alanstarr

Just signed on for a last-minute transatlantic, 16 nights leaving April 25th on the NCL Escape. Too good a deal to resist (about 1600 for a solo balcony, all-inclusive). 

If you can book last-minute, NCL had great prices on their 16-day transatlantic out of NYC on April 25th. Solo inside sail-away is 599 (37/day!), balcony is 899, All-inclusive are 799/1099. Not including taxes/port charges. 

Stops include Bermuda, the Azores, Spain and France before ending up in Rome. 

14 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

No. You DO NOT have to buy coffee. The coffee bar is next to the IC, not part of it.

But there's still a charge at the coffee bar (if you don't have a beverage package). Its nominal (~1.75 for a large, ~1.25 for a small), but its not free. I went there almost every day on the March 12th sailing.

Overall, I agree with the the posters who think the food was subpar. Not awful, but not that great either. The descriptions always sounded amazing, but the food never lived up to them, either in the MDR or buffet. Things would be described as "jerk chicken", but tasted nothing like the real thing. Buffet dishes weren't horrible (and surprisingly, not overly salty like mass-produced foods can be), but rarely did it rise up mall food-court level. 

Sky had Heineken and Stella, plus a cider. 

2 hours ago, Mikel1733 said:

Do you show the paperwork to the airline when returning to the U.S.?

British Airways has an app called Verifly, where you upload the test results. You can't do online check-in without it. 

16 hours ago, phillipahain said:

Yes there was absolutely no testing by Princess in or before Southampton 

 

This is an outright falsehood. They tested over 800 passengers on Sunday, including myself. They took over one of the dining rooms for the day; results were delivered to our cabin at the end of the day.

]And I agree that there were a fair amount of positive cases, but 700? Sounds like you're just making up a random number (which is 30% of the passengers), or passing on some wild rumor. They'd have to block off multiple floors of cabins for quarantine, and it was obvious that only Deck 9 was needed.

6 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

we will refund the cost of pre-purchased MedallionNet® Wi-Fi packages as onboard credit.

I just upgraded from the single device to the 4-device plan, given that it will refunded as OBC!

This was in the quote from my OTA, but I could not find it anywhere on the Princess website:

At this time we can confirm the fare as listed, the total includes port taxes and Gov't fees. All cruise lines reserve the right to add a fuel supplement of up to $12 per guest per day on all guests if the price of West Texas Intermediate fuel exceeds $65 per barrel. 
 

I'm keeping my July 7-day cruise; two days in Riga instead of St Petersburg. 

Between two years of cancellations and ship changes, what started as a balcony became a Jr suite, and then an owner's suite! Since I'll never splurge on that kind of luxury for myself (and FCC would never cover the cost to buy it on a different cruise). I'm keeping my itinerary. 

3 hours ago, hallux said:

Just booked a balcony on NCL, the Joy.  I'll be sailing March 19...

Nice! I just booked a 16-day transatlantic for March 12th on Princess. $1162 for a balcony with $60 OBC, under $70/day! Trying to take advantage of these low prices that will probably never come around again, especially for solos.

12 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

Since music is subjective I will hold off on my commentary other than to say that if you like Jazz the house band is excellent!

 

 

 

Check out their Dixieland set if they have one (Wheelhouse Bar), it was fantastic last week! 

If you're on the Emerald over the next couple months, keep an eye open on the platter to see if Jody Myles is singing with the band. She did it for the very first time last week, and it was actually my favorite performance of the entire cruise. She does about 30 minutes of jazz standards in the Wheelhouse Bar (along with a couple Norah Jones songs). Great voice!

29 minutes ago, jimbo1683 said:

Lesson learned on insurance for next time!

Not necessarily - the $80 Uber might still be cheaper than the insurance (never looked at that cost). Plus there's a chance of reimbursement from my credit card (Chase Sapphire); which, like many cards, has some travel coverage on it.

