Astro Flyer

I was a V-2 Div green shirt Airdale hooking up aircraft to Midway’s starboard cat…it was an interesting experience.

For anyone who served in the Navy this distinction was pounded into our brains starting in boot camp…it was like fingernails on the chalkboard to refer to an aircraft carrier as a boat. 🤪 Growing up with the Love Boat that works for me but it’s still a ship. ☺️ Any cruise buddy who wants to mess with me calls it a boat just to see me cringe. 😳

Based on this photo I took in Genoa, Pacific Princess might fit on the Sky Princess’ Lido deck. ☺️

There is no room service charge for any type of cabin although some items such as pizza ($3) and ordering specialty restaurant items do have a fee.

Thanks…since I wasn’t making a Deposit when booking & only a Hold don’t recall if it was possible to use an FCD when booking the cruise. Like you on the next day using an FCD as a Deposit was not an option (charge, PayPal, gift card) which is crazy and wastes their time & mine. Appreciate learning about your positive Chat experience which I would try if ever in that situation again.

Looking at a screenshot I took of my 4/4/23 Hold it stated payment was due on 4/7…3 days or 72+ hours which is basically your experience. 🙂 Our deposit was due on Good Friday & didn’t want to risk it by waiting that long hoping the transfer to my TA would be made before deposit was due. As it turned out the transfer was made on the same day the deposit was due however I wasn’t willing to risk losing our bucket list cruise.

Theresa, I had that situation last week & it has changed. On the Elite level one day early booking we saw our bucket list Around Australia cruise that was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. I check cabin availability before contacting my TA & since cabins were rapidly being booked made a 3 day Hold before contacting her. Unfortunately she could not take over our Hold even though no deposit had been made. I immediately submitted the Reservation Transfer Request Form that Thrak shared which Princess said takes 3-7 days to process. That risked losing our very popular 2025 cruise so on the next day called Princess because their website stupidly cannot use an FCD as a deposit…only by charge, PayPal or gift card. The Filipino service rep was very pleasant however her English was bad & she didn’t understand that I wanted to use an FCD & kept asking about using an FCC. I cannot blame her that Princess hires these offshore call center reps who are not properly trained & have limited English skills. After 20 minutes she finally completed this simple task of using an FCD instead of the $400/pp deposit shown in our Hold. A couple of days later our booking was transferred to our TA well within their 60 day requirement. Just another example of Princess wasting staff & customers time by not having the online option to make a deposit using an FCD. I was able to do that years ago but it’s no longer an online option when directly booking…crazy! 🙄

Here’s their SOBC request form that has not been updated in several years but does provide the basic requirements & as Thrak posted using the form is not required & only submitting the required info including the proof of owning 100 shares. Since requiring advance payment for booking tours several years ago, I have been able to immediately apply even years in advance. That allows shareholders to use SOBC as payment as soon as they are available. Based on my experience last week in North America they do not enforce the share’s statement to be within 3 months of sailing. Also being a simple credit to onboard accounts from which all onboard spending is deducted it is usable for the casino & gratuities. I use the email address that ‘Mark+Anne’ posted to quickly get my SOBC added: sbpcl@princesscruises.com Shareholder Benefit Request Form.pdf

Fortunately in North America they still immediately apply SOBC after booking a cruise & the procedure should be standardized worldwide. Last week we booked the very popular Around Australia cruise (mostly only Guarantees now) in March 2025 & our SOBC was added within hours of applying for the benefit.

This CC article has more details than I’ve read about the 360 Experience. A Taste of Princess Cruises' 360: An Outstanding Experience…3/13/23 https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=7302

He was silly but enjoyed his webinars more than his replacement Carmen Roig who is too grating to me. When Princess announced he’d be the new brand champion thought his roll might be like Carnival’s John Heald which never happened. John was a 29 year Princess employee whose dad was the last captain of the battleship USS Missouri which is now docked in Pearl Harbor.

Like when they replaced Sabatini’s with Share which also flopped like Bistro Sur La Mer.

Thanks & did notice the O Life OBC shows in USD but wanted to confirm onboard currency. We’re also considering Princess who states they’re required to use AUD when sailing within Australia (around Oz cruise). They state that is why OBC is in AUD which I am skeptical about them being truthful & I suspect it’s due to the poor AUD exchange rate. We are entitled to receive a $750 OBC which by making it A$750 reduces our OBC by a third due to the exchange rate to only $500. Appreciate your input as we research O & PCL for our final bucket list cruise around Australia.

