moki'smommy

When my daughter was living in London, I did many flights there. I learned that if I waited till I was at the airport, the cost of economy comfort on Delta was significantly reduced--typically from $149 to $35. Bulkhead seats can be bumped and you reseated to any available seat if someone with a service dog is flying. (this from a Delta rep).

 

As to what will work best for you, we don't know what the issues with your knee are. You might want to confer with your doctor or physical therapist as to whether a compression sleeve would be advantageous. On some airlines you can be given a "preferred" seat at no additional cost if you have a disability. This courtesy will also be extended to one traveling companion.

I'm less than thrilled.

You will be able to edit on the Princess web site. You'll need to edit the number and the expiration date.

How cooperative is your TA? What I would do is to book the one you have on hold, then cancel the original....and then swap cabins. Of course that assumes that the cabins are the same class. We had a similar issue (Princess insisted that the price that I had on line did not exist!). I put a hold on it on line and called TA with the number. She canceled the original and moved us to the new one in the original cabin all in one phone call. In fact, she kept me on one line while dealing with Princess on another line so I knew it was all good by the time I hung up.

Wow great deal. Those of you that receive the down grade did you book thru Princess or thru an agent.

We booked thru an agent who contacted me both by e-mail and phone to be sure she reached me. But as noted, some large national agencies don't pass on such offers.

You can do the outside stuff on your own. If you have a National Parks Pass, that gets you admission to the visitor center. Alternatively you can pay to enter it or skip it.

 

Note--senior citizen National Park passes are $80, good for lifetime, and give admission to parks for the holder + 3 additional people at parks that charge "per person" or a car full at parks that charge per car load. Sorry--the price recently increased from $20 to $80.

 

There is also a public bus that will take you to about a mile outside the park area. It isn't a bad walk provided you are able bodied as you are as likely to see wildlife walking along the road as you are in the park. The difference is that the shuttle company takes you into the parking lot (part of the park) while the public bus lets you off at a bus stop about a 15 minute walk from the park.

I can't address the legal issues. Our port charges were refunded to our folio when appropriate.

Sticker is gone, it is all on the card. It isn't even a "recognize you" thing. Some locations swiped card each time, others never swiped card for a soda, even the first time. Of course the fact that you offer the card and say that you have the package is probably a tip off to them that you really do.

 

Daughter was swiped each time for a mocktail.

Sunny must have just left the Golden Window Suites. Our room steward arrived at 1 PM on embarkation day. Stealthy, efficient, really experienced.

 

Note: water is not delivered until the second night. I am guessing they figure you have it in the mini-bar. Learned from asking/previous experience.

 

I had a MDR menu every night for the next day.

 

Head waiter Dion in Crown Grill tried very hard to accommodate my breakfasts requests. I pre-ordered the minute steak (from MDR) on a couple of occasions. Salsa always included with my eggs. Another table asked for prawns for breakfast. Top notch servers all around.

 

I placed my laundry outside of my door at 8:45 AM and it was back the same day. Normally set it out then at turn down.

The head person in the Crown Grill changed at the start of the second leg of our cruise (8/18/18). There was an instantaneous improvement in quality with the new person in charge. I was actually shocked at that.

 

Sunny was a nice person, just not an efficient steward.

So I noticed that three airlines are using the same plane for the flight. I went to each of their websites and one is charging $5,000 per person for first class and one is charging $2,000 per person for the same seat. Is that normal?

Yes, that is normal. And EZ Air is usually cheaper than any of the airlines.

In this instance the fare went from $968 to $1013 then $1024 over a couple of days while our fellow travelers were deciding on using miles or EZ air. I suppose there is hope that fares could go down between now and May 2019, so no benefit to paying and ticketing now, right ?

 

We were lucky that we had Alaska miles to use our friends miles are on American and their return itinerary was dreadful.

