Margarita Jane

When we were on the Regal for NY cruise, the hors d’oeuvres were served. The crew handled the plate and we walked in front of the buffet, pointing out what I wanted.

If I pay to upgrade when onboard, does my TA get a commission on the paid upgrade? I’m hoping not….

1 hour ago, dog said:

Call Princess and tell them you cannot get through and what you want to do 

 

ask for a Supervisor. Calling first thing in the morning when they start work has saved me from being on hold. 
 

otherwise, remember what a hassle this has been and never book with that TA again 

 

and in the past, I was able to add the package when I changed cabins. 

Good suggestion, I will try. They’ll probably tell me I have to work with TA, but it’s worth a shot.

I should have cancelled at 30 days out, but never thought it would be this difficult. I’m Elite on Princess and Elite+ on Celebrity, with a few others added in….so I have used this big box agency for a long time. But, I won’t use them again…

I have tried to call, many times, but just get a recording to leave a message or email them. I have left voice mails. I have emailed. This is not the first cruise booked with them that this has happened. But I had this last one in the pipeline before I switched. 

I am trying to upgrade from a regular balcony to a deluxe balcony because DH decided he likes the love seat instead of a chair. 

I have booked many cruises with the big box TA.  In the last 6 months, I have found it impossible to get customer service from them. So much so, that I’ve started using another TA, even though I get less benefits.

My current problem is I am trying to upgrade and add Princess Plus to my sailing in 10 days. While onboard Regal recently, the future cruise person said I could do that, even though it was past final payment, but of course it had to be done through the TA (who I can’t reach by email or phone).

My question is - has anyone paid for an upgrade AND added Princess Plus onboard? I don’t think I will hear from big box before I sail ☹️.

Perhaps this wouldn’t bother everyone, but it really freaked out my DH and me. On the last night of the cruise, our room steward took it upon himself to move everything off our bathroom shelves and onto the counter. This means he was touching our toothbrushes, our hair brushes, our toothpaste, etc. My DH asked him why he would do this, and he said it was so he could clean the shelves before the next cruise. He also said he had on gloves, but didn’t mention how many toilets he’d cleaned with this same gloves. Besides letting him know we were really unhappy that he would touch our personal stuff, we also reported our displeasure to Customer Service, and in our post cruise survey. 
 

If this freaks you out, too, avoid Nomer for your room steward. We were on Marina deck, port side low 500’s.

Info deleted as Info no longer valid - our tour company did not make it through pandemic ☹️

FWIW, We were on the Equinox in August for 14 days, and the Summit in October. The occupancy was so low, we could go to the MDR anytime we wanted. 

2 hours ago, Hflors said:

We booked on princess. Ft lauderdale to ft lauderdale. January to April 2024.  The ship, itinerary, price and perks were what we were looking for.  

Where did you find the information on this cruise? How did you book? I have not been able to find any Princess world cruise info for 2024. We are booked on Coral for 2022, anticipating a cancellation, and would like to move to 2024.

We will be on the 11/3 Regal TA. We have taken 3 cruises with Celebrity from Florida ports since August.  Masks were not required for vaccinated guests. Last I checked, the ships I was on, are shown as green on the CDC ship status. So the “no masks required for vaccinated “ seems to be working for Celebrity. Too bad Princess finds masks necessary.

1 hour ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

UPDATED: What if I’m visiting a port that requires proof of a negative COVID-19 test result for entry?

Select ports, subject to their local government directives, may require guests to provide proof of a negative viral COVID-19 test to go ashore. In these cases, viral COVID-19 tests (PCR or Antigen) will be offered and administered on board at a nominal charge, in order to satisfy these port requirements. Current test fees are $25 for Antigen and $35 for PCR. These may be subject to change.

Please note that destinations on your itinerary may have various documentation requirements for testing and vaccination. This may include a Passenger Locator Form (PLF), required prior to entry. We strongly recommend completing these requirements before you embark for your cruise. Princess can help guide you through this process on board. However, you are responsible for meeting these requirements and we cannot accept responsibility for denied entry.

Thank you for posting this! 

We are booked on the November 3 TA…if Princess is going to cancel, I hope they let us know pretty soon! I was wondering if Princess has advanced knowledge of CDC changes on 10/31, and that’s why they are not cancelling the November 3 TA. 

Regarding restrictions on ancients….we are booked on the Summit for a 5 day cruise. One of Celebrity’s offerings is a “Mayan Healing Ritual”, but restricted to those under 70. You would think those of us over 70 need more healing than youngsters!

6 hours ago, Valentin53 said:

It strikes me that no one publishes anything about trivia. 

@Valentin53 we were on the Equinox for a b2b in August. The cruise director, Eddy Jenkins (best ever IMHO!) does live trivia from the ship, Sunday afternoon, on his FB page. 

