Sonoran_cruiser

Husband and I will be on this cruise (it's technically a "work event" cruise for me). First time on Norwegian!

Please realize that the "discount" you are getting from the TA is often a part of their commission, although the TA's Agency might get a hidden discount from a specific cruise line (less likely on CCL brands). Giving you a high discount means the TA makes virtually ZERO for your booking. Try doing this same thing next time you go to your doctor or dentist.

Discounting..... not exactly a great way for a TA to make a living.

The sale that started 7/9.

Not sure what you mean by system wide?

 

Sorry, I apparently missed something associated with the 7/9/15 sale.

 

Princess says:

In the event that the passenger does not want the all inclusive beverage package, Product Management has designated alternative OBC amounts. This can be selected and booked via Polar Online or by calling Princess Customer Service. Promo will be R7B.

 

So the Alternative OBC should be available if you book under this sale program, but don't actually want the beverage package. (note - passenger 1 and 2 must take the same offering - Bev pkg or Alternative OBC)

 

I will agree with the other posters - there are way to many "words" associated with this offering. IMO, it should apply to all cabins, balcony and above. Why limit number of participants?

I was able to get the sip and sail on a dec 2016 Panama Canal sailing. I called back, after having the promo added to my booking, to change the AIBP to OBC, and twice I have been told the promo is only for the beverage package. Has anyone else had this problem? Did Princess change the rules and is no longer offering OBC?

 

The Princess OBC offer (which was part of the Red, White, and Blue sale) ended as of 7/7/15. Don't believe there's any systemwide OBC offer program at this time.

Jemster - I'm on that same Halloween cruise, and highly doubt that they will be cancelling the stop in Puerto Vallarta. There has been ZERO mention of PV in the world news in almost 2 months. Things are back to "normal". Additionally, there have been no news leaks for the cruise lines (in particular Princess) regarding an alternation to the current planned Mexican Riviera itinerary. Enjoy your time in PV!

Wish the magic "price reduction fairy" would wave their wand and do something to lower the prices on the Oct 25th Mexican Riviera cruise (on the Ruby).

 

Current "sale" is only $20 less than the previous offering :( That's not a price reduction, it's a joke.

 

Guess it doesn't pay to be a West Coast sailer.............

Laurie S - I just "laughed out loud" with your 1.8 comment! Too bad they can't bring the Miracle up to a full 2.0. But rumor has it, the Splendor will move westward sometime in mid/late 2016.... although I think that ship also lack a few 2.0 options (since it's originally a Costa ship, not built initially for Carnival). Maybe Splendor will see another refresh before going to the Left Coast!

Thanks Coloradobelle!

 

Had a similar report from my elderly neighbors who just returned from a 2 week stay in PV. Other than the May 1st problems, they weren't impeded from traveling about during the rest of their stay.

 

Can't wait to take my next trip to PV!

My next door neighbors (who are 90 and 92 yrs old) just returned from their 2 week timeshare stay in PV. Their timeshare is north of the airport, in/near Nuevo Vallarta.

 

He mentioned the flurry of activity on May 1st, most notably the sirens of police and fire trucks, and several military vehicles driving past his complex. They were unable to go into downtown that night for dinner, since their complex (and those nearby) were locked down. The government wanted no "non-essential" vehicles on the road that day/night.

 

They went downtown the next night for dinner, and had no qualms about going about during the rest of their stay. In his opinion, everything had quieted down by the next day or so.

...

Guess it's up to the original poster as to whether or not they'd feel safe going to PV in the near future (or, in their case, next year). If it was me, I'd gladly go to PV. It's a great city that's unfortunately being maligned by a small band of punks who don't represent the majority of Jalisco's citizens.

I (and several friends) are considering a Mexican Riviera trip in late Oct, and hope this "PV hysteria" dies down before then. If they had to do any port subbing, I'd much prefer a substitution port down near PV, or (in worse case) an overnight in Cabo as a last resort. Please don't substitute any of the dinky Baja ports (or, Ensenada), since these are no way on scale with a PV stop.

