magandy

I agree with SITMAR LADY.

Here in the UK we were allocated a Personal Cruise Specialist about a year ago and she has been brilliant. In fact today we received a hand written Christmas Card from her.

We book cruises through her....she regularly checks our cruises for price drops or better deals, including flights......I have her email/tel no and can generally get through to her immediately.... she answers queries very quickly.

I used to book with a TA but found that they were reluctant to check on price reductions because it would reduce their commission......Princess wouldn't talk to me because I had booked with a TA......the documents that they send us are the same as I can print of Cruise Personizer.

So for the sake of around £50-£75 that the TA might give me off a booking, we feel more in control dealing direct with Princess.

If you look in your booking in the cruise personalizer....then 'payments and credits' you should see it. :)

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Princess no longer accepts shareholder submission via email. You must either fax it or snail mail it.

Interesting enough they accept email requests in the UK.

It appears that the story that Venice will ban hard-wheeled suitcases is untrue. It will only apply to commercial carts that have hard wheels instead of rubber blow-up tires.

 

http://www.ansamed.info/english/news/general_news/2014/11/21/venice-denies-ban-on-trolley-suitcases_fbd179c0-70fe-4740-bc7d-377a36c93800.html

Lets wait and see!

If I had suitcases with wheels and was going to Venice after May 2015, I would keep an eye on this story:)

This is the local Venice paper report from yesterday - click top right hand corner for translation, unless of course you speak Italian.

http://www.ilmessaggero.it/PRIMOPIANO/CRONACA/venezia_valige_trolley_vietati_turisti/notizie/1022066.shtml

or

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/21/travel/italy-venice-wheeled-suitcases/

There are also deals in the UK at the moment.

I was speaking to our Princess Cruise Consultant last night about flights on next years Panama cruise, she noticed that if we paid an additional £20/person on the cruise price we would receive an additional $100/person obc :)

Also she says that there will be a pre Christmas sale happening, so keep checking prices.

You will love Venice, but please be aware of a possible new law that may be in place next year in Venice regarding suitcases with hard wheels:

'The lovely, picturesque Italian city of Venice has 99 problems, but the only one anyone is talking about now is suitcases. Specifically, the kind with hard rubber wheels. One wheeled suitcase isn't that noisy, but 60,000 of them each day create quite a ruckus. So if the Venice city council has its way, starting next May, any tourist caught rolling a suitcase along Venice's scenic, car-less streets, bridges, and passageways will be liable for a 500 euro ($630) fine. Venetians are exempt.

Not all wheeled suitcases will be banned — luggage with inflatable wheels that don't make as much noise and won't cause so much wear on old paving stones and bridges are fine. If you can find one. "The law won't come into effect until May, so hopefully by then one or two companies might start producing trolley suitcases with air-filled wheels," says city council planning director Maurizio Dorigo.

Thus, Venice may become the first tourist destination more hospitable to poor young backpackers than well-heeled, cash-dropping business class travelers.

- - Peter Weber'[/i]

http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/272421/speedreads-venice-levies-630-fine-for-tourists-pulling-wheeled-suitcases

:)

Are there people on this site that are on the next cruise now embarking on Sunday that booked ALL of their trip Directly with Princess, including flights/transfers/hotels and cruise?

If so....What has been your experience?......Have Princess sorted out everything for you or have you had to do it yourself?

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There are people on this thread that are saying that they had a good experience on this cruise. Other people who have experienced the Crown Grill on recent cruises appear to have nothing but praise for the service.

For us its our 3rd time on the Ruby this year and have used the Crown & Sabatinis on each cruise with no problem, also the previous 8 cruises on Princess no problem.

For me if there was a problem, I would of made my concerns known on the night, when it happened.

For you and others appear to of had a different experience, so perhaps Princess is not for you.

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'I think that there is a lesson for us all here when booking cruises, flights, hotels and transfers, whether or not to book direct, through a TA or independently???.......also do you have the right travel insurance or are you travelling with no insurance!' .....If the later is the problem, then you pay the money and takes your chance!

Good news that the patient is doing well :)

Well said ctemkg.

