PescadoAmarillo

Simply stated…YAY!! Thanks for sharing this information. Seven different menus with multiple choices on each menu is incredible.

I thought I remembered it was ten alcohol (the eight you stated plus two beers) and ten non-alcohol. Should have read to the end first. Yes, I’ve not read elsewhere about cutbacks.

When we were on the Norwegian Spirit (not sure about their other ships) they had exactly this setup for exactly this reason. It was a port intensive Mediterranean itinerary (11 in 12 nights, I think) and a lot of people just wanted to go from sightseeing directly to dinner. The casual restaurant featured the same menus as the dining room.

I’ve done that also, and then had the reservations for several individual nights changed to a shared table, even though a private table is still available. And then I’ve had to make the change back for each of those many nights. It’s a gem, DMW is.

I wanted quite desperately to be on that cruise, and on the Antarctica cruises that follow it, and even more so after having been on the ship for 14 nights in July-August. It’s a wonderful ship. DH and I did lose weight, but only because we had the Plus package and we were so full of drinks that we didn’t eat any breads and had only a couple of desserts. Because of a family issue, I had to cancel the Sapphire cruises I had booked for this fall and winter at final payment, and now can’t get a cabin in a location that appeals, so I won’t be joining you. But I sure wish I was. I love the Sapphire. You’ll have a wonderful time.

Sydney, Australia .

OMG no! I almost choked on my lunch reading your post. If Princess ditches pre-Royal class ships heck, even if they hold onto the Ruby and Emerald- they are going to lose an entire segment of their customer base who don’t believe bigger and newer is better. As for crew quality on newer ships vs. older ships, there never was and will never be a better crew than those who worked on the Pacific Princess during its final years with Princess. And that was a 20+ year old ship. When the Royal first came out, we heard time and again from many crew members that they hated working on that class of ship because the the work was harder and the hours longer. It’s hard to believe that’s been improved on the newer ships. As for the condition of the Sapphire, I was very impressed with the public spaces and our cabin when we were on the ship in August. Yes, it has the dreaded stinky shower curtain, but all current Princess ships do. We had one drawer that stuck a little in our cabin, but our mattresses were probably the best we’ve even had on Princess. I would cruise that ship anytime over any of the Royal Class ships.

CCL OBC disappearing after re-fares has been a known issue for years, and it clearly is not a priority to fix. Your post is a good reminder to always check.

If your cruise is within Australia (ie Tasmania or Queensland), there is nothing to do. If outside Australia, you get the form on the ship and it’s basically a walk off, very quick.

On the Sapphire, DH put an 8x10 photo in the door, held in place by a magnetic hook, the same kind we use on the cabin walls. The photo stayed, the hooked disappeared and was replaced by a tiny, flat magnet the size of a small watch battery. Geesh, thanks….kind of.

We found cruises round trip from Australia or New Zealand to be rather informal except for holiday periods. Aussies and Kiwis are laid back and friendly, my favorite cruisers.

It’s because per diem on board spending drops with cruise length.

Whoops! What a perfectly timed cruise to help you unwind. I hope it’s an enjoyable one. And I agree completely about the length of the cruise impacting the decision about getting a package or not, even without the silly “two times per cruise” limits. I just hope it doesn’t result in a shortening of itineraries. It’s clear that the pier diem on board revenue is inversely related to cruise length. The HGM on the World Cruise said as much.

Bond recalls?

Encouraging all inclusive cruising is revenue enhancement, so of course that was an intended result. But I guess I give the marketing and “on board experience” heads at Princess a bit more credit than you do. I think they knew exactly what was going to happen- they certainly should have, as it’s human nature- and that, as a result, they could start to charge for their innovative service. After all, that’s what they’re paid to do.

Obviously, these changes were part of the end game when the medallion was rolled out. It’s quite possible that additional medallion-based charges are forthcoming.

That’s exactly what they have now. Except for the fact that they really should have grandfathered in anyone who was already past final payment, I’m not sure why this change is causing such furor. Room service should have always commanded an up charge simply for the extra mess it creates for someone to clean up. As others have said, if I have Plus, I now can use it to dine at some extra cost places that exist on the larger ships (not that I ever imagine myself cruising on those larger ships). If I’m a standard passenger, I simply pay like I would have anyway. I’m glad Princess is offering all inclusive cruising. Their key competition for new cruisers is all inclusive vacations, not other cruise lines. These changes have me cruising fewer days, but then so did the elimination of free internet and the loyalty OBC. It’s just another pricing change. I do think that people should use this as a big stick to get Princess to improve the app. I lost count of the number of places listed to have OceanNow delivery on the Sapphire where I couldn’t actually get it. The entire back end of the ship didn’t seem to be covered, including those beautiful open decks, pools, and hot tubs, although they are listed as deliverable areas. If it’s free I’m not going to say anything, but if that is where I spend my days and I’ve paid $14.99 for the privilege, yes, it’s going to be mentioned to someone.

I don’t see food waste dropping at all. Instead of just a pizza, they’ve added two more unnecessary courses. If they were really concerned about food waste, they’d offer pizza in different sizes.

We just used the Sapphire’s Starlink WiFi in Alaska for two weeks and had service regardless of how remote or how far north we were. Used it to get into all of our financial accounts with no issue, and even streamed video (though not much, because we weren’t on the ship that long). I made and received phone calls using WiFi calling with no latency at all. I posted multiple pics to a blog at a time with no delay. I was really amazed, since in the same geographic area on the Majestic two years earlier I didn’t even bother paying for internet the second week because it was useless.

We just ate for 14 nights in Pacific Moon and I didn’t notice one thing about the decor. It was the dining room with a table for two by a window so it was perfect for us.

We received ours two days after we disembarked. The charge appeared on our credit card a day or so after that and we paid it immediately. Then, a week after we disembarked, we received new emails with new, higher folio totals because of additional items added after we disembarked but dated prior to our disembarking. This higher amount has not appeared on our credit card. I don’t know what’s going on, but until it hits my credit card I’m not going to worry about it.

You definitely can make and receive WiFi calls on Princess.

Last winter on the Ruby, US Customs and Immigration came right on the ship, eliminating the need to do a walk off. It’s nice when that happens, but it is not guaranteed.

I’ve had the marshmallows. Absolutely no support. My mattress on our recent Sapphire Princess cruise was amazing. After my first night of sleep at home afterward, I realized it was even better than mine. All Princess mattresses are definitely not created equally. Or maybe they were created equally, but have been broken down over time.

Alcohol and paper towels? Not pocket sized but effective. I would suggest Everclear, but that would probably get confiscated.