GK95

Just saw this on the Sun Princess excursions for Bar, Montenegro and started laughing. Why would I pay $60/pp to take myself around town? No way is that price worth a brief orientation. 
 

Has anyone else ever seen a self-guided excursion?

1 hour ago, Shaver John said:

Wow, did they mention Oct. Just wondering.....

No, only mentioned the upcoming month. I’d be curious if Princess even knows right now past a month-to-month basis but wanted to respect them sharing what they did by not asking a bunch of questions.  

Lately the app hates everyone. Can't believe such a large company hasn't rectified all the issues that have been going on with an app that people rely so much on. 

I have a connection to someone who works in corporate Princess (I don't want to say the department they work in or how I know them, but they are very much in the know via their job title). They've told me that Park19 won't be open in June. Very disappointing. 

I now cannot log into the app with my booking number or with my email and password. I've had nothing but issues with the app for about 2 months, but this takes the cake. I sail in 2 weeks and am starting to wonder if it will even work while onboard right now. 

Anyone else having the same issues? And anyone who's onboard now, is the app working for you?

6 hours ago, edinburgher said:

Reading past threads might offer some suggestions. choose from these, but you need to explude the threads which have the word "bar" which don't mean the town of "Bar"😀

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=bar&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=149

Yes, I did that already but there aren’t any specific answers other than saying that Kotor has been dropped by the Sun Princess or saying there isn’t much to do in Bar. I was hoping to hear from someone who has been on the Sun Princess lately. Not sure what other cruise lines are currently sailing there. 
 

Since I’m not getting any responses and not finding anything, I’ll have to assume there isn’t much to do than wander around to see shops and restaurants. Once we take our trip in June I’ll update this to help anyone else headed there in the future. 

Does anyone have suggestions of specific things to do when in Bar, Montenegro? We'll be on the Sun Princess in a few weeks, and its itinerary has changed from Kotor to Bar. When I try to research, I'm not finding much. So, any suggestions about the port, museums, places to eat, etc. that we can do in Bar would appreciated. 

Kotor has been removed from the Sun Princess itinerary for the rest of the summer: 

My family sails in mid-June and we were notified by our travel agent of the change about 2.5 weeks ago. 

19 hours ago, Kris1981 said:

I'm assuming because child numbers are relatively low, they often merge all the 0-12 year olds into the firefly room (Neon Grove is supposed to be the space for 8-12 year olds)  This will hopefully change when there are more kiddos on board, I hope. But because I have an active boy with lots of energy, he is pretty bored with the kids club overall. He enjoys the video games and elements of it but he needs more opportunities to run around and get energy out- park 19 would be perfect, ughhh! He is not a big crafter which is mostly what they have been doing. Also close to park 19 there's a netted area with some large connect 4 games (both faulty though), a bean bag toss and little trikes for 2-5 year olds, again not much going on for older kids. We are a pretty easy going family overall but this cruise just doesn't seem that kid friendly to us. There isn't even a kids section in the eatery(buffet) which I also assumed was standard on princess cruises??? Luckily, he can live off the pizza which happens to be amazing! We will have dinner in the MDR tomorrow night and I really hope there's a kid menu! But yeah, for our first ever cruise as a family with a 9 year old, maybe Royal Caribbean would have been the better choice for his sake. For adults though, this cruise is paradise!! 

We are on the ship until Sat, so if you have anymore questions, ask away 🙂

This could be because schools in the United States aren’t out yet (can’t comment about schools anywhere else). 
 

We were on the Sky Princess last spring break and the kids clubs were packed. Our teen loved it. We’ll be on the Sun Princess in a month and am sure there will be lots of kids at least the first day or two, when the kids seem to make their connections. And the Kids Clubs aren’t for every kid. We met a pre-teen on the last cruise who hated it and preferred to spend time with their parents. 
 

I am disappointed about Park 19. We were really hoping by now it would be open b/c our teen was really looking forward to it and they advertised it so much. I’m just assuming by mid-June when we sail, it will still be closed. 

I was able to get in initially and realized that I had booked for the incorrect date for one reservation (we sail in mid-June). So cancelled it and have been trying to rebook for days and keep getting an error on the app, no matter what day or restaurant I select. When I try to do it on the web, it says it can't find our Journey. I enjoy cruising with Princess once we're on board, but their app is just awful and frustrating. Will most likely have to book when we board the ship and be stuck with whatever times are left over. 

Was so excited about this and almost had our travel agent on standby and then realized that that’s around the time our youngest will be starting college. So we can’t go 😭 Will have to hope to do a river cruise for the 2027 eclipse in Egypt.

As far as I know, the answer is no. We did it for a cruise this summer on the Sun Princess and also lost our non-refundable deposits, which was about $200. And our travel agent was on hold and then waiting for a callback from Princess for several hours. But the cost difference for our trip was significant, around $1,500, and got us a slightly upgraded room, so worth it. I wouldn’t waste the time doing it for $50.

I'm 43 days out and just got my email about dining. Checked the app and the majority of the venues are now available for me to book (ones that aren't area Love by Britto, Spellbound, and O'Malley's Irish Pub). 

