NavyVeteran

If you plan to use Princess EZAir, the two bookings give you more flexibility. You will then book two one-way flights - one to the ship for the first booking and one from the ship for the second booking. You can then change one flight if a better option or lower fare becomes available without touching the other one. If you book a round trip on a single booking, then you can't change just one direction later. Military or Shareholder OBC is $250 for one 14-night cruise or $200 total for two 7-night cruises, so that is a small saving for the 14-night cruise. As stated by others, Princess Plus casual dining or Princess Premier specialty restaurants give advantages to booking two 7-night cruises. The Elite minibar setup would be the same for both - you receive a new setup for each leg even if you don't book them separately. The cabin choice may be more important than any small savings from booking the other way.

I made my reservation two months in advance.

What to do in Greenock and South Queensferry depends a lot on when you are traveling. If you are there in August during the Tattoo, then I would highly recommend going to the Tattoo. You can either book the ship's tour (which you need to book way in advance) or arrange it on your own. Normally you would go to the Tattoo from Greenock (near Glasgow) - not from South Queensferry (near Edinburgh). South Queensferry is a tender port for most Princess ships, and they don't like tendering most of the passengers back to the ship at 1:00 am. Although Greenock is farther away, the ship is docked. You can tell whether an August itinerary is planned for the Tattoo before they list excursions. If the Tattoo is available, the ship will leave Greenock at 2:00 am to give people time to get back. That is the only reason they ever have the 2:00 am departure. Even if the ship is at South Queensferry during the Tattoo, you can't usually go from there. The ship leaves in the evening before the Tattoo starts. In addition to going to the Tattoo from Greenock, you need to plan what to do from South Queensferry. It is not a good time to go in to Edinburgh. Because of the Festival, Edinburgh is very, very crowded during that time. You may want to do something that doesn't actually go into the city. If you're not going to be there in August, then you can ignore everything I just wrote.

I have never been able to book a first night specialty restaurant reservation in the app using my complimentary suite dining. The app wants to charge me. I just booked first night on a cruise where I'm Premier and in suite. The app used my Premier credit with no problem, but the credit is now gone. I'm sure I will have no problem getting it back onboard.

You may or may not be able to change the "assigned" cabins for the passengers. I have no experience doing that. Perhaps someone else who has done it can provide more information. But just because someone did it on one ship doesn't necessarily mean that someone else can do it on another ship - Princess is not noted for consistency. However, you will certainly be able to change where the people actually sleep. It is easy to get them to authorize a specific medallion to open another cabin. This only takes a simple request to Guest Services with a person assigned to the other cabin present to authorize it. If they don't change the "assigned" cabins, then the folios will charge people based on their assigned cabins. It could be a problem if using the phone to order room service, since the charge would go to the cabin the phone call came from. It would not be a problem ordering in person ordering with the app, since a delivery would go to the room where the person actually is (based on medallion location) and the charge would go to the person logged in to the app.

Normally, Princess will allow a change to another cabin in the same category at no charge. I've done it several times (directly booked with Princess). The rules may be different for groups. If you have five or more cabins booked in a group, you should be getting some small group amenities. It may not be a good idea to tell other family members to use a different TA for this cruise. If you have eight or more cabins, you should be getting more substantial group amenities. However, all of the cabins have to be booked in a single group, which means they all have to be booked with the same TA. Another option would be to change one cabin only - not change the people in the other cabins. Once you are onboard, Princess does not care who sleeps in which cabin. You can ask Guest Services onboard to program one medallion to open the doors to more than one cabin - you have to have someone registered in the other cabin there to do that. You did not say what category your cabins are in. If you have two adjacent balcony cabins, you can ask the steward to open a door between the two balconies (except in a few cases where the cabins are in different areas of the ship.

The Island and the Coral are both midship just aft of the Piazza and the midship Panoramic Lifts. The Island is on the Plaza Deck (Deck 5) and the Coral is on the Fiesta Deck (Deck 6), If you are midship, then they would be the most convenient from your cabin. The Palm is at the stern on the Fiesta Deck (Deck 6). You cannot get there from the Piazza on Deck 6, because the galley is between the two dining rooms. The only way to get to the Palm is using the aft lifts or the aft stairs. This would probably be a longer walk from your midship cabin. The Palm was well-suited for traditional dining - not so much for people standing in line to enter. There is very little room for a line, so it can get rather crowded. If you like to get a drink at Vines or Good Spirits before dinner, than the Island would be more convenient. I like to get a glass of wine at Vines and carry it in to dinner, since Vines has a much better selection of wines by the glass than the dining room.

Some excursions are available only from Princess. For example, the cruise lines book all of the seats on the train excursions in Skagway. Reasons to book now: The excursion might sell out. Some do. The price may go up. That happens. If the price goes down, you can cancel and rebook - if there is space available. The only reason to wait is that you have to pay when you book for any excursions exceeding your onboard credit (OBC) balance. You will get a refund if you cancel, but you are tying up the money for now.

I have never been able to refare in a sold-out category.

I recommend you set up wi-fi calling to work all the time - even when you're in the US. Don't wait until you're on a cruise. When I have both cell and wi-fi available, it chooses the best connection. My neighborhood does not have good cell coverage, so many of my neighbors complain that their phones don't work very well at home. Mine never has a problem, since it automatically uses wi-fi when the cell signal is not adequate. When you get on the ship, it is best to put your phone into airplane mode. Then turn on wifi. Don't turn airplane mode off unless you are in a port covered by your plan. Personally, I leave airplane mode on unless I'm in a US port, since my cell plan covers US only. Wi-fi works fine in airplane mode. You do need to turn wi-fi back on after turning airplane mode on.

