JimmyVWine

Nope. Half price. The Crown Grill is not a Michelin starred restaurant. It is a nice venue, but not one where kids would feel out of place or unwelcome. No issue whatsoever with taking them there. My suggestion, as always when this issue pops up, is to dine on the early side before the kids get too tired to enjoy themselves.

Not any more. Since Princess upgrade (insert joke here) its wi-fi, "free" wi-fi" was converted to "half-price wi-fi". So instead of paying $10/day, you would pay $5/day (per person for one device each.) Factor that into your calculation as to whether Plus or Premier work for you. Under most circumstances, the Crew Appreciation will be $15.50 per day. The wi-fi will be $5 per day. So use those numbers to compare the basic fare with the Plus fare. In all likelihood, you will see that if you typically purchase 3 drinks per day, you will break even under Plus. More drinks that that and you come out ahead. Fewer drinks that that and you are better off going a la carte. But you have to look at your specific cruise and your specific pricing to be sure. MiniSuites are definitely not new. Not sure what Google is showing you. Club Class MiniSuites have been around for at least 5 years. Same square footage and layout. The difference is that they are 95% mid-ship cabins, many with extended balconies on the Royal Class ships that have that mid-ship feature. No difference in balcony size on Grand Class or Gem Class ships. The benefits come in other forms. Earlier boarding (which you will already receive) and a special section of the dining room where tables are set aside for Club Class passengers so that there is no wait whatsoever for a table. I have found that the "perks" are nice to have, but not ones that I am willing to pay for. I have only done Club Class on a upcharge upgrade where my cost per day was very low. But when I price out the difference for published cruise fares, the difference can be quite a bit. And more than I am willing to pay.

The last cruise I booked was under the "Kids Sail Free" promotion. Wife and I got Plus. Third person got nada. Spoke with my CVP and added Plus to the third person at the going rate ($50/day) so that we would not have to worry about Crew Appreciation, and because the third person is over 21 and will probably put a dent in the 15 drinks per day more than I will.

That's why one needs to drift from bar to bar, with cat-like stealth, never staying in one place for too long!

My now-adult daughter has been sleeping on Mini-Suite sofa on all of our cruises and she has never complained. Especially on the Royal Class ships. She is now 5 foot 7 and has had no issues.

And that is the point. A non-medical person who is trained to administer an on-line Rapid Test is still a non-medical person. That would not satisfy the term "medically supervised."

The on-line ones aren't necessarily "medically supervised." Most of the ones that I have done are simply supervised by a person who is verifying your identity and that you followed the instructions on the box. There is no "medically" in the equation whatsoever. If you go to a health clinic or pharmacy, you are being administered to by an entirely different level of person. At least, that has been my experience. So when I see "medically supervised", I take that to mean something other than an "observer" in Sri Lanka.

The reference to "Medically supervised test is required and you have to show certificate" to me reads as in-person with a piece of paper being issued. Same as what Princess states on the website.

Even worse that that...you can fly into Greece without testing, but you have to test to board a ship in Greece that is doing a 7 day, one-way trip OUT of Greece and not returning. So the people who flew IN to Greece and toured the country for a week can do so without a test. But as soon as they want to leave Greece by cruise ship, never to return, they have to test. Try explaining that!!

Holy zombie thread, Batman!

Somehow, a couple hundred thousand passengers on Princess have figured out how to make this all work for cruises touching Canada this summer. Not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of thousands more on other cruise lines. (According to industry estimates, more than 1MM passengers were expected to cruise into and out of AK in 2022). While the process may be cumbersome, it is by no means unworkable if a million+ people are figuring it out.

Looks like Planks walked the plank and Steamers ran out of steam.😜

I do not. Just trying to land on some general clarity for an issue that seems less than clear from the published material on the Princess site.

I don't think we have seen any reports of people with October cruises getting the invitation email yet. That fact would seem to be telling. Maybe too much of a scramble for them.

