UT-Volsfan

We had a cabin over Explorers once. Until midnight the music was loud enough to prevent us from sleeping. I would recommend if you are an early to bed person to not take a cabin over a venue where you know it will have loud music. If you plan to be around the ship until midnight, then do not worry about the noise. After that experience we learned to check deck plans for what is above and below us before we select a cabin.

Sent our request in by email on July 11 and got email reply stating it could take up to 21 days to process. OBC was shown on our account July 15, which is fairly decent turnaround, better than what we used to get when we were forced to fax requests in. Put all requested information in body of email instead of using the form.

According to the Princess FAQ for European cruises: If a negative COVID-19 test is required for re-entry into your home country, Princess will cover the costs of tests, provided guests can show proof that their flight arrangements are the same day as they disembark the ship. Guests will need to make their own test arrangements if onward travel is not the day they disembark. We sail in a couple of weeks from England and are keeping a close watch on the FAQ pages for any policy changes. We are flying home the same day we disembark.

Some of this has always been in our go bag when we travel: -At least 2 extra weeks of prescription meds -extra hand sanitizer and wipes -cough syrup/drops -thermometer -covid tests and will self report if positive -extra movies and tv shows downloaded -extra books on e-readers -liquid soap -laptop if need to research alt. travel or to have bigger screen for media to watch -power bars -over the counter meds (we did this previously), including dental temp in event of tooth problem -extra masks -power adapters for countries we visit in event we have to leave the ship there -corkscrew (will get wine glasses first day from room service) -will get fruit from buffet to keep in cabin We have been on 5 cruises since the restart. Have our first one in June starting from outside the US.

Concerning the issue with the Dine My Way system (DMW) losing reservations, we found on our back to back cruise in March that the Princess system did not know how to carry dining reservations over from one booking number to the next one. Reservations disappeared for multiple parties on the first day of the 2nd cruise. They would show up then get overwritten with somebody who had booked it just for that cruise. We had made a conscious decision to book a table for two and were not happy to be told it was not available. We were told by dining room matre d that this is a known issue in the DMW system. Took them 2 full days to get our reservation corrected. Never did hear any kind of apology, but it did get fixed.