MacMadame

I think it's perfectly fine for a company to make a promotion only for new customers or with other restrictions. What I don't think is okay is to give you the promotion and then take it away. If it turns out they gave it by mistake, they should have just eaten the cost and updated the software so that the promotion codes work properly for anyone trying to apply them going forward. Princess's IT does not impress me. If you weren't eligible for the code, the software should not have let you (or your CVP) apply it. It's not that hard to do.

From their marketing materials, it looks like food is an important part of the experience. For example, they are going to have all these culinary classes and events involving their chefs. So I would expect restaurant quality, maybe not a Michelin Star restaurant but better than Hometown Buffet and better than I get at home. 😄

And they would a FlowRider?

I have not made my final payment but I have made dining reservations. The new app let me so I did it. Could it be a bug? Possible. But I'm not going to complain about it. I do think some people with certain loyalty levels can do it but this is my first Princess cruise so that isn't why it let me. It just did.

I am someone who swims as part of fitness and also training for races/events. Therefore, the lack of a lap pool bugs. It's too bad that ships don't have an endless pool, maybe in the gym. If ships can have a FlowRider, I don't see why they couldn't have an endless pool. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to swim laps on vacation!

I just noticed my message was missing the word "Not". LOL Yeah, I am NOT worried they'll make big changes. OTOH, seeing some of the cool stuff on the new ships makes me wish they'd put them on older ships. But these are public areas where maybe one would be expanded or contracted or replaced by a new one. This is not adding more cabins! I have a wish list though. It includes more electric outlets and more USB-C outlets. 🤣🤣

Ouch. Now *that* is some bad luck!

I prefer the Impossible Burger. Even if that kid who created the BB went to the same HS as me. 😄 As for food? I'll eat anything. Once.

I don't think your timeline is accurate. It doesn't match the image above or my experience. We booked in Feb '23 and Plus was $60 pp a day. It did include 2 premium desserts a day and 2 fitness classes. Then very soon after, Princess rolled out the new casual dining and put 2 of them into Plus along with OceanNow and free room service. It made Plus a better deal for us but it didn't change how much we paid for it.

I love CA. But at some point I anticipate not being able to afford to live here.

We're in a 3/4 cabin with only 2 people for our upcoming cruise and now I'm a bit worried. There wasn't any way to mark it as No Upgrade when I booked but part of me hopes we get updated to a mini-suite or something. 😉

The question here is who you would ask. We know that most cruise lines have call centers where the employees have little power to do more than give you some OBC if you are complaining about something and often will give you the wrong answer to your question. Princess has their CVPs (aka PVPs) who are kind of like TAs but not really. I consider them a slightly higher level of customer service than the call center. They have more power and more knowledge. I assume at least some of the other cruise lines have the same thing. Do they have the power to give you a different price on a cruise than what is advertised? People have tried to get them to honor deals that they aren't eligible for (such as one that is only for new bookings applied to an existing booking) and, so far, I have never heard of anyone being successful at getting the CVPs to do that. If they aren't going to bend the rules to give you a lower advertised price, what makes the OP think they will give someone a completely made-up deal? Right but in this case you had someone you could haggle with. You weren't dealing with a corporation but an individual and you knew who to contact. Who are you going to ask in this case? Some poor soul in an off-shore call center who can't even give you the correct information? Their supervisor who also often gives wrong information? A possible in-house TA equivalent who only has the power to give you the deals on their computer? Their supervisor who may have slightly more power? I do think if you get a CVP supervisor, they might be able to fudge a deal that you aren't eligible for or give you some OBC but I haven't seen them do the former and the latter is pretty rare. This is the essential problem with your suggestion of haggling. There isn't anyone authorized to haggle. You'd have better luck going to a 3rd party TA and seeing what their best deal is because they have room to maneuver since they get deals not shown to the public, blocks of rooms at a reduced price, and have a commission they can play with. Even there, I don't think you can say "I'll give you $3000" because they have limited parameters to work with.

You can book online and get a CVP later if you need one too. That's what I did. 😄

Probably too early as it just started sailing. 😢

That was something else. The person I was replying to was suggesting that everyone on the two canceled cruises get a move-over offer. That's a lot of offers and a lot of money for Princess to eat IMO.

They add an 18% service charge to spa services. To the OP, Crew appreciation is replacing the gratuities that we used to put in the envelopes. Other services such as Specialty Dining, drinks, spa, any other food that cost extra, etc. add an 18% service charge automatically. If you have a package, you may not see the SC. For example, if you buy a drink for $15 or less and have the Plus package, the 18% service charge is added but the drink is free so you aren't going to see it. But if you buy a drink for $17 (for example), you get charged $2 + an 18% SC on the $2.

I let my real estate agent do it. Also, where I live, people don't pay the asking price. They pay *over* the asking price. Or they do if they want to get the house. 😉

It works on Apple Wallet so I'm sure it works on Google Wallet. It's very handy, too.

It's all so weird. I think if they advertised Plus as 1 a day, then people might consider it a real benefit because some people might actually eat 1 day (now that gelato and the IC big cakes seem to be included). But 2 day is just a joke to me.

Aren't there over 5000 people on those ships? That's a lot of move-over offers. Princess did offer some compensation over and above the cruise fare and EZAir fare but I don't think it is going to cover all of the OP's expenses. I do think that booking an inaugural cruise is risky. OTOH, I also think that Princess had to absolutely know that the chance of the 2nd cruise going on as planned was high, and waiting until 3 days beforehand to cancel is really bad form. They should have offered even more to those people as many of them were probably in the middle of traveling when the news came down. I don't think it works if Princess cancels the cruise. It would depend on the exact travel insurance purchased, of course.

I use this website: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/ships/cruiseline.php?line=Princess It shows if the balcony cabin is covered or not, if the room holds more than 2 people, etc.

The vloggers involved did that. According to Ben & David's video on the subject, MSC said that only influencers who had registered with them ahead of time (and agreed to certain things?) were allowed to video. So it had nothing to do with their behavior and everything to do with MSC rules (that don't seem to be published?)

Yeah, I wasn't naming one. I consider the CVP number to be high-level customer support. 😄

My point is that many times you can't tell if someone is a vlogger or a regular vacationer so just banning them isn't practical.

Oh, that sounds great! I have a car trip down Route 66 on my bucket list. I hope they have that on my cruise in Jan.