pink845

Micahs Grandad, thanks for putting it on the comment card. They gotta pull more money out of us to build up their war chest in case of another pandemic. This time, they will have more money in their kitty complements of everyone buying those pricy drink packages.

Well, I spoke to Princess today and Princess confirmed there is no more swapping out the Elite mini bar for coffee cards. A thing of the past. This agent was soooo new. He had never heard of such a little perk. He had to confirm it with a supervisor. Also, no OBC to be offered in its place. That is not in their little handbook of responses. So those of you that got a OBC credit after playing dumb, consider yourselves lucky as I am sure the bean counters will be scolding those onboard representatives for caving in to the crying passengers (that would have been me if I had been on board of recent). However, the agent sang the praises of the all new Zero Alcohol Beverage package for passengers who enjoy brewed coffee and specialty coffee drinks. Who cares if we are not interested in overly sweet mocktails and pop. This is from an agent trying to sell a product who has probably never set foot on a cruise ship giving me advice on the phone from Guatemala or the Philippines. Now for the kicker: Cost would be for Canadians on a 7 day Alaskan cruise: CDN$45.65 per day plus 18% gratuities (total CDN$53.86) or USD$35.99 including gratuities. I am sorry Princess, but $377 CDN dollars per person for specialty coffees, brewed coffee and pop (we do not drink pop and, as as such have wonderful teeth!!). No need for mocktails on a cold cruise either (again full of sugar). No thank you. I will bring my Nescafe and get hot water from the buffet and maybe pay for a specialty coffee each day $USD5.00. Again, $377 CDN. Oh, he mentioned if I chose the Princess Plus Beverage Package, I would get free internet. Not interested. My husband has free internet and phone calling due to the nature of his occupation internationally, so we do not need this either. We really used to like those 15 free specialty coffees. And we did not take advantage of the cards because in the last few years, they did have an expiry date on them which was the end of each cruise. Yes, I do remember the JOKER cards had no expiry on them. But they were go with the dodo birds. On another note, I checked to see if I could bring my little slim Keurig on board and was told no. Okay, I asked about whether there would be a kettle on a few British Isles cruise and Princess checked the Regal Princess sailing and confirmed no. I said I read on Cruise Critic that there were kettles on the Enchanted Princess Transatlantic and agent could not confirm. Will do the next couple of cruises with Princess, but they have tested my loyalty. Time to continue sailing with Royal Caribbean until they too eliminate their perks. I know a lot of cruisers enjoy paying the $600 to $700 CDN dollars more per person to buy the fancy drink packages and spend the day trying different concoctions of beverages but on our last cruise I saw so many of these fancy drinks half finished by the pool. So sad. What a waste of money and so very toxic to one's health to drink so much sugar in any given day. My opinion.

Clampram, I am with you all the way. I love my Keurig machine here at home with the attached latte maker!!! Now that Princess it appears is charging an arm and a leg for their little old coffee card (and Elites it appears can no longer switch out their little mini bar for a coffee card), I am seriously thinking of bringing my small thin personal Keurig machine with me on my next Alaskan cruise. Of course, will have to get the OKAY from Princess. I take it with me everywhere else. I will take coffee any day over an extra pair of shoes in my luggage.

We booked an excursion and thought it was in CDN dollars while it was really in USD. We are CDN so we really did not like the high USD price. A few days later, upon learning this sad truth, we called to get it cancelled and the refund showed up on our credit card the very next day. We had already made final payment on the cruise. But I do remember when I enquired a few months back about excursions on another cruise which is still six months away and the cancellation conditions around excursions attached to that cruise, I was told that if there are other charges that still require payment, Princess does not refund the excursion money. They use that excursion money towards the outstanding fare.

To the OP, all Princess phone calls are recorded for THEIR OWN PROTECTION. If you have the exact time of the day and date that you called, and the name of the agent, you should send a respectful note to the President of Princess or anyone else in the Executive Office and ask them to have a listen to your call. If a customer service representative has been snarly or rude to you, Princess does take it seriously. We did have an unfortunate experience at one point with an agent downright lying to us and as that call we recorded by Princess, the call was listened to and Princess gave us some OBC for our bringing this level of rudeness to their attention. They do have a lot of new staff and Princess mentioned it was a teaching moment. Politeness on our part goes a long way to get some sugar out of them.

I wish the Excursions would also be Canadian at Par. But they are NEVER. When one enters the Cruise Personalizer, tips are in CDN dollars, but those excursions are in USD.

