AlaskaGolden

Very interesting history of the early Princess ships. Plus, some great photos of those ships!

Thank you very much for sharing the link!

Makes me wonder why left off the newest ships. Low demand? Cost savings? Real ice cream beats that soft serve stuff any day.

I agree, and I swear their soft serve is ice milk. It doesn't taste like real ice cream to me. I realize tastes are different and some really like their soft serve. I think it is more like Dairy Queen than Carvel IMO.

If you booked a mini suite or full suite the old daily gratuity is $12.00 per day. Balcony and below it is $11.50.

Correct, and mentioned in the first post of this thread to avoid confusion. Guess that didn't work too well.:confused:

This might help explain. Pay today or tomorrow (pre-pay) and it's the old rate; wait until later (e.g. On the ship) and it's the new rate.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2265504

This might help:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1967612

I'm honored. They took my suggestion (post #11):

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2219935

Greetings. We recently just got off the 'Star Princess" on Oct. 4, 2015, and here are our experiences. We pre-purchased one All-Inclusive Beverage Package and one Soda and More Bevarage package a couple months prior to the cruise. Upon checkin where they issued our cruise cards, both of our cards had the appropriate sticker on them. Mine had the 'navy Blue' sticker indicating the AIBP, and my wife had an 'UKP' white sticker on hers. When we went to our cabin, we found 2 of the Plastic Beverage cups / with straws there waiting for us.

 

Not sure what if this is the norm, but this is what we experienced. :)

 

Happy sailing!

Thank you for the information.

Just did the same thing (pre-purchase) earlier this week. Hope our experience is similar. Not too concerned about the cups/straws, but would like to see the stickers on the cards when we check-in!

If I prepay my gratuities today will my credit card be charged now or does it go on the onboard account?

It will be charged immediately to your credit card. Paid our months ago, and they hit the Princess Rewards Visa Card as "pending" for a day or two, and then processed as a regular charge. It was just enough to "push us over the edge" for 10,000 points and $100 OBC!

I have checked the cruise personalizer and it shows the current (old) rate for gratuities. It does not say anything about paying before Oct 15 or any other date to receive this old rate. I am guessing that the web site has not been updated to show the new gratuity rate. It also doesn’t seem logical to me that Princess would have some people paying at the old rate and others at the new rate. This would not be fair to the staff who benefit from gratuities. I also am guessing that if I prepay now for the old rate there is a good chance that the difference will be added on my portfolio while on the ship.

 

I was just curious about the statement being made and no one giving any source for it.

The source for the information comes from a reputable travel-related web site that we are unable to mention here since they sell cruises, etc. on their site. I think this was mentioned in post #1; just maybe not so explicitly. :)

Thanks for this info! I would like to prepay our grat's at the old rate for our June cruise - does anyone know the official deadline to do this?

By Thursday, October 15, 2015.

Doubt you will ever see a reduction in price. Sounds like they might only offer one package at $7.00/day ($8.05/day with gravity) and no milkshakes.

Yes, I agree. Price decreases for this would be unlikely.

Just purchased the $8.05 per day package for one of us and the AIBP at $56.35 per day for the other. Interesting that one day of the AIBP is the cost of 7 days for the Ultimate Soda Package! :eek:

All of the above and the fact that the basic (gun) soda package wasn't available for sale on-board for some cruises makes me wonder if Princess may be considering "combining" the soda and "soda+" packages so there's just one that includes all sodas (guns/cans) and virgin drinks. Maybe without the milkshakes they will lower the price to be somewhere between the two packages?

Can you prepay your gratuities before you pay off your cruise? My January cruise final payment is in November. Can I prepay now?

Yes, we paid our gratuities months ago for our January 2016 cruise. But final payment isn't due until later this month.

We needed a few extra points for an on-board credit on the Princess Rewards Visa card so we paid the gratuities to get the points and then the credit. We just realized we can get another on-board credit after final payment. :D

On some ships it is available at the bar that is forward just outside of the buffet near the pool.

That would be the Calypso Bar on many of the ships. On the Regal/Royal, the closest would be the Sea View Bar. I'd also try the Outrigger Bar on some of the ships. I think they serve morning drinks like screwdrivers at these bars from what I remember.

If gratuities are pre paid and the cruise has to be cancelled, how are the gratuities refunded?

 

Pam

If you paid them with a credit card, any pre-payments are refunded back to that credit card if you cancel or the cruise is cancelled.

We booked getting the free gratuities. Our cruise is next April - do you think they'll still be completely free or will we have to pay the difference?

Yes, the gratuities will still be included without paying the difference. There would be many unhappy people if they were asked to pay the difference!

