terry&mike

5 hours ago, Katstress said:

Hello!

My Mom and I  did this cruise with Emerald in October of 2018.  We loved it. The ship is small, due to the lock sizes. This means the rooms are slightly smaller, but still with plenty of room.  We spent so little time in our rooms the size didn’t matter.  The ship holds around  112 passengers and this means you get to know your fellow passengers and crew very well.

In terms of the cruise, no cruising at night, but this means you can lounge on the sun deck during the short trips between stops, watching the beautiful scenery go by.  The stops are mostly in small towns, or villages, with surprisingly good local port/wine tastings and great tours by Emerald. 

Take part in the fun onboard activities, I won a nice bottle of port at a blind taste testing competition and made a neat painted tile. 

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask. 

And don’t miss the vineyard dinner, it was wonderful, and so much fun!

 

Thank you - wonderful feedback.

8 hours ago, ChollaChick said:

Yes.  That's exactly the flight. 

Did you use a travel agent? If so, most agents have access to "cruise fares" from consolidators. To book them, the agent just need to supply documentation that you are actually booked on a cruise, which you are. If you didn't use a travel agent, then most agents would not want to deal with you on air.

18 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

Has anyone here who applied for a renewal needed to come in for another interview?

Or does anyone know in general how often that needs to be done?

 

GC

DH and I filed for a renewal at the same time. He was approved almost immediately, I was notified that I had to come in for a new interview. The appointments were quite full online, and I happened to be flying out of New Orleans in the next couple of weeks, so I just popped over to the Global Entry area and signed in, and asked "any chance you can work me in, as I happen to be at the airport today, if not, no big deal." The guy said, "we usually don't do this, but we are slow today, so come on in". My re-interview was a total non-issue, and took maybe 5 minutes.

I had some clients who were getting ready to travel in a month and had applied for their initial Global Entry, but no interview appointments were available for several months out. I suggested they might try just showing up, and see if it worked for them, and recounted my experience. The tried this and were told the same thing, "we usually don't do it this way, but come on in" and received their interview and approval. 

1 hour ago, amypete said:

OK I think I figured It out. My own fault. I went back and cancelled again and then I did see you could do that separate city. Had to do that first. I need a vacation! 

 

For the record thought I'm still on hold....I'll hang up in a sec. 

 

BUT it's not any cheaper than what I could do on my own. 

 

My lesson - had to totally cancel to figure it out. Thanks everyone!

Oh sorry, I didn't know you had an EZ air itinerary held already. I would have added earlier to cancel first and could have saved you some time. 

If you only want a return flight, not a round trip flight or an open jaw flight, you change the drop down box near the top of the flight information box to the return flight only. It is auto set to search for round trip.

7 minutes ago, memoak said:

It is very strange that they are not telling you which amenities you will have.  Kind of like booking in the dark

That part is a bit strange to me as well. Anytime I am selling into group space, or promoting a group, part of the marketing is the amenities and perks. 

The sale she is referring to on June 6-8 is an agency sale which is a pre-runner to the Princess Sip and Sail promo. It gives the benefits of the Sip and Sail plus free gratuities. 

11 hours ago, cruisinggran said:

So does that máke us ineligible for any other promotions because of this private

group?

Possibly yes, possibly no.

Some promotions state that they are for new bookings only. In this case, the current booking has to be cancelled and then rebooked as a new booking. You can lose your cabin space on occasion as at any given moment there are hundreds to thousands of TA's and Princess reps in the onesource system (Princess booking system), the moment that a booking is cancelled that cabin becomes available to the world. If someone happens to be booking that same class on that same sailing at that moment they could possibly grab it. Yes, it is rare, but it does happen. I have been looking for cabins online for clients and refreshed and had a new option cabin appear and grabbed it, it could have been someones cancel and rebook cabin. 

Other promotions are not for new bookings only, and only need to be refared. This is simpler and requires no cancellation and rebooking, just a repricing of the cabin. 

If you need to cancel a cabin from the group, and Princess has recalled space and closed the group, and you cancel this cabin, your rebooked cabin may not be able to be added back into the group. I have not encountered this, as I can usually book and fare at the current promotional rate and then move the booking into the group space, but I understand that it can occur. 

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Has anyone tried (and been successful) using a Travel Agent for this?

Yes, you can use a travel agent for this, if you have the offer from AmEx. First, you have to apply the offer to your card. Then you have to book a Princess cruise with this card and meet the minimum spend. Booking a Princess cruise through your TA counts the same.

We always have 2 to 4 of the tiny bottles of liquor in our carry on in our plastic 3-1-1 baggie when traveling. When we were going through security in China for an internal flight, a guy took my little bottles of booze and kept saying "no alcohol". In trying to argue logic to him, I pointed out my hand spritzer of alcohol spray that he did not take and that it was "100% alcohol". He kept on holding my little bottles saying "no alcohol" but showed no interested in the hand spray. Finally, I left him with my booze and went on and boarded. Hope he enjoyed the vodka and scotch. 

I'm generally not a fan of cruise ship tours, but in this case I think a disembarkation tour that ends at the airport is the easiest way to go. 

9 minutes ago, brian1 said:

That transit hotel in Changi is brilliant.Our friends rented a room for a part day on the way back from Aus.Had a swim, showered and a couple of hours kip.

Oh nice! We are at the Crowne Plaza Changi, is that where they stayed? It's connected to airport, and the reviews are awesome. Looking for a good sleep and a hot shower.

On a rare occasion I will do something like this.

