wallyj

I think it will depend on when the OP cancels if after final payment and thus in penalty windows of increasing amounts of cancellation fees. I would ask if there is a chance you might cancel, see if you can have the FCC put back into your account NOW, as you seem to have already paid the required ‘$800’ deposit, so it appears your FCC is actually excess deposit amount? When was your FCC granted and applied to the booking? I had a booking where I used a FCD for the initial deposit. A few months later, Princess finally processed my Covid quarantine FCC and when they posted it to my account, it then automatically was applied to 2 future bookings. Is this similar to you, which would explain why you have $800 deposit and your FCC on your booking?

@trbarton, I believe most readers were confused by your comment using ‘bar code’ whereas it is a QR code. When you arrive at the terminal for checkin and if you already have your Medallion, your Medallion is scanned/read and your passport verified. If you do not have your Medallion, you go to the blue line for pick up and passport verification. Again, the QR code is not scanned/used. I have yet to see any port personnel scan the QR code on the APP or anyone on the ship ask to see it.

The new Gratuities are for food and beverage ‘charges’ for Standard fare passengers or Plus who have used up their allotted Casual dining experiences. Non package passengers have always been charged the going gratuity rate for beverages, so it appears Princess is just being consistent with adding the gratuity to food purchases like the casual dining and specialty dining where it was previously included in the cover charges. As there is no ‘charge’ to the suite passengers for their first night specialty dining there is no gratuity to collect. This is consistent with the wording that Premier package passengers will not be charged a gratuity for their 2 specialty and unlimited casual visits.

Hi @Thrak, I just logged into AARP and had no issues. Went to rewards and Princess gift cards were there to purchase. Earlier on Thursday, yesterday, I was able to purchase 2 $500 Princess gift cards in case I find a cruise to book as I am boarding the Sapphire Princess later today, at San Pedro port. Email with gift cards arrived very shortly after completing purchase on AARP. I had no problems logging into AARP earlier about 12 hours ago and about 5 minutes ago, so I think the problem may be with your account? My friend who was on a Mexican Rivera cruise last August, tried to purchase gift cards while on board a Princess ship. The AARP website did not let him, I think it knows you are on a foreign/non U.S. server? I wonder if your many attempts to try to login flagged your account? Hopefully others will posts if they are having issues, but my guess is it is just you. I accessed using my iPad.

Are you saying you have the booking # or your loyalty/Captain circle number? Princess should be able to locate your Captain circle number based on your name, birthdate. I have not heard your number will be purged if you have not sailed after a number of years.

If you are going to purchase WiFi for 1 device, it is per person, but both in the cabin do not need to purchase if you both do not need to be ON at the same time. You can share ONE plan. You will login to the WiFi using your cabin number and birthdate of the person with the plan.

Just off the Discovery, I believe you do not get access to the Enclave with a treatment, but the Spa manager on Day 1 had some specials that included access to the Enclave for either 1 hour before OR after your treatment. No access to Enclave if you have a hair service.

Princess booking options are ‘standard’, ‘plus’ or ‘premier’, so at the time of booking you can include either ‘plus’ or ‘premier’ packages and your cruise fare will reflect the ‘added’ expense for their inclusion. If you book a standard fare, you have the option of ‘upgrading’ to the plus or premier packages and pay the respective per day rate. You can also add the plus or premier packages on Day 1 or 2 of your sailing at the prevailing package rates. Plus fare currently will usually reflect an increase from standard fare of $60/day per person and Premier should reflect $80/day. Not sure what you mean by ‘lower Oceanview cabin’ ?

The steam and saunas that used to be in the respective changing rooms by the fitness center were removed/converted with the last Emerald Drydock. The same change was implemented for the steam and saunas on the recent Ruby Princess drydock, so it appears to be a pattern/plan for this class of ship.

People have reported non paid upgrades still happen, probably fewer than in the past before the bidding system. Upgrades within a category such as going to a better location for the same ‘meta category’ still seem to happen, going from interior to Oceanview are higher are rarer but still happen. I know a passenger who is booked on upcoming Sapphire Dec 1, 2023 sailing, was upgraded from booked interior to a balcony, he did not bid to upgrade, it was a complimentary upgrade from Princess and was booked within the last few months. This is not common, but shows, complimentary upgrades still exists.

So I checked with future cruise about a sailing on the ‘list’. It was 30% off the Princess.com rate AND Plus is also being discounted 30%. Unfortunately, the starting rates are already high for this 7 day Mexico sailing in early January next year. The previous ‘list’ only had CA Coastals as the Mexico sailings did not need to be discounted.

Just boarded Discovery today 11/25. Received a list about 3/4 of a page. Sailings on list are supposed to be 20 or 30% off, so better than nothing. Have not studied list yet, but as @Cajuntravelerposted #2, they received 30% off a January 2024 sailing.

