My BVE Experience with Tim (aka Terrific_Surprise)

November 20, 2013 - Star Princess (a little late, but informative).

A little less than a week before I left for my Hawaii cruise, Tim (Terrific_Surprise) and I were finally able to make plans to meet for a BVE aboard the Star Princess. We have been trying for months to meet each other. I had a coconut leaves basket that I wanted to give to him since he missed bringing one back from Rainbow Falls on his voyage to the islands. Up until then, we only communicated through Cruise Critic and emails.

He started the process by calling Princess to make arrangements. He had my booking number. Tim was told that there was no BVE available for that sailing. Shortly after he emailed me the disappointing news, I received a phone call from Princess alerting me to the news that, yes indeed, we would be able to book this BVE. I sent him an urgent text and he got the ball rolling. I was so surprised that a real person from Princess tried very hard to reach me. I am glad they did. Tim was very close to the cut off date.

He and Terri drove down early that morning to watch the Star arrives in San Pedro. We texted back and forth to keep each other abreast with our locations. I even texted him as I approached the drop off point with the make and model of the van I was riding. He was right there to great me. Thank you technology!

It was like old home week. We all felt that we were long lost friends that were going on a cruise together. I had a welcome gift that included the basket and lots of treats from previous trips to Hawaii. I wanted them to leave feeling that they, too, had visited the islands again. We entered the building, picked up our health forms, and quickly ushered up the escalators. This was a new policy. We now had to fill out those health forms in front of the person checking us in. Terri had her license and checking in was very smooth. He received his BVE envelope and cruise cards after he gave them his credit card for anything he would purchase that day. His letter stated that they needed to be off the ship by 2:30.

We waited in a special area in the boarding area. A Princess representative greeted us (she may have been the Captain Circle person, but do not recall). We were all given BVE stickers to designate our group. She offered us refreshments from the Elite Lounge. She kept us very informed by updating our wait time. I was a little concerned when noon passed and still no one was boarding. Tim tried to delay snacking until lunch, but when it seemed as though our boarding would be delayed, he took advantage of those breakfast delights. I can’t recall if there were two ships in port (and split personnel) or that there was a surprise inspection that was the cause for the delay.

This is not the end of my story, yet. There's much more to come. Stay tuned.

Thanks for your review.

"Terri had her license" - I am smiling because you knew that was what we were all wondering!

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

"Terri had her license" - I am smiling because you knew that was what we were all wondering!

 

 

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

She never found her license. Terri needed to get all new cards, but it is safe to say that no harm was done (besides sleepless nights).

We were the first to board around 12:30 (before in-transit passengers). It was strongly recommend that we have lunch first and that a ship’s tour was not going to be offered. We stopped for a group photo. Everyone headed for the MDR and I went to my cabin to drop off a few things. Lunch was okay. By now, I had taken so many 3 day coastals that the menu was not as exciting. I don’t recall what Tim and Terri had, but I do remember that Tim had his lunch, half of Terri’s and half of mine. I asked the wait staff about the complimentary wine. We were all served glasses of wine. The best part of lunch is the dessert. I introduced Tim to the Volcano (from the children’s menu). The waiter was so kind; as he allowed us to even change the flavors of ice cream. This dessert is my ultimate favorite (aka/banana split). The table next to us overheard me and asked about the Volcano. As I left our table, I mentioned that I hope he would be our waiter for the cruise. Surprisingly, he still did not know his assignment and I was told that they found out “later” in the day. Another hint: I should be better at remembering names. Now that I have a smartphone, I “should” memo myself. The personnel do an outstanding job and I try to write Consummate Hosts cards for most people I make contact with.

I went back to my cabin for a few minutes and Tim/Terri went to the International Cafe for more desserts. I was shocked to see how much this guy can put away. The Star is very similar to the Golden (the ship we both had sailed) and he knew his way around very well. We really didn’t miss the tour on the Star. It was approaching 2:30. We decided that we should check with the Photo Department about our souvenir gifts. There were several people already waiting around. No photos were developed. They scrambled to get them printed and distributed. Recommendation by the staff: be sure to alert the photographers that you are part of the BVE (even with the stickers). Tim and Terri were anxious to see if they could run into Dave and Leialoha from the duo ELUA. I told them to go on their search and I would wait for the photos. The staff was very efficient, lots of photos were printed, and everyone in the entire party got their own set.

