Dock B

My DW would love to see the prices of haircuts in the salon, please, if you have them.

We’ve enjoyed your perspectives on your cruise; we sail Seashore in December.

Thank you!

@JamieLogical was the “casual/flower glory” night a 70’s night?

Showed my DW the showertini picture and she’s planning on doing that on our MSC cruise this December!

If my DW was replying to this, she’d tell you how much she loves her Reliefband!! I love it too because now she rarely has any motion sickness. The scopolamine patch made her dizzy, which doesn’t play well with motion sickness! She does continue to bring Bonine (and maybe some natural motion sickness products) when we cruise but rarely uses them as Reliefband does the trick.

I’ve also successfully used it when a medication I was on would upset my stomach and the band helped with that.
 

As an aside: DW just informed me she forgot to bring her Reliefband with her to have after her surgery tomorrow (we’re staying at a hotel tonight to avoid a long and early drive for her arrival at surgery center); now she’s hoping she has no problem with anesthesia as then she’d have to take a pill for it that has its own set of side effects.

If you have some FSA or HSA monies to use up, I’m pretty sure we used it when we got her band.

@awhfy what is grated honey zest?

Am guessing this is probably orange zest but want to be certain.

Thank you!

Since you are on Princess, pack as you would for a 7 day cruise…at least that’s what we do when on a lengthy Princess cruise.

Princess has passenger laundromats where you can wash a load or 2 of clothes. We will get snacks from the buffet, take clothes to the washer, come back and start one of free movies to watch until it’s time to move the clothes to the dryer.

We bring detergent pods & dryer sheets though there are laundry supply vending machines in each laundromat. There is a cost to wash & dry but you just use your medallion to make the purchase of supplies and/or the tokens needed to use the machines. We don’t mind doing a bit of laundry as it gives us time to catch up on a movie we haven’t seen or to just spend time on the balcony together. Other folks do not want to wash their clothes while on vacation and will either bring plenty of clothes, rewear items, hand wash a minimum of items, or have the ship do their laundry (we get free ship’s laundry but prefer to do our own). It’s up to you on how you want to spend your time, of course!

We’ve found port days the easiest day to use the laundromat as few are using it. Late at night is also an option, while folks are at dinner and the shows but we want to be at dinner and the shows too!

Tip: If you decide to do your own laundry, stop by one of the laundromats early in your cruise, before folks start using it. Buy the number of washer & dryer tokens you’ll need; sometimes the vending machines run out of tokens resulting in you having to try other floors or going down to guest services.

Have a wonderful cruise!!

My DW used a sterling chain she already had, added what she called a figure 8 double clasp, and then clipped the clear medallion holder to it. She wore it doubled like the photo and long with other necklaces around it. 

Good to know that the card holder is something we can have. On our 1st Celebrity cruise last January, we were in a Sky suite and wondered if we could have them. We decided they weren’t for us to take because they looked so worn, as if they had been in the cabin for quite some time.

We’re sailing Beyond in a couple of months, again in a Sky suite, so if the card holders are in better condition, I think I’d like one this time!

Since you have a “very early morning flight,” might want to keep in mind that a free breakfast might not even be available as early as you need to leave for the airport.

If that’s the case, see if a hotel you select is near a coffee shop or bakery (we’ve done this) and walk there the afternoon prior to grab a pastry; a grocery would allow you to get yogurt and/or juice too.

We live about 30 minutes north of you. When sailing from Galveston, we prefer to go the day before and stay the night somewhere around League City or a bit further south to get lower hotel rates. We drive down early enough the day before to miss the southbound “going home from work” drivers on a weekday. This allows us to be more rested.

But with all that said, it is doable to drive same day. If doing that, I would suggest you start looking at a phone app map to see what the traffic is like in the Houston area on Saturday mornings, around the time you think you’ll arrive there. This can give you a general idea of Saturday traffic patterns and alternate routes.

Make sure you get your vehicle thoroughly checked out prior to the trip to help assure it might not break down. If you don’t know how to change a tire, now is a good time to learn. I think you get the idea: car trouble on cruise day is something to avoid and to be prepared for should it occur.

And you’ve probably already planned that you’ll depart town even earlier if rain is forecasted, as that can add time to the drive.

Enjoy your cruise! Just plan ahead for how you’ll handle any potential delays so you won’t be stressed!

And here is the port side, though it also may not show what you’re wanting to see.

Princess has been doing their version of Luggage Valet (EZ Check) in Fort Lauderdale since early in 2022. We used it 2/12/22 at PE.

