remydiva

A bad day waiting in line to go on a cruise beats a good day doing anything else in my book.

 

I wish that I would have had to wait to get on either ship today.

I second that emotion :)

We board the Star in a couple of weeks and will take the usual precautions. Hope she is squeaky clean by then.

Sadly, I think this is what we will come to expect and accept as 'normal' in the future cruise world...armed escorts. I have had them in San Diego and most recently in New York last fall.

Security is only going to get tighter and really, the cruising world is no where as strict (IMHO) as air travel...so far.

Having just snagged a killer deal on a 5 day repro,on the Star i am sad to hear about the noro.

Any and all ships can , and usually do , get an outbreak from time to time and I have been on a few of those. i take precautions always and knock wood, so far so good.

We were on the Star last year and agreed that it was looking tired in places. Rust, worn " brass" fittings on bed side lamps and some unusually large dark stains on the carpets in our cabins to,name a few. I was on the Star the week before the fire a few years back so granted she is showing her age now ( arent we all?) . A trip to drydock is needed.

As far as service levels, the outbreak could be taxing the staff as another poster said. I am sure things will be spic and span soon and hope all is well for our May 4 cruise. Enjoy the rest of yours.

You are so right, I followed the advise of my smart fellow CC'ers and signed in to Princess on Chrome and IE. After doing a proper sign-in both browsers displayed the same lower price. Guess you are never to old to learn something new. The top of the Princess page always greeted me with "welcome Mrs..." so I assumed I was signed in on both servers since I never signed out. Now I know seeing my name is not enough. The internet can be very confusing to us seniors and I still feel the prices should be the same on all browsers regardless of being signed in or not. What if you are not a Princess cruiser and just want to check prices and don't have a Princess profile. Would you never be able to see the sale price and pay more then the rest of us?:eek:

Agreed that it is confusing to see " Welcome Mrs Smith" and assume your profile is up and you are " signed in"..

i guess they get your name from your cookies or IP address. I got fooled before wondering why i couldn't see my sale prices one time so now I look carefully for " sign OUT " to know that I am " signed IN"

There should be a more transparent and secure way of the web page working. ..As in have no name welcome but just a blank space to log in with email address and password like most web sites..

THEN it can say " Welcome Mrs Smith".like most web sites, including banks, utilities etc.

It looked like a good deal until I priced the airfare one way.

Really? Princess EZ air had AA for $149 one way which i thought was cheap.

we like Westjet so paid more for a later flight and company loyalty.

Bummer, most of the great deals will occur while we are in Europe.

 

Come to think of it, I'd rather be in Europe. If something exciting comes up for Alaska this summer, I'm on it, but other than that I'll have to wait till the fall cruises start, although we are booked on a Sept 20th cruise already.

 

Maybe October or November!!:)

 

Rick

Yes poor you being stuck in Europe....I'd be happy to trade!:)

Enjoy...always sales on Alaska so you will get there I am sure.

Yes it was the latest stand by email I recieved last week.

Scroll down to the end of the email and its highlighted in yellow in the fine print. Stands out like a sore thumb. ;)

Doh! I have never scrolled down to the bottom and read the fine print!

Which is why we ended up taking HALF a cruise once...a TA that ended in Copenhagen and everyone was excited and saying 'are you going on the second half?' i went 'what second half?'....didn't read the whole email!

so we didn't do the Baltic part...oh well...enjoyed the first 16 days :)

Bigenna...you will note the promo code in the bottom part of email as Colo Cruiser has pointed out. Maybe THAT will help get you and any one else, the sale price? Let us know.

Remydiva can you send the email to me at bigenna at hotmail dot com. Thank you.

Anne

 

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Done! Sorry for the delay...took me a while to find the email in my read box...Good luck!

This is probably my biggest rub with Princess. A neighbor who lives three houses away with two Princess cruises can often get better pricing from the same TA than I can with 59. Makes the loyalty OBC lose a bit of its value when that happens.

You would think " loyalty" means loyalty..you are loyal, you should get the same price..

Hijacking my own thread but I note here in Canada, Sobeys bought Safeway ...Albertsons bought US Safeway apparently in the US... So NO loyalty cards are being used any more. Time will tell if we all get a " sale" price or we all pay more!

Mind you, the person sitting next me on the plane likely paid less than me too. It is what the market will bear :o

Reference promo codes: UE- campaign code: PE4MD084 plus your CC#

Is that the promo code for that particular email worth of last minute sales?

