Sparrow3131

This is a new one for me. Now on the Coral Princess, you need a ticket to disembark at a port, not just tenders. The lounges are all packed with passengers with numbered tickets waiting to get off. People hunting for somewhere to sit.

2 minutes ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

Where do you get this info?Do you get an alert or are you always checking for sales?

 

27 minutes ago, rkmw said:

They just posted on the Princess site 19days on the Coral to South Africa for the start of the WC in a balcony for $1900 

Filling the ship as the section to Rome cancelled. Sounds cheap but mostly sea days 

Do we know how many Australians are doing the full world and how many are from South Australia?

On 12/22/2023 at 2:32 PM, Sparrow3131 said:

On April 30^th 2024 I am on a world cruise out of Sydney Australia. I need information regarding a visa for Chile. A Chilean Visa once issued, is only valid for 90 days, however when leaving Australia it takes 94 days before reaching Easter Island therefore I am unable to obtain a valid visa before boarding the ship in Australia. The information on the Princess web site states that I could be denied boarding without a valid visa. Is anyone that has had this problem able inform me of the process needed to allow me to be able board without a completed Chilean visa.

Regards

At last Princess have decided to let us know what we need to do re Chilean visa

CHILEAN VISA REQUIREMENTS
Australian passport holders require a "Transit Visa Up to 72 hours" (free of charge) to visit Chile aboard Coral Princess. You must apply for this
visa in advance of your cruise and finalise it within 90 days of your arrival in Chile.
Go to https://tramites.minrel.gov.cl/Solicitudes/visa.aspx to apply for your visa. Select English (top right) and provide required information
including the appropriate consulate. Attach a photo and all required documents (erase the account number from your bank statement). Then
print the email confirming your visa application has been received and bring it to embarkation or you may be denied boarding. Within 90 days of
arriving in Chile (when most guests are already on board), you will be emailed your visa. Print it at Guest Services.
Reminder: Each guest is responsible for obtaining and having appropriate valid travel documents available. For those with passports from other
countries, contact the consulate or a visa service provider for entry requirements.
Thank you for your attention to this notification

19 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Do you have a record of what the original prices were? If so take that and a printout of the email and once onboard demand to have that rectified. Princess should not be charging extra for excursions that were already paid for.

Yes I do and yes I have.

On 2/27/2024 at 1:43 PM, Sparrow3131 said:

Hoping that this is not the case but after spending 45 mins with a Princess call centre operator, I was told that her supervisor has said that cruise credits are refunded first and any payments made on my card are used to pay for tours that were reinstated therefore no refund to my card but still $3000+ onboard credits.

Have just received an email saying that my tours are $390 more than the original prices and the extra will be taken from my onboard credits 

On 2/24/2024 at 6:45 PM, Sarah Jane Smith said:

We were in the same predicament for the 2023 world cruise. The steps were as per the letter above:

"Guests can apply for a Transit Visa via the below websites:

- NSW, QLD or NT - Sydney - https://serviciosconsulares.cl/tramites/visas
- ACT Canberra - https://chile.gob.cl/canberra/

- VIC, TAS, SA or WA – Melbourne - http://www.chilebroad.gov.cl/melbourne

You will receive an email advising the visa has been authorized, which must be presented at cruise check-in. Once on board, you will be notify to email the Chilean consulate to finalize the visa within the 90-day window."

 

The internet links above are in spanish, but you will get there in the end with a confirmation email.

 

One complication was, when on the cruise, passengers were specifically told NOT to email the consulate to finalise. We were told that Princess would sort it out as a bulk finalisation. This was fine until about 2 weeks out when we started getting letters stating "you don't have your visa yet!".

 

So, follow the advice in the letter above. If you don't have internet on the ship, ask guest services to send the email, or buy one days worth of internet half way 'round the world and send the email then.

 

In 2023, it all worked out in the end 🙂

 

Just checking. So fill out application but don't select end, then receive an email stating, a temporary permit has been created. To send your application to selected consulate you must press finish 

Hoping that this is not the case but after spending 45 mins with a Princess call centre operator, I was told that her supervisor has said that cruise credits are refunded first and any payments made on my card are used to pay for tours that were reinstated therefore no refund to my card but still $3000+ onboard credits.

