PescadoAmarillo

I think the original poster of this info was @CruiseRaider, so perhaps he/she knows, but it was confirmed by several others so maybe they’ll be able to answer this, also. Whatever the reason, it’s an excuse and could be changed…if Princess had the desire and motivation to change it. I’d love to see Princess to acknowledge that their crews are the primary reason that guests return and allow us to recognize them individually. It’s one thing to have a three day cut off for crew feedback (ridiculous) but even worse to not tell guests about it, so that they continue to use their resources to give individual credit when the crew member will never benefit from it. They used to have the ‘You made a difference’ cards at Guest Services and the advantage of them is that they more or less limited the space (and therefore the time required) to say good things. Have they replaced them with another form?

Exactly, and it’s even worse than that, as crew members with specific mentions don’t get them unless they’re made in the first three days after the cruise, which I guess means disembarkation day and the two subsequent days.

I don’t think this is a “gotcha”. You booked under a fare code that offered an airfare promotion. If you change that fare code, you’re going to lose that promotion. This happens all the time, sometimes with additional OBC, sometimes with premium dining…whatever. As others have said, you can easily check the current EZ air fare by searching for your cruise on the Princess website and choosing CRUISE DETAILS and FLIGHT QUOTES. Then you can decide if it’s worth asking your TA to refare.

You answered it very well, and with the exact kind of information I was curious about. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and time!

Thank you for this report. I just booked a first class, refundable flight to Fairbanks and a refundable hotel around the Spring solstice for the sole purpose of seeing the lights. I thought I could look at weather and NL reports in the days ahead of time, to see if sightings looked possible, and go ahead or cancel as a result. I have been weighing this against a Hurtigruten cruise for several months. Based on your experience, would you go the Hurtigruten route again? Given that it was polar night, what else did you do/see during your month on board? Hurtigruten used to guarantee you’d see the NL or you’d get another cruise at no charge (obviously requiring many out of pocket exoenses, such as transportation) but I’m not sure if they still do that.

I don’t mind the repetitive breakfast menus. I generally rotate through the same two or three things for months at a time. But with the one standard lunch menu, I guess chicken korma is a thing of the past.

Were the rhododendrons in bloom? I love the gardens off of that trail.

It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine!

The 26 glaxiers are not right next to each other. The tour boat also goes into Blackstone Bay, and its glaciers are even more beautiful than those in College Fiord. Only you can decide if it’s right for you, but having hiked in Whittier and taken the glacier tour, I’d chose the glacier tour at least once every few years, and certainly for the first and/or only time I’d be in Whittier.

This. The 26 glacier boat is next to the cruise ship. There is just one 26 glacier tour per day. There is zero risk of not making the ship. If you book the 26 glacier tour through the train, they will know you are coming for that boat. Seems pretty risk free to me.

I am home wearing maize and blue from neck to toe and I feel your pain. Try this: https://www.thestreameast.to/v2/ It’s finicky and you have to keep going back to your original tab (ignore the pop ups, and don’t sign in/up for anything, you may have hit the arrow key a few times), but the game WILL be shown online. I use this website to watch (a lot of) games that aren’t shown locally.

We booked through Princess only because it was very slightly less expensive with our Elite discount. But you don’t meet up as a group, just walk off the ship and next door to the excursion boat on your own.

We did B2B cruises last year and did the 26 glacier tour on turnaround day (lots of pics and info here: http://pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com/2023/10/day-9-whittier-alaska.html). There were still guests being checked in for their cruise as we walked through the terminal about 6:30pm (we were held up a few minutes on the tour boat when we docked due to a bear on the shore right there). We love this tour and have done it twice now. I think it’s much better than the ship’s scenic cruising in College Fiord, though it’s nice to have both perspectives. I would, however, be concerned by your 12:20pm arrival time on the train. All kind of things could delay that.

I had really hoped that B2B issues might have been resolved with the new app. With 17 B2B cruises booked in the old app, they were grouped 9 cruises and 8 cruises. While I could book dining reservations for the 8 cruise group, I never could for the 9 cruise group. Then we cancelled the first of 9 cruise group and that broke things even further. It was partly out of frustration that I cancelled everything. This is supposed to be fun!

I don’t know who, within the company, truly has ownership of these issues. I fear no one does, and we’re seeing the result of that.

For all those with lingering cruise ship coughs….ask for a prescription for Benzonotate Oral. I had a cough that started in early April a couple of years ago and just wouldn’t give up. A doctor started me on Benzonotate in late July and I slept through the night after three doses.

Unfortunately, all upper management knows about this app is that it was released in the month promised, so some Customer Experience SVP will earn their year-end bonus. The fact that it doesn’t work (for most people) won’t affect that.

Yes it was.

I think you made the perfect choice, and hope you have a wonderful birthday cruise (and the same great weather we enjoyed)! We were long time Celebrity cruisers when we took our first Princess cruise, too, so it’s possible you’ll find a new favorite.

