Bgwest

Why is this surprising? “Crew Appreciation” (gratuities) is NOT a guest’s tipping the crew to show gratitude for a job well done. Instead of the cruise line paying THEIR employees a decent wage, they instead pay a substandard wage and look to their customers (us) to make up the shortfall THEY CREATED by way of the scheme they’ve devised and have cleverly disguised by using the ever so soft and cuddly phrase “crew appreciation”. I can only imagine the reaction of my customers if on every invoice I send I added a gratuities line item geared to make up for my stiffing my employees on every paycheck they receive. There outta be a law. A the saying goes.

Black jeans and a Hawaiian shirt 365 for me.

Yet on every cruise, there they are. 😃😃😃

Please let us know what you find.

Be comfortable. However you define that.

“Minimum standard”. Now that’s funny. This seems like an appropriate time to remind, Dress CODE = Dress SUGGESTION.

Source please.

What? Are you saying this entire post was started based purely on nothing but a bunch of malarkey?

Our TA is a brick and mortar firm and is half a continent away. Nevertheless, transferring our bookings to them (in the case of Princess within 60 days of booking and prior to final payment being made) generates savings that we are simply not willing to forego.

My dog seems to think so. 😃 We have 11 upcoming cruises booked. We utilize the services of a trusted TA for ONLY the cruise component of our travels. We book cruises ourselves then transfer the cruise to our TA. Everything else we plan and complete ourselves. While saving money isn’t important to some, the (nominally) 10% discount/rebate we get from our TA makes using them a no brainer. Additionally, as noted above, cruises and cruise lines are historically fraught with peril that comes at passengers from seemingly all directions. It is here we’ve found that having a good TA in our corner is invaluable. That said, I’m just a poor guy who appreciates any opportunity to earn 10% on most anything.

OK. You hate me. 🤷‍♂️

You might also consider checking their website periodically. .

Many of us certainly can.

This ☝️ And, you’re not using a travel agent, why?

Cancel and rebook. EZPZ. Especially if you’re using a travel agent. The only downside is, of course, losing some OBC from the original booking. If however, your OBC consists of a future cruise deposit and Shareholder OBC, then you lose nothing as those will be reapplied to the new booking. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve done this.

Not our experience at all. Each filet I received in YC was superb.

This ☝️

No charge with an impressively large on demand library.

🤙🏻😃🤙🏻

Will that include the snazzy socks?

Was standing line at the YC concierge desk on Seascape as the person in front of me asked to have grats removed. Her request was completed by staff without any questions asked.

Have you checked the Roll Call for this sailing?

Just booked a 27 day sailing in 2026. When looking at the entire 27 day sailing, 60% of the M1 cabins are unavailable. This caused me to look at the 12 day segment then the 15 day segment. When doing this,100% of the M1 cabins show available. I booked the sailing as 2 individual segments. Why does Princess do this? I wish I knew.

Dislike the Sapphire. Old and dated.

Thank you again, @Coral!!! We’ve been looking for this particular cruise for quite a number of years and it just hasn’t worked out. Got it booked this morning. Without your help we would never have known it was going to be available. You’re the best! 😃😃😃