wallyj

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.

See TM’s reply in thread ‘One person in cabin with drinks package’, it appears he did NOT purchase a package but was just offered, so we do not know for sure if Princess will actually allow one passenger sharing a cabin to purchase. Would assume the ‘system’ would have alert or once the crew member entered the cabin number, the price would ‘double’ like it does on the cruise Personalizer when you click on get upgrade price for plus or premier when you have at least 2 in the cabin.

Hey @TM, please confirm, in the thread ‘ One person in cabin with drinks package’, you state you Could have bought the package or were offered by crew saying you could purchase just for yourself, but in that thread I get the impression you did NOT purchase the package. You answer above gives the impression you DID purchase, which you would be the first I have seen post successfully purchasing the package for just one in the cabin when there are more than one in the cabin.

Officially, as of August, if you have your Medallion, then you are Green lane, everybody else is Blue lane, except special needs, which is Grey? Length of lines can vary depending on port and sailing and if majority of passengers decide to arrive at the same time. I embarked Emerald on August 5 in San Pedro when this new policy was implemented, there was no elite, suites priority, so unless you had medallion, wait was at least 40 minutes. I read passengers boarding on August 21 had easy, fast embarkation, but not sure if because Hillary just blew thru LA and our ship came back 1 day early and over 700 passengers debarked early on Sunday, instead of Monday.

When the Sapphire switched to Lavazza in the Buffett in July, they had a regular and decaf dispenser. So your answer is yes. If your ship has switched over, Lavazza should be available in decaf. See picture in post #2, left dispenser is regular, right is decaf, you can almost read the small signs on the counter.

I have stated this before in other related threads. First, if you want to add a FCD to a booking, your FCD acquire date MUST be prior to your cruise booking date, so @OttawaCA, acquiring a FCD on a future sailing to try to use on a previous booking will not be allow under current protocols. I say current protocols because many years ago, you could possibly find a Princess agent who would ‘back date’ your FCD and apply to said booking. Maybe Princess has even made this not possible anymore? Since you have stated fares have increased significantly, it obviously does not make sense to cancel and rebook to use your NEW FCD’s. As long as the FCD program stays no risk and fully refundable, unless you do not plan on cruising, I would plan on having a few in your account ready to be used. You can add a FCD to an existing booking before AND after final payment, as long as the FCD acquire date is BEFORE the booking date. Only 1 FCD applied will earn the applicable OBC, but if you have additional that are going to expire soon, they can be added to reduce balance owed. I have added a FCD to an online booking I made with an agency whose booking engine does have ability to use a FCD, so I use credit card for deposit, then call agency when they are open to apply one of my FCD’s. Usually this happens on weekends or holidays when my agency is closed and I want to grab a particular cabin or sailing that may sell out and my agency is closed. I do receive the OBC for using the FCD. Princess has also allowed my to apply a FCD to a booking paid in full, it results in an overpayment and usually a ‘refund’ back to credit card I used to make final payment, and YES, I did receive the OBC for using said FCD. This subject seems to come up every few months, as I know I have repeated this answer at least twice in the last year.

Yes, the Blue clip is exclusive to the Premier package. I believe other colored clips are available at Ocean Front on board for $6. In the Princess marketing ads, the Premier Medallion accessory was shown as a ‘striped’ clip, but I have not seen it, so it might have been what was ‘planned’, but when finally executed, Princess settled for the ‘Blue’ color.

Are you saying for your Island Princess sailing in Oct, you cannot complete getting Ocean Ready, which is supplying personal info and ordering medallion whether getting shipped to you or pick up at port? This is all that is required/asked for Princess. Princess is not like RCCL or Celebrity where you have to wait about 45 days to check in on the APP.

I think you can get a good ideal of how many ‘elite’ mini bar setups you will receive by reviewing the number of ‘cruise credits’ you will receive, taking into account for suite and solo occupancy. My friends a few years ago booked Sydney to LA on the Golden, with a stop in Auckland, and it was considered 1 segment/1 cruise credit, even though Princess also sold a short 4 or 5 day cruise Sydney to Auckland , that I am not sure was offered to Australia market only or everybody. My friends only got 1 minibar setup. Interesting was they did do a grapevine wine tasting on the short segment, but only for those on the short segment. If you were booked for the ‘full’ sailing, the circle host informed you there was going to be a separate event later in the sailing. Same for Captain circle party.

Pretty sure @Cruise Raiderwas mentioning Crown Grill and Sabatini’s being open for lunch, is a better option for them than at dinner time, as I think they mentioned they like bigger meal mid day. You might have thought they meant open for lunch with a ‘casual menu’, but for those that have been on ships where Princess has opened these SD venues for lunch, they know the ‘regular’ full price menu is offered. The opportunity to experience it during lunch hours, is the main point, especially if fully booked for evening or to give another option on longer cruises with many sea days like we had on August 5-21 Emerald Hawaii sailing where Crown Grill was open for lunch at least one day.

I try to keep a copy of the Day1 patter/event listing as it will show the itinerary and what days there will be any time changes AND the dress code/suggestion for that evening. Guest services should be able to confirm if there was only one formal evening scheduled or the dining room managers as the dinner menus would be coordinated. Normally Lobster is served for the second formal night. On my 16 day Hawaii sailing, in August on the Emerald, we had Lobster on the menu for the 2nd and 3rd formal nights.

I boarded Emerald at San Pedro on August 5 and it was a pretty long wait compared to when I boarded on July 22 when they had an Elite line. On August 5 at San Pedro no Elite line, just, blue, green and grey. Wait time on July 22 at San Pedro was about 5 minutes, August 5, it took me over 40 minutes to get to front of line to pick up medallion, so No, it will not be just a few minutes, that was my experience on August 5.

On most Grand class ships, the Premium Desserts are done at Coffee and Cones and I believe the only flavor available is Vanilla as the Gelato bars, if available are down at the International Cafe.

This is my recent experience. I received my Emerald Princess statement for my June 17-24, 2023 sailing on August 27, so a full 2 months after disembarking. On August 18, 2023, I received my statement for my Emerald Princess July 22-29, 2023 sailing. On August 22, 2023, I received my statement for Emerald Princess August 5-21, 2023 sailing. This is the turnaround I have come to expect, but you can see, even the same ship can have varying dates. All folios had the correct ‘charge’ to my credit card on file for the amount outstanding/balance due. I have no idea why the statements were delayed, but the charges were posted at the end of the cruise, it is just the emailing of the statement that was delayed.

@Yehootu, the APP will show all B2B as one cruise, no matter how it was booked, separately or as one cruise even if it could be booked as separate segments. You were not clear if you have ‘Plus’ for both segments, but my guess is if you did not use the 2 casual in the first booking, they would NOT roll over. Yes, your folio rolls over and any OBC not used.

On the Emerald this month, I saw a passenger request a bowl of just some of the toppings, like the chocolate candy and Carmel corn and was accommodated . They only have vanilla, pretty sure they use the same scoop stuff to make the mocha milkshake.