wallyj

We are not transferring a FCD. I was on board the Discovery Princess October 2022 and purchased a FCD for my sister’s friend, who she just referred. When she did the referral and he accepted, Princess then assigns him a captains circle number. Princess allows you to purchase FCD’s for people not on board, they just need to have a captains circle number. The person on board is charged for the FCD, so either you get pre payment or trust you will re reimbursed.

Hi @sunviking90, please see my post #5. Since the 14 day sailing is made up of 2 seven day sailings, it will count as 2 cruise credits. Princess calls this a ‘logical’ sailing? You will be able to verify this by looking at you cruise history and after booking the 14 day, it will show you will earn 2 credits. Princess updated their computer system many years ago to account for these types of cruises, before they would manually add a cruise credit with zero days to post the additional cruise credit. Do the math to check if the 14 day or B2B is better considering OBC’s from shareholders, promo’s, etc. You will earn same # of cruise credits either way.

Hello @Purple Gallinule, for most US ports, Customs require you to disembark and clear customs, Whittier is one of the exceptions. When I have done B2B Vancouver to Whittier and the 14 day roundtrip Vancouver to Whittier and back, I was not required to disembark to clear customs. The savings from the 14 day vs B2B is the taxes are usually a little less for the 14 day and the stock benefit is $250 compared to $100 x 2 for B2B. As the 14 day sailing is 2 seven day sailings, you will receive the same number of cruise credits either way you book, If you book the 14 day, you would receive 2 cruise credits. If you booked during the $100 excursion credit per person, going to the 14 day, you lose out, since you only get $100 each for the 14 day sailing, but should receive $100 each passenger for each 7 day sailing.

I assume you have typo and meant ‘tipping/gratuities’. The answer is ‘yes’. Unless policy has changed, on my last sailing on Meraviglia, my OBC from MSC promo , was used as they posted the daily gratuities and when I played slots in the Casino, the amount charged also reduced my promo OBC.

Yes, Princess will assign a new Capt circle number to any booked passenger if a Captain circle number is not provided at time of booking. This creates multiple ‘accounts’ but can easily be corrected by the Loyalty manager or Princess when u are back home. Also if you ever ‘refer’ a new to Princess person, they are assigned a Captain circle number. The number will still be valid, even though your daughter did not sail. One of the many issues the Loyalty manager has to correct on the first day is Passengers going to the desk asking ‘why do I have a blue card and now blue Medallion’ signifying it is your first cruise with Princess. Either they or their TA did not provide a Captain circle number at booking so Princess assumes you are a ‘newbie’. My niece just referred her friend as they are sailing next February and she asked me to buy him a FCD so he could get the OBC. When my sister tried to get it applied, the Princess agent said ‘how can he have a FCD if he is new to Princess?’ My sister then explained how, so even Princess employees are not aware of this feature.

Hi @LACruiser88, enjoy being on the Discovery, surprised you did not know Princess has allowed you to purchase FCD’s for people NOT on board. Have allowed this for many years, not new. Holland America used to also allow, but my understanding is they do not now.

The answer is ‘YES’, Princess allows a person on a sailing to purchase FCD’s for passengers NOT on board. Of course you need the person’s Captain Circle number and as backup have birthdate or address for extra verification. A couple months ago, my sister emailed me the CC numbers for her husband and a digit was off, fortunately I had other info for the future cruise agent to verify when they did name search. I was able to purchase FCD’s for 8 people not on board. The FCD’s will be charged to YOU, so you will need to be reimbursed by your ‘friends’, so I would only do this for people you trust will repay or you do not mind ‘gifting’.

Hi @elmsliebev, FYI, MSC dining packages work a little different than some of the other cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and NCL. You will be limited to a ‘dining experience’ menu with limited selections, the full regular menu is available but you will pay 50% of the regular price if you want an item on the regular menu not included on the experience ‘menu’. There are many YouTube videos you can review for more info.

MSC WiFi is usually only 2 devices per cabin, it should state how many devices in your confirmation. Once you assign a device to a WiFi package, you can not switch devices like you can on Royal and Princess where you can log off one device and then log in on another for the same 1 device plan, like switching between a phone and a tablet.

I has a similar issue when I saw the website was showing a lower fare and I was before final payment. For my situation, it turned out the ‘new’ fare was applicable for ‘new’ bookings only, so the only way to get the lower fare is cancel the existing booking and rebook. The website was not clear that the new promo lower fare was new bookings only, but this might be your situation too?

Ship time changes are up to the discretion of the Captain. I am currently in the Navigator and the 11/28 seven day Mexico sailing we did time change 1 hour forward before Cabo and another 1 hour forward before PV, then 1 hour back on the last 2 sea days. In the current 12/09 sailing, same time changes will occur. Captain James will be leaving for break after this cruise, so it will be up to the next Captain if he will follow. I have been on cruises with a stop in PV and ship time was not moved forward to match ‘local’ time.

Hi @GCS2000, wondering if you bought non refundable air with a U.S. carrier, as many have implemented ‘credit’ options if you cannot fly on your original ticket, so your non refundable ticket may be able to be converted to a credit for you to use ? I thought usually the Charters need to lock in date about year before sailing, but the charters also have to see how well the potential sailing is selling before they commit and sign the ‘contract’.

