beg3yrs

I think the Pirate Queen should fill in at Bingo at least once each voyage. Call it Cut Throat Bingo. Do it all for a charity. Only issue paper cards at a cheap price so people get lots of them - that'll make it hard to keep up when the Pirate Queen starts calling numbers fast and says not-so-nasty pirate insults to those who bought too many tickets and ask her to slow down. It would be so fun!

Not sure if this applies to other ships but on the Sapphire Princess, the number of steps between 7 and 8 is different from the forward stairs to the aft stairs. Is this ship crooked?

We were on the Sapphire in January and February. While I didn't notice the name change then I can't say I recall it being called the Princess Patter either. For us its main usefulness was the listing of time when venues were open. Secondary was the event overview. What I do remember is that there was a disclaimer that the printed sheet doesn't contain all the events going on during the day but is just a sample of them. The MedallionClass app's Journey View feature is supposed to be the definitive source for all events. I found Journey View to be clunky and difficult to use on a phone-sized device. The big screens around the ship were easier. BTW, I see Danny Rembadi is still on board. He's great! His classical guitar performed in the Piazza is something not to be missed and his performances in the Wheelhouse Bar on a regular acoustic guitar are a lot of fun.

The new muster drill or lack thereof. Watching the video while unpacking and then visiting your station for a quick medallion tap sure beats everyone traipsing to their stations carrying life jackets and then sitting through the "lecture".

Yes, your name, the ship's name and the embarkation date are on the medallions picked up at the terminal. Even if you have to get a replacement on board at Guest Services, it will have the same markings. Obviously each ship has the facilities to add stickers and lettering.

In the United States, regulations require a zero passenger count on turnaround days. In your case, for both your Fort Lauderdale visits, you will receive information a few days in advance where to meet on board for "In Transit" guests. In most other countries this is not required and turn-around day is just like any other port day. When the time comes you will be escorted off the ship through immigration and then to a waiting area. At this point you can leave the port to explore Fort Lauderdale and come back later. You will have an "In Transit" card to show in the terminal which will allow you to bypass all the new passenger check-in processes. If you just want to get back on the ship and have a virtual "sea day", you will be notified when you can re-board. It will be before all the other new passengers board. If there is a ship excursion for in-transit passengers, you will be given separate instructions if you've signed up for it.

Our medallions lasted for last year's B2B2B for the full 38 days. This year's 32 day B2B, DW's medallion lasted 25 days and mine went the distance. Your medallion is printed with your name and embarkation date. There's no disembarkation date on it.

If there are two of you and you each have your own email address, you can purchase 10 GCs every month.

Yes I've considered that as well. However the subsequent text describing Zoom calls, streaming videos, fast downloads and so on makes it clear they're referring to Internet access.

Everyone has their own priorities. You don't know ours and I don't know yours. However I'll share one of ours with you; we find it's important to be respectful of people.

We cruised Alaska in June of 2022 on the Royal Princess. Speeds were definitely too slow for Zoom calls but email and some browsing, while slow, was feasible. There's a page buried somewhere on the in-cabin TV menu that indicates the speeds/quality you can expect on the voyage. It tells you that in the area of Victoria and Vancouver and south your speeds will be good. Don't believe it. The crew uses WhatsApp for texting and my experience was that it seems to work better than regular texting when the Internet is poor. Facetime also tends to work at times when other apps fail when the Internet is slow. As an aside, we just did two trips to Antarctica on the Sapphire Princess. Both times we received notes in our cabin telling us the Internet would be non-existent once the ship went south of Cape Horn. For us that wasn't the case. The Internet was still usable, even down to almost 65 degrees south, but definitely not fast.

We were on this same cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires with Antarctica on the itinerary. We were also on the one just before from Buenos Aires to Santiago with Antarctica as well. We were not on Dolphin deck but on Aloha the first leg and Baja the second leg. So we can't speak to issues on the Dolphin deck but can say that our mid-ship cabins had no problems and the HVAC worked well both in the chill of Antarctica and the warmth of Buenos Aires and Santiago. Seems to me the problems are isolated to the areas previously mentioned. We met a lot of folks on these two journeys and nobody ever complained about their cabins. The Sapphire Princess and her sister the Diamond, are IMHO the best Grand-like class ships in the fleet. They don't have the extra Riviera deck and have a slightly wider beam than the others. This gives the ships an excellent ride in rough seas (believe me, we experienced over 100 knot winds and 27 foot waves near Elephant Island). You also get a slightly wider outside Promenade as well.

