essmeier

Jay was our steward, and yes, he was terrific. He was as good a steward as we've ever had.

OK. The total eclipse cruise is over. Thoughts on forward-facing Lido 105: Unlike most minisuites on Royal-class ships, this minisuite is square. It had more counter space, more drawers, and a larger closet (with doors!) than what you usually find in a minisuite. Being square, the sofa is near the foot of the bed, so there's no divider curtain in the room. You still get that convenient little semicircular shelf inside the door, though it's now around a corner. The bathroom and closet are in different places than usual. The balcony is huge; I calculated the size at about 139 square feet, versus 25 square feet or so for most minisuites, so if you like big balconies, you'll love these rooms. The wind was not a factor at all when the ship is moving. The sloping steel wall in front of the balcony guided the airflow over us. There was no warning sticker on the glass door. There was a sign on the wall next to it warning us to keep the door closed and to keep the curtains closed at night. We had a small table and two reclining chairs on the balcony, each with an ottoman. The table is tall enough that you can eat a meal out there if you like. We were relatively close to the Horizon Court, though a really long way from pretty much everything else. The only downside of note is that if you're sitting on the balcony, you can't see anything, as the front wall of the balcony is steel, rather than glass. To see, you must stand. Not a big deal, but it's worth noting. Bonus for us - we were able to see the eclipse from our balcony so we didn't have to view it from the main Lido deck with 3000 of our closest friends. We did share our space during the eclipse with some friends who had balconies that faced away from the event. All good; we'd book a forward facing balcony again in a minute unless we were planning a cruise in places with heavy seas. (Drake Passage? Probably not.) Recommended.

Excursions are the only thing we've ever previously booked in advance, and available onboard credit was applied to the booking when we made our reservations. I just assumed that booking specialty dining in advance would work the same way. Apparently, it does not, though I see no reason why it shouldn't True, it's onboard credit, and I must be on board in order to use the credit. Of course, I also have to be on board in order to eat the meal, yet my credit card has already been charged for dinner. Thanks for the clarification. I won't book specialty dining in advance again.

Sort of related: I'm on a cruise next month where we have $500 in onboard credit for a ten day cruise. I figured we'd burn off some of that credit by booking two specialty dinners with friends, who also have a similar amount of onboard credit. As we were all agreed on what we wanted to do and when, I booked two different dinners for four people each. At booking, I indicated that our friends were joining us. I just assumed that since the system knows that we (as well as our friends) have sufficient credit to pay for the meals, that we wouldn't be charged for the reservations. But much to my surprise, my credit card was billed $312 for two reservations for four people each. Despite having taken some two dozen cruises with Princess, we've never prebooked specialty dining, so this kind of took us by surprise. Since we have credit to pay for the meals, will the credit card charge eventually be reversed and onboard credit used instead? If so, is it automatic? Or is this an issue for standing in line at Guest Services? Or is this just a lesson that one should never book specialty dining in advance?

I talked to my Princess Cruise Vacation Planner about this yesterday. I wanted to know why, when I spend my entire day sitting at a desktop PC with a pair of 24" monitors, is Princess telling me that I can't use that and instead must do this using software on a telephone. She couldn't answer that, but mentioned that she's talked to a lot of customers who don't own smartphones and don't know what to do. She suggested that I do it by email instead, but gave me a different address from the one mentioned here previously: Carnivalcorp@stockperks.com I don't know if the address matters, as it appears in comments above that the "hello" email works, too. Just thought I'd mention it.

I had called my Cruise Planner earlier today to ask her to see if she could get us another room. But this cruise has been sold out for a year, as this one includes a total solar eclipse. She put us on a waitlist for an upgrade to an ME class minisuite or a downgrade to a Deluxe Balcony. Neither is likely to happen, because of the whole it's-been-sold-out-for-a-year thing. I'm going to call her right now and tell her that it won't be necessary. We'll stick with L105. Sounds like a great stateroom, especially for the larger balcony, as I really dislike the tiny balconies on the Royal Class ships. Thanks for the quick reply.

We've booked a minisuite on the Discovery Princess for April 2024 and we've been assigned Lido 105. That's a forward-facing cabin. The Princess Website says that the view is partially obstructed and that balcony access is limited. I've read here and there on various travel sites that such rooms do not permit access to the balcony while the ship is at sea. That would leave at least one of us somewhat-less-than-delighted. But I read an older (2014) thread about the topic regarding the Royal Princess that suggests that this is more of a guideline and that we're not actually going to be physically prevented from going out on the balcony at sea if we choose to do so, but that the lights in the room have to be off or the curtains have to be drawn if we're doing so at night. Fair enough. We'd be fine with L105 if the choice to go on the balcony or not is ours, but less than thrilled if we're going to find the door locked while we're at sea. The balcony appears to be larger than the typical not-very-large minisuite balconies on the Royal Class ships. That's certainly a plus, and we'd be happy with the room if we can actually use the balcony, rather than look at it through a glass door. Can anyone confirm how balcony access in forward-facing staterooms works on the Discovery Princess specifically?

