sunviking90

This is interesting. We were recently waitlisted on a Princess sailing on standard fare. No requirement to buy the packages. 
I guess they’re seeing how bad you want it.

10 minutes ago, arizonaperson said:

@geoherb. I have enjoyed following along on your voyage.

when you say 2 crew members jumped ship, you mean like physically jumped in the water or just never came back on board in both of those ports? I know you don’t have first hand knowledge, but inquiring minds….

and wow, either way, if it is true ,very sad.

I’m sure he means “jumped ship” as a figure of speech only. They left and didn’t return. 

2 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

LOL...no, I'm not new. 😀 That was intended as a joke.

Got it. Hence the wink..

2 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how we went from a rant against the Island Princess to a full blown discussion of PVSA?

I’m not. Are you new here? 😉 Pretty much how things go.

I just booked B2B on Nieuw Amsterdam under Private Sale and got the OBC for each leg. I was having website issues though (surprise!) so I called my HAL consultant that I’ve used before and she did it for me. I also notice when booking it says my AARP and stockholder credit is already applied and it never is. She fixed the AARP for me too. 

8 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

And according to some posters here, you can ad-lib the door hangers and order “off the menu”.

 

My preference is the MDR, but my wife prefers the IC. That generally means I get two breakfasts. 

Yes you can! Results may vary 😉 

Yes, you’re booking an open jaw. For flights to/from Europe on most airlines one ways are the same price (or more) than a return ticket. Your one way from FLL to Toronto won’t be a problem though. 
EZ air is the best cost option in cases like these for transatlantic cruises. We are using our aeroplan points for business one way for ours in November. Luckily we got them when they were released last year and the points required was low. As you probably know, it goes up as time goes on. We paid cash for our flights home from FLL.

Are you planning to do a transatlantic in the spring too? What people have done is book the flights as a return ticket leaving Canada in November with the return flight date to match up with a spring TA in the opposite direction.

17 minutes ago, wallyj said:

There will be a MDR serving sit down breakfast ‘every’ day, it is sea days that lunch will also be available in a MDR. Location and times will be listed in patter/events listing.

There will also be a door hanger to order room service continental breakfast.

55 minutes ago, llgator said:

Yes. They certainly made the counter offer seem as if it was a done deal. I was just waiting on my cabin number, which unfortunately wasn't an upgrade

It sounds like this has happened to quite a few people from reports here. They need to fine tune the process for counter offers obviously. When you go in to accept it should be able to give you an automatic yes or no depending if it’s still available or not.

I agree, this can happen on any ship. We had this happen on HAL twice on ships that were less than 10 years old. What stands out here, is the lack of customer service provided and the Hotel Manager being unavailable to speak to you. Things happen, but what makes the difference is how a business handles it and makes it right.

2 hours ago, wallyj said:

@MsTabbyKats, future cruise used to be able to show you a ‘list’ of the on board booking discounted cruises. When O.N.E. Originally took over handling future cruises on board, they introduced these ‘on board’ specials. Most were 50% off the Princess.com fare. What was also happening was many times the ‘plus’ pkg was also being discounted. The system at that time was not giving ‘premier’ pkg pricing.

 

In many cases after you booked, you were able to upgrade to the premier pkg for only $10/day instead of $20/day. A few times, for me, the cruise Personalizer would not allow this upgrade and when you called, Princess would tell you the upgrade to premier is $20/day. The official word was only the cruisefare was supposed to be discounted and now they manually back out the discounted plus package. 
 

The discount now ranges from 25-50% and last month on Enchanted, I was told no list available, but you need to ask what is currently available as the offerings can change quickly. For sailings within 90 days, you will have to pay in full. They did have some that were later which would only require non refundable deposit, so if you did change your mind before final payment, you would lose your deposit, which should be $100/person. You would be able to transfer to a TA, as long as it was before final payment.

 

Some of the consultants will push the ‘packages’ starting at $3499/person, most reports on cruise critic are to ‘stay away’. Search for the threads regarding this for more information. 
 

Before O.N.E. Changeover, booking on board did not have many ‘extra’ amenities, but there were a few extra OBC promos. Obtaining FCD’s as currently they are fully refundable is highly recommended if you think you will sail with Princess again.

 

I hear Celebrity just changed their $100  ‘book later’ deposits in 2024, where you will lose it if not used. With Princess,  if not used or requested before expiring, you will be refunded to credit card used.

 

You may also search for an earlier thread on this subject, as I know this question is asked often and I recall seeing it.
 

 

Yes, after taking advantage of the specials on our last few cruises, we  were told on the Royal in May that there were no specials. Disappointing, but tracks with what people have been saying lately. 

Enjoying your review! One of our favourite itineraries on our favourite ship.

16 hours ago, oaktreerb said:

We checked in to the Hilton Doubletree Southcenter.  It’s a very nice former Embassy Suites.  Hotel free shuttle picked us up at the airport. We walked to the nearby and very busy Westfield Mall shopping center.  Just outside the center is a very popular Cheesecake Factory.  The food was excellent and plentiful with a lot of choices on the menu.

 

Seattle Express will pick us up tomorrow at 10:45 a.m. and take us to the ship.  It looks like onboard activities start at 11 a.m.

