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Meeting point for excursions through Princess is in the ship's theatre, a dining room, or a lounge. ShoreEx staff will group people and provide stickers. Only time I've ever experienced meeting on the pier for an excursion is when all passengers had to physically clear immigration at a port. This was a California Coast cruise from R/T from SF and the ship stopped in Ensenada before calling in San Pedro, which meant all passengers had to clear U.S. immigration there.

Are you on a sailing with an overnight embarkation in Quebec?

Not looking to argue, but for your input. How does the highlighted phrase read to you? Do you think that Princess should axe this verbiage? This reads to me as Princess will preserve your location category if you were to be upgraded. So if you booked in location BA, for example, you would only only be eligible for upgrades to DA, MA, M1, to preserve the location. Your understanding of being eligible for an upgrade from your location and/or meta category or getting compensation for a meta/location downgrade when booking a guarantee is my understanding as well and has served me well over the years.

Pay attention to the itinerary. This year some of the ships have itineraries that stop in Skagway on the Northbound and not on the Southbound. The Southbound stops in in Icy Straight Point. Not sure about years following.

If you can be granted a same day passport appointment, make sure to have your ducks in a row. Bring passport photos, birth certificate (not always needed if the passport office can find which office has your old passport), and a blank check/cash. I helped a friend get theirs same day and was amazed at how many people showed up unprepared. I know that the State Department is really backed up, but the passport office is still doing you a favor.

Yes you can book a guaranteed cabin. But the verdict is still out whether or not this means that means you can book a guarantee which guarantees location. Online, if you choose the "Princess Chooses Your Stateroom," you will be in the lowest location category (if interior, IF; if balcony, BF, etc.) and sometimes reflects a lower price, but almost always has a non-refundable deposit.. If you choose, "Reserve a Guaranteed Stateroom" after choosing "You Choose Your Stateroom," you can choose a location category within a meta category as guarantee (if Mid-Ship for example, IA, BA, DA, MA). If you want to book guarantee in a specific category other than the lowest in a meta category, it's best to book with a live person or on a travel agency's website so that the guarantee category and location are clear. The Princess website is not longer transparent until confirmation of what location category is booked. Some people always book an A location category because this means that there is no higher location category to upgrade to, and if upgraded, they would be bumped to the next meta category. My friends have noticed that this doesn't work as often with the Bid to Upgrade in place.

The airlines will deny you at check-in without a passport or NEXUS card for travel to Canada. Need one or the other for entry to Canada via air. Not sure if Princess would even allow you to board in Ketchikan because there wouldn't be a foreign stop between Ketchikan and Whittier, which would mean that you and Princess would be in violation of PVSA. If you can swing it, you should look into getting an appointment for a same day passport at a passport office using imminent travel as a reason.

The only time I've ever gotten my Medallion scrutinized was when the iPads used by security for guest management ran out of battery. Even in this situation, the security staff only looked at the ship and embarkation date etched on to the Medallion. We were tendering in Kona, and the iPad used onshore prior to embarking the tender ran out of battery. They couldn't get a new one ashore on time to replace the dead iPad, so security looked at each and everyone's Medallion before letting them enter into the tender dock area. We then had to scan the Medallion once onboard the ship.

I sympathize with your frustration. I almost always book guarantee and have always been assigned a stateroom in the meta/location category that I booked or better. It's great when the meta upgrade goes through. Not sure why on the Princess website, the guarantee selection reads as "Selecting this option will guarantee a stateroom assignment in this location or a comparable location...." This to me reads, once the guarantee location category no longer has available staterooms to assign, then the booking is only eligible for meta upgrades in the same location. In your example, you booked a BA, so you would only be eligible for an upgrade to DA, MA, M1; none of the suites are mid-ship so, Regardless, you got a downgrade, which defeats the purpose of booking a guarantee room. Would you have been willing to accept an upgrade even if it was was in a different location? Like a Deluxe Balcony located forward? (It's the next category up from BA.)

I always book guarantee staterooms. Ever since Princess initiated the Bid to Upgrade program, I been getting my room assignments closer and closer to embarkation day. Prior to this program, I usually got assigned a room around the 30 to 45 day mark. With the program in place, I've been getting my room assignments from 14 days and below to sailing. My guess is that Princess is trying to accept as many bids as possible prior to sailing to max out revenue, which leaves the actual available cabins in limbo until the imminent sail date. The overbooking situation plays a role in this as well because Princess has to see how many guests with rooms already assigned will take a move over offer. Having said all of this, I'm a late booker who more often than not, books after the final payment date of a sailing.

This e-mail was sent to my parents. They were booked in an Interior. It turned out that Princess upgraded them to a Deluxe Balcony at no extra charge. After the upgrade, they were sent a new Bid to Upgrade e-mail with new categories (Premium Deluxe Balcony and up) and new dollar values. Hoping for the best for you!

Was the Internet Manager's name, Toar? He had a dismissive attitude when I was on the Sky Princess in April. Could of cared less about my problem (not related to Comcast e-mail). Thanks for work around. I use Apple iOS and will try this work around. The Comcast e-mail login goes in a never ending loop when using MedallionNet as a connection. Have always had to use my phone on local signal as a hotspot while in port to get my Comcast e-mail to open.

