drwbrt

I'm waiting for the update to all of this... If you are Premier, will the food in OceanNow that is from casual dining (like sushi from Ocean Terrace) be inclusive on OceanNow? I know all answers will be speculative at this point, but we have first sailings going on right now so I am hopeful for some insight.

I guess where we all should have started @nursemom23 is: How long are you cruising and how many sea days do you have? Do you plan on having WiFi regardless? Do you have any beverage "routines" (i.e. always start the day with a latte, always have a glass of wine with dinner, etc.) I apologize for rushing to the solution before we had a clearly articulated problem. If you feel comfortable/want to share the above information, I'd be happy to tailor any advice to your perspective rather than my own.

Chat + HUCA (hang up and call again) are winning strategies. It is frustrating, no doubt, but in 4-5 chats we have gotten out cruise sorted even when we were told some things couldn't be done, or couldn't be done until we were on board.

This is how we looked at it. If you plan to use WiFi it is worth it. It includes your daily gratuities and WiFi. That is worth $31 per day. Let's just pause there. That means you need $29 of value per day to break even. That's two coffees, two sodas, and a mocktail a day (or two coffees and six waters). You don't even have to drink alcohol to get your monies worth. If you do drink alcohol, it's three drinks/day to break even. In addition to the above, you will also get your Medallion shipped to you for free (otherwise $10), this lets you board smoother. Plus also allows you to use OceanNow (now this costs $14.99 per cruise). You will be able to visit the casual dining two times (valued at $14.99 per visit). You also get desserts (2/day), the juice bar (unlimited), and fitness classes (2/cruise), but these didn't rank as high for us.

@TenneSea thanks for all the great posting. I think you mentioned you are sailing on a Plus fare. I believe your sailing is the first to have the casual dinning changes. I've been wondering if Premier fare passengers can order from the casual restaurants through OceanNow. I'm not sure if that is something you would be able to see given you mentioned you're traveling on Plus. If you have any insight there, I would really appreciate it. In any case, happy cruising and thanks for sharing.

I love that @Bgwest correctly predicted the onslaught of shaming. Well, it is a set of written rules about dressing I'm confused, which is it? Seriously folks, show of hands, has anyone been denied access to the MDR while wearing shorts (for clarity sake: gray or khaki shorts with a polo and close-toed shoes)? In the last six months?

Is that you, Will McAvoy?

It also tells them everything they needed to know about Alfredo's/Gigi's before they made any announcements. It also helps track Slice/Grill/Swirls/International Cafe/Buffet where a cruise card typically wouldn't be used.

Loyalty doesn’t guarantee spending lots of money. I’m sure PCL is trying to segment those loyal customers by how much they spend.

This is how I took my NCL cruise earlier this year. I booked at about 80 days out. @New2cruise2022 booked at maybe 100 days out. We really haven't found anything that touched on that pricing. I was able to book one of the studios and ended up bidding into a balcony for $115 (x2). All in, with the FAS+ upgrade I was under $200/day for a single pass in a balcony with nearly all inclusive experience. I can't find that deal anywhere today, certainly not on NCL. Our Princess booking with five passengers is right at $165pp/day for two insides with everyone on Premier, and I will have a $0 balance on the last night. I still feel like I'm getting good value, especially in comparison.

First impressions are funny that way; good estimating! The data pointed to just over 1-hour per day no matter what day. I looked at it both by sea and non-sea days. It works out about the same. I think guaranteeing a chair is tough, but I don't hate the "this chair reserved until xx:xx pm" placards that you get at the towel stand.

I am open to refills on my coffee, coke zero, and san pellegrino too. Top it off again, please.

Or they leave after all...........for another Carnival line. Haha.

I am sure someone is smart enough to realize what they have and how valuable it is. Do they have the resources to utilize that data? And even if they do, does that person have the influence or authority to suggest or implement changes based on that data? I think the medallion data gives them a home run. My worry is that Princess employs base coaches that have never even watched the sport.

With this attitude and discipline I still think Princess offers you something very competitive. Only Carnival comes close from my mock-sailing figures. It's less than $100 for 2 pax on a 7-day though. At that point it's really a preference question. I love that you find value in this type of vacation, I think Princess does too. You're an easy passenger to please and you still earn a little extra in latte money.

I got six kids under 12 years, a full-time job, and run two small businesses out of my house. If I didn't count lounge chairs at 2am I wouldn't know what to do with my time. I like cruising.

