paradiselivin1

Initial prices are usually what many consider to be high. However, booking early can get you the choice of cabin type and location that you want. Usually bookings this early have refundable deposits if you are booking in the USA/Canada and change your mind before final payment.

 

As time goes on, there will be sales on these new cruises. The past does not always repeat itself, but Sip 'n Sail and three-for-free are promotions that have been appearing in the summer and fall. Sometimes the "sales" will maintain pricing and include amenities such as gratuities and sometimes the price will be lower than the initial offerings. Again, in the USA/Canada you can switch a booking to a newer promotion or pricing and pick up the amenities with the new offer and lose any amenities you had when first booking. Some of the times the switch to a newer offer can be to an offer in which the deposit does become non-refundable.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Only sitting with one FCD at the moment but will jump on the best new offering for two of the "wish list" cruises when they pop up and go with the flow. Have to stock up again in June.

We use Allianz and if the insurance is purchased within 14 days of making the first deposit it will cover pre-existing conditions.

We are also using Allianz this year as we needed to cover two cruises and a safari so needed a bit of a different coverage for the summer. Otherwise, we have had annual contracts with Medjet Assist. Our biggest reason for purchasing any of these products is for the cost of "extraction" in the case of severe injury/medical conditions.

Can't wait! Mussels sound great!

I was trying to persuade the wife into the 10 day. Not quite sure what we will do now, wait and see I guess. How would you past Princess cruisers rate the mattresses on from 1 hard, to 10 soft? This would be our first time on a Princess cruise. Thanks!!

The new ones are awesome. Not too hard...not too soft. Just right for us & DH was having back problems on our cruises in November and was very comfortable.

Got the same e-mail yesterday. No mention of OBC and not expecting any. That wasn't the reason I booked but understand your point.

Same. I called yesterday to book an excursion not remembering that my husband had the bulk of the OBC (stock in his name) and had to pay the shortfall in my account. I asked the CSR if he could move some of my husband's OBC to my account but he wasn't able to do that. He was going to try to purchase both our excursions using my husband's OBC but we still would have been short for our pricey little tour. Maybe you'll have better luck. :)

We have just recently started cruising in earnest as DH retired last summer and we're no longer relegated to all of the holiday or shorter cruises to save vacation time. I've been wondering when people feel it is the best time to book to get the best rate. I know last minute deals can pop up but, otherwise, is it when the cruises are first offered? When they are first offered, is it typical that deposits are refundable? Still learning the ropes about "serial cruising" and appreciate any insight. Need to stock up on more FCD's asap!!

We typically head over the night before and stay in a hotel where we can leave the car for free and take a shuttle to the port. It may be slightly more expensive than simply driving in the "day of" but there have been times when the highways have been closed down due to bad accidents. Most recent that I can recall was on Alligator Alley in November when SUV ended up in the canal upside down drowning all passengers. Things have also happened on I75 to shut down the road and it's just piece of mind not to have to deal with it. We often get to all of our ports at least a day in advance whether in US or overseas but to each his own. We used to wing it but typically don't now. We actually enjoy time in FLL and Miami as we love some of the restaurants there.

Princess is consistently inconsistent with e-mails. We rarely get the "informative" e-mails any longer but simply the ones pushing their tours. I had been looking at a specific tour recently for one of our upcoming cruises and, sure enough, next day after not having booked the tour (excursion), I received a very targeted e-mail for that tour.:) On the other hand, no e-mails regarding shows, etc.

Thanks for posting. We will be there in July and will bear this is mind as I am terribly claustrophobic!

Thanks for sharing, Terry. We will be there in July. Yes, LondonTowner, this is exciting for some of us in the US, but does not diminish our love of the UK small villages and countryside. Some of us just simply love to travel and experience new places worldwide.

We typically book in advance if we worry about an excursion filling before we get on board. We did get shut out of an excursion in November by waiting too long. It can get out of hand for longer cruises or those very expensive excursions in some ports. OBC makes it a bit easier.

And I thought other countries were tougher than the US when it came to sentencing for drug offences. Four and a half years? Way too little.

Agreed. Still can't understand how people can get this on board with no issue. And they warn about bringing booze on board.....

Go to the port specific page for Copenhagen where you will find a local to answer the question about where to buy wine locally. We will also be buying wine there as we will be spending six nights before cruising in June. Not sure about the other ports but if Princess runs true to form based on other cruises with them, they will take it and keep it until night before debarkation.

