caribill

It shouldn't be a game to win. With Traditional Dining you could book a cruise at the last minute and usually still get the same table with the same waitstaff for the entire cruise with times coordinated with Princess theater performances. What DMW does is force everyone into Anytime Dining. Some who liked traditional get lucky and can have the same experience. Many cannot. And one must guess way in advance of a cruise what time the Princess Theater shows will be scheduled. And the true spirit of Anytime Dining is not to force one into a pre-determined fixed time to dine, but, based on daily activities, how hungry someone is and other factors decide each day while on the cruise what time to go to the dining room. Now some people benefit from DMW because, for example, they like to dine at 7:00 every evening and that was not a TD time, so they had to line up each evening at 7 and hope space was available. Now they can pre-reserve that time every evening and hope when they do show up at 7 there is an available table. Those who choose on a daily basis while on the ship when to dine can show up when they want each evening and also hope a table is available, just like in the past.

OK, I'll mention it. Four months before a cruise I was unable to get an overall reservation for the time I wanted, which dining room did not matter. On the phone with a Medallion helper, was able to book 33 individual reservations for the 33 days in one of the dining rooms. Posts on other threads have said that an overall request makes it easy to get the same table and waitstaff, but individual reservations for each evening does not.

Great advice for both domestic and foreign travel. Airline flight schedules are just not as reliable as they used to be.

And as far as priority disembarkation at the end of the cruise. In effect, 100% of the passengers can select what group time to disembark. Yes, Princess will send luggage tags with associated disembarkation times to everyone. But anyone can go to the passenger services desk and exchange for a time they prefer. Even a first time cruiser in the lest expensive inside cabin. (Of course those with booked tours or flights will have had an appropriate time assigned in the first place.) And as far as the disembarkation lounge for Platinum, Elite and Suite passengers, it has little meaning on the many voyages where over half the passengers have that status. It is often a much better experience to wait elsewhere where it is not crowded.

As far as assigned or selected boarding times: Pre-pandemic it was basically suggestions to evenly spread out the number of people checking in. When cruising resumed after the pandemic, the purpose was to minimize the number of people in the terminal at one time to reduce the chance of spreading Covid. Pre-pandemic, when it was assigned it was by deck your cabin was on. Several flaws with this method: People with late assigned check-in times might have had early flight arrival times. People with early assigned times might arrive after their assigned times. Also, a traveling party might have cabins on different decks with assigned boarding times being hours apart. Post shutdown, at least people could choose when to check-in based on when they expected to reach the port (subject to time slots being available). Both pre-pandemic and after the restart the boarding times have not been enforced except in very limited circumstances.

Also had less passengers on the ships after the restart, so casino use during that time does not represent normal use.

Was it refundable or non-refundable credit?

Did you only work with this with United, or did you also call Princess for help getting rebooked?

That has worked for some people and not for some others. Based on posts on this forum, main reason it may not work is that the app does not have the correct Captain's Circle status.

Cabins below mini-suite have crew appreciation of $16/day. Platinum/Elite status means Wi-Fi is worth $7.50/day. So for those people $23.50/day is covered of the $60 plus package cost leaving the beverage package for $36.50/day/person. For many people that is worth it.

The Grapevine Wine Tastings, whether you attended or not, did not cost you anything. The formal night canapes whether you ordered them or not did not cost you anything. But when you paid for the Plus or Premier package, you paid money and chose not to use what you had paid good money for. The point is that Princess justified the price increase by including items that they probably figured people would not utilize. Princess should remove the junk items that people do not want and reduce the cost of the packages.

None other than people within hearing range when I get frustrated with the app and yell out a string of curse words.

Any travel agent I have used also has access to that information.

The benefit of using EZAir for domestic is that up until 45 days before the flight or cruise (whichever comes first) you can change or cancel with no penalty. Booking with an airline only allows that at the highest fares. Also, if the cruise is cancelled by Princess for any reason, with EZAir you get a full refund if you had paid for the air already. If you had booked with the airline (except with their highest fares), the best that could happen is that part of what you paid is credit to be used within a year of when you had made the booking. Depending how far in advance you had made the booking, you may have very little time left to use that credit. Also, if you have booked an EZAir flight for returning home after the cruise, Princess will take care of rescheduling with no penalty if the ship arrives too late for your flight or must end the cruise in a different port.

Our experience on the Ruby: Bedside light: When we first embarked it came on very often and was very annoying. By evening it did not come on at all automatically. I do not know if it was because I accidentally blocked it or for some other reason, but I was very happy for it to never come on. Hallway light: Mixed-emotions here. I welcomed it when not sleeping as I did not have to use a lightswitch when I wanted to access the clothes shelving or the hanging clothes. Absolutely hated it at night as it was much too bright for me. We plug in a 6 watt night light in the bathroom and with the door open that provides enough light to find the bathroom at night.

By Murphy's Law, whatever time you want to dine.

Single device plan Four device plan

It will cost the difference from a single device plan and the four device plan.

When you make purchases, you get points. You can redeem the points got stuff. I assume that the stuff will end up including something with Princess. Maybe OBC?

Some overseas ports also. If I remember correctly, at least one Spanish port.

I do not know if you can purchase the package on day 2, but if you can it will not be at a reduced price. Of course that would mean you did not get the Internet part of the package on day 1. Not sure about the crew gratuities for day 1 either.

On another cruise line, acoustic cannons were the defense. Also, the hiding place for people with balcony cabins was the hallway. And while in the ares, lookout staff were on the outside promenade deck watching in all directions.

The deposit is lost, so if the deposit was the FCD, it is lost.

If I understand correctly, you were eligible to have 10 free classes over the five segments and chose to take only three. If that is a typical use of this benefit of the Premier package, it is window dressing for the package the same way that 70 fancy desserts would be if those five segments were 7 days each.

Ignore above. That refers to cruises for 5 days or less. Passage contract for the USA says for cruises 6 to 24 days that if you cancel 57 to 89 days before a cruise, the deposit amount is the cancellation fee. No cancellation fee for 90 or more days in advance of the cruise.