But you are correct, I should at least consider insurance for the future.

8 minutes ago, Coral said:

Though my saga continued the next day as I had more flight cancellations. Dealing with the airline seemed to be the best solution for me at the time.

Thanks for the info. I agree that dealing with the airline is probably best, otherwise its just adding an unnecessary layer of complexity and communication. Although JetBlue has a 97-minute wait time on their phone lines, so I'll just head to the airport and deal with it all there.
 

Actually, the more I think about, I'll probably just take the flight to Providence. The ~$80-100 Lyft will certainly be cheaper than 2-3 days of hotel. 

Sorry, should have said that up front - no insurance.

Looks like I've been rebooked to Providence RI. Which doesn't really work because its 55 miles from Worcester; that's a pricey cab ride. 

Good idea to check with pursur/customer service on the boat; never hurts to at least ask there. Although I'm guessing because its weather related, I'm out of luck just as if I had booked it myself.

I used EZ-Air to book flights, but now I just found out my flight home tomorrow (debarking from the Emerald in Ft. Lauderdale) is canceled. I assume due to weather, although its not supposed to start snowing until well after midnight, and my flight is due to land before 11pm. Guessing JetBlue doesn't want their plane stuck in Worcester.

Other than rebooking, will Princess do anything to help with hotel rooms, or am I on my own? Looks like there's no flight on Saturday either, so Sunday is the first option. (Flying into Worcester MA, a small airport, so there's not a lot of daily flights. Can't fly to Boston, because my car is parked in Worcester.)

I've been using two devices this week on the Emerald. You don't even have to use the logout page; I just go to the login.com page, and my other device automatically gets disconnected. 

But great tip to know about!

I'm currently on the Emerald. Sabitini's is closed, has been for the entire cruise. Only specialty dining available now is Crown Grill and Gastropub. No info on if/when Sabitini's will reopen, but I assume it won't be during this trip (3 days remaining).

Sip and Cover is definitely the rule on Emerald this week (10-day Panama Canal). Signs at all venues, reminders on the daily platter, and I've heard it said from the stage in some of the small venues (like during trivia and things). Haven't seen any actual enforcement, but to be honest most people seem to be complying without any issues; its rare to see someone without a mask, other than outside or at a dining table. 

3 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

 

Wow....wondering why they would give this away for free?

 

Do you have past passenger status?  

This is only my 2nd Princess cruise, after an Alaska in 2019. Can't speak to their ultimate motives, but with a fairly empty ship, maybe they hope to engender goodwill and future business? (In which case, they have won big points with me.)
 

On 1/15/2022 at 11:08 AM, jeanandjim said:

We are currently on the Emerald Princess Panama canal sailing. We boarded and headed directly to guest services and inquired about an upgrade from our casino interior to a balcony. We were told that after all requests were in they would work on them that first evening and we would get a call in the morning. Sure thing, around 8AM we got a call asking if a particular room would suit us, go visit it, your medallion would let you in and get back to us. It is a port balcony on Baha about twenty doors down from our booked interior. We accepted it and since we had not unpacked the night before we were in by 9AM..... NO CHARGE!!!!

Jim

Same thing happened to me today. After boarding yesterday, went to ask about available upgrades (I was in a balcony). Never heard back, but when I asked this morning, they said they had already moved me to a mini-suite, pending my approval. And, like Jim, this was free!! Excited to have that extra space for a 10-day cruise, it makes a big difference.

I hope/think not. I'm on the Emerald, and we're scheduled to go to the Cay tomorrow (last minute substitution for Colombia, which was canceled). 

Letter in the stateroom says that Colombia is canceled, they're adding Princess Cay instead. 

Thanks all. Sounds like it might not be awful. But at the same time it seems like there's minimal advantage to keeping the room. Maybe I'll see if they can slide me down the corridor a bit, it looks like L251 is open, as are a dozen BC rooms on deck 14. Better safe than sorry!