kitty2264

3 hours ago, Syracusefan44 said:

The last thing they need is a large group of people standing in line immediately after boarding hoping to reserve a lounge chair in The Sanctuary.

 Funny, after all this time, even standing in line outside the sanctuary sounds good.

Princess indicates in their Alaska cancellations release that they will automatically rebook passengers on the same cruise for 2022.  The question that occurs to me is that those cruises for 2022 are already available for booking and at least partially filled.  Therefore, where will those rebooked passengers go?  Will they bump passengers already reserved for 2022 sailings? I wouldn't think so.

5 hours ago, freedom750 said:

The first thing I miss is arriving at the pier and seeing the ship.  Even though I’ve done 24 cruises with Princess I become a child again when I see the massive floating palace waiting to greet me as if I’m something special.  Waiting to take me on a 5* adventure.  The  walk up the gangplank and the greeting, smiles and welcome from the staff keeps the smile on my face.  And I look into the eyes of my wife of 48 years knowing that we are going to have the best week of our lives ( again).   And then a walk on the deck to look at the land we’ll be leaving and the ocean where we’ll be going and the deep sense of peace that washes over me.  No stress.  No pressure.  No obligations. No deadlines. That’s the first couple hours and it just gets better from there.  

Well said!!

I really love and miss walking through that black door at the port that leads to the gangway.  Beyond that, pretty much everything is just "icing on the cake".

30 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

Look at https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=GP.  It shows the location of the fire doors.  This is for the Dolphin deck.  The Caribe is similar.  The fire door location shows the location of the firewall.  The two cabins on either side of the firewall will have their bathrooms back to back as well as the beds.  The fire wall is between D530 and D602 (notice how the numbers change denoting a block of rooms between firewalls).  D604 and D606 have their bathrooms back to back. D602 and D606 will have the bathroom/bed on the right.  D604 will have the bathroom/bed on the left. This is the same for all decks with cabins.  All cabins have their bathrooms back to back with the next cabin.

You are right on the money with that explanation

On 1/24/2021 at 7:17 AM, Jadn13 said:

A view we all need right now

 

https://www.ftlauderdalewebcam.com

 

https://www.portevergladeswebcam.com

 

Happy Sunday!

I look at those most every day.  I also find St. Marten and Nassau pretty soothing.

https://www.portstmaartenwebcam.com/

https://www.portnassauwebcam.com/

Can anyone describe the experience of disembarking at Port Everglades during a b2b cruise.  I'm curious about getting back in to secure area at the port if we walk into Ft. Lauderdale to shop.  Also when getting back to the ship do we simply get in line with arriving passengers or is there a different arrangement for reboarding (in-transit) passengers.

We really didn't find the lights objectionable.  The light was very soft and didn't pose any problem in our cabin, and we were directly under them.  That is in our opinion, of course.

We were in cabin R422 directly under the Sea Walk on the Regal Princess.  The pics show you exactly how much light pervades the balcony.

I come from a family with 11 children.  Every Christmas eve we all would gather at Dad's house in the country for a party.  Each sibling would bring way too much food and treats and the day was spent eating and opening gifts and usually an impromptu touch football game, weather permitting.  Christmas Day would then be spent with our individual families for our own private celebrations, but invariably almost everyone would eventually would show up out at Dad's so he wouldn't be alone on Christmas Day. 

Dad passed away a couple years ago and that Christmas dynamic was lost so we all seem to do our own thing now.  We all miss those Christmas eve get-togethers.

With Covid concerns, this year will be just the two of us and one daughter who lives nearby with her husband and our two grandkids and their border collie Percy.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Reading the article from CNN about cruise resumption in US waters shows some hope for future cruising.  One item caught my attention was the idea of "mock cruises".

"Later phases involve "mock voyages," with volunteers playing the role of passengers to test virus mitigation strategies on trips. Once ships have met certain requirements, they will be certified to begin operations with real passengers."

I have to wonder where these "volunteers" will come from and where might I sign up.  

7 hours ago, Thrak said:

Didn't know about the penny - although I was, of course, familiar with the phrase. Calls were a dime when I was a kid. Candy bars were a nickel. I could ride my bike around, scrounge a few soda (pop for those in the midwest) bottles, turn them in at the store for 3 cents each, and buy candy. (Actually we didn't say "soda" either. We called everything "Coke". Can I get a coke? Okay, what kind do you want? Ummm...  A Creme Soda. Of course everything was in a bottle. It was sooooooooooooo much better.) There were a few "higher end" candy bars that cost a dime but I rarely purchased those. 50 cents ($0.50) would by 10 candy bars. Wow. Compared to today things were cheap. Of course, compared to today, wages were low. If I had my current (not real big) retirement pay in those days I would have been really well off. My wife remembers her dad talking about "if he had a ton of money" buying a $50k house. These days that's not even a luxury car, let alone a luxury house.

 

Sigh... Sidetracked again.

I'm older than you, I guess.  We only got two cents a bottle when I was a kid but tootsie pops were two cents also so it worked out, unless I had my little brother tagging along, then I had to search twice as long.