I wonder if I would be prevented from bringing my own little personal Keurig machine on board and making my own coffee. This loss of the "exchange my little bar service" for my little old coffee card which I really did enjoy having (because it also included those frozen coffee drinks) is really really really really sad. I do have some on board credit and the thought that I now have to use it towards buying brewed coffee is sad sad sad. On Royal Caribbean, we still get free lattes in the Diamond Lounge as Diamonds / Diamond Pluses and we also still get four free (or was it 3) coupons added to our cards daily for alcoholic beverages and or specialty coffees. My husband drinks neither alcohol or coffee (so I did have 6 or 8 coupons) daily, so forgive me for not getting the number we each got correct). If Princess is going to be so miserly, Royal Caribbean is calling out my name, come here, come here. I would suggest that someone (maybe me) contact the Loyalty team at Princess to get the goods on what is happening with these cards. The other thing too, it has been quite a while since I have seen any promotion for Sail now, and get the alcoholic beverage package (the Princess Plus) for free. I used to like that one. In fact we took advantage of it for our 2019 Sky Princess cruise. Again, I have not seen that in a while and then again I just started cruising once again in February, but on RCCL.

Following along. We were on the Ruby ages ago. Glad to hear she is still looking great. Love those Dirty Banana drinks. We have always wanted to try a cruise out of Galveston. Seems like the prices are always very decent. Would mean us having to fly into Houston International or the Hobby Airport, and then renting a car. Each time we looked into the car rental, there was a hefty one way drop off charge and we have hesitated. I guess we could take the Princess transfer and rent our car and spend a few days prior in Houston seeing the sights there first. Never been before to Houston except on my way to Hawaii.

Thanks Gnome12, I must have been asleep in Geography / History / Politics Classes. But I got it now. Northern Ireland (Belfast) currency - British pounds, Dubin - euros.

What about the City Bus Capital Transit. $2.00 USD per person one way. From drop off point, if I recall, it is about a mile. Bus station is downtown. Takes an hour to get to the Mendenhall Glacier. We have done this in the past. Nice to see where people live in Juneau. See who rides the bus. We happen to be there all day 8 to 9 pm on our May cruise. If the weather is nice, I think we will give that a try. Mendenhall Glacier is stunning and the trail to the waterfall scenic as well. Right down there beside the waterfall. Fabulous. Again, we have all day so no need to fuss. We cruise a fair amount and when there is a cheaper way, we usually take it. .

Double take. Pet a grizzly bear. Last year driving between Banff and Radium Hot Springs, we had to stop so many times to avoid bears, brown, and black. They were so close to our SUV. I was terrified. But, of course, there were silly people outside their vehicles trying to snag that special photo. These are not bunny rabbits.

With Princess, the difference between booking directly with the train website and the cruise line is $7.00 USD per person. $149. USD per person with Princess, $142 USD with White Pass Railway. Outrageous prices in either case. Yes, it is scenic but really so pricy these days. We have done it in the past years ago thank heavens. We have lovely photos taken in early June when there was snow at the top and a slight breakthrough of water through the ice and I have loved looking at those photos but when we did it in August on year, those beautiful scenes could not be replicated. Sad. Everything in downtown Skagway is less than a mile walk. Now, with that landslide that occurred, not sure where you will be docked or if you will have to tender.

Ketchikan is so walkable. Cute little town. Creek Street very lovely. You can climb the trailheads. Although, May is going to be snowy on trailheads. If you want to see Totem poles, Duncan BC is the place to visit via land vacation. 100s of them there. If you are going to Juneau, I would use the $50 dollars to get to Mendenhall Glacier.

And the cost of going on the White Pass Railroad is highway robbery too. Really $145 USD per person for what 2.5 hours. Nutso. Thank heavens we got these top things done years ago, when prices were more reasonable. I am CDN so spending that much dough on one day for a tour for a couple. No thank you, at least Glacier Bay is free.

Four times to Alaska. Merrills hiking boots all the way. Non slip, cozy waterproof, cool colors. I wear on the plane. Also, Clarks Wavewalk waterproof shoes come with me. Alaska for us is an active cruise, hiking, walking, exploring and you can only do that in waterproof shoes / boots. It rains a lot. If you get a sunny day, you are lucky. Do not expect sunshine. A waterproof Gortex long jacket with plenty of pockets, and a puffy fleece underneath is my outfit of choice with a scarf, gloves and a warm hat and I wear all those items onto the plane as well. Then, once seated, I throw them all into a folded bag and am on my way. Saves room in luggage for fancier shoes for the cruise ship. Also, bring that umbrella.

