Bwana Tom

On our last cruise on the Enchanted Princess in Nov. 2023 our batteries on both of our medallions (not custom medallions) expired. We went to the customer service and they replaced both of them. We are elite and the original medallions were the usual black color but the replacements were white. We were told that was the only color they had and they would not allow us to keep the original ones. I am assuming if your batteries fail they would also keep your custom ones and their $5.00s. Just something to think about.    

We have went through the canal twice, once through the old canal then a few years later through the new one. Without a doubt I would choose either the Island or the Coral and go through the OLD canal. For most canal cruisers the most important factor is the history of the canal and you certainly miss that when traveling through the new one. When going through the new one it seems like you are simply traveling down a river. And I would also strongly recommend doing the full transit rather than the usual 10-day cruise that returns to the same port as you departed from.     

13 hours ago, BDevilCruiser said:

I'm pulling up suggested travel times now, at 7:30PM on a Friday, supposedly after rush hour, not that rush hour ever ends in NYC.  You would be arriving in the morning, leaving the ship in the AM rush hour, or slightly after.  Certainly a Saturday or Sunday would be better.

 

The cruise terminal is in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/UzDsjCPxJhx6ZKGFA

(since you posted in the Princess group, I'm assuming you're sailing with them.  They almost always use Brooklyn instead of mid-town Manhattan.)

 

Newark Liberty Airport (EWR) is 18-22 miles away:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XwEkU3pqGyrL3tuV6

43 minutes on the best route (through Staten Island, which is 22 miles.  It's 55 minutes on the shortest route.)

 

LaGuardia Airport (LGA) is 13 miles away:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/L8tvme5BdwspE7Pm6

35 minutes.

 

JFK Airport is 18-24 miles, depending on the freeway chosen to travel:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/H6go24sSQ9DeNJfP8

Current best travel time is 40 minutes for the 24 mile route (55 minutes for the 18 mile one)

 

 Public transportation is in the 1.5+  hour range, partly because the terminal is not very close to any subway station.

 

When I last sailed out of Red Hook, it was a Saturday dis-embarkment, and I was fairly lucky with traffic once I got to the Interstate (heading south through Staten Island, which would be the likely route to Newark.) 

 

I would check Uber/Lyft, and definitely transfers offered by Princess, for pricing (you can do a "dummy" trip check on Uber or Lyft.  NYC Taxis are also available, but not sure how to check costs.  Those would be more likely to be stable, rather than demand-pricing on Uber/Lyft.  And private car services, such as the one linked in the post above, are viable as well.

 

I also wouldn't reserve a flight until the afternoon, because there's no assurance that traffic will behave.

 

(Note, I was born about two miles from Red Hook, although I no longer live in the area.)

Thank you very much...super great info. Now that Princess is cruising back and forth from Fort Lauderdale and N.Y. we were looking of possibly booking a Caribbean cruise out of Lauderdale to wind up in N.Y. then fly home upon our arrival.

Thanks again for all the effort to provide me with this info.  

Anybody have an idea how far the cruise port is from the airport in New York and what the cheapest/best mode of transportation is?

11 hours ago, greatestvalue said:

Would they ever upgrade if you didnt bid?

Absolutely they still upgrade without bidding for an upgrade. We were upgraded in November of 2023 from a balcony cabin to a mini suite on an Enchanted transatlantic cruise. Unfortunately it was a B2B cruise and we were only upgraded on the first leg and not the second. Nevertheless, we were happy to get such a great upgrade anyway. Like someone else mentioned though, it might happen as often since they adopted the bidding system. If you do want to take the chance to get a free upgrade just be sure and tell your travel agent to mark it that way, or if you are booking on your own you need to do it yourself. 

I ordered the Crown Grill steak in the Main Dining Room on the Enchanted in December 2023 and it was of very good quality, just like that in the Crown Grill. I was told up front it would take an extra 1/2 hour, which it did. I'm pretty sure the extra time was the fact it actually came from that specialty restaurant. Was it cooked in the MDR? I'm not sure, but I assumed it was not. 

