MommyOTwins

First off, take a deep breath--it'll be fine.  99% of the fun things to do on the ship are not available to book online anyway, they are open to everyone on the ship.  We're gold cruisers and we hardly ever book stuff in advance any more.  And if you do really want something sold out on your booking day, keep checking the app because people do cancel these things (e.g., they have to cancel or move the cruise; or just decide they are over budget), and if that fails go to guest services on day one and request to be waitlisted.  .

As for the things that do sell out, what would you propose is the most fair way to allocate the limited spots available?  Unlike other cruise lines, Disney cruise guests tend to plan far far ahead of time, and don't mind staying up until midnight to do so.  So "first come first serve" really means it is a lottery--everyone will log on at once, some people will get lucky, and some will get out of luck.  Meaning one person could book 10 cruises and never get Royal Tea due being slow-fingered, having technical issues with the app, or unlucky, while others could book 3 cruises and get it on all 3.  It isn't really any fairer than rewarding loyal guests.  If you don't believe me, just read about what goes on at the theme parks with dining reservations and virtual queues.

I get that the OP is likely long gone, but this thread is super interesting and I have to chime in with my experience. We often cruise on Disney Cruise Line and I like spending time with my kids on vacation and have never had trouble finding fun things to do in the evenings with them.  With the time difference when going to the east coast nobody is sleepy before 11pm/midnight most nights, especially on short cruises where we don't have time to adjust our body clocks.  A regular night for us would go something like this: dinner at early dining time, then head to a live show in the theater, then go to a one of many family friendly activities in the family lounges: game shows, trivia, silent disco, dance parties with disney characters, and of course there is also pirate night once per cruise.  Followed by a late night movie on the top deck. There is often live music in the lobby, where there is a lobby bar.  The family lounges all have bars in them too.  So there's no difficulty as a parent if you want to have a drink in the evenings in a family friendly area of the ship. 

So I can't say I agree with OP--they're just factually wrong and it makes no sense that they couldn't have fun with their kids in the evening. I'm not sure how they missed all the kid-friendly entertainment but so be it.

But I can't say I agree either with all the judgmental posts about kids and bars and bedtimes.  Most kids go to family weddings too--usually they stay up late and see plenty of drinking and dancing there and aren't scarred for life because of it.  I'd rather demystify it and let my kids know about alcohol (including all the messy adult behaviors attached to it) than let them reach the pre-teen/teen/college years thinking it's some mysterious secret fun thing adults do without kids allowed.  

1 minute ago, kiwimum said:

Quite normal, nothing to worry about.  As long as your travel document shows Jane Mary Doe.

Really?  Phew that's a relief.  Yes our IDs have our full names.  Just so strange for it to show up that way on the check in!  

We fly tomorrow for our cruise and when I went to the Alaska Air website to check in and entered the airline confirmation code from Princess, I saw all our names are showing up SUPER weird.  Essentially, it looks like when princess supplied our names to Alaska Air, they smooshed together first and middle names into the first name field and added "Mr" "Mrs" or "Mstr" for my husband, me, and our kids respectively as their middle names. 

So...

Jane Mary Doe

...is showing up on Alaska airline's check in page as:

Janemary Mrs Doe 

And John James Doe

...is

Johnjames Mr Doe

I'm on hold trying to get through to Alaska airlines.  Is this normal?  Has anything like this happened to anyone before before? Should I keep waiting on endless hold with the airline or should I be trying to call princess instead? Anyone have any insights into this insanity?

Eek!

We will be on he Discovery next week. There are only three ships in port the day we are there so I wonder if they can move us from RRF to RRA? 
 

Kids and I were so looking forward to the train ride at Skagway so really hope we don’t miss it. 

19 hours ago, Billish said:

To be clear,  the Medallion is the equivalent if a key card.

Booking a restaurant has absolutely nothing to do with the Medallion, 

To be clear, “Princess” is a female direct descendant of a sitting monarch.  “Princess Cruises” is a cruise line.  Ergo none of us should ever say we sail on Princess 👸 

Sorry bad joke, couldn’t resist. Yeah it is weird they named their app and device the same thing.  Kind of like how they named the new Premier package the same as the old standalone drinks package.  The creative department at Princess Cruises is pretty lazy.

