Steelers36

I just looked at itinerary and it aligns well with part of what we did last October. I would strongly state you are selling yourself short to simply expect to walk off ship and see things worthwhile, or be able to do the best things available. I would strongly suggest you find your Roll Call for these voyages and see what others are doing and perhaps join in with something. Here is my port-by-port take on it: ATHENS - You should arrive early anyway, but could do the Acropolis area, but also walk the neighborhoods like Plaka . Athens is a ways from the port, so I would say this is important and I would likely plan two days there. SANTORINI - A beautiful island that requires a tender and then a cable car ride to get to the top of the cliff and Fira town. But you really ought to see the island and AT LEAST get to Oia. We had a small group local guide and it was great. We saw a couple of beaches and had a nice lunch, etc. Wish I had more time for Oia. If you just want to go there on own, then get a taxi there and back. KOTOR - This is another tender/shuttle port and the town is in a gorgeous setting. You really want to see the sail-out at end of day. We had two stops there and one we had a small group guide to Perast and that was enjoyable. That said, once the tender drops you off at Kotor town, you can take in that town nicely without heading off elsewhere. You would really need a second port stop to make something of the extra trip. MESSINA - We had multiple stops in Messina. The town is small and the dock is about the most accessible place you could imagine. However, there isn't much in Messina at all. You have to get out to the countryside. You can visit Godfather towns, Mt Etna, or a real highlight is to get to Taormina. If you have only one stop there, get yourself to Taormina and you can walk the village from one end to the other and then return to the port. A small group tour would let you see more on the way, but your call. NAPLES - I think this is pretty universally thought of as a poor city to visit. You really need to get out of there and head to Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast, or a ferry trip and day in Capri. I just could not imagine staying in Naples and not doing one of those three things if never done any of them. I would have recommendations for both Amalfi Coast guide and Capri. BARCELONA - We have only been there once as a port stop/turnaround day like you will. We had tickets for the Sagrada Familia (quite the experience for sure) and we walked around part of the city. You need transportation from/to the port. GIBRALTOR - Not been, but you could read up on other CC member trip reports. MARSEILLES - Again, there is nothing of interest near/around the port. You need to get out into the countryside. Perfect chance to explore around parts of Provence and the Luberon. GENOA - Have been to Genoa on a land trip, but I don't recall us doing much in the city itself. Lots of history there no doubt. Don't have any recollection of specific recommendations. If you can get to Positano, that would be worthwhile. LIVORNO - You don't want to stay in this city. It's about 1.25 hrs to center of Florence (Duomo) and the museums nearby. So you do have 2.5 hrs at least road travel, but Florence is an amazing place. You just need to be careful how much you can fit in and book museum tickets ahead of time. Another option is the Cinque Terre villages, which we did last Fall with a small group tour. This really pays off because our guide was so good at timing things, we got to everything and timing with the ferries was great. Typically, driver drops you off in Riomaggiore and you travel by foot and ferry up to Monterosso, where driver picks you up again and returns to port. It is longer by road, but you can easily cover the villages in the day with a smart guide. Please don't sell this trip short by not exploring highlights and famous places.

Really? You enjoy having endless dress code discussions on here? I wish they could end.

You can ask a PCL rep about the insurance and a booking agent should be aware. As for the CC Member line, I believe you have to call in to the main number and either select an option from the phone tree choices, or ask a rep to transfer you to CC Member info line. On the back of my CC Member card (plastic credit card style), it only lists the regular Princess number and that card is quite old as it is my Platinum card and I never got a new one when became Elite - not that I have ever used it).

Thanks for the report. Glad to hear it worked well. Just a note that the Princess App has mostly worked quite well on board during a voyage, doing what it is supposed to do. It is clear they made efforts to have the on board experience work well. It may be less complex in a way. They certainly have added more on board features. The App's biggest failings are the pre-cruise experience with guest registration, getting Ocean Ready and making dining reservations.

I have seen this issue with friends last year. I won't be able to give you the specific reason, but there is something wrong with your data, such that there is some piece of bad/missing data, a mismatch between POLAR and Princess App, or perhaps your record indicates a small dollar amount owing by some oddity. It might require someone from the Princess App (OCEAN) IT team to go through your data field-by-field to find an anomaly. Basically, it doesn't think you qualify to be booked for dining. Are either of you Platinum or Elite CC Member Level?

