akaCruiser

My understanding is that once a ship switches to offer the three options, they will assign one of the options to the three dining areas. So depending on which dining option you select, you will then go to the assign dining room.

I would avoid using cellular service, as your phone will pick up the strongest signal and as such it will be the ship and not the land cellular towers. You'll end up with roaming charges which will be a lot more expensive than using a chat app on the ship's Wifi. Otherwise you will need to wait until they dock and then you will have the ability to go onshore and be hooked up to the regular cellular service.

Formal nights on an Alaska cruise, is more casual then other cruises. I noticed that a dress shirt and jacket (no tie) for the men and a mid-length dress was the norm during the formal nights (2 nights at sea days). Some couples were a bit more dressed up, but the majority was more like smart casual.

When I sailed out of Vancouver last Aug 2023, we picked up the Medallions at the port. The line wasn't that long and we got them within 5 mins. Picking up the Medallions wasn't a big thing, as they had many agents ready to process the Blue lane. The longest time was waiting to be call up by number to board the Crown Princess, but even that was around 15 to 20 mins before we got onboard and was then able to head up to the Lido for Lunch.

The Princess website seems to go down when they refresh the offers. There has been a few times when you log into your account and the website error message is displayed if you try to pick flights via EZ Air. Overall, it seems that they do a lot of updates in the later in the day (Eastern time zone) around the weekend that then messes up the browser cache, which requires sometimes a restart of the browser to get it working again.

I'm disappointed that Star Princess is being delayed, but I'm glad that this will mean that when (if you can rebook) you board the Star Princess it will be fully functional and all services and activities will be available for the passengers (as compared to Sun Princess and only partial availability of some venues and shows when she started sailing). When I read the cancellation email, there was a couple of things which I thought that Princess could have done better. Firstly, the offer of OBC of $100 was not really a meaningful amount also the time in which you need to apply to a booking was a bit short time wise. The other thing was that for my booking the Princess Plus was discounted by 20% which I will not have for a future booking. I really was hoping that in place, Princess could either honor the discount for any future bookings and/or provide a discount of 20% for a future booking. I really wish that I could contact Princess and get them to up their cancellation offers a bit more, as I was really looking forward on sailing on the Star in August 2025.

If your goal is to avoid crowds (kids), then the month of March is not the best month. Instead I would suggest to either sail the prior month or the following month. As for the condition of the ship, it is a lot older than the RCCL Oasis class ships, but usually Princess keeps their fleet in good condition. Previously, I've been on the Island and Crown Princess without issues and I'm booked for the Caribbean Princess in Dec, so I'm not too worried sailing on older Princess ships.

Best days are port days and in the early morning or during meal times like lunch or dinner, that way you don't need to wait for a machine to be free. Also note that the machines in the laundry rooms tend not to like be overloaded, so for large loads you need to split them up into two washings. Similarly when using the dryer you will need to split your load as I found that the dryers are under power and tend to need more time if you put a full load.

I normally just bring USD, as any Mexican ports will accept USD. I also have a credit card with no exchange fees so that if possible I just use my credit card and have it billed back in CAD.

The process is firstly need to d/l app to your smartphone and then register for the CCL OBC perk, by submitting your stock portfolio details to show that you have 100 shares. This usually take a few days to confirm and once accepted, you than then submit your request for the OBC by providing your cruise details like date and cruise booking number, etc. If it available then you will get a pop up and email saying that it is being processed. If successful, you should get an email from princess with the updated itinerary with your OBC added to the folio.

Last August 2023, while we were on the Crown Princess, we originally asked for FCD, but when we asked about bookings in 2025, we got an offer on the Star Princess for a good discount when we added the plus package (20% off) and passengers 3 and 4 were free and $50 OBC. After that booking, I would walk by the Future Cruise desk a few days later and then spotted some last minute deals that seems to be interesting, but it didn't fit my vacation schedule, so I didn't inquire about them. I'm hoping when I'm on my New Years cruise, that they might have so deals for 2026...

Just submitted my request last week for OBC on my Dec 2024 cruise and got it a day after I submitted my request via the app. Now I got to wait until maybe the end of year for apply for my Dec 2025 cruise OBC.