On 2/7/2024 at 4:17 PM, Sparrow3131 said:

Princess are given us 15% of cruise fare paid in cruise credits and $750 per person onboard spending which for us equals around $12500 plus refund of $1800 for purchased shore tours. Hopefully there's a safari tour in South Africa.

Book the same safari that Princess offer, online trip advisor for half the price. Pickup point 2 minutes from the ship

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

But they didn't force you to pay the extra for the new version of the package and, in fact, gave you $25pp OBC to cover one of the changes - the charge for using the app to order food or drinks.

But they still took away items that were included when I booked the cruise.

20 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Tell me, when you book a cruise and then the fare goes up do you get charged extra? No, you don't. This is the same. You are worrying unnecessarily.

When I booked this cruise I paid $40 a day for plus  package but Princess changed the package and took away things that were advertised as included. So yes they can do what they want, we agreed to the contract. 

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Actually I am now certain that our excursions are at the price we paid for them originally. 

 

All my excursions have reappeared. Some were booked using OBC and the only change to our available OBC is the $750pp we received for the itinerary change. You can't see this easily unless you go to book another excursion. A summary of excursion payments and balance of OBC available to use for new excursions shows on the payments page.

 

The OBC balance available on my account was exactly what I expected it to be therefore previous excursions must have been reinstated at the original prices.

You won't really know until you get a refund for the tours that were cancelled because of the changed itinerary, they might take any extra out of the refund to your card

14 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Does your personal list of booked tours show an increased price, or is it on the tours page for new bookings? If your prices have increased, I would challenge the increase.

It's on my list and I will be having a conversation.

1 hour ago, Sparrow3131 said:

All of our shore tours from Tangier on have now been reinstated but looks like at a different cost. In total an extra $240. I will know for sure when I get a refund for the ports that were cancelled. 

All of our shore tours from Tangier on have now been reinstated but looks like at a different cost. In total an extra $240. I will know for sure when I get a refund for the pots that were cancelled. 

18 minutes ago, arxcards said:

They have no idea either. It is the fault of the system that the call centre only work off scripts, and until an official response has been considered by higher authorities, they will only guess at an answer to end the call - they can't just hang-up.

 

You can only hope to talk to a supervisor, but they are not necessarily sages of the unknown either. You can only hope that someone is following-up on your problem.

I would prefer to be told that they have no idea rather than be told a different story 4 times

Please disregard anything that I have said on this post regarding shore tours as I have had 4 calls to Princess regarding the matter and have received a different answer each time. So now I have no idea what's happening.

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

How can you tell those OBCs have been reimbursed? I've always been able see a full list of what OBCs we have for the cruise, which now includes the $750pp for the itinerary change, but I've never been able to see how much of that had been used for excursion bookings. Of course I have my own records of what we used OBC for and what we paid separately.

I was told by Princess 

45 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Exactly! I'll start panicking if my excursions don't reappear by early next week.

I'm not panicking but they have already reimbursed over $2000 onboard credits that I used on shore excursions. Check out your princess account.

12 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Interestingly I saw a post from someone elsewhere that said the exact opposite, and that most of the excursions would be reinstated some time this week.

Typical so called experts. The call centre have no idea what's going on.

After having a conversation with Princess this morning, it appears that all booked tours for the world cruise have been cancelled not just the ports that were changed. I was told that Princess will email passengers when tours are available and all monies already paid back in my account in 24hrs

3 hours ago, Sparrow3131 said:

12 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We lose Brisbane as well.

 

We get 6 in return:

Fremantle (OK, OK, it's an Australian port but we don't get to go there all that often)

St Louis, Mauritius

Capetown overnight

Walvis Bay, Namibia

Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

 

I'm sad to miss Sri Lanka, Aqaba, Crete and Salerno but not fussed about the rest.

 

Hopefully the Red Sea situation will have quietened down by then. I'll be interested to hear your comments on the 2025 WC. Crown is one of the extended Grand Class ships so 3080 lower berths instead of Coral's 2000.

 

Princess are given us 15% of cruise fare paid in cruise credits and $750 per person onboard spending which for us equals around $12500 plus refund of $1800 for purchased shore tours. Hopefully there's a safari tour in South Africa.

11 minutes ago, icat2000 said:

ummm where the revised itinerary? Is something missing from the OP post.