19 hours ago, cruisegal415 said:

where do you get the shareholder request form from?

A specific OBC request form is not required. Scroll up to post #57 and zoom in. The 3rd paragraph after the list of amounts of OBC for various lengths of cruises, begins “Please provide by email, fax, …” and you’ll see what information Princess will need in order to apply the stockholder OBC.

I make a copy of my shareholder statement, cross out account number and any other non-pertinent and/or private information. I then hand write the required  information as well as the fax phone number (which you can also see on post #57 above) and number of pages I’m sending.

I fax the page(s) and keep the fax confirmation page. Even though the shareholder OBC gets applied, we always bring all these pages with us on the cruise…just in case!

—Princess calls it EZ Check

—cost is $25 per person (we only had one bag each to check so I don’t know if price changes with more bags per person)

—It was available on our early February cruise

—sometimes you’ll get the paperwork for it in your cabin but not always therefore inquire at Guest Services early in your cruise to get the paperwork

—complete paperwork and turn in quickly as the service has the possibility of being limited.

Even though you sign up, it’s very likely you’ll still receive regular bag tags for disembarkation however, there will also be instructions saying that EZ Check confirmation doesn’t get back to the ship until late and those bag tags will get to you later.

On 4/18/2022 at 10:10 AM, Moochi said:

Fast forward to day 3, I ordered a Black Forest cake during lunch and was thrilled to find out that they have amarena cherries in the dessert, the dark, tart, sweet, firm kind! I immediately figured out that I got 3/4 of the Manhattan ingredients covered! If I ask for a few cherries to go, and ask for a Manhattan made with tawny port, I can get a decent drink that is pretty close to my preference. I asked my lovely server Edwin and he brought me a small bowl of cherries.

 

For the entire day, I was carrying the precious bowl of cherries wherever I go, and hope to get a tasty Manhattan.

Thank you for the great review: much appreciated!

Our waiter called that dessert a Deconstructed  Black Forest cake! It was DW’s favorite and the only dessert she took a photo of so I’ll share it here:

On 4/12/2022 at 6:03 PM, esper10 said:

Will they give it to me on the ship? The cruise in 10 day’s I only booked it Sunday 

We had a recent cruise refared only 4 days before we sailed and the stock OBC dropped off. Our Princess TA said to re-fax it, which we did, and he also contacted (via email I think) the same folks to tell them to reinstate the OBC.

Of course, it never appeared however, my DW took the stock statement and the 2 fax confirmations with us and went to Guest Services once we were aboard.

GS took care of it for us almost immediately.

So YES, the stock OBC can be applied by the ship if you have the stock proof AND the fax confirmation…at least that’s our experience on Sky in February.

We learned the hard way that the bandaids need to be the waterproof type.

I was on blood thinners for a year and we had a cruise during that time. The tender bumped around and the lady next to me cut my arm with her long fingernails!! Needless to say, it was a bit difficult for DW and I to get the bleeding to stop. DW had a tiny first aid kit so after cut was cleaned, a bandaid was applied. However, this was in the Caribbean so heat and humidity did nothing for keeping that bandaid on!! Fortunately, we ran into a relative who was on the same cruise and she had a waterproof bandaid that stayed one.

My DW now brings  waterproof ones (and regular ones too) as she also noted the waterproof ones would be best in the event of a blister from her shoes.

We each had $100 refundable OBC from our travel agent (in addition to lots of Celebrity non-refundable OBC). But for that $200, we had it returned to the same credit card we used to book a future cruise while onboard.

The new booking required a deposit of $100 each of us, which was not a refundable deposit if we were to cancel. So if we have to cancel, we won’t be out anything as the deposit was “paid for” by our travel agent!

As for the non-refundable, we used it for:

— extra gratuities for staff

— paying the difference in price, plus gratuity, for wine that wasn’t in premium package

— treating 2 first-time cruisers to dine with us in Luminae 

Princess EZ Check, which is the same type of offering as Celebrity’s Luggage Valet, is being offered at Port Everglades. We just used it a week ago (2/12) on Sky Princess. EZ Check has been available for a few weeks now, so I hope Luggage Valet starts soon as there seems to be no real reason to not have it again (IMO).

4 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

On the Regal deck plan on the Princess website on Deck 7, there are 2 small “ocean viewing” sections outside Crooners (port side forward) and near the Shops of Princess (starboard side forward) and the Vista Lounge (near the aft both sides). There are also tenders noted between these two sections. Is there by chance a passenger accessible walkway next to the tenders, but not shown, that connects those small “ocean viewing” sections or are they pretty much isolated like they appear to be?

