dreaminofcruisin

Congratulations that you have found agencies that work well for you! (2 even!) My experience has not been the same as yours working with agencies....and yes...they are large high volume agencies....I have now been through 4 agents at 3 different agencies. I never found them to be worthwhile. My experience was that they call Princess and talk to the same people that most of us talk to. If they get a clunker, they relay the same bad messaging and insist that they are correct. Even if I have insisted they call back, they continue to tell me that's the way things are, even though I have read differently here on CC. I've pretty much given up on them and figured I have a better chance to present my case to a Princess rep myself, even if it means waiting on hold on the phone for a long time. It would be wonderful if people could share their great TAs so we could all find them...and don't suggest talking to people on cruises. That's where my last one came from. They raved about her, but I think they thought they were getting special deals when in reality they were things they would have gotten just booking online. I don't doubt that you have good agents. Just please don't assume that everyone can find them.

This. Or renting a car from Montreal to Quebec City is another option...

Yup. Exactly this. It could even be a 'move down' situation. We were once offered (and took) what I call a 'move down' to a lower category cabin on the same cruise. It came with a LOT OF OBC. There's no reason Princess couldn't find someone in a BA cabin that would go for this if the OBC was high enough...and if not....they could have bumped the OP to a mini-suite and that should have been at no charge to them. That being said, there wouldn't be a guarantee where on the ship the mini-suite would be.... Princess used to be really good at this and I have never heard them having the situation like on other cruise lines where people found their cruise cancelled...sad to hear.

Also, remember that a lot of people are still cruising with 'old Plus'. We have cruises booked through February 2024 that we paid $50/day for Plus. At $40/day it was a no-brainer. At $50 / day, I thought a bit, but think it is still worth it. Now that it is $60/day I will be evaluating my next few cruises while using it to decide whether or not I buy it in the future. We are in that gray area where we drink some, but do we drink enough to continue to justify the package? We'll be analyzing it. Regardless, we do enjoy having it as one doesn't have to think whether they want another beverage--with or without alcohol, as it has already been paid for.

Wondering if you have seen tapas at Vines post-covid and if so, what ship? The ships I have been on are no longer serving tapas and barely serving any decent wine. 🤪 On the other hand, the P/E Lounge seems to have taken a step up and had more tasty food offerings post-covid though it would be nice if they still provided a menu of what is being offered each night. I guess we can't have everything. 🤷‍♀️

No bottles. Cans or cartons only, so if you can find it in cans, you will be able to bring it. Here's the policy. "Guests are prohibited from bringing water, sodas and other non-alcoholic beverages on board that are packaged in bottles. A small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages (i.e., sparkling water, sodas, juice, milk) packaged in cans or cartons may be brought on board on embarkation day, only if carried on in Guests’ hand luggage (not in checked luggage). A small quantity is considered a maximum of 12 sealed, unopened cans/cartons of 12 ounces each or less per person. Guests will be asked to discard open beverages in plastic containers prior to boarding." From: https://www.princess.com/legal/passage_contract/pcl.html Section 5. Also, in the future, if you ask a question, you will get more responses if you are specific in the title what your question is about. 🙂

How was the hotel? We have reservations there in August, so just wondering what your thoughts on it were? In the past, we have stayed at Room2, but sadly they went to a 2-night minimum... 😔

It's nice to see such an uplifting post. I have enjoyed all of my post-covid cruises even with their hiccups. The one thing I haven't heard anyone mention has improved is the selection of wines included in the Plus package....especially white... That's the one thing on which I think Princess is NOT 'back'......

Yes. I am confused with all the negativity. I had been reading in so many posts about how the FCC people had such short hours and long lines when they were available. That actually seems like a poor business practice if you are trying to sell future cruises. I've never talked to either of these people and only once did I try. That was to talk to an FCC person, but their hours were short and when I went during their open hours, like others, the line was too long. As a shareholder it seems like a department that was begging to be expanded. As a cruiser, will it negatively impact something? Maybe, but I'll wait and see.

Since you have kids, you might want to check out the below thread with Camp Discovery experiences:

I know that some people have really good TAs and I congratulate those of you who have found them. However, do not assume any old TA is going to do a better job than whoever you talk to at Princess. I have been through 3 TAs and given up. The ones I have had parrot whoever they happen to reach at Princess.....so not helpful..... just sayin'....

I had this exact same issue about 3 months ago. Interestingly enough, my cruise was also in February of 2024, but on the Sky. I was anxious to get it booked because I was trying to get a cabana and there are only a small number of them. I tried calling Princess. She said she got the same thing and told me it was 'too early' even though they had sent me an email saying excursions were open. I gave up for a while and I think I tried about a month later and suddenly magically, it worked. 🤷‍♀️ I have no advice.....except to tell you I know how frustrating it is! If it isn't something that you think will sell out, try and wait a month and try again. Your only other option is to call them and ask for a supervisor, though who knows if that will do any good. Good luck!