On one occasion we took advantage of a 50% off cruise which on that occasion saved us quite a bit of money. On another cruise however we went to the future cruise office to see what they were offering and was told they had a special pricing coming up in a few days. The lady recommended we wait until that day to see what kind of benefits we could get. We did so, but didn't book because the prices offered seems extremely high for the cruise we were looking at. I immediately went to our cabin and pulled that same cruise up both on my TA's website as well as Princess and found both sites were offering considerably better pricings. 

SO, my best advise is to be very careful and before laying your hard-earned dollars down, double check to make sure they aren't trying to scam you. 

19 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

Yep.  Only 3 days to get back to

the ship and 2 weeks to get to corporate.

Does anybody know where the 3-days came from for the crew to get recognized for the comments left? I can't understand the "logic" behind such a thing, but I frequently find logic missing not only on Princess, but seemingly throughout the country. 

Because of all the refundable/non-refundable issues Princess has been having on the second leg of our November/December 2023 B2B cruise I went to guest services in order to confirm my Military OBC was actually refundable (at that time it was NOT marked with an asterisk on the account). At guest services they simply pulled my account up on their computer and told me it WAS refundable, but about 3 or 4 days later the asterisk appeared. Rather than taking a chance at losing the funds we simply spent all of the money. 

I certainly wish Princess would hire some people, especially including their computer staff that knows what they are doing. If they don't I'm pretty sure many of their longtime and faithful customers will go elsewhere to get their cruise fixes. 

18 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We just came off (today) 14 days on the Sky Princess.  On this cruise we had both our $250 military credit and the $250 shareholder credit.  When we boarded on Dec 2, the on-board app showed that my military credit was "refundable."  During the voyage, I noticed that it had changed to "non-refundable."  We had a total of approximately $1500 of OBC, but only the "gift" from our cruise agency was listed as "refundable" along with a few dollars added (during the voyage) for a refund of some port charges/fees.

 

Since we had the Premiere Package. we had trouble spending all that OBC.  We managed to book 6 specialty restaurant dinners (2 were free as a Premiere Package perk) so that only used about $368).  We had booked 3 excursions (we generally dislike any excursion) and one of them was cancelled (by Princess).  We soon realized we would have about $400 remaining non-refundable OBC, so I bought a couple of expensive bottles of Cognac (at the shop) to use up all that OBC.

 

Hank

The same thing happened to us on a back to  back cruise to the Med and returning on a transatlantic voyage on the Enchanted (Nov/Dec 2023). We had both vet and stock OBC both of which was in my name and initially the vet credit was marked refundable (no *) in the account record. I actually went to the Guest Services Desk mid way through the second cruise to verify that the vet would be refundable. The gal at the desk pulled up our account and confirmed it was. About a week before the end of the cruise the * appeared in the account, indicating it was now classified as non-refundable. We went ahead and spent all of the OBC money because Princess has become terrible with their customer service and I simply did not want to deal with likely months of emails and telephone calls likely coming out of Philippines.

I wish Princess would be more upfront with their cruisers and stop changing their policies in the dark. 

Tom

Preordering a 375ml bottle for the cabin can you have the cost taken out of your OBC?

My personal belief is that since the Plus package has gone from $40/person/day to $50 then within months to $60, not to even mention the Premier that could double the cost for someone staying in an inside cabin, fewer of us have reached the discussion it really is worth it. Of course, for some folks they will consider it worth the extra cost largely due to their own personal drinking habits. Nevertheless, I am thinking the number of cruisers currently buying into these packages has dropped significantly from only a couple of years ago.   

My wife and I have taken 25 cruises on Princess and all of those but 2 or 3 has not included the package plans and most of those were when Princess Plus was "ONLY" $40. For us it simply didn't make any sense for us. Then it went to $50 and we said, "no way in He...", then shortly after that Plus became $60. Like everyone else said every individual is different and you need to do the math for you personally and ignore all others. And as far as their hotshot Princess Prem. that certainly is out of the question as well. Princess pushes these packages so hard is because they make money on them. I am sure you will still enjoy yourself and will appreciate that extra cash in your pocket that you can spend as you like.   

On one of our cruises we had ordered 2 cases of water (long b2b cruise) but no water was in our cabin when we arrived. I went to guest services and mentioned it. They argued they had no record of the order. I promptly told them we have a hard copy of the order in our cabin and surprise surprise they said they would send the water up. I'm a believer of having either a hardcopy of everything or a screen shot when it comes to consistently inconsistent Princess. 

