bigenna

We cruised to Hawaii on the Star in April and really enjoyed our time aboard. Good beds, good food, and did not notice any glaring signs of neglect.

The last time we sailed on the Grand, that was another matter.

Too bad.

They are missing out on getting some new Canadian cruisers.

Our cabin has always been ready as soon as we board on all of our Princess cruises so far. I have heard occasionally they are not but never in our case.

As we cruise more and finding ways to increase OBC, we, like you, wondered how we would spend all that non refundable credit. Some good suggestions here already. I have also found some purchases in the boutiques on board and some of the better costume jewelry. My latest thing is getting skin care products and makeup.

I am not too concerned about comparing land and sea prices as I figure I got the money for free anyway, so just enjoy it.

You can only get OBC based on using one FCD per person per cruise, but there are other ways to get more OBC.

Hi, I see Tesoro offers a day pass , but they did not say how much. Do you know? And is the taxi $10.00 each way per person? About how long to get there?

It does look like a nice property. Barceló Karmina is beautiful but the day pass is over 50.00. Which still is not bad at all.

Thanks

Actually I just got off the phone with them today. I was told $25 per person for day use.

Also, she wanted to know which date and mentionned that they do fill up, but January is okay so far,

Hi, I see Tesoro offers a day pass , but they did not say how much. Do you know? And is the taxi $10.00 each way per person? About how long to get there?

It does look like a nice property. Barceló Karmina is beautiful but the day pass is over 50.00. Which still is not bad at all.

Thanks

Actually I just got off the phone with them today. I was told $25 per person for day use.

It is meant to be used only when you first book the cruise.

 

Some people has posted success having one applied later, but it might involve cancelling what was booked and rebooking under what every pricing and amenities apply at the time of rebooking.

I am guessing you are probably right. I will be purchasing some more FCD 's in January so I will wait and see.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first trip on Emerald last fall, transatlantic from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale.

No issues that we noticed.

Beautiful ship and great staff.

Last sentence I meant to say "only apply when used as initial deposit"

I booked 3 cruises on Cyber Monday. Actually, I paid the $1 deposit p/p for one of them. The other 2 are on hold until Thursday so I can think about it some more. I can still take advantage of the $1 deposit at that time.

I have seen mention that for some the $1 deposit is not important to them as they always use a FCD anyway, and I normally do as well. But this time I have slipped up and only have one so I plan to buy some more on my January cruise.

A question for you : if I apply a FCD at a later date (long before final payment) will I get the extra OBC for it? Or does it only apply when used as final deposit?

I certainly agree that it seems impossible to get the ac at night to stay consistently cool enough to provide a good night's sleep.

I will take the advice given here next time to ask for a top sheet.

But do you call in the middle of the night when you feel ac is not working properly? That has been our dilemma on past cruises - do we let someone in when we are in our night clothes? Or wait until the daytime, when we don't find it to be a problem?

As to URTI's, I make sure to wash, wash, wash hands often, use the gel before entering the buffet and again when I exit, knuckles for the elevator buttons, balance forearm when descending stairs for balance rather than using hands.

I wish it was company policy that the officers at the cocktail parties would not shake hands. After all the hands they have shaken by the time they get to me I won't partake of the appies that are served, but see many that do, spreading germs galore.

We have been lucky so far, only once my DH felt unwell for a few days and stayed confined to our stateroom.

On that cruise one of the servers at the IC was noticeably sick and it was after eating something from there that DH fell ill. I spoke to the server the next day, not mentioning DH, and he told me a number of staff had been visiting the doctor and getting medication. That made me uneasy seeing that they are still working when so obviously unwell.

So, OP, I agree that there are many chances to pick up illness when among crowds of people in a confined space. Wherever your travels take you, I hope that you are able to take some of the valuable advice given here to do what you can to protect yourselves.

As for the snarky comments, try not to let them bother you. I appreciate that your original post and in subsequent answers you remained polite and respectful.

I booked my upcoming cruise earlier this year and got free gratuities and upgrade to best category for price of lowest, and I think $100 p/p down.

I have watched for months through various sales and until recent "drop and go" I still paid about $200 less p/p.

Now it is down to about $50 p/p more than my fare but no free gratuities, etc.

Yes it does dock in San Pedro.

We will be on the same cruise in January. Hope you like Princess as we do.

