Cruiser411

She's docked in Skagway today...

And, fyi, if you go to this website, you can download a time-lapse of Juneau's harbor yesterday. You can clearly see Royal show up and then depart. 

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for clearing that up and it explains why I only saw the CC and PayPal options for prepaying for the gratuities. 

FYI, they allow prepaying shore excursions with OBC in the Personalizer...

If the call center rep doesn't know much about the BVE, ask them to use Princess Search (their internal help guide) and they will find relevant entries that will instruct them on how to handle the request.

A % off of the cruise fare is not as much as you would expect.

 

You total P/P price consist of :

 

1)Cruise Fare

2)Non Comm Fare (Port Charges)

3)Gov't Taxs & Fee's

 

Every cabin category pays the same $$ Non Comm Fare as well as the Gov't Tax's & Fee's

 

The % off is only on the Cruise Fare . % off of a Suite can be nice but off of an Inside , not so much.

Technically, port charges are not the same as the non-commissionable fare and are broken out separately in the "Taxes, Fees and Port Expenses" line. TA's don't get commission on port charges, but that number is not lumped into the NCF.

On September 20th' date=' on the shore excursion hike in Haines, from Skagway, we saw a big brown bear and her cubs feeding on salmon in the river. The hike's naturalist said that 84,000 salmon had been counted on the weir, this season.

 

We saw literally thousands of salmon in the river, just outside of Ketchikan. It is easy to find the spot... Just following the sidewalk, along the river, a short distance out of town. Fantastic![/quote']

 

Well, it must have been an early run that year. We were at the spot you mention, right above the salmon ladder. Dead, rotting fish everywhere...:confused:

I read that the grand may be relocated to LA in April of 2020. Does anyone have knowledge of which ship may replace her on the Alaskan run out of San Fran please.

Thankyou.

Well, by process of elimination, it seems that they have been keeping the super-Grand-class vessels in Seattle (Ruby and Emerald), the Island/Coral always seem to do the North/South voyages, Royal will be doing those voyages too most likely in 2020. So that leaves, Star or Golden sailing out of San Francisco if Grand is going to LA. Swan songs for those ships before they leave the fleet.

Yes' date=' Alaska is great in September! The salmon are running in the rivers, so there are good chances of seeing bears. Another good thing, already mentioned, is that there are far fewer teens onboard in September. Poorly behaved and foul mouthed teens almost ruined one of our July cruises to Alaska.

[/quote']

 

Dunno, we sailed a couple of years ago in late August and the salmon run was over. Lots of dead fish in the rivers.

Princess and other cruise lines break down your fare into three parts: base fare (which is commissionable to TAs), non-commissionable, and government fees.

 

My TA always sends me an invoice with this breakdown. Not sure exactly what the non-commissionable fare is other than to keep TAs from earning more commission.

 

If you’re getting 20% of your fare and it seems lower, chances are that you’re getting 20% of the base fare, not the total fare. When you call Princess, check to see if this is the case.

Non-commissionable fare items include taxes, fees, port charges, air fees, air charges, transfers, shore excursions, special services, etc.

When a TA makes a booking, they are quoted a fare, the taxes, the noncommissionable fare and the gross fare. The noncommissionable part seems to be a percentage off the actual fare and is set by the cruise line and is included in the base fare.

So you get, booking through a TA (for example):

Fare: $1,000

Taxes $50

NCF: $80

------------------

Gross fare of $1,050. Princess is going to pay commission to the TA on $920.

Does anyone have the menu specifically for Princess?

 

Also, does anyone know if the cabin doors are metal on Caribbean Princess? I have a door decoration so I’d like to know if magnet will work for that. Thanks!

The menus in the link above ARE specifically for Princess.

Beautiful photos!

That poor woman in the parka cracked me up. As they say Mark Twain said [he didn't]: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

Yeah, we've done the 10-day Alaska cruise a few times. In general, sailaway from San Francisco is waaay colder than Alaska. :p

I wonder if they priced the drinks at a more reasonable level and brought back the two happy hours BOGO for $1, allowed the bringing aboard a bottle of wine each at every port without corkage fee that the ship would still make money and there wouldn't be the issue with a policy. Just thinkin'.

First off, Princess has priced their drinks much more reasonably than other lines. And don't you think they would have the data, that if it showed that they made more money with the BOGO, they'd still have it? If it was making more money than not having it, why would they get rid of it?

Absolutely you must put down a deposit. Why on earth did the TA not collect it from you the moment they put you on the wait list?

 

And my understanding (happy to be corrected if wrong) is that the deposit for a waitlisted cruise is always non-refundable. By putting yourself on the wait list you are essentially 100% obligated to book the cruise should a cabin in that category become available.

 

EDIT: perhaps as the cruise in question is still before final payment then the deposit is still refundable. But I am quite certain I have read that those waitlisting at the "last minute" (after final payment?) cannot decline the offer should they clear the waitlist.

Nope... the waitlist is always fully refundable. If you decline, they'll just move to the next person on the list.

And a couple of caveats. The waitlist is for a specific category. You can't waitlist a specific cabin or side of the ship, etc.

Also a lot of folks don't know this, but if you're booked on a cruise, you can waitlist a sold-out category on that cruise without paying anything additional. And if you have a current booking, you can waitlist a different cruise without paying anything additional either.

We saw a big cutback at the PES lounge last month on the CB.

Nothing like it used to be.........

I love my steak tartare but I never saw it.

