Saint Greg's Regal Princess - Live - November 12, 2023

[beshears]

If you know, is there a deck that goes completely around the ship, and if so, which deck is it?

[beshears]

I was glad to read that you said their beds are very comfortable. I have cruised many ships, with about 4 or 5 different cruise lines, and I have found Carnival the best beds for me. I feel like a baby in a cocoon when going to sleep. 🙂

 

You mentioned that you were expecting a check when you get home with the rest of your OBC. My question, how does that happen? I thought???, when you had an OBC, you had to use all of it while cruising. I have never had $175 or $200, but I understand from my PVP, that me recommending 7 others cruising, I should get this.

[Saint Greg]

5 hours ago, beshears said:

You brought a chuckle 🙂 to me, when you said you thought they were cooking a cat, but it was they were baking a cake. I love seeing the different fruits/vegetables that they make into different forms.

Yeah I was fishing for spanish speakers and thought I came up empty. 

[Saint Greg]

5 hours ago, beshears said:

If you know, is there a deck that goes completely around the ship, and if so, which deck is it?

I’m not sure. I only went out below 16 once..deck 7.. and I got the feeling from crew looks that I wasn’t supposed to be there so I just went back in. I didn’t see any that invited you out there.

 

[Saint Greg]

4 hours ago, beshears said:

I was glad to read that you said their beds are very comfortable. I have cruised many ships, with about 4 or 5 different cruise lines, and I have found Carnival the best beds for me. I feel like a baby in a cocoon when going to sleep. 🙂

 

well now see me i think most carnival bests are a bit firm. I think maybe the newer ones are better. Close to this Princess one. But this one is a little more soft. It has a little give. Than most carnival beds I’ve been on.

 

[Saint Greg]

4 hours ago, beshears said:

You mentioned that you were expecting a check when you get home with the rest of your OBC. My question, how does that happen? I thought???, when you had an OBC, you had to use all of it while cruising. I have never had $175 or $200, but I understand from my PVP, that me recommending 7 others cruising, I should get this.

On Carnival I can walk up to guest services and take all refundable OBC in cash. I tried to do that on Princess and they wouldn’t. Actually I don’t think I told this story. The guy laughed when I told him they do it on carnival. But he told me they will use my non-refundable first and send me a check for the refundable that isn’t used.

 

 

[Saint Greg]

I got my final bill today and it wasn’t what I expected. Follow me here. I’m going to have to show you two screen shots to see the full picture.

 

This was early in the cruise. Important part here is the amount of the credits because I cut that off on my last night screenshot.

 

 

Here is the one I took on the last night of the cruise. I left $155 OBC on the table. And since GS told me they would use non- refundable first and the refundable adds up to about $150, I left that money on the table expecting to get $150 in a check. Otherwise I would’ve just bought some junk.

 

Here is what they sent me this morning. It looks like they’re saying I’m forfeiting $25 in non-refundable OBC and 104 is being submitted to finance..I assume my refund. And I guess another $25 came out somewhere. 
 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Saint Greg

[balcony bound]

I think I learned math a different way 😠

[t&atravel]

What was the $25 for shown in your first pic?

Edited November 20, 2023 by t&atravel

[bethfelk]

18 hours ago, marymount said:

How long did it take to get into international waters, to be able to get an alcoholic drink? Does that apply to sodas too? We have the Plus Package.

According to @TxTeach79 report yesterday it took about 90 minutes from sailaway to reach international waters

[marymount]

Just now, bethfelk said:

According to @TxTeach79 report yesterday it took about 90 minutes from sailaway to reach international waters

 

1 minute ago, bethfelk said:

According to @TxTeach79 report yesterday it took about 90 minutes from sailaway to reach international waters

 

[marymount]

1 minute ago, bethfelk said:

According to @TxTeach79 report yesterday it took about 90 minutes from sailaway to reach international waters

Thank you for that.

[bethfelk]

14 hours ago, caribill said:

 It is not too long once the ship sails away.

 

But if departure is delayed, so is the serving of alcohol.

 

Ther reason for this is twofold.

 

1) Texas law requires any alcoholic beverage sold in the state has to have been purchased from a Texas distributer.

 

2) Princess usually just usually purchases a very limited variety of beer, wine, liquor from Texas distributers, limiting what can be served while in Texas waters. If no alcohol is being served at all, then Princess really went cheap choosing not to purchase any alcohol beverage from a Texas distributer.

 

Once, due to weather, our cruise from Galveston did not leave until around 8 AM the next day. That meant very limited selection for those who like wine at dinner.

 

On our Princess cruise last December from Galveston, everyone with a package received an OBC to compensate for not being able to get the beverages people preferred.

 

Of course all beverages other than those with alcohol are available from the minute you board the ship.

I'm not 100% sure on the specifics but I think there is also something in Texas law that makes drink packages legally questionable, I think to do with taxes, I remember reading something about it on here.

[bethfelk]

11 minutes ago, t&atravel said:

What was the $25 for shown in your first pic?

