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1 hour ago, gerig said:

I am trying to understand the Princess players club because I normally cruise Royal Caribbean and their program is clearly defined.  I just returned from a cruise on the royal princess and earned over 16K in points in the casino.  I did receive chocolates and free spa services but did not receive an offer for another free cruise.  What is the criteria to receive an offer for a free cruise and should I have been given an offer on the final night?

Just a FYI reference for you to gauge : -->  We just got off the Sky Princess 2 weeks ago (9/3/22) in Europe, and our trivia team friend also had 16,000 points, and her "come back offer" was for a free Mini-Suite, and the Princess Plus package good for up to a 21 day cruise 

2 hours ago, uspearls said:

 

On the other hand, the Port of San Diego offered this statement AFTER the cancellation of the early part of the Diamond's schedule:  

 

“Princess Cruises has been an important part of the Port of San Diego’s growing cruise business and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. "

 

Intriguing or just wishful thinking?!

I think that San Diego port reference is regarding Princess calling on San Diego on all their non-Mexico west coast coastal cruises departing from LA for the past few years, not stationing a ship in San Diego.

Has the Crown's engine problems been resolved ? Are you making full speed?

Have a great cruise

I think the big problem for the Diamond's restart is the question of the Asian season starting in February, Japan has yet to rescind their covid restrictions for cruise ships, and are currently still limiting total international visitors to 10,000 a day and continue to require US citizens to apply for visa's before arrival. ( first time since WWII visa requirement for US citizens ) 

This leaves open the possibility that the Diamond's 2023 Asian season will be canceled, and require redeployment or major schedule changes, Princess maybe holding off the restart as long as possible until that picture become more clear. 

Think: why struggle to staff a ship in these trying times of staff shortages when the ships schedule is still up in the air, and reschedules and cancellations are still a real possibility

Mud Slide !!!

14 minutes ago, dobiemom said:

I heard that the Diamond crew will be transferred to the Sapphire. 🤞

Thats what been bantered about, and probably makes the sense. Unlike the Diamond the Sapphire has a almost guaranteed South America season starting Dec 3rd, which IMO bodes well for Sapphire's restart as scheduled on 9-24- 22 to bring her up to speed before deployment to SA, where as the whole 2023 Asian season looks unlikely for the Diamond at this point, and to be fair the 7 day San Diego sailings through January looked from the very start to be "filler" cruises while awaiting her permanent re-stationing in Asia....

At this point, I won't be surprised if a completely new schedule will be published for the Diamond sending here elsewhere even before the new return date at the end of Nov.

33 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

August 12, 2022 3:00 PM EDT PRINCESS CRUISES REMOVES VACCINE REQUIREMENT FOR MOST VOYAGES, ELMINATES PRE-CRUISE TESTING FOR VACCINATED GUESTS Unvaccinated Guests Required to Self-Test Within 3 Days of Sailing SANTA CLARITA, Calif., Aug. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Princess Cruises today announced updated COVID-19 protocols and guidelines, removing the vaccine requirement for most voyages of less than 16 days so that anyone can cruise, and adjusting pre-travel testing requirements to make it less complicated.     Starting Sept. 6, vaccinated guests sailing on voyages of less than 16 days will no longer have to test before boarding and only need to upload proof of vaccination while getting OceanReady. Unvaccinated guests, or those who do not provide proof of vaccination, on those itineraries will self-test within three days of sailing and upload proof of a negative test before boarding.    These new guidelines apply to itineraries from all departure ports except where government regulations and protocols may vary like Canada, Greece and Australia. Below are the key points for Princess' updated CruiseHealth guidelines for embarkation:  No pre-cruise testing for vaccinated guests on voyages of up to 15 nights (guests 5 and older) with the exception of full Panama Canal transits, trans-ocean and other special itineraries; unvaccinated guests must provide a negative self-test result taken within three days of embarkation (unvaccinated children under 5 years do not require pre-cruise testing) Guests sailing on voyages 16 nights or longer, or sailing on full Panama Canal transits, trans-ocean and other specific itineraries, need to take a supervised test within three days of embarkation (guests 5 and older). Guests on these types of voyages will be contacted directly by an Ocean Navigator to assist. Princess' updated guidelines reflect the cruise line's ongoing commitment to providing a safe and healthy environment for all guests and crew. "These updated guidelines help ensure a Princess vacation is available to everyone," said John Padgett, president of Princess Cruises. "The Princess experience is truly one-of-a-kind and we encourage everyone to take a Princess vacation that offers amazing service at unmatched value." The updated guidelines are subject to the local regulations of applicable homeports and destinations.

