Tinknock50

I booked just one excursion for my Alaska cruise and got the discounted price.  I have no idea what the price was in the past so don't know if that is a "scam" price.

What I did find interesting is the price varied on departure time and high availability for the best discount. The lowest priced time was the best one for me anyway, so it worked out.

Latest info....should receive within the next ten days.

Has anyone had to wait over two months to receive a deposit refund?  I asked for it before final payment and I filled out the cancellation form, which Princess acknowledges.

I will be on Discovery June 15th, 2024.  I will be sailing alone so wouldn't mind being seated with others. The app lets me choose dining with others on 1 or two nights but on other nights it automatically selects private table. Anyone know why this is?

20 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

 

This was posted on the just completed Live from Sun Princess.

Thanks!

And all the items on the card are no charge?

Anyone have a picture of the free breakfast door hanger card?

I notice something missing from some of these posts.   How many of you put your travel date down when you applied?  I ask because I am seeing some waiting for months to get their passport. That makes sense if your travel dates are months away.

And those leaving within a few weeks may rightfully be getting priority.

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

E425 is a BW w/o a sofa. Just to be aware .... and yes Astro Flyer has a pic of that canopy. Wonder if that gives more privacy to those on both decks (Promenade and Emerald).

Correct. The Deluxe Obstructed have sofas. DW. They are longer from entry door to balcony so room for a sofa.

I think it would give more privacy to both.

On 7/31/2023 at 7:39 PM, Ombud said:

I pick E403-E433 as I really don't care about obstructions below my room look at 'obstruction' from Promenade Deck by desk. And actually E425 deck was larger

Cabin E425 has opened up.  Called my agent and I hope he is quick enough to get it .🙂

One thing I have noted is that Discovery is unique from others in this class because it has some white steel canopies covering the promenade, so you could say it is a bit more "obstructed" as far as seeing the water surface from the balcony

11 minutes ago, Cruisercl said:

Received my passport renewal yesterday, Aug 2nd. I sent it in in June, they received it June 26th. So it was 5 weeks, very surprised and very happy with the time. 

I did expedite it and paid for the 1-2 day return mailing. 

I never received an email on status, I checked it about once a week. They posted that it was sent to the PO on July 29, mailed out on July 30th.

Lucky girl here, no issues with it. 😊

Did not receive my old passport yet.

 

Good luck everyone!

 

Identical to my experience.

Got it in early June and have still not received my old passport.

2 hours ago, d9704011 said:

Yes.  I've wasted enough time with the app and will just get things done at the pier.  I think Princess has enough information on me to complete the process and hand me a fully functional medallion.  Being Canadian, had to pick it up anyway.

Thanks.

Maybe it will be able to do it closer to the cruise which is a little less than a year away.

Strangely enough, I am able to get my chosen profile picture added. Just wish I could get that same photo to stick for boarding and security.

I hope I am staying on topic, but is anyone else having problems getting their check in photo accepted on the app?

E432

Enjoying all the reports ! Thanks!

I searched pictures and ended up choosing  E432.  Its "obstruction" consists of an extra wide promenade deck below. No problem. It has a nice extra deep balcony so it's all good.

29 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

@tillys mom and @Astro Flyer are absolutely correct. These are terrific cabins. If E407, 409, 408 or 410 are available, grab them!

Thanks for all the replies !

Unfortunately, they are already taken for my cruise. 😞

Which is the best of the obstructed view balcony cabins on Discovery Princess? Or it's sister ships?

Thanks!

16 hours ago, Cruisin Oma said:

Princess is being sneaky with this lately.  We have 4 cabins booked on a sailing in Nov.  due to the problems with long hold times we decided to switch to a TA.  Ours and my parents we sent right away.  I had to mail the form to my brother and SILs.  By the time they got the form and mailed it, a week had passed by.  We waited about a month, the TA said she could see ours and my parents.  I had my brother and SILs fill their out again and resend by email.  This time a week goes by, still no transfer.  We had them resend their emails.  Princess came back and said they won’t accept transfers after 45 days of booking.  If they would have processed it the first time it was sent in, it would have been within 45 days.  Now we have a split booking. 2 rooms are with the TA and 2 rooms direct with Princess. 

That’s awful and what I feared they would do to me.

I was told 60 days by Princess.

Maybe you should call back and get a different answer,as happened to me on a separate matter.

Yay……it finally got switched today. I was getting nervous about missing the current good pricing.

