wallyj

I believe when you are going westbound, when you cross the date line you will ‘lose’ that day. So say you are on Monday before dateline, when you go to bed, the next day will be Wednesday, you will lose Tuesday, so you do not get an extra night. You do get the extra day if you were sailing FROM Sydney to HNL, you repeat the same day when you cross the dateline, so same scenario, go to bed Monday night cross date line, wake up to Monday again.

I believe one of the ‘perks’ of the Chef’s table experience was you were given a copy of the Princess Cook book which I assume has some of the dessert recipes. Last year I was told the book is being updated with no indication of the release date. I believe the cook book is no longer given till the new one is released. You might try and see if anyone is reselling the cook books on other platforms.

For my past cruises in June and July of 2023, I had Premier but was picking up medallions at port, so the accessory(blue clip)was in the bag with the medallion and lanyard. I added Premier to my August Emerald sailing on board and the website says it is to be delivered to your cabin. On day 3, when I still had not received the ‘clip’, I went to guest services and they had it there as it is ‘exclusive’ (color) to premier pkg and not available at Ocean front for purchase.

It was reported the UK had a promo of Plus at 50% off and the poster is from UK or as many have been able to book an On BOARD 50% off special, Plus was also being discounted at 50% off.

You should be able to make MDR or Specialty Dining reservations in the Dine my Way section on the APP. With only 2 weeks before sailing, availability at this point may be very limited and you might have to wait till you board to make requests.

The OP has added they just came into a windfall and have now just decided to see about the possibility of upgrading to Business, which unfortunately for them, they are way past the penalty date to have Ezair assist. They may have possibility to upgrade directly with operating airline Qantas, but subject to fare class rules they purchased thru Ezair. They are looking at the RETURN flight after a long cruise , so in this case, their no fees change date was 45 days prior to START date of cruise which is earlier than their flight date.

Passenger is beyond penalty date, so would incur fees/penalties for trying to change even just to upgrade to business if they want EZAir to help.

Hi @Sweet Jie, welcome to cruise critic as this appears to be your first post? You might not have been aware, but EZAir specifically reminds passengers using their services, you have 45 days from your flight OR start date of your cruise to make changes to flexible air bookings, so you if wanted to upgrade to business, you needed to enquire if it was available 45 days prior to Oct 8th! Also business is not always available thru EZAir on every flight as it depends on their contracts with each airline. In this case, YOU did not follow protocols to have EZAir help you in this case, you needed to contact them more than 45 days from Oct 8. Now that you have a ticketed flight, it is up to the airline, if you can upgrade. Some fares with EZAir are in a fare class that are non eligible for upgrades, so that may also be a factor.

Prior to the introduction of Casual Dining, on the Island Princess, they used to do an Alfredo’s pop up in Sabatini’s on a sea day lunch which was complimentary. My understanding is the Island will no longer do Alfredo’s in Sabatini’s, so for this ship, you have NO casual dining options. When you board, ask if they are doing a pop up Alfredo’s, but the rumor is it has been discontinued. YMMV.

Thermal Pool? Do you mean the Lotus Spa Pool on the same level as the Spa and changing rooms? Yes, the Lotus Spa pool is complimentary for all passengers and considered Adults only but not always enforced.

Sorry, with the last dry dock, the Steam and Saunas that were in the changing rooms on the Emerald were removed and accessible treatment rooms for the Spa took up this space. It has not been revealed if Princess plans to do this same remodel on its sister Grand class ships being, Sapphire, Diamond, Crown, Caribbean and Ruby that have the Sauna and Steam rooms in the changing rooms. Yes, they are complimentary to use with lockers you set your own code to lock.

Not all of the Future cruise personnel are ‘new’ to Princess. Many previous Future Cruise agents accepted the offer to be employed by the third party company called O.N.E and are quite knowledgeable. They currently have an On Board promotion of certain sailings up till May 2024 that are 50% off the Princess.com fare, so these are the only sailings that HAVE the book on board requirement. Depending on the sailing, some of these require payment in full even if the sailing is beyond the usual final payment date.

