Steelers36

Looking at that package I understand now why no room for extra clothes in the suitcase. It's the RR's who want to wear shorts and T's to dinner. LOL.

I have not been the only one positing this glass-half-full-or-half-empty perspective and I certainly didn't do it because PCL says it one way. I agree with you in terms of how it could be marketed. The thing is, do we have a representative sample of fare grids from a variety of voyage types before and after this policy change in order to know it they significantly raised the fares for levels above the lead-in and left lead-in alone? For me, guests can still book GTY in any category as we could before. I think the worst "feature" is the Non-Ref deposits. I have not been aware of any guest booking an F cabin and hoping to get an F cabin. I am open to fact that the price jump from F to E has increased to more than it used to be. Actually, some casual observation indicates the price gaps as one moves through the letters to A level are certainly higher than traditionally pre Covid.

Some folks just look at the Non-Ref GTY for $100 and the Ref Deposit selected cabin at $200 and say Princess is charging me $100 to pick my cabin instead of saying Princess is going to give me $100 off if I let them pick and I book a Non-Ref GTY cabin.

Note that on that ship, the entire Sanctuary area is pretty much full sun. Depending on direction and time of day, you might find shade around on the far side with shade coming from bulkhead above and behind. I doubt it has changed much with a mesh cloth that does almost nothing for its size and position. Otherwise, big bucks for one of the cabanas.

It bears repeating. Don't sweat it pre-purchasing MedallionNet. You can do it on board Day 1 for the same price. Do you have any OBC to burn?

Isn't is possible to ask the servers for "half ice" or "no ice", please?

Only shore excursions. If you have a SD Credit (not OBC), then you might be successful in using that in advance but depends on quirky, buggy App.

Of course a FCD can be used anytime as a payment towards the balance owing. But if you want to earn the bonus OBC that is a feature of the FCD, then you MUST be using it as the initial deposit on the booking.

I was hoping to assure you that jusf becausee a buggy App won't accept your credit card, it doesn't mean it won't work as expected to pay the cruise fare. Why not call your TA or Princess and say you want to make $500 payment to balance and see how it goes. Peace of mind.

For FP, you can give Princess or your TA any credit card to pay. They don't have to use the one in the App (in fact it certainly is not used for that if using a TA). At check-in, you can present any valid credit card to use for on-board charges.

I was originally going to bypass this one, but here goes (similar to what I have posted a long time ago and also sent to Princess). In DMW, the first thing a guest does is add any other Travel Companions to their Dining Party. The next selection should be if guest wants TD experience with a private table or TD experience with a shared table. If the guest elects a TD experience, they are advised this will be in effect for the full voyage, but they can do exceptions such as booking SD for individual nights. The guest is offered some time slots and a preferred table size if they elected sharing option that is the end of it. All of these requests go to the ship as they used to and the DRO does the table assignments. In order to make this work, Princess pre-blocks a percentage of tables from the inventory and they form the TD pool. Let's say it begins with 50% as this is historically what they did. If a guest does not opt for TD, they then flow into the existing DMW process where they are offered to book for full voyage or individual nights, followed by time selections and (new feature) table size. The inventory made available at this point is 50% of the total. Guests should be advised that booking either in advance or on board does not guarantee the same table location nor wait staff each evening. Also, if they elect sharing option, their dining companions will most likely be different each evening. Once the DRO has completed table assignments, any excess inventory can be held until Day 1 in order to accommodate any last minute requests or changes for TD as space allows. This means a return of the DRO meeting time in the DR on embarkation afternoon. Once any requests are settled, the DRO can release any excess inventory back to DMW for on-demand bookings (another new feature). ETA: Of course, there will still be walk-ups.

Whenever a guest has an actual cabin assignment they can ask Princess or their TA (if applicable) to change to any other open cabin in the same category.

Try the web version of the Princess App. See above how to do that or go to your Cruise Personalizer and follow the link there where the App is advertised for downloading from the Play Store. Yes, there are 8-tops and I am not sure if there is a DMW issue or if they have pulled most of the large tables out of inventory due to DMW inadequacies. I am sure you can be taken care of on board if you speak with DR Mgmt on Day 1.

You said it, J!!

I forgot to mention that Princess uses the end of the alphabet to designate Obstructed View cabins - these can be Oceanview type or Balcony type. Some cabins are considered fully Obstructed and others partially Obstructed. A "Z" would indicate the worst situation while "V" or "W" are better locations. If used, it's mostly about closeness to mid-ship and not the amount of obstruction.

It is true that some folks need a lot more wine than others. We are always at the port the day before, so it hasn't been a big deal to acquire at least some wine. Anything you can get to the ship alleviates the on-board pricing and can always get more in most ports of call.

I am not sure this is practical given the state of the industry and clearly a lot of folks prefer to go this way. I imagine your suggestion means all guests are paying menu prices for beverages? I think I would look into the profitability of the current packages and where PCL makes a profit versus no profit. As long as PCL not losing money of guests max out all the perks, I don't see a problem if it puts guests onto ships. I keep reading that PCL prices are better than other lines for these packages, so another price increase might be warranted and still beat the competition? I don't know enough to say more at this point (and no way to know proprietary info), but all-inclusive packages are certainly a selling feature.

