Kenosha Cruiser

Glad you enjoyed the Ruby Princess and gave it good marks. It's also important to have a good crew. You did a good job with your live thread, great pictures on top of it.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

1 hour ago, Sulialto said:

current officers as of January 20, 2024

Thanks Susan & Paul for posting the pictures of the officers on the Ruby Princess. I will post this picture on our roll call of March 9th on the Ruby. It's nice to know who the captain and cruise director might be when we board. Have a wonderful cruise and we will be following along. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

If you get a chance, please post a picture of the officers of the Ruby Princess. I know they have a photo frame hanging somewhere near the piazza of them. I assume Natalie is the "Cruise Director". I'm not familiar with her, glad to hear you like her.  

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Thanks for starting your live thread with pictures. We will be following along as we board the Ruby Princess starting March 9th to the southern Caribbean for two weeks. Have a great voyage to the Panama Canal. 

We remember being with you on the Sky Princess back in Feb. 2023, you are a fun couple to hang out with.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

12 hours ago, cruisedoctor said:

Princess has found a way of increasing YOUR cost of dining in a SPECIALTY or CASUAL DINING restaurant, without raising the cover charge.  In the past, the cover charge included the gratuity, (although you could leave an additional amount if you felt the service warranted it).  That is changing, as an 18% service fee will now be added to "a la carte paid food" NOT part of a Princess Plus or Premiere Package.  Here is the notice sent to the travel agent community today.  

 

What's new on board

Gratuities now added for a la carte paid food & beverage items To better align with the rest of the cruise industry, Princess is adding an 18% service charge to all paid food and beverage items and experiences, including specialty and casual dining. This would apply for guests who book with Princess Standard fares. Guests sailing with Princess Plus or Princess Premier, however, will not incur the new charges on items included in their packages, such as casual dining, premium desserts and specialty dining (Premier only). Just another reason it pays to Plus (and Premier)!

 They make it sound like this isn't going to effect the passengers with the Plus or Premier packages.  But, it does if those package holders exceed the number of meals that are included in their package. 

 

Seems like Princess keeps finding ways to get more out of us. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Thanks for doing this wonderful live review, enjoyed following along with you. Great job!!!!

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Just joining in, your live thread looks amazing with all the information, Princess Patters and pictures. We will be doing the same 14 day itinerary on the Ruby come March 9th, only difference is we will stop in Bonaire instead of Curacao. Looking forward to following along on your cruise adventure. Have fun!!!

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Received the same E-mail for our Oct. 21-28 cruise on the Emerald Princess. Doesn't effect our flight either out of LGA. Hope it's the same for everyone else.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

14 minutes ago, bjkTX said:

I'm on the way out the dorr so I don't have time to do a search - hoping someone will have the answer when I get back home later today.

 

Yesterday I gave my TA a list of eleven $500 Princess gift cards to pay off an upcoming cruise.  She responded that 10 had processed but one came back saying it had a zero balance.  I had checked the balances on all of them before I sent them to her.  When I check that card it also says zero.  I called the Princess Gift Card place from the website and she checked and said it had a zero balance as of yesterday - that it had been used yesterday (along with the other 10).  My TA says it's empty so they can't do anything.  I submitted an inquiry to the same Gift Card office to see what they could tell me but got a reply this morning that they can only check the balance - not where it went.

 

I know in reading this thread over time others have had issues.  If you did - how did you get it resolved???  Thanks.

 

Brian

Call AARP, they will connect you to the department that handles their gift cards. This has happened to me with one of the cards I bought and was resolved by them contacting Princess. Just have the order number, date of order, gift card number, pin number and amount to give them. It took a few weeks and a couple calls, but the amount was put back on the original card I bought. Good luck. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

I found this listed with the Princess Plus package for the juice bar. It states: Only available at breaklfast and lunch during the opening hours of the World Fresh Marketplace and other adjacent locations at which juice is served.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

We bought the Princess Plus Beverage Package for our up coming cruise on the Emerald Princess for June 17th. Where would the juice bar be located and what actually do they serve.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

karatemom2, nice review and pictures. We we're on the cruise with you and it really was a fantastic cruise! Like you, it was also our first time overseas and we enjoyed all the ports, so much to see and do, but wish we had more time. We also enjoyed the entertaiment like you said, but thought the singer ShellyAnn was exceptional and what a great personality. The only thing I disagree with you, was the pizza on the top deck. We had it a couple of times and loved it. Best to you in your future cruises. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

You guys are to hard on Fortuna Luck. We think she makes bingo more interesting and fun. Some of the jokes may be corny, but so what. She is real friendly and pleasant to talk to. Here's a picture of us with her on the Sky Princess back in February. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Besides the expanded buffet area which includes a tasty Pastry Shop, we love the the greatly enlarged piazza area. The hub of the ship with activities day and night.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

2 hours ago, ROWSE said:

Can't remember if I did, but we got (GBP)Pounds and Euro's from the bank before we left as I never like to have to search that out once on a trip.