It has been a few years for us since we did a cruise out of San Francisco return trip to Alaska but we did rent a car in Skagway. Got it from Avis right downtown at the last moment. We were walking around Skagway when we came across the car rental office and it must have been 8:30 am or so. The cost four years ago was an outrageous $160 USD for the day. We are up there again in May and the cost is now $350 USD for the day. A good day for me is a car rental from Enterprise or National for our corporate rate of $40.USD per day. Anyhow, we drove a beautiful highway all the way up to Carcross. I remember every few miles I was met once again with spectacular views leading me to stop once again for yet another photo. Emerald Lake was outstanding. So very beautiful. The water was motionless. Gorgeous. Just us. Spent a good 30 minutes just staring at it. Then, it started to rain. Ha ha and the tour buses started to arrive. Everyone on those busses missed what we had just experienced. The rain had disturbed the beauty of the water. Oh, we felt so fortunate. We got back down to Skagway at about 4:30 pm. So lovely that day was. If not driving up to Skagway, the White Pass Railroad is quite lovely too. We did that many years ago as well.

Bar Harbour - rent a car and drive the Acadia National Park. Jordan Pond absolutely lovely. Get off as early as you can, get that car. Then, set aside a 8 to 10 days in the future to visit Maine in detail. What a beautiful state. So many lighthouses. So many fabulous views. One day on a cruise ship is just a snack.

August 26 is late August in my opinion. And the leaves have really not started to change yet. Fall does not start until Sept 20th. We have cruised Maine, Boston, Newport up to Halifax in late August and early September in past and were hit with a late summer storm coming up from Caribbean. It is hurricane season May 15 to Nov 1 and coast can be hit. Climate change has had negative effects on the weather patterns in recent years.

Finally, after three years of waiting for a Nexus Renewal Card interview (he was an unlucky one) being forced to do this interview (random they say), he secured a date and time of his preference in May at Pearson.

No more Odyssey for us or that class of ship, says my husband. My husband pointed out that the solarium should be renamed the "saunatarian", as we found the air in there so thick that it stifled our ability to actually breathe.

Thanks Cotswold Eagle, for the heads up. Euro (€) in the Republic of Ireland, (Dublin) except in Northern Ireland where is it is GBP (£) right for Belfast our other stop.

"So, basically, don't use public transport in London. Everyone else manages perfectly well." Ha ha. Funny One. Oh, I will definitely be using public transportation in London. We always manage perfectly well no matter what country we find ourselves visiting. A couple of Oyster cards with the Cap will work for us and we will load them up up with our cash upon arrival. It has been a few years since I have been to London and I am quite looking forward to revisiting.

So you carry thousands of dollars/euros/ pounds around with you ? I am truly astounded.. That is a good one, Wowzz. Nooooo we do not carry thousands of dollars of euros or British Pounds with us. Cruise is prepaid, all other cruise expenses, shore excursion are also prepaid as well or are automatically charged in USD to our USD Credit card onboard the ship. Hotels have safes. We use them. Cruise ships have safes. We use them. We only need small amounts of cash to pay for incidentals like subway and train tickets and the odd souvenir. We use CHIP and PIN on our credit cards. I do not TAP anywhere. Even here in Canada on a good day, it is hard enough contacting our credit card for regular issues. Having to worry about a potential lost credit card overseas while hip hopping all over the British Isles, not part of my idea of fun. So, hence, the reason for small amounts of cash with us each day in the currency of the location. Have travelled extensively from Australia to Europe, to South America, to Japan, China, Hongkong, Egypt, just to name a few locales, and never used TAP ever or a credit card to purchase anything so I will attempt same for British Isles cruise. I will have a credit card with me secured on my person hidden under many layers of clothing (ha ha) that carries a small $500 CDN limit in the event that there is no other way to pay for something that is essential at any point in time. I have fared pretty good so far in all my travels doing it this way.

I find it so much easier now that we have the medallion app on phone. But of course we do not arrive until just prior to departure and bring all our own luggage on board with us and walk straight up to our room.

We hate using our Cdn Credit card in foreign countries and very rarely do. We have an USD credit card which we do use exclusively in the US. But again, I can think of so many times when we have been alerted by our credit card company or companies of fraud on our cards. We just seem to have bad luck. We bring cash and use it for almost all our purchases. We used to bring American Express Travellers Cheques or Visa Traveller cheques. We do bring a several different branded cards with us to Europe, Asia, Japan with us for emergency purposes but when we arrive to pay for our hotels, we simply plunk down our cash and most hotels are happy to accept it. Of course, we demand a receipt for cash given and will settle up in cash on check out. Yes, they ask for a credit card, but we expressly warn them not to charge anything to it and we settle in cash. I do not use any type of contactless pay on my phone. In fact, I leave my phone on airplane mode the whole time and only use my cell for photos. My husband on the other hand has his cell with him at all times as he is "always on call" even on holidays for consultations and even he does not have contactless pay on his phone. For us, cash is king and if someone does not want the cash, well, they do not get our business which is sad for them.