Here's hoping that Coke Zero will be available on all the ships, as last August 2023 on the Crown, they didn't have it. Only had Diet Coke. I guess I'll find out in December... I'm glad that with the plus package that we can officially request cans instead of a glass from the fountain, but even last August 2023, most of the time I order a Diet Coke it was given as can. Only got a glass once and after that I avoid the rear pool bar, when ordering a drink.

Thanks all for you feedback. Wasn't looking to bring fruit off the ship, just was looking for a sandwich or small snack item like cookies to nibble on, on a 5 to 8 hour excursions in Europe.

Does anyone know if you can request for small packed snack box from the Buffet for the purpose of having it during an excursion? There were times that we would just grab a sandwich from International Cafe or just go to the Buffet and make your own meal, but I heard that if you request you can actually get a small meal box. Thanks in advance.

I'm going to piggyback off of this thread, and ask the experts on a few things on booking European hotels using Princess. Firstly, how early can you book a hotel, as we are doing a 10 day cruise from Rome return in August 2025? What are the rates if you are booking for four vs. two? According to the website, a minimum of two nights is required, which is fine, but beyond that there is not a lot of details of booking hotels. Thanks in advance.

When I was on Crown Princess last Aug 2023, I initially got FCD, but I asked about cruises in Europe Aug 2025 and got a good deal which we then immediately used the FCD for the booking. Every once in a while, I would do a trial booking for the cruise on the Princess website and the cost has increased. The best thing was that when I booked I added the Plus package and it was discounted by 20% with the third and fourth passengers sailing for free. I wasn't pressured on what I picked and in fact they were very helpful in checking various cruise options in Aug 2025.

I found that on Crown deck 11 (Baja) was good, as you have cabins above and below deck 11. The only thing I found that some of the Balcony cabins are not really designed for four people, as one will need to sleep on a row-away cot. If you don't have four passengers, then this is not an issue, otherwise the one who gets the cot is not getting a good bed.

The options for internet is either one device or four devices at a time. Princess decided only to offer these two choices. Therefore if you have Elite level, you can get 50% off of either plan. Note the internet prices just recently increased from $15 per day to $25 per day (I might be off by a few $). If you have the plus package, you automatically get the one device option. Premier package will get you four devices at a time. I used the single device option and with DW, we have two connections that could be used at a time. It was good enough for our usage.

It's going to be the luck of the draw for obtaining the same seats once you update your bookings, as what is happening is that you are going to cancel the existing and book with the updated bookings. It might take some time to release the reserve seating before they are made available. I guess you will need to decide if saving money or keeping the seat assignment, which one is more important. I would go with the cheaper flight, as seating can always be adjusted.

Yeah, I found EZ Air to be the best Cruise Line reservation service, compared to HAL, RCCL, etc. The best feature is that I can book flights and if I need to change or move my cruise bookings my flights can be rebooked without paying extra if you do Flexible flights.

You need to go to the Princess website and log on to your booking. Review your flight reservations and click on modify flights. You will then be able to search for new flights and once you select them, you have an option to either accept or cancel. If you accept, then the flights will be rebooked and you should then get an updated itinerary with the revised flights.

It seems like the OP asked this question twice on the forums. When I booked my flights with EZair, I book my flight out around 11 months in advance. The cost of the "Flexible" flight was then added to my cruise fare and was due at the same time as my final payment. I then monitor the cost of the flights over the next few months and actually rebooked my fights and ended up saving around $200 per person around two months before final payment. Post final payment, the flights actually went up in price, so I didn't need to rebook. If OP didn't purchase the flight with Flexible option, then you will need to reach out to their TA or if they booked directly with Princess with their Princess Cruise Consultant and have them adjust the pricing difference, since they paid ahead of the final payment (which is why you should always pick Flexible, which avoids this situation).

Now that you updated your flight a cheaper price, at final payment the total amount to be paid will be your cruise fare and the updated flight costs. If you find the price drop after the final payment, I believe that the difference will be given as OBC or charge back to the credit card used for the final payment.

Officially, my understanding that sodas will be in a glass. I've heard that if you go to the bar and ask for a soda in a can they will give it to you for free, otherwise a can is usually an extra charge with the drink package offering a discount for the cost of the can vs. glass.