cruiserdf

Best stock 'dividend'??? The stock does not currently pay a dividend. It previously (several years ago) paid $ .25 per share.

This has been been my exact experience also. On our last November (Enchanted) and August (Caribbean cruises. Princess staff said the VPN would not work with the Medallion.net. VPN support said it might work, but only with a close county access which defeated the purpose for me.

We have had ruined items, missing items and wrong items. Everything always has been resolved satisfactorily. I don't missed the laundry room days, but then again some folks enjoy their time there.

And where did this latest rumor come from? That has been a rumor for almost as long as we have had free laundry..... many years. We have had laundry turnaround times anywhere from next day to 5 days.

Thank you for the detailed posting. I wasn't sure if the lamp would plug back into the end of this adapter. I don't think that power splitter will plug into the top of this adapter since it is 3 prong /w ground. But we generally carry regular 2 prong extension cords for hotels etc. So that should plug into the top and give me the two US outlets for the CPAPs. I am not good at remembering the different cabin configurations and generally have had good luck with what we have. A few times it hasn't worked great. Leaving in November for 26 days on the Enchanted and will be in a DB cabin. I think the desk is on the opposite side like the mini-suites, so this setup will work much better. Again, thanks for the helpful information.

Which dual outlet style adapter do you use for your CPAPs. Both my wife and I use CPAPs and I have been lucky to have an open outlet behind the bed or run a light extension cord to the desk next to the bed. Recently did run into the one outlet behind the bed used for the lamp and the desk was on the wrong side of the cabin. So I am looking for a dual outlet style adapter to plug the lamp back into and then an extension cord for both CPAPs behind the bed. I would be interested in what adapter style you are using. Thanks .....

YMMV - I understand what your are saying about the potential security risks of using a commercial VPN. Although I really don't want to invest time and effort to create a personal VPN. I don't see any other options to use email and some financial accounts outside my home country without the use of a VPN. I probably won't use it at home, just for travel and keep my fingers crossed it works well on the ships. With the pre-Starlink Princess internet, I seemed to have been lucky with my access out of the United States. This last trip, no such luck.

Steelers 36, I have read similar information. I don't use the Princess App except for checking the account balances and if the printers are working, then that isn't even an issue. Just need the internet access. Have you had any experience with Whatsapp and a VPN?

Thanks for these suggestions. I do plan to use their 30 day trial period to use Nord VPN from home to access the accounts / sites I need. I don't fully understand exactly how the VPN works, but thought it was pretty much just controlling where the IP address shows from i.e. allowing access from the US while in Europe. I appreciate the security, but the older I get my patience wears thin with the hoops I have to jump through.

We were recently on the Caribbean Princess on a RT cruise from New York to Greenland. As we sailed into Canadian waters I was locked out of my Yahoo and gmail email accounts. I was able to recover the account via Yahoo chat without cellphone service required for verification in the Canadian waters. Once we reached Greenland I was locked out of all email accounts and financial accounts and no way to recover since I had no cellphone service for verification. The internet service with Starlink remained solid throughout the entire cruise and was the best Princess internet in 47 cruises. In Greenland everything (facebook, google etc.) appeared to be coming out of the UK. I suspect I was locked out of everything since I normally sign in from the US. I use a laptop and not a cellphone for internet access and I sign out of every account access every time. So I was considering getting Nord VPN for our next cruise to the Mediterranean and transAtlantic. My thinking is I would be able to make it look like I am in the US using Nord VPN. Has anyone used Nord VPN with the Medallion Internet on a laptop with Starlink on the Princess ships? If so, how difficult was it and what was your experience?

Thank you ..... This is encouraging. But as we all know this can vary by ship. Since the Captain's Circle Rep, change to the Events and Loyalty Manager, I found many are less helpful. Why we always have a copy of the Travel Summary which shows the purchase, did you still receive the card / receipt in your cabin? Did the Folks at the coffee bar know how to handle the charges?

You are correct ... we have a 23 day this November and adding $2700 - $3700 is not worth it to us. I put that into the business class flight for us. I am to old to sit in a small seat for 10 hours, but I do not need that many drinks to enjoy my cruise.

If you go to the "Princess Cruises Social" YouTube channel announcement for these changes, your question is covered. If I understood the answer given, since it was booked as one cruise (one booking number) the benefits will not reset. It will be handled as a single cruise. But then again, August 2024 is a long time away and a lot can change before then.