If so, how did you see that or find out?

And IF that is the code, could bigenna or anyone else then use it?

I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with Princess, including the wait for a supervisor, and none of them could find those rates anywhere?

After several politely probing questions from them I let them know that I had "heard" about the email, not actually received it myself, but told them that we live in the same geographical area and couldn't understand why I would not get the same email. (I have had myself signed up for any promos, standby's etc.) Said without promo code she couldn't find those rates.

Oh well, I tried, and no harm in that, I guess. Now time to stop thinking about balcony price being less than I paid for an interior, and back to anticipating my first stateroom close to piazza and IC. DH so loves his coffee and I love those display cases filled with goodies.

Thanks Remydiva for all your help. Maybe we will see you down at Canada Place one of these days.

Isnt that interesting?! And yes given we are both in Vancouver and both signed up for last minute deals, it is odd. And i never used a promo code...just phd in, gave my CC number and they said the price was $199. So i guess the 'code' is hidden in the email profile?

I just went to princess site without " signing in" and the sale prices still show up. Have you tried doing that to see what shows and then " sign in" and see what shows?

Also it says " new bookings only" so if you have already booked at a higher price, that could be difficult unless you get an upgrade or OBC in lieu of??

I noted you asked in an earlier post to see the email but did not include an address.If you send me your email (using the word 'at' instead of the ampersand) i could forward the email to you if that would help?

Coral, yes I do have some cruises booked. Seems unfair not to offer same deals to someone just because they have something booked, doesn't it? Sure don't like those tactics.

Remydiva, can you tell me the prices on the inside and ocean view staterooms on the Grand May 13th four day coastal please and is there a promo code?

 

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Tue, May 13, 2014

Grand Princess

Stateroom type:

Interior Oceanview Balcony Mini-Suite Suite

$199.00* $259.00* $259.00*

no promo code indicated....try phoning??

Call them back and tell them to email another booking confirmation which shows your $200 deposit. And stay on the line with them until you receive it. This being Sunday, it should be almost instantaneously.

I did..".Matt" went to the reservation help desk and asked them, came back to me and said " good news, bad news"

Good news, the FCC WAS applied

bad news, it wont ever show up in my booking or deposit or final payment PDFs.

He is going to put in an internal " suggestion" that is type of " accounting" is not reasonable and express my concern for accuracy and transparency.

Pia, have you checked your most recently booked cruise as supposedly this new system went into place at the last upgrade, about one month ago.

Ps i checked my Visa and indeed the CORRECT amount has been billed..as two separate transactions..one for cruise and one for air...don't recall that being like that before either.

Oh well. :o

I just booked and paid, and I noticed the same thing. Rest assured ;) that the future cruise deposit was used...I did mine online, and the screen right before the final one shows the amounts separated...$200 for the deposit, and then the total amt charged with credit card...the final screen just shows the total payment (charge plus deposit).

Intersting..i would have thought the email with the Booking Confirmation and the email with the Deposit Confirmation would have been like your screen right before final payment...that makes sense.

But it does not show that way in my email confirmation.Maybe it shows that way to the phone rep and it used to,show that way to me via email but not this time.

Sorry to be picky...but i like to see an invoice that is accurate and complete.

We used to see these "dream deals" but this last many months whenever I click on it says something to effect of "if page is blank we are working on deals for you". Never do get any deals.

I have also repeatedly gone in and reregistered for email deals but don't get any.

Would love to see this recent email if anyone would be so kind as to send it to me.

 

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I copied and pasted the ships and dates and costs see my earlier posts #5 and #8 for details

Eureka! Sorry about that. The confusion was on my part :confused:

 

I guess I would just check my credit card and see what shows up. Usually on ours, things show up as a pending charge very quickly. Good luck! I hope you get it sorted out.

Yup...that pretty much sums up my weekend...I have a 'trust me' from Princess phone rep and a weekend wait as Canadian credit cards do not show pending charges (our US card does)...guess they figure we Canucks are more patient!

ahhh, sorry about that. Here's what my original booking confirmation looked like. It shows payment received is $200 (from the applied fcc). Is that what you're talking about?

yes!

/IMG]

Ok, here's your answer. it depends on the length of the cruise.

 

Muddied waters,,,it was NOT the OBC I was worried about...that shows just fine.

It is the $100 "deposit/ credit""that the FCC was purchased for that I want to see, and have previously seen, on the itemized invoice. That does NOT show anywhere...see photo

We have a hold on the CB for 5/26. Five nights in a Caribe balcony for $399 plux tax!