16 minutes ago, Mishkin said:

So watching a review of the Sanctuary there were two sections of it. The portion with the padded loungers that was supposedly reserved for suite guests then the other section. Maybe they'll keep those for us that paid extra for suites.

I don't believe there will be an "other section" anymore. It sounds like the only way to access the Sanctuary, at least on Sun and whenever the Star launches, is to pay extra for the suite. 

My take is that Princess gave that line about different areas so they didn't have to let the cat out of the bag what was about to take place. I don't dislike the idea (I enjoyed the Sanctuary but can see the benefit of it being exclusive), but think they should have done this before the Sun launched. 

41 minutes ago, dides said:

 

Waiting to hear some more details but the headline appears to be Princess announcing its first 'ship within a ship' concept - three levels of Sanctuary Collection suites with exclusive access to the top-deck retreat area, as well as private dining and relaxation areas.

Here's the press release that went out about an hour ago:

 

23 hours ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

It was not operational yet as of Thursday when we left. One day they were testing the Rollglider but it didn’t look very successful. Mostly they just had the motorized part moving around but some of the cars couldn’t even make it all the way around the track. One did have the seat contraption on it but none of the rest of them do. 
 

But even the ropes course wasn’t active yet. 
 

I don’t know what they were thinking but the track does come by the Sanctuary and I can see a lot of noise coming into that area from the riders. Not well planned. 

Still not operational. Wow. We go in about 6 weeks and my teen was hoping to ride it. Better prepare her not to get too excited, just in case. 

Agree! When I take a trip on land, I often save receipts and add things up throughout our vacation to "see where we are." I do this even if we've saved to have spending money or to cover costs. When I'm on a cruise, I'd much prefer to pay upfront for things I would (mostly) enjoy and not stress myself out about. 

I understand why some people don't want the packages, but for my personality, taking the Plus package helps me relax and have a better vacation, which is worth every penny. 

2 hours ago, CanadianBurger said:

Pompeii was amazing. We booked a private tour with a woman that has a PhD in Archeology, and is actively working a new dig in Pompeii when not giving tours. Her parents were both archeologists, and she grew up playing in the ruins. Her explanations were the most in-depth I’ve ever had on a tour of ancient ruins. Her website is https://www.elianasandretti.com/en

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for her contact info. We’ll be on the Sun Princess in the summer and my teen is fascinated with Naples, history and food. Going to look into a tour while we’re there.

48 minutes ago, Meandu said:

 

I was on the app but could not find a way to import/upload anything.  It required that I connect to my brokerage account.  How did you bypass entering your brokerage account information?

Select Fidelity as your brokerage firm, even if they're not. That will allow you to upload a photo of your stock statement. Blackout everything except your Carnival stock and your name before taking the photo. And you do not have to provide Stockperks with your address, phone number or yearly income - just skip that entire section. 

It can't be done onboard. And there's a deadline to submit by. Did your cousin get a confirmation email that it was submitted? If not, it should show that it's been submitted but not yet approved within the Stockperks app. It does take a few days to get approved because they send it to Princess. 

See comments #22 and #39 - that may work if no one has personal experience: 

On 3/10/2024 at 5:06 PM, Crystabel said:

I agree. I downloaded the app and answered all their questions until it asked for our yearly income. I figured it was none of their business and “dismissed” it, but it wouldn’t allow me to skip it. Then I read their privacy policy. Oh, boy! Immediately emailed them to ask that my private information not be shared. I couldn’t get any further on the app, so just deleted it. Am I now stuck not being able to get my shareholder’s OBC? 

You don’t have to fill any of that personal info out, including your address or yearly income. I skipped the entire section and it went through fine. Most likely if you fill out a portion, it wants everything. 
 

I understand hesitation for new things but no one has to upload any personal info. You do have to have a login for the app, but you do not have to attach your stock account to Stockperks to get the OBC. The only thing that needs to be done is to upload a photo of your Carnival stock with everything else except your name redacted. 

53 minutes ago, birdiebill said:

Sun Princess dining reservations have not been opened for that far out.  Being a new ship, the dining reservation openings are being released slowly--a couple weeks at a time...Don't know how far they have been opened, but I keep looking since we are booked on the Sun in September.

It's kind of odd that they're on the third sailing, and we still can't book. I would think it wouldn't make a difference once they got started, but shows you what I know lol!

58 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I don't know what the issue may be...but have you by chance tried the "web version" in your cruise personalizer?  Just open your cruise (on a desktop/laptop/tablet) and scroll down just a bit on the *Summary* tab (NOT Dining tab) until you see:

 

 

 

Many people have claimed success by going this route instead of trying to do so with either of the apps.

I didn't know I could do it this way. Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately, everything is greyed out, so I can't proceed to selecting a date to make a reservation. Guess I'll just have to keep checking to see when it's updated. 

13 hours ago, frugaltravel said:

Another example of why it's never good to fly in the same day that the cruise ship departs.

With the weather snafus that happened at Florida airports this weekend, they could have tried to have flown in a day early and got bumped to the next day, causing them to miss their ship. Half of the flights at Tampa Intl were cancelled or severely delayed and the South Florida and Orlando airports all had the same issue.