Corfe Mixture

I complete the Personalizer for my sister as she doesn’t have a computer. It’s easy to log into her account. I just have to put her name, DOB and booking #. That’s in the US. Don’t know if the system is different elsewhere.

Tried to go down this path from the UK.

What I found was as follows:

For sure, you can use name, DOB, and booking# to log into a cruise booking and manage the booking,

BUT

that does not get you into your 'account' where you can see your cruise history, modify passwords etc.

The only way you can get into the account is through the e-mail address and password. I can't get in from my membership number.

However, one thing that does occur to me is that if the OP has their Captain's Circle number on their booking confirmation, then I am 99.9% sure that the e-mail address they get their booking confirmations on will be the same e-mail address Princess have recorded against their Captain's Circle account and is the one they use to communicate with you.

I am not absolutely sure, but I do believe that if you make any onboard purchases on Cruise Personaliser, then, even if you have booked through a TA,the confirmation for these purchases are sent direct to your e-mail rather than via the TA.

So if the OP doesn't want to spend time on the phone, waiting Princess to either tell them the e-mail associated with their membership number, one option (even if they have booked through a TA) might be to:

a) gift themselves $25 of OBC

then

b) whichever of their e-mail addresses then gets the confirmation e-mail, then that will be the one recorded against their Captain's Circle membership

at which point they can

c) go to the Account logon page and enter that e-mail address, and click on Forgot password

A page will now open asking for their full name and the e-mail address and entering that data will result in them getting a password reset link sent to the e-mail address which will get them into their account.

Once they have access to the account, on the pull down menu from My Account, click on Profile Information

then click on Logon Information to expand that section.

They will then be able to see and change your e-mail address to your preferred address and change their password.

On our (ONE) experience of doing a back to back on the cruise before Christmas and the Christmas / New Year cruise, there were no decorations when we started the first cruise.

About halfway through our first cruise they started to build the 'gingerbread village' in the atrium.

I can't really comment on the suggestion that Princess employ an external contractor to do the main decorations, but the 'gingerbread village' appeared to be under the control of the catering department, with staff from the kitchen arriving with trays of gingerbread items, over a period of two days, which were then carefully placed in an apparently pre-determined design by one person.

Whether or not the person placing the items in the display was an external contractor, is not something I can comment on other than to say that he was dressed in chef's attire and appeared to know all the other chef's who were delivering the gingerbread items.

Can't really remember when they started to put up the main Christmas decorations in the atrium area, and don't know whether or not this was done by ship's crew or an external contractor, but I do seem to recall that the construction of the 'gingerbread village' (which took at least two days and possibly longer) was the first thing to happen.

On that basis I don't think you are likely to see any activity in the period between Thanksgiving and the commencement of the cruise preceding the Christmas cruise.

CM

.....it really does feel like you're in France....

 

That is because you ARE in France (and for that matter the EU) just as much as you are in the USA (and for that matter NAFTA) when you are in Hawaii.

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All sorted, as suggested. The folks at Princess UK made the reservation for me.

Many thanks everyone.

My account is now showing the tour booked for two named people with me showing as the 'Billing Contact' in the 'Confirmed Reservation' section of the 'Excursion Reservations' page.

and

the charge showing against my account in the 'Shore Excursion Reservations' section of the 'Payments & Credits' page.

FWIW Princess UK are sending feedback to the people in Seattle who run the Cruise Personaliser on the subject of the loss of the option to select the 'Billing Contact' (I had forgotten what it was called, until they used the term).

Corfe Mixture reported on another thread that his Maitre'D allowed a change to another night as he felt it rude to not show up to his Traditional Dining table on the first night.

Yup, it was on Ocean Princess where there was no freedom dining, only traditional.

Part of the issue is that it has nothing to do with whose credit card is registered for the account. Before boarding, everything is based on each passenger’s booking and credits regardless who is paying for it.

 

Call and see if Princess will apply your OBC to your wife’s tour.

Yup, thanks for that. Will do.

What caught me out is that, before they introduced the pay up front policy, we used to be given the option as to whose account we charged the reservation.

Definitely know that was possible as I still have the accounts from previous cruises which show that, although we charged some tours to my wife's account and some to my account, in the case of each individual tour, we always charged both of us to the one account.

I have just come across an interesting issue related to the new policy of pre-paying for excursions.

To be honest, it is not a big issue but it has effectively blocked me from booking excursions before I board.

Story goes like this:

We both get our $100 Future Cruise Deposit related OBC,which shows on our booking

I have $250 Shareholder related OBC which also shows on ourbooking.

