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I'd be super depressed if I had to use a mobility device at any age. Makes me sad just thinking about it. I've seen some kids on RC who have severe mental impairment (from a strictly ocular inspection it looked like the kids had severe cerebral palsy) being dragged on to cruises; they didn't even have the mental capacity decline coming, so the parents decided for them.

This thread is depressing. Makes me not want to live a long life.

You still paid a premium for your refundable deposit with Princess. The lowest category locations categories that are the cheapest (which Princess has also made guarantee only), as of the past few years, have NON-refundable deposits. So you could have gone with X and paid a little more for a refundable deposit like you did with Princess. For example, on Princess, the price difference between BF (guarantee/non-refundable deposit) and BB (ability to choose your cabin/refundable deposit) is $300 to $400 per cruise. Pricing is a completely different story. Princess per day is still cheaper than RC or X. Having said that if Princess' per day rates start equating to X for similar cruises, I'm choosing X.

Given that United is Air Canada's Star Alliance partner, United will be picking up the slack during the strike. Good luck trying to get seats if/when the strike happens. Thousands will be vying for what few seats are left. As has been advised, make contingency plans now. EZAir will try and help as best as they can, but if there is no seat availability, there's nothing they can book you on, so there's nothing they can do. Lots of people missed their flights and cruising during the CrowdStrike meltdown. Nothing was taking off, so they were stuck.

People are taking advantage of the privilege by booking multiple cruises and canceling as they see fit. Not fair to the cruise lines. It's why RC and X can have sold out sailings years in advance. Very few pay the extra for a refundable deposit, so they lose if they cancel, so they don't. Airlines do the same thing. If you want a refundable fare, you pay extra. Hotels will give you a discount if you choose a nonrefundable rate and pay upfront. Same difference.

Consider the activities that populate the App prior to the cruise as possibilities. Once you're on board and connected to MedallionNet, the App will populate with the complete and concrete schedule.

Same here. Not sure why I would take my vacation time to listen to a live lecture. It's not college. When you peek into the said lectures, sometimes you'll see some audience members "resting their eyes." One could literally find a video on the Internet about any subject and watch it at home. Same difference.

The OP prefers Princess. Not surprising since this is the Princess forum. Can we just move on? Both cruise lines have their pros and cons. I prefer Celebrity because there ships don't feel like a floating retirement home, but also cruise Princess because they have better pricing. Let the haters hate.

Heaven forbid Carnival Corporation or Holland America Group (real status matching, not the begin at 1-Star Mariner that HA does) followed suit among their brands. That attitude would migrate over to thee boards. Some already had their panties in a bunch over Princess' Loyalty Accelerator.

Princess doesn't pay their cartographers enough to make an updated map for every itinerary.

Also note that when waitlisted, you’re not locking in pricing. If the fare skyrockets, between the time you’re put on the waitlist and when you clear it, you will pay an even higher fare. It’s why Princess gives you a grace period to decline—48 hours, I think.

That’s a passenger problem. If the EU makes it as easy as it sounds, applying will be as easy as applying for the Australia or New Zealand ETA, where the hardest part for both is taking a photo of yourself on your smartphone that the App will accept. The only times the cruise lines help with procuring visas are for countries with visa on arrival like Vietnam. Cruise lines tend to forgo countries that are hard to get visas for like how India has been dropped from cruise itineraries.

6:00 am to 6:00 am the following day. On the last day the package technically goes until you disembark because you missed out using the package for a few hours on embarkation day. However, I don’t think any bars are open before disembarkation on disembarkation day. You can still use the package on specialty coffees and other non alcoholic drinks.

So many complaints about the deteriorating loyalty benefits. Switch cruise lines if you don't feel valued by Princess anymore. Very few have the guts to put their money where their mouth is. Many still want the chip of the MTG on their shoulders so they won't.

It's not EZAir who rebooks you when there are airline schedule changes it's the airlines themselves. They rebook you on the cheapest flight with the nearest flight times of your original flight. (Delta for example is notorious for putting you on a later connecting flight if the flights prior are going out full. My parents' friends once had a 5 hour connection in ATL as opposed to the 2.5 hour connection they originally had.) The airlines just notify EZAir of the changes at some point. Before calling EZAir and go on the airline's website and come up with flights that work; jot down the flight numbers; tell the EZAir agent that you would like to get switched to these flights and they can usually make these it happen because the change was initiated by the airline. Last winter, United had a schedule change where the direct FLL-SFO flight in the evening only operated on Sa, M, W, F. Well I was originally booked to fly home on a Tues and was auto rebooked on a flight departing FLL at 4:00 pm arriving into SFO at 11:15 pm with a connection in Houston. I found out not through EZAir but through the United App; when I checked my flight schedule the flights had changed on the App but the change had not been loaded into EZAir's system. I called EZAir with a flight schedule/routing that would route me through Denver and get me to SFO at 7:15 pm. They made the changes with very little fuss. The caveat is that they will not let you change airlines; if I wanted to fly Delta, they would have charged me the difference in fare.

