OzKiwiJJ

I disagree that cruises were heavily discounted this season. Certainly the Princess restart cruises, from June until early October, were priced below normal, presumably to entice passengers back on to the ships after the bad publicity at the beginning of the pandemic and concerns over whether Covid would spread out of control on cruises. But the peak season fares were similar to pre-Covid fares as far as I could see. The reason for the same old ports is that there just aren't that many viable ports around Australia, NZ and the South Pacific. Ships can't just rock up to any coastal town and decide to have a port stop there. There needs to be either a wharf that the ship can dock at or a relatively sheltered anchorage for tendering. Even some of the current port stops are cancelled at the last minute due to adverse weather conditions either stopping the ship from entering the port to dock or where conditions are too rough to allow tenders to operate safely.

Princess used to regularly have a ship wintering over, doing Top End runs, and the occasional PNG and Island cruises. But they stopped doing that around 2017 (I think) when Golden transferred to P&O.

The reason there is no cruising out of Melbourne in winter is due to adverse sea and wind conditions in Bass Strait. Princess did try bringing Coral down from Sydney last year on what was supposed to be a 9 night South Australia cruise. We ended up parked at Station Pier for three days. Sydney is just far enough up the east coast to avoid the worst of the southern weather most of the time.

The one unexpected experience I really enjoyed about Broome was walking out of a cafe on Short St just as a small plane came in for a landing at the airport. Short St is right off the runway and it looked like the plane was almost clipping the trees in the street. Of course it wasn't but it was fun seeing it go over so low.

How many times do I need to state that Princess is not charging for cabin selection. All they are doing is blocking out the lowest category of cabins from being selected then offering those as guarantee cabins at the same fare they would have been if they were able to be selected. It's a very stupid move by Princess though as people, like you, think they are being charged extra to select their cabin.

Rolf enjoyed Pirates Life beer on our recent Grand Princess cruise.

No, it means that there is a category of cabin that you used to be able to select but that is no longer available except as a guarantee. So instead of the pick-your-own categories starting at the lowest eg IF or BF, they now start at IE or BE or whatever the next highest category is. The lowest category is now only available as guarantee at the same price you would have paid if you were able to select it. Look at the difference between the other category prices, you'll see a similar pricevjust between each category - see my example in post 46 above. As to the difference between the March and October cruises - were they the same ship and the same itinerary?

Wow! You're still getting those fatigue episodes three years later but I'm glad to hear the frequency is lessening. That wascthebone thing I was scared of when I caught Covid but luckily I recovered quickly. Our first few cruises last year were on Coral Princess, bouncing around the Australian coast, including a full Round Australia cruise (28 nights). The quality of food on those cruises was very good but, yes, there were some noticeable cutbacks - padding out the escargot with mushroom was very naughty! However they seemed to have an ample supply of good quality lamb cutlets which I made the most of - they are so expensive in Australia they've become a rare treat. I'd noticed even before Covid hit that the quality of the food on Princess ships varied ship to ship, presumably depending on how good the Executive Chef was. The best was 2019 on Sea Princess. We only had one cruise with really poor quality food but luckily it was our second cruise with Princess, not our first, so we risked a third cruise and that was good quality. We did one cruise with Holland America over Christmas and the food on that was very disappointing.

Yes, I believe it will be 1:1, it certainly was in 2017 when we did a Med cruise. Great to hear from you, Chris. Have you fully recovered from the Long Covid effects? Princess fares were very low for the first six months of the restart here, which was from June last year. I guess they wanted to entice people back to cruising. We got a bit carried away and ended up doing six cruises last year. Oops! I think the fares are on the increase now but not too outrageously so far. However Princess is doing some very silly things (in my opinion) that is devaluing the experience. Onboard costs for things like wines have gone up but the by-the-glass wines are cheap, bottom of the range wines which means that on some of them the Princess mark-up is more than 1000% of the retail price. I guess Princess thinks their guests are stupid! I did catch Covid on one of the cruises we did last year but it was very mild. Princess put me on anti-virals so I recovered very quickly. In our region Princess covers all medical costs, plus gives refunds as FCC for each day in isolation. We had wonderful care and service onboard, and our Kindles were well-stocked so we were able to just relax, and recover in my case - Rolf never caught it despite being isolated in the same cabin. Where are you planning on cruising next year? We're doing a couple of Japan cruises this November - one with Princess and the second with Regent Seven Seas which ends in Bangkok. Next year we're doing the Princess Australian world cruise. I've always dreamed of doing a world cruise so we decided we'd better do it before we get too old to enjoy it properly. Take care, have fun, and keep on cruising.

We're doing a cruise around Japan in November. Bought in AUD, using an FCD purchased in AUD, but the OBCs we get will be in USD. 😊

Except I think what Princess are now doing is different. From what I recall other cruise lines offered cheaper guarantee bookings but all cabins were still available for selection for those who wanted to book that way. The guarantees were allocated from what was left close to embarkation day. We ended up with a minor upgrade when we booked an RCI guarantee cabin some years ago at a very good fare - lower than the cheapest cabin category and we ended up a category or so above that. Princess are blocking out all cabins in the lowest category for some cabin types which stops people who want to book in those locations from doing so. Plus Princess aren't really offering a cheaper fare - the guarantee fare is essentially what you would have paid for an F category cabin if it had been able to be selected directly. I did a quick check on the pricing of a balcony cabin on a 2024 7 night cruise. A BA cabin was $2404 A BB cabin was $2344, $60 cheaper. A BC cabin was $2284, $60 cheaper again. A BD cabin was $2224, $60 cheaper again. A BE cabin was $21644, $60 cheaper again. No BF cabins were available. A guarantee cabin was $2344, $70 cheaper. So you'd save an extra $10 on the BF cabin that you would probably be allocated. Big deal! Note: these sorts of price breaks are typical of Princess pricing but, of course, vary by length of cruise and maybe even by itinerary.