We very seldom used cash and some places were actually "no cash" venues.  We purposely used

up our cash.  We took too much.  I would now go with about 200 pounds maybe, and 100 Euro.  Unless of course you were paying for excursions with cash.   

Euro's were the currency in Cobh, Dublin, and LeHavre and GBP in all the others.

Thanks for posting who takes Euro's and pounds. We will also purchase some of these currency's at home before our cruise. We plan to mostly use our credit card, but with all the excursions we have booked, we need local currency for tips, etc. 

Thank you again for sharing your travel adventure to the British Isles. We really enjoyed everything you spoke of and especially the beautiful pictures. Can't wait for our British Isles cruise to start Aug. 25th!

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

3 hours ago, ambelina said:

Thank you, Ken and Darlene. Hope you have a great time on your British Isles cruise also. We are really enjoying this review and it is helping us get excited. We would love to cruise with you again and will look into the Sky cruise.

 

Donna & Jim, sounds good, hopefully you can swing the Sky Princess cruise on Feb. 25th. It would be fun seeing you guys again. Enjoy your cruise to the British Isles. ROWSE (Kitty & Jim) sure are supplying us with great information on their review! 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

15 hours ago, ambelina said:

Thank you so much for your great review. We are going on the Emerald in July and wondered if Princess had a shuttle going to Dublin after the tender. Thanks

Donna & Jim, have a wonderful cruise to the British Isles with your grandson next month, we will be on the same cruise August 25th. ROWSE is doing a wonderful review of their cruise, loving all the information and pictures. 

We booked our Caribbean cruise for next Feb. 25th on the Sky Princess (14 days), come join us if you can. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Kitty & Jim, thanks for doing your review! I'll be following along as we board the Emerald Princess August 25th to the British Isles with Liverpool. Like you, this will be our first time overseas and we have completed 40 cruises with Princess mostly throughout North America. It was funny to see we have the same obstructed oceanview cabin booked for August (E702) as you. We are also flying Delta booked with Princess EZ-Air. Milwauke to Minneapolis and then to London. Loving your thoughts and pictures, thanks for doing this. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

5 hours ago, 1emerald1 said:

Thanks for getting that info!  How did you like him?  I've never cruised with him before.  One more favor please, if you have time could you ask who the Director of Restaurant Operations on Discovery will be?  And I very much enjoy your LIVES!

We we're on two cruises when DuVaul Gamble was assistant cruise director. He was one of the best! Very friendly, great dancer and he worked for Sesame Street Productions before joining Princess. He's from St. Louis. I'm happy he made it to cruise director. We hope to see him on the Discovery Princess for the "Love Boat" theme cruise on Oct. 22, 2022. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Love following your live thread along with your pictures. You do an amazing job! Have a wonderful cruise. We will be boarding the Enchanted Princess Feb. 28th. We always fly down to Ft. Lauderdale the day before to be safe, but even the day before you can run into flight problems. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

We wanted to do this cruise, but we are already booked on the Enchanted Princess in February. I feel bad for the folks who booked the Love Boat theme cruise and now it won't happen next month. Because of the switch, we will now have the opportunity to book the Oct. 22nd cruise on the Discovery Princess. I have a good feeling that cabins will fill up quick for this cruise, especially since the Discovery Princess is a new ship in the fleet. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

1 hour ago, Bgwest said:

TRANSCRIPTION

“Princess cruise has an important message for you here is your message this is an important message from princess cruises about your upcoming sailing there are required items in your medallion class app need your attention to prevent delays at the pier and to customize your cruise experience if you haven't already please download the medallion class app to your smart phone or tablet if you've already completed this information and Evergreen Lane ready that's great please remember to bring your original proof of COVID-19 vaccination your negative COVID-19 test results and travel documents to the pier please note that we cannot accommodate just using oxygen tanks for dialysis at this time if you are having technical issues with our app please call us at one 800 princess we look forward to welcoming you on board goodbye…”

 

 

 

Received the same message last night on our cell phone. I wonder why Princess would contact us when our medallion app was already green lane for a few weeks now. We are cruising on the Enchanted Princess Feb. 28th. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Really enjoying your presentation, your style is perfect! Can't wait to hear more of your cruise vacation. 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

32 minutes ago, Coral said:

They said 1800 on next voyage, 800 crew.

My flight was cancelled when at dinner last night. About an hour later, United re-assigned me going through Chicago instead of Denver.

 

will post final thoughts when I get home.

 

Thank you for the live thread, really enjoyed following along. I sure hope your flight is on time and not cancelled. It's been a rough time for airline passengers this week. Can't wait to board the Grand Princess in May for our Alaskan cruise.

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

Thanks for doing this live thread on the Grand Princess. The Christmas decorations look beautiful, also thanks for posting pictures. We will be on the Grand for the first time in May doing Alaska. Glad to hear the ship is in great shape. Have a wonderful time on your Christmas cruise! 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene