reney313

We received them on Majestic out of Barcelona in May. I gave one away last weekend as the "gift bag" that held spa gift certificates and spa related items as a birthday present. It fit well.

We just noticed we did not receive double points from our Onboard Account charges on Majestic Princess in May. I thought maybe it could take 1-2 cycles for the points to post. Are people having to call in and request their double points?

Thanks for the update. I followed along your journey. I was so sad when I read what happened and the thought of missing the winter cruising. I was very happy when you were able to fly back to catch the next cruise after the repairs were made (selfishly, your daily blog gets me through the dreary winter months!). As it was all unfolding, it sounded like they would take care of your incidentals...you were certainly in a unique situation different from most of the other cruisers and you were following the sound advice of the ship personnel.

I'm glad it worked out, but I also agree that Princess should have been more lenient for your situation--caused by them--rather than the insurance. Although, I guess that is why we buy insurance. I wonder if you didn't have insurance if they would have ponied up more or not. One would think they would have your account flagged, not only because of the sheer amount of days spent on board yearly, but also because of how many followers you have your blog!

I recently booked through tuscany bus which is a larger motor coach bus, but the price seemed appropriate. We didn't want to do an actual "tour", so opted for trying to find transportation only. For Florence only, it was 30 Euro per person. I thought that was an appropriate price.

Timetable: Departure from Livorno 9.45AM, return from Florence at 3.45PM

This seemed to provide the most time in Florence. They did have a Pisa and Florence option, but it seems like there is a bit of walk in Pisa and it lessens the time in Florence. It was a hard decision as I'd like to see both, but in the end, for us, we decided we'd rather have the extra time.

I haven't taken the transportation yet but the reviews I read were favorable.

I sincerely hope they figure out how to implement the same level of AIBP that is currently offered with the medallions. I'm personally fine with it not working for "deliveries" or an additional gratuity/charge added for the enhanced service (which I would likely not choose, but would rather just go to the bar or get a drink from a server instead just as I do today).

As we cruise various lines, the inability to purchase an AIBP will have us looking at other lines first.

Nearly every time I walk back to the cabin at night, I stop and grab a bottle of water at a bar with my AIBP. It is a nice benefit compared to other cruise lines that don't include bottle water.

First, some good news: I had another chat with passenger services tonight, and by this afternoon enough people had complained, so the tea bar and juice bar ARE NOW INCLUDED IN THE AIBP. Staff at the venues were notified late this afternoon. Passengers can change policies!

 

 

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This is great news! I hope they don't change their mind by May! I'm not a huge enough tea fan to buy any onboard, but I sure would like to try it and see if I like it. You never know, I might be converted!

I echo the other posters...especially those of us boarding for the 2 month Med season...THANK YOU SO MUCH for this live report (and Dides who posted on the maiden voyage). It really helps for expectations on a new ship, especially with changes for the Asian market of what will or won't be onboard. We are "go with the flow" type of people and do like new experiences so I wasn't too worried, but it's nice to know in advance. It takes a moving a mountain to get my DH on a plane overseas so I want to make sure to temper any expectations that shouldn't be there. lol

Excited to hear about your experience onboard. We'll be joining for the last Med cruise on 5/14 before she heads to China. I was scared when I ready your title so happy to have clicked on it and read the first line! :)

Thank you!!! I have been wondering what the offerings (and prices) would be at the Lobster and Dim Sum bar as well as noodles (and whether or not it would offering those selections in the Med). I can't wait to board in May.

I will be following along.

For the poster asking about VAT out of Copenhagen, we sailed in 2015 to Norway from Copenhagen with the drink package. We were not billed any VAT for individual drinks while in port before sail away.

I believe Barcelona charges VAT for cruises that depart there, which I will find out in May.

We just received an upsell offer for $99/pp from a balcony to mini suite on our upcoming Med cruise on Majesty. I did accept that. $200 seemed well worth it for the extra space and bathroom. Not to mention we booked an incredible rate for the balcony cabin. I'm excited! I'll be happy to accept another upsell to a Full Suite :) (Wishful hoping, I know!).

I noticed quite a few aft balconies available for some upcoming Majestic sailings in Europe. I have always wanted to try an aft balcony and we are looking at possibly booking one of the sailings in the next few days.

