azbirdmom

It's been my experience that they charge the difference between the cost of the free cabin and the cabin that you want to upgrade to up through a mini suite (they have basically quoted rack rates when I've asked about upgrades to Club Class or full suites by the way). But we've only been charged this for one person not two so the cost is basically half the differential. It's been a great deal for us but I suspect that there can be lot of variability in what they will quote and things can change. It costs nothing to ask. Just remember you're on the hook for taxes / port fees, insurance, air, and the $200 pp nonrefundable deposit (that turns into OBC after you board).

You should be able to waitlist for their anytime dining. I saw that option available when I was doing a mock booking on their site. I did end up booking our cruise with a TA and only late traditional was available when we finally got around to booking. I was going to ask her about waitlisting for our preferred dining time but I kept checking the Celebrity website and the anytime option opened up. She grabbed it for us immediately which was a good thing as only late dining is available again. So if you would prefer anytime, you might want to ask about the waitlist and periodically check the website to see if they show it's opened up.

I sure hope it is. We may forego our traditional MDR embarkation lunch and go straight for Gigi's and Agnolotti on Sunday!

I wish they would just remove that language from the app because it just continues to confuse people. What matters are the timelines specified on the Princess website. If it says 2 days for your situation, then you can do the test any time two days prior to embarkation - the number of hours does not matter.

It seems like Skagway has come up with a solution that has allowed them to use the forward Railroad dock again. Someone on the Discovery posted the picture below this morning and they no longer need to tender folks off the ship.

Hmmm. I had thought that the Owner's Suites on the Royal class ships were all re-categorized to Penthouse Suites? These are at the aft of the ship and have wraparound balconies, some wider than others. I did check the deck plan for Discovery and see that there are two Owner's Suites, both on Emerald deck. If I had my choice of any aft suite I would pick ones on Dolphin, Baja, or Riviera decks for the larger balcony before I would select the ones on Emerald deck. Not sure what they would have changed inside to make these Owner's Suites. Generally on the older ships an Owner's Suite would have a dining room table with 4 chairs which is a nice addition but hopefully someone has stayed in these Emerald Deck suites and can answer your question definitively.

We were on the Caribbean Princess in late May / early June and experienced toilet issues. It started with delayed flushing which we told our steward about and he reported it. The plumber was going to look at it the next morning as it wasn’t urgent. Late that night the toilet would only fill and not empty when flushed. I knew enough to not keep flushing as that could cause it to overflow into the room. I wound up at passenger service at 3 AM and they immediately got a plumber ti check it. There was a blockage but it was all human waste. And he replaced a very old part which solved the problem. He did that all from the hallway and we didn’t have another problem for the rest of the cruise. We were in D625.

Shortly after I made this post, I submitted a request under the “Contact Us” / post cruise function. And today I finally received the folio I requested. So they do seem to respond to requests eventually.

Us too on the Caribbean Princess last month. And he asked for requests. When I mentioned giraffe he went out to the web on his own time and figured out to do it! He was a fantastic steward.

Thanks for sharing the news. I hope she keeps healing and that the rest of the nonsense that you've faced is resolved soon. Best wishes to you both.

If you're talking about the map that they auctioned off, have you taken a cruise since the restart where they do this? Haven't seen it on the three I've been on, and someone asked on our cruise in May and was told that they aren't doing this any longer.

Thanks for clearing that up. It seemed very odd to me as well. Maybe she took too much advantage of the drinks package and missed it? 🙂

I'll add a question! A friend just got back from cruising on the Ruby and said they missed Glacier Bay. She thought it was because NCL hit an iceberg there but that happened near Hubbard Glacier. Does anyone know why Ruby skipped Glacier Bay last week? Seems like a big enough event that someone would have posted here but then maybe folks were just enjoying their cruise.

We had a nice cruise on her at the end of May / early June. We did have a toilet issue but it was fixed and was fine for the rest of the cruise. Staff and crew were fantastic. The food was better than what we had on the Regal which at best was average. There was rust but we observed them painting and scraping while we were in port so they were trying to keep up with that. I was pleasantly surprised as I had been concerned prior to boarding given the reports. I don't doubt that others had poor experiences - especially if they had to deal with sewer smells or malfunctioning toilets the entire trip. I'm just saying that what we we had a mostly good experience on the ship.