I just saved $550 making the switch.

Still think it would be more professional to receive an email notification that Princess received my request.

Thank for all of your responses. Princess instructed me download the form, fill it out and sign it. Then email it to them.

They said aTA can’t do that for me.

I guess I will wait a couple more days and further explore what’s going on if I don’t see a change online. Have the TA check on it too.

I have received the form to switch from booking directly with Princess to a TA. I filled it out and sent it in to the email address listed on the form.

Is it typical that they don't send an acknowledgement that they have received it?    I sent a second email to ask if they got it. No response.

Called Princess and they didn't have an answer, even with the help of a supervisor.  Does anyone know of a direct number to call that department?

 And finally, how long does it typically take for the switch to happen?  

Thanks for any help.

13 hours ago, capriccio said:

Passport routine renewal applications are sent to one of two addresses (Irving, TX or Philadelphia, PA) depending upon state of residence.  Residents of California, Florida, Minnesota, Illinois, New York and Texas send applications to Irving, TX. All expedited renewal applications are sent to Philadelphia.  From those two locations applications are distributed to passport agencies or passport centers around the country based on workload. 

Right.....So Irving. Texas may be the key to the quickness.

I am in Arizona , sent into Philidelphia, as per instructions, and it was shunted to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Don't know if it actually made a difference, but I appealed to my US Representative and received my passport in two days less than 5 weeks, two days before my departure. The overnight shipping said Portsmouth, New Hampshire,

On 7/8/2023 at 12:58 PM, sweetgirl26 said:

Mailed both our passports separately on June 12th using expedited service. Passports were both received on June 16th. I received my new passport today!!! My husband's passport is still in process. Our passports were mailed  from Florida. 

There seems to be something about Florida. I seem to recall others that went through there got them much faster than the rest of the country.

6 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

A couple of weeks ago I jumped on a last-minute deal to sail from Seward Alaska to Vancover on the Millenium. Last year I did an Alaska cruise on the Solstice and loved it so I was excited to return.  I'll try to keep this quick but please feel free to ask any questions and I'll go into more details. 

 

I flew into Anchorage and took Alaska Railroad down to Seward on the day of the cruise, I've visited Seward before so I had lunch and coffee in the town before I walked over to the cruise terminal. I was the only passenger checking in at the time so it was very quick and easy to get on the ship.  Once onboard I checked in at my Muster station (I watched the safety videos at the coffee shop earlier) and then settled in and explored the ship.  

 

CABIN - I really like Celebrity Cabins. I had an inside cabin on deck 2 (cause it was cheap $)  and I thought it was very well designed and functional. Smaller than inside cabins I've had on other Celebrity and Virgin ships, but still very well laid out and functional. The Cabin was serviced twice a day. I also really like the high quality soap that Celebriy provides. Little details like that really add up. 

 

BUFFET - The buffet is well designed with a good mix of seatings. It feels modern, but it also feels a little "modern nursing home" if that makes sense? I don't know... it seemed like it was designed to be both modern and for old people. There was a nice variety of food but the quality varied quite a bit. I felt the quality of buffet itmes was definitely a step down from my trip on the Solstice last year. The "Chef Special" station always had a long line. They used some sort of liquid egg to make scrambled eggs and omlettes, and there were no baked potatoes available except on the last day of the cruise. After being on a few Virgin cruises it did kinda gross me out to go back to self-serve buffets... I'm sad that cruise lines went back to that post-covid. 

 

Main Dining Room - I had most of my dinners in the main dining room and I thought the food was a step-up from last years Solstice. The hostess, waiter, and assistant waiter were all exceptional - pretty much perfect. I loved having "Anytime Dining" - it was so nice to have dinner whenever I wanted and still get the same waiter each night. 

 

Ship Design - Millenium Class is definitely smaller than Solstice Class but is a decent size. I like the glass elevators that look out over the ocean. The theatre is large and comfortable, nice size casino. The MDR is very nicely designed as well. On Solstice it seemed like the lounges were a bit more unique, on the Millenium most of the spaces looked the same just with different types of seats. The Solstice design seemed a little more intuitve, easier to find everything. The shops on Millenium were small, basic, and flet like an afterthought.  The main atrium was also pretty small, and it was hard to find a place to sit and enjoy the bands that played there. 

 

Entertainment - Probably the worst entertainment line-up I've ever had on a cruise ship. Granted, I've been spoiled by Virgin, but this was pretty low-bar.

