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You won't really be scanning your Medallion that often. Just when you embark/disembark the ship or want to purchase order a drink at the International Cafe. Sometimes the door entry system won't recognize your Medallion from a distance, and you'll have to move it closer to the reader. Just as a warning...those retractable clips easily break and unravel. My work had given them to us for use with our work badges. Most of them broke after about 2 weeks, regardless of the brand. The are no longer given and we now get lanyards. Bring a backup in case this happens.

Can't fault Princess for offering something at an undesirable time for you.

Well, if there's one thing consistent about Princess, it's inconsistency. On some ships, people with a package can substitute the premium dessert for a slice of "premium" cake; on others, it's not permitted. Don't expect to be able to bend the rules, but it's nice when the crew can accommodate.

These exist on Princess, but only at dinner time and end early, usually at 21:00. It might also depend on the ship; didn't see them as much on the Royal Princess. On the Majestic, Sky, and Enchanted, the customized creme bruleee was on formal night in the buffet. The Italian "stir fry" was on Italian night. Sky still had the best buffets to date that I've experienced post restart.

At this point, it's only Princess' feelings that matters. Already being done whether you like it or not or agree/disagree with implantation. Take it or leave it. If you cancel, you're out money, so just take it.

On Royal Class ships there is a food service WMF coffee machine that dispenses brewed coffee and hot water. More often than not coffee is too weak and is faintly colored brown water.

There are some on this board who have reported Lavazza in the buffet on grand class ships. Not sure if syrup or installed coffee machines.

Brewed coffee is always free in the though the dispensers in the buffet on Princess. The problem is that it doesn't really taste that great. Can't speak for the Lavazza coffee in the buffet some cruisers are now reporting.

We were on the Majestic this past June. It was a port day in Juneau so we were finishing up a late lunch at Alfredo's around 15:30. The open kitchen was furiously firing away pizzas and putting them into a food service hot box on trays, not boxes. (If they were in boxes, obliviously, the pizzas would be for room service.) On our way out, we stopped by the kitchen to complement the cooks and inquired about what we were seeing. We were told the pizzas were for the buffet. Didn't follow the hot box to the buffet so I hesitate to say with 100% confidence. Too add, on the Sky this past April, we got into talking about what differentiated Alfredo's pizza from Slice aside from the toppings with the maitre d' at Alfredo's. We were told that dough and sauce are the same, but cheese used is different. Don't know how accurate that is either.

Pizza is always on offer at the buffet on the Majestic. Despite what others say, Pretty sure that the buffet pizzas come from Alfredo's. Not sure where else they would bake them.

We always browse an online TA's website for comparison of prices. The TA's website breaks down the fares into meta and location categories. I've noticed that the lowest location categories, more often than not, aren't completely sold out by the time Drop and Go rates pop up. We're still able to book them. Hard to figure out the percentage booked because the cabins are completely blocked from the reservation deck plans. Having said that, believe it or not, the lowest meta category isn't always the cheapest. Sometimes there is an over abundance of cabins in higher locations categories and the said categories are priced on par or lower than the lowest meta category. Sometimes a BF will price lower than a BW. It all depends on how well a particular sailing sells.

Raises hand🖐️. My group of friends prefer to book Drop and Go fares after final payment has past, around the 80 day mark for most of the cruises we take. The non-ref deposit doesn't really matter with the lead in fares because once past final payment since it's past the point of no return. On Princess we always, book IF, BW, or BF guarantee (no upcharge on DW guarantee to choose cabin, but will will still book guarantee), depending on how scenic/port intensive the itinerary, and have been have pretty fortunate with at least location upgrade when the cabin is assigned.

If you have a refundable deposit and the fares are still the same, why not cancel the bookings with the current TA, start fresh a new TA and rebook to get the cabins you want? Your cruise is in the distant future anyway.

That's the beauty of what Princess has done...It's becomes pay as you go for standard fare folks; if you don't use it, you don't pay for it. I know of plenty of people, myself included, that don't use room service or OceanNow. Never have and never will on any cruise line. (Knock on wood I ever get quarantined.) I don't want to cover other people's room service delivery tabs. That's what bugs me about Viking/Oceania/all-inclusive cruise fares. It's like you're obligated to use the all the amenities because you paid for them, even though you don't want to. On Viking Ocean, the vast majority go on the mediocre shore excursions because they paid for them in the fare and feel like they have to use them. If you don't, you don't get a prorated amount credited back.

