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CruisinFinsUp

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  1. https://www.princess.com/en-us/faq/onboard-experience#onboard-experience under "stateroom services": Mini-suites include a welcome glass of sparkling wine, two televisions, a sitting area and a spacious closet, while full suites offer all of these premiums plus complimentary laundry, and use of the Lotus Spa® Thermal Suite (on select ships, excluding Discovery Princess℠, Sky Princess®, Enchanted Princess®, Royal Princess®, Regal Princess®, Majestic Princess®, and Grand Princess®), one-time free mini-bar setup and use of our Disembarkation Lounge.
  2. This doesn't work for me. No matter what I click, what cabin type I choose, only standard price appears.
  3. Same. I've been watching a particular cruise for the past few weeks. As of a couple days ago, the page with the pricing selection ( 3 charts with standard / plus / premier ) has disappeared. The selection page is just gone. The cabin selection paged showed "1 left" but when I clicked thru to the locations and deck plans to choose the cabin, there were more than 1 to choose from. So that is just wrong too. I tried what another poster suggested - selecting Plus when I search cruises. That showed Plus on the search page but when I clicked all the way thru one cruise, it reverted to standard. The Princess IT gremlins at work again! 🙄
  4. We did this quite a few years ago in the Caribbean. It was very much like this experience. But it was fun and something different!
  5. I was looking at the list of Suite benefits - it used to be that on Grand class ships, full suites got a pass to the Thermal Suite. Is that gone? Thanks
  6. Just a note - Sky Princess is a Royal class ship - its spa has the Enclave - it includes the heated pool. Thermal suites are only located on Grand class ships - they do not have the pool. There is a big difference on the older ships! Yes usually spots are available on the first day. Go down and take a tour and book your pass. Enjoy!
  7. Deck 17 aft is "coming soon" on the deck plans. I guess this is what they contracted to do. I hope the area is open to use during the day when it is not an open restaurant so that there is an aft indoor space for passenger use (like Skywalkers). If it were not, that would be disappointing to me because I enjoy the wake view with a coffee and a book mid afternoon. The deck plans don't show any other high deck indoor public space (not suites only) at the aft, that I could see. At that price, I doubt we will participate.
  8. Grand class ships (the older smaller ones) have a "Thermal Suite" - heated loungers, steam rooms. Royal class ships (larger ones) have the "Enclave" which has heated loungers, steam rooms PLUS a hot pool. So, Full Suites on Grand Class ships included access to the "Thermal Suite" within the spa (not other spa services). When they built the newer ships, they added the pool and decided that full suites would not get access to the new Enclave. You can purchase a cruise long pass on both classes of ship. If you do a search, there are lots of threads about this - most date back to when Royal and Regal first came out so go back a few years.
  9. You don't need both medallions. Last couple of cruises we've been on the bartenders ask for our cabin number. They see both of us have the drink package, and allocate one per. It was quite surprising that they completely ignored the medallion tablet and preferred cabin number!
  10. We buy the Princess insurance. We get the platinum plan as we are elite. We've been buying it for a long time because of the CFAR part. We have elderly parents, and other issues that might require a change in plans, and with CFAR we are protected. Last year we had to cancel due to one of our travelling party becoming ill. We were in the 50% penalty period. Princess refunded the 50% to my credit card within 48 hours of our call to cancel. AON took about 10 weeks, but they eventually mailed us a cheque for the other 50%. They didn't want more info, they were just s l o w. We were covered under the "medical cancellation" so we got cash instead of FCC. For us, the Princess CFAR is worth it.
  11. In our experience, waiters are not using the scanners, or they have a handheld that doesn't scan properly. They ask for cabin number. Bartenders are also asking for cabin number instead of scrolling through all the little pictures of people on the tablet, who are in proximity to the bar. Last few cruises we barely presented our medallion anywhere.
  12. No. Bartenders are not using the medallion system. Bartenders are asking for and keying in cabin numbers. The medallion system is a tablet that shows the faces and names of all the people in proximity to the bar. Most of the bartenders don't bother trying to scroll thru all the small pictures to find you during busy times. The old keycards had a "folio number". They used to record that. Now they use cabin number.
  13. I looked at the available Reserve Collection minisuites on one of the Royal class ships - they are offering the midship minisuite cabins under the Skywalk. You know, those ones where everyone above you can look down and see the balcony and into the cabin if the curtains are open and lights are on, and the blue light glows all night long. I guess they figure they can't sell all of them as regular mini's because of the privacy concerns, but if they make them Reserve Collection, we'll buy them and ignore the downsides?
  14. We were on Emerald May 2023. Internet was s l o w. Emails took time to load. Websites were impossible. Didn't matter where on the ship we were. We were Southern California Coastal.
  15. You want to have each person as an "authorized user" on your credit card. That is the terminology on the Princess app for this. Every cabin has its own booking number. You can add your cc for your cabin mate in the app when you do checkin. The other cabins are a bit harder. When I did checkin last year I was able to log into my adult kids' account on the app and set up my credit card and put the second person on it as authorized user. But I put my cc number against my daughter's name and allowed my son as authorized. It was not set up for a different name on the cc than the first person in the cabin. I don't know if that has changed or not since then. You can try that (set up login id's for the first person in each cabin and log in as them), or try to call Princess to add the cc over the phone. Alternately, you can leave them all blank with no cc on at checkin, and add your cc for all passengers either at checkin once you get to the port (you will be blue lane, but all that is meaning less - just goto the port and check in) or goto guest services once onboard and add your cc to everyone's account there. Last time we did this, we also had to ask at guest services for me to be able to VIEW everyone else's folio because the default was not "open". That way I could review everyone's folio daily on my device, linked to my account (everyone shows up below me) to ensure no mistaken charges showed up. Enjoy!
