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We used to love going when friends would take us with them years ago - before we reached Plat status. And it was a good place to meet up with friends before heading out for the evening. But over the years we found that the drink specials weren't anything we cared for, and neither of us were ever too excited about snacks on our way to dinner. So it just never really became a habit - we didn't go at all on our last cruise - we'll see what happens on our Christmas cruise.

We were on the last cruise before drydock and while we had heard of issue with Covid on the previous cruise we had no problem on our cruise - that we knew of - hardly any masks except for crew members.

Did this "upgrade" also change start pages? Since the change in the sign-in procedures when I open CC it goes to the overall Forum page - where for years it always opened to the page for my preferred cruise line. I can't seem to find a setting to change it back.

Seems to me we didn't get the QR code until we were assigned a boarding time. But as others have said it hasn't really mattered since no one asked for any documentation - they saw our Elite medallions and pointed us to the ship! There were quite a few people sitting in a waiting area so it's possible they were only allowing certain groups to board - but either way - no documents were asked for or needed. Have fun!!

I have always had flowers waiting in the cabin on every cruise except the one last month since Princess eliminated the ability to pre-order online. But based on this discussion and another I follow I decided to contact my TA yesterday, she came back with a price list and I selected the rose bouquet and she confirmed the purchase this morning. So if you use a TA you might want to check that option.

This thread just caused me to go check the balance on 12 AARP Princess gift cards I have for an upcoming cruise. I have use their gift cards to pay for our last 2 cruises, plus some a few years ago before COVID, and haven't ever had an issue. But I figured I better check and all came out with the balance they were supposed to have. I have had issues over the years buying gift cards from a 3rd party, and even a few purchased at stores that had never been activated - not fun. I hope the OP gets this resolved soon.

Good to hear you had a great experience. We were on a Princess cruise a month or so ago (British Isles) and the changes since we last cruised (2019) were noticeable. You mentioned the motion detectors which for the most part were great. My one objection was when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (which I tend to do often...) that hallway light comes on - and lights up the entire cabin. The motion detectors at the base of the end tables were good - I put an extra pillow over mine so it wouldn't come on all the time when I got up - the hallway light was enough to get me back to the bed. No bar soap. We enjoyed the Medallion opening the door (our cabin was private and off to the side (aft corner) and you could hear the door click open when we turned the corner. It was also nice to be able to walk up to a bar on the way to the cabin for the night, order two double Baileys to go, and have them just hand them to you since the Medallion picked us up when we got to the bar. More pluses than minuses for us - and we'll be back on board next month 🙂

IF I am reading your response correctly I am not sure you understood. You will NOT use you "credit card" anywhere on the ship. The card they were referring to is your cruise card (that opens your cabin door etc) - now it's a Medallion instead of a card. We were just on a Princess cruise and when we played the slots we put the Medallion where it could be recognized and it asks you how much you want to put on your casino account - that can come from credits you already have on your shipboard account (OBC etc) or if you don't have any credits or you don't want to use them the amount will be added to your cruise bill. IF you win anything it will give you the option of what to do with the money - you can leave it in your casino account (if you plan to play more later) or you can move it to your cabin account or you can hit the cash out button and go to the Cashier's Desk and they will pay you in $. As others have said IF you win and leave it in the casino account make sure you cash out or move it before the last day of the cruise. This whole process can be done everyday if you want to. The only time your credit card gets involved is when the cruise is done - if you owe Princess money for anything (tours, specialty restaurants, the casino) it will be charged to your card. When we left our recent cruise my wife owed $91 and I was $97 to the good. As has happened in the past I expected them to combine the two and maybe send me a $6 check at some point. Instead when we got home we found they had charged $91 on our credit card - and 2 weeks later I received a check for $97... Seems silly but that's how it worked for us. This thread reminds me of the old "What do I do when I win money in the casino" and "What do you do with leftover wine" threads - and no one knew the answers 🙂

Congrats!!! Getting a mini is always a good thing!!!