That's ok that you're not a numbers person; I am. I counted the chairs on the Discovery Princess. The loungers that are free to use for all passengers. On Discovery Princess these are the chairs at: The Retreat Pool and surrounding area above, The Main Pool and the surrounding area above, and the Wake View pool and the surrounding area above. I used actual footage of the ship sailing to count these chairs. I counted them by section, then added them together. I found 108 loungers at the Wake View, 296 loungers at the main pool, and 82 loungers at the retreat pool. I know that's a lot of numbers, but they add up to 486. I rounded it to 500, so it was easier for people that aren't numbers people. I then calculated how many chair hours there are on Discovery Princess using a 7-day itinerary with three port stops. I assumed 8 sunbathing-hours a day and deemed port days as "off-peak" because most people won't be on the ship. Then I calculated how many chair hours would be equitable for the 3,660 people that bring Discovery Princess to capacity. That's how I calculated that an equitable distribution is about 1 hour per passenger per day. That shouldn't be your absolute time limit. With that said, if your reserving the lounger without your presence for more than an hour each day, maybe that's unreasonable. I summarized all ^^this^^ though, because I know everyone isn't a numbers guy. Also, heres one of the screenshots I used to count the chairs, you know, for people that aren't numbers guys.

You'll have to type louder. They're waiting for their coffee 10 decks down at the International Cafe.

I just calculated it for you. It's in the post directly above. If you'd like to provide me your ship and sailing I'll customize it for you.

Thanks for bringing me into this @New2cruise2022. There aren't rules for this; mostly because there are too many exceptions. So here's some information that might help you consider how your behavior affects others on the cruise. Basically, the information suggests that an equitable distribution would be one chair hour per passenger per day (on Discovery Princess). My internal rules I take from this data: 1. If your tuchus is tanning in said lounger, that's no different than you taking longer to chew in the MDR than me. Take your time, chew, don't choke. This is vacation, I want you to enjoy it. Just like MDR and buffet is "as much as you care to enjoy", loungers are "as much as you care to lounge" rather than "as much as I care to stake claim beyond the circle my Medallion creates and my stateroom". 2. If it's been an hour since you reserved your chair, maybe consider relinquishing said chair until you're ready to use it. 3. If you still think you deserve to have a chair to yourself, whenever you want it, and you'll make a sacrifice (like waking up early to get it), might I suggest you instead sacrifice some money in exchange for a balcony, or the sanctuary, that includes a chair only you are entitled to.

The drink charge on there is the gratuity charged for drinks. You must pay this to accept the FAS drink offer. The Wi-Fi fee is included because FAS only includes 75 minutes of WiFi while FAS+ includes unlimited WiFi. I added the upgrade cost of FAS+ to the drinks line item. This is perhaps misleading but it’s where I added it. I understand why you would think that because I didn’t communicate the FAS line items very well.

This is a win-win for Princess and I. Princess wins because I won't exploit the full offerings of Premier. I win because it is the least costly way for me to exploit certain aspects. I'm not getting the desserts (unless I can really just get a scoop of gelato instead; still lower cost and faster to serve than the full dessert). I will however, drink more than my fair share. On a cruise, I drink Pellegrino all day, have 2-3 coffees per day, and enjoy bourbon, cocktails, wine and beer the rest of the day. My first inclination to upgrade is so that I am not told "no" on vacation. Let me be clear, the "no" is normally being said in my head, to myself. I love getting on a ship or checking into a resort and the answer is always "yes, if you care to". I spend my everyday rationalizing what I can or cannot afford as a responsible adult with the family I have to provide for. I rationally make decisions before my vacation so I can afford to not consider those things once vacation has started.

Send me your details. Haha. Seriously I love looking at this stuff and figuring it out.

Just wanted to share the cost comparison as it has been raised a few times. There is a very strong argument that Plus vs. Premier doesn't provide much value, but Plus OR Premier on Princess vs. the other comparable sailings on Carnival or NCL is better value. I know not everyone wants drinks and Wi-Fi, we do and that is the perspective we are comparing from. All sailings are the same week, 7-days to Mexico from Southern California.

No, I don’t think so, at least not what I have looked at for my sailing on Discovery. Previously, even as a Plus or Premier passenger, I would have ability to visit GiGi’s, SD grill (deck 16), slices, MDR, world fresh market, or order via OceanNow/room service. Even if EVERYONE upgraded, we still added Ocean Terrace and Salty Dog Gastropub as inclusive options. It’s more venues, more square footage. Furthermore, not everyone will upgrade.