Cruise Raider

I will .. am waiting patiently for now. I have quite a bit of refundable OBC coming back to me so, am hoping if I don’t get the folio, I will soon get my check from Bottomline.

I sure hope so, too! I can’t imagine they would just take it away. We cruised on 3 cruises before this one so far this year and have always gotten our folios sent back by email within a day or two of disembarkation. I know they were having some system issues on this cruise as evidenced by all the in transit passengers getting charged for using their package on April 3rd. Perhaps that is the issue. Guest services got them all removed but they all had to be done manually .. on our bill, it was quite the chore as we were definitely in a celebratory mood. 😆

Agreed!

Now that we’ve been home from the perfect cruise experience, I have a couple of issues we’ve learned about since returning home. I will definitely keep my focus on all the positives and won’t let these couple issues color my experience in a negative light .. but here goes! We found out our CVP sent us an ultimate balcony breakfast but not until after the cruise. Our first room steward was so very good, so not sure it was him that dropped the ball. We never knew about it until we got back home as there was no card sent to our cabin to let us know about it. Also, we won on the Princess Prizes but no instructions on how to collect this and no notification from the Princess concierge as noted under ‘Prizes’ in our app. it’s been nearly a week since we’ve been home and hoping my research on how to collect our prize will pan out. I don’t think they are trying to renege on the prize, it’s just not been handled very well. I’m still not sure if my efforts on how to collect it has worked as I left a message and later, sent in a form and haven’t heard anything back as of yet. I will give it a couple of weeks before I see if my efforts paid off. Lastly, we never received a post cruise folio in our email post cruise, nor has anyone else that we know of. I did take a screen shot on the last morning but, have had changes after the fact on that on previous cruises. I want to make sure that what we saw on our folio via the app is final.

I have one more addition to my wish list that could be easily accomplished. I really need a couple more places on the post cruise survey for commendations for specific crew members. 5 areas of service are just not enough and I always feel someone that has made our cruise special is being left out. I also learned that if you don’t fill out your post cruise survey within 3 days of disembarkation, the crew never sees your comments. While I understand it, it’s not always easy to get to it within 3 days while also unpacking, doing laundry, cooking meals, sorting mails and paying bills, etc. If we fly to get home from our cruise, I always work on it at the airport. It takes me at least 2 hours to fill it out completely. Anyway, 5 areas for the commendations are not enough. I wish Princess would add a few more options to this.

When they were pushing the Clos Du Bois Chardonnay in the packages, I didn’t want it for a couple of years after that. Now, I would love it if they served it. I have found Kendall Jackson by the glass on one ship. I’d be more than ok with that but it’s not fleetwide. The Mer Soliel with the yellow label (not the silver) is also quite nice, better than the Stags Leap they serve in the MDR, but they no longer have it by the glass. We always purchase at least the Plus Package and usually upgrade to the premier package on the Royal class ships where the casual dining venues are better. But, not being able to get a good Chardonnay by the glass is a bit disconcerting. I can always find a good red, though… so, there is that!

Wow, it’s so much better than the Flowers chard!

I fear the same may happen to Rombauer since Gallo bought them. It’s yet to be seen but I am assuming it may nit be for the better as far as the wine is concerned.

Flowers is far from being a premium Chardonnay. We used to be able to be able to get Rombauer, the best Chardonnay ever made. But, seriously, Wente Riva Ranch (@@$14 bottle), and even Bogle (@$9 a bottle) and many Napa Valley local wines are far superior to Flowers, which lacks any distinction of a great Chardonnay, are so much better at a far better price. Well, anything is better than that Canyon Road .. but that’s not saying too much, as it is undrinkable. I’m not even a wine snob but really, that stuff is garbage. I can sometimes find an unadvertised Hartford Chardonnay, which is great, but I think I’ve drank the whole stock on several different Princess ships.

Your planning enhanced our experience hundredfold! We will forever be grateful for all that you both did! Such an amazing experience and not just the eclipse day

Whereas they used to freely show us, they now keep those lists a big well guarded secret. I think that know that people like me book a whole slew of them at one time. Not sure why that would bother them unless they have a quota of how much they wish to get out of each passenger. I can’t really blame them but the only way we can cruise often is to get the those smokin deals. Anyway, we will be going on our last two half off deals starting this Saturday.

Many are still there from when they were Princess employees. But, you are right, some are just interested in selling those packages that their current employer now offers. They just don’t make sense for us as the only time we really stay in hotels in when we go to a casino where the room is comped.

The last time was in October 2023 .. so, about 6 months ago.

There was a time last year when they had 50% off on certain cruises only if they were booked while onboard. The deal was so good, I booked about 11 of the In total. Even the plus package fare was half off. now, it’s hard to get them to show us those listing and there is nothing like we saw last year. The cruise fare is all that is discounted now and most of them are nowhere near half. There are some sailings that have some additional OBC if they can add you to a group. I saw where you may be able to view some sailings on the TV in your stateroom that are on special but I can’t really speak to that if it’s a special deal or not. Since they are pretty much filling ships to capacity, I’m not sure we are going to see the deals that we found in the last couple of years.

It’s actually a really good question. I’ve seen where others have done just that. But the room distribution may be so close to your sailing, you may not have enough time. You can always put in bids on multiple room choices when you place your initial bid.