wallyj

Future cruise agents on the Discovery in January, Crown in May and the ones on the Sapphire this month were adamant, the 50% off promo is not combinable with using a FCD. I am fortunate to have been able to sail those months and see the promo evolve. Also, in January and May, 50% off also applied to plus or premier add on, but when the agents tried to add Premier on my solo sailings this month on board, plus would price at $30/day, Premier priced at a discount but higher than $40/day, closer to $50/day. What ship were you on? So as you have stated, consistently inconsistent.

I have the list as of July 12 when I disembarked, provide email and I can send you. You only need to pay in full if within final payment, else $100 non refundable deposit. Can not use FCD with this promo, but shareholders and military combinable if applicable, also TA group amenities not combinable, so if your TA happens to already have a group for one of these sailings, you cannot get the OBC, but if your TA discounts their commission, that is still allowed.

I have made 3 EZAir refares in the past week for my Dec1 cruise with final payment due August 3, so I do not have to worry about a ‘refund’ situation yet. After I make final payment on August 3, I have till Oct 16 to still cancel/change my EZAir flights without any penalties. I have the time to constantly check EZAir fares. I am booking a one way international flight from Santiago to LA. The fares have fluctuated a few times each day, so it was interesting to me to see the fares go up and down in the same day for the same flights by hundreds of dollars. EZAir fares easily beat booking direct with the airlines, by almost $500 for this one way itinerary. When I have made final payment on an EZAir booking and then refared to get a lower price, I am usually able to rebook my new flights myself, but usually had to call EZAir to ‘process’ the refund and then would see the credit on my credit card in a few days. This booking I will be using multiple AARP gift cards to pay final, so hopefully it will be easy to track which gift card is refunded if needed in the future if I refare my flight again before penalties.

Princess is known to have cabins held back that you cannot see, plus they know last minute cancellations and no shows happen for various reasons. The 3rd party company that handles the bidding process is also using the data collected to help establish bidding thresholds and what passengers are willing to bid, even if all categories are ‘sold out’. This is part of the ‘process’ and the 3rd party company is doing what most competent bidding processors do.

Hi @Steelers36, I always enjoy your contributions and insights. When the 50% promo was introduced in January and extended in May, yes the sailings that qualified were only within a few months. Now the list covers sailings till May 2024, so ‘fairly soon’ depends on your definition. I feel 10-11 months is not ‘fairly soon’, but others might. @Rick&Jeannie, the 50% promo is ONLY available to passengers ‘on board’, but we have no ideal how long the promo will last.

When I was on the Crown in May, yes, the 50% applied to both ‘plus’ and ‘premier’, meaning if you wanted to upgrade your booking , plus would price at only $30/day and premier would price at only $40/day. Just off the Sapphire last week and when the consultant priced the 50% sailings I was interested in with ‘premier’ it was not pricing at only $40/day although plus would price at only $30/day. As I posted, the consultant called shoreside and was told ‘plus’ and ‘premier’ are NOT supposed to be discounted. Just passing in my experience.

I believe Princess ramped up their contract at the beginning of the year with O.N.E. to do future cruises and now Loyalty. In January, they offered 50% off fare for most cruises till May 2023, around May the cruises were extended to those sailing by end of August, now there is a specific list(about 2 1/2 pages) of qualifying sailings leaving till May/Spring 2024. Exception is Reserve Class and above(suites) do not qualify. So I have not see any specials for sailings 2 or more years out. 50% off was also working with ‘plus’ fares(pricing at only $30/day) but Premier was NOT pricing at 50% off(was showing $47-$49/day). Future cruise called shoreside and was told ‘plus’ and ‘premier’ are not supposed to be discounted, so who knows if this will be corrected. Future cruise also said they have no ideal how long this 50% off promo will last and when it might end, but you can see it has evolved over the past few months.

@phoebe2m, I would resubmit, my friend submitted his request for his 4 upcoming cruises he booked, while we just on board the Sapphire, yesterday and just texted me, the shareholders have been applied to all 4 bookings, so that department seems to be processing requests currently in 1 day. I think your original request got lost? You do know how to check if the benefit is applied? Princess does not notify you your request has been completed.