Understand. Over the years I have used the gift cards several times - either paying off a balance or the entire cruise. I use a travel agent and at times I have sent her the card information (the card numbers and pins) and she has kept them on file for final payment - or I have just contacted her and told her to apply them. On our recent British Isles cruise it was half and half. On the Christmas cruise we are taking I contacted her just before final payment and gave her all the card info and she applied them. I don't know if she can input them on the computer or if she has to contact Princess - but either way I get a paid in full receipt in an hour or so after she does it. There are no expiration dates on the cards - so if something happens and we can't go on the Feb 2024 cruise I have gift cards to pay with - I'll use them at a later date on another cruise. Hope this helps.

We paid for our British Isles cruise in Sep and our cruise over Christmas with the gift cards totally. I have purchased enough for our 2 week Caribbean cruise in Feb 2024.

I just went in and added a bracelet to our previous order to be shipped to the house. Our cruise departs 18 December. I didn't see a way to edit our previous order but I could cancel and put in a new order. Good luck.

Our very first cruise was on the Golden Princess to Canada/New England. We loved it even though we went into it thinking this would be a one time deal. Since then we have done that cruise 5 times and the last one was the Quebec to FLL 14 day cruise like the one you just went on - which was truly fantastic. We spent the first night at a B&B in Quebec and the second night on the ship. Sorry you had some airline issues but I'm happy to hear you seemed to have enjoyed the cruise as much as we did! We have said ever since we wanted to go back to Quebec - I'm just not sure it could be as magical as it was the last time 😉

I have got mine by email as soon as I purchase them. IF I need to get more than 5 - I have my wife go in and buy some 🙂

I use a TA - so when payment is due I give her the gift card numbers and PIN numbers ans she applies them. I imagine if you book with Princess you can call them and do it as well.

On the AARP site go to "Rewards" and they will have all kinds of gift cards including Carnival, Royal Caribbean etc and they all require that you be a member and might require you to add some of their points to make the deal - but strangely enough the Princess gift cards do not require you to be a member or use points. Once you find the "rewards" look for "see all rewards" which is where the Princess cards are.

AARP offers 10% off cruise gift cards everyday - I don't know if a Princess Black Friday Sale (don't think they did it last year) is any better than that.

Before we went on our British Isles cruise a couple of months ago I did a lot of research on tipping and currency requirements. What I came away with was I really didn't need much in the way of Pounds or Euros because EVERYONE accepts a card since Covid. As far as tipping I got a mixed response - but most said tipping wasn't expected or required. NO ONE wanted a card for payment on our excursions - EVERYONE wanted cash! And pretty much everyone stood there when it came to the obvious tipping time with that expecting look! It was probably because they knew most of us were from America - people adapt quickly 🙂 None of it bothered me - I was prepared either way but I saw the look on the faces of some of our tour passengers as they got off the bus and noticed he was shaking hands with one hand and holding his tips in the other and they hadn't planned on tipping :-)

Not sure if I'm reading this right or if I am missing something. We have been on several 14 day cruises and did not receive 2 cruise credits???

They are still there - I just looked. You have to get to the point where you can see the "See ALL rewards" option since for some reason they are not a members only option. This is the web page I had - not sure it will come out here: https://www.aarp.org/rewards/redeem/#all_rewards

We did not use the phone for anything. We just bought our first smart phone because they told us the phone that has been sitting in the bottom of my wife's purse for over 10 years (for emergencies) would no longer work due to 5G. So we gave in and got a new phone - but never really use it except to get the text codes we get sent to do all the things we used to be able to do without having to get a text 🙂. I didn't ever find myself sitting somewhere and deciding I needed to have a drink or food delivered to me, and the last cruise was so port intensive we were never looking for something to do - so the phone sat in the cabin safe most of the time 🙂

We had our first cruise with the Medallion last month and our experience was just like yours. I fretted over printing out my Green Lane A Boarding Group since we don't use the phone or tablet often and having to find it on the spot bothered me 🙂 But it was all for nothing - we walked in the terminal (Southampton) and never stopped until we got to our cabin 🙂

I just looked at our account sheet from last month. Our excursion refund was processed on the first day. The laundry charge was refunded the day after we used it.