[quote name='SoCal Cruiser78']Congrats! I'm waiting for my fall coastal on the Ruby to drop--it has only gone up since I booked, and my cabin category seems wide open.[/quote]

I'm kinda in the same "boat" regarding a Mexican Riviera cruise I'm trying to coordinate for friends (ironically, also on the Ruby) in late October. Last sale was back in March, and now prices are much higher and not being discounted (despite many open cabins).

And I find it disappointing that Princess tends to often offer lame perks (only $25 pp for balcony, or their famous(?) coupon book), whereas Celebrity offers beverage package (approx $50/day) for many of there sales. Hard to attract people with small perks, and firm pricing.

In our case, we found the "top deck" too crowded to enjoy our time in Glacier Bay. On the Forward viewing deck, between the exhaust noises coming up from the kitchens/etc, and people jostling to take pictures, it didn't make for an enjoyable experience. I we went downstairs after 10 minute of that.

 

In contrast, standing on my private balcony - quietly listening to the cracking glacier, glass of wine in hand, with the talking ranger (or subdued music) in the background. A much more enjoyable experience!

The Caribe deck is a nice choice, since it gives plenty of standing/sitting room for 4 people when you're in places like Glacier Bay (where the ship does a slow "sit and spin" in front of the visited glaciers). Although the Caribe's balconies are "half covered", our Aug 2014 cruise had beautiful weather.

 

For our northbound cruise, we had a starboard/right side cabin (C321), since this was the predominant coast hugging side. Our friends had a port side cabin, and we occasionally jumped over to their side to "check out the view". Since you're essentially taking a "southbound" cruise (per the itinerary map), a port side cabin will have more coastline viewing. Or, if you don't mind not having side-by-side cabins, you might want to choose one on each side of the ship (assuming you'll have two cabins).

 

The bed WILL BE "closer to the closet", since there will be a desk between the bed and outer/balcony cabin wall.

 

Can't directly comment on May weather, but it will most likely be cool (Alaska coast tends to get rain, so have a lightweight rainproof jacket).

 

Excurions - can get very expensive (as high as $400 plus per person). That said, we opted for cheaper excursions during our first Alaska trip. You might want to do one higher priced excursion, and save money on others. Also, excursion options might be a bit limited, or weather impacted during May, since it's the start of the Alaska season.

 

Have a great trip!

John

I've been on two Princess Cruises. On both, we had an organized (and Patter advertised) LGBT mixer on the first full cruise night. Unfortunately, that was the only organized meeting for either of those trips.:( We did occasionally bump into our new "family" friends around the ship (ie, at the gym, pool, buffet, etc), but that was about it.

 

My suggestion - during your first official meeting, try to set a time/place where you'd like to meet on other days (ie, happy hour, or post dinner drinks).

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Conversely, on my 4 day Carnival cruise, an LGBT mixer was listed ever day, but I never saw any attendees during the appointed time.

Are the unpublicized past-passenger rates found by logging into Princess.com and doing a search?

 

Is there a good source for flash sales without having to contact your TA?

 

If you have used Princess.com (or phone in to Princess) directly to book past Princess cruises, you are more likely to see additional sales or better past-passenger rates that other past passengers who did not book directly with Princess. Call this a loyalty perk.

 

Case in point, I've sailed twice with Princess (but booked through a non-Princess agency), but only see the generic sales ads (like anyone else would see via the Princess site). I have two friends who have booked directly with Princess, and both see many more ads targeting special prices for certain itineraries.

 

During our last cruise, one of these friends did a West Coast 4 day getaway booking (as a past passenger) that is FAR CHEAPER than any rate I could similarly find for that getaway cruise!

