gsmith2424

13 minutes ago, goingsailing said:

Hello, I have a question you might be able to answer since you are currently on the Emerald.   I will be on her in a short time with 2 grandsons.  We were wondering if the Emerald has an arcade room?  I thought I saw one on a deck plan somewhere but now I can't find it. Can you help us out?

It is on Deck 6 on the left side of the ship right before you enter the Casino. The arcade is called Churchill's Arcade.

17 hours ago, ProfMHC said:

Transatlantic was auto rebooked for us. Not much of a date change (depart 2 days later—same return date). Naturally way too early to have booked anything else. However, the promised price reduction didn’t show up in personalizer. Sent in a ??? —- let’s see how Princess responds 

I'm interested in what the answer is to that too. Looked at the new price today in the manage booking tab and it actually looks to have gone up instead of down for the TA. (Price went down but not as much as it should have as we got Premier and the new price doesn't show losing two days for Premier.)

Just got this email and it looks like the Star is now coming out later now: 

1 minute ago, KmomChicago said:

Is there a suitable port / dock? I realize being tiny she’s got additional agility that even an older smaller mainstream ship doesn’t. The cruise ships from the 90s and aughts are the original mega ships in spite of having been overtaken by newer behemoths.

From looking at the aerial, no way a main line cruise ship could get into DC. Its more for the yacht sized ones like ACL has.

3 minutes ago, KmomChicago said:

@chengkp75 is posting on a similar thread on the RCI board.

 

 Possibly a small American Cruise Lines ship was scheduled for Baltimore today. Wonder where they will divert, thinking Norfolk makes the most sense.

Looks like it went to Washington DC according to cruise mapper.

6 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Agreed. Safer to wait until you are on board. Be sure and take 2 copies of the printed page that shows both the GC number and PIN.

This. I did this on my TA back in November. Had both the email and a printed version of it to give to guest services to add on. If they are having no issues with the system it shouldn't take them long to add it to your folio. If the system is acting up you may need to leave it with them to add it to the folio but it will get done as this is what happened to us on that cruise. 

1 hour ago, Vinnyv20032003 said:

If this ends up being true you would have to think we’ll likely see multiple cancellations.

 

likely the reason we haven’t gotten the official press release yet. 

And won't be an easy fix either. If its had diesel in the system for just a little time, they might be able to flush the system with cleaning chemicals for diesel contamination and fix it but if its been in the system for a long time it could lead to them having to replace all of the water system as the diesel would have started to soak into the pipes. This is based on research I've done.

2 hours ago, nascartony20fan1 said:

So does that mean April 8 will be the first cruise? 

No, as it looks like April 8 is the first open cruise with cabins still available. Everything up to that point is sold out and was the same before the announcement.

10 hours ago, negn said:

Don’t forget Princess plus also covers your gratuities.  Between that and the Wi-Fi you only need about 3 wines to make it worthwhile

That and buying any other type of non alcoholic drinks on the ship. I usually like to get a Red Bull in the morning, a coffee later on, and maybe a soda later in the day in addition to water or any alcoholic drinks I may get. The non alcoholic drinks can add up quickly.

Not sure what ones they have but I know they have them. Hopefully someone on board currently could give an answer as to what ones.  Watches and jewelry is the big items I know they do carry.

10 hours ago, charliedalrymple said:

 

What is an azipod?

It's an evolution of the main propellers which can allow for better maneuvering. An azipod allows for 360 degree rotation.

Azipods will be on the new Sun and Star.

https://www.businessroundtable.org/archive/inventing-the-future/abb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azipod

27 minutes ago, saint_em said:

The weather is awful. I was surprised that some of the other ships left, but maybe it's something to do with where Sky is docked? The wind would make turning out to the channel very difficult.

We left the ship today and are staying in Ft Lauderdale - I have never been in wind so strong as it has been this evening.

I think one reason could be the other ships have azipods while the Sky doesn't have them. One of the other ships that did leave (Symphony) is pretty much on the same line as the Sky as for piers (2 for Sky and 18 for Symphony). Also Caribbean Princess is also taking its time getting back into port for its next cruise starting tomorrow. It's also supposed to be at the same pier that the Sky is at now.

4 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Are you sayin that people were delayed hours disembarking today? 

Weather is holding it up. Lots of warnings due to winds and rough seas in the FLL area.