Thanks to our upcoming Roll Call as posted by loonline (thanks Rhonda and Brian!), it was just announced that the gratuities automatically billed to guests on their stateroom portfolios will be increased.

Effective on voyages departing on or after January 1, 2016, the gratuity charge will be $13.95 per guest for mini-suites and suites, and $12.95 per guest for interior, oceanview, and balcony staterooms.

The current charges per day are $12 per person for mini-suites and suites, and $11.50 per guest in all other staterooms per day (including children).

All guests who have pre-paid their gratuities before October 15, 2015, will have their current daily gratuity amount protected. If you have a cruise sailing after January 1, 2016, you may want to prepay your gratuities before October 15 in order to lock in to the older rates. This can be done by logging in to your cruise personalizer and choosing the pre-pay option when prompted.

Above was copied in part from another site I can't mention here.

The above brings up some confusion I've encountered from the Vantage web site about tipping. Before we get on the ship, how do we tip the local guides and drivers? Then, once we are on the ship are the tips for everyone (both on the ship and during the excursions) just added to our on-board account with the exception of the tour director? Also, do we tip in Euros or US $?

BVE - Bon Voyage Experience. Princess's announcement:

http://www.princess.com/news/press_releases/2010/02/Princess-Revives-Nostalgic-Cruising-Tradition-with-New-Bon-Voyage-Experience.html

Regal began 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruises out of Ft Lauderdale in November 2014 -- one week before the BVE review I was referring to. So, yes Regal WAS new to Ft Lauderdale at the time. Now, it IS not so new to Ft Lauderdale.

Yes. I read your review soon after we booked our cruise thinking we might have people join us for the BVE on our cruise.

Truly a totally unacceptable BVE! A complete 360 from the BVE we did with guests on the Caribbean Princess out of NYC a little over 10 years ago.

I'm going to give Princess and the Regal the excuse that it was very new to the Regal out of Ft Lauderdale, and they've improved the BVE on that ship out of at port over the last 10 months.

Let's hope they offer it in January so we can experience their greatly improved product!

I thought the $10 without Champagne or $20 with Champagne was for the upgraded teas offered and the attention to detail by the servers and the tea sommelier. Always thought the food was similar to that offered in the MDR/Horizon.

I have looked at those too. I think I would like it even though the balcony railing is not glass. Please give us a review of the cabin after your cruise [emoji6]

Yes, I plan to take lots of photos, draw a diagram of the cabin/balcony layout and write-up our thoughts about the cabin and balcony. Most likely I'll compare to a regular mini-suite on the Grand-class ships since we are most familiar with those.

I called Princess about a month ago asking the same question for our January 17 cruise (week after yours) on the Regal. I was asked to call back in October to check on the BVE for early 2016. We have two friends living in the Miami area who have never cruised before who are very interested in joining us for the BVE before we set sail for the cruise.

Assuming they have the BVEs for our cruises, looks like they'll have to off the ship by about 2:30 PM. We were hoping to board around 10:30 to 11 AM to have them experience as much as possible that day.

Hopefully, more to come early next month!

After doing extensive research here on Cruise Critic, we decided to book M108 on our upcoming Caribbean cruise in January. The room layout is very unique so I'm guessing it won't feel like a typical Princess mini suite, and then there's the huge balcony we can enjoy as we enter/exit the ports. While at sea hopefully we can use the balcony although I think we will be sleeping, eating and doing other things during most of those times. We like using the balcony first thing in the morning and then later at night.

Looks like if you take a cruise in Sept. or Oct., you might get to try a beer tasting on Princess:

 

OKTOBERFEST (SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER)

Fleetwide

Pull on your lederhosen and grab a stein of beer. It's time for Oktoberfest with Princess Cruises! More than 6 million people celebrate this 16-day annual fair in Munich, Germany each year, commemorating the 1810 royal wedding of King Ludwig I to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. On our Oktoberfest cruise vacations, polka music fills the air, leg-slapping dancers perform in Bavarian garb, squeezebox classes are a gas for all involved and the "kinder" can try their hand at pretzel making.

 

Featured Oktoberfest Activities:

 

Cultural trivia

Traditional dance & language classes

Beer tasting

 

We'll be on the Emerald next month, so we shall see.:)

OH WELL! We won't be on a Princess Cruise until January. Guess the Beer Tasting will be long over by then. :( We just did a nice beer testing at a local horse racetrack here in NJ last weekend. 10, two ounce samples for $10 with a souvenir glass. Sure wish Princess had something like that even if it was a few more $$$.