Here’s the thing. The northbound/southbound cruises were mask optional at first, then the outbreaks happened, and it started affecting crew and filling up quarantine rooms on the ship, so Princess restarted the mask requirement for those cruises. This was all just a month or two ago.

Right now, Discovery Princess is mask optional.  But if the numbers start trending the wrong way, the cruise contract gives them the right to require masks any time, and the recent north/southbound policy reversal shows they totally will do it.

So if wearing the mask is truly a deal breaker, cancel while you still can.  Because if they change to mask required before (or during) your cruise, you won’t have a choice and you won’t get a refund. 

On 7/1/2022 at 1:19 AM, hilliss said:

The tests they use are 98% correct for negative results, and 87% correct for positive results.  So there are 13% (at least) false positives.

I think you have it switched around, actually.  All Covid tests are FAR more likely to be a false negative than a false positive.  

For folks who are being re-routed to ISP, when are u finding that out?  Did Princess email before the cruise or was it announced onboard?

5 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

I "live chatted" today.  Agent said that they are processing June 7th today.  Considering today is June 30, I guess I will have to wait 3 more weeks to see it on my account.  That would make it about a month from sending in to getting the credit.

We emailed in May for a July cruise and got our OBC almost exactly one month later in June.

The spelling difference “Premier” vs “Premiere” is actually important. Previously, when Princess sold drinks packages a la carte, it only had one alcoholic drink package and it was called “Premier” (no “e” at end).  When you bought plus, you were getting a bundle with the Premier drinks package, wifi, and crew appreciation.

When princess rolled out “Premiere” as an alternative to “Plus” the old drink package name became confusing.  So they changed it to “Plus”.  
 

You never had Premiere, the new package, you only had Premier, the old drink component which is now Plus.  

21 hours ago, Sn0cruiser said:

Today I noticed a box on Dine my Way which said I had a dining credit (which I did and had assumed I wouldn’t be able to use until on board) and that it would be applied automatically once I confirmed a reservation.

 

So I booked speciality dining with a slight hope that it would work as stated.  Not sure if I did something wrong but once confirmed my CC was charged and the nice box stating I had a dining credit was still there. 

Is there a trick I’m missing to actually apply the credit ?

Just a glitch I think.  I saw the same pop up and rebooked my specialty dining and it automatically said balance due was zero dollars. Was not charged.

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

It’s a numbers game. The people who participate here are the upper 2% of people who cruise. For every person here who complains about a cabin move that is “technically” an upgrade that they don’t want, there are 50 people who see these as “actual” free upgrades and who are doing the happy dance. But we never hear from those people. 

We have three small kids and booked connecting rooms.  Will not be happy to get upgraded to nonconnecting rooms in a higher category. I can tell you I will never sail princess again if they do that. And I mean it—I said the same thing to united airlines after they moved our booked airplane seats and put my two year old on the other end of the plane from me, and Hyatt hotels when the downgraded us from another room type without enough beds for us, and I’ve kept my word.  This is how you lose customers.

6 hours ago, geocruiser said:

I just would like to know what you mean by tidy up?  My cabin  steward vacuums, make the bed, cleans up the bathroom etc.  But he does not have to put away any of our personal property in our cabin, that is taken care of by us.  And yes, I tip well too.

Whenever we have cruised before (granted has always been on Disney Cruise Line, trying princess for the first time next month), we leave the cabin in the morning and when we come back, it is spotless: parents bed is made, and kids beds are turned back into the wall/couch, any loose items (books, bedtime stuffed animals, ipads) are neatly arranged on the desk, toiletries are reorganized, shoes are lined up in a neat row against the wall, towels are replaced, trash is emptied, any kids’ clothes left on the floor or bed are folded in a pile.

Then over the course of the day the room gets messy again: we’ll go swim and come back and now towels are wet again, bed is unmade from kids taking an afternoon nap, trash accumulates in the trash can from snacks and paper drink cups and packaging for souvenirs bought onshore.  Without the turndown at night it would not be nearly as pleasant to come back to the room in the evening.
 

I worked as a waitress in a restaurant and I loved having families with small kids even though I had to sweep up crumbs and spills and shredded napkin paper, because parents know kids aren’t easy and tip well.  Never would have thought someone rude for having messy kids—it is part of the job!

