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All aboard for the Princess cruise was 7:30 pm for an 8:00pm departure in Whittier. The 26 Glacier Cruise arrives back between 6:20 and 6:30 pm. You will have time. Check-in for the 26 Glacier cruise starts at 11:30 am. The cruise terminal is a 2 minute walk from were the Glacier cruise dock.

Not all countries abroad recognize prescriptions written by U.S. doctors. U.S. doctors aren't licensed to practice medicine in other countries and the pharmacy has to right to refuse to fill. In this case, you would have to get a local doctor to write you a prescription. Wouldn't be a problem if you were going to Mexico.

Yes. Purchase the excursion directly from Philips Cruises. The ship will be selling this excursion for more. Philips operates only one 26 Glacier Cruise per day and those that booked through the ship will be on the same catamaran as those that booked directly. Our group saved $100 per couple by booking directly and using the AAA discount. You are also able to pick a table location by booking direct.

I have done this for several of my parents bookings. Hopefully you still have your Princess GCs, as you will need the GC numbers from those for future use. The refund will go either of 2 ways and is all dependent on how the accounting office deals with the refund. Either the entire amount will be refunded to one GC OR the refund amount will be parsed out each gift card based on how much was charged to each GC. Lucky you if you get a refund in former rather than the latter scenario. After 10 days, I got a hold of the CVP and asked her to give me the last 4 digits of the GC(s) that the refund was applied to. I then double checked the info by going to the Princess GC balance website and checking the balance of the said GC(s).

I was there in April of this year. I thought downtown Seattle was still pretty void of people as compared to pre-pandemic. Much of the shops have shuttered. I was in the Nordstrom on Pine and one of the workers said business and foot traffic wasn't like it used to be; many the clients now shop online. Pioneer Square was packed with homeless people. I took the monorail to the Seattle Center midday and there were around 10 people on it. The area that was bustling was Pike Place Public Market--especially the purported first Starbucks.

The cruise lines don’t pay taxes to the IRS. That’s the whole reason why there was an uproar against bailing out cruise lines during the pandemic. The airlines got it because they paid their dues to the IRS.

Not sure what the T&C for the packages was before the new announcement on 27/07, but now the T&C explicitly state "Packages and their parts may be changed or revoked at any time...." Maybe look for this verbiage with your previous package.

You'll be fine. Many people walk in this area during the day. Try to be back at your hotel before sundown, if you're travelling alone. Mind your own business when going from one place to another and no one will bother you. The pandemic really decimated the downtown areas of many West Coast cities. Work from home means fewer people going into the office and creating the hubbub of downtown areas. Homelessness is another problem that was exacerbated.

Cruises lines choose the start date arbitrarily and the Princess' lead time for the notice falls in line with other cruise lines. RC and Carnival gave 2 to 3 weeks notice before they started charging for room service in 2017 and 2019, respectively. RC and Carnival had a lot of grumbling passengers at the time, but all have seemed to move on.

If anything, I hope we can both agree upon Princess' survival. Don't want it to turn into Crystal where because of defaulting, it's ships were seized, the company folded, and had to be re-invented. Maybe consider changing your username on the CC board as well.

The package is for 4 simultaneous logins, unlimited number of devices, with the caveat that once you reach the limit of 4, one device will be kicked off. It's totally worth purchasing the 4 device plan for $40 per day under one person and letting 3 other people in your party mooch of that plan. You end up paying $10 per person per day ($5 for P/E) instead of $15 per person per day($7.50 P/E). If you do this, all must use the same login credentials, which is the cabin number and birthday, of the person who purchased.

Comparing apples to oranges. No cruise line’s loyalty program offers free passage based on loyalty. If there is one please educate me. Most “normal” people don’t travel enough or have to wait a long time before accumulating enough points for a free anything. Most times you will be spending double or triple on a trip to gain enough points for the freebie. Unless you’re riding on bonus earnings. No one is forcing anyone to purchase the packages and the option of picking the Standard fare is still there. For people that don’t use room service and are happy with the pizza on the Lido deck, like me, I’m happy I have the option of not purchasing the package and not paying for something I don’t use.

