azbirdmom

From the way you described it you sounded as if you had actually experienced this on a ship. I agree with @Host CJSKIDS, the pizza has always been delivered from Slice and not Alfredo's on the ships that I've been on. That's not to say that it can't change, things change all the time. But it's always best to answer based on your own experiences than to echo what others have posted.

Hope it works out for you. The free part is the fare only, you will still pay the port fees / taxes as well as the land and air. By the way whatever you don’t spend onboard will come back to you in the form of a check a few weeks after the cruise. It can easily be mistaken for junk mail so be careful about discarding mail without opening it. I think they are still using Bottomline Technology to process the refunds but not 100% certain if that is the case.

Internally they have always called any change like this a move over be it a downgrade or outright enticement to move to another cruise. Been like that for years so no need to nit pick.

In Suva you are in town. In Lautoka you are close but there is a Princess shuttle if you don't want to walk.

Yes, your drinks count against your daily limit under the Premier / Plus package, there is no extra charge for them. I am not aware of any other Premier perks on Princess Cays.

My first Princess ship was the Fair Princess which was originally a Sitmar ship. By the way I love your profile picture. We have his and hers Crazy Shirts with that logo on it. Headed to Kihei at the end of the month to help support the local economy. First time there - we have always stayed in West Maui.

Certainly a nicer story than this one was https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/travel/cruise-delays-biofoul-new-zealand.html . I wonder if Princess will add more excursions to Otago? We have booked an independent tour to the area as the Princess excursions offered have been lacking.

Yes they do, as does the concierge or tour person. We decided to invest the sum of $1 at a dollar store in a tiny stapler that we keep in our carry on bag so we no longer have to ask.

They used to allow free play to earn points but no longer. You can earn points on the winnings. For example if you put $20 of your free play into a machine, if you keep playing after the $20 is exhausted you'll see the points start being added to the counter on the machine.

Wow, that was quick. It was definitely there last week. There are still a couple of stray links in the Personalizer but those go to the FAQs or the Important Notices section and the Australia protocols aren't there.

Why not? We flew SWA from OGG - PHX in late May and it actually wasn't bad - with early boarding that allowed us to snag exit aisle seats. We have pretty much flown United exclusively for years so I had been apprehensive. SWA and Hawaiian are the only airlines that allow us to get back the same day, all other flights are red-eyes. Our seats on SWA are fully refundable so I will continue to watch fares on Hawaiian and will change if necessary, just curious why you're recommending against SWA.

Thank you for that. We had originally been scheduled to stay in Puamana in Lahaina next month and had outbound flights on United (LAX connection) and return (nonstop) on Southwest. While we were waiting for the property management company to cancel us, we got a notice from United changing us to flights with more than 4 hours between connections via SFO. All of those original reservations have now been cancelled and refunds received. Last week we decided to rebook to stay in Kihei next month (hopefully helping the local economy). United's schedule doesn't work for us at all at the moment and I could see that our only option would still have been SFO with long connection times. We ended up booking a nonstop flight on American and also a nonstop back on Southwest. Well a couple days later we get a notice that Southwest cancelled our flight and put us on a connection through HNL. In looking at alternatives many of the Southwest options from OGG have disappeared now too. Fingers crossed that American keeps our flight but I realize we will be lucky if they do. I know that they really want to revive tourism on other parts of the island but that won't happen if people can't get there. I also know that airlines can't make money flying with empty seats. Just a horrible situation all around....

That guidance applies to the areas north of Lahaina. Lahaina Harbor likely won't be able to accept cruise ship visitors for many years, sadly there is nothing left of Lahainatown.

We were on a British Isles cruise in June / July this year. In Dublin there is not a HOHO right at the cruise terminal. When you get off the tender walk towards the DART train station. Before you get there you'll see people selling tickets for both the green and red HOHOs. We had done research before the cruise and selected the green HOHO. The cost includes the train ticket into Dublin. You take the train to the Pearce station (our outbound it was the 6th stop, return was an express and we were the first stop, it varies so you need to pay attention). The HOHO was right across the street from the station and there were people from the HOHO to guide you. In Belfast the HOHO was right around the corner from where the Princess shuttle dropped you off. The shuttle was $15.95 per person round trip. We did take the shuttle but decided against the HOHO as the main attraction was Titanic Belfast. We walked there and back, doing some shopping on our return.

It's very bizarre that customers can't see the excursion but Princess can. I wonder if they could actually book that excursion for someone. Of course one would not know to ask about it because they can't see it. Glad you've made a decision and you'll no longer have to wonder if Princess will or won't actually run this excursion.

Happy it worked out for you! It shouldn't be this difficult should it?

Thanks for sharing! Our cruise isn't until December 2nd but not having to test would be one less thing to worry about. Will keep watching for further developments.

On the surface it does sound like bait and switch. However, having booked a few casino cruises myself I know that they only hold X number of cabins for each offer / cabin type. I have in the past run into them not having my specific category available when I've gone to book an offer and when that happens you can 1) buy up, 2) downgrade for free, or 3) book for free under a different offer. I'm looking at the offer for the Sun and it does include "on a limited availability" verbiage so they do explain this in the fine print. In your case I'm assuming that they have already exceeded the cabin type limit for the specific offer / perks that you were trying to redeem. And I can also understand why you were able to book this on their website. Their consumer booking engine seems to look for an offer associated with the cruise that you are trying to book which may or may not include the best perks. You have no idea what the perks are until after you've booked and can check the Travel Summary / Onboard screen in the personalizer. I was one of the first to do a DIY booking last February and ended up writing to the executive group given the multiple issues that I ran into. They have fixed some issues but haven't yet or haven't wanted to modify the program to allow one to designate which offer they wish to redeem. One thing that folks have reported is that launching to Princess from an offer email has allowed them to book that specific offer. You may want to give that a try to test the limited availability theory. But when I have multiple offers and want to book a specific one, I just resign myself to having to spend the painful hour or so to call Princess to book.