7 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

 

Our kids have traveled with us on cruises since they were little. They are adults now. We always picked up after them and were considerate. This seems like a bit of an unfair and judgmental comment regarding families on cruises. Most parents we have met on our cruises are very considerate and engaged and no more cause for concern from a room steward then any other passenger. Not sure what you are implying with this observation. Plus, the steward receives additional gratuities for each person in the room, including children, so a room with four people is much more lucrative and likely not that much more work. Perhaps a cabin steward with many children in his or her section would be thrilled as they will be receiving higher compensation.

Guilty as charged.  I have three little  boys and one husband and they are MESSY.  Vacation is my escape.  I love for once not having to tidy up and clean by myself—and I tip insanely well.

I fail to see why it is offensive to have room stewards tidy the room they are paid to tidy, especially if I tip generously.  I do it all at home every day after I finish my day job and don’t get paid a cent.

I think what makes this so frustrating is we paid in full for our cruise with plus before all this got announced.  To do the right thing here, they really should have grandfathered in guests who had already purchased plus to premier or provide an opportunity for us to downgrade to standard and get a refund.  With three out of six in out party who don’t drink alcohol, it originally squeaked by as a good overall value because it was such a good deal for the drinkers. With the extra cost per drink, the drinkers will order fewer drinks and it won’t be a good value any more. 

Eek, I shudder to think of the tax bill due for this prize!

OP’s question has been specifically answered, but just to provide more info for others reading this, if anyone has the two angled balconies (midship, the “pointy” bits sticking out from the side of the ship) the barrier between the balconies does not connect, even if they are connecting rooms on the inside.  We initially booked those rooms and there was a notice from from Princess that the balconies do not connect so we switched to a mid-forward pair of rooms that connect inside and on the balcony.

I’ve been checking daily and our Discovery Princess cruise just became available at 59 days exactly.

I hope everyone on the Crown has an enjoyable cruise.

I would like to say a few words in defense of Princess.  This is not really a solution that has an easy fix--they are likely months away from being able to get replacement parts and a reserved time at a drydock.  They can cancel and refund all cruises for the Alaska season, but then they will infuriate guests who have to scramble to get a replacement vacation at current inflation-elevated prices.  People seem to want more compensation, but Princess can't just give everyone a free vacation--it costs a lot of money for Princess to provide food, entertainment, fuel etc. to sail these cruises and many of the guests on the Crown already have steeply discounted fares so I'm sure their margins are razor thin to begin with. 

And frankly, I know others have said it but it bears repeating--itinerary changes are VERY common a part of cruising.  I know it sucks when it happens, but is it really so different to miss a port because of any other reason?  We usually sail DCL, and their cruises in January very frequently miss their private island due to rough seas--it's a known issue and it happens every year.  All cruise lines that planned to sail to Grand Cayman, Key West, and Russia this year had to drop those ports. I've been on multiple sailings where we had to have a drastic itinerary change because of a medical emergency onboard. It really is a lot more common than you might think.  In all those cases, saying "this isn't what I paid for, I had my heart set on x, y, and z" is a recipe for a bad vacation.  Instead, we always take the attitude that the point of the cruise is being on a beautiful ship with good food, entertainment, and relaxation on the open ocean, and the port stops are just bonus. If the destination is all you care about, a land trip is probably a better for it for you, because that's just not how cruising works.

21 hours ago, BettyCruiser said:

 

Paying the per drink difference could add up to more than the per day difference between packages. 

Well but remember the top tier package goes up to $18, and the plus is $12, so even if every drink you had is $18 or more, the maximum benefit of the premier package over the plus package $6 per drink. With a $25 price difference between packages, that means 5 drinks a day have to be $18 or over for you to see savings based on drinks alone. Unless princess really ratchets up drink prices (the million dollar question), most drinks are not priced high enough for that to happen.

We are sailing on a cruise with an evening stop in Victoria (7pm to midnight) I just watched a vlog where they saw various bars on the ship (Discovery Princess) were closed due to Canadian port rules.  Is that true, or was it just staffing issues and someone blamed it on the port, or the vlogger misunderstood?  We have dinner reservations at a specialty restaurant on Victoria night, and it would stink to not get to have one of their nice drinks with dinner.

