Papa Yoda

We just got off the Golden and were in a suite. We ordered off the card in the yellow folder (writing stuff in on the door hanger as needed). Of course they got a couple things wrong and made up stories to explain them away (wrong menu for that day, blah, blah) We got the same breakfast menu folder in a suite on Golden last November. Don't know about the hot chocolate charge change, they did take my drink ticket for a cappuccino, but I expected that.

Maybe you have some of the rookies we ran into. We had a lot of weird explanations instead of "oops sorry we'll fix that" and run ins with rude crew. Of course we reported those as well as kudos for the stars we had.

...

 

But, the question is not how to get best Princess rate, but how their bottom line pricing/promotions compare to other lines promos, ie 123go, etc.

Mine too, we've only cruised Princess the last few years.

I think we're looking for numbers like the following bogus examples:

For the similar itinerary, same class and as identical as possible cabin, best price after promo/discount/loyalty/OBC per person double occupancy

HAL $220

Princess $205

Celebrity $210

NCL $190

Carnival $100

(totally made up numbers)

include drinking the same, specialty dining etc. exclude shore excursions/spa

This looks hard to figure and I'd imagine the lines don't want to make it any easier...

We're sailing Golden this afternoon, I'll check on this and report, but from the diagram it looks like Vickie is spot on

On short cruises (3-5 days?) they typically don't have a Captain's Circle party with a free drink so PE's get a drink coupon each. They still do the PES "party" 5-7PM with hors d'ouerves, the $5 Drink Of The Day, but no free drinks.

We were booked into the port side aft-facing balcony on Caribe for one cruise. LOVED the cabin. Would take it again in a heartbeat. We actually turned down a mini for very little more because we wanted that specific cabin.

Agreed! But please keep it a secret

Actually they said it was $129/pp...not $199. That is a really good deal.

 

But, I have a question. Do they let you know exactly where the cabins they are offering are or do you just have to accept whatever they are offering?

You call in and talk to the upsell lady, or usually leave a message that you're interested, they call you back and can tell you what cabins are open.

The comp upgrades or "we'll pick the best room available" are when you don't get a choice.

We've had 3 upsell offers the past year, but only on midweek Getaway cruises

The best one:

"EXCLUSIVE SUITE OR MINI SUITE UPGRADE OFFER FOR CAPTAIN'S CIRCLE MEMBERS CURRENTLY BOOKED IN A BALCONY STATEROOM

(CAT.B2-BF) ON GOLDEN PRINCESS, DEPARTING NOVEMBER 17, 2014. Treat yourself to a FULL SUITE OR MINI SUITE and spend 3 nights in

luxury enjoying your spacious accomodation. Upgrade cost is additional and based on double occupancy. Travel Protection cost may also

increase, if purchased.

CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING: OWNER Suite(S2) 591 sq ft. - $299 USD per person additional PREMIUM/VISTA Suite(S3-S6)

473-536 sq ft. - $199 USD per person additional MINI Suites (MA-ME) 323 sq ft. - $59 USD per person additional"

We grabbed an owners suite just to see, it was the smelly one on Baja, we enjoyed it anyway, the Sun deck suites weren't open.

Enjoy (especially Sabatini's)!

Saw the same sign on Crown - I recall it (in poor grammar) saying something about Board of Health regulations. We puzzled about it wondering if it was part of the Noro procedure. Strange how our minds work.

Yah! And also glad it's not: "they don't want to move, so don't offer an upsell."

Yes, we just got an upsell on a "no upgrade" cabin. It is completely optional to accept the upsell.

I know on the Golden that the aft balconies on Dolphin can open - looks the same on Emerald

good thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2085798

We were also fine on the Crown a couple weeks ago and used our newly earned Platinum minutes. But last year on the Golden I entered the Internet Cafe drawing and was the only one to enter and so won 100 free minutes, it was also fine. Just expect it to be slow much of which is due to it being satellite as well as user load.

Great spreadsheet!

I have found the package to be of value - esp. in Vines where all but a couple wines by the glass are under $10, coffee and port after dinner, specialty coffee in IC, and the water...

You can buy the package on Day 2 and save the $56.35 for the short day.

You will love it!

You betcha! It's like we have our own ship back there!

Just booked this one and the following one to San Diego as a b2b. We did this same cruise on Sapphire 1/22/14 (100% FCC!) and got fogged out of Santa Barbara. Only a few tender runs got out, the coast guard was opening/closing the port every hour or so, and we heard folks had long waits to get back on. No big deal missing SB since we have been there many times and we spent most of the day in the thermal suite! The overall weather was nice enough,typical for So Cal coast as noted in this thread. It was chilly on the open deck at sea, but that's true most anywhere.

For this b2b we have a stern facing balcony and are looking forward to sitting out there! I also wouldn't hesitate to book this for April. We don't really care for the open balconies in any weather.

Here's the post with the spreadsheet, including Vines, most wines are under 10

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=43468321&postcount=205

thanks to kelly94942

There is no limit other than the $10 cost per drink maximum. What most people fail to figure into the cost is unlimited coffee/tea (specialty or otherwise), soda, and bottled water. All you want. So, no the price per day may not sound that cheap but if you consider that it is literally any liquid you may want to drink in a day, it can be more than worth it. If I order anything (coffee, tea, soda or alcohol) I almost always order a bottle of water to take with me to either drink then or take to the room. My room fridge is always stocked with water (which I drink a lot of) and throughout the day I can order anything I want and not have to worry about the cost. It works perfect for my DH and I. It really doesn't matter to us if it is a sea day or port day. Some days you may have more alcohol drinks than others, but it seems to work out in the long run for us. Now obviously, this is not a good package for people who don't drink but one drink a day. But we will usually have one or more drinks during the day (poolside or in the IC), wine before dinner, wine with dinner and after dinner drinks along with specialty coffee. It's works very well for us...

This has been our experience as well, including 2 ltr bottles of water, dessert coffees, Vines wine bar, etc.. Plus if you figure this as the price difference of an "all inclusive" it seems even more reasonable and it's optional. Also note that you get 40% off bottles of wine at dinner or at any bar. One oddity was sail away drink specials (no souvenir glass) were 11.95 which seemed kind of pointless as top shelf drinks are under 10.00 - sort of one of those "new program" disconnects.

There's a thread here somewhere with a spreadsheet to help one calculate the "is this a deal" factor