Eli_6

Long-time cruise, but first time Princess cruiser. I am checked in for my cruise for my Mom and I (departing on the 08/24 from Southampton, UK) but our documents don't specify an arrival time. Does Princess not have arrival windows we are supposed to follow? Also, I ordered our medallions months ago (and purchased accessories) but they are (per Princess) still in California in customs and I live in Houston. Since they haven't even cleared customs yet, I don't foresee them arriving before we leave on 8/21. Will I have to stand in a long line to get new ones the terminal? My mother is elderly and the entire reason I ordered them was to avoid a long wait. The person on the Princess line was not helpful in answering my questions and just kept telling me they would arrive in time. I informed her I had lived at my address for 16 years and never once had I received a package from California in 2 business days that was sent via regular mail. I can't even get a package delivered from Austin to Houston in 2 business days.

I know. That is one of my concerns.

No, unfortunately, I don't have one. Yes, I bid on a premium deluxe balcony, a mini-suite, a club class mini-suite, and a forward facing club class mini-suite.

Oh, I see. That explains so much.

Also, I don't understand why they will let me bid on an upgrade but won't just allow me to pay full price to upgrade us to a three person room...

TLDR: 10 yo suddenly wants to come on cruise in 12 days. In 2 person balcony currently. Cruise purportedly sold out but given upgrade offers. If I win an upgrade on a room that is a 3 person room, can I add my kid? When will they likely notify me of upgrade? How much is it to typically add a 3rd person in a balcony, mini-suite, etc? Long story: I took my older son on a cruise to Australia and Asia for 3+ weeks. Younger son (10) didn't want to go so stayed home with his Dad/husband. Dad/my husband couldn't go because is a dr and couldn't be away from his practice that long. (Also, we went to Italy in May/June.) Younger son said the flight was too long. (Houston to Syd = 19 hours; Singapore to Houston through Manchester = 25 hours.) However, after his brother and I left, he had regrets. I just got home on Tuesday from Aust/Asia. I am supposed to leave next Tuesday with my Mom for an 8-day cruise to Denmark and Norway. My Mom's Dad is from Denmark and she has never been there. Now my 10-year-old wants to go. My Mom doesn't care if he goes. I call Princess to add him. I find out since we are in a regular balcony and not an extended balcony or mini-suite, it doesn't have a fold out couch and so we can't add him to the room. I ask to upgrade to a 3 person room, but they say it is sold out. Next day, I get an email to bid to upgrade on a variety of rooms ranging from simply a (?extended or premium?) balcony with a sleeper sofa to Medallion class mini-suite. I put bids on all of them. Haven't heard anything back yet. I then try messaging Princess last night and calling, but it was after 9 pm ET. So, I wait until this morning and call princess and try to get answers as to whether I will definitely be able to add my son if I win the upgrade. (Also, I need to know "when" I will know since if I only find out 2 days before, my Mom and I will already be in Europe.) The thought occurs to me that there are lifeboat/occupancy restrictions on the boat such that even if I have a 3 person room, I may not be able to add him. It also occurred to me, "What if I win the fancy suite for not much but then they want me to pay some outrageous amount to add my son?" The person I got on the phone was no help. They just kept trying to say, "Yes, you can add your son to your room if you have a three person room." They didn't seem to understand the bid process or any of that. They didn't seem to at all understand my question about max occupancy of the ship based on life boats, etc. I in no way mean this to be mean--because I know how hard it is to learn a second language and God bless him for doing as well as he did--but I don't think that English was their first language so I think perhaps there were translation issues. So, then I try to talk to them via the chat. It says there are 99 people in front of me. Forget that! I call back again, sit on hold, get someone else, explain the whole thing, they seem stumped...then the phone goes dead. What us mothers do for our kids! I am about ready to just say forget it and tell my kid, "Too bad. You should have changed your mind earlier." Can anyone give me any guidance on this? Should I just forget the whole thing?

Lol, I meant the part about possibly having tongue cancer was the curve ball. Hopefully, it isn't, though, and I can go on my cruise worry free.

