Ken the cruiser

It sounds like if you want to eat early, as is our case for medical reasons as well as we like to get a good seat location at the early show, you'll need to get in line 20-30 minutes before they open (as many "older" folks like us have similar desires), much like what we have found ourselves dealing with when dining in Blu the past few years. That's too bad, as we were hoping to put the Early Fixed Seating option in the positive column for booking another Celebrity cruise.

Sorry to hear you continue to experience mediocre service in your SS rather than being wowed. That's one reason along with the Luminae menu options we switched to booking Aqua cabins the past few years. However, we are now finding the Blu menus are getting a little weak and with the increased demand for Aqua cabins causing their cabin fares to continue to rise, we are now considering booking aft-facing Sunset Verandas on Edge-class ships, like we had back in Nov 2021 when we cruised on the Apex in one. However, I'm reading today on CC that there is only Anytime Dining available in the MDRs on Edge class ships rather than also offering Early and Late Fixed seating reservations like they advertise on their website when booking a cruise. When you were in the concierge cabin on your first leg, was it your experience that there was only Anytime Dining or were guests allowed to prebook an Early Fixed Seating table for 2 at one of their MDRs for the entire cruise rather than having to stand in line every night to get a table at one of the four MDRs?

That's not good. You're saying the "official" information provided by Celebrity when booking a Beyond cruise today with regards to the Dine Early or Late options is that these options don't actually exist? When I clicked on the "Learn More About Dining On Board" option today, here is what was displayed. Main Dining (celebritycruises.com) I know when we cruised on the Apex back in Nov 2021, we had prebooked early fixed seating and when we got to our assigned MDR on the first night, they announced all the MDR reservation options had changed to Anytime Dining. We simply figured it was because the ship was on filled at 60% capacity and dealt with the long lines when their doors first opened. However, if this is truly the case, then that definitely changes things for us. For the last few years now, we would book Aqua cabins so we could be seated at Blu when we arrived early, usually at the same table every night. However, with the increasing demand for Aqua cabins and the continual rise in cruise fares along with the mediocre menus (to include desserts), we have decided to start booking aft-facing cabins on Edge-class ships with Early Fixed Seating. But if it's simply "first come first serve" Anytime Dining at all of the Edge Class MDRs, that is definitely something we appreciate knowing about.

Speaking of penguins and where they might be found. I recently had fun building this chart as we do enjoy the "hunt" for them on certain itineraries. Who knew so many different types can be found in New Zealand! So far, we have seen the King, Adelie, Chinstrap, Gentoo, Fairy, Magellanic, Humboldt, Rockhopper, Galapagos, and African varieties on previous cruises to Antarctica, South America, South Africa, Galapagos, and Australia. Hopefully, on our upcoming cruise back to Antarctica and SA in January, we'll be able to add the Emperor and Macaroni to the list; although seeing the Emperor might be a little tough since we won't be going ashore in Antarctica. However, if we go to New Zealand again, we might have to book a pre-cruise land tour to the South Island if we want to see some of those indigenous to that area. Types of Penguins Great Penguins Emperor penguin Antarctica King penguin South Georgia, Falklands, Tierra del Fuego Brush-tailed Penguins Adelie penguin Antarctica, South Georgia, Sandwich, Falklands Chinstrap penguin Antarctica, Falklands Gentoo penguin Antarctica, sub-Antarctica regions Little Penguins Fairy or Blue penguin New Zealand, southern Australia White-flippered penguin South Island NZ Banded Penguins Magellanic penguin Patagonia, Falklands Humboldt penguin Pacific coast of South America Galapagos penguin Isabela and Fernandina Islands African penguin South Africa, Namibia Yellow-eyed Penguins Yellow-eyed penguin SE New Zealand Crested Penguins Fiordland penguin New Zealand Snares penguin Snares Islands NZ Erect-crested penguin Antipodes and Bounty Islands NZ Southern Rockhopper Sub-Antarctica waters Northern Rockhopper Southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans Macaroni penguin South Georgia, Orkney, Sandwich, Falklands Royal penguin Macquarie Island NZ

We recently booked an 18-day Jan 2025 PCL cruise from BA to Ft Lauderdale with 3 stops in Brazil and received $2300 promotional OBC, $300 FCD OBC, $500 Military OBC, and $250 Shareholder Benefit credit for a total of $3,350, all from PCL. Prior to that the most we have ever received was around $1700 from Celebrity when cruising first started back up and we were allowed to refare our booking after the Final Payment Date and would receive the difference in OBC. In fact part of that OBC was used to buy the iPad I’m currently typing this response on! 😂

