mikjr

2 minutes ago, Lido deck main said:

Seriously how come some people do not take personal responsibility, it is always someone else fault.  

Please tell me... what was I supposed to do??   I've had cruise credits with Princess for years, they don't get used, they send me back a CHECK!    

We use Costco CCs... so when they changed from American Express to Citi Bank, so did we.  We had an issue with a credit card breach, so BofA gave us new numbers.

Regardless of the CC issue, HAL could have taken a few extra steps to send me a letter to my house.  WHY pass it on to a THIRD party??

I don't feel getting a rejection from the current Credit Card warrants declaring these Cruise Credits as ABANDONED property!  They send be at least FIVE emails a week, and at least FIVE mailers a month!!   

And now, we wait for 4 to 5 months for the refund... thats terrible customer service!! 

55 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Most of my CC are the same ones that I have had for several years.  But, if a card is not actively used or the date of expiration on the card has past, I can understand why a CC company might reject any attempt to post activity on the card until the user of the card updates his/her information.

 

I  had a situation recently where a card that I have used for years to pay a regularly occurring charge had a charge rejected because the Company required up-dated information from me.  Once I supplied the needed information:  no problem.

9 minutes ago, RDC1 said:

As I understand it they are normally returned to the same credit card used to purchase them. So did they try and refund them to that CC and have the refund rejected?

the problem is, who has the same CC after 3 or 4 years...   They could have easily sent me a letter themselves without passing the issue on to a 3rd party.  

Did anyone else receive a letter from a company called "Unclaimed Property Solutions"??

We've had CRUISE CREDITS on file with Holland America for several years, and instead of just returning those credit to us, they have started a process to turn them over to the State of California, if we don't complete and return this letter to Unclaimed Property Solutions.

WHAT a bunch of BS!!  I've been at the same address for 35 years, and had the same phone and email address for years!  All they needed to do was just MAIL IT BACK!  That's what Princess does after two years, if they are not used... they just mail you a check!   I called HAL and they said that 30,000 letters were sent out.

The issue is, that now it's going to take FOUR MONTHS to get the money returned!  That's the most inefficient process I've ever heard of!!

On 12/15/2018 at 12:30 PM, elliair said:

I purchase it the day that I book the cruise.  I don't wait until the last minute to do anything - except to print out our boarding passes for a flight.

Just curious...  we booked a cruise for 2020 and final payment isn't due until Feb 2020.  It's the first time we've booked so far in advance of the cruise.  

If I purchased the Travel Insurance when I booked the cruise (using Future Cruise Credits), and then have to cancel before final payment is due, do I get a FULL REFUND on the Insurance??

I usually wait until final payment and purchase insurance then.  

8 hours ago, voljeep said:

Your experienced 'in the know' Travel Agent' (TA) should be in the Princess 'loop' and have knowledge of the upcoming promotions and perks ...they can then book your preferred cabin on launch date , using one of your FCD's, then monitor the cruise continuously for additional promotions and perks up until sail date...and being able to refare your cruise while maintaining your preferred cabin ... and even notifying you immediately of any upgrades. upsells, or MOVE OVER OFFERS ... all this in addition to the 10-15% of your commissionable cruise fare back as OBC !!!

 

this would give you the maximum benefit knowing you got the absolute lowest price/max perks combo available for your cruise

GEE... where do I find those TAs that are willing to kick back 10% to 15% of your cruise fare??  

1 hour ago, golfer1903 said:

Hello. Is there a dress code for princess ships in main dining room.  Comming from carnival have never sailed priness.

 

Also do they have comedy shows every nite like carnival or is it a rotation like ncl

 

We've sailed many times on Princess.  The "Dress Code" requirements have softened over the years.  When we first started cruising, men would wear TUXES and ladies would wear GOWNS.  We just got off the STAR Princess last month, and although there were some dress that nice, not as many as years ago.

For FORMAL nights:
Men, including myself wear Suits/Ties OR slacks and nice sports shirts (short or long) with a sports coat.  
Women; dresses, pants suits, pants/dress blouses, etc

Casual nights:
Men; casual pants, casual shirts (short/long).  NO Shorts or TSHIRTS
Women; slacks, blouses, etc

Although shorts are not allowed, I did see a few in the Main dining room during Casual nights.  As mentioned, dress code has been relaxed!

32 minutes ago, dickinson said:

 

Normally when you get a price adjustment when rates go down or better promos you don't cancel your booking.  You can always cancel your booking and rebook but you could lose some things associated with the booking such as EZAir.  The prices may have gone up on that or the routes are no longer available.

Thanks.. that's more of what I was thinking.  

We taken two Alaska Cruises, both out of San Francisco..  Both left in LATE MAY, arriving in Alaska the first week of June.  On one of the cruises, it was 75 degrees in Juneau and I was in a T-SHIRT!!   I don't believe we saw much, if any rain.  BUT, it is Alaska, and it is COLD, especially while cruising the Glaciers.  SO, dress in layers.

We always book earlier because we save $1000 per room buy booking the late MAY vs September dates.  AND I understand August / September are the most crowded times of the season.

We just booked a 14 day round trip from LA... which leaves May 30!

The way I am reading this,  it relates to TRANSFERRING a booked cruise to a T/A now has to be done within 60 days...  RIGHT??

