joe d

What Sale?

I checked 14 cruises and every one of them was the same price as before this sale. This form of advertizing should be illegal.

There are only 2 things that we use OBCs for - Gratuities and Shore Excursions.

As far as gratuities are concerned, most of my upcoming cruises already include “Free Gratuities”.

As far as shore excursions are concerned we are fairly limited in our choices due to our age and health issues. I have found that many of the excursions that we do sell out early (long before the cruise). I am not prepared to thousands of dollars on a cruise and take a chance I will be able to get the shore excursions I want once I get on board.

If I cannot use my OBCs for either of these then they are of limited value to me and Princess will have to come up with some other incentive for me and others like me.

Earlier this year we arrived early and had to wait outside until they let us into the lounge. We had a very short wait once in the lounge but a long wait outside.

Really ???:confused: It takes that little drive you away???:eek:

No, but I am looking for a cruise and Princess is not the only cruise line that I have cruised on. The first couple of times that I could not access the Princess search site I just figured that it was gremlins in the Princess system and I would try later. By the third time, when I could not get the information I wanted, I spent the time I had planned on spending on the Princess site on another site that was working.

Every time I try to search for a cruise my computer gets hung up. This has been going on for days. Everything else works fine. Clearly Princess is not interested in my future business. I just ordered a brochure from another cruise line.

Just got the email. Thank God I have the "3 for Free" promotion which includes gratuities.

I just booked the 3 for Free promotion earlier this week and Princess still sent me the e-mail about the increase in gratuities.

Not only that but I did not get the cabin upgrade because "according to Princess" the only cabin available for both legs of my B2B cruises was in a category not covered by the cabin upgrade.

I've had just about enough of Princess jerking me around.

Thanks for sharing. The free gratuities on the 3 for Free promotion turns out to be a very good deal!

I just booked the 3 for Free promotion earlier this week and Princess sent me the e-mail about the increase in gratuities.

The exchange rate depends on the exchange rate that Princess was using when you booked your cruise. I have some at 1.30 and another at 1.35.

Very disappointed with Princess with regard to this promotion.

We are doing a B2B to Alaska. There were lots of cabins available in all categories for the first leg; however, when we tried to get the same cabin for the second leg we were informed that the only cabins available for the second leg were mid ship and that they were not covered in the cabin upgrade. Bottom line is we were not able to get a cabin upgrade had to pay a higher price for both legs to get the same cabin.

If that was enough, although all the prices on the Canadian web site are in Canadian dollars the $100 deposit turned out to be $130 Canadian.

There are several types of OBC's. Some of the OBC's that Princess has been issuing recently as a booking bonus "cannot be used in the casino" per Princess. An example of this is the current "3 For Free Sale". I am not sure if or how this will be enforced.

I have a number of cruises booked with both types of OBC's. It is going be interesting to see what happens when I start using them.

Just to add to the confusion. We did a 10 day Canada/New England cruise last fall. When we booked it clearly indicated we departed from Manhattan OR Brooklyn. It was subsequently changed to Bayonne New Jersey (Cape Liberty Cruise Port). Fortunately, I had not booked my air before the change but many people had.

CCL is currently at $41.52. It has been a very poor long term investment. It was over $50.00 way back in 1999. Over the last 10 years it has significantly underperformed the S&P500. Even with oil prices as low as they are it has been a very poor investment.

I wouldn't prebook anything at 1.45. Dollar is just over 1.36 this morning.

Me too. I wonder how long it will take Princess to realize their mistake.

I remember back in the late 1990's when the Canadian dollar reached this level (on the way to 1.60). We switched to coach tours and did not take a cruise or visit the USA for 8 years. Our dollar will come back someday but in the interim it is a good time to travel elsewhere. I just checked a coach tour to Italy and it is very competitive with Princess cruises and you don't have to pay over $100 US just for a bus transfer from the port to Rome or Florence. I haven't checked Australia or South America yet but I believe their currencies have also been very weak.

Last year we took 4 cruises (3 with Princess). We took one last month but have no intention of taking another at 1.45. While I have already seen most of Canada I will probably take some time to travel more in Canada where a Canadian dollar is worth a dollar.

Just got back from a cruise and started checking my favorites. Looks like they have all gone up a lot.

I have one more booked but at lower rates but 1.45 is just too much. Time to cash in my Future Cruise Credits and vacation at home.

I am going on a cruise later this month. On my Cruise Personalizer, under "On Board Reservations" there is a separate section for "Onboard Credits" and "Casino Credits" but the heading under Casino credits says "Credits appear on your stateroom account and are automatically applied toward Casino spending".

Lets face it, to most of us the carts are a minor problem. To me the real issue is that they could be a major problem in the event of an emergency. There is no question that they definitely slow things down and all it would take is one person getting tangled up with a cart and it would block the hall for all those behind.

Earlier this year I did an NCL cruise. At the time of booking it I did not realize that they had changed to a prepay policy for excursions. I did not like their policy and did my own thing in all 10 ports of call and switched back to Princess for my next cruise.

The current policy is one of the main reasons that I cruise with Princess.

From a Canadian perspective the cost of gratuities has gone up significantly. A few years ago the Canadian dollar was on par with the US dollar but now Princess charges 1.35 Canadian dollar for a US dollar. The increase for us is from $11.50 Canadian to $17.48 Canadian (52%).

I realize that most of this is the result of a strong US dollar. While the strength of the US dollar has resulted in a significant increase for us it has also resulted in a significant gain to anyone receiving US dollars and converting them to a weaker currency.

Scotiabank is at 1.3468 this morning on their website.....

Accu-rate is currently selling US dollars at 1.3163. A company like Princess should be able to get it at an even better rate. I usually go to a smaller exchange bureau that is closer and usually has even better rates. I never go to the banks as they are always too expensive.

The 1.35 rate upset me so much that I decided to check the NCL boards to see what their rate was. They just increased their exchange rate to 1.25.

I will definitely be shopping around in the future.

Princess is now charging a 1.35 exchange rate. The official Bank of Canada exchange rate at the close of business yesterday was only 1.30.

No sale for us. In fact the price is up from last week.

After 7 cruises on Princess I recently took a cruise on another cruise and it had two features that I really loved.

1) The promenade deck was much wider than on Princess and all on ONE deck

2) They had a beautiful lounge at the FRONT of the ship where you could sit down and look out.

I can't believe how much some Princess cruises have gone up. I booked a January cruise on June 29 and the price has gone up every time that I have checked it. As of this morning the price has gone up 85%.

At the current price I could spend 2 or 3 weeks at an all inclusive resort in Mexico or the Caribbean.