Steelers36

I'd recommend something like WHATSAPP for messaging (not an Apple user). No interest in the old Princess messaging as there is no notification. PITA to keep checking if you have a message. We can also use WHATSAPP to make voice calls for free and actually talk live if we want. How novel is that?

If the web version has all your info as expected, I'd just sit tight for a day or so as they may have some kind of issue that will be resolved.

Yup, but we have a FL address now and before that, I could use my brother's if necessary.

This is the PCL T&C on cards and not AARP. It's NP for me to buy PCL gift cards - I would only do the virtual cards anyway and I always book our cruises in USD with my US-based online TA (with super discount!!). As for AARP, we have a FL address now (plus my brother lives in MD), so having a US presence is not an issue for me. I have bought many PCL gift cards before, but would have purchased another 2/3 on the "usual" Valentines or Mothers Day specials, but neither offer ran this year. No doubt, PCL cannot afford to give away more bonus money. I might try AARP Reward thing now if I can get one quickly as our final FP Date is approaching soon. Thanks.

I was happy to read the happy ending. Hopefully, you have now decided to fly to the port the day prior to your cruise in order to remove the "same-day" stress. Still the same great airfares from EZ-Air. Especially in these times of turmoil in the airline world. Hope your trip home went without issue.

From what I see in linking to the website, one has to join up in order to see the Rewards and attempt to purchase them. I am not sure if have to pay the annual AARP member fee (I do not particularly want to join them) in order to order rewards.

I am sure it is quite random. I have read most/all of @Ken the cruiser's protocols. I never wear a mask and no Covid here. (Vaccinated with Pfixer 3x, but last one was early Dec). Even so, we will be doing a 4th shot in August so we are good for the Europe 270 day rule.

Just checked the Patter and saw "Dress to Impress" (which I have been aware of). Just wondering if they have re-labelled all Formal Nights this way, or did they name one "Formal" and one D-T-I each week? Thanks.

Look, first I have no issue with guests who prefer to go with Princess. But I do not at all agree with your characterization of doing a local tour (more correctly, a private tour). Sure, I have seen low-cost tours posted by others, but most of us booking our own tours are looking for a small-group QUALITY experience and we may pay the same or less than PCL charges, but we get a better experience, seeing more and having more attention from a guide than with a group of 25/30/40 guests. Yes, touring is worth it to see and learn more. But it is certainly not necessary to do it with Princess in order to have a quality experience.

He'll probably be on a leave by October. Sads.....

Oh - oh --- getting closer. We are in a mid-ship Inside Starboard on Regal. Not liking seeing Q cabins on same deck (I had read mostly Dolphin in the past for these ships. Although they are welcome to move us to a Suite. Ha, Ha.

Well done, @PacnGoNow, good advice to redo passwords. This is something I didn't see earlier today, and I did go and check our data, including logging in as my wife, and nothing was offside. Either resolved or a random issue. Glad to read others above found corrections by resetting accounts. IDK what PCL is doing sometimes. Perhaps they were putting in a fix for the data integrity issues they have had from the get-go between POLAR and MC App. I can see how MC App is not going to be working if profiles are mixed up and names do not match. It seems that they have managed to encounter just about any error one can imagine on that OCEAN team. Sometimes I worry as we have managed not to have data integrity issues and other quirks - just the general bugs of which some still exist. Worry? Yeah, that about a week before our voyages, all the data will go pffft, and our DWM res will be gone, etc. LOL.

On further thought, Crew Incentive was not a good idea - must have been a brain-f*rt as I seem to recall I thought it was an odd change when it first came out.

I agree whole-heartedly with both of you. What was I thinking???

The ink had hardly dried on the new name for Gratuities - Crew Incentive - before they changed it to Crew Appreciation. I think they had it better with Crew Incentive, but perhaps they thought that was "too Corporate" sounding. Whatever they call it, I just hope guests believe it is something earned and deserved and don't opt out.

Sorry, but it was done before Covid-19 struck.

