WAvoyager

I had certificates for Crown Zellerbach, which was replaced with James River shares in my account. Back when things were printed on paper! I really wish I had some early shares in Disney - their certificates were to die for! 😀

It seemed pretty clear to me - mcgratu suggested sending in a copy of the stock certificate, and there were multiple corrections. I don’t disagree with the corrections (it is important for the OP to know what document should actually be sent), but I think the generic use of “stock certificate” was understandable. All I know is I forgot to request it for my upcoming cruise next week. Sent in an email to request it, 13 days before the cruise, and they added the credit within 24 hours! My understanding is that whomever is actioning these request prioritizes them by sailing date. When they’re busy, you can send them in early, and they sit in a “to do” folder until closer to the sailing. If they’re not busy, they’ll get to them earlier. The bar they set is the credits will always be applied 2 weeks prior to the cruise date. I’ve always added information into the email subject : “shareholder credit request - Discovery Princess, August 27th Sailing”, in the thought that it may help them file it properly for action.

You were an hour later…. You must type r e a l l y S l o w l y. 😁 (Anyone know which movie I’m thinking of?)

Thanks. Not worried about it - we’ve picked up the medallions for a couple recent sailings at the port (didn’t want to hassle with paying the mailing fee and then having to request a refund one time, and forgot where I put my medallion the other). the only issue is my daughter wanted to order a specific graphic for her medallion this time. No way to order a specific one unless you do it ahead of time (I believe). Finally got into the app using my booking number instead of logging in, and the ordering window for the medallions has ended. 🙁

Never really had a problem with the app - any issues have been short lived. But now, I cannot log in to the app, and our cruise is in 13 days. Trying to get in and order medallions (for pick up) for my mom and daughter. But when I try to log in, all I get is “We’re sorry, our servers are having problems. Please try again later.” ”Later” apparently means more than three days…. 😞

No - I modify the automatic payment every month when I go to pay my bills. I set up the minimum automatic payment just in case for some reason I can’t go in and make (modify) the payment. It’s only happened a few times, but sometimes life gets in the way, and I’ve forgotten to go in and pay the bill - so the minimum payment is the backstop for that happening.

I can’t image worry about bills being paid anymore. Every account of mine is set to autopay minimum payments, so I’m never late. Every month when I pay bills I just update the amount of the scheduled payment to pay whatever I want. If something comes up, or I forget about a payment, at least the minimum is payed, so there’s no issues. there are a couple of accounts which can only be set to pay in full, so those just get payed. one of my least favorite banks did mess me up last month. They sent out “replacement” cards, and didn’t make it very clear they were actually changing accounts. They sent out a mail a couple of weeks later to remind people that all auto payments needed to be redone on the new accounts. Guess who didn’t see the reminder! 😥

That’s nice, I guess. 🤪. At least that means more opportunity for people who want to try new things.

That’s interesting. We’re on the Discovery at the end of the month, and I’d kind of given up hope - my daughter is booked in my mom’s cabin, separately from ours. Really wanted my mom to be able to experience it (and my daughter really wants to go again), but I didn’t think there was any way. Hopefully we’ll get a call and be able to work it out.

They also invite Casino guests. I don’t know if there’s a specific priority but I’m assuming they start with the suites and then fill in empty slots with Casino guests. I’m not sure about CC status.

The 360 Experience is dinner treated as a fully immersive, multi-sensory experience. You have a really nice dinner, with visual (180 degree video - repeated so there’s 360 degrees of screens), audio (narrative for your dinner, stories about the food and ingredients, sounds from the environment), olifactory (scents of lavender, etc) and of course, gustatory components from the food and drinks provided. In short, it’s a 2 hour session where you fully experience a meal from the growing of the food, through harvesting and preparing the ingredients, to your tasting and drinking the prepared meal, using all 5 senses, I can’t speak highly enough of it. I, my wife, and our 6 yo daughter all thought it was one of the best meals we have ever had. I would almost say “the best”, but we’ve had some really amazing meals - it’s kind of our thing when we travel - but definitely say it’s the one that we want to do again the most.

Definitely sounds like a fringe use case - I’m sure any fix would be pretty low on the priority list.

Glad to help with the math! 😁 I understand the hesitation with ordering wines from unknown bottles. On a cruise ship though, my assumption is that they probably go through a lot of the by the glass options. So it’s likely that each glass is a relatively fresh pour. I’m pretty picky with my drinks as well - but I usually can find some “by the glass” options which I enjoy. So moving even 50% of your wines from bottle to glass service really tips the equations. But I’m also picky about my other drinks. The taste of decent bottled water vs tap is pretty big to me. And no comparison between fresh juices vs concentrates. So I make good use of the non-alcoholic drink value.

I’m of the same mindset, but my wife definitely always thinks about what she’s spending, when she spends it. On a cruise, when certain drinks are an incremental cost, she automatically asks herself if she really wants to spend the money. It’s an admirable trait in normal life, but when we’re on vacation, she can’t really let go of that habit. when we go on a cruise with drinks pre-paid, she always consumes more alcohol than she would otherwise. So I always get the package - anything to help her enjoy herself while on vacation! 😁

That works if you’re okay with the selection of wines available by the glass. But that’s a much more limiting option.

