Cafabi

More great insider tips. Thanks!

@Torfamm and @tillys mom thanks for the recommendations.

So glad that worked out! Yes, if you see something you want, grab it, because the prices do go up and they can sell out.

Good to know--all great info, thanks! I will definitely keep checking. If I do get hold of tickets, should I buy the train ticket ahead of time? I had not even considered trying to get a tour out of Genoa. I'm finding it difficult enough to find one out of Milan. But mainly I think it would be too cost prohibitive and just unnecessary.

Thanks for the detailed instructions. The problem right now is ticket availability during peak season. Hopefully I can score some and get to apply the rest of your info.

I will try this. Thanks for the tip.

On the contrary. Giving an example.

I forgot to mention that when I called Princess, the agent acted like she didn't see what the problem was (canceled bucket list excursion + not telling me) because they refunded me.

Thanks. I have been searching high and low all afternoon. The different sites start out looking promising, but once I put in the number of people (3) and date (June 6), everything evaporates. Waiting to hear back from one tour company that might be sitting on some tickets.

Yes, doing that now. No workable times so far and transportation is an issue. Can I trust the train?

I am starting to come down off my initial shock and disappointment but still not thinking rationally enough to rule out snapping up whatever overpriced tour I can find and riding the train. We do independent tours all the time, but that would be a bit outside my comfort zone. I will talk it over with the fam and weigh that against trying to charm the shore excursion people upon embarkation. Thanks to those who offered suggestions and sympathy. It helps!

This is our first time cruising since Covid and was supposed to be my son's dream vacation to celebrate graduation. They have already changed 2 ports on us and now this. First world problems for sure, but I've never had this much trouble on any of our many previous cruises, and it hasn't even left yet. I am definitely getting a "too bad, so sad" vibe from Princess.

All they could offer was "I apologize" for the cancelation and the lack of notification. They suggested checking on board, but if the waitlist is full, I'm not optimistic about that. On hold with the TA now. If that doesn't work out, I will look for something independent. It is annoying that there are 2 excursions and the other one did not get canceled but mine did.

I had an excursion through Princess from Genoa to see the Last Supper in Milan. My son is an art history nerd and this was to be the highlight of the trip. There was free time included and so I booked independent tickets to the Duomo. While going over my credit card statement this morning, I saw that Princess canceled this excursion 3 weeks ago, and didn’t even notify me. Even if I were brave enough to attempt this on our own, the Last Supper tickets have been sold out for weeks. Any suggestions on how to make this happen? We will be there June 6.

I booked an excursion out of Genoa months ago to Milan to see the Last Supper. My son is an art history nerd and this was to be the highlight of the trip. There was free time included and so I booked independent tickets to the Duomo. While going over my credit card statement this morning, I saw that Princess canceled this excursion 3 weeks ago, and didn’t even notify me. Even if I were brave enough to attempt this on our own, the Last Supper tickets have been sold out for weeks. There is one other Last Supper excursion, but it is sold out (not even taking waitlist requests). Is it normal to not notify the passenger when an excursion is canceled? This happened once before, but it was due to a canceled port. Any suggestions on how to get hold of an actual person who can help?

Wow thanks for the explanation.

It was a 10 day, and I thought I had the right amount at the time but this discovery had me second guessing that. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "The Circle savings amount stays there?" Is it like a placeholder? The fact that it had a credit ID# and expiration date made it seem otherwise.

👍Thanks. OK starting to make a little more sense. Any idea why the $50 was not applied to my onboard charges (crew appreciation, etc.) on my last cruise?

Thanks for the info. I have different OBC showing up in different places. The $50 is in Circle Savings and some more (from TA, shareholder, and current military) is in my cruise personalizer under payments. I am trying to figure out 1. how to move the $50 over with the rest and 2. why the $50 wasn't applied on my last cruise with Princess in 2019. I emailed the military benefit people 2 days ago but haven't heard back.

OK thanks.

When I log into my Captain's Circle account, it shows some unused military credit under the heading "Onboard Credits." (I had to crop that part off because of personal info). But this is not listed on my cruise personalizer with my other OBC under "Payments and Credits." Why is this Captain's Circle credit being treated differently? I have cruised since then, and it was not applied to my account.

OK so I went and looked again and realized that 1. This was on Reddit and not CC like I thought. and 2. Although Barcelona was mentioned in the thread (this is how it turned up in my search) the comments may have been about ports in general and not Barcelona in particular. Thanks everyone for setting me straight. I am happy to learn this information.

@alserrodOK thanks for your expert local advice. I will try to give off a "no somos turistas tontos" vibe and see what happens.

Hmm. I have read several posts on other threads about the workers aggressively soliciting tips. Apparently Virgin Voyages has a "tips included" policy that their passengers believed applied to the dock workers. But it does not cover them not as they are not VV employees, and the workers were rude about it.

How much should I tip? We will have 3 large suitcases.