Wonder what "Trans-Ocean" refer to ( I guess RT to Hawaii could be construed to be trans-ocean ?), and which are the "Specific" itineraries ? 

Quick question..

Have 5 Princess cruises since the restart, so have all the Medallion in's and out's down, but for the first time since the restart I just took a last minute upgrade and changed cabins, and but already received the Medallions for the original cabin, we leave next week for London and the cruise from Southampton so no time for new Medallions- I know they'll  create new Medallions for our new cabins there... But my questions is :  will we need the original Medallions to check in ???  -- (was already "green lane" before changing cabins)

????

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Maybe Princess has only has enough available crew to restart the Diamond or the Sapphire but not both, and they chose the Sapphire to restart next month and postpone the Diamond another 90 days ?

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20 hours ago, Princessfan20 said:

 

LOL  Casinos never give away anything FREE.  It is all calculated on the person's past loss rate or potential loss rate.  Casinos always eventually win and MOST people always lose on cruise ships.  I am sure people are willing to show their print outs of exactly how much they play and win which are kept by the cruise lines to prove me wrong.  It is amazing how much money people are willing to throw around in a cruise casino to get a free "inside cabin and $300" in free play which often do not apply to many cruises or destinations.

On slots past losses are not directly relatable to rating a casino player. 

Time at the machine and the average bet are the gold standard for player ratings.

As a example, at the worst lets say a given slot has a pay back percentage of 90% on every pull, and at the best (high limit play areas in Las Vegas) the pay back is 97%., if you had $10,000 dollars to play and you lost it all in 10 pulls on a machine, in theory in that transaction the casino only won at best (90% return)$1000 and at worst (96% return) $300 , so while you may think you're a high roller by losing $10000, the casino while grateful for your money doesn't consider that a rated session. On the other hand if you over the course of 7 days lose the same $10000 budget by playing 2 hours a day (14 hours of slot play)  you could with all the small and large jackpots, and endless cherry type wins continuously reinserted into the machine in reality over the course of that 7 days have cycled through the machine not only the original $10000, but additionally reinserted and lost all the small and large accumulated wins paid out over the 7 days which could now total $40000 or $50000 worth of play action, play action which can only be accomplished by spending time on the machine. In this scenario you have basically cleansed your $10000 of the 90% return of the machine to $10000 straight profit for the casino .

Yes you've still lost the same $10000, but from the casino point of view in their rating system, you've actually wagered the $50000 cycled through the machine-

So losses or even wins are not the driver when it comes to Player ratings, rather the consistent wager amount and time in the seat 

3 hours ago, DiRonT said:

Port schedule shows her at B93 until Sept. 27th.  I was surprised, because of the cost.

Actually if she follows the previous patterns of the Royal & Emerald right before returning to service, after a day or two at B93, she'll head out to the Long Beach deep water anchorage area just a few miles at sea just outside LA harbor area, and will  for the next weeks periodically return to B43-B46 the secondary San Pedro cruise piers for new crew joining the ship and entering into their mandatory onboard 14 day quarantines

Presumably the reason for the super slow 16 day transit from Manila was also for the acquired Filipino crew from Manila to use the transit time as their full quarantine period before arrival in the USA

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58 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

The first line on the invoice is the total amount that Princess is charging for the mini suite.  Since you are paying $500, the difference between the amount shown and what you've paid is what the casino will pay a couple of days before the cruise.  You should have already paid the $500 upgrade fee along with port fees and the $200 deposit.  Unless you decide to add insurance, EZAir or transfers to the booking, you are paid in full and the rest will be paid by the casino.

 

I've included a screenshot of what the invoice looked like right after I booked a cruise that I've just returned from.  If your's looks similar to this and if the Total Amount Received equals what you've paid you should be fine.  And an important tip - only deal with the casino reservations number for any changes or additions to the reservation or you may risk inadvertently cancelling the booking.  Lots of horror stories on CC about this (including mine).

