geoherb

It's sad. There's no way to fall off a balcony under ordinary circumstances. One has to be fooling around, jump, or be pushed. A friend of mine in college used to climb around on the outside of the balcony rail of our dorm. It scared me to see her doing that, but kids don't realize how dangerous such stunts can be.

This is the first time I've heard of a major cruise line bumping people involuntarily since the Carnival debacle out of Baltimore several years ago. Usually the cruise lines will keep upping the offers to people until they free up enough cabins. For example, we once received an offer from Princess to cancel our cruise and receive a free equivalent cruise two or three months later along with the cruise fare we paid as refundable onboard credit. We were already on the ship before we knew about the offer--and could not have taken them up on it because of our vacation schedule. But we heard from people on our roll call who did.

Will NCL allow a bottle of liquor to be brought on the ship at embarkation and store it until the end of the cruise? It doesn't look like it on the FAQ page. The cruise leaves from Iceland. 

Here's the Patter from a sea day on our transatlantic cruise in 2019. There were lots of activities. They offered the pop choir, pennywhistle lessons, trivias, a book club, lectures, and a wide variety of other activities. I enjoyed having the teen center open occasionally to play skeeball. There weren't many teens on that cruise.

Someone on our Cruise Critic roll call organized a separate book club. We read Where the Crawdads Sing and Dan Brown's Origin. The a large part of the plot of the latter book takes place in Bilbao, one of the ports on the cruise.

Here's a link to the list of prizes that lists this experience:
https://www.princess.com/cruise-deals-promotions/plus-premier-cruise-packages/princess-prizes-terms-and-conditions/

On my last cruise, the Love Boat Dream varied from night to night. I never ordered one, but several of my tablemates did from time to time. The Pistachio Dome is not what it used to be either. Apparently Princess severed its relationship with Norman Love. 

When we did our cruise tour, we saved a lot of money by not having the meal plan. There are casual options available at each of the lodges in addition to a fine dining restaurant. Back then, Princess posted the menus with prices online. I don't see them now on the official Princess Lodges website, but Open Table has some available. They may be out of date, but here's one example for Fannie Q's Saloon at the Denali Princess Lodge: https://www.opentable.com/r/fannie-q-saloon-denali-princess-lodge-denali-national-park

Did you invite her along? Will you now be sharing a cabin? Were you paying double for your cabin or was there a reduced single supplement? 

Shelly did the math wrong. Solos don't usually pay double for Plus, just for the cabins. 

If you did get a reduced single supplement, perhaps you should have her book a separate cabin. That way she wouldn't have to have Plus.

I saw go for it and ask for a refund for any days when the internet doesn't work well. On my cruise to Greenland, they automatically refunded people for 10 out of 16 days.

I had to cancel my cruise (November 28, Caribbean Princess) on November 16. Princess automatically refunded the port fees to my credit card. I had DH's doctor fill out Aon's form. I submitted it and the other required proof on November 28. I received an email three days later saying my claim had been approved and that Aon would be issuing a check within the next two business days. I received it December 5, one week after submitting the claim.

I booked Plus on my February cruise when it was $40 a day. I did not book Plus on my 16-day cruise in August. I did the math. Princess also wanted to charge me more than the $50 per day. Back then, the price varied when booking last-minute cruises. I ended up spending less than $80 on drinks. I had my minibar beers (after trading in all the liquors) and two bottles of wine and a few free drinks (Captains Circle party, champagne waterfall, and martini demo).

I had booked Plus at $50 a day for the Caribbean's 10-day cruise after Thanksgiving to the Panama Canal. I had to cancel that cruise, though.

I doubt I will book it at $60 a day unless I get a great fare on a 7-day cruise. I find it disturbing that the price has increased 50% in less than a year.

I noticed the Love Boat Dream varied on my August cruise on the Caribbean. I never ordered it, but I saw it when others ordered it at my table. I did get the pistachio dome. It looked and tasted right.

There wasn't a card with the menu, but the schedule was included on a handout of all the Elite activities on the Caribbean in August. The strange thing was that even the loyalty and events manager said she did not know the menu ahead of time.

I thought it was moderately well attended, but we had more than 1,600 Elite and Platinum passengers on that cruise plus any suite passengers who were not already at one of those levels. 

I did not have the drink package.

You can also ask for reasonable accommodations to the menu. Neither of us like asparagus. They give us broccoli instead. I get my salad without the pear and DH gets his without the nuts. We tried the dessert once and decided we'd rather have something else. We received flourless chocolate cake once and raspberry creme brulee another time.

