Bwana Tom

I think you will enjoy that cruise. We've done it several times and always like the Mexico Riviera. My only advice would be to look carefully at the benefits of the Princess Plus and do the math calculations before deciding on it. My wife and I aren't heavy drinkers and usually it simply doesn't pay for us, but that is us. For the heavy drinkers it is a good bargain, but us not so. Everyone one is different and for the best bargain you have to do the math.

Happy cruising. 

3 hours ago, skynight said:

Are there vendors on the Princess Cay property? Maybe the ladies braiding? There used to be vendors out the back gate.

Yes, plenty of vendors, including ladies wanting to braid your hair.

9 hours ago, Moondogy said:

I'm gonna try the Dirty Banana this time....I heard great reviews on it 😊

My wife isn't a big drinker, but she absolutely loves Princess' Dirty Banana. Just make sure they only use 1/2 a banana rather than a whole one.

Happy drinking!

Follow 2

I believe 2 separate programs becoming confused here. Princess did away with the classic "Happy Hour" where it was 2 drinks for the price of one a few years ago. I was very disappointed personally when they did that and I believe the impact of doing so has had a negative import on Princess. I believe the company lost income as a result of it and ticked off a lot of passengers. The second program that most of the people here are talking about is the Platinum and Elite Lounge Program, which provides reduced cost on a few specified drinks and a few snacks. 

17 hours ago, geoherb said:

 

Did you book directly with Princess or through a TA? I've found that some TAs are better than others at passing along the emails. 

I've always booked through a TA because I get points that can be applied to discount cruise cost or free motel stays. 

12 hours ago, grizzle-bizzle said:

I had booked one recently and got the cabin number about a month out with an email saying that I had been "upgraded" with the cabin assignment. Booked BF and the assignment was for BB.

I've gotten an upgrade like this, but unlike you and some others, I've never received an email indicating they gave me an upgrade. I simply found the cabin had been assigned in my personalizer.

Periodically this happens; just keep trying. Eventually you will get on line. I've always thought it kind of funny once you finally get on line their standard line is to congratulate you. 

Slick way to take care of your gratuities. We always use our OBC in this way. It's automatic and easy and if you exceed the $14.50 per day for each passenger the difference is simply applied to your credit card balance. Easy Peasy.

You'll have a GREAT TIME! Chances are it will be less crowded, which is a plus in my book, but it will resemble the way all Princess cruises have always been. And that is a premium vacation that you won't forget. We have our 22th cruise booked for March, of which 20 of those have been on Princess. You will likely find Princess to have a more laid-back atmosphere than many of the other cruise lines, with no bumper cars, water slides, skating rinks and bowling alleys, but for a relaxing vacation with lots of other things to do Princess is a great choice.

Happy Cruising!  

On 1/29/2022 at 3:03 PM, Astro Flyer said:

Or like in Naval Air when they’d want newbies to get a gallon of prop wash! 😂

 

Awe, the ol' navy days.

5 hours ago, patrickmoran said:

 

5 hours ago, Baxter68 said:

Don’t lower quality in MDR, UP IT in the specialty restaurants!!

My thoughts exactly!

Did any of you folks happen to see a couple of ladies singing and playing mariachi music on the Puerto Vallarta pier? We saw them pre-pamdemic and bought a CD from them. They were excellent entertainers. The CD was entitled "Color of Mexico - Decadas Ensamble". We are scheduled for this same cruise in March and was hoping to see them again and buy some more of their CDs. There is actually a YouTube video of them on line taken by a cruiser that just happen to come across them like we did. Unfortunately however they don't seem to be marketing their CDs via the internet.  

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us of your cruise.

I believe the others have answered most of your concerns/questions here already. I will only mention a couple of things that might be helpful. You will likely be advised to meet in an assigned lounge on teh last day of the first leg and once all B2B folks get there you will be ushered off the ship in order to go through customs. It is a very easy process, but the entire process will likely take 45 to 60 minutes to complete. The B2B folks are not allowed back on the ship until all of the normal passengers have left the ship. After that you can return to the ship if you choose to do so, which is very nice because there will be few others on board. You should not be concerned about the process because it very well organized and easy to complete.

Even if you have to change cabins that too is very easy. We always talk to our steward on the first leg of the trip to make sure he/she understands we will be moving cabins, but staying on for the next cruise. We leave the cloths hanging in the closet, but put everything else in our  luggage and leave the bags on the bed. Just be sure to take all of your valuables out of the safe and take them with you.

Easy Peasy! And best all you only have to travel to the port once. 

On 1/22/2022 at 1:17 AM, caribill said:

I also have always have unused OBC carry over to the next segment since the onboard accounts are not closed out at the end of the first segment.

 

I always stop by the Customer Service desk to make sure my segments are linked in their computer system.

I too have always experienced the same thing, pre and post pandemic, but on one occasion my wife's account was not linked with mine, but the customer service folks linked them together. My best advise is to stop in on a slow day when there aren't long lines to make sure everything is linked.

For our last cruise in November 2021 we received our cabin assignment 8 days prior to boarding, but as others have said it can come any time.

3 hours ago, MustangGT said:

@Bwana Tom - I agree with you!  I miss the comment cards and always have a long list of crew I want to commend in the survey.  Now I try to get some of those names into the comments related to specific departments.

Princess crew rocks!!

@MustangGTI do exactly the same thing. I slip some comments/compliments in throughout the survey. I hope those comments reach the right parties to provide some benefit for those fine employees. 