Curious what bank? Did you ever use the PIN, and did it incur "cash advance" fees?

 

Again...the number of chip cards that are designed to be PIN and chip issued by US banks is small...but slowly growing.

We had a chip card used last year with a PIN in Iceland as well. No "cash advance" incurred but I'm not sure if it is because we have a Platinum Plus account. Think it was a gas station ~ not sure as we stayed in town for several days before boarding a cruise ship and bought groceries/meals as well..

We went to Steamers twice for dinner in November but I don't remember having breakfast or lunch there. It was extremely quiet both times that we went and wonder how long it will last. We both really liked the menu/food and hope they keep it as an option but didn't seem to have mass appeal. We had no interest in Planks instead opting for Crown Grille for our carnivore fix.

We sail on Sunday - 2 days from now - on CB for a 14 day Circle Caribbean. As of yesterday there were still cabins available in all categories. One of the Window Suites actually opened up. (Whoever has the smaller one booked should jump on that and change cabins!). Many people simply aren't comfortable cruising the Caribbean at this time so it's no wonder they are offering special deals. If we lived on that side of the country we might well take advantage of some of the offers but we live in California and don't want to have to fly to Florida and all that entails.

Makes sense to me. It would be like us wanting to jump on some of the great west coast/Mexico deals I see on occasion but the airfare would make it a bad deal. I guess we'll continue to float around the Caribbean a bit longer. We do have a variety of choices which make it a bit more interesting...

We've done several Thanksgiving cruises and were also on the Royal last year. We didn't bother with the turkey dinner as it never did much for us. We were on for the itinerary offered which happened to fall over the holiday period. I don't remember much of a big deal being made out of the holiday but we may have just been oblivious. Christmas/New Year's seem to be a much bigger deal.

I see no reason to worry about our stop in St. Petersburg. However, if conditions change and we can't go, nothing we can do. Hopefully we would get some nice replacements.

The only worry in not stopping would be if people booked non-refundable excursions with a company. Hopefully, people will be smart enough not to do that to themselves. Expect we're not going with the ship's tour on this one so will have to be smart about what we choose. Not worried about the safety aspect but simply missing the port.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-set-to-retaliate-against-u-s-with-more-sanctions-1521187868

We are considering a cruise out of Barcelona on the Crown Princess and the departure time is 10pm. What time does Princess start the boarding process? my options on flights have us arriving anywhere from 7:15 am to 1:30 pm and not real enthused about lugging luggage around all day.

Just checked my cruise itinerary for the June 2nd sailing departing at 10PM. States that boarding begins at 1PM. Also, I have read that there are luggage storage places in the city that you could check out. We arrive a week before to spend time exploring Barcelona so haven't looked into that. Hope this helps you decide.

Still don't understand why we get NONE even after signing up with Princess to get last minute offers. Someone suggested it's because I have two cruises currently booked but they are both European cruises this summer. How can they be so stupid as to not send to someone who is interested?? Think their marketing department doesn't know their target audience...

Carnival is definitely better for the younger crowd but no so much for the parents unless you are heavy into the partying lifestyle. Have loved some of the itineraries on Carnival but never liked the frat house atmosphere. Just my opinion based on previous experiences. During school vacations/break you'll find some younger people on Princess but more kids than young adults..

Heck, they only changed my sex and that of my husband a few times. It would get fixed and then the next time we booked a cruise would find that it was wrong again.... Would be interesting to see the offers presented if they thought we lived in a different state.

Thank you all for your valuable tips and shared experiences. I had never considered EZAir for any of our trips as we do so many from our home ports that we can drive to. I booked using EZAir for the first time today for our return trip from Copenhagen to Tampa. Huge savings and will monitor as suggested although will be hard when on the move. Great thread ~ thanks, again OP.

We had the same experience on our cruise in November. So, yes, apparently it has been happening for some cruises from here. The Regal arrived in port a few hours late and all pax weren't even off by noon. There was a SINGLE long line to get into the terminal for everyone ~ no exceptions. Trust me, I walked to the front several times to confirm. I'll never understand the hostility of other cruisers who doubt someone's experience. It is what it is. While work continues on this port it has also been a challenge to get to some terminals and to park. Just an fyi based on recent experience. (Two November cruises).