hobbyfarmer2

Ours have always rolled over to subsequent legs automatically.

On 11/27/2022 at 9:36 PM, VibeGuy said:

No.  It’s because they’re selling the 2010 internet with 2022 packages.  
 

Princess has a much-ballyhooed partnership for internet with a company called SES.   SES operates three sets of satellites that can be routinely used for ship internet - HEO, MEO and a new MEO + constellation. 
 

For a while, pre-Recent Unpleasantries, Princess was using the MEO constellation and it was remarkably good - “the best WiFi at sea” was a reasonable way to describe it. 
 

For whatever reason, since the restart, even when operating between 45°N and 45°S, where the “old” MEO network works best, Princess has been using the HEO satellites.   I’ve seen ping data from this week on Ruby, Diamond and Discovery that all show the use of the legacy HEO network.   There’s nothing wrong with HEO, except that they move less data (lower bandwidth) and they’re 16,000 miles higher in the sky (adds a quarter second to each packet - it’s the speed of light and each packet has to go up and down to get to the earth station. 
 

Their provider is supposed to be turning up their New Better MEO network by the end of the year.  I’m not holding my breath.  
 

Princess is absolutely not being transparent about this, but physics doesn’t lie.  If the ping time is over 250ms, they’re using the older, slower network.  

Great informative post.  I worked in IT for decades including being responsible for military wired networks.  It always amazes me that ship internet works as well as it does.  I am not the slightest surprised that Princess is using lower cost satellites given the red ink of the past 30 months or so.  Wonder why Princess does not have a 2 tier offering though, one on slower sats, the other on the higher bandwidth ones.  Of course, they would need proper hardware and software provisioning for this including enough receiver/transmitter antennae.  Perhaps a chance for an additional profit centre.

We were on Enchanted last month and found the MDR food pretty decent including tenderloin cut choices on 3 nights.  Pretty good food considering the price we paid but we are both fairly easy to please and most even find us fun to cruise with or so they say.  My own personal view is that attitude is 95% of life.

On 12/1/2022 at 6:20 PM, kywildcatfanone said:

These packages are a cash cow for the cruise lines.  Not surprised they are raising the prices regularly.

Price rises might also have something to do with the 10's of billions the cruise lines took on in debt to stay afloat.

17 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

On the same cruise - lot of people coughing and sneezing. Some did it right in their hand. Some didn't bother covering up at all.

 

A woman on the elevator with us coughed without covering up - I was visibly taken aback. She was like - it's not covid. And I said - you still have to cover up, nobody wants your mucus all over them.

 

We wore masks indoors at all times, unless actively eating. We didn't get covid THIS time, but we got it on our last cruise in June. This time we were freshly boostered in addition to having it in June.

DW rips a strip off me if I don't cough into my sleeve or a kleenex.  That coughing woman in the elevator was just plain rude.  I exclusively used the stairs, DW about 90%.  Going from 8 to 16-18 was tough at first but not too bad by the end of cruise.  Use it or lose it is what my old GP always said.  We got our 5th vax (3'rd booster) 3 weeks before we left.

Got off the Enchanted almost 2 weeks ago.  DW & SiL caught head colds - they tested negative twice for Covid while on board.  BiL and I felt great on board but we both developed the same head colds with neg Covid tests 2 days after we got home.  Probably caught it from our wives and our colder weather back home most likely weakened our immune systems.

Almost zero mask wearing on board except for a few passengers and some crew occasionally.  No sign of Covid that we saw but we did have the Plus pkg which may have blinded us a bit.

Strange.  We were on the same cruise where the 4 of us booked the Bonaire snorkel excursion on the wooden Junk named Samur anchored a few hundred feet away from the Enchanted.  It was one of our nicest excursions ever.

Four of us took a minivan cab from the cruiseport to the airport on Tuesday last.  BiL paid the fare on this short trip and it looked like a big bill to me from several feet away where i was wrestling bags.  Asked and he said the meter showed $440.50 (yes $440+).  The driver said it was a meter mistake and to give him $40.  Seems to me I paid about $15 + tip in for DW and I in Dec 2019 when we last cruised.  Has something changed with fares or was there an "irregularity" of some type?

