so much being changed, I was concerned that the perk had been discontinued and I knew that bottled water was not included in the soda package.

I did take a screenshot and will replace it with another just before we leave. I may also print it out to highlight, if necessary.

Know for sure? On Princess? Here's the problem. On the suite perks pdf that is available on line' date=' the bottled water is not listed. However, there are other pages, particularly under individual ships that continue to list it except on the first night. Recent cruisers have reported, on various ships, getting an 8 or a 16 ounce bottle...another case of "it depends."

 

My plan--I'll take one bottle for each of us, empty, from home. That way, we can refill it for excursions if we don't get the suite bottles on board. If we are getting them on board, I'll toss our empties.[/quote']

 

Thanks. That's a great plan since empty water bottles would weigh next to nothing.

While I realize that the water onboard is of good quality and I have no problem drinking it, we love to have a bottle of water to bring ashore. I have read some threads that mentioned a daily bottle of water for each guest was a Suite perk? But then, I do not see it mentioned on the Princess website as such. Is it or is it not still a perk?

I also have seen posts referring to a 12-pack or so of bottled water available to purchase prior to boarding. But I do not see this available in the selections for our cruise. Does anyone know if it is available on the Sun Princess? If it is not furnished as a perk, I would much rather purchase it reasonably in the 12-pack than hauling it onboard. At the same time, I do not wish to purchase individual bottles at the prices charged onboard so it would be nice to know for sure.

It is advisable to always check your airline reservations at least once a week and even more frequently as your trip gets closer. This is true whether booked directly with the airline or through a 3rd party such as Princess. Twice since final payment, we have had changes to the flight schedules that required rebooking our return flights from Sydney. I noticed the changes on United's website both times well before we got notice from Princess. Both times (after lengthy phone calls for each) the Princess rep got us on other flights at no additional charge.

We appreciated the flexibility of EX Air. We priced going direct to a number of different airlines and could not get close to the fare we paid through Princess. Being able to continue to shop for a better rate until 45 days out was also very nice, as we did change it a few times due to better schedule/rate.

We just went and it needs to be retired, problems with toilet,sewage smell on balcony.

Thanks for the reply. This is disheartening but it is what it is at this point. We are well past final payment and have just over 2 weeks until we sail. I guess we'll just have to make the best of it.

What should she be apologizing for? When a retail store has a special or sale and then discontinues it do you ask for an apologies?

 

 

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I think the difference here is that most people book cruises months (maybe even year or so) in advance when certain specials are still active.

Yep, it would have been in our PO Box on Saturday AFTER we left, lol. :cool:

Exactly! lol Enjoy your cruise!

Great that the license made it so quickly. But you know that if you had depended on it arriving on time, it never would have. JS

There is another way to look at this. If other people are willing to pay for some of these perks, it will keep my price lower. I have no problem with other folks paying for what they want, it makes sense to be able to customize their experience, like choosing to go to specialty restaurants, buying drinks, shore excursions. Think back to when you first starting cruising, what were the fares then? For me a balcony has been in the $100ish per person per day for over 10 years, so if Princess chooses to offer folks the chance to pay for upgrades, it helps defer the costs for the rest of us. People want choice, and Princess is giving all of us a chance to customize our experience. I fully understand why this site is called cruise"critic". Cruising is the best bargain anywhere. A 3-4 star hotel, room service, maid service, going to different ports with sea days in between, good enough to great food with lots of choices and no dishes or cleaning to do. Try that anywhere on land at these prices!

Do you really think that any extra $$$$ that Princess makes with this is going to be passed on as savings to you? Really???

Glad to hear that, although a major inconvenience, he was able to get the passport quickly. Have a great cruise!

We have our flights booked through EZAir. We have 2 domestic flights on United and then leave for Sydney on Qantas. Our tickets show our first 2 checked bags (up to 50lbs) are FREE.

The caveat is that carryon bags on Qantas have a 15lb limit, so looks like we will need to check our carryon.

We do not have a United credit card and are not high status in either airline program.

Qantas does have allowance for the first 2 checked bags on International flights to and from North America, so maybe that's how we got the 2 checked bag allowance. I was under the assumption that the originating flight airline's baggage policy ruled but maybe not.

Ask your bank can ou get a PIN.

Thanks. I asked for a PIN before our last trip. The only PIN that they will issue is to enable a cash advance on the credit card. I definitely don't want a cash advance.

Yes, you can buy an Opal Card at Central Station (Grand Concourse, upstairs) with a credit card. They don't take cash.

Thanks. I'll wait to buy our Opal cards there.

I just wanted to mention something about the card.

 

When we tried to purchase it out of the machine I used my credit card but we don't use pin numbers so I was unable to use it. We did have local currency so I used that instead and all worked well.

 

Keith

Thanks for the heads up on this. Our credit card also does not have a pin.

Does anyone know if we will be able to go inside Central Station to purchase Opal Cards using our credit card? I hate to order our cards online before our arrival, but also don't want to chance having this problem. Thanks.

then just use room service. We have them bring coffee and fresh orange slices and croissant at between 6:30-7am. Coffee is always, so far, hot and orange slices and croissant just enuf until we get up, dressed, and go to MDR for breakfast. Love my early morning coffee out on the balcony!

 

Pooh

We always do the same. Usually we order just coffee from room service every morning to get us going. We then go have breakfast in the MDR after we get dressed.

Like others, we would enjoy participating in the BOGO happy hours. No way that we will buy more than a few drinks at full price. It's just not worth the $ to us. And to think that we would purchase a package since the BOGO offer is not longer offered is just ludicrous.

Yep, I agree...that's why he made the appointment for an emergency passport...we would never accept a "probably"...I just wanted to share the info that a rep at Princess actually said that to him...even if the rep had said yes, it's acceptable, I told him to get email confirmation so we could print it up and take it with us on embark day. But it's all going to work out because he can get the passport this week.

So glad that it's possible to get the passport. I'm with you on that "probably" bit. And no, I wouldn't trust anything verbal from Princess. Here's to a wonderful cruise!

Awesome story - no matter which version is true.

Thanks for sharing.