Bucky3

I would heed all the suggestions and do whatever you can to get those cabins 4 in a row. We had this arrangement with our family one time, and it was so great to have the balconies connect. Saved phoning, knocking on doors etc. And if you didn't want to be disturbed, you just shut the curtains. Much easier and more convenient and quieter for families to go back and forth between cabins on the outside rather than through the hallway. I'm sure other passengers with cabins in the same general location appreciated it too!! Good luck and have a wonderful cruise.

OP - I hope this thread is read and acted upon by Princess. Though not in your position, if I were, it sounds like RCCL would be the way to go. With ships as huge as they are these days and with more and more singles travelling, it would seem that more should be done to make cruising a wonderful experience for solos. May you enjoy many of them.

Anyone ever get an upgrade after booking a specific cabin, if so, did you take the upgrade or keep the cabin you had requested?

Doug

My daughter booked a specific mini suite for a Med cruise and had it marked "no upgrade" because she wanted a midship cabin. When she went to fill out the info on the cruise personalizer she found they had been "upgraded" to a full suite. Problem was it was an aft facing cabin and she really didn't want that location. She called Princess and they moved them to an available midship suite that was still available. Now they are really spoiled!!

Can't agree more with how sad the day embarkation is! However, I much prefer that when we board, our cabin is ready. I would much rather have that extra time onboard to enjoy my first cruise day.

I suppose Princess will get the soap dispenser problems solved asap. Sad to think people would actually steal them if not firmly attached. We bring our own soap and shampoo, so this doesn't affect us.

We try to leave our cabin in good order as we realize the stewards have a huge job on turnaround day. We have seen huge messes left in cabins when walking down the hall on that last morning.

We are enjoying your Hawaiian adventure. Wondering how the seas are treating you throughout the islands as we are reading about unusually high waves over there. Hope the weather is letting you do all the activities you have planned. Aloha and Mahalo!

Thanks to the OP for the link to the article. We have been going to Hawaii for years, love the Waikiki area and loved the International Market Place. I can well imagine that locals and visitors alike will miss it a lot. I can't imagine I would even venture into a Saks store while on vacation in Hawaii! What a shame to take away that fun and funky part of the Waikiki area. I know the closure has been talked about for several years, and we are sad to know the final decision has been made and is in progress. We'll savour the memories....... and thank goodness they do not plan to destroy that Banyan Tree.

Very nicely put.

Thanks for the excellent post/

I appreciate your comment and the comments of others who appear to have understood my post as copied above in Post #73. Many obviously didn't!

The ending to this tragedy is very sad. I hope all onboard will have wonderful experiences in Hawaii and smooth sailing as they return home. Aloha!

Hi There - What fun reading this from your onshore voyage!! Wrote a reply to you on the thread I wrote on our Sapphire cruise! Again, congrats to your daughter. Hope you've had some good mom/daughter times with the boys away! Hope we meet again.

Just returned from the Sapphire New Year's week cruise. There were lots of children of all ages, but we were never bothered by any of them. We have done lots of holiday cruises with our family and really enjoy the family atmosphere onboard. Princess seems to do a great job of "policing" and providing activities for all age groups. We wouldn't hesitate to cruise during the holidays.

Having said that, however, I would book your cabin location carefully and as someone else suggested try to get one with no 3rd/4th berths on either side of you, and if you are booking an outside cabin try to get one without interiors across the hall. We were in the aft area of Baja deck and our cabin was quiet as could be.

What a sad situation.

I hope everyone reading this thread will take to heart the stress crew members can be under. It might just take one final complaint or rude comment from a passenger to put someone over the edge. After 27 cruises on Princess ships, we have never encountered a crew member who wasn't pleasant and trying to do their best to please. But we have seen passengers be so rude to crew members treating them as servants rather than the personable helpful people they are or try very hard to be.

Wishing for a positive outcome with prayers for the family and friends of this crew member and the hope that the passengers will accept the interruption of their vacation with compassion and praise for Princess for doing whatever they can to find the missing person.

Hi Bucky! So glad you enjoyed your cruise. My husband and son were getting on as you got off and are on the current 4 day cruise. And yes, sadly you are right. The last local sailing for the Sapphire is March 31 which we plan to be on and then she heads for Japan. So sorry to lose one of our favorite Princess ships!

Hi there - And big congrats to your daughter. Forgot just how long ago it was that we met in Alaska, but she was just a little girl at that time! Hope we meet again.

hpeabody - I see the article says homeport of Singapore in November of 2014, but I believe she will be going to Japan from CA this spring. Whatever, I'm sad to see her leave!

They were on the Sapphire for our cruise last week. They are a riot. They did two shows - one in the Princess theater and one in Explorer's Lounge See both if you can! The show they did in the lounge was even better than the first one in the theater!

Wonderful cruise. Was surprised that Christmas decorations were left up for the entire week which was very nice. Even snow in the Piazza one evening.

Service was excellent. This was a laid back 7 days for us and our daughter and SIL, so we didn't partake of formal nights in the main dining rooms. We enjoyed the HC every night for dinner! I know the food subject is very subjective, but to us the choices there and the preparation was excellent.

