RickEk

2 hours ago, hpeabody said:

My recent request that was denied was to change my EZair default city (EZair can be done by the passenger on line)  I was told that kind of change could only be done by my TA.  My TA had nothing to do with my booking of EZair, just that it appears on invoice and they collect payment.  It boggles me.

What you are attempting to do is change the "gateway" city on your booking. If the promotion that you booked under was some kind of regional promotion or something similar, changing the gateway city could affect the fare pricing. That's why the TA has to make the change since it could potentially involve money. 

I saw the new bar menu on Facebook. Here's the "new" Chairman of the Board recipe:

Grey Goose Vodka

St. George Terroir gin

Cointreau

The Bitter Truth bitters

I'll be ordering the "classic" Chairman of the Board as described by Thrak... 

5 minutes ago, cruisinnorth said:

I was discharged in 1965 from the Army and I get the OBC every time I cruise with Princess.  So this is not just for active duty people.

 

Dave

I think he was talking about the airlines and not Princess' military policy.

I was perusing the LA Waterfront webcam this morning and noticed that MV Artania is docked in San Pedro today. (Not a great day to visit LA as a large storm is passing through today.) 

 For the uninformed, Artania was the original Royal Princess that was built in 1984 and christened by Princess Diana. Royal Princess was the first new-build commissioned by Princess. She was innovative at the time by featuring all outside cabins... no inside cabins. The image is courtesy of the LA Waterfront webcam.

1 hour ago, Camelia- said:

Hi everyone,

 

I've just returned from a two week Caribbean Circle cruise and wanted to share my thoughts before I forget!

 

Overall I had a very lovely cruise..I had read such mixed reviews of this ship before sailing and I finally decided that it would be best to see for myself! Of course these is MY experiences and others on the same cruise might think totally different - and we would both be right because impressions are always subjective.

 

There is no ignoring the fact that this is an older ship - I don't think that there was a day when I was walking on the Promenade deck where a crew member wasn't painting or varnishing or doing simple maintenance. That's to be expected but I have no problem with that at all. I was totally won over by the new beds and pillows - for me they were about the most comfortable that I've experienced so far!!  I've always loved the layout of the cabins and there was lots of storage space in our minisuite. It was nice to have the big screen televisions but I wish that they had been placed lower on the wall rather than where they were - a little too high and I always ended with a sore neck after a while. Great to have the on demand choices as well.

 

I had read very positive and very negative comments regarding the world fresh Marketplace buffet and I can honestly say that I thought it was great. I loved the new dishes which they had. I thought that the selections were very creative and not usually what was available before. There was a bit of repetition during the second week but I suppose that happens on all ships on the longer cruises. They did give out random surveys to be filled in each day and I was pleased to be able to provide feedback. It's obviously a work in progress and I'm happy that they are asking for reactions at this point - shows that they are flexible. Having said this I can sort of understand where the negative comments were coming from as well. One person I asked described the buffet as being too "exotic" and I suppose that's true - especially if you're used to the more traditional fare. I guess I really like exotic!!

 

There was something though that had me scratching my head. You can't go on any cruise these days without being told time and time again to keep washing your hands in order to prevent norovirus. The old Horizon Court had staff at the entrances ensuring that you used the hand sanitizer before entering. Now - because of the new physical layout - that is no longer the case. They have installed hand washing stations all along the areas outside of the buffet which would be great IF they were used. Sadly that is not the case. MOST people that I saw walked right past them and went straight into the buffet. One day I sat at one of the tables and just watched out of curiosity - out of ten people - only four actually stopped to wash their hands. Now - perhaps they had used one of the other stations - there is no way to know but the total lack of monitoring of hand sanitation is a bit unsettling. I found myself washing my hands even more - before AND after using the tongs..lol!! 

 

We had Anytime Dining and I went to the Dining Room the first night with a bit of trepidation. I love the idea of showing up at any time and being seated but on my last cruise it was such a horrible experience that I was almost ready to return to Traditional. Asking for a table for two resulted in sighs and frowns and the dreaded pager - followed by a long wait.  This time it was so much better! Every single night we were seated immediately whatever the time happened to be - even on formal night. There were never any long lines stretching into the atrium. I think part of this was because they were ready and willing to convert the bigger tables into tables for two rather than wait for them to become available. this made a huge difference and restored my faith in the whole experience and I look forward to repeating it again. 

 

I'd read many reviews in the past where people complained about the sewage smell - not only on this ship but on others as well. I'd never experienced it on past cruises. Well - I guess it was my turn. Fortunately it was only once in a while but there were a number of times when I caught a whiff and it wasn't very pleasant - mostly in the aft section of the ship.  Thankfully I forgot about it as soon as I moved away - which was a good thing! 

 

Debarkation was a breeze - as usual. Princess does such a great job with this that I wasn't surprised.  Overall it was a lovely experience and I would not hesitate to book another cruise on this ship. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How was your experience with the Ocean Medallion?