Where is Tim?

Looks like they closed his (long....) post.

I know he still had more to say...

Where is Tim?

Looks like they closed his (long....) post.

I know he still had more to say...

I was wondering the same. Nice of OP to tell her story! More to come, I'm sure!

One day she will find the original cards she misplaced, I know it! Our daughter lost all her ID the night before we were to fly out west for a special trip. Her credit cards, driver's license, her Visas and one we had given her for emergencies, and her college ID as well. All she had was her passport! That got her on the plane and to San Francisco.

Once we got to the city, we went to her bank branch and they made a new credit card for her. She lived that way till her return to college a month later. A week after she got the last card replaced, about two months later, her case, still filled with all her cards, was found behind a friend's couch when they moved it!

So, I know Terri will find them one day!

I'm so glad you got to meet them in person, cr8tiv1!!! You were such a help with their story. I hope we find out the ending to it from you or them!

Yes where is Tim?

Thanks for the report. I too was following Tim's saga and miss reading it.

Hoping Tim will finish his story for us. Hope we can find it when he does!

I know that Renee didn't plan it this way, but this thread turned out to be a nice birthday surprise for Terri. You see, this past Thursday (March 27) was Terri's 51st birthday! After her last two birthdays (the 49th birthday surprise party which began the process of giving her cruise clues and the 50th birthday which began our cruise to Hawaii), Terri told me that she was so pleased with those birthdays that I never need to think about doing anything else for her birthdays again.

In spite of Terri's willingness to let me stop planning birthday celebrations, I of course can't resist the desire to give her a little something more. I had thought about doing a BVE on the Sapphire Princess for her birthday (as a way to say "goodbye" before this ship we enjoyed so much sails off to Asia) but I was too busy with other things to take the time to work out the details. In fact, I did precious little for her birthday this year, but Terri's attitude showed that she really meant it when she said she didn't expect more from me.

I did talk to her on her birthday about the possibility of doing one last BVE on the Sapphire next Thursday April 3, on its last day in LA before the Asia adventure. She was interested in doing that, but on two separate calls to Princess I was told that they are not offering a BVE for April 3 (in both cases I asked to be connected directly to the BVE department, but in both cases the agents insisted upon handling it themselves without transferring to the BVE department, so my past experience of getting bogus information from the non-BVE agents causes me to still kind of wonder if they gave me accurate information).

Even if we can't step on board the Sapphire one last time, Terri said she may still want to be there to say goodbye as she sails away. We'll see in a few days whether or not we find time for that.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank Renee publicly for giving Terri a birthday reminder of some of our fun times together. Thanks also to the rest of you who have continued to be interested in our story after such a long time.

Tim

Nice.

Welcome back to the forum, Tim. Hope to have you chime in more often. Thanks for the kind words.

I will get back to my BVE experience shortly.

I wanted to take this time to let everyone know that you can meet some really nice people on these threads. I have found that most passengers are nice, friendly, and willing to help you out in a bind. Now that I have cruised out of Los Angeles often, I am starting to see the same familiar faces. I have cruised with some folks that have become good friends (you know who you are). I am hoping to someday run across those CC members that are always on these boards. Until then, we will all enjoy sailing from the comforts of our homes through their writings.

Guess I don't know the lingo, but I give up...what is a BVE?

Guess I don't know the lingo, but I give up...what is a BVE?

It's a Bon Voyage Experience.

You can go onboard some of the ships when they are in port for turn around day. It cost a few bucks, but as you will hear from the OP, you get things like photos, wine with lunch, and I think a few extra trinkets. They money you spend doing this (When you sign up) will be put towards a future cruise (I think.) Keep reading as the Op posts. . .

Happy Birthday Terri! Nice to see your around still Tim. :D Your story of all that you did for your wife's surprise birthday was a joy to read. Thank you!

Still going to follow the rest of the BVE story! :) And yes I agree, there is a lot of positive on CC. Thank you all for sharing and helping.

Thanks for doing this review Renee. It brings back nice memories of the start of this cruise. Tim, it was nice meeting you and Terri in the embarkation lounge (we were the couple sitting one row away from you guys). Hope that you two get to cruise again soon. Looking forward to the finish of your story from the other thread Tim. Mahalo Renee, Tim and Terri. :cool:

I know that Renee didn't plan it this way, but this thread turned out to be a nice birthday surprise for Terri. You see, this past Thursday (March 27) was Terri's 51st birthday! After her last two birthdays (the 49th birthday surprise party which began the process of giving her cruise clues and the 50th birthday which began our cruise to Hawaii), Terri told me that she was so pleased with those birthdays that I never need to think about doing anything else for her birthdays again.