  16. I read about this years ago, and it likely still applies as the economics of it still makes sense, and the ships the article referenced are still in service (Grand Class Princess at the time): I read that there are far more berths/ beds on every ship than there are spots in lifeboats for "souls". So there are multiple extra cabin configurations that will never be able to be filled because the entire ship is maxed out by souls per lifeboat / muster station. Every cruise ship offers various cabin configurations in 2, 3 and 4's, but never sells 100% of the beds available because the "souls" limit is far less than the number of beds. For example: If the midship quad cabins are sold as quads, there will HAVE to be empty cabins midship because the lifeboats/ muster stations will fill up before the cabins do, as quads are sold. They will block out those cabins, and move people to other areas of the ship where there are still spaces in the muster stations. Having a "full" ship does not mean every bed is taken. It means every lifeboat seat is taken. Thus it is possible and required that cabins with 4 or 3 beds be sold to 2 or 1 person. The very recent change to Princess' booking methodology to prevent 2 people from booking a Deluxe Balcony cabin for 3 is in conflict with this onboard hard limit. Edit to add: @chengkp75 mentioned this regarding another ship:
  17. https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/beverages/ Princess' beverage packages are explained on their website. Click on the terms and conditions for specifics. Sample menus are posted on this thread quite frequently. Unfortunately the wines by the glass included in the "Plus" package have become "no name". They have them listed by type only and they pour whatever they have of that type. Some of it is awful, some ok. I'm not a wine snob, so for a week or two onboard it is "fine". If I really don't like what I'm poured, I just order something else. The food onboard is certainly not excellent enough to worry about the wine pairing. I don't think any of their "Premier" wines by the glass are that much better to bother upgrading the package for the money. Their "sold by the bottle" menu selection is more comprehensive if you prefer that route (assuming they have any of it in stock). But there are no longer any packages of "buy xx bottles and save" as there were in the past. The "Plus" and "Premier" cruise pricing packages include other stuff such as wifi and gratuities, making the drink package portion less overall. Depending on your needs, the pricing packages may be a better deal that just the beverage package alone, then paying gratuities separately.
  18. A couple weeks ago on Emerald, the San Francisco shore excursions met in the theatre on the first day. The second day we met our excursion on land at the appointed time, but we were already in port as it was an overnight. San Diego & Ensenada we didn't do ship excursions so I'm not sure.
  19. I too am frustrated with these new booking rules. First.... We are looking at an upcoming cruise on a Royal Class ship - we want to book a Deluxe balcony for our daughter and her boyfriend. He has back problems so we want the loveseat so they can sit somewhere other than the bed. I want the lowest deck, central, as its his first cruise and we want to minimize motion. So obstructed deluxe balcony, midship. Nope. Only 2 people so we can't book it. Lots available if I put in "3". Ridiculous! Why is this suddenly an issue? If we go ahead, I'm going to book our son as well in their cabin then cancel him before final payment as he doesn't want to go. If Princess wants to play games, I can play too. I am so frustrated by this nonsense. Second... Thanks OP for the info confirming the guarantee cabins mess. BUT what Princess has ignored are the Grand Class AFT ME Minisuites -- those cabins are amazing as far as we (and others!) are concerned. Covered balconies. The last cabins on Emerald deck have the fantastic huge balconies. GUARANTEE ONLY!!!! We LOVE those cabins. I've booked them many times and marked them "no upgrade". I've switched cabins when one of the far aft ones comes up. Now I cannot book them at all. I read that someone on a recent cruise on Emerald Princess got the aft big balcony minisuite cabin as a GUARANTEE. Seriously???? Clearly someone at Princess who has never actually set foot in one of those cabins made this decision. I am really not happy about this one either. I'm hoping that my travel agent can bypass these issues somehow when we are ready to book next. I appreciate the OP's post because now I have something to send to my TA that she can work with. Any thoughts on how we convince Princess to reverse these decisions??
  20. https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/specialty-restaurants/ menus and descriptions. The charges are listed on the menus. included beverages are the same as elsewhere on the ship - water, lemonade/iced tea, coffee, tea. Drink packages are usable. Enjoy
  21. @rcprncss I did a search and found this video. They are standing in the Emerald's thermal suite and do a bit of a tour.
  22. This was posted on another forum this week. Current Emerald Princess crew. ( Sorry I cannot get my ipad to copy the chart without losing half of it. )
  23. Respectfully disagree. We've cruised Ft Lauderdale since covid - we arrive around 11 am - and went in the door for checkin, entered the "elite and suite" line, went to the desk from the "elite and suite" line to get our medallions (we are Canadian so they are not mailed), and sat and waited to board the ship upstairs in the elite lounge with the other elite and suite passengers. We were the first group to board. The platinums sit outside the elite lounge and board after us.
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