Those should only be done in desperate times. The interest terms of a bond purchases cannot be refinanced unlike those of a traditional lender.

The experience will also be on the sedate side. The the daytime activities on Viking Ocean ships are nil compared to Princess. Also, don't like the fact that final payment is so early and that Viking can hold your money hostage for so long. Each to their own. There's a class system on Viking ships when it comes to excursions. Suites passengers get first dibs and it trickles down depending on what cabin type you booked. You're guaranteed and excursion but it may not be your first choice, depending on what cabin you booked. The "included" excursions are pretty mediocre for a company that emphasizes being able to immerse travelers into the local culture.

RCCL cancelled all partial Panama Canal transits for the Rhapsody of the Seas for the 23-24 season; instead the affected cruises will be Southern Caribbean only. Not sure if this was done out of an abundance of caution.

Partial transit Panama Canal cruises have always priced less than other sailings. Not sure the reason why. Perhaps most want to complete the full transit? I would be weary of booking a Panama Canal cruise because of the logistics right now. The drought in Panama means less ships transiting and a backup of ships waiting to transit. Not sure where cruise ships lie in the line. Would be afraid of transit being cancelled altogether and it just being a Caribbean cruise.

Agree with you here. Princess hastened the roll out because of the pandemic. It was supposed to be rolled out gradually In reality, the Regal and Royal, which were the first two ships outfitted, were supposed to be the trial ships. Their fleet was idle for nearly 2 years so the Medallion technology was installed fleetwide during this time to best make use of the time. The Medallion Class Experience was supposed to attract passengers during the re-start because of what Princess was advertising as "truly touchless technology." It was also to prevent crowds from forming at bars since crowds were a big no, no during the pandemic. Princess is now being a victim of the Medallion technology's success. Too many passengers ordering from ANYWHERE on the ship (that's part of the problem, location of the passenger because now the crew has to gallivant all over the ship.) and not enough crew to fulfill the orders in a timely manner. Personally, keep the app, axe the Medallions, and go back to cruise cards. Probably won't happen with the ex-Disney guy at the helm. (Oops, opened up a new can of worms.)

DMW app reservations were set up with the earliest reservation at 1730 for the 2 Sky sailings I was on ex Southampton. A few evenings we wanted to watch sail away, which meant having to eat dinner early. Lo and behold, we were seated at little past 1700 on those evenings, before the official opening time listed.

I think Princess wants people to order some cocktails in person at the actual venue, such as Good Spirits. They want them to interact and hopefully purchase merch which contributes to onboard sales. This is me speaking from being a restaurant partner: F&B POS systems will only print up to 25 characters per line which limits the amount of customizations that can be written. This limits what can be communicated on the ticket. The other problem would be the language barrier. English isn't the first language of most line cooks. From experience, it's better just to have the wait staff verbally tell the cook the modification rather than to expect them to understand shorthand on a ticket. If the modification was built into the program and always appear, then the line cook could be trained to understand what the modification meant every time it came up, like no tomato on a burger. On cruise lines English, isn't the first language of the line cooks and the bartenders. Some of what would be written in the open text box would be lost in translation, which would lead to angry guests and having the cook/bartender to redo the order, leading to more backups and longer waits for all passengers. Just my 2 cents.

Yes different ways on each ship. The one with 1730 opening is from the Sky. The one with 1700 opening is from the Majestic.

Some ships list the MDR dinner time starting at 1730, but if they are ready will start seating at 1700. Noticed this on the Sky ex Southampton, probably because the dining room stayed open till 2130 instead of 2100. Most ships open the MDR at 1700. The app currently accepts 1800 to 1900 reservations.

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ Shows all of the published itineraries of a ship. You have to search by ship.

Goes to the debt they the cruise lines took during the pandemic as well. There was a lot of debt and interest rates are up. Pretty sure no financier would lend that amount of money with a fixed rate. They need more money to increase revenue to meet debt servicing obligations.