15 hours ago, panmalv said:

How many different people can use the 6-pack of kits?  We are a family of 4, so I am hoping to order a 6 pack and have 1 for each family member and 2 extras just in case of mistakes.  I read somewhere on these boards that you can only use the 6 pack for a max of 3 people (I guess you have to put the names of the users in when you make the purchase?)  Anyone have any experience with this?

 

@panmalvwe have a party of 4 traveling, and I called embed to ask if 4 people could use the 6 pack of tests. They said we could, but each person has to set up an account with emed and navica.

On 9/18/2021 at 8:51 PM, sanger727 said:

We are flying down to Ecuador on Monday for our Galapagos cruise (not celebrity).

@sanger727 Do you mind sharing who you are using to cruise since it’s not Celebrity?

19 hours ago, DrKoob said:

I have an app called Map My Walk that tracks me via GPS. I made sure I had it turned on during all the walks. The longest was around 2.5 miles (I did all the long ones) but it took two-three hours. I can usually walk that in 45-50 minutes but with the rocky ground and stopping for naturalist discussions, that adds to the times. And it really (on some islands) not as much a walk as a HIKE! Really rocky or lava terrain. 

I have that app, too…..without thinking about it, I used it on a sea day when we were walking on the ship, trying to get our steps in. I checked at what I thought was our 3 mile mark, and much to my surprise, the app registered 19 miles! Then it dawned on me that the ships movement racked up the miles for me ☹️.

8 hours ago, kent4489 said:

Wear good walking shoes!

Will tennis shoes suffice? Or do I need hiking shoes?

We were on the Equinox the first two weeks in August, also. Jim, your picture of the tree turned out much better than mine… 😁.

We really enjoyed Eddy Jenkins, the cruise director, snd his team. One evening the put on a skit in Celebrity Central called “Cruise Line Is It”, a take off on “Whose Line Is It”. We thought it was hilarious, and enjoyed it as much as any of the shows. 
 

I saw some posts about wine, and one we really enjoyed was Mer Soleil, a Chardonnay. Sometimes it was hard to find (we were in an SV first week and Aqua second week), but sommeliers would usually find it for us. 
 

Rules change hourly, but we did a b2b on Celebrity Equinox in August. They tested us onboard on the last sea day. If we would have been positive, we would have been able to pack up our own stuff. If negative, we could leave our stuff in the stateroom, however, we did have to disembark. All b2b people disembarked as a group, went through facial recognition, then embarked as a group. Took maybe an hour in total - Really pretty painless. I would hope Princess would do something similar.

@sanger727I would think it would depend on whether you are hiking into Machu Picchu on the Inca trail, or taking the train & bus. We took the train & bus and wore tennis shoes.

20 hours ago, kent4489 said:

We had it done in Miami on Thursday afternoon. We had our results within 45 minutes, both a paper copy and an email.

If you don’t mind sharing, where did you have the test done in Miami, and what did it cost?

@kent4489Thank you for doing this! Enjoying your posts and experiences. Galapagos is on the bucket list. 
 

We did Machu Picchu in March, 2020, just before the shutdown. We did have issues with the altitude (we live in the flatland of Florida) but we’re offered cocoa leaves everywhere, which helped. Not all hotels have the supplemental oxygen tanks, but some do. 

We are traveling on the Summit in October with relatives who do not have a passport. When entering their enhanced drivers license info, the app does not allow me to select the correct state where they live. I called Celebrity, and they said no problem, just pick one of the options available. The Celebrity rep’s response did not give me comfort. 
 

This is their first cruise, and I do not want to have issues at embarkation. Has anyone else experienced this issue with the app? Or, any suggestions on how to get this fixed?

I am elite and paid $14 a day to upgrade on 8/8/21 Equinox sailing. I was doing a b2b and found I could only email with the surf package. So I had to upgrade onboard.

There were actually more issues with this room when we first got there, so we did inquire about another AQ and were told none were available. Our room steward took care of a non-working refrigerator, bathroom light, closet door. This is on the 3rd sailing …So we were a little surprised at the maintenance needed. 
 

IMHO - I think they “moved up” a lot of people into Aqua….please don’t flame me, this is just what we experienced ….week 1 service in main dining room was much better than week 2 in Blu. Percentage wise, I think Blu was handling more diners than Silhouette. 
 

On a positive note, there were many, many good aspects of this cruise, and it was great to be back on the water. We enjoyed the entertainment, the trivia which we never came close to winning, the shows…..all the crew were friendly, helpful snd available. We did ship excursions which we normally never do, but decided to be conservative in the ports. They were organized well, and the tour operators observed Covid procedures which made us feel safer.

it was a wonderful escape which we needed. I just won’t do the move up bid again, and hoped to share my reasons.