Check your spelling? Yes, you have it correct in your thread, but unless you have the contact saved, it is easy to have a typo. I submitted my request last Thursday for 3 upcoming sailings around noon, happen to check around midnight that same day, and all were posted with my shareholders benefit, one of the quickest turnarounds for me.

On most of my Princess sailings, a singles/solo meet up (no host) is usually listed in the daily ‘events’ which you should receive nightly for the following days schedule. Many current ‘live from’ threads you will see they have posted the ‘event’ listing to give you an ideal. If not listed on your sailing, contact the Cruise Director with a note at Guest Services to add an event. Princess has no control on which passengers decide to ‘attend’. I saw a solo you tuber who had a video saying he was the only one to show up on one of his sailings. YMMV. Check out and participant in cruise critic roll calls and that other social site.

Do you know about the ‘roll call’. I see there is one for this sailing with SF to Sydney,Sept 26, which will cover your ports you are interested in. Also check out the ‘ports’ boards. Also check out the shore excursions offered, which should give you an ideal of suggested things or tours. With only a couple of months to your cruise, you are a little late in getting tours booked and may find some are sold out already, but if you just booked, you have some researching to do.

Even if the OP booked as one 14 day sailing, they would have received a minibar on each turnaround day and receive 2 credits if not booked as solo or in a suite. Years ago, you would have only received one cruise credit, but Princess updated its programming, in this instance, and should recognize that longer sailing is comprised of shorter voyages, and thus credit you for each. I have heard the term ‘logical’ sailing. I know there is an exception to this in the SYD to USA sailings, as usually Princess will offer a short 4 or 5 day sailing Syd to Auckland and Auckland to USA, only if you book these as separate sailings, will you get credit for each. If you book Syd to USA, you will get 1 credit. I know Princess may then offer LA to YVR as a continuation or Syd to YVR, which includes the LA to YVR segment and assume you would get credit for that as a separate voyage if you booked Syd to YVR.

@startedwithamouse, I am just off 14 day Alaska on the Sapphire. I am not a coffee drinker, so I do not know what was available at the IC, but in the buffet, the front drinks stations had 2 huge Lavazza branded dispensers(one for reg and one for decaf) that look like big drip coffee machines. A large funnel like piece can be attached at the top, which I assume has grounds, when the dispenser needs to be refilled. I witnessed the refilling one afternoon. Crew member will turn the dispenser with the spigot covered, so it should be obvious it is being refilled with the funnel like object in place at the top and coffee now flowing down into the dispenser. The back buffet drinks stations still have not been upgraded for the Lavazza dispensers and you will get the ‘syrup’ coffee from those stations. I did not notice anyone with Lavazza ‘can’ products. Assume on Royal class ships the coffee machines in the Buffett drinks station will eventually have ‘Lavazza’ beans?

@happy42cruise, are you replying to post #16? I believe they state they did not put in bid to upgrade. If you are replying as a fyi, for anyone that has received an upgrade not from the bidding process and still has active ‘bids’, I agree, cancel your bids if you are satisfied with your complimentary upgrade. I have read on another Cruiseline, after passenger received complimentary upgrade, bidding system still processed ‘bid’ and passenger was moved and charged.

I believe in the APP, you have Journey View which is not always in sync with what is printed on the paper patter. When in doubt/conflict, the patter is supposed to be ‘correct’. I think you can get a close digital version of the patter by typing in your browser shipname.princess.com, using the ships intranet, meaning you do not need to be on paid WiFi. Replace shipname with the name of your ship, examples are ruby, royal, majestic, etc. You will see many passengers still prefer to carry on them the paper patter to reference throughout the day.

I believe the ships have gone to only ‘one’ page printed front and back and usually it will say ‘events’ listing but just off the Sapphire and a couple days it said ‘patter’ so another inconsistency with Princess. In addition to events, it will also have operating hours for most venues such as bars, dining, casino, future cruise, etc.

When you go into you cruise Personalizer, does it give you the option to upgrade to premier and the price? I just booked an on board 50% off promo fare while I was on the a Sapphire and have Plus. When I go to my Personalizer it says to contact Us or TA to inquire about upgrade to Premier instead of wording saying fare is $80 day and click button for pricing. For another booking I had, I could upgrade on the Personalizer from Plus to Premier, click the button to get the price and then click to enter my credit card info to be charged, I did upgrade, and immediately I saw the updated amenities in my travel summary.

