RMMariner

Thanks for the replies. It looks like it is coming back, but as a pale shadow of its former self.

Does anyone know if wine packages are still available? You used to be able to get silver or gold packages with 7, 10 or 12 bottles for a reasonable price. It was never shown on the Princess website, but on cruises longer than 7 days this package was sometimes available. I am assuming that with the new drink packages, the wine packages are now a thing of the past, but I hope they are still around.

Thanks

Just back from a cruise on the Majestic. There did not seem to be any system to stop people from showing up whenever they wanted. Loading was a little delayed, but pretty quick once it got going.

3 hours ago, Centsless_Cruiser said:

 

 

One issue missing in the list above is quality of the Internet signal.  Princess's MedallionNet is normally very good however on our last cruise it was generally very bad and most of the time did not support WiFi calling (constant drops and reconnects) so keep this in mind if it is very important to you.

 

We were in the same cruise and the one after. Internet was not good on the first leg and even worse on the March 19 leg. Adding 700 more passengers for the the second leg made the internet almost unusable at times.

I have done this cruise twice. Agree that it warms up day 3, but both cruises were also very rough for the first two days. One was so bad that a number of people chose to fly home rather than take the ship back to Vancouver.

Never really had problems with waves of that size on a cruise ship. Does not seem like there is much  motion, but on our first cruise to Hawaii, the waves were significantly bigger, and mostly from the side. We were on the Grand, and it was the first time I ever got very seasick. 

Some tips: don't eat fish and chips when you are already feeling queasy, and don't save $10 by not bringing any seasick medication. Don't tell your wife that you never get seasick and not to worry about it. Finally do not be standing out on the deck (beginning to feel better) and have a fellow passenger come and throw up right beside you. Mistakes were made and lessons were learned the hard way. I take seasickness medication now whenever the ship has any significant motion. Never been seasick again.

This is the same problem as deck chair hogs. The crew is in a no win situation. If they enforce the rules they have an unhappy passenger (the type that generally complains to management) and if they don't enforce the rules they have unhappy passengers, but are not in line for personally being blamed for the situation.

Any argument with a passenger can become a real problem for a crew member. I would probably turn a blind eye if I were them as well. 

I am looking forward to our cruises in March, where hopefully this won't be an issue. 

For the record, I don't like the mask rules, but I wear one at work and I will wear one on the cruise out of respect for other people. I have actually had covid (like a flu for me), and I am fully vaccinated, but I am not what would be considered the demographic that is particularly vulnerable to coronavirus. If others are bothered by me not wearing a mask when the rules change, I will do my best to accommodate them. Just like I hope you would if it was someone vulnerable. I just think of my father, or in-laws, or quite a number of other people I know who would certainly be much sicker if they got covid than I was. Be kind. It is annoying, but it really is a minor inconvenience to wear a mask.

We have taken two California 10 days out of Vancouver, and we are taking another 7 day out of LA in March. All with Princess. 

We enjoy them because they are close to home, and obviously would do them as a quick trip with minimal flying.

I do agree with a previous poster, that every cruise we have taken that has cruised off the Oregon coast (several to Hawaii as well) the sea has been quite rough. I don't know if that is just a rough patch of ocean or if we have been unlucky.

Once we were south of San Francisco the ocean seemed to become much calmer.

Becoming elite looked great before Covid. With the changes Princess has made, and the fact we pretty much will always get Princess Plus, the value of elite is somewhat diminished.

Still happy to have laundry and the shuttle.

You may be looking at the drink package. The Princess Plus is part of the booking, and it is $40 a day. 

$50 right now for us Canadians.

Got the same deal for the 12th and 19th, but we added the Princess Plus. 

Hope you have a great trip.

We have had to do this twice. Talked to both stewards to arrange a schedule, and then just moved all our stuff over without their help.

Turnover day is a busy day for them, and it was super easy for us to just throw things in our luggage and then unpack. They were both extremely accommodating. 

Never received an email response, but after waiting over 2 weeks, I started phoning. Almost gave up, but I finally got through on the phone today, and it was put on the account in less than 5 minutes.

I hope things will get back to normal when Princess gets its cruises going full time again.

Thank you for this advice. Sent it in a long time ago. No news. Phoned and waited for hours on main line. Never did get through.

Phoned the number in this thread today. Fixed up by a very efficient Princess rep in less than 15 minutes.

I was actually at a trivia on the Golden (I believe), where one couple had kept all the quizzes they had done for many years in a big book. They looked up the answers to many of the questions. I believe sometimes they could find the exact quiz in their book. 

They were not very popular, and I think in the end they were told not to bring their book to trivia anymore.

Even a jump from obstructed balcony to straight balcony would be great for us. There seems to be a ton of mini-suites left on our two March cruises. That would be a nice upgrade.

Otherwise, we will have gotten what we paid for, and that is okay too.

I am just happy to be travelling again.

We have two cruises in March with Princess Plus. Not big drinkers, but I figure two or drinks a day breaks even.

Hoping that with more people choosing Princess Plus that Princess cruises will become a little more lively at night. If so, we will certainly get more than our money's worth.

We have a couple of guarantees booked for March. I think now is the time to do it because you have a chance of a free upgrade, and if you do not like your cabin, you can probably switch because there will be empty cabins.

I enjoy the gambling aspect of the guarantee, but when the ships fill up again, I may be less inclined to book a guarantee.

Our first cruise was on the Grand. Probably went up these stairs a half dozen times before we finally got the layout of the ship down and stopped thinking we could could use them to go up to Lido. Newer ships seem to have solved this.

We have stopped in Victoria before. The walk from the cruise terminal to downtown is quite nice. Downtown Victoria is a pleasant day. Or there are a number of interesting excursions. I am actually surprised that more ships are not calling there.

I find I get the emails about cruise deals when I have no cruises booked. The instant I book a cruise, the emails stop. I get the other emails regardless, but the discount emails

stop the instant  I book a cruise in the future.

Glad to see this thread resurrected. I had given up on bringing my bike on Princess, but who knows after this all shakes out Princess may be more amenable to allowing bikes.

I initially wanted to bring my touring bike, but I now that I have done the research, I may well purchase a folding bike. I really cannot see why Princess would object to this. The bike would never be used on the ship, and it would be the equivalent of carrying a suitcase on and off the ship.

Thanks for everyone's support.

We have several cruises still booked. Lost two to the shut down, but I will rebook them. 

Princess has done quite well through this crisis, and has done a great job of taking care of their passengers.

There is one area that Princess absolutely has to improve the cleanliness of the vessel. The handwashing and table wiping etc. needs to be reexamined. The two sinks at the Horizon Court did not cut it. Many people walked by because there was a line up or they just did not bother washing their hands. Tables were often reused without wiping, and the self serve in the buffet itself was exceptionally problematic. 

We have been on several trips where norovirus was a concern, so it was not surprising that this happened.

We will cruise again. Princess is a great company. I think they have probably learned a lot from this, so there is no reason the experience will not be even better after this crisis passes.

I figured this was coming. The threat of quarantine alone was enough to make most cruisers think twice.

12 minutes ago, npcl said:

Waiting to see if it holds at or above the Feb 27, 2009 support level at 19.56.  If it breaks that the next support is 15.77

I would not be surprised to see some consolidation in the cruise industry as well. Highly leveraged, cyclical companies that rely on continued cash flow do not weather events like this very well.

Carnival is probably best set to handle this. Have not looked at Norwegian that closely, but my assumption (possibly wrong) is that it may be the weakest of the big three North American cruise lines.