Cheaza was the guest singer - she performed 2 nights of the 7 night cruise. She does tribute acts to Tina Turner and Whitney Houston. She's a lively and energetic performer but 2 nights was a bit much, especially when most of the other shows were music based shows. 

AJ Jamal was the comedian - he was great! Very funny. 

Duo VVO was the Acrobatic Duo performing in the ships production shows - they performed their own 2-person show one of the nights and it was INCREDIBLE. 

The rest of the nights we had the ship production shows Boogie Wonderland, Broadway, and Hollywood. - These shows were the quality of 6 Flags theme park shows. They were not very good at all.  The sets and lighting were well done but that's about all I can say. 

Entertainment around the ship was OK.... there was a duo from Brazil that was very good, and the Dixieland Night performed by the ships band was very good as well but everyone else was just average. The strings duo was actually very bad, not sure how they got the job. I was surprised there was not more variety like a juggler, magic show, etc. 

 

Lectures - Milos was the on-board naturalist.  He was great but they only let him do 2 presentations on a 7 night cruise. He said he wanted to do more. He was always hanging out up in the Sky-Lounge and was a fascinating person to talk to. Not sure why Celebrity wouldn't let him give more presentations.  Same thing with the on-board historian, she said she had hoped to give an extra talk as well.  Last year on the Solstice there were several presenations. I hope Celebrity isn't trying to phase these out. 

 

Kids - There were quite a few kids on the ship, specifically teens and pre-teens that were running around unsupervised. I'm quite surprised that Celebrity didn't put a stop to this, as they were definiely affecting the overall mood of the ship.  I love to just wander around the ship, especially at night, but I would often turn the corner and it felt like I walked into a middle school hang-out and it made me feel very awkward. They would wander in and out of the shows in the theatre, the comedian even said "hey who brought their kids along to ruin everyone else's vacation?" and lots of people applauded.  

 

Ports - Weather was great! There's nothing like sailing through Alaska with such beatiful scenery everywhere you look. Our first day we sailed past Hubbard Glacier - we were able to get very close and the captain let us out on the Hellapad! It was a sunny day so we could watch the glacier calve.. WOW.  We spent lots of time at the Glacier, he slowly spun the boat 3 or 4 times giving everyone multiple views. Seals were on the chunks of Ice.  Just a perfect day and honestly worth the price of the cruise alone!  Next day in Junea I took the city bus to Mendenhall Glacier - hiked to the waterfall and back.  AMAZING.  Next day in Skagway I attendned the Soapy Smith Vaudeville Show (very fun!) and rode the White Pass & Yukon train (which I HIGHLY reccomend). Icy Straight Point was a new port for me, I walked around and paid for the aerial tram.  At $50 - the aerial tram is WAY overpriced but it was a nice clear day with lovely views so I'm glad I did it.  Still feels like a rip-off though especially since they act like there are things to do up on the mountain and it's just a big gravel parking lot. In Ketchikan I took a city bus to the Totem Pole Park... very cool to see all of those poles (and WAY better than the Totem Heritage Center I visited last year).  Afterwards I walked around the boardwalk and along the Salmon stream. 

 

After we arrived in Vancouver I finished my trip by transfering to the VIA Rail train which I rode from Vancouver to Edmonton.  Fantastic train ride with the old dome cars.  I bought a coach ticket for under $200 - that's a tenth of the price of the Rocky Mountaineer and the same scenery. 

 

This was my first time back with celebrity after taking multiple cruises with Virgin - definitely things I like about both. I prefer the rooms on Celebrity (better designed), and the service is much better and more consistent. But the entertainment is much better on Virgin, drinks are better priced, and the food is certainly better quality over all. I also like how on Virgin there are lots of places to just chill and relax where on Celebrity there was always some activity happening in all different areas of the ship. 

 

I really want to travel on the Edge class of ships and see how Celebrity has designed the newest ships. 

Wow….. I thought the strings were fantastic. There was one piece where they did a long staccato in perfect unison…. It was awesome!

I listened to them whenever possible.

I am booked with Princess and have a hold on a HAL cruise. I was going to "sell" my friends on joining me on the HAL based a great part on LC .  Now with the disappearance of classical on HAL, my decision is to stick with my Princess booking.

So sad.

I see the Sky Princess has a table and chairs in similar forward facing cabins.

Strange the Discovery never shows it that way.