Robkat

We're about 80 days out from our cruise. We are checked in, all our information has been provided via the app, and we are in the "green lane". When will be able to select a boarding time? And are there any other check-in processes that we'll need to do? The app says we're Ocean Ready, and there aren't any other instructions or steps shown, BUT we weren't given or asked to select a boarding time. Thanks in advance for any help.

But, isn't the whole idea of the Medallion to make certain activities an easier and smoother process, ie whizzing right through the check-in process? So, if you opt to do a terminal pick-up, wouldn't you then have to line up with others who could not have the Medallion delivered, for example Canadians, Brits, Europeans and all other non-US passengers? We thought that would turn out to be a considerably longer process. It sounds like the transition into the new Plus and Premier from the old Plus is not going all that smoothly? Also, we agree with @CruizinSusan70:DH wants to finish our check in for this upcoming cruise and doesn't want to have the 'green lane' withheld from us! 🤦‍♂️😂

Thanks to all who answered above. Helps to hear that others see the same issue, and also to know what TA's have been told! We certainly wouldn't go to Guest Services just to try to recoup a $10 shipping charge, but as I said, it is the principle of the thing. Don't say shipping is complimentary... and then charge it, and then tell people to go get a refund or credit from Guest Services! Thanks again everyone ... your replies and info helped.

We have two upcoming cruises. The first one we booked is for Dec '23 on the Sky, and we have Princess Premier. On PP, you get the complimentary Medallion, the lanyard and a "Medallion accessory", for no charge or shipping fees. After we booked, and started filling in our info for check in later, when we made our order for the above Medallion stuff, a $10 charge appeared for shipping. We knew this was incorrect, but didn't want to face a phone call to Customer Service, so waited about a week, and when we went back into the booking about a week later, what do you know, the $10 shipping charge was changed to $0. After that, we booked another cruise for this July (so we had to pay the balance when we made the reservation), and this time we'll have Princess Plus. With P+, we should each get a complimentary Medallion and a lanyard, with no shipping fee. When we were filling in our info and ordering the Medallion to be delivered, once again a $10 shipping fee was being charged. Its been a couple of weeks, and this time, it doesn't appear to be going away. We can't continue with the "Ocean Ready" process until that section has been completed. For those who have had Princess Plus, were you charged the $10 shipping fee? Did you just go ahead and pay it? Were you then given a credit, once you were on board the ship? We're tempted to just pay for the shipping, but it's the principle of the thing ... Princess says shipping is complimentary. It's hard to believe that Princess's IT can't fix this glitch. We're wondering if others have experienced this too, and how you proceeded.

Thanks for this, that! (Had to do it! 😂) We're shaking our heads that we missed it. 🤦🤦‍♂️

For the two upcoming cruises we've got, DH has made nightly dining room reservations in both MDR's and specialties. Nowhere has he seen or been asked about what pace of dining we'd like. Where exactly would that question be asked? Thanks.

That's good news re: shore excursions; but disappointing that we can't pre-reserve specialties. So, if we'd like to use our OBC as payment for specialties, do we just need to wait until embarkation day?

Can Princess OBC be used to reserve and pay for specialty dining and/or shore excursions when reserving in advance of the cruise? This option is available on at least one other cruise line, so we were hoping to see it on Princess as well. Final payment has been made, so that's not a factor, but when we tried to reserve Crown Grill, the price came up, and we didn't see any options for applying that OBC. But maybe we're missing something? Appreciate any info. Thanks.

Don't know if anyone will know this just yet, but (specifically for a December Sky Princess cruise), will current pre-cruise reservations in Bistro Sur Le Mer automatically get transferred to 'The Catch by Rudi'?

A "sit back and relax" philosophy is a pretty good one!

