Astro Flyer

Since we drive to Haleakala from our house, I checked Viator & to go there it’s $359. So having the Maui Ocean Center aquarium & a meal included, the Princess price is reasonable…particularly if eligible for the elite 10% discount. Looking at all Maui tours prices are high possibly due to recovering from their economic disaster after the tragic deadly Lahaina firestorm. For the most recent month that I have read about, the number of Maui visitors has decreased by 25%. For my Spring 2025 cruise, Royal Princess could not dock in Kahului because the only pier for cruise ships was already booked by another cruise line and thus the ship will be docked in Honolulu for 2 days.

It’s been my experience that when flying internationally to/from the US that EZair has been a much cheaper option & Flexible EZair has many options to make changes. When flying on US based airlines, I can make seat assignments when booking EZair even in Economy except in situations where it’s a codeshare flight…for example an AA booking flying on BA would need to pay for seat assignments prior to check-in. We booked a transpacific flight on Air New Zealand in Economy 330 days in advance & made free seat assignment reservations so not all non-US based airlines charge for advance seat assignments. If you haven’t read the Princess webpage about EZair here’s a link to it: https://www.princess.com/en-us/plan/ezair

I checked Maui to Brisbane…it’s 50% more for Premium Economy, 4 flights & takes 50% longer than a one-stop from LAX via Auckland. And OGG/BNE is Economy to LAX and from Auckland with only LAX/AKL in PE…I’ll fly LAX/AKL/BNE with both flights in PE for a much lower airfare. Booking through EZair it’s 20% lower than booking directly (LAX/AKL/BNE) which lacks all of the Flexible EZair benefits to make changes…that’s an EZ decision for me. 😉

USD

We’ve had good luck by mentioning to our waitstaff that we’d like to go to a 7:30 performance so our meal was completed within an hour at the max. It’s been our experience for popular production shows arriving at the theater 30 minutes in advance had more limited seating available. We’ll arrive earlier to get our preferred area & will read or go online while waiting. Remember that for production shows they hold seats for those who purchase the Premier bundle which are not released to others until close to showtime. In the app under Profile, My Journeys, Dining Preferences, there are these options although don’t know if onboard staff even looks at them…I know that our selection of the Close to the window option has never worked for us.

Maybe? ☺️

That 1 day early benefit was a big help when booking our April 2024 TSE cruise which even on that day our preferred type of cabin’s inventory rapidly decreased…nearly 2 years in advance! It was the same thing for the very popular twice yearly around Australia cruises…within a month of opening it was soldout nearly 2 years in advance.

Eliminated it a month or two ago. Why??? I cannot think of any logical reason why Padgett made this change because there’s no financial benefit for Princess…it’s just another step in diluting the elite level benefits.

They even removed the elite 1 day early booking option to be replaced by a 7 day period for any Captain’s Circle member. That elite benefit cost Princess nothing and they still eliminated it…it’s not a cost savings change but is another downgrade in the elite benefits.

On our April cruise it took the same number of calls & 3 days before our minibar exchange was made…same thing for our TA’s gift of sailaway chocolate covered strawberries. 🙄

In their FAQs on that offer’s webpage, Princess has redefined the meaning of “cruise credits” to this: What are Cruise Credits? Cruise credits refer to the number of cruises that a guest has sailed with Princess and/or the number of days cruised with Princess and are used to determine the guest’s Captain’s Circle loyalty level.

IIRC, it’s been posted that it’s double the cruise credits and double the days however the Princess webpage for this offer repeatedly says only double cruise credits. https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-deals-promotions/double-the-love Princess has redefined the term “Cruise Credits” to be the same as the number of days sailed. What are Cruise Credits? Cruise credits refer to the number of cruises that a guest has sailed with Princess and/or the number of days cruised with Princess and are used to determine the guest’s Captain’s Circle loyalty level.

Here’s their webpage with the details of this offer: https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-deals-promotions/double-the-love

Wonder if how much government jurisdictions want to pocket might be more of a factor? 🤔

I recently saw this chart which reinforces your statement.

Another reason for me is the double cruise credits & days for those who book bundles. To quote Padgett from the Princess news release, those are his most valued guests who might cruise infrequently with a bundle and not those who loyally cruise on Princess frequently without a bundle…we’re less valued to him. "The Loyalty Accelerator Program gives our most valued guests even more reasons to sail with our industry-leading bundles."

Thankfully for our US to OZ flight they are using the arrival date & not the departure date. Our cruise is on a Monday & we fly on a Tuesday & due to crossing the international dateline do not arrive until Thursday (20 hours via NZ)…4 days before our cruise.

Thanks…good to know.

I took advantage of getting points (recently got offers for 70k or 80k) by getting the SWA chargecard. That makes flights even cheaper than the Costco offer depending upon how many points are needed.

Thanks for sharing your experiences…my problem is likely due to being a US resident & attempting to fly from Australia to NZ. When attempting to input Brisbane as our departure city, we only get these airports which I think are all in the US.

@gottagocit…thanks for sharing your experience as a result of your DW’s sudden passing away. 😟 Booking directly airfares are reasonable in the $200-$300 USD range.

I have a question not about the new limit but instead about EZair flights that are not from our home airport listed in our Princess details. We’re cruising around Australia roundtrip Brisbane & then 2 days later we’re sailing from Auckland to LAX. EZair airfares are currently available however we cannot see a BNE/AKL flight. Has anyone been able to contact EZair to make a reservation from an airport that’s nowhere near their home airport?

With reports of Seabourn & HAL instituting the same 5 day policy, I doubt if it’s a glitch. As I earlier posted, all CCL lines pool their airfare bookings to get the best consolidator deals which leads me to believe they’ll all have the same terms…5 days before or after a cruise, or cruise tour as @azbirdmom posted.

As I recall, in the past it was possible to book one-way outbound flights at 330 days in advance however my recent experience was that could not be made until return flights were available. Thus I had to wait until 300 days prior to my 28 day cruise to book a o/w outbound flight. I don’t know when such a change was made because I have not used EZair since before the pandemic.

I recall past CCL CEO Arnold Donald stating the reason all CCL lines get good air options & pricing is because by combining the buying power of all of their cruise lines together air is a more competitive option. Thus as you discovered with Seabourn, the 5 day limit might apply to all of the CCL lines. On NCLH lines including Oceania & NCL, their air program is not good & flights might not be known up until 30 days in advance. I am not happy with the PCL change, however even now it is much better than on NCLH lines. Like others, I check airfares at least daily…evening of 6/20 there was no 5 day limit for my flight but on the morning of 6/21 discovered that limit after reading this thread created by gottagocit…thanks.