13 hours ago, paul929207 said:

Yes. The next smallest is the Coral Princess with about 2000.

Well, technically, Sun Princess and Sea Princess are smaller than Coral. About the same passenger count, but about 20K tons smaller.

6 hours ago, jenp123 said:

I am Platinum and got 150 free minutes.  I was told I could not apply the free minutes in any way to the daily packages....if I need more minutes I have to purchase the daily plan....

 

The problem is that if you purchase the daily plan after day 1 it is 19.99 per day for the whole cruise.  If I purchase it day 1, it is 9.99 per day.  If you need more minutes then 150, it makes your free minutes pretty much useless since it is cheaper to just buy day 1 at 9.99 rather than the 19.99 a few days later.  

 

They should offer at least a free day or something off the new plans instead of the 150 free minutes of you want more internet 

From what I understand, once the Elite/Platinum uses up their free minutes, they can then buy the unlimited plan at $9.99/day for the remaining days of the cruise. 

9 minutes ago, rocklinmom said:

I had gotten an email from Princess saying that today (11/13) is the Elite early booking day for Alaska and Japan 2020 cruises.

It said starting at 9am Pacific time. It is now 9:20 and I can see the itineraries but it has no pricing, just the red message that says pricing is 

not available yet.  Has anyone else been able to get the pricing for these? 

More than likely, you'll have to call and book direct or use your travel agent so they can verify your Elite status. 

4 minutes ago, Soman said:

Just checked the Princess website and it looks like the Star will be picking up the Summer of 2020 Alaska routes out of San Francisco.  Have never been on the Star so not sure if this is good, bad or no change.  They list the dates but no prices as of yet.

I sailed on Star Princess a few years back when they were doing an 11-day Alaska itinerary from San Francisco. Had a great time. The absolute upside is that Star is a few years younger than Grand and still retains Skywalkers for great scenic viewing. 

Tomorrow. Sailing on Ruby Princess for a quicky 4-day cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada. Should be fun to see the recent updates to the ship after her drydock.

8 minutes ago, bemis12 said:

Have you found a place to modify your signature yet?

Sure... Click your name at the top of the page and then Settings

There hasn’t been a covered pool built on any Princess ship in over a decade. Probably longer. There hasn’t been a true walk-around Promenade deck since then either. Maybe new ships will have a separate dining room for Club Class but that’s not something Princess should retrofit on all ships.

Majestic Princess has a covered pool. They covered the forward Retreat Pool and renamed it the Hollywood Pool Club.

"Billy" the OP says he boarded the Regal on August 20, but the cruise actually began from St. Petersburg on August 13, then ended back at St. Petersburg on August 23 ( today).

 

 

 

So, something is not right about the dates. He says he boarded 3 days ago, but that cruise is already over. This is easily verified by checking the Regal's itinerary.

Actually, you can book that cruise to embark in either Copenhagen, Warnemunde or St. Petersburg. Most folks choose Copenhagen.

Granted, MedallionNet and OceanMedallion are two independent services, but Caribbean is

in the middle of ***** rollout, and reports are that Princess isn't even sure which decks will or

will not be ***** on her next voyage.

 

I'd suggest a call direct to Princess (or several and average the answers :evilsmile:), but don't be

surprised if the real answer is "We haven't decided yet".

This is correct. We were onboard last week and spoke to several technicians. They are expanding Ocean Medallion very carefully on Caribbean Princess and are making sure that it is working correctly before they expand it deck by deck. Vickie (who is onboard this week too) reported that they expanded it to Aloha deck in the middle of the cruise (from the current Lido and Riviera decks), so they must be getting more confident that it is working as it is supposed to.

I would think that the call center, at this point, would not have specific information on which decks are Ocean Medallion as it appears that their IT dept. is making those decisions on the fly.

As I posted on another thread, we had MedallionNet last week on Caribbean Princess. It was, frankly, phenomenal. Upload speeds were better that what I get at home with ATT U-Verse. Since I'm Elite and my son is Platinum, we both received unlimited access. This will obviously change once they exit the "preview" period.

***** apears to be many years away from full fleet implementation if ever. Why speculate on something that is not anywhere near working. If I am lucky I will nevr see it.

I just got off Caribbean Princess yesterday. Ocean Medallion is being rolled out piece by piece in a very measured way. I'm sure they are learning a lot along the way. We didn't have the actual Medallion but I did see a few folks with it. Our key cards opened the door by tapping the LCD panel that replaced the mailboxes. All purchases onboard were made by tapping the card. Purchases at bars did require them to run the card through the scanner (if they didn't know your folio number), but the cardholder's picture would appear on their screen. It did seem that crew was getting familiar with their tablets too. Except for the double scanning that was required at embarkation, muster (we apparently didn't get scanned by the old system and got a stern letter the next day about missing muster), going ashore and disembarkation, it seemed to work very well. The double scanning should go away soon I was told.