In December we are heading to Bali, our plane arrives in the middle of the night (12:50am) in Singapore, and the flight to Bali was to leave at 6:00am. I gave it some thought, and then scheduled us on a flight to Bali leaving at 1:00pm, and booked a hotel room in Singapore airport. This way we get some proper sleep, a shower, and continue on our journey feeling a bit more human.

I've also stopped and stayed the night in Atlanta on my way to South Africa, then started the long journey the next morning feeling fresh and rested. 

There are times when a bit more money is worth being spent to have a better experience. 

I have sent same sex couple clients (not trans) to Myanmar, and they did not have an issue with any sort of confrontation or hostility. They did maintain a low profile though. The larger cities have areas where LGBT gather and are more open, as would be expected. Below is the government's position. 

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Myanmar are subject to official persecution and discrimination, with LGBT residents facing legal and social challenges not experienced by other citizens. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal and section 377 of the national Penal Code subjects same-sex sexual acts (regardless of whether they were consensual or done in private) to a term of imprisonment from ten years to life. Transgender people are subject to police harassment and sexual assault, and their gender is not recognised by the state.^[2] During the country's long military dictatorship under the authoritarian State Peace and Development Council it was difficult to obtain accurate information about the legal or social status of LGBT Burmese citizens. Following the 2011–2015 Myanmar political reforms, improvements in media and civil freedoms have allowed LGBT people to gain more visibility and support in the country.^[3][4][5] Despite the 2015 electoral victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which promised improved human rights, there have been no changes to anti-LGBT laws.^[2]

We will board in Singapore, have a few ports, port in Keelung Taiwan, and then our first Japan port is next, and it is Osaka. I'm arranging a tour for our group to Kyoto and am trying to estimate the time.

10 hours ago, ROCruiser said:

I believe you can buy a one-day pass if you are there on a Saturday. That was what we did last November. A very nice gentleman (staff) was by the ticket machine helping travelers get their tickets at the cruise port Osakako Station. We had the Suica card but we purchased the one-day pass for that day. Not sure if that will work for trains going to Kyoto though. We only went to downtown Osaka. 

Thank you, much appreciated.

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

As today is the 24th I started looking for the info. I didn't find anything for this year but did find videos regarding this sale last year. I was thinking the usual "big box" but didn't find it there. Did find info that appears to be exactly what folks are talking about so will keep an eye out and possibly book a 10 - 15 day (Mexican Rivera or Hawaii) cruise for next year when this comes available. I'll definitely be putting calendar reminders in place. 😁

Apologies, I should have made that clear - the details are being announced to the agents on April 24 (today). Different offices and branches will have different promotional events, nights, announcement dates where they promote the event.

Should the same delays be expected when the port before Osaka is Taiwan?

6 hours ago, cheeseclan said:

Not sure where you live but United just announced they will have direct flights from Newark to Cape Town starting in December.  It will be offered 3 times per week and It will be about a 15 hour flight in the new 787 Dreamliner.  This will save you 4 hours.

Further information for those waiting for these flights to be released - these flights are anticipated to be bookable by mid-May. 

I'm trying to get my head around taking the train from the cruise port in Osaka at Tempozan Pier, to Kyoto Station. In researching it, there are times where it doesn't seem too difficult to navigate, but I will have a lot of people counting on me to get it right and I've not visited Japan before, so there are times when it seems overwhelming and confusing. 

It will be a Saturday, and we port at 7:00am, and need to meet a tour at Kyoto Station at 9:00am. 

In looking at hyperdia.com there appear to be several options running from around 840 yen to 3200 yen, all taking about an hour - what is the difference in the cost? Is there a reason why we wouldn't take the 840 yen option?

Is the simplest option to buy a Suica card and load it with a certain amount, and use it on all of the trains? If so, I'm thinking we could use this reloadable Suica card for our days in Tokyo at the end of the cruise also.

What would be a reasonable starting amount to load the card with to cover approximately 2 days of travel? If the Suica card is not the simplest way, what is the best way to buy tickets from Osaka to Kyoto, and for the day around Kyoto?

Is it true that the ticket machines only accept cash yen, rather than credit cards?

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Advance information states cruises 7-49 nights, sailing January 2020 through May 2021, with some exclusions. 

Advance information says that it is for sailings 7-49 nights, from January 2020 through May 2021 (with some sailings excluded). 

14 minutes ago, bj24 said:

Question - If I have to book another flight through EZ air, would paying immediately stop Princess from dropping my flight?

Yes, it will stop Princess from dropping your flight, (but won't stop the airline from dropping it, of course). If you book your flight with Princess and then specifically request them to ticket the flight, you will pay for it at the time, the flight then is no longer Flexible but a ticketed, restricted flight. Once ticketed, any changes in the flight in time, flight numbers, routing, you then deal directly with the airlines in the standard manner.

Since Tokyo is where you want to visit, I would stay in a centrally located hotel in Tokyo, near great transportation links (Shinjuku, Shibuya, etc), and make your way to Yokohama on cruise boarding day. This way you are transferring one time from Tokyo to Yokohama, rather than transferring every day between the two which takes more than an hour each way. 

You can, but this would not be a good use of your funds or time. To do this, you would purchase your airport to ship transfer from Princess, which is not cheap. You will need to give them some flight info, just pick a flight arriving that day and use that info. Then make your way back to the airport around the time of the flight info you provided, and meet the Princess rep.

It will be cheaper and quicker for you to take a shared transfer from Tokyo out to Yokohama, and much cheaper and quicker to take the train option, but you'll have your luggage to contend with, so I'd go with the shared transfer.