echoshipmate

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

Great minds think alike!  🤣

 

Rafael

Look forward to meeting in person in December. Will touch base before then. Have a ball on your upcoming cruise!

Doug

@LACruiser88, just off 30 days on the Enchanted and 2 shows were fantastic, znd we are not show people. We saw Rock Opera 3x snd Spotlight Bar 3x, once on every 10 day cruise. If you haven't seen them on previous trips snd if they are on Majestic might be worth checking out. Best we have ever seen including NY, London! We are joining you on the December 1 trip around SA and are leaving soon for the 32 day Sapphire trip to Hawaii and South Pacific. Seems our tastes in travel align quite well, oh yeah, we are also booked on the Island 60 day in March, 2026!

Safe travels.

Doug

2 hours ago, Potstech said:

Also each person can bring one bottle on board with them in their checked luggage.  Even if one of those persons in the cabin do not drink wine.

Just a small correction, all bottles of wine must be in your carry on, not in your checked bags, othetwise you will be called to the naughty room!

36 minutes ago, KaiBlue said:

Hello - newbie to Princess - I don't see an option to pay for the wifi up front using a gift card?  I actually also wanted to prepay gratuities now using a gift card and also don't see that option on either the website or the app.  Is this something I have to call Princess directly to do? TIA!

Yes you have too call to use gift cards to buy internet. I did that yesterday. Not sure about prepay gratuities, you can ask if you call.

Doug

We also just completed internet purchase on our upcoming cruises but we did have to call in to get it as we were using gift cards. We were able to complete the purchases at the discounted $7.50 per day elite benefit price. Hope this helps someone.

The first cruise was 51 days around South America and the second was 54 days to the South Pacific, New Zealand and Australia round trip LA, so it was a significant savings.

Doug

Not sure, have seen some comments in this thread that it might be new standard. I dure hope not.

Doug

We did the Chef's Table this summer on Royal and it was horrible! Couldn't believe it was so bad nearly inedible and this was perhaps our 7th or 8th CT. It was veal or salmon for the main,  Both covered in caviar! Veal, caviar, really?

Think the cost was about $110 each with wine a real bust.

Doug

Has no one heard of zip lock baggies? It's really none of their business. Sometimes in the Crown Grill my unfinished steak magically appears in my refrigerator for breakfast or lunch the next day!

Doug

Leaving my towel on the floor and it's still there when I come back!

Doug

On 9/3/2023 at 8:29 PM, memoak said:

Your fact is wrong. I have played 1,000 dollars of free play and accumulated points for years. I have.$600 free play on a 4 day cruise this year I will bet I have points

I guess you have learned you were wrong about freeplay as you have not made any comments to the contrary. Many of us expected you to come back once you figured it out. Happy cruising and good luck in the casino.

Doug

We have sailed on the Majestic 3 or 4 times, already one of our favs and are are booked on her for the 51 day all the way around South America, LA to FLL December 1, 2024. Hope she keeps her good vibes!

Doug

On 9/27/2023 at 2:49 PM, memoak said:

I played nothing but free play last night on slots in the Crown Princess casino I have over 500 points.  No money at all was charged to my room. So there you are. My post was correct and either you were wrong or the casino does not like you

I think you misunderstand. Assume you have $600 in free play. You spin 600 times for $1, free play gone, 0 points earned. Let's further asdume you continue to play, with whatever $'s you have remaining from your free play. On your 601st spin at $1, you WILL earn points on that that point forward, still no money charged to your room/account,. You will earn points on all you spend with the free play money residual but not the initial free play spins. It just doesn't work the way you described. I had this exact conversation with the Casino Manager on our recent 3 weeks on the Royal Princess. Suggest you do too!

Doug

And a couple of $'s to your steward wouldn't hurt!

Absolutely worth upgrading if you are a wine drinker. Below Premier just generic wine, cab, chard, pinot, no name or info, not very good even for house wines.

Doug

On 9/3/2023 at 1:42 PM, dickinson said:

You call room service.  No charge to swap out.  We got bottles of water.