And MedallionNet was phenomenal. I was able to use FaceTime with ease and posting pictures to iCloud was very fast. Faster than home... And I found that to be a two-edged sword. Before, I had to conserve my minutes, but with unlimited broadband Internet access, it was easy to just stay connected. Which meant answering texts, checking email, etc. that I just didn't do before when I was counting minutes. Of course, unlimited MedallionNet will go away once the "preview" is complete, but Platinum/Elites should still get a very generous allotment. At the very least, folks will be able to get stuff done much quicker than before with fewer connectivity issues. It's definitely a win-win.

My comments were no indication as to when the video was made. The mirror at the top of the stairs leading to reception was changed during the dry dock in May-June, 1917. There were other decor changes including chairs, but nothing structural that we remember. The video does look dated. There is a period from May ? To June 11 in 2019 with no cruises scheduled on the Pacific. I looked on drydock schedules, but did not see it listed. Does anyone have any info?

Yes, Pacific Princess is scheduled for her next drydock on May 27 through June12, 2019 in Freeport.

It appears to me that this is a fairly old video with shots captured on ships other than Pacific, and some narration that has been added to make it appear up to date. At the very end of the video, (2:43) the narrator says "the small ships of Princess." This video had to have been made when there were more small ships than just Pacific. The reference to "Come Back New" could have been dubbed in to update the video, but all in all, that video looks to be several years old meaning that the area in question on Deck 10 is not the result of a reconfiguration and instead, is simply not on that ship at all. There is no way that a newly shot video of a newly configured ship would be done in such low resolution.

 

Edit to add...

For comparison sake, I took a look at the video of CB, knowing that that ship had recently undergone some significant changes to see if the video captured that. According to the video, Sabatini's is up top, aft. And there is no mention of the redesigned dining venues. Clearly these videos haven't kept up.

Yeah, the video for CB is for one of the three newer super-Grand Class vessels (Crown, Emerald, Ruby). At least all the content below that video shows the new venues on CB. Hopefully, these videos will be updated soon.

That offer is an absolute "no brainer"...take it!! Look at your sailing on Princess to see which insides are available and choose where you'd like to be. When you get the call, tell the rep where you want to be.

Also, if you don't want bunk beds in your cabin, check Cruise Critic's deck plans to see where they are. They aren't identified on Princess. :(

I'm pretty sure they let you know either way.

PS: it's called a "move down".

Sure they do... Princess' deck plans show quads and triples. Just select how many guests (3 or 4) and those cabins will be shown only.

Thank you RickEk. Do you happen to know if the elevator actually goes to the 17th deck? I thought it ended on the 16th, but I don't think I really paid too much attention to that before.

You are correct. The elevator does not go all the way to Deck 17. There is an ADA lift outside from deck 16. Otherwise you have to take the stairs.

I'm hoping to snag a couple of spots for our four sea days on our upcoming 2 week Med cruise. Therefore I intend to go directly to the Sanctuary upon boarding the ship to try and book. I have only been in the Regal sanctuary which has its own entrance, but is the entrance on the Crown through the Lotus Spa on the 16th deck? Or do they have their own entrance on the 17th deck? I don't know if the sanctuary is in high demand in the Med like it is in the Caribbean so I don't want to waste time wandering around.

 

Also, since the Med itinerary is sold in 7 day segments, do you have to book each week at the beginning of each week, or theoretically could I reserve for both weeks at the same time?

 

Thanks

The entrance is on deck 17 although you could go through the Spa, out to the pool and then up the stairs. I'm sure someone else can answer the booking question.

Well, it looks like they are planning on some kind of themed bar. Look at the bottom of this page. No info yet, but that page makes no mention of the French Bistro either.

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/yp-sky-princess/

Definitely hard to pin down just one... First Alaska cruise for 10-days on Sea Princess from San Francisco was a special one. As was my first cruise, a 10-day Partial Transit of the Panama Canal on Island Princess when she was brand-spankin' new.

But the one that was the most special was a 14-day Holiday Caribbean Connoisseur cruise on Pacific Princess a couple of years back. Great mix of boutique ports (Bequia?!) and sea days. It was our first (and so far, only) time on the small ship and it was a fantastic experience. Coupled with Christmas and New Year's celebrations, the cruise was just about perfect. :)

Yomv??

s/b YMMV ... your mileage may vary

;p;p

A question I have, is that it was mentioned that you can use the medallion to get off/on the ship.

 

RCCL has a wristband that allows you to get into your room and make purchases, but you can't use it to get on/off the ship. For that you still had to use your set sail card. I thought that was odd, as from a techinical stand point there should be no reason why you shouldn't be be able to. Then it dawned me, that port security requires a picture ID and sea pass card. They need both so they can match up the name on the picture id to the name/ship on the card. The wristband has no name/ship, so it would be impossible for port security to know to allow on the dock upon returning.

 

Has Princess backed off of using the medallion for this purposed. Although I guess, they could still "ping" you off and on the actual ship, but you will still need a name card to get back on the dock.

The Medallion apparently has a passenger's name on it, so that would take the place of the cruise card at dock security.