So, as of right now (FX), I have decided to go on my Sydney to Singapore cruise despite the world throwing curve balls at me. As I posted before, I came back from our Europe cruise and got Covid and had my tooth start hurting. My ear and throat were hurting, too, but I figured it was either the Covid or the tooth. I went to an Endodontist to have my root canal from 2 years ago redone, and while I was there, she found a big, lacy white spot on my tongue at the back of throat. She immediately referred me to an oral pathologist...as in I got in the NEXT DAY with the help of her office. I had a painful biopsy done last week and will get results next Wednesday...just days before I leave. It is taking so long because the pathologist is on vacation this week. The oral pathologist said it could be cancer, but feels it is more likely Lichen Planus, though, due to the appearance of the abnormality and me not fitting normal demographic for oral cancer...i.e. I am under 45, female, and not a smoker or tobacco user. I do fit the demographic for developing Lichen Planus, though, as it is thought to be autoimmune related. I have had a positive on an ANA test before also developed preeclampsia--also thought to be autoimmune related--in pregnancy so Lichen Planus would fit with my prior medical history. So, assuming I don't have cancer (or, even if I do, assuming I don't have to start treatment), I plan on going. So, yall send good thoughts my way that I doubt end up finding out I have oral cancer next week. Another deciding factor: I just today got a really great deal on airfare. I was "paying" 400k miles (for two of us) to go from IAH-LAX-SYD in business and today I got two flights (business) at 100k miles each basically the same date/time going IAH-SFO-SYD. I am told that it is easier to fly through SFO than LAX. One quick question on the SYD-SIN cruise: Will there be auto grats on this cruise? If not, are the employees paid more than on European or US-based cruises?

I have decided to go on my Australian to Singapore cruise. It is a 15-day cruise. Can I still only take 1 bottle? Here is the carnival alcohol policy: carnival.com/help?topicid=2633 According to this, it appears to me I can only take 1 bottle of wine even though it is 2x as long as a regular 7-day cruise and because my son is only 11. I don't want to get CHEERS as it comes out to $74 USD per day (because it is $111 AUD) or between $1100-1200 total which is basically what we paid for the cruise per person. Actually, I think it may be more if you take off the taxes and port fees. I am thinking about getting Cruise the Vineyard instead...especially because I am told by the Australians that both the fish bowl and pitchers are $66 AUD each, which I think is like $44 USD. (It was not this much when I last purchased on US based cruise.) Anyone done Cruise the Vineyard in Australia? What did you think? It appears to have different wines than the US version.

Yes, you will need more than 110k miles. If you are interested in points, look into 10x travel. They have a course that is good and explains everything. Typically, I have the points already ready and then book as soon as tickets become available 355 days (or whatever it is for the specific airline) out. I have flown my family of four back and forth to Europe for the past three years all of us on the same flight every time...all with points. Granted, that isn't Asia but I am flying my son and I on points around the world this summer as I mentioned above. United typically has 4 or more available and so does BA. Singapore Airlines usually has 2 or 3 per flight. Qatar usually 2-4...sometimes they will have 2 in business and 2 in first. Albeit, with either BA or Qatar, it will usually go through Qatar or London so that may not make sense for you depending on where you live. (Although, you could also do a day or two layover and make an additional trip out of it, too.) Not sure about other airlines. ANA has good deals but I personally have had a harder time finding availability. Don't use amex or chase portal. Look on the individual airline websites. Best availability is either going to be a full 355 days out or to wait within a month of the flight.

My 11 year-old and I are disembarking in Singapore at about 8 am. Our flight out is at 2 am. What would yall recommend we do for that time in Singapore? I admit that I have not done a lot of research because we just booked this cruise in May and are leaving in only 25 days.

Also, you could fly to east coast, fly to hawaii, and then fly to japan or China. Even east coast to Japan is maybe 10-11 hours. There is actually a low cost carrier out of Japan that has a very affordable business class. It doesn't have free drinks or food or high quality service, but it does have the lay flat bed. When I looked, I think one way was maybe $1600 per person for biz without the perks. (You even pay for the ammenity kit.) However, I was looking at one way and not r/t in biz because our cruise is a repositioning cruise.

I don't think there is a way to get comfortable in economy if you are over the age of 30 and a normal size human being. Maybe if you did New Zealand air and did their economy couch, but that is basically the price of PE. I get get sign up bonuses on credit cards and collect points/miles. I would not do the flight in anything less than PE or business. My son and I are flying to australia in business on United and then home (about 23 hours on two flights) the long way around from Singapore to Houston in biz on Singapore Airlines. (The reason for this is that I wanted to circumnavigate the globe. It was a bucket list item.) The SA tix were ~120k miles each and the United were 200k each, but can be found as low as 100k each. (They usually go down in the week before departure so I am hoping to cancel and rebook at 100k each. If you are willing to fly through Vancover and do Canada air, you can get as low as 80k-90k each, but that is way far out of the way for us.) You can get a sign up bonus on American Express Plat for 250k-300k for a 15k spend. Just got a sing up offer for a gold for 150k for 10k spend. Chase cards are usually 75k-100k for a lower spend (usually 4k-6k). Chase Sapphire, chase ink cards, chase united, etc. I put private school tuition for my kids and taxes (property taxes and income taxes) on my credit cards in addition to regular spending.