Based on the OPs post, I think they’re making the assumption that they’ll only order wines which are only sold by the bottle - per glass wines don’t interest them much. So the $1200 they spent on bottles will be reduced to $1000 with the plus/premier discount. not sure I understand the math there though, since a 25% discount on bottles wold bring $1200 down to $900. To the OP I would ask - do you only drink wine? No bottled water, sodas, fresh juices, mocktails? I drink very little alcohol but the plus package makes sense for me. When you add in those other drinks, and then add some value for “never having to think about what everything will add up to when you are thinking about a glass of wine, or a mocktail”, it evens things out for me. 😁

Going on a Princess cruise is now getting to be just as difficult/confusing as planning a DisneyWorld trip. I understand all of these companies are just trying to optimize profits, but I can’t believe they’re letting people add this much ‘friction’ to the user experience. As a product manager for many years, and for different fortune 100 companies, anything that makes things more difficult for your customers has been inherently bad. Seems like Princess (and others) are ignoring that principle.

Congratulations! We’ll be on the same sailing. That would’ve been the ideal upgrade for me. Mom is coming on the trip, so we couldn’t bid for any upgrades. Definitely will be bidding on our next cruise.

We’ve had two medallions with dead batteries in the last 4 cruises. One big problem is with the short lifespan, the medallions age out, even when they’re in storage. So they must have had a huge number of throwaways following the shut down. Once the battery is weak/dead, the medallion loses the ability to broadcast the necessary info - so you can still hold it directly to a reader for it to work (barely) but none of the other functions will work. It is a bad design - but I’m sure it’s much cheaper (from a purchasing perspective only) to have the batteries non-replaceable, and someone made the decision that it was worth the trade offs.

That’s much harder to do when you’re watching a kindergartener in the pool! 😄

We did an excursion through Princess to the Gold Rush Sled Dog site. Gold panning, sled dog exhibition, and PUPPIES! My 5 YO loved it (and so did I). They also have a -40 degree room, but that wasn’t available when we went - not sure if they’ve removed it. The same company has a location in Juneau as well. Very entertaining. Afterwards we wandered around in Skagway - the NPS buildings are interesting for the little ones.

We’ve been hoping it would change to a paid offering by the next time we sailed in August. The rumor was that they were doing it as an invitation only event while they ramped up and worked out any issues. Seemed consistent with the exposure on social media, to get people talking about it before they offered it. Sadly, no word on it being offered as a premium dining experience yet. We’re not in a suite this sailing. Really wanted my mom to get a chance to go. We absolutely loved it last sailing. My daughter (6) loved the overall experience, and the special drinks they made her. Every new drink was promptly called better than the last, and several dishes were her favorite. My wife and I really enjoyed the food, and the wonderful service - and the immersive video and interactive projection system were just icing on the cake. $150 sounds about right - actually, I’d say it’s worth more, but I know that may be a hard sell for Princess. I’d happily pay that much to go again.

Or if no credit card has been associated for onboard charges - that gets us every time. I have to say though - calling the customer service rep “inept” seems a bit harsh. It seems likely that the rep is correct, since the app only says your husband needs to pick up the medallion that he’s already received. Maybe the app data didn’t synch up the next day as he expected. Maybe there was some other reason you’re insulting him. Either way, it doesn’t (from the info you posted) really seem necessary.

Only partially pre-made. The sundae cups are dipped/rolled in chocolate and sprinkles or marshmallows or whatever is specific to that dessert, and then stored in a fridge. When ordered they add the gelato, toppings, and sauces. And booze if you want it. I honestly don’t understand the aggressive negativity some people display about these. They’re a fancy sundae. They have some good toppings (and some not so good), and fun extras - my daughter enjoyed the lollipop that came with ours. Are they overkill? Yes. But so much of a vacation often is. I find these much less wasteful (and offensive) than some of the “kitchen sink” sundaes you’d find at many ice cream parlors. Like Farrells - anyone remember them? Their huge specialty sundaes were never more than half eaten that I can remember. Or Felton’s Creamery in the SF Bay Area. But I still fondly remember going to both as a kid.

We have found that our disembarkation offer is about the same (sometimes worse) in value than the follow up offers they send out following the cruise. not sure if everyone gets them, but we usually receive an offer every other month. Those offers typically also have a farther out window for bookings (except for the VIP sailings which usually provide a 3-7 month window). We’ve always found them to be sticklers for the offer terms - no adjustments or exceptions allowed. coming off our previous cruise, my Mom suddenly stopped receiving offers, even though she usually gets better offers than we do, and we all had just sailed. When contacting the casino group to see if she had any offers so she could join us on our next sailing, they said nothing was available, but she would receive really good offers after her next sailing. It made no sense why she was suddenly not on the promotion list.