rheathslc

I just recently started using a TA who I met through a cruise FB group for several future cruises but the Diamond bookings we had were still with my CVP. Even though our new TA has been AMAZING so far I know it would have taken her a lot longer to get our switch to the Sept 3rd Royal sailing taken care of. And I don't love not being able to see the balance and make payments directly through Cruise Personalizer for our bookings that are with the TA. She DID get us several great cruises booked with much smaller deposits than Princess was offering. So that's nice. There's always going to be a trade off no matter which we use I think.

This might be a recent update but it DID restrict our Suite benefit SD reservation to the first night on our upcoming 7-day cruise on the Royal. When I tried to book a different night it wanted to charge me. However, we had previously been booked on two B2B 5-day cruises on the Diamond before they were cancelled and it DID let us reserve the SD on the first night of each even though that's supposed to only be for 6 day or longer cruises. So smart enough to restrict to first night but not to limit it to 6-day or longer cruises. I wasn't going to complain about that though. Haha! I wonder if I would have been charged on board in the end. Heck, I've been charged on board even when I DID pay in advance through the app. I got it removed but had to spend 30 minutes on crew chat to do it. It would be so nice if the system worked the way it's supposed to but I guess that's asking a lot. 🙂

I am excited about the Discovery too. When I sail on her in February it will still technically be her inaugural season so we'll get the special medallions. Until now I've always sailed on ships that were already several years old so it'll be fun to experience basically a brand new ship.

Our replacement cruises leave in 12 days and have one set of OBC but are struggling to get to 2nd credit applied. We had the 1st AND 6th booked on the Diamond so it was two separate cruises and even though we applied both sets of FCC to one new cruise we should still get the OBC for both.

Ugh! So many people brought that up to me too. Which logical fallacy is that again?

I have noticed several other cruises where there are some of every cabin type available EXCEPT Deluxe Balcony (even suites and club class minis) which seems strange to me. I don't think it would make sense to limit just that category either but it also seems strange that just that one category would be the only one sold out on the many cruises I've looked at. Maybe those are the ones they are using for quarantine? I know the quarantine cabins are balconies at the very least. But who really knows. 🙂

Those were the days! Our cruise on the Royal that leaves in 12 days has only about 16% of cabins showing available on the website which is the least amount by far of any of our post restart cruises. It should be interesting to see how crowded it feels now after those ones.

Exactly! I very unexpectedly got a dozen roses delivered to my cabin on my solo 7-day Alaska cruise in May. The card said it was from the housekeeping staff. I found that so weird. If they have access to flowers let us order them!

The size of the mini suite balconies depends on which ship you're on and which cabin you're in. Since you're doing Canada to NYC I'm guessing you're on the Caribbean Princess so you should have enough room. On the Grand, Crown, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond, and Caribbean all of the minis are going to have plenty of space on the balconies. On the Island and Coral MOST of the minis have larger balconies with a few exceptions (notably some of the club class minis which seems strange to me). On the Royal class ships it depends on which specific mini suite you're in. The ones that are midship with the angled balconies will mostly have enough space. I had the balcony breakfast in B414 on the Majestic last October. There was plenty of space. The forward minis on Marina and Lido will be large enough. Many of the others will be so small as to make it pretty tough to have the meal actually served on the balcony. Unless you stay seated the whole time and the servers serve you through the open door. I honestly don't know what Princess was thinking making all those balconies so small. They tout the fact that the Royal class ships have such a high percentage of balcony cabins yet most (even on a lot of the suites) are too shallow to even sit on. It's silly.

Local libraries are such an incredible resource for so many things! I'm grateful my city and county libraries are decently well funded.

I booked the breakfast when I sailed solo last October (RIGHT before they removed it from the cruise personalizer and discontinued it altogether for a while). I paid the full $45 but they brought two servings of everything. It was way too much food for one. I asked for a side of bacon. They brought me a heaping full plate. Haha! Maybe make friends with another solo cruiser on the first day and invite them to share your breakfast. That's not weird right? 🙂

Thank you for the heads up! I had been checking pretty regularly but with our embarkation date in just 2 weeks I've been preoccupied with other prep and stopped checking.

I still have mine too. The local libraries gave them out for free. 🙂 But will want to get new ones. Hopefully some that have the specific ecplise info on them like the last ones. Seems a bit silly maybe but they are a fun memento.

Before the cancellations I had already booked the Feb 11th cruise on the Discovery to 1 - try out the Discovery and 2 - get to Elite status before our big cruises for the next two years. Given the cancellations I'll still be short 2 credits now unfortunately but I am excited to experience the Discovery. From everything I've seen and read she seems like a beautiful and fun ship. But to replace out two cancelled cruises I ended up booking us on the Royal and even though I was super disappointed (and still am a little) about several of the changes I'm really glad about having the full Crown Grill, Alfredo's, International Cafe, AND Vines (which is not on the Discovery). And the Enclave which is one of my favorite things.

We got the FCC from both canceled cruises and ONE $100 OBC per person applied to our new cruise but we're still waiting on the other $100 OBC. We had two cruises booked that were canceled so even though we used the FCC from both for only one new cruise I think we should still get the $100 per person per canceled cruise. My CVP agrees and is working on it for me but still no news.

