calvin31

52 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

Princess is excellent at serving passengers who require no gluten. There have been threads about this if you do a search.

 

DW has celiac so we know. Use the Cruise Personalizer to let Princess know in advance about the dietary restriction.

 

For the MDR, we find it's best to reserve the same table every night so we can have the same staff who will become familiar with dietary needs. The people at the desk will make exceptions for those with medical needs and take care of you. Go there as soon as you can during embarkation and make your needs be known.

 

Each night one of the Restaurant Managers (used to be call Head Waiters) will come by with the next day's menus. Your partner can choose meals in advance and the RM will arrange for the choice to me made gluten-free if possible, and usually it is. It works great! Even French Onion Soup will be made with a piece of gluten-free bread.

 

For the buffet, often items are labelled as gluten-free but not always. Ask for the Chef de Partie (or something like that) and he or she will take you through the buffet and let you know what you can and can't have. Always look carefully though. For instance, the bacon at breakfast sits on a layer of bread to soak up the drippings. Cross-contamination is a problem there. However, you can ask and they have bacon "down below" that hasn't been contaminated. By asking, problem solved!

 

You can often even partake of the Chef's Table and the specialty restaurants by asking in advance.

 

The Lido Deck grill's fries are done in a dedicated fryer - there's no cross-contamination issues so DW gets her fill of fries when cruising. They will clean the grill for you if you let them know so there's not cross-contamination from toasting regular buns. Sometimes gluten-free buns are available too. Gluten-free pizza is also available both on deck and at Alfredo's. Just ask!

Agree with all of this. My wife is celiac and has had nothing but positive experiences dining on Princess. Be sure they put their gluten allergy in the OceanNow app ahead of time too. 

27 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

CRASH STOP, ALL BACK EMERGENCY. . Some helpful soul on our Roll call did some better due diligence on this and reported back as follows:

 

Hello all, it’s “temporary” I spoke with ship officers. Princess has a special Gambling Tournament” contract event in a couple weeks just like the recent Magic Castle themed cruise. They will expand the Casino into Take-5 to accommodate the tournament. They will remove the gambling equipment afterwards and Take-5 will reopen.

Phew!! 🙃

We were on Discovery at the end of August and we loved it as a place to get away from It all and relax. The modern jukebox (for use when no live music was being played) was a very nice touch. VERY interested to hear what’s happening to this venue. I hope we keep getting “”live” updates from cruisers onboard. 

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

Delivery to Canada will cost $15 USD.  They were very clear that the price is in USD.

For that price and a couple of minutes to pickup at port...seems a no brainer to not do delivery...but it's great we can get it ahead of time now if we want to.

15 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Not true for Princess.

 

True on some other cruise lines.

Really?? I swear I recall vividly that both people had to have the drink package or they were afraid too much sharing would occur. Oh well….lol

I did try to search this answer but to no avail….can only 1 person in a stateroom have the plus/premier fare/package or do both pax 1 and 2 have to? In the past the various drink packages were very clear that everyone in the cabin (at least pax 1 and 2) had to have the same level of package (to prevent sharing) but now I can’t find references to that anywhere (even for the standalone drink packages). Have things changed perhaps? I am thinking of maybe upgrading onboard on day 1 but it’s not worth it if both of us have to have it (& no, I wouldn’t be sharing either). 

2 minutes ago, trbarton said:

You don't mention which port you are sailing out of which might make a difference.

 

I sail mainly from San Francisco & I usually arrive at the terminal around 9:30 am & at around 10 am we are let into the terminal & around 11 am are boarding the ship.

 

I assume that other ports may be different.

 

I cruised last year on Carnival from our old cruise terminal in San Francisco & we were outside in 3 different lines for 90 minutes until we were allowed into the terminal with no explanation.

 

I choose to arrive early as I have never seen any long lines at our new terminal.

 

Tom

 

 

We are leaving from Seattle and likely arriving around Noon (long drive from home) but that’s all good…it’s the inconsistency of Princess messaging that’s bugging me (as well as the buggy app) as we near our first cruise in 5 years. It’s gonna be an amazing time though….we cannot wait! 🙂

In my ‘super important’ info email about our cruise leaving Sunday they were very specific about choosing a terminal arrival time in the app…..which I am at a loss to find so I have to assume it’s another change that occurred in one department but another department isn’t aware? Or am I missing something?

Ahhhh excellent! We sale Aug 24 so perhaps we will be among the first to get mailed ones. I already selected “pick up at port” since that was the only option but I’ll get checking to see if there’s a change

7 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

Or Canada.

We can’t get medallions shipped to Canada with these changes now can we?