Some airlines require you to have the flight ticketed and paid for in order to choose seats, others do not. No, there is no other reason to ticket now--as long as you keep the flex fare (don't pay and ticket), you can cancel with no penalty as well as being able to nail a lower fare if one appears.

 

On our most recent cruise, the fares were yo-yos. They would bounce up and down, and when they went below what we'd booked, I was able to grab a savings twice.

Yes, we got a downgrade offer on our Japan cruise--the deal was to give up our balcony for an inside HA cabin and receive 100% of our cruise fare as refundable OBC. That was over $6000 in refundable OBC--we did more excursions than we probably would have and still got a very significant check about 3 weeks after the cruise.

 

It isn't quite as good a deal as a move over offer (where you get a refund + a free cruise), but not bad at all.

The HA rooms are held until a certain amount of time prior to the cruise, and then given out to anyone who has booked. An individual alone is actually a good choice as he doesn't need the split bath and is very unlikely to have fit into the bathtub. This way he has a bigger shower!

 

Since my daughter has a mobility issue, we now need the HAs after many years in regular cabins. There are some things that you give up with an HA cabin--no drawer in the middle of the desk, sometimes no "coffee table," etc. but he'll gain a great deal of space.

 

For a solo cruiser, he should be very happy with this room!

Way too much for what you get! Carry your own camera and you'll have better shots.

I've never been able to book a one way departure and one way return on the same booking via EZ air. Every time I book I have to choose a single departure or single return or both departure and return as one reservation. How do you book a departure and the return as seperate bookings on ez air? Thanks!

I just went in and selected "departure only." Then I exited, went back in and selected "return only."

I recently complained of the same thing. I didn't get the MDR menus so what good is being able to order from those menu's. I didn't get water and had to call the first night for them. I didn't get toilet paper, what a joke my cabin steward was on the Golden last week, Sunny. Did you reduce your auto gratuity to a normal cabin because if you didn't you are paying for a service and amenity level you didn't receive

Oh my gosh....we had Sunny also. He was the king of forgetful! He removed our empty shampoo and conditioner containers but didn't leave new ones till we asked. He changed the beds, but put stained sheets on one of them (we insisted they be changed again!) He didn't leave toilet paper on the second spindle. I eventually took an extra roll from one of the public bathrooms and put it in a drawer in our room so we'd have it if the roll he left ran out! We never saw an MDR menu at the room.

 

He was the king of water--we got 2 waters every night, and they continued to pile up on the counter. Our laundry was never "same day" because he never got it out by 9am, but 24 hour service was fine with me.

 

No, we didn't reduce the tip. But no, I didn't tip extra.

what is the passenger capacity for the Club Class section?

I can't tell you exactly, but on our 3 CC cruises, it was "just right." In a total of 24 nights, we once waited about 2 minutes while they reset a table and another night about 8 minutes. We offered to get a beverage from another location and come back; they replied that it wouldn't be long enough to make that worthwhile! While we typically had the same serving team, there were times where we had different people, but unlike the MDR, everyone working in CC seemed to work together to give the guest the best experience.

 

Yes, I've read of them converting tables as needed, but we never experienced that. In each of our cases of waiting for a few minutes, they were cleaning and re-setting a table.

We had club class dining in April and again for 14 nights in August. It was superb. It compared to ship food of about 15 years ago and was the best we've seen on any line in a long time. You'll have the regular menu as well as one or two items each night that are only for club class. Service is excellent. You have nothing to worry about.

I’m hoping they will expand their Canadian/New England cruises to something other than Halifax and back. I know they have a longer one to Quebec. I’d like to see more of that.

 

 

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I don't have any information. Right now there are at least 6 cruises involving NYC in *GT status, including one to from Quebec City. If these cruises were selling well, they shouldn't be hitting *GT status!

Not at all strict. The time assignment is more like a suggestion.

