wallyj

To be clear for those who might not have seen/read the relevant post, this $25 ‘Platinum’ perk in the Casino is on Carnival cruises not Princess

I am currently on Majestic for LA to Sydney sailing. The Loyalty Ambassador confirmed the milestone program is being ‘Fazed out’. My sister was just on the Caribbean Princess for the NY to Quebec and back to NY sailings and said passengers celebrating their 500 days milestone were recognized at the Captain circle party. There might be a component of when you booked your sailing and the ‘date’ Princess has set to no longer recognize ‘milestones’ . I feel fortunate that on this sailing they show Milestone redemption in my account and I have been allowed ‘suite’ breakfast access. I feel eliminating this ‘one time’ event for Princess loyal passengers is something I will miss, and will express my displeasure on the survey.

I usually take a photo of my laundry to be sent out laid out on my bed in case anything goes missing. Once you receive your clean laundry back and all is good, delete picture for next load. On the laundry form, fill out the number of each item, you do not need to try and calculate total, as they will do for you as it does not matter as elite. I just write ‘elite’ on the total line. Your account will be charged, but usually within a day this amount will be reversed/credited back. I believe this is done for accounting purposes. They attach small ID labels you need to search for and remove as they are scratchy, usually on the inner hem for shirts and t-shirts, pants will have them around the zipper area or inner rear waistband area. My last few loads, they have been removing these ID tags from socks and underwear before returning, , but have missed a few.

I am traveling on a Transpacific sailing LA to SYD later this month on Princess. A few days ago, I applied for the Australian and NZ ETA’s. I felt the process was simple, use the official APP’s. I am a U.S. citizen so for Australia, I believe the ETA is no charge it is the processing fee of $20 AUD, for NZ on our roll call some passengers were confused about whether they should also pay the IVL, which is essentially a Govt Tourist fee to help fund maintaining resources and the answer is YES you pay this fee. Both ETA’s were granted in about 10 minutes from submission. YMMV. Since someone posted about the Carnival Splendor sailing SEA to SYD, I had friends on that sailing and they received an email approx 3 weeks from sailing saying you needed to be boosted and you had to have proof of Travel insurance that covered Covid. I believe because their cruise was stopping in Fiji, it is Fiji that requires you to have Covid insurance. I think Carnival was allowing to to buy their insurance at the pier at check in if you did not have insurance .

If I had not read a few of your ‘post cruise’ reports, I would think you were serious. The free Casitas were fun while they lasted, just like the reduced passengers.

I replied to your other post yesterday, and reported Navigator Casitas were now ‘reserve only’ last week while I was on Navigator. Guess you were not checking the threads last week. I was told by Alex the Guest Services Manager, the change was implemented when the ship was able to get all the ‘call buttons’ installed and this was recently completed.

Navigator Casitas are now reserve only. Policy went into effect around 8/26 sailing. You should now see prices in your cruise planner. I believe the non discounted rates are $149.99 for Port Day and $199.99 for a Sea Day. Last check showed Labor Day sale of 10% off these rates. Rates are for full day and you go to Lime and Coconut Bar to check in and pick location of your particular casitas.

I believe D+ get the value of 2 days ‘surf’ on their account which has been $25.99/day or $51.98 total. Are you traveling solo or or both passengers D+ so each get the $51.98 credit towards the purchase of zoom/internet plans. It is one device at a time, but you can share if both passengers do not need to be logged in at the same time. Or you use the $51.98 credit towards multi device plans if you need. Do you need internet for the entire cruise and do you need surf and stream of will surf speed be good enough. Depending on the length of cruise and if 2 D+ passengers in cabin, many couple find they can get by not spending any or minimal $ on internet. As usually if leaving from a US port, many have working phones for the first day till sail away. If on a 7 day sailing, if you sign up for internet Surf and Stream for the rest of Voyage just after midnight day 5, going to day 6 you should be able to use your $51.98 credit and usually the price is 24.99/day so you will have surf and stream for Day6, Day 7, and all morning of Disembarkation. Of course, itineraries with ports where you have service can change your needs and strategy of using your D+ credit.

I think it depends on the ship if they have any of the T-Shirts on board. I was on the Majestic for 2 weeks in April and there did NOT have the T-shirts. This was before Princess Premium so the Good Spirits drinks were $12?

Thanks @Ourusualbeach, I was pretty sure you knew the answer one way or another.

My first guess is @Joseph2017China, meant ‘free for the Cruiseline’ in terms of the cost to stock these items? I have heard many times for fountain soda, the cost is ‘pennies’ per serving?

@frank808, Hi Frank, I just noticed in your cruise planner screenshots(?), there is the notation, ‘your good to go’ reservation is non refundable and cannot be modified. I thought cruise planner purchases were always refundable up till they closed ‘sales’ like 48 hours before sailing? As I have seen many posts stating if you see a price you like buy it now, as you can always cancel and rebuy at the lower price? Ken @Ourusualbeach, do you know if Royal has this stipulation for certain ‘ sales’ as I do not see this notation on my cruise planner purchase being non refundable and cannot be modified?

@frank808, thanks for responding, I just got off the Navigator on Friday, after being on the ship for 14 days. Living in Los Angeles makes it convenient without flying. Appears Royal did not modify your planner title saying 3 day Unlimited Dining Package like they have done for the December 9 sailing. Please report back if you have any issues using the dining package as I am pretty sure the $99 price was a mistake. Haffnar was the Diamond Lounge Concierge when I was on the Navigator earlier this year and it was nice to see him return for another contract, as he moved to SL even back then. I believe he is scheduled to be on Navigator till the end of November.

