Crystaltipps67

We recently missed a Spanish port (Cadiz) due to bad weather and instead we went straight to the next port (Gibraltar) and spend an extra night there. We received a refund (about $9) in OBC a couple of days later. I am guessing that this was the balance of the refunded Cadiz fees less the additional Gibraltar fees but it didn't specify the details.

We went straight to Guest Services when we boarded and they added it. It was working by the time we had walked the few paces to Bellinis! The risk of buying on board though is that Princess might increase the price between now and your sailing.

We had the Sky Hotel General Manager (Miguel) at our meet and mingle and I asked him the specific question about whether it was OK to share and just use one Plus credit. And he said yes it was.

On Sky in Ocean Terrace we asked to just order 1 meal and share it and use one of our 4 'Plus credits'. They had no problem with that at all and happily brought us 2 sets of chopsticks.

On Sky earlier this month we ate 4 times at Ocean Terrace, each time ordering just a single meal and sharing it.

We had this dilemma. I decided to wait until on board (Sky) and went straight (well, after I'd got a glass of Prosecco in my hand) to the restaurant we wanted to book (The Catch). I was able to get the days and times I wanted and they had lots of availability.

We were on Sky last month and I sought out the almond croissants after reading so many folk say how amazing they were. I was sorely disappointed. They were small, hard (even after asking for them to be heated) and had little to no almond paste inside them. Same for the strawberry croissants, which looked amazing but tasted of flat zero.

We are Brits, so no medallions in advance, but we've always found boarding in Southampton to be really quick. We generally arrive for 10am when baggage drop opens. Queue for a couple of minutes to drop baggage. Queue in the terminal for a couple of minutes to check in and get medallion. Sometimes it's straight through to security and straight on board. Sometimes you sit in a holding area for a few minutes (we sat for 10 mins last month) before security. I had a glass of Prosecco in my hand by 1045 😃

We've not received a final invoice yet. We had $200 each non-refundable and then an additional $80 each that didn't show as non-refundable (some credited on board for a trip that missed off half the itinerary, and some for a missed port). But my folio on the final day said 'Total refundable $0, total non-refundable $2.30. so I didn't go to GS. We had bought trips, speciality dining and booze in the shop to spend as close as we could to the full amount, so $2.30 remaining of $560 total was pretty good in my book.

That's not my experience recently on Sky. We had a mixture of both and at the end of the cruise we had $2 credit remaining (nothing that cheap to buy anywhere on board!!). The folio showed zero to return to us, as they used all the refundable first. Not in the slightest bothered for that small an amount, but it was interesting that they did it that way.

We were on Sky a week ago and yes, the production shows were shown for a 3rd time during a sea day afternoon. Times varied from, I think, 1330 to 1630 depending on the show. It certainly helped with getting a seat at the evening performances!

Oh this will turn into a fun topic! In my opinion Take Five is the nicest bar area. Bit of jazz. We never had a problem getting a seat. Great cocktails (try the Atomic Pom if you like chilli - it's amazing). Not been in a ini suite but I know they have a bath so this tip may not be needed - take heavy pegs like you would use to pin a beach towel to a chair) and use them to weigh down the shower curtain so it doesn't flap against your legs. Others swear by taking magnetic hooks/clips for use on the cabin walls but we've never felt the need to hang stuff on the walls. The evening shows fill up quickly - we would grab a drink from Take Five about 45 mins before the show and go sit in the theatre and people watch. It's high quality entertainment that is sometimes better than the show itself. We take those mini squirty bottles of concentrated Robinsons squash. They take up no space and make a change from water when heading off ship. We also take a couple of clothes washing detergent capsules - saves buying the Princess stuff if you need to do any laundry. Embarkation day - if you are on board in time have lunch in the dining room rather than the buffet. Only one will be open but if you ask staff 'which dining room is open' they should tell you although they like to try and push folk to the buffet instead. It's a lovely relaxed way to start the holiday. And probably biggest tip of all - don't sweat the small stuff. Things will bug you. Not everything may go smoothly. But overall you'll have a great time. Oh, and find your roll call and join it. Good place to discuss excursions, join up to share costs etc. Hope that helps 🙂

Honestly, although we love the US we have had to stop travelling there as the tipping culture seems to be so out of control and it would totally stress us out to the point where we would not be able to enjoy ourselves. We've heard stories of serving staff chasing people out of restaurants if they have left less than 25%. Probably just myth but when I read stories like yours I'm tempted to believe them!

