Jean C

Hahaha, me too! So frustrating 🥴

I paid $169 per night for an upcoming 17 night cruise on Princess, for a chosen balcony cabin. I generally consider around $200 per night pp for a balcony to be what I consider reasonable. Some go over a bit, some under, but we choose by itinerary and timing rather than spur of the moment bargains (have to travel from NZ so cheap last minute from Aus isn't cheap for us) 🛳

Hmmm, dunno about that!

Thanks all for the clarification. We definitely won't bid to upgrade then. Cruise Critic posters deliver again 💕

Thanks for your response. It's good that as it turned out you got a "better" upgrade. I can understand if your original cabin is uninhabitable for some reason, but they shouldn't "upgrade" those who specifically indicate not to be. One of the USA posters went to Guest Services who allowed them one phone call to Princess USA to sort it out, but in the end someone more senior came along and got them back into their original cabin. We always choose our cabin number in our favourite section and on the decks we're happy with, as there are so very many areas we specifically don't want to be in. I can't make my mind up yet whether bidding for an upgrade is going to be more trouble than it's worth! I've checked Princess and another site's Princess deck plans to see exactly where each category code is located and whether or not there are interconnecting cabins (none found) and four berths, and have made a note of the category codes we'd be happy with. We're very happy with our original choice so it's a tough decision, especially if it doesn't go to plan for some reason 😯

Hi all, when offered for a cruise a few months away, we're considering putting in a low bid for a cabin upgrade. We're fussy about location so when we originally booked we specified a particular cabin number and ticked the "no upgrade" box. As I understand it from CC, you bid for specific cabin categories, ie MB or ME (rather than randomly from balcony to mini) - is that correct? We'll be on a ship that has the new-fangled skywalk so definitely wouldn't want a cabin by or under the skywalk, which would be a different category code anyway. Because successful bids are final, do you think we can safely be confident that we wouldn't be given a mini in a category code that we hadn't bid for? Just out of interest, and slightly off topic, while searching CC for any helpful information, I came across a thread, by mostly Americans, who on their original booking had all ticked the "no upgrade" box, yet had at various times, including up to a day before departure, got an email saying they'd been upgraded, Where they weren't happy with the new cabin or location they swiftly got onto Princess and were able to get their original cabin back. Has this happened to any of the readers here? Something else I likely wouldn't want! Thanks in advance for any helpful responses 😊

Good info, thank you. I had my YF vaccine way back in the [cough, cough] 70s, would that still be a lifelong vaccine? Just curious, not something I need at the moment though. 🤔

The laughing emoji isn't meant as an insult to you - I share your opinion on some of the pictures posted here, so I found your guess funny when I read it, even though it turns out the pic was taken overseas, so please don't take offence 😊 Get well soon 🤕

I can't check for certain as the only upcoming cruise I have is USD on board currency and gratuities are an extra. But I am pretty certain that I've booked cruises before from Aus, where gratuities are included in the fare, but when logging into Princess the "prepay gratuities" window was there along with pre book fancy-pants dining, spa treatments, shore excursions, gift packages etc windows. I've never clicked on it though to see what happened next. I trust the views of some of the particularly knowledgeable cruisers on this site over what a run-of-the-mill TA or Princess Vacation Planner might say. All information needs to be weighed up and a personal judgment made. Not very helpful, but I'd know who I'd trust.

No idea, sorry. I imagine with so many inked people these days, and a desire to make money, that they may well overlook tattoos. A while ago the All Blacks were going to Japan and there was a big fuss made here about the Japanese not liking tattoos and they wouldn't be able to go to the bath houses etc. An official of some sort in Japan was interviewed and said that they would be welcomed. So maybe they're coming to terms with the Western penchant for body art. I'm waiting for the fashion to change back to unadorned skin and I'll be on trend again 🤣

Yes, spot on. I was surprised it didn't go sooner. Your turn. Willemstad is a fascinating place, so much interesting eye candy, as regards buildings and history. I'd researched self guided walking tours and found one for each district of Punda, Scharloo, Pietermaai and Otrobanda, one led on to another so it was essentially a circuit. Punda has the colorful colonial buildings, town square, shops, floating produce market and is fascinating in itself. Scharloo (pronounced Skarloo) has the many, many beautifully painted mansions, that they call "monuments", including the "wedding cake house". It's a street of mansion after mansion and they're restoring the derelict ones, which are no more than a bare cement shell, to these wonderful beautifully painted masterpieces. A labour of love in a very up-market district. Petermaai is a trendy district with nightclubs and bars, nothing spectacular architecture-wise there, although passageways to the rocky ocean front every so often. Ototobanda had the "lace house" - a bit disappointing, not so much lacey just heaps of criss-cross trellis. But it also has the Slavery Museum and lots of street murals and arty areas, including this dude reading his newspaper. It was a long walking tour but well worth it for all the sights we saw. There's some amazing street art everywhere, including in Punda, just stunning.

Now we're getting very close, not Aruba, one of the threesome.

No, it's being narrowed right down. It's south west and very likely visited by world cruisers.

Sorry, no, still further south east.

A couple of clues: I'm not in the USA and I'm surrounded by water.

No, not Miami, still further south east (I'm looking at a map this time, hehehe)

Humblest apologies, I'm geographically challenged - SOUTH East!

No, sorry still further north.

No, further north east.

Here's one for the cruise community. Hopefully someone will think, yes, I've seen that dude, rather than just doing an internet search (which I'm guilty of myself). Here goes -

Is it the Warrego River water tower in Augathella, Queensland?

Hahaha, I thought "only in America" [sorry USA] until I got to the last paragraph. I was waiting to see how much kitty's fare would be, and thinking all the way through that my little boy would hate it anyway 🤣

Minus the plastic ...

💕

Back in the day my daughter and I did a coach tour around Europe. At one of the dinners, a waiter gave a red rose🌹 to every female. My daughter kept a daily trip diary and popped her rose in the diary, as a memento. Thankfully they weren't quite so thorough back then. We were asked if we had anything, we'd long forgotten the rose so said no, and it wasn't picked up. We went oops months later when we rediscovered it! While waiting at the airport for a flight from Bris to Auckland we got talking to an elderly couple. They had mandarins in their carry-on bag and ate them at the airport. I commented to Keith that I would have kept them quite separate from my hand luggage. Sure enough, at the other end of the flight the sniffer dogs showed an interest in them and they were pulled aside, simply for the residual smell of the fruit!