Wander58

21 hours ago, paf225 said:

In the offer email I received it specifically states the following; “Guests who choose to participate in the Offer will retain the normal cancellation policy, and the refundability of the cruise fare will not be impacted.”.

 

Perhaps you or your agent should call Azamara again to clarify which of the following is accurate - what they wrote in the offer or what they said to your agent.   Regards, Paul 

 

 

We did not find this to be true - It's still the same cancellation policy - almost all refundable until about 120 days out then the refundable amount decreases the closer you get to sailing.

We have not heard of any changes to the Oct 20,2025 Athens->Dubai cruise on the Pursuit.

We are on the Dec 20 South African cruise - I paid in full 2 weeks ago and got the 5% OBC bonus.  Yesterday I noticed that the fare had gone done again, plus 10% OBC.  Since we had PIF, I did not think there was hope but I called my TA anyway just to check - GOT AN EXTRA 1300 of the fare and the 10% OBC!  So, even if you have Paid in Full, it's worth it to check if you can get the new perks especially if you are more than 180 days out...all they can say is No.

39 minutes ago, harrodsfan said:

We did the Ephesus amazing evening and it was not great. Another long bus ride after we had already visited Ephesus that day. Poor restroom situation not near venue. Uncomfortable seats. Getting to the seats on uneven steps was pretty scary. Worse getting out when it was over, very very boring and long concert by a choir. Long bus ride back. Long walk to the boat. Would never go again. It sounded cool.. but it wasn’t in actuality.

I 100% disagree!  Going to the small Greek Theater in Ephesus was fantastic!  When would you ever get to do that?  They had cushions on the stone seats that made it very comfortable.  The acoustics and concert in that outstanding venue was something we'll never forget...and we definitely felt it was Amazing Evening.  The only negative was the weird Turkish wine that was really bad.

Based on the fares I saw online, I just had our South Africa Intensive for this December re-fared - our new fare is $4200 LESS!  I was absolutely amazed as it's really rare for us to get that kind of deal!  All we lost was $300 SBC and the Premier Booze upgrade.  

2 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

Really? That’s amazing news. I get a lot of Waves surveys and they often address the issue of smoking in the Casino. Maybe Princess will take a step forward and eliminate all indoor smoking sometime soon. I hear they’ve gotten rid of Churchills on a number of ships.

Maybe it was because Churchill's was still open.  On the Enchanted last week, Churchill's did appear to be closed.  I think the pot smoking off some balcony near us was probably worse...but we could only smell it not, see where it was coming from.

8 hours ago, Torfamm said:

It was right after the restart. We had a couple of cruises where there was no smoking allowed. 

On the Island in October, only place people were smoking was in Churchill's.  It looked like a blue fog through the windows.

We just got off the Enchanted Princess 2 days ago.  Smoking WAS allowed in the Casino...and of course it spilled out into the Piazza and was horrible!  I thought smoking indoors was banned...I was wrong.  Also, we could smell someone smoking pot on the balcony.  UGH!

We were just there in October.  We disembarked the Island Princess and took a taxi to the train station.  We had a 9:30 train to Waterloo but were easily there before 8:30am.  LHR is about 1.5 hours from Southampton.  On the way to the ship, I booked a private transfer and would not hesitate to book one if we were heading back to LHR.  I'd expect that you could easily be there by 10:00am.  

We were on the Island Princess last week.  I went down to Guest services and got tokens twice during a 14 night cruise - no problem.

Thank you SO much for your updates!  We also board on Oct 4, first time on the Island Princess.  I thought the passenger stats were interesting - usually there is a much higher percentage of Elites.  I hope the Northern Lights cruise has a similar percentage as it will make it easier to tender.  

If you can wear heels, I say go for it as they always look great especially if you are going to the trouble of packing dresses.  I certainly plan to on our Northern Lights cruise next week.  It's about the only time we ever get dressed up.

4 hours ago, ChucktownSteve said:

Correct me if I'm wrong please, but don't they price the cruise at rack rate to give you the free days thus you're paying a "non discounted" rate for the remaining nights?  If so, that's the real scam.  The shorter the cruise the better the benefit.  If the cruise is long, I heard you could actually pay more than not using the free nights.  True or false?

True.  But again, depends on many factors as they are not combinable with any promotions except on-board savings, B2B, and maybe one other.  Best way to use them is booking while onboard.  On our last cruise in May, I had the future cruise guy price it both ways and it worked out that using our 4 'free' nights was actually the best way to go by about $1000.  HOWEVER, it required him to get 'official' pricing from Miami which took days.  Being on-board, he was first able to verify our current level discount and free nights...something we could not do via the website or customer service back in May.

When we were on-board in May I had the Future Cruise Guy price a 15 night South Africa cruise using the current promotion and then using our 4-free nights.  First, he had to verify our level and the points as they were not correct on the website.  Then he had to email Miami to get the 'official' pricing using our 4 free nights.  It took many days but we finally got confirmed pricing and the 4-free nights were about $1000 less than the current promotion.  Since we were not planning on booking something else, it was better to use the free nights than have them expire.  Long story short, it's always worth having a cruise priced both ways and you almost have to do it with the additional on-board perks to make it viable.

