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Princess used to be the trendsetter. They put cruising on the map with The Love Boat. They were the first to have private islands. In 1998, they build the largest and most expensive cruise ship in the world, the Grand Princess. In my opinion, they've gotten too comfortable with their position and have relied on the old blood to keep them afloat. Compare them to Royal Caribbean who's really built up their business. In 1999, the Voyager of the Seas came along and really disrupted the cruise industry. It became the largest cruise ship in the world. Everyone balked at RC for introducing Chops Grille and Portofino as specialty restaurants, saying that no one would pay the upcharges. Now all mass market cruise lines have introduced specialty dining. It introduced more activities like an ice skating rink and a rock climbing wall, which were a hit and other cruise lines have followed and RC has added on to these concepts. They've been able to build and have customer support for larger and larger cruise ships which translates into more money for the company and a larger encompassing demographic. They've built their private island, Perfect Day at Coco Cay into a much sought after destination. Now other cruise line have built up their private islands to follow suit, while Princess Cays is still Gilligan's Island-esque. Times change. Growing up who would have ever thought personal camera film would go out style? Now, barely anyone takes photos with film or gets photos developed and printed. Everyone has a camera on their cell phone and looks at their photos digitally. It's time for Princess to get with the times. No doubt, this will alienate some of the old blood cruisers. I think the Sun was their attempt to blend contemporary and traditional.

More often than not, Princess ships feel like floating retirement homes, now a days. This is coming from a Millennial that has visited relatives in retirement homes with frequency.

If you want any sort of pre-paid casual dining, you'll have to spring for a package. If you order from a roaming server rather than the app, you won't have to pay for OceanNow.

Hardly. I'm from California so many of these Millennials work in tech making six figure salaries. It's why our housing market is out of control. Also, many Millennials are choosing to forgo having children leaving more money for themselves. I'm a Millennial that doesn't work in tech, but made a combination of good decisions and luck have afforded me the opportunity to cruise more than the average person. I consider myself very fortunate. No doubt, there are variances in income. Not all old people have tons money to spend. There are countless stories of people in their golden years that are barely scraping by. Unless you saved enough for retirement or have a pension plan from your employer, Social Security is hardly enough to survive on. Compound that with the rate of inflation in the past few years and it makes the problem worse.

Princess no doubt has changed/is trying to change it's image. IMO, Princess has too big of a fleet of ships and too great of cabin inventory to cater to only a small segment of the population. They are still after all mass market. They are losing old blood cruisers due to age and mortality and are after new cruisers. According to CLIA's 2024 State of the Cruise Industry Report, Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials make up the largest segment of the cruise industry. Too add, they are in ALMOST equal proportion. For those that think that Millennials have no money, think again. If that were the case, where are they getting the money to cruise?

To add, a warning will pop up when the minimum connection time is too short. In the event that you get auto rebooked on a flight with a connection time that is too short, EZAir is usually pretty good about allowing you to rebook to a different flight at no extra cost. EZAir will only force you to take the short connection if there are no other viable options. It took me a while to find an example, but the pop up below showed up when trying to book an AA flight FLL-DFW-SFO on AA with a 40 minute connection in DFW.

EZAir will always automatically rebook you at the same rate. What's acceptable to them, however, might not always be acceptable to you. If what you're re-booked into isn't acceptable to you, then you have to get on the phone with EZAir and plead your case. If you booked Flexible Air and are 45 days or more prior to your flight, you have the right to cancel and rebook or cancel outright with no penalty. However, there is sometimes a delay in loading new flight schedules into the EZAir system. Which leads to another point that you should also check the airline by making mock bookings on the operating airline's website to make sure that your flights are still operating as scheduled. In the example below my parents booked their flights on 02/15/23. Delta had a schedule change on the FLL-ATL-SFO segments. EZAir automatically rebooked them without having to take any action on 05/21/2023. My parents only found out because they got a notification in their e-mail. To me it seems that the airlines are the ones that auto re-book and it's EZAir's responsibility to notify you. Another point is that United, American, and Delta don't usually finalize their schedules until 4 to 5 months before a specific date. Expect a flight schedule change if you book your flights far in advance.

The aft and mid aft BW and DW cabins on Deck 8 of Royal Class ships will have more of an obstructed view because the last 2 lifeboats port and starboard are the tenders and have the upper level, which blocks more of the view.

