karatemom2

@seagunthera did you book through Princess? I notice they added a disclaimer about the potential for a reroute to Majahuitas on the excursion page. We booked direct with Vallarta Adventures because it is so much less then what Princess charges. They are the actual vendor and they have not notified me of any changes. I checked the TripAdvisor reviews and it does appear that they were rerouting a few weeks ago after the hurricane, but more recent reviews from this month indicate people are going to Las Caletas. So it may be that it was just a temporary diversion. I’m hopeful that we will still be able to go as planned. I’m going to reach out to them to confirm.

We are on the same cruise and are booked as well but haven’t received any notification? Did you get an email? I checked and nothing here yet. That would be so disappointing!

We did a very similar itinerary on the Sky this past summer so I can offer some insights about most of your ports. We primarily did private excursions as opposed to ship excursions. The one exception was Civitavecchia because we wanted to maximize our day in Rome and with travel time we just felt the ship excursion, although expensive, offered us the best opportunity to see things that were a high priority without worrying about directions, transportation or time constraints. We did a full day tour there through Princess that offered an extensive tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Vatican along with city highlights. It was well worth the investment. There are shuttles available in Livorno, Barcelona and Civitavecchia but I believe there is a small charge. As I recall the one in Barcelona drops you off near the Columbus statue. Livorno and Civitavecchia just drop you in town - both of these places primarily being industrial cities, so not much to see or do there. Most people are visiting these ports as jumping off places for Rome and Florence. Alghero is a tender port and the tender drop off is right at the dock in the old town area which is very walkable so no need to worry about transportation there. We did not stop in your other two ports of Toulon or Valencia, so I’m not much help there. We stopped in Cadiz and Marseilles instead. I can share what we did do in our common ports. I’ve already outlined our choice for Rome. In Barcelona it was very easy to get a taxi from the port - we went to the Gothic Quarter in the morning and spent time exploring there and had lunch. And then we caught another taxi to Sagrada Familia for our prebooked afternoon tour followed by a taxi back to the ship. In Livorno we booked a tour to Pisa and Florence through Italy Tours EU and they picked us up and retuned us directly to the ship. In Alghero we booked a private boat tour to Neptune’s Grotto in the morning and then just explored the old city by foot. Very easy. I would encourage you to start a Roll Call as has been suggested to see if you can find some fellow cruisers who may want to share tours or transportation. Also, check out the Ports of Call board for more information on options available in each port.

Princess is generally our top choice for many reasons, not the least of which is DH casino perks and our Elite loyalty benefits. That being said, we really like NCL and have done a number of cruises with them as well. in terms of comparison, some things that I find better on Princess are the cabin size - unless you are in a Haven suite on NCL, their standard cabins are a little tight. We also find the overall ambiance and vibe of Princess a bit more elegant and relaxing. The beautiful atriums on Princess are a lovely gathering place and the ships are really nicely designed and appointed. You will be on the Sun which appears to be next level! In terms of CD level entertainment like trivia, which we enjoy, Princess teams do a great job and the venues where it is held are much nicer and more conducive to large groups. There is more variety as well. We find the main dining room food on Princess slightly better than NCL main dining room food, however, I will say NCL has the edge in my opinion on specialty dining. Princess specialty restaurants are very good, but Ocean Blue and Le Bistro on NCL are exceptional. In terms of casual dining, they are pretty evenly matched with a slight edge to the Princess buffet, pizza and grill. I do love The Local on NCL though. But nothing beats my beloved afternoon tea on Princess! I think some of the biggest differences are in the entertainment and activities. Like I said, Princess is more low key. You will find mini golf, pickleball, sports deck area, a giant chess board, pools, etc. but no giant slides, go karts, virtual reality, laser tag, arcades, bowling or pool tables. Princess casinos are very nice though! Princess also does a great job offering live music throughout the ship, however, NCL has some top notch entertainment with its Cavern Club, Comedy shows and outstanding production shows which we have found to be the best of any line. Truly topnotch professional productions. That being said. Princess shows can be very entertaining and you will be seeing them with fresh eyes which is always fun. We find plenty to like about both lines and have never had a bad cruise on either. No doubt the Sun will be magnificent in all its new glory and I’m sure you will get to experience added aspects Princess will be offering on that ship. Enjoy!!

Yes. The specialty cover charge for all guests at your table can be charged to one person’s folio. You can let them know when you make the reservation what account will be paying. And then everyone can order their own drinks with their Medallion - if they have a package it will just be included as part of that benefit, if not they would be charged individually.