Highly recommend going to Pompei in Naples. Do a morning excursion and spend the afternoon walking around town. As seedy as it may seem from the graffiti and bits of trash lying around, Naples has charm and is totally safe. Don't miss out on eating pizza and a baba/savarin. In Istanbul, find a way to visit the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Grand Bazaar. A cruise down the Bosphorus is pretty cool. Also note that it's expected that women wear a head covering when entering mosques. We just came back from Turkey on a land trip and Istanbul is a very vibrant city despite what the media portrays it as. Also haggling is totally acceptable and expected. The rest of the ports you are very walkable and you don't necessarily need an excursion. In Mykonos, you'll most likely be berthed in Tourlos, which is a ways from the city. Princess will offer a bus transfer ($15 pp R/T last year), but the SeaBus next to the cruise pier is only €4 pp R/T. Pickpockets are real and very sly. Watch your belongs and keep hold of valuables when in crowds, especially wallets. They are very prevalent in Rome.

Just for perspective, according to CLIA's 2024 State of the Cruise Industry Report, cruisers from the USA dwarf any other country's cruisers' numbers. The Germans are a distant number 2. It's why cruise lines mainly cater to Americans at the present time.

Tell that to Royal Caribbean. Even in the shoulder season the clientele doesn't run as old as Princess. Only their longer repositioning cruises have a majority older clientele, which they have very few of. You also have to remember that there isn't as much focus on having children with younger generations, which allows some of the younger generation to vacation when they want. The younger generations also focus on experiences, so it's not uncommon for them to leave the kids with the grandparents so the parents can go on a cruise during the off season. Some homeschool or pull their kids from school all together. There was a couple with a teen on the Enchanted in the Med last November I chatted with; their rationale for pulling their kid out of school was: why read about history when you can experience it? As someone who's younger who has been invited to a few MTG gatherings on Princess. It's really not my crowd--geriatric and seems to be the same entitled folks going on every cruise. It's your cruise fare that goes towards subsidizing these events. The officers are getting paid from your cruise fare to attend these events; it's not like they are attending pro bono. The cruise fare also covers food so it's not like your getting something over the top. Each to their own; this is just my perspective as a non loyal member of the younger generation. For perspective, the only reason why I have so many days with Princess is because my grandparents were brand loyal to Princess and took me along their cruises, so I really had no choice when I was a kid. With Princess coming up with programs like the Loyalty Accelerator, does loyalty really matter? You can buy your way to the top, as you can with the airlines loyalty programs.

Those are actually supposed to be swans and nothing to do with cruising ducks per se. Google "swan pate a choux." They're not new and have been have been part of the French culinary repertoire for a long time. There are cooking tutorial videos of Jacques Pepin and Julia Child making them. They scream antiquated to me, very old school presentation of cream puffs.

Don't think 360 would have impressed the author either. If you take away the gimmicks (images from projectors, fake scents, and endless explanations), the food served there is still very blah. If you go on to the 360 page on Princess' website, the blurbs are all praises from people with conflict of interest--Tyra Banks, Alex Guarnaschelli, etc., even JP made the cut. All of whom have ties with Princess. I've done it once, and personally, I would rather spend my $300 for two on restaurants in port. I'm glad it was comped as suite perk on my cruise on the Enchanted. But each to their own.

For those in the USA: https://upg.plusgrade.com/marketing/partner/RNo2BO4VPCL You can also access the site through your Cruise Personalizer or through the Princess website: Booked Guests > Get Ready for Your Cruise > Princess Upgrade > Scroll down to Get Started

Maybe Princess is trying out new start/end ports for the Sun? I noticed that there are several Med cruises that start/end in Istanbul.

I personally don't bid, but I manage my parents bids... All communication up to winning an upgrade will come from PlusGrade, the third party operating the bidding system. Nothing will appear in your Cruise Personalizer until you have won, at which point your booking will show the new category and new cabin assigned. You can access the PlusGrade site with your bids at anytime in the process; the site will show you category bids that have been declined and allows you to modify bids for bids that you have placed and are still in the running. When you win an upgrade bid, you will be e-mailed an Upgrade Notification from Princess. Sometimes you will receive an e-mail from PlusGrade notifying you that your bid(s) have been declined, other times not. It has been reported on this board that sometimes PlusGrade will send a counter offer for slightly more on a higher category that will guarantee an upgrade to a higher category. Not sure if Australians receive Booking Confirmation e-mails from Princess, but if you do, a new Booking Confirmation will be e-mailed and the upgrade from category x to y will be noted in the comments section.

Nope. Ask anyone who lives in a tropical climate. They're always there; the question is do they come out when you're looking? I had roaches pop out when I was staying at the Sheraton Waikiki and at Disney's Boardwalk Hotel. If they rear, kill it, take a picture, show the picture to the front desk, and ask for a discount on the room. If you feel like it ask to be moved. The tropics harbors all sorts of pests.

I've stayed at almost all of the properties listed and they are fine. I've always gone with the one that had the most reasonable rate. It's just one night after all. None of the Port Everglades hotels are new. They are a decade old or older. TBH, the Holiday Inn Express was my favorite for the price. The Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa, which is on the beach, is newly renovated and very clean. It's also very expensive. We went to a wedding held at one of their ballrooms and stayed a few nights before our cruise. A cab to Celebrity's terminal was $15, probably cheaper to Princess' Terminal 2. It's the tropics so if there are roaches, don't be surprised; nothing a shoe or a slipper can't kill.