The advantage of EZ Air is that if you book a "flexible fare," you are able to check fares whenever you want and change to the lower fare if one becomes available. I re-fared our Alaska flights twice! I also learned that on EZ Air there was initially no price difference between a one way and a round trip booking, so I booked us as two one-way trips. That way, if the flight went down in one direction and up in the other, I could still get the benefit of the lowered fare.

 

No one can predict when an airline might have a sale. On EZ Air, you have the ability to select your specific flights--airline, time of flight, and cabin category. These are in the initial drop down menu. So you can book on your preferred airline and if you want economy plus or business class, you can get those as well. The one kicker is that the airline can change your flights literally up to the time you board (or even later!), but they can do that whether you book EZ Air or on your own.

 

The only downside I've ever found to EZ Air is that SOME airlines won't let us do seat selection until the ticket is purchased (about 45 days before flying).

Thank you for your reply. Since I am the main coffee drinker I think the coffee credit might not be the best option for me.

The coffee package is $36 including gratuity. A cup of coffee is $1.25 + gratuity = $1.43. In addition, you have the 15 specialty coffees or teas that sell for $3-$5.

 

So, if you drink one cup of coffee per day, this might not be worthwhile. If you drink coffee like I drink tea, it definitely is a good thing. I didn't use all my specialty drinks, but those I used, combined with the "Premium teas" made it a decent value.

There have been multiple reports that the clause on the Suite Amenities flyer of Upgraded Turn Down Service specifically refers to changing the sheets daily.

 

 

 

 

My understanding is that Princess long, long ago stopped training and assigning their better/more experienced stewards specifically for Full Suites. Dating back to when they stopped having Butler service a good decade ago. Stewards now rotate throughout the ship, but most are desperate to trade down with a coworker to keep regular cabins when assigned to Suites.

 

 

 

According to the aforementioned Suite Amenities flyer: Bath salts and a soothing gel eye mask.

 

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships/PrincessSuite_eFlyer.pdf

 

And while I do find the OP's feelings that they shouldn't have had to ask for what was supposed to be given in the first place a bit strong, on further perusal of the rest of this thread I wonder if I would feel the same should I ever move up to the Suite Life but have to then spend my time ferreting out most every simple item that I paid the fare for. At some point I imagine changing my M.O. to cruise less frequently but looking for the better onboard experience instead. This thread gives me pause in that regard.

 

OK, we got the small white bag labeled "Sleep" on each cruise. In April there were no bath salts, but I didn't feel I could argue as there is no tub in an HA suite (would have liked them for at home!) In August, we did get the bath salt cube on each leg, but it took me a while to figure out what it was. There is actually an item in that bag that I still haven't figured out. There also was an eye mask, although it is made of satin fabric, not "soothing gel."

 

We enjoyed the Club Class dining, and on all but one cruise, the specialty breakfast was great. Still, I probably wouldn't pay for this at full price, especially if I was elite.

https://disneycruiselineblog.com/2018/09/disney-cruise-line-extends-new-york-berthing-agreement-through-2022/

 

Just roughing out these numbers 200,000 guests per year, using 2500 as Magic/Wonder capacity would be 80 embarkations/disembarkations per year. My guess is that they get credit for a passenger who embarks from the port as well as for the same passenger when they disembark, meaning that they are promising about 40 cruises per year! That's almost once a week year round!

 

Better than another port in Florida, IMHO.

I'm a little confused. We had a window suite (HA).

We got tubes of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, along with packages of cotton balls and q-tips. What else were we supposed to get?

 

Laundry turn around was 24 hours. Don't think we got fresh sheets daily. We did get stained sheets once and insisted that they be changed.

 

The fruit basket is...rather a waste. I can get fruit at the buffet rather than wasting half of that in the basket. The canapes were awful, and there were some tiny chocolates on formal night (no chocolate strawberries any more).

 

We never found out why we got the two small champagne bottles--guess that was part of the suite. The odd thing was that we did a B2B and these only came once.

 

We did order room service from the MDR twice in 14 nights.