OK, I see what you mean now. Your previous post was a bit ambiguous. However if people don't know that cabins that appear to be guarantee only can actually be selected by using a TA (and are all TAs able to do this?) then they may just say "stuff it, I'll look at a different cruise line". I just think what Princess are currently doing is very stupid and may have ongoing negative effects.

Huh? My comment wasn't anything about TAs pushing people away from their preferred cabins. It was commenting on the new Princess booking trick where ?F, and possibly ?E, cabin categories are no longer able to be booked by selecting your preferred cabin so are guarantee bookings only UNLESS you happen to be one of the lucky people whose TA can circumvent this new, crazy system.

That's very interesting. That would indicate that Princess is doing some very weird things. Are they trying to drive customers away? Don't they realise that word soon gets around on social media and people will get very annoyed when they hear some people are getting "special treatment" by using a TA. And does it apply to all TAs - colourbird isn't having much luck with their TA so maybe not all. Very strange indeed!

You may not know your cabin until the very last day.

What category of cabin did your TA pick for you? Was it under the new system which only started within the last couple of weeks or was it prior to that? I'm not sure this new guarantee system works the same as the old one did as under the old system all cabins were available for selection until a particular category was (almost) sold out. Then you could book a specific cabin category guarantee such as BA - very important if you don't want to end up under the pool deck on some ships.

That's because Princess is no longer offering the lowest category cabins the way they used to. They are all reserved for guarantee bookings only so they don't appear when you are trying to select a cabin. This is some new and crazy idea that they have just implemented. It's very weird indeed. I'm not sure what they are trying to achieve. Certainly people who prefer to select their cabin will be forced into choosing a higher category than they would otherwise select. It could backfire on them though, as some people may look elsewhere if they can't book the cabin they want and are not happy risking a guarantee option. I wonder what will happen when all the higher categories sell out? Will they open up those blocked categories for cabin selection sales?

Actually they aren't really charging extra it's just that the lowest available cabin category you can select is not actually the lowest cabin category. There has always been a fare difference between categories, except when Princess is offering one of its special promos. What you see as the guarantee fare is the lowest category fare which is no longer available for selection. The lowest selection fare is a higher category ie guarantee may be a BF but selection category may be a BD. It's a very silly decision on the part of Princess as it does make it look like you pay extra to select a cabin which will definitely annoy quite a few regulars. It also blocks out cabins that some people might wish to select.

If you booked directly with Princess, not through a TA, then they will and do help you out with booking issues/changes.

Thanks for explaining what has happened with the change to the booking process. I've been trying to figure out what the heck they were doing. Very annoying for people like you who specifically want a cabin in the now unselectable categories. I have to agree that Princess has been making some very bad decisions lately. We're starting to get annoyed with them as they seem to be devaluing their product in silly little ways. And don't get me started on the crappy wines by the glass ...

Minisuites are very popular and often sell out quickly but then some people cancel so a few may come up for sale again. You could try contacting Princess to see if you can get one of the cabins currently showing as available.

1. If you can purchase OBC in USD for those cruises I'm fairly certain you will get whatever exchange rate Princess was using at the time you booked those cruises. There was a lot of discussion here a few years back about how the Princess exchange rates worked and we can to the conclusion that the rate was locked in at time of booking. I checked a couple of my booked cruises and the earliest booked one is showing the local equivalent of US$100 as AU$135, the other which was booked more recently is showing it as AU$145. However since you may only see the USD amount you won't actually know what the exchange rate was until you see it on your onboard account. We only see the AUD amounts but experience has shown the various amounts equal US $25, $50 and $100. 2. The casino operates in the onboard currency so you will receive AUD if you cash out.

We did the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise in 2019 in an inside cabin on Sea Princess. Those cabins are quite narrow and only really work if the beds are in twin configuration. It took me at least a week before I stopped feeling like I was falling out of bed in the single bed. Never again!

Most people probably never even noticed. They'd watch the sailaway, maybe stay on deck until the ship went under the Gateway Bridge, then go off for a drink and/or dinner. It always amuses me when peoole ask why cruise lines don't offer return cruises from Australia to places like Japan. Or people eho complain that world cruises, or the Hawaii/Tahiti cruises, have too many sea days. Maximum speed for a cruise ship is around 22 knots (40kph). I always ask people to consider how long it would take to drive somewhere if they were limited to that speed or less.

Another way to look at it is that it takes 20 minutes or so by car from Hamilton to the BICT at say an average of 35kph to allow for traffic and the bad roads, so at 6 knots (11kph) it could easily take 45-60 mins - the river is more direct so it might take less than an hour even at that speed.