I'm not so sure. The rules posted on the website say the following. Based on this, your October cruises are long past 5 days within final payment. Bidding for those cruises would have opened up in July and presumably would have closed shortly after that. But the program wasn't open yet. Despite the process going into effect today, it might be that it only applies to cruises whose final payment date was last Friday or later. So people with cruises departing in December might start to get emails whereas people with cruises in October would not. And this would be for the reasons you stated. Your cruises are all showing as "Not Available", i.e., Sold Out. Can't play musical cabins with a sold out cruise. The whole point to this is to move people into more expensive cabins so that they can re-sell cheaper ones with flash sales, drop and go pricing, or make them available to Travel Agents. Bidding Eligibility To be eligible to submit a bid you need to meet the following requirements: Must be 21 years or older. The booking must be paid in full. The voyage must be at least five days within final payment. Voyage length Final payment due before sailing sate Bidding opens before sailing 5 days or less 75 days prior 70 days prior 6-24 days 90 days prior 85 days prior 25+ days 120 days prior 115 days prior

So perhaps the casino exemption is meant to caution people that they cannot go into the casino, tell the staff there that they have OBC, and ask to be given chips/credit. But if you can charge $100 to your account and then have that amount paid for with your "can't be used in the casino" OBC, then I don't understand the reasoning behind the "can't be used in the casino" admonition. It would appear then that what is really happening is that the OBC cannot be used in the casino, but can be used to pay for transactions that occur in the casino. Seems pointless.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/topic/1290932-lifeboat-obstruction-below-dolphin-deck/?do=findComment&comment=26566307

All of the balconies are at least partially covered except for the Mini-Sites on Deck 9. Those extend outward, are very large, but are open to the sky above. (I love them.) The Balcony staterooms on Deck 10 also have very large, extended balconies and those are partially covered. Those two decks are the only ones that make up the "wedding cake" aspect of the ship, and all other decks sit one right on top of the other so that each balcony covers the one below it.

Yes. You do not specifically assign the OBC to casino play. You just charge to your on board account. The charge will net against any credit or debit balance. What you posted makes sense, but the Terms and Conditions of the Shore Excursion Credit state as follows: $100 Shore Excursion credit per guest. Offer is applicable to all four guests in a stateroom. Offer is only applicable on bookings with Princess Plus and Princess Premier fares. Guests with single occupancy will receive double the per guest credit amount. Shore Excursion credit may be used on a single voyage only, is not redeemable for cash, cannot be used in the casino, expires at the end of that voyage and is not applicable during the land portion of cruisetours. So when we blend everything together it would appear that the Shore Excursion Credit is a unicorn in that it is non-refundable OBC that cannot be used in the casino.

There are also a number of purpose-built cases for checking wine below the plane. The ones in this website are the same types of cases that media folks use to check video and music equipment. They are essentially Pelican cases with specifically built foam inserts. I use the 8 bottle carrier shown in the upper right of the pictures, but I can only use it for domestic travel. If we sail out of Europe, I can't bring 8 bottles through customs. https://winecruzer.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwvNaYBhA3EiwACgndglr-p5fYQbcLjg3EPUQFXeqgF3r8kQbYRXxrit5SqyjxroZpqKRCkhoC7BcQAvD_BwE

Especially when they used "Voted Best Wine Bar At Sea" in their promotional materials. Announcer: "Hey Princess! You just won "Best Wine Bar At Sea." What are you going to do to celebrate? Princess: "We're going to tear it down and build a hot dog stand!"

Perhaps a travel professional who posts here knows the answers. In looking at the terms and conditions, it reads to me like it is non-refundable OBC. You have to have Plus or Premier to get the credit, so crew appreciation, dinks and coffee ore already taken care of, subject to any overage. So it looks to me as if they are calling it an excursion credit as they figure that is the most likely place for guests to use the money. (Since the introduction of Plus, I really don't covet OBC the way I used to as there isn't much for me to spend it on.) Since the T&C say that the credit cannot be used in the casino, I read that as implying that it can be used for other onboard expenses. Otherwise they would have said so instead of carving out the casino specifically. The old grammar adage that exclusion of the specific implies permission of the general. And since gifted OBC has traditionally been non-refundable, I assume the same is true here. These are just my guesses.

I know that there are many satisfied EZ Air users here and I don't question their stories. But I have never been able to get it to work for me. Most recently, we booked a Southampton to Southampton cruise for next Spring and the best fare EZ Air could give me was $880 per person roundtrip from either Boston or JKF to LHR. This was for flights on AA and/or BA depending on which flights I selected. On the AA website, I found the same flights for $560 per person. Booked direct with AA. Not the first time I have seen the same price discrepancy.

I don't think you, Pam and Mr. Padgett will all fit on your balcony hammock! 🤣

Your question is phrased as “get away with” which suggests that you are aware of the rule and are wondering if you can circumvent it. The answer is: No one can predict the outcome. I wouldn’t risk the chance of having a pricey bottle of wine confiscated and left behind at the port. And if the magnum is a cheaper bottle of nondescript wine, they have plenty of that on board included in the Plus Package.