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When I've done refares for EZAir, my CVP has been able to request for the refund after I initiated the request. Once that was done, the refund appeared on my CC in 2 days. The generic Customer Service number is useless. It could also be that because the refund is so large, it requires higher approval in the hierarchy, which would make it take longer.

Another reason for Princess to stop Medallion shipment pre-cruise. It creates unnecessary customer service issues. If everyone just picked up at the port or if they were waiting in the cabins, this would be a non-issue. People are going to bash about how this would slow down check-in. My question is why are the European check-in agents so much more efficient than their counterparts elsewhere?. In Europe (Southampton, Barcelona, Civitavecchia, and Piraeus), picking up Medallions adds but a minute, maybe less, to the check-in process. If the Medallions were in people's cabins, it would add zero extra time to the check-in process. Anyways, have a good cruise!

Royal Caribbean has admitted that bigger isn’t necessarily better with Project Discovery. Under this project they will commission and build smaller ships to replace their aging fleet of smaller ships. How big, how many, and when remains the question. The Caribbean is one place where ultra mega ships are port viable; locals there don’t seem to mind and the piers have been retrofitted to handle their size. Princess is late to the game when it comes to mega ships. It only goes to my theory that Princess is follower not a trendsetter in the industry. The Star’s debut in 2025 is the last ship that’s currently in the books for Princess. Under the CCL umbrella a new yet to be named Excel Class for Carnival is debuting in 2027. It’s the last new build for CCL for now. It might be a while until Princess sees new ship and we can only speculate on the size, but given Princess’ past pattern of releasing multiple copies of the same class ship, it might be another Sphere Class. Having said that the Grand, Coral, and Island will be approaching 30 years old by that time. Personally wouldn’t mind if Princess built something to the likes of Celebrity’s Edge Class. They are a manageable size and very contemporary. Then, again Princess doesn’t have a track record of being forward thinking and trendsetting.

This! The Caribbean is easy money and family friendly. It's why RC and Carnival can sail there year round and sail ships that are full. IMO, Princess is late to the game when it comes to the Caribbean. The Enchanted is in the Caribbean this summer and having been monitoring the sailings, they are going out full and the lowest fares have been in the $900s.

And yet there are some on this very thread that have stated they can disconnect. Like I said in other posts, there are always outliers but data is used to come up with trends to either develop theories of causation or correlation. In this case not all have adapted like the outliers.

I agree.

Not to get caught in the cross fire... But I think that CCL considers Cunard European is because it's headquarters are in the UK and is part of Carnival UK, so it's lumped with the other European based lines, Costa, P&O, and AIDA, which all have HQ in Europe. I do think the more and more North American cruisers are coming to the brand. A lot of my parents' friends have cruised with Cunard in the past few years.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not discouraging you from going to Alaska. Last year was my 9th cruise there. The ports on Alaska cruises have turned into tourist traps. They are cool for what they are, but the last frontier aspect has really diminished. The scenic cruising is the better part of the cruise. I still recommend visiting the interior of Alaska and Denali, but having visited many US National Parks, it's not the prettiest. You pay a lot for the convenience with Princess but as an international visitor, the cruise-tour option might be the best. And you won't have to drive on the wrong side of the road for you.

North America is still the largest and fastest growing cruise market. I think for Europe to catch up with North America with the cruise market, wages in Europe have to increase. Source is from CLIA's 2024 State of the Cruise Industry Report.

Interesting to note that, according to Cruise Market Watch research, Celebrity brought in more passengers and revenue than Princess. IMO, Celebrity is Princess' direct competition and does a better job at marketing and appealing to a younger segment. https://cruisemarketwatch.com/market-share/

I think sometimes people can be too easily offended. Gates, Jobs, and Wozniak were all boomers and made major breakthroughs for technology. Doesn't mean all boomers were responsible for the take off. The Millennials were the first generation to start to use it in their everyday life and took it to where it is today. Social Media was created by Millennials. Millennials were the first generation to have online shopping. When I went to high school my English Teacher made it mandatory that essays were submitted typed via a word processor and printed. She admitted this was the first time in her career that she made this a requirement.

My point is many lack the knowledge and confidence for the functions of the Internet, and technology in general, keeps many older folks from using it to it's fullest potential. Just look at these boards and how some can't even distinguish INTRAnet from INTERnet. This probably isn't you because your are defending it, but it's a lot of older folks. Younger generations were brought up with the Internet and they know how to use it from a young age, albeit not always for good.

Customers are allowed to provide input. The post cruise survey is major example of this. EZAir listened to customers when they shortened the flight dates to 5 days pre/post cruise. It's now 3 weeks pre/post cruise. The App is governed by customer input. When the Princess Cruises App was first released, passengers couldn't get a green check mark under Payment Methods unless they agreed to providing their CC info to a 3rd Party for the MedallionPay function. Because of customer complaints, Princess removed the requirement for MedallionPay.

Given the questions sometimes asked on this very forum, I'm not sure that they do.

Outliers don't make a statistic. AARP released a study about Boomers and technology in 2023. 68% of 50-plus consumers don't think technology is designed with them in mind.

