Pacific Princess tips?

I am hoping to join my parents on their 14 night Baltic cruise this September on the Pacific Princess. My parents are frequent Princess cruisers, but I have only a few nights on the Star Princess under my belt (my husband and I normally cruise on Royal).

I have placed a deposit on a room for my husband and I, but I have a few questions about Princess’ procedures:

1. My husband might not be able to get time off from work for this trip. What do I need to know about cancelling him? Can I add a different person to the reservation? (I have booked directly through Princess)

2. If it turns out that I will be going solo, what would be the best way to do that: is there any concern that cancelling him would lead to a re-pricing of the room? Would it be better for him to just be a “no show” at the pier?

3. Any other tips for cruising out of Dover? I am planning on arriving 2 nights in advance, are there any recommendations for where to stay?(most of the flights I am looking at arrive at Heathrow).

4. Any other useful tips for the Pacific Princess?

Thanks in advance!

If your DH cannot go, I will sacrifice and volunteer to take his place. ;p

Hopefully you booked this cruise in your name as that if your DH cannot go, you can get someone else to go in his place. It is the primary person who cannot be changed without canceling the cruise and maybe getting a penalty.

If you go solo, you will be changed almost as much as the two of you. The best thing IMO to do is to contact Princess and cancel his name and change the booking to a solo pax.

You will most likely be arriving at Heathrow so you will need to find transportation to Dover some distance away. We have not cruised out of Dover but have out of Southampton. We did some research and used the train with tickets bought ahead of time online. It was very inexpensive and easy to do. You can use the tube (subway) to London and then the train to Dover. Alternative is to get a limo to take you but a lot more expensive but more convenient. As for place to stay, we use tripadvisor a lot.

Perhaps someone else can comment that has been to Dover or sailed on the Pacific Princess.

I am hoping to join my parents on their 14 night Baltic cruise this September on the Pacific Princess. My parents are frequent Princess cruisers, but I have only a few nights on the Star Princess under my belt (my husband and I normally cruise on Royal).

 

I have placed a deposit on a room for my husband and I, but I have a few questions about Princess’ procedures:

 

1. My husband might not be able to get time off from work for this trip. What do I need to know about cancelling him? Can I add a different person to the reservation? (I have booked directly through Princess) Do you have Princess Platinum insurance? You can cancel for any reason.

 

2. If it turns out that I will be going solo, what would be the best way to do that: is there any concern that cancelling him would lead to a re-pricing of the room? Would it be better for him to just be a “no show” at the pier? If your insurance pays for his absence, I'm pretty sure you won't be refared. There was a thread on here recently about this very issue.

 

4. Any other useful tips for the Pacific Princess?

Since you be in the Baltics, you'll likely have a nice, heavy jacket. Keep it handy when you go to the Cabaret Lounge. That place is like a refrigerator!

Have fun! My favorite ship.:D

You can change pax up to two days before your cruise. Read your fare restrictions to see if this is possible.

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We cruised on the Pacific Princess (my favorite ship in the Princess fleet) out of Dover a few months ago. We flew into Heathrow and were met by a taxi driver from a local (near Dover) cab company, Folkestone Taxi, a name suggested by others on CC, (reservations can be made online via their website) for the transfer to Dover. Dover is about 90 miles from Heathrow. The driver was waiting for us, holding up a sign, when we exited Passport control.

We reserved a room at the Premier Inn Central (near the ferry dock in Dover), which is about 10 minutes away by taxi from the cruise port. Because our flight to LHR arrived at 10AM, we arrived at the hotel well ahead of the posted check-in time, but they were able to accommodate us right away, and the window in our room looked out over the waterfront. The hotel is nothing fancy, but very clean and pleasant and quiet, with great staff, comfy beds, nice linens and pillows, a modern functional bathroom, all at a very reasonable price. There's a restaurant on site, which is very convenient. The hotel is right near the waterfront, where there's a walkable promenade. We enjoyed meandering along the waterfront. There's plenty of history in Dover, and had we known more about that in advance we would have planned better and stayed a couple of nights instead of just one night. (My fault as I didn't do enough research. Some people say Dover's a working port town and there's nothing much to see, so I didn't bother looking. In retrospect, we disagree.) We didn't get to visit the Dover Castle, which we regret. It's quite impressive even from a distance.

The next morning we requested the hotel desk man call us a taxi to take us to the pier at 11:30, and they were there right on time. Embarkation was pretty quick as the ship and the cruise terminal are small and there wasn't a huge crowd waiting to board. In fact we ended up being the first to board.

 

Hopefully you booked this cruise in your name as that if your DH cannot go, you can get someone else to go in his place. It is the primary person who cannot be changed without canceling the cruise and maybe getting a penalty.

 

Not quite.

Either of the first two occupants can have a name change, not just the first one named on the booking.