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SargassoPirate

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Everything posted by SargassoPirate

  1. Well, the old saying "Clothes make the man" sure applies to what one sees nowadays. I recently attended a funeral where one guy showed up in shower shoes with black socks, black sweat pants, a black wife beater, and a black do-rag. I guess all black made it formal wear.
  2. How worn do the shoes need to be? I have a new pair of shoes I was planning to take on my next cruise? 😉 Are the ballcap being worn with the bill forward or backward? I've observed that wearing the ballcap backwards lowers the wearer's IQ by around fifty percent.
  3. SWMBO and I ended up on cruises with HAL and Cunard when searching for transatlantics to get us over to Europe for some land travel. It was our first cruise on both lines. It's interesting to try new lines, and as I've opined before, we are as loyal to any one cruise line as they are loyal to us.
  4. If you're open until closing time, you should be open until closing time. How difficult is that? By the same token, there will always be somebody who shows up just before closing time and they should expect to be served.
  5. One thing my grandmother always said is it's the merchant's job to separate you from your money and it's your job to keep your money in your pocket unless it's something you really want for the value offered. She lived through the great depression and the rationing of WWII.
  6. I wonder if they can also track how many folks leave the theater because the show sucks?
  7. When I was on the Caribbean Princess in January they stocked Bigelow tea and there was a nice assortment. Earl Grey is my favorite, but that also had English breakfast tea, lemon flavored tea, green tea, and lots more.
  8. Not ewwww if you skip on a pair of those blue magic sanitizing gloves! You can wear them all day, touch multiple surfaces, handle food, bus tablds, mop the floor, and still be safe. (BIG sarcasm alert)
  9. Longtime cruisers who don't spend a lot on the ups and extras are probably considered deadbeats by the industry. Just like the credit card industry considers folks who pay off their credit card every month deadbeats because the company is not making big bucks off the interest charges and still awarding points for the customer's purchases. There's a Netflix series called Money Explained. Episode 2 describes credit card deadbeats.
  10. No problem. The WC may have been a bad example, but I knew it was expensive. On an upcoming cruise on the Regal (I ignored my must have of a full promenade since SWMBO is sailing with me) I priced the standard on Princess and the standard at the warehouse and Princess was about 1K cheaper if I recall - however I booked it over 12 months ago before the bean counters took over. It pays to do due diligence and not grab the first deal that you see, and really put the pencil to it. My tin can and a string description of customer reps doesn't only apply to Princess and the warehouse, but other call centers as well. It makes me think that companies are either making agents buy their own headsets or the companies are buying the cheapest ones they can find. The last agent I tried to talk to about an appliance issue was in India and talking through a comb kazoo. Time to take SWMBO her morning coffee. 😁
  11. Interesting. I travel with the standard and all that I saw with the warehouse club was the higher price and no way to unselect. That was my example for an expensive cruise. When I do an actual booking it's all online. I only call in when I have to because usually it's like talking to someone with a tin can and string telephone.
  12. Well, to test your theory and to verify my own observation and experience, I just logged into both Princess and my warehouse club account. I searched for the January 2024 world cruise as an example. On Princess the starting price for an inside per person is $16,399. On the warehouse, it's $23,399, with my Princess Captains Club number. Check it out for yourself. That's why I always put the pencil to it .
  13. TashaB, I use the same TA, but lately their prices have been higher than booking directly with Princess online. Here's how I work around that. After I select and book the perfect cabin with Princess, I then transfer the booking to the warehouse club and garner their post cruise cash gift card, plus an additional 3 percent when I pay for the cruise with their credit card. Check it out.
  14. Yes, skeptical and conservative with how I spend my retirement dollars. Wear a day air a day, and washing out a few quick drys gets me by on any cruise or extended land-based travel.
  15. Thanks, for sharing. I'm from a public health background, with some experience in travel medicine. If there's a vaccine available, I take it.
  16. I never send my laundry out on board, but do make use of the laundromats when I cruise on Princess. When I cruise other lines, it's easy to wash out a few necessities from time to time, especially since I cruise with a lot of quick-dry travel clothes. I don't see it as an inconvenience, but to each his own.
  17. With over 50 cruises on different lines - HAL, RCI, Celebrity, Viking, NCL, and Princess - I am as loyal to any one cruise line as they are to me. They have the right to change their product and I have the right to choose which cruise line fits the bill for me. I put the pencil to every cruise, and factor in where I want to go, when I want to go, if there is a full promenade, and how much the cruise fare is. For the most part, as long as I can find a cabin with PAX above, below, and across the corridor, someplace to get something to eat, and a wee dram of two in the evening, I'm good. Loyalty perks are a plus not the be all end all. All that being said, I'm finding booking with Princess more and more confusing with the packages and new charges, but I can still find a way to enjoy my cruise. It's still a free market economy. They have the right to charge what the traffic will bear, and I have the right not to pay for things I don't want or can't understand how they benefit me.
  18. I was on the Caribbean in January and there were no trays in the buffet. If you can snag a room service tray from somewhere and hang onto it, you can carry things to your cabin.
  19. That's what I mean by weasel words. In the app, when I go to purchase my discounted wifi package, it shows that I can purchase the plan for the entire voyage under my single booking number. My printed travel summary shows my cruise booking number and below that is my voyage number. It does not list three voyage numbers.
  20. I did a little more digging and found this in the FAQs about upgrading from standard to Premier. "If I sail on back-to-back cruises, do I get four specialty dining meals in Princess Premier?If you have booked Princess Premier on both of the back-to-back cruises then you will get two (2) specialty dining meals on each voyage, making it a total of 4 specialty dining meals" Sounds to me like the Plus and Premier benefits are tied to a "voyage" with a single booking number, so if one were to book the World Cruise as a voyage, you would only get two specialty dinings over the 111 day voyage. You gotta put the pencil to everything and read all of the fine print.
  21. Anyone with any sense or anyone who has taken a Business 101 course should know that it costs more to find a new customer than it does to satisfy and retain an existing one. They should also know that a satisfied customer will tell one or two people about their experience, but a dissatisfied customer will tell as many as ten. We are all seeing what happens when the bean counters get to sit at the big table.
  22. I generally trust, but verify, and "voyage" could become a weasel word if they decide they are losing revenue by a one-time charge on 49 night voyage with one booking number when they could count each segment as a voyage. When I book my wifi discount on the app, it's sold to me as one voyage under one booking number. On the other hand, they give me another mini bar setup at the start of each segment. The only consistency is inconsistency.
  23. I'm a standard cruiser. I understand that there is now a "one-time access fee of $14.99 per person per voyage will apply for OceanNow delivery... Ocean Now delivery refers to orders placed through the app that are delivered to wherever you are, including your stateroom." If I book a cruise around the horn as one voyage, with one booking number, will Princess charge me the $14.99 for the 49 night voyage or since the cruise is also sold in three segments, will they charge me for each segment? I wonder if the whiz kids even considered such a concept?
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