jennybenny

But hopefully includes room & board?

I would say when you are doing something like this, order at the bar, not from a server. It's likely covered. They will charge you the zacapa, not the mojito.

The OBC gets applied to anything for your on board folio. So, if you buy something in the shop, extra dining, shore excursion on board, spa.... the OBC is subtracted from the total you owe. It's possible you won't spend anything on board, and then they keep it, unless it's refundable OBC. You could also go to the casino, play in a slot machine and then cash out, if that still works

We normally book holiday cruises as soon as the schedules are released, and then I watch prices regularly. We have repriced each cruise, at least once, up to 3 times per cruise. This was all prior to the restart (covid) so things may have changed. Our next cruise, booked for the summer, has only gone up in price, but I still watch for price changes. I book my Princess cruises with a PVP because with all my price checking, I felt it was annoying to my TA. I book non Princess cruises with a TA, because as far as I know, you cannot refare all cruise lines.

Tips are always controversial and people are very passionate on both sides. Tipping is personal. In my opinion, tipping in the USA is out of control, but needed to survive, I support USA tipping. In Europe, tipping is not expected, people round up, and that's acceptable, I support that too. I try to follow local customs. 🙂 People working on Princess ships are likely hopeful for American tipping culture, especially when cruising in the US. We have always given our bar staff a tip at the end of the cruise. Extra tip for room steward, sometimes. We don't see our wait staff often enough to feel connected enough to tip extra, but we always leave our tips in place. Nowadays, with the plus and premier packages those are included, otherwise we used to always pre pay because we wanted to have as many extra expenses paid for ahead of time. The main thing to remember is that you are not required to tip extra, but when you do, it is appreciated.

Buy one on your first port and bring it on. Maybe they won't take it there?

Your PVP may be on vacation, given you have not received a response, yet. I would call, not enter the extension and when someone answers ask if your PVP is available. If they are out, they will tell you and offer to send you to someone who can help.

Has anyone been able to book dining? I don't think they have??? We haven't been able to book any for our Sun Cruise in August.

Thanks, we are using Bob's limos. We used the on our last cruise. Someone else on the roll call booked them, and they kept adding people and we super patient about it. Plus, we forgot our passports at the hotel and they went back and didn't charge us more. So, we tipped in appreciation, and apologized to our van mates, and now we are booking them again. 🙂

Thank you Hank, very valid points. I just added fast track to our booking. I might change the pick up to 8 AM too

We too have considered not making Princess our first choice. We have high expectations of our Sun Princess cruise in August. We have cruised Oceania recently and absolutely loved it. Loved the specialty dining, the service, the crew, the people, the ship (Vista). Price wise, it’s more expensive but we used to cruise mostly holidays (with kids) and so we were used to a slightly inflated price point at Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years. I wouldn’t say we will ditch Princess forever, but we are considering looking elsewhere first. Our children are older now, one in college, one in High School, and they have not cruised Oceania with us, but in a few years, I think they will like it. I liked our last Oceania cruise more than our Princess cruises, I didn’t feel nickel and dimed, I loved the service, the ship, and the people on board. Maybe doing a European cruise was the difference, but it was enough to make use want to book Oceania. Our August cruise will be telling. Looking forward to it.

Thank you!! I wasn't sure just how early you could get off. I think 8 AM would work just fine, even offer a buffer. Thank you. I'm going to book my transfer now 🙂

Oh, I get it. What @voljeep recommends is what is best, take a drink into the MDR, and then when you are seated, order your drink from the waiter. Hopefully it's not something that will water down. THAT is how you don't go thirsty (alcohol wise) 😁 We have noticed drink service is slow in the MDR, but that's because your waiter/asst waiter are managing food and drinks for their area. It's a lot

Thank you @CruiserBruce and @cruisemom42!! I appreciate that. I will request a private transfer. Do you think I can request pick up at 8 AM or is that too early? 8:30 more reasonable? I only have experience arriving to this port, not leaving from it.

We have an early flight out of FCO, 11:40 AM on a Saturday in August. Wondering if it's better to just get off the ship and get a Taxi which does not have a set rate for the airport, or book a private transfer that does. Anyone with experience at the Civitavecchia port? Thank you in advance. Jennifer

OH!! OK. We ordered the medallion to be delivered to the port!! Thank you!! Whew!! We like the Medallion and have used them on several cruises. I just misunderstood that if you can't receive it in time at home that you have to go to GS, which IS a zoo the first day or two of any cruise. Thank you!! Much relieved!!