Hope that you enjoy your cruise:)

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I'm English. Now live in Florida. Generally I've found that service is so much better in the U.S. than in England. Not everywhere, but in about 75% of places. The further you are from a tourist trap the better the service is my rule! I lived in London for four years and the same applies there too.

 

I've had some slow meals on cruise ships but the Crown Grill really took the cake.

 

 

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That's fast food around the world for you!

Hope that you complained to the Management whilst on board and not just Cruise Critic?

Yes, we were in there that same night. It was nowhere near what I imagined it to be like! It was definitely not special at all. Maybe they are taking service tips from England since the whole room has the London theme?

 

 

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Funny enough we were on the Ruby in October we used the Crown Grill, found the décor no different from all the other Princess ships that we have been on. same American Flag decorated plates, service was good.

Been in America and received very good service which has been rewarded, also have received very bad service but you are still expected to tip :confused:

So perhaps they have taken the view that it doesn't matter about the service.

Hope that you all complained to the Management about your service received :rolleyes:

Totally agree with rpcv77.

What happened to compassion?

Glad to hear that the crew member is doing well.

I would like to think that Princess would do the same for me or family/friend/ fellow passenger in time of need.

I think that there is a lesson for us all here when booking cruises, flights, hotels and transfers, whether or not to book direct, through a TA or independently???.......also do you have the right insurance or are you travelling with no insurance!

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It's a shame your experience was not a good one.

We travelled 3 times on the Ruby this year most recently in September, we had a couple of hiccups not worth mentioning, but overall it was very good.

We have travelled a lot on various Princess ships and enjoyed them all. Perhaps try another ship on a different itinerary then make a decision after that, of course it depends on what you are looking for.

I don't think there are any 2-day cruises in the Caribbean.

 

You could take advantage of booking a 3-day cruise to add on to another cruise if you're already springing for the airfare to get to Florida. For instance, the Regal Princess is doing a 3-day cruise on April 12 next year. It comes between a week-long cruise and a 17-day trans-Atlantic one. If you took the week-long cruise plus the 3-day one, you'd get to enjoy 10 days on the ship. Or you could fly to Florida in time to take the 3-day cruise and then the trans-Atlantic. You'd only pay for airfare one way and get to enjoy 20 days on the ship.

Thank you for that info and taking the time to research the cruises.

The point I was making about the short cruises is that they count for getting you up to Elite very quickly; 15 x 5day cruises = 75days, which = Elite on the 16th cruise, even shorter if you combine 3/4/5 day cruises as people told us they done earlier this year in the Caribbean.

We done the TA from Florida in April this year, flying into Charlotte NC, near you. We stayed with friends for 6days in Asheville NC. The next week we drove down to FL to pick up the Ruby for the TA to Southampton.

We also got the Ruby back across in September from Southampton to New York, met up with our friends from NC and cruised with them up to Quebec and flew home from Montreal.

One air fare on both cruises, so we are very good at planning our cruises.

So been there and done that and enjoyed every minute, but thanks for the info.

We done Transatlantic from Southampton and then New York to Quebec on the Ruby last Sept/Oct.

We made Elite (through days not cruises), on the 2nd part of our trip.

I went to the launderette twice during the Transatlantic, no problem, but it was very welcome that we could use the washing perk on the 2nd cruise.

We never abused it, in fact our steward kept asking us everyday 'Why no bags?' we just felt that it was a privilege to be able to use it if we wanted too.

Reading this thread, it appears possibly, that no one has abused the perk, but apparently others do, I have no experience or evidence of that, but that's not to say that it goes on, so I can't comment about that.

It would seem to me that Princess need to be more vigilant about how much laundry is being sent/cabin, they know the figures as it appears on peoples accounts, if it seems that someone is abusing it, then Princess need to tackle the people concerned and ask why?....there may be a legitimate answer :rolleyes:

As usual on CC when a subject like this appears, you get the, "We want a Super Elite Status" brigade, that is not the answer to problems. Princess need to get to grips with abuse of perks and tackle them head on, if its happening!

Changing to days only may be one answer to slow down the numbers!

People using not abusing perks may be another!