In Jordan, we went to a Bedouin Camp in Wadi Rum for the sunset and a show; In Columbia, it was a Carnival performance at a concert hall; In Kusadasi, it was a Turkish concert at the small ancient Greek theater in Ephesus.  You can eat on the ship anytime.  

Level and Loyalty points are still incorrect despite at least a dozen emails.  When we were on board last month the Future Cruise Guy was able to verify our correct level and 4 free nights when made Discoverer.  But, the website has never been correct.  I do see the cruise I booked for next year without SBC details.  However, I also see the one we just completed with -39 days to go...how is that even showing??  I know I shouldn't worry or continue to check it...I just want it to be correct.  It's now been many months since this migration started and so much information is incorrect.  The good news is, once onboard everything is great and the correct details can be seen and verified...just NOT via the website.

The evening in Ephesus a few nights was absolutely fantastic!  It could not have been better.  

We checked in last Sunday in Athens - took maybe 5 minutes, no muss, no fuss.  I don't think it could have been any better.  

We are currently on the Pursuit and the internet has been excellent.

1 hour ago, ghstudio said:

You're complaining about customer service....and you are one of the very few who they have ever called back.  we've called three times with zero return phone calls.

The friends who are going on the May 14th Pursuit cruise with us called at 6am and were able to speak with someone within 5 minutes...don't know if they were just lucky or the call center had just opened.  It's worth a try to call at 6:00am EDT. 

As for getting a call back, yes, I got one and was told there was nothing they could do...makes we wonder what they can do.  I also sent in at least a half dozen support forms and emailed the AZ loyalty address, no response to anything.  

After submitting multiple forms and emailing the Loyalty email address with NO response, I finally called this morning at 7:30am PDT.  I received a call back at 3:45pm.  I was calling about our incorrect loyalty level.  We moved up 2 levels on the last cruise in December to Discoverer and should have 4 free nights, which I want to book when we get on board in 2 weeks.  All I got was customer service was "It's an IT issue and there is nothing we can do or update.  BUT, they will have the correct information on-board."  Forgive me if I'm sceptical.

Well, I guess when we get on board in 13 days, I'll make sure I can either book with the on board discount/free nights or get something in writing that we were on board and could not book for XYZ reason and that we should be able to whenever everything gets fixed...I was in IT, I find it unbelievable that this was allowed to happen - I don't care HOW bad the data was.  You don't go live with something in this state!

Has ANYONE gotten anything fixed by sending in the form??

Well I don't know about the worst but it is certainly worthless.  I called this morning at 7:30am PDT.  I received a call back at 3:45pm.  I was calling about our incorrect loyalty level.  We moved up 2 levels on the last cruise in December to Discoverer and should have 4 free nights, which I want to book when we get on board in 2 weeks.  All I got was customer service was "It's an IT issue and there is nothing we can do or update.  BUT, they will have the correct information on-board."

Well, I guess when we get on board, I'll make sure I can either book with the on board discount/free nights or get something in writing that we were on board and could not book for XYZ reason and that we should be able to whenever everything gets fixed...I was in IT, I find it unbelievable that this was allowed to happen - I don't care HOW bad the data was.  You don't go live with something in this state!

We are on a cruise departing on May 14.  A couple weeks ago I cancelled a shore excursion and never got any confirmation - it just disappeared.  No SBC refunded or any message about what was available.  A couple days ago I booked new excursion and the website KNEW what was available and applied it to my new booking.  I WAS SHOCKED!  First by the fact I could book an excursion and second that the correct amount was applied.  I did a CC transaction and paid the difference between the SBC and what was due.  To my amazement, it all worked correctly!  Now if they could fix our loyalty level and points I'd be happy.  

We were on the Onward over Christmas - they had a Chardonnay from Italy that I thought was horrible but they also had one from Chile that was very good.  I believe they also had Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc -but I'm only a Chardonnay drinker so I don't know if they were good or not.  I'm pretty sure they had Twinings.

We have been on 15+ Princess cruises, with 2 more planned for this year.  Princess generally has excellent itineraries, which is what I look at first when booking a cruise.  We also cruise Azamara and Viking, which are both considerably smaller ships, but it still comes down to the itinerary.

Service is the same across all 3 lines - outstanding!  While Princess cannot compete in some areas, they are also no-where near the price.  So it's a trade-off.   We have never been the least bit disappointed with any Princess cruise.  The new, big ships with about 3600 passengers never seen crowded and are surprisingly easy to navigate.  

However, in my opinion, there a few things Princess does better than any cruise line:  Movies under the Stars, Production Shows, Guest Entertainers, Pizza, and Fettucine Alfredo.  If you choose to, you are never at a loss for something to do.  It is still our favorite cruise line!