BUT, has nothing to do with cancelling a booked cruise to take advantage of a special or lower rate on the same cruise, RIGHT??  

 

We continue with a T/A because they always give us a nice "spendable onboard credit", over and above what we get from Princes.  We just booked 19 to Panama.  We got $650 from Princess, and $550 from our T/A for a total of $1300!!  NOT BAD... 

From what I understand, some of the larger Travel Agents, reserve blocks of rooms for their clients.  Once final payment is due, what is not sold by the TA is then released.  That's why you'll see several rooms pop up after final payments are due.

The Santa Barbara Hot Rod Limo tour is fun... and not real expensive.  They also do wine tours.

http://santabarbarahotrodlimo.com

 

A & J Limo Service have wine tours in the area.  They are located IN Santa Barbara

http://www.aandjlimousine.com/wine-tours.asp

Another shorter option to tour Santa Barbara is the Hot Rod Limo...  I think it's about an hour or so and it's fairly cheap.  They also have wine tours of the area.

http://santabarbarahotrodlimo.com

9 minutes ago, jpom18 said:

Interesting, I honestly don't remember what the precruise cost of internet was for mine, I do remember princess person saying that I would be better off waiting until i got onboard to exchange the platinum minutes for a discount, maybe that's not the case.  I just doubled checked my portfolio print out and sure enough there is a $143 charge for internet on there.  Just out of curiosity is your cruise on the grand as well, i believe that some ships have different internet pricing, part of the transition that princess appears to be undergoing, unfortunately princess doesn't always seem to know what's going on during these transitions.

 

 

Unfortunately I have to stay in contact with the office while I am away, even when I am on a cruise.  I generally do this in my cabin on my laptop, this means that I don't generally get to do it in port where I might have wi-fi as I am not going to carry my laptop around in port.  I seldom even carry my phone in port and if I do I can check email and that but anything more tends to be a PITA on a phone or tablet.  So this plus my personal usage usually amounts to about an hour or 2 per day (at sea or in port).  On a 10 day cruise 250 minutes only works out to 25 minutes per day so I normally have to purchase additional time anyways.  This time instead of additional time I just bought the unlimited package.  I have to admit that it was nice not to constantly watch the timer, and not to have to worry about making sure to disconnect from the internet when done.  I have also had multiple cruises where the system either did not or I forgot to disconnect and left the internet running then I have to go down to the desk and BEG (and they have made me beg) for at least some minutes back.

 

 

 

Ahh... I figured it was something like that.   The unlimited sounds like a great deal!!

 

On 11/13/2018 at 9:20 AM, rocklinmom said:

I had gotten an email from Princess saying that today (11/13) is the Elite early booking day for Alaska and Japan 2020 cruises.

It said starting at 9am Pacific time. It is now 9:20 and I can see the itineraries but it has no pricing, just the red message that says pricing is 

not available yet.  Has anyone else been able to get the pricing for these? 

I got in at 9:05 and got our cabin with no issue.  Did you get your cruise??

 

22 hours ago, jpom18 said:

 

22 hours ago, jpom18 said:

 I elected to purchase the premium package for the entire cruise, I believe it cost me roughly $140 for the 10 days which is about half the standard cost ($14/day vs. $30/day).  The Surf and Social plans were less but I don't recall the cost.

 

Just curious how you can need or use more than 250 minutes of internet time in ten days?   We were on a 15 day to Hawaii, which entailed 10 days at sea, and I was scrambling to use all 250 minutes by the last day.    Based on the 10 days at sea, that's almost 1/2 per day...   

17 minutes ago, missholly24 said:

Or from dinner.....???

Yes... that's what someone else mentioned....  possibly a steak knife from the restaurants.  just crazy!

Spring Rolls with Peanut sauce!

6 hours ago, mediator said:

My 2 cents, is that we forget that there are 3,000 more or less people who come with their own “baggage”.  Some people also hope a vacation will fix things.  Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t.  

Very true...  we forget that a cruise ship is nothing but a small city, and microcosm of the world around us.  There is love.... hate... happyness... sadness... life... and unfortunately, death.   We always go on a cruise with a positive and friendly attitude, and try our best to show love and appreciation for everyone... especially the crew.

9 hours ago, Brooklyn Bridget said:

Princess headquarter is in San Francisco right?   Maybe you are in luck!  Another 33 minutes!

Princess is in Santa Clarita,  which is the San Fernando valley area, just north of Los Angeles.  

It appears bookings are now open for everyone on this cruise

10 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

Hi neighbors!

I am looking at this cruise too. I was told it would be come book-able by non-Elite on the 15th, and the website shows no prices today. Are you (both) Elite? or can we call and get a jump on the 15th?

 

YES, we are Elite and were able to book TODAY - November 13, so we got a great cabin, Mid Ship.  

From what I understand, Elite booking was only one day, Nov 13, and booking will be open to everyone tomorrow.   

 

Not sure about the benefits, or down size to the Medallion...  but during our last cruise on the Star, we had TWO charges applied to our account that were not ours!  One from Sabatinis for $60, and one at the Wheelhouse Bar.   

I can understand it happening maybe once... but twice??  Of course, the Front Desk took the charges off after the "Supervisor investigated" the charges, but it was still a pain and a bit annoying!! 

So maybe the Medallion system can help to eliminate issues like that.