We had heard too many times of ships coming in late to Sydney when we went, so we decided to add another pleasant day in Sydney. We got a hotel near the pier and dropped our luggage. We got on the bus from there to Bondi Beach and did the 3.7 mile cliff walk to Coogee, stopping for lunch near a beach part way there. When we got to Coogee, we caught the bus back to the pier. The next morning we had an easy train ride to the airport and an acceptable flight time that wasn't a rush.

I agree that if it wasn't you that selected the flight online, you should be blaming your TA/CVP or whatever. If you do it online yourself, a BIG Box comes up when you do the EZ Air booking asking you if your name matches your passport EXACTLY. Did you see that?

I know this all has historically been true in Vines. However, the Vines experience has been so downgraded on my last 2 cruises, I wonder if they even have the 'special' wine glasses any more? On our last cruise (August), no one ever mentioned us not taking the glasses to the dining room and the servers were the same servers as at the International Cafe, so not even sure they were serving wine in the special glasses? I wasn't thinking about the glasses at the time, so didn't take note. I was more concerned about the lack of white wine choices..... Anyone have really recent experience that can confirm these glasses are still special?

If these are signs posted onboard,that is concerning. In both cases, they indicate that they are included with Plus and Premier. That is only true if you have purchased the packages under the most recent price increases....to my knowledge. There are going to be some annoyed people if they bought them pre-price increase, buy them and get charged for them. Princess really ought to just grandfather the old priced plans into the new benefits. Otherwise....just another mess by Princess....

However, it does seem really odd that the Zero Alcohol Package and the Classic Soda Package now DO include cans: (Click on the terms and conditions for them) https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/beverages/ If Plus/Premier DON'T include cans, which the terms stil indicate, Princess has once again created a confusing mess.... 🤷‍♀️

On one of our cruises, DH really hated having to loudly say our room number. He took a piece of paper, wrote the room number on it and every time a server asked for it, he whipped it out of his pocket and showed it to them. Caused less repeats when they mis-heard what he said also.... 😊

Someone suggested in another thread that The Underground and Neon Grove on Deck 7 and Firefly Park on Deck 6 next to Guest Services are Teen and Kids Areas.

We have in the past carried the desk chair onto the balcony and used that. It may be that we also carried the inside table out and a lighter weight person sat on that......It was pretty cosy for 4, but we managed. 🙄 However, I would pick the Caribe deck if given the choice. We have also been refused an extra balcony chair in the past...but it was likely a balcony and not a mini-suite. (Our experience was on the Ruby....but same layout...)

Not exactly sure what an eticket is, but on some airlines, you will see the EZ air tickets on your Frequent Flyer app. For instance, I usually fly Delta and I have 3 cruises booked: August, October and February 2024. All of them showed up on my Delta app within minutes of booking. If I cancel, they will disappear..... If they cancel the flight, I will need to rebook thru EZ Air on Princess.

This is a new one on me. Princess has ADDED a port -- Brussels/Bruges (Zeebrugge) to the end of our Midnight Sun cruise in August "in order to enhance the guest experience". This replaces the last sea day and the only other change that is a part of this is leaving Skjolden an hour early. We had an earlier itinerary change last December that replaced Gravdal, Norway (Lofeton Islands) with Andalsnes --- just a guess this was due to some of these Norway cities starting to restrict cruise ships. This moved some dates/ times around, but no other ports skipped. Since I've never been to Belgium, this is a postive for me. However, I can't help thinking another shoe is going to drop....and later they will announce a skipped port that I want to go to. Regardless, I am sure we will have a good time...but just wondering what's coming? Any thoughts? Anyone ever seen this?

Don't forget....you also get a really cool RED center of your Medallion. 😁

Very odd. When we were on the Ruby last fall, it happened that our cruise was at 50% capacity- actually nice for us! However, I didn't notice until we were headed to dinner the 1st night that ALL of my dining reservations had changed! Due to the low capacity, they decided to close one of the dining rooms---of course, the one where I had made all my reservations. In their infinite wisdom, Princess decided that Time was more important to me than having a private table for DH and me (WRONG!). So, I had to scramble to make all new reservations. I wonder if they are getting complaints when they make these random changes and sending an email is their solution. It would have been helpful for me, but you are correct that if one didn't have WiFi they wouldn't get the info.

Hmmmm....after all these years to change it from 2 years to 1 year seems very odd. I wonder if this is just the first step before they go away all together? 🤷‍♀️ Maybe Princess doesn't like giving away all the OBC?