O2Bcrusin

2 hours ago, Philob said:

They start in 2020.

 

https://www.upi.com/Carnival-will-launch-cruises-from-San-Francisco-for-first-time-in-2020/3891545198970/

 

Ah yes,  I do remember hearing about this before.  Interesting.  Nice to have more options out of SF. 

On 1/5/2019 at 1:11 PM, bonsai3s said:

Yes, Uber would be our first choice.  However, another option is using the BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit...only if you have easy to roll luggage.  There's a station/stop right at the airport, get off the Embarcadero station, and the walk to the cruise terminal is on a flat and wide sidewalk. 

I second the BART option.  Very easy and affordable.

Trader Joes within walking distance has a great selection.  We buy our wine there all the time.

On 1/17/2019 at 8:07 AM, snowy owl said:

We are cruising a 10 day cruise with Carnival and we are driving in. What do you all recommend for hotels and parking in that area?

Which Carnival ship is leaving out of SF?

Hello Carolyn, We are friends on facebook and have traveled together before.  I can answer that question.  We have traveled on the Hurtigruten and it is a wonderful experience.  Yes you can get off and on anytime.  The ships go continuously north and south.  There is a ship in port twice everyday either going north or south.  My cousin is a captain on the the Kong Harold and we sailed with him a couple of years ago.  I would highly recommend doing this trip.  It is very different from a mainline cruise line but the best way to see Norway (the most beautiful country in the world - I am a little prejudiced) up close and personal.  As I always say when asked about Hurtigruten, the entertainment is looking out the window. 

Priceline bid Crowne Plaza one night 11/8/17 $75.

Every mall in America has gold by the inch. Buy it there for an easy exchange. Their lifetime warranty means that you will spend the rest of your lifetime getting it warrantied, so buy it from somewhere where it's easy to get done.

Very true if it's close but even that is kind of a pain. I haven't worn mine now for years so it's still like new. ;)

I have some of the gold and 15 years later it's like new.

I am surprised. I have and anklet. I would wear it for a couple of months and all the gold would wear off. At least they did stand by their guarantee and replaced it. I bought it a while ago so maybe it has improved.

the silver by the foot is crap, less than a year the silver faded, it's cheap for a reason, it's not real silver

Agree. I bought gold by the inch and the same thing happened. I had to return it several times and they sent me new ones but what a pain. When I bought it they gave me a piece of paper with the address for the guarantee. Glad I kept that piece of paper. Now I just don't wear it anymore. It was an ankle bracelet.

Sailed on SOA in October 1989. Beautiful ship!!! My first RCCL sailing. Have cruised on Explorer of the seas and now will cruise on Anthem of the seas in June 2017..:cool:

Our first cruise was also on the Song of America in October 1989. Love that ship and have such fond memories.

Just a little FYI about the Hotel Current. I called them a while back asking about their snooze and cruise package. I explained we had four people but only one car and asked if I needed to book two snooze and cruise packages. I was told "no" and that when I checked in to tell the front desk that there were four of us that would be taking the shuttle. No problem. I booked the rooms last night and called the hotel to make sure to note that we would like rooms next to each other if at all possible. When the front desk person looked at the reservations he proceeded to tell me that we would need to book two snooze and cruise packages because the room we had booked only could accommodate 3 people (one king size bed) and therefore the other couple wouldn't be able to take the shuttle without paying a shuttle fee of $25 per person. I told him that I would change my room to two double beds which would then accommodate 5 people so that they could take the shuttle for free. He told me that they could only do that if they stayed in our room with us. I asked him "so you would rather sell me one room and we all stay in that room to get the free shuttle than to sell me two rooms one of which would include a shuttle for 5?" He replied "yes". Am I missing something here? I called this morning to talk to the manager to see if what he was saying was truly the case and he said he was the manager. Oh well, I cancelled both reservations.

I thought November might be Iffy...I like the Ruby Princess better than the Grand and like a savings of over $1500 (large chunk airfare.) but know 7 days of rain would ruin the entire trip. a true conundrum.

Don't discount the Grand. We were on her the end of last September - great service, great food and great entertainment.

We just did this Wednesday and took Lyft. Uber is good too. Too many people waiting for super shuttle and it was chaos. Lyft was a little less expensive than the shuttle also.

Did 10 days to Mexico out of SF in September. Great food, great service and great entertainment.

I've always found that even the times they give it as a perk the price is increased accordingly.

I'll just as soon buy what I want & go with a cheaper price rather than try to consume unwanted drinks to get my money's worth.

Agree. We had the AIBP on an upcoming Mediterranean Cruise. Then the anniversary sale started and we compared prices. I figured out that with the decrease in price on the anniversary sale I could buy the AIBP and still come out $100 ahead.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you're on the waitlist and a cabin becomes available, you are not automatically assigned a cabin and get off the wait list. Anyone can select an available cabin at any time even if there's a wait list. You or your TA needs to keep calling Princess to check on availability and stay on top of your booking.

What is the point being on a wait list then??

I agree. I don't think this is true.

