Steelers36

Well, try taking off the mandatory tip many restaurants add for a certain group size and higher. I never have, but probably would not be well-received. I guess we may need to wait and see if anyone posts on this forum that they stroked off the 18% charge on SD bill and were successful. Every bar drink has 18% added on and I do not recall reading anyone removing that. You may be splitting hairs here over a term, but the 18% is treated as gratuity to the staff. I have always been aware the team in SD was getting a gratuity amount baked into the price I paid. I only tipped for special service and we were told more than once a tip was not expected.

I know Princess is not perfect, but I would go by their own website and not some third party. Sure, Princess may hold some cabins for guest entertainers and such, but the total cabins should be correct on Princess.com.

Due to the above lock-out situation, I accessed a Canadian travel site that uses the same booking engine pages as my preferred US travel agencies. I shopped Enchanted for March 2026 10-nighter. I got IB = $1,585.65 + port taxes of $302.92. I got IA = $1,737.15 + port taxes of $302.92. I used the NL1 Fare Code (Standard Public Fare so as to not get any geo-pricing clouding the results). I also used Standard Fare package. I then went to a US agency website using the same booking engine and repeated the process. I got IB = $1,175 + $224.39 port taxes. I got IA = $1,287 + $224.39 port taxes. All of the above numbers indicate PCL is still using a 1.35 exchange rate from USD to CAD pricing. Something is definitely wacky with Princess.com booking. Notice that the port taxes are not even the same in USD between Princess.com and agency booking engine (which accesses Princess POLAR booking system).

Something fishy going on. I am in Florida right now and see USD pricing by default (YES!!). I will see CAD pricing only if I login. (If you are reading this, Princess, please give us a currency flag so we can select which we want). I did a sample booking for Enchanted in the Caribbean next Winter, Inside cabin. I had a price of $1,220 for IA and $1,110 for IB. The port taxes were $199.36 (a bit odd, I thought since they are normally rounded to fifty cents or a dollar). It showed as $200 on the selection pages, but $199.36 on the detail to be invoiced. Logged in I noticed the port taxes being displayed as $270 (never got to the detailed invoice amount). This indicates an exchange rate of 1.35 which is what PCL has been using for a long time now. However, I was seeing the same IB priced at $1,565 CAD. This is an exchange rate of 1.41. Yikes!!! I has opportunity to check two other numbers and it was similar. And then I got locked out as reported above, so my examination is incomplete. It could be they have been in midst of changing pricing with a new exchange rate and locked out customers.

This thought crossed my mind, although PCL does not change the exchange rate on a set schedule any longer (not for several years now).

SMH

Where are you getting the handful of extra cabins from? Guests 4,300 Crew 1,600 Inaugural Cruise 2024 Guest Cabins: 2150 Number of Decks: 21 Tonnage: 175,500 Length: 1133 feet

They are for Suite guests and work in the Suites lounge on Royal Class and higher. There was talk (rumor?) of Princess adding one to the other ships for the Suite guests even though there is no Suite lounge. Nothing to do with the MDRs.

What are you saying above? The 18% is a mandatory gratuity. It used to be baked into the price. Instead of just increasing the cost for SD meals, Princess changed the way they do things and are adding the gratuity on the former price which included it. It is still a price increase and there is a gratuity. The meal cost of $39 (for example) is the service charge or upcharge to dine in SD. The 18% is the gratuity.

The regular capacity is 4,300 (nbr of staterooms x 2). It is not a theoretical number. They will have lifeboat capacity for that number plus crew. What becomes optional is the number of extra passengers added to cabins that can handle extras when possible.

The special pizzas are an upcharge for all. I don't see why Sun would be any different than other ships.

The Island and Coral have them in the ceiling.

Hmmm, why would you suggest an American guest write Carnival in the UK? If the OP feels a letter is required at some point, write CustomerRelations@PrincessCruises.com

On Princess, all of the pullmans come down from ceiling in balcony cabins. They only hang on walls for Insides on newer ships.

Seems like a partially thought-out hodge-podge. Like they said "We need this", "We need that", and they just made it happen as you said - wave the wand. So, I guess the upsell is for a certain set of privileges and not about the cabin itself.

Yes, this was my opinion/belief, but some seemed to think the SH voted on it. The main thing is, it lives on.

It appears to me that this was not a vote at the annual shareholder meeting.

This has been mentioned on the main Sun Princess thread. You could ask there. We have had a cabin near elevator lobby on Regal and it was a non-issue.

This is the correct answer for @Darfan

The OP mentioned a wedding. And presumably they didn't book a 7-night voyage and then leave after 2. But the in-laws could be just cruise-crazy enough to do it - LOL.

They never expect everyone to be there at once.

I understand the confusion. Eventually, an active member here will be in one of those and post. Meanwhile, we do know there have been instances of incorrect information in the cruise booking process.

Yup. We were also picked up there.

Such a reliable source.

It doesn't matter how you book the voyage with respect to needing to disembark and re-embark.