The main question I have is how many days/weeks do you want your next cruise to be? We are retired and in our early 70s and like our cruises now to be around 3-5 weeks. For example, during the next 12 months, we are booked to go on a 10-day Galápagos Islands expedition cruise, a 30-day B2B Antarctica/SA cruise, a 22-day B3B Alaska cruise, a 21-day Norway-Baltic B2B, and the 30-day Med B3B to see the pyramids and Ancient Greece and Rome. During the last 12 months we went on a 38-day B2B from Athens through the Suez Canal to Dubai then down to Cape Town, a 20-day Caribbean B3B to include a visit to Disney World, a wonderful 33-day transpacific B3B from Sydney to Vancouver by way of NZ and Hawaii, a 17-day intense B2B around Japan/Korea, and a 22-day Canadian/New England/Caribbean B2B with a 5-day precruise that included a visit to the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. Did I mention were cruisaholics! 😂

Thank You for letting us come along and for sharing some of your awesome photos with us. We probably won’t be doing any snorkeling or kayaking when we head to Quito on Dec 8, but will definitely try to share some of our experiences on our upcoming Inner Loop itinerary on the Flora! 😁

I don't know if this will help, but here is a link to the Princess Gift Cards FAQ web page. Frequently Asked Questions - Princess Cruises Go down towards the bottom and look under Gift Card Transaction Disputes. Note: The phone number is listed in the actual text on the web page. Q: I didn't make a transaction. Can the amount be credited back to my card? A: Please contact (phone number). Our Princess Cruises Gift Card Customer Service has access to each card’s transaction history and if an error is found, we will process an adjustment to your card's total balance promptly.

This is what our aft-facing vista suite cabin on the Caribe deck looked like when we were on the Caribbean Princess last month. The picture was taken from the "living room" area where there is a large "three-cushion" couch, a comfortable chair, and a desk with another chair (visible in the TV reflection). The open door on the left is to the left side of the bathroom that has a sink and toilet. The entrance to the right side of the bathroom that has a separate shower and jetted tub (we never used) is in the bedroom area to the left of the desk. There is also a door between the two bathroom areas. The walk-in closet is just to the left of the desk chair where you can barely see the opening. The entrance to the rather large covered balcony is behind me. Hopefully, this helps to give you a better picture of what all the hubbub is about.

That’s fine. If you look at post #119, that will explain the Alinea option. So have you received an email notification back yet from StockPerks confirming your shares have been verified? For us it took about 3 hours. See post #187 to see what the next step is.

Yes. Once our shares were confirmed via the Alinea option, we submitted our Jan 2024 booking followed by our July 2024 booking. Both were approved 5 business days later. Statements? Are you referring to bookings or multiple statements? If the answer is statements, you’ll have to explain that in a little more detail.

We’re in our early 70s and very much enjoy cruising on either Princess or NCL if the 3-5 week itinerary we’re considering is a good one. For example, on Princess we have cruises booked to Antarctica, the Baltic, Alaska, and a cool TA that stops in Brazil. On NCL, we have a B3B booked that goes to Egypt, so we can see the pyramids, and Ancient Greece, and a B2B that goes to Longyearbyen twice. However, on Princess we prefer to book at least a Reserve Collection mini-suite, so we can dine in their “anytime dining” Reserve dining room, and a Club Balcony cabin with FAS Plus on our NCL bookings. As far as fun goes, we always have fun on both. But as others have mentioned, you need to get to the Princess theater early if you want to get a good seat. But then we always develop a shipboard strategy when we first board any cruise, so that’s no big deal.

Jim and Iain, have an awesome time on your cruise down under! Just remember not to chew bubble gum while you are in Singapore. There is a pretty stiff fine if you get caught chewing it while walking down the street! 😂

We have booked X's 14-day Antarctica cruise out of Buenos Aires twice and each time we have switched to either a 22-day HAL cruise RT from Santiago (Jan 2018) or a 16-day Princess cruise from Santiago to BA (Jan 2024), as their itineraries included 4 days cruising around the Antarctica peninsula.