So, I am showing $350 of OBC and my wife $100 of OBC, although in practice, because I set the account up for me to be responsible for my wife’s account, what happens at the end of the cruise is that spend on one account is automatically offset against underspend on the other account.

The other week, I booked us on a disembarkation tour which drops us at the airport costing $79.95 each and it all went through using our FCD related OBC.

Today I tried to book a tour at one of our ports of call costing $129.95 each, which would have brought our total tour expenditure to $419.80, (which is less than the $450.00 balance showing on our booking confirmation)

However, what I have discovered is that:

a) There is no way I can charge my wife’s tour to my onboard account, (strange that, as in previous year’s, although I didn’t need to pay up front, they did allow me to specify which account should be billed)

and

b) Although I have already signed up to be responsible for settling a combined account, they will not yet balance overspend on my wife’s account to underspend on my account.

As a result, Cruise Personaliser accepted my booking, leaving me with $140.10 of unused OBC, but will not accept my wife’s booking unless we pay the balance on her account of $109.90 today and at the current exchange rate of around $1.33 to the £1.

OK, I suppose I could simply pay this bill, but because we get the exchange rate as of the date we booked the cruise when purchasing/gifting OBC, I have already gifted myself sufficient OBC (at $1.46 to the £1) to meet our anticipated onboard expenditure needs.

Cancelling some of the self-gifted OBC and re-applying in my wife’s name won’t help either as, although she would still get the £1.46 exchange rate, gifted OBC is not credited to the account until after we board and therefore cannot be used to pay for excursions until we are onboard ship.

So I am completely stymied, I could settle the balance of $109.90 at the current exchange rate, but I don’t want to do that, as it will cost me almost 10% more than if I wait until after boarding and can use the self-gifted OBC, or I could cancel my booking and delay booking the tour until after we board the ship. I went for the latter.

As I say no big issue, I will simply book the tour as soon as we board, but it is unnecessarily annoying to know that I can’t use my shareholders OBC to purchase excursion tickets for both of us.

We have always asked and received. :cool:

And what is more, I rather suspect that, after the first day, you didn't need to ask and that, in all likelihood, they pre-empted your request by asking you if you wanted one.

When we traveled in a suite, I was a little anxious about the comp speciality resto on the first night. But our steward told me not to stress. We simply showed up in the steak house and were told that only suite passengers were welcomed in the specialty restos on the first night, so reservations were not necessary. We were seated immediately and the place was only half-occupied.

At the risk of my memory letting me down again (it was me who was corrected after I said that our steward sorted matters out when one mini-bar set up was missing), but I am not of the opinion that 'only suite passengers were welcomed in the specialty restos on the first night'.

Certainly, we have seen people in the speciality restaurants on the first night who we never subsequently saw taking breakfast in Sabatinis.

Clearly my memory is failing me.

Thanks to everyone who corrected me.

There are two aspects to this question, which hotel and how far to the ship.

Dealing with the first - which hotel?

Last Christmas / New Year we cruised out of Sydney and we stayed at the Four Seasons.

http://www.fourseasons.com/sydney/

We booked through hotels.com and paid extra for a De Luxe Full Harbour view which meant that we were looking down at both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and across Circular Keys to the Sydney Opera House.

Rooms are smallish by US standards, but that is rather normal over there.

We arrived with no local currency, we always find it better to use an ATM, than to obtain it before we leave home, but did our research on ATM at the airport before we left. We were able to get cash from an ATM at the airport, (use the ANZ terminal as they don't take a commission - though your bank may - mine doesn't) and took a taxi off the rank to our hotel which was reasonably priced (think it was around $25AUD).

Dealing with the second point - how far from the hotel to the ship?

Well the problem in answering this is that there are two cruise terminals in Sydney and it all depends which one your ship uses.

We left from the Ocean Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, but returned to the new White Bay Cruise Terminal, but I am not sure that the latter is an option if you are on one the larger ships (we were on Dawn Princess which has now left the fleet, so Sun Princess could use White Bay).

This worked out fine for us, as it is around 500 metres from the Four Seasons to OPT and we could see our ship from our room.

In fact, before checking out, I made two trips to wheel our three suitcases and one cabin bag along the pavement (sidewalk to you) from the hotel to the ship. This took no longer than 5 minutes per trip and meant that we could spend the rest of the morning with just a back pack strolling around Circular Quays.

We had four days in Sydney and had already been to the Opera House to see the ballet Copellia, but had we only had one night in Sydney, then there would have been ample time to drop off our bags and stroll around to the Opera House before boarding the ship.

