TN-Mountains

My initial thought was you should keep the aft balcony, but I went back through all my photos of Iceland and it looks like I only have one or two from the balcony. (I have a ton in Norway!) Most of my photos of Iceland were taken while on shore. If it is a significant savings I would probably opt for the regular balcony and use the extra money to splurge on shore excursions. If the costs are similar, I'd keep the aft facing balcony in a heartbeat!

Hmm. I don’t know why they made us fill out paper copies then. I wonder if it had something to do with the rollout of their new app??? Our cruise was right before Christmas (19-23) so we were still using the medallion app…maybe they were already transitioning IT “stuff” on the ship & we’re having issues???

I don't know. There were at least 2 staff members each time I picked up my son. They kept the door locked and pushed a desk in front of it. When parents arrive for pickup/drop off they open the door to let the kid inside or get the kid's number for pickups. Parents sign them in/out but never go inside after embarkation day. They wait in the hall while staff retrieve your kid. It felt pretty safe to me and I'm typically extra cautious because my son has ADHD & high-functioning Autism. He doesn't sit still just because someone tells him to. In his mind, if there is a door it is meant to be opened.

I haven't looked into the Sun Princess, but I took my kids (13, 12 & 10) on Discovery Princess last month. It was their first cruise and it was a short one (4-days) with one sea day. They all had fun, but it was different levels of fun. My 12-year-old loved the kids club and my 10-year-old hated it. My 13-year-old refused to go to the teen club by himself. It kind of sucked that he couldn't join his siblings in the younger club. My 10-year-old would have enjoyed it had her oldest brother been there too. That said, they still had fun doing other things outside the clubs.

If I recall correctly, if you add everyone's booking number to the APP, you can give pickup/drop off privileges to all the other adults in your group directly from the App. We are a family of 5 so we had 2 cabins and had to do this. At least that is how it worked with the Medalion App.

I think 13-17 is a big age range too. My introverted 13-year-old refused to even check out the teen club. He preferred to hang with me or sit in the cabin playing on electronics. My 12-year-old son loved the club for his age, but my 10-year-old daughter hated it. On the bright side, my 13-year old took my 10-year old to see the production show so their dad and I could enjoy some adult beverages & dinner that night. I doubt he would have done that back home. 🙂

I don't know the answer to your questions but preregistering was a waste of my time. I still had to fill out paper forms for all 3 kids on the first day of the cruise even though I preregistered through the App. This was last month on Discovery Princess.

This is from the FAQ regarding Cruisung with Family & Kids: Preparing for Your Cruise What is the minimum age to cruise? Minimum age requirements: Guests must be at least 6 months of age at the time of embarkation and at least 12 months of age for trans-atlantic crossings and remote itineraries. Cruisetours: The minimum age for escorted cruisetours is 5 years. Guests under the age of 21 need to travel in a stateroom with a guest 21 years or older who will assume responsibility for them during the cruise. For family groups booking multiple staterooms, the minimum age for each guest is 16, provided they are traveling with a parent or legal guardian. Unfortunately we are unable to accept group reservations for student or youth groups that do not meet our minimum age requirements. What travel documents do I need to bring for my child? Passport requirements: Travel document requirements For U.S. and Canadian citizens WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT ALL GUESTS TRAVEL WITH A PASSPORT. Documents for guests under the age of 18: Several countries require special documentation for children traveling with only one parent or with neither parent, and these requirements can change without notice. Many foreign countries require a single parent or guardian to bring a permission slip for the minor to travel abroad. It’s your responsibility to ensure you have the proper documents for all of the countries you’ll visit. Please verify requirements with the consulates of these countries prior to your cruise. ETA: Here is the link that I copied the above information from: https://www.princess.com/en-us/faq/onboard-experience#cruising-with-family-kids

I find the App to be a little less intuitive when it comes to travel companions, so I used the web version to register my kids. Once you login to manage your booking, click on the “check-in” tab. There should be a “youth and teen program registration” link under your child’s name.

To add to this…sometimes they don’t “upgrade” you, but they still change your cabin. This is what happened to me. In my case there was no email or other notification regarding the cabin change. I found out when I tried to take advantage of price drop. Even though they kept me in the same cabin category, the cabin was a downgrade from my perspective. I had booked a not-so-obstructed, obstructed balcony and was placed in a there-is-a-reason-for-the-discount, obstructed balcony. I couldn’t get my original cabin back because Princess decided to include it in a group of cabins designated for COVID isolation. I ended up canceling the cruise and booking a different one. I forgot about trying to save money by booking a niche cabin and spent an additional $3k for a deluxe aft facing balcony. I really showed them! 😂

I hadn’t thought about it until I read your post, but I had a different name, address and phone number after all those years and the still found mine.

My experience shows this isn’t always the case. I purchased the standard fare on a 14-day cruise and added the insurance. Anytime I checked upgrade prices prior to boarding, they always included an increase in the insurance premium. I upgraded to Premier onboard (day 1) with no increase in insurance premium. We received a $10 pp discount as a refund for the shipping costs. I have another cruise (4 day) booked for this month. I booked the standard fare and added insurance. A few months after booking I upgraded to Premier. This time my insurance premium didn’t increase. I’m assuming my new cruise fare was still low enough ($770) that it was covered under the original $39/$59 insurance premiums. My 14-day cruise cost 10 times that.

This is interesting. My daughter and I have the Premier Package, but my husband and boys do not. When I made reservations for specialty dining for an upcoming cruise, I added all 5 of us to the reservation. It used all four credits and I only had to pay for 1 person to secure the reservation. I hope they let us keep it this way and don’t charge for all 3 of them once on board. I don’t mind paying for my husband, but my boys (ages 12 & 13) are EXTREMELY picky eaters and still eat kid size meals. I don’t mind burning credits on them to try/experience something new, but I am not paying an additional $30 on them. @sad549s, here is a link from a couple weeks ago where I asked a similar question. There are reports of others being able to share. I guess we won’t really know until we get onboard.

Definitely call and speak to someone else. Unless this is a recent policy change (last 12 months, or so?), it is not true. When I booked a cruise last Dec they found my Captain’s Circle number and my last cruise was in 2008. They were able to find my husband’s number too. All of our previous cruises show up in our accounts. As someone mentioned upthread, try using an old email address to login to their website. If that doesn’t work try contacting the Captain’s Circle department directly.

Yeah, the sales on the website are like furniture sales...they have one every week, but the overall price is usually the same, they're just shifting around the perks. For instance, I had been tracking the price of a 4-day cruise for 7 months. During that time, they advertised 2 or 3 sales. The price of the cruise was essentially the same the entire time. One sale appeared to be $200 cheaper, but you lost the $200 OBC with the prior sale. In the end, that $200 is needed for crew appreciation so it all comes down to whether I preferred paying it upfront or waiting until onboard. The only slight exception to this was for the 3-person cabin. The overall price dropped $150+/- when they added the kids sale free (or 3rd & 4th sale free) promotion. The half-off promotion I was referring to in this post, is the one they were offering while onboard the ship. They are (or were) true half-off discounts. I was able to book a balcony for 2 people for $800+/- inclusive of port fees & taxes. That was half-off what I could have booked the balcony for on Princess.com. In fact, it was a lot less than the cheapest interior cabin I had been tracking for months.