Hi @frank808, are you on the 7 day Navigator on December 09? This sailing was originally a 3 day sailing and I think in May, Royal combined it to make a 7 day sailing instead of the original 3 and 4 nighters. I saw for the month of July when I booked the December 9, the UDP was pricing between $99 and $106, as if it were a 3 night cruise. In early August, I noticed in my cruise planner, the banner saying ‘reserved’ on the UDP icon was gone, and when I pull up the calendar on Day1, it says 3 day Unlimited Dining Package’ which of course for this 7 day sailing, this is not an offering? If you are not on the December night sailing, then it appears Royal has made this pricing error on another 7 day sailing as I believe the lowest price I have seen it for a 7 day Navigator sailing is $209 plus the 18% gratuities. Please go into you cruise planner and let me know if the ‘reserved’ banner is showing on the UDP icon and if you are not on the December 9 sailing would you share which sailing. I just went to the October 14th roll call and it appears the same thing happened that Royal combined the 3,4 day cruises into one 7 day sailing. I see someone also posted the UDP was pricing @$99, so it will be interesting what Royal does. I am curious if Royal removed the ‘reserved’ banner in your cruise planner?

Are you also implying, since your wife does not / can not drink alcohol, can you buy just the drink/alcohol package for yourself and your wife does not have to purchase any drink package? I believe Royal’s policy is the ‘other’ passenger has to purchase the ‘refreshment’ package, so do the math if the cost of the adult package and the refreshment package per day will be less than if you just purchased your drinks ala carte.

Probably whoever booked your cruise selected Traditional, early or late dining. If you use a travel agent they need to fix, if you booked direct, call Royal to verify, but almost certain, that error message means you are hooked in Traditional, not MTD.

Yes, just remind the server you want to use the ‘soda pkg’ when ordering a soft drink. When ordering an alcohol drink tell the server you want to use one of your ‘Diamond’ vouchers. On my last cruise, 99% of the time when I ordered a drink, the server looked at the card and saw I was D+, if I did not specifically say use a D voucher, they would ask do you want to use a voucher when I was ordering a ‘soda’ or even a beer as sometimes passengers elect to pay for these less than $13 limit beverages and save the vouchers for drinks closer to the $13 limit they plan on ordering for that day.

@Ptroxx, would you please explain, elaborate as my friends are currently on the Caribbean Princess and say there is no issue with the daily gratuities and charging in the Casino restricted from being deducted from their OBC which is from shareholders. Yes, we can read, and those terms and conditions have been there for years, but Princess has ignored this. I do know on NCL , if you charge your room account in the Casino it will NOT credit against OBC, as it is NCL policy that most OBC cannot be used for the daily gratuities or in the a casino. You do not have to do anything, as in all my previous sailings, charges to your folio/account are subtracting from ANY OBC, which they use non refundable OBC first. What do you mean when you say you tried? Did you charge your account in the Casino and it did not post against your OBC you had? We’re the daily tips being charged not reducing your OBC? If you had pre paid tips then obviously there would be no charges? Please explain your situation, as you are the only one so far to report this!

Just heard from friends currently on the Caribbean Princess, they report no problem of charges in the Casino and daily Gratuities reducing OBC from Shareholders, so the person who posted on the other thread saying it was not allowed on Discovery has more to tell, as maybe they went to guest services to ask? Could it be on Discovery only? I will be on Discovery in October and find out for myself, will be on Majestic Princess later this month.

On one of the other threads regarding shareholders, someone posted they were on the Discovery recently and said they were not able to use shareholders OBC towards gratuities or Casino, seems strange as if this were true, I would think we would see a lot more posts regarding Princess is now enforcing the policy as written. I was able to use up mine through the Casino in August. I have friends currently on the Caribbean Princess, so will report back with an update.

I boarded the Navigator on 8/19 and was told this sailing is the first Brunch to be served. It helps the dining room staff as they do not need to be ready till 9am. Personally, what I did not like is the Brunch menu does not have the Royal Chicken sandwich or the Pulled pork sandwich. I only wanted the Onion Rings from the chicken sandwich, but was told they were not available. I mentioned this to my waiter at dinner who then had me talk to the section Manager and she promised to have Onion Rings for me as an appetizer the next night. I thought she was just going to have the normal frozen pre made rings from the chicken sandwich. I guess they are not on board currently? I do know this ship has a Playmakers and you can get Onion Rings there for a charge($). I believe these are not the same that are serve with the Chicken sandwich in the dining room as pictures I have seen of the Onion ring tower from Playmakers look different. She had the kitchen make me onion rings from scratch! They were great, but I did not want the kitchen to make this ‘special’ request for me everyday, but if your ship has switched to ‘brunch’ on sea days and you are craving onions rings you may have an option. Just give advance notice.

It sounds like to be you are in the penalty phase of cancellation so the cancel fee is a percentage of your cruise fare, depending on the number of days block, this would be on your confirmation or you should be able to see the days tiers on the Royal site, like 75-90 days is this percentage, etc. As you are past final payment, your cancel fee would not be the deposit, it should be based on how many days before saildate did you cancel and the corresponding % penalty.

Hi when you scan the QR code, you will get a digital copy of the cruise compass that looks just like you took a picture of the paper copy. Yes, the APP is not always correct and this QR copy will be the exact copy of the paper one.

You should be able to use the ships free ‘intranet’ , same portal you connect to use the RCL APP on the ship which is no charge to use. You pay to have access to the internet to stream or surf the web.

Hello, Navigator when it relaunched last November, the Casitas were on a first come basis and no charge. They have now implemented a reservation system with rates of $149 on port day and $199 on Sea days for the full day reservation. I was not told if half day reservations were available. You will receive 1 cocktail, towel and bottle water service and have a small cooler for drinks. There is an on call butler service with a call button at each Casita. Guest Services manager said they were waiting till the call system was setup before implementing the reservation system. I assume the rates are in line with other ships that have Casitas for rent/reservation.