SargassoPirate

Just park your large suitcases in the corridor with the wheelchairs, scooters, and baby buggies that aren't supposed to be there either. (Snarky observation about Princess failure to keep exit corridors clear)

Economics 101, charge what the traffic will bear. As long as there's a demand, the prices will continue to escalate. They've already removed a lot of the inclusives in favor of getting people on board and then nickel and diming them. The next step is to increase the basic cruise fares. As a consumer, our job is to make informed decisions about how and where we spend our money. Put the pencil to it and maximize your bang for the buck. It's capitalism and a free-market economy.......for now at least.

What happens at 1 am? My 5:30 nibbles get me through until breakfast the next day.

I find it very easy to avoid lines, for the most part. I'm an early riser so I have some coffee on the promenade or an aft area to watch the sunrise, have HC or MDR breakfast as soon as they open, have lunch either venue on the later side - 30 minutes before the cutoff time - and skip the MDR dinner madness for a week dram and nibbles in the P&E lounge. No fretting over making reservations weeks in advance in the wonky app. The key is to break away from the herd and the herd mentality.

Wonder how long that will last before the bean counters figure out there's another nickel to be squeezed out of the Elite benefits? Do I sound cynical?

I use painters tape for the light in the closet area and when I need the light, such as locating something on the shelves, I just reach up and give the tape a little tweak and the light comes on. It doesn't stay on for very long, so sometimes I have to give it another tweak. Too bad we can't be trusted with a wall switch for when we need light.

If I consumed that much alcohol, the Betty Ford van would have to pick me up at the end of the cruise.😁 I have coffee in the morning while I watch the sunrise and drink mostly water the rest of the day until it's happy hour when I have the evening wee dram. SWMBO drinks coffee in the morning, water and tea the rest of the day and has a glass of juice or iced tea in the evening. I I'm glad that the Plus works for you and everyone needs to put the pencil to it and not just blindly sign up for it. For an upcoming world cruise, the upgrade to Plus is $6660 per person. That would cover the fare for another cruise.

Yes. You are correct. Two casual dinings per voyage with the $6660 per person upgrade to Plus, and for only $8881 per person I could upgrade to Premier and get two specialty dinings and unlimited casual dinings for the voyage. Such a deal.

I'm finally getting one over on the suits and bean counters. The activation charge for Ocean Now is per "voyage". I have a WC booked as one voyage. Ha. I'll gladly pay the fee at the start of the voyage since it will be good for 111 days. On the downside, if I were to upgrade to Plus to avoid the ON activation fee I would only get two specialty dinings for the 111 day voyage. It's all per voyage.

You hit the nail on the head. Several years ago I was watching a particular cruise that was waitlisted. I woke up one morning and checked and it was available to book immediately with no waitlist - and it was about half the cost of what it had been. I booked it online immediately. Within a few hours it was back waitlisted and the price was back up. I figure it was the fault of the IT department doing one of their upgrades. That time the little guy won.

Same here. I've put the pencil to it several times for an upcoming cruise since SWMBO is cruising with me and is a teetotaler. I have a wee dram or two in the evenings and that's it for alcohol consumption. We get Elite wifi discount, so we only get it for one device. I guess if one books a booze cruise it might pay to get Plus.

Yep. We stopped decorating our door with anything of the slightest value since things would often disappear.

I posted somewhere else that we realize that the cruise line's job is to squeeze every bit of revenue they can from every square foot of space* and every passenger. Our job is to squeeze every bit of travel and enjoyment we can out of every cruise dollar. I take that job very seriously. *Ever wonder why promenades have disappeared from new ships? Could it be that a promenade doesn't produce any revenue?

We have cruised with RCI, NCL, HAL, Celebrity, Viking, Cunard, and Princess. Our first consideration is the itinerary and second is the price. We are D+ with Royal and Elite with Princess, mostly as a side benefit to their itineraries and prices at the time. Top tier was never the main goal. We understand that the cruise line's job is to squeeze as much revenue as they can from every square foot of space on the ship and every passenger. But, it's our job to squeeze as much value as we can from every cruise dollar. We don't succumb to flashy marketing or whiz bang technology that tend to make things complicated. As long as we are at sea, have a comfortable cabin, can find something to eat when we are hungry, and I can get a reasonably priced wee dram in the evening, we are good. All the rest is mostly fluff.

I can see it coming: "Princess sets the bar in service with its revolutionary security night light for your convenience. To deactivate this industry exclusive service, there will be a nominal one-time deactivation fee of $14.99 per guest, per voyage. However, the fee is waived for all guests sailing on Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages."

With the constantly changing virus and mandates by those in authority, it's best to carry the covid vaccination with your passport.

I'm with you. The more somebody tries nickel and dime me, the more I keep my nickels and dimes to myself.

Even as good as an email like this looks, before you click on any attachments or links, it's a good idea to see exactly the email address of the sender is. It's very easy to make a legitimate looking email, and maybe even the grammar and spellings look good, but the return address will give away the bad guys.

I don't sit in the shade to protect just me, I sit in the shade to protect you as well. 😆

I agree. Since I book standard cruises, the changes to PP doesn't affect me personally, but when the suits see that they can get away with that, what's next?

We have gradually gotten away from the Princess excursions, for some of the reasons others have mentioned here including the time to load and unload a big bus, the big bus tours only go where the big busses can park, and in larger ports with more than one ship in, it seems most of the big busses all arrive at the attractions at the same time. For example, on a guided land tour of Germany several years ago, in Munich we booked a tour with Tours By Locals for our group of four. The guide was a historian, author of a couple of books on WWII history, and we had a very comprehensive nine hours of sights and history. The remainder of the group on the big bus made three different stops where the bus could park and didn't see or experience a quarter of what we saw.

Your move is a page right out of Economics 101. Any company will charge what the traffic will bear. As long as folks line up to pay more, there is no incentive for the company to lower their prices. As a consumer, we have the final say on how and when we choose to spend our money. As you plan to do, I generally push back in some fashion by keeping my money in my pocket. I refuse to pay outrageous or inflated prices just because I may be a captive audience at the moment. That's why my hot dog and beer are still in the inventory at the ball park.

It seems like all of the accounting would be automated. Well, maybe not.

Oh, you'll get an almost immediate automated reply explaining how busy they are. Then you may or may not ever hear from them again.

I have little patience with wonky technology and for that reason I avoid using the app and once onboard I use the medallion like the old cruise card - open my door and pay for a drink. It's much more relaxing. I just take my paperwork and show up at the pier.