Bwana Tom

On a recent B2B cruise to Hawaii and Mexico in January we were offered the same 50% off option. We booked a new canal Panama transit cruise and saved a bundle of $s, but like one poster said we weren't allowed to use our future cruise deposit, so we didn't get the OBC associated with that certificate. We told our booking agent onboard we wanted the cruise transferred to our TA, which he already had all of the info needed, but just in case, I called our TA when we got home and they were not aware of the booking. We wanted to have our TA to handle the booking because they are with a hotel-chain and we get points credited to our account for booking with through them. That wasn't a problem for and apparently an easy process for the TA. Nevertheless, I was glad I checked to ensure the booking was switched. Possibly it might have eventually been done, but who knowns with the "NEW" Princess and their consistent-inconsistent policies. I'd recommend still calling your TA.

Some of the power strips appear similar to a surge protector, quite possibly even more so to a worker on the ship from a foreign country. As a safeguard against it being accidentally confiscated by an unknowledgeable person, I stuck a blank stick-on address label on my power strip and wrote "this is not a surge protector". I figure it never hurts to take an extra degree of precaution to prevent problems down the road.

I've always thought they should use the U.S. Navy way of numbering. The Navy uses actual addresses to each space of their ships. Or at least they use to use them. It's been over a half a century since I served. For example: a compartment address would look something like 03-256-01. And address like this would mean this address would be located on the 03 deck; 256 would likely be about mid ship because the spaces are numbered in order; and the 01 would indicate it was on the port side of the ship. Upon boarding they would provide you with the usual little pocket fold-out ship map that could also include the addresses of the bars, restaurants, shops, etc. Then you could simply walk directly to that area and address. I know my wife and I always get confused about the location of the shops, offices, etc. on deck 6 and 7 on Princess. Addresses like this would surely eliminate that problem, at least for us. And I always dislike how they eliminated the color coding between the starboard side and the port side on many of the ships. It was an easy way to locate which side of the ship your stateroom is located on as you exited the elevators.

The OBC usually carries over from one cruise to the next, but I always stop by the customer service desk and ask to make sure. It is an easy thing to do and it helps to ensure there is no problem down the road.

We always discuss the situation with our cabin steward. If you are changing cabins between cruises you also need to let them know then pack up your loose items back into your suitcases, leave your hanging closet cloths on the hangers and the steward to transfer everything for you. In this case don't forget about your safe items. We clean it out and put it in our carry bag and pack it with us. Princess is very efficient when it comes to B3B cruisers. It runs very smoothly. We've done these many times all the way to 4x cruises B2B and have never had a problem. We figure the worst part of cruising are the flights to get there. We live so far away from any cruise port it simply makes good sense to do B2Bs. One of the nice things about doing so is once you get back on the ship between cruises you pretty much have the ship to yourself until the new passengers come aboard. No worries whatsoever; you will have a great time!

Any idea what such a transfer from Seattle to Vancouver costs?

This is continuing problem at Princess getting refundable OBC returned and has been going on ever since the restart of the cruises. I don’t know whether it is fraudulent activities on their part or simply terrible bookkeeping practices. As it has gone on for so long I’m leaning forward “fraudulent” though. Our last cruise we were short in our refund check and I eventually after many phone calls and using their on-line chat I sent a snailmail letter to John Padgett with all the appropriate documentation. I received no response whatsoever so about a month later I think send Jan Swartz an email and included spanned copies of all of my documents clearly showing the shortage in the payment. After a couple of weeks I received a call from a gal at Customer Relations that eventually refunded MOST of the amount shortage. By that time I accepted the check she sent simply because I was tired of the hassle. A few months after that incident in January of this year we took another cruise and once again when we received our refundable OBC check it was short again, this time for $191.19. I called the person I talked to last time and explained the situation to her. Even though she pulled our records up on her computer she wouldn’t comment or do anything about the shortage and simply told me to send an email to Customer Relations. It has now been a week and I haven’t heard anything back from them. While my problem is a little different than your own, my refundable amount came from my military vet credit and a few other things and yours should have been even more straightforward with gift cards. Nevertheless, this shortage refund problem continues to happen with Princess. In this last case I was holding back providing my entire pursuit of my funds until I heard back from Customer Services, but I fully intend to do that on Cruise Critic once I get it resolved. Hopefully that will eventually happen as I hope yours gets resolved as well. Good luck and I hope you eventually get what is owed to you. No one should have to go through this kind of a hassle.