Typical Princess, on Royal a month ago room steward handled it!

Doug

We were on the Royal for 3 b2b's in July/August. We were invited to the Most Travellers Passengers dinner, called The Wine Makers dinner held in the back area of the dining room surrounded by the displayed wine bottles. Perhaps they were not able to sell enough takers for the WMD, as there are always lots of newer folks on Alaskan cruises. There was no charge to us as we were invited as were the other 8 guests. It was billed as a WMD, but only MTP attended. It was just as the old WMD, same menu, no Caymus wines, but all courses featured a different and good wine. We also attended the Chef's Table and it was horrible! I think our group was the guinea pigs for a new menu, nothing like the former menu. All good theater, lousy food. Biggest waste of $130 each. Made our opinion known to the DRO, nicely, to no avail. Was thinking maybe drop 1 of our covers, very disappointed in the attitude and the experience. Never again and this was probably the 5th or 6th we have attended.

Doug

Not quite. Funds on your medallion if you have money there from your balance can be cashed out out the cage, no paper tickets.

Princess free play does not earn you points. Just off a VIP cruise, my points did not start to accumulate until all free play had been used. Of course, you can earn points at any time by just charging to your room even with free play still available, but why would anyone do that?

Just home today from 3 b2b's on Royal. All rolled over, medallion app recognized cruise length from July 15 to today, August 5. Paid part of balance at front desk with AARP gift cards, easy peasy 

Doug

15 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

We did the same, Matt O was our CD!

I remember well, great guy 

3 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

 

Here's the itinerary, no info on fares yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for bring so prompt. We did this same trip when they repositioned the Royal in 2019 to the west coast, except we obviously went the other way around! It was wonderful.

Will certainly be on the lookout for the elite release. Thanks again.

Doug

2 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

@wallyj  Aloha!  Yes, I packed one of my Montecristi Panama hats, won't leave home without one! 

 

We are going to book the 51 day, 12/01/24, LA to Ft Lauderdale, Discovery voyage.  It will be available to book for Elites on July 26th.  None of the 50% off cruises worked for us.

 

See you onboard soon!

Any idea about the 51 day cruise itinerary on the Majestic? Thanks for the heads up!

Doug

11 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

I wash my hands all the time onboard the ships and I only use a knuckle to push elevator buttons. I use hand rails on the stairways but use my wrist rather than my hand. I just drape my hand over the rail and, if I need to use the rail, it's my wrist that makes contact. However, I seem to be constitutionally unable to not touch my face. Thankfully, all that had washing and taking care not to actually use my hands to touch much seems to work. I wash when I get to the stateroom, before I leave the stateroom, and when I enter the buffet (if I'm going there). It doesn't hurt to wash after getting your plate of food and before unwrapping your flatware bundle to eat. I don't really care if some other person looks at me like I'm a psycho for washing again. I just care about not catching the crud that the other person has left on the serving tongs.

People looks at us with the same psycho looks as we wear plastic gloves going through the buffet, I have seen what other folks do between stations. We too are hand washing fanatics, maybe even germophobes, but nothing yet with over 150 days on board since the restart, fingers crossed!

Doug

We have the premier plan on the upcoming Royal in Alaska. Before we upgraded to the plan we had already booked and paid for 2 crown grills. As soon as Princess confirmed our premier package, within days our credit card was credited the full amount for both dinners, really no big deal one way ir the other .

Doug

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A final thought on bidding. We are doing 3b2b' on Royal starting this Saturday. We booked a very inexpensive inside with the plan to upgrade somehow. Well, it worked, we bid barely over minimum for all 3 cruises. The first 2 we got an obstructed deluxe balcony, and most surprising, we got the same cabin for cruise 1 and 2, so no move! The 3rd cruise we got a deluxe balcony without obstruction. I was amazed  the algorithm somehow figured out we were on for more than 1 cruise and gave us the same cabin for cruise 1 and 2.  My point is, sometimes it might make sense to bid for an upgrade. We are tired of the summer heat, Alaska for 3 weeks be a welcome relief!

Doug