thewhip

Have Princess cruise booked for end of January.  Flying Air Canada from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale. Do we require a PCR test to fly or can we get an Antigen test to fly to USA?  Flying Jan 28 for Jan 29 cruise.  Need test within 3 days before flight BUT need test within 2 days before boarding.  PCR test takes 24-48 hours for results which would make it almost impossible to get results before our flights.  If we can fly Air Canada with an Antigen test, we can get test Thursday morning and pretty sure we can get results before heading into Toronto for our flight.  Any comments appreciated.

I have been looking for info to indicate no testing would be required for air travel for our cruise in January.  Where can I access this info?  Thanks. 

We also sailed on the Star Princess in 1992 for our 25th anniversary.  This was also our first cruise.  Many fond memories of that cruise.   We still have the dining room menus from that cruise.

Enjoyed viewing the current pictures of this ship.

The Whip

We have a B2B booked for February.  We originally booked thru a PCP a 10 day voyage, and added the 2nd - 10 day cruise within a couple of weeks.  Our PCP helped me book the cruises and EZ air.  Because we wanted the same cabin the entire 20 days, we booked as 2 cruises with 2 booking numbers.  We booked return flights, both associated with the 1st cruise.  There is no air associated with the 2nd cruise.  We fly into FLL a day before 1st cruise and fly home the day the 2nd cruise ends. The PCP did not mention having to book departure air with the 1st cruise and return air with the second.

It has caused us a bit of a problem. 

Recently when I was trying to complete the on line check-in, I could not complete the check-in for the 2nd cruise and therefore could not print my boarding pass.  Emailed my PCP and never received a response.  I eventually called Princess direct.  The rep I spoke with said the 2 cruises should have been linked at booking and air should have been departure on 1st cruise and return on second cruise.  She had to put through a weird manual entry at her end to allow us to complete the on line check-in and be able to print our boarding pass for the 2nd cruise.

We CANNOT link the two cruises now.  We are concerned that any OBC left at the end of the first cruise will not be transferred over to 2nd cruise and will be lost.

Our cancellation and interruption insurance is purchased through a carrier here in Canada for the entire duration of our trip, but I can see where it might be an issue if we had used the Princess Vacation Protection this trip.

We have learned a valuable lesson with this B2B booking.  We relied on the PCP (our first time using a PCP) to know the proper 'ins and outs' of booking a B2B, but that has not been the case.

The Whip

We received our first upgrade offer by email yesterday for our 10 day on Crown in February...if you can call it an "offer".  

Offer was to upgrade from IB interior to a balcony for 1197 per person Canadian.  

We were not even tempted to accept the offer.  Hopefully they will send us another offer sometime in the future that is worthwhile.

thewhip

We are on a B2B in February.  Booked as 2 separate cruises.  We booked air thru EZAir, arrival and departure on the first booking to take advantage of a very good price.  There is no air travel showing on our 2nd leg.  Our PCP told us that because our air was booked through the 1st leg, Princess could not link our 2 legs and that any unused OBC from the 1st leg would not be carried over to the 2nd leg and would be lost.

We were a bit surprised at that.  Has anyone else had this experience?

Hi Everyone,

To all of you who have been so kind to respond to our request for info.  Thank you!

We have been reading 'reviews' of the Crown on the Cruise Critic site and some of them are not good.  We know the reviews are subjective, but we began to think there was something about that particular ship that was causing travellers to write such uncomplimentary reviews.

We are looking forward to our February cruise and all of your reassurances have confirmed our original thoughts...that the Crown is an older ship, but would be just fine.  

Thank you again for all of your input.  It is much appreciated.

The Whip

We are booked on the Crown for B2B from Feb 5 to 25, 2020.  First time on this ship.  This is our 8th cruise with Princess.  Have sailed 2x on Island, 1x on Coral, 1x on Star and 3x on Royal.   Our favourite is Royal, but really had no major complaints about the other  Princess ships we have sailed on.  Have also sailed on RCL and MSC. 

We have read some pretty awful reviews on CC recently.  Are now wondering if it was a mistake booking this ship, especially since this is our first 20 day cruise. 

Can someone who has sailed recently on the Crown please give us some feedback on this ship?  Did we make a mistake?

The Whip

Thanks for your response regarding my fax problem.  Don't think the country code is the problem.  We call long distance to the USA all the time by putting "1" before area code and phone number so assume faxing would be the same.

Will keep trying to fax, but just may send the request by mail next week.  We have time for "snail mail" to arrive in Santa Clarita.

thewhip

I find all of your info interesting.  This is the first time we are applying for the shareholder benefit for our B2B cruise in February.  We have been trying to submit our requests by fax for the last two days with no success. The fax is just not connecting. We are using our business fax so we know we should be getting a good connection.  We are located in Canada but that shouldn't make any difference.

