polmcs

New one for me on the Discovery TSE cruise…. I’m Elite and was in a suite. I got a phone call shortly after getting to my cabin. It was room service enquiring about my request to swap out items in the mini bar. I explained that I had made no such request, but as they were on the phone, I may as well give them my order. I said for mini bar #1 make all the alcohol vodka and for mini bar #2 make the alcohol all Stella Artois. A few hours later, a steward shows up with 20 vodkas for the 1st mini bar and 20 Stella’s for the 2nd mini bar! I think something got lost in translation. 🥳 I explained that I had only requested the alcohol swaps and had expected the water/soda to be delivered as normal. I had the Premium package, so I was never going to get through all the alcohol in a normal mini bar set up. Thankfully, they fixed things next morning. The mini bar vodka is nowhere near good enough to drink neat!

If ordering wine from the Plus menu in the MDR, it’s more likely to come from a box than a bottle. You can see the boxes lined up in the alcohol cage if you take the galley tour at the conclusion of the cooking demonstration show.

I just read on the TSE roll call (way behind with CC) that a whole bunch of folks incorrectly got an email from Princess stating that they had qualified for complimentary 360 dining. Perhaps that it why there was pushback on my partner, and perhaps others, even though she never received a retraction email. It all worked out in the end for us.

Or book online, pay for the reservation and when on board, go to the concierge/guest services and get the money put back onto your onboard as a refundable credit. That way, you ensure you get the restaurant you want at the time you want, rather than what’s left over when your board.

I was on the Discovery Princess for the TSE. I booked a full suite the day after the cruise was released for sail. I’d previously sailed on the Discovery and had previously eaten at 360. Back then, it was invitation only and you would be called about a week before the cruise to reserve a slot. This time it was different and could be booked online and was also available for anyone who wanted to pay. i didn’t realize this until too late and all the slots were booked in the app. Well the late seating ones. I also had to change the name of the 2nd passenger for the cruise in mid Jan which would have complicated things even more. Upon boarding, I went to the concierge to see if they could find some slots. I was advised that as I had booked early enough, it was complimentary for me, but as my travel companion had only booked after the cut off date, then they would have to pay. I indicated that it was simply a name change and not a new/additional booking. In fact, I showed them an email from Princess to my new travel companion that 360 was available to her on a complementary. I had to show that we both had the same reservation number before they relented and stated that it would be complimentary for both of us. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting a slot. As I mentioned in another thread, we were fortunate that they added a new time slot at lunchtime on the penultimate day of the cruise which we gladly accepted and thoroughly enjoyed.

Just saw on another thread that the cruise has only just been release, so I logged into my PCA and I can see pricing. Suites are already sold out and the only pricing I can see had Premium built into the fare.

My folio showed up in my email about 10 days after the cruise. I had already reached out to customer relations as the charge on my credit card was $5 more than when I checked my balance first thing on the morning of departure, so I already had a copy, albeit the version I was sent by Princess after my request was far more detailed than what you see in the app, or in the emailed folio. Turns out, my partner was charged $4, plus 72 cents gratuity for a coffee from the international cafe at 5:25AM despite us having a package. She bumped into Woz at the same time as he too was getting his caffeine fix. Perhaps the barista was star struck and hit the wrong button and inadvertently charged her for the coffee. I wonder if Woz had the same issue with his coffee! 😝 I requested a refund for the coffee charge, but Princess offered both of us a $25 onboard credit for our next cruise which I gratefully accepted. I was expecting the top deck to be absolutely packed during the TSE, but was pleasantly surprised by the amount of room we all had. I had no guilt about setting up my DwarfII telescope on a tripod. Pity it threw a wobbly about 2 mins before totally and the tracking mechanism went awol. I have yet to look and see what it did actually capture. I was lucky enough to secure an invite to the last sea day lunchtime 360 event. I had been before, but my partner had not. She absolutely adored the meal and the experience, so I’m glad we were able to attend. We also tried The Catch too as one of our two specialty meals as we upgraded from Plus to Premier. We also got the table right next to the atrium overlook and found it very noisy and despite them blocking off the walkway at one end of the restaurant, passengers would still negotiate the barrier and walk through the restaurant, or stop next to us and look over to watch what was going on down below. Right before our starters showed up, I requested to move to another table and that was granted. The rest of the meal was wonderful and definitely better than the Bistro that was there before. A charge for The Catch showed up on my folio despite have the Premium package, so I had to visit guest services to have that removed and the same thing happened with our 2nd speciality meal at Sabatini’s. I got the concierge to deal with that charge. All in all, minor glitches on what was a wonderful cruise.

Yes, the WC as it stands, is not at all appealing to me. Too many places on my bucket list have been dropped. I too will in all likelihood cancel. I did look at the 2026WC out of Sydney and although it’s currently scheduled to go through the Suez, that is subject to change. The issue with that itinerary is no Great Barrier Reef stop, no Norway stops, no Glasgow stop (I grew up a few miles from Greenock) and for some reason, they have SIX stops in Canada! I see the 2026WC out of LA is on the Coral, rather than the Island, but it’s currently not showing as available to book. I might need to look at some other cruise lines. I’ve already discounted Cunard as the itinerary did not appeal to me.

I recognize that view With a semi covered Caribe deck, which Grand class type ship are you on? When I was there, I was on the Tahitian Princess, so a much smaller ship.

My late wife and I did one in Honolulu on the Star one year. We were about halfway through the meal when the heavens opened up as a thunderstorm rolled through. Thankfully, we were on the Caribe deck, so it was just a case of dragging the tables and chairs under the overhang and we got to watch natures fireworks for the rest of the meal

Whale watching in Cabo around that time of year is my go to excursion every time. I would throughly recommend the sunset sail excursion. I did one last Feb and it was the most amazing experience. Whales galore and everyone aboard was game, despite the breezy conditions, to have a little bit of extreme sailing according to the captain and first mate, and they cut the engines and hoisted the sails for the return part of the journey. 😉

I just went into my total solar eclipse cruise for April 2024 and tried to reserve 360 for an evening after a port visit (high chance not a formal night) and despite being in a full suite, it shows that it will charge my credit card for the reservation

The middle one looks like 1 days gratuities for 2 (I haven’t sailed since Feb, so no idea on the current daily rates). The other days could be grats, plus say a drink at the bar, or grats and a purchase from a store onboard, etc.

If they continue to show pending and not actually charged, then they should drop off after a few days. As your room charge balance increases during the cruise, Princess will place a temporary authorization/ hold on your card, just to make sure that you are “good” to pay the final bill when it becomes due.

I’ve found that when booking excursions in advance of a cruise, the SHOBC can only be applied to the passenger who has the credit against their name. If I have say $100 SHOBC and I book a $50 excursion for both passengers in the reservation, it will take $50 of my OBC and apply it to my reservation and then ask me to pay the $50 for the other passenger, even though technically, I still have the other $50 of OBC in my account. No such issues if I wait until I board to use the OBC for both passengers assuming both onboard folios are paid by the same credit card.