My bad. I meant to say “The non-sofas in cabins below mini-suites…”

I agree that a closet is required. But, too much space is allotted to the closet on pre Sphere Class ships. Princess is the only cruise line that gives a walk-in closet to non-suite cabins. If Princess ever gets to the point of gutting the cabins of the older ships and remodeling them, it would be nice they shrunk the closet space with built-ins with drawers and hanging space and put in a sofa like the Sun cabins and like other cruise lines' cabins. Too add: The non-sofa in mini-suites and below was a problem for me when I sailed with grandparents as a 3rd wheel. When you have 3 people in a cabin, there's really not a lot of places to sit. All 3 of us weren't going to lie in bed when we were just chilling in the cabin. This suggestion comes because Princess is trying to appeal to more families and these families sail with more than 2 to a cabin.

Even Vegas is transforming/has transformed. The Vegas of Rat Pack has been demolished. The themed hotels that were popular in the 1990s are trying to ditch their destination theming (Luxor, Paris, etc.) on their interiors for a more neutral contemporary theme to compete with the newer hotels on the block that lack this. The themes might have been cool and novel in the 1990s but it's no longer that. Unless you're Disney, such theming doesn't age well. If a company isn't changing with the market and the times, it's survival and relevance is at stake. Look at Kodak. It failed to come up with a product other than film and photographic printing, and now that these have gone out of fashion, Kodak's relevance has diminished. Kodak is still around, BTW, just a much smaller footprint and it really caters to the professional market, not home users like it once did.

You're on to something there. I think Baby Boomers are brand loyal because they didn't have all the media growing up and don't really know how to use media at their age. They had the news and product commercials/advertisements. They're not used to taking to the Internet to find out about new brands. I'm a Millennial that has been exposed to social media, but not like Gen Z. I'm more open to learning about and trying new brands. When I see something new that piques my interest, I take out my phone, open a browser, and read reviews. If it has good reviews, I'm more willing to try it. For travel, instead of a brochure, I'll open YouTube or TikTok and watch videos that people made in real time--the concept of influencers. In addition read reviews left by others. My generation was brought up with this with the introduction of the Internet. The Baby Boomers weren't exposed to this growing up and Gen X has only recently been exposed to the trend. The Internet in general has opened up a new world. Everything is social media now a days, and if you're not part of it or have a poor understanding of how it works, like many Baby Boomers, you're missing out. Having said that the Internet has also had a lot of negative impacts on society in regards to the spread of misinformation. I'm brand loyal to few brands. Coca-Cola is one of them. Not a Pepsi person at all. Once in a while I'll have a hankering for a Dr. Pepper. Fighting words, I know.

I’m of the belief that Princess cabins before the Sun aren’t functional. The closet was wasted space. I would much rather have had sofas in lieu and not have had to upgrade to a more expensive cabin category to be furnished with one. Unless on a long cruise, many cruisers now a days don’t really bring a lot of stuff. Bringing less stuff when traveling is reinforced by airlines because they’ve dropped bag limits to 50 lbs and are charging for bags or wanting passengers to upgrade to a higher class to get higher baggage allowances. It helps that many cruise lines haves done away with the tradition of formal night and is only loosely enforced on Princess, much to the dismay of some loyalists.

As is the discussion on the thread. Times change and tastes change. I repeat, it’s now derogatory to call contemporary European design IKEA inspired unless the pieces are from there. It’s pejorative to those who make furniture in that style that are leaps and bounds above the quality of IKEA and to the designers who specialize in that style. Cruise lines would fit their new builds with this design aesthetic if it weren’t relevant to today’s tastes. Passionate about this because I have a friend who specializes in contemporary European design and has outfitted many large projects including airline lounges.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Might look cheap to you, but it’s aesthetically pleasing to others, especially younger folks.

That’s contemporary design. It’s derogatory to refer to design as IKEA unless the pieces used were actually from there. It’s more proper to call it Scandinavian or Contemporary European. You might be shocked to see the prices of true Scandinavian/European contemporary design. Believe me if the furniture cruise lines used were from IKEA, they wouldn’t get the durability or longevity.

Further you can tell Princess’ reliance on their old blood passengers based on their ship refurbishment or lack there of. When Princess refurbishes their ships, they change the carpet and maybe paint a little. Compare that with other cruise lines who have spent millions to refurbish their old ships. NCL spent millions to refurbish their old fleet, making them more contemporary and more appealing. RC and X have done the same. Princess on the other hand hasn’t really done much to spruce up their ships. I walk into the Explorer’s Lounge on the Grand Class ships and it’s like a time warp with the murals and very cringe worthy. They seem like they’re from the 1990s, which isn’t even in line with the decade that the newer Grand Class Ships were built in. Princess cabins on the Grand Class ships need gutting; they still make use of many mirrors which is a dead giveaway of their age. Contemporary cabins no longer look like this. The old blood doesn’t seem to care and very much likes the decor of Princess’ older ships. Then again, they’d never know the difference because they are only loyal to Princess.

Princess has had Princess Cays for decades and they haven’t been able to build a pier so passengers don’t have to tender.