bballmomma

Our June 2020 to Alaska was canceled by Princess in March. Called to complain a couple weeks ago, was told I was in que, had my claim escalated, deposit received in full today. I hadn't called previously, was just trying to be patient, but thinking my call might have moved things along. I could be wrong, but the timing suggests it may have. I also emailed several executives whose contact info was posted here but I didn't get any responses so I don't know that it helped any.

We had our June 2020 Alaska cruise canceled by Princess in March and were supposed to receive our deposit credit in 60 days. I finally called them 2 weeks ago and was told that I was "in que" but no info to offer. I complained a bit more and she told me she could "escalate it" so put me on hold and filed some sort of form on my behalf. I have heard of this process before in the other threads about cancellations so I wasn't holding out much hope. This morning I received the credit on my card. I don't know if my call kicked my case in gear or not but i am grateful to have my deposit returned. I hope others get results as well!

We did not pay in full before our cruise to Alaska in June was canceled, but did pay a deposit. When the latest rounds of cancellations came in, i went to fill out the form hoping to get some of our deposit back and the form said that we did not have to request it, that we would automatically get any deposit we made credited in 60 days to original form of payment. This may not be applicable in your situation, I just thought I would put it out there for others. From my calculations we would get our deposit credited around the time we were going to cruise this summer.

I booked myself and we had the sip n sail package for my DH and I hence the low deposit. I am not going to pay the final payment and will allow them to cancel me but it would be nice to receive the deposit back as FCC. I guess I should just be grateful not to have paid the $8k already.

Our final payment is due in a couple of days for our cruise from Whittier to Vancouver. We were lucky enough to have our final payment extended from 90 to 60 days so we could see how this situation played out. Obviously we are not going on this cruise that departs June 10th so I will not pay the balance due (cruise and airfare) and our reservation will be canceled. I am wondering about the $550 deposit we paid. Are we just losing that? It would make sense we would, except that this cruise is most assuredly not happening although I doubt that decision will be made before April 11th when our payments are due. I am very grateful not to have made final payment yet and not have to deal with getting that back but I am not excited about being out the deposit given the current circumstances. Anyone have info on how non-refundable deposits work at this point? Thank you.

I called this property and was told that they won't take reservations for next year until mid-August so I guess I will try back then. I will assume the other properties I see are operating in a similar manner. Great news that i have some time to decide, not running out of inventory all together already!

1 hour ago, AKStafford said:

Have you looked at the Chamber of Commerce page: http://www.denalichamber.com/denali-member-directory/

 

I had not looked at that page but in doing so I clicked on a property I was interested in, Denali Bluff, and it says has all dates outside of this summer as "unavailable" I had looked at the properties listed on the Alaska.org website as close to the park entrance and each of them showed nothing available on my dates. I called one of the Princess lodges and she said they thought they had opened those dates but to call an 800# to check availability. I was on hold for 20 minutes before I gave up.

DH and I are planning our Alaskan cruise in June 2020 from Whittier. We are planning 2 overnights in Denali area before our cruise and as I look at lodging, there are very few accommodations left at this point. I am only going online but when I go to one travel site to look at broad availability there are only 5-7 hotels/cabins that have availability. My question is do some properties not have reservations open at this time for early June next year or is everything really booked up this early? 

Thanks so much!

DH and I recently off Freedom and we commented how few kids there were. Most we saw were young kids with their families. Not many teenagers and pre-teens. Some yes, but way less than we have experienced on our other Caribbean cruises. We commented that our kids would have hated that cruise as teens because there was nobody to make friends with. We loved it.

2 minutes ago, pnsnkr said:

 

Does Freedom have Izumi Express?  If so, was it covered in UDP?

No Izumi Express.

We are recently off the Freedom and while we were in our hotel after our cruise waiting for our room, there was a group of people who were in contact with the port/cruiseline/ship discussing how their bag that was put outside their room was not waiting for them when they got off and they were trying to locate it. I do not know what ended up happening for them. It was not settled by the time our room was ready.

We enjoyed the unlimited dining package ($154/pp) on Freedom (Chops, Sabor, Giovannis) and would do it again . We do not enjoy the MDR. The only time we do MDR is if we are cruising as a group and want to eat dinner together. Otherwise we do not enjoy the experience. We also don't need  big variety of food so were happy to eat dinner at each place twice. We made all of our reservations for the week as soon as we boarded and didn't have a problem adjusting them later in the week as needed. 

