caribill

Closer to the cruise line situation are the major USA airlines that went through bankruptcies including United, AA, and Delta. Stockholders lost their investments, but no passenger lost any money for tickets they had paid for. The major cruise corporations (CCL, RCL, NCL) if having a bankruptcy would have the same outcome with customer $$$ safe. (Of course minor USA airlines did abruptly go out of business leaving their customers stranded, just like some smaller cruise companies have done such as Crystal.)

You need to move from California to Texas where gas is under $3/gallon now.

But if you do not have any capital gains, the losses up to $1500 ($3000 for a joint return) can be deducted from ordinary income. And if your loss exceeds the $1500/$3000 amount, it can be used to offset income in future years.

Don't need to wait for an end-of-month statement. Just submit a copy of the purchase confirmation.

No, OBC other than OBC given by Princess to compensate for a past problem can be used pre-cruise to book a shore excursion. This includes military OBC, OBC as a booking perk, posted OBC from a travel agent, etc.

For a long time Princess had early dining around 5:30 and late dining around 7:45. Demand was high for early dining and then had two dining rooms reserved for that and only one for late seating. But a number of people complained that 7:45 was too late for them, so Princess moved the early time to 5 and adjusted the late time also to be earlier. However, a number of people who had thought 7:45 was too late for dinner and thus had early TD felt that 5 was too early for dinner and 7:15 would be perfect. That is when demand dropped for early TD and went up for late TD.

That assumes the peoplem with you the first evening were there at that time because they wanted to eat every evening at that time. But there is a good chance you were seated with people who just wanted to eat at that time one evening or had no reservation (like the old AT) and just were hungry that evening at the same time you had a reservation for.

And I remember when, at least on Princess, this also applied to breakfast and lunch. There were two seatings at each. If you had early TD for dinner, then you had early TD for breakfast and for lunch. They still just used one dining room for those two meals since demand was not there for more rooms.

AT still exists. You do not have to make a reservation to eat in a dining room with DMW. Just show up when you want to and, as in the past, you will be seated when a table is available which could be immediately or after a wait.

Early TD was when the two dining rooms first opened each evening. So if you make a DMW reservation at that time for every evening, you have no problem being seated when the restaurant first opens. Almost like the old TD.

So the people that would have wanted TD at 5 PM will just show up at the now AT dining room at 5 PM. Same number of people showing up to occupy the same tables for up to 2 hours (or longer). Making the dining room totally AT (with DMW) does not make eating (or service) any faster than when it was TD.

Princess never had a limit of how many people who could sign up for AT. The restriction was for how many could sign up for TD. Carnival, on the other hand, did it the opposite way. There was a limit of how many could sign up for AT. Once that limit was reached, people were forved into TD. But RCI, with a three level dining room, did it differently. One level was reserved for TD, one level for AT, with the third level having a combination of TD and AT, the number of TD tables on that level depending on the demand for that cruise.

There is no reason that DMW dining cannot also have a leisurely pace. No matter what time you reserve a table for, once you are seated nobody will force you to eat quickly. Unless Princess forces you to eat in xx minutes time, then the increased passenger load still cannot be accommodated in dining rooms that are not sized for the increased ship capacities.

That can easily work when you make a reservation for the time the dining room first opens. But I wonder how well that would have worked if you had wanted a dining time of 6:20 instead of 5:00. Would that table #101 actually be available at that time every evening?

DMY implemented properly is a good replacement for the past Anytime Dining when most passengers showed up when they wanted and often had to wait for a table. Theoretically, with DMW andone that used to have AT could schedle a time to arrive an be quickly seated. But DMW and TD can still exist together. Based on pre-cruise demand for TD, just reserve the proper number of tables for TD at fixed times and thus with guaranteed seating at the scheduled arrival times. All the other tables could be used for DMW.

Just to be sure, was the reservation for a time other than when the dining room first opens? And did were the number of passengers close to 100% occupancy on your cruises?

I think Princess removed the TD not because they felt many people did not want it (after all, there were usually pre-cruise waitlists for at least one of the sittings), but because someone truly believed that DMW could replicate TD. Of course this was probably the same someone who believed that if you made a reservation for a table at 7:30, that a table would actually always be available then. Without TD with the same table at the same location at the same time every evening, you cannot walk directly into the dining room after the first evening and quickly get to your TD table. Instead, everyone, even those with reservations, must line up just like the first evening and be escorted to an available table somewhere in the dining room. And one feature of TD that is sorely missed is that if signed up for TD, the times were coordinated with Princess show times. Now you must make a wild guess months in advance of the cruise when showtimes might be and then decide on a time to reserve for dinner. Yes, Princess suggests several times for this, but at least two of those times are not the best timing option. If you wait until you know the show times pre-cruise, it is likely that the time slot you want is filled that close to embarkation.

Was the GTY on Princess in the same category as the specific cabin? For example, if the GTY was for a BE balcony, was the specific cabin also a BE balcony? Or was it for a higher category such as a BD balcony which would cost more than a BE? Some cruise lines other than Princess do offer a GTY that is lower in price than any specific cabin of the same type, for example a balcony cabin.

On Princess GTY rates are not lower. They are the same price as you would pay for the category you book a GTY for. For example, if you book a GTY for a BA cabin, it is the same price as if you were able to select a BA cabin.

Princess ships will convert foreign currency to the currency of the cruise, usually US $ in most parts of the world. They can do this at the Customer Service desk and, on some ships, a currency exchange machine. They only take bills, no coins. Exchange rate, as other point out, will be poor. Expect to lose 7%-10% of the currency value in the transaction. If using a currency exchange machine, it will add a "convenience fee" in addition to having a poor exchange rate. Once you do have the money exchanged, you can have the cash applied to your onboard account.

The new cruisers they are seeking will mainly be younger ones with families. That will help fill up the ship during summer and school vacation times, but they still need the older repeat passengers to fill up the ships the other times of the year and on longer cruises.

The difference is they do not charge me extra each time they make my bed or feed me in the main dining room. But they do charge me up to $5 for every shirt I want washed.

What they said: "we are redoubling efforts to attract new-to-cruise guests. About one-third of our guests have historically been new to cruise." To me that says they want more than 1/3 of the passengers to be new-to-cruise (NTC). That would mean having less than 2/3 of the passengers being repeat passengers. To me that says repeat passengers do not count as much any more. Since they also expect the a number of NTC passengers to cruise again with Princess while wanting less overall repeat passengers, my conclusion is they want less long time Princess customers.

The "Champagne" they give has less value than the cost of the bottle it is in. They already reduced the cost of the gifts by eliminating the glass emblem which depicted the cruise area (example Alaska) that the cruise was sailing. Obviously Princess ships are not sailing at full capacity yet. And certainly the recent Princess sale in North America (balcony for the cost of an inside cabin) and the one in Europe (Mini-Suite for the cost of a deluxe balcony; Premier package for the cost of the Plus package) indicates price cutting, not increasing. But they did say two things that apply corporate wide : a) "Cumulative advance bookings for full year 2023 are slightly above the historical average and at considerably higher prices, as compared to 2019 sailings, normalized for FCCs." b) "we have been working to increase near-term occupancy in part by using limited promotions and opaque channels, available only to a select group of people to protect overall price integrity for 2023"

On the CCL Corp stock analysts call this morning it sort of was made official that loyal customers do not count anymore. (This is for all the CCL Corp brands, not just Princess.) They are doubling efforts to reach new-to-cruise passengers. Past advertising focused on loyal guests. Current advertising is focused on attracting new cruisers. (By the way, they also said that . Pricing is still “way too much of a value.” Too much of a discount from land vacations.)