@d9704011. Excellent! Great minds must think alike because I had just come into CC to ask you if you (or anyone else) had any recommendations for hotels in and around either the Dorval train station or the airport! We were pleased to see your recommendation and immediately went and booked that Marriott. As you point out, it will be perfect for our very early flight the next day. 👏👏 NOW ... to wait until Sunday when our TA is working and get the actual cruise booked. Thanks so much for being mindreaders! 😂

LadyM: Thanks for posting this ... It must have been disappointing to have that excursion turn out the way it did. We've pretty much decided that we're going to do a hard pass on that particular excursion ... even on the Princess site, it only gets 3/5 stars, so not very positive! We're thinking we'll take the train to the Montreal airport, and then get an airport hotel so we can get an early flight back to Florida the next day. We're still in early days with our planning, but this does seem like the easiest and less hassle way to go about things. As an alternative, once we're actually have the cruise reservation, we'll look at Princess hotels in Montreal on offer, which would include transfers to the hotel. However the cruise lines aren't exactly known for offering decent hotel package prices, so that option may quickly fizzle out! Thanks again for your input.

This is really good info and thanks for posting it. In the Via Rail invoice, is that price shown per person or is that for 2 people? Also the info about the shuttle from Dorval to the airport is really good to know, so thanks also for thinking of adding that! It seems like the QC train station is very close to the cruise port, do you think it would be walkable? Our luggage is pretty contained (we don't have several bags each) and we're walkers ... so if it was within a half mile or so, I wouldn't see a problem for us ... IF it's doable.

Thanks to everyone for such good and detailed answers. It has certainly clarified things for us, as we make our decisions. To Rick&Jeannie: Thanks for getting back so quickly. We're just wondering, though, since your transfer is not a straight-to-an- airport in the same city as ship disembarkation, if the reason you have access to these particular transfers is by virtue of your having booked a Montreal hotel with Princess. The whole disembarking in one city and wanting to fly out of another city seems to be throwing everything off! When we asked for a quote and a hold, we asked our TA if we could get transfers to Montreal through Princess, and he told us "as per Princess, no you can't. Other than transfers to QC airport, you're on your own." We just couldn't believe this would be the case, since so many people want to fly home from YUL, which is what sent us to CC'ers with experience. So, with that in mind, does your transfer and hotel purchase show any kind of Princess code, which we could relay to our TA? In any case, everyone has been very helpful and we do appreciate all the info from those "in the know"!

Omigoodness! This is exactly what we were hoping for! Did you book this through Princess? Where was it available to book? Is there a specific code for booking this shuttle? We've looked on the Princess site in Shore Excursions, and we can only see the longer 6-hour excursion. Is this a bus shuttle? Does it pick you up right at the QC cruise port and drop you right at Montreal airport? Are there time options, or is it one fixed time? Lol ... sorry for all these questions, but we're excited because this is what we really wanted. Thanks for posting!

Thanks so much for this info. We've already read most of the thread and we're seeing so much useful info. We're still a little unclear about the train, where we catch it, the schedules, etc. but hopefully when we finish reading the thread we'll find that info. We are normally really good doing our own research, but we needed this info fast as we have to decide soon, so pointing us to the info was invaluable. So ... Thanks again, and if anyone else would like to chime in with details/more info, we appreciate tremendously.

We are looking at a repositioning cruise on the Caribbean Princess, in July, from Fort Lauderdale to Quebec City. We want to fly back to Florida from Montreal airport. The best situation for us would be if Princess offers shuttles/transfers from the Quebec City cruiseport directly to Montreal airport. Does anyone who has disembarked in Quebec City recently know whether this is possible? We'd also be interested in hearing any other recommendations. We know about Via Rail, for the train, but can't find info about where we'd catch the train and where it would take us, and how far that would be from the airport. And what about other independent shuttles that would do cruiseport pick-up, with a drop at Montreal airport? Really, any insight or experienced info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

LOL, JL ... You beat me to it!!! 😂😂

Oh, I guess I should have been a little more descriptive about what I was referring to ... What I meant is that it was sad that MSC's reputation of handling passengers' various requests/changes/calls to CS for info or help, etc. are quite often met with ineptitude or misinformation or, in some extreme cases, actual problems created with the bookings. I'm not saying that this is universally the case, but it happens and gets reported upon sufficiently often enough that a first time MSC cruiser, like the OP for example, feels that in order to make a fairly common cabin change, the best way to mitigate potential detrimental changes happening is to outright cancel the booking and start over. In my opinion, this is a reputation issue that MSC should address.