White Bay Terminal is in a redeveloped commercial dock and you will need a taxi to get there and one to leave no matter where you stay. The advantage of going into or out of White Bay, is that you have to pass under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

In our case, after disembarking from our cruise at White Bay, we spent one night at Coogee Beach and took a taxi from White Bay which was very easy to obtain as there was a long line of taxis and it was all well organised. You simply joined the line, which moved very quickly, and the dispatcher matched you with a taxi when you got to the front of the line. There was no queue jumping as taxis would only take folks from the line. (I can't remember how much it cost, but it was not unreasonable otherwise I would have remembered).

My only comment is that it is a pity you only have one day in Sydney.

We had four days, which we felt was just about right. We did a day trip to the Blue Mountains, went to the ballet at the Opera House (though I had to book months in advance to get seats), took a Captain Cook evening dinner cruise (and paid a little extra for guaranteed window table), and made good use of the Ho-ho open topped buses, to get around and see the sites.

To trade one of your mini bar setups for two coffee cards just call Room Service. They are the ones in charge of the mini bar stuff. It's not your room steward's job.

Yup, you are 90% correct.

However, what happens is that, although you should always call Room Service to make all exchanges in either of the sets up, what initially happens is that your steward brings the suite related mini-bar as part of his suite set up 'kit' and Room Service come around with a trolley and deliver one Elite mini-bar set up to all the staterooms occupied by Elite members.

If one is missing the easiest thing is to tell your steward, when he comes to introduce himself, as he will know which set up is missing.

If you phone Room Service and they have already delivered your Elite set up, they will get confused as they will not know what happened to the one that they believe was issued to your steward.

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Presumably your name is derived from the area you live? If so, that's a lovely part of the world.

Absolutely correct. [emoji106]

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Sailing on Royal Princess in November this will be our first time in a suite and I just have a few questions.

 

What is the dress code for breakfast in Sabatinis.

Casual

 

We are in a suite and elite for the first time, will we get two mini bar set ups

Yes. You should not need to do anything, they should be there waiting for you, but if you don't get the second one simply point out the error to your steward and he will fix it.

 

if so can we trade one set up for two coffee cards.

Yes, but never done it myself so not sure of the procedure.

 

The complimentary dinner in the specialty restaurant on embarkation day do we need to make reservations or will they decide which restaurant and what time we will be eating.

 

You choose, sometimes DINE line phone, sometimes I phone them. When we were on Ocean where everyone was on traditional dining, I went to see the Maitre d' as I thought it would be impolite not to turn up at the table on the first night and he did not hesitate to offer us the option to take it in the second night.

 

Thank-you for taking the time to answer these questions:)

Answers in bold above

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Tear gas is often the weapon of choice in dispersing crowds.

 

Many European countries use water cannon too (Not the UK), I'm not sure whether Spain is one of them though.

Spain use water cannon and there were reports that the police they were drafting in from outside the area were being water cannon with them.

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Can I respectfully suggest that, instead of relying solely on US media sources as being definitive, you try accessing a few European sources.

In particular I would refer you to the English language version of El Pais, Spain's leading newspaper.

https://elpais.com/elpais/inenglish.html

Look at todays main article.

The title of the article might surprise you 'How Russian news networks are using Catalonia issue to destabilize Europe'.

Note in particular that it uses the word 'issue' where you and the wsj (once) would use the word 'crisis'.

Read also the second article entitled 'Spanish prosecutors formally accuse Barcelona protesters of sedition' Note in particular the Spanish legal definition of sedition (prevent the application of the laws, either by force or outside the legal channels.) which very nicely allows people to be charged for non-violent protest.

The only violence in the report related to the vandalising of Civil Guard police cars. If you read further, you will discover that this was limited to the protesters puncturing the tyres of the police cars, smashing a windscreen and covering the car in leaflets, which I hope you would agree is a lot less violent than most anti-police protests.

Thanks Corfe...appreciate your insights & with BBC being perceived as biased by left & right that's an indication to me that they're attempting to provide objective information.

 

 

 

I regularly read BBC online & feel they're a credible source for information.

One point. When outside the UK, I always start at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news and use the World tab to get to the local overseas news.

Seems to give me more articles than if I go in via http://www.bbc.com

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See also http://www.liveduvalstreet.com

2pm when I looked and plenty of tourists (presumably from the cruise ship strolling around.

Corfe...I think you're British so do you consider the BBC to be an objective source of news?

Hmmm. You'll get as many different opinions on that as we have on the Barcelona matter.

Yes you are correct, I am British, but I spend most of the summer sailing off the Atlantic coast of France.