My 11-year-old son and I are taking a cruise from Australia to Singapore. I have excursions booked through the cruise company for all ports except in Lombok, Indonesia. First - Is it safe/a good idea for a woman and child to go off on our own in Lombok? Someone on another page suggested that in Bali traffic can be bad and we might run the risk of missing the ship so opted to do a cruise company excursion there. What would yall recommend doing in Lombok? Or should I just stick with one of the cruise excursions even if they aren't that good? I heard there was an elephant sanctuary, but we are going to one of those in Bali.

I am taking my elderly mother on a Princess Scandinavian cruise. Her father was from Denmark, but she has never been. It is a life long dream of hers to see Denmark. She can walk, but can't walk long distances. We are going to be taking her small, portable scooter that folds down to a small size. We want to see the Den Gamle museum in Aarhaus. Will there be availability of taxis at the port to be able to take us from the port to the Dan Gamle museum? I do not want to book the Princess excursion there because it appears it requires a lot of walking and you only have a short time at the Den Gamle By Museum.

They didn't offer cruise insurance for this cruise when I booked. Not sure if it was because I booked after the 90-day mark or because it is an australian cruise. I purchased independent insurance for medical/emergency.

Yeah, that sounds like an older version of my son down to the very thin and pale. He's going into the sixth grade. Almost 12. He is very, very smart and literally currently reading my husband's college physics textbooks but can't keep track of anything. He wouldn't even remember to shower if I didn't remind him.

UT dentists were not much help. They took xrays but could not tell anything from the xrays and would not remove the crown. So, now I have an appointment on Tuesday with an endodontist to remove crown and see what is going on.

We have extra travel insurance I actually just purchased for this trip that lasts a year because Carrnival didn't offer insurance. It actually wasn't very expensive for a year long travel/medical policy. If something happened to me, I would assume he would just come with me to the hospital and my husband could fly out. We are lucky in that my husband is a physician so normally we don't have to worry about anything minor on vacation. We have had stomach viruses, a broken toe (husband in Scotland falling down stairs at the castle we were staying at), a twisted ankle from falling through a medieval bridge when wood broke (me), food poisoning, colds, kidney stone (me), etc. and never had to visit a hospital. My husband even removed my son's stitches one trip because he busted his head open a few days before we left. He took surgical scissors with him. But if I got sick, my son would be NO HELP. He is very easy to travel with because he is super easy going, but along with that goes that he is a bit of a space cadet. He is just always talking about physics or flags or some other something that is going through his mind and not paying any attention to the world around him. You know "Sheldon"? Literally, that's my kid except that my kid has a better personality. Down to even loving flags and theoretical physics. He wants to be an astro physicist when he grows up. Very smart about very complex scientific issues, but no help on common sense matters. He has lost a dozen or more pair of glasses and I have to remind him to shower and wear deodorant, but he can talk your ear off about things 99 percent of adults know nothing about. Off to the dentist. FX it goes well.

Apparently, I am not the only one who has used air tags/tile to locate luggage on a cruise: I tried AirTags to track my luggage on a Royal Caribbean cruise | Royal Caribbean Blog Also, you can page them and they make a noise. I don't know about using them on kids, but certainly you can use them on your luggage on a cruise ship if you check your luggage.

I used them this past cruise to find a piece of lost luggage. However, we had just left when I found the lost luggage. I don't know how well it would have worked once we were far out at sea. I was under the impression it worked off the location of cell phones.

The fact that they can't sign themselves in or out of Camp Ocean until they are 10 is a pretty good indicator that Carnival doesn't want young children running around the ship unattended! Look - you do you. But 8 is really young to allow them to run around the ship unsupervised. Apart from safety issues, the greater likelihood is that they will simply misbehave and get in trouble. My kids are very well-behaved and both are very advanced in terms of their development and intelligence. And I still wouldn't have let them run around the ship unattended at 8. And, fwiw, neither would my husband and he is a psychiatrist so actually has medical training on child nuero development. Carnival may not kick you off the ship if caught, but it is still poor form. This sort of thing is exactly why they now have to station a person at the ice cream soft serve machine to "supervise" it. Or how my husband and kid and other adults ended up locked in the basketball court. (This actually happened again this summer, too, but with my son and a teenager locked in the court by some kid running around unsupervised and causing trouble.)

Are you sure about that? Because we used ours to find a lost bag this past cruise. In any event, if the kids were stolen, you could locate them once they were on land.

I don't think you can leave 8-year-olds unattended per Carnival rules. I think the youngest they can sign themselves in or out of Camp Ocean is 10. We let our kids sign themselves in/out for the first time this year. My boys went around the ship soliciting for their version of a "Ted talk" that they held in the Library at 8 pm on subatomic particles and physics. They even created a tip jar. And, shockingly, two people came to their talk.

Put tiles or apple tags on them. You can see where they are and page them with your phone if you lose them. I do that with my keys. This is in case you lose them accidentally. I would not let 8-year-olds run around without supervision.