karatemom2

We started cruising as a family when our kids were 5 and 10 on Disney. But we quickly graduated over to Princess for the better itineraries, prices and casino. Now, while my kids are perfect 😊, I was well aware that many others don’t care to dine with children, even those as wonderful as mine. So we just got in the habit of requesting a table for our family only. Sometimes we would meet new friends onboard and share a meal or two, but that was by mutual choice. Now. 20 plus years later, even though my DH and I are venturing off adults only, we still prefer our own table. I am not an introvert or antisocial, but I work in a field that requires me to be “on” much of the time, including a lot of external lunches, dinners, Chamber events, etc. it’s fine and I don’t hate it, but I don’t want to be that person on my vacation. I want to relax, chat with just my DH overly a leisurely meal, and not feel pressed to be ever so cordial and witty with strangers. I need a break. People have all sorts of different reasons why they want to dine without sharing a table and others have reasons they love to share a meal with others. Thank goodness modern cruising has evolved to offer choices. While some might pine for the “good old days”, I am firmly on the side of “it’s my vacation, my choice”.

There is absolutely no additional charge for picking it up at port. Just the potential inconvenience of standing in a longer line and having embarkation delayed. The medallion comes with a standard, inexpensive lanyard that does the job if you aren't interested in anything fancy. I prefer not to wear a lanyard while on vacation - I do that at work. So I bought the bracelet and find it very convenient wearing my medallion on my wrist. However, the lanyard it comes with is perfectly fine and there is no need to spend extra for another holder unless you really prefer one - especially a wrist band or bracelet.

Agree with this - the pizzas are constantly coming out of the oven so it’s really not an issue. And we much prefer the great thin crust pizza at Slice. I’ve never been a huge fan of the restaurant pizza at either venue.

It is probably hard to know if you will be comfortable until you give it a try, but we never felt claustrophobic - just cozy, like our little cocoon. But some people will share that keeping the TV tuned into the bow cam can help. Like a virtual window to the outside.

I think the only risk would be if they had filled and you potentially lost your slot to someone on the waiting list by canceling. If they are still showing availability then you should be able to cancel and rebook without issue.

Have you downloaded the new Princess app? You can pre-purchase the WiFi there. It’s one of the options if you scroll through the main page. The web site isn’t much use these days except for excursion purchases - they seem to be shifting everything useful to the app. Once you download it, the login should be the same as you use on the website.

Honestly, I’m not a package person, but for those who have paid for them they should be active from the moment you step on the ship to the moment you step off. Come on Princess, do better! It’s almost like you know how hard it is to challenge a last day charge after you leave the ship? I say let the people with packages get every last cent of value!

My daughter and I were “waitressing” for the extended family one cruise and carrying back three plates each with three slices of pizza, which I imagine was more than a whole pie. The servers didn’t even blink - just happily dished out the slices. So I guess the answer to how much pizza you can take is basically however much they have ready to go and that you can carry!

It takes a very big person with a good heart to apologize. We all get “crabby” sometimes and as much as these boards are designed for fun and camaraderie, they can certainly elicit some strong emotions at times. You are such a kind person - don’t beat yourself up over a momentary lapse. I hope you get some relief for your pain and feel better!

Congrats! We love those forward facing balcony cabins in the Royal class ships - they are so roomy and the expansive views are amazing. That was a good score and I’m sure you will enjoy it!

Yes, Princess has formal nights. On a 12 night cruise I believe you will have three formal evenings. You can find the recommended dress on the Princess web site. It is recommended only - completely up to you on how dressed up you want to be. You will see a full range from tuxes and gowns to khakis and sundresses. Most people fall somewhere in the middle. Some don’t dress up at all. We do find on our holiday cruises people dress up a bit more than non holiday cruises so if you want to wear your “glad rags” you will be in good company. Princess usually schedules one of the formal evenings for Christmas Eve and it’s lovely. The ships we have been on follow the UK tradition of placing Christmas Crackers at each place setting and it’s all very festive. Ships are beautifully decorated and there is usually some sort of caroling gathering, gingerbread house building, Santa visit for the kids (and kids at heart) and other fun activities. You will not be disappointed - they make it very special.

I'm just curious about this because I have seen similar comments about the increase in erroneous charges on other threads as well. If you have the Plus or Premier package, do they charge you for the item and then back the charge out? I know that's what they do with the Elite laundry - they issue a charge, and then a credit, but you have to keep an eye on it. I guess I just assumed if you have a package, there would be no charge at all, but these reports make me wonder if they are issuing a charge and credit for all of the items covered by the packages in order to track usage. That really puts a lot of pressure on the passenger with the package to track their bill and charges - not very fun!

I will add that one of the things I remember loving about our inside cabin is how cozy it felt. Since a lot of the time we were cruising at Christmas, we always had a little tree with lights and the cabin was so dark at night with all the lights turned off and we would turn on the tree and the channel on the TV with the crackling yule log fireplace. Best memories ever with my littles snuggled up and feeling the ship rocking us to sleep. The nicest balcony cabin we have ever had since can never live up to those days!

I think a lot of the pricing also depends on the itinerary and time of year. We don’t book inside cabins anymore, but when our kids were young and we were paying for the whole family to travel we did. We were limited to traveling at peak season when school was out and the prices were high. We did the LA to Hawaii cruise with our kids at Christmas for four years in a row and even the price of an inside on that particular cruise was very expensive. Also a balcony is not always that great on a Pacific or Atlantic crossing so it may be easier to skip it for certain itineraries. Now we always book a balcony - we especially like the forward balconies on the Royal class ships. You will really love the Sky - we did a Med cruise on her last year out of Southampton and are coming back this summer for a Norway cruise. Enjoy your upcoming cruise!!