The new drink specials/offerings are not good.

The card left in the cabin does not even have the appetizer specialty anymore.

Just has dates for the cruise.

I made the comment that it seems that they are phasing out this perk. imo :(:(:(

We were on the Caribbean Princess twice this year, once in June and again in August. While there was an overabundance of the chips/salsa/guacamole/ etc nights, we did have steak tartare on both cruises. YMMV

Wow... people are so humble.. :rolleyes: I always use the Elite/Suite line at Passenger Services. It's a perk, why not use it? Heck, if there's nobody in line, I use it. :)

I understand what refaring is. I was referring to your original statement

 

"Hmmm... that the category that you're booked in is sold out, shouldn't make a difference as to whether you can refare."

 

Are you saying that is not the case and anyone booked in a sold out category CAN refare a booking with a new promotion if it is not explicitly stated otherwise in the T&C of the promotion? If so, that's good to know. However, that's not what I've been hearing.

Yes, that is what I'm saying. From what I understand, as long as the promotion allows refaring, it should not matter if the category is sold out. I have been told that some promotions are capacity controlled, so if the promotion has "sold out", then you can't refare.

After the first generation of Grand-class were so successful, Princess rammed out five more ships launched between January 2003 and April 2004: Coral, Island, Caribbean, Diamond and Sapphire. The first two updated the Sun-class (which were not yet at all old) with features common to the rest of the fleet, the other three took the Grand-class to their next steps.

 

The fact that the next ten years saw only three new ships (further variations on the Grand-class) tells me that Princess got the design right and was wise to stick to what they did best.

 

Technically, they built 5 super Grand-class vessels, but Carnival Corp, in their infinite wisdom, allocated them to P&O.. the Ventura and Azura. And another Royal-class ship went to P&O too.. Britannia.

I'm missing your point. I was told on previous threads here that if you are in a category, in our case a vista suite, and it is sold out, you cannot apply for any promotions that become available while the specific category is in a sold out state. On our particular cruise all suites are sold out.

 

In our case no category upgrade was involved, so what am I missing.

Well, a refare does not involve a cancellation and a rebooking. It is taking the existing booking and changing the promo. There may well be promos that stipulate that they are for new bookings only which would then involve a cancellation/rebook scenario.

If there is a problem with a normal refare, a good TA can escalate the issue and get it handled.

Hmmm... that the category that you're booked in is sold out, shouldn't make a difference as to whether you can refare. If the new fare involves a category upgrade and *that* category is sold out, well that would make sense that someone couldn't do it.

And yet, people that aren't you DO reach the limit, as evidenced by the fact that Princess felt the need to put in a limit.

I think the limit on alcoholic beverages is more to discourage sharing with the added benefit that a person probably won't be able to drink themselves to death.

If you're in the Sanctuary you're all the way aft, so you miss the view from the bow of the ship as it approaches a lock and is hooked onto the mules and the gates open, to me the most exciting sights in a transit. The aft of the sanctuary will provide a view of the closing locks and water flowing in, but it's definitely a rear-view mirror kind of thing. (The Island used to have great aft public viewing platforms but lost them to the Princess bean-counters.)

 

I generally ping-pong forward to aft and back again. The Sanctuary is comfy, but if you stay there you'll miss at least half the action.

FYI. Emerald deck aft on Island Princess is still an aft viewing platform.

Deb:

 

Did John Padgett mention if Sky is going to be ***** active from the get-go or will she be at the bottom of the list for activation?

 

Thanks! (PS enjoyed the blog!)

Sky Princess will have Ocean Medallion built in. Why would they retrofit a ship that is being built?

Princess is still experimenting with what "unlimited minutes" will mean, so YMMV a *lot*.

 

They seem to be gravitating to some variation of 3 "tiers" of unlimited minute internet-at-sea:

• "Social" = Locked into the big social media sites. Maybe with, maybe without, any email.

• "Surf" = Most sites, but no streaming: Fox News' "On now" thumbnail stream is an empty box.

• "Stream" = Most sites, and streaming supported. YouTube and Skype work just fine.

 

FWIW, when I was on Princess' sister company's Eurodam, I could use GMail, but not my

normal email server (provided by my ISP) until I upgraded from their version of "Social".

 

BTW, I'm getting hints that Platinum and Elite are getting "Social" and needing to pay to

upgrade if they want Drudge Report or a non-Facebook blog. Nothing specific yet though.

Well, to not anger the faithful, I'd think they'd give them the "Stream" package, probably with the current minutes limitation and then if they want more, offer the unlimited plans at a discounted and pro-rated price.

It was held in the Crown Grill on both cruises on the Caribbean Princess that we took this summer.

On the Golden Princess this past June to Alaska in the whisky bar they offered some outstanding bourbon. Good selection of some high priced bourbon.

The ships with the Salty Dog Gastropub have an outstanding selection of whiskies and whiskeys. You can get a very nice flight....

That is interesting. We were told a few years ago by a senior officer that the Pacific Princess earned about one million US$ per month. The 2500 to 3000 passenger ships earned an average of five million US$ per WEEK.

 

Have no idea which is right.

Like I said, it's about profits. Yes, the bigger ships earn more money, but they are also more expensive to operate.

Still putting my money that she'll be doing Alaska in 2020. :)

For what it matters, the best meals we've ever had on Princess was on Coral Princess. It was a few years ago and I'm sure it was dependent on the head chef, etc. but every meal in the MDR was great.