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I'd be happy if Princess brought back real pepperoni and not the nasty stuff they're using as shingles on their pizzas.

That law has been in effect in California since 2001. The recent cuts to staffing at full service restaurants is due to inflation and to keep costs down. Food prices are still high as compared to pre-pandemic and restaurants can't keep raising prices to cover higher food costs without losing customers; if there are fewer and fewer customers profits dwindle, which eventually leads to closure. What's killing fast food restaurants in California as of recent is the newly mandated minimum wage of $20 for all fast food employees. Fast food restaurant workers never relied on tips because they were never expected at these establishments. (I personally never left a tip when eating at McDonald's or In-N-Out Burger and still don't. Leaving a tip is actually frowned upon at In-N-Out because management believes that they pay they employees well.) Owners/franchisees can't raise wages and maintain the same profits without raising prices. Thus, many are fast food restaurants are cutting staff and resorting to self ordering POS systems. Fast food restaurants rely on the low price, high volume model. They can no longer keep the low price in the equation because of labor costs.

The EU will supposedly finally implement the ETIAS the first half of 2025. This has been in works for years and has been postponed for at least 2 years already. It's an electronic travel authority which requires visitors holding passports of certain countries to register their identity and passport and obtain authorization prior to entering the EU. This is supposedly to eliminate the added step of getting passports stamped after using an e-gate for passport control, aside from the vetting aspect. The USA is not excluded and US passport holders will be required to apply. You will be denied boarding at the airport when boarding your flight to the EU if you don't have one. All I can say is keep up to date with the website below. This program has been postponed for years and who knows if it will finally be implemented in 2025. Princess is covering themselves by putting this requirement in the cruise booking this far in advance. https://travel-europe.europa.eu/index_en I'm predicting that it will be like the ETA program for Australia and New Zealand and hopefully doesn't cause too much of a burden like said programs.

The State of California is an exception. Employers cannot use tips to satisfy hourly minimum wage requirements. Waiters, for example, have to be paid the hourly minimum wage (at this time is $16.00 at the State level, but can be more depending on location; San Francisco's minimum wage is $18.67). Any tips are really tips in excess of regular wages. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=351.

On the Princess website, go to Booked Guests > Helpful Links > Surprise Someone With a Gift You'll need to know their name as it is on the booking. In addition, you'll need to know something else about their booking like the Booking Number (the best), e-mail used on booking, departure month, etc. to validate that what your ordering will go to the correct booking. It will not show on their booking after the order is placed, so you might want to check that they received it. Depending on the ship, the recipient might be issued a voucher for redemption, or the item might automatically delivered to the stateroom at embarkation or shortly after. Flowers are usually delivered on embarkation day without further action.

Is there a noro outbreak? If there is, then that might be be one reason that the water/ice dispensers are out of order. If not, the ship must be waiting for a part to get them fixed. Been on several ships where the missing part excuse has been given. I'm not sure as to why Princess doesn't order several spares so that they are on hand when they are needed. Some our friends asked for a pitcher of water when they were quarantined during the restart. Maybe you can see if server will oblige? They have small pitchers which will fit into the cabin mini-fridge. I've seen them used sometimes in the morning for ice at the buffet because the other big pitchers with blue lids are occupied with water and OJ. Worse comes to worse, maybe you can have them fill one of the thermal carafes used for coffee served when room service door hanger breakfast is ordered. Ask to have it rinsed out well so it doesn't taste like coffee.

Any negative credit balance due to a passenger on a Princess booking will stay on a booking until someone on the initiates a refund and correctly initiates a refund at that. No one from Princess is actively checking for negative credit balances on bookings paid in full, so the passenger has to get the ball rolling by contacting Princess, their TA, or their CVP. This happens to me a lot because I can usually refare the EZAir portion of my cruises to a lower airfare after final payment. Once I make the new EZAir booking and the credit balance appears on the cruise booking, I e-mail my CVP to initiate the refund for the overpayment as a result of the reduction in airfare. If you have an great CVP, as I do, the refund will show on your CC within a few days. Anyone partaking in this should save a copy of their Travel Summary as proof that their booking had a negative credit balance before initiating the refund process in case something goes wrong. When the negative credit balance disappears from the Payments sections of the booking, it means the backoffice processed the refund and it will appear on your CC in a few days.