President for a Day, huh? Or longer, perhaps? I would do the following immediately: Ban smoking in all indoor locations (other than the closed in Churchill's), but would work to repurpose those spaces instead of removing other public spaces. Re-write the Clothing Recommendations to reflect modern trend and to align with on-board practice. Clarify what is not accepted in DR and SD venues. Re-designate all formal nights as DTI nights (this is partially in effect now) and use X style language to indicate guests are welcome to fancy it up any night for dinner and that smart casual is good to go any night as well. DRO's to follow new policy. Write a letter to all past PCL guests with >200 days and explain changes coming and going to address long-term loyalty and ask them to keep trust in Princess going forward. The following ASAP: Find a new CIO and fire the incumbent. The new CIO will have objectives to assess the IT teams, internal and external, identify weak spots and how to improve (training, replacement, etc). Significant improvements to the Princess App guest experience within 3 months, 6 months and bug-free within 6 months. This includes non-visible issues like data integrity and sync between back-end POLAR system and Princess App. Add functionality to web version. All to be done within a year and milestone improvements along the way. Examine ways to improve the food quality and increase revenue to pay for it. I keep hearing Princess is very price competitive to other lines. Well, how about having a better product and be more in line with the other lines? Ask the SVP HR how we keep the good senior people on our ships and not lose to competition and find more good people. Ask SVP Sales if we can bake in the Crew Appreciation to cruise fares worldwide and increase staff salary, but implement a bonus program for top performers. Can we identify guests who earn PCL the least revenue and the most revenue? What are the differences and similarities? Can we fill ships with the latter and not encourage the former? How is revenue per guest compare to other lines? Is there anything we should be doing differently? I'd have a lot of measurements for the new Sun ship since it is so different in terms of guest satisfaction, spending and usage of facilities, etc. Hire a technical writer and assign them to review all online documentation and ensure up to date, consistent and accurate. Identify gaps where information is missing and work with marketing and web design team to provide missing information. Look for ways to acknowledge and perhaps reward long-term guests with large number of past sailings as they achieve milestones with Princess. What makes sense for the relationship and is affordable and meaningful. Can we measure if such guests are actually unofficial Princess ambassadors? ETA: I would ASAP implement process whereby guests owed money back at end of voyage have it credited back to their card on account and terminate the 3rd party arrangement for issuing checks. Also, any guest eligible for a discount is charged the net cost either online or on the phone and no more having to get OBC for any pricing difference.

It is sad that Princess has seemingly abandoned a commitment to provide a nicely curated wine list with variety and quality at decent pricing (considering we know there is going to be a significant restaurant-like mark-up). This past effort earned them a kudos from Wine Spectator (and I think I have seen them leaning on that even though what is going on today ought to prompt WS to retroactively retract that or at least demand PCL stop using it). Now it is plonk by the glass for the masses without any information beyond the varietal. They seem to have reverted back to what they were doing before an effort was made to improve the wine program. Nowadays, I think the best wine program on a Princess cruise is the one we make ourselves.

I think it is pretty obvious that guests will be paying another 18% on top since individual bottles sold at menu pricing attract the 18%. It may be in small print just out of range of the photo taken, but I would think no way those prices include the 18%. IMO, still doesn't beat BYOW when you can select what you want and dodge PCL mark-ups. Example: Veuve Cliquot is going to cost guest around $86 if they get it as part of the promo sparkling package. Total Wine pricing in FL is $50 + sales tax. Even if you end up having to pay $20 corkage, you are still ahead. Of course, this is only relevant for guests like me not booking Plus/Premier.

Yes, that is the big IF. Sure, the overall value to menu price is there with approx 36.4% discounted, but I wouldn't be buying Veuve Cliquot at $115, or the discounted $73+ when I can get it at Total Wine for $50. And the Princess pricing has to be increased by 18% and tax at TW is only about 7% where I would be getting it.

Princess cabin categories are designated by 2-character codes. The first character is the general cabin type - Inside, Oceanview, Balcony, Deluxe Balcony, Mini-Suite, Suite. The second character indicates the level of cabin type. Generally, these can range from the lowest (F or E) up through letter A and some cabin types also use numbers to designate variations. For example, the top Mini-Suite is a M1, which indicates Club/Reserve Class Mini-Suite and involves extra perks like Club/Reserve dining section. Things are a bit different with the new ship (SUN) as I have seen they introduce DG and DH for the new Cove Balconies. Also, from what I have seen, Princess is designating all Balconies on the Sun as Deluxe. Anyway, you can book a GTY IA which is mid-ship and never below a public deck. But Princess would consider any Oceanview or any Balcony (even a BE) to be an upgrade from the IA. They don't have to upgrade you to a mid-ship location, so that is why everyone has said to have your booking marked No Upgrade if location selected is important - and keep an eye on it. Now, if a guest has booked a GTY, I am not sure you can also be marked as No Upgrade. In theory, it could be possible as they would presumably upgrade some other guest open to upgrades in an IA and place you there. Of course that guest may jump on the phone and ask for their cabin back. 😉

And of course as mentioned, there would be no need for such a venue by then since everyone just heads onto the ship after check-in. It wouldn't probably be something noticeable unless you were pausing to study the terminal layout or inquired.

Agree. If I was going to take a couple, I'd go with the stemless ones and sacrifice having the precise one for each varietal. Confession: I use those a lot for everyday use at home too. But I do prefer stems.

This is true - the App presumes the guest doing the booking is paying for the meal. Even without dining credits, the charge is always to the booking guest and not split among the dining party as what one might typically do when booking on board.