wallyj

Hi @partybarbie, are you talking about the Thermal suite opposed to the complimentary sauna and steam that were in the changing rooms by the fitness center? There was always a charge for the Thermal suite based on length of cruise? Have you gone inside the changing rooms with the lockers? On the Emerald the steam and saunas were removed to provided accessible treatment rooms for Spa patrons. If they were not removed on the Ruby, I cannot see how they will now want a fee to use these as passengers will use changing room to take showers, etc., after fitness center work outs.

Please note, it is 45 days before the flight OR start of the cruise. There are cases where you might book just the return flight AFTER your cruise, so the grace period to make a flexible flight booking, depending on the length of the cruise, can be many days greater than 45 days before the flight. If you have a flexible EZAir booking and you want to change after final payment, but still in flexible change period, just go into flights, manage my flights and make change. If you book a lower fare, it results in a credit that you usually need to tell EZAir to ‘process’ the refund so it will be credited back to your original form of payment.

I believe the juice bar on the Emerald is the bar just before entering the Buffett with the pool behind mid ship elevators on the port side of the bar where you will see the Juice bar menu and the ‘juicer’.

With Premier, it comes with 3 prints. Currently on the Discovery, the photo manager said they prefer you download the pictures on your own device which the link can be found in the APP, so make sure you download the APP to the device you will be using. You can also view ‘all’ of your pictures via the APP on your own devices. On my last cruise earlier this month on the Majestic, they do not print ‘any’ of your pictures, like some of the older ‘grand’ class ships, for you to review and view pictures of other passengers. When you view your pictures on the photo department monitors, you can customize/crop/rotate your picture before having it printed, without any additional charge. Initially the screen showed a customization charge of $5, but when you finalize the order, it was credited back, so there was no charge, this was for ordering my 3 included ‘prints’ with Premier. Princess may provide a complimentary ‘USB’ drive for your downloaded pictures, but unless you have a device to verify the pictures are not corrupted, there is some risk. I would do both, download onto your own device and get a ‘USB’ if they will provide. On one of my Emerald sailings a few months ago, the ship ran out of all the complimentary ‘USB’ drives and only had ones for purchase if I wanted my pictures on a USB, which is why I said the ship ‘may’ provide. Princess now uses facial recognition, so when the photographers take your picture, you do not need to provide your cabin number or anything else.

I believe the Elite shore excursion discount is a ‘new’ elite perk that was added after the ‘restart’ in Fall of 2021? So you may not have been forgotten on earlier cruises as it was not a ‘perk’ then.

I think special occasions was removed from the cruise Personalizer, I believe you now need to inform your TA or call Princess to add, why the change, I do not know.

@fsufancc you do not ‘pick’ a medallion accessory with the Premier Package. Princess gives you a ‘clip’ as the accessory. If you go to the Princess website and scroll down where they describe the packages, under Premier they show a ‘stripped’ clip, but the one being provided currently is a solid blue color that is supposed to be exclusive to the Premier package. FYI, Ocean front on the ship sell the other colors of clips for $6. It will be in your basket automatically when you order your medallion. If you have it shipped to you, it will be with your medallion, if you decide to pick up at port, it will be in the bag with your medallion. You should also be able to make your 2 specialty dinner reservations on the APP and it should recognize you have Premier and not charge you for the first 2 reservations. Since you have a short 5 day cruise, I imagine reservations will fill quickly.

These packages are now being offered at the Future cruise desk on the ships, so if you are inclined to find out more info, check out on board or ask someone you know who might be on a ship to get more answers for you. A YouTuber has shared the hotels offered are not revealed until you ‘buy’ a package, which I know makes many people wary. This packages sound like to me a FCD on steroids.

You do not pre pay the $14.99 Ocean Now activation fee thru your TA. Some couples report only having one ‘activate’ Ocean Now ordering as they are usually together. Yes, it is a one time fee for the duration of your cruise and will display on the APP the first time you attempt an Ocean Now order and ask you to confirm the charge before completing the delivery order. Ocean now includes ordering more than just food. If you use your stateroom phone to order anything that is considered ‘room service’, which would incur a $5 service fee with each order, unless you have Plus or Premier. Your $14.99 Ocean Now activation does NOT waive the $5 fee for calling room service from your phone. If you have activated Ocean Now, you can use the APP to have something delivered to your location which of course CAN be your stateroom.

