Cruise Junky

I can usually see them pop up late the night before but not bookable until the next morning early Pacific time

Agreed. I would 100% buy the sparkling package.

This is super helpful. I booked in US$ but wondered how the tips would work. I don’t normally remove tips, but for this cruise I might and give it in cash. Thank you for clarifying

All the cool kids booked Crown instead of Island 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😂

I love them but they’re so hard to find on cruise menus.

Love it. I’m looking at Princess’s WC on Crown but want to wait for HAL to release.

Princess has offered two for a little while now I think. One from NA and one from Australia. HAL is usually better with Grand Voyages + One World Cruise

Nieuw Statendam leaves Copenhagen early September and heads to the med.

Very little risk in being off loaded at the port but the risk increases while being ill on the ship and it’s closer to medivac you to a Canadian hospital than a US.

I asked a Princess cruise consultant. It was happening to every Australia trip I looked at. I’m used to them hiding a lot of availability on segments before but nothing like this. Every single deck on each part of the ship when you picked you wanted to pick your own cabin it said it must be a guarantee as shown above in the screen print. It wasn’t the usual guarantee only message. I’m not new at this.

Princess site on opening week and a couple of Online agents. There’s been a few threads of this nature in the past month or so. It seems to be Princess’s new thing. Annoying for a consumer.

As stated above, it’s happening on the new releases. There’s plenty of open cabins

It’s happening with brand new releases. Nothing to do with no cabins for 2 being available.

It’s not just exchange rate it’s credit card companies getting their cut on both sides. Currency aside, the card fees are likely 2.5% on each side or another 5%. As a Canadian, I feel your pain.

Semantic or not, they cost a lot more. There’s a very large price jump between an OV and the Vista Suite. The OP wanted opinions, I gave mine.

Personally, we would avoid both. We book a balcony but there are no regular balconies, they’re sold as suites at a much higher price. There’s also no fridges in rooms below suites. If money weren’t an issue or we enjoyed oceanview cabins we’d consider them.

We did a land trip to Crete and from Chania drove to biolea for an olive oil tour. Can’t do it without a car or organized tour. Their oil is very nice.

Nice to see they’re breaking up the Transpacifics too with a Honolulu and Auckland as options.

Now that I have the layout figured out, they’re kind of cool.

Figured it out. Looks like half the balcony belongs to 4041 and 4042. Didn’t realize NS was different.

Hi. Looking at deck plans it looks like Rotterdam and Koningsdam 4044 and 4043 are large decks but Nieuw Statendam is not. Is that correct. NS shows the sideways cabin, but the deck looks split in 2. Can anyone confirm? Please and thank you.

Yes, absolutely. The shore excursions say it’s a 3 hour drive.

I believe we’re booked on the same cruise. Nieuw Statendam. I don’t think the itinerary can be duplicated on another line so I’ll possibly save money with staying out of the casino for 28 days 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes, it’s a fully refundable deposit and no air or hotels booked yet.

I’m honestly facepalming myself. It never even occurred to me in this day and age to check that HAL was still allowing smoking inside. My bad for booking without checking. Sailing NS.