OP, if you are still checking this thread I hope you have a great cruise and enjoy Scotland. It was our favorite part of our British Isles cruise! I would also highly recommend Discover Scotland tours. We went on their Glasgow tour which included Trossachs National Park, Luss and Stirling Castle. In Invergordon we did a private tour with Highland Inverness tours to Dunrobin Castle, Falls of Shin, Cairn Liath and Dornoch. And Edinburgh we found easy to do on our own using local taxi. We visited Edinburgh Castle, Royal Mile, St. Giles Cathedral and Royal Yacht Brittania.

Princess now charges upfront for prebooked excursions so if you have OBC already posted to your account they can be charged against your credits. Anything over your credits will be charged to your credit card that you provide at time of purchase. In my recent experience with our OBC related to our stock credit which shows up under my husband’s name it applied to both of us when I used it to pay for an excursion. We were logged in under his Captain Circles number when I did the booking online.

You just need to call the Room Service line and let them know you want to switch out your minibar and tell them the items you would prefer. We generally call on the first afternoon/evening on ship. They are busy so be prepared to hold and it generally won’t get switched out until the next day depending on their bandwidth. But they will come by and take the setup away and leave the items you requested. For us that is generally 10 bottled water and 10 Diet Cokes. And you don’t have to be there when they come by. Lots of times they switch it while we are out the first day and we come back to find it done.

We have used EZ Air to book our flights a couple of times and with the exception of minor glitches it has worked well, but I'm still not completely sold on the service. However, I'm willing to try again. I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience booking with EZ Air during the Black Friday weekend when a lot of travel goes on sale. Did you find the EZ Air prices reflected those discounts? I'd love to know if anyone has any experience they can share.

We have been in Cabo a couple of times with late port times and once even an overnight stay. Cabo is very safe and I love staying into the evening. My favorite activity for these later night stays is a sunset cruise. There are many options available. The last one we took was on a sailboat and it was incredible. It was a beautiful evening - they put up the sails and we soared across the water, we saw whales, enjoyed unlimited drinks and dinner and got a beautiful sunset view with the arch. Definitely a high point of being there into the night hours! Also, the stores stay open late, lots of great restaurants in town for dinner, some fun nightlife on Medano Beach. Schedule an appointment for an evening massage at the Sand Bar and then enjoy some music! Cabo is awesome after dark!

Pearl Harbor doesn’t require a Princess tour. It’s easy to do on your own. We reserved our tickets and tour time in advance for our visit and had our own rental car for the day that we picked up at a Waikiki hotel. But you could easily taxi over. The key is to get there in advance of the cruise tours. Plan on spending about a half day there, especially if you also plan to visit the Missouri (highly recommend). Then if you want some beach time, head over to Waikiki for lunch and spend your afternoon there.

This will be our first experience - we were hoping to get an invite earlier this year when we were on the Discovery, but no such luck. The more I have learned about it the more I have wanted to try it, so New Year's Eve with our family seemed perfect. And my kids are all grown up - my daughter and her new husband are total foodies and my son has also always been an adventurous eater. They both grew up cruising with us, so were always game to try new foods. I think they are going to love it! Hopefully I can keep it a big surprise right up to the moment we go to dinner! At least I'm going to try.

Well they do wash everything in hot water - so I think your observation is fully plausible! 😊 Glad you are having a great time - we will be on the Discovery in a few weeks for our New Year's cruise so its been fun following along.

I just did this yesterday for our upcoming New Year's cruise wand was also having difficulty. I was trying the Explore Dining Options tab and getting the same error message. However, a helpful person here advised me to go through the same reservation tab use for booking our nightly MDR reservations and sure enough there were three options each day of our cruise - MDR, Specialty and Experiential - 360 was under the Experiential and was offered at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. most every night. I was able to get 5 p.m. reservations for our family of 5 on New Year's Eve - a splurge for sure but I'm looking at it as another Christmas gift. The experience looks amazing and people seem to just rave about so I figure it will be a fabulous way to ring out the year!

