beg3yrs

IIRC when we were on the IP in 2022, we got our morning specialty coffees at the Good Spirits Bar. BTW, in 2022 we were on the IP for almost a month. Yes she's a little quirky in her layout but we definitely enjoyed the ship. And, we just booked that 54-day trip to the South Pacific.

I just took a quick look and the Princess web site availability for the Sun Princess changed each time I refreshed the page. At first there was nothing even scheduled until April with April cruises all sold out. Next, March showed up as available and now February is back in the mix. Someone's updating the database ...

Personally if EZ Air shows you have specific seats and United doesn't, I'd start with United and I wouldn't wait.

There have been previous reports that when a TA starts submitting GCs quickly one after another this sometimes happens. Suddenly the cards show zero balance. Waiting for a while and then trying again seems to be the solution. This sounds like what happened in your case.

Just asked our TA to book this cruise too. Might be our only one in 2026 but it's the right places at the right time!

My memory on this is a bit hazy so I waited to see if anyone else would answer. They haven't so here's my recollection. We did the shortened Tundra Wilderness Tour as part of an escorted connoisseur tour. At that time we gave our escort our lunch info. This was important to us as DW has celiac and required a gluten-free lunch. IIRC the guest services desk at the lodge could also handle the lunch orders. You did not have to contact the tour operator directly and it was preferred that you didn't so the operator would not have to handle a bunch of individual calls.

Certain crew members (like security and maybe the medical staff) have the ability (i.e. tools) to unlock deadbolts. Consider the case of a single in a cabin who locked the deadbolt and then got so sick (or worse) they couldn't reach the door.

I suspect with the Sun's dining room choices being so different from the rest of the fleet, the App just doesn't have the "chops" to handle a tri-level main dining room and two dining rooms dedicated to specific types of cabin bookings. Maybe once the new App rolls out this will be supported.

Well there you go! Thanks. They do it both ways, distillation as well as reverse osmosis. I'll bet it's the Royal class that does the reverse osmosis - I haven't had their tour yet.

From several ship tours my understanding is fresh water is created by a distillation process, not reverse osmosis. Heat from the ship's engines is used to distill sea water. The distilled water is then passed through a mineralizer so it has a good taste. Ever drink distilled water? Yuck. IIRC a small amount of sanitizer is added as well and yes, it is tested. IMHO, the ship's water tastes as good as any bottled water.

Princess does not go to the Galapagos. I wish they did as the Galapagos is on our short list to visit soon. Princess gift cards are easily transferable as they're not registered to any particular person. They even can be sold, probably for a discount. Do you have any relatives or friends going on a Princess cruise? As their name says, they are great gifts.

Sounds like it was your deposit that was non-refundable (many fares are that way). You would not have gotten your deposit back regardless of the method of payment.

Unless you needed a mortgage ...

While I can't confirm it, Princess did something similar with the inaugural of the Royal Princess, sailing with VIPs, Travel Agents and travel focused journalists.

This answer is a common misconception. EZ Air does not change your flights or connections, the airlines do because of schedule changes. This drawback is the same whether you book through EZ Air, through a TA or direct with the airlines. So as a drawback of using EZ Air, it is not. If this does happen, you must use EZ Air if you haven't yet been fully ticketed and you need to correct something. Once you're fully ticketed, you can call the airline to get things straightened out if necessary. I check my airline reservations almost daily. Typically it's a Sunday morning when changes can be found but not always.

I laughed at this post but still want to make a point, without starting yet another fight, that tipping in the USA is usually optional with the exception in some dining establishments, large parties will be automatically assessed an 18% gratuity (for us that usually less than what we'd leave). Otherwise it's up to the customer. Society here doesn't believe in "forced tipping" but does believe tipping is customary and the amount is based on the subjective quality of the service received. And, yes, it is funny to make a big deal out of the 1.1% CC surcharge as in the USA the credit card companies typically charge around 3% or more. Heck, even direct bank transfers (ACH) are starting to get surcharges. I think the OP is just surprised that there even is a surcharge and is wanting to understand. I remember my first visit to Oz and learning about the fee. Good thing my hotel stay was on loyalty points!

This was my thinking as well. I look at purchasing gift cards with the 8% discount as kind of pre-paying for a cruise with the benefit of getting the discount. I don't however, use the GCs to pay up until it's final payment time. That way if something comes up and we aren't going to cruise, it's so much simpler without having to get GCs refunded.

They were in place before Covid as well but then were discontinued and came back with Covid.

To add a GC to OBC before sailing you have to call the Princess customer number. Some reps aren't sufficiently trained to add GCs to your booking as OBC but it can be done. If you strike out you can call again and try to get another rep. Otherwise as you said, just wait until you're on board. If you choose the on board option, be sure and take printed copies of the screen with the GC number and PIN as I've had GS demand to keep those copies. I used to just have a spreadsheet which was good enough until they changed their policy. Fortunately I had kept the original screens on my laptop. I had to email them to myself, go to the Internet Cafe, log in to my email and then print the files. I wouldn't try to cash in the GCs on the first day as GS is swamped. It's ok to wait until they're not too busy.

That's very odd to me. Seems like somehow that card was refunded from another source. I'm not sure I'd call the gift card support folks (they can see all the transactions on the card) as if it's an error then bye-bye free money!

We've done both as well, multiple times. As @Lady Arwen described, New Year's Eve is definitely a lot of fun. Every time we've enjoyed this it was a formal night and the vibe was amazing with lots of party dresses and suits and tuxedos. Of course everything else was acceptable too. What was really amazing was the next morning all the confetti, popped balloons and streamers were nowhere to be found. We really enjoyed Christmas on the ship. Festive decorations, organized Christmas Carol singing, visits from Santa and so on. On one of the ships the officers were allowed to bring their families on board (this was just before COVID). We had our grandkids with us and they got to pal around with children from other countries all week. To this day they still keep in touch.

@Rick&Jeannie have given you excellent information. Once I was putting almost $6K on account at Guest Services and a supervisor came over and wanted to make sure I wasn't overdoing it. He basically said it's difficult to make refunds if the funds aren't used. I can understand that as they'd have to go back through all the different cards and determine which ones to refund. Then he saw our current balance and when I told him we intended to play a bunch more Bingo he wasn't worried. 🤔

Heck, even driving in the same day makes me nervous. We are driving to San Pedro from Tucson in April. Originally were driving a day early and overnighting by the port but DW doesn't like the super long drives. Our compromise was to overnight in Palm Springs and drive to San Pedro that morning. Given the unreliability of Southern California and especially Los Angeles traffic, I'll be pushing for a very early departure from Palm Springs.

The limit is five cards per month per person. If you purchase cards on the last day of the month, you can purchase again the next day.

Disembarking at Victoria is fraught with peril as that port is often missed.