 

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How long can you hold it? Any money down?

We booked with a FCC last fall and our onboard credit shows under "onboard credits for this booking" when I go to the payments and credit page of our booking.

 

The amount of your onboard credit is dependent on the category of room you book. Are you in an inside by chance?

No, balcony on a 5 day = $25 pp OBC with the $100 FCC

Does your FCC show up as $100 pp under " amount received" in the Billings Details of your Booking Confirmation? That is how my Sept 2013 invoice itemized it. ( which i happened to have kept)

If you access your booking # and go to the payments and credits section, it will show where your 25.00 credit came from. That should let you know it was applied properly.

I did and it doesn't...only says 'Onboard Sales Promotion'.

Could be from one of those incentives where you get OBC for a sale (not a FCC).

Still not the way it used to show up...clear, concise, transparent....:(

I didn't want to hijack another thread about delays in getting a FCC

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2019455&highlight=fcc+not+showing

so I am starting a new one.

Problem:

• Booked a cruise yesterday directly with Princess and then air fare thru EZ Air...same phone call.
  
• Princess went through the charges item by item...fare, transfers, taxes and port charges, minus $100 FCC leaves $$. Then we booked the air, cost was $$. He never said 'and the grand total applied to your Visa is....'
  
• Email confirmation sent and received while I was on the phone.
  
• I glanced at it and saw the names, dates, cabin, flights were correct and hung up.
  

Today, I printed up the booking confirmation, deposit confirmation and final payment.

GASP:eek: no where does my FCC show as an itemized item!

All that shows after the line by line items is TOTAL AMOUNT RECEIVED which is an amount that is $200 more than it should have been.

The $25 OBC credit shows but that could be for anything (perk, incentative, refer a friend) not necessarily from a FCC.

My Personalizer shows the same...no FCC shows as being applied. (altho it is missing from my portfolio)

I phd Princess now and they couldnt see it either but said it had been applied because the amount charged to my credit card was $$$- $200.

I said 'how do I know that'....she said and I quote 'TRUST ME'. :eek:

I said since when does it look like this as on all other cruises my FCC has shown up on the invoice as payment received. She said it was because Princess had 'upgraded' their computer about a month ago

As we all know, it can take several days for pending credit card charges to appear so until that time, I have no choice but to wait and see.

In the meantime, I have written customer relations @princesscruises.com with PDFs of my invoices for this cruise (where the FCC is missing) and my Sept 2013 cruise where the FCC is clearly shown. I mentioned to the phone rep that on such a cheap cruise as this, the discrepancy was very obvious; on a more expensive cruise, I wouldn't have noticed.

I invite those who have booked recently within the past month to check their PDFs invoices and see if your FCC shows up as a line item as monies received?

I think it is ridiculous in this day of transparency to expect a savvy, customer of any business to shrug their shoulders and just assume all monies paid have been because a voice on the phone said 'trust me'.

Except those of us in the middle are generally perk-free! :p

"Come to Middle America...we are PERK FREE!" :D

The 15 day Royal TA April 27th $1199 balcony $599 :eek: indside

I know....looked at that one first but dates didnt work for us and the airfare short notice was HUMUNGOUS! Might have squeezed in the 14 day time frame for using points but it wasnt my fav itinerary so not worth using 60,000 points pp.

When i phd Princess re why now and why so many avaiable cabins, she said it was because travel agences had blocks of cabins and when left unsold, Princess puts them back into their inventory.

if this is true, then the travel agencies had huge blocks of prime cabins as the available cabins still on the Star is in the 100s. A bit hard to believe that Princess would have allowed them to,hold so many for so long as we are only 3 weeks out. Go figure :confused:

I love reading that people can take advantage of those kinds of specials. We always look at them, and by the time we factor in airfare and transfers (to and from our home airport as well as embarkation/debarkation airports), the per diem always rises to well above what we pay for a longer cruise with a higher per day cruise fare.

 

But glad to see someone can make it work!

I hear you...

Many times we have been excited about a cabin sale only to be snookered with the huge airfares and logistics..particularly for anything leaving from the east coast or Europe.

We finally did a Med cruise from Venice when Princess made it an overnight emarkation itinerary as it takes us at least two transfers and a full day for us to get there.

And, We are jealous of the East Coast cruisers who can fly easier than we can. :)

Different perks for living on either coast .