UT-Volsfan

Pub lunch was listed on the lunch menu in the open dining room at least once during our June cruise on Island. Did not see a winemaker's dinner offered. Only specialty dining we did was going to Bayou Cafe the first night for dinner. We did enjoy the Island. We were on last August, then in June, and are booked again for 28 nights in Nov and Dec. We thought buffet selections were better in June than last August, so hopefully supply issues are being worked out.

We got this from Amazon and have used it on several cruises. Power Strip with USB C, AUOPRO Flat Extension Cord 4 Outlets Strips and 3 USB Ports, 5ft Long Braided Power Cord, Compact Charging Station for Computer Travel Cruise Home Office-ETL Listed 7

Sorry to hear about all of the issues you had. Hope you had tables with better cruisers around you at dinner for the rest of the cruise. I remember for birthday celebrations they used to provide a card in the cabin to give the waiter on the night you wanted to celebrate. Now it is supposed to be all automated notifications. We were on the Island Princess last month and they came to the table with a cake and sang Happy Birthday without us mentioning it to them. They said the Birthday showed up on their hand held devices. Unfortunately the Dining reservations portion of the Medallion App system has been very problematic since the Covid restart. We have had reservations completely disappear with no explanation from Princess. Sorry it had to be your speciality dining.

I had the same issue this weekend. Finally I tried my different password for the Medallion app login (Princess had me change it about 6 weeks ago -App wanted me to add a special character) and I logged right in to the website. It has been working since then without issue. Don't know why that password now logs in to the App and the website, but it does.

I had the same issue. Finally I tried my password for the Medallion app (I had to change it about 6 weeks ago) and I got logged in on the Princess site.

We got off Island P. one week ago. All of the shows except one were at 7:30 and 9:30. A lot of the seats were occupied by 7:15, with people reading books until they dimmed the house lights to start the show.

Also have a new show "The Secret Silk". It was the only show we haven't seen multiple times.

Wayne, enjoy the cruise. You will love the ports you are visiting. Hope you hear on the most traveled luncheon. We left the ship Wednesday. The cutoff for the luncheon on our cruise was around 675 days. You have a new Loyalty Manager on board. Sam that was over future cruise sales was in training during our cruise and was taking over those duties on your cruise. Regarding the Captain, you will hear him make announcements from the bridge. But he was not at the Captain's Circle party we had - we got the staff captain instead. Trivia in the Wheelhouse Bar was pretty crowded on our cruise. They brought folding chairs in and had them near the forward exit for extra players to use. Surprised there were no prizes; they had a few wine stoppers, some of the cheap backpacks, some of the blue books with blank pages, and said the coasters they had onboard were all they would get of them. We were hoping that meant they might finally get some new prizes since they have not changed for several years.

Typically 7:30 and 9:30 in the theatre. One night started at 7:15.

Appears to be true. We have BBC News, CNBC, and Sky News currently.

We are also currently on the Island Princess. Crew has been very helpful so far. I understand some have changed out this past month as their contacts ended but service has been very good. Embarkation in Southampton was very quick. Left our hotel at 10:30, checked in, and allowed to board at 10:50. Some areas are more crowded than we have had since cruising restarted. Wheelhouse bar is being used for trivia, and they had to bring in some folding chairs due to the crowd showing up. Somebody said this also happened on the previous cruise. Elite laundry service we were told when boarding would take 72 hours for turnaround. There are a lot of Elites on board, so will expect this to probably get even slower. Internet speed is decreasing as we go North. Latest speed test this afternoon was 0.8 Mbps download, 0.62 Mbps upload, and latency of 42 ms. Yesterday downlad was 2.96 Mbps, 0.99 Mbps upload with latency of 126 ms. They have been doing some exterior touchup painting this afternoon while in port.

We are sailing In 8 days on Island Princess from Southampton and they have yet to let anybody in our Roll Call choose an arrival time. Plan to stay at our hotel until checkout time then go to the port.

Is Princess shifting it's focus from providing services and offerings for loyalty from the most loyal passengers? Some we understand are to save money, but many have little impact on the bottom line for Princess and therefore Carnival Corporation. Reductions include: 1) eliminating OBC based on number of cruises 2) change from free internet minutes to only a 50% discount on the wifi package 3) supposedly eliminating celebrating milestone cruises (beginning at 500 days then every 250 days increase) on board 4) change in Elite onboard shopping discount. Previously was combinable with sale discounts, but since last spring this was changed to not be combinable with sale prices. We have also been on cruises where other Elite benefits were not honored due to the sheer numbers of Elites (1000+) on board. This included no priority tender services (we were told if they honored this benefit no other groups could depart the ship in tender ports), the free laundry service taking 8 days to return, and no departure lounge because there were so many Elites.