The hairdryers on Princess ships pre Sphere Class are just noise makers, nothing more. It looks like on the Sun, Drybar hairdryers are provided. Drybar is heavily promoted by influencers, so it has promise, and their products do have good reviews. Haven't sailed the Sun so cannot comment. The question is if Princess will continue with this product if they break or go missing. On the Sun, the hairdryers are in a pouch and aren't tethered down, so passengers could potentially take them.

My parents booked a B3B, 3 segments, sold as one cruise. When they went to order their Medallions on the App, the App automatically added 3 Medallions and 3 lanyards for each of them. How do I know? This problem trickled down to me because they couldn't figure out what to do. Well neither could I. No way to delete the extra Medallions and lanyards. I went ahead and placed the order for port pick-up any ways. When my parents called me on said cruise, they told me that the check-in person was so confused because 3 Medallions were made for each of them, when they were only supposed to get one for all 3 segments. It was less of a surprise for my parents because they new the App screwed up. Waste of Princess' resources, but it was the App's fault.

There was a previous thread about this. To summarize: No one has gotten a firm reason for the change nor has Princess released one as of yet. UK bookings can book flights 3 weeks pre/post cruise through EZAir.

Reserve Collection Dining is a promised perk that is included with Reserve Collection Mini-Suites, which helps justify the extra cost. Otherwise, the perks of Reserve Collection Mini-Suites is pretty much reduced to location (mid-ship, except for the forward ones on Deck 15 and 16). Yes, there are the canapes and bottle of wine, but those aren't really worth very much. We've been upgraded to full Suites a few times from guaranteed bookings and have made use of RCD. RCD is nice because there are extra options and you're seated right away. Do I think it's worth the extra cost? Nope. We tend to eat late anyway so getting a table in the regular dining room isn't as big of a problem. Well, technically with RCD, you are in the regular dining room on Princess' ships prior to the Sphere Class, just in an isolated part of it.

The blocks of cabins appear a month or 2 before sailing, well past the the final payment date. Examples of this are the Total Solar Eclipse cruises this April. Princess had these showing as sold out for months and a month prior cabins became available at a steep discount. My parents are on the 08/14 sailing of the Sun. At the 90 day mark, the only category available to book was Interior. Fast forward to today, all the categories are available to book. I can keep going with examples. I book guarantee and I've been able to switch cabins (in the same meta and location category) after I get my cabin assignment after final payment into cabins that weren't showing as available prior and appeared as available a few weeks prior to sailing. It doesn't make sense to me either.

I do think that the pandemic put things into perspective for some crew. Many never returned to the crew life or moved to greener pastures on a different line or shifted careers altogether. Many don’t want the cruise ship life, but want to work for logistics companies’ cargo ships as the work is more laid back. According to one Filipino waiter, Magsaysay Recruitment Agency (Princess’ and Holland America’s recruitment agency in the Philippines) has had trouble finding applicants/filling positions post pandemic. Princess has had to look elsewhere for ship labor. It’s noticeable on Princess ships because the crew is more international. Everything is relative, but I do think that comparing cruise ship work to agriculture and saying that it’s arduous is a slap in the face to the crew. Our statements in the previous posts show our privilege as cruisers.

Cruise ship work is laborious and the crew can't make up for lost time away from their families.

Part of this is the inherent nature of cruising which requires cruise lines to undercut wages in order to compensate for attractive value pricing to passengers. The crew works up to 12 hours a day, everyday of their contract with very little breaks, and work for very low wages. This wouldn't fly in the under US laws and cruise lines get away with it by registering their ships under flags of convenience. Cruisers want to think that they are supplementing the crews' low wages by giving them tips. They are, but they aren't in the sense that the tips just get them to their contracted wages. I get that that's how restaurant staff is paid in the US, but it's the low overall contractual compensation for cruise ship crew that makes it hit harder.

