beg3yrs

Agree with @coo359a2 here. It generally isn't even the room steward who puts delivers the mini bar. Typically it's someone from Room Service going down the hall with a cart full of mini bar setups on trays covered in plastic wrap. They have a list of cabins to deliver the setups to so it's not even the fault of the delivery person!

I too am licensed and while I don't operate from the ships, on our Northern Lights cruise on the Island Princess last fall, the gentleman next door to us had an odd contraption on his balcony. We chatted in the hallway and yes, he was operating from his cabin using HF I believe. He had obtained permission in advance and was happily making contacts from above the Arctic Circle. So, at least last Fall it was possible.

Can't say if the CB has it yet but back in June we were on her up on the Sports Court watching the Starlink folk welding antenna mounts onto the top of Skywalker's. If not available yet, it should be soon.

As other posters have said, Princess itself does not have a package like this and other posters have helpfully suggested using the ship's WiFi if your phone supports WiFi calling. However, staying in line with a package plan, there are package options for cruise ships available from at least two cellular carriers. Both AT&T and Verizon offer a cruise ship plan. I know from personal experience that AT&T's plan is $100 for 30 days of unlimited calling and texting as well as something like 30Mb of data (don't quote me on that one). It also gives you access in Mexico and some islands in the Caribbean. We use this on DW's phone as she has a business and in the past the ship's WiFi/Internet was so poor we didn't trust WiFi calling. My phone however is set to use only the WiFi although there have been times we just forwarded my number to DW's. Bottom line: If a cellular plan for ships makes sense to you over the WiFi, check with your provider.

DW and I do the same thing, five cards each every month. We use different email addresses/accounts but do use the same credit card. Never had a problem with that.

My understanding is that it's a one-time charge per voyage as you booked it. I think I recall one of the Princess webinars contained that statement. Of course we have zero actual examples of how this will really play out.

No cabin class will be exempt from the $5 Room Service Charge. The fee is waived for the Plus (not the Plus-50) and Premier packages.

There's list on one of the threads but from what I remember it's rolling out across the fleet and started August 2 and will be complete by mid-September. And, like Thrak, I'm too lazy, you can search!

While we personally have not disembarked in Victoria, there have been others on the forum who have done so. Yes, you must make arrangements with the cruise line in advance but it is allowed. The caveat is that there are times when it hasn't been possible for the ship to dock in Victoria. It actually happened to us once. So, if you do want to disembark early, have a backup plan just in case the port is missed.

Tom, let's not hijack Thrak's thread. There's another thread with lots of information on the gift cards through AARP. It's high on the list. Hint: Look for AARP Rewards on the AARP.org website.

I had to disable Enhanced Tracking Protection (FireFox) for Princess web pages to get the chat to work.

Yes, the bill rolls over from segment to segment to segment to segment to ... Well you get the idea. My strategy is to simply let my amount owed build up until a couple of days before the last segment. Then I visit GS and apply my gift cards to my folio as I have a much better handle on what the final bill will be after all the impulse expenses (and Bingo and Casino and Tommy Bahama shirts if on sale and so on).

It is a natural requirement that there must be an equal number of ships going clockwise and anti-clockwise. Otherwise the entire continent becomes unbalanced and starts to spin uncontrollably, eventually disappearing beneath the sea in a giant whirlpool. 😉

You do know it's bad luck to be superstitious, don't you?

My Interior cabin identifies as a Penthouse Suite ...

We took the Paeskatun excursion in October of 2022 and it was great! We were so layered up I felt like one of those kids in one of those old Christmas movies waddling around. Probably could have gotten by with less layers but we were definitely not cold. Anyway, this one is in an old rock quarry but they're set up quite well for the Northern Lights viewing. There are heated indoor areas if you need them as well as some refreshments. Also a couple of things to see like a Sami tent with a fire in it and some old cabins. It starts with a gathering where the hosts give you the 411 on the grounds and other background information. You're then released to watch the lights if/when they show up. We weren't disappointed as the lights showed within about 45 minutes. We had plenty of time to view them and after a while we turned to how artistic could we make our photographs and even started to explore a bit. Even with a full moon, the photography was fantastic. It was even more amazing to realize the Big Dipper was visible. Using it to find the North/Pole star, it was directly overhead! Then I pulled out my compass and it was pointing West toward where the sun went down. Things are so different way up near the pole! We loved this trip so much we're booked on the Emerald Princess for the Sept/Oct 2025 Northern Lights trip. Hint: You don't need a huge telephoto lens camera to get good shots. People with more recent iPhones were getting amazing photos. I had an older Canon digital that needed to be on a tripod for long exposures and I was super jealous of those folks with the iPhones taking handheld shots! Note: The buses park at the top of a steep hill and everyone has to walk down to the viewing area and of course back up when it's time to leave.

