SleeStack1

I agree. Unless you knew the people across the way. Well...I suppose you would know them pretty quick!

Cabanas are 330sf. Mini suites are roughly 300sf. The tiny sunroom makes for an extended balcony or bedroom. Some Cabanas come with Reserve perks. Some may value C1 for direct cabana deck access. We chose C2 for privacy while still getting cabana deck access and Reserve perks. Its all what horse best suits your course. Personally, tubs are worthless to me. A bigger bathroom with two sinks and/or more storage has some value though. Everyone has different priorities. Its why so many room classes exist.

If you get the extra benefits, good for you! Its most likely an error, but hopefully they honor it. Wrong info on all Cruise lines is common.

Ours is the exact same way with only an old vague email receipt.. We presume we will have an OBC in the amount the excursion cost. Will find out soon enough. It looks like Princess has replaced Santorini with Crete for this cruise.

We're on this week's cruise, presuming the Sun makes it on time. We noticed we no longer have our Santorini excursion showing. Anyone else lose their excursion on 3/2?

We can confirm they finally fixed the Remove Item from Shopping cart. We were able to get the birthdate corrected by going through the chat feature. Perhaps chat has more competent agents?

Added an item to the cart. Now its not removable. When you click remove it says 'Are you Sure?' Click 'Yes' and nothing. It stays stuck on the 'Are You Sure' screen. It doesn't matter what browser you are in and the phone app does the same thing. We called Princess to correct a wrong birthdate and also asked to remove the item from cart. [Its fixed....Give it 24 hours] we were told. 7 days later, no update to birthdate and the item is still in cart. Long phone holds, ESL reps that are barely understandable, and nothing actually gets fixed What's not to like?

Glad you had a good time. We prefer HAL food over NCL and RC but the entertainment is lacking in comparison. We are trying Princess in a few months.

Online Savings accounts start at 4% and go up over 5% right now. Check them out. My personal one gives me 4.94%. Its not life changing, but that's $500 in your pocket on $10k over a year rather than the cruise line's. That's a real cost Viking is sneaking in.

Wifi is good to keep in mind for ones calculation.. For a domestic cruise, I'd value it at near zero because of 'free' cellular access in port. Our next cruise will be in the Med though, so we'd have to buy international cellular at $10 per day in port. Its why I personally valued wifi at $5 per day (for an international cruise). I have peon status on every cruise line. We just always pick the cruise by itinerary and (hopefullly) value. Elite perks just don't apply to us and likely never will.

We are more like you and most of the time we don't buy a package. When we do, it has to at least come close to what we might indulge a little on. Its a good point to consider though. If we skipped the package we would definitely save some money and we would skip out on some coffee, casual dining, wifi, and probably a couple alcoholic drinks. Still...when the price delta is below a certain threshold...we go ahead with it. For our upcoming cruise, we are indulging at +$20 ea per day. At $30+, for us, it'd be a definite No. At $25...a Maybe. Pick your own price point...

I guess I presume they mean binging everyday. That would get gross to me on day two! 1-2 per day everyday is just fine for me though and I would get my value as I just posted in my personal valuation above.

Currently, Princess lets you buy the package onboard on day 1. This allows for use of OBC and/or gift cards you might get at 8% off. That changes the math quite a bit. My personal valuation for our upcoming cruise is as follows P+ (at 8% off) is $55.20 pppd Daily 'base' value: Gratuity $17 (1) alcoholic drink $11 (2) Coffee drinks $10 (1) Smoothie or similar $5 Wifi $5 Casual Dining $2 Juice Bar $1 Desserts/Fitness/Delivery $0 Net Value is $51 So, we will be paying $4.20 pppd to cover any above and beyond. Maybe we'll have an extra coffee, smoothie, bottled water, soda, whatever on some days. Maybe we'll have an extra alcoholic beverage or two on some day. Maybe we'll actually use the delivery thing a day or two or try to get a scoop of gelato instead of the scary looking sundaes. Worst case is we overpaid $8.40 / day for the two of us. That's acceptable to us. Honestly, I think we'll end up coming out ahead over the course. Everyone's valuation will differ. For instance wifi matters a little to me, but not a lot, ergo my $5 per day benefit.

Reading elsewhere in the forums...another change implemented by Princess this year...allows for Package purchases on day one of the cruise. Seeing that OBC can now be used for the purchase, this seems like an incredibly positive change in the Packages. For those who insure their trip, that's extra money saved waiting to buy it on board. We are borderline on what the P+ package value is to us at $60pppd. I come out a little ahead (2 alcoholic drinks per day). S.O. comes out a little behind (1 drink per day). Considering we will have a decent amount of non-refundable OBC to start our next cruise, and with the option to get 8% discounts on Gift cards to add more OBC, it actually makes the Package worthwhile at 1/0 alcoholic drinks per day for us. We'll be buying it on board.