When they found out we were celebrating DH's birthday the last time we had the UBD, they brought us chocolate-covered strawberries in addition to the rest. Unfortunately, DH can't eat them, and I was too full to do so. I dropped them off at the photographer's station when picking up our photo.

We made the choice to have the UBD on the last night of the cruise to coincide with his birthday. I wouldn't recommend doing that. We had passengers who were staying on for the next cruise. I took the flowers to them so they could enjoy them the following week. 

On my couple of cruises last year, the evening service was optional. You could request it for the whole cruise or for particular nights. I requested it just when I had laundry ready to go out. On my cruises in February and August, my cabin stewards did both morning and evening service without my requesting both.

Thanks for posting. I sailed on the CB in August and am going again after Thanksgiving. I'm sad that Kristoff will be leaving before I get back. I'll see Bravo and Broadway Ballroom again. I'll skip Born to Be Wild. 

On 10/14/2022 at 12:08 PM, Meef said:

What makes the obc refundable,  we are looking at buying some obc for our cruise but if we don't use it do we lose it?

Military OBC is refundable. Anything you paid for and receive a refund for is refundable. One example would be paying for a shore excursion that gets canceled. On my cruise in August, we received a refund for the poor internet and a refund for missing one of the ports. They added up to around $100. I also received a refund for the poor shuttle bus service from LaGuardia to the port. 

I had more in my carryon bag (a backpack) when I flew to New York the day of my cruise in August. I was worried that my checked bag would not make it. I don't think I could have managed with just a backpack and a carryon bag. For one, I wouldn't have been able to bring my bottles of wine with me. They had to fly in the checked bag. 

But overall, I'm packing lighter than I used to. I knew there would be a lot of Elites on my cruise (and there ended being 836 of us). Laundry usually came back on the third day. I sent out small loads every other day. I'll use the same strategy on my next cruise. It's only 10 days long. 

12 hours ago, gottagocit said:

How soon after your final payment date (75/90 days prior to sailing date) should you expect to receive upgrade offer emails?

The final payment date for my cruise was August 30. I received the offer to bid on September 17. I received the notification that my bid was successful October 31. My cruise leaves November 28. 

I booked the cruise initially August 9. Princess sent me an initial upgrade notification (from a Cat. IF to a Cat. IA) that day. But my travel agent had to rebook me to get a better deal. I lost the Cat. IA cabin and took the chance at another guarantee Cat. IF. I found out I had been assigned to a Cat. IB cabin before the final payment date. Princess did not send me a notification for that cabin assignment. 

When I received the notice that my bid was successful, it did not include the cabin number. I was able to see it in the Cruise Personalizer. 

55 minutes ago, bhawks9 said:

First time doing this of course as it is new.  The price on the upgrade to mini suite was pretty low so that enticed me to bid.  We got the mini suite directly across from the laundry room.  Anywhere else I would have probably accepted.  I have seen on the boards folks that have got a bad location on an bid and their PVP was able to move them (after they accepted) to a better location.  My planner is on leave so didn’t want to chance it.  Lesson learned, will not do this again.  

Being across from a laundry room is not bad. They are not open 24/7. I have never been bothered by noise from them when we've had cabins close to one.

I received an email this week that my bid for an upgrade was accepted. I originally booked the lowest category of inside cabin and had been assigned a Cat. IB. It was on the Aloha Deck--a little higher up than I wanted. I took a chance by bidding on the upgrade to an obstructed view cabin. There are four of them on the Lido Deck I did not want. Almost all of them are on the Emerald Deck, which is a great location for me--not as many stairs to climb. I got the upgrade to an Emerald Deck cabin, thankfully.

9 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

I don't think anyone has heard of somebody NOT paying for the bid.  But just wonder if, or how, that would work.

 

 

I wondered what would happen. My bid was accepted today. When I went online to make the payment, I noticed the new cabin number was already reflected on the Cruise Personalizer--before I completed the payment. I checked and my previous cabin was back in inventory for someone else to book.

Getting a cabin I did not want was a possibility. There are four obstructed view cabins at the front of the Caribbean on the Lido Deck. 

My bid to move from an inside to an obstructed view was accepted today. I bid the minimum amount. It's around a hundred dollars less than if I had booked an obstructed view originally and even more of a savings over the midship obstructed view I received.

It should be like any other sea day: lots of activities. The bonus will be a cruise-long trivia, where the points accumulate. We had one of those on my cruise to Greenland in August with 10 days at sea. We also had a mini Olympics where points accumulated for athletic events.