Wow! Those suite photos definitely brought back memories when we were in a similar suite back in Nov 2015 when we upgraded to the Xpedition RS, right down to the bottles of water in the corner on the bathroom sink! 😂

Our TA gives us cash discounts off the fare for PCL and HAL bookings. For NCL and Celebrity, they offer by default nonrefundable OBC, which I believe is part of the deal they have with those two cruise lines. But we're good with getting the applicable NCL or Celebrity OBC for booking with them in the form of a rebate check in the mail about a week or two before the cruise. However, that wasn't the case until we asked our TA if it was possible.

If I might ask, what is the bottom-line cost difference between the cabin categories you are looking at with a refundable deposit? If you're planning on purchasing the Princess Plus package or the Celebrity "All Included" packages, don't forget to include the additional daily gratuities charge on the Celebrity cruise as they no longer include it with their "All Included" package.

Nonrefundable OBC that is. That's why we get our TA to give us a rebate check now instead of the nonrefundable OBC they tried to give us for booking the cruise with them until we found out about NCL's issue for using it to pay their daily service charge.

I recently posted the below on a “Celebrity vs NCL” thread on the Celebrity forum and thought it might be helpful here from $$$ perspective, depending on what booking perks you might qualify for. You may also notice in my below signature we have more days up to this point cruising with Celebrity than Princess, but … We are in our early 70s and currently have bookings with Princess (8), NCL (5), HAL (1), and X (1) through the summer of 2025. Our booking priorities are based on: (1) itinerary, (2) gross and net cruise costs, and (3) dining room availability options, along with of course how much fun we will have on the cruise in the evenings and on sea days. Here is the breakdown we have recently encountered for each of the lines we book with. As you will see, there are significant differences, with X providing the least incentive for us to book with them. Itinerary: We usually book 3-5 week cruises based on the uniqueness of the itinerary, such as going to South America and Antarctica, Japan, Europe, Africa, Panama Canal, Alaska, and transoceanic cruises. Gross and Net cost of the cruise: This includes figuring into the equation Military (we are both retired) and shareholder benefits, TA booking discount, cruise line "All Included" packages, and the cost of a refundable deposit. Note: All of the cruise lines we use except for X offer by default refundable deposit fares if booking a specific cabin. In the case of X, they include a 20% surcharge if you want to book your cruise with a refundable deposit. Here is the booking "perk" breakdown for each cruise line based on our recent experiences: Princess: Up to $250 (military) MOBC for each of us, up to $250 (shareholder) SOBC per cabin, 8% cruise fare reduction for booking with our TA, $60 pp/day for their Plus package. NCL: 10% military discount off cruise fare, up to $250 SOBC per cabin, 8% rebate check for booking with our TA, $70 pp/day for their FAS and FAS Plus packages, which is a super deal if most perks are used, to include 4 specialty restaurant dinners each, $50 off per person on excursions, unlimited premium beverage and internet packages. HAL: $100 per cabin for MOBC, up to $250 per cabin for SOBC, 8% cruise fare reduction for booking with our TA, up to $400 OBC if you book within 90 days of the itinerary being made available, $65 pp/day for their HIA "Early Booking" package if you book more than 1 year from embarkation day, and their optional Club Orange dining package for $15 pp/day that includes a free upgrade from the cheapest to most expensive cabin category within a meta category, which sometimes will save you more than the cost of the package. X - up to $100 military discount off the cruise fare, up to $250 SOBC per cabin, 8% of cruise fare in nonrefundable OBC for booking with our TA, and $75 pp/day for their All Included classic beverage and basic internet package combo. Evening dining room minimums for us based on booked cabin category: Princess (Reserve Class dining), NCL (free specialty dining combined with MDR), HAL (MDR early fixed seating table for 2), and X (dine in their Blu restaurant). Just some things we consider before booking a cruise with any of these 4 cruise lines. As far as the fun factor goes, and this is the most subjective area of them all, each cruise line offers different evening and sea day options, and we try not to compare offerings, as we have fun on all of our cruises. However, at this current moment in time, we have the most fun on Princess, then Celebrity, then NCL and finally HAL, and in that order. But, again, the above itinerary, costs, and dining considerations weigh more than the level of "fun" we experience onboard on a cruise. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the subject. 🙃