Just be sure to mark out your account number.

Standard generic email. Check to see if it has been added to your account tomorrow. I'm thinking it will be.

None offered on the Diamond a few weeks ago.

Strongly Dislike!!

Very good to know. Thanks Rick & Jeannie.

So true!

If you are dealing an important issue I like to use the copy and paste function to copy the entire conversation into a Word document for saving. Once the connection is dropped all that has been said vanishes into a dark hole of the internet space. At least by saving the conversation into a document you can store it and/or make a hardcopy of it.

So, have I got this correct: they automatically charge your credit card that you on file immediately without you accepting the offer? I know other cruise lines do this, but I thought Princess sent an email and you could either accept or deny it. I only ask about this because there seems to be some confusion whether or not you have a grace period of a couple of days to accept. Thanks in advance for the clarification. Tom

I agree! I believe most cruisers that book without the shipping being included will likely start picking up their medallions at the port and that will likely slow the process of check-in and put an extra burden on their staff. We booked early like you did for our upcoming cruises, but after that we will rely on their staff to provide it as we board. I must assume they will still ship the medallions for through cruise, but it they don't I will simply wait to get it; one less item to pack in the suitcase and keep track of. Hope you have a great cruise.

Because we have had similar problems in the past, as discussed here, we are now in the habit of stopping by the customer service counter when we first board to make sure our accounts have been properly linked. That isn't a real problem for us because we usually always have other issues to check on and resolve anyway. We have found it is easier that way to anticipate a potential problem early on rather than attempting to get Princess to after the fact.

Vending machines are located in the laundry room. You use your medallion to charge them to your account, but sometimes the machines run out of tokens or the machine doesn't work. In this case you can purchase tokens, charged to your account, at the customer services counter.

Simple question-yes, but no one knows for sure even though they think they do. I’ll just wait. If it doesn’t show up, no bigger-I’ll pick it up at the dock.

We certainly will be adjusting our cruise spending in the future. I understand that Princess is facing financial problems, but aren’t we all? No more Princess Plus for us and likely no more internet. In our minds it simply isn’t worth it. That’s just our personal opinion. Everyone will have to decide for themselves though. I do think what Princess is doing will not help their bottom line in the long run as much as treating their customers better.

One other side note - if your laundry room is occupied there is generally one on each deck. My wife frequently goes to another deck if she has too. Like the others have mentioned, she also brings her own pods and dryer sheets.

Personally, for me and my wife even the Princess Plus at the earlier rate of $40/person/day wasn’t a good choice for us. Something that is often overlooked is the fact the OBC can be used to pay the crew gratuities. The cruise line simply extracts it from the OBC on a daily basis. In our particular case, which will not apply to all cruisers, we drink only moderately (one or two drinks a day for me and one at the most per day for my wife); we have been to most ports before and take advantage of only a few Princess sponsored tours; and we buy few if any souvenirs. On most cruises we generally have a great deal of OBC to draw from and are Elite so we get half back for the cost of the internet service in the form of additional OBC. On a few past cruises we signed up for Princess Plus on a very selective basis, but with the recent increase in the cost of Princess Plus as the far too expensive Premium Plus we won’t be buying in again. Like everyone says, “do the math” to see if it pays for you in particular.

Thank you for the extra work you put into this. Much appreciated!

I'm out! No more Princess Plus for us.

For the life of me I can’t find your new thread. Any hints would be appreciated. We are booked in January on the Diamond and anxious for any available info.