With Flexible Fares: Payment for air is due at final payment for the cruise. You can cancel, refare, or change flights up to 45 days of the first flight segment or cruise, which ever is sooner. Tickets will be issued (meaning Princess will remit payment for the air to the airline(s) and the airline(s) will issue ticket numbers) 45 days prior to the first flight or cruise, whichever is sooner. With Restricted Fares: Payment for the air is due at the time of booking the air No changes or cancellations. You might not be entitled to the airline benefits associated with your airline credit card because some require that the reservation be paid with that CC directly to the airline to avail of the benefits. EZAir acts is a 3rd party and uses a TA to airline payment platform to remit air payment. The airlines will never know how you paid for the air. You pretty much have to deal with EZAir for any changes. If the airline cancels or changes your flight times and you will misconnect, for example, you have to deal with EZAir to get rebooked. If there is a problem the day of travel, the airlines will usually help get you rebooked, but you can also call EZAir or the En Route Desk. There is are certain peace of mind protections built in with EZAir, like guaranteed arrrival before the cruise or catch up at the next port. Another is that if something were to happen on your cruise like a late arrival at the disembarkation port, EZAir will automatically rebook you without having to jump through hoops. See below attachment when the Regal had a late arrival into Port Everglades which dominoed into late disembarkation. Everyone on EZAir could enjoy the rest of their cruise and were taken care of, while those who booked independent air that were going to miss their flights due to the late arrival were scrambling to make changes. It's easy to pull up flight quotes, you don't even need a booking. Pull up any cruise, scroll down past the itinerary, and click flight quotes. Test it out for yourself. If you already have a booking, open up the flights section your Cruise Personalizer and click Book Flights. Once you make an EZAir booking, changing flights is done through the same portal, and instead clicking Manage Flights. You have full choice over the flights you want. The prices fluctuate depending the flights/airlines/times chosen. You can choose whatever flight combo you want. Having said that, not all flights on all airlines will show up. You're at an advantage if you live at a major airport with robust flight schedules. My home airport is SFO. I can pretty much fly any where in the world non-stop or one stop. If I wanted to fly to Rome, for example, I could fly non-stop on United and ITA Airways, through Heathrow on British Airways, through Paris on Air France, through Amsterdam on KLM, through Frankfurt or Munich on Lufthansa, etc. There's competition so I can get good prices. If your home airport is a regional airport where only the big 4 domestic airlines have a monopoly over the flights, you won't necessarily get good prices. Having said that, the savings are prevalent on international flights. You can usually get a better fare booking directly with the airlines on domestic flights.

The name of the game with EZAir is to be religious about checking prices. We're booked with friends on a TA this September. We got British Airways SFO-LHR for $249 and United IAH-SFO for $249 both in economy. In total, we paid $498 for our round trip airfare. This routing would have been around $850 if I booked one way flights with BA and UA. (I'm the one that books the air for our group so I used my friend's booking who sails solo for the screenshots to show the single person price.) So long as you choose Flexible Air when booking, there is no penalty for cancelling or refaring up to 45 days before the flight date. No harm no foul. You can secure a seat through EZAir and if there is a drop in fare, either directly with the airlines or with EZAir, you can weigh your options again. You don't have this flexibility when booking directly with the airlines, unless you book a more expensive refundable fare.

Seriously, Princess should be striving for something more meaningful.

Princess wants MORE or your money rather than the cabin you booked. IMO, if Princess wants the cabin I booked they can upgrade me on their dime, give me a move over offer, or give me a downgrade offer. But they’re not getting more money out of me.

I hope the ships are ready for prime time, unlike how the App missed the June 17th launch date of the new reservations system. Is someone or an algorithm already working on the table assignments for the first set of diners? (Rhetorical question) I, personally, would like Princess to reveal beforehand how those opting for Traditional Dining will find out their table assignment. Will they release another App update so that the App will show a person’s table number? I’d hate to find out I needed to update the App once onboard because the download takes longer than it needs to using MedallionNet. To me the point of Traditional Dining besides the timing is efficiency. I walk into the dining room and I know where my table is via the table number holders that are high up off the table like a center piece. Waiters don’t usually start taking orders at shared tables until everyone is seated and that could take forever if each and every Traditional diner has to be ushered to their assigned table the first night.