A cruise vacation is a delicate balance of enjoying yourself and prioritizing your preferences, with treating the crew respectfully and being considerate of your fellow passengers. It shouldn't be that difficult to accomplish. We enjoy eating on our balcony - if I want food in my room on my vacation and Princess offers that option, I should be able to enjoy that perk. It used to be you could call for room service pick up and just leave your plates in the stateroom and they would come collect them, even if you were out. I'm not sure when or if that has really changed. Maybe they are telling people to put them outside now, but I'm among those who don't really find it safe or appealing to see food trays or plates lining the hallway. They are narrow and it does present difficulty for disabled passengers. However, I find it equally disturbing that anyone would push that in front of an unsuspecting person's door and create a real tripping hazard. That's just not ok. Maybe there is a happy medium - maybe try calling for pick up and let room service know the plates will be in your room, please collect them there. Or if you are told to leave them outside your door - try to place them a bit in the alcove in front of your door so they aren't out in the hall. At least if you do it, you will know it's there and not trip over it. It really takes so little just to be considerate of one another.

Here is the link to the Plus and Premier package terms and conditions. It only addresses Crew Appreciation, which is your daily gratuity fee. I don't see anything that says that gratuities for spa or salon treatments are included. I believe you would still be expected to pay the automatic gratuity for those services. https://www.princess.com/en-us/cruise-deals-promotions/plus-premier-cruise-packages/terms-and-conditions

I don't view it as taking away value or loyalty benefit. The benefit is still there and regardless of what you switch your mini bar out for, the actual dollar value is comparable to what you would pay for those items onboard which is probably in the 50 to 60 dollar range. We generally get 10 bottles of water and 10 sodas that we would pay $2 to $3 dollars for if we were buying them at the bar. The Elite minibar benefit didn't change in value. Princess simply stopped offering the coffee card because they replaced that program with different package options. That is completely a separate decision from anything related to loyalty programs. The fact is now that the coffee package no longer exists, they just don't have the option to make that switch. It is just a shift in product offering, nothing to do with loyalty perks.

Actually, it let me book and prepay for the 360 Experience - I just completed our reservation. There are three options - Main Dining, Specialty Dining and Experiential Dining which is where I found 360 - but only 360, not anything else. Funny enough, I tried Specialty Dining just to see and that didn't work - it indicated there was nothing available so maybe those spots are all booked? I don't know. But, all I was interested in was 360, and that did work and my family is in for a big surprise!

Thank you so much! That worked! I was following the directions provided by the rep on the phone and he kept referring me to the other tab. This is why this board is invaluable! Really appreciate the assist!

We used to trade our mini bar set up for the coffee card, but I think that went away when they went to the new Plus and Premier package programs. We now just trade ours out for water and Diet Coke. There is no such thing as a coffee card anymore to my knowledge.

I'm hoping I can get more help here then I did via the Princess Customer service line. I would like to make reservations for specialty dining and perhaps the 360 experience on our upcoming Discovery cruise. I was advised that I could do that via the app. We had no problem making our MDR reservations on the app, but when I select Explore Dining Options which should allow me to make specialty reservations I get an error message stating "Please check back closer to journey date to use this feature". According to the person I spoke to this morning, I am well within the time frame to make reservations as we are just 45 days out, but he couldn't explain why I'm getting this message. He kept telling me to just refresh, but to no avail. I'm not sure if removing and then reloading the app would help? I asked if there was a way I could just make reservations via phone - I seem to remember there used to be a separate line you could call for dining reservations, but not sure if that is still available now that it seems everything is driven by the app (which would be fine with me if it worked!) He finally just said I would just have to wait to make reservations on board, but given this is a very full holiday cruise, I would prefer to try to book in advance. He basically threw up his hands and said, "Oh well"! So, I've come to the real experts here to see if maybe someone has some helpful advice to offer.

We also prefer a table for two and have found that we definitely benefit from a reservation. I would encourage you to make a reservation using the app in advance of your cruise and try to find a table you like the first night. If you prefer not to be seated in one of the two tops that are grouped closely together in a line, you can ask for one of the tables for two that are more separate. That is our preference. If you can find one that suits you from the first night and then lock in a standing reservation, it will make your whole dining experience easier and more enjoyable and you can just head straight to your reserved table for the rest of your cruise without standing in line.

Thank you for this information!

My daughter and her new husband did this recently on their Med cruise. They wanted to disembark one day early in Livorno so they could stay in Florence for one night and then head to Rome instead of disembarking in Rome the next day. They simply spoke to an agent prior to their cruise to confirm that such a plan was possible, and were told it would be fine. They were instructed to go to Guest Services when they boarded and let them know so they could make the proper adjustments and close them out a day early and note they were disembarking at the earlier port. It was no problem at all.

That's really great to know that they will substitute. Guess I should have asked and saved myself a trip to the buffet! 😊