Does anyone know the type of currency used for onboard spending on Oceania cruises within Australia…USD or AUD?

There wouldn’t be confusion if Princess explained how tips worked for passengers arriving from the US. Thanks to ‘sayaguru’ we know that tips are added onboard but we still do not know the amount. Is it A$16/pp/day or will it be the equivalent to US $16 which be A$24 at the current exchange rate. I suspect it will be the later which in effect reduces the value of our OBC by a third.

Since you’re in AU that screenshot would be from the Princess AU site about tips being included in the fare for cruises within Australia. It can be difficult to get a definitive answer from their reps & I’ll continue to research their policy including having our TA checking with her Princess sales rep.

Great research to locate such a “fine print” statement…thank you very much for that statement. Since you’re also in the US assuming that statement was from the Princess US site & not from on their AU site. Although when viewing our Cruise Personalizer there is the option to pre-pay crew appreciation at US $16/pp/day which we never pay in advance. Hopefully our TA can get her Princess sales rep to explain these conflicting statements. With 23 months before boarding we have plenty of time to receive a definitive answer from Princess.

Princess offers the Hyatt Regency Brisbane (2021 renovated Lennons Hotel) to passengers located on the Queen Street Mall in the CBD. Booking direct the rate is about A$300 per night which is less expensive than through Princess. It’s a short walk to South Bank and parks & gardens. We just booked the Around Australia cruise 23 months from now so we have plenty of time to research all of the ports & a couple of days pre-cruise in Brisbane after flying from LAX. During a 2009 pre-cruise 3 night stay in Sydney the Princess package included a city tour & to the Blue Mountain area. Thanks for the recommendations for our first visit to Brisbane & will continue to follow this thread to gain more insights about Brisbane.

Thanks for the update to $16…earlier today when I checked the US Princess website it still showed as US $14.50 but that’s not the first time they’ve been slow to update their website.

Thanks Aus Traveller…this will be our second attempt at the Princess Around Australia itinerary after the pandemic cancelled our first attempt & we have a lot of research to do on the ports. Our only other time in Australia was in 2009 sailing from Sydney to LA & we had a few days pre-cruise to do some touring around the Sydney area. We booked our future cruise roundtrip Brisbane because it was 1/3 cheaper than from Sydney which had more cabins allotted to boarding there. The savings should pay for our airfare & will also arrive in Brisbane early to explore some of that area…and to recover from the long flight Downunder in steerage class.

Thanks OzKiwiJJ for sharing that helpful info. There is an option to prepay tips however it’s US $16/pp/day for our OV cabin which currently is US $14.50. Hopefully our TA can clarify how much our tips will be in AUD. Neither their Plus nor Premier packages are close to being cost effective for our style of cruising.

We just booked a future Princess cruise from the US (paid in USD) that circumnavigates Australia & our US $750 of onboard credits are now in AUD. Our travel agent communicated with her Princess sales rep & was told that sailing around Australia all onboard spending is in AUD. Since our normal US $750 will be changed to A$750 our purchasing power is reduced by 1/3 due to the current exchange rate…A$1 is US $0.67. Does anyone know if AUD prices onboard are the same as in USD? Wonder if US $14.50 tips are the same amount in AUD although that might be unknown because as I recall booking cruises in Australia includes tips, is that correct? If prices are not the same then our OBC purchasing power is devalued from US $750 to only US $500. It’s too early to price tours to book in advance which are in AUD however all other advance purchases are in USD. When cruising to other locations around the world all onboard spending on Princess has been in USD. However based on the information provided by Princess our Australian cruise will have purchases in AUD. If anyone has any insights to share we’d greatly appreciate any information to learn what we can expect during our Australia cruise...thanks. 🙂

What time zone? If Eastern guess that would be 9:01 Pacific?

Thanks…we’re also at the Elite level so we’re also eligible to immediately make DMW reservations when booking a cruise.

That’s encouraging however I’m still having problems with my DMW reservations. Yesterday I booked a 2025 cruise (28 days) & used the app’s option to make the same nightly reservation. Day one was correct but the other 27 days were wrong so I had to manually edit each night. That’s a step backwards from our most recent Princess cruise a year ago which correctly reserved the same location, time & table size although once onboard all of them were changed & unable to have them restored. When cruising Celebrity for the first time in December their app was troublefree including our nightly standing dinner reservations.