Redhaven

The Princess PDFs appear to be early versions that haven't been fully proofed.  Lots of errors.  The intro talks about an 11 day trip to Mexico, but it's not in the list of cruises (as but one example).  Wait for a new release from Princess.

I've had the same issue in the past.  The credit card credit for the cash portion comes fairly quickly, but the FCC credit part might take several weeks or a month (or more).  It did come eventually, and nothing will make it quicker than when Princess gets around to processing that transaction.

Thanks.  Both surveys were in my spam folder!  First time ever that happened.

What is the current status of post-cruise surveys from Princess?  Have they been discontinued, or are they running late?  It's been 4 days since disembarking the Ruby in SF.

It was seemingly solved on our recent Ruby cruise, with each remote only controlling one of the two TV sets.  No unexpected cheese or caviar.

Alaska 2022 is on sale for Elites as of this morning, December 15, without any email or other notice from Princess.

We use EZAir all the time.  No gimmicks or anything to worry about.  The fares are often very much lower than any other source, but keep checking frequently for repricing by Princess (and the airline).  It's one of the best kept secrets in the cruising industry.

We did this cruise a year ago, to/from LeHavre as the port.  We used Princess transfers from Paris to the ship (leaving from one of the train stations in Paris, and had to get to that location on your own), and then Princess transfer from the ship to the airport.  It's a long ride in both directions, around 3 hours as I recall.  If we did this trip again, I would use Dublin or Southampton.  And just visiting Paris from a port stop in LeHavre involves 6 hours of driving -- and while Paris is a lovely city, the congestion and traffic once you get there is unpleasant (IMHO).  Do London or Dublin.

3 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

 

I think that captures things appropriately.  It's surprising that for many non-suite cruisers, it probably would take less than $10K to become elite. For something as costly as cruising, that doesn't sound like much.  The fairest way to do it would be the way virtually all rewards based programs work and that is by revenue. But I'm not sure if it would be a bit unseemly for cruiselines to have tiers that advertise something like:

 

$0-$5000 Bronze

$5000-$10000 Silver

$10000-$25000 Gold

$25000-$50000 Platinum

$50000-$100000 Elite

and so forth

 

This may open a can a worms for the cruiselines but maybe a 1-2% OBC credit, that is never refundable, but rolls over for future usage.  Then one could start a cruise savings account of sorts which would force them to be loyal.

The rollover account is a brilliant idea!

One goal of a loyalty program is to keep you loyal, especially by holding out future benefits for your continued patronage. But if you have reached the top and there is nothing more to "strive" for, the program loses some of its original mission.  People will wander off and try other brands to see what's available, knowing they have reached the pinnacle of the Princess program and can always return to those benefits. Something creative and new needs to be inserted here -- the market is constantly changing.

We have been on several cruises where the CD came on new just as we did, or changed out to another CD in the middle of the cruise.  The point is that it's not worth much to know who the current CD is, no matter how wonderful he might be.

I just renewed a passport using the expedited service (priority mail, etc.).  Got the new passport back in 9 days including shipping in both directions.  Just get the renewal and you won't have to worry about the 6 month rule.

I know this has been discussed before, but for some strange reason I still have access to the old and wonderful Find Cruises website using Firefox as the browser.  It won't come up with Chrome, only Firefox, but others have said Firefox doesn't work for them.  Dunno.

I wrote Princess a long note on this subject, and suggest others do the same.  The functionality of the new website is a major step backwards.

Well, my approach is to NOT clear my cache and continue using the old format!  I just did that and it worked fine at booking a new cruise using the familiar options and not having to wait for the thumbnail pix to load.

It's a function of the browser.  Firefox still accepts the old URL above and displays the old format, while Chrome converts it to the new and TERRIBLE thumbnail format.  Everyone should use Firefox until that fails.

I think it is very difficult to predict exactly when a car should arrive, except perhaps if you want to set a "safe" time and then wait outside the ship for that time should you be early.  We arrived at Brooklyn a few weeks ago and the disembarkation was delayed because of customs or dock workers, never sure which was the true answer.  Our approach is to call Uber, Lyft, or take a taxi whenever we get off the ship, and thereby don't need to worry about an exact time.  The actual time can vary for many reasons, some external to the ship and some because of scheduling on-board the ship (like needing to get transfer passengers off first to make flights, etc.).

I had a similar problem this week.  It seems as though the multi-segment routes in the Mediterranean for the Enchanted are causing a lot of booking headaches.  Many decks show as fully sold out on some cruises, only to be shown available for sub-portions of that cruise.  Call Princess and ask for help.  They can usually work around this issue.  I've seen other comments here along similar lines.

What if it is international business class?  The pricing process is very different here, I believe.  You can often find a one-way fare that is virtually the same as a round-trip fare from US to Europe and return (in other words, the return is almost "free").  I think the within-US fare rules are very different.

A related question:  How is EZAir calculated across the two 7-day b2b cruises -- or to make it more interesting, what about two cruises that might be a 14 day and a 21 day giving a 35 day b2b.  The question is:  Can you book a round-trip airfare for this 35 day combination, or are you required to book a one-way "departure" on the first cruise and a one-way "return" on the second cruise?  Wouldn't that cost more than a single round-trip booking?  What's is the process to use here?

I think you have the answer but maybe didn't see the "fine print."  Often the dates, like Nov 25 above, are tagged as "reverse order".

You should not have a problem for a 1PM flight.  Consider using Uber/Lyft or even a taxi instead of the ship shuttle, and that way the timing will be totallly under your control.  SFO is less than 1/2 hour from the ship by car.

Singapore isn't China, and it isn't cheap either.

The Golden was also missing the Craps table last year.  Same story about the Asian market not liking Craps, so maybe they change things around when the itinerary goes beyond the Asian markets.

Clearing the cache and cookies worked!  Back to the old format with Windows 10 Desktop Chrome.  Now the question is -- why did this happen? Was it a mad IT experiment, or some other fluke?  Or is the new format actually in use somewhere, and will it return eventually even after clearing cache and cookies?

It's not just the time it takes to download the pictures, which itself is annoying, but also the elimination of functionality like picking an interim itinerary port to see which cruises stop there.