Do you get two liquor set-ups in a suite if you are Captains Circle elite?  My wife and I are going to be in a suite for the first time on the Enchanted in Nov 21.  It will be the third attempt to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary.  We have cruised many time with Princess but never in a suite and we are really looking forward to it.

We were on the Royal most of Nov 2018.  We did see the Janos Quartet from Hungary but I do not recall a female singer with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgUuBWGZXYo

We were scheduled to be on that same cruise in March and it was cancelled the day before we were to fly to Florida.  We initially made the decision to take the 225% FCC but after a month to mull it over we changed our mind and changed our request to 100% FCC & 100% cruise fare repaid to us.  The big difference, of course, is that decision to change came long before Princess ever got around to processing our refund in the first place.

I imagine there are a lot of cruisers who are wondering if they will ever be able to take advantage of their FCC.  At our age, we didn't know if our health would be good enough to travel whenever cruising resumes or if Princess would still be around.

I wish you the best on your quest but wonder if that sort of a request might set a precedence that Princess would not want to see happen.

1 hour ago, ssawjo said:

Why do you say that?  I would like to reserve a Southern Caribbean cruise on her sailing on Nov. 30, 2021.  On the website it is cheaper than the one just cancelled on the Sky and same itinerary, same cabin.

We just reserved that same Enchanted Princess  cruise 11/30/2021 after having cancelled the cruise on the Sky Princess.

46 minutes ago, MCC retired said:

We had M407 angled balcony on the Sky in Feb.

Yes , a bit more room out there and a great view forward .

Grab one if you can.

Agree with MCC.

We got our email the day before the elite booking window opened on Jul 20 and our PVP called first thing on Tuesday.  She told us there had been a problem with the website for several hours.  We booked a Nov 21 cruise on the Enchanted Princess.  Our Princess vacation planner has been very good at keeping us in the loop.

The first time we used the Medallion, I had to go back through the Guest check-in on the Princess website a couple times and finally found something I had forgotten to complete.

3 hours ago, franktown said:

I believe you have a additional 30 days to make your decision.  Princess has changed the final payment date to 60 days from 90 days for all cruises before April 30 2021.  The website has all the info under Cruise With Confidence.

Yes, we do have until 12/10 to make final payment.

On 6/26/2020 at 7:18 PM, oskidunker said:

People need to face reality. There will not be a vaccine until early next year. There will be no cruises until there is a vaccine. 
 

I agree with "oskidinker".  It is illogical the cruise lines would, or be would be allowed, to start up again until Covid-19 vaccine is available.  I think our next cruise scheduled for Feb 8th is still very questionable. Additionally, when Nov 10th comes around and it is time for me to make final payment, I am going to have to consider whether I want to potentially get back into "the waiting for another refund" situation should it be cancelled.  Hopefully by November we will have a better view of where things are headed.

We had prepaid our gratuities for our Mar 14th cruise using PayPal.  Princess refunded our EZAir and port taxes fairly soon after the cancellation, but not the cruise fare, of course (option 2) and not the gratuities.  I asked Princess via email about the gratuity refund and heard nothing and then inquired two weeks later and again heard nothing.  I contacted Princess by phone and was told the PayPal refund had been issued twice on approximately the same dates as my emails and the refunds were subsequently rejected by PayPal.  Princess even gave me the transaction numbers involved.  I was told, therefore, that Princess said they would cut me a check and I would get it in 4-6 weeks. Never happened, of course!  I, therefore, opened a dispute with PayPal and after 10 days I was told the dispute was in my favor and I received the credit for my prepaid gratuities. 

To my surprise my complete cruise fare refund and FCC was received 3 days later which made me wonder if the PayPal dispute hadn't forced Princess to at least open my file and look at it.  Might have been a coincidence but we did get our refunds after 94 days.

On 6/15/2020 at 6:12 PM, KYBOB said:

Yes, cruise dates March 28 and April 4 (Sky and Caribbean) received all money back but $200. But no future cruise credits for those cruises. Also have not received any refund of shore excursions on Fall cruise that was canceled. 

We also received all money less $200, however, we had used a FCD as down payment and that $200 FCD has been re-credited to my Princess account.

On 5/2/2020 at 6:38 AM, kitty2264 said:

No: March 14 & March 21 Sky Princess.  Did get CC refund for EZAir and port fees, PVP, taxes etc.

Yes finally received full refund to my CC on June 16th.  March B2B on Sky Princess which we cancelled on 3/7/2020 and took option 2..

On 6/13/2020 at 4:05 PM, Vertical1 said:

Under the “Circle Savings/Cruise Credits” area I see my account number, but no FCC totals (zero or otherwise).  I assume I’m looking in the right place, and no, haven’t rebooked anything.  

Be sure you click the "view details" arrow under future cruise credits.  While my "Future Cruise Credits" says I only have $200 which is the amount of two future cruise deposits, when I view the details I see an additional entry labeled "Passenger Relations" in the amount of my refunded cruise fare.