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I just wanted to follow up on this post and let everyone know how wonderful princess was in our situation. DH ended up having double bypass surgery and there is no way we can travel. As such, I cancelled the cruise and air in order to seek a full refund from our 3rd party travel Insurance. Travel insurance does not make it easy to file a claim, they want all kinds of paperwork and details. Of course, the paperwork provided by the casino department was not sufficient and I had made four attempts via email to get the right paperwork, but was either getting incomplete responses or no response. Of course the travel insurance co wants everything filed within a certain timeframe. Calling was not an option while DH was in hospital and when he first came home. Did not have that time to spend on hold. So. I emailed the customer relations director with a request to help me get the right paperwork. Well, princess handled this by calling me yesterday and telling me they were processing a full refund for the cruise costs and our airfare since we originally had booked flexible air. The only thing they could not refund was the air cancel fee, but they gave that to me as a fcc. The rep said, they did not want me to have to deal with the stress given my attention needs to be on helping DH. She also said as elite with all the cruises we had done, that was the least they could do to help. I was floored in a good way. All I can say is this has made me a princess cruiser for life. I am so appreciative.

Hi all. Any recent experience with getting a fcc under the cruise with confidence program? Our cruise does qualify for this. So, wondering how long it is currently taking for the fcc to show up on your account. I know in the past it was taking a long time, curious if they have gotten any faster. Thank you!

Yes, for sure. It will depend on what his cardiologist says and if he is willing to sign a can’t travel form. Right now it’s a wait and see situation. I am just trying to estimate what we would lose if the dr says he could travel, but he really is not feeling up to it or if we are both nervous about being overseas so quickly after. Right now, planning out alternatives is all I can control…..

This is a 12 day British isles, so that was the upgrade cost along with port fees, etc, so about 1500 a person. Much cheaper than the normal cost of the cabin.

Had you made final payment on the air and been ticketed? We are unfortunately. I have insurance through a non Princess site, but would be so much easier if we could just get the fcc and air refunded. Hubby is having heart surgery and a 10 hour flight to Europe only six weeks,later is probably not a good idea. Ty!

Due to some health issues, we may need to cancel an upcoming cruise. We have insurance, but I am curious as this was a free inside room casino cruise that we upgraded. So we paid about 3k for the cruise. Has anyone ever had to cancel a free casino cruise and gotten their upgrade fees back as a fcc through the cruise with confidence program?

Yep the chat people should be able to do it. I even tell them exactly how to do it. They won’t. They tell me it must be booked thru the casino. I have given up trying to get them to do it😀

@azbirdmom. I had to cancel thru text chat and will need to call in as the text chat does not know how to book a code casino cruise. I keep telling them it is a problem, but half the time they tell me it’s cause I have to call the casino line to do a discounted booking, which is not true.

Three times i have used the link from a players club email to book a 35 percent discounted cruise. The price shows correctly with the discount applied up thru final booking steps. When I get the email confirmation, the discount is gone and the price that shows is the non discounted price. This is not a free cruise, but a discount using casino code. Please check your attached receipt if booking online thru any links sent by the players club. My last cruise was an 850 dollar difference per person. Not kewl.

Yes. The casino dept is run by carnival Corp and will make their final payment to Princess about 15 days out from sailing even though you paid any upgrades, etc in full upfront. Do not attempt to add Princess airfare yourself to your booking. That results in your booking “breaking” and getting cancelled in the system. It has happened to multiple people. Instead, you need to call the casino department with what flights you want and they will reserve the flights and add them to your booking. They will want full payment for the flights when you book them even if they are flexible air. So, for us, unless the airfare is a screaming deal, we book our own air separately. Essentially, the casino department has to do something in the system to “protect” your booking so it does not cancel anytime a monetary type change is made. You can add excursions and do onboard purchases, but not change cabins, add airfare, or other things that could impact the core booking price.

Did you do self walk off? Thank you.

Yes, I had them ticket early to get my status perks with the airline and upgrade. I will call them prior to final payment as well.

So for those of you that this happened to, what happens to easy air flights? We already had them ticket the flights and pay the airline, will these flights cancel if our cruise gets cancelled by accident?

As of this morning, Princess has updated their faqs again for sailings from the uk. last week the faq stated they would only test those that had proof they got a test and the results did not come back. Today, it has changed back to prior wording. I do see that it also says the number of test are limited, which would scare me if they should run out. There are a couple local testing centers in Southampton if you are spending the night before the cruise and there is also the proctored online testing option. We are going to try that the night before our cruise. We recommend guests take a medically observed viral COVID-19 test (PCR or antigen) prior to leaving home to avoid queues and travel disruptions associated with a possible positive result on the day of embarkation. We understand that this may not be possible based on your travel plans. For fully vaccinated guests, we will be able to provide a limited number of antigen tests that meet our requirements, at or near the terminal. For those that wish to take advantage of this convenience, a fee of $60 USD per person will apply as a stateroom folio charge to cover our internal costs.

Thank you. In the USA second boosters are available now for anyone over 50. We have made our decision to wait though. Waiting also let’s our cruise time fall more into the immunity period that some studies show lasts for about a month after the booster shot is given.

I was referring to the faq sections for Europe and for uk cruises, the wording now appears to be pretty much the same with the May 11 update to the uk section.

We are cruising from uk, but the wording in the new update appears to be the same as eu now.

I agree, I think we will have to get the second booster before we go. Our cruise is in early sept, so going to wait till mid august, but allow the two weeks prior as we are trying to hold out in case a new booster comes out that is better on omicron.

Ty. Appreciate the response. I understand how it works with recent boosters. However, My booster will be over 270 days old when we sail. What if the booster is over 9 months old? The wording is not clear.

Looks like precruise testing options have changed for UK cruises on May 11. Says that port testing is only provided to those who have proof of testing two days prior and not getting the results. Testing timeframe has also changed to three days not two. With pcr required for people not fully vaccinated. I am having a hard time interpreting their definition of fully vaccinated. Our booster will be past the nine month timeframe when we sail, so are we considered fully vaccinated? Their wording is confusing. It says: A booster dose is required for guests twelve 12 years and older whose final dose of an approved/authorized COVID-19 vaccine is older than 9 months (270 days) so what is the final dose? Is the final dose our last booster or is it the original two shot series?

Yes, you can have any of the pizzas with gf crust. It is very good. Rest of the mains on the menu are not gf.

Who are they? Princess or the express test service that is at lhr? If th express test service, Do you know if you need an advanced appointment to get tested or can you walk up. I looked on line and it looks like you have to schedule and pay in advance. I would like to have lhr testing as a backup plan, but don’t want to pay in advance. Thanks.