New to cruises

happyandcontented

NoodleDoodleMan wrote: »

Yes, indeed - that was our first ever cruise, we went with Princess, in the Caribbean, ten years past.

'Er indoors was in curiousity mode and observed "that Dorothy must be well liked, she meets with her friends every afternoon" - for one reason or another we we missed attending, too many other distractions onboard.

On our second Princess cruise, this time in the Meditteranean, she spotted a notice in the daily newsletter about Friends of Dorothy meetings - " she must be on is on this cruise as well" her ladyship commented !!!

In the restaurant on the second night she casually mentioned that Dorothy was onboard again and was obviously a popular passenger - cue one fellow diner who quietly explained the scenario, resulting in big red faces !!!

Talk about innocents abroad !!!

We knew what that meant but were confused by the 'Friends of Bill W' meet ups! Which happened every day.

Until I happened to be reading a book on the cruise about a fictional cruise and all was revealed!

NoodleDoodleMan

Trying to get my head around the onboard pricing policy, not to mention exchange rates USD/AUD/GBP/SEK:eek: etc (friends are from Stockholm). Big birthdays for both my friend & I, so we'll have fun whatever happens.

Do Princess charge in AUS or US Dollars on the Australian based ships ?

When pre-registering your credit card, always opt to permit your own bank to make the final transaction exchange rate - Princess authorised rates are unfavourable.

The daily prescribed gratuities rate on Princess is well OTT in my opinion - you can elect to opt out, and tip in a different manner.

On our most recent Princess venture we had the option to settle gratuities in advance in Pounds Sterling at a modestly reduced amount - at the time of booking, not sure if that is still on offer.

Our preferred method is to put a fixed amount tip in an envelope and hand it in on penultimate day of the cruise - there is a "universal pot" deposit box for that purpose.

Experienced Princess passengers have told us that individual tips have to be declared by the staff and put in the universal pot.

If you want to opt out - go to guest services as soon as you get onboard and complete the paperwork. You can opt out retrospectively - however these "hotel charges" will still be applied for all days prior to that.

Avoid going near guest services towards the end of the cruise - there will be a long queue of passengers questioning charges on their onboard account - if you have to go, then do so late at night or very early morning.

We've always stashed a litre of spirits in our main luggage, securely packed, with no issues - but that is no guarantee of avoiding the booze police !!!

Feel free to ask on anything else.

badger09

NoodleDoodleMan wrote: »

Do Princess charge in AUS or US Dollars on the Australian based ships ?

AUD, but only price lists I can find online are in USD

When pre-registering your credit card, always opt to permit your own bank to make the final transaction exchange rate - Princess authorised rates are unfavourable.

I've preregistered Halifax Clarity but didn't see any option re exchange rates

The daily prescribed gratuities rate on Princess is well OTT in my opinion - you can elect to opt out, and tip in a different manner.

On our most recent Princess venture we had the option to settle gratuities in advance in Pounds Sterling at a modestly reduced amount - at the time of booking, not sure if that is still on offer.

I've prepaid in GBP to avoid Australian cc surcharge & volatile exchange rate

Our preferred method is to put a fixed amount tip in an envelope and hand it in on penultimate day of the cruise - there is a "universal pot" deposit box for that purpose.

Experienced Princess passengers have told us that individual tips have to be declared by the staff and put in the universal pot.

If you want to opt out - go to guest services as soon as you get onboard and complete the paperwork. You can opt out retrospectively - however these "hotel charges" will still be applied for all days prior to that.

Thanks, I'll remember if we book again with Princess

Avoid going near guest services towards the end of the cruise - there will be a long queue of passengers questioning charges on their onboard account - if you have to go, then do so late at night or very early morning.

Think that applies universally, but more passengers = longer queues

We've always stashed a litre of spirits in our main luggage, securely packed, with no issues - but that is no guarantee of avoiding the booze police !!!

We're not really spirit drinkers. Friend & I on wine plus very occasional cocktail, husband/partner on beer

Feel free to ask on anything else.

Thanks NDN - all useful stuff. There is so much info on Princess' website, but I've found it difficult to navigate. I also keep finding things on my Cruise personaliser which I'd missed before. Personal experience always helpful.

NoodleDoodleMan

I've preregistered Halifax Clarity but didn't see any option re exchange rates

I suspect I may have mislead by saying pre-registering - when we've arrived on board and offered a credit card for registration there has always been an option to allow the card issuer bank to calculate the exchange rate - or to allow Princess to do so at their rate.

Never had the opportunity to register a card online - always been on arrival when boarding ship.

Your bank is the better choice, especially when Halifax Clarity is a prime "user friendly" card in this scenario.

One thing I forgot to mention - if you have previous UK/Commonwelth military service which meets the qualifying criteria you can apply for free extra onboard credit applied to your cabin account, this includes reservists. I'm not up to speed on specific criteria however.

Princess previously only awarded this to US or Canadian personnel - however they changed this policy a few years back.

I would recommend Cruise Critic for comprehensive information - go to the dedicated Princess forum and follow the various threads there.

Post any specific questions and other CC members will point you in the correct direction.

I picked up a lot of tips.