beg3yrs

Uh oh! Here it comes. A 900 number for Princess that gets you immediately to a well-trained competent phone representative who is a native English speaker and is empowered to make all sorts of adjustments and decisions.

I agree with these responses. Princess IT is too busy screwing up other things to manage something sophisticated like this. Given their track record they'd probably lower prices the second and third times you check. I'd bet senior management is way too scared to allow them to tackle something that could have such a negative impact on the bottom line.

As someone who lived in SoCal for almost thirty years, earthquake preparedness is an on-going thing. It's not like boarding up your windows and laying out sand bags. 1) Having a plan is important. You don't know where you'll be when one strikes so knowing in advance how your family can reach each other is a good thing. 2) Earthquake "proofing" your living spaces. There's no such thing as earthquake proof really but you can make the structures more resistant. Having your house built to code, not leaving heavy objects on high shelves, securing tall furniture to the wall so it won't topple over and so on. 3) Keeping emergency lighting and plenty of batteries around. We stored our batteries in the freezer! 4) Have a supply of non-perishable food as well as a stash of potable water. In general, be prepared to go without utilities for at least four days. Certainly not a comprehensive list, but gives you an idea of how you prep for an earthquake.

That's pretty much what I do except I only turn on the laptop VPN when I'm doing something financial or I need a site to think I'm somewhere else (rare). I also rarely use the phone VPN as my WWW browsing on it is usually limited to a quick search, news check or look at the weather. Thanks for boiling it down so succinctly.

We did that TA in December 2019 on the Pacific Princess. We ended going further south across the Atlantic to avoid a storm and we thought it would be the worst. Oh no ... it was calm, sunny and warm. People were out on the Lido deck all day. And, after it was all over the captain reported they had actually saved fuel because of more favorable currents.

Well that's why I couched it with /OceanNow. It's really the OceanNow access on the ship that's messed up with the VPN. MedallionNet is Princess' term for their WiFi which includes access to OceanNow (no Internet access required for that when on the ship) and then the portal for Internet access.

Well, I have had issues with VPN on my phone as it messes up access to the MedallionNet/OceanNow so that's a good consideration. The VPN forces traffic to the VPN server and the ship's system has trouble with that. However, I have had zero issues using a VPN on my laptop where I don't access MedallionNet/OceanNow but do access online email and financial stuff.

Interesting point! Yet another reason to use a VPN. Yes, using a VPN is a tad slower but it's better than not being able to access your accounts at all.

Did I miss a post that said there was an order from the captain not to take videos or photos?

Not that I can tell. I always get it from the web-site.

Mine does as well. All five cruises we've booked show Premier. Four of those cruises are Plus and only one is truly Premier.

That's certainly true at Fort Lauderdale where there's a staff member or two assigned to oversee that. I think it must be some kind of local regulation. Anyway, there are also elevators available at Fort Lauderdale.

I too am wondering where my notification emails are. I wonder if the difference is using a TA or booking direct. I seem to recall that Princess will often, but not always, communicate directly with passengers booked direct and, conversely, send the same information to TAs for distribution to their booked clients. So for those who have received the email, are your booked direct or through a TA?

It's best you do as much as you can yourself to make sure you are good-to-go on your flights. As others have said, use your airline web-site to print your boarding passes (or get them on your phone using the airline's app). Don't expect ANYTHING form EZ-Air before your flight. They're best known for assistance when there are travel disruptions but ... if you have a problem, see if the airline can solve it. If they can't, then call EZ-Air for assistance. Bags - again, use the airline's web-site. If they give you a discount for paying online, do that. Otherwise, I'd pay at the airport. BTW, I know your airport well as we're in Tucson too.

No Susan, it is a go because this B2B has stops in distant foreign ports (Cartagena and Curacao) unlike yours which does not stop in a distant foreign port.

Oh please, everyone start sailing those higher ranked cruise lines Lower prices and less people on board will mean more cruises on Princess for me.

People forget there's a real live person inside that costume. Get to know who's behind the character and you'll find some really nice young ladies who are pretty much all aspiring actresses who have a decent character-acting gig that pays the bills. A few times we've been somewhere on the ship and we're approached by someone who is vaguely familiar and are happy to realize it's Fortuna off-duty.

By "room service specifically" that means you picked up the phone and called in an order for room service.

I think the higher level plan does but it isn't a lot. Details on the web-site.

It is designed to use the ship's cellular to satellite tower. No WiFi required, just your cellular phone. Yes it covers connection charges to the ship's system.

Agree with @coo359a2 here. It generally isn't even the room steward who puts delivers the mini bar. Typically it's someone from Room Service going down the hall with a cart full of mini bar setups on trays covered in plastic wrap. They have a list of cabins to deliver the setups to so it's not even the fault of the delivery person!

I too am licensed and while I don't operate from the ships, on our Northern Lights cruise on the Island Princess last fall, the gentleman next door to us had an odd contraption on his balcony. We chatted in the hallway and yes, he was operating from his cabin using HF I believe. He had obtained permission in advance and was happily making contacts from above the Arctic Circle. So, at least last Fall it was possible.

Can't say if the CB has it yet but back in June we were on her up on the Sports Court watching the Starlink folk welding antenna mounts onto the top of Skywalker's. If not available yet, it should be soon.

As other posters have said, Princess itself does not have a package like this and other posters have helpfully suggested using the ship's WiFi if your phone supports WiFi calling. However, staying in line with a package plan, there are package options for cruise ships available from at least two cellular carriers. Both AT&T and Verizon offer a cruise ship plan. I know from personal experience that AT&T's plan is $100 for 30 days of unlimited calling and texting as well as something like 30Mb of data (don't quote me on that one). It also gives you access in Mexico and some islands in the Caribbean. We use this on DW's phone as she has a business and in the past the ship's WiFi/Internet was so poor we didn't trust WiFi calling. My phone however is set to use only the WiFi although there have been times we just forwarded my number to DW's. Bottom line: If a cellular plan for ships makes sense to you over the WiFi, check with your provider.

DW and I do the same thing, five cards each every month. We use different email addresses/accounts but do use the same credit card. Never had a problem with that.