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You're guaranteed a cabin assignment in the category you booked or higher; you cannot pick cabin location or cabin number. There are categories BC, BB, Deluxe Balconies, Mini-Suites, and suites on the Marina Deck. If you book a Balcony BD guarantee and the algorithm decides to upgrade you, you could be upgraded to a higher category cabin on the Marina Deck. People have anecdotally had stories about having been able to switch cabins like for like in the same category (BC to BC or BB to BB, not BC/BB to BA) once the room assignment has dropped. Wouldn't count on this as it seems to be dependent on the Princess rep you or your TA is talking to and/or how full the that particular sailing is.

You would think China, but the article below, dated 12/20/2021, mixes things up. All I can say when I've elected to have the Medallion shipped to my home, they've shipped from Asia. https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/carnival-corporation-jabil-launch-consumer-wearable-production

One of our cruise buddies is LGBTQ. He's told stories about Atlantis themed cruises he's been on with RCCL. Not here to comment on what is right or wrong. Having said that, even RCCL has banned this group from doing certain things as described the article below: https://www.queerty.com/gay-cruise-line-pleads-with-guests-to-stop-making-adult-content-on-their-ships-20230208

More likely than not, the first formal night will occur on the first full sea day. This is done so that they can have the champagne waterfall event and introduce the Captain and officers of the vessel. The only cruise I've experienced that deviated from this pattern is a British Isles cruise where the first sea day didn't occur until the 6th day of the cruise.

Less options = easier to understand/implement As suggested by this very thread (and multiple other threads), some people are already having difficulty understanding the current offerings. (Nothing wrong with that.) Why complicate things even more? Also, knowing how Princess' IT works (or doesn't work), I'm sure they'd find a way to screw up the speeds.

As long as your cabin populates correctly in the Cruise Personalizer online, you should be fine. It’s typical for the App to show your cabin is pending the night before and/or the morning of embarkation. Doesn’t affect anything though. It will populate correctly on the check-in agents tablet.

It's banquet type food eaten in a floating banquet hall. Not sure where the nice dinner comes into play. As you stated, each to their own, but no one should be subjected to something they don't want to participate in. The world has changed; dress no longer equates to class. Princess ships aren't the Titanic where there were areas for first class and areas for steerage.

There's a lot of dislike by older folks of this production show. According to them, the music is too contemporary and they are unfamiliar with the music. Most of them have vacated the theatre by the time the One Direction song "What Make's You Beautiful" and the dance with the illuminated suit costumes comes along. Glad you enjoyed it.

The passengers' cruise fares pay the crew's salary. The crew should be impressing us, the passengers. We, the passengers, shouldn't have to impress the crew. With all due respect to the hard working crew. The crew is FORCED to wear the black and white uniforms on formal nights. Us passengers cannot be forced to adhere to a dress suggestion. Not sure if you've been on Princess recently but even the crew uniform has changed. On some days they can wear t-shirts that advertise the Come Feel the Love campaign. I've seen this waiters in the Piazza and the entertainment crew (sound, stage hands, etc.) wearing these. The casino workers wear Ocean Play sports jerseys some days.

Pre-pandemic I booked two cruises on Diamond and Majestic ex Sydney, each 2 weeks in length, not technically a back to back because there was a day in between the two cruises and on two different ships. I tried booking two one way segments--departure to Sydney on attached to the first cruise and return on the second cruise--and the price was astronomical. Booking one way air internationally costs a fortune. EZAir allowed me to make a round trip air booking attached to the first cruise with the return delayed by 2 weeks so I could go on the second cruise. No special steps taken and all done through the Cruise Personalizer. Hope this is still the case.

I do on your DIY while in port. The unlimited Internet is a great way to stream YouTube videos from people who experienced the ports to get an idea of what to do. In addition, I use the Internet to pre purchase tickets (saved us an hour line up at the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Picasso Museum in Malaga recently), check transit schedules, check maps/directions--just to plan my day overall in port. Don't really like booking while at home because I can never predict changes to the cruise itinerary and I may get left holding the bag if what I booked is non-refundable. I guess this stuff matters less in the Caribbean? That's in addition to the work I have to complete while working remotely on the ship. Princess' retired demographic can't seem to grasp this idea. I get so many weird stares and questions about why I'm working while on "vacation" and about how their generation actually had to show up to work.

Sometimes the specialty cakes slices don't really don't exist. It all depends on whether or not the galley crew has enough time to make them. I spent a lot of time on the Royal Princess this past winter and some sailings had them and others did not. When I asked about why and that was the answer that the crew gave me. Gelato is another place to check, if it's a venue on the ship you are on. They are always in a separate case.

Not sure what Princess' turn around time time for refunds these days are, but after 10 business days, check the balance of each gift card on the Princess gift card website to make sure that the refund went through. If you're lucky, the backoffice accounting department refunded the balance due to gift cards on a single gift card instead of parsing the refund back to all gift cards used in the original denomination.

Wonder if Princess is mulling over putting race tracks on their new builds or retrofitting their older ships with race tracks. It would be fitting since they are the travel partner of PCA.😆 On a more serious note, these groups bring in lots of money. I’m sure Princess is happy to have them onboard. I was on the Regal Princess when they were shooting The Real Love Boat. It was super annoying to have some venues closed during the day.

The beverage counter has been there for a while. It's buried "Payment Methods and Packages." You have to be connected MedallionNet, but once your are tap "Packages" and the drink counter will be there. Doesn't help that doesn't list what and where the drink was ordered. I'm peeved about this because on one cruise I never got drunk enough to not remember how many alcoholic drinks I ordered. I maybe had 3 to 4 per day and somehow the counter said I was having 10 or 12 a day. Showed it Guest Services and was met with blank looks and they didn't know how to reverse the counter or why these ghost drinks were charging against my limit. Either someone who looked like me was ordering using my cabin number or the App was not working right. Mind you, I swapped my Medallion for a cruise card, so I couldn't use OceanNow (which was still free at the time) and my profile never populated crew devices.

The berth assignments haven't been published yet. Princess is usually assigned the Mayflower or Ocean Cruise Terminals. The Mayflower Terminal is the older of the two and feels like it's stuck in the 1960s. The area around is industrial and most notably, Tesla's receiving lot for imports to GB. No real mention of the Pilgrims. Plymouth, England likes to take the claim to fame and has a Mayflower museum.

Tell that to our friends across the pond.

Again, another failure of the Medallion App. The beverage counter on the App for the packages are 15 bars that shade in as you order drinks. One drink, one bar shaded in. It doesn’t list what or where you ordered. There is no counter to keep track with the two premium desserts in the app.

Majestic never had a Churchill's and the area was always an arcade. Perhaps because, at least pre-pandemic, it was homeported in Sydney for part of the year.

Not so sure how official it is, but I've been allowed to take slices of specialty cake in lieu of the specialty sundae. Have to be honest, the cakes are pretty gross too--all looks and not so great taste. The best one is grandma's chocolate cake, when it's made right. The carrot cake and it was so dry and the red velvet cake was so sickeningly sweet because of the frosting, which tasted nothing of cream cheese.

Unless you are ordering coffee with alcohol, like an Irish coffee or an espresso martini, the specialty coffees and brewed coffee are covered under the packages and are unlimited. Non-alcoholic beverages are unlimited in the packages. Alcoholic beverages are counted and capped at 15 per day.

In your situation, I would make a dummy booking to see how many cabins are still available and make my decision from there. This most likely won't be a true representation of the available cabins (only Princess knows exactly), but I will give you an idea. I can say in the US, if there is still too much availability after final payment, there will be a first price reduction at the 75 day mark and a second price reduction at the 45 day mark, if the first price reduction didn't attract enough new bookings. We don't care about cabin location and almost always book guarantee cabins, so this method works for us. To those saying that the air is more expensive when booking this close, you have to be more diligent in checking airfares. I've always found something reasonable even when booking this late. Recently, I was able to find a British Airways flight, SFO to Rome for $860 through EZAir with one 2 hour connection each way, which I booked 60 days before cruise departure.

Just remember that no one throws away cash. (Meant in the literal sense, not figuratively.) Anything else has the potential of ending up in the trash bin.

Focus on the food and the people in your party, not the people around you. No need to stare at people's exposed legs and arms.

There is some confusion between the Medallion App and the Medallion. The Medallion always works, except when the battery runs out. You will always be able to open your cabin door, use the portals, tap it to get off/on the ship, and "pay" for stuff (not really you deciding what to pay for; it's the crew deciding which passenger to tap on their device and charge for the mech). Aside from carrying it around, you cannot directly interact with the Medallion by itself. The Medallion App is the problem.