Ocean Terrace on the ships that have it, is a bar that also happens to serve sushi(Majestic it is only a bar- no sushi, but it is now serving sushi at lunch at The Catch a few steps away). So many passengers stop by just for drinks. I find it very unlikely a passenger would want to walk into one of the Specialty dining venues just to order a soft drink or any other drink, if they were not planning on dining there, since there are so many other ‘bars’/locations that offer that service. Many of the casual dining venues like O’Malleys or SaltyDog GastroPub are venues that are bars with extra seating, so many passengers visit just for drinks and do not order ‘food’. I do not see a passenger walking into Alfredo’s or Gigi’s to order just a drink, when a bar is probably located a few steps away. Nothing is automatically ‘triggered’ by you walking into any venue. Yes, the bars and restaurants and shops have devices that recognize medallions within range, but to actually ‘charge’ that medallion, the crew member has to enter a transaction manually such as a bar order, etc.

It is a clip to hold your medallion. On the Princess website, if you scroll down where they discuss the packages, there is a picture of a ‘striped’ clip. The one being provided lately is a solid ‘ blue’ color, this color is supposedly exclusively for the ‘premier’ package and cannot be purchased at ocean front on the ship. If you buy the ‘premier’ package on board, the clip is supposed to be delivered to your cabin. If you have purchased premier pre cruise, it will be delivered with your medallion if your ordered home delivery, else it will be with your medallion at the port when you pick it up. I believe I have seen other ‘colors’ offered at Ocean front on the ship and the cost was $6.

@rosevew, sorry to hear you are still getting information that is not ‘clearing things up’ for you. Because your return flight seems to be a codeshare with LATAM, you will need to check in with the Operating flight counter and airline, being LATAM. EZair does not offer/sell the lowest ‘basic’ fares so 99.99% sure you have a regular Economy International fare with LATAM which includes one checked bag. Because your flights have not yet been ‘ticketed’ the airlines may be wary to talk to you, but they should be able to see the ‘fare class/code’ booked, and relay baggage rules associated with that fare code. Try calling again in 9-10 days when your reservation should be ticketed. Also, many airlines do not allow seat assignments till the reservation is ‘ticketed’, having a reservation number does not mean EZAir has ‘ticketed’ your reservation. Your reservation will be ‘ticketed’ when EZAir finally pays the airline for the reservation/booking. EZAir says they normally ticket at 45 days from the flight date or cruise start date, whichever is sooner, but can be longer or shorter. If not done at the 45 day mark, call them to ticket, so you can verify baggage and get your seat assignments. Hope you get the answers you are seeking.

Pretty sure your Australia to North America sailing, the currency on board will convert back to USD. I did the April 2023 Sydney to LA sailing on the Majestic and the currency on board was USD. Sounds like your 10 day prior to Transpacific the on board currency will be AUS$.

The key is the 2 letter category you booked, not necessarily the deck. So if that area/location might have ID’s, you theoretically could be upgraded to deck 5 in a IC. You need to acquaint yourself the various locations your selected Guaranteed Categories are located thought out the ship and possibly higher ones in case you get upgraded. What you are guaranteed is the Category or higher, not the deck or mid forward or mid aft sections. Normally the higher or closer to A, the second letter of your category, the more mid ship those cabins will be located, of course there are exceptions.

@dides, Majestic Princess has started serving the Ocean terrace menu at Lunch on Sea days at The Catch, Ocean Terrace location still remains just a bar on Majestic. Was told started about 1 month ago.

I am not sure if this number is accurate, but in a previous thread, I believe I saw a post that said, Princess will reserve 20% of the number that have purchased the Premier package for the ‘reserved’ seats, so this may help you estimate the number that have the Premier package. So the math would be if you see 100 seats reserved, then approx 500 passengers have Premier.

The Champagne price listed on the bar menus for Premier pkg was $19/glass, so depending on how many a day you will order may make sense to upgrade to Premier from Plus as the upgrade price is currently $20/day per person to upgrade from Plus Pkg to Premier Pkg. Plus Pkg allow for alcohol drinks up to price of $15/drink, Premier is $20/drink. So real Champagne would be covered in Premier. Plus only gives 2 casual dining , 2 fitness classes, 2 desserts/day, whereas Premier gives unlimited casual dining, unlimited fitness classes, unlimited desserts, plus 2 Specialty Dinners, photo package, and princess prizes . Mosts bars should have Champagne, but a few have very limited stock and will not.