In the last month there was an excellent Wall Street Journal article regarding the post-COVID tipping culture. Essentially the article pointed out that during the pandemic, many folks were more generous in their tipping practices. As a result, many companies and employers count on this continued "generous" tipping practice to supplement "their" employee's" wages so their company costs do not "have" to increase. They want to convince us our new tipping practices are keeping "our" prices down. Unfortunately, I see my purchasing power continue to decrease, regardless of my tipping practices and it pretty much bleeds into my cruising costs similarly. I think it has something more to do with making up for COVID pandemic losses, again similarly to the cruise industry

Fortunately / unfortunately we have a coffee card for our 8/12 Greenland cruise (Caribbean) and for our November 11/12 trans-Atlantic (Enchanted). I was going to cancel them, as I highly suspect they won't be honored. But, I decided to leave them in place and show passenger services my travel summary to see what they do. Best case they honor the card. Most likely they credit the amount back as OBC. Worst case they do nothing and then I have to fight corporate. We will see .......

Unfortunately the cruise line coverage hasn't been our coverage of choice for many different reasons. Even with the negative age impact, Allianz continues to be our travel insurance of choice.

On our April Discovery Princess cruise, they ended the elite canapés door hanger. It moved to "one size fits ALL". All elites got the same canapés, no selection and the same selection (poor) every formal night. Delivery time was determined by room service. The breakfast door hanger was still available at that time.

I find it interesting that on the Princess Cruises Social YouTube channel announcement that Carmin Roia, VP Sales really was pointing out that having the travel agents encourage the passengers pre-purchase the Plus or Premier packages would increase their 12% or 15% commissions. That certainly is true. Just as it will drive an increase in the passengers travel insurance costs, as the travel insurance is based on the total trip costs. For a 7 day cruise that increase may not be significant, but once you get into the 16 - 25 day cruises with the older ages, those travel insurance costs will add up with the added Plus and Premier package costs. So essentially you now are just insuring your wifi, drink and gratuities cost as an adder. I am not sure that is a good value. This is another "continuing example" how John Padgett is targeting new cruisers and doesn't really care what the Princess loyal cruiser thinks any longer. I am hoping more cruise lines follow suit to MSC and do a type of loyalty matching. Eventually even the "free laundry" won't be worth it. I sure wish we had the likes of Alan Buckelew and Jan Swartz at the helm of Princess cruises. They knew the balance to drive loyalty, revenue and growth.

Has anyone confirmed if a call to room service to change out the mini bar or have room service deliver the pre-cruise "pre-ordered" items (soda package, water, liquor etc.) will incur the $5 room service charge?

Why does the crew give $112 in gratuity amount? Has it changed where solo travelers do not have to pay 2x gratuities when traveling alone in a cabin?

After 46 Princess cruises I don't remember a cruise where we did not have one or several "ship" excursions. Yes we have repeated excursions sometimes on accident and sometimes on purpose. On our April cruise we actually bought our balcony dinner pictures. Additionally I would submit the older cruiser has many more cruise days per year than the younger families. Say a family of 5 on a 14 day cruise equates to 70 passenger days. An older couple with only four 14 day cruises per year would have 112 passenger days per year. It seems the older we get, our cruise day goals have been increasing each year. I don't think we are unique.

Astro Flyer, you are 100% correct .... EXCELLENT memory. Alan Buckelew knew how to make a veteran feel appreciated! While I think Alan retired sometime ago, I think he is still leading as the Chairman of the Board for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

Whitecap, I have done that. Generally these restrictions are controlled at the cabin level. I will wait to sell my last 100 shares until after full implementation of the change to see what actually happens. The $250 is not going to make or break most cruisers. The "value" message around the change is the hard part for me.

My travel agent confirmed yesterday 6/22 that "Princess will only allow one benefit (MOBC or SOBC per booking, not per passenger." So, unless you can figure out a way to have two separate bookings for the same cabin, I think it will be either military OBC or shareholder OBC. I had previously sold to 100 shares, but now no need to hold those 100 shares either. For me, it is not really about the dollars, but about the message sent to the veterans. How large a dollar impact is that really for Princess compared to being able to advertise that as a differentiator for your cruise line? I believe it was the CEO prior to Jan Swartz that was very pro-veteran. New execs new rules. John Padgett not so much ...... Hoping for better leadership in the future.

I think I am with oldracer on this one. This may be the final push to go check other cruise lines. After 47 Princess cruises and 6 booked for '23 and '24, this could be a $1,300 take away if my wife can't get the shareholder OBC with my military OBC. The biggest slap to me is that now essentially anyone can get the same value as a military OBC, if it is limited to one military or shareholder OBC per cabin.