Middle of last December for our January 4 cruise out of Buenos Aires, our medallions were shown as shipped. Plenty of time to get them before departing on December 30 or so we thought. They ended up being stuck in Carson, CA for almost two weeks and when released (I think it's a Customs facility) they made it to our home on December 30 around 1PM. Unfortunately we had left the house for the airport at 10 AM. I'm making this too long so now I'll cut to the chase. We found that getting to the port without medallions when Princess expected you to have them, is the worst case. In the terminal they make an old-style cruise card for you so you can board the ship. That takes a while. Then you're supposed to go to Guest Services where they'll make you a new medallion. We all know how busy GS is at embarkation. The line was forever, even for Elite/Suites! Not the way to start a cruise. So lesson learned, we'll take the five minutes to pick up medallions at the port and never again ask for them to be shipped to our home. Besides, it's just one more thing to remember to pack!

DW agrees wholeheartedly with you about the GF bread. Toasted (both sides of course - you have to check) it's edible. As far as the poolside grill goes, DW always checks about the fryer oil there. She's not a trusting soul as the consequences of being mis-led are so severe. Anyway she will run it all the way up to the Executive Chef about the poolside grill fryer and every time she is assured in no uncertain terms that nothing but french fries goes in that oil. I suppose that's good because she'll chow down on the fries there and has never had a reaction (it's almost instantaneous). She doesn't however get fries anywhere else on board whether it's the MDR, buffet or room service. Also while at the grill she will watch her order (bunless burger - GF buns are bad too) and make sure the part of the grill where her patty is cooked is cleaned ahead of time and she'll call them out if it isn't. After all, they heat the regular buns on that same grill.

You can It's not really pre-booking but if on the Cruise Personalizer you select the Cruise Check-In tab you are taken to a page that lists each guest on the booking. Inside each guest's "box" there's a link to "Dietary Requests". You can select the "No wheat" option from there and there's another box where you can specify that the guest is Celiac and not only no wheat but no rye, barley or spelt. My wife has celiac too and has never had a problem with being GF on the ship. The MDR staff is especially helpful, bringing the next day's menus to allow pre-ordering. Seems they can make almost any meal gluten-free with the advance notice!

Nope, no training, just a policy that needs tightening. Policies are more like suggestions or guidelines!

They can just do the $200 if that's what you want.

I have often wondered this myself but never tried. Suggestion: If you're able, go ahead and make an EZ Air booking that you can cancel. Once that's done, call the airline and just ask if that booking is upgradeable with miles. I suspect if it is possible that you won't be able to upgrade until it's ticketed. My worry in that case is that airlines capacity constrain (i.e. limit) the number of seats they'll upgrade and even though your booking is eligible, you may not get it.

I've been able to apply a gift card to on board credit (OBC) and then use the OBC to pay for things. Evidently not all phone agents are capable of doing this and sometimes it takes a couple of HUACAs (hang up and call again) to find one who will do this for you. The maximum amount of OBC you can pre-purchase is $1500 BTW.

Regarding the TV order, we'll just have to see what is really implemented. I base my "belief" the TV doesn't count as Ocean Now is that only allows orders to your room, not where you my wander off to while waiting for your order. If there's some Princess documentation otherwise I can easily have my mind changed. The $5 room service charge seems to me to be a way to cut down on the number of phone calls. My recent cruises have shown me it's very difficult to get through much of the time.

I do not believe using the TV to order is using the Ocean Now app. The app resides on your phone. You should not have to pay the $14.99 if you don't use Ocean Now. The $5 delivery charge is only for orders made to Room Service via your cabin phone. What gets me with the phone charge is you now lose the ability to customize orders beyond what's in the app or on the TV without incurring the $5 charge. For instance, I want a Gin & Tonic in a tall glass. There's no option for that. In the past I've had to call to get that particular combination and you probably still do.