greenie082756

@travelin.sisters 

Thank you so much for doing this vlog. 

We will be on the Grand next April to Hawaii and it's nice to know some of the things you have shared.

You have taken the time from your cruise to do this, and I thank you.

@travelin.sistersThanks so much for doing this.

We hopefully will be on the Grand in April. It will have been 27 months since we last got off a ship and I am so excited that we are getting closer to our turn.

Again, thank you!

@MsSoCalCruiser

I just got this info off the Princess website:

Full payment due dates:

5 days or less sailing - 75 days before departure date

6 - 24 days - 90 days before departure date

25 or more days - 120 days before departure date

Hope this helps.

<----- following

Our first cruise back is not until next April. It will have been 27 months since we got off our last cruise.

Thanks for sharing!!

In a box, in my "cruise chest", are our cards and 2 medallions w/ lanyard. 

It's nice to look back and remember. Right along with the only photos we buy ~ boarding photos.

Its so nice to finally see good topics popping up instead of when will I get my refund.

On 11/13/2021 at 11:50 AM, Musky Ike said:

Same here, just adding to my cruise card collection. The kids can throw them all away someday. Until then they make me smile.

Exactly.

Thanks to all who shared their experiences on the Grand!! How wonderful it looked.

Our first cruise back will be on the Grand next April and I hope that some personal changes happen for me. Trying really hard to get to "cruising weight" so I can eat and drink whatever and whenever (more or less).

Again, thank you all!

I use to book our own but thought I would try a PVP.

I will email her and let her know what I need and she calls me the next day.

Apparently a lot of them are still working from home.

I have noticed in some of the photos that there are towel animals. 

When did Princess start that?

Enjoying the posts! Thanks for sharing

4 hours ago, skynight said:

Would not like this. In the past we frequently do not arrive in the cabin at the same time. Late evening one of us may retire, the other staying out for some time. In this case we leave the bathroom light on, but the remainder of the room dark. Would not be good for us if the entire room brightened when the last person entered. Also envision this as an issue with parents and teen youth staying in the same cabin.

Unless you are in an interior cabin, no need to turn on all cabin lights during daylight hours.

I see your point however I was talking about lights near the doorway coming on. Mostly at night when its dark. Perhaps there could be an option to have that automatic or not depending on your preference.

I know that when we come in to the cabin at night we turn the lights on before heading in. Gotta be careful at our age 🙂

Wouldn't it be cool if the door unlocked and the lights came on via the Medallion? 

If they can get the door to unlock you would think that entry lights should come on as well.

6 minutes ago, 3kidsncats said:

Ha -- hubby celebrated 66 yesterday, and I'm not too far behind.  More old romance and limited energy these days 😂

Yesterday was my hubby's 66th birthday as well!! Happy birthday!!🍺

Looking forward to hearing how this is going on.

We have never been on the Grand. We will be hopefully in April to Hawaii.

I will be following! Thank you for doing this.

We had a suitcase damaged. Handle was broken off. We had to hunt for out suitcase as well which should of made me aware that it got pulled out of line for that reason.

We spoke with someone, filled out the paperwork and by the time I got home I said it wasn't worth the trouble even though I had Princess insurance. The suitcase is still usable.

Well I just think they went about this backwards. Should of updated and improved the online Personalizer and then worked on all the sections of the Medallion Class.

Even though we were all aware of what the Medallion would / could possible do to your experience in cruising, I don't think we were expecting these changes.

Lets hope that those that do not want to deal with the app on their phone will be happier once the personalizer goes back to what it was.

4 hours ago, KLM3164 said:

Favorite drink on the ship so far, called a Dunes.

Trying to enlarge photo of ingredients. Not able to. Malibu coconut rum, midori and what else? Having difficult reading ~ does look appetizing!

@geoherb Your live experience and reporting was very nice! Thank you for doing this.

I have been following all the live reporting in hopes as time goes by things will get better by the time DH and I finally (after 27 months) get to cruise again.

Because of possible allergic reactions, I always carry Benadryl with me.

I take it with me in my cruises as well.

I do not have any food allergies (yet) but have had reactions to medications.

I have met many with severe food allergies and I honestly do not know how they do it on a cruise other than to go over the menu with the manager of the restaurant. 

@HaveDogWillTraveland the other contributors that were on this cruise. THANK YOU! 

Some of my questions were answered and even though we are not cruising until next April I will be watching (reading) all the lives until then. I am sure the MC is going to evolve and grow.

Again, this was a wonderful read and thank you 🙂

I've done it as well. Called Princess customer service and explained that I only want to do the 

deposit and voila no problem. Charges reversed.

What I found interesting on one of their Medallion Mondays on YouTube was that

they said if there was something you wanted or needed an employee would be happy

to assist you. 

So, lets say you want a cocktail and don't want to use your phone or one of the many big interactive screens to order it, you can ask an employee to do that for you. Hmmm...

We are not cruising again until next Spring so I will continue to read the comments here as time goes on and people are actually on board and their experiences.

4 minutes ago, Jeter02 said:

The other issue I have with the princess Plus for me is,Ibook a cabin just for myself as a solo traveler. So technically I'm paying double the amount for the princess Plus package for a cabin. with typically have two occupants. Huge reason why I always do the princess saver. 

In this instance I can see why it would not be logical to do it this way. If I remember correctly, when a passenger travel solo their fare is doubled?

As far as the specialty coffee card (added to your medallion) the issue for me is having to count how many I have left or asking how many do I have left?

This I have done and I do not want to leave money on the table (so to speak) and buy and extra card only to use 1/2 of it.

It does not carry over to the next cruise like the old coffee cards. Its one and done. 

I am so glad they had this option of the Plus fare. Seems logical to prepay in the fare and have a more relaxing cruise. 

I do not have to worry so much about how much each soda, specialty coffee, glass of wine(or 2), margarita is going to cost. I figured it out that my daily drinks (alcoholic and nonalcoholic) came to about $40 a day.

We would get the coffee card and would have to figure out how many a day we could use without using them all up before the cruise was over (we take longer cruises). 

We use to always get cases of bottled water and now we do not have to.

Gratuities are usually taken out of our OBC and now we can use that money for Princess overpriced excursions. 😏WIFI was 250 minutes for each of us as Platinum cruisers and I usually bought extra because I like to play games online.

Our first cruise is not until April 2022 to Hawaii using the Plus option. Looking forward to using it and hopefully by then cruising will be back to normal.

I personally like the Plus package ($40 daily chg). I drink specialty coffees (3-4 a day), sometimes an afternoon cocktail by the pool, bottled water or soda, an evening cocktail before dinner and a glass or 2 of wine with dinner. That alone is about $30 - 40 a day. Even if I did not have cocktails and just coffee, water and sodas that would be about $20 in beverages.

Gratuities and wifi included would be about $25 a day. I like playing certain games online because it relaxes me. So I like the unlimited internet so I don't have to pay extra.

So not having the 250 free minutes as a platinum member to me has never been a big deal. I can use that up rather quickly in a few days.

Having the gratuities in the package as well is a good thing. 

Three things that are extra charges that have been applied against our OBC that are wrapped up in a package works for us.

We can now use that OBC for excursion and any purchases that fancies my eyes.

JMHO