I suggest calling Princess to see if they can do, else have each party book for table of 2 for same date/time, go to Crown Grill on day1 and ask them to link all requests and be for table for 6 as we know they have larger round tables. I have even seen them rearrange tables to accommodate different party sizes.

Embarkation ports and itineraries can cause variations. On a few select cruises, I have seen the MDR NOT open for lunch for various reasons on embarkation day. Times are usually 11:30-1 or 12-1:30 and depending on ship will be midship on deck 6, or aft dining room usually on 6. Not sure with the layout of the new Sun class. Once on board, get a copy of the daily Event listing and it should show if a dining room is serving lunch and its Name/location. Copy will be in cabin or available at Guest services.

@HiCCCs, since you are going to be going to the Future cruise desk anyway, make sure you ask to see the list of the selected sailings that are 50% off! Congrats for reaching Elite. This is a new promo introduced this year that sadly I heard is finally ending at the end of the month. Do not confuse this promo with the Princess website of up to 50% off. The on board promo is for guests currently on board and can not be booked if you are not on the ship. You are allowed to add a passenger2 who may not be on the ship, but you passenger1 needs to be on board. The 50% off is in most cases 50% the fare you see on Princess.com. Can not be combined with regional and targeted offers, so when checking fares, do not login. For solo’s it is like no solo supplement and if the Princess fare already has a low solo supplement, you still get 50% off that fare! Fares are capacity controlled, so even if there are cabins available, the 50% off numbers allowed may have been reached, and even if more than 90 days out, may require payment in full at time of booking. Many of the fares were also discounting the Plus pkg so you were only paying $30/day instead of the current $60/day. The list used to be about 5 pages but last time I saw, it was down to 2 pages, more specially, one page, front and back. There were some sailings out to May 2024. As of April this year, future cruise deposits will expire in 1 year, but close to expiration date, you should be able to call Princess before expiration and get it extended.

Depending on how much in the future your cruise is, Princess can increase the price of the packages at any time, so waiting till boarding day has some risks. I have friends boarding the Sapphire for 32 day voyage at the end of the month and they have decided to wait till boarding on Day1 to get package as the increase in Insurance would be substantial.

Hi @HiCCCs, for clarification you state ‘I’ll be turning Elite on the second leg of B2B’, do you really mean during your first leg of B2B, you will have finally met Elite threshold of 15 cruise credits or 150 days? OR is it on the SECOND leg of the B2B, you meet the threshold? No, minibar is NOT reduced for solo’s. Also sometimes Princess does not charge a supplement for solo’s. I have seen the supplement be 0 to 100%. One cruise line had a per cabin policy(so solo’s could bring 2), for bringing bottles of Wine/Champagne, but I believe it was recently revised to per person. You do NOT earn your credits till AFTER you complete your cruise, so if it is the second segment that will qualify you for Elite, then you will need to wait for your NEXT sailing to be recognized as Elite. You do not get recognized as Elite if that sailing is the one where you will reach the thresholds. I know of one exception to this rule and it is, if you qualify for a new tier in the first couple of days of a LONG voyage, the Loyalty agent may upgrade you for the entire voyage. I am unsure of Princess definition of LONG, but I know this occurred for a passenger on a 26 day voyage. Princess now has Future cruises handle Loyalty queries and matters. On the Emerald, there is a dedicated Captain circle desk opposite Guest Services and during select hours, the lead Future cruise agent would be there. On many other ships, there is no longer Captain circle desk, just go to Future cruises and ALL of the agents are supposed to be trained in Loyalty matters. If the first segment will qualify you for Elite tier, verify with Future cruise on first leg and they will make sure you are upgraded to Elite for the second segment. They may have you go to guest services for a new medallion or just place/give you ‘Elite’ sticker for your existing Medallion. They will also let you know if on the second segment if it might be a slight delay it getting the system to recognize your new tier and have to manually update the system, then call the appropriate departments to get you new benefits/amenities.

Hi @rosevew, what maki roll is pictured? Looks like traditional California Roll(crab/cucumber/avocado) with something on top? Could not find match from the listed menus.

Cruise Vacation Planner also previously known as PVP Princess Vacation Planner, they work for Princess and can book your cruise and should be knowledgeable about the product. YMMV.

Stick in the mud, are you familiar with this saying?