jennyg2610

How about, you phone a travel agent. They should know the answer. Or phone the cruise line. It usually is a deposit then final payment.

Yes you are right Anjo. I would say it might have been a travel agent deal going at the time. If it's says you have paid it, then you should not get charged again onboard.

Hi There!

 

This may be somewhere in a thread but I was wondering about the Princess Beverage package...my DH will be purchasing the package on our next cruise in May, but I do not drink enough to bother with it, so will not be getting one. My question is, if he purchases a bottle of wine in the restaurant at a 40% discount can I also share that bottle? I know that he can't buy drinks for me:rolleyes: but it seems that if you buy the bottle even at a discount that may be different?

 

Thank you

My husband bought the package and I didn't. He bought me bottles of wine at different bars for me to drink. He never shared it with me, he just got his glasses.

Arrived home just yesterday after a great time on Sapphire in Asia :D

 

 

 

Not a smoker myself, but I believe the area is starboard on promenade deck

 

 

 

Completely off topic, but the kettle in the cabin was much appreciated by this Brit :D

We also enjoyed making our own cup of tea in the morning too. I wish all the ships had a kettle. Although we did get proper cups from horizon.

We were on in January and it was the starboard side. We remember as we had to walk through the smoke when went outside.

We have visited London quite a few times and have the hop on hop off busses are great. It gives you a good overview with lots of information plus you get to go on a river cruise in with the price.

Sorry, I meant you can take independent fjord (on water) tours but we took the Princess overland Hellesylt to Gerainger tour. It covered a lot of distance so I don't know if you want to chance doing this on your own. It was an excursion worth taking, this and the Stavanger fjord (to Pulpit Rock) tour. Not much but fishing village at Gravadal. You can do Honningsvag to the North Cape on your own simply pay fair for the bus: http://www.nordkapp.no/en/travel. I'd pass on the bird watching tour, real disappointment.

Ok thanks for that. We have done the cruise in Stavanger last time when we stayed with relatives. It is a good one. This trip we will catch up with those rellies again for the day. The old town Stavanger is fantastic to walk around too.

We were went there in January and I booked a day trip through wegowithanuar.com. The driver and guide was brilliant, took us to places we had previously not been to before. They have itineraries that a tailored to shore excursions but they will tailor make also. We got back to the ship in plenty of time and the traffic was fine.

We did the Princess Land of the Midnight Sun last year and was fantastic. We went to all the destinations you mentioned except Olden. For Stavengar I do recommend the Princess excursion since the fjord is far away and well worth it. Hellesylt and Gerainger are on same fjord and can be done on your own independently. We took the excursion overland from Hellesylt and returned to Gerainger with beautiful view from above, very scenic excursion - I thought it was worth it. In Bergen we just did it on our own using the Hop-on Hop-off for the day. Definitely try something at the fish market where they cook the days catch in front of you! Enjoy.

Thanks for your information, we are also doing this cruise. I understood we had to go with Princess if we were to do the Hellesylt to Gerainger tour so it was good to know you can do it on your own. Did you book beforehand?

First tour listed at http://www.princess.com/excursion/exlistfordestination.page?portid=FL1&t=R&exType=S

 

You get it at Flam.

Ok thanks, we don't go there on our cruise. Only go to Bergen twice and Stavanger where we are meeting my relatives, Olden, Hellesylt and Geiranger.

Not true. TA has nothing to do with your personal purchases. Call again and speak to someone who is not a dummy. But sometimes, you only get dummies. :(

Thanks, thought it was a bit odd. Your personal OBC does not show up in your personiliser so it's always good to have that extra confirmation.

We are booked on this cruise too leaving the 29th August. Can you tell me where you get the Flam Railway? Is it from Bergen? How far do you go as it goes to Oslo. I have looked in Princess Excursions and can't find it. Thanks in anticipation for information on this trip.

Yes - I called the gifts number and prepaid for a couple of different drink packages and OBC. I asked for an email confirmation. The charges were posted to my credit card a couple days later.

 

Call them back to ask for the email confirmation and ask if it went thru ok.

 

I always take a printout of my confirms with me onboard as proof of purchase just in case the info doesn't make it to the ship.

We bought OBC for our cruise but was told that they could not send a confirmation email as we had booked through a TA. Have to ask the TA to get it.

Do you know if the package includes only "rail" liquor or can tangueray, for example, be requested?

Our friends travelling with us, always had the Bombay Sapphire Gin. As long as it is under $10. The men reckoned there was a different taste to the identical wine they bought by the glass to the bottle but who knows!

The formal night that has the champagne waterfall. Last time it was our second formal night. We had a special 50th Anniversary Dinner with gold plates and a menu that you can take home.

This has been posted on the Princess thread. It leaves London on 28 September 2016.

