ewildcat7

update: after calling Princess multiple times and asking my CVP twice, I kept running into brick walls. Everybody told me that it was not possible to separate my flights from the original reservation or apply the current promotion to the original reservation. So, I decided to call EZ Air directly and see if they could do anything with the flights. It worked! It took several hours and they had to re-book and manually re-price, but my flights are now on the new reservation with the 3rd person free. All in all, this saved me almost $600. Sometimes persistance pays off!

that is what I thought - the flights are their own reservation, so they should be moveable

yes - I have tried to re-price the flights and they are SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive now. thanks for the tip for calling - I have just been going through the main number and getting people who are very nice, but obviously following a script

ha ha - exactly! I am trying to get the best deal that I can! Doesn't hurt to try.....

I have a reservation on a Princess cruise in Europe in June and I found a great deal for flights through EZ Air. Then this week, I see that they are offering promotions for the 3rd passenger free. When I priced it out using the current promotion, I could get a better cabin for less than what I have reserved (because the 3rd person is free). When I called Princess to ask if they would apply the promotion (removing the cost for the 3rd passenger), they told me that they couldn't and that I would have to book a new reservation to get the current promotion. The problem is that, if I do that and cancel my existing reservation, I lose my flights (which I got a great deal on). Does anybody have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Great idea - we will put some animal pictures on her ipad Unfortunately she has ADHD, so getting her off of her ipad can be a challenge sometimes. I think she will definitely like the animal searching, but it won't last 7 hours. Sometimes it is just easier to let her watch movies if that is what she wants to do - it is her vacation too!

I was too late - the Neptune suites are all gone

very true - it was an offer to upgrade....if I pay for it 🙂

I should have mentioned that we have a 7-year old, so we are thinking that the cabana will be a nice place for us while she is at the pool.

We have a 7-year old that we fear is not going to do well on the train - we hear it is 10 hours. She has a kindle and an ipad that I will load up with movies and shows. But do any of you know if there are chargers on the train? Thanks!

We are leaving on Sunday for our northbound cruise to Alaska on the Nieuw Amsterdam. A few weeks ago we got an offer to upgrade our verandah to a signature suite, which we did, costing around $600 for both of us. Today we got an offer to upgrade again to a Neptune suite for $400 for both of us. We have also reserved one of the Lido cabanas, so I am a little leery of spending more money when we may not spend much time in the suite. I know my wife is going to want to do it, but I am not sure. I need some advice/opinion on whether we should do it. Help me decide!

Thank you for all of your posting. I have been following it as we are doing the Triple Denali (going north) next week with our 7-year old daughter.

When were you notified that your tour is cancelled; i.e. how many weeks before 10 July? We are on the Triple Denali on 17 July and have not yet received a cancelation, but are bracing ourselves....

We are leaving on our cruise a week from tomorrow, so we are starting to think about what we want to pack. Is there a dress code for the MDR and/or the specialty restaurants? As we are going to Alaska, I don't plan on packing shorts, but is jeans and a t-shirt ok? Does it have to be slacks and a collared shirt?

I don't know - I will find out next week 😉

I was told that, even in a specialty restaurant, if a kid orders off of the MDR menu, it is free.

Does anybody have any experience renting a camera lens? I know there are companies that will ship a lens to your house and you send it back when you are done. I did this in 2014 when we went on a South African safari. But that was a long time ago and I can't remember the name of the company that I used. I am sure there are many more now, so I wanted to get people's opinions/suggestions. I am only looking to rent a lens as I have a Nikon D5100 and a 18-270 lens. But since we are cruising to Alaska, I want a bigger lens, so I am thinking of renting a 80-400 lens. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

yelp again, it seems that most of the negative reviews are about Onpoint's drive through testing. Not much out there about their video testing. But several people on here say it worked well.

I was just about to write a post asking exactly the same thing! I am trying to find some reviews of this company and all I can find are extremely negative reviews about their in-person testing; nothing about the online testing service.

this is exactly what we are doing (except it is Alaska instead of Hawaii) From a previous post, it seems like, although Canada doesn't require a test to arrive by air, I can use ArriveCAN to store the test results that we will be taking for the cruise. Do I have that correct?

follow-up: I just read the following on Canada's travel website: All travellers are required to take a pre-embarkation COVID-19 test before embarking on a cruise in Canada, even if the cruise ship is not leaving Canadian waters Travellers who are staying within Canada throughout their entire journey or who are leaving Canada and not returning don’t have to complete ArriveCAN. Am I interpreting correctly that a) the pre-embarkation COVID test requirement will be satisfied when I fill out the ArriveCAN to fly into Vancouver the day before the cruise and that b) a second ArriveCAN will not be required because we are on the one-way cruise to Whittier?

My understanding is that an ArriveCAN has to be completed within 72 hours of arrival in Canada and again within 72 hours of boarding the ship. For those who are flying into Canada and then going to the ship, it only needs to be done once. We are flying in the day before the cruise. Does this mean that I need to fill out an ArriveCAN on back-to-back days to be within 72 hours of each activity?

I thought the CDC was requiring pre-boarding tests for cruises that "touch" the US. I thought I read somewhere that the cruises very much want to stop pre-cruise testing, but are bound by CDC regulations if the cruise is in the US. This might explain why the "experiments" are all taking place in Europe. As far as vaccination, I thought the Royal Caribbean CEO made a good point on that. He said that many countries where these ships go require vaccinations for the crew to be able to enter the country.

I know that Holland America's beverage package is made up of Coke products. But I am a Pepsi man and don't like Coke. In the past (2019), I was able to bring up to 12 cans of Pepsi on board and also pick some up and bring it on during shore excursions. I have heard that this is no longer allowed. Does anybody have any ideas on how I can get my Pepsi? I am not a coffee drinker, so this is my vice!

If there is no testing, it stands to reason that there will be no positive cases. So I don't see how this test can be anything other than wildly successful.