This seems strange to me you received an upgrade for a sailing for next May? Conventional wisdom is Princess has no reason to upgrade this far in advance as someone could possibly book the cabin you were upgraded to. Also if there has been substantial fare drop for a sailing next May, sounds like refare option should be available, even with non refundable deposits, I imagine you would still have substantial savings? Only other scenario that comes to mind is a passenger really wants your original booked cabin for a group or? but Princess could have just given you a slight upgrade opposed to what you allude to as an absolutely ridiculous upgrade assuming you mean in a good way.

Will assume your TA knows how to provide ‘your signature’ :).

There is a line at the bottom of the form for the passenger requesting the transfer to sign and date. I believe this is why your TA can not submit for you. While I was recently on board the Sapphire, the future cruise consultant said your TA is supposed to supply the form to you with their info filled in so you can sign and forward to Princess. As I have the form and know the correct info for my TA, I fill in the info myself. On the form, it requests your TA’s phone number, my understanding is this needs to be the official number Princess has for that agency and it is usually NOT a 800 or toll free number.

Hi @C & C Love to Cruise, do you happen to know anyone that will be on a Princess cruise? Passengers are allowed to purchase FCD’s for passengers NOT on board provided the person they are buying the FCD has a Princess Captain circle number. The passenger on board will have to pay for the deposit, so I do this only for trusted friends I have either been pre paid, or I know will reimburse me. This will also work for ‘referrals’ who have never sailed with Princess. Once the referral person receives their Captain Circle number, an on board passenger can buy a FCD in that person’s name for them to use in the future. FCD’s now expire after 1 year, but can usually be extended if you notify Princess before expiration date. Note, if the FCD expires, funds will go back to the original payment, which will be the person who bought the FCD, not necessarily the name associated with the FCD.

@deltahog, Generally on Princess, various juices from concentrate are complimentary during breakfast hours, after, unless you have a drink pkg, there is a charge for juice. In the buffet you are likely to to see pitchers of Orange juice from concentrate and possible some dispensing machines of OJ and Apple juice, as on the Sapphire. Other juices are available by request, just ask for what else is available. I know they also have cranberry, probably prune too. Depending on the Class of ship, brewed coffee from beans is available in the buffet. I just disembarked from the Sapphire Princess and they are in the process of converting the coffee dispensing at the Buffett. The front buffet drink stations have ‘new’ Lavazza coffee dispensers where it is like a huge drip coffee dispenser where a crew member will attach a big funnel like piece to the top of the appliance which I assume contains grounded beans and then I see water pour down into the funnel and then it flows into the big dispensers below, when the coffee needs to be refilled. The back buffet station still are using the coffee from concentrate, where you see a spigot to deliver the coffee. On Royal class ships, in the buffet you will see big coffee machines dispensing brewed coffee. Princess announced a new partnership with Lavazza coffee so I am assuming the non Royal class ships will be converting their buffet coffee stations to these new Lavazza dispensers as I witnessed on the Sapphire? Ice tea and lemonade are also usually available in the buffet and in the dining room. I have had lemonade in the dining room and sometimes told not available. Usually there is plenty of crew in the buffet you get you your drinks, but you can go to the drink stations and help yourself. During Covid, only crew were allow at the drinks stations to limit contamination. I have seen passengers bring back from ports 2 liter bottles of soda, etc. without issue, but YMMV. What/where did you get the impression with basic/standard fare, water, coffee, juice and ice tea not included on Princess?

I think you misunderstand the pkg. The 15 limit is for alcohol drinks, if you have a pkg, you have unlimited non alcohol drinks. Also nice of you to be generous but the pkg rules are no sharing and if caught, rules say they can cancel your pkg with no refund.

Booking on board you only have the option of the booking going to the TA whom you used for that sailing or Princess. Seems Princess should still allow you to move to another agency if not within final, but it’s their playground/rules.

Unless there was a price change or promo that ended, why not just have your TA make a ‘new’ reservation? If it is an issue about a particular cabin, have your TA make a reservation, then cancel your hold, then have your TA grab the newly released cabin, helps if you have a 3 way call. I believe the transfer request form has stipulation of request must be made within 60 days of booking AND not paid in full, but why go thru this hassle of submitting transfer request form?