kywildcatfanone

This seems to be Princess new booking thing. Try to only offer guarantees as much as possible so they control the rooms taken and when.

Looks like they finally got the technical issues I was seeing resolved.

I leave auto tips on. I will tip for good service from bar staff, room steward, etc, but usually only once at the end of the cruise.

Cruises are at capacity. Loyalty doesn't matter. It is what it is. The reality is if you don't take a cabin, someone else will. Doesn't impact them, in fact, if you don't get a drink package and the other person does, it's better for them.

Yep. None of the cabins I am interested in are more than 2 people, so I'm not sure how accurate all of that is. I would like to think they are just updating the website and taking forever to fix, but it's impossible to know. They could very easily handle more than 2 person cabins differently, than block every cabin on every ship in their system. This makes no sense. Even talked to my TA yesterday, they are seeing the same thing. Said everyone is calling them because they can't even see cabin availability for cruises a year and more out. She was frustrated too.

Yep, I was seeing this for both 2024 and 2025 sailings I'm looking at. Very frustrating.

I hate this and hope it's just temporary or something. I can't see any cabins for any cruises for 2024 that I have looked for. I normally only bother my TA when I find what I want and see a price I'm happy with, and now I can do neither without calling.

This is what I'm seeing, so you have to contact your TA now to see what cabins are available? Are there other sites that show actual availability?

The world, and America in particular, society is degrading into a me first society. It's only going to get worse.

Every cruise I look at right now, it says cabin selection is unavailable? Is that just happening to me? Are they doing some kind of maintenance?

I generally pre pay tips just to pay it before boarding unless we have a ton of OBC to spend. With that said, if I get exceptional service, I will tip above and beyond.

We went on our first Celebrity cruise last fall. I was assured on the Celebrity board that I would enjoy the food better on Celebrity. I found it to be basically the same as on Princess. Not great, not terrible, but food and enough options to enjoy each day. The food quality was not noticeably different for me between the two.

Good to know. We have premium wifi for an October cruise, but I'm nervous and might try to bring something that doesn't require wifi just in case. One more question if I may. We typically sail Princess, but this will be our second Celebrity cruise. We were on Infinity last fall, and the TV was terrible. Small tv, with only a few channels and no on demand options. Princess has lots of movies and TV shows you can watch on demand, which we take advantage of. Does Equinox have any such offerings?

Does equinox have starlink internet yet? If so, did you have it, and what was your experience?

No issues at all on Princess. Celebrity stopped me, but I told them it was for a medical device, and they waved me through.

My first thought.

Yeah, I'm not too worried about it, but I bought basic wifi and it was cheaper to buy a 2 device plan than buy one device for two people, so I did that. Then on the Memorial Day sale, the only option it gave me was to add for each person, and not upgrade my existing 2 device plan. It works out the same, I paid for two, and I now have two upgraded, but it wasn't like I upgraded exactly what I bought originally. I suspect it won't matter, but I am a bit nervous about it. I have the documentation saved for each purchase, so hopefully it won't be an issue.

Good to know. We are on her in October. I originally bought basic for 2 devices, but upgraded to premium for two people during the Memorial Day sale. I'm skeptical, but the site took my money. Will have to confirm onboard that I have wifi for both people, and not just 2 devices.

Ah, great, thanks. I do have the premium wifi, but was nervous about it's reliability with regards to streaming.

All cruise lines are reducing benefits and cost cutting where they can, while at the same time trying to attract anybody to cruise to fill the ships, and upsell packages for the maximum revenue they can generate. Cruising will never return to what it was before the pandemic. If long time cruisers don't like it, they will let you go somewhere else, and gladly take a new cruiser to your place. Saves them whatever benefits they haven't already cut as well. It's just the reality of cruising in 2023.

Maybe I need help understanding your comment here, were you able to stream because you had premium wifi, or did you have shows/movies stored on your fire stick for offline viewing? I don't take extra stuff on Princess because the on demand programming has plenty of choices between TV show seasons, and movies to entertain us when in the cabin, but my only Celebrity experience was on the Infinity, and it had few channels and no on demand of any kind. Was hoping a revolutionized ship was better. Is it not?

We only have one Celebrity cruise and 26 with Princess, but we did enjoy our Celebrity cruise and have another booked in October. The service was great. But they have already removed one nice perk we had from the last cruise, the ability to order from the DR menu for room service, so I'm disappointed in that. TV selections were way better on Princess, but we were on the Infinity, and it had not been revolutionized yet. Will be on the Equinox in October, so will compare, but Princess on demand programming is outstanding. Only had basic wifi on Infinity, and it was legit terrible. Princess internet has been decent to good, even able to stream some here and there. I will have a better comparison after this next sailing. Princess is generally cheaper, and the AI options on Celebrity seem to double the price.

Is there a place on your account under your reservation to see items you have already purchased for your cruise? I purchased basic wifi, then during the Memorial Day sale, purchased an upgrade to Premium wifi. I got a receipt for it in email, but is there a place to see that in your online account and/or under your current booking?

Yep, I'd go find the captain. One thing I can't do is not have air in my room. We had that happen once on the Caribbean Princess. They sent a tech down and he fiddled with it, and we eventually pulled the vent off from the ceiling. Air was somehow getting obstructed, but with the vent off, it was better. Not great, but better. We left it off the rest of the cruise. I had one other cruise where the air wasn't right. I would just go to passenger services and stand there till they send someone with you to go look at it. I can not tolerate not having A/C in my cabin.

We used to go on formal nights because we didn't want to dress up. The change to $35-39 has priced us out. Like many other things.