There are a few exceptions I just learned regarding the policy of granting tier progression while ON your cruise. I just completed the Transpacific sailing of the Majestic, LA to SYD, Sept 24, 2022 sailing. I met a couple who was waiting to talk to the Loyalty and Events Manager who mentioned to me they were told they would be granted ‘Elite’ benefits this cruise as they would hit 151 days on day 2 of this sailing. I shared my understating was you normally have to wait till your ‘days’ are posted to your account when you complete the current sailing. Surprisingly, the Loyalty Manager confirmed, yes they would receive the promotion to ‘elite’ this cruise. The exception is Princess will grant the promotion on your current sailing, if you will reach your next tier within the first few days of a ‘long’ sailing. I do not know the parameters of ‘first few days’ and what Princess determines as a ‘long’ sailing. My sailing was 25 days.

I believe it means unless you cancel, Royal will still consider your RoyalUp bid till the evening of embarkation, as there is the possibility of cancellations and no shows. I have reads posts where passengers were informed the evening of embarkation their RoyalUp was accepted and now they needed to change cabins. If you are willing to accept this situation, do nothing, else cancel your RoyalUp.

If you have been assigned a cabin from a GTY booking, US bookings can have the cabin changed to any remaining available cabins in that category. You just do a mock booking to see what cabins are available to pick. I have done this serval times and only once got a Royal rep tell my travel agent, no. I told my agent to call back, as they were given incorrect info that I could not change my cabin. You do not need to rebook a GTY csbin on the floor you desire, just see if any cabins are left to be assigned. Also when there are no cabins left, wait till about 3-5 days before sail date, when many upgrades will have processed and the possibility of cabins becoming available.

My experience has been, you call guest services and tell them you want to swap your mini bar for 2 coffee packages. They will notate your account and tell you 2 charges will appear so the packages can be added to your medallions. The charges will be credited back in a day or so. Also if you are solo you can have the other package loaded onto another medallion or you can have 2 on your medallion for a total of 30 coffee drinks.

I believe when the packages were first offered, you were supposed to wait at least 5 minutes before you could order another drink. When I was on Majestic in Sept/Oct, bartenders had no problem letting me order 2 at a time, so if both passengers in cabin order 2 for total of 4? The APP would either allow or charge you for the second drink, as I ordered 2 at a bar and not thru the APP.

I do not believe there is ‘free’ WiFi on MSC, be friendly and make a new friend that might have internet. Unfortunately, MSC also restricts you to the device you register, unlike other cruiselines that allow you to switch devices even if you have only one device plan. For those cruise lines you can only have 1 device active at a time. You might get lucky and meet a solo traveler who got free WiFi for 2 devices and will only be using one. Ask on your roll call, if anyone might be willing to share.

I just used an old certificate from 2011 for a 7 day cruise 11/28/2022. It had no expiration date. I asked if I would receive double points since the booking date was before September 2021. At first I was told no as the booking number was so old, Royal issued a new booking number and said since I booked in 2022, I was not eligible and the original certificate was not redeemed. I called again, and was told Royal will give me double points but they will have to update my booking manually as they cannot backdate the booking date. Glad I remembered to ask about getting double points.

The TA weather was mostly good till we got closer to FL. The days got cooler with some rain, and I read this last weekend, Tampa was fogged in and the Brilliance and Serenade were very late getting back into Tampa , 8 hours late? You should be able to switch out your selections to whatever is available on board, if you decide what is delivered you want to change. So no need to call and then you can have LA update your preferences for your next sailing if needed.

Which specific ‘gifts’ are you inquiring about? It is my understanding your ‘selections’ are fixed from your last request, until you request something different. If you move up to the 340 and 525 points selection, it is your responsibility to get the latest options by visiting a LA on board or calling C&A on land. For the welcome drinks if you do not make a selection, the default is water. The inventory of the tote bags and towels seems to vary depending on the ship also the availability of particular wines is very limited. You will receive whatever the bar manager has decided is a substitute for your selected wine if it is not available. I just completed the TA on the Brilliance of the Seas Rome to Tampa, Nov 5-20. I was given a substitute for the 2 bottles of the Red I had selected. One was a full bottle and the 2nd bottle was a half size bottle. Thought that was strange to give me a half bottle, I was able to exchange it for a different full size bottle.

I do not believe you will have the same type of embarkation issues after the TA. Ships coming over on a TA require all the crew to go thru customs and immigration and I believe the ship may go thru a coast guard inspection since it is arriving in the US for the first time from a foreign country. The ship is repositioning from Port Canaveral to NY so from one US port to another. Although there can be embarkation delays for many other reasons, after a TA is a unique situation.

I saw a post in another thread awhile back, if you go to the Medallion APP, you can pull deck plans for any ship. What is nice about the deck plans on the APP, they show the indentation of the door location so you know the bed will be on the opposite side. Hope this helps, and yes for C325, the bed will be on the left wall so if you sat up in bed you would be facing aft.

When you do the referral, your FIL needs to accept it and will be issued a Captains circle number. The referring member should see in their Captain circle account a pending referral OBC. Make sure when you add your FIL to the booking, you use the Captain circle number he received when he accepted the referral.

On my upcoming 7 day cruise on Discovery, when I go into the APP, it gives me the option for 1 device at a price of $69.93 or multi devices plan up to 4 for $139.93, if you are platinum or higher in the Princess Loyalty program you will receive a 50% discount. So having the 4 device plan, you would be able to share with anyone, they do not need to be booked in your cabin. This means you can have a maximum of 4 devices logged into the internet at a time. You can switch between devices, so one person can switch between their phone or tablet. With the one device plan, many people can share, you are limited to one device active at a time so say you are logged in and your friend whom you have given your login credentials decides to login. It will say the plan is active on another device and do you want to log off that device and active this one?