Cruise Raider

I agree 100%! Maybe they will have more staffing available since they won’t need quite as many servers for Alfredo’s? Maybe that’s wishful thinking!

We used to get lunch offerings on Celebrity way back when for $30 pp. I think it’s doubled since then and now adds an 18% gratuity on top of that. Heck, the dinner menu pricing on Princess is still better than the lunch menu prices on Celebrity.

On our last two cruises, it was listed in the Patter which SD restaurant was open for lunch. It wasn’t just in the little section that lists bar and restaurant hours, it was in the main portion of the daily activities.

I would love that, too. But, it really all depends on available staffing.

Both passengers in the cabin must buy the plus (or premier) fare, which includes a beverage package, WiFi and gratuities at minimum. It now also includes 2 casual dining options. So, the fare for the Plus Package is currently $60 a day pp. so, it’s $120 for a double occupancy cabin. Gratuities per day for 2 passengers in a standard cabin = $32 a day WiFi for one device each for 2 passengers (non elite status) = $30 a day Plus Standalone Beverage Package for 1 passenger = $77 a day So, now, even without the casual dining, with the assumption that you would both purchase the WiFi and wouldn’t remove the gratuities, the charge for 2 passengers in a cabin would come to $139 .. even with just one WiFi device activation, it would still come out to $124 .. more than you’d pay if you both just each got the package fare instead of the standalone beverage package for one. I am sure Princess studied this carefully so, it wouldn’t really pay to cheat!

I am so happy they are offering this option. We’ve seen it available on our last two cruises, as the cruises were filled to capacity and those lunch offerings were probably in their test phase. So, we were on the Emerald and the Ruby and so, those ships only had the Crown Grill and Sabatini’s. They were each open on alternating dates on sea days. They offered the same menu as in the evening and the same pricing. If you had the premier fare package, you could use your allotted specialty dining in those venues. BTW, they were crowded, at least the one in the Crown Grill was. I never got up to see if Sabatini’s was also full.

When my CVP goes on vacation and I want a cruise booked with a particular cabin, I book it online myself and just put the cabin on a hold. I may have to do it twice if she’s gone for awhile. once you deposit it, she will do longer get credit for the booking. I happen to know another CVP and he did a booking for me once and assigned it to my CVP.

The pizzas online went from $3 to free and then to $8.50. I still don’t mind but that pricing has been quite the roller coaster. If it’s good pizza, the $8.50 charge doesn’t much bother me. but, I have to say, I miss the older menu. While I will eat the vegetarian, the pepperoni and margarita pizzas aren’t exactly what I used to receive. I get why they did it … I just really liked what they previously served.

thank you! We do drink wine so the premiere package is often worth it for us, well, actually for me as my DH is satisfied with the wines that are just a dollar or two over the $15 limit. But, since we both have to purchase it, I’m usually good with that. It’s perfect for a 5-7 night cruise… any longer or any shorter, I would think long and hard about spending the extra money. We made do on our last cruise with the older $50 plus package as we had a couple hundred in OBC and there was no Alfredo’s or Gigi’s onboard. It was a ten night cruise and would have been $600 to upgrade. Our bill at the end only ended up being like $15 .. so, it was the right move not to upgrade. All in all, we were very happy with the whole experience!

When we ordered pizza on the Ruby, it as excellent. They don’t even have a GiGis or Alfredo’s and everyone in our group commented that up the pizza was fabulous. That was before they changed the pizza menu but I swear, it was so much better than the pizzas they served at Slice. we even took the leftovers up to our room for breakfast the following morning .. and it was still really good!

Thanks for the info! I am still very curious that if someone has the premier package, on a ship without Alfredo’s or Gigi’s, if you can order the pizza on the app for no charge.

It usually just means that you will need to pick up your medallion at the port.

They aren’t included in the casual dining pricing. My apologies if I relayed that message. They have included lunches at the same ‘specialty dining’ menu and costs but serve the meal much earlier in the day to relieve some of the crowding in the evening hours. Since 2 specialty dining meals come with the premier package, I’d much rather go at lunch time vs dinner time! Now that I’m seeing that offered, I will definitely be taking advantage of that.

We rarely turn on the TV while we are on a cruise but did notice that the movies being shown on MUTS were all ones I haven’t seen before. I think many of them were newer, as I recall, once shown on MUTS, they are then available in your stateroom on your TV under the On Demand feature.