It must have been Embassy Suites quite a long time ago. We stayed there the first time 35 years ago and it was a Doubletree Suites then. There was still an old Doubletree Inn across the way that was since torn down (likely where Cheesecake Factory is now)

Enjoy your trip! We never tire of Alaska.

4 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

We actually really want to try a Pinnacle a class ship. We have friends that rave about her. Can’t do two weeks.  I work 9 day-fortnights so either the first week of August or the first week of September were ideal as I only have to take 3 days off for a 7 day cruise because of the holidays those weeks and my work schedule.  
 

I did end up booking a sideways inside for the Aug 31st sailing.  Fingers crossed for an upsell. 

I understand. We are newly retired so more time available for sure. 
The Koningsdam has a lot of pros, so I’m sure you’ll like her. We especially liked the buffet options, NY pizza and deli (for breakfast, not the Pizza oddly) and Grand Dutch Cafe. 

1 hour ago, Windsailer said:

It's  at 740 West Hastings. Less than 1/2 mile from the hotel. Perhaps you are thinking of another Breka location? 

I was! Thank you for the correction. There is a new one opening in the Nanaimo and Hastings area this week. 
 

On 6/4/2024 at 7:07 PM, Cruise Junky said:

If it’s a veranda, we’re not going. We already have 9 days in wine country, two weeks in Hawaii and a Spain Portugal cruise booked the last six months of this year. Now I wouldn’t turn them down if they offered an upgrade to a balcony but for this trip, it’s inside or not going.  

Have you looked at N.Amsterdam B2B? Not sure if you can do 2 weeks, but we just booked B2B for the last week of August. Our first time in an inside cabin in 20 years! That’s ok though, we’ve been to Alaska (like you probably) multiple times and have already done too much travelling this year, so we just want to be on the ship!

Zaandam also has some availability (not much). We actually would have preferred her but price was higher and we wanted 14 days. 
I don’t know if you’ve been on Koningsdam, but I would not choose a Pinnacle class if other options were available. Of course many would disagree, lol.

53 minutes ago, Windsailer said:

There is a lovely restaurant that is open 24/7 quite close to the hotel. https://www.breka.ca/

If you order from the cab on the way from the airport I am sure it would be easy to stop and pick something up. 

This a good find, but not really close to the hotel, so only really an option if indeed OP is taking a taxi from the airport. It is a good 10-15 minute cab ride (if they proceed with their planned bus transfers) from the Pan Pacific and goes through some pretty, sad and undesirable areas. 
Preorder a cheese tray for the room or get room service, would be my advice.

 

2 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

What I miss from the International Cafe are the mini cheesecakes. They are so good. I haven't made it down to Good Spirits to see what's offered there. I got a specialty tea this afternoon at the place at the Horizon Court where they make the coffee drinks. 

Yes! The mini cheesecakes are our favourite too. 
Thank you for your trip report. We loved the smaller size of the Island Princess when we were in her a few years ago. Enough the forgo the cheesecakes.

Holland America used to have a program like that, so it’s possible that Princess did too back in the day. You’d pay your half of the double occupancy fare, and be matched up with another solo traveller. If there were no other guests booked like that, you’d get the cabin to yourself.

She is now underway. She’s already past the Lions Gate Bridge. All is well it seems.

While we like the Majestic Princess, after doing a transpacific (9 sea days) on the Royal Princess which is a sister ship, I would not do this again. We luckily had a deluxe balcony so we had a bit more space, but we spent a LOT of time in our cabin because like you, we like quiet. These ships get crowded, Piazza is NOISY, and there are few nice quiet corners. I would never take an inside cabin on one of these ships. I would look for an itinerary on a grand or crown class ship OR get your inside and bid for an upgrade when it opens up. These days they seem to open one of the dining rooms in the daytime for games and crafts. We took our game in there and did find it pretty quiet, and thankfully none of the incessant music playing. That might be a nice spot to read.
Fortunately, I don’t think your transatlantic in February will be full, but who knows these days.

Thank you for reporting back. I’m glad to hear it sounds like you have received the refunds you were hoping for. Interesting that there were so many on your sailing in the same situation. Hopefully this was a one off for your sailing and not a a regular overbooking practice.

If you can’t get a resolution try the the contact info on Elliott.org for the higher ups.

I had $30 in erroneous mini bar charges in our first post Covid HAL cruise (we don’t use the mini bar and don’t drink). Pre Covid, this happened once and a simple call resolved it with an apology and a refund. What we used to call “customer service”!  This time, it involved 3 phone calls to HAL, conversation explaining to the operator what a “mini bar” was, and 4 hours of my time, on hold, etc.  I was told they would verify with the ship. Well, the ship made the error, so how is verifying anything with them going to get a different result? I then got an email telling me they had checked with the ship and I was wrong and the charges were correct! I emailed one of the higher ups through the Elliott.org contact info and it was resolved. 
Sad, but this is the state of things now and HAL isn’t alone in this.

I imagine OP has boarded by now. It would be nice to know if they were able to get the situation resolved. 🤞🏻 

I haven’t had that problem and my PVP has repriced my cruises a few times now. I would have your TA look into this. It shouldn’t fall off when repricing. Did the booking number stay the same?