The weather people are predicting an El Niño for California this winter. This usually means lots of rain, but with climate change who knows what this will bring. Last winter, storms that were classified as atmospheric rivers pummeled California with rain, which caused the state's weather to be unusually wet and windy. It's not unusual for the ship to have a lot of motion when leaving San Francisco. The Pacific Ocean on this of the U.S. is a different beast. The waters calm down after the first couple of days, the closer the ship gets to Hawaii. The first couple of days are usually also the coldest and windiest. Only a few brave passengers dare to use the lido deck. On the 12/22/22, Hawaii cruise, the Royal Princess skipped Ensenada and went on a straight path to San Francisco to avoid a major storm system. The passengers stayed on board and extra night in San Francisco before disembarking.

I carried-on a rolling suitcase with those dimensions and it security at Mayflower Terminal let it through. Not much clearance around baggage opening the passenger security x-ray, though. I think the port handlers have a good enough eye to know if a suitcase will fit or not. At Mayflower Terminal, check-in is before the security check. There is a split line for P/E/S, at check-in. (Lines hadn't stretched out to the curb when I got there for my cruise.) There are 3 openings for the security check point, which each lead to 2 x-rays/metal detectors. No dedicated line for P/E/S for security though. If you care about the P/E/S Lounge, it's immediately to the left of the check-in counters, on the walk to security.

Speaking strictly about the Mayflower Terminal in Southampton. The x-ray scanners at passenger security don't have openings large enough to fit a suitcase larger than what is considered an airplane carry on. In April on the Sky Princess, there were quite a few passengers who were made to turn around by the port agents and return curbside to drop off their suitcases at the checked baggage conveyor.

Princess' MedallionNet plans are per person, not per reservation. Each person on the reservation can purchase a single device plan. If you wanted to only have one person on the reservation purchase a single device plan, then the two of you would have to share the plan, requiring one person to log off their device and the other person to log in on the other device. In this instance, both would use the login credentials of the person who the plan is credited to. As as been recommended above, it's more convenient to have each person purchase a single device plan for themselves. The 4 device plan was designed for a single person who need to be logged in concurrently on more than one of their devices.

Depends on the weather. If the weather is warm then, the chances of the pool being swarmed is high. If the weather cold and/or rainy, then no one will be outside and the interior spaces will be full of people. Cruises from California are a toss up in the winter. It was relatively warm all the way up until the first week of November last year. Then December to March of this year, the state was pummeled with rain and snow. This was atypical but made cruising along the California Coast unusually cold, windy, and wet. The weather usually warms up once the ship passes Baja California.

All Deluxe balconies have a love seat, 2 cushions only. Mini-suites and suites have a full sofa with 3 cushions.

Yes.

The non-availability to check-in on line is due to document check, not because of the names. For international flights the airline is responsible for physically taking a visual look at your passport and verifying that it is valid and that the appropriate visas are endorsed, if required for the destination country. If a passenger arrives at the destination and is denied entry into that country by immigration, the airline foots the bill to send that passenger back to the originating country. The airline is trying to mitigate their risk. If you check-in using the United App, there is a way to upload your passport and have it electronically verified prior to check-in that that will allow you to check-in all the way online for an international flight. The boarding pass generated will show "INT'L READY." Been able to use this method to check-in all the way for an EZAir booked flight with my first and middle names lumped together.

I was assigned D701 on the Discovery Princess for a Mexican Riviera cruise last year. It had the 3rd and 4th pullman bunks from the ceiling, but it had an extended balcony. According to my Travel Summary, this cabin is categorized as a Category BD, Balcony--not a Category D4, Premium Deluxe Balcony--so no meta upcharge to choose this cabin. If the inside living quarters become tight, some of you party can sit outside, weather permitting. Never had to use the upper berths so can't comment on what's it's like to have more than two in that cabin.

You'll be fine. The airlines lump your first and middle name together even on tickets that are booked directly with them.

Cruising is back to pre-pandemic levels, which is a good thing for cruise line survival. We could go back to capacity caps like during the re-start but that would be detrimental to the cruise lines. Cruise like you did pre-pandemic and roll with it. Don't cruise with the major cruise lines if you don't like crowds; after all, ship's capacity is in the thousands. Go on a more premium cruise line or charter a yacht if you don't like crowds.

The wait isn't so bad if the port agents are organized.. I took the Sky Princess out of Southampton this past April and the majority of the passengers were British and didn't have the option of getting the Medallion shipped to their home. The Medallions were very well organized in bins. There was only point of contact at check-in; that agent did the check-in, retrieved the Medallion, and handed it to the passenger. Most importantly, the queue for check-in moved at a constant pace; there was never a time where it stopped and didn't move for a long period of time. The wait for the security line was longer and was start stop. It wasn't like at Fort Lauderdale where passengers have to queue and check with one agent and queue again in another line and retrieve their Medallion from another agent.

There was a Medallion App version update this week to Version 4.12. Removed the QR code, but supposedly added stateroom number to the "Ocean Ready Pass." This is per the version upgrade description in the App Store. Dining, Excursions, and Spa now appear as items in the bottom navigation bar.