Whoa! I missed that the MAKE the medallion on the ship! Thanks for repeating that you get a card to board and then have it made at GS.... that SUCKS!!! That first day is nightmare at Guest Services!! Can you use the card the whole time or are you forced to get the medallion? We will be blue lane on our next cruise for the same reason, we won't be home with enough time before our cruise....

I would try the family suite route as Thrak suggested. You have to call for that, you cannot book online, but if it's available, it's a good way to have everyone in the same space. You can also get on wait lists for every category you are willing to take, and if you want 4 to a room, you can wait list that way. You still have to put a deposit down, but it is refundable if you don't get it. You can also ask where you are on the wait list. You can do that through Princess (calling) or your PVP at Princess or a TA, but when I do wait lists I want to have more control over things and that's doing it directly through Princess (for me). I've heard of amazing TAs that do it for you, but I just don't like the middle man in desperate times. lol Also, if you do get on a waitlist, check multiple times a day because most times they don't call you, you have to be the one to do all the work.

Part of the problem could be the muster station is full. That is why they won't allow 4 people in the suite, even if 4 people could fit in it. You can check the Princess deck plan to see if 4 people can be accomodated in that cabin number. I have no idea if they would let all 4 people in the cabin once on board, but I would assume they would not officially say they would make the room up for 4 if you can't book it. We have booked two cabins in the past, a balcony and inside room across from each other, or two to four balconies side by side, and gotten access to all the cabins at Guest Services. However, Suites have benefits that other cabins do not. If everyone is not in the Suite, there are some benefits all 4 will not be able to enjoy.

Yes, but the anticipation is killing me! lol. We are all speculating and won't know for sure until the first cruisers can tell us. I myself cannot wait to hear all about it!!

In the past we have booked with the "early bird" rates for most of our cruises. We haven't done an Australia cruise, but of the cruises we have booked early, we have often re priced them at some point. I always make sure its a refundable deposit and that we have the flexibility of making the changes. It can be annoying to keep hearing from me, but so far my PVP has not complained. I don't know if in Australia you can re price the cruise

I agree. No need for an intervention from crew, but security won't worry about a bad review. Every time they get called out, fine the parents if the behavior is unacceptable. Kids have medallions now. Contact parents, tell them there will be a fine every time the kids have security called, and start the fines coming. Some parents won't care, some parents, even absent parents, won't want to pay the fine. Sure, some people will try to get out of it, but if security has to get called, have body worn cameras, record the footage, and fine the parents. Hopefully the parents with annoying kids will chose a different cruise line. This is just a dream, no one would do this, but it's fun to think about. In ALL of my holiday cruises we've only encountered disruptive children twice on the same cruise, same kids and one time security was there. After that, we didn't see the group of kids terrorizing the halls. Some people just don't like kids, and when they splash around the pool, they get mad they got wet.... YOU ARE IN A POOL! So, people who are child adverse should not cruise during high kid season, pick an all adult line for that. 😁

I'm trying to be patient with these delays since it's a new ship, but really wish we could start booking dinner... no matter how far away the cruise is 🙂 Good luck @dog, I hope you get a good response with your request for help.

Still can't book for summer 2024, but excited to see the venues now when looking at dining for our cruise!! Get an error message stating "There are no available restaurants. Try to remove or change filters". We too are in a suite and see the same as @dides does on the app.

We absolutely love the holiday cruises and prefer when we can do both Christmas and NYE! We did it for years out of Los Angeles and San Francisco with the kids when they were younger, and now, as young adults, they still enjoy the holiday cruises. We agree, the bratty kids are annoying, but the hope is usually that parents will take care of their kids, I know we did when the kids were littles. I wish the cruise ships should fine parents when their kids are not being taken care of and misbehaving, but they won't. There are a lot of people on holiday cruises, the ships are usually at capacity with 3rd and 4th beths taken. We have been waitlisted for holiday cruises and gotten on, happily. We just haven't done them (holiday cruises) since the restart. The unexpected benefit for us has been the adjusted price point because holiday cruises are more expensive, and as we have been used to paying that for years, we can now play with other cruise lines during non holidays. So far so good.