Definitely. On our last cruise things were very casual. After a couple of nights DH moved to nice shorts and a collared shirt for our meals and we fit in fine. Going more casual is something we have moved to as we have cruised, just less to pack and we aren't dressy people. I wasn't impressed with the man next to us in his white cotton tank top but I guess everyone has their limits.

I have been watching an Alaska cruise for next June. The price went up $140 total today for the cabin we wanted but added the Sip and Sail so we booked it. The deposit also went down to $500 from $1100. That was my favorite part. It will be our first time sailing with Princess.

$18 for Nyquil on FOS recently. Was glad to have it. Shocked at the price!

We were at the Marriott recently and did not see any water activities on the beach. They have nice large pool areas with shaded lounge chairs. When we were there it was not crowded at all. They have little cabanas with shade at the beach. It is on the Atlantic side so not what I think of when I think of swimming beach. It didn't look rough but there are rocks not too far out and looked like it might have some tricky currents. We loved it there. We did a room for the day @ $125 and loved it. It was nice to have a room to escape back to during the heat of the day. Good food and drinks but pricey.

5 minutes ago, davekathy said:

But not on the Freedom. Unless you are talking about the reserved seating section in the theater or studio B for diamond plus, suites, key and pinnacle. 

 Yes I am talking about the Key.

Just now, CruiseMomTX said:

Thank you for the information!  I was wondering where you go to book, so it sounds like you can do it at chops or maybe the other restaurants or is there a special desk for this?  Did you book the room/day pass for the Marriott directly with the hotel?  How accessible is the resort?  We will have a wheelchair for my dad since he has mobility issues.  Thanks again!

We did them all at Chops. I am not sure if you can do them in any specialty restaurant or not. We were having lunch there so it was most convenient. We booked our "Room for the Day" directly with the hotel with a phone call. It was $150/day after rate and tax, etc. It seemed pretty accessible. There are big stairs you use to get down to the pool area and to the rooms but I believe I saw ramps as well. It is a very large, open, flat resort that I think would be accessible friendly. Our room was on first floor and was HUGE and very open, tile floors, jetted spa tub. You could definitely do the $35 day pass and save more money. You can get that by calling hotel as well. It gives you a food discount and use of everything but we really wanted a room to retreat to. I washed some clothes, went from AC to pool/beach and back. The pool has loungers that have covers on them so you are shaded.  I can't say enough good things about the place. We would do same thing again. I budgeted $30RT for the cab ride and that is what we spent. Maybe 10 minute ride, uneventful and safe.

On 6/4/2019 at 8:07 AM, umpisoccer said:

This question might have already been asked but do you have to pre book reservations to entertainment on the Freedom of the Seas ship? 

 You can't pre-book on Freedom but I don't know that you would need to. There was always plenty room available when we went to a show. I used reserved seats once for the Comedy show but would have been just fine finding our own seats.

We didn't experience any decline in the specialty restaurant food or service. Outside of our one poor experience in Chops on Formal night that is, but I think that was just a busy night, it happens. We found all the usual dishes we like at Sabor and the Sangia is so good. We were only going to Giovanni's once but it was so good we signed up for another evening. We really enjoyed the offerings.

We had no problem with the internet on the Freedom. We had whichever one came with The Key. We weren't able to upload lots of photos and it seemed like the further South we got, the slower the wifi was, but we were pleased with it. I was prepared to be disappointed based on the reviews but it worked great for us.

$154 on Freedom about a week before sail date. 

9 minutes ago, karena1 said:

Did you happen to notice how the bathrooms were?  Last time we were there, they were pretty bad.  

Yes used them several times there at the beach bar area and they were nice and clean. Granted this is part of the resort there so not sure if there are other public bathrooms that are more challenging. 

Just now, Canadian Disney Mom said:

Thanks for posting!  Do you recall who was performing in the pub and schooner?

DH and I didn't spend time at either place but there was a man with a guitar who would sing some nights in the Pub on the Promenade. We could hear him from our spot outside Vintages.  I don't know his name but he was there several evenings.

57 minutes ago, gometros said:

 

Am I missing something? Why did Hilton Honors get you benefits at a Marriott? Aren't they two different rewards programs?

No, I just misspoke. We received an upgraded room with our Marriott points. And its wasn't as if we used points, we just got an upgrade because we are members. If you were going to do this and do not have a Marriott loyalty number, get one before you go for free internet and upgrade opportunity.