With the increasing number of passengers returning to Princess, will some of the reductions in on-board services and offerings be returned to us any time soon? One of the areas we have seen cutbacks has been in offerings for diabetics on board. These include: 1) no sugar free or no sugar added jelly available upon request at breakfast. 2) no sugar added ice icream is no longer available at the ice cream shop. Have only been able to get it in the dining rooms. While these are small offerings, the demographics on board would appear to indicate these would be used by several customers on board each cruise. Yet they have not been available to us on several post Covid cruises (7+ weeks on Princess). We don't believe it is a supply chain issue because these simple offerings have been offered on other lines.

On our August 28 cruise on the Island Princess, we were notified verbally in the cruise terminal and in writing when we reached our cabin that mask wearing by passengers in indoor public areas was mandatory. It stayed that way for the entire 2 week cruise. Announcements were made in the Theater and Explorers by the cruise director or his staff before shows that passengers had to wear masks when not sipping their beverage and they went around handing masks to passengers not wearing them. Some people would refuse to wear them at any time on board, but many complied. Did it ruin our vacation? No. We still had an enjoyable cruise. They were taking precautions to protect senior staff from exposure. In March we got photos with the Captain at the Most Traveled Luncheon even though the officers were not allowed to shine with us. On this cruise, none of the senior staff even made an appearance at the Most Traveled Luncheon. During our cruise, they did relax the buffet restrictions. On the 4th day we were told that the buffet was back to self serve. It stayed that way for the rest of the cruise. There were cases of covid reported on board during our cruise. We asked some crew if masks would be mandatory on the Sept. 11 sailing and we were told the answer was yes.

We had the pub lunch on the Island Princess a couple of weeks ago. It was in the Bayou Cafe on the next to last sea day, if I remember correctly.

Sunday on the Island Princess, we received the surgical masks in our cabin on boarding and were told it was mandatory to wear masks in indoor areas. They have staff with additional masks at entrances to venues like Princess Theatre and make multiple announcements reminding people when to wear them.

We had bought the 4 device package a few weeks ago at the 50% discount price for Elite. A few days later we also noticed it was listed in our travel summary but not in the app. When we boarded the Island Princess on Sunday, we logged into the MedallionNet and the app showed our 4 device package and that we were both now connected. No issues with accessing it. The internet service so far has been very slow. Speedtests when we boarded were at 0.26 MB/sec download and slightly faster uploads. Monday could not get a speedtest to even run. Trying it now at 5 a.m. and pages are loading faster with Speedtest downloads at 0.3 MB/sec. No streaming can run at these speeds. Basic email can be received and so far have made a couple of WiFi calls.

For texting it depends which app you are using. The default Messages app on our Verizon S10 phones would not work onboard, but we switched to the Message+app and got them able to work when we connected to the ship's wifi without further issues. As far as using our phones for Wifi calling, it was hit or miss using our phones. Sometimes we would get calls, but making calls was more difficult. Finally installed a Wifi calling app (Talkatone) instead of the built-in settings on our phones, and did not have trouble making calls on board. It does not use your cell phone number (it gives you a different number) which is the biggest issue using it.

Thanks for the tip!

You do not have to submit thru a TA. We have always sybmitted it directly ourselves. From the CCL shareholders benefit form: "Applications to receive these benefits should be made at least three weeks prior to cruise departure date." We have submitted it much closer to our cruise date. Our last cruise we booked 8 days before departure and still got our OBC before we sailed. We called the Shareholder benefits phone number after emailing and confirmed receipt. Explained we were a last minute booking and it was quickly posted to our account.

Have you tried the phone number on the CCL Shareholder Benefit form? It is 800 872 6779 ext. 30317 Have the date and time you sent in the request for the CCL benefit to assist them in finding it. They may ask you to re-send it while on the phone. Typically they can then confirm receipt and add OBC then.

Thanks for the comments on the Island Princess. We board in 4 weeks for her Scandinavian cruise and look forward to following your reports.

Have never had umbrellas provided by Princess in Interior, Oceanview, or Balcony cabins.

Saw the same reply. Emailed our proof of stock ownership last Monday and had the OBC show up on Friday.