For us, we are just happy to of reached the Elite status after 8 years, bearing in mind that it cost us a lot of money to get to Elite and as we are from the UK 100+ of those days involved air/hotel costs across the pond, but we don't mind that because we like Princess :)

We don't get the opportunity to get 2/3/4 or 5 days cruises in the Caribbean without air fare/hotel costs on top, short cruises in Europe are few a far between.

We are looking forward to our next cruise in January and yes we have to cross the pond, but we love it, San Fran here we come again, yes it is with Princess because we love it and yes we will be using the Laundry Perk...... sensibly ;)

"Carry On Cruising" :cool:

I think it depends on the Cruise and how many Elites.

On our last 2 cruises TA & New York to Quebec this Sept/Oct, the TA part was 3 days turn around, where as the NY to Quebec was 1 day due to less Elites.

Forgot to say that this was on the Ruby.

Hi Shogun, sorry that you are not feeling very well.

We were on the Ruby TA & NY to Quebec Sept/Oct 14. I got ill with the sore throat & fever very early on after leaving Southampton. My other half then caught it as we arrived in NY. American friends who got on in NY became ill with the same within a couple of days on board. There were also lots of other passengers and crew who had it, one crew member told us that he had been on the ship for nearly 6 months had it 3 times. I caught it again just as we arrived in Quebec.....In fact we spent more money on Cough and Cold remedies than we did on alcohol for the whole trip, so with our OBC we were unable to spend we treated ourselves to watches from the Duty Free, so Happy Days.

Hope that you and Mrs Shogun feel better soon and have a good journey home :)

Where do I go to see what other ships will be at port the same time Royal will be in April 2015?

 

Also my granddaughter does not drink soda is lemonade available?

 

Does anyone have a menu from the Royal that my daughter and I can look at?

 

Many questions sorry.

 

thank You

http://ports.cruisett.com/

Hello fellow cruisers,

 

Where do I go to find out what other ships will be in port at the same time the Royal will be in April 2015?

 

Also my granddaughter does not drink soda is there any lemonade or so for her?

 

Thank you

 

Does anyone have a menu for the Royal?:

Try this site I use it all the time :)

http://ports.cruisett.com/

and yes there is lemonade, the one in the Horizon Court is great.

Never had a problem. I always tend to go early am, leave and return before the cycle ends, but I do leave bags on top of the machine in case something happens and I get delayed, quite happy for clothes to be removed and put in bags, some people get upset, but then they should of been back.

Do take your own washing powder/liquid capsules.

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We returned beginning of Oct from b2b on the Ruby. Similar situation apart from we were told that you would only get Military credit back. On a previous b2b on the Crown we were given it all back.

I think that it depends on who you speak to at the desk, but the policy should be the same no matter what ship you are on. :confused:

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A fellow cruiser just got off the phone with their second Princess rep today. Both have said that leftover On Board Credits will not transfer from first cruise to the second on a Back to Back. Personally I don't have a problem with the new "use them or lose them policy", but by not transferring for B2B cruises seems like a bad policy. For instance I would like to use those credits to buy transfers at the end of my second cruise and maybe the luggage service, but I'll bet those will not be available for purchase after cruise 1. Also apparently will not be able to use them for wk 2 tips. (unless they allow you to prepay tips before wk2 starts. Might have to leave a double tip after cruise 1 and nothing after wk2. Oh well, I guess time will tell.

We have just returned today from a b2b on the Ruby and the obc does transfer, just check that it happens with Customer Services. It was not a problem.

When we booked our Hawaiian cruise for Jan 2015, Princess told us that we would be wait listed for the hotel in San Fransisco. When I asked why, it was because they only have 1 contracted hotel in SF and this was showing full. When asked what would happen if it was still full, they told me that I would have to arrange my own accommodation. So we booked our own, much better knowing where you are staying.

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To all UK cruisers.

Telephoned Princess today as I saw last night that the Panama Cruise we have booked for next year had reduced in price in their new sale that started yesterday.

Secured a reduction of £566 + extra $200 obc + 200 free internet minutes.(for 2 persons).

So if you have already booked it's worth a telephone call.