tetleytea

We used Butts Up last week on our cave tubing + ziplining tour, and only had one issue: we also booked ATV, and they didn't let us do it. They didn't make us pay for ATV. I think we would have been squeezed for port time if we had done it, anyway. Cave tubing + zipline alone took up about 75% of the time in port we had. One thing they didn't tell us was, the hike was a little more than just a hike. We had to ford 3 rivers, and they were knee-deep and had a strong current. For me, it only added to the adventure (this is, after all, an adventure tour), but little kids might be afraid and/or need a little extra help. One of the 3 crossings, we had to use a rope to get across, but the water's depth and current will vary depending on the weather. They also served us each a fairly large tamale for lunch. We didn't know about that, either. You have to pay for drinks. All told, Butts up was fine. Cave tubing was great. Ziplining was not the hardest I've ever done.

You said, "will receive" [an FCC]. I had to kick, scream, escalate, even talk to an attorney to get mine. And my reason for cancellation was clearly a covered condition--I should have gotten refunded; not even FCC. Make sure you call/write Princess and hold them to their own terms. Sitting around and waiting can be risky. And if it sounds like I have a less-than-favorable opinion of Princess now because of it, it's because I do.

Mine's not a shareholder OBC issue. It's a travel insurance issue. Your subject line was general and suggested that Princess is on the ball. Maybe their shareholder OBC is on the ball, but my experience with Princess could not be more the exact opposite.

Meanwhile I have emailed customer services at least 30 times (literally) and they have not responded even once. And every time I call Princess, they turn around and say to email customer services. About a sailing that same month.

I have no plans to ever purchase a drink package on Princess (the math doesn't compute), but on Norwegian where the drink package is included, they would charge only the tax for alcohol if you were in port stateside, but the staff would freely tell you to wait till they are out to sea. Then no tax. The rule of thumb was, if you are out to sea enough to open the casino, then no tax. I defer to others on what Princess does, but that was Norwegian.

Similar to what I said to Tony, if you had asked me 2 years ago I would agree with you, but IMHO times change. I think the Breakaway-PLUS ships are more upscale than Princess (which, admittedly, the Norwegian Breakaway is not), and our sailings on NCL since Covid left us with an impression of NCL that is brighter, more youthful, and vibrant (and by that I don't just mean the ship--I mean the cruise directors, the programming, the activities, etc.). Princess was still good (as long as you didn't need to call the corporate phone line), but just seemed to get in a rut. It seems Norwegian's been really trying to change their image, and at least for us they were successful. I would have said Princess Medallion is technologically ahead of Norwegian, except that everywhere I look people are struggling to get Medallion to work. At one point I saw Princess assigning their dance instructors to helping passengers fix their Medallion app. It's that rut I was talking about: Princess deployed Medallion, but over time the IT support has just atrophied. Funnily, I think we actually like International Cafe (on Princess) better than O-Malleys. That's our go-to after a long port call, and we saved our stomachs for the ship. They both can get pretty busy. I think maybe O'Malleys might be "better", but International is a better fit for us because we can just walk right up, whereas O'Malleys you have to wait. Funny that our impressions of Princess vs. NCL are mirror-image opposites.

Well yeah, of course their sales will be very responsive.

I would have done the same.

The agent I worked with from here on CC said that she likes to leave in a little guard-band time, because sometimes there are hiccups in the payment process. But 30 days seems like an awful lot of guard-band time.

When I sailed the Regal Princess I was in a full suite, and I got good customer service through the concierge desk offered through the concierge lounge (offered only to full suite guests). But otherwise I found NCL's customer service to be way better (as in, existent). When I call Princess now I get 5-minute hold times, but if I have any non-rookie problem that is difficult at all, I get referred to Princess' email line. But when I email Princess (per the phone agent's instruction) five times, I get crickets. Nada. And last summer, I was getting 1-hour hold times. On NCL, I have gotten maybe 10-minute hold times and got decent help. If you had asked me two years ago, I would have recommended the Regal over the Breakaway, hands down. But now I have to go with NCL, and it's not because of the ship--but because of corporate.

Not good. Newark was famous for the United meltdown. They still are. Aon knows full and well the cancellations are legit. If my cancelled flight was a good 72 hours before, that tells me they're going to try and say I could have booked another flight (even though it's not true). In the future, maybe it's possible to get better travel insurance independently, too? It's not sounding like Aon insurance (offered through some cruise lines) is very good. Do you know what Aon's reason...pretext...was? edit: I checked BBB for Aon. They are not BBB accredited and have a D- grade. BBB's reason: 62 consumer complaints against them and they haven't responded to any of them. Looks like, any time a cruise line or travel agent asks if you want to buy insurance, you need to ask who is underwriting it. People assume the cruise line does (and it's all reputable and such), but clearly not always. Rarely? I didn't know any of this when I booked the cruise and was offered the insurance. I certainly never would have done business with a D- rating.

