Steelers36

At least there is no HST. 🙃 Man what a rip - $2 per bottle. Piracy I say, just plain piracy. I won't be bothering to order anything - just fill our own bottles from now on.

Free changes means you can change the entire booking elements: cities, airlines, class of fare, dates & times. Note that the city(ies) you want must be airports offered by EZair for the voyage you booked. It can be a pretty wide-ranging list if flying to Europe from North America, for example. IDK if Toronto (YYZ) to Japan will be cheaper for you. I imagine DTW to Japan will involve a connection on the west coast or at ORD. From Windsor, you would have to take a short flight to YYZ to connect, so may as well fly from DTW to YYZ.

Yes Jack, you must select and purchase a flexible fare in order to have the free changes and cancellations. IMO there is no reason to use EZ-Air for Restricted - especially domestically. If you shop international fares, even then you will be typically finding that Restricted fares cost more or certainly don't save you enough to forego the benefits. The last time we went to Europe I booked Business Class and repriced each direction 6 - 8 times and even involved an airline switch!! I ended up with the very lowest fares possible for each direction.

My understanding is they did change rule some time back where a guest can purchase FCDs for people who are not cruising. Otherwise, the purchase must occur on a ship.

So far, it sounds like they aren't enforcing it to the max. See various posts above.

Good point. Thing is that if one chooses, formal attire is simply not required anywhere anytime on the ships, so a surprise with Spellbound is bound to catch many guests unawares - at least at first. I do agree with you that as soon as the Sun begins voyages in the Caribbean sector, it will be more likely to see less formal and quasi-formal wear. For $300, I could live without the experience versus taking a set of clothes to wear for 3 or so hours.

The App used to allow a guest to add several Travel Companions. Say you want to add 3 or 4 other couples - IDK what a limit might be. When making an actual dinner res, you select from your list of Travel Companions. So, you could just select this person or that one and not necessarily all of them.

Oh my! Not a good scene. Thankfully, doesn't look like a real steep area.

If package canceled before shipping, perhaps the order is also canceled.

We know that PCL has always held back a fairly significant number of SD bookings until sail date. They are probably still doing the same thing. I think we are hearing more about the advance booking challenges because of the Premier package change. I suppose I am stating the obvious, but we need to hear about more live on-board experiences from folks who board early and later on.

I have read you can take out from Alfredo's. I'd want to order from there to be sure to get their pizza and not the cafeteria style.

At $100/day with no shade, no lounger pad, no thanks.

That works for you I guess. Wouldn't work for me as nothing in it I want in the standard setup. We are on board early so I can get the call in early and be in the queue quickly. Usually get it later that afternoon.

They used to allow a couple of appetizers and perhaps even an extra dessert. If it's 1-1-1, that's inflation plus shrinkflation combined.

Your perception will no doubt be correct. You certainly paid for that package. Why didn't you ask the cruise price for Standard and then you would know what you really paid to upgrade? I always know my prices - Princess' price, TA price - so I know exactly my discount and savings.

No. When ordering on board, only the 50% cost is charged to cabin folio. It used to be (back when this all started), that the App was incapable of charging the discounted rate, so guests had to pay full rate and receive OBC back on board. Refundable OBC, BTW, although even that was an issue on one or two ships for a very brief period. This was a real bone of contention and Princess IT Ocean team ultimately came up with a new feature that recognized guest's CC Member level and provided a cash discount on the spot when ordering if Platinum or Elite. When this feature did not work, it was usually due to the App not recognizing the guest's true Member Level (another bug or data corruption issue). As long as things are working, the App should be offering MedallionNet at 50% off pricing whether pre-cruise or on the ship. Just to be clear - the pricing is the same pre-cruise as on board, but be aware that PCL could implement a price increase prior to your sail date. Hopefully, there will be an announcement and you could then jump on a purchase before the effective date if desire to save the price increase. (PCL used to provide a discounted pricing scheme when booking pre-cruise, but that was done away with at the last price increase). PS - I never had the experience of incorrect Member Level as my profile in the App always showed black Seawitch logo. I have not had a new booking for sometime now and I have noticed since the last major redesign of the App (the whole new look/feel from last year I think), that I show blue logo, so I do wonder when I book again if it will revert to black.

Same here. Our dining time has generally been sometime between 5:30 and 6:00, but we would normally be there before 6pm... like 5:45. Always get to the early main theater show if that was the plan. We don't eat six courses and always let the wait team know we want to move things along. (I believe we can still book a table for 5:30pm if really want to make the request - I always had our own TD start time that was not that same as official ship time ever since they moved to 5pm which is way too early).

If they did, then they would have fired some people a long time ago, but there doesn't appear to be any evidence that happened. Or, they replaced with just as bad. That said, my sense is that the App is performing much better than it did in 2021 & 2022.

As the resident expert in what's happening in each ship's DRs, I am wondering if you - or anyone else who has been on a ship recently - knows if they are reinstituting the "Meet the DRO" session on Embarkation afternoons where guests would go and request a change to their dining arrangements? Perhaps they are leaving it as it has been since DMW began - up to guests to ad hoc work with a DR Mgr or Host to make a change.

OTOH, we have never spent that much time in a SD. Usually, they need the table for the next res as well.

This depends on how you look at it. PCL has not actually relaxed their "dress code" (it is actually a section entitled "Clothing Recommendations") at all if you go by the written word. Unofficially, the accepted clothing has been changed for years now - I just couldn't say exactly when. I would say that the acceptance of shorts has been much more recent than the expectation of full suits and so forth, but I couldn't pin it down other than likely post-pandemic restart. Prior to that, men could expect to be sent back to the cabin to change into pants, but women were never turned away no matter how short the dress or skirt AFAIK. IIRC, the clothing recommendations for women did not include slacks/pants until more recent years. No judgment or position here - just noting historical fact. Also, IMO, the reason the clothing discussions still persist is because PCL has not changed documentation to match the reality of the situation on the ships. The reality is that both Formal and Smart Casual wear are acceptable in all venues on all nights.

That's fine but don't advise folks that they ought to go elsewhere to eat just because they don't "dress up".

My rec would be to find a new TA that gives a cash discount off the fare instead of rebating it back as OBC.

Agreed. So, upon finding this thread, I am wondering why it goes on for four pages. 🤔

I think you missed my obtuse (insider?) reference to not having any non-refundable OBC left over no matter the situation? 😉