What I will say is that the left think the BBC has a right wing bias whilst the right think it has a left wing bias so I rather suspect that, on balance, they have probably got it about right.

One thing you can be certain about is that the BBC do check their facts very carefully and so whilst we may get opinion, we tend not to get a distorted view of the facts, which means that when I am in France, I usually visit the BBC for my definitive take on the news.

I also have an keen interest in US political history (a couple of years ago I relieved a hotel manager in Santa Barbara of a bottle of champagne after I successfully named all the US Presidents in the correct order) and although my personal politics tend towards the right, for some reason I hold the view that the most balanced UK reporting of US politics can be found on the website of the Guardian though, in truth, I have to admit that my perception might well be at variance with the view a US citizen might have of the Guardian's reporting.

Have to disagree with you on this one.

.....However, thanks for your opinion.

No problem. At least we have exercised the subject in a way which will allow everyone to assess the various reports and information and come to their own conclusion.

The one thing that is certain is that by this time next week we will know much more and in four weeks time we will all know whether or not it impacted on your cruise.

I think the issue should be to report the facts, and get comments from the readers in regards to what these facts could and do mean.

Agreed, but remember, YOU were the OP and YOU chose the title for this thread. Had you entitled it Barcelona Referendum then we could have had a sensible discussion about the situation and reassured folks without having to put the scaremongering to bed .

Instead YOU chose to use the word 'Crisis in Barcelona' as the title, which is hardly reporting a fact and creates a perception in potential visitors who are not familiar with the situation that this is going to put them at risk even before they have read one word on the subject.

Remember, these protesters are committed to expressing their desire for change by peaceful protest and know that they will hold the moral high ground if the authorities prevent them from testing public opinion in what most people would regard is a reasonable manner.

I don't wish to offend anyone with the following parallel, but contrast this with the situation a few weeks ago in Charlottesville where, despite the fact that at least one group arrived with the intention of holding a violent protest, I don't think any of us would have been inclined to use the word 'crisis' and I certainly I can't imagine anyone even thinking of suggesting that people should not visit Charlottesville three weeks after the event.

Received an email from Princess today that we are still stopping in San Juan on 10/10, which really surprises me. :confused:

Interesting piece of information. We are leaving PE on 20th Dec and Princess had already changed our itinerary to replace St Martin/Sint Maarten with St Thomas (because of CB propulsion issues) which meant that the map above the itinerary has been incorrect for a some time.

After Irma, I was rather expecting St Thomas to be replaced with St Croix, but the latest hurricane seems to have literally 'blown that possibility away'. As with everyone else, Princess have e-mailed us to say that they will review the situation when they have all the information

BUT

when I visited Cruise Personaliser today, I noticed that, whilst the map has finally been updated to show the revised itinerary, they have also marked the port of San Juan on the map, even though it is not on our itinerary.

Sounds to me that, whilst updating the map to reflect the expectation that San Juan may well be the anticipated replacement for St Thomas.

This has been reported for several days over here, I can certainly understand the concern.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/20/spain-guardia-civil-raid-catalan-government-hq-referendum-row

'I can certainly understand the concern' ......

Oh come on! GET REAL!!

As a moderator on here you should be promoting common sense not joining in the ridiculous scaremongering.

Where in the Guardian article is there anything which might suggest that tourists should be worried?

Check how many times the word peaceful is being used in the article. The only risk of violence is one of the police getting violent with the voters.

All that is going to happen is that the authorities are going to use force, and do things like seizing all the voting papers, in order to stop a referendum, that that would almost certainly result in a vote against independence.

I'm going to shut up now as it is obvious that one cannot reassure those that do not wish to be reassured.

Well, the subject has finally become a point of discussion over here. But perhaps not in the way it is being discussed on the other side of the Atlantic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41346846

The article in respect to the elections has appeared in several newspapers in the United States. It said that over 10,000 people turned out in a demonstration to support the election. However the Spanish Government has said that they will not permit any election to be held and will arrest individuals who try to go foward with any type of election or referendum. They have stated if necessary they will move troops into the area.

 

The reason for this blog was to get comments in respect to individuals who are cruising out of Barcelona on Princess.

Ok, now understand what started this thread, but let's get this into perspective. 10,000 people is NOT a large demonstration, particularly when organised by a group which is committed to peaceful protest.

Think of it this way.

1. Miami Dolphins stadium holds more than 60,000. It would seem almost empty if only 10,000 folks turned up.

2. Think of 100 people standing side by side and 100 rows deep and you will have some idea of the size of the demonstration.