Mary loves to travel

How disappointing for you, after planning & looking forward to this cruise. Mary

The Sapphire has that unique MDR configuration; the window half of Santa Fe was for Reserve Class & the other half of the room was for regular MDR. They did have signs & two separate podiums, but shared an entrance.

As you know now, it’s so very important to do research and planning in advance for this type of vacation. thanks for sharing your thoughts Mary

@floid I'm understanding that your comments aren't particular to the Connoisseur version (versus one of the other variations Princess offers), but that you don't recommend doing a land tour with Princess at all. Am I understanding you right? Mary

I agree that the prices are high compared to land, but the few pedis I’ve had onboard have been very good.

I was fine in a cabin with no casual chair, b/c DH graciously let me take over the desk/chair, and he sat on the bed. After that trip, he said having a cabin with some sort of couch is a MUST going forward; while using the bed as a chair was ok on one trip, he didn't want to do that going forward. So, on Grand class it's a mini for us; on Royal class either a mini or a DB. I must admit, after doing a mini a few times, we are pretty spoiled & if we can, we go ahead and book minis.

This 5 day limit is really bad. Yes, in the past on Europe cruises, we've come in 5 nights early which would still be allowed, but our last time in Europe we stayed on 10 more nights before flying home. Even on our most recent cruise to Antarctica, we flew in 2 nights early (still allowed), but after the cruise spent 3 nights up at Iguazu Falls, then 3 more nights in Buenos Aires. For flying all the way to S. America, staying an extra 6 nights is not asking a lot. But, would no longer be allowed it seems. We don't always use EZair - sometimes use points or just book direct with the airline -- but we've used it often enough that this restriction pinches. Wish we understood the reason. I have to agree that when no reason is given, the guesses that it somehow benefits PCL financially seems a safe bet. 😞 Mary

My experience is that if there are 20 or more seats left, it will show 20 seats. If it drops below 20, it's more real. sometimes more seats are added if the waitlist gets long enough & the operator can add seats, but not always. Mary

What's interesting is that this law was targeted towards hotel & resort fees -- you know, you see the price of a hotel room, but then later find out there's a "resort fee", or in the case of an AirBnB or other vacation rental, a "cleaning fee", etc, etc, etc. Very hard to compare the real prices using a search engine. This law aims to improve that process. Of course, since cruise ships are "floating hotels" - we have Hotel Managers, don't we? -- this new law covers cruise line pricing as well. I'll just have to make a little adjustment to my price tracking spreadsheet 🙂

I have to wonder if IT set the schedule, or if the date was handed down from on high.

Think of all OBC as a form of "sale". When one applies for and receives those OBC, it is accounted for. Whether it's out of the advertising budget or what have you, the money is accounted for. There are strict accounting rules governing this.

OBC is real money & must be accounted for. People like to feel we’re getting some sort of a deal. Princess could drop the price by say $100 per person and call it a Sale. Or, they can keep the price the same and offer $100 OBC - basically giving you back $100 of your fare to spend *with them* any way you like. By dropping the price, you might spend that savings in port on a private excursion, souvenirs, or food. Or simply keep it in your pocket. By giving you OBC Princess guarantees that $100 gets spent with them. When you pay for your cruise, they book $100 as an Account Payable and the rest as income.

Now, if course you’re right - I didn’t do the exact same excursions to compare. 😀 But we have taken plenty of excursions, both Princess and independent. We also will go off on our own. There are many times the Princess excursion is the best option, especially when going a long distance. For the Iceland excursions, for us, being in a group of 16-20 works really well. That means an independent excursion is better for us. What I liked about Iceland Everywhere was the options given at many stops. For example, Siggi (the owner) would drop off at the top (say of a waterfall), tell us he’d be there for a half hour, then drive to the bottom and be there for another half hour. Those who wanted to walk, could. Others could see the view from the top, get driven down, then get out for another view. He did a great job of making everyone happy. Hope this helps Mary

I don't hear mention of that anymore; suspect it didn't work out as they'd hoped. People like sales.

I second Iceland Everywhere - we did our excursions with them in Akureyri, Grundarfjordur, and Reykjavik. In Isafjordur we did an excursion with Arctic ShoreEx. I highly recommend both operators. Much less expensive than those offered by the cruise ship & far better excursions, too. Mary

Same. Annoying but we went ahead and put down the deposit.

We did a 12 day British Isles on the Regal last May! Wonderful cruise and ship. Enjoy 😊

Any thoughts about cabin location for this eclipse cruise ?

The basic transfer from ship to airport is under the "Flights" tab in your cruise personalizer. Just scroll down past the EZair section, and you should see "Transfers". We have booked transfers in the past without using EZair. Mary

I’m guessing they weren’t able to get enough entry tickets to the Last Supper.

thanks. DH only uses it at night; so should be able to just plug it in while at the lodges.

Would really appreciate your feedback after your trip. enjoy! Mary

oh, perfect!! Thanks very much 🙂 Mary

I am hoping this is the case. I had no luck searching, but maybe didn't look hard enough on the Princess website. Otherwise, we're trying to figure out how to make this work. Thanks! Mary

We're looking at a Princess land first then cruise Alaska tour. In reading the luggage details, each person is allowed ONE handheld item onto the tour bus with them. Is the CPAP machine that one item? What have other CPAP users done? Thanks, Mary