They do have a guarantee (snippets from their website) And there is the cancellation policy per their website: What is your cancellation policy? If you or any member of your party cancels, you may replace him with a new member at any time with our approval. However if you are unable to find a replacement for someone who cancels, we may impose cancellation charges to cover our estimated costs. These cancellation charges are expressed in the table below as a percentage of the total excursion cost. The person who signed the Booking Form must notify all cancellations to us in writing and charges apply from the date that this notification is received at our offices (not the date of your letter or the date you post it). If you do wish to replace a cancelled party member, please notify us as soon as possible. In any event we require notice at least 21 days before departure. Day Excursions Only – Cancellation Parameters Period before scheduled departure Cancellation charge as a percentage of which notification is received Up to 30 days before departure No Charge – only if no fees have been incurred 15-29 days before departure $25 per person administration fee – plus any unrecoverable costs which have been incurred to date. 8 – 14 days before departure 50% of Tour Cost 7 days or less 100% of Tour Cost What happens if my cruise ship does not dock as scheduled on the day of my tour? If your ship does not dock for any reason, we refund ALL your monies as soon as is possible.

It's a very reputable tour company and they aren't offering the combo Hobbiton / Wai o tapu tour option because there wasn't enough time to do both and ensure you could get back to the ship on time. So I have no concerns that they will return us to the ship on time. I am thrilled that they were able to get 11 spots for each cruise from Hobbiton. Much better than the uncertain situation with Princess.

On the Regal last month kale was listed as an add-on on request to the traditional Caesar salad. Needless to say we did not add it!

Actually the part about addressing guest satisfaction about long lines seems like a bit of a reach to me. It wasn't even mentioned on the webinar a couple of weeks ago. But if they are truly concerned about guests waiting unnecessarily then I think the first thing they should have tackled is the long wait times to reach a phone representative, and then when you reach them they are often not likely to be able to solve your issue. Let's see them address that customer dissatisfaction issue which has been a lot more painful than waiting in line for pizza.

According to the Disembarkation sheet we received for our cruise that ended on July 7th the latest times listed for transfers to Heathrow are as follows: 9 AM for terminal 2 9:30 AM for terminal 3 8 AM for terminal 4 Guessing that this may vary a bit depending on how many guests they have going to each terminal but that's what it was as of a little more than a month ago.

Well this was timely. The tour company that had send me the email about the Hobbiton tour just reached out to me and said that they were able to secure some limited space after all. So I'm wondering if Princess was able to do the same. In any event after I get the confirmation of my booking through the private tour company I am going to cancel the mystery Hobbiton tour with Princess. Here's the info about the private tour just in case the Princess tour remains MIA and anyone else wants to do the same: "Here is the link to our website with the details of all our tours, including the new Hobbiton offering: https://www.zealandiertours.com/cruise-ship-visitor-tours-html/port-of-tauranga-rotorua-day-tours/ Please note, two different Hobbiton tour costs will apply as Hobbiton are opening a new attraction on 01 December, which is increasing the tour cost and length of the tour. For tours until 30 November: Adult: NZD $199.00 pp/ Youth 11-17 $155.00 pp / Child 0-10 - $110.00 pp – this includes a child safety car seat for children aged under 8 years old. From 01 December: Adult: NZD $230 pp/ Youth (11 -17yrs) - $170 pp/ Child (0-10yrs) - $110 pp - includes a child safety car seat for children aged under 8 years old."

I actually noticed the same thing on August 6th and posted on our roll call. I am hoping that it hasn't been cancelled given what I had heard a while back from a tour operator out of Tauranga (posted below). After I heard that I grabbed the Princess excursion. Perhaps Princess is behind in cancelling, or maybe they are shutting down future participation in this tour but were able to get Hobbiton to allow those who signed up thus far to go? Time will tell. On a separate note our HOHO excursion for Christchurch also disappeared too. Noticed that at the same time. Here's the info I received from the independent tour operator in late May re: Hobbiton tours: "I am sorry to inform you that we will not be running tours to Hobbiton for cruise ship passengers this coming season (October 2023 – April 2024). Hobbiton Movie Set have advised that they are no longer providing cruise tour operators with tour allocations on their movie set. I understand this also applies to tours offered on board the cruise ships.. Unfortunately, this now means there is very limited accessibility for cruise passengers wishing to visit Hobbiton, other than as a pre and/or post cruise tour. If you are really keen to go, you would need to pre book your own tour on the movie set website & find yourself some transport – but keep in mind that timing is everything. It is a 1.5 hour drive each way, and there is often peak-hour traffic congestion on the return trip which will put passengers at risk of being late for their ship. You may find an operator who will offer transport only, or who may be pre-purchasing some space on the movie set to enable a few people to get there and back from our port. However, we are not offering this. It’s disappointing to find ourselves in this situation after a long relationship with Hobbiton going back many years where we have provided hundreds of cruise passengers with a Hobbiton experience. As you can imagine we are highly upset and sorry that we are unable to help you with your request."