Interesting, but a little off topic, we talked with a lot of the staff on a recent B2B cruise on the the Regal Princess and on many occasions we were told that Princess really took great care of them during the height of the pandemic. They continued to pay them until their contract ended and went out of their way to get them back to their home countries. In some cases those countries stopped them from getting back in and even then Princess took care of them. We heard roomers that some of the other cruise lines simply cut ties with their staff, telling them they were essentially on their own. Those comments make me even more faithful to Princess.

Good Cruising.

On 1/9/2022 at 11:37 AM, Coral said:

I was told there are no crew comment cards anymore.

That is right; they have eliminated the actual "comment cards", but I believe what was met was to provide credit to the good service in the survey that is sent to all the cruisers upon the completion of the cruise. Unfortunately they limit you to about six comments and my wife and I always seem to have more people we would like to provide good comments on. Truly the Princess staff are some of the best in the business.

16 hours ago, We_like_to_cruise said:

I have been very successful with contacting Princess via Live Chat - after figuring out how to use it correctly.

 

Live Chat is available 6am to 9pm PST Monday through Friday and 6am to 6 pm PST Saturday and Sunday. 

 

Unlike the hours I spent on hold calling directly, the Live Chat feature allowed me to communicate much more quickly (often within a few minutes) with a customer service representative.  (YMMV !)

 

Here are some things I learned, mostly via trial and error. 

 

First - how to access the chat feature?

It is located at the very bottom of the Princess.com web page and it looks like this (highlighted):

 

 

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The first few times I attempted to access it, that "Live Chat" button was not visible.  Then, I turned off my AdBlocker for princess.com and it suddenly appeared.  (I use the Firefox browser).  As an experiment, I also tried loading the princess.com site with Microsoft Edge browser and the "Live Chat" button was visible.  So I guess my security settings were somehow blocking it.  The point is, if you do not see "Live Chat" when it should be available during business hours, try another browser or computing device.

 

Once you click on that "Live Chat" button, you may get the following screen:

 

 

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The most important part of this message is "...our chat agents are currently busy assisting other users".  Just simply keep clicking (refreshing) that "Live Chat" button.  You may see the above message a number of times.

 

However, finally you will be rewarded with this message:

 

 

 

-------

I found that you should act promptly at this point. 

 

As directed, type in your name and email address.  However - I would recommend only typing a very short message

under "Your Question".  My first few attempts when I typed out my entire reason for chatting found me back at the

"Live Chat is currently offline" screen when I hit Enter, and presumably, back in the queue.  So, I then simply typed "Please help" or something similar, hit Enter and was pretty quickly connected with a representative.

 

And, I never felt rushed when I interacted with a representative and all of my issues were resolved and questions were answered.  Although, I am not sure exactly what they can and cannot do. 

 

Although my sample size is small, the last few times I tried the Chat function, I was pleased with how quickly it worked compared to directly calling Princess.

 

Good luck !

 

 

 

 

I agree. I have had the same results/issues and it is much more efficient than waiting on hold for hours sometimes on the phone. Very helpful.

Thanks for providing all the help and info.

Tom

2 hours ago, DUCHESSRN said:

I had OBC posted in December for Jan 22nd cruise … I printed it . I noticed it has gone since I got a price drop on cruise .

I refaxed and E Mailed … is there a special number you call for this ?

Try this telephone number: 1-800-872-6779  Ext: 30317, but be prepared to be on hold for a while.

Good luck.

Tom

We are booked on the Majestic for a 3 way B2B in March. On December 24th I emailed my Shareholder form and documentation to CCL for the OBC credit. After not hearing from them by January 3rd I called to check on the status and after a 45-minute hold time I was told they were processing the request based on the date they were received. At that time they were processing the requests received on the 19th, but were getting close to the end of that date meaning they would be moving on to those received on the 20th. And sure enough today (January 5th) our OBC credit appeared in my Personalizer account.

I'm sure several things tribute to the slower than usual processing, including the holidays as well as the worker shortage, but sure enough they get the job done. One other thing to note, I was also told that the best way to submit the request is by email.

I hope by sharing this will provide assurance that you will eventually be rewarded for your patience. 

Good cruisin'

Tom   

We did a 4 way back to back on the Regal in Nov/Dec that the soft serve was excellent.

On 12/20/2021 at 6:56 PM, paradiselivin1 said:

Didn't get one on Regal over Thanksgiving either....

Nor did we receive it. We were on the same cruise...Regal over Thanksgiving and 3 other cruises on a B2B basis.

15 hours ago, GriffenSunshine said:

Regal has Crab Shack pop up 

We just returned from a 4 way B2B Caribbean cruise on the Regal (November and December) and there was no Crab Shack pop up on those 4 cruises. But each cruise was only 5 nights. Possibly on the longer cruises??

On 12/14/2021 at 2:53 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

We love Regal Princess, especially its incredible buffet (I am a glutton). The MDR food has always been excellent pre-covid.

I hope all cabins have the new beds now, because the only thing we hated about Regal was the beds. Old, hard as a rock and lumpy as hell. I couldn't sleep a wink and was in major pain all week every time we sailed on her.

I know for a fact the bed in C636 balcony cabin has the new bed a few weeks ago. Very comfortable! And the food in the MDR and the buffet was the best we have had on any of our many Princess cruises. This was the first time on the Regal, so I can't comment on whether the buffet is or not as massive as before, but it was good.