MrBill64

28 days before departure our upgrade bid was accepted.  Island Princess world cruise from LA.  Went from an obstructed ocean view to a balcony for a bit over the minimum bid.  Ended up in a cabin next door to our traveling companions.  I'd like to think of this as Festivus Miracle!

34 minutes ago, shamrockace said:

We are going on the world cruise and I go to sleep early and get up early while hubby stays up watching tv and sleeps in unless we have an excursion.  While Princess is one of the best for tv programming, I'm still worried he will run out of things to watch.  Has anyone ever used a firestick or tried it and if so, did it work and how well?

Thank you

We will be on the Island the end of October before setting sail with you on the World Cruise and I am going to try and do this. I will use my cell phone, which will be connected to the ship's internet, as a hotspot. I will attempt to connect my fire stick to my phone and see what happens.  All depends on the internet speed.

4 minutes ago, paul28 said:

Can you take the minibar drinks with you at the end of the cruise?

Yes

I was able to get the OBC added to my 2023 WC yesterday. I used the email method and the OBC was credited the same day.  I don't think the date of your cruise matters.  For those that have cruises booked beyond July 2022, it might be worth emailing or faxing in the form.

Yes, I will cruise if vaccines are required and yes I will cruise if they are not required. I just want to cruise again.

My cruise price stayed the same, so I rebooked for the free box of chocolates promo. Took all of 5 minutes.  Not a monumental life changing promo, but I should be able to parlay that box of chocolates into a surprise gift for my better half 😉.

1 hour ago, Tak8 said:

In the past, when my cruise was cancelled I saw the regular FCC and bonus FCC money at the same time in my account.  

This is what I expected to occur but the only FCC that I can see is the bonus. I will give it a few days and see if my regular FCC shows up.

3 minutes ago, clarky213 said:

The FCC will only be for the cruise fare. Port taxes will be refunded. So the total FCC will be less than what you originally paid with your Credit Card.

Thanks for your reply. I understand I will only be receiving a FCC for the cruise fare paid but I was wondering if this amount should already be showing up in my account since I am showing the bonus FCC right now.

I had a couple 2021 cruises cancelled during the November pause announcement. This morning I saw that my bonus FCC's for each cancelled cruise are listed in my account.  Should the actual amount I paid on my credit card many months ago show up as an additional FCC at a later date or should I be seeing that amount now?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Bill  

Also included in the cancelled cruises, all Enchanted cruises through May 8th, 2021.

The interesting part that I took away from this post was that companies planning on filing chapter 11 stop paying their debts for 90 days. Could be a reason why refunds have not been paid.

This thread might be headed off the rails again. It's tough to discuss the future of cruising without factoring in Covid-19. But it's a shame that with a discussion of Covid-19 as it relates to cruising, that posts become political. I get enough of that on Facebook and Twitter 😀

I am hopeful this in not the end of cruising. I don't think it is. We have a deposit for a February Caribbean cruise that we are not cancelling, yet.  But I will need to see a few things from Princess before I make our final payment in November. I'm sure I'm not alone. 

Come November if there are still many threads on this board of people not getting their refunds from cancelled cruises , we will be cancelling. If no cruises have departed by November, we will be cancelling (need to see that Princess is still operating before I send them anymore money). If cruises that have departed have strict social distancing rules (very subjective) we will be cancelling.

Time will tell and I sure hope Princess turns things around. It's sad, but I haven't seen this much animosity toward Princess on these boards ever.  Even some of the most loyal Princess cruisers are becoming wary of Princess and cruising in general.  Princess faces a difficult uphill battle.

One group of passengers will find it hard to enjoy a cruise with strict social distancing rules. Another group of passengers will not enjoy cruising if strict social distancing is not enforced. Yet another hurdle that cruise lines will have to overcome in order to survive.

Some hurdles the cruise industry will have to overcome in order to survive.  What is expected from passengers before/during their cruise. Specifically how will social distancing affect the cruise experience? What pre existing or current health conditions will have to be divulged by the passenger in order to board? What ports will allow cruise lines to dock? And maybe the most important hurdle.  What if the economy continues to suffer and passengers won't have the discretionary money to spend?

These are no small hurdles. Even if the cruise line is able to control (control is a loose term) covid-19 cases from the ship, are passengers going to be willing to take a vacation with these restrictions.

(trying to get this thread back on the rails)

The key to the cruise industry surviving is going to be what happens during the first cruises that finally set sail, hopefully by the end of the year. If these cruises sail without incident, the public will begin to slowly gain confidence again.  As the general public gains confidence that they won't die, get sick, have to quarantine, on a cruise vacation, they will come back to cruising. Naturally if there are issues, I fear the industry will never recover.  It's a big risk and that is why I think cruise lines will continue to push back sail dates until they either have to start sailing to survive or risk sailing to survive.

9 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

I've heard that they already have a test that takes an hour, or less.

Of course there is the economics of testing thousands of passengers, but if the test was accurate that would go a long way to eliminating passengers spreading the virus once onboard.

