Cruisin Broad

We (myself and two female traveling companions) were there in February and felt completely safe. All of our tours were sponsored by the ship. We did walk around near the ports of Cabo and Puerto Vallarta on our own after our tours and still felt completely safe.

Thank you, Samantha. That explains it. I think we may have missed the boat (literally) on finding a cruise at what we think is a reasonable price and in a cabin we prefer.

Janice

In looking at the Celebrity Reflection deck plans and the February 2019 sailings, the only cabins available for three are on deck 6 for the cruise we'd like to reserve. The cabins are listed as being "obstructed view" but I was told by a Celebrity rep that they're not "really obstructed view" when in the cabin, but only partially obstructed when on the balcony and standing in a certain location. Can anyone confirm this to be true. I don't recall the exact cabin number, but somewhere in the 628? range. Thanks much.

We had this same itinerary in February. It was too cold the first 3 sea days and it was too cold and windy for the Sanctuary the last 2 sea days as well.

Thank you, CruiserBruce. I was thinking that might be the case, but wasn't familiar with them.

Does anyone have experience in booking transportation through this site?

https://www.viator.com/San-Francisco-tours/Private-Transfers/d651-g15-c5526

As another person wrote, most all of the transportation services receive less than stellar reviews. We would be going from SFO to a hotel in Fisherman's Wharf.

On your Princess "Booking Summary", middle of the page there is a tab labeled "Guest Check-In". Beneath that you can click on "Accessibility & Dietary Requirements" and enter information for each traveler. Not sure about the "do not upgrade" question. I believe I checked a box for that when I booked the room. It shows on my personalizer page.

When I look at my booking on Princess.com, I see under "Reservations and Purchases" the AIBP promo (booked a year ago) which I expect. I was surprised to see 2 Complimentary "Specialty Restaurant Cover Charge" items there. I guess I just never noticed it, or forgot. I'm thinking this came with the suite booking, but I'm not sure.

 

Question is, can this credit be used to make reservations prior to sailing? Clicked around on the website, and I am thinking the answer is no. Perhaps a phone call?

 

Would the promo be applied as on board credit if I just paid for it now? With only two specialities on Emerald and two sea days, I am concerned that the prime times will fill up by the time we board.

 

Thanks for any information.

We had the same situation. We wanted to reserve for a particular night and had received complimentary cover charges for three. One of my traveling companions called Princess, she was told that she could only make a reservation by having her credit card charged, which she did while on the line with the Princess agent. She immediately had an OBC amount show up in her account for the same amount she charged on her credit card.

Does that include the casino? I knew everything else was charged to your room...did not know the casino was as well. :o

Just have the people in the 2nd cabin go to GS's with you and GS is able to move the OBC from one S&S card to yours. Since I book our room with my two girlfriends, I usually get the OBC. I just went to GS and had them transfer 1/3 of the amount to each of my friends. No big problem.

This is what my two friends and I do as well. We all go to Guest Services and ask that the amount received on one person's folio be divided and transferred so that each one of us gets 1/3rd. Everyone involved is there in front of the Guest Services person, so there are no issues as to what's being requested.

Not sure this is to what you're referring, but there is a big box travel agent that my friends and I booked with in November 2016 for a February 2018 cruise. At the time, we received two free gratuities, $100 onboard credit for guests 1 and 2 (the cruise line was offering those credits), plus an additional onboard credit (over $300) from the travel agent.

I call it the best of both worlds. I enjoy sharing my life with a spouse. But being on my own for cruise vacations, without catering to please anyone else, is a good thing for me.

I couldn't agree more with that statement. My husband and I cruised together once. He suggested after that cruise that if I wanted to cruise again I should find someone else to cruise with me. I did, and I now cruise with one or two female friends, and we enjoy it tremendously. We've met many others who do the same.

Try it, you'll like it!

Our gratuity payments and onboard credits were not showing last night either, but they are showing today. One of my friends whose flight had disappeared contacted Princess today and the Princess rep said they couldn't do anything about the flights since they had been "canceled." We, however, were not the ones who canceled them. The flights that my friends had reserved are no longer available on the EZAir page. My friends have now booked directly with the airline since they don't want to take a chance on this happening again.

We had booked and paid for some excursions last week and they were still showing last night on Cruise Personalizer. Just the flights got dropped.

The seats that my traveling companions had requested are now showing as available on the actual airline website, so something odd is happening. My traveling companions are traveling from BWI to SFO and I'm traveling from TUS to SFO; however, today the Princess website has our departure airport as DFW. Our departure airports were correct before today.

Has anyone else experienced a problem with the Princess website today? My traveling companions had booked flights last week via Princess EZAir, but the flights are not showing this afternoon. I was checking online to see if the flights I wanted were available and noticed their flights had disappeared. Maybe it's just a glitch with the Princess site and their reservations will reappear later????

Since none of us is familiar with the SFO airport and don't know how long it may take us to get through security, etc., we've opted for a 12:25 p.m. departure. That departure time should allow us to use the Princess transfer, which is what we prefer, rather than having to rush out on the last morning to find a taxi.

Thanks for the reply. We're now looking at a 12:25 departure from SFO, just to be safe.

Thanks for your response. My friends are returning to the east coast and one of them plans to work the following day. They are arriving a day before the cruise so feel they can't stay an additional day at the end.

February 2018 will be the first time that myself and my traveling companions have departed from/returned to SFO on a cruise, so we aren't familiar with the airport, nor do we have any idea how long it "normally" takes to clear customs and immigration. Looking on the Princess website, it recommends 12:15 p.m. as the earliest departure time for flights, but my traveling companions are looking at an 11:00 a.m. departure. My friends would prefer to take the Princess shuttle from the port to the airport, but are concerned that their flight time may be too early and Princess would deny them transport. (They don't plan to book the shuttle until they're on the ship.) For those who have SFO experience, have you been denied transport by Princess if your flight was before 12:15, and is 11:00 a.m. really too early to plan a departure? Thanks.

My thought is "yes" it's worth the extra money. My cruising mates and I enjoy the natural light a balcony cabin provides, plus we enjoy spending time on the balcony after returning from excursions. We love to watch the ship dock and leave port from our balcony. My first cruise was in an interior cabin. The second cruise was in a balcony cabin and I knew I'd never return to an interior cabin.

Thanks to everyone for the great hints!!! Only one thing I'm not familiar with is buying gift cards toward purchase of your cruise. Do you use these gift cards and just deposit them in your checking a/c or do you send to the cruiseline for the payment on the cruise?

If you purchase cruise line gift cards or receive them as gifts, you can have them applied toward any outstanding balance, you can have them applied so that they'll be a shipboard credit when you cruise, or you can carry them with you to the ship and apply them once onboard. It's really your choice as to how/when you want to apply them.

Sorry, just noticed the apps I included in my response were already mentioned in the above two posts.

It was about two weeks after I ordered mine before they were delivered. I had to sign for the $500 cards, but not the $100 ones.

There is a "big box store" that was having a promotion and part of the promotion was onboard credit, which is refundable. I was told that the amount would not appear on our cruise personalizer. Guess it varies by TA.