Not trying to be an apologist. It is what it is when it comes to price increases. Everyone is aware of the astronomical debt Princess and other cruise lines had to incur during the pandemic. Inflation is up and interest rates are up. That is…unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years. Princess has to raise revenue to make ends meet and service their debt. Defaulting would cause even bigger repercussions. This is the fairest way, in the sense of everyone gets what they paid for. Those that book Princess Standard have to pay for RS. This is better than increasing the fare across the board for all, when not everyone uses room service. Even airlines are now cutting back benefits. For those flying first domestically with no status, lounge access is no longer granted. If they want lounge privileges they have to pay for a day pass. On Viking, shore excursions are included, but sign ups are class based. Those in suites get first dibs when signing up. Everyone is guaranteed an excursion, but you’re not guaranteed a spot on you’re preferred excursion; you might be on an alternative one. The all inclusive pricing they offer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Cruising has never been a good option for those looking for an immersive experience. After all you're only in port for a few hours. Lucky you, if you have an overnight stop. Dollar for dollar cruising is still a good value because at minimum lodging, some form of a meal, whether it be MDR or buffet, and evening entertainment is included. Airlines can't keep their airfares down because of increased fuel costs and the need to pay increasing wages as agreed to by unions. Centrally located hotels are between $200 to $400 a night to try and recover from lost revenue during the pandemic and because of increased demand. Entrance fees to most attractions have increased. Price increases aren't just a problem of Princess or cruise lines.

Airlines don't control unruly passengers just as Princess can't control it's rude/unruly passengers. All that can be done is to kick them off. Will concede that flying is a chore now a days, but airplanes are still flying full. Just look at how swamped Europe right now is. Not all of those tourists were brought by cruise ships.

Let the money do the talking. Nothing talks louder than money. When Princess sees the drop in cruisers and the cash flow that's coming in as causation/correlation with this change, I guarantee you Princess will change again. I have posted before that Princess is making these changes to increase cash flow so that they can repay the astronomical debt that they took on during the pandemic. They aren't making this change for no reason. Just remember, if you venture off to another cruise line, you start from scratch with your loyalty. Having said that, there's nothing wrong with moving on from Princess or choosing another cruise line. Variety is the spice of life. When airlines started to charge for checked baggage in economy, passengers complained. Passengers continued fly these airlines and pay the checked baggage fee. The airlines that made this change are still thriving.

Arrival times in the App will be going away on cruises embarking after August 1, 2023. It never matter anyway. There will also be changes to the Green Lane/Blue Lane designations. Expect an App update around this time.

Not always true. I aways book guarantee. On the several cruises I've taken since the restart, my I've always had at minimum a location upgrade. I've been paying for an F location and have been assigned in at least a C location (sometimes B or A) and nothing lower. A handful of times, I've been given a a full category upgrade.

Do you realize that most times this stuff ended in the trash, especially for frequent cruisers? Waste of money and effort. Most airlines have gone to a barebones amenity kit or giving them only when asked for in First and Business because it's an easy way to save on money and waste.

At this point this topic has been discussed ad nauseum. Cruisers need to put their money where their mouth is. If you're so incensed by these changes don't book with Princess and venture out to competition. Cancel the remaining cruises you have booked with Princess if that window is open. The changes are coming and complaining won't change that fact. IMO, when Princess cruisers see the prices of the "adult focused" competition many will continue to sail with Princess. The effects of a change always lag. It'll be a while before Princess can quantify if this change was for the better or the worse. It's also at this time that they will decide if a pivot in strategy is in order or if they should continue in the same trajectory.

The Mongolian BBQ station is only during dinner service on a specific day(s) and usually shuts down 1 hour before the buffet closes. The day's buffet theme are usually listed in the Event Listings where the hours of operation section is. The Mongolian BBQ quality varies. It all depends on the crew that is working the cooktop. Sometimes it's great. Other times it's just meh. I thought it was done particularly well on the Majestic. Crew that gets the privilege to eat the buffet particularly like it; there's always a line of crew between 19:30 and 20:30 on these nights.

Cielo is the dining room on Deck 6 aft. The only way to access this dining room is to take the aft elevators or by going to Deck 7 aft and taking the stairs by the Vista Lounge. Many people on ship don't know how get to this dining room or know that this dining room even exists. For this reason, there aren't as many passengers using this dining room allowing for shorter wait times, and it is easier to get a private table for those without reservations.

Will guests in cabin quarantine who didn't purchase packages be charged the room service fees?

The other option to all of this "nickel and diming" would be to build these charges into the cruise fare. I think that would alienate more Princess loyalists because as has been stated before Princess cruisers are price sensitive. You'd see prices more along the lines of Oceania or Viking. When Princess starts charging to eat a regular meal at the MDR or buffet, then we all have something to grumble about.

Bad example of using produce. Most agricultural workers are undocumented and are underpaid wages and under the table. It's how farmers keep their prices low. That and not a lot of Americans want to work in the fields sowing the land. The cruise lines don't have to abide by minimum wage or overtime laws. If they did have to pay proper wages and abide by overtime law, you wouldn't see the prices or service that you are seeing now. Case in point, the Pride of America. A balcony for a 7 day cruise runs $2500 per person pre port charges and gratuity. Having sailed on this ship, the service isn't up to par because there simply isn't enough crew to cover. The crew's shifts stop at 8 hours. There aren't enough crew cabins on the ship to bring onboard more crew and doing that would make the wage costs increase.