caribill

Agree. But each individual can compare what his/her taste buds told them before the pandemic compared to what those taste buds tell them now.

Now that gratuities are shared across the entire fleet, not just on the ship you cruise on, I have no idea how much of what each person's "auto-tip" (paid or as part of the Plus package) actually gets into the pocket of anyone that actually provided service to you

I have never attended the $25 "Fine Wine Tasting" but comments I have read in the past say it is definitely a cut above the Grapevine $9.95 tasting that is free for Elites. We also enjoyed the "free" wine glasses that were used for the sweet dessert wine at the Grapevine tasting, but have not attended in a while. The wines never change. Also, the pace is so slow that attendees tend to start talking more and more among themselves during the presentation and do it loudly enough that the presenter cannot be heard by those actually wanting to hear what is being said.

You have to bring your own since Princess has stopped putting chocolates on the pillows each evening.

About the two production shows over 25 nights. Pre-pandemic most Princess ships had the capability to do three differennt production shows. That means the cast knew three and scenery and costumes for the three were on board. On 7-0day cruises usually only two of the three were performed. But even if a ship had the capability to do three different production shows, once they did those three on an extended cruise there just are no others to perform. So even a 25 day segment is limited to the number of production shows the cast knows. If the 25 days were actually multiple segments, then the same shows could be presented on each segment.

There should not be any lawsuits. For the FCC for the fare paid, Princess will give a full refund to the method paid if asked. (and the customer chose the FCC initially instead of a refund in order to get a bonus FCC.) For the bonus FCC, that would be lost if unused, but it would be a bonus that the recipient chose not to use in the time it could be applied. Hard to sue for something that involved no out-of-pocket money.

I fully understand your expectations and why what the rep did was not at all what you had wanted. However, there have been a number of posts in the pasts that basically said "I asked for a quote and when I called back the next day to make the booking the price was $xxx more. I am upset that I am unable to get the price quoted originally." The only sure way to have the original quote honored when one calls back is to have made a tentative booking ("hold"). It is also possible that the next day the category could be sold out, so the hold also preserves availability. The rep should (but did not) have asked if you want a hold so that price would be available the next day. There also have been a number of posts in the past (before FCCs became a part of the process) that essentially said "I only asked for a quote, but a booking was made. How do I cancel the booking?" And the responses said after x days the booking will disappear because no deposit was made. Please note that the posts about these holds were made when the quote requests were made to a Travel Agent or directly to Princess and without the information that a tentative booking was being made to preserve the price quoted. It seems to be a common practice. The main difference is that pre-pandemic, almost everyone did not have FCCs that the Princess computer system automatically applied to a booking, whether a hold or an intended booking. In fact this automatic applying of FCCs has resulted in a number of posts saying that the FCCs were thus not being applied to a cruise the person wanted them applied to.