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

Do you know what the percentage difference in fare is for similar itineraries? I ask because sometimes people say the fares are close because of extras, but when I do quick comparisons Oceania is at least 50% more and often much more.

I personally feel like there's never really any point to trying to compare prices to decide if one cruise line is more expensive than another, given the differences in ship size, on-ship experiences (dining, entertainment, activities) room layout (e.g., is the basic verandah on on ship the equivalent of a mini-suite on another), dining (main dining on ship may be comparable to specialty dining on another), how much will you pay for alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks (a la carte or with a package), will you have to pay for a Sanctuary or similar upcharge experience to enjoy the same amenities as the pricier cruise line and so on.  You have to do the research for individual cruises and decide which one is better for you based on what you want to get out the experience at a price you are willing to pay.  

22 hours ago, hpeabody said:

Hmmmmm, I have discovered another issue pertaining to my booking on Discovery July 31st. This is all very fishy.  I just now looked in my cruise personalizer and this Endicott Arm excursion is there for me to choose and showing 20 openings.  But ....... when trying to book it, a notice appears saying that there is a conflict.  Our time in Endicott Arm is 5am to 9am, 4 hours.  The excursion is 7am to 1pm, 6 hours.  Yes, this sure is a conflict.  I checked multiple dates of this itinerary and all appear the same.  The funny thing is that we arrive in Endicott Arm at 5am and we are not scheduled to arrive at our next port, Juneau until 12:30 PM the next day.  Juneau is all of 43 miles away from Endicott Arm.

 

It seems to me we passengers on this itinerary are victims of perhaps too many ships being allowed in Alaska requiring intricate scheduling requirements to avoid so called "congestion" problems, perhaps Alaska state mandates play a part, possibly could be $$$$$$ charged to cruise line driven.  I am feeling like we passengers are being robbed of the Alaska experience this season in particular.  I have been reading many posts about excursion issues and disappointment recently.

 

I did go on live chat to inquire about this situation.  As I expected I got no answer other than what I already knew, that the ship is not scheduled to be there long enough for this excursion.  So why did Princess even offer this excursion at all?

So actually, this is why I didn't book this excursion.  If you read the details of the excursion, the tour boat picks you up from the ship (like a tender) but then spends several hours sailing back back on its own to Juneau and you are dropped off at the Juneau pier to meet up with the ship that has already docked in the port.  I thought this was a very disappointing way to do the excursion--I'd have loved it if it was a few hours tour round trip to and from the ship while in the fjord like it is on most other sailings, but having what is the equivalent of a multi-hour ferry ride at the end of the excursion to meet up with the ship at port sounded exhausting, especially after the early wake up call.  We're going to enjoy seeing Alaska from the ship instead.

I actually had an anxiety dream about our Discovery Princess cruise last night... I feel like the closer and closer we get to the cruise the more I am just stressed out and convinced it's going to be a terrible, very expensive disaster.  It's my fault of course, but I like you somehow thought in my mind that Endicott Arm was a separate day from Juneau, and when I went to book excursions and saw that in fact we have to get up at dawn to see the glacier for a couple hours before breakfast before zipping over to Juneau, and then cram in an excursion at Juneau before dinner, I just felt so disappointment.  What a silly schedule.   

I read a review of the latest Discovery Princess Alaska sailing and it had 3100 guests with a capacity of 3800, so about 80%.  But some of that could just be that the cruise wasn't sold out (it is the early shoulder season for Alaska after all), and not all rooms are necessarily sold at full capacity (e.g., sometimes couples book rooms that can sleep up to 3 or 4 with the pull down bunks). Given that, it is reasonable to conclude there are no longer capacity limits across the board on princess, though it is possible some may be imposed on a ship by ship basis based on staffing differences across ships.  For example, the ship I mentioned, Discovery, has all of its specialty dining open, but I read a trip report from another ship recently that said Sabatinis was closed due to staffing shortage.

I think the days of 50% sailings our past us, not just for Princess.  I bet if you checked out those other lines, you'd find similar guest count increases.  I know it was fun while it lasted to have uncrowded ships, but obviously, capacity has to go back to normal eventually as reduced capacity simply is not profitable enough for cruise lines to sustain forever.