2MellowCruisers

Thank you for updating us with your experience. Since this is the cruise and cabin we cancelled, I was wondering how it went. So glad you enjoyed the cruise!

On our recent Discovery cruise, someone charged 4 drinks from the juice bar to our cabin for $32.00. We had the plus package so it did not show on our folio as a charge. I only noticed it because I went into the app to reorder drinks from recent drinks tab and noticed an additional order I never placed. At that point, we didn't even know where the juice bar was. Even though there was no actual charge to us I did let customer service know.

I agree with your statements. My DH was a programmer and his mind always seems to be "on" and always analyzing things. I really believe he wants to turn that part of the brain off for vacation! We look at all of the items you posted as well. I call this the "fuzzy" part of the math. We look at all the offerings and completely disregard what we will not use or have little interest in. Then we factor based on sea/port days. Then we add in some items we may want for that particular cruise. My DH has found that he actually likes one of the specialty deserts so we add that in. Just the total cost for a couple, not two per day. We generally have no use for internet but did miss an urgent text once on a trip so we add that in sometimes depending on the cruise. It seems to vary cruise to cruise but we always seem to be right on the border, just up or down a little so the plus package usually is just a no-brainer for us. For us, the premier is a no. That is what I love about the packages. It gives everyone an option depending on how they cruise. For some it will definitely not be worth it, for some, it is absolutely worth it and some, like us, fall in the middle. We can all make our own choices.

Funny thing, once I put it in writing on here, my DH all of a sudden started to change his mind. He is more fiscally conservative than me but he said he does like not worrying about the charges on a cruise and enjoys when we order drinks to be delivered to wherever we are. Usually when playing cards together. Our cruise is still a month and a half away so I told him we will go over the math again closer to the cruise. Either way, I'll report back. We still have another cruise later this year if we decide to get the Plus onboard for this one.

We are not big drinkers but so far have always decided to get the Plus package. In "real" life we only have alcohol in our house if we are having company and only drink occasionally, usually wine, when going out to dinner or visiting family/friends for dinner. On a cruise before the packages we might have a glass of wine with dinner one or two nights or order a bottle to have for a few days and that was it because we didn't want a large bill at the end of the cruise. We do pay gratuities and have no real need for internet. We "do the math" before every cruise and it is always on the borderline of what we would normally spend to have bottled water/coffees and juices. We end up deciding to go with the package because of exactly what you say above. We still enjoyed our cruises before the package but now we have found that that little extra freedom of ordering what we want when we want has added a lot to our experience. We have tried new drinks we would have never tried before. Some great and some not so great. And for anyone wondering, no, it does not open us up to be drinking alcohol all day long. Neither one of us has yet to be drunk on a cruise. It is a great way to look at the packages. For us, it doesn't just come down to $$ but also the experience. To get or not to get a package is just a decision everyone has to make for themselves and their own experiences. Since we are fiscally on the border with the packages, we decided not to book it on our next cruise to see how it comes out financially and if it changes our experience.

On the Discovery last year we could substitute one of the other menu items for the specialty but this month on the Discovery they did not allow it. I tried a specialty desert for the first time and just asked them to hold off on all the candy on the version I ordered. They had no problem with that. My DH does enjoy these specialty deserts and may get one or two a cruise but he was disappointed in how they made his on the Discovery vs how it was made on the Crown. I would say that you can ask and see if they will substitute as it seems that this can vary from ship to ship or even cruise to cruise. On the Discovery the gelato was on Deck 5 and I believe it is the same on the Royal.

