keldaria

You can but there is a difference in mind set between the idea of something being included and something being an up charge. ill happily sample the catalog when its included in my package, where as I'm not necessarily going to pay extra to try something I’m not sure I’ll like.

Technically the signature sun deck gets merged into the sanctuary, but I’m not sure what physical barriers actually separated those areas currently.

I agree with that interpretation as well, I like a good cocktail, it was just the ability to sample wine that stuck out. the unlimited casual dining is somewhat a mixed bag for me. I don’t really hit them for dinners since I typically try to hit specialty restaurants since 2 of those are comped anyways then stack in an experiential dining and the free comped specialty for embarkation day if you booked a suite and you’ve barely hit the normal dining by the end of most cruises. It has its benefits on long cruises but i primarily enjoy hitting them for lunch to get more bang for my buck, however the real limitation is just how few casual dining spots their are compared to specialty dining. There is only 2 on the sun which is fairly limited considering. I wish there was more variety so you could really take advantage of them. Typically 2-3 casual dining (lunches) is my limit anyways since there is so few so unlimited isn’t really a huge bonus for me but I can see how mileage would vary for others.

I think this particular fact is undersold, especially for wine drinkers. Don’t get me wrong there is plenty of choices on the menu for plus options and this is typically where most cruisers land. However if you like wine and want to sample some higher end bottles, then Premier is a great way to do it.

The only distinction that should matter is did Princess contract with someone that resulted directly or indirectly with a person being employed in that function. Princess has a choice in who they contract with and for what purposes. They are directly associated with any actions taken in the name of that contract. They are in effect endorsing princess promotions underhanded nature of misrepresentation if they are not ending the contract or demanding changes to conduct by people operating under that contract. A 7 day refund window when many cruises last that long especially when considering travel time is red flag territory. They’ve basically made a product that under normal circumstances most people buying will never have a chance to review and refund before it’s no longer an option. The fact that it’s part of an FAQ on princesses own website seems to endorse this behavior as acceptable.

Yep, then it’s best to straight up dispute it with your credit card being outside the refund window. i am thankful I did some basic level of research when I bought in. I knew I had a 7 day window to cancel/refund and I made sure I took the time review it before I was outside that window. It just sucks that this happened to your parents as I assume these sales reps know people won’t look at them until they get back home. I really wonder why Princess lets this happen and doesn’t force a 30 day refund window since even if it’s a separate company the choices princess promotions are making is directly impacting princess and its reputation with their highest value customers. Don’t tell me someone would buy a 7k or 15k package if they didn’t like the cruise line. I myself opted for the 15k package (ouch). I had figured between the FCC/Onboard which I knew I’d need, and the hotel certificates I’d also likely use, that I should be fairly close to break even making the hotel credits a bonus. I had assumed they spent like FCC and that you just applied them to whatever booking on their portal that you wanted until they were all used up. Nope, the portal applies them as it sees fit which typically meant that it would apply enough credits to lower the cost of the hotel by about 10%. Meaning to burn up my 3,000 credits I’d need months of hotels stays. Conveniently the portal also seemed to be about 10% more expensive than direct booking with hotels so you do the math. I don’t mind that the certificates were capped at so much value per day, I expected that, nobody is going to give you a blank check to go hit a suite at the royalton. I don’t even really mind that their portal was more expensive than booking direct in most cases, that makes some sense because they need to make their money somehow. The reason it crossed into scam territory for me was purely the hotel credits and how they got applied. You can’t make me spend almost 30k to use the 3k hotel credits you sold me under the pretense they worked just like cruise credits in your portal. i asked to cancel on day 6 and had my refund about 3 days later. Huge load off my mind.

If your within 7 days or 30 if a Florida resident, just call and cancel it.

I got suckered into the upsell myself on my last cruise thinking the combination of credits was actually quite attractive for the cost. The result is the website offers rooms at sub par prices that you can obtain far better rates directly from the hotels in question, and the credits they offer are almost useless. that said they have a 7 day or so cancellation policy. I was able to call and cancel without much issue was got the refund within a few days. I’d call princess promotions directly if they are still within that window and cancel with them. Please note they are a separate entity from princess so the numbers will be different. if you’re beyond that window, call your bank and dispute. The only reason I would start with princess promotions is I have no idea how a dispute and chargeback would impact their main princess booking. They are separate entities so it should be fine but they reclaim their future cruise credits and such so it might be a bigger issue depending on how things are applied within their account.

I think the point that matters is when conditions are ideal the place will be swamped. When it’s too sunny or windy doesn’t matter since I won’t be as inclined to use the space ether. Yes the suite only area wouldn’t necessarily hold all 80 suite guests but on perfect days I have to imagine the ship crew would’ve accounted for this by making less passes available to control population. Now the sanctuary is guaranteed on ideal days to be over capacity.

What sailing date if you don’t mind me asking. And are you confirming that you can see both options on your dinner reservations in your D0 booking?

Doubtful. It’ll still be the same spaces most likely but no idea if the reserve and signature will function as one, or still operate as 2 separate dining areas with different guest lists.

Hmmm, I’m curious if their system if bugging out or if they are low key offering premier to suite guest that ask. I have the premier upgrade active on my reservation but only because I purchased the upgrade. Guests 3, 4 and 5 however do not and I can still see they don’t. I guess it’s about time I called in myself since my email doesn’t seem to have gotten a response. Would go a long way to soothing my annoyance with this announcement if we all got premier for free or even if guest 3, 4 and 5 did.

