HaveDogWillTravel

True that. I started smoking at 13, started trying to quit at 16 and was finally successful at age 43. I’ve been smoke free 24 years now.

Please do not overly concern yourself with this worry. I’ll be celebrating my 300th day on Princess during this cruise (all in cabins with a balcony) and other than the post pandemic fiasco of closing the aft promenade deck so crew could use it as their smoking lounge (discontinued now thank god) the incidence of annoying balcony smokers has been a rare event for me. It is MUCH more likely that you will have a fabulous experience, especially if you go into it with positive attitude, a smile on your face and a bit of patience and grace.

I’m heading to vines. I’d be happy to share what my CVP told me and my experience trying to pick one of these specifically has been like.

I think in general you are right. In this case we were both leaning over our balcony watching the sea on that first sea day and while discussing the usually pleasantries I casually asked if they had smelled smoke, as at that time, I really wasn’t sure of where it had come from. So it established a bit of we are in it together to find the source. I spoke to my steward who will be looking for the butts in soda cans and so on. He will inform his supervisor. He implored me to call guest services no matter the time as it is a safety issue. I am really hoping it doesn’t happen again. And yes these emerald deck minis are the best. It’s a shame you can’t straight up book them and choose your cabin anymore. As an entry level ME they are guarantees only now. I was able to book and choose this cabin just before that change went into effect.

I said something similar. It worked.

I’m glad they have it there now. When I’m getting ready to sail especially on a longer itinerary that is simply not a detail I look for on the website. There are just so many more important things to double check! lol.

No I checked that again tonight when I made our reservations for the 8th in Sterling. You know I really did not look for any fine print on the menu. Why would I? When I go on the 8th I will look for it. I’m sailing with premier and I was not charged 18% to my onboard account. Of course this is the way it is expected to be. I think I saw some queries though so wanted to state it explicitly.

I didn’t make reservations until boarding and had no issues. Of course this says nothing about a different ship on a different sailing.

My first night on the Sapphire Dec 1, 2023 I noticed the smell of cigarette smoke on my Emerald deck mini. The next morning as I was leaning on the railing watching the sea my neighbor was doing the same. Usually pleasantries followed. I casually mentioned that I had smelled cig smoke the night before and by any chance did they? The gentleman immediately replied that no they hadn’t. I smelled it again in the ensuing 4 days occasionally but didn’t say or do anything. It wasn’t a huge issue and occurs only in the morning and late at night. This is 34 days for me in this cabin and they leave on the 19th. I’m thinking and weighing my options. After an early night tonight (asllep by 8 pm) I woke up at 1am and decided to sit on the balcony. I could hear my neighbors out on theirs and not only could I smell the smoke I could see it. Without hesitation I said “oh my God I smell smoke! Do you? Let’s both call Guest services right now and report it! ‘ My neighbor said no he didn’t smell smoke, there’s no smoke here. And immediately the cigarettes went out and now I have my balcony free of toxic fumes. Your mileage may vary. I will discuss this with my room steward tomorrow now that I’m certain. Of course asking it to be brought to the room supervisor’s attention. And as a courtesy I’ll ask that the room division manager be notified. I believe the issue is solved and I’m only doing an fyi up the chain of command as a back up in case it becomes problematic. A short note about the Sapphire right now. The service, food and ship have been amazing. The wine selection has been diverse & plentiful.

@Coralas always your posts are much appreciated by all of us. Thank you so much. Someday I do hope I get to meet you!

True that. That is the whole wild card. I have really grown distrustful of Princess’ ability to reliably have nice wines on board in sufficient quantities. For this itinerary 34 days with very few ports I decided to roll the dice. But if I drive to the port and my husband/pack mule is with me I will still be bringing my wine with me. Maybe after a year or two of Princess always providing good inventory they just might earn my trust back. I’m so grateful that we have nice wines at least for now. . According to my MDR folks there’s only 3 bottles left of the Grgich hills merlot. Room service has Belle Goss Pinot noir which is nice but I don’t know how long that will last. I’ve found a lovely unoaked Chardonnay in vines and if I’m lucky the Chardonnay drinkers won’t like it. I’m normally an anything but Chardonnay girl but Jatin twisted my arm and I tried it.

At some point I was going to look at the menus and see what percentage discount these wine packages represent. I’ll post the MDR wine menu and the vines wine menu so you can do this for yourself if you wish. Well it seems I can’t add pictures this morning. I’ll try again later.

I talked to Habib today. He said the wine packages are fleet wide and permanent.

Last night on the Sapphire my friends were charged $39 + 18% = $46.02 for each dinner they had in Crown grill with me. Funny thing is I don’t see where this is communicated. When booking on DMW the charge shows as $39 and there is no fine print about the surcharge.

I was given a priori knowledge of this last April when I was OB and was asked to keep it off social media. I have photos of those early proposed packages. Haven’t had time to compare. yet. Niners are winning, weather is perfect and the beer is ice cold. Jacqueline out!

correct No further discount with plus or premier. @PacnGoNow Jatin in Vines said the wine package was available on the last segment. I will say it’s super easy to miss. I just randomly saw this little half sheet of paper at vines. I will talk to Habib about this. I’ll let you know what he says.

That is definitely on my radar. on a side note the elite lounge was in Skywalkers when I sailed this ship last April and November. Now it’s if club fusion. Where was when you were on board? I'm so bad I’m side tracking my own thread. Jeez

Yes I’ve already met Habib and totally agree.

My apologies if there’s already been a thread started on this. I’m on vacation on the Sapphire heading to Antarctica and prefer not to spend a lot of time online. The Sapphire is now offering wine packages. She has 5 sommeliers onboard. One of them did mention that he would prefer a white package separate from a red package. Hopefully this program will expand. The selection of wines has been excellent so far. Very good to excellent reds of course have a bigger selection than whites. But there are 3 different premier level champagnes on board which is making this girl very happy. I am not a huge fan of the Plus or Premier packages but given the length of this sailing (34 days) & the remoteness of our itinerary it was just too much work to bring my wine with me. If I had known about this wine package it might have changed the math significantly for me. As it is I’ll be using the Premier package for the first leg. Now I might use this wine package instead of buying the Premier for the second leg. Jury is still out on that. On a side note my friends who bought this sailing as a single booking were unsuccessful in buying Plus package for the first leg only. They talked to bar managers and guest services and while they wanted to help, try as they might the charge kept coming up for all 34 days and they could not override it. It would be great if folks currently onboard would post if the ship they are on had wine packages as well.

I could not have said it better. Great suggestions.

What a horrible idea.

The balcony doors can be seen in these photos. They are from the Star legend last month.

Wow thanks so much for this! I do have a suite concierge. I believe they will contact me a week before sailing as we are in the sky suite. But I’m really happy to hear I can start planning this with at least some confidence.

No harm in doing that! 😀 I would expect to pay $110 for each pair of people. I “think” I’ve seen a post a long time ago where 4 people had it together. I was just wondering if anyone had ever tried with a larger group.

Does anyone know if you can book this for 10 people? I have a suite on an upcoming sailing that would allow for it in terms of space.