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consmarci

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  • Posts

    506
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About Me

  • Location
    Dunedin, Florida
  • Interests
    cruising, reading
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Carnival, Princess
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    St. Thomas

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  1. Also, priority tenders, so you can walk on to the next tender showing your club orange card without getting on the line or needing a number for the next tender and waiting. Handy on sailings with many tender stops.
  2. Are come back and play offers limited to certain sailings? I've never had it happen before, but today was told certain sailings don't qualify when location and number of days fit the offer description. I was told to look for sailings without an A in voyage number. I don't even know where to find voyage number.
  3. I have not had good experience using aarp discount if we booked a Casino deal. Also stock CCL discount won't be accepted with a Casino deal. I'm not complaining (a free cabin from Casino is nice), but just so others know that it will most likely be not accepted if you apply and not to be surprised. If it is accepted, you just got lucky! Having just gotten off Rotterdam, the Customer Service line was long with people with printouts of their gift cards to be applied. Those who didn't know about it were intrigued as we all had plenty of time to chat while in line. I will say, it took awhile. There were 4 different copies of every transaction going to different departments and they all needed to be signed and stapled and on and on. Took about half hour for 6 gift cards to be put on our OBC. It was seen immediately on the navigator app, so you can really follow whether they did it correctly. I am going to inquire ahead of time if I can have them put on the account with an agent over the phone before we sail, because it would be so much easier. I will say, 10 percent off can really add up and then if you use a credit card that earns points/miles, it is even more savings, so if you can get those discounts, it really can make a nice difference. You can also pay ahead for spa, internet, specialty dining ahead using the gift certificates.
  4. Hi. We've been to Aruba many times, but not until 11pm. We snorkel, usually at Arashi, and shop around a bit. Rented a car and explored last time. Any suggestions of something unique to do?
  5. Wow! Why couldn't I figure that out? Thank you so much! All there and now I'm done!
  6. Can anyone tell me where I can go to "confirm" that I actually got the reservations that I made for each day?
  7. We were just in a sideways interior and it seemed the same size as a regular interior, just the space was used differently and "felt" larger. Across the hall there were special needs interiors and they were huge, as rolling in a wheelchair was necessary. Each ship has different situations. Sometimes you can google a specific cabin number and get lucky with a youtube video and there is a website halfacts and there are often pictures of the different cabins on different ships that are posted by previous voyagers. Space (we are overpackers, well I am at least 🙂 ) is never an issue for us. There are also really nice hooks on the walls and we bring our own magnetic hooks for added hanging items. (hats, backpacks, bathing suit drying, etc.)
  8. We just did CO on our Nieuw Statendam cruise in Europe where there were many tendered ports. That was really the only benefit we thought was truly of value to purchase CO. Not having to grab a tender ticket and wait was really nice. The one unique entree is not a big deal at all. Most don't order it, maybe a dozen a night the maitre d said. CO actually was crowded and we had to wait for tables, even late, so you can be seated quicker in main diningroom. Many just chose to go there when she said there was a wait. I don't see a benefit in a cabin upgrade within the same category, but that's just me. We're hardly in the cabin. We did not notice noise in either the main diningroom or CO. We also were never offered a choice of table as it was too crowded for an option like that. The service was impeccable in both places.
  9. They do limit. Called to upgrade and they said no more available. On Rotterdam. In our experience it was never crowded.
  10. Just called. Not good on previous bookings or casino bookings. I called back, same story. I was told yu have to preregister and get approved, but new bookings only. Get preapproved in the area with military and teacher preapproved OBC. If anyone has success, can you please let us know? The article made no mention of previous bookings or casino not included.
  11. Just changed dates last week. It was paid in full, so they took new payment and will refund original payment in a week or so, we hope. Silly process when funds could have been transferred, but no fees to change, so we didn't push back.
  12. Well, just an update that it didn't work out. I spoke to someone who runs the giftcard area and she said that even though it says giftcards can be used for prepurchasing shore excursions, internet, they can't and won't be usable for spa. That the verbage on the site is a bit ambiguous and perhaps a comma is needed, but it clearly states that. Well, it clearly states they can be used for precruise spa, but arguing was not going to get me anywhere and although disappointing, not the end of the world. There are definitely real world problems larger than this. I told her that a few people on cruisecritic said they successfully had an agent do it and she said to send her proof of that! Not worth my time to look up the old posts, but when I told her that as a CCL loyalist, we know that HAL accepts gift cards for anything and she wondered about that. I believe Carnival does as well. Anyway, no discounted spa unless we use a credit card, so beware if you are considering gift cards. Yes, you can save alot of money, but if the goal is to get a precruise discount in the spa with a giftcard, it won't happen. Very unfortunate as it is an easy fix for Princess to hire anyone who codes for computer systems. (not me) Just on a sidenote, having spoken to several employees in customer service and on chat, my experience was that these people are clueless for the most part and send you on a goosechase to an email or phone number that ultimately doesn't work. Many were hired during the pandemic and don't really know much and look up answers on a wikipage, so any difficult or nuanced problem won't have answers on the wiki and that's where the difficulty lies. Then, they call a supervisor who also has no clue how to assist if they want to. There are many employees that do a great job for basic questions, but very few specialists who can figure out the tough stuff. Happy cruising and thanks for input. Always appreciate good perspectives and helpful ideas, as that's what these boards are truly for in my opinion.
  13. I was told to call the gift card line again. I did and they are 3rd party and say to call Princess customer service. Princess customer service says to call the gift card line. I am not a quitter, but I can't do this anymore. I warn anyone reading this. DO NOT BUY A GIFT CARD to use for SPA services pre cruise. I am not a "coder", but a simple button the checkout screen would solve this problem. Their personnel is untrained and just say anything they feel like saying. I'd really love anyone's advice, but I don't think this can be handled, unfortunately, as this has tainted my impression of Princess. This is our 30th cruise with the Carnival Corporation. Princess needs to figure out their customer service issues.
  14. It only got worse today and the agent now put the gift card funds on my account as OBC and it can't be used to purchase anything before the cruise. I was on hold for 1 hour 20 minutes and then got disconnected. She then raised the price of my cruise 500.00 and I'm holding now trying to get this handled. It was paid in full and now the summary says if I don't pay, my cruise will be cancelled. I will never buy a gift card for Princess again. It isn't worth the savings to do it with AARP. My time is worth alot more than 50.00. I don't even know how to find someone to call who can help at this point.
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