 

In spite of Terri's willingness to let me stop planning birthday celebrations, I of course can't resist the desire to give her a little something more. I had thought about doing a BVE on the Sapphire Princess for her birthday (as a way to say "goodbye" before this ship we enjoyed so much sails off to Asia) but I was too busy with other things to take the time to work out the details. In fact, I did precious little for her birthday this year, but Terri's attitude showed that she really meant it when she said she didn't expect more from me.

 

I did talk to her on her birthday about the possibility of doing one last BVE on the Sapphire next Thursday April 3, on its last day in LA before the Asia adventure. She was interested in doing that, but on two separate calls to Princess I was told that they are not offering a BVE for April 3 (in both cases I asked to be connected directly to the BVE department, but in both cases the agents insisted upon handling it themselves without transferring to the BVE department, so my past experience of getting bogus information from the non-BVE agents causes me to still kind of wonder if they gave me accurate information).

 

Even if we can't step on board the Sapphire one last time, Terri said she may still want to be there to say goodbye as she sails away. We'll see in a few days whether or not we find time for that.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to thank Renee publicly for giving Terri a birthday reminder of some of our fun times together. Thanks also to the rest of you who have continued to be interested in our story after such a long time.

 

Tim

Tim, my understanding is the BVE is now available on all sailings during 2014. They are capacity controlled so it is possible the BVE slots are all booked.

Tim, my understanding is the BVE is now available on all sailings during 2014. They are capacity controlled so it is possible the BVE slots are all booked.

The second Princess agent to whom I spoke last week told me that they don't offer BVEs on long sailings (the Sapphire's cruise to Asia which begins Thursday is 25 days). In my opinion, that may or may not be the case (and your speculation that all slots are booked is just as likely).

In my experience the Princess agents often give out inaccurate information, especially about BVEs. (For example, when I tried to schedule the BVE with Renee which is the subject of this thread, one Princess agent said that they "don't offer BVEs on small ships like the Star." Yes, she called the Star a "small ship.")

Tim

Thanks for doing this review Renee. It brings back nice memories of the start of this cruise. Tim, it was nice meeting you and Terri in the embarkation lounge (we were the couple sitting one row away from you guys). Hope that you two get to cruise again soon. Looking forward to the finish of your story from the other thread Tim. Mahalo Renee, Tim and Terri. :cool:

While we waited (somewhat impatiently) to board the Star it was such a nice surprise when you walked up and said that you recognized us from CC! :)

We do need to cruise again this year (even though we had thought that it would be years until our next cruise) to use our credits which are only available for 2014 sailings of 7 days or more! At this point our destination is still unknown.

Tim

It was nearing muster time. I went back to the room to get our life jackets. My cabin mate waited with Tim/Terri’s photos on Deck 7 overlooking the Piazza. I missed them by seconds. Unfortunately, their search for ELUA was unsuccessful. Later in the cruise, I had cocktails with Dave and Leialoha and had mentioned Terri and Tim. Much to my surprise, Dave said it thought he saw them (and began to describe Tim). What a memory! Now that is good PR. Dave and Leialoha were in the Horizon Court having lunch. I should have invited them to the MDR to join us for lunch. There is so much to think about when participating in a BVE; along with all the excitement of my pending cruise. Since this was my first Bon Voyage Experience, I did not know what to expect. And with the short notice (and the short duration of a BVE), I missed several great opportunities to accomplish “everything”. When I had time to look back on this day, there were so many things I could have done differently (after the fact). I am hoping that my entries will help others during their BVE.

Tim and Terri left the ship closer to 3:30 when they noticed the crew assembling by their stations for the muster drill (they weren’t even paged to leave). Although the Muster Drill was held on scheduled, the ship’s departure was delayed for several hours.

