kywildcatfanone

So, how do you prepay for gratuities, drinks and wifi (not plus package) before the 14th for a cruise after February 2023? We have a booked sailing in March, and I want to purchase these separately as we do not drink alcohol so the plus package is way overpriced. Do you have to have your TA add them, or are you supposed to be able to add and pay on the app for all of these individually? Or the website? I have not tried to do that before.

Same for me. I'm not even going to worry about it. I took a screenshot of my boarding group when I got it, and am not going to worry if it's still screwed up when I get to the pier. This is such total incompetence, it's unreal.

They are all doing this now. We took our first Celebrity cruise in October after 25 with Princess. They are already charging around $30/day for wifi and it's terrible service, and that is basic. In looking at cruises, the price to add their package with drinks wifi and tips almost doubles the price of the cruise. I guess people are paying it, but not me. Cruising used to be more affordable than land based vacations, but that really isn't the case anymore. But as I said in another thread, they don't care about loyalty. If an elite doesn't book, a first time cruiser will, and they don't have to do their laundry for free.

Wondering this one myself. We have a March cruise with final payment the day after Christmas, and I'm now wondering if I should just pay it off before the 14th to avoid the new "benefits".

The only coupon I ever remember being uses on those was the BOGO for the Crown Grill. Might have had a coffee package discount, can't remember.

No I am not

It is stupid, but it gives the perception of a "benefit" but it really isn't. There are a lot of benefits they offer that cost them nothing such as priority tendering or some lounges for some classes of customers. They could offer DR service to your room for all classes and it still wouldn't cost them anything but a delivery of a meal they are already making. And the idea they making you pay for a medallion to be shipped that you have to use, lol. What poor customer service. I would much rather then raise the fare than nickel and dime every "benefit" or "package". But, that is marketing. Make it look like it's a good deal, then fee people to the extreme. Going on in every business that can do it, and most customers have no idea that they just paid a lot more because of it.

Those surveys are worthless. I put in comments before to have someone contact me because I wanted to discuss something, and you never hear from them. I doubt most are even read. They are computer scanned for your selections and then never viewed again by an actual person.

Because he doesn't have to. For every Elite that gets free laundry (one of the few remaining perks), there is a first time cruiser who will pay for that room willingly without free laundry, nor do they do the math on the packages they are paying for. Win/win for the cruise line, lose/lose for a loyal past passenger.

Honestly, the reality is that they have determined that they can raise prices on everything and still fill the ships, so that is what they are going to do. They don't care anymore about loyalty, they only care about bodies and how to get more money from you while providing less benefits and services. It's going to continue until their numbers drop off.

It is pretty amazing what these cruise lines are doing. Raising prices while trying to proclaim you are getting more for your money when you aren't. I mean, just raise your price a bit and stop reducing benefits to loyal customers or you might lose them to other vacation choices.

I have no doubt a doubling of the internet cost for all passenger loyalty classes is coming soon. We were on Celebrity in October, and they charge $34/day for basic internet which is barely enough internet to check email.

These packages are a cash cow for the cruise lines. Not surprised they are raising the prices regularly.

This is the phone I have. How do you enable the hotspot, never done that? And then from another device, you see your phone as the wifi connection and just connect to it as you would home wifi? What password does it use, do you set one up for the hotspot specifically?

Just ask for a different glass, or order two 🙂

On a cruise, as long as I can send and receive emails and texts, I'm good overall. Since Princess has a lot of on demand stuff to watch, I can find things to entertain me without internet being a priority. With that said, why would the internet be getting worse than better?

We were on the Emerald in April and the internet worked fine for basic functions as best I remember. Our last cruise before the restart in December 2019 on the Sky, we streamed movies in our room at night with little buffering issues. Sounds like it has gotten way worse, which I don't understand. I don't need screaming internet on a ship, but would like to be able to have enough internet to stream a movie with no issues. Was on a Celebrity cruise in October, and the internet was beyond horrible. At least with Princess, they have a nice catalog of TV and movies on demand that you can watch. Celebrity had none of that.

If you are elite, and have the complimentary mini bar setup and also have the plus package, what do you exchange it for? We used to exchange it for coffee cards/packages, but that is included with plus. Do you just get water or soft drinks?

We are now under 30 days and still can't select it. It varies for unknown reasons.

We use a TA. She gets us at least a slightly better rate than I get as an elite on Princess, plus some OBC. Depending on cabin category that can be not much to a decent amount, plus sometimes there are other perks.

Because local patrons will pay whatever they charge for them, and Princess probably pays pennies for each one via a volume contract.

The correct answer is of course they will. They have already done this to some degree.

We just went on our first Celebrity Cruise, on the Infinity, their oldest ship I think. I posted my comments in another thread about what I liked and disliked compared to Princess. One of the things I loved, was they had no soda fountain drinks, it was all cans or bottles. I wish Princess would move to this, would give you way more options. If anyone is interested, I can find my comments and post here. We did book a FCC with them, and will use it. But overall there aren't that many differences, and I find their pricing higher. Their drink packages nearly double the price of some cruises.

Ah, yeah, if bottled water is available as part of the package, then yes. Probably just soda cans then. We took our first Celebrity cruise recently, and one thing I really liked on Celebrity is that all of their soft drinks were cans, no soda guns. I wish Princes would switch to that.

Thank you. We are elite as well, and normally don't get the plus package because we don't drink that much, but will have it on our upcoming cruise, and normally trade the mini bar for coffee packages, but since the plus includes the coffee package, this would make sense to trade out for soft drink or water for the room.