Torfamm

To be fair he’s not annoying or trying to sell cruises. It’s hard to complain if someone from Princess comes up to you in a lounge to ask if you’re enjoying your cruise and how your day went but it is a little unusual. If he were just the “loyalty ambassador” I’d find it less odd

They checked medallions last night on the Enchanted and on the first night of the cruise. They’ve also had a future cruise consultant going from table to table each night speaking to everyone this week and last week

I can’t say for sure but I researched weather in Norway and I eland and chose mid-July when we booked that itinerary.

I’m sorry that your cruise got off to such a bad start! Hoping things improve for you. I’ve had good experiences on 7 night cruises, they are not always lacking. We did have a back to back on the Caribbean Princess this spring with very limited activities and entertainment on both 7 day itineraries though. I chalked it up to the Norovirus problem they were having, but it was really disappointing. I can imagine your feelings.

They seem to be phasing out the Gastropub. O’Malley’s Irish Pub has replaced it on the Enchanted

We did a white water rafting trip on the Neana River and the Tundra Wilderness Tour in the park. Both were fantastic even though the park roadway has been shortened.

The information on this program is here https://www.princess.com/military_benefit_program/

Gift cards are available at a 10% discount at https://www.aarp.org/rewards/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarp.org%2Frewards%2Fdiscover

One option is to buy them Princess Cruise gift cards that they can use to pay for anything they charge onboard by applying them to their onboard account. They are available at a 10%discount so your money will go further at https://www.aarp.org/rewards/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarp.org%2Frewards%2Fdiscover you don’t have to be an AARP member to register for the rewards program and buy electronic gift cards

So sorry you’ve had such bad luck. My first Princess cruise was Norway and Iceland on the Sapphire Princess for the itinerary and it was fantastic enough to make me give up my longtime loyalty only to Celebrity. Hope you enjoy Isafjordur! We had a nice hike in the hills above the village there.

We are on the Enchanted at the moment and the “lounge” is pretty dismal. Boring cheese, veggie sticks, smoked salmon, and egg rolls in the very uninspiring Vista lounge. We’ve been in a few times but I’d rather grab snacks in the buffet and sit outside there. There was entertainment only one night On the other hand, it was a very nice experience in Skywalkers on the Caribbean Princess earlier this year. They had a wide variety of items that I don’t see every where on the ship including sushi and music every night. We really enjoyed having cocktails there in the evening

We were asked to show our medallions at the door on the evening we boarded the Enchanted last week. No one has asked any other evening or on any other cruise since the restart.

You might be thinking of last year’s change that stopped allowing US citizens to travel home with an expired passport. Currently, you need a valid, i.e. unexpired, US passport if you are a US citizen entering the US by air. There is no requirement regarding how soon it expires for US entry https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-3618?language=en_US

You are mistaken. US citizens face no difficulty returning to their own country from the Caribbean a valid passport.

You’ll need to check the document requirements for your itinerary. Martinique and Guadeloupe are two islands where entry could be an issue. You won’t have any issue returning to the US even if you have to fly home due to an emergency

I have never tried to board a ship without the required travel documents but I’d expect that she will not be allowed to board. Either she will need a passport or another adult will have to join your party. Unless the parents are boarding with her, having them there won’t make a difference.

I get that they can choose the exchange rate they offer just like any other business and wouldn’t expect it to be great, only fair. Offering a 1:1 exchange of USD to AUD makes the notoriously bad exchange rates at hotel front desks look fantastic. It is very disappointing. OBC received at booking is listed as USD on my booking confirmation and travel summary. I find it pretty misleading that they don’t share what the AUD value will be for USD OBC. I only caught it because I went to book a shore excursion before that and saw the AUD cost total was being pulled from USD OBC at 1:1. I had time to cancel the transaction and pay with a credit card. As for the shareholder benefit, at least CCL is clear about it being AUD on Australia sailings in amounts identical to USD amounts on US sailings. Mine just showed up on my travel summary and is marked as AUD.

Does anyone have any experience with using US Dollar gift cards to pay for onboard charges, shore excursions, or the purchase of onboard credit for cruises with charges in Australian Dollars? I’m curious about how they handle the currency conversion. One poster on a roll call said they think that USD gift cards are accepted at an even exchange rate but a representative from customer service said they are certain the exchange rate would be closer to actual value. An even exchange rate would be shockingly bad but if that’s true, I’d like to know before I consider a transaction that may lose me as much as 1/3 of the value of a gift card.

I can’t think of any reason why they couldn’t. They can do it by phone.

Some great cabins open up as people cancel or have bids accepted. It’s unpredictable. You are right though, if you aren’t willing to take any cabin in the new category, bidding is a bad idea.

If your bid is accepted, your credit card is automatically charged and you are assigned a new cabin. If you don’t like the location, you can ask for a different cabin in the same category if there is one available. If not, I don’t know if you can move to a lower category, assuming there is availability. I’ve never tried that.

I think Princess and Celebrity are much more alike than different. Celebrity allows no indoor smoking at all, has slightly better food, and is somewhat more expensive than Princess. Princess has more unique, longer itineraries, huge closet space and offers self-service laundry which is very convenient on longer trips. We have easily had room for golf clubs in Princess cabins. I included a closet photo below I like both much better than Royal Caribbean, but it is definitely a personal preference.

The maitre ‘d let us know that if we wanted to commit to 7:30 instead of 7:00 every night he would arrange for us to have the same table.

Smiles never hurt! I was surprised these people got what they wanted given that the just kept insisting loudly that their non-English speaking companions couldn’t be without them, but got the sense that the agent was just exhausted by them. I’d have found the energy to send them all to the general waiting are if they’d been in my face about it.

If, as indicated by the title of the thread, is a regulation in Italian ports the way it is in Galveston, then the cruise line won’t matter. If it is about NCL not paying for proper permits, then it may not be a problem on any other lines. In any case, I sympathize with those who are unhappy to pay for a drink package that is unavailable. I don’t think that it indicates that they “can’t go a few hours” without a drink.