DragonflyCruiser

Loved the Diamond. So nice the way the dining area is laid out for those in open style dining. And the ship just never seemed to be crowded.

Will be trying the Royal in a few weeks and the Island in a few months. So maybe my thoughts will be changed..... Cruising is a great way to pass the time. Being able to cruise on Princess is special!

Oh, great idea on purchasing after boarding so cruise credits can be used!

Thanks Corfe Mixture! Just reading your review. We will travel in Feb and it appears we booked the correct side to enjoy the balcony with sunsets! And, the canal sights!

Enjoyed your review.

We really like these, and feel it was worth while ordering the longer straps. They look neat, are simple to carry, and reusable.

Mine should arrive any day now! Thanks to all for the heads up on this! I'm tired of trying to make do with just the paper or having to carry tape or look for a stapler. These will be great!

I am boarding tomorrow in Vancouver-- will be looking at the condition of the ship interior. Will let you know what I see.

Princess staff are always fixing, polishing, wiping down, etc so I don't expect any problems.

Hope it's a great cruise and a really great report on the Grand! Enjoy!

Holy cow, San Diego Sue! We are on the aft so hopefully the elevators there will not do that! Scary in deed! One of my big fears too!

My husband and I just booked a 3 night Bahama cruise leaving 10/31/14 out of port Canaveral. I will be 19 weeks pregnant during the cruise (about a month within the 24 week rule), so I sent an email to the special needs email address to get some clarification. The FAQ and pregnancy area of the RCCL website still states that a fit to travel not is required. I received an email back saying that the note is no longer needed. I am very skeptical, and will have my doctor provide one anyway just to be safe. But I'm wondering, is there anyone (preferably someone noticeably pregnant) who has been able to cruise without providing this note since the policy change?

When boarding our last cruise we were sitting next to a pregnant woman who was turned away because she didn't have the Dr. note! She was probably 4-5 months. Get it! Best to be on the safe side and not be disappointed at the last minute.

I'm booking for Jan 2016! It's SFO! Long time till I cruise but found a great cabin and couldn't resist the booking! Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks to you all! I had read some really bad reviews and couldn't believe it was a bad ship! I have to make my deposit today for my booking or it will go away. We have a great corner aft cabin. Love those and pretty hard to find! I'm feeling better about the booking!

Thanks Pam! How did this ship compare to other Princess ships you have been on?

Any idea when/if this ship is scheduled to be refurbished?

Also, your thoughts about being on the Grand. Did you like it or not? Why?

Thinking of booking it from SFO to Hawaii. Looks like a nice trip with lots of sea days! Love those.

You can only use one per person per cruise. The reduced deposit is nice and OBC can be pretty nice as well. On our upcoming Mexico cruise the OBC from the FCC is $100 and for our 17 day Panama Canal cruise the OBC from the FCC will be $250.

 

My wife and I each still have one FCC "banked" and will purchase a couple more each in November on Star Princess.

Thanks! I was thinking only 1 but thought I'd get that confirmed. Guess I should call Princess and get their opinion. I have booked it but not applied the deposit yet. I have till 10/01 to finalize it!

I've seen various responses to this question but many people have said that they successfully did exactly what you are asking about. It certainly won't hurt to try and you should always have FCC on hand in any case. Be sure to purchase "extra" in case you are able to do as planned. You don't want to purchase only the amount needed for your currently booked cruise. :)

 

Thanks! We are planning to buy more this time! How many can you actually use on one cruise?

I think I've seen something about this but can't find it here. Can we purchase future cruise credits and use them on a cruise we have already booked. I found the perfect cabin and booked the cruise last night but don't have the opportunity to purchase the FCC for 2 more weeks. Your wisdom is much appreciated....

We are looking at booking a 2016 cruise on the Royal. We are interested in aft Premium Deluxe D728. When we cruised this past January on the Royal, the big concern in the aft of the ship is the soot problem. Is this something they have fixed since it being new? Have not heard much about it lately. Thanks...

I was going to book one on our Oct cruise this year. The person at Princess I talked to told me to rethink it! I was surprised she told me about the soot problem. But, she said she would rather keep me happy and I appreciated that! My advice is to call Princess and ask them if the cabin you have chosen is in the soot zone and if it's going to be fixed by the time you travel!

How do you purchase the bar package? Prior to boarding or on board?

Amazing work on this spreadsheet! Thanks! We are going to sit down and plug in the numbers using your info to see where we stand on cost!

Again, thank you very much!!!

This is one thing I don't like about Princess, it's their opinion of what an upgrade is. We got fooled the first time and I should have listened to Mary but I didn't. We were on the Baja deck and got upgraded to Aloha, right above us was the big screen (MUTS). We could hear chairs being dragged across the deck, people clomping here and there, and the movies and music was so loud we couldn't think straight. It was very annoying - and we had to endure all that from San Francisco to Hawaii and back.

 

This next cruise, was the same thing, they automatically upgraded us to the Aloha deck from the Caribe deck. This time I was prepared to tell them NO! I called and told them to give me back the cabin we booked. Unless they wanted to upgrade us to a suite, IMHO that would be a bonifide upgrade. Haven't heard back from them and we leave in 2 weeks.

If you don't want an upgrade (as they call a somewhat lateral move) tell them! You can have them put a 'do not upgrade' on your booking. We do that since we choose the cabin we want and really don't want to be moved to mid ship when we book aft. Good luck!

That's what I thought. Not sure about spending that day in port boarding and unboarding the ship. There is another cruise for 7 days about the same price. So, decision time.

We were booking the whole 9 days but have second thoughts. The price is good but not sure about the break and reload mid cruise. One portion is mid week and one is a long weekend on the one we are looking at.

Anyone done the trip they bill as a 9 day cruise but is actually a 3 day & a 5 day with a day in Ft. Lauderdale??? We were looking at this but wondered if it's the typical Princess atmosphere or more of a party cruise since they are both actually short cruises B2B? Your comments appreciated!

I wonder whether, if I bought the all-drink package, and bought a bottle of wine with the 40% discount, I could share the bottle with my dinner partners. And could I buy a bottle of wine to take to my room? If so, it might make the package attractive to me.

That's a great way to make the package worthwhile!

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone! I got the soda and water prices (including Perrier!), so I have added those in. I also updated the package price to $49 a day - I originally pulled it from the Princess website and didn't realize it had the 15% gratuity added in. So now none of the items have gratuity in them, which was my original intention. At least it's comparing apples to apples now!

 

The latest revision is attached - ongoing feedback is certainly appreciated. :D

Brilliant! Thank you! Now, go have a drink! You earned it.

Dont princess realise that people book their taxis/coach shuttles etc in advance and this sort of notice is absoloutley rediculous. What I want to know is if your book-in time is one oclock and you arrive late do you go to the back of the queue or get booked in straight

away pushing the later bookings even further back?

We cruised from there in Oct. and seemed the whole ship arrived at the same time. The line was really long and the wait to board equally as long. In hind sight, I think we would have waited to arrive and just walked on without the wait. We got the same notice on the boarding times but seems no one paid attention to it. If you are staying locally the hotels will hold your luggage so you can wander without it. If arriving on a bus, not much you can do about it. It was just a mess.

how long after you've sent an email do you receive a reply?

 

THanks.

Very quickly! I was impressed. My first contact was a phone call. The next day I emailed and the response was within a couple of hours. If you only email, include your reservation # and your name.