I have made calls over WiFi with AT&T on an iPhone. You do have to go to settings on the iPhone to set up WiFi calling. I can't speak to any phone other than iPhone or to any carrier other than AT&T. If you haven't set up WiFi calling yet, I recommend you set it up and test it at home to resolve any problems before getting on the ship.

I have run into the same problem. When cancelling an excursion, they refund the OBC portion first. Princess does not actually charge the OBC precruise. In the past (pre-pandemic), the prepaid excursions (whether paid by credit card or OBC) were all listed as charges on my onboard folio and the credit card excursion payments were all listed as refundable OBC on my folio. So I would get any refund due in the refundable OBC check after the cruise. I haven't cruised with Princess yet since the pandemic, so I don't have any recent knowledge if anything has changed.

When you mentioned the itinerary in your first post, you listed the ports but not the glaciers. All glaciers are not created equal. Several people have mentioned Glacier Bay National Park as the best glaciers to see. In addition to the glaciers themselves, Glacier Bay has National Park rangers who come onboard and give narration. They usually have a ranger working directly with the kids. Check which glaciers each of your possible cruises visit, because that does make a difference - with Glacier Bay generally considered the best choice.

Not completely true. American Queen Voyages uses US flagged ships for their Mississippi River cruises, since these are domestic US cruises. However, they use foreign flagged ships for their Alaska cruises and their Great Lakes cruises, and these cruises have the same PVSA restrictions.

You may want to consider booking the cruise on the Crown Princess out of Los Angeles instead. The smaller ship has one more port and no water shuttle ports. Most excursions are still available: Kauai (Nawiliwili): One excursion to Waimea Canyon is still available. Most of the others are sold out. Hilo: Most excursions are still available. Honolulu: Pearl Harbor excursions are sold out. Most of the others are still available. Kahului: Only three excursions are listed. Atlantis Submarine Adventure is still available. The other two are sold out. Ensenada: All excursions are still available. A few have limited availability, but most have extensive availability.

Princess has two Hawaii cruises embarking on December 22, 2022 - one from Los Angeles on the Crown Princess and one from San Francisco on the Royal Princess. The following information is from the Princess website. The Crown Princess cruise from Los Angeles stops at Kauai (Nawiliwili), Hilo, Honolulu, and Kahului with no mention of water shuttles. The Royal Princess cruise from San Francisco stops at Honolulu (overnight), Maui (Lahaina), and Kona with water shuttles required in Maui (Lahaina) and Kona. The Crown Princess is a smaller ship than the Royal Princess, so it can dock in some places that the Royal cannot. Based on your question, I believe you are on the Royal Princess out of San Francisco. I suggest you join the roll call for your cruise. That would be the best place to exchange information with people sailing on your specific cruise. Each of the two Hawaii cruises on December 22nd has its own roll call - Crown Princess from Los Angeles and Royal Princess from San Francisco.

There will absolutely be no problem with four of you showing up any time and asking for a table for four. No reservations needed in Club Class. Pre-pandemic, we had four couples traveling together in suites. They had a table for eight set up in Club Class specifically for us (since there were no other parties of eight in Club Class that cruise). Whenever we showed up, that table was available for us. Since they have several tables for four, you may not always be at the same table, but they will have a table for you. You will also have no problem eating together at a table for four in the specialty suite breakfast. On our cruise, they pushed some tables together in Sabatini's to provide a table for eight, and it was available for us every morning (even if we didn't always arrive at the same time). They will have several tables for four available for you.

I said they would probably have some vodka. I didn't say it would be a good vodka.😉 With enough spices in a bloody Mary, I'm not sure that it would make much difference. Unfortunately, they probably didn't have any gluten-free vodka.

Not completely correct. You may book excursions for one passenger using another passengers OBC in advance. You cannot do it online. You have to call Princess. The telephone agent can do it, although some of them don't know they can.

Although you cannot transfer OBC to another person, you can transfer charges from another person. For example, you can use your OBC to book an excursion for another person, to book specialty dining for another person, to buy a drink for another person, or to purchase something from one of the shops for another person. If you are in the same cabin using the same credit card, you don't have to bother. The two folios are merged on the final day.

The package is available from embarkation to disembarkation. The limit of 15 alcoholic beverages from 6 am to 6 pm applies every day. For embarkation, you may have 15 alcoholic beverages between when you go aboard and 6 am the next morning. For disembarkation, you may have 15 alcoholic beverages between 6 am and when you leave the ship (I haven't personally been able to reach the limit on disembarkation day, but it would be interesting to try.😉)

Texas requires that the ship sell only alcohol purchased from Texas distributors while in Texas waters. Since these are more expensive for Princess to purchase, they only purchase a limited amount, and they are only available in some bars. They should certainly have some vodka for bloody Mary.

If you book under Princess Plus or Princess Premier, only the first two passengers purchase the Plus or Premier beverage package. It does not matter whether or not one of them is underage - an underade passenger would receive the non-alcohol package. The other two passengers do not automatically receive a beverage package - you will need to purchase it separately if you want it. It is important which passengers are listed first and second on the booking and which ones are listed third and fourth. If one of the two youths is listed first or second, that youth would receive the Plus or Premier (without the alcohol) and the adult listed third or fourth would not.

The link in my email was specific to my specific booking. I did not sign in with my booking number or anything else. I just checked the link, and it had our names and booking information.

That is correct. The link in my email was very long. When I clicked on it, it opened a page specific to me and to that specific cruise.