I see what you are getting at. I was thinking it didn't work at all as the OP reported. But if you can create a DP of 14, using the Travel Companions feature to add all the bookings, then I agree with you to do it that way (nothing to lose I suppose). Now, what you don't know is when a booking is made for 14 people, and you get back that you will be at SPLIT tables, there is zero guarantee that will be an 8-top and a 6-top. The System could have split you up into five 2-tops and a 4-top. Not only that, I believe there would be not guarantee of proximity to the separate tables. Unless someone is intervening and reviewing the bookings just before the cruise date and juggling the tables to get folks who booked together sitting together. Did you find the DMW system setup you up rather perfectly like this (8+6 in same location), or did you speak to the DRO in order to get what you wanted? Yes, the App always looks at multiple legs as a single voyage. It's good in some ways, but not others. By having to enter each night separately, it most definitely kills any chance the System might assign you to same table location (same waiters as well with that) every night. Again, it will likely take an intervention by DR Mgmt to get you seated in the same section all nights. That said, it may be less important when changing from a party of 4 to a party of 14 to maintain the same location for the second leg. One move of table location at turnover day wouldn't be terrible, but nice-to-have for the four staying on to keep same waiters as they know your preferences and habits.

Anything can happen. We went to a theater show in Toronto where maybe close to half were wearing masks in the theater. There was plenty of laughing and cheers during the performance. It was about 2.5 hrs, not including time before the show started. No Covid for us. I always had trouble with a mask from the get-go and generally have not worn one since early July 2021 (other than medical & dental offices, or when forced to otherwise, but then usually for short periods of time). It just wouldn't work for us going on a long cruise voyage and having to wear them all the time indoors. We are glad to see it changing over to personal choice and hope any requirements are either gone altogether by Fall, or times to be worn are of short duration. That said, I don't generally go around coughing up a lung, so I don't see why I would do that in future if I was not well.

For a Port Everglades (PE) arrival at the end of a voyage, the large Royal Class ships generally post a 6:00am arrival and the smaller ships, a 7:00am arrival. That said the ships are there well ahead of those times and docked - unless something unusual happens. We have never been late getting back to PE at the end of a cruise. Always wake up and ship is docked. Same with our friends who have cruised out of there more often than we have (with multiple legs in/out of PE). Still, it could happen. Now, with the ships arriving and docked early, the clearance formalities are done very early as well. It is not like at a mid-cruise port where the ship arrives and docks at roughly the time in the itinerary (some captains get there a bit early) and then wait for clearance for a short while. At PE, they are ready to send people off very soon after the posted arrival time. So, it is about 15 mins to FLL by taxi (you aren't going to be walking it, right?). Do you have any priority access to security? If so, it's going to speed you along (but I don't see that as critical at all). I am guessing you have no priority to clear customs since you are from Australia. If departing the ship quite early, it may not be bad. We find CBP processes people through at a good pace and wouldn't be overly concerned there. In other words, I think you have plenty of time to disembark, grab a taxi to FLL, get your bags checked in ahead of deadline and get through security to the gate area. I wouldn't even rush off the ship at 6:30am for a 10:00am flight. But that's me and I know FLL. Are you eventually flying back to Perth? I am not sure why you wouldn't have booked EZ-Air. Anyway, one more point for you. Princess EZ-Air considers any flight from 10:00am onwards to be "legal". Therefore, you are good to go and don't worry about a very low percentage chance of a disaster.

Yes. And this was always the policy - even before the MC App and DMW. In fact, I think when SD bookings were in the old Cruise Personalizer, there was no way to apply a free SD credit from a booking promotion. You had to wait until on board. When it works, this new way in DMW is an improvement over the old system.

You are correct and I know this. Perhaps I took @Tweedy's post too literally when they mentioned "credits", thinking them to be dining credits. Most certainly, it has to be a SD credit/promo that the guest has in order to use it to pay for a SD reservation.

Well, that one definitely looks like a 4-top that they barely split apart to force two 2-tops. The most infamous proximity 2-tops are the ones they line up along a bench wall and can configure in different ways to suit demand. When all are 2's, it's cramped. I am glad we mostly sail with friends and get a stand-alone 4-top.

Although one might say that X took it a bit further with a "stick-out" section that can move up and down like an elevator.

So I read above. But it is generally true. Let's say this much. If your ship is making headway, then the bow is in that direction.

IDC if they don't have the cards, I can always write a note on a piece of paper and leave at the PSD addressed to the boss of that department. PS - I was speaking to our MD (now DRO, but he was a MD then) on our last voyage in 2019, and I mentioned our assistant waiter. As it turned out, we had also had him in Specialty Dining (the guy worked everywhere, including Sanctuary I think). Nicola had just joined the ship the week before and he already new this fellow was an up-and-comer. Yes, I told him he's a keeper for sure. Wish I could remember his name and it would be special to run into him again. So, the moral of the story is that a word to the top-dog can work as well. But it is indicative in less than two weeks, the MD knew all about this assistant waiter. I really doubt he was an assistant waiter for much longer. But then C-19 hit, so who knows?