Muffinz

We've booked our first Princess Cruise and ticked the 'no upgrade' box when booking, because as we've read here on cruise critic sometiumes the upgrade can be in a location or deck you don't want to be in.

Lets hope Princess don't upgrade us by accident!

25 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

* Public Health Advisory: Consuming raw or undercooked meat, poultry, seafood, shellfish, egg or any product containing these raw or undercooked food items may increase the risk of foodborne illness especially if you have certain medical conditions.

oh ok thanks for that.... one would assume the chef's on Princess cruises wouldn't serve raw or undercooked meat..

11 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Tonight's extra dish in the Reserve Dining Room was a Rib Eye Steak.  So, they made us a Seafood Pasta.  Muy Bueno!!!

 

Tonight's dinner wine.  We purchased yesterday.  We rated it 92 points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm curious to know why some dishes on the menu have an asterisk * next to them - like Pan Fried Tilapia with Orange Hollandaise and Rack of Pork with Glazed Artichokes.

Do you know what the * means beside these dishes? 

22 hours ago, skynight said:

Once you board you visit your muster station and scan your medallion to show you were there. This can be done while you are waiting for your cabin to be ready. If you don't know where your muster station is located ask any crew member. Crew members with yellow caps are stationed at the muster stations and around the ship.

You must watch the complete muster video either on your cabin tv or on your smart device. Your tv will be locked until that step is completed.

There is no more going to the muster station with life jackets.

The two steps can be done in any order. It is easier to just visit the muster station first while you are already on deck 7 where the stations are located. 

thanks for that - very helpful

39 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

If you are unable to get into your room early, find a nice spot to sit and watch the drill on your personal device.  You could even watch it after you order your lunch (in the MDR) and before it arrives.  
 

This is a good start to your tour.  “Find your muster station.”  You can do either/or first.  
 

Just be sure each of you signs in on separate devices. You both can watch it on the stateroom tv.

do we need to sign in to say we've watched it or something?

how long does it take to watch?

3 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

They "used to" have a ship's tour included with the Bon Voyage Experience.  Sadly, that was discontinued way before the pandemic.  Part of the "fun" of exploring a new ship is to do your own tour.  

 

There really are only 4 main decks (Lido, Plaza, Fiesta, and Promenade).  The outliers are aft Deck 6 (far removed MDR) and Skywalker/SPA on opposite ends of the ship.

 

The Grand/GEM class ships are very easy to get around.  Use Deck 7 as your "highway".

 

Do a YouTube search and you will find many video tours.

thanks - yes we've watched dozens of ship tours on YouTube... but thought it would be nice do an actual one

do you still have to do a muster drill and report to a Muster station? I think I read (on here probably) that it's now done by the App or stateroom TV?

I would love to do this cruise.... need to win lotto though!

We are on Crown Princess in December 2024 and I was wondering if Princess do a 'ship tour' on embarkation day?

I'm not talking about an in-depth tour of the kitchens / laundry...etc... but if they do brief one of the ship showing where the dining rooms / buffet / bars / pools are?

We have got the plus package on our cruise in December - we did the math and it made sense to have the package.

We're not huge drinkers, but knowing you can go to a bar and get a beer / wine / cocktail without worrying about the cost is great.... We tend to drink more when we're on holiday relaxing anyway

And we get wifi and that's a big plus

We're not too fussed on the premium deserts and probably won't use the free gym classes, but the package still makes sense to us

We stayed in Vancouver in July last year to see Tears for Fears in concert and we stayed at the Hyatt Regency.

Fantastic Hotel in a great location - about a 7-10 min easy walk downhill to the Pier / Canada place and right next door to Burrard Street Train station.

Pan Pacific is right on Canada place and you can't get any closer to the cruise terminal than that, but that was a lot more expensive from memory

one way to possibly alleviate the issue of having your wife / hubby / partners drinks being added to your medallion account, is to take it in turns to order drinks.

1 person orders 2 drinks for themselves and their partner, then next time the partner orders the drinks?

