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Tigrou

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  1. The same places people get USD for holidays to the States, or Euros for holidays in Europe, etc etc. For example: a bureau de change; a travel agent; your bank; a travel money kiosk in a supermarket; a Post Office; an ATM in some branches of Marks & Spencer; online, delivered to your home. If your local area doesn't have any of these, and the minimum order online is too high, there are plenty of walk-in options in Southampton. From what American friends have told me, I believe it is far easier for us to buy USD in the UK than it often is for them to buy Sterling in the States. I always tip in whatever the onboard currency is on any cruise ship, regardless of the port of departure. I always ensure I have local currency to tip on land so I do the same at sea, I just consider it polite.
  2. Ref the 'crew appreciation', it is separate to the quoted fare. You can either pre-pay it before your cruise (although generally I don't find the Princess exchange rate to be good enough to do that, unlike HAL) or it will be added to your onboard account each day. If you've got OBC that will be used for the crew appreciation charge, it will be deducted from the balance each day. What I do is work it out and just add it to the quoted fare, and consider the total as the real fare. Or if I've got OBC, I just discount the amount for crew appreciation before thinking how much is available to spend. There is often talk on these boards about people going to guest services and removing it, which is possible if you're on a Standard fare. (I confess that I did consider doing this myself earlier this year in retaliation against Princess deciding to charge for a few things which were included at the time I booked. However, once onboard I found the service to be so good that there was no way I was going to potentially take money from the crew because of a corporate decision.) You do not pay 18% on "all onboard purchases". It's 18% on drinks, and someone earlier said spa services. I don't think there's anything else but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Whether the packages are of value is a topic on which discussion can become almost as heated as tipping! The best way is to do the maths but if you don't drink the extra cost coffees and only have the occasional glass of wine, my guess is that a package wouldn't be economical for you. It certainly never is for me. I've only cruised with Princess twice out of the UK but both times there was a kettle in the cabin.
  3. I have now emailed Princess customer relations in the hope of getting it 'in writing'. I very much appreciate the confirmation from @antsp and @Geoffa30, it is reassuring. But ideally I want it confirmed in writing by Princess because ultimately, if I did have to cancel, it's Princess who would process it. And if it had been either of the agents I spoke to tonight, they would have charged me the 15%.
  4. Which is what I understood. But I've just spent 45 minutes on a call with 2 Princess agents, clearly overseas. (It sounds as if they're working in a football stadium where there's a very loud match on! Wherever they are, why don't they use headsets so we don't hear the background noise?) First one kept insisting that I was correct, the cancellation would only be £75, but she also insisted that the confirmation was correct and the cancellation would be 15%! Aargh!! We just kept going around and around in circles. I asked to be put through to someone in the UK but instead got a 'supervisor' who initially confirmed the same conflicting information. Again I asked to speak to someone in the UK but after waiting 10 minutes it was the same overseas supervisor who came back and insisted that if I cancel it will cost 15%. However, I have no faith that she is right because I'm not convinced she understood what I was talking about when I mentioned Future Cruise Deposit. Hopefully it won't matter for this particular cruise as PIF is only a couple of months away. But I just want to get the correct information for future reference.
  5. But that isn't what it shows on the confirmation, hence my concern. It clearly states, "Cancellation Schedule - 24 Oct 23 - 15% of Total Charges".
  6. Today I have booked using a FCD for the first time. FCD value for a UK booking is £75 and that's what shows as the deposit on the confirmation. However, under the Cancellation Schedule it shows "15% of Total Charges" from today, ie the amount the deposit would have been if I hadn't used the FCD. I wasn't expecting this, I expected any cancellation charge prior to PIF date to only be the deposit I've paid, ie the £75 FCD. Same as when I booked on a £50 deposit offer, the cancellation charge shows as only £50 up to PIF date. One of my reasons for buying FCDs recently was because I thought it would only tie me into £75 until PIF date rather than the full, non-refundable deposit. However, this doesn't appear to be the case. Could anyone who books using FCD in the UK please tell me if this is correct or not?
  7. They did a £50 deposit week 18-24 Sep 23. Perhaps we'll get something once the current 'Free stateroom upgrade' offer ends on 31 Oct 23 although unfortunately I don't know if we ever get refundable deposits in the UK.
  8. I'm in the UK and I re-fared a Princess cruise earlier this year. It cost £100 admin fee but still saved me a considerable amount overall.
  9. That shelf is of no use to me either, for the same reason. 😀 But what about under the bed?
  10. It depends on which cruise terminal you are sailing from and how far you're okay with walking, potentially with luggage. Earlier in the year I walked from the Holiday Inn to Ocean Terminal. I did a recce the night before and it was an easy walk. But when I did it with my luggage (just a medium sized spinner case) the following morning, I quickly wished I'd got a taxi! More recently I stayed at the Novotel when sailing out of Mayflower. Initially thought I'd walk, thinking it was closer, until I measured the path on Google Earth and realised it was actually a longer walk. It's mostly within the working port area so you have to follow the designated roads, no shortcuts that I could see. I opted to take a taxi instead and was glad I did. I did see several people walking though, with luggage, but it didn't look like much fun to me.
  11. According to the Associated British Ports parking website there is long term parking at City and Horizon. (Which could presumably also be used for Mayflower as it's in the same area.) https://www.abparking.co.uk/faqs/ Where are the Long Stay Car Parks? Long Stay Car Parks are located in the Western Docks and are accessed by either Dock Gate 8 for CITY CRUISE TERMINAL and Dock Gate 10 for HORIZON CRUISE TERMINAL. The Car Parks are directly adjacent to the Cruise Terminals
  12. To be fair, they probably don't have the schedule for 2024 yet. (Southampton is better than some ports at publishing their schedule, eg Quebec doesn't yet show the berth for my cruise there in early October.) Unless you definitely want to walk to the terminal, it doesn't really matter which hotel you stay in, it's a short taxi ride from any of the central city hotels to any of the cruise terminals. Personally I always book a hotel as soon as I can, but on a refundable rate so I can take advantage of any price reductions. Although if it's a busy cruise day or there are other events happening in the city (such as the Boat Show), prices are likely to only keep going up, not down.
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