We had cabin C103 front facing cabin in the Diamond Princess in January of this year. Ironically it was booked and sold as a view cabin but ironically it turned out to have an extremely large a balcony cabin. We were surprised and very happy. It overlooked a deck below with a small swimming pool that was used by the crew only. We were puzzled at the classification and only figured the classification was due front facing cabins usually aren't used on sea days because of the wind. Nevertheless, there was no signs prohibiting its use on the Diamond and we frequently used it throughout the cruise (sea days and port days). It still had a nice view with nothing obstructing it and we very much enjoyed it. I'm assuming the other front facing cabins are similar, but I'm not sure about that.   

On 10/1/2023 at 2:41 PM, Rfzz38W said:

@skynight @Belle

 

Nice to hear the changeover will be easier than expected.

Thank You both very much for the help and CC for being a great resource!

No worries! We've have done these many times on Princess and the ship staff has it down pat. They have done this many times. As mentioned earlier, leave your clothes hanging in the closet and pack everything else in your suitcases and the steward will transport it for you. Just remember to clear your safe out. We put those valuables in my backpack until we can get in our new room. We mention to the steward we are changing cabins, but even though we have never had a single issue before of recent I have started to print out a single luggage tag for the second leg of the cruise then have placed it on top of one of our bags just as a reminder of the move.

We are book on these same cruises with you. Hope to see you aboard. 

19 hours ago, doghog said:

I've used these luggage tag sleeves for years. No tape, no staples required. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E4SQNLS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

Also, you might try ebay as well for the sleeves and they frequently come to you postage-free. There is a difference in sizes so you should make sure whichever ones you purchase are the Princess size. These sleeves are much more secure than simply attaching the paper tag by itself and are of course reuseable. .  

Is the life boat drill still being done on the TV?

The future cruise deposits (FCD) are of great benefit and we always have a few of those on hand for our future bookings. But my best advice on actually booking a cruise while on board is to check the prices on the web before laying your money down and committing. On our last cruise we discovered the cruise we were considering was priced considerably lower than their so called "onboard sale price" both on the normal Princess site as well as through our travel agent. Be diligent and don't lay your money down unless you are sure it is the best possible deal. A quick check on the web while onboard could save you considerably. 

It is so much easier to just drop them off at the dock then go and enjoy the ship. We usually travel with a checked bag and a carry-on bag for the flight, but when we get to the dock we drop all of the bags off for them to handle. The only exception is I have a backpack which has my computer and valuables in it. That I will carry on. I wish I could drop it off as well, but unsure if I would trust them with its contents. It is so nice however to not have to lug suitcases around when at times the elevators and passageways can be quite crowded. 

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

Exactly. The 9.75 deficit was covered with the 635 OBC. So as soon as part 2 started it was 635 - 9.75 = 625.25 obc left. OBC came from FCD, Shareholders, promo, and 85 from unknown source. CVP just added it from somewhere

Thanks Ombud!

12 hours ago, Ombud said:

5/27/23: 250 obc loaded for 1st voyage

6/1/23: 1st voyage ended & I owed $9.75, amt owed rolled over & 635 obc applied 

6/17/23: 2nd voyage ended. I have (according to saved screenshot) 1 combined bill for both legs. Final bill $6.15 

 

So yeah, OBC & Balance due rolls to last voyage

Ombud:

Please bear with me with my slow-functioning morning brain. You are saying that the overage on your first cruise was not charged to your credit card and it was paid for from the OBC you had on the second cruise, is that correct? And was that OBC credit that you had actually purchased or was it from some sort of cruise deal, vet credit, or etc?

Thanks!!

Can someone provide with the precise AARP website where you are purchasing the gift cards from which includes the 10% discount? 

Thanks!

We are thinking of booking a Rome tour in November with italytours.eu and was wondering anyone has personal experience, good or bad, with these folks.

I got my email notice from Princess today concerning the changes to the Military and Stock OBC. Does anyone know whether Holland America is following suit with similar changes? I suppose they probably will, but in the chance they do not I just might have to try cruising with them.