Rubynic

2 hours ago, daiB said:

Hi, go now and do it, opened up this morning sometime. 😎

 

Gan Canny

Dai

Thank you - I’ll check it now. We’ve never been given a boarding time of 4pm before so just wanted to make sure we could get booked. Fingers crossed now for the 710 Club & Olive Grove when we’re finally onboard🤞

11 hours ago, daiB said:

As long as you can go to the early or late show in the theatre you should be OK only the 8.30 shows seemed full. BTW we are on Iona in 11 days as well

Unfortunately it is the 8.30 show we want to try & go to. Out of interest are you able to book entertainment  or is it not working for everyone ?

Thank you for your reply. I have checked again today but still nothing available to book. I guess I’ll just keep checking. Was hoping to get some stuff booked as are travelling on the coach with Intercruises & have an estimated arrival time of 4pm !! Didn’t want to miss out due to our late arrival.

On 9/24/2023 at 8:24 AM, Selbourne said:

Yes, we were able to pre-book entertainment for our Iona cruise last month, but bookings didn’t open until the Monday (the dining reservations having opened at midnight Friday / Saturday. 
 

However, it’s worth noting (based on our recent experiences on both Iona and Britannia) that the bookings that you make often have no bearing to what actually ends up happening on the cruise! Shows often end up happening on completely different days to those you have booked and on the first night on Iona the show was not the one we had booked but was a completely different one that hadn’t even been bookable on the cruise Personaliser. Usually the daily Horizon schedule shows the correct show, but even that was incorrect on the first day on Iona!

 

One final tip. The headliner and guest act shows are under ‘Entertainment’ on the Personaliser, but there was an additional theatre show called ‘Wavelength’ (a game show that was actually quite entertaining due to the entertainment manager who was very funny). This appeared under a different part of the Personaliser (from memory ‘Experiences’) so I nearly missed it. They put it on at 2pm on the last sea day, so we watched it prior to going to the 3pm Afternoon Tea in Epicurean (which we also enjoyed). 

Has anyone recently been able to book shows/entertainment prior to their cruise ? This was available earlier in the year when we sailed on Iona - details were on my P&O 2 weeks before the cruise departed. We are sailing again on Iona but the only option available to book is The Limelight Club.

I don’t know if things are different in the UK - they usually are !! - but we can ring up & add Princess Plus up to 72 hours before sailing. I usually do it the week before to make sure I can get through. At least then if anything happens & you have to amend/cancel the cruise you’ve not committed as much financially.

We have just disembarked Enchanted Princess and any refundable balances under $250 can be obtained from Customer Services onboard on the last night/morning of the cruise.

10 hours ago, Jazzytelly said:

 

Unfortunately I really don't want OBC whether refundable or not as dollars are no good to me I don't know when I will use again. I already have hundreds of dollars in cash to give the crew that we never used from our Covid cancelled Hawaii cruise

I’m also in the UK & was unable to purchase the MedallionNet on the App with my 50% Elite discount. When I rang they said they were unable to charge me the reduced price - I had to pay in full & get the 50% refunded as OBC when onboard. The only alternative offered was to wait until I was onboard then I would only pay the reduced price. I guess if you have loads of OBC that is an option for you but I believe it is dearer onboard than if you pre-purchase. So a lose/lose situation for UK passengers where the App just does not work to purchase in advance. I guess as most passengers from the UK seem to be purchasing the Plus fare which includes the internet, it’s not a priority to come up with a fix.

51 minutes ago, CruiseNYC said:

I'm just catching up on the review here.  Sounds amazing.  We'll be in a Sky Suite on Enchanted this Fall.  Can you please tell me more about the Hot Tub and Pool on Deck 17?  I don't see it on the Deck plan.  

Thanks in advance!

The hot tub is actually on Deck 18 - just along from one of the access doors from the Sky Suite. The nearby pool is the Retreat Pool on Deck 17. Can access via outside stairs just past the hot tub,

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Hmmm... I was wondering about this. Do you mean to say that, if you wanted to watch MUTS from your balcony you would actually be able to hear it well and understand what was being said? It seems to me that would make it way too loud for everybody else. I was hoping they piped the sound into the Sky Suite for you so you could watch if you wanted without having to blast out everybody else. It seems to be something they could easily accomplish and they could even provide a volume control for the Sky Suite passengers.

 We have been on Sky Princess twice this year & the MUTS sound (and the DJ music on deck)  is very loud. We could just about hear it on Dolphin Balcony & on the pool deck it was often was possible to have a conversation while the movie was playing.

9 hours ago, CarlosTheGerbil said:

Can I also ask the same question for Sky Princess please?

Thanks in advance 😉

On the previous Sky Princess cruise the shows were at 8.15 & 10.15

Does anyone have experience of 2 passengers receiving Shareholder Benefit for the same cabin ? We are 4 adults in a Suite - 2 are shareholders. Only one has had the benefit applied. I seem to remember reading somewhere that if the surnames are different (so separate households) both shareholders could receive the benefit. We are in the UK if that makes any difference. Thanks

1 hour ago, alpha whiskey said:

We are deck 9 aft in August.