To followup I called the number I was given and the only “help” I got was a suggestion to uninstall and reinstall…which I had already done to no avail. They then tried to upsell me to premier packages. Sigh. After the call I did the install again and still nothing. Then magically 2 days later….it worked!! (Final payment is today and we are excited to get going again:) )

Well she got back to me today and admitted that she made a mistake and offered to put me in touch with the Ocean Navigators since she doesn't have any access to issues with the app.  I haven't heard from them yet, but I did try the web-based app as was also suggested and it worked perfectly to make reservations.  Odd that it works but the regular app doesn't....and no reason why....

20 minutes ago, caribill said:

Are you sure that the App knows that you are Elite?

 

In any event, call Princess and select the option for help with the app. The person that you finally reach can make the dining reservations for you.

“Something” is up for sure. It shows my ‘black’ pin on my profile on the app so one assumes it believes I’m Elite…. Good idea to call Princess….I didn’t know they had an app help line lol 👍 I will try that after hearing back from my PVP again. 

I’m Captains Circle Elite and we are doing our first cruise back since 2018 in August and this is our first time using the app and Dine My Way. Also….first time ever booking with a Princess Vacation Planner. I was sure I could make reservations before final payment as an Elite member (Princess website tells me I can) but when I tried in the app I was not allowed and got a pop up saying what you can see below. Of course I noticed that this message ALSO says I should be able to reserve as I am elite. My booking shows that I’m elite so it’s entered correctly.

So I contacted my PVP and she said that even if you are Elite you have to have final payment made before a reservation can be made. I asked her if this is a new change or what’s up with that as everything seems to say that I can do it. I haven’t heard back yet. 
 

Anyone have any similar experiences? Only thing I can think is that not all of us in the room are Elite but I didn’t think that should matter….

They will have a BLAST!  We did Hawaii with my then 6 year old daughter and initially I was worried if there would be enough kids for her to interact with, but when I contacted Princess they said they would run the kids program even with only her.  Turns out there was about 25 kids total and 10-15 did the kids program daily so she loved every minute of it.  This was during the school year too...February, if I recall correctly.  it won't seem like there's a lot of kids (since there's lots of people on board) but there will always be some.  The cruise staff will also treat them like royalty since they will be somewhat unique amongst the crowd.  This is an experience that my daughter has never forgotten.

We did do a 3 night Alaska Sampler cruise the year before just to see if she would enjoy this kind of travel and it went better than expected.  The formal nights were her time to shine! 😉

Have fun!

Has anyone heard if FCDs may be extended for the length of the “pause in operations” (for example). We had used ours for an Alaska cruise (leaving June 22) but that was canceled before we had to make our final payment and Princess put the FCD back on our account. It’s due to expire in October 2020, so there’s time but things are so up in the air right now it would be nice to have more time to consider options.  

YES! 100% and excited to be able to book again soon. We were supposed to go in May, but that just seems like a dream now. 

They definitely printed smaller for us on our recent Hawaii RT on Emerald. We had plastic holders and I was able to easily fold them so the cabin number showed on both sides. 

We are all good now. Through the storm and smooth sailing ahead. :)

No unlimited internet as far as I could tell. Just my elite minutes (250) that I’m using to check in from time to time.

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Yup. I’d say that’s about right. We are definitely rocking and rolling out here but loving every minute :)

 

 

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Maybe not loving ‘every’ minute. Lol. Walking is pretty touch and go. Lol

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Anyone on the Emerald currently? Looks like shes (large blue arrow/ship icon near middle of screen on the left image) sailing through a nasty pacific storm/depression with 30knot wind and 12ft swells.[ATTACH]430598[/ATTACH]

Yup. I’d say that’s about right. We are definitely rocking and rolling out here but loving every minute :)

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Exactly what I needed to know.

 

Thanks!!

It’s highly recommend! Buy it and have a blast. We did and have it again on our trip starting next week. :)

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I almost forgot to mention the new internet packages...

 

 

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Any idea if the Loyalty plans are the equivalent speed/quality of the Premium plan? Wondering as we may have a need to stream video/audio once during an upcoming cruise.

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It’s all about the beauty of multiple days at sea combined with seeing the amazing Hawaii. Think of how many people take and love transatlantic crossings. This is a ‘there and back’ with a nice ‘rest stop’ in the middle.

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Hi! My 8 year old and I will be traveling to Alaska via the Emerald on the 9/16 departure. I am hoping to do a partial spa day for myself and am hoping to do the kid’s club. Anyone have any thoughts on Princess’ kid’s club in Alaska? Thanks in advance!

Thoughts are....don’t hesitate....he will have a great time! Sign him up on day 1 and he will make lots of new friends. Lots and lots of activities. My daughter has done kids club for years and loves it.

It’s closed for lunch and dinner as those are family times (of course) so just arrange your spa visits around those times.

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