Steelers36

I agree and wish could hear more of the music you mention.

I always book segments unless the price difference would be significant ( and I don't see that anymore). More flexibility on price drops and booking EZ-Air for separate price-watching. It doesn't matter if a guest books a logical 21-night voyage or three physical 7-night voyages. Get same 3 cruise credits and same 21 nights.

Perhaps to kill time since they had a day and a half to get there? (IDK the direct sailing time between the two ports).

Good point, but with the change to a self-test, it could be requested within X hours of noon on sail date with 0.25hrs < X < 24hrs? I am realizing there is no perfect answer here. One could possibly be negative the afternoon/evening before and then positive and be honest player. So, either forget the test or you run the quick test on everyone as they check-in, slowing down the boarding process. Probably the only way it makes sense to continue on?

Yes, but when someone is ill with something else like noro, they are expected to remain in cabin until well. I believe I have read where they do a deep cleaning after a noro case in a cabin (I know sometimes the entire ship is deep-cleaned, but I digress). I think the only change is does the guest isolate in own cabin or do the cruise lines continue to maintain a block of cabins just for potential cases (which may be more than enough or not enough - hard to guess the number I imagine). I also realize if one person in the typical couple occupying a stateroom is ill and the other is negative, the couple themselves might prefer to be apart for a few days. Perhaps a blend? Cruise line blocks off less rooms and positive cases have their choice of own cabin or an isolation cabin?

You do not need to follow a thread to receive an email notification that someone has replied to your post. I never follow any posts (perhaps a rare exception of a Roll Call) and yet I receive the emails. Also, anytime you are logged in to Cruise Critic website, you are alerted to any post replies or reactions to your posts or to any mentions in other posts (as long as the proper "@" symbol format is used. ETA: It's been so long that I looked at my settings, I forgot all of the options and flexibility. So, notifications/alerts on the CC website as well as email notices could all be turned off. Didn't realize CC alerts for posts could be turned off. It could be the OP turned all that stuff off after joining. Perhaps they don't care what anyone else here has to say or ask.

Hopefully this latest step back for cruise lines is the second last one and won't be all that long before the final step to normalcy occurs.

No. A telephone call pages them. We try to avoid bothering them in their off-hours though. On the pillows, just ask him/her when you meet them on embarkation day for the extras.

HUH?? The CB does not do WC"s. Only Coral & Island.

Perhaps not. The ones that come from a Princess promotion are loaded up and recognized by DineMyWay in the MC App (this seems to be mostly fixed now, but not necessarily for all). Not sure that a TA gift is included in that since those sort of items do not post to your stateroom account until embarkation day. Yes, I am pretty sure that is the reason. You can wait until on-board to book. Or, if book now, you can ask the front desk (PSD) to apply a credit to your account (but bring proof of advance res and pre-payment. No 100% guarantee this option works.

I'm liking this one. Do an un-proctored self-test. Easy-peasy. But it might not be a bad idea if the cruise lines backed it up with random selection of guests for an antigen test just to make sure folks are being honest when they say they did a test.

A day to pause and reflect before it's all over. Enjoy the sea day. I appreciated having a preview of our voyages to come in October (actually 25 nights then).

Well done is all I can say. You are the first I have seen to be getting anything more than 15% of the Commissionable fare (discounts are always calculated off that fare as agents subtract the Non-Comm portion from the base fare and that amount is most often $25/day). (In fact no one else has ever indicated getting as much as 15% with Princess that I have read). BTW, I presume when you are doing a mock booking, you are logged in to Princess.com. Otherwise, you won't be seeing the correct fare for you as a Princess customer.

I wish they had a ROFL emoji to pick for your post.

Looking at the post I responded to, there is no way the numbers are correct because the implied discount is way beyond anything possible/reasonable. Doesn't pass the smell test without more details.

Well, it's news to me, but you are putting a stamp on it here for sure. This is the list price ($779) and not net of discount or OBC? I have no idea which site you refer to. I tried one biggie and saw same price as Princess. You are on a public webpage and not the agency "hidden" booking engine for customers? Anyway, I believe what you saw, but if there is a rule, there is always an exception. AFAIK, TA's are not allowed to publicly advertise lower fares than PCL. That said, they can sell at lower fares via discounts, OBC, gifts, etc.

I understand where you are coming from but, even with a TA booking, you may want/need to get in touch with Princess for some things other than the basic cruise booking and faring and cabin selection. I do use an independent TA that gives generous cruise fare discounts. If I was going to book with Princess, it is clear from many posts I have read in various threads, that the way to do that is to get a good CVP since they are easier to reach (directly). Guests can get one assigned but, much like 3rd party TA's, there are good ones and not so good ones, so s person may not strike gold on the first attachment.

Reading these troubles on the CB reminds me back pre-Covid of similar complaints about Grand (AP).

ETA: Incorporated update RUBY information.

IMO, all of the Royal Class ships have very limited shade - unless you are well back from the window area. If you have tried it out on any of the other ships, you probably know what I mean. The best ships for shade are the Grand/Crown Class IMO.

You will not be excluded from participating in formal night dining in the dining rooms. Should the unthinkable happen, heaven forbid.

And nobody seems to know for certain if it is 72 hrs based on a theoretical and uncertain check-in time, or the ship departure time. Having it based on the latter isn't all that convenient since vast majority arrive and are on-board well before the departure time.

It is obvious there is no real-time validation to a bank or credit-card database.

It seems they just delete obnoxious posts. Also, this thread may as well be locked as what there is to say about PCL's response to the CDC change has been said and the PCL initial response posted. Until PCL publishes an update, there is nothing to discuss other than endless speculation. So, that naturally devolves into discussions of testing pros & cons.

Didn't mean to confuse. We connect at CDG on way to FCO. LHR is our cnxn home.