We usually book Caribe Deck but ended up with adjoining cabins on Baja. It was a quiet area of the ship - we slept far too late most mornings! There were tons of kids of all ages onboard, but they were well behaved as far as we could tell and never were any problem at all.

The elevators on this ship worked the best of any grand class ships we've been on.

We rarely had to wait more than a couple of minutes even for the midship elevators.

Our room steward was excellent. We left the cabin at various times in the morning, always remembered to put out the "refresh our cabin" sign, and always came back to a cleaned room. Very efficient and unobtrusive service.

The one downside: The Sapphire will be leaving for Japan this spring. Very sad to see her leave the West Coast. We love the ship and all the wonderful aft space on many decks. You could always find "a spot of your own" - although sometimes it meant climbing several steps to one of the higher decks.

Thanks to Princess for about as perfect a cruise as one could be. Our loyalty is because of the product provided at affordable prices and not because we are Elite.

We were included in the most traveled luncheon on this cruise. I believe the cutoff number of days was 250. The luncheon was not attended by the Captain or most senior staff officers as they were busy making important decisions about whether or not to turn the ship around to look for a man whose family had reported him missing for several hours. Thank goodness the person was found and all turned out well.

The weather cooperated for the most part. It was cloudy in PV but still warm enough. The seas were perfectly calm for the entire trip. Embarcation and debarkation were fast and efficient.

No negatives to report!!

Happy cruising to all and thank you, Princess, for a great start to 2014!

Just joining the many here with THANKS to Princess and Carnival Corp. for the Military Credit. It is much appreciated.

This seems to happen more and more often lately. It happened to my daughter in summer of 2012. She had specifically noted "no upgrade." It turned out well for her in the end, but she was pretty upset 'cause they moved her to one of the very aft cabins, and she had booked a miidship cabin because of seasickness. She ended up complaining and finding a midship suite available and was moved to that one. Now she is really spoiled!!

Seaquest sounds like fun, and if we were younger we'd try it, but at our age the Fairwind is for us. We have gone on their trip several times and always enjoyed it and look forward to going whenever we are in Kona.

Sounds like you are getting some good ideas here. Not sure what atmosphere you are looking for, but we have been to a couple of lovely beaches where weddings have been performed though we've not been involved in them.

One was on the beach at Kapalua Bay early one morning. It is a beautiful beach with a hotel set on the hill above it. Sorry I can't remember the name of the hotel.

The other - more intimate and private - was, I think, past Wailea. You had to crawl through a rock opening to get to this tiny beach. I don't know the name of it but whomever you work with would probably recognize the location. We happened to find it listed in one of the tourist books, and when we stopped there we happened to meet a couple who had been married there and were returning just to recreate the memories.

Sounds very romantic! Have a wonderful time! Oh, and if it's a beach wedding you want, be sure to have an umbrella handy as rain drops fall often and unexpectedly in Hawaii!

I sailed on a Coastal on Dec. 1st and I rebooked for Jan. 24th to take advantage of the 100% credit. I called Princess and the CSR was able to get the sharehoder credit applied by phone because the sailing was within 2 months. The shareholder credit was in my personalizer immediately.

Interesting! Didn't you have to send in proof of ownership? If not, how was that handled? I'd love to be able to just call in.

After reading all these posts, I'm glad we elected to just make a copy of our recent statement, fill out the form and send it in by snail mail right after making final payment. I'm sure it's taken far less time than fooling around with faxing, and we've never had a problem. Good Luck everyone! I'ts well worth whatever time it takes!

We usually go to the HC for breakfast. It took several cruises for us to find out that you can get doughnuts in the morning at IC. Never saw them offered in the HC

As long as your booking wasn't marked, "Do not upgrade," they can change your cabin. Stick by your guns and keep calling. And, in the future, mark your booking to not upgrade. Having a TA would have been a big help in this instance.

It doesn't always happen! Our daughter booked a mini midship and was "upgraded" to an aft full suite. This was a med cruise. Her booking was marked "no upgrade!" Because of seasickness, she made sure to have her booking marked "no upgrade." The Princess website did not list any midship cabins as available, but by putting in several midship suite cabin numbers on the Princess website, there were several cabins available there. She called Princess and they made the change to a midship suite, so it all turned out well for her.

Good luck to the OP!

Even with your cabin marked "no upgrades" Princess can change your cabin with out asking you. It happened to me and few years back.

And the same happened to my daughter last summer. In her case it turned out well, but she had to call to change the "upgrade" cabin category to a different location on the ship.

OP - If you can't get your cabins back, (I know it is late for a Christmas sailing), but look and call Princess to see if there are cabins together in the category they upgraded you to. Family Christmas cruises are wonderful, and this is certainly a big problem for you. I would go as high up in the Princess chain of command as possible with my complaint - and hope it works for you. Let us know how it turns out, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday cruise with your family.

It would help to know what ship the OP is going to be on!!

I posted some thoughts for you on the ports of call board where you also asked this question. Happy Cruising!