huskerdan25

I don’t care who captain is or name of cruise director - not important to me - just want a safe and healthy cruise. I’ve sailed many times and we’ve had friendly captains and one not so personal. Also good cruise directors and somebwho should find another line of work. Just go with the flow and chill out.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

You might want to read the entire thread or at least read the OP response. This was a joke. No chilling out necessary :)

Well, I really thank each and every one of you. Your advice has saved me a lot of money. No I'm not cancelling the cruise. I now no longer require Hemorrhoid Surgery that the Proctologist recommended, as I got just what I was expecting to get.

 

As for canceling the cruise, do you think that I would cancel a cruise that I have been waiting to go on for past 4 years? Not hardly and in addition, I have never been on any cruise that was ever a disappointment! And have never complained about anything, well except for the smokers in the cabin directly fore of us and the two of them smoked like chimneys!

 

But since our very active Roll Call is drawing to an end, well, I was just getting a little bored and thought that I needed some Tabasco in my life, so you are the unlucky victims today!

As those from our Roll Call can tell, and of course they can confirm it!

 

Now that I have you . . . under my control.

Watch out for that cloud!

Hope you forgive me, but in case you don't, I will be on a Cruise of a Lifetime for this Flat Land Hillbilly!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

Just Mike

Thanks Mike! I don't know you but something about your post made me not so sure whether this was serious or not but I leaned towards the not serious :) You gave some of us a good laugh!

I hope you have an amazing cruise!

I'm trying to decide whether to take this seriously or not. Wow! :)

Personally, I would never use a debit card. First, your debit card doesn't have the same protections as your credit card. If your information is ever compromised so is your bank account, and banks do NOT work as quickly to rectify things as credit card companies. Second, is the fact when the cruise company places a hold on your debit card, you had better have more than enough to cover any transactions that normally go through your bank account. Otherwise, you will be overdrawn and will incur bank fees. I know all of this because I had worked at a bank for years.

 

 

Credit card or cash is the way to go. If that isn't an option for you for whatever reason open a statement savings account and obtain a debit card for that account.

 

 

I highly discourage anyone in using a debit card attached to a checking account.

This! If you don't have a credit card or don't want to use one, then buy a prepaid card and load it and use it. Never use your debit card! We have used a credit card as required and then once on board have gone to the guest services desk and put down cash onto our accounts. Never had a hold placed on my credit card and for any cash unused, I was able to go to guest services the night before disembarkation and have gotten the unused cash back as cash.

Thanks for the reply. I have booked the All Inclusive Pearl Harbor Tour for the end of February, 2018. I have looked at reviews but just want to get all the information I can. Be sure and post the results of your tour!

I definitely will. The one thing I really liked was that the Call of Duty tour by Hoku was $120 pp cheaper than if we did the same excursion through the cruiseline! I paid $133pp while the cruiseline is charging $249 pp! And the lunch on this tour looks great!

Hope you have a great tour and please also share your tour experience with us in this forum.

That is just one experience. I have a friend who took their Call of Duty tour and said it was outstanding so I have booked them for our cruise in late January. Also, 97% of the reviews on tripadvisor are either excellent (90%) or very good (7%) so the previous posters response is not indicative of this being a poor tour company. You might want to go read some of the reviews at tripadvisor or other places (Yelp has mostly 5 star reviews) that provide reviews to get a better view of the company. I always research prior to booking and when 90%+ of the reviews at various sites say this is a excellent or very good tour company, then the few negatives don't drag it down in my eyes.

Hope you have a great cruise!

I would guess that Princess may be planning to introduce a lesser beverage package. Since this one is now the Premier Beverage Package perhaps they will introduce a "Peon Beverage Package" or something that costs less and only includes the nasty drinks they give away at the welcome back party. Obviously I'm not serious about that but naming this one "Premier" does leave them open for some lesser package.

