skynight

If you re-book the plus fare you will lose your std. fare booking and receive whatever your new fare offers. If you upgrade to a plus fare you will be charged $60/pp/day.

No mag. mirror in a balcony cat. cabin on the Emerald.

This information may help http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/Princess/odell/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

You will receive two cruise credits one for each leg of the voyage which means very little as you are already elite. You should receive mini bars (2) for each legs. That is how it has always been. There are 14 premier benefits listed. You should receive 13 of them without any issues. The specialty dining is the one you are asking about. I don't think it is clear if that is by voyage or booking number. I also would like to know this.

No more coffee cards or coffee packages. Unlimited coffee and espresso drinks as well as other non alcoholic beverages are now included in the plus and premier fares, or those purchasing the stand alone non alcoholic beverage package.

You can try once booked. You can always cancel if it does not work and then book direct with the airline. I tried this with another carrier and they would not accept any points or paid upgrade until the original booking was paid by EZ Air. EZ Air pays the carrier inside the 45 day time frame. By that time all the upgrades were gone.

Biggest disappointment is Alfredo's Was free for years. Now there is a cost.

If I understand the current system correctly the $2 cash provided to the server is no longer shared, but retained by the server. My question is where do you obtain the $2 bills? Banks in our area really do not have them.

If you have the standard fare then your on board accounts are charged a daily fee, $16, $17 or $18/pp/day depending on cabin category, for crew appreciation. When you have OBC your on board accounts start with a credit balance. Any on board expense, including crew appreciation, is netted as it occurs against the account balance. Crew appreciation is netted against OBC as long as the credit balance remains. When you have the standard fare the OBC credit balance is used up fairly quickly as you are charged daily for crew appreciation plus any other on board expenses such as beverages. If you have the plus or premier fare then crew appreciation is included in the fare and can not be removed. In these cases your OBC will net against any other on board expenses. OBC can also be used to pre-book excursions. The exception, OBC can not be used to purchase Future Cruise Deposits. These do not go through the on board accounting system. They are billed directly to your credit card.

On Grand Class ships the DR's, buffet, lido deck grill, slice pizza, International Cafe are as they always were, no charge for food. Some Grand Class ships have a Salty Dog Gastropub. There has always been a charge there. The Grand and Sapphire have Alfredo's which up until now only served pizza. No reports if they will be changing to the 3 course meal with a charge. Those ships with Vines will probably add a new menu. Fairly certain the wine bar will still operate, but without the sushi/tapas provided with the wine. Look for other casual locations to open on Grand Class ships. Some will succeed, some will fail. It is the new model.

I can read what you posted, but don't see how it applies to Princess customers. Princess charges what they charge. The amounts that they pay to their employees and the source of those funds are a company decision. My understanding is that distribution of crew appreciation funds is partially based on their reviews. When you purchase a plus or premier fare the crew portion is included and can not be removed. This is similar to the Australia/NZ model where crew appreciation is included in all fares. As far as the IRS I'm fairly certain that Princess and their corporate owner, Carnival Corp., have a staff of tax lawyers that are experts in U.S. and other countries' tax laws. Cruise lines, in this case Carnival Corp., would pay U.S. and local taxes on U.S. net income, collected by Princess in the U.S. or repatriated to the corporation from their non-U.S. subsidiaries.

For planning purposes assume all your OBC will be non refundable. OBC directly or indirectly from Princess will probably be non-refundable. Indirect means that Princess is offering OBC through T.A.'s for group bookings or other promotions. Directly is OBC like shareholder's, military, or promotion OBC when the customer books directly with Princess. Once booked go to the Princess web site. Select Travel Summary, Payments and scroll down to the bottom of the page. OBC will be shown and will be indicated if non-refundable or refundable. Some T.A.'s do gift OBC. As post #2 indicates this kind of OBC is normally refundable. This kind of OBC usually does not show up in the Travel Summary and thus can not be used to pre-book excursions. It will show up in your on board account once you board. Any self gifted OBC will also be refundable.