We have tried Celebrity twice over our cruising years, so we obviously enjoyed it, but noticedthe last time it seemed to us that it is more focused on money making extras than Princess. IIRC For example, more bars/lounges without dance floors than Princess, where the only reason to go would be to drink.

We have done this for the last few years. We like to purchase some in each currency so we can later book in either USD or CAD.

We visit the consultant on board to make sure it gets done with the correct credit cards/exchange

Yes there is but also in inside, ocean view, and balcony cabins.

Had an overnight cruise recently on the Ruby with the new beds.

Without doubt the most comfortable bed and bedding ever!

Felt like sleeping on a cloud.

Lucky you, congrats!

I had the same worry before a recent cruise. I phoned the Big Box TA who assured me it would be in place even though not showing before sailing and it was. But I took a screen shot of my booking in case I had a problem onboard.

One thing I continually get a kick out of, after being home for some months - something tickling in my clothing, and voila! A Princess laundry tag taped into an inner seam of something I have not worn since being laundered on the cruise.

Usually about then when I start perusing the Princess website for a future cruise. Subliminal advertising, lol?

Yes, those Elite laundry/cleaning perks are questionable.

First few cruises after becoming Elite we later found tiny holes in several tshirts and pools and DH found frayed collars on his dress shirts.

Now the only things we sent to launder are socks, underwear, and the odd item that we do not place too much value on.

We mark a lot of our items as "clean" only and even then do not entrust anything fragile or very expensive. We have had no problems with that.

However on a transatlantic cruise with tons of Elites onboard, after waiting three days our clothing on hangers was full of creases.

I can't add a lot to this except to say that when we used Easyair last fall to fly to Barcelona it allowed us to book a week or so prior to the cruise so we were able to have a nice little holiday in Europe before boarding. Prices were cheaper than we could find on our own and we did not use Princess hotels as it was less expensive to do so.

Like others I continually looked for price reductions as I booked quite a few months out and did manage to refare a small amount. But the flight and connection times got worse and the prices got higher as the time got closer.

Not sure on the price, thought it was closer to $40?

I was worried trying a new hairdresser as I have fine hair but they did an excellent job for me.

Yes! Finally! Somebody gets it. The TD seats go unused. The TD dining room starts to look empty. And the people who show up at the ATD dining room are actually assigned to be there, either from the outset our because they made a change. This doesn't make the people who switch "crashers", "rule breakers", "cheats" or a scoundrels. Does this add to the wait time at the ATD MDRs? Yes. Does this result in the TD MDR being underused? Yes again. But it doesn't mean that: "I had to wait an hour in line at the ATD MDR because hundreds of people with TD were bucking the system and crashing my dining room."

Thank You!

Now that I have found Cruise Critic the last few years I "get it" too.

What some people on these boards sometimes don't think about is that, like myself when I was a newbie to cruising, not everyone understands how the whole, TD/ANYTIME dining system works. I was just thrilled to be on a cruise and did not micromanage every little nuance as how it was all put together.

That rude head waiter should have explained what was the problem (that Princess had given us misinformation about our assigned dining time) instead of just angrily sending us on our way. Heck, all we knew was that there were several dining rooms on the ship and for some reason our assigned one didn't want us there.

Another possible scenario regarding early TD diners "missing" their assigned dining time : they booked their cruise on line, picked from the available choices and chose 6 pm, and were confirmed for that time.

Fast forward to the first night on the cruise - showed up at six only to be told their table was gone - no explanation, just an annoyed look from the head waiter.

Next night, arrived ten minutes "early" at 5:50, only to be told angrily that you need to be on time if you want your assigned seating to be held. Ouch! Finally get told there is no 6 pm dining time - it is at 5:15 - check your card!

This happened to us earlier in our cruising days. We did not scrutinize every word on our cruise card and had no reason to believe that the dining time we had confirmed would be changed without someone advising us of this change.

Princess needs to take some responsibility for the inconsistencies in the way this whole dining issue is handled.

I have noticed that for the last year or so that lotion is unscented too.

On my recent Hawaii cruise I used the "lotion" in my elite amenities bag for a couple of days, commenting to my DH that it seemed a different texture than the other tube of lotion in the bathroom. When I finally compared the two, the one in the elite amenities bag was actually hair conditioner.

I have noticed that what is in those bags is anything but consistent.