Is anyone aware of any change of design in Majestic from Royal/Regal that might limit the soot differently? If not, since the itinerary only has 1 day at sea, I'm wondering if it will really be that large of an issue? I assume the room steward will clean any soot daily while we are in port and hopefully it wouldn't be bad at night while underway?

I know no-one can guarantee anything, especially on a new ship that hasn't launched yet. I just thought I'd get more info. from some of the aft-experienced cruisers out there.

It looks like there are aft balconies available on Decks 8-15. Is there a particular deck that might have less of a chance of being affected? (lower or higher?)

That truly is one of the benefits of sailing Northbound, out of Vancouver. It is SOOO nice on debarkation morning to walk right off the ship and grab your luggage.

Although, I will say to be prepared for a long wait in Vancouver. I would be the earliest I possibly could or the very latest. We got to the port around 11:00am and waited in line for several hours. I would rather that at the beginning of my cruise though than the end.

What an entertaining evening reading this thread. ha!

I remember when Royal Caribbean changed their tier levels and made it more difficult to attain some levels. There certainly was a lot of hoopla and fear then, too.

I don't cruise NCL often, I've only cruised 4 times and all 4 have been fairly last minute and never in a suite or a latitudes insider offer. So, 1 point per night is what i've received. I feel good that they are grandfathering the status otherwise, I'd be knocked back down to Bronze after "attaining" Silver, without sailing as a Silver yet. I have to admit, when I looked at the tier levels I was shocked at how easy it would be to become in their top tiers (with a bit of advance planning). It makes total sense they would have to eventually change.

I'm more upset I forgot to take that $100 chip I accidentally took home 2 cruises ago to cash in on my last NCL cruise.

But in reality, the changes that have occurred over the years in most cruise lines loyalty programs have cemented my faith in choosing my cruise based on itinerary, ship, price and how the cruise line "fits" me for that particular cruise. I've never cruised for status, and that likely will not change any time soon. I enjoy whatever perks they provide; there are no cruise lines where the perks are really worth the cost to stay loyal when there is a better itinerary or better price on another line that still fits my style.

I'm very excited about this new technology. I love the idea of not having to fumble for my card or having it deactivated several times a cruise!

I'm so excited, in fact, that I've started to look at cruises for next winter just so I can try it out vs. the land based trip to Hawaii we were considering.

Anything that makes my cruise experience even easier, I'm all for! And I'm really not worried about the privacy. They already have a crap ton of data and it is not to the personal level as much as trends...how many people attend certain events, etc. Think of the times we have been crammed into small lounges for things that should have been in a larger venue...and the larger venue had something boring no one wanted to attend? Now the CD's and others can have facts and data to make those decisions (or they can't fib about how often something is or isn't attended!). Entertainment should improve as they will have actual data on how often people leave during a show/entertainer or stay until the very end. Their Customer Experience people will have some actual facts instead of assumptions and/or false stories to make the decisions of who to book on their ships--all based off our behaviors--which should mean higher quality acts being booked.

I guess that's all my opinion, coming from someone who works in Customer Experience for a Top 10 company. I can see some wonderful changes if they choose to use the data the way they could. And none of it really needs to be down to the individual level....except maybe categorizing on demographics so they know what groups like what "stuff". This includes the "free" and "included" options onboard.

Our first vacation to Alaska, we flew into Anchorage and booked a room on our own. We then booked the train and hotel to Denali independent of the cruise via princess lodges dot com. They have 2 for 1 specials often and are included in one of the Alaska discount books too.

It was kind of the best of both worlds for us. While I was still in my 30's and my DH in his early 40's, I enjoyed not having to worry so much about logistics.

The "tour" itself that we booked was all DIY but with the convenience of having Princess handle luggage and transportation.

When we arrived at the train station in the morning (via the hotel shuttle), we gave our bags to the Princess rep there. We boarded the train and enjoyed the upper deck to Denali. The train included lunch, drinks for purchase, viewing decks, and guides to tell us what we were looking at along with history.

About 30 minutes before arriving at the Denali station, they came around and gave us our room keys. Our luggage was delivered directly to our room from the train station and they gave us bus transportation to the lodge (about 15 minutes away, maybe).