An hour ago, I was searching to see if the Coral was going to be refurbished next fall, but couldn't find anything. And a search just now led me to this thread. We're booked on the Coral from Singapore to Los Angeles on October 17, and I noticed that the Coral has no itineraries scheduled between September 26 and October 17, so it occurred to me that she might be in drydock during that time. I guess we'll be boarding a shiny, new-ish ship. Cool. And a timely answer to my question, as it happens. Thanks for posting that.

According to a waiter I spoke with the other day, if you're in the Caribbean, it's a decoration now and a sticky puddle on the table shortly thereafter.

Wife and I shared one on the Royal the other day. That's the only one either of us will have in a lifetime. Two a day with Princess Plus? Or buy Premier so we can have an unlimited number of them per day? Uh...No. The idea that Princess is trying to justify the Premier package by pointing out that you can have more than two of these per day by buying the Premier package is simply silly. It's an empty benefit. I should point out that a lot of the chocolate is on the outside of the glass and is neither removable nor edible.

Looking at the Princess Website today, it appears that they have recently raised the price for Princess Plus again. We're currently on the Royal Princess and paid U.S. $60 per day when we booked 8 months ago. Today the price listed at the Princess site says: The Plus Beverage Package is US $64.99 per day plus 18% service charge (totaling $76.70 per day) for all itineraries except Australia. For all Australian-based vessels, the package is AUD $110.00 per day which includes a service charge. You will be charged the full amount for the complete voyage at the time of purchase. Two years ago, in November 2021, the price was U.S. $40 per day. Then $50. Then $60. Now it's $65 plus an 18% service charge ($76.70.) While on the Royal last week, I booked a cruise for October 2024, and the price quoted by the Future Cruise Consultant on the ship was $60/day, so the change appears to have happened since then. $60 works for us, but based on the three or so drinks we consume each day, that's about where Princess Plus stops being a bargain. If it's higher than that, we'll save money buying drinks a la carte. Premier has gone up as well: The Premier Beverage Package is US $84.99 per day plus 18% service charge (totaling $100.30 per day) for all itineraries except Australia. For all Australian-based vessels, the package is AUD $140.00 per day which includes a service charge. You will be charged the full amount for the complete voyage at the time of purchase. https://www.princess.com/en-au/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/food-and-dining/beverages It's worth noting that for the twelve days we've been on the Royal this trip, Alfredo's has pretty much been empty all the time. I don't know if that's what Princess had in mind when they decided to start charging to eat there, but that's what I'm seeing every day. The attached photo was taken at 1 PM. So it goes. Just thought I'd mention these things.

The hotels that Princess offers for pre or post-cruise stays are usually nice and well-located. We like staying in them. That said, you'll likely pay roughly twice as much by booking through Princess as you would if you booked it yourself. Last fall in Barcelona, we booked a room for two for $952 and that price included an upgraded room and private transportation by car from the ship and to the airport (arranged ahead of time through the hotel.) Princess wanted $1600 for the room and transfer by bus. That room had a shower; ours was larger and had a bathtub....for 60% of the price. We did the same thing in Santiago this winter and saved about half. The only issue there was that I had to negotiate a taxi ride from the airport to the hotel via my bad Spanish, but it worked out. I didn't understand the driver's Spanish, but fortunately, he understood mine. In October, we'll be staying at the Hyatt in Sydney, booked with Hyatt points instead of through Princess. We'll just take a taxi from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the ship. Better - a taxi will leave when I'm ready to go, a Princess shuttle bus will not. Bonus - Princess often has a desk at the hotel to help the people who have booked rooms through them. They'll still answer your questions and offer what help they can with whatever issue you might have. In Santiago this past winter, they were able to save us a taxi ride. We'd booked on our own and had purchased a transfer from the airport to the ship, so we thought we'd have to go back to the airport by taxi to get to our bus to the ship. They told us if we could show them proof that we'd purchased a transfer from the airport, they'd let us take the bus to the ship directly from the hotel instead. Check the cost of booking it yourself and arranging your own transportation. Compare the two. Make a choice. Not everything works for everyone.

That's a big deal to me. I don't need to spend much time online each day , but the better the Internet works, the more quickly I can be done and get back to my vacation. When the Internet was priced like a luxury item, it worked like a luxury item. Now that it's free, it works as well as you'd expect from a free product....and sometimes worse. One useful thing - our most recent cruise was to Antarctica, and we were warned that the Internet would likely be out for 5-6 days between Ushuaia and the Falklands. Actually, service was quite good during that period of time and it never went out Then I discovered why it kept working - the ship cut off access to social media sites during that time. It's amazing how well the Internet works when everyone isn't trying to stream penguin videos to Facebook. I know I'm largely alone on this topic, but there are only two ways to make the Internet work better: 1. Launch more satellites 2. Have fewer users #2 is the only one Princess can do. Internet aside, I'm OK with the current status of Elite benefits. We earned Elite status right after the upgraded toiletries went away. On our first cruise as Elite, we asked about them because the Princess Website still listed them as a benefit. Our steward said they don't do it anymore, but we asked at the Captain's Circle desk and she saw to it that we got them...that one time.