nunyabidness

1 hour ago, caribill said:

They can do that even if you selected a cabin and managed to have it marked no upgrade.

But you can usually call and get it (or a reasonably close cabin in the same category) back.  Not the case if you booked a guarantee and didn't have a cabin assignment from the beginning.

2 minutes ago, Ralphiesmom66 said:

We decided to book a midship mini-suite knowing the class room we picked (MB) only has these rooms midship on on floors we like.

Only risk with a guarantee is that Princess can "upgrade" you to a room they consider better but that's in a much worse location.

3 minutes ago, goldengatecruisers said:

Is a passport required for an Alaska cruise with a stop in Canada?  I am asking for a friend.  No, seriously, I am asking for a friend 🙂

 

I thought you would need one but my friend has been told that it is not a requirement.  I thought I would put the question to the Cruise Critic community.  I have tried doing online searches and it appears you do need one.  However, my friend has been told from several sources that he does not and I am just trying to help until such times as he can reach his TA.  The cruise is a Seattle roundtrip Alaska itinerary.

 

Thank you.

If he is a US citizen he can travel on this itinerary with an original or certified birth certificate and government issued photo ID.  There are further restrictions if crossing into Canada from a US port (e.g. Skagway excursions that cross over into Yukon Territory) or if he is the only adult traveling with a minor on Princess.

I Googled "what time is it in Sydney" on my laptop.  The result showed the date and time.  Took a picture of the Sydney date/time, negative COVID test, and drivers license all in the same photo.

1 minute ago, trbarton said:

I always have the drink package & it has always started when I first boarded the ship. I don’t think that it matters where you are cruising from. 
 

Tom😀

As others have noted, it does matter on cruises out of Galveston due to state liquor laws.

3 minutes ago, trbarton said:

When boarding in San Francisco, until we depart,  their is a small tax on any drinks but it’s so small I don’t worry about it. 
 

Tom😀

This is this case in almost every US port (and out of New Orleans, where you're in state waters until midnight-ish when the ship reaches the Gulf of Mexico, but no impact to Princess since they have no ships based in New Orleans).

28 minutes ago, david63 said:

That is about right for Carnival brands - depending on the layout of the ship.

 

From my observations a cabin steward has between 18 and 22 cabins.

Not Carnival itself.  When they stopped offering twice daily service the stewards had their number of assigned rooms almost (if not actually) double.

31 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

How would you be treating your daughter if there is little on the menu that she will eat?  Treat to the experience?  The ambience?  It seems she would have much more choice eating in the MDR or buffet?  EM

Wow.  I'm pretty sure that was the entire point of OP posting the question.

8 hours ago, david63 said:

If I remember correctly a cruise card has never had a cabin number on it which is why when presenting your card you were asked your cabin number as a security check.

38 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

Most of them have have the cabin  number minus the deck. 

19 minutes ago, bjkTX said:

Not that it really matters, but since I have all our cruise cards in a folder I just went and checked - and of our 18 Princess cruises the only card that had our cabin number (with or without a deck designation) was our first cruise in 2002.  The rest all have all sorts of numbers, but they don't match up with our cabin #.

Royal Caribbean does print the cabin number (leaving off the deck number in front) on SeaPass cards.  In the 20+ years I've been cruising Carnival, Sail & Sign cards have never had the cabin number (or any variation of it).

13 hours ago, cherrytwist said:

That's the thing, it doesn't say if the cabins are available. For balcony decks 9-11, the only option is to pick a guaranteed cabin that will be assigned later.  I just came back from a cruise today and want to plan another one to have it to look forward to, so we're in the early stages of planning. I looked at cruises in October, December, and next April and it was the same for all of them...I couldn't pick specific balcony rooms on those decks. 

How many people are you booking in the cabins?  Princess (and most cruiselines) hold cabins that sleep 3 or 4 for people who need the third or fourth bed, at least until closer to sailing. 

You may need to search for cabins that sleep 3 or 4 from the cabin type/decks you want, find connecting cabins you want (assuming there are connecting cabins to that sleep more than 2; check the deck plans), and call Princess to see if they can book you into those at (presumably) double occupancy.

1 hour ago, 1025cruise said:

A passport would be required to enter Canada.

By air, yes. Driving across the border, no.  There are other acceptable documents for a land border crossing.

I messaged a steward onboard whom I know.  He said "No outbreak...only few cases."

And if it's a tender port, the last tender back to ship is scheduled earlier, usually 45 minutes before the ship's departure time.

Should the OBC from using a FCD show up in the travel summary of the cruise you used it on, like shareholder credit or OBC from a casino offer? 

I can calculate my charges reduced by the $100 FCD but there's no OBC showing.

15 minutes ago, BuckeyeTraveler said:

I realize that Princess allows passengers to bring 1 bottle of wine onboard at embarkation but I am wondering if they would allow wine that was transferred from a glass wine bottle into a plastic container for the wine.  I will be traveling with some friends who are concerned of carrying a bottle of wine in the carry-on luggage, due to the weight, and would like to put the wine into a plastic container, which weighs much less.  Any ideas if this would be allowed? Thanks.

No. Has to be sealed in its original container.

57 minutes ago, wowzz said:

We had a 20:00 reservation in Soleil. Joined a short queue. Although our reservation was for a table for two, we thought we would be helpful and said we would share.  So, shown to an empty table for eight.  And we sat and sat and sat, whilst people behind us in the queue were shown to tables for two. Eventually the waiter took pity on us, and on his own initiative moved us to a two top. Just sheer nincompoopery.