Prescriptions written by doctors not licensed in a country usually can’t be filled. This includes getting prescriptions written by ship’s doctors filled in a US turnaround city. I used to take two weeks extra but after COVID I would take four weeks extra. While we’re on this subject, if you have a dental emergency, you or the ship’s doctor can request Guest Services contact the port agent about setting up an appointment in a port. But if you speak the language in the port, it’s really easier to find one yourself. Just search Google maps for dentists near the port. I still get birthday emails from Beacon Cove Dental in Melbourne, Australia. 😆

We seldom use them, just taxes and big spreadsheets. We’re almost completely reliant on our iPads/iPhones now.

We’ve cruised for up to 150 days in a row, during our winter season, and we own a house in an area with fairly harsh winters. I’ve just copied this from my blog. It was kind a tongue-in-cheek list of the things we’d do before we left, but it’s a good starting point. A partial list of cruise prep to do's: Notify credit card companies and bank (for ATM card) that we’ll be out of the country. Verify all credit card and ATM card PIN numbers. Change auto insurance to comprehensive coverage only. Calculate and mail estimated tax payment for Q4 (despite my accounting background, I abhor doing taxes and hate this one with a passion!). Kiss and make up after arguing while doing taxes. Vacuum and wipe out all furnace ducts and vent covers. Start up furnace and pray. Shut off gas fireplace. Turn gas fireplace on again, because it got damn cold outside. Shut off gas fireplace again. Print Christmas card mailing labels for us and Mom. Put Christmas card in envelopes and give to Martha to mail in December. Print hard copies of all reservations- flights, hotels, excursions and cruise (including cruise invoices showing On Board Credits)- because I don’t quite trust the electronic confirmations and tickets on our iDevices. Change all online financial passwords. Backup laptops onto hard drives and take hard drives to safe deposit box. Take valuable and sentimental jewelry to safe deposit box and promise myself that next summer I really will wear it (I do this every. single. year. but never follow through). Get passports and Australian currency left over from 2006 Transpacific cruise from safe deposit box. Dig out scuba certification cards just in case we decide to scuba dive Clean up perennial beds in yard. Saw down tree in yard that looks like it might fall down while we are away. Honor every Garbage Day Eve by purging yard and basement and garage trash. Clean house completely about a week before leaving and do a light touch up after the suitcases are packed. Scrub garbage disposal well to eliminate odors while away. Really well. Dispose of vacuum cleaner bags in upstairs and downstairs canister vacs. Clean their filters. Replace with new bags. Clean out bag-less rechargeable vacuum. Lubricate and empty shredder. Fill up cars and put gas stabilizer in tanks. Clean the deck. Bring suitcases up from basement and open them on deck to air out. Vacuum still more sand out of them, leftover from beautiful beaches of cruise seasons past. Reminisce together about all those beautiful beaches of cruise seasons past. Purchase and mail all Q4 birthday cards early, because of course I did. Tweak security system. Test iPhone apps that control furnace, security webcams and lights. Update all apps and operating system on iDevices. Foster house plants out to friends. Leave laptops and household keys with friends. Give mail key and storage tub to friends. Distribute cruise calendar to friends and family. Promise neighbors they will be the first to know if we unexpectedly return home early. Apologize again for stirring up the neighborhood when we did just that last year. Really promise. Finally, work on cruise beautification efforts, including hair cut, hair color, give self a mani/pedi and apply Sally Hansen Nail Strips in Frock Star (because it is nice to know that some things just never, ever change!). Unplug all unneccessary lights and appliances. Watch as much football as time allows, trying to get our fix before we leave. And, of course, shutting off the water goes without saying. I also lifted the toilet seat and covered the bowl with plastic wrap keep sewer gases from backing up into the house, closed all bathtub and sink stoppers and covered shower drains for the same reason. We’d leave all cabinet doors open with plumbing on the outside walls of the house, and leave the heat set on 50°, though we had a WiFi thermostat and could bump it up remotely if the weather looked especially frigid or like we might lose power. We pay bills entirely online, so receiving mail was the least of our issues. The biggest issue we ever had was that a credit card we used for automatic payments (that stayed in our safe deposit box) was hacked at the credit card company. They emailed us that they were mailing us a new one. We were at the beginning of a several month season in French Polynesia with really poor internet. A friend had to go through our mail, find that envelope, call us with the information and we had to activate that card from outside the country (the hardest part) and change over the payment info for all of those vendors. But even that was able to be done, just not easily.

There was another post about a similar situation this morning. The advice given was that you could wait for a couple of days to see if the app populates correctly but I have had this same thing happen at least three times, and I had to call Princess for Medallion assistance to get it fixed. It’s been known issue for over two years, but hopefully the new app that gets released in early December (insert heavy sarcasm here) will fix it. I’m afraid your dining reservations are likely going to be lost, but take heart. They could have been lost for a number of other reasons, too.

I first reported this issue two years and a Medallion support person said they were aware of it and actively working on it. But personal intervention is still the only way I know get it fixed if it doesn’t self-resolve in a day or two. B2B cruise changes and cancelled cruises are still the apps biggest issues, I think.

I have enjoyed reading every word of your live from, and your beautiful pics have brought back many amazing memories, now four years old. Thank you for taking the time to bring us along.