canadarocks

Thanks so much for doing this! An awesome review so far. 😀

Definitely did. Thanks! 😁

And apparently on some ships, not even then.

How about on the Enchanted and Majestic? Are their casual dining restaurants reservable?

I can only speak for myself and my DH. We are 65 & 80 and just got to 4* status a year ago on HAL. Staunch supporters of HAL since 2009. I doubt we will return. The last 3 years we have alternated between Princess & HAL, doing subsequent cruises to avoid our Canadian winters. In 2023 we spent 30 days on the Emerald Princess followed by 20 days on the Eurodam. That was literally the “camel straw” for us. We are traditional diners, had the best of all of our many cruises with Jefferson as our server on the Emerald. Food far superior on Princess. Balcony cabins on both ships, cabin steward far superior on Princess. And by far the most important factor for us, entertainment. Simon, on the Eurodam was perhaps the best entertainment director we have ever had. Valerie was technically the entertainment director, but trust me Simon did EVERYTHING! As good as Simon was (and trust me he was brilliant), he was doing the exact same job as 7 people were doing on the Emerald Princess! It was laughable the difference between the calibre of games etc. between the two ships. Yes, for sure YMMV. We met a woman on the Eurodam who loves dancing. She spent every night at the Rolling Stone Rock Room, and wouldn’t consider Princess ever because they don’t have a dedicated dance venue. And for her HAL was the perfect choice. We love trivia, games, comedians etc. Princess has always been better at that. To our surprise in the last few years, we also found that they are now better at everything else when compared to HAL.

Just want to applaud you @arizonaperson. This is a massive endeavour and it certainly doesn’t help that Princess is doing their usual fine job of making it easy! 😜

Goes to show ya, the most consistent thing about Princess is the inconsistency !😜

In my case, I was so eager to get the Traditional locked in, I didn’t pay attention to anything else. Once that was done, the refunds to my CC came pretty quickly, and then rebooking the Specialty on specific nights wasn’t an issue.

Just an FYI. I had pre-reserved our Specialty Dining for next year’s cruise. When MDR reservations became available, I booked Traditional Dining. Doing that bumped out all my Specialty Dining resos. Took a few days, but my CC was refunded and I’ve been able to rebook those without it effecting my Traditional bookings. But I wanted to let others know, in case you weren’t aware.

Shore excursions are the one thing you CAN use OBC on pre-cruise.

Duplicate post, sorry

That same excursion is now $219.95. From $149.95!! Heaven knows how high it'll get by the time we leave. And no, we will not be doing it. 🤭

Worst decision ever HAL.

Thanks so much for the great review. Sounds like a wonderful family bonding experience!

Fortunately this was actually just a schedule change that worked out to our benefit. Still have the same departure and return flights booked on the 1st cruise, even though the return is way past the 5 day new limit. Fingers crossed it'll stay that way, but I'm not too confident.

And when I go to Change Your Flights, there's now no option for just one way. Between the Dining reservations fiasco and this, it's like Princess is TRYING to get me to cancel!

This doesn't bode well..... I had both departure and return flights reserved on the 1st leg of our B2B, which obviously has a return flight far past the 5 day limit and this is what is coming up when I go to Manage Your Flights

And 5 days afterward.

This just happened. We have two consecutive cruises booked in February. I have been checking for flight discounts daily using both reservations, and just today the 5 day limit started.

I’m sure many here will wonder why I’m questioning a measly $5.00. For context.. I was seriously considering a St Maarten excursion that was $149.95 per person. Has been that price for a LONG time. Then a supposed 20% shore excursion sale happened. That same excursion was “on sale” for $149.95. A week ago that same excursion was $179.95. Now it’s $184.95. Independent bookings have never looked more appealing!

With all the distraction with MDR reservations, anyone else notice the $5.00 increase on every Princess shore excursion? My my Princess… you never cease to astound me. This right after a 20% “sale”? Brilliance or complete lunacy? I guess time will tell. My guess is another “special shore excursion sale” is coming.

They were at 7:30 & 9:30 this year on the Emerald

Yes

@PescadoAmarillo has just shared the email she and I just received in the Dining Reservations thread. I’m assuming everyone will be getting that same email very soon.