caribill

E-mail sbpcl@princesscruises.com FAX 661 753 0180

Is bar soap available upon request for your cabin?

Has Princess been enforcing the rule to not grant the OBC until they have proof of ownership within 90 days of the cruise?

If a non-North American resident manages to book a fare that is only for North American residents, that is not something that would be checked when checking in for the cruise.

You seem to have booked the two segments as one booking. I am not sure if you are referencing the "$100 shore excursion credit" sale or the "get a balcony for the price of an inside" sale. If the shore excursion OBC sale, you are correct, not worth it. If the "balcony for the cost of an inside" sale it might be. I also had a TA + additional segment and when I looked did not see that offer. But when I looked at the pricing for the individual segments, the offer was there for each segment. I saved about 30% by cancelling my 33 day booking and making it two bookings (17 day + 16 day) instead. It is of corse up to you if your cabin location is worth keeping instead of a great reduction in price for the cruise if that was the option you were looking for.

There are multiple new sales going on. The "sale" that includes the $100 shore excursion credit is one of them. As pointed out in previous posts, it does not apply to standard fares. The "A value of $765 per guest on a 7-day cruise!" is based on the $100 shore excursion credit and the perceived savings of $665 by purchasing the Plus package instead of buying gratuities, Internet and beverage package separately. In other words, the only real part of the sale is the $100 shore excursion credit, assuming the cruise itself did not go up in price. Note that in past promotions that included a shore excursion credit it was as OBC and could be used as any other OBC was, not limited to shore excursions. This time that may or may not be the same. A second sale (for North America residents only) is get a balcony for the price of an inside on select European voyages. This is a real sale. Applies to standard, plus and premier fares. I saved 30% by rebooking with this sale. Note that if you rebook and had originally used what would be a now expired FCD, the expired FCD cannot be applied (will be refunded to original form of payment) and a new deposit (FCD or credit card) must be used. Of course if you rebook, any EZAir reservations will be lost and you will need to rebook them at current pricing which in my case was lower than the original airfare was. Note that in the UK they have a different promotion "Book a Mini-Suite for the same price as a Deluxe Balcony before 31 October with just a £50pp low deposit*."

Today I was surprised that when I called Princess 1-800-PRINCESS number, after a relatively short time on hold, I was given the option to have a callback instead of waiting on the line. It worked!!!!!!! This was with the Princess main number to reach a front line rep. I have no idea if it is available if you are transferred to another department and have to hold then.

And yet in a recent TV ad for the Ruby sailing out of Galveston, the marketing VP called Princess "a premium cruise line."

That one makes no sense. I assume you had a cruise card that you used instead of a Medallion. People with heart pacemakers are supposed to avoid using the Medallion and are issued cruise cards instead. Certainly they are allowed to disembark with their cruise card.

On Carnival they ask each other "Do you remember where you were on 9/11?" On Princess they ask each other "Do you remember where you were when man first landed on the moon?" On HAL they ask each other "Do you remember what you had for breakfast?"

Based on posts on a number of threads, it appears to be that how well the APP works for some depends on: 1. Whether they are using an Android based smart phone of an iPhone. 2. The amount of available memory that the smart phone has. 3. The ship they are on. You had a very good experience with the App on the Caribbean Princess. The person I quoted in an earlier post who said it was "mostly not working" was on the Caribbean Princess recently when she said this.

I thought Premium Balconies get a barrel chair also.

I am not on this cruise, but there have been posts on other threads about other cruises saying that a wine package has not been offered due to supply problems in obtaining the wines that would be needed.

When you get an initial look at pricing for a type cabin (example: Balcony), instead of showing the exact price of the higher option available, Princess now shows the upgraded price as dollars/day more: "Upgrade from $xx a day." (Exact price will be shown when selecting the cabin you want.)

An FCD is considered a special type of FCC by Princess and will be shown when you look at a list of your FCCs on the Princess web site.

I have found an easy way to read pictures such as the Patters you are posting. a) Click on the picture. It will show it by itself. b) Click on the picture again. It will open it up in a new window. c) Click on the picture in the new window. It will enlarge it enough so it is very easy to read. This works with Firefox. I assume it also works with other browsers.

o At least get pre-check also for your spouse. Often if the two of you have pre-check, they will let your children go with you even if they do not have pre-check. o Since you cruise a lot, I assume some of the time you fly back to the USA from overseas. If that is the case, go for Global Entry ($115, your CC should cover $100 of that) which includes pre-check. With Global Entry you could save hours at some airports clearing immigration and customs. However, you would need this for all in your family, not just you and your spouse.

Usually between noon and 1:30 PM

Theoretically the rule is "no." However, that would mean the employee processing your order would have to know if you were going to be on the next segment. Pre-Medallion you could check out two ways. First was inside the shop where when ringing up the sale they could notice the b2b. Second was at the tables in the hallway where they would write down the necessary information and enter it into the computer later. Thus if purchased in the hallway they would not know if you were continuing on to the next segment. With the Medallion, it would be much easier for the clerk to know you are on a b2b. But I have no knowledge of this being paid attention to or not.

The packaged alcohol in the gift shop costs considerably less than the bottles from room service. So if someone on a b2b can get a gift shop bottle to the cabin the last evening of the first segment, then it will be there for the entire second segment (unless emptied first).

Really. But the pre-Crown ship in the distance is close enough in appearance to the Ruby.

Glad you have had a good experience on board with the App. However, not everyone does. Here is a quote from a friend who was on a recent Princess cruise: "Also hate the Medallion app & mostly not working on ship!!"

That is not the way it is supposed to work. It is supposed to only charge the discounted rate when eligible. Initially it did work that way (although some ships posted the rebate as non-refunfable). But then there have been posts that the use of the App pre-cruise was changed so that, if eligible, you only paid the discounted rate when purchasing in advance. And now, as this thread shows, what once finally worked as it should have by charging the discounted amount pre-cruise apparently no longer does so, at least for some people.

You are correct, but Princess continues to promote the Medallion as a giant improvement in cruising. In our area one TV station broadcast a 4 minute infomercial about the Ruby Princess coming to Galveston in December. The commercial was 75% about how the Medallion makes your cruise so much better than any cruise you have ever had without it. So certainly anyone new to Princess who has seen this hype will be expecting the Medallion to basically perform miracles as it makes your cruise so much better than you ever anticipated before. As long as Princess stresses the Medallion as being the best part of a Princess cruise, there is a chance some people may be very disappointed once on board. (By the way, the Princess ships shown in this commercial for the Ruby were definitely not the Ruby. Main shots were of a Royal class ship (with the painted name removed) and of a pre-Crown class ship with the shopping cart handle for Skywalkers.)

Exactly.