Cdude

Thank you everyone for your help. I will ask my agent for D730. No rooms left on Baja even after trying to book with 3 guests. @TAW1963 did D730 have bed or sofa near balcony, please? Just want to confirm. TY!

Princess gave me substantial FCC for numerous issues on a recent Sun sailing, so I’ll be sailing with them again after all. I need help with noise and bed location, please. I am looking at booking Premium Deluxe Balcony - Aft on Sky. I can select cabins on deck 15 (Marina) and deck 14 (Riviera). I’m wondering if the noise from deck 16 (Lido) would be annoying since that is the wake pool area? Also, can people in the wake pool or on the Lido look down on either deck 15 or 14? It looks like Marina deck cabins are mostly covered and shielded from anyone trying to look down, Also, Princess site deck plans say all 4 cabins in this category on deck 14 have the balcony door blocked when sofa bed is in use, so the sofa is by the balcony. They do not describe the 2 cabins on deck 15 as having this restriction so is it safe to assume the bed will be closer to the balcony on deck 15? How reliable are the Princess deck plans on their site? I’m interested in a cabin with the bed near the balcony. TIA!

Had the extended balcony on Sun across from laundry room. The laundry is actually in a hallway across from the cabin running parallel to the cabin, so it’s not literally right across like you may imagine. I don’t know about the proximity on other ships though. We loved having easy access to check availability of machines and we didn’t need to lug clothes all over the ship. Convenient to wait and check on your wash too, right from comfort of your cabin. We heard no noise.

The “diner” MDR on deck 8 has a french dip that I really enjoyed. Not much that stood out food-wise for me, but that one did.

Congratulations! I’m dealing with a very similar issue with a recent Princess sailing and all I got back so far was a canned email stating they’re overworked and be patient. I hope this doesn’t ruffle feathers, but common billing issues like this make me want to go back to all-inclusive on land. Very different experience, I know. But, much, much lower chance of stress and lots of beach time if that’s your itinerary. Isn’t competition from all-inclusive resorts why cruise lines started offering drink packages? Maybe they can get their billing up to speed. Hard to imagine these discrepancies are all inadvertent in 2024.

As I said, multiple attempts while ON board and they didn’t fix as promised each time. Then they started charging me within minutes of kicking me off. Good luck to you on your Princess sailing. I hope you don’t get the Princess regal treatment.

Basically, but that’s including the DDP and UDP and a ocean view balcony.

I think it was $2,200 for an ocean view. This is for the 9/1/24 sailing. That is just for the cruise not including the booze or upgraded food.

I got an ocean view on SOTS for 7 nights on a casino offer free. Had to pay total $350 for taxes and port for two of us. Paid $210 to upgrade to an OV balcony we got to pick. Paid $1200 for drinks and $700 for UDP. Total for everything $2,460 for two with all the trimmings:)

O’Malleys was only dinner on our 3/9 sailing. It was terrible. Food cold and not good. Menu limited. Don’t waste your time. Staff not sure if they will open for lunch, but they should. The pizza joint was slammed with long waits on sea days during lunch.

Be careful on Princess you have to tell them whose medallion to charge. We were always lopsided on our drink count unless we told them to charge one drink per medallion. You need to manage your folio. Princess accounting is awful. Now how does the price on RCCL sound, LOL!

To the point about “no surprise end of cruise bill”, Princess never gets their billing right. My cruise a few weeks ago, they started charging me for drinks even though I pre booked the drink package. After they coded my account properly, they left me with erroneous charges that never got resolved after repeated attempts. I had billing issues on prior Princess sailings before this too. Never had an issue on RCCL or NCL.

Just to clarify, we had pre booked the drink package and on embarkation day we started getting charged on drink one. We had it fixed but racked up a bunch of drinks already and they never took them off after updating our account to reflect the drink package. This is why I had made multiple attempts throughout my cruise to get it fixed. Honestly, it was annoying and felt like a job while trying to vacation. After the cruise, I recalled having folio issues on all four prior sailings with Princess and that had been one of the reasons I stopped sailing with them over 15 years ago. It all came back to me. I have sailed with NCL, RCCL, Celebrity and never had one accounting issue with them. Suffice it to say, my next sailing is booked on RCCL SOTS and the one after that on Celebrity Apex.