Oh my goodness! Isn't this a sad commentary about MSC's inept (factually and perceived) customer service and back office? We've cruised with MSC 4 times in YC. We are considering, for the first time, booking a regular balcony Fantastica, on Meraviglia. We had asked for a couple of quotes from TA's, and 2 of 3 said that they will not book MSC unless it's YC. That has us a little nervous. We saw that you've got a couple of cruises on Mera coming up, so we'll be following your Live From posts avidly, to get your impressions and pov. Saw also that you're doing Aurea and then a Fantastica balcony ... for the cabin move in Sept, did you move within the same category, or was it to move to an entirely different category and experience? We're hoping that your refund comes quickly, and that nothing else comes up that will force you to have to make any further changes!

Thanks, mvh, for the reply, but I'm not sure what you're referring to. Promos are only used once on the cruise, and somewhere in the Terms & Conditions I'm sure it says that they have no monetary value. But are you saying that your deposit is now non-refundable? We had another conversation with our TA and he swears up and down that his MSC DM told him that all deposits are non-refundable from time of booking. But then this morning, without any other explanation or referencing our discussions, he sent us a new quote, which did not have the notation about the deposit. We're not feeling very confident in why he did it. Did he find out that he'd been wrong, or was he just appeasing us? This why we'd like to hear from others who have recently made deposits on cruises... to see whether your deposit was refundable. Thanks.

I'm sure a thorough search on this forum would provide some answers here, but we are in a bit of a time crunch, so I'm asking for confirmation/information from US residents, who have recently booked cruises, NOT in YC. Our travel agent has provided us with a quote for a cruise in September, and is holding a cabin for us, in a balcony cabin with Fantastica experience, for a 10 night Canada/New England cruise. His quote states that "The deposit amount is $xxx and is non-refundable from time of booking". The final payment is in June '23. We had heard that deposits for YC are non-refundable, but everything we've seen tells us that other than YC and suites, deposits are refundable up until final payment. Are we wrong about this? We've called MSC and asked the question "generally, and have been told that deposits for these circumstances are refundable (until final payment). When we re-questioned our TA , he told us that his District Sales Manager had told his agency that ALL deposits we're going to be non refundable. Anybody from the US who has made a reservation very recently, (and not in suites or YC), can you confirm whether or not your deposit was noted as being non-refundable. And, of course, if anyone has heard any confirmation of this info, we'd love to hear about it. Thanks in advance for any info/help.

Thanks for your reply. What a great system, and we envy you having TG as your "MDR" ... nice! We've got to just be happy with a specialty thrown in every now and then! Hope you enjoy your afternoon and evening in Fort Lauderdale, and hope your upcoming Beyond and Reflection cruises are wonderful.

Really enjoying your review and we are absolutely envious of your multiple B2B's, especially since we're just a few days off our Reflection cruise. We did a 12 nighter on Equinox this past November, so we're getting a kick out of seeing all your ship photos. Have to ask though ... you often mention that Tuscan Grill is your "MDR" and you've been in there most nights. If you don't mind the question, how are you managing this? Do you have crazy OBC and decided to use it this way? Or is it just a personal preference to be in there for most evenings? If you feel this is nobody's business, I understand, but my curious mind is wondering! In the meantime, we're looking forward to your ongoing review. Thanks.

Yes!!! 🤦🤦 Thank you! Our last few cruises this year have had a Saturday departure, and I just defaulted to that automatically. BUT ... we are making our way down to FLL the day before, so it could be said that we're leaving on Saturday! 😂