I think you are right. I have experience with the drink package on Celebrity and under the previous AIBP, it was a better deal than the Celebrity classic package because many of the premium alcohol options on the Princess AIBP were only to be found on the Premium package on Celebrity so you had to upgrade to get what the AIBP was providing at a lower cost. So, the Princess package was a better package at a more reasonable price. With the change of the package and naming it Premier, I have no doubt that Princess is going to go to something similar to what Celebrity has which is unfortunate. If you want the premium alcohol options, you will have to pay more now. I am surprised though that they have taken canned soda and the 1 liter bottled water out of the new package and are making us pay more since they make a pretty good profit on those to begin with.

We have the AIBP given to us by our TA for our January 2019 Regal cruise and I didn't have to pay for the drink packages on my Celebrity cruise but I doubt I would pay for the new package now.

this is on mine today

Packages are not added to your booking until they are paid for. Prices include gratuity.

Purchase price may vary due to currency exchange rates.

Premier Beverage PackageAU$89.69 per person, per day

 

The Premier Beverage Package includes any individual beverage item such as fountain soda, bottled water, cocktails, spirits, wine by the glass, beers, coffee and tea, up to $16 AUD (retail value). A 25% discount is also offered on all bottles of wine when purchased in bars, dining room or specialty restaurants.

View full terms & conditions.

 

 

the spirits are back.

Kind of disappointing on the large bottles of water. So, it is covered if dining in a specialty venue, but otherwise, it is not. We usually get one each to take with us out to the pool area on sea days where we spend much of our day so that we stay hydrated. I guess we will have to keep getting the smaller bottles instead. If I remember correctly, the large bottles with tax were less than $6 so not sure why it wouldn't be covered by this package.

 

The package includes an extra 25% discount on the following items that are otherwise excluded from the package:

• All bottles of wine 

  
• One-liter bottles of water (if dining at a specialty venue, a large one-liter bottle of water, still or sparkling, is covered by the package)

  
• Canned soda, and bottled juices 

  

Thanks so much for this link and the information!

Wow! Great upsell offer! You will love the mini-suite! As everyone has said, go for it!

You've gotten some great advice so far. We went straight to Alfredo's on our cruise on the Regal and had a fantastic lunch and there were only 3 other couples there so no fighting the crowd at the buffet. The buffet is outstanding and we ended up eating many of our dinners there. Loved the variety and the theme nights in the buffet.

If you have a balcony, try the UBD (Ultimate Balcony Dining) that is $100 ($50 pp). Well worth it and a lot of food. We found the lobster to be much better than what you get in the MDR.

If you like trivia and games, check out Princess Live! on the Regal. In previous cruises, we never really went to events like these but we have a great time with the events held in Princess Live!

Enjoy your trip on the Regal. One of the best cruises we've had was on her.

I have been on the Coral, and have seen comments, photos, etc...

Unfortunately, I have to back up this original poster.

To some degree, there is truth to these comments.

 

This is exactly why we chose one of the newer, picture window Ocean View cabins over a Balcony.

Especially for Alaska, where, yes, it was rainy and chilly anyhow!

 

Yes, the Coral Princess is a wonderful ship in many ways.

Unfortunately, the newer ships that do not have these problems are very different, and they push the space-to-passenger and staff-to-passenger ratio, to the very limits. 48" balconies (if even that)... Seriously...

 

But, anyone who does not want to acknowledge these issues with the Coral Princess are just not seeing the reality.

You are misinterpreting my response. I'm not saying there aren't issues. Simply saying this is one opinion. Already we have had a response to this thread from someone on the same cruise saying it was wonderful and not experiencing the same issues. Everyone has different expectations of a ship and a cruise and just because one person states they had issues doesn't mean that another person should necessarily be concerned they will experience the same issues.

This is sad news. We are scheduled to be on the Coral for 60 days next year. Hope they have a drydock

or some TLC before then.:rolleyes:

Remember, this is one person's opinion who was willing to share it. That doesn't mean that the Coral is in bad shape. Our cruise on the Coral was one of the best and the Coral is our favorite ship followed by the Regal. I'm confident this is not the norm on the Coral. Enjoy your 60 days on her! Wish we could take that long of a cruise but we are still working :)

Wait, that's not fair! Not everyone was given the opportunity to take advantage of this upsell option! That's it, I'm done with Princess!