Yeah, I know. I had multiple chats via the app where I was assured it would be resolved and then I went and spoke to someone at Guest Services the day prior to disembarkation. Then on disembarkation day I started getting charged for drinks even though I had the package and it was good until 10 AM after I left the ship. The nice service member at IC knew me and was confused why I was being charged but assured me it would be taken care of. Then, I never received my folio which was supposed to be emailed to me and after you leave the app doesn’t let you see your bill. Based on what my credit card was charged, I know there are still errors. Anyone sailing Princess better watch their folio closely, but I did and I still have an issue on my hands so…

On Sun, we had to go all the way up to the outdoor pool deck for the premo sundae and it was not such a nice ambiance or experience on a cool night sailing the Med in March. We made it a point to try it once. Totally overrated IMHO. BTW, had I not researched it prior, I would have had no idea where and what was included as a “premium” dessert in our package. Princess doesn’t do a good job communicating, or is that by design? As an aside, I still have erroneous charges to contend with and my cruise ended on 3/19. I guess when I have “free” time this will be a project for me. Never sailing Princess again.

It depends on how much you drink, doesn’t it? I just paid $86 pp for an upcoming 7-night on Symphony. Some beers and some cocktails averages about $10 per drink using rough math. If I drink 9 per day I basically even. So, do you intend on drinking 10 or more per day? Judge if you will, but we hated the 15 drink per day cap on our recent Princess Sun voyage. It was a bit cheaper, but who wants to keep tabs on vacation? 15 sounds like a lot, but when at sea it isn’t hard to do. A shot of bailey’s in your cappuccino and a couple mimosas at breakfast; a couple pops at lunch; a couple at Bingo; a couple before dinner, and so on and so on… We actually hit our max a couple of times on our 10-night, both times were sea days. That’s another question you need to ask yourself, how port intensive is your voyage and does a port include Coco Cay or Labadee where your drink package works?

I think most (all?) have sunset (wake) bars. I do agree about only booking if it’s a good deal. We got a “free” cruise from the casino so I don’t mind paying for some extras.

I don’t recall what my MDR experience was like but I disliked Windjammer, that I know. Maybe the bigger issue is RCL’s food overall. I remember not liking the MDR for dinner. Lunch on the outer decks was best IMO. We purchased the UDP so we never have to step foot in the MDR. Breakfast will probably be something quick at the coffee place.

$55 pp for my 9/1 sailing on Symphony. Kids SHOULD be back at school so thinking we will roll the dice at South Beach. I will monitor price and if it goes down below $25 or so will reconsider. What happens if you prebook and it is a bad weather day? Something to consider!

Windjammer is gross, like most buffets. You can go to the MDR for breakfast too, but most people choose not to do so.

Good comparison. I have an upcoming sailing on each line. on RCL, you can prebook the Unlimited Dining Package so you don’t have to ever eat in the MDR, which I also have found subpar. I don’t think that package is offered on Celebrity, but I could be wrong. I do know there is a limited specialty dining package on Celebrity but they aren’t offering for my cruise on the planner and my sailing is less than 9 months away.

When is your cruise please?

Yes, I get that. I am asking about dining packages and specialty dining reservations (SD).

Hi! It’s been a long time since I have sailed on Celebrity but have been recently on RCL and Princess. I just booked the Apex for a sailing the last week of this year. I see drink packages being offered in the planner, but I have that already. There are no dining packages which is what I am interested in. Also, looking to make SDR reservations early before they fill up. I thought I read you could make reservations before final payment. Anyone knowledgeable about the Celebrity system have insight for me? TIA

Final thoughts from 3/9 sailing: The good… *Embarkation and disembarkation were very easy and I love the medallion system. *Service was great except they were mostly indifferent in the MDR. *The layout and comfort of our D1 Premium Deluxe Cabin. *Great selection of liquor. The bad… *Never received final folio explaining charges but my cc was charged. *Numerous attempts to rectify incorrect charges for drinks when I had the premium package and was assured all would be taken care of. *We were told we got $50 for switching from Santorini to Crete. I asked about still not having theater production shows, cirque shows in dome, deck 19 activities, and Spellbound. Their tune changed and said that was what the $50 was for. I pushed back but they wouldn’t budge. *Ship layout especially the whole process of queuing at International Cafe for coffee and mimosas combined with queuing deal at Eatery buffet for food. *Half the jets weren’t working in the Enclave all cruise and only given 10% back which will arrive in 6 weeks via a paper check; it is 2024, right? *Entertainment options were lacking. *temperature of ship too hot and crew admitted they were also uncomfortable but doubted it could be corrected which leads me to believe it is a known issue. I couldn’t get a crew member to say the climate control system was broken explicitly but it was easy enough to read between the lines. *15 drink limit on booze package. Judge if you will, but it really isn’t a lot on a long sea day while on vacation. It stinks keeping tabs and RCL doesn’t nickel-and-dime like this. The mediocre… *The food. Some of it was good and some terrible. Not much was great IMHO. Final verdict… It was a wonderful vacation seeing some interesting places, taking a break from diet and exercise but none of that was specifically owed to Princess. I am moving on from Princess despite a $300 pp casino offer.