jveevers

Anyone booked an "early bird" Australian cruise mid to late 2023, take note please.

I checked the pricing on the current " big balcony sale" and price was 10% less than what I paid in Sept 2023 for a 2025 cruise. Same category etc etc.

Call to my cruise planner @ Princess got me reduced to the current pricing. You would expect early bird pricing to be the best but wasn't. 

Just off Diamond. Wifi pretty rubbish as far as speed goes. They had unlimited for $199

Embarkation lunch in MDR on princess sailing Feb 8th... Very few people, plenty in Horizon Court though..

2 days off Princess. Got them on 2nd or 3rd day, came over the PA that we would be getting them.

You can't. There is no functional PM on Cruise Critic.

Ok thanks for that info.

Wanting to contact a "friend" here on CC... How do I PM them? Thanks

We all know that the Ship wont wait if you are late back at a Port.

But what do you do if you are stranded in one country and the next Port is a different country. You are there without anything especially a passport. A lot of the destinations do not have an embassy to assist. Just wondering, fingers crossed it never happens.

I am reading on Princess that Horizon Court Buffet reverts at Dinner time to a "Bistro Style Waiter service". How does this work, do you get table service or service at the various station locations?

I am reading on Princess that Horizon Court Buffet reverts at Dinner time to a "Bistro Style Waiter service". How does this work, do you get table service or service at the various station locations?

Looking at upcoming cruise on Diamond. The "Main " restaurant is split into four sections, Vivaldi, Santa Fe, Pacific Moon and Savoy. Horizon Court is the "Buffet". But what is the large "International Dining Room" shown on Deck 6 Aft? The Horizon Court appears to close at midnight, is there some place to eat after midnight apart from Room Service.

If it is AUD$56 per day per person, thats a good deal.

We are on a cruise out of Singapore and it is AUD$76 per day per person.

That includes grats.

Maybe the AUD$56 doesnt include grats, dunno, would not imagine that the drinks would be any cheaper being an Australian departing cruise.

Like some others, this is my first Princess cruise after 7 on Celebrity. Always get the Premium Package and from what I can see (correct me if wrong), the Celebrity Premium is slightly cheaper than Princess package. Celebrity has a limit of $13- per drink and that covers pretty well everything including more Exotic Cocktails. I have yet to take a look at the "evaluator" but note the limit with Princess is $10- which makes me ask about Cocktails. Are these all within the $10- maximum? Cheers

I have noticed that there are 4 "anytime" Dinner restaurants... Pacific moon, Santa Fe, Savoy and Vivaldi.... We have nominated "anytime dining"... Can you select each day which one you dine at or are you allocated one from day 1? Thanks

I booked a "club class" mini for 2017 and there were several perks which included no wait dining in a "club" area , Priority embarkation and disembarkation, priority specialty restaurant reservations, evening canapé's upon request , a disembarkation lounge, a different menu among other things...add in the sip and sail and a complimentary specialty restaurant and it seems to be nice . My first Princess voyage so looking forward to this .:D

I checked out the "sip and sail", appears to have either finished on July 5th or it is just for N. American cruisers, this is often the case with celebrity where people in other global regions miss out on the "specials". I would be interested to hear what my cruise is costing in the regions where "sip and sail" is available. February 8th - 19th Diamond Princess.

The Diamond Princess that we are booked on seems to be having an upgrade in a few months time and that is probably when the "club" situation commences.

Thanks all for more constructive comments. Just need to clarify a couple of things. Celebrity cruise is 10 nights @ $7000, Princess is 11 @ $7729 , therefore not getting the extra day for same cost...:cool:

The fee on Celebrity for room service after 11.00pm, is that a new fee as I have ordered room service many times late (last time February 2015) and never seen or paid a fee.

As said before we have booked the Princess and looking forward to it with an open mind and vowing not to try and compare at the time.

Thank you all for very worthwhile comments.

Have taken the plunge and booked Princess, mainly because this particular sailing has 5 new Ports for us. The Celebrity cruise that we considered went further North to Hong Kong and Ha Long Bay which in February can be very wet.

Booked the Mini Suite with full acknowledgement that it is not really a Suite and has no perks.

Nothing against Celebrity but after 6 cruises in 7 years with them, kinda bored with seeing the same layout and food. Am very excited to try something different.

:)

Thank you all. Very usefull comments. I notice that the mini Suite is quite a bit larger in area than a regular balcony. That area seems to be a middle section with a sofa and a section close to the balcony with table.