On 11/7/2022 at 3:24 PM, Thrak said:

 

Ahhh... The "reality" of Marketing. Promise anything... Why not?  It's not like Marketing has to actually implement the promises.

Marketing for sure but they also say best WiFi at sea which to me waters it down quite a bit.

5 hours ago, billco said:

I don't see replacing free 250 minutes with unlimited at $5.00/day as a cutback. To me the cutback is not living up to the promise that internet on a cruise would be like working at home.

Don' recall that promise.  Internet on a ship is satellite radio based and will most likely never match what is avbl in a home connected by fibre or cable to the internet.

On 11/5/2022 at 10:38 PM, gburleigh said:

 

We booked a Princess cruise for travel in April, 2020, of course that was cancelled.  Two weeks ago I received an email that I had two credit certificates for $816 ea. and that I had until Dec. 31, 2022 to use them.  To my knowledge I had not received any earlier emails about this or certainly no letter from Princess.  Problem is that my wife has a broken foot and cannot travel by then even if we could travel.

 

I spoke to Princess and they basically told me "too bad, you have had two years to use them" (oops, did they forget they weren't sailing for all of those two years?).  They are not transferable and cannot be used for a future cruise past Dec. 31.

 

So, I'm reaching out to fellow sailors if anyone has experienced this or knows of someone dealing with a similar situation.  I did think about using them on one of their cruise between now and then, cancelling it a few before with note from my wife's doctor that she cannot travel.  Any thought would be appreciated.  Thank you.

 

Gary & Becky

We were in a similar situation with a b2b booked for March 2020.  The credit has been visible on the web site for well over 2 years expiring Dec 31 2022.  We booked a cruise leaving this Nov with it.  We also left some FCDs used for cancelled cruises with Princess.  Princess doubled the amounts and we also applied these to the Nov 19 cruise.

Can finally answer this after having purchased OBC from the website.  The OBC amounts are $25, $50, & $100 USD despite not showing this on the page.  The cost is shown in $CAD.  Looking at the travel summary printout confirmed this.

20 hours ago, Barter123 said:

The conversion rate that Princess was charging for Canadians at the time you booked your cruise continues if you are purchasing OBC. If it is showing $125.00 for 100.00 OBC you booked at 25%. It's a good deal.  I have some bookings at 20%, 25%, 26% and 29%. Looking at the cost for purchasing OBC is a great way to know what conversion rate you booked at.

That is my understanding as well from past purchases.  What confused me is that the page where you buy the OBC shows the Canadian prices but does not show the American dollar amount you will receive.  We are left to assume it will be $25, $50, or $100 USD but is does not show this.

Thank you but will it be $100 USD or some other number using the current exchange rate?

We want to treat our first time fellow travelers to a Crown Grill meal in mid Nov.  I note that we can purchase OBC using the website for multiples of $125 $CAD but our shipboard account is in $USD.  Does this $125 $CAD equate to $100 $USD or will a conversion be made using the current exchange rate at time of purchase?

Sailed Coral on Panama cruise in Jan 2019 for 15 days.  Loved the ship.  Great viewing from multiple decks, wrap around single level promenade, dancing every night in the Wheelhouse bar, and enrichment lectures in the theatre.  Great trip.

We have received a small credit a couple of times but no increase.  Taxes change sometimes, I guess.  No big deal.

Tremendously useful post.  Thanks.

DW and I did a 21 day b2b on Sky.  Great ship.

We have cruised 3 Royal class ships and the Coral.  They are all great choices.  We enjoyed the dancing and music on Coral in the Wheelhouse bar as well as the walkable wrap around promenade.  We have found food choices to be a bit better on Royal class.

38 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

I agree and if I never hear John Denver's song "Country Roads" I'll be ok.    I swear I heard that song every day 5x a day......at least.   LOL

 

I feel the same way about Sweet Caroline. Bah bah bah.

I seem to recall that we had fairly nice aft views on the Coral on the Promenade deck.

Took 9-10 days for one we sent in in early April.

On 12/3/2021 at 12:41 PM, Mackenzie1 said:

I’m on the Sky Princess now. They have two IPA’s, and one is Goose Island. There is no British Pub Lunch yet.

Goose Island is a decent IPA and while not a craft specialty it is unlikely to offend most IPA  lovers.

A simple dessert but we love the creme Brule.