We had our Sept 1st and Sept 6th B2B cruises on the Diamond canceled along with the rest last week. They were supposed to be my 40th b-day celebration cruises so I was crushed. We had splurged on an aft Vista Suite and had pre-booked massages, etc. I was so looking forward to trying Izumi. And I love the layout of the Grand/Crown class ships. The official replacement options were all on the Discovery and not until November or even February which didn't work for us. I immediately called my CVP at 4:30pm on the 8th and had him request the FCC + $100 OBC per person option for each of the two canceled cruises and hold a booking on the Royal for Sept 3rd instead (and Alaska vs Mexico so we had to change flights, change packing plans, etc.). It was a bit of a whirlwind but the transfer of FCC came through by Wednesday morning the 10th and we had access in the Medallion app by Thursday the 11th to do the check-in items and get "Ocean Ready". We had all refunds of prepaid spa bookings and a few other items we had prepaid in our accounts by Saturday the 13th, exactly 3-weeks out for the new cruise. Overall I was very pleased with the service and speed of rebooking. Originally my CVP said it could take till as late as August 26th to finalize everything. Which would have been only 1 week in advance of when we were trying to sail. It's only 7 days instead of 10 total and it was a bit more expensive as we wanted an aft suite and the aft suites on the Royal Class ships are a higher cabin class (S3 or higher vs S6). I also won't be onboard for my actual birthday anymore. I'm still working through the disappointment but I'm grateful we found a replacement and that everything got settled so quickly. My CVP puts up with a lot of craziness from me with grace and he really outdid himself last week. I know a lot of people are disappointed and think Princess should have told us sooner, done more to compensate us, etc. and I fully understand that. Hope everyone gets resolution quickly.

I've been here 8 years and I love it! It's TOOO hot in the summer for me as I grew up in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and Alaska. But I probably shouldn't say that to someone now living in Atlanta. Haha! I really hope you don't have your cruise canceled but if you do, enjoy Mexico! I am actually really going to enjoy the break from the heat on what is now our Alaska cruise. 🙂

As @tonit964 said above - we got notified on Monday August 8th that our Sept 1st and Sept 6th B2B cruises on the Diamond were canceled. They were supposed to be my 40th b-day celebration cruises so I was crushed. We had splurged on an aft Vista Suite and had pre-booked massages, etc. The official replacement options were all on the Discovery and not until November or even February which didn't work for us. I immediately called my CVP at 4:30pm on the 8th and had him request the FCC + $100 OBC per person option and hold a booking on the Royal for Sept 3rd instead (and Alaska vs Mexico so we had to change flights, change packing plans, etc.). It was a bit of a whirlwind but the transfer of FCC came through by Wednesday morning the 10th and we had access in the Medallion app by Thursday the 11th to do the check-in items and get "Ocean Ready". We had all refunds of prepaid spa bookings and a few other items we had prepaid in our accounts by Saturday the 13th, exactly 3-weeks out for the new cruise. Overall I was very pleased with the service and speed of rebooking. Originally my CVP said it could take till as late as August 26th to finalize everything. Which would have been only 1 week in advance of when we were trying to sail. So if you're worried they might cancel your Sapphire cruises maybe research now if there are any sailings that would work for you and be ready to call Princess right away with clear plans. If you don't already have a CVP you work closely with I can give you my guy's info. He has been incredible for all the cancelations we've endured and outdid himself this time.

Every time I speak to my CVP on the phone I make sure to make comments about some of the top things I think should be changed because every call is recorded. Haha! Not that anyone who can do anything would hear them.

This was my exact concern when they canceled our Diamond cruises and the replacements were on the Discovery. Discovery looks like a gorgeous ship but the Vista Suites on the Grand/Crown class ships are aft, have the same basic layout as the other suites, and have large mostly covered balconies. The Vista Suites on the Diamond are all way high up and almost all the way forward, are smaller and have a non-standard suite layout and have the dinky little balconies that are the worst hallmark of the Royal class ships IMO. We opted to take the FCC option and apply that to a cruise on the Royal for the same general time frame that still had an aft suite available. It was a bit more $ and the only one available was on Riviera deck and has basically no coverage. But better than the Vista suites on the Discovery.

The Premium Suites on the early Royal Class ships are the forward corner suites on Aloha, Baja, Caribe, and Dolphin. They have a sloping wall with a window in the bedroom and a small balcony off the living area. There are Premium Suites on some of the other ships as well. They do come with all the full-suite perks though according to the info showing when I select the cabin on the deck plans on the Princess website.

One benefit of having our two B2B Diamond cruises for early September canceled last week is that we replaced them with a cruise on the Royal leaving just two days later than the original plan. I love the Grand/Crown class ships and was so excited to try out the Diamond while she's in a U.S. home port. But after reviewing the deck plans and watching reviews of the Royal I'm really excited about trying out all the things that make the Royal Class different from the older ships. I was on the Majestic last October but for only 3 days and didn't really get to experience it all plus was only in a Club Class mini and Ruby status. I'm Platinum now and it's our first time sailing in a suite. I DID try the Enclave and am also super excited about having more time to enjoy that. Especially since I WAS looking forward to trying Izumi on the Diamond and will be missing out on that. And our aft suite is on Riviera. Just down the hall from the Concierge Lounge. Should be fun!

Perfectly poached eggs are such a delight! 21 days until our first Suite Breakfast and I'm already daydreaming about the poached eggs I'll get. The cup poached eggs in the MDR are edible but always a bit lackluster. Thank you for the info and the pics!

I read the whole thread and didn't see what time the Suite Breakfast ended. Did you happen to notice? We don't really sleep in super late but we also aren't the earliest of risers. We splurged for a suite for my 40th b-day cruise on the Royal in a few weeks and I'm really looking forward to the special Suite Breakfast. I want to make sure I can plan ahead on when we'll need to wake up to not miss it. 🙂

No worries. People tend to get worked up on any thread on here that has any mention of tips. 🙂 I tip higher too. I'm grateful to be able to and as some one who worked in tipped positions I know exactly how a bit extra can help - both emotionally and financially. But I'm not gonna raz someone for tipping 15% when there are lots who tips way less or nothing.