4 hours ago, Jadn13 said:

Die Hard 

And Die Hard 2 on the TV

You have to link your reservation to the Medallion App and then you can go into that and make reservations. 

39 minutes ago, Go-Bucks! said:

For those who have sailed over Christmas, did they show any of the common Christmas movies on the cabin tv or on MUTS? Also, what special activities or foods did they have? TIA.

Just got off of the Sky Transatlantic and can easily say they have a few Christmas movies on the ship in the on demand section on the TV. It was actually more than I thought. MUTS was still mainly newer/non Christmas movies when we were on the ship. 

1 hour ago, Bedruthen said:

Met a couple last night on their very first cruise and boy were they unhappy. They have a forward cabin and have barely slept because of the noise in their cabin, which a previous poster has already documented. They have been to guest services and asked if they could be moved, but told no other cabin available. They booked it 18 months ago for an anniversary and it has put them off ever cruising again. That’s the trouble when you are new to cruising, you don’t know about the importance of cabin choice.

I'm surprised they were told they have no empty cabins available to switch them to. I usually walk every deck on a cruise and count the empty cabins and found 39 empty ones on the ship with Deck 10 having the most at 15. Mostly insides are empty but have seen a couple balconies and even one mini suite. 

17 minutes ago, Cruise Puss said:

Do you know why?

 

Is it a medical emergency?

 

(By the way, we were on the cruise before you and were in a Penthouse Suite (R612). We thought Georgia (the lady Suite Concierge) was wonderful, as was the Suite Manager.  We loved that every morning she would come round Sabatini's during breakfast asking how we were.  We also enjoyed the pre-dinner drinks and food between 5:30 and 7:30 every night. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 🙂)

Captain just made an announcement about 5 minutes ago, medical evacuation by helicopter. 

Just an FYI for everyone on this cruise we did a U-Turn in the middle of the night and now heading back towards the Azores.

Has anyone else noticed a credit for Port Fees/Taxes on your folio for this cruise? We got one for almost $20 and have no idea why. Wanted to see if anyone else has seen this and if so they know the reason.

On a side tangent to this one, has anyone ever seen any F1 races carried on the ship? Going on a TA next month and the F1 race from Vegas will be running while on the ship.

I know that you can use gift cards (digital and physical) on the ship by adding them to your folio for onboards charges once you get on the ship. The question I have is can you use the money you add to your folio by gift card be used to cover casino charges? Also what happens if you have any money left in your folio account at the end of the cruise that you added from the gift card? This is the first time we have had gift cards going into a cruise.

36 minutes ago, Sweet Jie said:

There are parties apparently we have to go through, EZ, QANTAS, AND American. American is operating the flight for Qantas (Qantas equipment).

That sounds more like a code share flight. It's flown by Qantas using Qantas equipment but AA is able to sell seats on it (will have an AA flight number usually a 4 digit one for code share, ex. AA7xxx). If you haven't contacted AA (not EZ Air as the ticket has been issued already) I would to see what the process would be to see about an upgrade and if its even possible. Like others have also said the ticket might not be upgrade able due to what fare class it is as some can be upgraded and others can't

17 minutes ago, jwattle said:

Your gripe, in this case, isn't with EZ Air; it is also with the airlines. Once the booking is paid, the power to upgrade is in the hands of the airline. I know firsthand, as I booked ours, and desired to upgrade. I was told that, if prior to payment, I could go in, cancel the air, and rebook, choosing business/premier economy as my preferred; other option was to pay for the air selected and contact the airline to bid for an upgrade or pay for it directly. As you see, once the air is paid for, it is all up to the airline to let you either bid or pay for the "enhancements".

 

That's pretty much what I experienced. We got our flights booked and did early ticketing. By doing the early ticketing it locks in the ticket to where EZ Air can't change the route/times and pretty much kicks the changes (including class upgrades) to the eirline not EZ Air. We were also able to get premium seats picked only after we did the early ticketing option. One situation where EZAir could (might not be all situations) do a change for you after early ticketing is if the airline cancels the flight and the airline changes the day of the flight. We had this happen on our TA coming up and EZ Air was able to change us to a direct flight on AA over the LH flight we had. It's a rare situation but only one I know of where EZ Air could do a change after ticketing. 

No testing is required, so you aren't missing anything.