Gracie115

Thank you for your review. We have enjoyed all the cruises we have done on Princess. Our next booking on Princess is a TA in 2024 and the pricing for similar categories is about 40% less on Princess and that's for a 17 night cruise, not 14 which was the closest I could find on X. That price difference alone is enough to book Princess. We, like @Ken the cruiser book Reserve (formerly Club Class) and find that the service and found is very comparable to Celebrity MDR's with many more choices. Never experienced the lengthy wait you mention for wine service, but we have not sailed the Majesty so perhaps it is an issue with that ship. One of the things that we liked about Princess over Celebrity is the entertainment. They offer more options in the evenings. There aren't as many big theatre shows but they generally offer several live music lounges with a variety of styles, piano, jazz, folk etc. Celebrity, on our last 2 Apex cruises offered very little outside of Eden and you had to arrive there at least an hour before any show in order to get a decent seat. It's mostly about pricing and itineraries for us and we find that Princess is winning in those areas pretty much every time.

How has your cruise been? Hopefully things have improved since Monday.

This is a great idea. I wouldn't even care if they charged a bit extra. I bring so many toiletries and OTC meds and most of the time don't need any of them. This would save a lot of space in our carryon.

A "Winemakers Dinner" could be offered for half the price of the "Chef's Table" We've done that on other lines and enjoyed it far more than the Chef's Table.

The medallion for opening your door is pretty neat, especially if you happen to be carrying anything. As you approach your door you can hear the lock click and then it's just a push to open it. I didn't think I'd like it, I was wrong. Never used it to order drinks and I gather it's hit or miss for that.

Don't care about the umbrella but a Keurig in every room would be great. Some suites get them now but only the higher end ones above the CS level.

Princess has done this for a very long time and it's a great perk especially for longer cruises.

If you want to consider the Caribbean then I would look at early to mid-December. Kids aren't out of school then and pricing is usually a bit better. Or you could try a transatlantic in late Spring or mid-Fall. There are never a lot of kids on those. This holds true for both Royal or Celebrity. No matter what Royal is much better equipped to keep children busy so they aren't running rampant around the ship as they may do on Celebrity sailings which are definitely NOT accented towards children.

No, full suites on Princess don't have to pay for room service. It IS lousy that Princess isn't grandfathering in all those who bought the Plus or Premier packages before December. Doesn't make sense. We are still VERY pleased with the cost of our Sky Princess sailing in 2024, the same type room and itinerary on Celebrity would be nearly double what we are paying for Princess.

And our Sky Princess 17 night TA with Premier Package is $7500 in a PH3 versus $12000+ for a CS on the Apex TA next spring which is also 4 nights less than the Sky sailing. We worked too hard for our $$ to throw it away out of some perverse sense of loyalty to Celebrity. The PH3 suite on Princess is a far superior suite to the CS on any Celebrity ship.

If you get the Princess Plus or Premier package they are included and still the totals are much less than what X is charging for similar staterooms/suites.

The PH3 is a wonderful suite, especially the corner aft ones, the balconies are enormous! It is very roomy, the bathroom is very large with separate large tub and standing shower. As a comparison we think it falls somewhere between a CS & an RS on Celebrity. No butler, of course, but they have never had them. We are booked on the Sky in a PH3 with the Premier package in 2024.🙂

Interesting, our next cruise is on the Sky Princess. We found pricing to be quite a bit lower and have already had a price DECREASE on our sailing, saving us over $1200. I've been on the Princess boards and it looks like what people are most upset with are the recent changes adding room service charges and a charge for Alfredo's pizza venue. 70+ pages of comments about it. I get that no one wants to spend more, we booked the Premier package so this change doesn't impact us and even with the additional cost for that package our sailing is still significantly less than it would be on X.

This is so true in Luminae on the E class ships. The front part of the room is a bit quieter but if you sit in the main portion during dinner, well good luck hearing your table mates, especially if there are more than 2 of you at the table. It is so loud it is reminiscent of why we immediately started booking Aqua and Blu back in 2009 when the S class first appeared. We couldn't wait to get away from the MDR and now Luminae on E class is just as loud. Funny thing was the couple of nights we dined in one of the MDR's on Apex it was QUIETER than Luminae..... go figure...

I'm glad you enjoyed your Celebrity cruise. We have also cruised both lines and now find that Princess offers a better price point, especially in the full suites AND their itineraries are just far superior to what X offers. We rarely order room service and while we enjoy Alfredo's once per cruise the up charge doesn't bother us and is nowhere near the cost that lunch at any of the Spec Rest on X charge. So we have booked with them for our next cruise.

Yes this is what we have done also. And if you book a full suite there is another list of benefits included very similar to what X offers. No dedicated lounge except on the Royal class of ships, but that's the one we are sailing so all good. We have sailed Princess before and once post-Covid so we know what we will be getting. In answer to the OP's original question...... YES.

VERY likely they are being moved, not sure about it being to cabin attendant. I have been in communication with our butler from our last cruise who stated that is what is happening, several friends that have been or are being moved to lesser jobs.

I think the "vote with your wallet" will be felt but suspect it will take more than a year. And perhaps it will never be felt, if there are enough people out there who accept a product nowhere near as good as it once was and are willing to do it over & over again the prior standards will never come back. And neither will we. I'm sure we will take a look when the 2025 sailings are introduced later this year, but doubtful we will see anything worth booking with Celebrity. We have a Princess & Viking trip booked over the next 18 months. Celebrity can't come close to those trips in either itinerary or price.

And yet.... we were in a CS in April on the Apex and we were told we could have anything in the mini bar and not be charged. And we weren't. As with so many things X, amazingly inconsistently consistent.

I actually just now received a response and he stated that yes this is happening and that some of his friends are being reassigned to lesser positions. He is actually on his way to the airport now, having just completed his 2 month break.

I have done the same and also have not heard back from him.

Then stop reading the posts if you find them boring. We have "walked away" from Celebrity, doesn't mean I'm not going to follow the cruiseline in some hope that things will improve.

Exactly, when I purchase something I expect to receive what I purchased, not some watered down version of it.

I am so tired of hearing some posters defend cuts like this one and so many others, blaming the pandemic for everything. If the prices had remained the same or smaller increases, well OKAY, but they not only have not remained the same in many cases they are double or even more than double the price.. a CS on a TA 3 years ago was about $5K per person .... booked the one we just finished this May in 2021 at a cost of $8K per person. Same room next April for 2 less nights is now $12K per person with less perks...This is on Apex. A Sky Suite will cost you $8K per person --- and no butler for them. This is insane and I for one am not drinking the koolaid. So disappointing after sailing X for more than 2 decades, I wonder how long before the merger of the two lines. "Royal Celebrity" could be the new name.......

Boy is THAT ever an understatement.