Just my 2 cents. There are few Princess sailings that are sold out after before final payment. Having said that, cabin inventory that you see as available isn't accurate. A certain percentage of cabins are held back. (How do I know this? After final payment, I've noticed blocks of cabins become available. Not sure what Princess' thought process behind this is. Maybe for bid to upgrade, but why not just sell the cabins? Maybe to create hype by creating an illusion of high demand by showing low availability?) The solo supplements usually drop on longer cruises (20 days or longer) which have low demand; few people have that kind of time to take off. A more likely scenario, is that the fare will drop after final payment which effectively lowers the solo fare. (Simple example: If the fare was a $100, the solo fare would be $200; if the fare dropped to $90, the solo fare would drop to $180.) It could go either way. Personally, if it were this late in the game and final payment was around the corner, I would wait to book after final payment. What's a few more days? Again, this could backfire, but you take your chances to potentially save. If you have to fly, also take into consideration potentially higher airfares, by booking air later.

From reading this, I think it depends on your CVPs experience. The CVP I work with has been able to refare without cancelling and rebooking. In addition, said CVP been able to keep my promotional OBC (which was offered on the original fare booked), any shore excursions I pre-booked using said OBC, and flights. I also book the lowest location category with a non-refundable deposit, so cancelling and re-booking isn't an option without loosing the deposit. Said CVP is amazing and the best.

Once you book and put a deposit down, you can check by logging into your Captain's Circle Account, clicking the link with number of day you have credited, which will open up a list of your past and future cruises. Check the Cruise Credits column to see how many cruise credits will be awarded. Extra cruise credits earned for solos, suites, and multi-segment cruises populate right away for future cruises. Per the T&Cs of the loyalty accelerator promotion, any additional cruise credits earned through the program will credited upon completion of the cruise. There is no way to check pre-cruise the number of additional credits will be awarded by purchasing a Plus/Premier package fare during the specified timeframe of the promotion.

It doesn't hurt to try and get Princess to honor their mistake. It's your time and if you the time to pursue the issue, why not give it a shot? In May, remember when Princess gave away free weeklong inaugural cruises on the Star Princess (with free Premier package and $200 OBC) and Greenland/Iceland cruises on the Emerald Princess? Princess admitted their mistake and ended up honoring the bookings in downgraded Interior cabins.

Scooters are dangerous to those around. When someone is on one trying to go up or down a gangway ramp (not the jet bridge type), it stops the entire process and two crew assist have to help maneuver the scooter up or down. I've seen crew members get their foot run over or get knocked down. When the scooter doesn't have enough horsepower to go up a ramp, it reverses putting those behind in peril.

Cruisers on shore excursions won't be going to Paris during the Olympics. In case anyone is spending any pre/post-cruise time in Paris during the Olympics, the link below, shows exactly which areas will be affected by the event. In short, don't even think about going to Paris unless you have some affiliation with the Olympics. https://www.paris.fr/en/pages/everything-you-need-to-know-about-traffic-and-security-perimeters-during-the-games-27361

They do this for name recall and location knowledge. If you say a cruise departs from Civitavecchia, an inexperienced cruiser wouldn't know that that they had to fly into Rome without looking at a map, and even then the nearest airport wouldn't necessarily be obvious. Same goes for Southampton; Southampton has an airport, but London Heathrow/Gatwick are so much easier to fly into. Even less obvious would be Valparaiso or San Antonio, Chile. I agree with those that say Le Havre isn't the best port for seeing Paris, but makes visiting Normandy easy. Having said that, most people don't know what or where Normandy is.

If your balcony is over a lifeboat or tender, you will see it from some vantage points on your balcony.

Princess hyped this space up in the pre-inaugural press releases about the Sun Princess. It's the most adventurous installation on a Princess ship to date. That is unless, someone likes to live on the wild side and ride their mobility scooter down a gangway ramp. https://www.princess.com/en-us/news/news-releases/2023/06/unveiling-park19-new-top-deck-family-activity-zone-to-debut-on-board-sun-princess-featuring-sea-breeze-the-first-rollglider-on-a-ship

Princess unlisted the Park 19 video on their YouTube.