 

LONDON (SOUTHAMPTON), Rome (Civitavecchia), Naples (for Capri & Pompeii), Sicily (Messina - for Mt. Etna & Taormina), Suez Canal Transit, Aqaba (for Petra), Dubai (overnight), Cochin, Phuket, Singapore, Ko Samui, Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Bali (Benoa), Perth (Fremantle), Margaret River (Busselton), Melbourne, SYDNEY

 

They selling is as 48 days to Sydney, 46 days to Melbourne, 41 days to Fremantle. Will be a lot of sea days.

 

What are people thoughts on the itinerary.

Sounds a good itinerary, I guess it depends on the price. Usually relocation is a fair bit cheaper. A lot of sea days. 15 stops over 48days!

I understand Princess offers an alcohol beverage package for $49 @ day + 15% gratuity per day. Can anyone tell me if this package must be purchased for EVERY day of the cruise? For example, Can I purchase it midway through the cruise? Or if I don't want the package the final two days, may I purchase it for the first 10 days? Have you found this package to be worth it since it covers drinks up to $10. Does that include name brands (like tanqueray gin)or only rail brand alcohol?

We had a 10 and 3 day BTB cruise on the Sapphire. My husband purchased it for the 10 day but didn't get it for the 3 as it was port intensive. The answer is you have to buy for all days if it's a single cruise. My husband found it was definitely worth it. In the dining room they were bringing him 2 glasses of wine at a time. He would buy me a bottle of wine at the 40% off price. Our cabin was close to a bar and he would get drinks to bring back. I am not a big drinker so I chose to buy my drinks but sometimes the waiter didn't charge, just put it on my husbands. Getting big bottles of water for shore was great and coffee was included which is much better than the normal coffee.

Is there something that you do "special" to get your free minutes (we are both platinum as of our last cruise)? Can someone walk me through logging on to the internet to get the free minutes? Is this something automatic when logging on for the first time? We will be using iPads.

 

Thank you.

It is pretty easy, switch your wifi on and it will pick up the ship signal. If you have any problem, take it to the Internet counter and they can set you up and even put an app on. The main thing is to make sure you log off or you will use your minutes very quickly. I use my iPad and iPhone with no problems.

Does Princess charge a fee for paying either or both of deposit and final payment by credit card booking from Australia? I can't find anything about it on their webpage but going back over last years payments I see that both payments to Princess were greater than the listed amount and I am trying to work out if it was just the foreign exchange fee or if a credit card fee was included as well. If so, is it higher for Amex than MC or Visa? I am planning my cruise for next year and trying to weigh up how best to make the payments - balancing off fees v 'complementary" travel insurance for paying by credit card.

We weren't charged any credit card fee when we bought some OBC. If your cruise was outside of Australia and your account was in USD then yes you pay a transaction fee on your CC. That's why we have bought OBC before we leave to avoid the transaction fee and plus Princess are giving a good exchange rate too.

I brought some OBC for my last cruise to New Zealand and have just returned. One thing to keep an eye on is that the notice in my cabin said the OBC was in USD. When I checked cruise statement they did a straight dollar for dollar swap. I then went and checked it as 1usd does not equal 1aus.

 

After much going back and forward they finally agreed and I got the extra money.

 

I wonder how many people have not check there onboard statement?

 

 

 

It pays to check everything.

 

 

 

Chez

It does pay to check your statement as we have been charge at least a dozen times, extra drinks which weren't ours. It was very easy to check as it wasn't our signature.

Great thread - thanks for posting.

 

I'm curious tho' ... for those Aussies who bought OBC, did you buy your cruise here in Australia or through and O/S Travel Agent?

 

I'm just wondering if that made any difference to being able to access this great exchange rate?

 

Cheers

Heather

We booked our cruise through Flight Centre but rang Princess Direct in Australia. We bought $2000 US for $2200. No credit card fees as it was charged in Aussie dollars. If we had know about it for our last cruise on the ?Sapphire, we would have saved $200.

When I asked about our pre paid OBC (we gifted it to ourselves) - the lady at Princess said yes - if there is any OBC left, it is refunded to your credit card. She pointed out that sometimes people mix the two OBC up- and expect a refund from the OBC that is offered with a fare. That makes sense.

 

They ain't gonna give you "their money" - us it or lose it.

Yes that's what we understood as well.

Just wondering if anyone has upgraded once they are on board?

We tried but was told we needed to wait until the next day to see if this was possible. We did not get it. Have not tried again as I always pick the cabin and position on the ship where I want to be, close to an outside deck.

It's more the fact that I have an autistic 5 yr old who. Likes to run and won't follow a group. Nor understand that the dragons don't want to be sat on, dragged by the tail ect

Ahh, that would be a concern. I understand now. I hope you enjoy your cruise anyway.

As long as they are really nice flip flops with a tasteful amount of bling. Tell the matre'd that I said it was OK.

That's funny. It actually happened to our friends when we were on the Ruby Princess a few years ago. His formal shoes fell apart and he told the maitre'd that he couldn't come to formal night as he had no other shoes to wear with his suit. He replied, "you wear funny hat and no one will notice that you not wear shoes".