BamaVol

She is,out in the North Pacific.

Loyalty programs are dying. Look at any hotel, airline or cruise line loyalty program and show me one that has better benefits than 10 years ago. Businesses have learned two things about loyalty programs. First, it doesn’t take much because it’s part of your overall offering. You have to deliver much more than loyalty benefits to engender loyalty. Second, they now know that many guests have determined that loyalty is for suckers. The cruiser who sails a single line is a small minority. Folks will be tempted by lower prices, bigger ships, new facilities. Some will stay loyal. Most will not. Princess doesn’t have to be the best at everything to continue to fill ships. Just a little better at some things. All loyalty programs offer benefits that few take advantage of. And most cost next to nothing. It’s an illusion that is bought into particularly by those that haven’t achieved the highest level. I personally like your ideas. But if I were running a cruise line, I wouldn’t be tempted to implement them. CCL is a company struggling to return to profitability. The illusion serves them better than genuine benefits. They don’t want your loyalty. They want new customers.

I’ve cruised on Norwegian and Royal Caribbean before trying Princess. I like to eat; not into quantity, just flavor. I was happy with my Princess MDR meals in March. I didn’t take a lot of food photos. You judge. Portions were on the small side but flavor was excellent. The blueberry beet borscht was unique and enjoyable. The poached eggs, obviously were at breakfast.

We had not planned on doing laundry. Then one of us discovered he had only packed 8 pair of socks for a 10 day cruise.

If you encounter a non-functional token dispenser, you can just move up or down to an adjacent deck to find one that works. Then you either do your laundry there or take the tokens back to your preferred deck.

The medallion won’t confound the non-technical passenger. It’s the app. A card doesn’t improve your experience one bit.

No charge for delivery of drinks or the limited food menu you can order from on the app. It does take a while, and mistakes can be made. You can follow the progress of your order on the app: ordered->prepared->delivered. I waited about 45 minutes and it showed as delivered about 5 minutes before I received it. Someone I was with ordered a coke that never came despite showing as delivered. When he tried again, he ended up with 2 cokes at once.

I’m sure things are somewhat different from our sailing on CB 2 months ago, but the Wheelhouse bar was never too busy and our medallions worked fine there. I do hope the entertainment hasn’t changed. The Scottish piano player at Crooners was outstanding. The Irish folkie played there and in the Wheelhouse and we caught him every night. Both named Tommy, IIRC. Then the Russian violinist couple! Incredible.

This is why I stay home on Trivia night.

What sort of a problem does that present? It worked flawlessly on our March cruise. Booked in December, selected Plus and paid in full. No shipping charge. Now: booked in April for September sailing, selected plus, made a deposit. $10 shipping charge. Opted for port pickup. 🤬

Got that backasswards. So, quite the promotion! And how about that Gofer? Purser to Senator.

I always wondered how Captain Steubing screwed up so badly that he was demoted to news writer for his next gig. Even had to change his name to Murray Slaughter. 😁

I’m pretty sure there was another spot, Coffee and Cones up on the Lido deck, where genuine coffee was brewed. A bit of a haul in the morning since we don’t use the elevators.

We were 10 nights on the CB in March and had the same issue. There were just 2 servers covering the area and empty seats were at a premium. It was usually easier for the two of us to split up; one getting the food and the other getting the drinks. Then it was just a matter of finding seats afterwards. Often that meant sitting across the deck in Vines, which was fine. There was always confusion because pax couldn’t comprehend that there were 2 lines, one for food and another for coffee. It wouldn’t take much to come up with a better arrangement.

The food in the buffet is okay. Presentation, atmosphere and service are quite a bit less impressive. With pants and a sweater, you will look better dressed than some others in the MDR. We are doing Alaska in September and this time, I am not bringing a suit.

Still time to book B2B2B. We will add this to having met Jack Hanna years back in Biloxi. P Not sure who will make up the trifecta.

The medallion is all you need to purchase washer tokens, dryer tokens and detergent tokens. I don’t remember settings. Not sure if you can see in the photos below, but there are multiple settings.

Dump the carry ons. Meet the steward. Then grab a lounge chair by the pool, as it’s likely to be the last time one isn’t hogged. I ordered a drink and used the app to have a chicken salad sandwich delivered to my lounge chair.

Maybe 2 or 3 nights out of nine, the individual seating us in the MDR asked to carry our wine for us to the table. First night, we ordered after we were seated. The drinks were unforgivably late. We carried them from the Wheelhouse bar after that. It was no big deal because we had already been sitting there for an hour and our bartender knew to pour us one for the road right before 6. I assumed they in the MDR were worried that we would drop our glasses, being amateur drink transporters as opposed to the professionals employed by the ship.

Yes, it is available. Yes, she is entitled to 2 free classes per cruise. It is offered daily. I don’t recall if it was $20 or $30 a class after the two free ones. Have her keep her expectations low. My DW rates the class at beginner level.

We sailed her the beginning of March. There was definitely a sewage smell in the corridor outside our cabin on deck 8. It did not penetrate into the cabin.

I got an email from Princess yesterday promoting this. By the time I decided to book it last night, pickings were slim. I had to book a guaranteed ocean view. But, we’re booked!

Thank you. I don’t know how I missed it.

I have looked at deck plans for the Seashore and do not see where customer service or a future cruise desk is located. Does anyone know? I see excursion desks on deck 6 and deck 8. Could one of them be for booking future cruises?

We chose the Palm because it’s a little more remote and hidden. My strategy of dining at the same MDR every night paid off. We did not have the same waiter but the head waiter made each meal especially for me and I had some of the best ship food I’ve ever tasted. We did have some staff overlap as well and that helps. That way they remember the little things like which wine my wife drinks or not to put butter on my bread plate.