richmke

7 hours ago, rj42 said:

Offer valid only for reservations booked between 5/3/2019 and 6/30/2019 with Princess Cruises at Princess.com or phone at 1-800-774-6237. Must be booked on US website only.

Can I then transfer the reservation to my TA? If not, then $225 is not a great deal. Using my travel credit card and TA, I get:

What's AMEX cash back?: 3% cash back ($60 on a $2,000 cruise)

If AMEX does not offer it: Free travel insurance ($100)

If I can't transfer: OBC from TA ($150) 

5 hours ago, Taxwizz said:

But how do you get water hot enough?

Are water heaters not banned?

Can you get hot water from the Buffet. I assume they have it there for making Tea.

10 hours ago, SpaceCowboy9 said:

We took the dollar bus to Red Hook

Where do you catch the dollar bus to Red Hook?

The data mining becomes particularly helpful to "enhance the customer experience" over multiple cruises. When a waiter or bar tender gets to know you, they start bringing you coffee or drinks without you having to order. On future cruises, the waiter/bar tender will have that info.

It can also learn your tipping habits. If you are known to be a good tipper, then staff may respond to you accordingly to earn the generous tip. Or, if you tend to remove the automatic gratuities ....

Is the "Welcome Aboard Photo Package" included in the "All-Inclusive Photo Package"?

The Princess website says that Terms and Conditions apply to the All-Inclusive Photo Package. Where can I find the Terms and Conditions before I fork over my $199?

41 minutes ago, getting older slowly said:

one thing I would add..... on our next cruise will be taking a bottle or two of port on board...

I will pick one which looks like a bottle of red...

 

 

If you know someone who makes wine at home, you can have them cork the Port (or anything else) into a regular wine bottle.

How does your group differ from their "most popular tour for cruise ship visitors"?

8 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

While it is true that Port is fortified wine, it is, at its core, WINE. 

... and Bloody Mary's at its core is Tomato Juice. So, by your logic, I could bring a case of Bloody Mary's (fortified with vodka) on the ship. Wine can get up to 18% ABV naturally. It is an easy bright line to draw - if you do anything to the wine, it is not "wine" for purposes of taking on board. Grappa is just wine with most of the wine stuff removed, and gets up to 60% ABV. Should people be allowed to bring on Grappa?

BTW: Whisky is just Beer with most of the beer stuff removed. Maybe that is why you can't bring beer on board ...

I wonder if the Staff can see who pre-paid gratuities. Would they then give those people better service?

3 hours ago, relaxatsea said:

I have an I-Pad. I have not been able to find the Ocean Ready app in the App Store.  In fact, I can't even find any Princess apps in the App Store. 

When you search in the App Store, search for the i-Phone version of the app. i-Phone apps will work on the i-Pad.

22 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Why would you prepay when you can just adjust once on the ship to the lower rate? So those that prepay are not screwing the workers but people that adjust on the ship are? Nonsense. Plus $1 a day is not worth worrying about.

Assuming that the discussion about tips is true: If you have paid the gratuities at the "recommended amount" (14.50/day), AND you tip a waiter or cabin steward extra, then they get to keep the extra. If you have NOT paid the gratuities to the "recommended amount" (13.50/day), then the extra you give to the waiter or cabin steward goes into the pool up to the amount to bring you up to the recommended amount ($1/day of the extra tip goes into the pool).

So, I say pre-pay at today's rate ($13.50/day/person), and save the $14 (couple on a 7 day cruise) to pass out to individuals who give you stellar service.

5 hours ago, KG2019 said:

Is there somewhere online that you can purchase accessories before boarding?  I did see a couple of bracelet options when ordering my medallions, but they were on a small screen so I couldn't see them well.  Even if not thru Princess, maybe Amazon?  Does anyone else have the rubber type bracelets that will fit the medallion?

you can order accessories in advance when you register for the medallion at ocean.com. I was going to order the sports band in advance, until I found out they charge $6 for shipping. I'll buy it on the ship.

Nice pics of the accessories are on the pinned Ocean Medallion thread:

For everyone complaining about how little cruise line employees make for their 6-8 month contracts:

People in the Military (Navy in particular) are away for 6-8 months from their family, work long shifts, and don't make the high wages compared to the average worker in the USA.

2 hours ago, Curtis Newton said:

My wife ordered medallions for both of us. The Ocean Ready app confirms the order was placed one month ago but is showing "Not yet shipped". Anyone else have this much of an interval between ordering and shipment? Cruise is in 21 days.

 

Thanks.

I ordered mine 75 days out. The order confirmation says it will be mailed 15 days before the cruise date.

I just tried to order a Sports Band in advance. They want $6 for shipping. I cancelled the order, and just ordered the free lanyard. I'll buy the sports band on the ship.

7 minutes ago, Coral said:

I would try to deposit it and see what happens.

Risky. If the check bounces, the bank may charge you a $25 returned check fee.

Although, I have called companies in the past about expired checks. They told me to deposit it anyway. With "positive pay", the company can flip an electronic switch and reactive the check.

My 2 cents: The check is considered "unclaimed money". They probably put 90 days on there to encourage you to cash it promptly, and so they don't have a lot of valid checks floating out there. As "unclaimed money" they should be pretty good about reissuing a check. FWIW: The expiration date may help with check re-issuance since they don't have to put a stop payment on the old check.

On the order page for the Medallion accessories, it has a Sport Bottle and Notebook. There is no description about them. Do they hold the Medallion? Or, are they just Ocean Logo products?

Also, I know it is waterproof for swimming pools. Is it waterproof for snorkling (deeper water)? How deep is it considered "waterproof"? I wouldn't trust its "waterproof" for scuba diving.

29 minutes ago, Barry H said:

No one has answered the question about how the medallion interacts with pacemakers.

I can't have a magnet near my pacemaker.

The Medallion is an RFID chip. You can read about pacemaker interaction here:

https://www.bostonscientific.com/content/dam/bostonscientific/quality/education-resources/english-a4/EN_ACL_RFID_20170811.pdf

If you are worried about it, get the wristband holder to keep it far away from the pacemaker (vs the lanyard, where the chip may be right over the pacemaker.

Given that the clientele of Princess tends to be older, I hope they took pacemakers into account when selecting an RFID chip.

8 minutes ago, chamima said:

Quick question - We're currently in a balcony cabin. Let's say I prepay now at that rate $13.50/day.

Then Princess sends me an upsell after May 25th to a mini suite and we accept that - do we then pay $1 more or $2 more per day?

 

Or, will they still recognize you as pre-paid gratuities without any additional charge???

4 hours ago, Ombud said:

Is anyone on a droid able to get thru?

I have an HTC One, and am able to get it to work ... mostly.

75 days out, and the App had problems adding the cruise. I went online, and was able to see the cruise was in my account (app must have worked). Logged out of the app, and logged back in, and it then showed the cruise. At that point, I was able to do stuff with the app.

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

 

It's mentioned on this thread and the itineraries are there as well.  Go toward the end - the posts about Cuba started on Tuesday (this week)

 

reposted the images below. It references a link that is not yet working: https://www.princess.com/cuba

Just now, sashas_mom said:

So does that mean you are using up your minutes when you use these apps? I was wondering that too.  

Logout of the app that connects you to the Internet (as opposed to the ship's Intranet), and you won't use up your internet minutes.

I did the UST equivalent on CCL. Is it worth doing it again on a Princess ship?

Can you pick Traditional Dining (say the late seating), and if you want to eat early (to catch the early show) go to Anytime Dining?