We have always cruised (except 1 ) with Celebrity. No specific negatives but have got a little bored with the same food and ships. The next cruise we are planing is a 10/11 night in Asia. Both cruise lines (Celebrity and Princess) have similar itinerary Singapore - Singapore. Celebrity in a Sky Suite costs out at $7000 includes grats, beverage Package and internet. That is a 10 night so equals $700 per night..... Princess in a Mini Suite costs out at $5466 but add on grats @ $413, Bev. package @ $1650 and internet @ $200- makes a total of $7729. That is 11 nights which is $701 per night. So you can see that pricing is pretty well the same. I am assuming that a Princess mini Suite is comparative to a celebrity sky suite, is someone able to confirm this please?

So what I would get with Celebrity is a dedicated restaurant for Suite guests. Does Princess have this? Both cruises have similar OBC included. So, do you think that I will be dissapointed by switching, is Princess as good as Celebrity, all things being equal.? Thank you ....:)

I had 2x $1000 certificates given due to noise issues we had on Equinox. I had a cruise booked so had them appled to the outstanding balance. Can only be applied towards the cruise cost component, not port fees, taxes, grats. As for the use by date, I doubt would be any flexibility on that.

Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk

The rate for US $25 in AUD is $32.40 which is a good rate. I have tried numerous times to buy online for Jan 31st cruise but keep getting told "unable to find reservation". Funny that, Celebrity has sent me boarding docs with exact same reservation detais that is unable to be found online. Have called Celebrity who say that must be a temporary glitch and to try again. Have tried dozens of times, now given up.

Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk

Just got ctuise documents for Jan 31st cruise. Still saying "formal nights". Hope this incorrect as hoping to trsvel lighter this time.

The continuing saga....I contacted X to find out why the credit had not been issued. (See posts 10 and 11 above). The agent told me she would go ahead and give me the credit even though I had "only" been quarantined for 23 hours, not 24, their minimum for credit. I said YOU/X sent me the letter providing the credit., and X called me and released me after 23 hours.

Then she said it would be prorated based on $1600 rather than the $2499 my booking invoice shows, but she couldn't discuss how she got to $1600 since I booked through an agent. I imagine it has to do with OBC.

So....I expect to get some credit, but the run-around from X is annoying. They had a great idea offering the credit --I assume only to those who self identified--but having to argue over every part makes it a sour experience.

Exactly my experience. Its what we call the "scream principal". That is, issue the letter, do nothing, wait until people "scream" and then act. Most people will not scream so they only have to payout on a minority. Will be interesting to see what amount of credit you get but it should be equal to one days cost of the cruise for the person/people quarantined per day quarantined. i.e. if you are quarantined for 3 days out of a 12 day cruise, you should get 3/12 of fare paid for that person.

We were on 13night cruise out of Istanbul on Equinox Sept 19th 2015. It was our 25th wedding anniversary, picked up the virus on the Monday and confined to cabin, . 5-6 days in total, we travelled alone so my wife would not leave me to visit any of the sites.Grilled chicken, baked potato & gatorade was the menu.

It was only with 4 days left of our cruise that we left the ship for 1st time since boarding to visit the port of Civitavecchia

 

They saved a fortune on drinks packages i'd say with the virus. I heard there was approx 65 cabins affected including ours.

 

Other guests didn't notify the medical centre on board when they contracted it which is unfair on their fellow guests, we spotted one lady with her Imodium packet at the poolside. Shame on them

The staff were super on board, all the additional work sanitising every door handle, elevator button etc etc. I hope they are rewarded accordingly by Celebrity

NPR, as mentioned my wife was quarantined for 1 day due to Noro, we asked for and received refund of Drink Package for that 1 day. We also received promise of a FCC to compensate and after much messing rpound we have received that.

Deck 5 definately, you can move around to change vantage points. There are times when they close Deck though, especially at Fueling times.

I have experience, not in CAD but in AUD... I bought 2 lots in February for an August cruise. I bought it on-line and didn"t actually receive anything to prove that i had purchased. After around a month the cost appeared on my Credit Card Account so I took a copy of that with me on the cruise, just in case I needed evidence as i was a little doubtful if the system would have done it properly. When i entered my cabin on the first day, there on the stand is an envelope with confirmation of my purchased OBC.

Note, if you dont use it all, you can cash it out at the casino for 5% commission or at Guest Relations for no cost. I cashed out 2 times, once with 4 days left and once on the final day. At one stage I was told by Guest Relations that i couldn't but when I asked another time I was told yes.