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Pierlesscruisers

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  • Location
    WA state
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Princess
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    All of them

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  1. Thanks for that information. That said, Tom, there are a couple of things about what you said, however. While what you said about the stock benefits is true about being the case for cruises on any of the lines that are part of the Carnival Corporation and I should have mentioned that fact. Thanks for adding that. The military benefits I mentioned ($50, $100, & $250 per cruise, depending on the length of the cruise) are not, however, available on any of the lines owned by the Carnival Corp. As an example, Holland America has no on-board credit plan on their ships for veterans. As to On Board Credit, while they do offer a wide range of discounts on purchases on the ship that I will admit that provide the same benefits as OBC, there is no way that they can be spent anywhere else but on the ship. You might consider that as being "picky". 😁 On the other hand, a discount off the price of the cruise could save you a lot of money, even way more than $250 on a cruise! You got me there. Tom
  2. One thing that is "nice to know" about how Princess handles OBC is that there are 2 types of OBC, Non-refundable and Refundable. Princess always uses Non-refundable credit first and doesn't use any Refundable credit until all of the Non-refundable has been used up. Any of the Refundable that is left at the end of the cruise is returned to the cruiser by a check after the end of the cruise. The Carnival Corp. stock OBC is Non-refundable while the Military Veteran Benefit OBC is Refundable. My wife and I, both military retirees were on a 14 day cruise one time and received 2 checks from Princess about 4-6 weeks after the end of the cruise for a total of around $495! That was a nice surprise. The only cruise lines that offer that military benefit are Princess, Cunard, and P&O Australia. At least that was as of the last I knew. Tom
  3. It makes no difference whether you will be getting off in Canada or not The ArriveCan app must be completed before departure because you will be in Canadian waters and thus in Canada. They will help you at the pier if you're unable to complete the app prior to arrival. I'm attaching a PDF that should be of assistance to you in completing it. Tom Completing the ArriveCAN app information.pdf
  4. It also applies to British and Canadian veterans also. Tom
  5. It, the Veteran's Benefit, is linked to your Captain's Circle number. If you scheduled your cruise through a travel agent and the agent did not add your CC number to your cruise info, then that might be the reason you didn't get credited with the benefit. Tom
  6. I'm sorry to read that, Eaglecw, not because you don't plan to ever take another Princess shuttle to pier 91 again, but because you obviously didn't have a good experience this time! I apologize for any problems that any of my fellow employees might have contributed to your bad experience. Personally, I try and do everything I can do to make passengers I interact with have the best possible cruise. I would like to hear what problems you had with your shuttle ride to the pier if you would care to share it/them with me. I don't know if I can provide you with an email address and stay within forum rules or not but you could try and send me the info at my name here at the g mail link if that makes sense to you. I'm not a boss of any type but I can get it to the boss. Again, I'm sorry that you had a bad experience and hope it never happens to you again on any other cruise you ever are on. Oh, the company name is SMS not SES. 🙂 Tom
  7. "Do we *have* to set luggage out in the hallway pre-cruise? Can we not just self-carry it down in the morning to meet the bus to the ship?" I don't believe that the procedures at the Westin have you set your bags outside your room. I believe that they process their bags the same way we do at the DoubleTree: have then inside the room close to the door and with your Princess tags already on them & the hotel staff will pick up the tagged bags and take them down to the truck that will take them to the pier and load them onto the ship. Make sure that you read the Princess letter that the hotel should give you when you check in. It will tell you where to be and what time to be there on debarkation day at the hotel. Yes, you can take your bags onto the bus with you, but to what advantage? Let the bags be collected and transported by the staff and not have to worry about them! You are on a cruise. Relax & enjoy yourselves! All you need to do is make sure that all of your travel & medical documents stay with you because you will need them at the pier to complete your processing!! Tom
  8. At the hotels in Seattle, the bags are collected from inside the rooms by the hotel staff, taken down to the back of the hotel and after the Princess reps double check the bags, they are loaded onto a truck where they are taken to the pier and loaded onto the ship. They're transported separately from the passengers. Tom