I think that may have been me that mentioned it and you reported it accurately. Only I use the app and my DH never does. He rarely even has his phone with him. We never order room service via the phone, so the $5 fee never were charged. The options on the app are just as good for us, if not better. We had one of the old plus packages and so just paid the one time access fee of $14.99 and it covered food delivery service all over the ship, including our stateroom.

I heard it was full when I was just onboard a couple of weeks ago. That was on the Ruby but I know the Emerald had them as well a couple of months ago. Both cruises were booked solid so that may be the reason for opening them up for lunch.

Same with us! We really feel as though the addition of the unlimited casual dining options has been a real plus for us. And we usually pay for a specialty dinner here and there .. so, this really added value for us, too! We prefer our bigger meals at lunch and now it looks like they have added some lunch hours to the Crwon Grill and Sabatini’s. I view it all as a very positive change.

I am with you! I’ve upgraded to the premier package on several of my booked sailings. I probably won’t even go to the MDR as I actually like the more casual restaurant options.

Yes, I’ve been really impressed this year (we’ve been cruising about once a month this entire year). This year, by far the best with the entertainment, the food and availability of decent drinks.

I guess I call it a ‘little glitch’ because we really are not ending up in the main dining room very often any longer, especially now with the premier package including so many other options. But yes .. you are correct. I guess it isn’t a little glitch … just not one that has a big impact on us. I can’t make reservations for my specialty dinners at this time even though it shows I have dining credits due to having the premier package. If I can’t get them onboard, I’m sure they will just credit our account, which they’ve done that in the past. I do like that now they are opening the specialty restaurants on alternating days for lunch on some ships (I’m hoping for all ships), which is my overall preference anyway. We are not big eaters at dinner time.

We used to cruise quite a bit with Celebrity before the pandemic and are elite with them, as well. I loved the happy hour up on the observation lounge back then. So many yummy appetizers being brought to our table. Since the return to service, we’ve mainly just cruised on Princess with one celebrity cruise a couple of months ago. Nothing was the same as we knew it. It wasn’t a bad cruise, we just feel like Princess suits us so much better now.

We went every night it was held on the Ruby recently! It was excellent … they served samosas (so yummmy) and spring rolls (again, so yummmmy), raviolis, sliders, quiche, etc as their hot dishes and always had an array of cheeses, dried fruit and nuts (one night there were macadamia nuts), as well as crudities with dressing and some kind of vegetarian salad. We only made it into the MDR once as the tapas were our dinner most nights. Plus, one of the bar supervisors, Frank, was super talented … played the ukulele and sang songs for the guests! It was a don’t miss event as far as I was concerned.

I applied in early May and it took about 13 weeks under standard service. Not too bad because they stated it could take up to 16 weeks. I guess it’s all about expectations!

I just did this for a closed loop cruise back in July out of LA. I am assuming you are on a closed loop cruise and are an American citizen to use the following advice: You will need a government issued picture ID, such as a driver license, state ID card or Real ID, etc. The Key is ‘government issued’ You will need a certified copy of your birth certificate from the county in which you were born. If you’ve had a name change (different from your birth name) due to marriage, it is stated you will need a copy of your marriage license. To be honest, nobody even looked at that document at check in. So, I’m not sure if that is truly required. Your marriage license should have your birth name on it so, you will not need any divorce decrees. BTW, immigration was quick and easy with the birth certification and license, no longer than if you had your passport. Like I mentioned, just did this and our furthest destination from the US was Ensenada. I had very few worries about the risk of getting back to the US in case of an emergency. The same would be true for Vancouver or even Victoria. If my furthest destination was Puerto Vallarta or Manzanillo, I probably wouldn’t risk not having a valid passport. That is just my opinion and my risk tolerance!

The app always shows only the first leg of a B2B but continues on through the second leg in Jouneyview and DineMyWay. I have an entirely different issue with mine upcoming sailings as we are going on one short repositioning cruise, staying overnight in a hotel and then getting on a completely different ship for a B2B. We probably won’t want to make dinner reservations in the MDR .. good thing, because the app won’t let us. It’s just a little glitch due to the rather rare occurrence of how we set up the 3 cruises. No harm, though. We have the premier package so will probably be doing more casual and specialty meals anyway.