The 50% off on board booking promo DID expire at the end of October 2023. While I was on the Discovery Oct 21-28 sailing, the future cruise folks relayed they were told it was not going to be extended as previously and will end at the end of the month. I believe @Cruise Raiderstayed on for the following sailing, and confirmed it was not extended. Currently have friends on the Sapphire and there was mention of a new promo but details not clarified, but was told lead time would only be sailings within the next 30 days or so. @Cajuntravelerpost #2 seems to be relevant.

Yes, Capt Tuvo is with MSC. Was on the Majestic early October and at the MTG lunch the Staff Captain sat at my table and we had a lively discussion regarding Captain Tuvo, as the staff Captain knows him well and verified Capt Tuvo is now employed by MSC.

Princess is catching up to most of the competition, the room service ‘fee’ is easily double and more on the competition. I do not understand why disability rights have anything to do with the room service fee, able bodied or disabled both are subject to same fee.

Your ID leads me to believe you are Aussie and probably booked with your booking tied to Terms and Conditions that are unique to your region? US bookings can allow for refaring, cancel, and rebook with refundable deposits, so essentially no loss of $ to change to a better promo before final payment. I suggest you call Princess down under and they would be able to share what options you may have. With the cruise being over a year away, hopefully that helps, but I believe down under, final payment is a lot sooner than US bookings, meaning you are required to pay final many more days in advance of sailing. I believe UK bookings can only be modified once and come with a ‘processing’ fee of a hundred pounds? This illustrates terms vary based on your region. Maybe an Aussie TA will chime in, but it seems like your best bet would be to call Princess or your Aussie TA if you used one.

I believe Princess has closed this ‘loophole’ and now knows you are B2B and if you purchase from duty free during first cruise, it will NOT be delivered to your cabin till the end of cruise 2. Last summer I met a couple who were doing many B2B’s and wanted to purchase some duty free liquor for some band players that would be leaving. They asked me if I would purchase on last day of 1st cruise so I could take with me as they explained, the on board system now knows they are b2b, so if they purchased from the duty free store, the system would flag to not let them take the purchase. This makes sense as in the APP if u have b2b with 2 separate booking numbers, the APP actually thinks you are on one long cruise, which is also why even with a separate booking number for cruise2, you are not issued a new medallion unless the battery dies.

You should go into his profile on princess.com to see if the same cruises are listed in his cruise history. If so, then you are fine, it’s a glitch. If you will be on a Princess ship soon, the future cruise agents who now handle loyalty issues should be able to correct. If you will not be on a Princess ship, you should call to have this corrected as his status affects , benefits like insurance and WiFi discounts and if his level is not correct he does not automatically get the same benefits as you, even if he is traveling in the same booking as your spouse. Some cruiselines will match the lower level spouse/partner to the higher partner loyalty level as can happen if one cruised enough separately before meeting of even during the partnership which causes an inequity in loyalty level. Princess does NOT do this, each passengers record is their own, no matching partner to highest level of the two.

I was on Discovery Oct 21-28 with Premier pkg and was able to get any flavors of Gelato. Were you on after these dates? Could the policy have been changed to only Choc or Vanilla? I will ask as I am back on Discovery 11/25-29, and report back here.

Previously, there was a lower rate if you purchased internet pre cruise, but that was quite awhile ago. So it is the same price pre cruise or if you wait to purchase on board. Platinum and Elite receive a 50% discount. If you book for the entire cruise the rate is $15/day so discount is $7.50/day. If you want to book one 24hr session, rate is $20/day and with discount $10/day. This is for a 1 device plan, where you are allowed to use multiple devices, but only one ‘active’ at a time. I know of at least one cruise line, you are limited to the one device you sign up initially, meaning you would not be able to switch between a phone and a tablet or ‘share’ your plan.

@fun_one, Thank you for taking the time to post your review. Please clarify, you say you prepaid your tips but got the plus package which includes tips and then upgraded on board to Premier? This makes it sound like to paid tips twice? AFAIK, this ship does not have a dining area called ‘Chops’. You may have Royal Caribbean on your mind as that is the name of the Steakhouse on that Cruiseline.

With the Premier Pkg, you get 2 Specialty Dining credits no matter the length of the sailing. Unlimited Casual dining is part of the Premier pkg.

Yes, if you feel you will be using ‘room service’ often to justify the Ocean Now activation fee, then as long as you use Ocean Now to order food/items to your cabin/location, then you will not incur a ‘room service’ fee. The $5 room service fee is charged for each stateroom ‘Phone’ call for room service, unless you have Plus or Premier. @memoakresponse above assumes you are still ‘calling’ using phone for room service.

Sapphire and Diamond are unique because there is only one entrance to the Santa Fe /Reserve class dining room, opposed to most other Princess ships that will have a Reserve class entrance AND a separate non reserved class entrance which are usually the port or starboard side entrances for these venues for those not familiar with Princess.

I was on the Sapphire this past July. Only a portion of Santa Fe dining room is used for Reserve Class. Non Reserve Class passengers are allowed to dine in this venue which will be the same menu as all the other MDRs on the ship. I believe the new Sun and Star will have a dining room explicitly ONLY for Suites, not sure if Reserve Class will have entry to this Suites only venue.