dreams_of_travel

The only reason I have been booking more with Princess is for the military and shareholder OBC. I am disappointed they have decided to go this route. I am hoping to get my shareholder OBC attached to my 2024 cruises soon, and hope that that sticks when the new notice date rolls up.

The trails out to Nugget Falls are all smooth, and mostly paved. It is a fairly level hike with a few graded inclines/declines, but not steep at all. I would suggest contacting the Park services to inquire, doing a general search to see if anyone else had reviewed that in the past. I do recall that the Blue Bus requested those needing assistance sit in the front of the bus seats, though I don't know (did not see) where they would place the walker. Does the walker fold up?

In the past, with a canceled cruise, they send the funds back to the gift card/s. It is annoying to have to go back to check they refunded to the correct card. I had an issue when both my friend and I used gift cards to pay for a cruise. Now I keep track of card numbers used to pay for what part of which cruise. Princess did eventually get things sorted after I pressed for someone to dig deeper.

I kind of disagree. Anyone who wants to buy these AARP gift cards should be fully aware of the steps when buying/using. This includes checking the balances before they send them off to their travel agent. And troubleshooting if there is an error. FWIW I had an issue with buying a Princess gift card from Princess' site a couple years ago. I followed the info found on the website to correct that issue. Problems can even happen when you go to the grocery store and buy gift cards. If people don't understand how any of this works, then they shouldn't participate. /end of my probably unpopular comment

This still makes no sense to me. How do they distinguish between an actual Princess gift card, and a Princess gift card bought from AARP? I am not arguing with you, but the logic (in my brain) is not following a clear line of "if this, then that" progression.

That's fair. It does depend on the cruise line, port timings, and their excursions. The one I took ages ago allowed for about 1.5hrs, which by the time we figured out about the falls, after the visitor center, and the closer viewing trails, it was too late. Perhaps cruise lines have changed their approach, and now allows much longer.

The falls are about 1.5 miles roundtrip from the visitor center. A few hiking sites recommend at least 45mins for the hike depending on your pace. I did it on a very fast, about an hour, (do not recommend) walk last year due to my own scheduling fubar. LOL! To fully enjoy the center, and the hike reading the signage, and taking pics maybe you could do it in 2 hrs? Not many people seem to leave the visitor center area, so the hiking trail to the falls is rarely busy, in my experience. Of course that depends on the cruise ship schedule of tours and going before or after the big rush.

Yes, exactly the same.

That is not quite correct. I used the blue bus at the port May 2022, and they drop off/pick up from a parking lot/loop about two blocks/500-800ft from the visitor center. It's a flat walk from the lot to the base of the visitor center. Also ship excursions don't always allow you to spend as much time at the park to be able to hike to the falls. I've done both and will never take the ship offering again due to the time constraint. YMMV

I have two gift cards, one purchased from AARP, and one purchased directly from Princess. Both start with the same numbers. I don't know how a travel agent would be able to tell the difference. It's not like the lead numbers are different like an amex vs. a visa card would be. And now I see your followup comment @Ken the cruiser. I think the above mentioned agent is just being difficult. YMMV

Whelp, that's sad news. 😞 I was waiting for payday to buy this month's allotment. Hope they come back at some point.

I would like to know the specifics of this. I have sailed with a friend who also own stock, and it has always been one shareholder benefit per room. I wonder what key words, or other info is needed to result in both shareholders getting OBC.

I was going to comment about the logistics, too. You are correct, you really can't do both in one day.

Yeah, Delta is the outlier at FLL. Showed up early after a cruise, wanting to enjoy the lounge, only to be told couldn't check in early. We went back and forth with customer service, etc, and it all boils down to lack of space to store baggage. It seems that things haven't changed in the 5-10yrs since this happened to us. With all the cruise traffic, you'd think they would do something about that baggage storage issue. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks for the info. I've been looking on various sites to see how the sizing is. Many brands do not go up to the size I would need, tall torso, and curvy girl size. I am not sure they will have many meeting those sizing needs. But when I decide on a tour, I will email them to ask about it.

I've got a cruise booked for late Oct - Nov, and have been reading about Stinger Season. I am quite bummed about that, and wonder if there is anyway to still snorkel. Or maybe I should just settle for a glass bottom boat excursion, and plan for another time at the GBR.

If you will be visiting Auckland, I highly recommend the WETA Unleashed experience. Loads of displays and info about their special effects/makeup/props in the huge walk through space.

Where exactly on the Daydream Island site can you book a day trip? I spent way too much time on their site, and couldn't find that option.

Update: I called in this morning and got a super helpful agent. He eventually transferred me directly to the Loyalty dept. Before the transfer I asked about direct numbers to various depts. He said that those had been done away with. (Which should surprise exactly no one here at CC. LOL!). The Loyalty agent was stellar. She truly tried to figure out what happened/why I had another Capts Circle number, which suddenly started after Oct 2021. She mentioned that she had one last thing to try, to restore my old number, and would call back if it was successful. Restoring the old number may not be possible but none of my cruise history is gone, so it may be moot. It would just be nice to have my original number back as it matches the rest of my family. YMMV Thanks for the previous replies about the correct Princess phone numbers, etc. It truly was a case of HUACA (hang up and call again) to get a knowledgeable agent.

Yes, I dialed the 800 Princess number. While Google is not the end all for searching things, it was weird that a search didn't turn up anything related to Princess. I'll try again later with the 800 Princess number. For reference she gave me 800 -130 - XXXX. That's quite an odd number to start with. YMMV You are correct, I misspoke calling it Captains Club and not Captains Circle. I will try again tomorrow. Perhaps I will get someone who can properly transfer me to the correct number to fix the loyalty number.

I book a few cruises a year, (yes, I am aware this is CC, and people here book many cruises, and often. LOL!) and just noticed I somehow have gotten a second Captains Club loyalty number. Somewhere between a cruise I booked in 2021, and a few months afterwards a new loyalty number has been attached to me. I do want to get this fixed at some point. Both show the same loyalty level on my booking emails, so I'm wondering what happened. Is there a dedicated Captains Club phone number? I just need someone who can look at what happened, and give back my original loyalty number. Meanwhile, I just got off of the strangest phone call with Princess. I called the listed 800 phone number on the Princess site to ask about fixing this loyalty number issue. The agent was unable to help, but suggested I call an 800 number that she provided. It did not sound like a US number, so I googled it. It was a Russian phone number. Wait, what? I questioned the location of the number she gave, which then caused her to give me another 800 number that appeared to be somewhere in SE Asia. I do understand that outsourcing is a thing, but this seemed really odd. Any insight about this?

I know this thread is about the Premier Package but I have semi-related question: Do we know if they converted previously booked "Princess Plus" bookings to the new packages? Nowhere in the app does it show the desserts, drinks up to $15, or the exercise classes. Mine shows only up to $12 drinks.

You would have to use the website "check your gift card balance" to see which card it was refunded to. It is a step that isn't too hard to do.

Though they will add that pesky 18% gratuity onto that price if you don't have the drink package. So the cafe latte is really $4.13. Still not that much compared to Starbucks. YMMV

WETA Workshop is the company that does special effects, costumes, prosthetics, etc for a variety of movies. They were the main company that worked on the Lord of the Rings movies. The company chose the name WETA after a rather large strange looking native to NZ bug.