Yes, I had mentioned on surveys that it would be nice to have a digital version in the email that has the final folio or post cruise survey link. But then both of those have been hit or miss since the restart.

I read the updates on this post then went to FB where the post pasted below oddly was the first one to pop up in my feed. I guess the good news is that the toilet paper is easily accessible and there is an actual door on the shower instead of a shower curtain. But yikes, this is tiny!

I've done it. Room service should let you pick a bottle of wine that is $40 or less from the room service list. We can usually find something but then we don't have expensive tastes. Won't tolerate swill such as the Club Class "wine" either.

There haven't been any logs of the cruise created since the restart. We were on the third cruise of the Majestic Princess last August and checked in with Passenger Service when we didn't get one the final morning. They confirmed that Princess would no longer be providing them. I have mentioned it on every post cruise survey since to no avail. I have them saved from every cruise prior to Covid and they are fun to look back on.

I've found that the tests don't always come with the "eMed" cardboard sleeve on them. Our first ones didn't but fortunately we were doing the tests with friends that were cruising with us and their test boxes had the sleeve. We are going to be taking a test this week using our laptop. When you do it that way you go to start.emed.com when you're ready - no reservations are required. And the ID we've had to enter in the past is A-AHM-IRF-AAA-AAI (also on the sleeve). You'll have to create an account and provide the information requested. From there a proctor will come on to guide you through the process. You can also do this through the Navica app if you want to do the test through a smart device. We like using the laptop as it's a bit more stable. And when you're all done you'll get the test results via email or the Navica app. Very easy, you just need to follow instructions and not do anything until they ask you to do it.

We are going to stray from Princess too. But it's only because they no longer cruise to some of the itineraries on our bucket list. We've experience some minor issues with Princess but nothing that has approached the "we're never setting foot on a Princess ship again" point. If some of the things that have happened to others happened to us we may think differently. (Hope I haven't jinxed it.) So we will hang in there a bit longer and see how it goes. Hope you find what you're looking for on Virgin!

Yep! That happened to me on our cruise in May. I had to physically tap my Medallion to the tablet and then wait 10 - 20 seconds before the door would open. I mentioned it to the steward who reported it. Then towards the end of the cruise I mentioned it to the Navigator as the tablet also would change from do not disturb to service my room and vice versa on occasion. He flagged that last part for investigation (he said a reboot would probably do the trick) but suggested that I probably had a low battery. Got a new Medallion at PSD and voila! it worked like a champ in terms of clicking the door open as I walked up from then on. To the OP - did you try to make your reservation through the web version of Dine My Way? I haven't done it but Princess supposedly activated that last month.

If you are referring to Goodwill FCCs that were granted as a bonus from a cancelled cruise, no they can't. Here's a link to the info about the different types of credits and I've also pasted a screenshot below listing what FCCs can be used for. https://www.princess.com/plan/fcc-onboard-cruise-credits/ ETA: There are also Voyage Goodwill credits listed in the Onboard Credits section of the Personalizer. If that is what you are referring too then yes, they are OBC. My original answer pertained to the Goodwill credits that are shown in the top Future Cruise Credits section.

I cashed out twice on the Caribbean Princess a month ago. First time I didn't get change and the amount was rounded down to the nearest dollar. Second time I did get the change (I didn't ask for it). I didn't get a receipt but could have asked for it as it was tossed out. I got what I was expecting so I didn't have a problem not getting a piece of paper. I didn't think much about not getting the change. Many land casinos have gone the route of not giving change, primarily by reprogramming their machines to spit out a ticket for the change and only dispensing bills. You can get change by going to a cashier but most people don't.

It is.

Hmm. Haven’t heard anything about that but nothing would surprise me. ETA: I looked through my email archives and found a prepare for your cruise email received on June 9th. Looks the same as your’s so she has been featured on these emails for at least a few weeks.