Tigrou

On Sky Princess over Easter there was an included NY steak available every night as one of the Princess Favourites. From previous experience I try to avoid it as the quality is inconsistent but it was okay the one night I did have it. Last September on Sky the Princess Favourites sometimes included the NY steak and sometimes chicken, offering an alternative to what was on the main menu which made more sense. This time I found that often there was steak or another beef dish already on the main menu, so offering steak as an alternative wasn't much of an alternative!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has provided photos and information on this thread. I've sailed in a sheltered balcony cabin and didn't like it even though I thought I would (turns out I want to see the water from inside but can't because I'm too short!) so have since sailed in a standard balcony. I was planning to book one for my next trip but then wondered about the obstructed views, found this thread and now I'm booked into 8013. The photos were invaluable to me, being able to see the exact views in each cabin. Some I definitely wouldn't consider as there's far too much of an obstruction, others I think I would find interesting. I'm still undecided about those with tenders rather than a lifeboat - it looks like a bus is parked on the balcony but it does have windows which allow more light through and potentially offer more of a view. When I saw that 8013 was available that was my decision made, I'll give it a try. I know it's no guarantee but I have asked for my booking to be noted 'no upgrade' as I don't want to be moved to a cabin Cunard consider an upgrade but which has a more obstructed view. Thank you again.🙂

I’ve got that issue right now, exacerbated by being opposite a crew area. As soon as I saw it I thought drat, that doesn’t show on the deck plans! (From previous experience I’d never knowingly choose a cabin close to a crew door.) Unfortunately I don’t think a sign would help. Let’s face it, you only have to let it slam once to know what a noise it makes. People just don’t care, it’s a typical lack if consideration for others.

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.

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.

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%.

Thank you.

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.

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".

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?

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.

It was through a TA.

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.

I didn't even know there was one! 🤣

That shelf is of no use to me either, for the same reason. 😀 But what about under the bed?

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.

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

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.

In the UK hardly anyone uses cheques any more. I haven't written one for over 4 years, and for several years prior to that it was only for one particular tradesman who still preferred payment by cheque.

That's what happened with me - except Princess put the wrong mobile phone number into the system so it couldn't send me the required code. (Or rather, presumably it was sent but as it wasn't my number I didn't get it!) Once they amended it and I was sent a new link, the refund showed in my bank account almost immediately.

After my recent cruise on Island Princess I did receive an email with the final account 2 days after getting home. However, against the refundable credit owing to me it said 'Referred to corporate finance'. I had no idea what that meant - I was expecting it to automatically be refunded to my credit card, in USD, as other cruise lines do. I phoned Princess to ask and, after a couple of fruitless conversations with the overseas call centre, finally managed to speak to someone in the UK. They told me that all final accounts with credit owing are sent from the ship to the US for verification. Any for UK passengers are then forwarded to Princess UK who convert the USD amount into sterling (despite many people, including myself, using a specialist travel credit card in order to get better exchange rates). They then contact the passenger and arrange for the refund to be made either by bank transfer or cheque. The refund was processed very quickly once I'd contacted them but the whole process seemed like it was from the Dark Ages to me. It involves a lot of people and effort that is completely unnecessary.

I find the reference to 'non tipping cultures' quite amusing, suspecting that perhaps it's a euphemism for 'anywhere other than North America'. 🙂 The inference is often - but I do understand, not always - that those from 'non tipping cultures' are frugal, penny pinchers, downright mean and nasty people, take your choice of (another) euphemism. In reality, those 'non tipping cultures' generally have a system whereby workers are paid a decent, minimum wage for the job they do. As long as they do that job as contracted, they don't have to tug their forelock to every customer in the hope of making up their money to a 'living wage'. It is, after all, 2023 not 1623. Tips/gratuities/appreciation are then just that - an acknowledgement from the customer that the worker has exceeded the expectations of their contracted role. When I visit other countries I follow local custom on tipping. However, a cruise ship isn't another country and I can appreciate why some passengers from 'non tipping cultures' don't understand the whole automatic Crew Appreciation system, particularly if that ship has sailed from their own 'non tipping culture' area of the world. Of the various cruise lines I've sailed with, I think P&O UK have got it right. They include the service charge in the cruise fare so all workers are paid a fixed wage and not reliant on tips to bring it to a decent level. Passengers can then tip for 'over and above' service if they wish, thereby directly rewarding whoever has provided it.

HAL do not include Crew Appreciation in their 'Have It All' package except as a special deal. HIA includes specialty dining, shore excursion credit, beverage package and wifi. Currently they are offering 'Early booking bonus HIA' which does include Crew Appreciation along with upgraded beverage and wifi but this is only for certain cruises.

I am aware that in some land-based restaurants tips are pooled. But they are pooled across the staff within that restaurant, not across all restaurants owned by the same company. Also, I believe that they are distributed by some kind of percentage system to each employee so everyone gets their share. Not as 'bonuses', linked in part at least to surveys which some passengers complete, others don't - even if they did receive excellent service.

Another option would be to have guest services reduce the Crew Appreciation by the amount impacted by the change. That's what I am considering although I have never before, on any cruise with any cruise line, reduced or removed the auto-gratuities. But having only recently become aware that it is pooled fleetwide and doesn't go directly to the crew members (those I see and those I don't) on my cruise, and that Princess take an admin fee, I am now thinking about it. Only for this one cruise, where Princess have reneged on what I believe was our contract, and I would ensure guest services were aware of my reasons for doing it. I know it's controversial, and I don't know yet if I will do it, but it is an option for those of us on a Standard Fare.