:) Yes, I'm joking. Congrats on the offer. We actually got a true upgrade on our first Alaska cruise where the day we checked in for the cruise we found out that we were moved from our outside window to a mid-ship balcony! Found out that from the people in the cabin next to us that our cabin upgrade was due to their parents getting sick and not being able to go. We were grateful for the upgrade and got to know our neighbors because of it.

Again, congrats!

Thanks for the input. I did contact Roberts via phone call and they did confirm that it will be pier 10/11 for the Grand on 1/28/18 so they updated my reservation to reflect that. They said that if that changes, they would actually call me to let me know and they verified that my phone number on the reservation was correct. Really looking forward to their Call to Duty excursion. I wonder how Princess can get away with charging $249 pp while I am paying $139pp for what looks like the exact same excursion.

Anyway, I think the link I provided is pretty accurate so hopefully it is helpful to others. If you are looking for cruise port schedules, try https://www.cruisetimetables.com/

For others reference, the information can be found here: HAWAII.PORTCALL.COM

Looks like Pier 11, not Pier 2

Jan28/2018 GRAND PRINCESS 07:00 23:00 Pier 11

I just checked and it looks like only the Kauai schedule is available for 2018.

My apologies. This is for the Grand out of SF on January 22, 2018. We will be in Honolulu on Sunday, January 28, 2018. Is that reference available?

Thanks.

Hi everyone. I am considering booking the Call of Duty Tour with Roberts Hawaii in Honolulu (way cheaper than the Princess excursion of $250 pp!) and in selection our pickup location, there are two options, Pier 2 and Pier 10 & 11. I believe the Grand would be at Pier 2 but am not sure so I was wondering if anyone would know how I could find out which pier the Grand will be at without having to call Princess? Is there a website that would provide that information? At just $133.89 pp, this is quite the savings over the cost of the Princess excursion.

Thanks in advance for your help.

We did the UBD on the Regal this past January and it was a very nice beef filet and what looked to be between 6 and 8 oz lobster tail. Everything was great except for the canapes. Very much worth the cost and can't wait to do it again.

Paradise Cove looks good as well so let me know which one you have attended and if both, which one you would recommend.

Thanks.

Hi everyone. My wife and I will be on the Grand Princess on a 15-day Hawaii cruise out of SF in January 2018. We will be stopping in Honolulu on Sunday, January 28 and are in port from 7am - 11pm. We really want to do a luau as it has been 20 years since we went to the Old Lahaina Luau on Maui when we did an 8 day stay on Maui. I have read that Chief's Luau is highly recommended on Oahu and I have some questions that hopefully some of you can answer.

1) Chief's Luau provides transportation from Waikiki area hotels. Do you know if any of these hotels are relatively close to the cruise port? Would it be a simple taxi ride from the cruise port to get to one of the hotels to be picked up by Chief's Luau's transporation?

2) Has anyone done the combo that includes the luau and time at the Sea Life Park and if so, is the Sea Life Park worth going to? We have been to Sea World in both Orlando and San Diego. Would this park be similar in shows and activities? Is it worth going to as part of this combo in your opinion?

3) Since the luau seems to be finished by around 8:30p, seems that we would have plenty of time to take their transportation back to a Waikiki area hotel and a taxi back to the cruise port in time for our 11pm departure. Do you agree?

Thanks for your input and answers to these questions in advance. This seems like a viable option for us for our day in Honolulu.

I think we all understand by now that the OP isn't going to take any responsibility for his/her mistake, period. It is Princess' fault, period. This is so laughable. But, whether the OP takes responsibility or not, there's that $2000 bill he/she will have to pay, period. Gosh, Princess is really going to pay for the OP's mistake because he/she will no longer cruise with them. How horrible but I suspect Princess and their great product will somehow be able to survive this.

Is this yet another joke like the one about a $2000 cell phone bill that is being blamed on Princess?! These first post posts from people complaining about these things has me wondering if someone is just having fun posting these complaints that seem unrealistic! I could be wrong but I would be suspicious of threads like this one.

Something about this thread smells :)

DOH! I should've known from reading the OP that this was a joke. Shame on me :)