caribill

Call Princess and pick the phone tree option for booked cruisers who need help with the app. An agent will try to set up what you want. But, even if they do set it up, work with the dining room supervisory staff the first evening to make what you intended a reality.

Useless option. Does not mean anything.

Not sure why you needed to set up different credit cards. a) When setting up the first one, there should be an option to let others use the same card. If you picked that option and identified your spouse as the additional user, then you should not have been asked for a different card number for your spouse. b) You can contact Princess via phone now and straighten this out. No need to wait until on board and wait on a line to do this.

That was true pre-Covid shutdown. After the restart, with Princess expecting about 75% of passengers to have Plus/Premier package which include gratuities that cannot be removed, and with most of the other 25% of passengers not reducing what they pay for "crew appreciation," Princess decided it was not worth the effort to have every cash tip checked to see if gratuities had been reduced. Thus now cabin stewards and dining room staff can keep cash tips without having to first check if a passenger has reduced what they are paying into the general tip pool.

No ! They are no longer getting free pizza at Alfredos, but whenever they booked their cruise, it was included for free.

So that, for two people, is $24 more (+ mandatory crew appreciation?) per visit than previously needing to pay for standard fare passengers.

Casual dining (such as Alfredos) is not Specialty Dining (such as Crown Grill). I have seen nothing that says SD credit can be used at CD venues, either in the past or with these new changes.

Past webinars with the VP of sales have said things that turned out not to be what was implemented once onboard the ship. One example is the 50% discount for platinum/elite members for Internet. Initially if you booked it pre-cruise, you had to pay 100% in advance and the VP on the webinar said you would get the 50% back as refundable OBC. Turned out as implemented it was non-refundable OBC until enough passengers complained. So in my mind, the VP of sales has no more idea of how things really work on board than a VP of marketing. (Still waiting for those dual glass pianos that sales and marketing said would be in the atrium on the Royal class ships.)

But you can still have two 10,000-calories special desserts a day.

Supposedly cans are not included on any beverage package except the Zero-alcohol package, but are available at a discount. I assume that when you did get the cans you were not charged anything, not even the discount price. From the Princess web site: The package includes sparkling or still bottled water (500ml or less), fountain sodas, fresh juices and healthy smoothies (unlimited juice bar), specialty coffees and teas, Frappés at Coffee & Cones, and Red Bull energy drinks. In the past canned soda has also not been available as part of a package on Princess Cays. I wonder if that has changed.

Option 3: Just have the buffet be more crowded without any improvement in what is offered there.

Not everybody has a digital device that Princess supports the app to work on. Have the latest IPhone or android phone. Great. Have one from several years ago, not so great.

On CCL stock analysts conference calls, management says they expect 50% of passengers to have Plus and 25% to have Premier. If they are not meeting those goals on the Princess brand, I doubt they would have been able to successfully significantly raise the price of both last year.

There are a number of things that work differently if a B2B is a single booking number or two booking numbers. Sometimes an item is repeated for each segment even if you booked it as a single cruise. (Don't want to get too specific about this as not to give Princess ideas about more they can eliminate). And sometimes an item is occurs just once if you book a B2B as a single cruise. I am not sure that the people who put on the webinars have full knowledge of those details.

And that was about 6 months after it went from $40 to $50. 50% increase within six months ($40 to $60) is not inflation. It is price gauging.

Also gone but not part of an Elite benefit (but you would have to be Elite to get it) were the celebrations and amenities on the cruise when you reached 500 days, 750 days, etc on Princess. Another Elite benefit that is greatly reduced in value is the free canapes on Formal evenings. Greatly reduced choices and the ones there do not appeal to us at all. Remember when chocolate covered strawberries was one of the choices?

No. a) If checked in before boarding has started, can still wait in Elite/Suite area and have priority boarding. Has never made a difference if boarding has already started. b) Check-in no longer has Platinum/Suite/Elite lines. Lines now are simply have Medallion or do not have Medallion. Not have Medallion line moves slower because of the short time it takes to collect each person's Medallion.

Closing stock prices on 2/26/2020, just before the country (and cruise industry) shutdown due to the pandemic: RCL $81.53 CCL $33.14 Closing stock prices 7/30/2023 RCL $108.57 CCL $18.49 So, which company do you think managed their way better through the pandemic and the post-pandemic environment?

Maybe going from unlimited Internet to a number of free minutes was about a dozen years ago, but going from a number of free minutes to having to start paying $$$ for any Internet at all was relatively recent. And do not forget, that the retail cost of those free minutes was not that different that what Platinum/Elite passengers are now paying to access the Internet. So about the same $$$ value, but now paying for it.

They are eliminating benefits that were free to you. (Example: Free Internet (once was unlimited free.)) They are adding benefits you only get if you first pay $$$ to Princess. (Example: Book an excursion through Princess for up to 100% more than if you booked the same experience directly with a provider and then get 10% back.) By the way, note that Princess does not allow you to book an excursion in advance for 90%. Must pay the full 100% in advance and get the 10% back as OBC with Princess hoping you will spend that OBC instead of actually getting a cash refund.

You are not hurting Princess by doing this. Princess $$$ from you does not drop. You are reducing the amount of $$$ that those in the tipping pool get.

Exactly. The more Princess becomes similar to its competition, the more reason there is to book the competition. Same large ships with the same onboard amenities going to the same overcrowded ports . Why not just select the least expensive cruise if the experience is the same?

On 7/27/2023 at 5:50 PM, rpbanks said: Get ready for the package price increase coming soon Just as they said beverage prices would not be raised when they moved the Plus limit to $15/drink.

Coke Zero in cans is available on Princess ships. (But not included with any beverage package)

Other possible user fees so you do not have to pay for amenities you do not use: o Attending a show in the Princess Theater o Using a swimming pool o Taking an elevator o Watching MUTS