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, but it's a classic example of why not to book early flights after a cruise. 

and that's why we booked a 5:45pm flight leaving Sydney after our cruise on 26 December

We're still not sure what we're going to do between the time we disembark Crown Princess after our cruise to the time we need to be at the airport.

I feel sorry for all those on Majestic that had early flights to get....

37 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Crown is an extended Grand class ship - they added an extra deck when they built her so larger upwards not lengthwise.

ok thanks - I thought adding an extra deck would mean more weight.... meaning the ship is heavier? but obviously size is the issue when docking in Cairns

We were on Celebrity Solstice in 2018 and had to anchor out at Yorkeys knob as it was too big to dock in Cairns

Crowns Princess holds more passengers that Solstice, so I assumed it was a larger ship, but obviously not if it is able to Dock in Cairns

We have friends on Celebrity Edge at the moment.... apparently it was pouring rain in Sydney when they left... I think it's going to Melbourne / Adelaide / Hobart back to Sydney.

We're on a similar cruise in December with Princess 

4 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

If both are ordered at the same time, it's one email. 

thanks... I wondered if that was the case... strange how the e-mail said Medallion and not Medallions as there are 2 of us on the booking...

9 hours ago, jennybenny said:

When ordering, you have to select all the details for both medallions, even if all you choose is the free lanyard. If you only did it for 1, then you only ordered one. If you did it for both of you, then you have it covered for both. You may have only ordered hers if you didn't walk through the process for both

thanks - on the app it says both have been ordered.... but there was only 1 e-mail with wifes name on it

I was wondering if Princess just send 1 e-mail per booking number?

I went on the app and ordered the medallions for our cruise in December

However, when I went to finalise the order it came up saying I had selected 'home delivery' - which is incorrect as we live in New Zealand, so I cancelled the order, went back in and found the box to tick 'pick up at port' and I completed the order for both of us.

Now I've got 2 e-mails from Princess 4 minutes apart

The first e-mail says "You requested to have your order shipped to your home. Your Medallion® devices and any products you ordered will be shipped 10 to 20 days before your Princess" 

The second says "Your Medallion® order is scheduled and will be waiting for you when you arrive at the terminal on embarkation day"

now I'm confused as to what's going to happen... I assume the 2nd e-mail is correct and our medallions will be waiting for us at the cruise terminal? 

also my wife saw the e-mail and it was in her name (she did the cruise booking with Princess)... and she asked if I had ordered a medallion for myself - which I had done on the app, but the e-mail only says the word Medallion not Medallions and there's no mention of my name on the e-mail, only her name.

Can I assume that because the booking is in her name both medallions have been ordered and they (Princess) just send 1 e-mail to the registered e-mail address we share - or should I have received a separate e-mail?

any advice would be appreciated!

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

You have to be quick when you spot a price drop. 

yes I gathered that!

thanks - wife was going to call Princess, so I just double checked the website again and did a dummy booking for our cruise and it came out $20 more that we paid.... so the price has gone up again.... weird

thanks for the replies.... I might see if wife can phone Princess this week and ask about the price difference.

We won't cancel and re-book if we have to pay a larger deposit or choose a different stateroom though

We booked our cruise in February 2024 for December 2024, as part of their 'love boat sale' with $99 deposits

Now we've received an e-mail from Princess about a '7 day sale'... and you guessed it, our cruise is now cheaper than what we paid for it (we booked directly with Princess) - it's about $300 cheaper overall

When we first looked at the cruise it was quite cheap, but had gone up a little bit by the time we booked it.... the person on the phone at Princess said as the ship starts to fill up the price also goes up accordingly.... but now it's on 'sale'.

Is there anything we can do (contact Princess) to get the cruise at the cheaper price - or do we just have to suck it up?

On 3/25/2024 at 1:22 PM, ceeceeDee said:

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway in Cairns is awesome. Fantastic views.

we did this on our cruise in 2018 - was well worth it

we've discovered the same problem... we cruise in December 2024 and final payment is due September and we can't make any reservations in the MDR until final payment has been made.... but we're not too worried about it.