tamsocal

in December it was about $10 a day for an additional device- I can send you a pic of prices in1.5 weeks if someone doesn't send before then

11 hours ago, mightycruisequeen said:

For the cruise we took in April, we received an upsell offer at about 3 weeks out, again at about 2 weeks out, and again at about 1 week out.  Each offer was a little more enticing, but we stayed strong💪 with the cabin we booked.  The offers were forwarded to us via email through our travel agent.

 

I didn't say strong LOL. where's my emoji for wimpy arms.

thank you!!!

Agree with other post- there could be just one balcony left and all the others have been sold as guarantees- sometimes you never know. My recent experience in last 9 months and 6 cruises no upgrades paid or free were available on board ship- signs out ship at full capacity or no upgrades available. cant recall exactly what sign said but basically said go away LOL

we are on cruise 6/18- was going to cancel my $147 plan if they were still having fill a bag option because I will only send 3 bags at most.

Thanks in advance for intel 🙂

I have had offers from 3 days before to about 4 weeks. Most have come in the 8-21 day window. Have received offered for every category above inside in the past. Best was Pinnacle offer- and we took it. Same cruise also paid for upsell for my brother who was cruising with us and moved him from OV to SS (felt a little guilty us moving to pinnacle and him in OV or maybe he was in verandah- its been awhile & I cant recall...

Most recent was 16 days out. When I called only options were FOV and Vista Suites. only 3 Vista Upsells were available. He told me I had lots of choice for stateroom cabin because none of the guarantees had been assigned yet. The ship was still selling every category except pinnacle- Inside, IV, Balcony, Vista < SS, Neptune. (but some categories within a category were sold out- ie Vistas were avail but no Aft Vistas). I picked a cabin from about 25 options. Then the following day changed my mind about which cabin I wanted- so I called and changed. I noticed 2 days later (13 days out) that guarantees had been assigned. All categories except I, OV and Obstructed Verandah were sold out after guarantees were assigned. I doubt I would have had a complimentary upgrade from my free OV. I would have been happy in my OV but opted to change to Vista Suite (not really sure why LOL- we like the OV, love crows nest and would have been completely happy but I will love my vista suite too

agree with other posts- abort mission.

Do not include Denali in a land tour until the road is repaired. Forego land tour altogether or change over to Wrangell. I have done about 6 land tours and Denali road being closed would be a complete no for me

On 5/12/2019 at 5:40 PM, Germancruiser said:

Thank you so much catl331- now i get a more clear picture of that cabin. Interessting layout- sideways rather then usual verandah cabin- and the balcony seems huge- can´t wait to see for myself!

How was the cabin? I just changed from 8112 and hoping I made a good choice

I have SPG & Amex platinum-- it was only offered to me thru Amex platinum-- for SPG it was not in the offer list. Same as earlier this year was only offered for my platinum card

Not sure if anyone can help. Last month I found a website that was great for looking at deck plans. on the left hand side of the webpage, there were drop down menus to pick from and out of the many different choices you could filter, I could search for just cabins with connecting doors.then of the right side was the deck for the ship selected and it would highlight what I wanted filtered (connecting cabins, cabins for 4 people , etc) UGH I didn't save the website in my favorites and now I can't find the same site! Anyone have any idea what I am referring to?

Usually, that is the case but on this sailing, no OBC to speak of ... but a great price through Princess. They say they base the OBC on a percent of the base price of the cruise but it is really based on the commission. Because the deal was so good, no real commission so no measurable OBC either ... so no money left on the table for this sailing.

We have fortunately never experienced this.The OBC at the big box TA is directly related to the amount paid and it increases and decreases based on the amount paid.If we take upsell the OBC has increased. If we get a last minute sail rate that is fairly low the OBC will likewise below but have never had it be zero thankfully

Minor Passport renewal June 1st sent in -- received 2 weeks + 3 days (might have been 2 day shorter- hadn't checked mail for a few days

Someone suggested to me to use an air mattress instead of the sofa bed... wondering if anyone has done that and how that actually would work?

we have done this for children and small mattresses and cots but not an adult- I would prefer to ask for egg crate and extra mattress pads vs air mattress on floor- for space reasons and comfort but JMO

Surprised to read that any agency, big box or not, is still faxing. I really don't understand why any agency or agent would not immediately pass along an upsell opportunity.

I haven't asked for several years but when they addressed it years ago the theme was that they have so many clients and they cannot keep up with upsell offers and cannot offer that service despite being happy to move my cabin with an upsell when I called. So I called the day the upsells started and they called HAL and then I paid for upgrade. Same scenario with Princess as well. I have called Big box to initiate the upsell not them call me.

LOL I thought the same thing about fax last time I had to send princess shareholder info. I haven't sent in yet this year is it still the same rule...

not sure if big box is now receiving emails vs fax but with recent cruises it seems to be the same theme, I don't get called/emailed/faxed for upsells. I have been ok with that choice for the amount of benefits I have received.

Rowse, I just stumbled onto your report and enjoyed it, very much. I hope you're still following because I have a question.

 

The cemetary/waterfall hike that you took in Skagway sounds very interesting to me. I've been to Skagway on previous cruises. but I'd never heard of this. We have two cruises booked to AK, next year--on the Ruby Princess in April and on the Royal Princess in September. I'm pretty sure that both of those stop in Skagway. Can you give me quick directions to the cemetary?