Also remember reading awhile ago (don't remember which cruise line) about a ship that made their first stop of the voyage in Ensenada. When they made their second stop, in San Diego, EVERYONE had to be processed through customs at that point, basically ruining their day in SD due to the customs delay. Guess that explains why most itineraries show Ensenada as the LAST STOP on their trip prior to reaching disembarkation port!

Has anyone rented a jeep and drove here after docking in Lahaina and then drove back. we have 2 days in Lahaina.

 

I was in Maui this summer on a non-cruise vacation, and we did the "drive to Hana and around the south part of the island" trip one day. We chose this route since we didn't want to be caught up in the REALLY SLOW afternoon traffic on the drive from Seven Sacred pools back to Kahului.

 

We left Kahului around 9:30am, and reached Seven Sacred pools around 12:30 (we did several picture stops along the way, which slowed us down). We then did the 4 mile r/t Pipiwai Trail. It was a very enjoyable hike, albeit on a hot, humid (but no rain at that time) day. The bamboo forest on the hike is quite remarkable (attempting to attach a few pics)!

 

Don't remember exactly when we left, but after speaking with a few other tourists, we opted to continue driving around the south side back to Kahului. Although we had 2 sedans, the road was still very driveable. That said, this route requires "high driver attention", since it is narrow with lots of blind turns. Drive carefully, drive slowly, and it's doable. Unfortunately we didn't do any picture stops during this portion, since all my passengers were "resting" after our afternoon hike. This return route would also give you the opportunity to stop in upcountry places (such as Kula).

Thanks. As I recall it was the promotion with gratuties paid for. I looked into that deal and didn't think it was anything special but now I know why I didn't see the restaurant offer. It turned out to be more expensive than booking the trip without the extras thrown in.

 

Agree. It's always best to weigh the dollar value of each offer (lower price vs amenities and/or OBC), to see which is truly the best buy!

Just looked at the deck plans on the Consumer Princess Cruise website, and they all still show a central staircase. One would think that Princess would modify these drawings to NOT SHOW the staircase, or at least put some BIG BOLD MESSAGE somewhere on the deck plan pages for the Grand Princess.

 

I'd be a little p*ssed off if I were to book my own cruise, only to find out later that there are no stairs nearby (and I'm the type of person who rarely uses an elevator) :mad:

It's not uncommon to find a sale that might include "specialty dining for two" (meaning - you get to eat at one of the specialty restaurants without paying the $25/pp cover charge).

 

Although they pre-assign you a dining date and time, you can often change it to a time to allow for dining with friends. We did that this summer, when we dined in Sabatini's during our Alaska Cruise on the Crown Princess.

When in doubt, bring earplugs! I regularly sleep with them. Helps to make for consistent "sound level" whether at home, in a noisy hotel room (AC/heater systems, hallway noise, etc), etc.

Frankly, the balloon drop on my recent Alaska cruise (on the Crown Princess) was the liveliest thing I saw while on ship. Two nights I did 11:30pm walk throughs of Skywalkers, and it was dead. Club Fusion wasn't any better. It was lively in the casino late at night, if you didn't mind gagging on the cigarette smoke.:(

We were there on Aug 19th (Crown Princess), and you had some water still to navigate on the Nugget Falls trail, most likely due to the 4 inches of rain Juneau supposedly received on the 18th. The water on the trail was nothing, compared to the feet numbing water you had to walk through near the falls/glacier - done bare foot for most of us! Good thing was, your walk back across the water was easier (than going out), since your feet were still semi-frozen.:D

My cruise got back to Long Beach on April 24th. I did walkoff with my luggage. I was suppose to be in group 3, but they called my group to disembark around 8am. Very few people were off the ship, and by the time I got to the garage pay station there was only 1 car in front of me. So, in my case, getting off ship early was the smart choice.

I normally prefer it on the cold side, but my Imagination cruise (4/20-4/24) was quite cool in my Upper deck room. Had to toss the covers just to lay there and watch tv.