Corfe Mixture

I'm almost certain it's first come, first serve. When we took it we were told what number we were to have signed up. I think the cutoff was 12-14.

I agree apart from the fact that suite passengers definitely get priority bookings. It says so in the literature suite passengers are given. They also get priority for the Princess Cays bungalows and same day free laundry service. This is not supposition, I am speaking as a person who books suites.

Numbers are limited to 12-16 and there is only one tour per cruise. I suspect all reference to a lottery is simply to avoid having to explain to someone who registers at number 12 but then doesn't get on the tour that they have been bumped because a couple of suite passengers register after them.

They do not go out of their way to make suite passengers aware of the tour, simply include reference to their entitlement to a priority place in the information pack. I think it is also referred to on the website under suite benefits.

Remember also that not all suite passengers will book late. When we did the tour, we had priority boarding and went straight to the desk where became numbers 1 and 2 on the list. I suspect that most suite passengers who want to do the tour will do the same as us and I would imagine it is very unusual for anyone in the first 10 not get a place on the tour.

Unless anyone can report differently, it is my undersatanding that you are unlikely to be upgraded if, on a previous cruise, you have paid for a higher grade than you have booked on this cruise.

The logic of this is, I believe, is that far from seeing upgrading as a reward for regular passengers, they instead see upgrading as a marketing tool and a tempter to introduce folks to a higher grade of cabin in the hope that, next time, they will book and pay for a higher grade.

As someone else has already said, they have this down to a science and there is a lot of logic in this approach, which is why, if you are staying on for the next cruise, on changeover day, you can always get the future cruise manager to show you the higher grade 'cabins'.

Obviously I have every sympathy for the OP, who was betrayed by a system which allowed the theft to take place.

However, our experience is that, whilst I am sure there are exceptions to any rule, In truth it was probably unlikely that it was the cabin steward as they have just too much to lose in terms of employment.

We have a slightly different story which happened last Christmas on Island Princess. I have a navigation plotter program on the iPad and had gone to dinner and left it attached, on a window mount, to the inside of the balcony doors adjacent to our bed having made a conscious decision not to attach it to the balcony doors in lounge area simply because I thought it was less vulnerable in that location.

As it happens, I was wrong and the cabin steward accidentally dislodged it whilst turning down the bed and it fell screen down onto the aluminium frame of the balcony doors damaging both the glass cover and the LCD screen.

When we returned from dinner, our cabin steward was waiting outside to explain what had happened and was clearly distressed as he thought it was his fault and was clearly fearful of the consequences and had already contacted his superior

We appreciated not only his honesty, but also the fact that he had made sure that he told us of the incident before we discovered it for ourselves.

Fortunately because we don't like the modern concept of 'someone having to be to blame' we carry gadget accidental damage insurance, albeit subject to a £25 ($40) excess.

However, when I told him that he was not to worry and that I carried accidental damage insurance simply to ensure that we do not have to worry about these things you could see the relief on his face particularly when I said we were not to discuss the matter again.

Clearly he reported our response back to his superior as the next day she contacted us and thanked us for our attitude, but that is not the point of this story.

The real point is that the cabin steward was fundamentally honest. He could easily have ignored the accident which happened when he was on one side of a curtain and the iPad was the other, but he made sure that he told us what had happened before we discovered it ourselves and that was something we appreciated very much.

That is not, of course to say that all staff are that honest but, compared with what they can earn in their own country, for most of them it is an extremely well rewarded job which most are keen not to lose and is why I rather suspect that the dodgy employees very quickly get weeded out, which is why the OP's sad episode, whilst very real for them, is hopefully a very rare event.

I have just looked at the details of a cruise around the British Isles and was amazed to find Ocean Princess’ August tour of the British Isles included:

London (Dover)

St Helier, United Kingdom

and

Milford Haven, (for Wales), England

London (Dover) is analogous to Mexico City (Acapulco), Orlando (Tampa) or Las Vegas (Los Angeles) or even Paris (Le Havre) and London (Southampton) both of which appear elsewhere in Princess’ 2014 European calendar.

St Helier is on the island of Jersey which is part of an island group within sight of the French coast and referred to by the British as ‘The Channel Islands’ and by the French as ‘Les Iles Anglo-Normandes’, though traditionally they are included in the definition of The British Isles. However, to refer to them as being part of the United Kingdom is definitely incorrect. Indeed, they are not even part of the European Union.

To put this into North American context, referring to St Helier, United Kingdom, is analogous to using the form Freeport, USA, whilst the phrase Guernsey (St Peter Port), England which appears elsewhere in Princess’ European calendar is analogous to Bahamas (Freeport), Florida.

However, by far the worst of all and extremely offensive to the citizens of Wales, is Milford Haven, (for Wales), England. This is analogous to saying Toronto (for Canada), New York State, or Montreal (for Canada), New York State which I suspect most North Americans would acknowledge would be highly offensive to the Canadians.

At least they got Dublin half right by referring to Dublin, Ireland. Dublin is the capital of Eire, on the island of Ireland, and whilst the island of Ireland is normally regarded as part the geographic island group known as British Isles, Eire is most definitely an independent state with its own constitution. It would therefore be more correct, to refer to it as Dublin, Eire, Ireland.

Fortunately they got Edinburgh, (Rosyth), Scotland correct.

So, out of five places they will be visiting on the tour of the British Isles, depending on your thoughts on the acceptability of either , Orlando (Tampa) or Las Vegas (Los Angeles), Princess scored 1.5 out of 5 or 2.5 out of 5, unless of course anyone feels that they should score minus 1 for the equivalent of Montreal (for Canada), New York State.

Hi all,

I am an offshore yachtsman and, although I do not tend to suffer, I carry these on my yacht for anyone who feels ill. However, it is important to note that they only work if you are NOT TAKING motion sickness medication.

http://www.sail-world.com/UK/Product...E-award/116360

The above link is to a UK site, we live in the UK, and is included so that you can see what they look like, but they are available on Amazon and from yacht chandlers in the USA.

They are a French invention and work on the principle of creating an artificial horizon for both roll and pitch.

Yup they look a bit silly, but they have good success reports, and will make a good conversation subject for the kids as all the others will ,no doubt, be curious.

This is really helpful to know.

Can you do this if you're booked in a mini suite?

Thanks

Only if you are Elite. This is because you have nothing to exchange as you do not get the mini bar benefit in mini suites, only in full suites

Remember, the OBC for shareholders applies across the whole of Carnival Corp. and not just Princess.

If you have your 100 shares, you get shareholders OBC on ALL Carnival brands which include HAL, Cunard, Carnival and Seabourn (US dollars), P&O (Sterling) and Costa (Euros).

However, it is poor investment policy to purchase shares on a short term basis (risk of short term movements should not be ignored) just for OBC and you must remember that shares can go down in value losing you more than your the value of your OBC benefit.

Having said that, if you regularly take two cruises a year, then the ROI is very attractive. I paid around 40% more for my shares (in 2006), than they are worth today, but the benefits and dividends mean that even if I sold at a loss today, they would have delivered a return in excess of 7% per annum. Not outstanding, but equally not unacceptable.