For everyone else's benefit, I should also add: My excursions and lodging were booked independently. One of the supposed selling points of booking excursions (and to a lesser extent, land tours) through the ship is that they are (supposedly) more secure in the event anything goes wrong. But for me, nothing could have been more the exact opposite. I had something go majorly wrong, and I had no problem immediately getting my money back from all the excursion operators and hotels--because I *DIDN'T* book through the ship. I booked independently. Didn't even need travel insurance. Didn't need paperwork. I simply told them the circumstances beyond my control, and I got even the nonrefundable expenses refunded. I doubt I would be as fortunate had I gone through the ship.

For a flight cancellation?

Quick update here: I made a complaint to the Federal Department of Transportation about United. That was successful: I got a partial refund. However, United did not want to refund it all--they only refunded one connection, so that they could.go back and tell the DOT they refunded it. So I disputed the remainder of the transaction. That, too, was successful. The travel insurance claim is still ongoing, and is a paperwork nightmare. All our excursions (refundable and non-refundable) refunded, and so did our hotels and Airbnb; and the Airbnb was normally nonrefundable.. The hosts decided to refund it. The problem lies 90% squarely on flying the airlines to your cruise. Booking air through the cruise line might partially help with that. Apparently, the airlines not treating customers fairly is a known Federal-level problem, with Biden, Pete Buttigieg involved and Congress recently passing a bill about air travel. I recently flew Southwest and had no problems, but don't expect me to fly United anytime soon. And definitely not to/from/through Newark. I have no reason to believe the cruise line or travel insurance are not good for it at this time, but it is slow and painful to process. The big thing is, just hope your airline does not undergo a meltdown at the time or your cruise. Or just drive to the port. This was (and still is) definitely a "vacation" that caused far, far more stress than if I had never booked anything at all.

If the prices are about the same, here's a test: call the cruise line's main number, and at the automated prompt select the options for "help with an existing cruise". If they quickly redirect you to the right department to book a new cruise, then you reached a good customer service department. If that takes forever, but then you call again and select the "book a new cruise" option, and have absolutely no problem getting through to a human, then you know the kind of treatment you will get once you have paid, should you select that cruise line.

If you drive to Whistler, there's a better, cheaper mine tour on the Sea-to-sky highway. The Britannia Mine museum. The biggest trucks I have ever seen are there.

NCL just put out a warning for Europe-bound passengers on the impact of airline workers strikes in Italy. https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-cruise-line-advises-guests-of-strike-impact/106555 In a marketing-driven world of everything-is-wonderful, I appreciate NCL warning about that. My last attempted (and failed) cruise was a nightmare because of the airline.

I might be famous now because of my less-than-favorable opinion of NCL gambling. All I will do now is just nod.

Well I certainly hope Princess' maps indicate outside sailing now. That would be really bad if they didn't. The Discovery Princess is a royal class, so the OP would not be sailing Inside Passage on that sailing--and Inside Passage is one of the best reasons to choose a Vancouver sailing over Seattle. I last sailed there in 2022, and our itinerary clearly showed us sailing the Inside Passage. It was only when we saw open ocean on one side that we were like, "Hey, wait a minute...". That's when we found out, "Canada won't let us sail the ship inside; it's not our fault." And Princess just now found that out? How do you not know how big your ship is before you ever first sail that itinerary?

We were the guilty ones in Copenhagen. The bike lanes are for bikes. When I saw the lanes, I knew they were lanes for something when I was walking, but I didn't pay much attention.

I just find it hard to believe that Princess never had the chance to inform customers (or even potential customers) that they got denied by Canada. Something like that, you'll get plenty of advance notice. It's not like you board the ship and then, afterward, at the last minute you just now find out the ship is too big to sail the Inside.

Well at least y'all's parents went. I kept telling my parents they need to travel while they still have quality years left, and they didn't. And now their quality years are over.

What about the fore? Is the wind and cold really that bad? The prices are so much cheaper, and I figure the views would be the same or even slightly better than aft. Some people I know can't take the cold that well, but I've held conversations outside before in shorts and a T-shirt when it's snow flurries.

The Spirit is an entirely different ballgame. They just cancelled their Valdez port stop after several customers already booked that ship precisely because of Valdez. To which NCL replied, "It's in the contract, we are allowed to change it....". Their itinerary is all switched up because of the late Valdez cancellation--not the weather. Although it would not surprise me if they say it's the "weather".

Princess did that, too. Their cruise map very clearly showed them sailing inside, and they didn't.