We then were not bound to any activities through a formal tour. We were able to go to the restaurants we wanted and took the free shuttle to the park where we purchased the passes from the Park Service for the next day.

When we woke up the next morning, we got a lunch box to go from Subway across the street to take with us. We took the free shuttle back to the park and waited for our bus. The park service bus drivers do give a bit of tour and it was incredible. We had booked through to Wonder Lake-much further than any of the Princess tours go. We decided to change busses at Eileson as the mountain was going under clouds and we wouldn't see much more going further. That was not a problem since we booked through the Park Service. We were able to jump on any bus that had room heading back.

That evening we had dinner on our own again. The last morning we again went back to the park and took advantage of the "free" dogsled demonstration and got to pet and meet all of their dogs/puppies. I loved it. We put our luggage out in front of our room that morning--just like on the ship--and they picked it up and loaded it up on the coach that drove us back to Anchorage, along with a stop at the McKinley Princess lodge. When we arrived back in Anchorage, we picked up our luggage and took a taxi to the hotel we booked that night.

For the cruise portion, we booked the morning train to Whittier directly through Alaska Railroad. When we arrived, again there were Princess reps who took our luggage. When we got to Whittier, they offloaded the luggage that had our tags on it and delivered to our cabin. We didn't touch them from the time we gave them the luggage in Anchorage at the train station.

That was more long winded than I intended. Basically, I see 3 main options. 1. Book through Princess as part of the cruise. This is pretty much all guided with some DIY options if you prefer. 2. Do a hybrid approach utilizing Princess for the cruise and princess lodges for the interior. And Alaska RR for the transfer to the ship. 3. Rent a car and do it all yourself for the interior and then Princess for the cruise. I think they are all good options. We plan to go back this summer and will probably do #3 this time around as we want to spend some time traveling to other areas pre-cruise.

As others mentioned, both the Alaska port of call board here and Trip Advisor are invaluable to the research. I read a ton of reviews the first time which helped really map out what I was comfortable with doing for our first trip there.

 

Now that Princess has made their first move in that direction it will be interesting to see if the changes start to negatively impact our experience in the MDR. This year we have already reduced the number of planned cruise days from 48 to 7 and increased the number of land tour days significantly.

I will be really disappointed if this is the case. One of the reasons we have sailed Princess more frequently in recent years is because they have not gone that direction. It has never thrilled me on NCL. RCI has moved that direction recently as well. We love cruising, but they might price us out soon if we have to pay for suites to get the same level of service and experience we have had in the past. Maybe we have just been spoiled over the years and it's time for the market to change.

Yes, I'm so happy you decided to come back and pick up at NOLA through the Anthem cruise. Thanks again for all the effort!

Yay! I'm so happy your last cruise was on the Epic. We are looking at sailing with some friends who are already booked on the Epic in January. Your review will probably make up my mind :)

Has anyone booked their cruise within 60 days of sailing and received the upsell offer? We are looking at a cruise in January and I can see that others on that sailing have already received this bidding email. I'm just wondering what the chances are we would receive it after booking?

I just went to the blog to read this morning's post as I do everyday. I was shocked to read what happened...and that Princess has not helped (yet). I had to come to CC to see what all has been occurring and to make a post in support. I've been following along on their blog for at least 5 winters now, living vicariously through them. And I have booked Princess cruises in that time based on their experiences. I do hope Princess pulls through. Hopefully they just need "time" to figure out what to do.

I'm following along. I was excited to see you blogging again and then to read 3 different ships and soooo many days, I'm thrilled!

I'm absolutely loving your review. I can't wait to read the rest. Thank you for sharing!!

Others are correct, Serenade is in Europe or on the Transatlantic on the way back. Those sailings do not have Lobster for free on formal night. Once sailing back from the US, the normal lobster should be back.

We went on a Norwegian Fjord cruise last August (2015), albeit on Royal Caribbean. It was also an 8 day itinerary. I absolutely loved it. It is more port intensive than other destinations, but well worth it. And if you're on the previous TA, then the ports will probably be welcomed after several sea days.

I'm not sure what the itinerary is, but I would make sure there is a stop in Geiranger. The sail in and sail out were absolutely stunning. Our 2nd favorite day was in Alesund where we took an excursion to the Path of the Trolls. The scenery was fabulous!