Although I am sympathetic to the situation and understand that they want the larger balconies for isolated people to enjoy, I would hope they would give us the heads up sooner rather than later in the hope that there might be a chance of having a better choice of cabin to switch to.

Does anyone know how far in advance they let you know of changes?

 

 

We are sailing on Sky Princess in April and have a Deck 9 Aft Cabin. We have not been notified of any changes but there are very few cabins currently showing as available to book. We chose this specific cabin over a year ago & will be very disappointed if we are moved at short notice.

9 hours ago, kevinyork said:

Hoping for some advice and views on whether I have got this right.

 

We are booked on Sky for 30th April 2022.  We’ve paid a non refundable deposit of course.  It’s looking very likely we are not going to be able to go on that sailing.  
 

 

Do people think I’ve got my head round this correctly and this is the way we can avoid losing our deposit?

 

Hi - I think you’re right with what you describe. Will have to make final payment to invoke ‘Book with Confidence’.

If you have an idea of what other cruise you would want to move to it might be worth ringing Princess first to speak to them. I was told that you might have to pay a new deposit on the replacement cruise while the refund was being processed & the FCC built. And you have to use the FCC & sail by the end of Dec 22 so time could quickly run out. You’ll probably be charged £100 admin fee to amend the booking but that may be better than paying over another 15% deposit. Any cruise after 30th April is not covered by Book with Confidence so another deposit might be at risk. We’re in a similar situation - just waiting & watching for now 🤞

8 hours ago, downsmead said:

In the past U.K. customers have had to contact Princess to ‘claim’ any credits due to them, they are not automatically refunded like USA customers. 

I’ve had to contact them myself previously to get credit balances refunded. I thought I’d wait the 2-6 weeks advised just in case things had improved.  Also getting through to anyone on the phone or by email at the moment is a nightmare anyway. I just don’t understand why they didn’t refund to the original payment method.

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

 

According to folks on recent Alaskan sailings, the Ultimate Balcony Dinner was NOT available.

They were giving those like yourself who pre-paid, full refunds and a free specialty dinner.

 
We had pre-booked the UBD on our Regal Princess UK seacation in August. It was cancelled onboard & the payment credited to our on board account. This left us with a credit balance when we disembarked - 5 weeks later we’re still waiting for this to be repaid. And there was no offer of a free specialty dinner instead. Maybe this is just the process in the UK but I would cancel & get the money refunded to your credit card.

The excursions are charged to your credit card in $ so it would be better to use a Halifax Clarity or similar card so you are not charged additional exchange fees. Or if you have on board credit you can use this to ‘pay’ for the excursions. Everything else is charged in £s. It is worth noting that the exchange rate for these is fixed depending when you booked - for a while now it has been approx $1.22 to £1. The current exchange rate is actually higher than this - if this remains the case then you would be better purchasing drinks packages, paying tips etc when you are onboard in $ and charging them to the Clarity card. Hope that helps 😊

We have sailed Princess the last couple of years & they put kettles & tea/coffee making facilities in the cabins when sailing from Southampton. And if you have previously sailed P&O your past Cruises may count towards Captains Circle level. Love Princess & the mix of nationalities onboard makes for a great cruise.

We also went to Santa Barbara Resort in Curacao & had a great day. It was really peaceful & quiet - we pretty much had private bar staff who brought us drinks on the beach & the food was excellent. And a choice of beach or pools. We also booked through resort for a day - just paid  a deposit & then balance on arrival. Would definitely return if we visited Curacao again.

I have recently cancelled an excursion which had been paid for on a credit card. The refund was processed in less than a week.

Is any soda brought onboard supposed to be consumed in your cabin (like the bottle of wine) or are you OK to drink it in the bars/lounges ?

We are also on a cruise with an overnight in Amsterdam in Feb 2020 - have not had any notification of the change yet. If this change is due to the €8 tourist tax I would rather be given the option pay this myself than spend hours queuing for & transferring to & from the ship on buses. Like others I am not happy to have lost the convenience of just walking off the ship to the city centre.

6 hours ago, madmacs said:

A group of us are with Puerto Montt Excursiones (Denis Purtov). Just wondered if you went with him and how it went. Was it worth going up the volcano?

 

Thanks

Hi - we were on the 20/12 Star cruise & had a private excursion in Puerto Montt. We rode the chairlift up to the top of the volcano & had beautiful views. There are 2 options - part way up takes approx 30 mins return and about an hour if you go to the top. I think it cost us £20 each. Have a great cruise.

Paul Chandler-Burns left Sapphire Princess on Saturday for approx 2 months. Duke Christopher is taking over till Paul returns for the rest of the season sailing from Southampton.

I have pre-booked the Ultimate Balcony Dinner for our July Caribbean sailing. I had to search a bit on my personalised but found it under the Culinary Delights section of the Onboard Reservations. Had to pay on c card though instead of using OBC.