We've been on several Princess cruises and enjoyed them...prior to that we did several Carnival cruises which we also enjoyed, but the less "party-like" atmosphere on Princess was more to our liking. Last Princess cruise was Nov. 2019 Panama Canal.
I booked a December 10-day Mexico cruise this year for our family, 14 total, and in getting things set up I've noticed some changes...the so-called "Medallion" being the elephant in the room. While not needing a card to get into the room is nice, I see nothing else useful there; getting 7% back from onshore purchases made from a merchant who had to raise his prices 20% to make up for the 17% Princess charges him? No thanks. And having to give my credit card info to a firm I never heard of, to enable this silly medallion, does not particularly thrill me. Setting up dining now seems like one could spend half the cruise time scheduling times for what? Before, we had early or late, and if we didn't want to bother or it didn't fit our schedule, we just ate at the buffet...simple and it worked fine.
Now I look at a recent Princess Circle, with the new president raving about all the "great" changes coming, "MedallionClass" being one of them. Whooppee, sports betting, just what I never wanted. And you can gamble from your room, wow, wonderful (not). And maybe someone from a show cast will say happy something or other to one of us and surprise us, can hardly wait. And we can always watch the new "Love Boat II" reality show soon, that's about as exciting as nothing I can think of. So is Princess turning into Carnival, only more so?
I'd have been many times more excited if they announced they were quitting being such cheapskates with drinking water, and no longer charging us for the bottle conveniently left in the room, or to carry on an excursion. Or eliminating formal night, though I don't begrudge them having it as some folks really like them.
So perhaps I'm spoiled...we did a Viking trip this spring and really enjoyed it, besides things like water being freely handed out, coffee, drinks with dinner, sparkling water, wine, beer or whatever included, wi-fi for all. No onboard gambling, and never missed it.
As I said, I did enjoy our several Princess Cruises before, so am withholding judgment until after this family cruise, but the things I've seen don't look good, if this is the way they're headed. They've hyped that silly Medallion so much (I think it's the president's pet project) that it monopolizes everying from magazines to discussion boards, and what a waste of everyone's time in figuring out how to use it. I actually liked the Princes app for onboard use before, it wasn't confusing and worked well.
So we'll see, but I think their leadership is leading them the wrong way, and hopefully they'll figure it out before I write them off and head for other cruise lines.