Nope, you have lots of company feeling this way, including yours truly! Coming off the last cruise this was my main complaint in the post-cruise survey. I really don't know why some attorney hasn't started a class action lawsuit. Of course it's big bucks for the attorney and the class members don't get much. But, maybe it would force Princess to stop lying or at least fix their Internet.

Yes but I saw them demagnetized many times, necessitating a trip to the GSD!

As PacnGoNow said, you have to find the right agent, a unicorn, who knows how to do it. We recently found a unicorn who placed gift cards on our account as OBC. He also found out that there's a $1500 limit of OBC that can be place ahead of time!

It really doesn't mean that much any more. Experiences have been it's not checked and it's more of a gentle way Princess tries to even out the crowds during boarding.

I sure wish they'd do this at least within the Carnival family of cruise lines. As Princess changes its targeted demographics (or heck, maybe over the years it's me changing ...), I often take a look at Holland or Seabourn to see if there's something more attractive. Once I realize I have to start over loyalty-wise, I back out.

Not sure if this is still the case but we try to check in online ASAP because in the past on some airlines, check-in time was one criteria used to determine who might get "bumped" on oversold flights.

A big clue to how well WhatsApp works is that's the crew's go-to app.

Yes you can, absolutely. Princess is very good about supporting passengers with food allergies. DW is celiac and can't have anything with wheat, barley, rye or spelt. Cross contamination is a problem for celiacs as well. Because of this we try to have a standing reservation in one of the MDRs so we get the same wait-staff and headwaiter every time. It's not required but we believe it works better. Each night, your headwaiter will bring you the menus for the next day and you can make special selections. They will prepare your selected dishes, minus your allergens, in a special area reserved for those with allergies. It's a great service. Often we find DW's food items are better than ours because of the special attention they receive! In the buffet you can ask any of the staff behind the counters for the "Chef du Parti" (SP?). He or she will meet with you and show you which items in the buffet are safe for you. Be sure to list your allergens on the personalizer or the Medallion Class app as well. This gives them a "heads up" so your record will be flagged in the MDR as well.

I know this post is mostly in jest but ... Muster calls are for when there's a ship emergency that may put the ship and its passengers and crew in danger. Man Over Board (MOB) procedures do not require a muster call. Before the medallion, many ships had installed video surveillance covering all aspects of the ship where someone could go overboard. I don't know what the latest procedure is given there are least now two automated methods to detect MOB as well as the original method where someone actually sees someone go over. Then, there's the worst method and I've read news reports of this one. A family member or friend reports someone missing, possibly hours after the event. Sad as none of the other methods worked.

How close to the glaciers you may get can vary depending on conditions. But as others have stated, you'll most likely get into the bay itself.

I have found that the airline doesn't want to deal with you until the itinerary is actually ticketed. That will certainly be after final payment. Once payment is made you can request Princess to do early ticketing. When that's done, contact the airline for upgrades.

Not Vancouver but less than two weeks ago we disembarked in Buenos Aires and had a disembarkation tour. Unlike our previous experiences with such tours, our bags did not accompany us on the bus but went by separate truck to the airport. We did not have to claim our bags in the cruise terminal or clear Argentine customs. Like others, DW was a little nervous about not having bags on the bus but it all worked out. The claim area at the airport was supervised by Princess personnel. We understood that straight Princess transfers from the ship to the airport and Princess hotels worked the same way.

The power outlet in the bathroom does not have enough capacity for a Water Pik. We know this first-hand. Those outlets are designed for low current-draw devices like a small electric razor or a toothbrush battery charger. Your Water Pik might run for a few seconds but you won't like the sound and then it will stop. On our cruise packing list is a long light-weight extension cord for our Water Pik. Kind of a pain always taking it out and putting it back for dental hygiene time. Hey but at least we've all got healthy teeth and gums as well as fresh breath!