We have cruised in an aft-facing vista suite twice on the Caribbean Princess, and have them booked on the Sapphire on our upcoming South America/Antarctica B2B in January and on the Grand Princess on an Alaska B3B in April. My advice is don’t do it, because once you experience the awesomeness of cruising in a fully covered aft-facing vista suite on a grand class ship, and all the perks that come along with it along with being able to dine in the Reserve Dining Room, you’ll find it very difficult in the future to book a cabin any lower than a Reserve Collection mini suite! 😂

Ship excursions and possibly purchasing/upgrading to Princess Plus or Premium packages

OK, I will admit it’s been about 4 years since our last cruise on the Maasdam. But if I remember correctly, the total amount spent by my DW and I that appeared on our shipboard account, such as the daily gratuity charges, ship excursions, bottles of wine purchased, and specialty dining were what was used to compute the $300 Onboard Spending Bonus points associated with cruise day credits. What other expenses show up as folio charges on your shipboard account? Maybe visits to the spa where you paid for their services? Onboard Spending Bonus Effective with cruises on or after September 18, 2009, one bonus Cruise Day credit will be granted for each $300 in eligible onboard purchases. This is calculated on the combined folio charges for all guests on the booking, regardless of who signs each charge and who pays the bill. Only the first two guests on the booking receive the limit of one bonus day for each day sailed; 3rd and 4th guests on the same booking do not earn the onboard spending bonus.

IMHO it has all changed since cruising started back up after the pandemic. We are in our early 70s and currently have bookings with Princess (8), NCL (5), HAL (1), and X (1) through the summer of 2025. Our booking priorities are based on: (1) itinerary, (2) gross and net cruise costs, and (3) dining room availability options, along with of course how much fun we will have on the cruise in the evenings and on sea days. Here is the breakdown we have recently encountered for each of the lines we book with. As you will see, there are significant differences, with X providing the least incentive for us to book with them. Itinerary: We usually book 3-5 week cruises based on the uniqueness of the itinerary, such as going to South America and Antarctica, Japan, Europe, Africa, Panama Canal, Alaska, and transoceanic cruises. Gross and Net cost of the cruise: This includes figuring into the equation Military (we are both retired) and shareholder benefits, TA booking discount, cruise line "All Included" packages, and the cost of a refundable deposit. Note: All of the cruise lines we use except for X offer by default refundable deposit fares if booking a specific cabin. In the case of X, they include a 20% surcharge if you want to book your cruise with a refundable deposit. Here is the booking "perk" breakdown for each cruise line based on our recent experiences: Princess: Up to $250 (military) MOBC for each of us, up to $250 (shareholder) SOBC per cabin, 8% cruise fare reduction for booking with our TA, $60 pp/day for their Plus package. NCL: 10% military discount off cruise fare, up to $250 SOBC per cabin, 8% rebate check for booking with our TA, $70 pp/day for their FAS and FAS Plus packages, which is a super deal if most perks are used, to include 4 specialty restaurant dinners each, $50 off per person on excursions, unlimited premium beverage and internet packages. HAL: $100 per cabin for MOBC, up to $250 per cabin for SOBC, 8% cruise fare reduction for booking with our TA, up to $400 OBC if you book within 90 days of the itinerary being made available, $65 pp/day for their HIA "Early Booking" package if you book more than 1 year from embarkation day, and their optional Club Orange dining package for $15 pp/day that includes a free upgrade from the cheapest to most expensive cabin category within a meta category, which sometimes will save you more than the cost of the package. X - up to $100 military discount off the cruise fare, up to $250 SOBC per cabin, 8% of cruise fare in nonrefundable OBC for booking with our TA, and $75 pp/day for their All Included classic beverage and basic internet package combo. Evening dining room minimums for us based on booked cabin category: Princess (Reserve Class dining), NCL (free specialty dining combined with MDR), HAL (MDR early fixed seating table for 2), and X (dine in their Blu restaurant). Just some things we consider before booking a cruise with any of these 4 cruise lines. As far as the fun factor goes, and this is the most subjective area of them all, each cruise line offers different evening and sea day options, and we try not to compare offerings, as we have fun on all of our cruises. However, at this current moment in time, we have the most fun on Princess, then Celebrity, then NCL and finally HAL, and in that order. But, again, the above itinerary, costs, and dining considerations weigh more than the level of "fun" we experience onboard on a cruise. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the subject. 🙃

Cool! That sounds great! 😁

But at the same time, it’s a lot of fun too. It’s amazing how much more in tune you become with nature, especially when there is an abundance of wildlife, when you’re on the hunt for that perfect shot. 😁