No need for concern yet. EZAir's policy is that they have 45 days prior to the date of the first flight to issue the tickets. If no ticket number populates 45 days prior to the first flight date, you should call and have them ticket the air reservation.

All 3 MDRs have the same menu. Some passengers don't want a lot of choice. (I'm a late seating kind of person myself.) They want to go back to the traditional dinner times, where there's a choice of 2 seatings. If you choose Traditional Dining, out of respect for your tablemates if at a shared table, it's polite to arrive on time because it puts off the pace of the servers, which in turn puts off the pace of the other diners at your table. If that's not you, then you have the option of the anytime option. Because those opting for traditional dining have their dining time set, you won't be in competition with those passengers that chose Traditional Dining, effectively opening up more time slots for you pick from--the more options concept.

On Med cruises shows are at 8:00 and 10:00 pm. The reason given is so that people can make it to the show because of late port departures and excursions that arrive back to the ship late.

TLDR: Has Princess announced how they will handle Traditional Dining once onboard? They used to imprint your dining time and table number on your cruise card, so you'd just walking into the MDR and find your table the first night. Will they imprint this information on the Medallion? Will a paper with this information be left in your cabin on embarkation day? Will this info populate on the Princess App? Or will those with Traditional Dining still have to queue up and wait for a host to usher them to the table? The latter seems really inefficient.

The Mini-Suite will definitely give you more room than a Deluxe Balcony and an extra TV in the sofa area. It's a question of how much room you need and want. On the Sun, I find the difference in amenities negligible because all Balconies already have a sofa, whereas older Princess ships did not. If you don't plan on spending a lot of time in your cabin or have a port intensive itinerary, probably not worth it. Having been upgraded to a Full Suite with this benefit, I can say it was nice, but I wouldn't pay extra for it. Reserve Collection dining, in theory, will allow you to be seated any time with no or very little wait in a separate dining area. In addition, there is an additional menu item on the menu. I'm pretty easy going. As long the waiters get my order right and get the food to me in a reasonable amount of time, I'm happy. I also eat dinner later than most Americans so I'm not in line for dinner during the opening rush. Between 7:30 and 8:00 pm, it's pretty much take any empty table in the regular MDR. Not sure if you've made dining reservations or are sailing in September or after, but if you choose Traditional dining with Early or Late seating, getting a table in the MDR shouldn't be a problem. As has been stated, the choice is personal. Budgetary constraints should guide your decision as well.

Pull up your booking on the Princess website. Open your Travel Summary. Scroll down to the Air section of your Travel Summary. If there is a number that populates the Ticket Number field (next to each passenger's name) for each segment, that means that EZAir has ticketed the flights. If the Ticket Number field is blank, that means EZair has NOT ticketed the flights. Also worth noting that you should check that a Ticket Number populates each flight segment. EZAir doesn't always ticket the flights at the same time; this is especially true if flying different airlines for the outbound and return flights.

It seems like Princess has put US users of EZAir in line with UK users. The calendar used to select flight dates has been extended to 3 weeks pre/post cruise. Glad Princess listened to passenger feedback on this one.

I find the article's view point to be of interest. The writer is an economist who is an emeritus from UC Irvine. His argument is that because of higher hourly minimum wage at fast food establishments, hours will be cut for employees. Although other food establishments will keep their hourly minimum wage lower, workers will still accept those jobs because they are given more hours to work, because it still results in higher overall pay. I find the last two sentences of the last paragraph to be particularly interesting. https://www.econlib.org/library/columns/y2024/mckenziecaliforniafastfood.html

So no reason to worry about wages.

That was then. The world has changed a lot in 40 years.

The prime example if why not to print money are South American economies. This is the reason why one of The Fed's functions is to curb inflation. Circling back to California's new fast food minimum wage laws, the wages are why so many fast food franchises are closing. (Rubio's has closed many locations as a result and there are 5 McDonald's that have closed in my metro area alone.). The affected fast food restaurants have to get money from somewhere to pay increased wages and they are not going to take it from their profits. Therefore, they will raise prices to compensate. More inflation for consumers of fast food and more reason to call for higher wages for everyone else. Some owners have decided it's not worth it and have closed up shop or have laid off employees, adding to unemployment. It's a never ending vicious cycle, which is why inflation has to be kept in check so wages can be kept in check.

Not good. It's just printing money, which causes more inflation.