I believe it's the "Voyage Disruption Credit" intended to compensate package holders for not being able to use the packages when you first board. We got a $25 credit with this label last year and I've seen others mention that here too

[Saint Greg]

37 minutes ago, t&atravel said:

What was the $25 for shown in your first pic?

I remember gs saying that $25 was given to Princess plus people since our package wasn’t usable in ports.

 

End of the day it says $250 is non-refundable, leaving $150 refundable and GS confirmed that.

 

I left $155 thinking I would get $150 back.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Saint Greg

[Saint Greg]

30 minutes ago, bethfelk said:

I'm not 100% sure on the specifics but I think there is also something in Texas law that makes drink packages legally questionable, I think to do with taxes, I remember reading something about it on here.

I thought I heard royal allows you to use their package immediately. 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I got my final bill today and it wasn’t what I expected. Follow me here. I’m going to have to show you two screen shots to see the full picture.

 

This was early in the cruise. Important part here is the amount of the credits because I cut that off on my last night screenshot.

 

 

Here is the one I took on the last night of the cruise. I left $155 OBC on the table. And since GS told me they would use non- refundable first and the refundable adds up to about $150, I left that money on the table expecting to get $150 in a check. Otherwise I would’ve just bought some junk.

 

Here is what they sent me this morning. It looks like they’re saying I’m forfeiting $25 in non-refundable OBC and 104 is being submitted to finance..I assume my refund. And I guess another $25 came out somewhere. 
 

 

Your "last evening" statement should have shown shown much remaining was refundable and how much was not. This part was not in your post.

 

Your final bill shows that you did not use all of your non-refundable, namely $25.07 which they assigned to the shareholder OBC. That amount is thus subtracted from what you had expected to receive.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, bethfelk said:

I'm not 100% sure on the specifics but I think there is also something in Texas law that makes drink packages legally questionable, I think to do with taxes, I remember reading something about it on here.

 

In a number of ports (I am not sure about Galveston) taxes are charged on onboard sales which would include any beverages.

 

But that would apply to packages (and beverages) sold while in port. Pre-paid packages are not sold while in port and thus any beverages served while in port were not purchased that day and are not subject to the tax.

 

Often packages purchased the first day are not posted until after the ship has departed and thus do not show up as being sold while in the port.

 

In Texas, there are no restrictions on selling non-alcohol beverages in port (package or not) or selling alcohol that Princess had purchased from a Texas distributor (package or not).

[TParish26]

On 11/8/2023 at 11:41 AM, Saint Greg said:

 

I feel kind of the same way. I'm not bringing a tux for only one formal night.

I've never seen just 1 Formal night on 7 day either.  Can anyone confirm for sure its only one?  Thanks! 

[TParish26]

On 11/4/2023 at 2:36 PM, Saint Greg said:

October 27th

how close to your cruise do they send upgrade bids?

 

[caribill]

1 minute ago, TParish26 said:

I've never seen just 1 Formal night on 7 day either.  Can anyone confirm for sure its only one?  Thanks! 

 

There are two "special" evenings on a 7-day cruise.

 

Some Princess ships do this as two formal evenings and some as one formal evening and one "dress-to-impress".

 

No matter which the ship does, the Personalizer will list it as two formal evenings.

 

The "dress-to-impress" concept is an attempt to balance the desire of many passengers not to be dressed up a second time and the ship's desire to provide another opportunity to take portraits of dressed up passengers to sell. Of course anyone who wants to wear fancy clothing every evening of the cruise may do so no matter what Princess calls the evening.

[Saint Greg]

26 minutes ago, TParish26 said:

how close to your cruise do they send upgrade bids?

 

My first one was 2 months out

[dreaminofcruisin]

39 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

There are two "special" evenings on a 7-day cruise.

 

Some Princess ships do this as two formal evenings and some as one formal evening and one "dress-to-impress".

 

No matter which the ship does, the Personalizer will list it as two formal evenings.

 

The "dress-to-impress" concept is an attempt to balance the desire of many passengers not to be dressed up a second time and the ship's desire to provide another opportunity to take portraits of dressed up passengers to sell. Of course anyone who wants to wear fancy clothing every evening of the cruise may do so no matter what Princess calls the evening.

 

On the Enchanted in October, there was only 1 formal night. There was a Gold and White night, but it was a Smart Casual night. Only 1 night designated as Formal attire. Oddly enough, "Land and Sea" (steak and lobster) in the dining room was on a NON-formal night. This happened both of the 2 7-day back-to-backs that we were on. We asked our waiter in MDR about it. He said "Sometimes Princess likes to mix things up a bit". Hmmmm....never had I seen that before!

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

Your "last evening" statement should have shown shown much remaining was refundable and how much was not. This part was not in your post.

 

Your final bill shows that you did not use all of your non-refundable, namely $25.07 which they assigned to the shareholder OBC. That amount is thus subtracted from what you had expected to receive.

If they actually used the non-refundable first like they said, that $25 was spent. $150 was refundable according to guest services and my statements. 

[depplep]

Just out of curiosity, how would anyone know beforehand that there would be a Gold and White night to pack accordingly?