How long before embark can one cancel the P+ package? If I wanted to lock in the current price, cancel if it stays the same as cruise nears, and then buy on board with OBC? I didn't see cancel in the package T&Cs. If it works the same as the cruise fare itself, it obviously isn't doable.

We will also be on next month's cruise. This will be both our first expedition and luxury type of cruise. We are hoping we don't get too spoiled by it and get turned off regular cruising. See some of you onboard!

I have several questions. Do (non Reserve) cabanas have access to the cabana deck? Non reserves are on higher decks from the cabana deck. Reserve Cabanas appear to have the casino beneath them. Will noise likely be an issue with these rooms? Anyone stay in a Princess room over a casino before and noticed the noise?

Is Logging Out obvious to do? I presume its a specific login.out to the internet connection? I also presume the NCL app works separately with its own, initial login?

PB uses rules from both table tennis and regular tennis and then a unique one or two. I'd certainly have to be reminded of them if/when I play again. Admittedly, Its pretty fun...until you see someone smash their face into the deck. It looks easy, and it is, but PB is not a table game. Table games are nearly full-on stationary. I think PB could be a little deceiving to abject beginners who have never played racquet/court sports before....and/or for those that are relatively inactive. In spite of the smallish court, there is still a decent amount of movement...you can trip and fall. I don't want to scare anybody away from trying it. Just make a point of consciously staying pretty stationary and walking at first. Let the ball go by (or drop) until you get used to the play. And, for the love of cheesecake, have proper athletic shoes on before you play! I'm a racquetball guy so I'm already used to moving around pretty quickly on a court. My wife is not a racket player, so I made sure she was extra careful. After she saw our opponent break her nose she took it to heart.

I've never seen someone faceplant playing TT. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about Pickleball.😱 And I have only played once!

Yikes, I didn't mean to bring up a sore point. I suspect all (main) cruise lines are doing some poor things lately. We definitely will...if that competitive price point pops up. I watched the tipsfortravellers youtube on Celebrity. He mentions their goal is to (try to) move upscale and compete with the likes of Oceania, Viking, SS, RSS etc, but with bigger ships. I suppose that explains why their costs always top the main line cruise providers. We are too new and don't (yet) value a higher level of service, bar setting dining, luxury appointments, etc. We do like all that, but will only pay so much at this point.

Not military. Wonder if they have a LEO discount though. Thanks to all for your input! Princess might make sense. Good food...thermal pool... Just have to find the right deal!

We have been on RCCL (1), and HAL (2). We are on NCL next week, and another HAL at year end. We generally pick a desired itinerary, look at cruise costs across lines, see what incentives can bring our trip price down (including AmEx and AARP 10% GCs) and then book. A thermal spa pool is almost a mandatory, but not quite yet if the itinerary is attractive enough. We thought RCCL had poor MDR dining, good entertainment and music, no thermal pool, and probably a net mediocre overall experience. We liked both of HAL's MDR experiences and their thermal pool. Entertainment/music was just OK. Overall I'm calling it an above average experience. No idea what NCL will bring....I suspect it will be close to RCCL. On a positive note, the itinerary will be good (Panama Canal) and we will have some limited perks like a couple specialty dining, and relatively cheap net drinks.

Who we are: (Mostly) retired couple who are relatively new cruisers and have no brand loyalty so far. We have (3) cruises under our belt and (2) more scheduled for this year. What we like (on ship): balcony cabins, above average dining, thermal spas (the jetted pools in particular), broadway type shows, music (classical, jazz, rock) What we don't generally do: sunbathing, shopping, swimming, much casino play What we do a little of: drinking (3-4 per day), working out, educational/info talks, a variety of activities to do maybe once per sailing (pickleball, ping pong, trivia, happy hours...) I've read a few other threads and some comments say Celebrity is the best value (for them). Every mock booking (or search) I've done, nearly always puts Celebrity at the highest cost among RCL, NCL, Princess, and HAL so I'm a little confused. Maybe there's hidden perks I'm missing that would add value and part of why I'm posting this thread. We have booked most of our cruises because of incentives. Lots of AmEx credits, discounted (unpopular) cruise dates etc. With the recent AmEx offer, we'd consider giving Celebrity a shot if we can find a competitive rate on an itinerary we haven't done yet. Our travel dates are almost fully flexible for 2024 and beyond.

Because they were called FREE drinks....just pay gratuities. So we would be paying gratuities on our free 3 drinks, but don't want to on drinks #4 - 7....which we are charged upfront for. On the other hand, if you drink more than 7 drinks, you could be said to be stiffing your bartenders if you don't tip extra.