 

We were on the Emerald Princess to Alaska late April/early May. In Skagway I did find some neat hiking trails close to town, but I did not see any waterfalls like you saw. Oh, and for what it's worth, there was no problem leaving the ship at any of our stops. Your unfortunate report was quite surprising.

its very easy to walk from the ship and if you want less walking-- take shuttle or taxi to the cemetery area

copied from website

The Gold Rush Cemetery

This is the oldest cemetery in Skagway and the easiest to visit. This was the first cemetery for the City of Skagway and many of our famous Gold Rush characters are interred here including local kingpin Jefferson "Soapy" Smith and early tourism promoter Martin Itjen and his "world's largest gold nugget." A list of people interred at the Gold Rush Cemetery is available for download (accessible PDF 344 KB).

A trip to the Gold Rush Cemetery is a short walk from town and can be coupled with scenic Lower Reid Falls. It is also possible to take the local SMART bus shuttle to a stop 1/2 mile from the cemetery. Many commercial tours of town also include stops at the cemetery.

The Pioneer Cemetery

This cemetery was used by the town of Skagway after the Gold Rush in the early days of the frontier community. A list of those interred is available for download (accessible PDF 343 KB).

https://www.nps.gov/klgo/learn/historyculture/cemeteries.htm

we have done this hike with our small children. we also made other stops.

Shuttle to cemetery which is near the train roundhouse. after cemetery/waterfall hike, came back out and then visited Jewell's garden, then back to town and explored in town (Glass blowing, Museum, Junior Ranger Activity, gold panning) and then walked back along Pullen creek where the salmon can be running

I typically book my own cruise with Princess and transfer reservation over to a TA. Typically we use the Big Box TA but have on occasion used an Online agency TA. The OBC for both have always been refundable.

The Big Box TA re upsells has expressed that with the volume of cruises they book they can't keep up with the upsell offers. The offers come in via fax and they can't get to the faxes fast enough to get them to travelers before snatched up by others. This is just information they passed along to me when I asked years ago. I have snatched up upsells despite with big box TA. Best of which was move to Penthouse on HAL. have had a few others but the process is not easy. I need to find an online agency that I like that I can offer the upsells and the same amount of OBC as the big box.

I guess that would mean quickly stopping at all those places as they aren't right next to each other. Redondo is a bit of a distance but closer to San Pedro. I would suggest Santa Monica and Venice. Both are right next to each other. Venice has a lot of "oddities," to see and Santa Monica has a pier that's fun. There's also a parking situation where it's hard sometimes to find a place to park. Malibu is pretty but nothing much to see other then expensive homes. LOL

I would agree -- Santa Monica & Venice. trying all 4 might be a challenge with only one day. not sure what day of the week traveling as traffic would potentially hinder a chance of all 4 as well

congratulations!!! very exciting ! enjoy your cruise

Just received an upgrade from lowest inside to outside for my Baltic cruise in July. Will be glad to have light.

we have had outstanding trips from lowest category inside to the penthouse-- love cruising!

but light is always nice-- happy cruising!!! enjoy your Oceanview!

We had a complimentary upgrade offer last week for a cruise in October. Normally we mark our bookings No Upgrade as we want the same cabin for a series of B2B cruises. But this was our first cruise of several in a row, and we couldn’t get the same cabin for it that we had for the rest. We marked the booking Upgrade to the next cabin category accepted and were moved from an IE to BC. Both of these categories, as well as most others, are waitlisted on this particular cruise.

that is fantastic! you were moved up more categories than we were! WOOHOO!

we were on a guarantee so I had no specifics marked obviously-- was just hoping to not be under noisy places but planned to bring headphones and make the best of it since the guarantee fare was lower than all the rest-- $1329 for 10d

we were still on the fence about going-- LOL.

with the fare we paid and the upgrade and RT air for $250 I think we are now set to firm up plans :D

we tried doing this years ago both options-- but again it was about 7-8 years ago I last asked so call princess

cruise only- yes possible. they at the time would not add passengers to our cabin though- they stated we had to have a separate cabin for those not on tour

tour only- we were told not possible unless we pay for full cruise/tour and just not partake in what we chose not to

I didn't really escalate, double check, etc. 2 family members just booked same cruise as us and then flew home after cruise and we carried on with tour.

LMAO, I was pretty amazed at that one. I did link the reservations, but that doesn't always guarantee that they will be assigned next to each other.

our reservations are linked but we cleared the waitlist for dining and now with the cabin assignment, we can't complain. Since I will consider upsell and would take another upgrade- not even going to call to ask for closer room. We all could sleep in a DB and have done that before just used the other cabin for storage (and picked the cabin we wanted to sleep in based on location, cabin steward, etc).

3rd and 4th passenger were crazy priced cabins when we booked.

That's a great deal!

not quite as good as your Upgrade fairy blessing you with side by side cabins. :)

We were emaild today regarding complimentary Upgrade for Canada/New England cruise in October.

Originally booked 2 cabins as IF guarantee back in March. Rates kept changing late march and paid $80 to move both to BF guarantee lowest Balcony category.

Both "guarantee" cabins were assigned today by Princess to Deluxe Balcony DB. WOOHOO! they aren't next to each other but can't complain about that one.

Now I want another upgrade or $$ upsell to mini or Suite LOL. One Platinum in each cabin and a kid (but they have cruise time for platinum).