After all that rushing around, the Star left a couple of hours late. I was excited and frantic. Tim said that they would be waiting for us near the end of the channel. I again, kept in touch with them by texting our progress. I still had an informal Sail Away with our Roll Call near the Oasis Bar and I wanted to be upstairs in Skywalkers as we left the port. It was close to darkness when I started my search for them. All of a sudden, I hear a lot of screaming from a woman. Yup, Tiny Terri has a very loud voice. I was jumping up and down, screaming, and waving also. Unfortunately, I could not see the nice poster they had made for me. Everyone around me was excited too. They thought it was grand that someone was seeing them off too! I was very surprised they had stayed around so long. Their day started out so very early in the morning (or maybe they slept in their van the night before).

The second Princess agent to whom I spoke last week told me that they don't offer BVEs on long sailings (the Sapphire's cruise to Asia which begins Thursday is 25 days). In my opinion, that may or may not be the case (and your speculation that all slots are booked is just as likely).

 

In my experience the Princess agents often give out inaccurate information, especially about BVEs. (For example, when I tried to schedule the BVE with Renee which is the subject of this thread, one Princess agent said that they "don't offer BVEs on small ships like the Star." Yes, she called the Star a "small ship.")

 

Tim

Tim...I had this nagging feeling all week that I had something planned for Thursday, but did not enter it into my calendar. It wasn't until this morning that I realized we had talked about meeting for another BVE. Yikes!

Maybe I can send you off when you take your 7 day cruise this year.

Tim...I had this nagging feeling all week that I had something planned for Thursday, but did not enter it into my calendar. It wasn't until this morning that I realized we had talked about meeting for another BVE. Yikes!

 

Maybe I can send you off when you take your 7 day cruise this year.

I should have stayed in touch with you better, Renee. :o Up until about noon today, we were still hoping that we might find time to see the Sapphire Princess sail away one last time. But this time we just couldn't find the time to break away from our other responsibilities. :(

We did take about 45 minutes together to watch her on the bridge cam as she sailed down the channel, passing several places which have become so special to us over the last year or so. It looked to us like the captain was already in a hurry to leave LA, as our special places along the channel began to pass quite quickly. I tried to see if there were any people cheering the Sapphire on from the pier at the end of the channel, but the resolution of the webcam photo was too low to tell. Terri did notice the very moment that the message above the picture changed from "Los Angeles" to "Honolulu!" :)

From what I could tell, it seemed like an exceptionally beautiful day for a sailaway. We could see Catalina Island clearly even when the Sapphire was first turning down the channel. It looked like even the pilot boat was bidding her a special farewell, spinning circles around her.

Unfortunately, the Sapphire's passengers missed out on hearing "the voice." But soon Terri will likely have another opportunity. As we watched the Sapphire's view of Catalina and the sunset, we discussed going on another BVE, likely either on April 19 or May 3. (Both dates would be on the Crown Princess, a ship we have never seen before!) I'm leaning toward April 19, because it is another cruise to Hawaii.

If we take another BVE before we book our next cruise (which we need to book soon anyway because of our credits from the getaways), the cost of the BVE will be credited to us, so the temptation of another BVE is hard to pass up. :cool:

One way or another, hopefully we will see you again!

Tim

For anyone considering doing a BVE, I would highly recommend it. I remember Boat Days in Honolulu when I was a child. It was so exciting to visit someone arriving/leaving the islands on a Matson ship. There were streamers, coin divers, and throwing leis into the harbor as you sailed past Aloha Towers. There is none of that when leaving San Pedro or any of the Hawaiian Islands. You won’t have your own private bon voyage cheer squad unless Tim and Terri happen to be in the area.

Tim, Terri, and I were able to schedule a short 3 day cruise to Ensenada for January. It was great having more than a couple of hours with them. I saw them as I waited to board, we met for lunch (again, he helped me with mine and Terri’s), and we occasionally bumped into them during the cruise.

As for Tm and Terri, his thread has been closed. I received an email from him saying that they have been very involved with their ministry, organizing prayer vigils, and getting ready for Easter. He is looking forward to using his short 3 day cruise credit to reconnect with Terri on a one week cruise this year, sometime.

I know there is another thread that lists the current BVE schedule. As mentioned by Tim, I would ask to be connected to the actual department. The $39 incentive toward a 7 day or longer cruise make paying for the parking worth while. You truly do feel the excitement of being on a cruise ship, there is always something for lunch and dessert, and you are given a nice photo.

This is the end of my review. Thank you for staying with me as I wrote in segments. It is amazing how retirement has interfered with my free time! Loving every minute of it!