OP is from the UK where we don't have 'cancel for any reason' insurance (as that isn't actually insurance in our meaning of the word) nor do we have medicare (and any private medical insurance the OP has will be v unlikely to cover treatment for existing conditions abroad).

We got that offer for our upcoming Med cruise (next month). But the two I booked ages ago to use up OBC are still more expensive even after the 20% 'discount' compared to what I paid. It seems to be a sham.

Same here for the Med. We leave in a month and the 'reduced' prices are higher than the price I paid for the two I booked in order to use OBC. I do hate that they think I'm a mug! Same with the email offering us to bid for upgrades. We are booked in a deluxe obstructed balcony and picked our cabin to ensure an oversize balcony and the only obstruction being a solid rather than glass barrier. They are offering that we should pay £45 per person to 'upgrade' to a standard balcony cabin in an unknown location on the ship. On what planet would that be a good idea?

She's about to have a baby. I contacted her some months ago as she was the only sensibly priced tour on offer. Everything else (well I can actually only find one other company - Orpheus - which is ridiculously expensive!

Thanks all. I've already searched the boards and there's nothing recent about what Princess offers in terms of shuttle. I'm on the roll call but it's not been active in terms of this port. For info - I contacted Virginie months ago and she's not currently doing tours as she is just about to have a baby! When I said it was the back end of nowhere I meant the port - I am keen to visit Soulac. My concern as someone who both wants to be organised and have stuff planned but also doesn't want to pay over the odds, is that it would be really nice if Princess announced up front if there was going to be a shuttle so that I could plan. I will investigate cabs and try to book one in advance. Thanks again all.

Wow - live chat with Princess and I got the answer that no, Princess won't be offering a shuttle. So looks like we are prisoners on the ship unless we do one of their excursions. That's really poor!

We are on Sky next month (yay) and one of the stops is the back end of nowhere - Le Verdon, France, which is billed as Bordeaux, but really isn't anywhere close. Apparently there is NOTHING at the port, no taxis, no public transport. Nada, nights, nowt. Now we don't want to be spending all day on an over-priced Princess excursion to Bordeaux that will mostly be spent on a bus, but nor do we really want to have to spend the day on board as there are already quite a few sea days on this voyage. We are more than happy mooching around locally, but the nearest town (Soulac-sur-mer) is still a bit far to walk to from what I can see. I hope that Princess will at least put on a shuttle (overpriced, no doubt, but beggars can't be choosers) . But I can't find a way of finding that out in advance of getting on board. Do you wise ones have any recent experience of Le Vernon, or know how I can establish if there's a shuttle as it will help me to plan how we'll spend that day. Many thanks.

That's not tipping, that's bribery!

Excursions are not 'on board' and as you can book those in advance of getting on the ship it does seem perfectly reasonable to me to assume that you could book speciality dining (that will take place ON BOARD) in advance of physically being on board. I don't understand why folk think it's obvious that you can use OBC to book excursions before boarding, but not dining. But that's me and my logic.

Greetings from a fellow Brit. Please don't panic - we pay the auto gratuity but rarely anything more. I certainly wouldn't ever be carrying round a stack $ bills to dole out to people as we go. It's not our culture and I'd feel really uncomfortable about doing it. Room stewards do their job. I've never felt that they were doing anything above and beyond to deserve anything more. The only additional tip we've ever given was to a MDR waiter who saved us a table in his section every night, got the chef to cook us Phillipino food because we mentioned a Phillipino dish that we like, always spotted when the wine glass was getting low and appeared with a fresh one, and was the funniest man we've ever met. He got £20 in cash (cruising out of Southampton) on the last evening and a mention in the post cruise survey. Hope that helps.

We've only ever booked fairly last minute on Princess before, but booked our next cruise some time in advance. We are 63 days out now, and there's no ship activities showing on journey view on either the old or new app......when does that detail normally appear? Many thanks.

January 2022 was 2 years ago. Makes me think this is probably fake news.