Oh, I see. Well it is true that TA's are programmed to sell the packages. Princess Marketing hammers at the value in their seminars. I imagine a number of agencies either assume everyone will want one of the two or they are deliberately attempting to make the upsell and earn more commission, etc.

Don't understand your statement because Princess.com offers Standard, Plus, and Premium when shopping voyages. What voyage(s) were you looking at and not seeing a Standard fare quote?

@msmoger, based on Post #2 above, I would immediately login to the Cruise Personalizer and check the cabin number on the reservation.

No, a guest cannot re-fare their own booking. It requires direct access to POLAR by either a Princess rep, a Princess CVP, or a TA who knows how to use POLAR.

Yes, it is best if an agent handles it so that should not happen. Of course, that is a re-book situation and not a re-fare as I was corrected.

Stand corrected. I read that post too quickly for my own good. Thanks.

See my Post #13 above. The old pricing was such that the 4-device plan cost the same as 2x 1-device plans, so it was a no-brainer for a couple to order 1 4-device plan. Now, it needs 3 people sharing to make it worthwhile, per the pricing. You might be lucky and find that upgrading from 1-device to 4-devices may not cost you $25 (as it should since costs are supposed to be $15 and $40). If you can upgrade for anything <= $15, then do that instead.

The pricing on board is the same. No discount for pre-ordering. That said, it had been reported that guests were finding they could upgrade to the 4-device plan once on board for the OLD price difference and not the new difference. I have believed that to be a bug in the Princess App and I have no idea if it is still happening. I have posted two or three times in responding to questions if any CC member had experienced the 4-device upgrade pricing once on board in order to find out what the App is charging. For now, I would just wait until on board to order Medallion Net as no advantage to pre-order. I would also book a 1-device plan and then check the upgrade cost after to see if worth doing that or just ordering another 1-device plan for the cabinmate.

But the Hotspot workaround is only useful when the two parties are in proximity to each other. My wife and I and not quite joined at the hip when we are on a cruise.

Your theory about PCL IT not keeping up with current DNS values could be possible since we all know just how on top of things they are. Do you suppose there is a way to write them about the specific DNS for Comcast? Such as find out what it is now and let them know and ask if it matches what they have? Seems like a lot of folks on Comcast should be having same issue with PCL MedallionNet.

That is a special breakfast services for guests booked in Suites.

I have never had a problem with that. In theory, it could happen, but takes a few minutes for a cabin to re-appear. I believe the Princess reps have a way to hang onto a cabin in POLAR.

Still? I was going by my own experience and read here from various reports. There is never an absolute when it comes to Princess.

NP. Just making sure you noticed it.

They would at normal operating hours. However, the B2B'ers will be asked at least the day prior if they want to re-up for the next voyage. If you are not using it for full voyage, make sure you ask the Mgr when they are taking names for the next voyage and make it known to him/her what you are interested in. Priority selection is given to full-voyage bookers I believe.

In this case, it is pp. See @ceilidh1's post #59 on previous page.

But it would not surprise me in the least to learn that the App IT Team has not updated DMW with the new SD restaurants.

Perhaps a port stop is treated differently than a beginning/ending of a voyage? This was the case in some situations when there was a myriad of testing protocols a year ago.

There are a lot of people on the social media site to which I think you refer that don't know much at all, seem very naive and I wouldn't trust a lot of information there. I had joined/followed a couple of those forums and decided it was more a waste of time. Not saying all are the same, but that social media doesn't have as high a ratio of reliable posters as this site does IMO. ETA: Green Lane is the color representing everything completed correctly for pre-boarding preparation, while blue normally indicates something is missing. Not likely anything critical, unless your voyage requires some health survey info. In any case, you will check in normally and there aren't actual Green or Blue lanes/lines at the terminal.

Perhaps you are seeing the higher amount as it is in CAD which you likely booked your cruise in? On board costs are always USD, unless an Australia-based voyage. That said, if a guest uses their dining credit to go to Sabatini's, there is no remaining balance to use elsewhere (Sabi's costs less than CG, for example).