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About Me
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Location
Washington State
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Favorite Cruise Line(s)
Princess
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Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
Baltics
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northwestbear's Achievements
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They are back… I bought one yesterday- however, they are now only an 8% savings whereas before they were 10%. I bought a $500 gift card and it was $460.
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As a couple who do not drink alcohol, I feel like these changes only take things away that were previously included. We really enjoy having lunch or sometimes even dinner at Alfredo's - which it seems will now become a pay restaurant unless you have a package. We have rarely used room service, but it was always nice to have the option. We usually dine in a specialty restaurant a few times each cruise. We used to buy coffee packages (another sad change) but now just pay for our drinks individually. We have an anniversary cruise coming up in September and we splurged for a very expensive cabin, but now it feels like Princess wants even more out of me. I priced it out and the Ala carte pricing is still a better option than either package by hundreds of dollars. It will definitely cost us more to cruise than in the past. We'll just have to see - We had a really nice cruise on Celebrity this past winter and our next cruise after our September trip is on Holland America. We're Elite on Princess, but maybe it's time to branch out.
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AARP Raises Limit on Gift Card Purchases
northwestbear replied to Rick&Jeannie's topic in Princess Cruises
I really appreciate this information. It gave me a reason to join AARP. The gift cards were showing in denominations of $500 and $100 at 10% off the face value - I bought a few and was immediately able to apply them to the balance on a future cruise on the Princess website. Really great deal. -
We are not big alcohol drinkers, but do like our coffee. On a recent Celebrity cruise we were offered the zero proof at a discount, which we took. Even at the discounted price we did not find much value in the package and it was one of the few things that was cheaper than Princess. I cannot imagine we will be purchasing a drink package. The soda package doesn’t include coffees, and we don’t drink much soda… so I guess we’ll just pay as we go or cut out coffee for the week (or three).
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We are on that Feb 4 Solstice cruise as well. We don't usually buy drink packages, other than the premium coffee package if we are on Princess. It has never been worthwhile since we barely drink alcohol and don't drink much soda. When I got the Celebrity Email advertising the 40% off we decided to go for it, since I figure it's about 3 non-alcoholic drinks per day to break even. It looks like Celebrity has a lot of non-alcoholic options and we usually splurge on "mocktails" and love our coffee drinks, so I'm sure we'll get our money's worth.
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I’ve already posted here about EZAir canceling my first class upgrade through Delta. Well the day of travel things got much worse. Because of work obligations we had to travel on the day of departure for a short cruise we had booked. We made sure to book through EZAir since they promise to make things “seamless” if something goes wrong. We also took travel insurance (thank goodness). Our 7am flight on Delta Seattle- LA was delayed to 8:20, 10:00 and then 3:00pm. Our ship sailed at 4:00. Multiple calls to the enroute travel desk at Princess- only one person I spoke with seemed even slightly interested in helping us. We were told by Princess that they could not get us on another flight and essentially left us to deal with Delta. We did standby on two flights, one which would have gotten us to LAX at about 3:00pm. Princess told us the gangway was going up at 3:30 and if we couldn’t be there before then we would not be allowed to board. We didn’t make it on the flight, but still. So we focused on meeting the ship in San Diego, its first port. Delta had already sent our luggage to LA on one of the earlier flights, so we were told we had to fly to LA. Okay- so how was Princess going to get us from LA to San Diego as they promise? Short answer, they were not. We had to find our own way. Oh, and Princess will not pay for any accommodations, so that was also down to us. Their whole script during this was we would have to make a claim with our travel insurance. Oh, and any questions we had that were not air related, we were automatically transferred to the reservations line - where you can sit on hold for an hour. After being up at 3am and not getting to LA until after 6pm we had to rent a car and drive to San Diego and get a hotel room. The only thing The Princess enroute travel people did for us was email the ship to let them know we would be meeting them in San Diego. As I write, we are still at the hotel, so we’ll see how that process goes. Ironically during this day from hell, we got an Email/ad from Princess EZAir touting how they make your travel “seamless” even if you encounter problems during your journey.
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Booked a “comfort plus” ticket on Delta through EZAir for our upcoming cruise. When I signed onto the Delta app to check our flights it gave me an offer to upgrade for a set amount per segment per person. It being the holidays, I took the offer- my CC was charged and I got an Email from Delta confirming my upgrade and seat selection. Fast forward to two days ago and I again logged into the Delta app and it gave me the same offer and showed our reservations as “Comfort plus” with no seat assignments. I spent a total of 4 hours trying to get this figured out. The short of it as explained by Delta is EZAir tickets are “bulk” tickets and not upgradeable and this is a Princess restriction. So supposedly when Princess was notified of the upgrade, they cancelled it. I was not notified and was not credited for the amount I paid. I was initially told I would have to request a refund in writing since the upgrade was “non refundable” but I was finally able to speak with a Delta supervisor who agreed to refund my money.
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Visiting Rome on a Princess Cruise in October 2022. We've been a few times before and are looking for something different. I noticed Princess offering a Rome "Foodie Walking Tour" which sounds interesting. Princess shows the tour is 8 hours, but the excursion detail only shows less than 2 hours of activity. So we are wondering about the rest of that time. Has anyone done this tour? I thought of booking with the idea I can always cancel once on board when I can get additional information, but then I thought someone here might have some additional information. Thanks in advance.
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We have two stops in Kotor on a late fall cruise with Princess and I am wondering about this excursion. We've been to Kotor before, and I think the scenery will probably be stunning at that time of year, but the tour allots only 1:30 for the boat ride on the lake and 2:15 for "lunch and swimming." I cannot imagine anyone is going to be swimming in Montenegro in November. So I am wondering about the restaurant - It sounds like it is within the National park? If so it might be possible to do a short hike during the allotted lunch time.