Thinking outside the box. What if there is a breakthrough in testing? If there could be a test like pricking your finger or giving a saliva sample at the pier before boarding and results could be determined in a few minutes. If you test positive, you can't board. This might also help with the social distancing issues once on board.  If "technically" everyone has tested negative right before boarding, the possibility of spreading the virus by casual contact would be reduced considerably.

I know this is not possible right now, but science has been known to advance quickly in some cases.  I just hope cruising can come back and still be as enjoyable as it was for myself and my family for many years.  

Floridalover, you are correct. I never thought of that. 

Bill

11 hours ago, Nee Nee and Biddy said:

 

I purchased the unlimited internet package for $59.99 before the cruise and it is working very well. I did have to go to the Internet Café to get a little help, since my free Elite minutes were showing up but the unlimited plan wasn’t. They fixed everything quickly, but the lines were crazy long tonight. 

I did the same thing as you and pre paid for unlimited internet.  Since I am platinum, I could not find my plan listed, just the free 150 minutes.  I decided to do an experiment and see what happens after my minutes expired.  I found out it automatically logs you off then asks if you would like to log back in and at that time the pre paid unlimited internet plan comes up.  So if anyone else runs into this, just use your free minutes then log back in and select your pre paid plan.

Now on to enjoy our day at Princess Cays!

Bill 

Medallion update from the Regal.  I am on the ship right now and can reconfirm, everyone gets a medallion.  It doesn't matter if you downloaded the Ocean Ready app before your cruise or not.  Each passenger has a medallion waiting for them in the cruise ship terminal when they check in.  You get a medallion that coincides with the color of your captain's circle membership.  The actual medallion has your name, the ship name, and the date of your sailing.

Some observations from using my medallion so far.  When boarding the ship for the first time, the security personal scan your medallion and if you have taken your security photo ahead of time they check and see if it is really you and then let you board.  If you did not take your security photo ahead of time, they do at the entrance to the ship, like before.

Another thing I noticed as I approach my cabin, I need to wait about 2 or 3 seconds in front of my cabin door before my cabin door unlocks.  This is with my medallion around my neck or in my pocket.  It appears that if you now lose your medallion, the fear of someone finding it and walking up and down the halls to find where your cabin is located is now much harder to do.  That person would theoretically have to wait in from of each cabin for a couple seconds before the correct door unlocks.

The locator part of the medallion came into play yesterday and here is how.  I am traveling with my wife and son and after we boarded we decided to meet a a certain place on the ship at 2pm.  Well I was in the "correct" location, but my family was not.  Come to find out they were at the "wrong" location and decided to use the locator feature on one of the kiosks around the ship to locate me.  This worked and they proceeded to make their way to the "correct" meeting location.

Ok, I can confirm that not all of the medallion features work yet.  If you downloaded the Ocean Now app, this is supposed to work on the ship and let you order food and beverages from anywhere on the ship as well as request someone to come to you and help you with a question you might have.  This is not working.  This is a big part of the medallion experience that when implemented should be a huge plus.  I will update if this becomes available later on my cruise but I am not counting on that happening.

That's all for now.  If anyone has any questions, feel free and I will do the best I can to answer.  If you would like to follow this cruise, there is a great live thread going on by another cruiser on board.

Bill

I'm on the same cruise and will be following this thread! 

1 hour ago, emmak8 said:

I don't understand the excitement over Medallion. I was in a cabin that had OM on the Regal. Sorry. But nothing special in my book!

From what I have read about the Medallion is not so much what the actual Medallion can do but what the app on your phone Ocean Now/Ready can do in conjunction with the Medallion.  Such as being able to order food and drinks anywhere on the ship using the app.  Say you find a nice quiet spot on the ship that is not near a bar or place to grab a bite to eat.   You can open up your app and order something from room service and or a beverage to be delivered right to your location if you have your medallion with you.  

Another nice option is your DW is somewhere on the ship and you would like to find her to see if she would like to accompany you to trivia or a show.  I believe the app will allow you to locate her.  Or maybe she is looking for you to see if you would like to attend ball room dancing lessons (ok, so not all the functions of this app are good 😉 ) And finally, you should be able to set up the app to remind you of an upcoming activity that you would like to take part in.  There are dozens of other possibilities that I am sure Princess is exploring.

I am with you on the actual Medallion not being able to do much more than your original key card but using it with the associated app opens up a lot more options while on board the ship.  Like I said earlier in the thread, I will be boarding the Regal this Sunday so I will find out first hand if what I have described as my understanding what the app can do is possible or not.  Maybe these functions were not up and running on your cruise but hopefully they will be on mine.

Bill

I will be boarding the Regal this Sunday, December 23rd.  I will try to remember to report back and let everyone know the latest on medallion status. 

I was not even offered the option to have my medallion mailed after filling out the info in my Ocean Ready app.  I could only have it picked up at the port.  Time will tell.

Bill

Another factor, it looks like there were 5 ships anchored there today.  I'm sure that had something to do with the long waits.

Bill