We were on Discovery over New Year’s and while many things were great, we did note the service level a bit lacking compared to our other Princess cruises, particularly in the MDR, buffet and bars. Our room steward was fine. The 360 Experience was the highlight of our cruise. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! We did not experience any issue with our onboard account but we didn’t have the package so maybe that’s why. The ship did seem understaffed and some of the crew seemed new. We just figured a lot of it had to do with it being a very full cruise.

So true! I’d rather actually share a table than be seated at one of those “individual” tables for two stacked side by side. At least when you are really sharing a table you know that it’s ok to speak to the person next to you - as opposed to awkwardly eating in silence in what amounts to a shared space while pretending you are at a separate table! 😂

Looking at your screen shot it doesn’t appear the $900 OBC had anything to do with the package you opted for. It’s listed at each level including standard. It should be reflected on your travel summary for your cruise. If you aren’t seeing it you need to check with Princess or your TA. You should have received a booking confirmation that reflected the benefits of whatever promotion you purchased through.

Seeing the reference to the Majestic and Asia based cruise markets reminds me of one of our cruises without a Craps table - poor, sad, DH! We love the Diamond and Sapphire and had cruised on them a number of times on West Coast and Alaska cruises before they moved over to Asia based cruises. We happened to be on the last Sapphire cruise before it transitioned - it was a Pacific Coastal out of Los Angeles. They were already heavily prepping for its new market and a number of things on the ship were changing, including in the Casino and the games offered. There were new tables and machines with completely unfamiliar games. But to the absolute horror of my DH, the Craps table had been unceremoniously removed and he was bereft! Funny enough, he had to focus on poker and blackjack that trip - came home a winner and got a nice FCC from the casino host as an apology for the lack of the Craps table, so all was well as far as I was concerned. But he still complains about that one!!

There is no longer assigned dining on any Princess ships. It is all basically “Anytime” dining now. If you prefer to have a regular table assignment and wait team, you can still accomplish that but you need to arrange it with the dining room host once you are on the ship. The Princess app has a reservation system that allows you to make reservations for the dining room of your choice for each night if your cruise. We generally pick one of the midship dining rooms on 5 or 6 - on the Sky that would be Estrella or Soleil. We like to pick a time around 6 generally. You can also just walk up to whatever dining room you want each evening without a reservation but sometimes the non reservation lines get long and there is a wait. We sort of prefer when possible to establish a regular table and wait team and found a great one on our Sky cruise last summer. If you set it up with the host on your first evening you can just return to the same table each subsequent night of your cruise.

Yes, there are still generally two shows in the theatre - either production shows or some other featured entertainer. We have found lately they are usually scheduled for 7:30 and 9:30 or 8:00 and 10:00 and last about 45 minutes.

We have noticed this too along with the fact that even though they may actually have more square footage, the casinos on the Royal class ships just feel smaller and more cramped. Maybe because they have more slot machines? I never win much either! DH is the gambler on our team and he sticks to the tables, but I occasionally hit up a machine. Never goes well! 😂

Here is the link for the Discovery Roll Calls and it doesn’t appear there is one for your sail date yet. Guess you will have to start one! https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2469-discovery-princess-roll-calls/

So sorry about what you went through. I once had the misfortune to come down with Norovirus on one of our cruises and seriously could barely walk the first day I was so weak. I remember thinking that if we had to disembark that day I would have needed a wheelchair. It is hard to fathom that literally within hours of providing you with IV fluids in medical you were being unceremoniously dumped on the curb. Sadly, I seem to remember a post from someone last year sharing a similar story about her experience disembarking one of the Princess ships in Los Angeles while she was quite ill with COVID. She also spoke of basically being escorted off the ship and pretty much abandoned when the promised transportation for the group of sick passengers never showed up. I remember her comment was something to the extent that she felt they just wanted her off the ship and didn't seem to care about her well being at all. This is a very bad look for Princess and absolutely inexcusable way to treat a customer who needs care and assistance. I do hope you pursue this with Princess and that you get some satisfactory response as well as the medical records that you need. Best of luck and I hope you are feeling better.

Good to hear! We had our doubts about it at first as well when Princess made the switch to applying for the benefit through the app, but we had a similar experience and found it pretty user friendly and got our OBC applied promptly.

My husband and I also prefer our own table for two in the dining room. On the Princess app prior to your cruise, you can select your dining room, dining time and table size for each night of your cruise. We usually use this to make a reservation ahead of time and designate our preference for every night of our cruise. One thing that has worked well for us is to hopefully scope out a good table and wait team the first night of our reservation when we go to whichever dining room we have scheduled. We like a two top table that isn't crammed in a line with other two tops where you feel like you are still sitting with other people. There are plenty of tables for two that are more by themselves. If we can get a good one with a nice wait team that first night, before we leave the dining room we speak to the host and lock that table and team in for our dining time for the rest of our cruise. It really makes our dining experience so much better as we can then just walk right in the rest of the time and we have a wait team that we get to know and who gets to know us and our preferences. The dining team is usually really happy to help you get this all set up, because ultimately it makes their jobs easier as well.