Has anyone tried submitting their request by mail?   I guess I could try sending the request by email to Carnival guest services administration mentioned in an earlier post.

Is anyone else having fax connection issues?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Thank to everyone for the information on transferring our booking.  On our last couple of cruises we have booked direct over phone with Princess and then transferred shortly thereafter to our local TA once we are sure our 'casino discount and credits' are applied and we get the cabin we want.  The previous transfers were made via a letter emailed to Princess with no difficulty, but we were aware of the transfer form instituted by Princess late in 2018 and thought that was the procedure we had to follow to transfer our current booking.  That is why we asked for the link to access the form.  We will fill out the PDF fillable form, sign, scan and email to Princess.  

We were wondering about not using a TA this time.  We use the Cruise Personalizer when we can for booking our own air and checking periodically for fare reductions, excursions, etc.  We don't get any extra OBC from our local TA, but always feel it is worthwhile to support our local economy and businesses rather than the PVP in California.

We appreciate all the feedback.  Thank you.

Posted this topic yesterday, but notice request not listed in the Princess board.  Can anyone provide the link where I would find the form for transferring my booking to another travel agent?

Thanks

Tried to find the link on this site that gave the link to the relatively new form from Princess to transfer our booking to our local travel agency.  Can someone provide us with that link?

thanks

We are Canadian citizens and are considering purchasing the Princess Platinum Vacation Protection for a upcoming cruise.  

Are there any Canadians who have purchased and used the trip cancellation or trip interruption features of the Princess Vacation Protection? 

Any issues making a claim as Canadians?

Any feedback you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks

The Whip

After you have clicked Change/modify your flight,

- next page, upper right hand corner, Change Flight

- put in your flight information

- if the same price, exit

- if cheaper, click to accept

- it will show your old price and new price, accept

- you will receive a NEW booking number each time you change your reservation

Thanks for the info.

That is exactly what we did in cruise personalizer and when we "accept" our refare, a screen comes up with "error", to "try again" or call Princess.

After the "error" message appears and we 'try again', the fare for our return flight has increased by over $55 each, bringing the fares up to within a $1 or $2 to our current fare price.

After trying to refare ourselves a couple of times, with the same result, we contacted Princess at least 3 or 4 times over the last week, and they have the same result each time.

As I said in my previous post, we are totally frustrated with being told the price increase after the 'error' message is normal, and to keep watching the website.

We are going to contact EZAir representative today to see if we can get our fare reduction or at least get an answer as to why we can't take advantage of the lower fare.

Have a great day.

Our next cruise is booked under a promo with free gratuities and "up to" $300 off on flights. We just need to fly from Sacramento to Los Angeles and back. Our flights are free and haven't changed.

Our next cruise also under this promo with savings on air BUT when we try to refare to get a lower fare, either through cruise personalizer or through Princess rep, error comes up. When we 'retry' to refare, computer system spits out an increased price, basically eliminating our reduced fare. Rep says there is a fare increase and to watch prices and try again. The increased fare remains on line for about a day, and then seems to reset back to the lower rate. This has happened 5-6 times over the last week.

It is very frustrating. Am going to wait for fare to go back down and will call and will speak directly to EZAir person to see what the problem is and try to get the lower fare.

Anyone else experiencing this issue?

TheWhip

Any trip into L.A. is at least an hour away.

San Diego attractions are not that far from the pier and can easily done on your own. We toured the USS Midway carrier which is docked close by. Seaport village is also within walking distance. The famous zoo is across town.

In San Francisco the ship docks at pier 27. It's a short walk to all the locations along the waterfront area, Ferry Building, Alcatraz boat, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, cable cars and more. Alcatraz may require reservations. The city's trolley system can take you places like Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden Chinatown and many other locations. If you like guided walking tours check out the site below. They provide free narrated city walks, many right in the pier area. Just show up, no charge, but they do ask for a donation. www.sfcityguides.org

Rough? Maybe choppy. The Alaska current runs along the coast. The seas were pretty smo'oth when we sailed during winter.[/quot

 

 

Thanks for the info. We have a lot of time to research tours, especially SF since we are keen to see the city. This info gives us a place to begin our planning.

 

Have cruised mostly in the Caribbean, one trip to Alaska and to Med. Just weren't too sure what California coast was like in October.

Hi everyone,

Are considering a 10 day cruise on Star Princess along California coast in Oct. 2019. Of special interest to us is the overnight dockage in San Francisco. Have never sailed Pacific before. Questions...

Will we likely encounter rough seas?,

Is the fall a good time to travel this route?

Are there 1-2 hr travel times to get to excursion destinations in ports of call?

Any general info on this itinerary would be appreciated.

Thanks,