Depends on how it happens. When I say merged, I don’t mean physically merged, as you and others have pointed out that is impractical with the kitchen between them. When I say merged I mean the guest list making it a free for all first come first served where either restaurant goes for anyone. That’s not the sort of exclusive experience we paid extra for and ultimately the signature restaurant appears located in a nicer spot right off the plaza making it likely a more attractive target if it’s a free for all and less likely to not be packed if everyone is given the choice. I’m a pretty reasonable guy and don’t complain much but if I can’t walk straight in and sit down every night like was promoted because they merged the lists for the dining areas I’ll be upset to say the least. It’s not about who I’m sitting next to, it’s about paying for an area that’s exclusive and purposely designed to be underbooked so it is always available for suite guest and then potentially not getting it. Yes the reserve would be available then assuming the sanctuary class isn’t oversold from grandfathered cabanas and such but still not the experience advertised. This isn’t going to be a cheap trip for my family, I just want what was promised when I made the deposit or at least some consideration when selling me an “upgrade” that is just a degradation of the original service I was promised. I don’t take nicely to Princess gas lighting me over an expensive trip, especially when they don’t even have it all figured out before they decided to do it. It would be one thing if it was all clearly defined so I could plan accordingly to cancel or stick it out, but now I’m essentially stuck making a go/nogo choice based on speculation.

Same way they know regular people have premier, plus or nothing. It’s attached to your account which your medallion brings up. its a common bit of confusion. The email they sent is incredibly misleading suggesting suites are getting upgrades (they aren’t) and implying premier is now included. But if you click the “learn more” link, it’ll take you to the sanctuary page where you can scroll down to see the FAQ where this is located.

I don’t believe that because it would’ve be clearly stated that signature is exclusive to suites like the lounge was. I think some sort of merging of co-mingling will occur which is why they reference private dining instead of coming right out with it.

Not according to the official FAQ https://www.princess.com/en-us/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/sanctuary-collection

I’m right there with you and unfortunately there really isn’t a good way to know at this stage. the more I think about the private dining situation the more I wonder if suites will maintain their access to the signature but rather than a full merger, I wonder if they’ll just take a small portion of the non-suite sanctuary class cabins and move them into the signature restaurant so they can have a little better balance between the 2 and not as much congestion at the reserve restaurant. I mean the space doesn’t make it easy to merge them and allowing a free for all between the 2 would mean potentially a lot of mad suite guest. It wouldn’t be hard to take 15-20% of the non-suite guests and say “congratulations your private dining is at the signature restaurant” and leave the rest in the reserve.

Long term? Sure, short term all C1 and C2 cabins are grandfathered in to private dining based on their prior reserve status. Last I checked those were all sold out on my cruise next April (most cruses in general since a cabana mini-suite on the cabana deck plus reserve dining proved to be a popular combination) so in effect it will be more crowded until the grandfathered status works it way out of the bookings.

Suites already had access to the entire area at no additional cost plus a private suite only area that’s been removed. Everyone else could buy into the sanctuary space for $100 a day but not the suite only area. The “Upgrade” for suite passengers is losing their exclusive area and gaining nothing. Passes for the sanctuary were also limited in availability. The number of people was effectively capped in both scenarios but suites still had a private area before that.

I’m fairly certain suites had access to both the sanctuary and the signature sun deck before. So they had access to the entire area but had a private suite only area within that area which has now disappeared.

I have, still waiting on a response. Will try other methods of contact if I’ve not seen a response to my email by tomorrow.

I wouldn't put too much faith in that. Those are left over descriptions from before sanctuary collection was announced. If you look at the mini-suites they still reference that some have reserve collection benefits. "Enjoy Reserve Collection upgrades on select Mini-Suites. In addition to the great amenities found in all Mini-Suites, you will receive Reserve Collection upgrades, including access to the Reserve Collection Restaurant.". These are just left overs from the original setup. I have no doubt they will be cleaned up and updated in the coming days. My expectation is that all sanctuary collection benefits will be offered to every cabin in the collection and that the only suite exclusive area will be the Suite Lounge since they specifically went out of their way to state this. If they intended to keep the dining areas or sanctuary areas separate they would be also indicating this too. They are effectively attempting to side step the issue in an attempt to keep from upsetting the suite class cabins which are loosing exclusive benefits they otherwise paid for.

Ahh, I understand. Didn’t realize this was an old gripe. Just that nothing changed this time around.

Speculation has been that the signature sun deck is being merged into the sanctuary club. If you look at the deck plans the signature sun deck is no longer there implying that it’s a lost perk but there hasn’t been any official word on that from what I’ve seen. i did email a princess rep to see if they knew anything but not gotten anything back yet. I’m not hopeful that i will, I doubt anyone but upper management knows for sure.

Premier hasn’t changed (at least to my knowledge) the only thing that’s changed is it would be included in sanctuary class bookings going forward. If you booked before the change it was an optional upgrade. So if you originally booked with premier (like I did) you paid for it and will still have it. If you booked without it, you can still upgrade (and pay for it) if you want it. The price of the new bookings with it included is excessively more expensive. otherwise the benefit is still the same and I’ve not seen anything to indicate otherwise.