caribill

And that is a big problem. The reason we have been on Princess for so many of our cruises is because they were better than the competition: o More interesting and unique itineraries o Better perks for loyal customers o Welcome aboard cookies in the stateroom. o No charge for room service delivery o Crepes Suzettes at the Champaigne Fountain event o FCDs that were good for four years o Chocolates in the bed each evening o "Log" of the cruise delivered the last night of the cruise But the more Princess is just the same as the others, the less reason to consider Princess first.

Many have posted that the app often does not show the options they want to order and thus a phone call is needed. Just adding a comment field to an app order would allow the needed customization that could reduce phone calls to room service.

How soon we forget. Last year the Plus Package changed (in two steps) from $40/day to $60/day, a 50% increase.

A family of four could be in four different areas of the ship, but you suggest only one of them should pay the fee and be able to have an order delivered to where they are.

If you read other current threads, you will see posts by a number of people who are spending much more time than it takes to check-in at the pier trying to order the Medallion, but unable to no matter what digital device they have or what version of the app they are using. And this is true whether shipping is free or not. And posts by people who said their previously successful orders for the Medallion have disappeared and they are unable to place the order again.

Not a small charge for a family of four that would need to now pay $59.96 each time to eat at Alfredo's/Gigi's or pay $59.96 so each could order via the app.

Yes, spend hours fighting the app pre-cruise to save a few minutes at check-in.

Right, Princess can easily replace those old folk with young families who are anxious to cruise durtng September, October, January and other months that school is in session, They can also replace those old folk with young people who have enough time off from work to take those multi-week cruises such as the ones around South America.

The TD experience I used to have: a) Princess scheduled the time to mesh with the Princess Theater schedule. (I did not have to guess many months in advance what time to schedule dinner to be able to make a show. With DMW, if I wait until boarding when the show times are known, dining reservations are usually not available at that popular appropriate time.) b) On the first evening we were seated with four to six strangers who also wanted to eat at that time every evening. They often became friends we kept in touch with after the cruise. (With DMW, there is no guarantee that the strangers on the first night want to eat at that time every night.) c) The table was always ready for us at the designated time. (With DMW there is no assurance that a table, any table, is available at the time you reserved.) d) Always had the same table and servers for the entire cruise. Knowing where the table was, could just walk in at the proper time each evening. (With DMW must wait in line to see if a table is available at the reserved time, much less with the servers you prefer. When we asked the first evening to have the same table at that time for the rest of the cruise, we were told it would not be possible because someone else had already reserved it.) So, no, in our experience there is no way to get the TD experience with DMW.

The high demand for room service is not from people picking up the phone and ordering something. The high demand is from Princess implementing the app promising easy ordering and delivery to anywhere you are on the ship. Princess did not increase the staff numbers in order to cope with the demand the app added to room service orders. Princess over promised what could be provided and instituted a charge (activiation fee if ordered via app, everytime fee if using phone). Do not blame the passengers. Blame Princess for not staffing up to provide what they said they would.

That depends if you are a beautiful young person or if you are a pensioner. You obviously did not go to the section of the ship that had bright sunshine, calm seas and blue skies.

They did: "to ensure our guests receive the best possible service levels during their stay."

Maybe a "nominal" charge of $14.99 to reach a representative within 60 seconds would solve that problem.

So they instituted this "nominal" charge for Pizza ($59.96 for a family of four) because of customer dissatisfaction with long lines? Well, the lines at the main dining rooms for dinner can exceed what the lines have been at Alfredo's/Gigi's. So, what will be the Princess solution to those long lines at the MDRs?

Are you saying that when you go to the personalizer for the booking for the other cabin and enter in your credit card number it rejects it saying that the same card has already been used with another booking number? I find it difficult to believe that the Princess software checks the credit card number entered against all other bookings on that cruise.

So a charge of $59.96 for a family of four to eat at Alfredos/Gigis is "nominal." I think they will achieve their goal of eliminating long lines at Alfredos/Gigis. I am not sure how they can increase the capacity at Slice as the lines there can also be long and there is not enough physical space to increase the size of the Slice venue.

All the cruise lines love that kind.

This Remote Worker Lives On A Cruise Ship For About The Same Price As Renting An Apartment Benzinga Ryan Gutridge began working remotely and living on a Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) cruise ship two years ago. Over that time, it's cost him about the same amount to live on the cruiseliner as he pays for his apartment. What To Know: According to a Business Insider report, Gutridge has spent almost every week during the last two years aboard a cruise ship. He still rents an apartment in Florida and leaves the ship for holidays and occasionally to visit friends. Although he didn't go into detail on the costs, Gutridge noted that he sets aside about $30,000 a year for cruise fares. "When I started really looking at the numbers and evaluating how much base fare I paid to be on a ship for 300 nights, I found it was almost neck-and-neck with what I paid for rent and trash service for an apartment in Fort Lauderdale, Florida," he said. His cost basis has been falling over the years as well. He's racked up a lot of rewards points with Royal Caribbean because he cruises so often. At this point, all of his drinks are free and he doesn't have to pay for internet access. He also has access to exclusive discounts, he said. "Because of the loyalty program, I'll actually spend less money cruising this year than I did last year, even though I cruised more," Gutridge explained. Gutridge works full-time while on the ship as a remote cloud-solution engineer for a cloud provider. Monday through Friday, he goes through the same work routine that he would normally do on land. He has meetings in the mornings and afternoons and often works from the top deck of a lounge, which is "very quiet." He also manages to eat healthy and maintain a regular gym routine throughout the workweek. He spends about 90% of his time aboard the ship, even though it makes several stops. Unless it's a port he hasn't been to or really enjoys, he is usually working. Still, he has been to CocoCay and Nassau in the Bahamas more than 70 times each over the last two years, he said. It's working out so well, he eventually plans to get rid of his apartment entirely and sell the car he keeps parked there. "Most of the time, I'm so busy that I don't even notice we're at the same place -- I just know I'm not in an apartment staring at the wall. I'm stress-free," Gutrudge said.

o First heard about it in a presentation by the Future Sales lead person o Next saw it as one of the rotating ads on the digital screens around the ship o Never noticed it in the Patter although the Patter did list the presentation by the Future Sales person

Sometimes they have on board special pricing. For example, this summer on some ships a limited number of itineraries were offered at 50% off the then current pricing.

And if you choose to book a cruise while on board, an FCD will automatically be issued/applied and in most cases will be the only deposit needed if before final payment time.

Plus-50 does not have some of the "benefits" of Plus-60 such as the two "free" special ice cream desserts each day.

Since all of the packages such as Plus and Premier count as onboard revenue, it is no surpise that onboard revenue is increasing. Onboard revenue increases the more that these packages are sold and also goes up each time Princess raises a package price. In addition, passengers who have a package realize that their end-of-cruise account will not be high and tend to spend more on other items on board that are not a pack of their package.

They can, but in our case they gave us a cruise card that was only active on turnaround day.