We just boarded the Ruby today. The itinerary had been changed from having a sea day to having a day at the dock in LA. According to the captains announcement it has to do with the weather. We are not happy at all about this. They have added a few excursions in LA but it is supposed to be raining. There is a film crew aboard to do a marketing video. My guess is Princess doesn't want to pay them for an extra day. Lunch menu in the dining room was different. No avocado with shrimp. So far all the announcements have been very difficult to understand due to such heavy accents. It seems like our 4 day getaway is going to be a bit of a joke.

Happened to us once and they told us they couldn't leave because they had to scrape barnacles off the bottom of the ship. :confused: Made the best out of it.

We met Guy Fieri on Carnival Splendor back in 2012. He was a jerk. Not going to elaborate to much, however; he did "apologize" to my husband later on in the night.

Ha ha, my son worked one night for one of his friend's father who was catering an event where Guy Fieri was and said the same thing about him.

So we are to assume that travel agents travelling at a reduced rate already have been stiffing the staff too? I wonder if these are the same group who advise pax to not pay them inorder to keep the price down?

Why would you assume that? You know what happens when you assume something.

Also on the Island.

This is not necessarily true. Some large chains use their buying power and relationships with the cruise lines to block space on numerous sailings on a variety of itineraries. They'll do this a year or more in advance, and because they are guaranteeing the cruise line X number of cabins sold per sailing the cruise line will give them group rates that are 10-15% below their lowest advertised price. Plus the TA will throw in an OBC or a gift or both.

 

I recently purchased a Cat BC balcony cabin on a 2016 14-day Asia cruise from a major cruise-only agency here in Canada. I paid $800 per person less that the current website price. I'm getting all the amenities that Princess offers plus additional OBC and pre-paid gratuities from the TA. Plus if by chance the Princess price drops below their price, as long as it's before final payment the TA will match it.

Again, I think we agree. The point I was trying to make is that TA's can get better prices than booking through Princess when they have groups booked. I had thought someone said a TA couldn't get as good a price as Princess offers but I had misunderstood. With a group there are also amenities which can come in the form of extras like on board credit. Sorry for the confusion.

You quoted my post but it is unclear if you are agreeing or disagreeing. Of course the TA can get the same price. But the OP wants to know why they cannot find a lower price. It seems as if we are in agreement that once Princess lowers it's price to rock bottom, the TA can do no better unless they are willing to shave some profit off of their end. Even if they do, the amount will be modest.

I guess we agree. I found your post a little confusing too. :)

If you book directly with Princess and get a very good sale price, (especially if you get re-fared once or twice), you aren't going to find a TA who can beat that price by 10%-20%. The TA may have a few perks to offer. But they aren't going to knock hundreds off of Princess's lowest sale fare. For example, if a fare stars out at $1299, can a TA knock $200 off if that? Quite possibly. But when Princess puts that category on sale for $899, can a TA knock that down by another $150-$200? No. This is when you will see prices from all sources come within $50 of one another. However, there are cruises that never go on sale. If you are paying brochure prices from Princess, then it is not at all unusual to find that TA prices are lower.

A TA gets the exact same price that you would get from Princess even on Princess's lowest sale fare. If it is already booked the TA would just need to rebook at the lower fare as long as Princess hasn't put any restrictions on the fare like for new bookings only. If that were the case then one wouldn't get the lower price even if booked through Princess. If it was before final payment you could cancel and rebook as long as there wasn't a non refundable deposit. Some large online TA's will charge for rebooking when there is a fare reduction. An independent TA most likely wouldn't do that because they want to keep their clients happy. They will watch for fare reductions and don't mind losing some commission because in the end it will pay off with return customers and referrals. I don't think any cruise line will watch for price reductions and call you if one comes up. A TA can give you a better price if they are willing to kick in some of their commission or if there is a group booked with their company or an associate company, otherwise there are no discounts. You will also get great customer service when booking with an independent TA and as someone else mentioned they will go to bat for you if there is an issue.

This site will help with your covered not covered questions....

 

http://www.islandpanama.org/meet-the-ship/covered-balcony-gui de/

 

FYI....the Island has a major drydock butchering coming up in May of this year. :( So make sure you are looking at the appropriate deck plans for your cruise.

Thank you for your reply. I have looked at this site many times and it helps a little but still doesn't answer my questions. Yes I know about the dry dock and am looking at the correct deck plans.

Would appreciate all you know about the balcony cabins on the Island Princess. My choices are:

1. Emerald Deck Aft. From the deck plans these look like larger cabins but completely covered.

2. Caribe Deck Forward - Are the balconies on this deck larger like they are on other ships? Are they completely covered? This is the bumped out part of the ship.

3. Dolphin Deck Forward - How do these balconies compare to the Caribe Deck balconies on this ship?

I have been looking at deck plans and usually they are pretty accurate. On the deck plans the Caribe Deck forward looks the same as Dolphin Deck forward but I have read on CC that the Caribe Deck balconies are larger. Just want more input.

Thank you.