PTMary

Sorry if I misunderstood.

Perhaps if the OP had asked for advice first instead of storming ahead with accusations, more of us would be more sympathetic.

Princess will always use up non-refundable OBC first. This is pretty standard on all US based cruise lines.

We are only Gold with a single ten day cruise history. We have been able to make all dinner reservations, both in MDR and Specialty. Our cruise is still seven months in the future and we made those reservations about two month ago. We have not yet made the final payment. A couple we cruised with in the past are on a different Princess cruise three weeks after us and are also Gold, but with one additional cruise than us. They have also made all their dinner reservations. IMHO, there seems to be no Platinum and Elite requirement. Otherwise, how were we all able to book our reservations?

I have contacted Princess three or four times in the last couple of months. I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes for my turn. Do people really experience waits of 3 hours?

We were originally booked on Ruby Princess which had a one day stop in Honolulu. The ship was swapped with Royal Princess, which now does an overnight in Honolulu. The excursions listed for both cruises are the same. Looking over the excursions available, there is no way to select the second day to book any of the excursions. Currently it appears that all excursions are only available for the first day, just like when Ruby was doing a one day stop. I contacted Princess (less than a five minute wait at 4:30pm PDT) and they told me they have no listings for the second day either. They suggested checking back later to see if the excursions have been expanded. There are two excursions we are considering that happen at the same time, so we would like to do one on each day. One is to the North shore, is 6.5 hours long, and returns two hours before the time the ship would be leaving if they were offered on the second day, so we would prefer the ships tour for this one in case of transportation delays. I am assuming that the latest time to return the ship is 1 hour before departure. My questions are, have you seen the excursions offered on both days if overnighting, or does Princess only schedule them for the first day as normal policy? Should I wait to see if the lists get updated, or may this be a screw up caused by the ship swap and subsequent change to an overnight stop that will never get fixed? Thanks for any advice.

No more fizzy then them being handled by truck to the store where they were purchased and move to the aisle and placed on the shelves. After a few hours cooling in the fridge they will no longer be fizzy.

On our last Princess cruise 3 years ago I attached a luggage tag to my 12 pack and it was delivered to my room with the rest of the luggage. I did strengthen the cardboard carton with packing tape to make it harder to accidentally tear open. Apparently the rules have changed since then.

Middle of March.

Careful where you tip. Some countries consider it an insult when people from more generous countries, especially Americans, give them a tip to show their appreciation for their service. They won't refuse the tip, but they will complain about those "Ugly" Americans while spending it.

Yeah, I know. Some of those old world English speaking cultures are stubborn and think they are superior to the much younger, and much more advanced, "colonies". But, I have to keep hoping. Otherwise civilization is doomed - at least in those other countries! LOL!

The way tips are handled on US based cruise ships has as much to do with tax laws in the crew members home country as it does for cultural reasons. For a quick summary of these reasons, read this linked post from a different discussion if you care about educating yourself about how this is handled on Princess and other cruise lines. Perhaps then you might no longer be so incensed about how this is handled. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2871504-tipping-at-the-port-how-much/?do=findComment&comment=63729764

There are plenty of facts in their comment. Many of the changes they speak about I have seen with my own two eyes. Ships that have areas converted for suite only people. Areas that used to be for everyone now being blocked off for high paying passengers. New ships being built with different areas for different classes of people. Some have expansive areas exclusively for the wealthy that are so walled off that they never have to come into contact with us peasants. A person voicing their opinion of what is changing in the cruise industry, especially Princess on this forum, seems to be exactly what Cruise Critic is all about - sharing opinions. And you seem to agree on some of those points, so not sure why you think they are "angry" and you aren't? Your opinions are no more valid than that poster, yet you seem to think that yours are somehow fine but theirs aren't. I just don't get it!

Thank you both! Mahalo!

Please don't reduce the gratuities for the crew. They work very hard to make your cruise as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. They count on the gratuities to supplement their wages, and if they are removed, you would be taking advantage of them - ie: making them work for less pay then they deserve. I have never had any reason to reduce the grats on any of my cruises. If you aren't satisfied with the service, speak to the customer service desk and get it resolved THEN, not live with it and reduce the grats at the end as punishment. Be kind and considerate and let them have what they have earned. Please.

About a decade ago on another cruise line's ship we had the same thing happen. The crew was cleaning the balconies, the window/door glass, and the glass railings and opened up all the partitions so they only had to access one cabin to do all the balconies. This was on a port day, so fewer people were inconvenienced. Everyone affected got a notice the day before.

Yeah, that didn't last long. Same people as always - sigh!

You can add the drink package anytime, even a few days into the cruise (they will prorate the cost for the days you actually have left).

I was watching a YouTube video of a cruise review and the author mentioned that they had to wait almost 2 hours because eleven people on the cruise before them tried to stowaway on the ship, delaying almost 4,000 people from boarding.

We had booked Ruby out of San Francisco in March 2023 but the ship got swapped with Royal. It's a newer ship with more amenities, but due to it's size we lost Hilo and Kauai, both docked ports, replaced by Kona, a tender port. Both itineraries stopped at Maui, another tender port, so now we have to tender at two out of our three Hawaii stops. 🙁 We now overnight in Honolulu, with a departure at 4:00 pm the 2nd day. All other Royal cruises before and after us also overnight in Honolulu, but stay until 11:00 instead of 4:00, allowing people to enjoy two evenings on shore. For some reason we're the only rescheduled cruise that has to leave early, eliminating 7 precious hours we could have spent on shore. That 2nd evening would certainly have been nice to have. We almost cancelled due to one less port visited and a shorter stop in Honolulu than all the other Royal cruises. ☹️

We'll be in Maui the middle of March. That was interesting about the geography. Thanks.

Thanks! A somewhat amusing whale story: we took Grand Princess out of San Francisco to Alaska several years ago. We did a whale watching tour out of Ketchikan. We saw three whales, way off in the distance. It was quite underwhelming considering how our departure sail out of the bay went. After we left the dock on Fisherman's Wharf and after we had just sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, we saw four whales along side the ship heading towards the bay. Just 1/2 hour into our cruise and barely out of San Francisco, we saw more whales, and closer up, than on what should have been a highlight of the Alaska excursions. Here is a poorly framed photo of one of the whales exhaling. Look for the "smudge" just to the right of dead center of the photo. Mother Nature has a pretty good sense of humor! 😊

I mentioned "to satisfy everyone". I do realize that satisfying everyone is like trying to push a rope up hill! LOL! But, I gotta try anyway. Thanks again!

No problem! Thanks for the additional info. But I'm not necessarily looking for a company to book with at this time. I am asking if anyone knows who Princess contracts with for the excursion in question. I want to know how much extra they charge over what the price is if booked directly with the actual company. Some in my small group want to book through the cruise line, and some want to do it on their own. I wanted the know the cost difference to help make the best decision to satisfy everyone.

I just looked over their website and there is no mention of these being Zodiac tours. If fact, every selection suggests a larger boat with refreshments and bathrooms available, something as Zodiac certainly would not have.