CruiseUtopia

Carnival has now rescinded its ban on canned sodas and carton drinks ONLY. Still no bottles.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=6589

Been on 3 cruises with Princess. Never once brought a suit and have never been turned down in the dining room. This past cruise I decided not to wear a tie, just black pants and a nice long sleeve shirt. You wear what you want and I'll do the same and everyone is happy.

I agree completely. I wear a tux. I like it when other people don't -- makes me stand out. Kinda like it doesn't bother me if my neighbors don't take care of their lawn. Mine looks better by comparison. ;)

Seriously, I fully understand those who wear (or wore) suits to work every day feeling like dressing down. I am one of those long-time cruisers who has watched cruising change over the years, and the relaxing of the dress doesn't bug me at all.

Pam

I agree that the drinks (all the drinks, including Specialty coffees and teas) are more expensive on Celebrity.

We have cruised numerous times on Princess, and just completed our first cruise on Celebrity. We had the Classic package on the cruise.

Celebrity may have higher drink prices -- that may be due to the increased cost from the fact that they include alcohol in the beverages. My first sip from my first drink on Celebrity provoked an involuntary "WHOA!". I have never tasted any alcohol at all in any Princess drink.

In our particular case, the drink package was a perk that was included. We could have the drink package for both of us OR a $300/cabin OBC on a 14 night cruise. No-brainer, even for very light drinkers. It was fun to try new drinks, great hot chocolate (not coffee drinkers, either), bottled water, smoothies, etc.

Did we come out ahead? Ahead of the $300 that we opted out of -- absolutely. Would we have paid $1260 for it? No way.