You quoted my post and since I cannot hear the inflection in your voice, I’m not sure how to take it. A great question was asked and great answers and experiences have been given. I was just giving our experience to see how it compares with others. We don’t gamble for the comps. It is something we enjoy and the comps are a nice bonus. We budget what we want to spend, sometimes based on what we would spend for the cruise if not comped. Sometimes we come out ahead, and sometimes not. The casino counts on us doing the latter. The times I shared are an average and not always in one sitting. There are also others things on a cruise we enjoy so we may play a little go do other things and maybe go back. But playing in a casino if definitely something we enjoy on a cruise. We are currently on a cruise and I am up by almost $2600.00 and that was the result of the free play I was given. I haven’t spent a penny of my own money. My DH is only down a tiny bit so our plan is to go home ahead in this one. We didn’t go to the casino at all yesterday and don’t have plans to spend a lot of time today. If the casino is not your thing then please spend those 3-4 hours doing something you enjoy. I want you to keep your beautiful head of hair. 😁

Also for reference: On our recent Crown Princess cruise in January, I earned a little over 20,000 points and got an offer for a Balcony and $600 casino cash. No Plus package. Maybe because our cruise was 16 days vs 7 days? I wish I could figure out how they decide what they will offer. We spend maybe 3- 5 hours in the casino daily playing mostly slots. We used to always get balcony and free play offers with Plus Package via email but lately they have been reduced insides, lower free play and no Plus Package even though we haven't reduced our play. To OP: I'm not sure if anything is different for Australia but we are also able to just go online and after logging in, we can check out cruises and it will show our casino discount. Either $0 or a reduced amount if we want to upgrade. I will say that I checked on cruises this week and a lot of the offers went away on cruises I was just checking out last month. Also, check to see if you have given princess your email address and I believe there is somewhere in your profile that you can check to receive promotional offers.

I generally don't like to get in to these tipping debates but I did find this article. It touches briefly on the idea that the automatic gratuities don't go to the crew, the idea of rolling them into the fare, which can be a complicated issue and also touches on removing the auto tips. This seems to be about CCL but may also relate to Princess. Quotes from John Heald. I know nothing about this site, or the management structure at the Carnival Corporation or what happens behind the scenes. I make no warranty about the reliability of this site or the truthfulness of the quotes. I'm just a person who likes to cruise hopefully will help ease the debating back and forth a little. https://www.cruisehive.com/carnival-cruise-line-addresses-gratuity-nonsense/109106

We just did our first UBD recently on the Crown. I don't know what is considered good and tipping is personal to everyone, I'll just give you our experience. We tipped both of the servers $20 each. They were excellent and it does seem to involve a lot of work for them, especially the one that has to keep running back and forth to get food. They seemed really appreciative of the tips. I did notice a charge to our folio of $19.80 a few days later and had to ask customer service what it was for since it was worded oddly. They said it was the gratuity for the UBD. I thought it was part of the price we paid before the cruise but I guess not. We didn't remove the $19.80. In the future we may not tip as much the night of since it seems we tipped about 54%. It was a great experience though!

Question for those that like the aft suites. Does the noise from the wake cause any issues? We are booked in a Forward S5 suite on the Discovery and placed a upgrade bid to an aft suite. We just got off the Crown and I love hanging out on the promenade deck looking at the aft view. Since we have a bid, we noticed that it is pretty loud but figure the higher up, the less noise. We changed our bid from pretty high to almost the minimum. Pretty sure it is a long shot on getting the upgrade, but curious about the noise. TIA

I haven’t looked at this thread in a few days so not sure if anyone posted that it was fixed or their experience but I was 6 out of 7 because of shoreside and blue lane on the new app. But this morning before my cruise that all went away and I was green lane with a barcode in the new app.

So far pretty good. Asked someone in the parking garage how their trip was and they said they had a great time. There was plenty of rocking and rolling but nothing knocked them off their feet. We had about a half hour wait to drop luggage and then maybe 15 minute wait for security. After security they split the line into blue and green. Blue looked to be pretty long but for green we walked right up to an agent. I’ll try to update later but not the greatest at typing on my phone. 😁

Yes, thank you. It was 2022. We were on the Royal for Alaska 2023. We had a great trip on the Crown. Heading to the port right now to board her again today.

We will be on the Crown Sunday for our first trip to Hawaii. Curious about what is going on. We were on the Crown last year for a cruise to Alaska and if I remember correctly, this was when they were having issues and people were switching to the Discovery cruise around the same time. We stayed with the Crown and really enjoyed the cruise. I do remember vibrations in the dining room sometimes but nothing too bad. I was hoping that was fixed.