aaerobear

just one simple question.  What time can you board the boat?  Avalon Budapest to Prague April 4th 2024

We (Jeff and Ed) just booked this cruise with a group of mostly Airline folks.  Look for us.

Hi all, we are Jeff and Ed  and Dan and Bron.

we are booked on this cruise and wondered if any other family are also joining us

We have 2 cruises booked next year.  First one is Ruby Princess on Feb16th , 15 day Hawaii out of San FRancisco, second is a 22 day TA and round the UK Apr10th out of Fort Lauderdale on the SKY Princess, planning on going on both.

The Grand will not have Medallion until the end of March

Well the group of Ate is going to be onboard the cruise from Hong Kong to Shanghai.  Looking forward to meeting other "family" cruisers

Ed

The rooms on the Grand are ready at 1:00pm, they give you a card at check-in that tells you that and what you can do upon boarding. You can check your carry-on in the Explorers lounge if you don;t want to cart it around.

Boarding starts at 11;00am and goes in this order:

Elite/suites

Club Class

Preferred (platinum)

other cruisers by group numbers handed out as you leave the check-in counters.

Hi all,

We are Jeff,Ed, Dan, Bron, Bob, and Ken. We are all booked on the Grand for September 25 from San Francisco. Any other "family" on this trip?

Ed

You guys look like you are more into the super luxury lines, that is awesome

We are actually Princess fans mostly, but have 10 cruises on X and two more coming.

E/J

Ed and Jeff here from San Francisco. We will also be on the T/A 11/05.

We are sailing on the QM2 from NYC on the 24th of Oct to Southampton, then flying to Rome.

See you all at the Martini Bar, etc.

E/J

We are Ed and Jeff from San Francisco, we will also be on this crossing, then returning on the Celebrity Silhouette on Nov 5 from Rome.

It is not necessary to even have a card on file, just tell the check-in staff that you prefer to pay in cash. The staff will mark your account as "cash" and you will be required to leave a cash deposit (usually $300 per person) at the Reception desk (on board). If your spending goes over your deposit, you will be informed and then have to add $$ to your account.

Your account will NOT be activated until you pay the deposit, so do it right away on boarding.

Bummer, we are doing some sort of TA westbound in the fall.

Yes it will happen and soon I hope

I would think Princess would be happy to get your money any way they can, give it a shot

I totally agree with coming later rather than earlier, what a mess Los Angeles terminal is at 11:00 am, when they make the announcement for preferred passengers to start check-in everyone and their brother rushes to line up. Last time it happened to us we were all Elite and about 75th in line, the woman at the head of the line was denying entrance to most of the people as they were not preferred we ended up being the 4th in line at the desks.

The biggest complaint I have is when an elite couple want to take 8 or so family members on the ship when the elites are called, and then argue with the boarding personnel.

Last cruiise on the Sapphire there were men turned away almost every night, we had a table with a stunning view of the entrance and the Maitre'd was very much a rules follower. Also saw several passengers denied entrance because they came to late (Good going)

we booked a 15 night cruise out of Singapore, we did not realize that is was two cruises back to back, they replaced our minibar on the second stop in Singapore. So if you search your cruises and see that it is actually B2B you will get a second setup. Full suites get one for the suite and one for Elite.

Just off the Sapphire and it has been "asianized" (my word) Many asian dishes in the lido as well as the dining room, most signs are also in chinese, completely screwed up the casino (less than half as many slots as before) PCL added a slew of chinese card/computer games while removing the slots and craps. NOTE never saw more than one of the new games being used, most was wasted space.The Chinese folks in the casino were all playing slots.

Yes you have to sign, but NOTHING shows on your bill, it is only for inventory control and bookkeeping. I have found it to my advantage because of the 40% discount on bottled wine. By the way, you just sign for the alcohol drinks, not the coffees, juices, soft drinks, malts, or mocktails.

Meredith, when are you all sailing? Jeff and I are on the 4/17 TA from Houston

it is NOT necessary for all the people to be there before the BVE group boards. The B2B passengers also board at the same time as the BVE,( actually they can board with whatever group boards first) Depending on the ship, other groups are boarded before or after the BVE group.

There are always stragglers in SFO as most people do not plan for the time it takes to park. They board when they arrive and catch up with the group. Travel agent and wedding groups all board together as they ALL have to be there in order to board, this may be before or after BVE

Of course this is subject to change if conditions change. Such as a late arrival, Coast Guard inspection, etc.

yes, you can get cans of soda with the package.

I say lighten up, most other cruiselines do not have the cabins ready for embarkation either. I don't see what the fuss is about, you are on the ship, lunch is served, the terminal chaos is behind you. CHILL.

Many times the ship comes in on a code-red which means it requires a deep cleaning (required by the health department) before boarding, so it takes a lot of extra time. If you get a message from PCL it may be late boarding or that rooms may not be ready, it just may be because of Noro.

If you have the time, head to the Exploritorium about pier 15. A great place to kill some time. Also pier23 restaraunt is right next to the ship, awesome seafood.