What is the point of having a table for eight left empty ?

Apparently everyone, including yourself, had reservations for private tables.  Everyone else wanted private tables as they had reserved, and IME the MDR staff don't ask people with private reservations to share a table unless there are no private tables available at the moment.

You volunteered for a shared table and apparently no one immmediately after you wanted or had reserved one.  I fail to see how the sheer nincompoopery falls on Princess.

46 minutes ago, Coral said:

Their regular OJ almost tasted like SunnyD. I can't drink their regular OJ. I go for apple instead if I can't get fresh squeezed OJ.

I've never seen what Princess fills the juice dispensers with, but if they use the same concentrate as Carnival all the juices are juice "cocktails" (sugar, water, flavoring, and little to no real juice, plus pulp for the "OJ").  That would explain the Sunny D taste.

That includes the apple juice on Carnival which is also juice cocktail, so could be the same on Princess.

1 hour ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

I have no idea if what we've received in the past for room service breakfast was supposed to be "fresh squeezed" or not...(I highly doubt it).  On multiple cruises this has been CRAZY sweet juice...such that I just could not drink it all.  I drink OJ every morning...this stuff is like they dumped a barrel of sugar into the vat while mixing!

The juice machines at the buffet tend to mix too much concentrate and too little water, at least for my tastes.  I usually cut that OJ with ice and extra water. 

I'd be shocked if room service served fresh squeezed (at least without someone specifically ordering it) vs. same OJ from concentrate as at the buffet.

30 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

but I really don't want to see cruise lines cancelling ports just to save money so they can travel back to NY over three days instead of two and burn less fuel.

Carnival and NCL have increasingly been changing itineraries people are already booked on, switching to ports that are not as far away and/cutting time in ports, in order to burn less fuel.

27 minutes ago, ldtr said:

ICY point Strait was usually substituted for Skagway last year because of the rock slide and atleast 1 and sometimes two of the 3 docks were unuseable.  Not much Princess could do about that.

Not for Crown. 

On my sailing we still went to Skagway, and Ketchican was replaced with 3.5 hours (3 hours considering back onboard time) in Icy Strait Point due to "operational reasons" (i.e. reduced sailing speed).

13 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

I would note that you should probably be cautious with NCL, because they are cancelling ports after final payment a lot.  On my last cruise, they replaced the Dominican Republic with a sea day and cancelled the morning in Antigua for environmental reasons, and wouldn't let anyone cancel or reschedule their cruises and continued to sell and advertise the cruise with the original itinerary including cancelled ports for the next month.

 

They've cancelled the inside passage after final payment in Alaska on the NCL Spirit cruises this summer, and on Panama Canal cruises cancelled Costa Rica and Nicaragua for safety reasons, replacing them with Acapulco and Jamaica. 

Sounds like Crown Princess last year.  Princess knew from the beginning of the Alaska season that Crown couldn't sail its scheduled itineraries but slow-rolled itinerary change announcements until after final payment for most or all of the Alaska season.

So yes, most of the cruise lines are more similar than different, including with regard to sketchy business practices.

Princess has no way to match a stock sale to a passenger who previously requested shareholder credit holding those same shares.

17 minutes ago, david63 said:

Whilst that is true the ship's senior crew are employed by Carnival, and many of the other crew are agency staff, and not employed directly by the individual cruise lines therefore it becomes a bit of a grey area as to who they report to.

 

The decision about Sky missing two ports and arriving early in Southampton would have had to get the approval of Carnival Operations.

Incorrect on all accounts.

On 3/30/2023 at 4:55 AM, TK42799 said:

As Carnival is the corporate head office for both companies, I would have expected similar contingency plans be implemented to deal with this storm.

Operational decisions, especially those needing to be made on short notice (vs. for example laying up ships when cruising stopped during COVID), are made by the individual cruise lines, not Carnival Corp.

11 hours ago, HaroldLeslie said:

You were never unsafe. It was only a gale and other much smaller ships were operating without problems. 

 

Or is Sky Princess an inherently less safe ship than Iona, for example 😉

 

So apparently there's a crystal ball, more accurate than the forecast the Captain had access to and based his decision on, that he should have used rather than making a decision based on the best info available at the time and in the best interest of the safety of the thousands of people onboard?

On 3/30/2023 at 11:17 PM, texasjones said:

 So rative data points, here's what we received as compensation:

(1) Regent - one missed port: $500 OBC 

(2) Regent - one missed port: $500 future cruise credit 

(3) Crystal [RIP] - one missed port: $270 OBC 

(4) Cunard - one missed port: $100 OBC 

(5) Celebrity - returned to end destination a day early due to a medical emergency: one night refunded (which we felt was incredibly generous)

(6) Seabourn - one missed port which was almost immediately substituted with an alternate port due to poor weather: $0 (no harm, no foul, and we enjoyed exploring the substitute port) 

(7) Seabourn - two missed ports: $750 future cruise credit (which was subsequently increased to $1500 and $100 in OBC)

[(8) Princess - for a 14-day TA, two of three missed ports with no substitutions, diverting to destination 1.5 days early, shutting down facilities due to regulatory requirements: $100 non-refundable OBC] 

 

Notice an outlier?

In what alternate reality is Princess comparable to Regent, Crystal, or Seabourn?