We are just off Sky and walked the ‘promenade’ on both sides one day. As the post above this one notes, it’s difficult to see under/around tenders & equipment. But, once you walk all the way aft, there is a deck, with nice teak chairs!! I imagine most folks don’t find this place. Now, it may not also be on Regal (I’ve sailed Regal twice and don’t remember finding it…but probably wasn’t looking!) so YMMV.

If you have time before your cruise, you might ask on your ship’s upcoming Roll Call (even if a different itinerary than yours) if someone would inquire for you on how appointments #2 and #3 are made, after  the first is booked online when purchasing the package.

55 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Another question. We like to walk outside around the promenade to burn off calories. Not a lot, maybe around 1.5 miles which is usually around 5-6 laps if I remember correctly. Are masks mandatory outside as well during continual walking situations like this?

Caribbean has a full promenade deck to walk…might only want a mask if there are smokers in the bit of smoking area!! (Of course, who knows what the mask policy will be when you sail??)

On Regal, there are areas on both sides where you can get outside on the “promenade” deck but can only walk up & down each side as no access to the bow & stern. Regal does have a nice walking track way up high, behind the MUTS screen. It isn’t an oval so it’s nice that it curves this way and that. There are little exercise pieces along the way if you want to try those.

Back from our cruise—here is what happened with the saga of the two not-refunded $50 promo gift cards.

Refresher: booked a cruise, had the two promo gift cards applied as OBC, cancelled cruise, promo card amounts weren’t reinstated even though they had not expired. My Princess vacation planner worked on this, to no avail (full story on that can be found in my earlier posts).

So once onboard, I took the printouts of the two bonus cards to Guest Services and explained the whole story. She took the printouts so she could discuss it with the finance folks onboard. With it being such a convoluted story, I didn’t hold much hope they’d be able to sort things out.

I received a phone call the next day where she told me they could see everything I said, but what they could not see is a date where the cards were ever used. So they gave us two $50 ‘good will’ credits (OBC) as replacement for the promo cards!!! Wow!!

And to make things even more unbelievable, it was refundable OBC (which didn’t matter as we used our OBC)!! But what a gracious thing to do as a kind gesture for all the time & trouble I went through to get back what should have been an automatic refund to the promo cards.

As an aside in this story: our PVC had also re-fared our cruise just a few days before sailing, as the price had dropped. This re-fare caused the CCL OBC to drop off the cruise. My PVC contacted the department who puts the OBC onto a cruise and also had me re-fax the document, which I did along with a note stating what had occurred.

I brought the document, the original and second-time fax confirmations with me. The same Guest Service person scanned those documents and returned my copies. She was able to also get that $100 OBC applied to my onboard account!!

Of course, we have both praised her, the finance people, and the Guest Service department on our post-cruise survey.

Those with similar situations may or may not have as much luck getting things resolved as we did but it helps to have all your paperwork with you and to be kind; also keep your expectations low, as we did, so as not to be too disappointed if things don’t work out as desired.

If staying at a hotel, print them at the business center. I just printed our Covid test results at our hotel.

I’ve tried to keep the following post succinct but I’ve also tried to give enough reference back to my previous posts (#7 & 15) so the story can make some sense. Apologies for the length but I hope it can help others prepare if they need to fight for their bonus/promo card refunds.

Heard back from my Princess agent last night. He spoke with someone who told him my two $50 promo/bonus gift cards were actually refunded into my FCC from my cancelled cruise—WRONG!!

I had previously written down all the payment amounts and did the math to account for the monies paid for my cancelled cruise. I reviewed all those numbers with him and he could then see that the person he spoke with was definitely wrong—yay! However, she had also told him that the cards are “non-refundable”, which, she said, is noted in the fine print. [[What I found interesting, is this person also told my agent I could phone Guest Card Services to see what they could do…of course, I had already called and was told it is Princess who issues the promo/bonus cards and only Princess who could refund to them]]

I then read the fine print to my agent concerning refunds and transfers—both of which are allowed until the expiration date 5/1/22. He agreed that the money should have been refunded to the two bonus cards that had been applied toward OBC on the cruise I cancelled.

But, he is now left with only one option: emailing his “bulldog” boss who, he said, has many contacts. He hopes the boss will be able to push this through but it may not happen before I sail on 2/5. He suggested I take the paper versions with me in the event they are able to reinstate/refund the bonus cards so that I’ll have the account numbers & pins and can use the cards.