  9. To be completely honest, I would highly recommend that anybody going on a cruise from Seattle is to arrive a day early and stay at a hotel that you arrange through Princess. The reason I say that is for a couple of reasons. First of all, that takes a lot of stress off of you as it reduces the possibility of having a canceled flight, missed connection, weather delay, etc. causing you to have to worry about missing your embarkation on the start of your cruise. It is not worth causing you any unnecessary stress/strain of possibly missing your cruise. Get in, get a good night's sleep and wake up refreshed, relaxed and ready to go on your cruise. By staying at a Princess hotel, you can purchase a transfer from the hotel to the pier with a minimum of effort. As an example of what happens when you do this, let me explain what happens to you when you stay at the DoubleTree hotel at SeaTac airport. I know that the following explanation is true and accurately reflects what occurs at one specific hotel at Seattle because I am one of the 2 people who work there every Sat. & Sun. during the Alaska cruise season. The other person who does that job is my wife, Dianna. Do we promise that there will never be any problems or delays? No, of course not, but we will do everything possible to minimize and problems and their effects on Princess passengers. You arrive at the airport and pick up your luggage at the airport and catch the shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel. The shuttle runs every 30 minutes, and the hotel is right across the street from the airport so you're there very soon. When you check in at the hotel, you get a letter from Princess explaining what will happen the next morning and where to go. The next morning you make sure that your bags are packed & tagged with your Princess bag tags are all packed and left inside your room and go downstairs at 8 AM to meet the Princess representatives. There, you will meet the reps. and get briefed where and when to meet them to catch their bus to Pier 91 to process onto your ship. Starting at 8 AM, the hotel personnel will begin picking up all of your tagged bags from your rooms and taking them downstairs to where they will be taken to be placed on a truck where they will later be taken to the pier where they will be transferred to the ship. The next time you will see your bags will be at your stateroom on your ship. They will not leave the hotel until the bags have been okayed by the Princess reps. After all the Princess passengers who have purchased their transfers from Princess have been checked in by the representatives, they will be briefed as to where and when they will meet to be loaded on the buses to the pier. At the designated time (normally 10 AM) and place the Princess cruisers will be loaded onto the buses, briefed and then transported to Pier 91 for final processing and departure on their cruise. Normally, the buses leave the hotel at around 10:30 AM, but that may vary due to traffic or other situations. Result? No muss, no fuss, no problems with luggage (they will all probably be at the pier before you will!) Any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to provide you an accurate answer. Tom
  10. There are 2 differences between the Veterans' Benefit and the Carnival stock credit. First of all, the stock credit must be applied for every time which makes sense since it could be sold at any time, and secondly the stock OBC is non-refundable which means that it is a "spend-it-or lose-it" OBC where the balance left over from Veterans' Benefit is returned to the cruiser in a check about 6-8 weeks after the end of the cruise if its not all spent. On a similar subject, Princess uses up all of a cruiser's non-refundable OBC before using any of their refundable OBC which I believe is a nice thing! Tom
  11. Unless things have changed in the last year or so, that is not correct. My wife and I are both retired military and both have been getting them on every cruise we've been on. I quote from the Princess website in the restrictions portion of the Military Benefit section, "This offer is valid for a maximum of two military personnel per booking." Tom
  12. Thanks for the info on Captain Tuvo, Buckeye! Tom
  13. While the vast majority, if not all, ship captains are competent, some are more personable than others. Some, you seldom, if ever, see on the ship others are more personable and enjoyable to be around. As an example of the latter is Captain Tuvo who is, the last I knew, on the Sky Princess. You will definitely know when he is the captain of the ship you are on when he makes any announcements on the ship because he always starts off with a "You-who" at the start of the announcement and ends it with a "Bye-bye." He is involved with his passengers and has been known to even sit down and call a few numbers when Bingo is being played. I would suspect that he is someone who would be a pleasure to work under also but that is a supposition on my part. The fact that he may appear just about anywhere at anytime on his ship seems, to me at least, that he feels confident in his crew and staff and that makes me feel safe on his ship. That is why I like to know who the captain is. Others may have other reasons. Tom
  14. Seattle Express finally got back to me and here is what the lady said when I asked about cost of getting from your hotel to Pier 91. "Unfortunately, We do not provide service from this hotel to the pier. With this hotel so close to the pier, the most cost effective way is Uber/Taxi or Lyft." Hope this helps you a bit. Today was a beautiful day in Seattle with not a bit of rain and lots of sunshine. Hope that it's the same for you next Sat/Sun! Tom
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