muffydawg

For our October 2024 Island Princess voyage I found EZ Air was easily $900.00pp more expensive for biz class than booking directly with the airline.

Wonderful news!

1 hour ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

I meant what time?  The take you to the ship in a first in/first out basis and only take small groups at a time. We waited a long time to head to the ship. But I think they have fixed that model and the van doesn’t sit in that huge line of cars anymore. 

The emailed invitation you received for the GO Princess Lounge should contain the Lounge operating hours; at least my invitation to the GO Princess Lounge did.

5 hours ago, Grego said:

Glad to see you received an invitation to visit the Go Princess.  They have a limited amount that can attend and it is only available to a Princess ship is at docked at #2 terminal.  Anthony and Edwina are wonderful hosts and their attention to detail is amazing in taking care of all your needs.  We have been fortunate to be invited twice previously and have just received an invitation to be there for the April 20th voyage.

The follow-up, personalized phone call from Anthony was a welcome and unexpected surprise.

Received our email invitation a few weeks ago followed by a phone call today with details; looking forward to the experience!

Looking forward to enjoying the GO Princess pre-embarkation experience on SE 17th Street!

We received the invitation for the pre-embarkation Lounge by email--and did not book red-eye flights through EZ Air; we drive to the port.

7 hours ago, akaCruiser said:

I'm going to piggyback off of this thread, and ask the experts on a few things on booking European hotels using Princess. Firstly, how early can you book a hotel, as we are doing a 10 day cruise from Rome return in August 2025? What are the rates if you are booking for four vs. two? According to the website, a minimum of two nights is required, which is fine, but beyond that there is not a lot of details of booking hotels.

 

Thanks in advance.

I contacted Princess in October 2023 for information on their hotel packages in Rome for an October 2024 cruise. We were placed on a "waitlist" for the chosen hotel and by February 2024 we cleared the waitlist. The price for DH and I was much better than what I expected and includes transport between FCO and hotel plus hotel to the port.

My recipe for Biz class tickets includes establishing a price I'm willing to pay. and never looking back. Purchased Biz class tickets right after Xmas 2023 for our upcoming October 2024 voyage

Oooooh! Lobster rolls! YUM!

33 minutes ago, AGE CRUISER said:

Island is scheduled for drydock in September this year in Italy - I have no details on what is being done.  I love the Island as I love the smaller ships for actual cruising...

If true she's getting some TLC in September then it will be quite exciting to sail her in early October

We sail on the Island later this year--aside from itinerary the smaller passenger capacity of 2200 compared to the Grand, Caribbean & Emerald was a plus.

16 hours ago, skynight said:

Pick up your medallion at the.pier.

That's what we're doing in about 50 days.

19 hours ago, KEG21552 said:

Chiming in as we are looking for the opposite.  We debark in Trieste and are staying in Venice for a few days post cruise

We booked the cruiseline transfer from ship.

I'm picking our medallions at the cruise terminal.

Your experience choosing seats thru EZ Air is one of two reasons why I booked my air directly with LH.

Prior to 2020 we booked through the TA associated with a major cc company and now book directly with Princess, either online or over the phone. I've not had annoying or bothersome emails from our Princess CVP and in fact prefer the emails (documentation) she sends subsequent to her proactive, customer service oriented phone calls.  On the rare occasion I called or emailed HER with a question I've received a call back within 24 hours, followed up by an email recapping our conversation.

Yes, I had that issue where my cc was billed for making the reservation on embarkation night. I'll bring my cc statements and a DMW screen shot of Crown Grill as documentation and get it all straightened out on board.

I also sort out adding 3 more ppl to the reservation once we get on board.

Thanks for your review; we sail her in April and are so looking forward to experiencing Enchanted Princess.

25 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

As long as you can correctly diagnose what you are getting. 

In our case our requirements were:

• same airline (MIA to Europe, Europe to MIA)
• biz class
• airplane (777 v A380 or 747)
• price
• airport connection time

Each of the above were easily "diagnosed" while performing due diligence prior to booking air tickets

Always pays to comparison shop for the best value.

I checked schedules and prices on Kayak, Travelocity for our 2024 Island Princess trip then compared $$ to EZ Air and airline-specific websites. Best value we found was booking directly with the airline.

We will pick up our medallions at FLL--perhaps even exchange them for a cruise card.

We are Marriott folks---Ritz, Westin, Le Meridien, Renaissance.

I will do most everything the old fashioned way---using the Princess website/ speaking F2F with staff onboard--- to print out paper copies of key documents, reserve MDR times, order room service, order drinks & food, etc---IMHO "No App Needed 4 That!"