 

Just curious...

How soon before your cruise did the casino dept pay the balance on your cruise ?.  Did you receive any notice when they eventually paid the balance ?

Again just curious, as the whole inter-Princess payment system between Princess departments seems ripe for customer headaches

10 hours ago, macandlucy said:

I am pretty new to Princess Casino bookings, but I think you call the regular Casino department number is the one you call.

 

We currently have a comped cruise booking that sails August 13th. On Friday, I got an email from Princess with an attachment showing there was still a balance (due by July 27, so already past). I called the regular Casino 800 number to ask about it and the agent said it would be paid, they are really busy right now, but it would be paid. He suggested I call back on Friday, and said if it wasn't paid by then, they would escalate it.

 

A week before sailing seems pretty late to me, but the agent did say they are busy and have a lot of casino bookings to deal with. I will call on Friday and will post then, balance paid or balance still owing.

`

So Princess hasn't canceled your reservation already that had a balance due on 7-27-22 ?

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2 hours ago, gerig said:

I would check in 7 days to make sure it was paid.

Check how ?

Call Princess Casino, Princess regular 800 number, text the Casino dept ?

Anyone ever had a non-payment problem ? 

18 hours ago, Allograft said:

Did anyone get to enjoy any snow on their cruise?

In Feb 2010 on the Star Princess it did snow for us (heavy) one of the days while in Antarctica, the positive was it was Super Bowl Sunday, and I got to watch the Super Bowl outside on the Muts, onboard a ship, at sea, wearing a parka during a snow storm....  ( other worldly !!! )

Now that's a Antarctica memory 🤪

How do you tell when Princess Casino's pay's of your comp cruise ?

Do you received any "paid in full" invoice or any notice at all ? 

Our original casino booking say balance due by apox 7 days before the cruise, that doesnt leave much time to maybe find that the comp balance hasn't been paid by the casino dept if there's a problem ...

Anyone with previous experiences would be helpful 

Antarctica for us was on the Star Princess  Feb 2010, 17 days round trip from Buenos Aires 🤩

Magical is the only word ....

Having the same trouble, but for me it's only with the "accept the Passage Contract" box ... Spins for a while then the "I accept Box" appears for a couple of seconds, and then poof it kicks me out with the "something went wrong" or try again later, or some such ...

Been happening for weeks now

Definitely the lobby bar.

The only problem or difference coffee wise between the IC and the Lobby Bar I found in 2019 on the Diamond in Asia was some mornings the Lobby Bar wasn't opened until 7:00am, port days mostly opened at 6:30am, for me that was pretty late for my morning java. Luckly like most Grand class ships the Calypso Bar outside the Lido has an Expresso machine in storeroom behind the bar and opened at 6:00am

Good choice on the lay over, you're going to love the extra time in Quebec City .

33 minutes ago, Coral said:

Or it is possible they don't have enough crew to staff the ship.

Oh yeah absolutely, considering the Diamond just also stopped in Singapore and Manila less than 10 days ago, and quite possibly depleted the available crew ... As well as posted above the obvious USA visa issues (?).

But as I posted, all just speculation until Princess officially spills the beans ❓

There's also a possiblity the Sapphire has some past pre-pandemic problems that require a dry dock that they had hoped to delay, but seeing as in early December she heads off to far away South America for the season, it's a possibly a last-minute dry dock space has opened up during this late September time frame and Princess has decided to correct any issues once and for all before returning her to service. .. Perhaps a lesson learned from the Crown's current problems (?)

Just another speculation of course....

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CC holds won't show up in any final statement charge. All onboard CC holds will always linger in your CC account as pending charges, and will not be processed as an actual charge.

Now if the OP is deducing the $150.00 over charge amount based on looking only at their CC "available credit" reduction by that amount, and not a actual line item charge on their CC account then its probably just a CC hold 

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These type no single supplement type cruises have been available since the restart on many different itineraries with the "Drop and Go" rate.

Look on the Princess home page icon "Deals" and the "Drop and Go" page will be there. .. Most are within a 3 month departure time frame , and many (not all) have no single supplement

12 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Thanks.  I will lay odds they are going to tell me they are checking IP addresses and filtering out non-USA.  Grrrr..

Maybe time to think about a VPN ?