The Emerald only has the Salty Dog Gastropub right now which is inside of the Wheelhouse Bar. The announcement also mentions Vines as a casual dining location. The Emerald does have Vines. Vines is a wine bar. They never served any kind of meals. They did serve small portions of sushi and tapas when you ordered wine. I guess there will be some sort of casual sushi/tapa meal offered at Vines. What used to be no charge now becomes a paid meal. Will see what happens. I have spent many days on board the Emerald and enjoyed the ship. https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/food-and-dining/dining-options.pdf

I'm thinking there is going to be some sort of larger meal menu. Vines was never a dining location, just a wine bar with some sushi and tapas.

You can only upgrade from the full plus fare to the full premier fare. There is no individual breaking apart the fares. Is the reason you ask is because of the $15 limit on the plus fare and $20 limit on the premier fare? Probably 90% of all alcoholic drinks are below the $15 limit. Basically some wines and some high end spirits, such as a single malt scotch, are priced above $15. If you have the plus fare package and purchase a drink menu priced higher than $15 you will be charged the difference plus 18%. Example for a $20 drink your account will be charged $5.90.

If I'm not mistaken these were included with the old plus fare

There are 3 new items. I think you figured it out correctly providing Ocean Now and Room Service Delivery are the same thing. NEW 2 casual dining meals per guest NEW OceanNow® delivery NEW Room service delivery

Juice Bar?

Discovery Princess has a concierge lounge on deck 14 which is quite a good walk from your Vista Suite. You also indicate you have the premier fare. There are 3 special restaurants on the Discovery, Crown Grill, Sabatini's, Bistro Sur La Mer. As a full suite passenger you will automatically receive a comp dinner in one of the specialty restaurants on boarding day evening. Additionally you will receive two additional free specialty dinners because you booked the premier fare. You can book these dinners on line pre-cruise in the dine my way app. The way the program should work is that it will indicate there is a charge directly to your credit card, but in the end it should subtract out the charge for a zero balance. I would go ahead and book on line. I would not wait until you board because the Crown Grill and Sabatini's get filled up. The concierge can certainly help with any issues once on board. You also have the special full suite breakfast available to you at Sabatini's each morning. No reservations required, just walk in. It is one of the nicest full suite benefits. You can also have dinner each evening and lunch on sea days in the Reserve section of the deck 6 Skagway DR. This is anytime dining. Just walk up and you should be promptly seated.

No more boarding times. Just show up when it is convenient for you. Boarding normally begins around 11am. You will be in the green lane if you already have your medallion or the blue lane to pick up your medallion or some other missing information. Just bring your passport for ID and it's a good idea to print out your travel summary and have it handy.

The way it is supposed to work. Your corkage free one 750ml bottle per person is for use in your cabin. If brought to a DR or other public area the corkage is charged. Additional bottles are charged a corkage on boarding and the bottle is marked with a sticker. These bottles can be used anywhere on the ship. It doesn't always work this way.

Both sides of the Calypso Reef Pool as well as Neptune's Reef Pool have tables and chairs. There should be waiters in the Calypso Reef area just like there are inside the buffet area.

It is a one time $14.99/pp per cruise fee. *Included One-Time Delivery Access Fee covers the one-time fee of $14.99 USD/$22.99 AUD for each guest for delivery orders placed through the Princess® MedallionClass® app (OceanNow®). Orders for delivery through the stateroom phone or stateroom breakfast order cards are also included for guests with the Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages. All delivery based on availability and may be subject to additional terms.

I would select the one of the Grand Class ships or the Coral Princess. They have more open deck viewing areas, full 360 degree promenade, lots of lounges. Grand Class ships have between 600 and 1,000 fewer passengers than the Royal class ships. The Coral has 1,600 less passengers. Expect any ship to be overfull. Passenger loads in Alaska swell from the double occupancy numbers shown for each ship. Many cabins have 3 and 4 in the cabin with lots of youth on board. Itineraries for 2025 Alaska cruise and cruisetour season are already up on the Princess web site. No pricing yet. Surely pricing will come shortly. No need to look at 2024.

" One guest’s participation in Princess Plus may be dependent on the other guest in his/her stateroom’s participation, as determined by booking method. " Right now the practice for U.S. plus & premier bookings is that the first two passengers in the cabin are required to have the same fares. The terms used to state this. Right now the terms seemed to be changed to the quote above. Now it is a 'may be' and not cut and dry as before. Perhaps the Australian changes are in the works for other markets. We can hope.