So, I believe the easiest if you all still sail, is swap sister with Grandpa now, so minor will not be in potential cabin alone. If Grandpa does go, swap passengers once on board. If Grandpa cancels, then he submits insurance, you might then be charged for now going solo.

Yes, you should be able to move the mother or actually any other adult into the cabin with the child. My understanding with Princess and many other cruise lines is at least one of the 2 original booked passengers need to STAY in cabin, so they allow you to swap out passenger 1 or 2 but not both. Do you have another friend or family member that can take Grandpa’s place, since the fare has been paid in full already? Some cruise lines charge a fee to do this and some do not, the last time my sister needed to swap out a passenger last minute(within a few weeks is sailing), Princess did not charge, this was for adding a new passenger opposed to your case moving sister from your cabin to child’s cabin. Do you have insurance? If not, then just have Grandpa be a no show, and once on board, move sister to child’s cabin .

The Majestic will be in port with you, as it arrives San Pedro on the 7th for an overnight, then heading to Auckland and Sydney.

No more Loyalty and Events Manager position at Princess. Loyalty/Captain Circle inquiries are now handled by Future cruise who are employed by third party company called O.N.E., not Princess. The ship is only responsible for implementing changes decided by Santa Clarita headquarters which is where your outrage should be sent. IMHO.

If you are paying and ordering ala carte, you can share anything you order. Pizza is $8.50 and some have specialty pizzas that are $12, with fancier toppings. You can order a $14.99 set menu and share too, as long as you are not using a dining credit from a Plus or Premier pkg. Sharing is restricted if you are using a casual dining credit from Plus or Premier, same principle as you are not suppose to share ‘drinks’ from your package.

Does the AUS $65/day only cover Drinks and WiFi? So if a U.S. passenger bought on board for AUS $65/day assume they will also get crew appreciation charged daily to their folio at the current conversion rate?

Did you book these cruises in the USA? I believe it makes a difference as AUS citizens cruise fare has Crew Appreciation baked into the fare and they book with a Aussie TA. When you book an Aussie cruise out of the US, the cruise fare does not have the crew appreciation included, so you will still be charged a daily crew appreciation fee. Yes, the on board currency is Aus$ , booking Plus would be charged in US dollars as I assumed that is the currency you used when you booked your cruises? The package levels will be adjusted to the Aus$ equivalent. I believe booking on board will only make a difference if you have Princess insurance, as booking in the cruise Personalizer pre cruise, will increase your insurance cost.

Hi @Thrak, are you saying you were only charged $450/per card instead of $460 which would reflect the 8% discount?

Go to the Princess website, scroll down, click on link ‘Learn how to save over 50%’ , scroll down and it will show the clip accessory that comes with the Premier pkg, but the one currently being provided is a solid Royal Blue color, not striped like the picture. This Blue color is exclusive to Premier pkg. They sell other colors on the ship for $6. It is plastic/resin?

@Belle, if you get a chance would you ask if they are going to remove the steam and saunas in the changing rooms like they did on sister ship Emerald. Believe they were replaced with accessible Spa treatment rooms on the Emerald at her last dry dock.

Certain promotions have earlier final payment dates. Happen to book an on board 50% off special for a 18 day sailing and the final payment was 120 days not 90 as it should be if booked on the Princess website. My TA asked Princess about the discrepancy and was told it was a condition of the promo. Friends booked an 18 day sailing for Dec 1 this year from that 90 day ticker agency and also, final payment was 120 days instead of 90, so even though Princess website says 6-24 days should be 90, there are exceptions and first you should have been made aware, so you can decide if you will accept or keep looking.

@NMTraveller, please be aware, the port of La Havre has been missed because of weather/winds, so have a back up plan.

I asked future cruise while I was on Emerald last month and they said Yes, you CAN request FCD expire date to be extended, before expiration date since they only have 1 year now.