chubbypiggy

I am thinking of doing a bid upgrade for the Club class mini suite on Diamond Princess. From the descriptions, it says "1/2 bottle of red wine and 1/2 bottle of white wine" will be included. I apologize if this is a dumb question. just curious, for those of you who booked "club class mini suite" in the past, 1/2 bottle of white and 1/2 bottle of red wine were already in your cabin on embarkation day? Since it is only 1/2 bottle, the bottle must be already opened and 1/2 bottle of the wine already taken away? Thank you.

Thanks for the suggestion. I do use a Princess CVP. When I made the bookings, I did ask the CVP to mark both bookings as "Do not upgrade", but I don't know if that option also applies to cabins assigned by "bid" upgrade. Maybe I should give my CVP a call tomorrow.

My upcoming cruises are about a month away (Diamond Princess). Few days ago, for both cruises, not b2b, I placed a minimum bid from mid-ship balcony (BA) to mini suite. Today I received an email saying my bid for both cruises were accepted. I was given mid-aft mini-suite (MB). I like the location of the mini-suite cabin on both cruises. From now until check-in time for the cruise, can Princess change my upgraded assigned cabins' location? For example, to a lower mini-suite category (MD or ME)? Or same category, but to another cabin number? Do I need to call Princess now to request to mark my bookings to "Do Not Upgrade"? Thank you.

Thank you. That is too bad.

Is it okay to take b2b cruise with 1st 7-day cruise from Seattle to Vancouver, and 2nd 7-day cruise from Vancouver to Los Angeles? Thank you.

Thank you.

You do not need to have a Capital One credit card, any credit card is fine. You just need to register for Capital Shopping. They offer a lot of reward savings of hotels. Recently booked our Yokohama hotel and got 25% rewards of the hotel price. Very good deals.

C1 "pending" rewards usually show up a few days after your purchase. I will check mine in a few days.

I just bought my 5 cards. I told my sister about it, and she wants to buy 5 cards also. I told her she needs to register with AARP with her email address, which she said is fine. She doesn't want to use her credit card. For her purchase, can she use my credit card that I just used for my purchase? She will use her own email address (different from mine). Thank you.

I think it is for the entire transaction regardless you buy one or 20 cards.

Thank you.

Never mind my question above. Just bought my gift cards, and it did show a $5 reward.

Do you have to be an AARP member to get that $5? I am register but not a paying member. I have no problem buying the Princess gift cards, but never saw an offer to get $5 reward.

International Cafe is on all Grand Class ships? We will be cruising on the Diamond next month. Just look at the deck plan (on Princess website) for the Diamond, and don't see any International Cafe.

Thank you.

In all my previous cruises, I never ordered anything using the app, thus, no need to pay $14.99. For room service, I always ordered using the TV. So, now with the new changes, if I continue not ordering anything through the app, and order food through Room Service using the TV and have food deliver to my cabin, will I still need to pay $5 for each order through the TV? Thank you.

That is nice to know. Thank you.

If I have a $500 gift card, when I am on the ship, can I ask Guest Service to just download $200 to my account or the total amount of the Gift card must be loaded to my account? Thank you.

If I have a $500 gift card, can I ask Guest Service to just download $200 to my account or the total amount of the Gift card must be loaded to my account?

Looking forward to your next "Live...". We will be doing the Ft. Lauderdale to Quebec next June (14 days) on the Emerald Princess with 7 ports. We are having second thought on that cruise. Mainly because we are afraid the weather might be really hot. Also because the cruise ends on July 3, and flying back to U.S. just a day before Independence Day might be a big negative.

Thank you. Right now I am still planning for the Omaezaki port; when I get to planning for the Otaru port, I will decide if we want to do both cities. I agree with you that we should also visit Sapporo, it is definitely on my bucket.

Thank you so much for all the reviews, Patter, menu, answering questions, and the nice pictures!! Have a safe and smooth flight!!

I know how it feels. Before the COVID, we did 3 cruises (Mediterranean, Scandinavia, and Norway/Iceland) that my uncles and aunts (all in their mid-80s and do not speak English) joined us. Those were the most stressful cruises. On one cruise, aunt took off on her own to take pictures and didn't return to the meeting point on time. We spent over an hour going back and forth between 2 sightseeing points before finally found her. One another cruise, while we were in the Vatican, one aunt (in her late 80s) fell down over 30 steps of stairs. Had ambulance came. She was able to walk and insisted to return to the ship. Then went to see ship doctor, etc. Very messy situation. That was definitely the last time I will let those 4 uncles/aunts join us on any cruises. Just too stressful and too much responsibilities. If you don't mind, I have more questions on Otaru. This will be our first time visiting the Otaru port. Ship will be at port from 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Do you recommend we visit both Sapporo and Otaru or just stay at Otaru? If just staying at Otaru, enough things/places to do/see for the whole day? Thank you.

I am not excursions people either. We have visited almost all the countries on our bucket list, and seen all we are interested; so now when we travel, we like to take it easy. That is why when only 2 of us going on the cruise, we have always chosen cruises with lots of sea days. And at port, we leave the ship after 10:30 a.m. and just go ashore for shopping and eating. But when we have friends going with us, then I need to plan. It seems like most people like to see places and want to be on the go all the time. Frankly, way too tiring for us. On our upcoming Japan cruises, the 1st cruise (7 days with 2 ports) will be just the two of us. We plan to only get off for shopping and eating at Nagasaki and Kagoshima (will also be visited on our 9 days cruise). Will stay on the ship for the Jeju and Omaezaki port. Seven friends will arrive from L.A. on the morning that we get off from the 1st cruise. All will stay in Yokohama for 5 days and then followed by a 9 days Circle Hokkaido cruise with 5 ports. First time visiting Japan for all 7 of them, and I have been designated as the planner for those 14 days. ☺️ So a lot of planning to do; that is why I have been asking so many questions. Because there will be 9 of us, it makes the planning more difficult. Even if we book a private van, the most they can take is 8 people. I guess we just have to stuck with getting 3 taxis every time. Hopefully that will not be a problem.

Quite frankly, our April Sydney to L.A. cruise was quite disappointing. One of the main reasons I chose that cruise was because I never visited New Zealand, and was so looking forward to it. Due to bad weather, the captain cancelled Bay of Islands and Tauranga (both ports I booked a Viator tour so end up having to cancel it immediately after the captain's announcement). So the only remaining NZ port was Auckland. We booked an 1/2 day land tour with Viator, and planned 1/2 day for shopping. The tour was not that good, and because it was Easter Sunday, ALL the shops were closed. Besides, it rained heavily, so after the tour, back to ship. Maui port was also cancelled. We joined a Viator all day tour in Honolulu; tour just okay. So many stops at places that they want you to buy things. One stop each for you to buy: pineapples, nuts, coffee, and chocolate. Kona, lots of shops near the port; all we did was shopping. Substitution for the 3 cancelled ports: one extra sea day, extra day at Papeete, a port day in Moorea. After we went on shore in Papeete, lots of tour companies there selling tours. We went with one company. Personally I think it was a waste of time. The tour was 6 hours, but most of the time spent on driving from one place to another. Not much to see in Papeete. The 2nd day, we didn't even bother to get off the ship. Didn't bother to get off the ship at Moorea either; the tours didn't appear to be interesting. So during the 27 days cruise, we only left the ship 4 times. Good thing we love sea days. Majestic is a very nice ship. Services were superb. Food very good; we ate quite a few time at their outdoor noodle bar. Really enjoyed the indoor pool and hot tubs.